(SORRY - YOUTOOB messed up the sync somehow!) Alvino Rey appears live on a filmed kinescope of ABC-TV version of The Lawrence Welk Show in 1958, does his usual incredibly inventive and creative performance on the pedal steel guitar (with his added electronic attractions, of course) of his arrangement of "Hindustan". Watch his techniques that no one since has mastered.
His wife, Luise King, would usually be off-stage within sight distance of Alvino, and use the 'talk box' during his "talking guitar" solos, but not always. Here it appears he is playing with his pots to acheive a modulated wah-wah - but what do I know? He was a magician.

If you are of a certain age, you might only remember Alvino from the mid-60's "The King Family" show and Christmas Specials more whitebread than Welk, Crosby, or Williams' staged family Christmases.

But Alvino was so much more... appeared everywhere, recorded Space-Age/Exotica hits on Capitol Records, and the following as found more broadly in an obituary of Alvino Rey:

The following is a mix of original comment and previously published material:

Bandleader Alvino Rey (1908-2004) was a guitar virtuoso whose big-band-era orchestra is best known for its No. 1 hit “Deep in the Heart of Texas” and a string of novelty tunes.

Rey, who also was influential in the development of early electric guitars and the pedal steel guitar.
Rey was already a well-known featured sideman with Horace Heidt and His Musical Knights when he launched the Alvino Rey Orchestra in New York in 1939. Rey’s band featured the four King Sisters, including Luise, whom he married in 1937.

He was also noted to be the original innovator of "The Talking Guitar", or 'Voder' (later coined the Sonovox), as seen in a 1940s short featuring "Stringy" - a guitar puppet who 'speaks' with Rey's Electroharp (pedal steel) guitar - and an electronic contraption with two carbon microphone 'cups' that his singer-wife, offstage, would shape the sounds Rey was playing on-stage - with her larynx, throat, and mouth shapes - whispering out the effects that would be amplified on stage - like a human synthesizer!

Over the Hudson River, just a few miles north of the George Washington Bridge, Alvino Rey and the 4 King Sisters were the 'house band' at the infamous "Rustic Cabin" on Sylvan Blvd. (Route 9W) in Englewood Cliffs, NJ - a restaurant catering venue that was one of the more popular big band dance halls - a stone's throw from Manhattan. One of the reasons for this is they had direct 'lines' to the radio studios in Manhattan (notably Mutual's WOR) which would air these nightly dance sessions on their 'remote broadcast' musical presentations which filled the night hours on the networks. He also recorded for the 'cheap' Bluebird label, a lesser quality shellac record from RCAVictor.

He moved to Hollywood and was featured in a few short films and was featured on many West Coast-based radio network shows.

In 1942, the Alvino Rey Orchestra scored its biggest hit with “Deep in the Heart of Texas.” Rey’s band also had half a dozen other top-10 hits in the 1940s, including the novelty tunes “Strip Polka” (1942), “Cement Mixer [Put-Ti Put-Ti]” (1946) and “I’m Looking Over a Four-Leaf Clover” (1948).

On those, Rey used his trademark style of pedal steel guitar-playing that mimicked a human voice singing the lyrics. In terms of popularity, that’s definitely his niche -- doing novelty sounds.

Rey also was a master at the classical guitar and banjo. Strangely, he's also featured as a pianist in the studio orchestra of NBC radio's Phil Harris Alice Faye show.

Donna King Conkling, who along with sisters Luise, Yvonne and Alyce sang with Rey’s orchestra until it broke up during World War II, said Rey “was a real virtuoso.”

“He could play six-part chords and all kinds of effects that no other steel guitar player ever did,” she said Friday. “He would play the ‘William Tell Overture’ or some rousing kind of number on his guitar and there was always a standing ovation.

NOTES on REY:
-He was the first to amplify a guitar in 1930 in San Francisco in a radio orchestra.
-He was famous for The Talking Guitar
-All other acts succeeding him (i.e. Pete Drake) had their own styles, yet Rey was the originator.
-in 1943, the Musicians Union strike by James Petrillo put him out of business - and he took a war job as a mechanic at Lockheed in Burbank.
-He biggest life-long hobby was electronics (as you could imagine with his ingenuity) and he was proud of being a 'ham operator' W6UK for over 80 years, as his "QSL" card reveals.
-His final true popularity was with the "King Sisters" TV show in the mid-1960s - a style of soapy music that does not show off any of his true unique talents - BTW avoid these albums at all costs.

His real name was Alvin McBurney, of Scot/Irish descent. He took on the stage name Alvino Rey - because Latin rhythms became a rage in the 1920s.

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