Rudy Vallee

Rudy Vallee (July 28, 1901 - July 3, 1986) was a popular United States singer, actor, bandleader, and entertainer. Born Hubert Prior Vallée in Island Pond, Vermont, he grew up in Westbrook, Maine. In high school he took up the saxophone and acquired the nickname "Rudy" after then famous saxophonist Rudy Weidoeft.

Vallee played clarinet and saxophone in various bands around New England in his youth, in the mid 1920s played with the Savoy Havana Band in London. He then returned to the States to form his own band, Rudy Vallee and the Connecticut Yankees. With this band he started taking vocals (supposedly reluctantly at first). He had a rather thin tenor voice and seemed more at home singing sweet ballads than attempting vocals on jazz numbers. However his singing, together with his suave manner and handsome good looks attracted great attention, especially from young women. Vallee was given a recording contract, and in 1928 started performing on the radio.

Vallee became the most prominent of a new style of popular singer, the "crooner". Previously popular singers needed strong projecting voices to fill theaters in the days before the electric microphone. Crooners had soft voices that were well suited to the intimacy of the new medium of radio.

Vallee became also perhaps the first complete example of the 20th century mass media pop-star. Flappers mobbed him wherever he went. His live appearances were usually sold out, and even if his singing could hardly be heard in those venues not yet equipt with the new electronic microphones, his screaming female fans went home happy if they had caught sight of his lips through the opening of the trademark megaphone he sang through.

In 1929 Vallee did his first film "Vagabond Lover". His first films were made to cash in on his singing popularity, but Hollywood was pleasantly surprised to find that Vallee could act as well. Also in 1929 Vallee started hosting The Fleishchman’s Yeast Musical Variety Hour; he would continue hosting popular radio variety shows through the 1940s. When Vallee took his contractual vacations from his national radio show in 1936, he insisted his sponsor hire Louis Armstrong as his substitute (this was the first instance of an African-American fronting a national radio program). That same year Vallee also wrote the introduction for Armstrong's book "Swing That Music".

Vallee acted in a number of Hollywood films in the 1930s and 1940s. One of his best acting roles is in the 1942 screwball comedy film "The Palm Beach Story".

In middle age Vallee's voice matured into a robust baritone. (In his later years he told a collector of his early records that "Everything I did before 1950 you can shit on.") He performed on Broadway in the show "How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying" and appeared in the film of the same name. He appeared in the 1960s Batman television show as the character "Lord Marmaduke Fogg". He toured with a one-man theater show into the 1980s.

Rudy Vallee died on July 3, 1986 and was interred in St. Hyacinth's Cemetery, Westbrook, Maine.

Filmography

• Rudy Vallee and His Connecticut Yankees (1929) (short subject)
• Radio Rhythm (1929) (short subject)
• Campus Sweethearts (1929) (short subject)
• The Vagabond Lover (1929)
• Glorifying the American Girl (1929)
• The Stein Song (1930) (short subject)
• Betty Co-Ed (1931) (short subject)
• Kitty from Kansas City (1931) (short subject)
• Musical Justice (1931) (short subject)
• Knowmore College (1932) (short subject)
• Rudy Vallee Melodies (1932) (short subject)
• The Musical Doctor (1932) (short subject)
• International House (1933)
• George White's Scandals (1934)
• A Trip Thru a Hollywood Studio (1935) (short subject)
• Sweet Music (1935)
• Paramount Headliner: Broadway Highlights No. 1 (1935) (short subject)
• Paramount Headliner: Broadway Highlights No. 2 (1935) (short subject)
• For Auld Lang Syne (1938) (short subject)
• Gold Diggers in Paris (1938)
• Second Fiddle (1939)
• Take Me Back to My Boots and Saddle (1941) (short subject)
• Too Many Blondes (1941)
• Time Out for Rhythm (1941)
• Picture People No. 2: Hollywood Sports (1941) (short subject)
• Hedda Hopper's Hollywood No. 6 (1942) (short subject)
• The Palm Beach Story (1942)
• Happy Go Lucky (1943)
• Screen Snapshots: Hollywood in Uniform (1943) (short subject)
• Rudy Vallee and His Coast Guard Band (1944) (short subject)
• It's In the Bag! (1945) (Cameo)
• Man Alive (1945)
• People Are Funny (1946)
• The Fabulous Suzanne (1946)
• The Sin of Harold Diddlebock (1947)
• The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer (1947)
• So This Is New York (1948)
• I Remember Mama (1948)
• Unfaithfully Yours (1948)
• My Dear Secretary (1949)
• Mother Is a Freshman (1949)
• The Beautiful Blonde from Bashful Bend (1949)
• Father Was a Fullback (1949)
• The Admiral Was a Lady (1950)
• Richochet Romance (1954)
• Gentlemen Marry Brunettes (1955)
• The Helen Morgan Story (1957)
• How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying (1967)
• Silent Treatment (1968)
• Live a Little, Love a Little (1968)
• The Night They Raided Minsky's (1968) (narrator)
• The Phynx (1970) (Cameo)
• Slashed Dreams (1975)
• Won Ton Ton, the Dog Who Saved Hollywood (1976)

External link

• Rudy Vallee Official Website (http://www.rudyvallee.com/)