Vallee, Rudy

(1901-1986)

   Born Hubert Prior Vallee in Vermont, the singer and musician grew up in Maine, where he learned to play the saxophone and was named “Rudy” after another saxophonist. Vallee enlisted in the navy and served 41 days before it was discovered he was only 16 years old and was discharged. From 1922 to 1923, he was a student at Yale University, but his studies were interrupted by his career as a musician, and he played in an orchestra in London, England, from 1924 to 1925, resuming his studies in 1925 and graduating in 1927. He had already adopted one of his trademark symbols—a raccoon coat—and he also started to use a megaphone to give his voice more depth. Vallee was one of the first of the “crooners”— a style that also influenced Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra— and he attracted rapturous audiences. He was enormously popular on the radio throughout the 1930s and 1940s with hits like “Life Is Just a Bowl of Cherries.” Vallee appeared in his first film, The Vagabond Lover, in 1926. Among his other film successes were The Palm Beach Story (1942) and Gentlemen Prefer Brunettes (1955). During the war, he played with the Coastguard band. His popularity as a singer declined afterward, but he appeared on television and in a number of film roles. Although Vallee was still appearing in films as late as the 1980s, his last major film was How to Succeed in Business without Really Trying in 1967.

   See also Cinema; Music.