Fred Lowery was a blind professional whistler

Whistling

Human whistling is the production of sound by means of carefully controlling a stream of air flowing through a small hole. Whistling can be achieved by creating a small opening with one's lips and then blowing or sucking air through the hole...

 who recorded a #9 Billboard chart hit version of The High and the Mighty

The High and the Mighty (song)

"The High and the Mighty" is a song by Ned Washington and Dimitri Tiomkin from the movie of the same name.At the start of the film's production late in 1953, veteran film composer and musician Dimitri Tiomkin was commissioned to write the film's Academy Award winning score...

 with conductor and arranger LeRoy Holmes

LeRoy Holmes

LeRoy Holmes was an American songwriter, composer, arranger and conductor....

. Lowery whistled with Horace Heidt

Horace Heidt

Horace Heidt was an American pianist, big band leader, and radio and television personality. His band, Horace Heidt and His Musical Knights, toured vaudeville and performed on radio and television through the 1930s and 1940s.-Biography:Born in Alameda, California, Heidt attended Culver...

 and Vincent Lopez

Vincent Lopez

Vincent Lopez was an American bandleader and pianist.Vincent Lopez was born of Portuguese immigrant parents in Brooklyn, New York and was leading his own dance band in New York City by 1917...

 in the 1930s and 40s. His 'Silent Night' and 'William Tell Overture' demonstrate the difference between everyday whistling and puccalo

Puccalo

Puccalo is the term used for the highest level of human oral mouth whistling. The term is derived from combining the words "pucker" and "piccolo" and it refers to a level of skill and talent in human whistling which produces notes and tones that are so clear and precise, they remind the listener...

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Lowery was born in Palestine, Texas

Palestine, Texas

Palestine is a city in Anderson County, Texas, in the United States. As of the 2000 census, the city population was 17,598, and 18,458 in the 2009 estimate. It is the county seat of Anderson County and is situated in East Texas...

 and lost his eyesight at the age of 2, following scarlet fever

Scarlet fever

Scarlet fever is a disease caused by exotoxin released by Streptococcus pyogenes. Once a major cause of death, it is now effectively treated with antibiotics...

. From the age of eight he was educated at the Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired

Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired

The Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired is a Texas special public school, in the continuum of statewide placements for students who have a visual impairment. It is considered a statewide resource to parents of these children and professionals who serve them...

. His 1939 version of the song Indian Love Call

Indian Love Call

"Indian Love Call" is a song from Rose-Marie, a 1924 operetta-style Broadway musical with music by Rudolf Friml and Herbert Stothart, and book and lyrics by Otto Harbach and Oscar Hammerstein II...

sold over 2 million copies. During his career, he performed at Carnegie Hall

Carnegie Hall

Carnegie Hall is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, United States, located at 881 Seventh Avenue, occupying the east stretch of Seventh Avenue between West 56th Street and West 57th Street, two blocks south of Central Park....

 and at the White House

White House

The White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., the house was designed by Irish-born James Hoban, and built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia sandstone in the Neoclassical...

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