Below: The Engenues
Pete's Thumbnail Sketch No 1: Rudy Vallee
(Coming Soon: Pete's Thumbnail Sketch No 2: Bill Dillard)
My friends and I have, over the years, marvelled at the Musical Offerings of Rudy Vallee, the first Crooner to appear in the scroll of history.
As a small boy I remember the unusual red and white label of Rudy's 78 R.P.M. (Columbia) Laughing Record. The story follows: one afternoon the band was attempting to achieve the routinely flawless, neatly dovetailed art recordings which were synonymous with Rudy's progressive Cutting Edge, revolutionary approach to musical Product, Placement and Production. The ubiquitous Long Lunch before the recording session was taking its toll on the normally deeply conservative musicians and as a result some of them were rather worse for wear from hitting the juice. To be recorded that fateful afternoon - two motion picture melodies, "Lydia the Tattooed Lady" and "There is a Tavern in the Town" (Fox Pictures 'We're Going to be Rich') starring Gracie Fields as a South African diamond fields entertainer of the 1890's (check it out).
"Lydia" went off smoothly, however some distance in to "Tavern" the fiddle played would bump Rudy in the nose etc causing him to first giggle a bit and then finally dissolve into paroxysms of uncontrollable mirth (laughing ho ho ho etc.) So although the record was ruined, like the good troopers they were, they played on until the traverse mechanism of the recording lathe ran out of wax. Thus a complete in every way rendition was saved and later to be sold to the public as a happy accident and finally to become a beacon light to humanity.
My first contact with Rudy was in 1983. I had borrowed a bunch of books from the local lending library. Of these, one volume "The Hollywood Style" in full colour magazine format, took the reader into less examined homes of composers, actors, entertainers etc. Among these Rudy's "Villa Vallee" was featured. Apart from such miraculous apparatus as the turntable to rotate his car prior to garaging it or the small home cinema et al, Rudy is seem in his huge music library of over 20,000 arrangements which le later told me were given him as professional copies or purchased by himself for about 50cents at the time of publication.
Somehow I figured that I just might have the luck to get Rudy's phone number from the Los Angeles area operator, which to my surprise was forthcoming. Rudy had his number in the phonebook like everybody else - what a regular guy. Anyhow, I phoned Rudy and there he was at the end of the line, the conversation went like this:
"Rudy Vallee"
"Hello Rudy, my name's Pete Milley and I'm calling from Australia"
"My records have always sold well down there, you know I have a one man show these days and have been trying to stich together a little tour, your know - small theatres, back projection, slide show, song medleys etc, and I encourage people to drink and smoke so that we can get the atmosphere to the right ambience"
"Well Rudy I've just been listening to some old Bennie Kreuger records on Australian Brunswick"
"Bennie's my hero in jazz style on the C melody, what a pity he died so young"
Well I was off to a good start, I figured maybe I might be able to trade with Rudy to get some charts as I was getting the Cairo Club started up. Well I didn't get my hands on any music as Rudy no longer employed a secretary who would presumably handle the photocopying and posting. But I did learn about "stock" from Rudy arrangements which most bands bought off the peg and altered and re-worked for their own interpretations. So I set about locating some. I'll tell you more about all this later on.
Rudy also explained that he didn't drink anything hot as it was bad for the voice, aspiring song stylists (singers) take note. Although by this time Rudy's vocal cords sounded more like a two stroke motorcycle, I think that his upper vocal range was still quite intact. Not bad for a man in his early eighties!! Rudy asked me to examine the feasibility of a tour featuring the 'One Man Show' that he was currently promoting. Rudy sent me a letter and a Bank of America cheque for US$100 for phone calls. Along with the cheque, Rudy include his promotional kit which consisted of testimonial letters from various companies that he had performed for (on their individual stationery) including the General Pencil Company and Sun City Retirement Resort. Rudy had a very up-to-the-minute kit for promoting his concept.
The kit also had glossy photo montages with text illustrating the previously mentioned One Man Show. Looking back on it this was a great lesson for me in promotion from a seasoned performer with an impressive work history. Sadly the Rudy Vallee tour didn't eventuate - I had contacted various promoters but no-one seemed particularly interested and unlike today, there were few trained and experienced Arts Industry liaison people nor cheap, effective means of promotion - there was also a recession at the time and Rudy was just not 'retro' enough - although I somehow feel that he would be now, 17 years later.
