It's a name I know from somewhere, an interesting sounding name, but with everything whetting my appetite for obscure facts, I began to wonder who exactly it refers to. It turns out to be two distinct entities, one a friend]of Richard M. Nixon, the other an obscure Italian band.
Of the band, I have learned that they were born of a conspiracy to eliminate melody and hi-fi recordings. They are the alleged lords of no-wave, noise and lo-fi who have an obsession for Japanese food, anime, manga, porn stars, and trashy b-movies. Their lyrics in "Il lancio del martello" apparently say in Italian: "I will smash you with my hammer, you fucking magilla gorilla". "I Wanna be a Wonderful Milky" is their first CD. (Info courtesy of artists3.iuma.com/IUMA/Bands/Bebe_Rebozo/.) Safe bet their name was inspired by the other Bebe Rebozo.
Their namesake, the other Bebe, the one with the dubious taste in friends, was born Charles Rebozo in 1912 in Cuba. His parents, Francisco and Carmen, immigrated to Tampa, Florida when Charles was eight. Charles, the youngest of nine children, was the baby of the family, but pronounced the word "beebee", coining his own nickname, which stuck to him for life.
Bebe, a real estate developer and banker, was a self-made millionaire whose most memorable feat seems to have been befriending Nixon. The two, the same age, were introduced by a mutual friend in 1950, and Rebozo offered to take Nixon, then a newly elected anti-Communist senator from California, fishing on his boat. According to an obituary of Rebozo, Nixon, not one for sport fishing, brought a pile of papers which he worked on while boating. In 1970 Rebozo recalled: "I doubt if I exchanged half a dozen words with the guy." Nevertheless, the friendship flourished, continues the obit, "in an atmosphere of shared leisure activities", as both liked "Broadway show tunes, spectator sports and charcoal-broiled steaks". Rebozo spent time with Nixon and his family at the White House and Camp David, where he apparently "picked the movies the Nixon family watched". He paid for a bowling alley to be put in the White House. Nixon and Rebozo often ate at Key Biscayne's English Pub, "mostly ordering chopped steak, medium rare. They both enjoyed an occasional Scotch or a martini. Rebozo invariably picked up the tab and tipped generously."
Besided these friendly homey details, Rebozo advised Nixon on investments and real estate. Again according to the obit,
Concerning all of this Rebozo was extremely discreet, usually refusing interviews. "I'm not interested in politics myself," he said in 1970. "He's my friend and my friend happens to be president. I know that people think because I see him a lot and I'm up there a lot we're talking about affairs of state, and that's not true."
Rebozo remained, apparently, a loyal friend to Nixon throughout his life, though the friendship carried a price, for he was thoroughly investigated in the Watergate scandal, though never indicted. This must have been where I heard his name.
Rebozo died in 1998. I got many of the details of his life from the obituary at
kudos.traveldesk.com/s/Pan_American_Airways_Corp/6.html