Bobbejaan Schoepen (a pseudonym of Modest Schoepen; 16 May 1925 – 17 May 2010) was a Belgian pioneer in pop music, vaudeville, and European country music."Bobbejaan Schoepen, a Flemish entertainer" – Histories documentary, 4 January 2001 (VRT-Canvas). Schoepen was a versatile entertainer, entrepreneur, singer-songwriter, guitarist, comedian, actor, and professional whistler, as well as the founder and former director of the amusement park Bobbejaanland. His musical career flourished from 1948 until the first half of the 1970s. He sold more than five million copies from his repertoire of 482 songs, which extended from Twang, cabaret, instrumental film music, chansons, country, to folk and vocal music."Schoepen Troef", Knack Focus Magazine, 14 February 2007.Bobbejaan Schoepen, a Flemish entertainer – Histories documentary, 4 January 2001 (Vlaamse Radio- en Televisieomroep). Born in Boom, Antwerp, Flanders, Belgium, he worked his way up from a working-class environment to become one of the 200 richest people in Belgium.Verduyn, Ludwig. "De 200 rijkste Belgen", Uitgeverij Van Halewyck Leuven, 2000.
Schoepen married Dutch former opera singer and photographer's model Josephina (Josée) Jongen on 18 May 1961. They have five children: Robert ("Bob Jr.", 1962), Myriam (1963), Jacky (1964), Peggy (1968), and Tom (1970). His son Tom became his manager in Belgium.
Early musical period
Modest Schoepen grew up in a smithy in Boom, Antwerp. His career started in the late 1930s when he and his sister Liesje performed vaudeville shows in the surrounding villages, going around with the hat collecting money afterwards. He had his first audition for radio, in 1944 in Brussels. In 1943 he undertook classical guitar instruction with guitarist Frans De Groodt (1892–1990).
Musical and political debut That same year he had a memorable debut performance in the Ancienne Belgique of Brussels. In front of a full house he sang the South-African song, "Mamma, 'k wil 'n man hê". Nee mamma, née, 'n Duitseman, die wil ek nie. Want Schweinefleisch dit lus ek nie." ("Mommy, I want a husband. No mommy no, I don't want a German 'cause I don't like pig meat.") The song was perceived as being anti-German, provoking a few Nazis who were present at the show to take him away. The South African song is making reference to a 'German man'. The Ancienne Belgique was closed for three weeks. Shortly thereafter he was forced to go work in Germany. As an alternative he chose to sing for the Flemish workers doing compulsory labor. For this he was locked up for three months in the Dossin barracks in Mechelen from October 1944, without a hearing or a trial.
Two Boys and Two Guitars In 1945 he formed a duo with Kees Brug, a young man from his own village, with the name of "Two Boys and Two Guitars". They performed impersonations, poetry, South-African songs, and country music from Calais to Amsterdam, all with plenty of room for improvisation and adventure. The name "Bobbejaan" comes from the South-African song, "Bobbejaan klim die berg" ("Baboon Climbs the Mountain"). Schoepen took it as his artist name in 1945 or 1946.
Performing to the allied forces In 1947 he came into contact with Jacques Kluger. Kluger asked Schoepen to entertain the American and Canadian troops during the Nuremberg Trials, and in Frankfurt and Berlin. Kluger was pleased to receive an unexpected, flattering letter from Major Mearker, and contracted Schoepen to go on tour in Germany for several months. In Berlin, which was still partly in ruins, his floor shows were also attended by the American general and military governor Lucius D. Clay, who asked him for two additional performances. These tours would further stimulate his country music tendencies.
First hit record and Indonesian tour
In between these shows, Schoepen also gave occasional performances in his own country. While he initially did not wish to sing in Dutch, Kluger convinced him to record 'a Flemish record'. Schoepen's first recordings followed, and in 1948 "De Jodelende Fluiter" ("The Yodeling Whistler") became Schoepen's first hit. His breakthrough in the Netherlands also happened that year. Among his many performances, he was frequently asked to guest-star in the Netherlands.
Bobbejaan soon became the right man to work for the benefit of the Dutch. In 1949 he went on tour for the Dutch troops in Indonesia, performing 127 shows over the course of three months. He was decorated for courage and self-sacrifice by the Dutch government because he also performed for troops near the front line. Five days after returning home he began a 220-day tour through Belgium, playing nostalgic songs, such as the tried and true "De lichtjes van de Schelde" ("The Lights of the Scheldt") (1952), which is still an evergreen in Belgium today, Bobbejaan Schoepen quickly became one of the most popular artists in Flanders.
International tours and success
Schoepen toured in at least twenty different countries, together with artists such as Josephine Baker, Caterina Valente, Gilbert Bécaud, and Toots Thielemans (who was a guitarist in his band in 1951). He is one of the first Europeans (excluding the British) to have appeared at the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, one of the most important centers of country music in the United States. In 1953 he played there three times with Roy Acuff (1903–1992). There was one performance with the country singer Red Foley (1910–1968) in Springfield, Missouri. The American country singer, Tex Williams, a Western swing performer, would later release a cover of Schoepen's "Fire and Blisters" in the US (1974).The Official Biography of Bobbejaan Schoepen – Folklife Chronicles (Flanders Cultural Studies), April–June 2006
1954 tours In 1954 there followed a three-month European tour through Germany, Iceland, and Denmark, which concluded with a few months of performances in the Folies Bergère in Paris. Syd Fox was Schoepen's manager in Iceland and Denmark. When Jacques Brel performed the opening act in the Ancienne Belgique in Brussels in January 1955, Schoepen already had the status of an international vedette in his own country. He was chosen as the best Flemish singer by the broadcasting company NIR (nowadays VRT), for which he received the "Grand Prize for Flemish Gramophone Recording."
That autumn he toured with his show for a month through Germany then a month through the Congo.
1957 tours In 1957 he again went to New York, where he was asked to make a guest-appearance on the famous Ed Sullivan Show. He recorded albums at RCA Records with the producer Steve Sholes. Sholes offered him a contract to promote his record, by visiting radio stations in the US for three months, under the name "Bobby John". This tour was intended to promote his recent releases, and in the meantime he was to produce new songs. But Schoepen, who had already been on tour almost constantly for ten years, and had contractual obligations in Europe, was increasingly looking for a place to settle down (this would become Bobbejaanland). He decided no longer to pursue his success in the US.
That same month he became the last-minute Belgian representative at the second Eurovision Song Contest 1957. He was rushed by his manager Jacques Kluger from the US to Germany in order to take part in the event. This performance was memorable for having featured a whistling solo. Schoepen is also rumoured not to have known which song he was to perform at the Contest until he arrived, only rehearsing his entry a few days before performance. The song that was finally chosen was the lightly poetic "Straatdeuntje" ('Street Tune'). Belgium tied for eighth place with the Swiss.
1958 tours A year later in 1958, Kluger secured Schoepen a place in the "Royal Variety Show" in England, a yearly gala for the Queen Mother (Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon). After the show, his local manager Jack Heath let him hear the first golden Australian hit in the US, "A Pub with No Beer" by Slim Dusty, and Schoepen decided to make a Dutch, German, and English cover of it. In 1960, "Ich steh an der Bar und ich habe kein Geld" stayed on the hit lists for thirty weeks in Germany; it also became a number-one hit in Austria. The Flemish version, "Café zonder bier" dates from 1959, and that year it reached @3 in the hit parade. It later became a golden oldie.
Other hits and tours His German versions of "Een hutje op de Heide" ("Little cottage on the Heath") and "Kili Watch" (originally by The Cousins) also did very well (among other reasons because of the German film, , 1961). Schoepen toured frequently in Germany and Austria with Caterina Valente (1955) and Dalida (1961), among others. This earned him many new, interesting contracts. In 1961 he became one of the top musical acts at the Berlin Film Festival, where he brought down the house at the Deutschlandhalle with his crazy whistling acts.
During the 1960s, Camillo Felgen, Heino, and James Last, among others, would catapult his evergreen "Ik heb eerbied voor jouw grijze haren" ("I Respect Your Grey Hair") into a huge European hit, which has sold more than three million copies. In 1961, Caterina Valente also released a version of "In de schaduw van de mijn" ("In the Shadow of the [Coal] Mine") in Italy, under the title "Amice Miei", and in 1965 Richard Anthony sang a French and Spanish version "Ik heb me dikwijls afgevraagd" (Je me suis souvent demandé) into the international charts: the song reached #1 in France, April 3, 1965. In 1965 it earned Schoepen, who wrote the music, an artistic 'Diploma of the Croix d'Honneur' in Paris.["Education Artistique, diplôme de Croix d'Honneur de Chevalier". (30 June 1965 by the "Académie Nationale Artistique Littéraire et Scientifque, Paris" (no 5177).
In 1967, ZDF-Germany decided to produce a musical television film in which he plays a series of his hits. The film was partially recorded in the Barrandov Studios in Prague, in Kempen and in Bobbejaanland, which at the time was still without attractions.“Bobbejaanland” filmproduction ZDF — Regie: Vladimir Sis, 1967 .
During the sixties and seventies, he was a regular visitor to the United States, where he took up with actor Roy Rogers, Nudie Cohn (the fashion designer of Elvis, Johnny Cash and others), and Tex Williams, the founding father of western swing. The foursome occasionally performed together in local clubs.TV-show "30 jaar Bobbejaan" (1978) – BRT
Tours with a circus tent: 1958–1961
In 1958, Schoepen purchased a big circus tent to be able to tour more efficiently in his own country. Doing so freed him from having to deal with music venue owners, who were asking for ever-increasing rental prices and did not always have appropriate space for his program. He took over the two-master circus tent from the Tondeur family, who were finding it difficult to keep their performances profitable. Schoepen was handed the organizational reins and the circus again began to flourish. The day before a show he would promote the show himself at the designated location, sometimes in his own bizarre manner.
An American circus stunt team came to Brussels on the occasion of the world exhibition, Expo 58; it was a private endeavor led by Casey Tibbs. But because of the excessively long distance to the actual Expo events, and the persistent bad weather, they went bankrupt. They could no longer afford to care for their fifty horses and so the team had to return to the US. Tibbs had no choice but to give away some of the equipment, and among other things he sold Zorro's horse—named Midnight, from the Zorro television series—to Bobbejaan Schoepen. He used the horse for many years for stunts in his shows and as an attraction during his cavalcades, but the horse stepped on an exposed electricity cable and died.