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Donald's Encyclopedia of Popular MusicA B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y ZVALLEE, Rudy(b Hubert Prior Vallee, 28 July '01, Island Pond VT; d 3 July '86, CA) Singer, actor, composer, publisher. Self-taught on drums and reeds; first pro job playing sax in a theatre in Maine. Went to Yale and formed Yale Collegians; played in England with band '24--5; sang in pre- Crosby crooner style, assisted by a megaphone so that the audience could hear the words as well as the melody, but then in 1930 invented the p.a. system: he told Paul Whiteman, 'I borrowed an old carbon mike from NBC, hooked up a home-made amplifier with some radios, and I've got a sort of electronic megaphone.' He was enormously popular, perhaps the first pop idol: 'I never had much of a voice ... one reason for the success was that I was the first articulate singer -- people could understand the words.' But he knew he had been superseded when he heard Bing Crosby, who had a knack of using the microphone while seeming to ignore it. Vallee graduated from Yale '27; big break at NYC's Heigh-Ho Club '28, billed as Rudy Vallee and his Connecticut Yankees, featured novelty and collegiate numbers: 'Heigh-ho, everybody' was the famous greeting; the show was carried by four stations. First film The Vagabond Lover '29; sang own co-written title song 'I'm Just A Vagabond Lover'; same year began weekly radio show 'The Fleischmann Hour' for yeast company: show ran ten years (theme 'My Time Is Your Time'), promoted careers of Eddie Cantor, Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy, George Burns and Gracie Allen, and especially singer Alice Faye (see Phil Harris). Collaborated '31 on big hit 'Betty Co-Ed'; lyrics incl. list of US colleges. Broadway debut George White's Scandals '31, with Faye in chorus; also Scandals Of '36, film version '34 with Jimmy Durante in blackface. No. 2 hit USA '43 with Herman Hupfield's 'As Time Goes By'. Late '30s--early '40s changed movie image from romantic to wealthy stuffed-shirt type who never got the girl, became good comic actor: singing waned from early '50s in favour of comedy on TV talk and talent shows; played hilarious role '61 as caricature of old college type J. B. Biggley in Frank Loesser's musical How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying; repeated role in film '67 and in a San Francisco revival at age 74. Narrated and sang title song '68 in burlesque movie The Night They Raided Minsky's. Other hits, many co-written before charts began: 'Life Is Just A Bowl Of Cherries', 'Dancing With Tears In My Eyes', 'The Whiffenpoof Song', 'Say It Isn't So', 'Vieni, Vieni' ('Come, Come'), etc. Ran two publishing companies, wrote three autobiographies, had four wives. |