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A Lost Legend: Rudy Vallee

by Shannon O'Brien

"He was the first crooner. Fans tore his clothes off. They would throw panties up on stage -- they did all those naughty things. This was long before Frank Sinatra and Elvis Presley," Eleanor Vallee said in a 2000 interview about her late husband, Rudy Vallee.

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.

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.

A view of Island Pond, VT where Vallee was born.
(Photo Courtesy of Vermont Northeast Kingdom Guide)

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.

Vallee played the saxophone in local orchestras until 1924 when he took a year off from Yale to play music at the Savoy Hotel in London. Schiff says that during his senior year at Yale, Vallee made some changes that would affect his career forever. "While leading the Yale band during 1927, Vallee developed a signing technique where he would project into a small megaphone to enhance what he called his 'little nasal, plaintive voice,'" Schiff says. "He also began a band called the Yale Collegians, which began playing in fancy nightclubs like the Heigh-Ho club in Manhattan." According to Schiff, Vallee's popularity and notoriety grew immensely when WABC, a local radio station, began broadcasting from the Heigh-Ho club and had Vallee as its announcer.

A legend is born

Halper says that Vallee's contributions to the music and radio industries were immeasurable. "The most important thing to consider is that until 1926, there were no broadcast networks and people had to rely on small radio stations and newspapers for entertainment and information," Halper says. "When NBC was created in November, 1926, it was a massive innovation since cities large and small had access to the same great talent."

Vallee rehearsing for his radio show.
(Photo Courtesy of Elizabeth McLeod)

"Of course there had been other variety shows on smaller radio station programs," Halper says. "But Rudy made it a national phenomenon." "It was one of the top ten programs in the ratings for most of the 1930s, and had an audience of around 25 million people or so each week," McLeod says. In his autobiography, Vallee wrote that he was a singer by nature, but a "product of radio." Halper says that while Vallee would frequently perform on the show, he was more often the master of ceremonies, allowing other new artists to display their talent on the air. "Bob Hope and Edgar Bergen debuted with Vallee," Schiff says. "Rudy also showcased African-American performers such as Bill Robinson and Fats Waller." McLeod says that Vallee's "color-blind booking policy" was rare in the emerging radio world. "African-American performers received frequent exposure, more so than on any other variety series of the era -- jazz performers, singers, comedians, actors," McLeod says.

The man behind the microphone

Vallee in front of a microphone during the 1930s
(Photo Courtesy of RudyVallee.com)

Halper says that Vallee was so successful because he was comfortable using a microphone, which made him stand apart from other performers of the time. "Rudy Vallee's popularity was due in large part to his personality -- when he spoke on air, it sounded like he was talking right to people," Halper says. McLeod agrees with Halper, but says that people who worked with him in radio saw a different side of Vallee. "Vallee was considered something of an oddball by a lot of people -- he was a very control-oriented person, and had a reputation for being the tightest man with a dollar in all of show business," McLeod says. But McLeod says that Vallee was also respected for his showmanship and his strong work ethic. She says that Vallee considered success a precise science. "He studied audiences, studied material, and tried to understand what made a particular piece of material work for one audience but not for another," McLeod says.

Vallee during WWII with an unknown female officer.
(Picture Courtesy of the US Coast Guard)

The end of an era

In 1943, McLeod says Vallee left radio to enlist in the U.S. Coast Guard as the conductor of the California Service Orchestra. Upon his return, McLeod says that Vallee resumed his radio career, but it was shortlived as others like Bing Crosby became popular in America. "Rudy Vallee was first and foremost a performer. When radio passed him by, he looked to other venues -- to movies, to the theater, to nightclubs and to television." Vallee appeared on many television shows during the 1950s and 1960s, including "Petticoat Junction" and "Batman," where he starred as the villain Phogg. In 1961, Vallee enjoyed a brief comeback, starring in Frank Loesser's Broadway production of "How to Succeed at Business Without Really Trying." Until his death on July 4, 1986, Vallee remained active in film and television; he was a regular guest on talk shows during the late 1970s and early 1980s. McLeod says that while Vallee's contributions to radio may be forgotten or unknown to many people today, he was an important figure in broadcast history.

"The name of Rudy Vallee doesn¹t mean much to most people today," McLeod says. "But Rudy Vallee the performer, Rudy Vallee the showman left behind a wonderful radio legacy -- one that's ever worthy of rediscovery."