For those of you of my generation who grew up in the metro Chicago area, you probably listened to the WLS Barn Dance radio show and later watched the television show. Cousin Tilford was one of the regular performers. He was an unusually tall man at the time. He stood 6 feet 10 inches. His usual attire when performing were a boater straw hat, knee length tie and “high water” pants.
Arthur Emmanuel “Holly” Swanson was born September 6, 1904, in Chicago, Cook County, Illinois, the son of Emil Swanson and Hannah Lindstrom. He grew up on the south side of Chicago in the Pullman District. In 1920, his father was working as a switch tender for the railroad and was killed in an accident. During his high school years, Holly worked as a stock clerk in a dry goods store, the Pullman Car Company, and as a truck driver to help support the family. Holly enjoyed playing baseball and football and played semi-pro football with the Roseland Pullman Panthers for seven years.
Holly started playing the baritone at the age of five. During high school he played the trombone. Holly began his career in music playing the bass horn and bass fiddle in high school dance bands. He joined Lawrence Jones and his Californian’s, traveling on the road and performing. Holly then joined Carl Deacon Moore’s band in Chicago and started his comedy career. Afterward, he performed with Al Trace’s orchestra for nine years.
He married Irma Juliana Sutsh, daughter of John Sutsh and Emma Noreen Niven, on Dec. 20, 1930, in Chicago, Cook County, Illinois. They were the parents of Richard Allen and Barbara Holly. Irma died March 22, 1940, in Chicago and was buried in Oak Hill Cemetery, Blue Island, IL.
Holly met his second wife when he was performing at the Trianon Ballroom Theater where she was employed as a waitress. Arthur married Lila Louise Pennington, daughter of Fern Richard Pennington and Elsie M. Collier, March 31, 1944, in Chicago and they were the parents of James Arthur.
In 1949 they moved to Naperville. They first lived at 311 South Julian Street, then moved to 216 N. Washington Street and finally to the Southeast corner of 8th Avenue and Ellsworth Street, just around the corner from where I grew up on Brainard Street.
In 1950, the Camel News Caravan went to his home and showed on television the oversized seven-foot-high doors, high mirrors and eight-foot-long bed he slept in.
Holly was first employed as an orchestra musician, playing the string bass, tuba and trombone, in the Lawrence Welk orchestra from 1942 to 1947. He joined the WLS National Barn Dance in 1946 as a musician and then became “Cousin Tilford.” The WLS Barn Dance was a vaudeville variety show aimed at a rural audience. It was broadcast on Saturday nights from 6:30PM to midnight on WLS Radio and Television from 1960 until 1969 when it finally ceased production. Gene Autry, Pat Butram, George Gobel, Homer and Jethro, and Andy Williams were just a small number of the many performers featured. Holly worked as a bailiff at the DuPage County Complex in Wheaton at the time of his death
Arthur Emmanuel “Holly” Swanson was raised a Master Mason June 3, 1952. He died May 16, 1969, at Presbyterian St. Luke’s Hospital in Chicago, Cook County, Illinois, and was buried in the Naperville Cemetery.
His grave marker reads, “If I made you happy, my work is done.”
