Bob Amsberry was born in Boring, Oregon. He worked as a radio disc
jockey for KEX in Portland for eight years before getting his chance in
television almost by accident. Bob was brought to Hollywood by
Walt Disney to write songs for
The Mickey Mouse Club (1955).
He did so well that when the time came to add another entertainer with
Jimmie Dodd and
Roy Williams on the Mouseketeers
segment of "The Mickey Mouse Club", the job was offered to Bob.
In addition to his acting chores on the show, Bob also handled some
special sound effects and donned whiteface and costume to star as
Bob-O, the Disneyland clown at Disneyland (interesting bit of trivia:
while a student at Franklin High School in Portland, he did musical
shows with
Johnnie Ray, a classmate who
later became a famous singer. The interesting part is that Bob did the
singing while Johnnie played the piano). Bob met his wife Beverly at
station KEX and they had two children, Kevin and Kelly. Beverly was a
blues singer and once won a contest on
Ted Mack & the Original Amateur Hour (1948).