Rudy Vallee was an American singer, composer, musician, actor and radio host. He was one of the first teen idols, the first to sing into a PA, the first to use a theremin and an electric banjo in a dance band, and one of the first to admit to using recording equipment in his daily music practice. He’s this week’s Phantom Dancer feature artist.

The Phantom Dancer is your non-stop mix of swing and jazz from live 1920s-60s radio and TV hosted by me, Greg Poppleton. Hear past Phantom Dancer online now at https://2ser.com/phantom-dancer/.

This show will be online after 2pm AEST, Tuesday 19 January at https://2ser.com/phantom-dancer/.

He was also ahead of his time regarding music and electronics. He introduced the electric banjo to radio on his Fleishman Yeast Hour. In 1931 his band included a theremin. Most famously, he was the first popular singer to sing into a microphone and PA to amplify his voice.

This seems a paradox since Vallee was most commonly associated with the acoustic megaphone. In fact, his megaphone, which he crafted between shows at America’s No. 1 vaudeville theatre, The New York Palais, inMay 1929, is on display in a glass case at The American Museum of Radio and Electricity.

He was one of the first crooners, the first to use a microphone to conjure intimacy in his singing. His trombone-like vocal phrasing on ‘Deep Night’ was an early example of singers phrasing like band instruments.

POP STAR

Vallée was one of the first celebrity pop stars. Flappers pursued him wherever he went. His live appearances sold out. Among screaming female fans, his voice failed to project in venues without microphones. Before he began using PA he sang through a megaphone so he could be heard. A caricature of him singing this way was depicted in the Betty Boop cartoon Poor Cinderella (1934).

AHEAD OF HIS TIME MUSIC PRACTICE

In his 1930 memoir, ‘Vagabond Dreams Come True’, Rudy Vallee relates how he used to play into cylinder recording machines as part of his daily saxophone practice so that he could hear his progress…

“MAKING phonograph records always had a great fascination for me. My first thrill of hearing my voice in song or saxophone in solo came when i was at the University of Maine in 1921.

The authorities of the University of Maine were interested enough in my musical efforts to allow me the use of some of the buildings on the campus for my practice. The agricultural part of the college had a large building known as Agricultural Hall where one learned all the science of the soil and animal life of the farm and barnyard.

High up on the fourth floor were large classrooms that were empty at night. In one of these I used to practice certain very disagreeable sounding exercises. For instance, for the development of saxophone tone I started with the lowest note on the sax and held it as long as the deep breath I had just taken would permit. I have held certain notes of the saxophone for two minutes.

Of course nothing could be more monotonous or unpleasant to hear than these long tone exercises since it took me one hour to come up the scale, holding each note as long as possible. Therefore, to avoid driving others to insanity, I sought complete isolation where I had the comfortable feeling that I was disturbing no one and likewise would not be disturbed.

In some of the various offices on this floor were Ediphones, or dictaphones, as they are more commonly known. Since a letter dictated into one of these could be reproduced for the stenographer’s ear, I saw no reason why I could not likewise reproduce music; and so I recorded on these round dictaphone cylinders several simple melodies on the saxophone, announcing them very much in the fashion the old Edison cylinders announced the name of the record.

Although the dictaphone is perfected for the recording of speech in letter form, it is far from perfect when one attempts to record a sustained musical note on it. The rotation of the wax disc upon which a musical sound has been recorded must be absolutely perfect and the tube, or horn, which leads the sound to the needle that scratches upon the wax disc must be of a certain type and size to catch all of the notes being reproduced. The dictaphone being imperfect in this respect proved to be quite unsatisfactory for perfect reproduction of my musical efforts. However, it still gave me some idea of phrasing, style and tone. I still have several of these old dictaphone cylinders stowed away and prize them very highly, perhaps as highly as some of our Victor records that today are so popular.”

FIRST SINGING TELEGRAM

According to George P. Oslin, Vallée on July 28 1933, was the recipient of the first singing telegram. A fan telegraphed birthday greeting, and Oslin had the operator sing “Happy Birthday to You“.

 

19 JANUARY PLAY LIST

Play List – The Phantom Dancer 107.3 2SER-FM Sydney,    LISTEN ONLINE Community Radio Network Show CRN #471
107.3 2SER Tuesday 19 January 2021 12:04 – 2:00pm (+11 hours GMT) and Saturdays 5 – 5:55pm National Program 5GTR Mt Gambier Monday 2:30 – 3:30am 3MBR Murrayville Monday 3 – 4am 4NAG Keppel FM Monday 3 – 4am 2SEA Eden Monday 3 – 4am 2MIA Griffith Monday 3 – 4pm 2BAR Edge FM Bega Monday 3 – 4pm 3VKV Alpine Radio Monday 6 – 7pm 7MID Oatlands Tuesday 8 – 9pm 1ART ArtsoundFM Canberra Friday 10 – 11am 2ARM Armidale Friday 12 – 1pm 5LCM Lofty FM Adelaide Friday 1 – 2pm 7LTN Launceston Sunday 5 – 6am 3MGB Mallacoota Sunday 5 – 6am 6GME Radio Goolarri Broome Sunday 5 – 6am 3BBR West Gippsland Sunday 5 – 6pm
Set 1	1940s Big Band Radio
Open + Tea For Two	Anita O’Day (voc) Gene Krupa Orchestra	‘One Night Stand’ Palladium Ballroom Hollywood AFRS Re-broadcast 1946
Open + Ain’t Misbehavin’	Louis Armstrong Orchestra (voc) Louis Armstrong	‘Jubilee’ AFRS Hollywood 24 May 1943
Instrumental + Close	Eddie Oliver Orchestra	‘Spotlight Bands’ AFRS Re-broadcast 14 Aug 1944
Set 2	Stan Kenton Radio Transcription
Marvin’s Mumble	Stan Kenton Orchestra	Radio Transcription Los Angeles Oct 1941
Take The A Train	Stan Kenton Orchestra	Radio Transcription Los Angeles Jan 1942
Tempo Di Joe	Stan Kenton Orchestra	Radio Transcription Los Angeles Nov 1941
Set 3	1950s Jazz Radio
Open + Billie’s Bounce	Buddy de Franco	‘The Navy Swings’ Radio Transcription Hollywood 1959
I’m Lucky I Have You	The Inkspots	‘Guest Star’ Radio Transcription New York City 1952
One Mint Dulep + Close	Buddy Morrow Orchestra	‘Let’s Go to Town’ Radio Transcription Hollywood 1952
Set 4	Rudy Vallee
Open + Everything’s In Rhythm With My Heart	Rudy Vallee (voc) his Connecticut Yankees	‘The Magic Key’ WJZ NBC Blue NY 23 Feb 1936
I’m The Fellow Who Loves You + Close	Rudy Vallee (voc) his Connecticut Yankees	‘The Magic Key’ WJZ NBC Blue NY 23 Feb 1936
I’ve Got an Invitation to a Dance	Rudy Vallee (voc) his Connecticut Yankees	‘The Fleischman Yeast Hour’ WEAF NBC Red NY 13 Dec 1934
Your Time is My Time (theme) + Fun To Be Fooled + That Woman of Mine + Close	Rudy Vallee (voc) Frank deVol Orchestra	‘Drene Program’ KFI NBC LA 11 Jan 1945
Set 5	Don Redman and Claude Hopkins
I Heard	Don Redman Orchestra (voc) Lois Deppe	Comm Rec New York City 15 Oct 1931
Backbeats	Claude Hopkins Orchestra	Radio Transcription New York City 18 Oct 1936
It’s a Great World Afterall	Don Redman Orchestra (voc) Harlan Lattimore	Comm Rec New York City 28 Jun 1932
What’ll I Do?	Claude Hopkins Orchestra	Radio Transcription New York City 18 Oct 1936
Set 6	Buddy Rich
Rain on the Riff (theme) + Cool Breeze	Buddy Rich Orchestra	‘Spotlight Bands’ Phoenixville PA Mutual Network 24 Dec 1945
Rhythm Man	Count Basie Orchestra (d) Buddy Rich	Aircheck Los Angeles 1945
Poon Tang	Buddy Rich Orchestra	Palladium Ballroom Hollywood KNX CBS LA 27 Mar 1946
That’s It	Tommy Dorsey Orchestra (d) Buddy Rich	‘Spotlight Bands’ Mutual Network 5 Nov 1945
Set 7	1930s Swing Radio
Let’s Dance (theme) + Naughty Waltz	Benny Goodman Orchestra	Madhattan Room Hotel Pennsylvania WABC CBS NY 6 Nov 1937
King Porter Stomp	Harry James Orchestra	‘America Dances’ Roseland Ballroom WABC CBS NY and BBC London 19 Jul 1939
I Just Got a Letter	Glenn Miller Orchestra (voc) Marion Hutton	Meadowbrook Ballroom Cedar Grove NJ WJZ NBC Blue NY 6 Dec 1939
Love Nest	Les Brown Blue Devils Orchestra	Blue Room Hotel Edison New York City Aircheck 22 Nov 1938
Set 8	1950s Bop Radio
Night in Tunisia	Charlie Parker – Dizzy Gillespie Quintet	‘Symphony Sid Show’ Birdland WJZ ABC NY 31 Mar 1951
The Street Beat	Charlie Parker Quintet	‘Symphony Sid Show’ Birdland WJZ ABC NY 30 Jun 1950
Fine and Dandy	Slim Gaillard	‘Symphony Sid Show’ Birdland WJZ ABC NY 2 Jun 1951