[ Rudy Vallee and his Connecticut Yankees ]
b. July 28, 19101, Island Point, VT, USA, d. July 3, 1986, North Hollywood, California, USA.
né: Hubert Prior Vallee
Theme song: "My Time is Your Time"
Here's a photograph of a young Rudy Vallee, who grew up in Westbrook, Maine, where his family had moved while he was still a young child. His father, a pharmacist, opened a drugstore where Rudy worked as a youngster.

Vallee played drums in his high school band. It is said that he never had any lessons, -just picked it up. He dropped out of Westbrook high school and joined the Navy in 1917 but was quickly discharged when the Navy discovered he was only 15 years old. Returning home, he found work as a movie projectionist for $7.00 a week. Now, in 1919, he first began self study of the clarinet and then, upon hearing a Rudy Wiedoeft recording, the saxophone. With youthful exuberance, he stayed with the instrument for 6 to 8 hours a day, and after about a year's time, was able to play publicly on the stage of Portland's (ME) Strand Theater. Vallee was so enamored of Rudy Wiedoeft's playing that he wrote Wiedoeft eight letters before Wiedoeft finally answered. Vallee re-entered and graduated from Westbrook High School.

In the fall of 1921, he entered the Univ. of Maine and joined the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity, where fellow fraternity members, knowing of his great love of Rudy Wiedoeft's playing, nick-named him 'Rudy' Vallee. In the fall of 1922, he transferred to Yale University (in Connecticut - hence the later use of the orchestral name 'Connecticut Yankees'). While at Yale, he worked for his tuition by playing his sax at country clubs, various social functions, and at the school dances. It was while playing with the Yale Collegians, that he took to using a megaphone to enhance his slight voice. The megaphone became one of his trademarks, and was copied by other vocalists of the day inasmuch as microphones and amplifier systems were not yet well developed.

It is perhaps interesting to note that in the early years of the century, without the availability of microphones and amplifiers, most vocalists had to be 'belter' types. Their powerful voices made stars out of folks like Sophie Tucker and Al Jolson. But with the advent of Electronics, the age of the "Crooner" dawned. Men like Bing Crosby, Rudy Vallee, and Russ Columbo could stand on stage and softly 'croon' into the microphone.

Two years later, he dropped out of Yale and went to London, England where he secured a position playing sax at the Savoy Hotel with the eight piece 'Savoy Havana Band', -one of the seminal bands of English Pop music. He remained with the band for about one year during which time he made records and was heard on Radio broadcasts with the band.

In 1925, Vallee returned to Yale, continued his studies, and matriculated with a Bachelor of Philosophy degree. During this time, he was playing sax with the Football Team band. After his graduation, he went to Boston briefly, and then on the New York City, where he met another band leader, Bert Lown.

Bert was then doubling both as a band leader, and a band agent. He and Vallee formed a band (I think it was called the Connecticut Yankees, but I'm not sure) and Bert got the band an engagement (Jan. 1928) at a small cafe called the Heigh-Ho Club (from whence came Rudy's radio broadcast introduction of "Heigh-Ho everybody, this is Rudy Vallee speaking"). It was a somewhat peculiar band in that there was no brass, just 2 violins, 2 saxophones, and a pianist carrying the rhythm and melody. The band adopted an equally odd style. They would only play choruses; -in different styles and tempi; no chorus was repeated, and no two tunes were played in the same key. If you add to this, Vallee's ability to sing in Spanish, French and Italian, in his inimitable dry nasal voice, you can understand what brought crowds to the club.

Although Vallee fronted the band, Bert was his silent partner, and shared in the profits. He did occassionally appear with the band too. In Feb. 1928, Bert Lown talked WABC into broadcasting the orchestra, and these broadcasts brought Vallee his first real fame.

He was soon broadcasting 25 times per week and winning millions of fans. There then followed a string of Box Office successes, along with engagements at New York's famed Palace and Paramount Theaters.

Started in 1928, The bands principal purpose was to back up Vallee's singing. A Yale grad, Vallee and his tonsils and his megaphone captured female hearts all across America. Vallee would sing with a sax hanging, by it's strap, upside down over his shoulder. Adding to Vallee's charm was the fact that he was a real egotist. He had the fattest head you ever met. The band resented his superior attitude, and thought very little of his musical abilities. Still, it must be said that it was Vallee's singing and appeal that made the band a huge success, ..not the sidemen.

In 1929, Rudy and the Connecticut Yankees traveled to Hollywood for the film 'Vagabond Lover'. In the fall of 1929, he was back in New York, broadcasting and playing at the Villa Vallee (Jan. 1929).

He fell into a routine starting with daily shows at the Paramount (and other theaters), then nightly shows at the Villa Vallee, and three sustaining broadcasts, recording sessions, motion picture short subject films, and charity benefits on Sunday nights.

His early broadcasts were one hour shows and such stars as Bob Hope, Edgar Bergen, Ezra Stone, and famed actress Gloria Swanson, made their radio debuts on his show. Many significant guest appearances were also made on those one hour shows: Cole Porter, George Gershwin, Beatrice Lillie, William S. Hart, Boris Karloff, Kate Smith, Burns and Allen, Eddie Cantor, Red Skelton, Fanny Brice, the Richard Himber Orchestra, Larry Adler, Victor Borge, and other musicians, arrangers and conductors, -it's a long list. The show also gave rare network opportunities to black performers such as Buck & Bubbles, Slim & Slam, Bill Robinson , Eddie Green, Stuff Smith, Maxine Sullivan, Fats Waller, and others. Extended scenes from current Broadway shows were often featured. Perhaps the oddest thing tried were shows during the Summer of 1932. All of the shows featured the comedy team of Olsen & Johnson in three sketches consuming about half of each show and entitled "The Padded Cell Of The Air". The team, who were later starred in the Broadway shows "Hellzapoppin'" and "Crazy House", tried out their zany format on radio!

He was one of the stars of the 1931 George White Scandals, and again in the 1936 version of the Scandals. In the 1931 Scandals, Rudy met a young chorus girl named Alice Faye, and helped to promote her career. (Another of his proteges was singer Frances Langford.)

In Jan. 1931, Vallee played at a series of Paramount Theaters for the then princely sum of $12,500 per week. He did this for a year before returning to the Villa Vallee in New York.

Another fact: Rudy's first years as a public performer were personally painful. He was terrified of singing in front of audiences, especially during braodcasts (perhaps a form of Mike Fright"). In the early Fleishchman's Yeast Shows he often used to face the band (his back to the audience) when he sang!

His series, which succeeded the Variety Hour on NBC Blue Network, was The Sealtest Show, half hour variety shows with an emphasis on comedy, written by Abe Burroughs. Rudy once stated to his fried Art Schifrin (and others) that by the time of the Sealtest series, he thought that he was a better comedian than a singer! The evidence does not bear him out. John Barrymore, in his pathetic, waning years co-starred on the Sealtest show, playing himself. Rudy used to pick up Barrymore's caricature drawings off of the floor which he had made and dropped there during rehearsals. Three memorable shows from this series included guests Groucho Marx, Lionel Barrymore and Orson Welles.

A typical line up of the show at its peak: 12/13/34 from Radio City. Announcer: Jimmy Wallington. Guests: Henry Fonda, June Walker, Ralph Riggs in scenes from the motion picture "The Farmer Takes A Wife", Cole Porter, Buck & Bubbles, William S. Hart & Beatrice Lillie. One show!

In 1939, after 10 years, Vallee ended his immensely popular radio show.

Early in WW2, Vallee entered the U.S. Coast Guard Service where he toured leading a 40 piece band. He was placed on the Inactive List in 1944, and returned to radio, broadcasting for two years with co-star Monte Wooley, on a show that used the Villa Vallee format.

It seems proper to note here that while over the years Vallee had gathered a reputation as one of the world's great "pinch-pennies". He was, never-the-less, capable of supporting one of his musicians who might be sick for a long period, without anyone knowing it.

Some of the information on Rudy Vallee was graciously supplied by Rudy's friend Art Shifrin. -- http://www.shifrin.net. --Our thanks, Art.