Biography of Bobbejaan Schoepen


Bobbejaan Schoepen (May 16th, 1925°, Boom - Belgium) is a pioneer in European Vaudeville and popmusic of the Low Countries. Not only was he the first Belgian to manage an international breakthrough, he was also the first artist to use modern equipment, a personal tourbus and a system of artist sponsoring. In the forties and fifties, he introduced country & western music productions in the Belgium, Holland, France, Germany and Austria. Furthermore, he is the founder and former manager of an amusement park of European standing: Bobbejaanland. Bobbejaan (also Bobby John) is also well known for his highly accomplished professional whistling and yodeling.

Tom Schoepen


Summary
  1. International
  2. From experiment to amusement park
  3. Remarkable changes
  4. Quotes
  5. Rewards
  6. Greatest hits
  7. Filmography
  8. Managers
  9. A.K.A.


Schoepen started of as a trained singer and guitarist, an artistic jack-of-all-trades, who would always be very hard to pigeonhole. At the beginning of his career, he was a popular singer with broad musical perspectives, renowned as a bohemian entertainer with a very typical sense of irony and tongue-in-cheeck assertiveness. (His stage name is derived from the South African song "Bobbejaan klim die berg".)
His comprehensive and sometimes wittingly countercultural catalogue stretches from cabaret, sentimental songs and cinematic instrumentals, over chansons and country to absolutely crazy folk music. He sold about five million copies of the songs in this enormous repertoire.

Schoepen made his first appearance in 1943 with a memorable show in the Antwerp Ancienne Belgique. In front of the crowded hall, he sang the South African song "Neen mamma. 'n Duitseman, die wil ek nie. Want Schweinefleisch dat lus ek nie." [No Mommy. I feel nothing for a German man, 'cause i don't fancy Schweinefleisch.] He was immediately removed by the Nazis and the Ancienne Belgique had to close down for three weeks.
In 1947, he met Jacques Kluger, a renowned manager that was looking for local talent. Right away he recognized a promising performer and asked Bobbejaan to entertain the American and Canadian troops in Frankfurt and Berlin. One of these floor shows happened to be attended by the American general and military governor Lucius D. Clay, who invited him straight away for more performances. These tours would influence his country repertoire and strongly stimulate his career.

In 1948, Bobbejaan scored his fist hit in Belgium and the Netherlands with "The Yodeling Whistler". In 1949 he toured in Indonesia for the Dutch troops. Between the clang of arms, he gave away 127 shows in three months time. Because of his performance for the distant troops, he was decorated by the Dutch gouvernment for courage and self-immolation. Five days after his homecoming, he went of for a Belgian tour of 220 days, with Toots Thielemans in his band, a fellow-countryman, who was chiefly known as a guitarist at that time.

International

Schoepen toured about twenty countries, among others with Joséphine Baker, Gilbert Becaud, Caterina Valente and Jacques Brel, who was his supporting act for a week, in the Brussels Ancienne Belgique in 1955. That autumn he toured for three months in Congo with his show.
He is the first European artist (apart from the UK) to have appeared in the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville. In 1953 he played there about three times with Roy Acuff. In 1957 he gave a guest-appearance in the Ed Sullivan TV-Show, and he also played a single performance with Country singer Red Foley (1910-1968) in Springfield Missouri. In the same year he would even play on the grand ball for the British Queen Mum.

In addition to that, Schoepen was the second Belgian candidate for the Eurovision Song Contest in 1957, tying with Lys Assia for eighth place with his whistle-song "Straatdeuntje". On arrival, he didn't even know which song to play, and apparently he only rehearsed it once before performing live.

On the threshold of the sixties, Schoepen scored a number one hit in Germany and Austria with the country-like "Pub with no Beer" from the Australian singer Slim Dusty. In 1961 he became one of the musical highlights of the Filmfestival in Berlin. A few years later, Camillo Felgen, Heino and James Last would pitchfork his evergreen "Grijze haren" into a worldhit. In France, Richard Anthony scored a big hit with his "Je me suis souvent demandé". Because of this song, Schoepen was honoured with an artisitic award in Paris in 1965.

During the sixties and seventies he was a regular visitor of the United States, where he took up with actor Roy Rodgers, Nudie (the fashion designer of Elvis, Johhny Cash et al.), and with Tex Williams, the founding father of swing country. The foursome occasionally performed together in local clubs. Williams himself will release Schoepen's "Fire and Blisters" in 1974.

From experiment to amusement park

And Bobbejaan Schoepen was never shy of experiment: between 1950 and 1967 he acted in five filmproductions and in 1957 he made recordings with topmanager Steve Sholes for RCA in New York (where he doubled up the studio with Elvis Presley). Between 1957 and 1961 he travelled his own country with a circus tent to perform his shows. In 1960 he put up his own theatre on a 30 ha domain. Building on this start, he would become the founding father and inspirator of an amusement park of European fame: Bobbejaanland. This lifework grew organically from Schoepen's musical carreer: in 1959, after fifteen years of touring, Schoepen was looking for a place to settle down. The heart of the young park was a combination of waterfun and show. Numerous artists from the European variety scene performed over there: Ilse Werner, Rex Gildo, Michael Holm, Jimi Ross, Rudi Carrell and many more.

Following the advice of Phantasialand-owner Gottlieb Löffelhard, Bobbejaanland evolved from 1975 onwards in the direction of a regular amusement park, with the aspect of show gardually retreating to the background. Encompassing fifty attractions and four hundred employees, the park developped into a huge tourist draw in the Benelux, France and Germany. Thanx to its independence as a family concern, it was also able to bridge the gap with (more audacious) educational and cultural projects. By the end of the seventies, for example, Mrs Schoepen opened a museum with authentic works of art from the Hopi and Navajo cultures in Phoenix (Arizona), now one of the most complete collections of Indian art in Europe.

From the beginning of the nineties, three of his five children participated fulltime in the park. Bobbejaanland was finetuned, down to the smallest detail. Now it can foster its reputation of a place that loves children and it can present itself as the first amusement park in the world that has focussed on environmental policy. The most remarkable measure to that effect was the construction of a 70 meter high wind turbine that provides the whole region with energy, with an adjoining museum of alternative energy. With its mix of informative fun, Bobbejaanland can rank as the maverick among European amusement parks. Not in the least, it stands out because of its totally unique identity, which is a natural consequence of the total dedication of the founding father and his family to this life work.

The life of Schoepen is also a lucky bag of funny and colourful anecdotes. Once, he managed to buy the original Zorro's horse from guntumbler Casey Tibbs, but unfortunately the animal tread on an exposed cable and passed away. From his American friend Nudie, he acquired the peculiar white Pontiac, skilfully decorated with American coins and showweapens. He had to count out ten thousand dollar for it, but looking back he would consider the white Pontiac as the most effective and talked-about element of al the attractions he featured. Probably just as charcteristic for his inventive spirit of enterprise, is the fact that Schoepen is the original deviser of the name Parisbas, the French-Dutch banking group, later BNP-Paribas.

Remarkable changes

All the same, the life of Bobbejaan Schoepen was not without its difficulties: during wartime he was thrown into prison twice. Later, he lost his virtuoso whistle gift due to an operative intervention. Until recently he suffered from intestinal cancer, which gave rise to the idea to part with his life's work Bobbejaanland. Appearently there was no stopping him: in the winter of 2003, a major investement of 12 milion dollar was made for a couple of world premières: the Typhoon (a roller coaster with a fourfold loop and a free fall) and the Sledge Hammer (a giant shuttle that reaches topspeeds of 110 km/h). In 2003, the consumer’s organisation Test-Aankoop conducts a large-scale comparative survey of 13 European amusement parks. On a European level, Bobbejaanland came off second best after Phantasialand for as good as every aspect under scrutiny, together with Disneyland and the Parc Astérix. For Belgium, Bobbejaanland is considered to be the best. (Test-Aankoop magazine 477, June 2004).
But april 2004 the final decision to sell the park was taken, after a preparatory period of more than three years. With this decision, the last family concern in the sector of amusement parks in Belgium disappeared.

During the 43 years of the Schoepen-management, we can consider the founding father to be the artistic brain behind the park. His wife José (who is the oldest of sixteen children) was the commercial backbone, and her sister Louise set up a solid foundation with regard to accounting and finances. The key to succes was the mutual trust in this triumvirate and their pragmatic and powerful work ethic.

In the mean time Bobbejaan focuses again on his music career. In 2005 he gave four surprise performances on the European literary festival Saint Amour. Currently he is working on a new musical project, featuring [[Geike Arnaert]] ([[Hooverphonic]]) and [[Daan]]. In February 2007, Bobbejaan Schoepen received in Belgium a [[Lifetime Achievement Award]] (ZAMU) for his important role in the Belgian music history.
Since the park was sold in 2004, the number of visitors decreased significantly. In january 2007 the spanish group sold the park to the British investor/company Candover. Bobbejaan and his wife still live "on" the domain, in the original house where the history of the park started.


This official Bobbejaan Schoepen biography is written by Tom Schoepen (1970), author of the Timeline of Evolution, Culture and Knowledge and chief editor of the belgian skeptical magazine "Miracle ain't Miracle" - magazine for science and reason. This biography was published in the "Volskundige Kronieken", transl.: "Folklore Chronicles" (june 2006).



Quotes
  • "I have never been a child podigy. When I think back to my childhood, I can not discern any sign of future succes. My only real talent could'nt be found in any curriculum: whistling." (HUMO magazine, 1964)
  • "In 1956 I was granted the biggest reward of my carreer: my wife, Josée Jongen." (Zie Magazine, 1970)
  • "Bobbejaan Schoepen is a real artist, who managed to transform his jazzy country guitar-playing, his deep seraphic voice and his crazy sense of humour into a trademark and later into an amusement park." (Dead Man Ray, 1999)
  • "Happyness is the moment when one does'nt feel pain." (HUMO magazine, 2005)


Awards and nominations Bobbejaan Schoepen
  • Career: Document for courage and self-immolation for the musical support of the Dutch troops in Indonesia, presented by General Baay, supreme commander of the Dutch troops in Eastern Java, 1949.
  • Career: Best Flemish singer (Flemish Grammy Award, by NIR and Studio Ghent, 15 March 1955)
  • Career/song: Education Artistique, diplôme de Croix d'Honneur de Chevalier. Presented by the Académie Natonale Artistique Littéraire et Scientifique, on june 30th, 1965 in Paris (No 5177).
  • Platinum record for 30 years Flemish Hits, Telstar 1978.
  • Songs: 25 golden records.
  • Career: Compagnion in the Order of the Crown, 9 April 1986, presented by the Ministery of the Flemish Community.
  • Career: Sabam Prize-medal - Belgian Artistical Promotion, 19 January 1993.
  • Career: Sabam Prize-medal - Belgian Artistical Promotion, 26 September 1995
  • Career: Certificate Belgium, Order of Leopold II: Knight of the Order of Leopold II, 26 September 1995, presented by the Ministery of the Flemish Community.
  • Place of honour in the Belgian Hall of Fame, 2000.
  • Song: "Ik heb eerbied voor jouw grijze haren" (nomination for Hall of Fame Belgium, 2000)
  • Song: De lichtjes van de Schelde ('The lights of the Scheldt') (Hall of Fame Belgium, November 2006)
  • Career: "Lifetime Achievement Award", ZAMU (Belgium, 13 february 2007)



5 greatest hits
  • Ich hab Ehrfurcht vor schneeweißen Haaren ('Gray hairs')
  • Je me suis souvent demandé ('I've always asked myself')
  • Ich steh an der Bar ('Pub with No Beer')
  • De lichtjes van de Schelde ('The lights of the Scheldt')
  • Ein Hauschen auf der Heide / Kili watch


Filmography
  • Oh! It's So Good to Be Home (1950, Belgium)
  • Televisite (1955, Belgium)
  • The Eurovision Song Contest (1957, Germany)
  • At the Drop of a Head (1962, Belgium-UK)
  • O sole mio (1960, Germany)
  • Davon träumen alle Mädchen (1961, Germany)
    Bobbejaan Schoepen, filmproduction by ZDF-Deutschland - Jan Kadlec, Filmstudios Barrandov Prag, 1967. (original mainly lost)


Managers
  • Europe: Jaques Kluger
  • Denmark and Iceland: Syd Fox
  • United States: Steve Sholes


A.K.A.
  • Belgium and Holland: Bobbejaan Schoepen
  • Germany and Austria: Bobby Jaan, Bobbejaan
  • Denmark and Iceland: Bobby Jaan
  • France: Bobby Jaan, Bobby Jann, Bobbi-Jean
  • United States: Bobby John


Sources
  • Bobbejaan Schoepen (Johan Roggen, Publisher Het Volk, 1980 - D/1980/2345/10).
  • De Vlaamse kleinkunstbeweging na de Tweede Wereldoorlog - Een historisch overzicht (Peter Notte, Universiteit Gent 1992). 'The Flemish Variety Movement after World War II - An Historical Overview'. Peter Notte, Ghent University, 1992)
  • Bobbejaan Schoepen — "Histories" documentary, 4 January 2001 (Canvas/VRT)
  • Bobbejaan Schoepen — The Belgian Pop & Rock Archive (Dirk Houbrechts and the Flanders Music Center, 2001).
  • "Brel Le flamand" — Histories documentary, 2003 (Canvas/VRT).
  • Bobbejaan Schoepen Archive — Bobbejaan Records bvba
  • Official Biography Bobbejaan Schoepen — by Tom Schoepen - "Volkskundige Kroniek" van de Federatie voor Volkskunde in Vlaanderen (i.e. “Folklife Chronicles”, magazine of the Folklife Federation Flanders)- yr. 14 - nr. 2 April-may-juin 2006).


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