Tommy Riggs and Betty Lou

Tommy Riggs (born October 21, 1908, in Pittsburgh) switched back and forth from his natural baritone to the voice of a seven-year-old girl, Betty Lou.

The audience reaction was strong: Riggs wound up spending a record 49 weeks on the Vallee show, catapulting him to fame and his own program.

In the 1940s, Riggs faded as the popularity of Edgar Bergen (whose Charlie McCarthy character was inevitably compared to Betty Lou) expanded.

Riggs then joined the Navy, taking Betty Lou to Allied camps in the Far East for 18 months; when he returned, radio audiences had largely forgotten him.

In order to find out how he was able to do Betty Lou's voice in the first place, Riggs consulted with doctors at Cornell Medical College.