The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture

DUNN, ROBERT LEE (1908–1971).

Country music historians agree that Robert Lee Dunn, born February 8, 1908, in Braggs, Oklahoma, invented his own version of an electric steel guitar, using a homemade pickup. (In 1934 George Beauchamp of California filed for a patent on an "electrical stringed musical instrument," issued in 1937.) Dunn played his self-made electric guitar when in 1934 he joined pioneer Western swing outfit Milton Brown’s Musical Brownies in Fort Worth, Texas. In 1935 Dunn became the first person in country music to record the instrument when he made the first of more than ninety recordings with Brown, including Dunn’s signature tune, "Taking Off" (1935).

After Milton Brown's death in April 1936, Dunn played with several groups, including Roy Newman and His Boys (1937), the Shelton Brothers (1939), and Cliff Bruner's Texas Wanderers. Bruner's group provided Dunn the opportunity to record more of his trademark brass-influenced solos, which hearkened back to his days as an aspiring jazz trombonist. After a World War II stint in the U.S. Navy, he settled in Houston and he operated a music store until shortly before his death on May 27, 1971. As a result of Dunn's invention and early performances, the electric steel guitar remains an indelible element of country music, and his work reverberates among countless contemporary artists in the genre.

Hugh W. Foley, Jr.