Polo was born in Toluca, Illinois[1] and moved to Clinton, Indiana, as an infant, where his father worked as a coal miner.

In the 1920s Polo played with Elmer Schoebel (1923),[1] Merritt Brunies, Arnold Johnson, Ben Bernie, Jean Goldkette (1926), and Paul Ash.

In 1927 he went to Europe with Dave Tough, where he played with several continental bandleaders including Bert Firman, Lud Gluskin, George Carhart, Ben Berlin and Arthur Briggs.

[3] In 1938 Polo returned to Britain to play with Ambrose[1] and in 1939 he worked with Ray Ventura in Paris.

Late in 1939 he moved back to the U.S. permanently and spent the early 1940s working with Joe Sullivan, Jack Teagarden (1942, including on Bing Crosby's film Birth of the Blues), and Claude Thornhill.