Vallee, Rudy

[Original Typed Speech] Rudy Vallee's Talk Before Cass Technical High School, Detroit Michigan, March 11, '31

Detroit, Michigan: 1931. [Original Typed Speech] Rudy Vallee's Talk Before Cass Technical High School, Detroit Michigan, March 11, '31

7-page typed speech on highly acidic 8 1/2 x 11-inch paper which has light chipping to edges but feels fragile. Appears to be original document with a couple type overs. Paper clipped. Very good condition.

Speech before the students at Cass Technical High School was part of a week-long series of Vallee events in Detroit. He also spoke to the local American Legion chapter and later donated a very early saxophone to the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn. At Cass Technical, he was handed the baton to lead the school orchestra in "The Stein Song".

Rudy (Hubert Prior) Vallée was born on July 28, 1901, in Island Point, Vermont. He was a radio
singer who generated the same kind of manic enthusiasm, particularly among young girls, that Frank Sinatra did in the 1940's, and Elvis Presley in the 1950's and the Beatles in the 1960's. Vallée was, additionally, a musician, a comic, an author, and a songwriter.

Hubert Prior Vallée grew up in Westbrook, Maine. Vallée’s father Charles A. Vallée, was the local pharmacist, and at an early age Vallée started working in his father’s Pharmacy. In 1917 he joined the Navy but was discharged because of his youth. In 1918 Vallée took up the saxophone, and by 1920 he was the saxophonist for a local movie-house orchestra. As a young saxophone player, he admired the skills of virtuoso saxophonist Rudy Wiedoeft and adopted his first name.

In 1921 Vallée started his collegiate studies at the University of Maine, but transferred in the
following year to Yale University. At both Maine and Yale, Vallée continued to develop himself as
a saxophonist, working for local bands. In 1924 Vallée took a year off from his studies to work as a saxophonist for the Savoy Hotel in London. By the time he graduated from Yale in 1927, with a
Ph.B. in Spanish, Vallée was already pleasing crowds with both his playing and his singing.

So universal was Vallée's popularity with young girls in l930 that scarcely any could be lured out of the house on a Thursday evening, the night of his “The Fleischmann’s Hour” on NBC. His theme song, performed with his band, the Connecticut Yankees, was "My Time Is Your Time." Men, of course, listened too, and mostly, no doubt, with considerable pleasure. But many were understandably cynical in their remarks, linked often to Vallée's meager vocal resonance. "I can recite without a megaphone" was a typical comment.

In 1932, "The Fleischmann’s Hour," became radio's first variety show, and he proved himself to be a smooth emcee and an actor equally comfortable with both straight lines and comedy. The show, which in 1936 was renamed “The Royal Gelatin Hour,” ran until 1939.

In the decade that followed Vallée had several other radio series, including “Philip Morris Presents,” “The Sealtest Hour,” and “Drene Shampoo Presents the Rudy Vallée Show.” However, none were ever as successful as “The Fleischmann’s Hour.” Above content from University of California Santa Barbara Finding Aid for the Vallée Archive held by Special Collections at the Thousand Oaks Library
Thousand Oaks, California, and the obituary published in Variety Magazine. Item #2488

Price: $95.00