Lodewijk Ferdinand Dieben (19 April 1890, in

The Hague The Hague ( ) is the capital city of the South Holland province of the Netherlands. With a population of over half a million, it is the third-largest city in the Netherlands. Situated on the west coast facing the North Sea, The Hague is the c ...

– 24 June 1959, in

Zandvoort Zandvoort () is a municipality in the province of North Holland, Netherlands. It is one of the major beach resorts of the Netherlands; it has a long sandy beach. It is bordered by coastal dunes of Zuid-Kennemerland National Park and the Amsterdam ...

), better known under his pseudonym Lou Bandy, was a Dutch singer and conferencier who was one of the most popular artists in the Netherlands, between both world wars. Among his most famous songs are: Zoek de zon op' (Look for the sun), Schep vreugde in het leven (Put joy in life) and Louise zit niet op je nagels te bijten (Louise, don't bite your nails).

Biography

Lodewijk Ferdinand Dieben was raised in a working-class family in

. Dieben worked as a

piccolo The piccolo ( ; ) is a smaller version of the western concert flute and a member of the woodwind family of musical instruments. Sometimes referred to as a "baby flute" or piccolo flute, the modern piccolo has the same type of fingerings as the ...

, house servant, street singer, and a conscriptionist with the Navy before he started a serious career in variety in 1915. At first he performed with his brother under the name The Bandy Brothers (Bandy being an Anglicisation of his last name Dieben with the syllables reversed.) Soon it became apparent that the characters of the brothers were too different to work together; in contrast with Willy, Lou was known as a difficult person. Lou continued under the name Lou Bandy. In 1921 he married the pianist Eugenie Küch, a German officer's daughter who would have a great impact on his career: she taught him decent social skills, taught him the importance of speaking proper Dutch, and helped him get his first lucrative contracts. With her support, the young man from the Hague found himself within a few years working with the top artists and theater impresarios. Bandy continued to perform following the

German occupation of The Netherlands Despite Dutch neutrality, Nazi Germany German invasion of the Netherlands, invaded the Netherlands on 10 May 1940 as part of ''Fall Gelb'' (Case Yellow). On 15 May 1940, one day after the Rotterdam Blitz, bombing of Rotterdam, the Dutch forces ...

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. In 1942, he was banned from performing when he mocked the limp of

Reichskommissar (, rendered as "Commissioner of the Empire", "Reich Commissioner" or "Imperial Commissioner"), in German history, was an official governatorial title used for various public offices during the period of the German Empire and Nazi Germany. Ger ...

Arthur Seyss-Inquart Arthur Seyss-Inquart (; ; 22 July 1892 16 October 1946) was an Austrian Nazi politician who served as Chancellor of Austria in 1938 for two days before the ''Anschluss''. His positions in Nazi Germany included deputy governor to Hans Frank in t ...

during a performance at Royal Theater Carré in

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , ; ; ) is the capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, largest city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It has a population of 933,680 in June 2024 within the city proper, 1,457,018 in the City Re ...

. Bandy was known by the public as a singer of happy lyrics, but to those who knew him better, he had a less upbeat image. He married the much younger Sinia Franke in 1948, and in 1952 married 19-year-old girl Carla van den Hurk. He divorced Carla in 1958 and was getting lonely. When he was not popular anymore and he became very lonely he killed himself in his Zandvoort apartment close to the sea.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Bandy, Lou 1890 births 1959 suicides 1959 deaths Dutch cabaret performers Dutch cabaret singers Dutch male comedians Dutch comedy musicians Dutch folk singers 20th-century Dutch male singers Musicians from The Hague 20th-century Dutch comedians Comedians from The Hague