Erik Ole Bye

Born in Drammen, Eastern Norway in 1883, as son of merchant Anders M. Bye and Gunda Augusta Andersen. As a widow, his mother Gunda later ran a hotel in the center of Kristiania, now Oslo. Bye was one of Norway's most popular singers of the time. Not only a great voice, but also with a clear acting talent, not least in the comic repertoire. Singing at the domestic theaters in Kristiania, but also elsewhere in Europe. For a few years in the 1920's on tour in the United States, where he was well received among Norwegian-Americans. He was also a time in Hollywood, where he played small parts, without being credited. Among them, as a French opera-singer in King of Jazz. (1930) Back in Norway, he and his wife ran a boarding house on Nordstrand in Oslo, next to this, Bye also took singing assignments, and made several gramophone recordings. Bye died the night of National Day, May 17th 1953, just over 70 years old. His wife Rønnaug died in 1980, she was over ninety years old.