Rudy Vallée

Hubert Prior Vallée (July 28, 1901^[1] – July 3, 1986),^[2] known professionally as Rudy Vallée, was an American singer, musician, songwriter, actor, and radio host. He was the first male singer to rise from local radio broadcasts in New York City to national popularity as a "crooner".

Rudy Vallée
Vallée c. late 1920s
Background information
Birth name	Hubert Prior Vallée
Born	(1901-07-28)July 28, 1901 Island Pond, Vermont, U.S.
Died	July 3, 1986(1986-07-03) (aged 84) Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Genres	Traditional pop
Occupation(s)	Singer musician actor radio host
Instrument(s)	Vocals, saxophone, clarinet
Years active	1924–1984
Labels	Harmony, RCA Victor, Bluebird, Columbia, Hit of the Week, Melotone
Website	rudyvallee.com

Early life

Hubert Prior Vallée was born in Island Pond, Vermont, United States, on July 28, 1901,^[1] the son of Catherine Lynch and Charles Alphonse Vallée. His maternal grandparents were English and Irish, while his paternal grandparents were French-Canadians from Quebec. Vallée grew up in Westbrook, Maine. On March 29, 1917, he enlisted in the US Navy in Portland, Maine to fight in World War I, but authorities discovered he was only 15 years old and had given the false birth date of July 28, 1899. He was discharged at the Naval Training Station in Newport, Rhode Island, on May 17, 1917, after 41 days of active service.^{[citation needed]}

Career

Music

 

Rudy Vallée, c. 1929

After playing drums in his high school band, Vallée played clarinet and saxophone in bands around New England as a teenager. The popularity of the saxophone and an unexpected reply from his idol Wiedoeft prompted him to perfect his technique. He paid Columbia Records to make four “personal records” which he used for audition purposes with a number of bands. From 1924 to 1925, he played with the Savoy Havana Band at the Savoy Hotel in London, where band members discouraged his attempts to become a vocalist.^[3] He returned to the United States, briefly attending the University of Maine. While at the University of Maine, he initiated into Sigma Alpha Epsilon Fraternity on December 5, 1921. He transferred to Yale University in 1924, from which he earned a bachelor’s degree in Philosophy in 1927. As a Yale student he led the football band and was the lead saxophonist in the Yale Collegians with Peter Arno, who became a cartoonist for The New Yorker magazine.^[4]

After graduation, he formed Rudy Vallée and the Connecticut Yankees, having named himself after saxophonist Rudy Wiedoeft.^[5] With this band (formed in 1928),^[6] which included two violins, two saxophones, a piano, a banjo, and drums, he began singing as a member of a trio and as a soloist. He had a thin, wavering tenor voice and seemed more at home singing sweet ballads than jazz songs. But his singing, saxophone playing, and the innovative arrangements he wrote for his band attracted attention from a rapidly increasing number of listeners, especially from young women.^[7] In 1928 he started performing on the radio, first at New York station WABC, leading his Yale Collegians Orchestra,^[8] and then on WEAF and the NBC Red Network beginning in February 1929.^[9]

 

Vallée megaphone crafted in between shows at the New York Palace in May 1929

He became one of the first crooners.^[7] Singers needed strong voices to fill theaters in the days before microphones. Crooners had soft voices that were suited to the intimacy of radio; the microphones, in this case, promoted direct access to "a vulnerable and sensuous interior," or in other words, "a conjured intimacy".^[10] Vallée was one of the first celebrity radio vocalists.^[7] Flappers pursued him wherever he went.^[7] His live appearances were usually sold out. Contrary to popular belief, he did not have screaming girls at his appearances. However, his voice still failed to project in venues without microphones and amplification, so he often sang through a megaphone, a device he had used when leading the Yale football band. A caricature of him singing this way was depicted in the Betty Boop cartoon Poor Cinderella (1934).^[11] Another caricature is in Crosby, Columbo, and Vallee, which parodies him, Bing Crosby, and Russ Columbo.

In the words of a magazine writer in 1929,

At the microphone he is truly a romantic figure. Faultlessly attired in evening dress, he pours softly into the radio's delicate ear a stream of mellifluous melody. He appears to be coaxing, pleading and at the same time adoring the invisible one to whom his song is attuned.^[12]

Vallée had his share of detractors as well as fans when his popularity was at its height. Radio Revue, a radio fan magazine, held a contest in which people wrote letters explaining his success. The winning letter, written by a man who disliked Vallée's music, said, "Rudy Vallee is reaping the harvest of a seed that is seldom sown this day and age: LOVE. The good-looking little son-of-a-gun really and honestly LOVES his audience and his art. He LOVES to please listeners—LOVES it more than he does his name in the big lights, his mug in the papers. He loved all those unseen women as passionately as a voice can love, long before they began to purr and to caress him with two-cent stamps."^[13]

Vallée made his first commercial recordings in 1928 for Columbia's low-priced labels Harmony, Velvet Tone, and Diva. He signed with RCA Victor in February 1929 and remained with the company through 1931, leaving after a heated dispute with executives over song selections. He then recorded for the short-lived Hit of the Week label which sold rather poor quality records laminated onto a cardboard base. In August 1932, he signed with Columbia and remained with the label through 1933. Vallée returned to RCA Victor in June 1933; his records were initially issued on Victor's low-priced Bluebird label until November 1933, when he was back on the standard Victor label. He remained with RCA Victor until signing with ARC in 1936. ARC issued his records on the Perfect, Melotone, Conqueror and Romeo labels until 1937, when he again returned to RCA Victor.

With his group the Connecticut Yankees, Vallée's best-known recordings include "The Stein Song" (a.k.a. University of Maine school song) in 1929^[14] and "Vieni, Vieni" in the latter 1930s.

His last hit record was a reissue of "As Time Goes By", popularized in the 1942 film Casablanca. Due to the 1942-44 AFM recording ban, RCA Victor reissued the version he had recorded in 1931.^[15] During World War II, he enlisted in the United States Coast Guard to help direct the 11th district Coast Guard band as a Chief Petty Officer. He was promoted to Lieutenant and led the 40 piece band to great success. In 1944, he was placed on the inactive list and returned to radio.^[16]

According to George P. Oslin, Vallée on July 28, 1933, was the recipient of the first singing telegram. A fan telegraphed birthday greetings, and Oslin had the operator sing "Happy Birthday to You".^[17][18][19]

Radio and film

 

Rudy Vallée on The Fleischmann's Yeast Hour in 1933. He always signed on saying, "Heigh-ho, everybody!"

In 1929, Vallée began hosting The Fleischmann's Yeast Hour,^[20] a popular radio show with guests such as Fay Wray and Richard Cromwell in dramatic skits. Vallée continued hosting radio shows such as the Royal Gelatin Hour, Vallee Varieties, and The Rudy Vallee Show through the 1930s and 1940s.

 

Vallée as bandleader Skip Houston in Sweet Music

When Vallée took his contractual vacations from his national radio show in 1937, he insisted his sponsor hire Louis Armstrong as his substitute.^[21] This was the first instance of an African-American hosting a national radio program. Vallée wrote the introduction for Armstrong's 1936 book Swing That Music.

In 1929, Vallée made his first feature film, The Vagabond Lover, for RKO Radio. His first films were made to cash in on his singing popularity. While his initial performances were rather wooden, his acting greatly improved in the late 1930s and 1940s, and by the time he began working with Preston Sturges in the 1940s, he had become a successful comedic supporting player. He appeared opposite Claudette Colbert in Sturges's classic 1942 screwball comedy The Palm Beach Story. Other films in which he appeared include I Remember Mama, Unfaithfully Yours and The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer.

In 1955, Vallée was featured in Gentlemen Marry Brunettes, co-starring Jane Russell, Alan Young, and Jeanne Crain. The production was filmed on location in Paris. The film was based on the Anita Loos novel that was a sequel to her acclaimed Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. Gentlemen Marry Brunettes was popular throughout Europe at the time and was released in France as A Paris Pour les Quatre ("Paris for the Four"), and in Belgium as Tevieren Te Parijs.

Vallée performed on Broadway as J.B. Biggley in the 1961 musical How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying and reprised the role in the 1967 film version.^[22] He appeared in the 1960s Batman television series as the villain Lord Marmaduke Ffogg and in 1971 as a vindictive surgeon in the Night Gallery episode "Marmalade Wine".^[23]

Vallee-Video

From 1948 to 1952, Vallée owned Vallee-Video, a television production company formed in the early days of national TV broadcasts. The company was incorporated on April 3, 1948.^[24] Vallée made 16mm film shorts for television, including These Foolish Things and Under a Campus Moon, in which he appeared himself. Ed Wynn, Pinky Lee, Buddy Lester and Cyril Smith also appeared in Vallee-Video productions.^[25] Comedy sequences in the productions featured dubbed-in laughter.^[26]

In 1949, Vallee-Video produced one of the first cartoon shows on television, Tele-Comics.^[27]

Vallee-Video's breakthrough in 1952 would have been a 15-minute television show based on the Dick Tracy comic strip starring Vallée's friend Ralph Byrd, who played the character in four successful Dick Tracy theatrical serials from 1937 to 1941. Vallée sold the show as a pilot to NBC. Vallée and Byrd also worked on a proposed radio show based on the comic strip Hawkshaw the Detective.^[28] However, Byrd died in August 1952, bringing the Dick Tracy production to a halt, and spelling the end for Vallee-Video.^[25]

Personal life

Vallée was married four times. He married Jane Greer on December 2, 1943, in Hollywood, but they separated after three months and divorced on July 27, 1944. His fourth and last wife, Eleanor, wrote a memoir called My Vagabond Lover.^{[citation needed]}

Always loyal to Yale University, Vallée never forgot his Maine roots, and maintained an estate at Kezar Lake.^[29]

NBC announcer George Ansbro wrote in his memoir that Vallée "had quite a temper and a very foul mouth... almost always the butt of his nastiness was the orchestra... his outbursts were mean-spirited, and he didn't care who overheard".^[30] Alton Cook, however, wrote, "Vallée may be fuming at his orchestra, but a Vallée hour rehearsal never quite loses its air of being a gathering of old friends... Rudy is grimly serious about rehearsal. He sometimes has his band spend a quarter-hour going over one short passage that doesn't satisfy him. On those occasions his temper wears thin..."^[31]

During his divorce from his first wife, Fay Webb, she alleged that "Vallée is possessed of a violent, vicious, and ungovernable temper, and given to the use of blasphemy and the use of intemperate, vile, and vituperative language, particularly when applied to [her]". She accused him of committing adultery with three women, including actress Alice Faye. Vallée denied the allegations and counter-charged infidelity on her part. The judge found him "not guilty of any misconduct or maltreatment of Webb which detrimentally affected her health, physical or medical condition".^[32]

In a heated dispute with producer George White on the set of the 1934 film George White's Scandals, White struck Vallee in the jaw. Dorothy Brooks wrote in 1936, "Other stars on the air have their troubles, their disagreements, and yet you don't read about their ending in black eyes. Only Rudy Vallee seems to figure in endings of this kind." In an interview with Brooks, Vallée claimed he found fighting "savage and stupid" and "the wrong way to try to solve problems, because it never solves them". When asked why he got into fights, he replied, "I just lost my temper. I'll admit I have a too-quick temper."^[33]

Vallée died of cancer at his Los Angeles estate, “Silvertip,” on July 3, 1986, while watching the televised centennial ceremonies of the restored Statue of Liberty. His wife Eleanor said that his last words were, "I wish we could be there; you know how I love a party."^[34]

Legacy

In 1995, a Golden Palm Star on the Palm Springs, California, Walk of Stars was dedicated to him.^[35]

For his work in radio, Vallée was inducted into the Vermont Association of Broadcasters Hall of Fame in 2011.

Discography

Main article: Rudy Vallée & His Connecticut Yankees discography

Filmography

Films

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1929	Rudy Vallee and His Connecticut Yankees	Himself	Vitaphone Varieties #771;^[36] Lost film (soundtrack survives, containing the songs "Deep Night" and "Outside")^[37]
1929	Radio Rhythm	Himself	Short
1929	The Vagabond Lover	Rudy Bronson
1929	Glorifying the American Girl	Himself
1930	College Sweethearts		Short
1931	Kitty from Kansas City	Himself	Short
1931	Musical Justice	Judge	Short
1932	The Musical Doctor	Dr. Vallee	Short
1932	Rudy Vallee Melodies	Himself	Short
1933	International House	Himself
1934	George White's Scandals	Jimmy Martin
1934	Hollywood on Parade # B-9	Himself
1935	Sweet Music	Skip Houston
1938	Gold Diggers in Paris	Terry Moore	Alternative title: The Gay Impostors
1939	Second Fiddle	Roger Maxwell
1941	Too Many Blondes	Dick Kerrigan
1941	Time Out for Rhythm	Daniel "Danny" Collins
1942	The Palm Beach Story	John D. Hackensacker III
1943	Happy Go Lucky	Alfred Monroe
1945	It's in the Bag	Himself
1945	Man Alive	Gordon Tolliver
1946	People Are Funny	Ormsby Jamison
1946	The Fabulous Suzanne	Hendrick Courtney, Jr.
1947	The Sin of Harold Diddlebock	Lynn Sargent	Alternative title: Mad Wednesday
1947	The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer	District Attorney Tommy Chamberlain	Alternative title: Released in the U.K. as Bachelor Knight
1948	I Remember Mama	Dr. Johnson
1948	So This Is New York	Herbert Daley
1948	Unfaithfully Yours	August Henshler
1948	My Dear Secretary	Charles Harris
1949	Mother Is a Freshman	John Heaslip	Alternative title: Mother Knows Best
1949	The Beautiful Blonde from Bashful Bend	Charles Hingleman
1949	Father Was a Fullback	Mr. Roger "Jess" Jessup
1950	The Admiral Was a Lady	Peter Pedigrew (Jukebox king)
1954	Ricochet Romance	Worthington Higgenmacher
1955	Gentlemen Marry Brunettes	Himself
1957	The Helen Morgan Story	Himself	Alternative titles: Both Ends of the Candle Why Was I Born?
1967	How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying	Jasper B. Biggley
1968	Live a Little, Love a Little	Louis Penlow	With Elvis Presley
1968	The Night They Raided Minsky's	Narrator	Voice
1970	The Phynx	Himself
1975	Slashed Dreams	Proprietor	Alternative title: Sunburst
1976	Won Ton Ton, the Dog Who Saved Hollywood	Autograph Hound

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1953	The Ford 50th Anniversary Show	Himself	Song medley and banter with Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra
1956	The Johnny Carson Show	Himself	1 episode
1956–1957	December Bride	Himself	2 episodes
1957	The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour	Himself	1 episode
1961	What's My Line?	Himself	1 episode
1967	Batman	Lord Marmaduke Ffogg	3 episodes
1969	Petticoat Junction	Herbert A. Smith	Episode: "But I've Never Been In Erie, Pa"
1970	Here's Lucy	Himself	1 episode
1971	Night Gallery	Dr. Francis Deeking	1 episode
1971–1972	Alias Smith and Jones	Winford Fletcher	2 episodes
1976	Ellery Queen	Alvin Winer	Episode: "The Adventure of the Tyrant of Tin Pan Alley"
1979	CHiPs	Arthur Forbinger	Episode: "Pressure Point"
1984	Santa Barbara	Elderly Con	1 episode (final appearance)

Gallery

Illustrations

•  

  In the process of being painted by Rolf Armstrong on November 21, 1929

•  

  Painted by Rolf Armstrong on November 21, 1929

•  

  1929 caricature from Radio Revue

•  

  1930 caricature from Photoplay

•  

  Advertisement for Old Gold Cigarettes with a fabricated biography

•  

  Caricature in the 1932 Merrie Melodies cartoon Crosby, Columbo, and Vallee; note the megaphone and the curl in his hair

•  

  Caricature in the 1934 Betty Boop cartoon Poor Cinderella

Magazine covers

•  

  Radio Revue, December 1929

•  

  Radio Guide, April 16–22, 1933

•  

  Radio Stars, May 1933

•  

  Radio Mirror, December 1934

•  

  Radio Stars, May 1936

Videos

• Kitty from Kansas City (1931)

See also

• Vallee Family House, a house listed on the National Register of Historic Places in Westbrook, Maine

References

1. Colin Larkin, ed. (1992). The Guinness Encyclopedia of Popular Music (First ed.). Guinness Publishing. p. 2571. ISBN 0-85112-939-0.
2. "» Died On This Date (July 3, 1986) Rudy Vallee / Singer & Bandleader". Themusicsover.com. July 3, 2010. Retrieved October 16, 2021.
3. Rust, Brian, "The Savoy Havana at the Savoy Hotel, London", sleeve notes to disc 2 of World Record Club LP set SH165/6, issued 1971
4. "Cartoonist Peter Arno of the New Yorker Dies". The Milwaukee Journal. February 23, 1968. Part 1, p. 20.
5. "How Rudy Wiedoeft's Saxophobia Launched the Saxual Revolution" (PDF). Garfield.library.upenn.edu. Retrieved September 29, 2019.
6. Walker p. 167
7. Whitcomb, Ian. "The Coming of the Crooners". Sam Houston University. Retrieved June 24, 2010.
8. "Tonight's Features from Nearby Stations," Bridgewater NJ Courier-News, March 3, 1928, p. 4,
9. "Tomorrow's Radio Programs," St. Cloud MN Times, February 26, 1929, p. 5.
10. Brothers, Thomas (2014). Louis Armstrong: Master of Modernism. New York, NY: W.W. Norton & Company. p. 400. ISBN 978-0-393-06582-4.
11. "Betty Boop: Poor Cinderella". Archive.org. September 29, 1934.
12. "What is the Secret of Rudy Vallee's Success?". Radio Revue. New York. December 1929. Retrieved November 7, 2015.
13. Hansen, Martin (January 1930). "Mere Man Wins First Prize in Rudy Vallee Contest". Radio Revue. New York. Retrieved November 7, 2015.
14. "The Maine Stein Song by Rudy Vallée - Songfacts". Songfacts.com.
15. Gilliland, John (1994). Pop Chronicles the 40s: The Lively Story of Pop Music in the 40s (audiobook). ISBN 978-1-55935-147-8. OCLC 31611854. Tape 1, side A.
16. USCG: Frequently Asked Questions. Uscg.mil. Retrieved on 2012-01-30.
17. "The Singing Telegram At 50". The New York Times. 1983. Retrieved September 13, 2018.
18. Liz Sadler. . Columbia News Service. Columbia School of Journalism. Archived from the original on November 8, 2006. Retrieved September 13, 2018.
19. "The First Singing Telegram". Sound Beat. Syracuse University Libraries. Retrieved September 13, 2018.
20. Walker p.169
21. Features Archives. onhifi.com (March 1, 2002). Retrieved on 2012-01-30.
22. Colin Larkin, ed. (1997). The Virgin Encyclopedia of Popular Music (Concise ed.). Virgin Books. p. 1208. ISBN 1-85227-745-9.
23. Skelton, Scott; Benson, Jim (1998). Rod Serling's Night Gallery: An After-hours Tour. Syracuse University Press. pp. 159–. ISBN 978-0-8156-0535-5. Retrieved December 21, 2018.
24. "Vallee-Video". OpenCorporates. Retrieved March 7, 2020.
25. Pitts, Michael; Hoffman, Frank (2001). The Rise of the Crooners: Gene Austin, Russ Columbo, Bing Crosby, Nick Lucas, Johnny Marvin, and Rudy Vallee. Scarecrow Press. p. 204. ISBN 978-0810840812. Retrieved March 7, 2020.
26. "Vallee Sees Separate Coast TV Depts., Sub-Divided Studios as Aids to Biz". Variety. February 2, 1949. p. 26. Retrieved January 17, 2023.
27. Woolery, George W. (1983). Children's Television: The First Thirty-Five Years, 1946-1981. The Scarecrow Press. pp. 285–286. ISBN 0-8108-1557-5. Retrieved March 5, 2020.
28. "Vallee-NBC in Deal on 'Tracy' Telefilms". The Billboard. Vol. 61, no. 22. May 28, 1949. p. 12. Retrieved March 7, 2020.
29. C. Stewart Doty, "Rudy Vallee: Franco-American and Man from Maine", Maine Historical Society Quarterly 1993 33(1): 2–19
30. Ansbro, George (February 1, 2000). I Have a Lady in the Balcony: Memoirs of a Broadcaster in Radio and Television. McFarland. pp. 89–. ISBN 978-0-7864-4318-5. Retrieved December 21, 2018.
31. Cook, Alton (April 18, 1937). "Rudy Acts Like Real Tough Guy". The Pittsburgh Press. Retrieved January 15, 2016.
32. Fay Webb Vallee v. Hubert Prior Vallee. p. 56. Retrieved December 21, 2018.
33. Brooks, Dorothy (August 1936). "Why I Always Have to Fight". Radio Mirror. Broadway, New York. Retrieved December 31, 2015.
34. Obituary, Los Angeles Times, July 4, 1986.
35. (PDF). Palmspringswalkofstars.com. Archived from the original on October 13, 2012.
36. Picking, Patrick (2007). "Vitaphone Thrills the World During Event-Filled Year". The Vitaphone Project. Patrick J. Picking. Retrieved February 14, 2016.
37. "Rudy Vallee & His Connecticut Yankees Vitaphone". SoundCloud. Vitaphone. 2012. Retrieved February 14, 2016.

Bibliography

• Walker, Leo. (1976) "The Wonderful Era of the Great Dance Bands"

Further reading

• McCracken, Allison (2001). "Real Men Don't Sing Ballads (Section:The Rise and Fall of Rudy Vallée)". In Wojcik, Pamela Robertson; Knight, Arthur (eds.). Soundtrack Available: Essays on Film and Popular Music. Duke University Press. pp. 113–. ISBN 0-8223-2797-X. Retrieved December 21, 2016.

External links

 

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Rudy Vallee.

 

Wikiquote has quotations related to Rudy Vallée.

• Official site
• Rudy Vallee Collection March 3, 2016, at the Wayback Machine at the American Radio Archive the Thousand Oaks Library
• Virtual History
• A collection of rare aluminum transcription discs of some of Vallée's radio broadcasts is housed in the Great American Songbook Foundation archives
• Grave
• Rudy Vallée at IMDb
• Rudy Vallée at the Internet Broadway Database  
• Rudy Vallée at AllMusic
• Rudy Vallée recordings at the Discography of American Historical Recordings.

Media

• The Royal Desserts Hour with Rudy Vallée (May 5, 1938) (one hour in)
• Recordings on Standard Labels at the Internet Archive
• Recordings on Discount Labels at the Internet Archive
• More recordings (including unreleased personal recordings) at the Internet Archive