A photo of Vallee performing during the 1920s.
(Photo Courtesy of RudyVallee.com)
But who was Vallee? "During the 1930s, Vallee was a musical and radio icon, producing several hit albums, starring dozens of films and had one of the most popular radio shows of all times," Donna Halper, broadcast historian and professor at Emerson College, says.
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Starting out in Vermont
Born Hubert Prior Vallee on July 28, 1901, Vallee spent the first few years of his life in Vermont before the family moved to Westbrook, Maine. From an early age, Vallee was interested in music; he played the drums in his high school band until he dropped out in 1917 to join the Navy during WWI, Elizabeth McLeod, a broadcast historian and writer, says. Vallee writes in his autobiography "Vagabond Dreams Come True" that soon after he enlisted in the Navy, it was discovered he was 15-years-old and sent home. Vallee returned to high school, where he taught himself to play the clarinet and the saxophone. In 1921, he enrolled at the University of Maine where he earned the nickname "Rudy" after the saxophonist Rudy Wiedoeft, whom he greatly admired, McLeod says.
In 1922, Vallee transferred to Yale University, where he performed at country clubs and local dance halls to pay for his tuition. Judith Ann Schiff, chief archivist at the Yale University library, says that transferring to Yale was the best thing Vallee could have done for his career. "Rudy was lucky because he was able to connect with Bill Bolton and Jack Capriano, who were Yale alums and musicians and owned the best society orchestras in the area," Schiff says.
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