[4] During that time he also learned to play the guitar, an instrument that later became an important part of his live shows, both at the RKO Roxy Theatre in New York and at the Biltmore Bowl in Hollywood.

Tomlin came to national attention in the 1930s due to a song he had written while attending the University of Oklahoma, one he composed for a student at the school, Joanne Alcorn, whom he would later marry.

"The Object of My Affection" became a number-one hit late that year for Grier's Coconut Grove Orchestra, featuring Pinky Tomlin on vocals (Brunswick 7308).

In 1935 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer groomed him to be an actor as well as a singer, casting him in three MGM films released that year: Times Square Lady, Smart Girl, and King Solomon of Broadway.

[8] Independent producer Maurice Conn hired Pinky Tomlin to both star in and score four feature films: With Love and Kisses (1936), Sing While You're Able (1937), Thanks for Listening (1937), and Swing It, Professor (1937).

For more than two years "Pinky Tomlin and His Orchestra" played in theaters, nightclubs, and school proms across most of America, on a whirlwind schedule prepared by the talent agency.

Largely retired from show business by the mid-1950s, Tomlin pursued his longtime interest in geology, which he had studied as an undergraduate at the University of Oklahoma.

[10] That interest soon led to his establishing "Pinky Tomlin Oil Properties", an oil- and gas-drilling company that he headquartered in Beverly Hills.