PHOTOS OF THE DAY: STILL MORE FINAL PICTURES OF THE STARS

This is fourth installment of this picture series, and some of these photos still are hard to look at. However, these are some of the last photos taken of our favorite stars...

Prior editions:

Even More Final Pictures Of The Stars - October 31, 2016

More Final Pictures Of The Stars - October 30, 2013

Final Pictures Of The Stars - March 28, 2012

Judy Garland on May 29, 1969. She died on June 22, 1969.

Ginger Rogers on July 6, 1994. She died on April 25, 1995.

Bing Crosby during lunch at his final golf match. He would die a few hours after this photo leaving the golf course - October 14, 1977.

Harry James at one of his last performances on June 10, 1983. He died on July 6, 1983.

Rudy Vallee around Christmas of 1985. He died on July 3, 1986.

Kaye Ballard at her documentary premiere on January 6, 2019. She died on January 21, 2019.

PAST OBITS: RUDY VALLEE

One of the pre-Bing Crosby crooners was Rudy Vallee. He came before all of the crooners, but he nearly outlived them all. Here is his obituary that appeared on July 4, 1986 in the L.A.


Rudy Vallee, 85, Crooner and Star for 60 Years, Dies


Rudy Vallee, the megaphone-carrying crooner who became a star nearly 60 years ago with his tribute to fellow Yalies drinking down at Mory's with their glasses raised on high, died Thursday evening at his Hollywood Hills home. He was 85.

Vallee died while watching the Statue of Liberty centennial ceremonies, said his wife, Eleanor.

"Rudy was watching the unveiling of the Statue of Liberty and he remarked: 'I wish we could be there; you know how I love a party.' Then he took a big breath, and he died," she said.

Vallee had been in failing health for several months. He was hospitalized at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in February after a fall at his home. Doctors found a growth on his esophagus and operated, but the singer later developed pneumonia and suffered a stroke, according to his agent, Chris Harris.

But almost to the end, Vallee had proved durable, continuing to work well into his 70s. He had started as a saxophonist and band leader in the 1920s and, for the next two decades, was one of the nation's most successful vaudeville and radio personalities.

And, never known for his reticence, he wrote not one but three autobiographies and in the 1970s fought a loud and nasty battle with city officials to get the name of the street in the Hollywood Hills on which he lived changed to Rue de Vallee.

"I'll be front page news until the day I die," said Vallee in a 1962 interview in which he denied that his starring role in Broadway's "How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying" was a comeback. Vallee insisted he had never been gone.

In a sense, he was right. Through his career ups and downs, the man had a certain undeniable panache.

In his later life, he served as a reminder of the old Hollywood--the days of long sleek roadsters, tweeds and snap-brim hats, radio shows and plush nightclubs and glamorous people looking like glossy photographs.

His body had thickened a bit, but his eyes were alive and when he smiled, which was often, it was the familiar Vallee smile, consuming his face under a swatch of thinning but still very red hair.

Vallee was a spirited, hospitable, garrulous man--an American original.

He was born Hubert Prior Vallee in Island Pond, Vt., on July 28, 1901, of French-Irish parents. He took the first name Rudy in the 1920s from Rudy Wiedoeft, a saxophonist he liked.

Young Rudy's first musical instrument--at the age of 4--was a drum, which he frequently banged on to alleviate the pain of the earaches that plagued him as a child. As he grew up, Rudy began to master the drums, piano and clarinet.

Vallee's start in show business was on the ground floor. In 1917, he took a job as usher, janitor and operator of the hand-cranked projection machine at a movie theater in Westbrook, Me. A year later, he moved on to a job as head usher in a theater in Portland, where he taught himself to play the saxophone. By 1920, he was making a few dollars performing as a saxophonist in a local orchestra.

Vallee attended the University of Maine and, later, Yale. To pay his tuition and board, he began to play with dance bands in New York and Boston. He also occasionally sang with the bands, using a truncated megaphone.

The megaphone, of course, became his trademark, although at the time its use was not uncommon among singers. He and the megaphone became familiar sights in the 1920s and 1930s. With the megaphone in hand, and sometimes wearing a college sweater, he sang in a rich, somewhat nasal voice, that Yale drinking ditty, the "Whiffenpoof Song," as well as "My Time is Your Time" and "I'm Just a Vagabond Lover."

Vallee graduated from Yale in 1927 and, a year later, formed an eight-piece band at the new, exclusive Heigh-Ho Club in New York City. A local radio station began to broadcast live from the club, and Vallee was on his way to stardom.

By 1929, Standard Brands had signed Vallee and his band for an hourlong weekly radio show to advertise Fleischmann's Yeast. It became known as the "Fleischmann Hour" and in 1932 evolved into radio's first variety show. Vallee was more than a singer and band leader; he also was a master of ceremonies, introducing other talent.

Vallee branched out in the 1930s, forming a talent agency and two music publishing companies. He began grinding out a long list of hit songs that included the University of Maine "Stein Song," "Good Night Sweetheart," "I Kiss Your Hand, Madame," "Lover Come Back to Me," "Springtime in the Rockies," "Honey" and "Marie."

SOURCE

NEWSPAPER CLIPPINGS: RUDY VALLEE AND ALICE FAYE

In this new feature, I am going to take a look at some classic newspaper clippings on classic Hollywood stars. Here is an interesting news stories that I never heard about. It was taken from The Evening Independent of August 21, 1933...

PHOTOS OF THE DAY: STILL MORE ODD PAIRINGS

Hollywood is full of some of the most different people in the world - working in the entertainment business I think puts some different people together that you would never picture being together. Here is the 4th addition of this series showing more odd pairings...

Lou Costello, Elvis Presley, and Jane Russell

Eddie Murphy, Ella Fitzgerald, and Michael Jackson

Jimmy Stewart, James Cagney, and Orson Welles

Bing Crosby and Rudy Vallee

Marlon Brando and Jack Nicholson

Bono and Frank Sinatra

EVEN MORE ODD PAIRINGS-JULY 12, 2014

MORE ODD PAIRINGS-JULY 16, 2012

ODD PAIRINGS-APRIL 19, 2011

RECENTLY VIEWED: HOW TO SUCCEED IN BUSINESS...

Recently I was in the mood for just a fun movie musical to watch, so I dug out my copy of How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying (1967). The film is great late 60s fun, and it is kind of like a musical comedy version of the television series Mad Men. The 1967 musical comedy film was based on the 1961 stage musical of the same name, which in turn was based on Shepherd Mead's book.

The film was produced by United Artists and directed by David Swift, with original staging by Bob Fosse. The cast includes Robert Morse and Rudy Vallee (reprising their original Broadway roles), Michele Lee, Anthony Teague, Tucker Smith (in an uncredited role), and Maureen Arthur. The film marks the debut of Lee, who later appeared in the popular 1980s television series Knots Landing.

J. Pierpont Finch buys a book How to Succeed in Business, describing in step-by-step fashion how to rise in the business world. The ambitious young window cleaner follows its advice carefully. He joins the "World-Wide Wicket Company" and begins work in the mailroom. Soon, thanks to the ethically-questionable advice in the book, he rises to Vice-President in Charge of Advertising, making sure that each person above him gets either fired or moved or transferred within the company. Finch begins to fall in love with Rosemary Pilkington, a secretary at the company. Finch finds out that the president of the company, J. B. Biggley, has made advances towards Hedy LaRue, a beautiful but incompetent woman the company has hired. Finch uses this information to assist his climb on the corporate ladder. Biggley's annoying nephew, Bud Frump, also takes advantage of the situation and tries to get to the top before Finch.

All of Rosemary's songs (including "Happy To Keep His Dinner Warm" and "Paris Original") were cut from the movie version. To make up for this "I Believe In You" was given to her for the movie. In the stage play, she does not sing this to him, and the first time it is heard is during the scene where Finch sings it to himself in the executive washroom, but she does a brief reprise of the song after this scene. In the film, she sings the full version in an earlier scene, making Finch's washroom version the reprise.

The scene featuring Robert Morse skipping & dancing down the street on his way to work (immediately after the "Old Ivy" fight song duet with Rudy Vallee) was filmed on location in New York City using hidden cameras and a small earpiece to cue Morse on his timing. The various amused & astonished passersby were not extras, but rather were New Yorkers reacting genuinely to someone dancing to his own tune.

Tony Curtis, who was over 40 at the time, campaigned to get the Robert Morse role, and Dick Van Dyke was briefly considered, but Robert Morse made the movie. Sure, he was not a wonderful singer or dancer, but he is Finch. I can not really picture anyone else doing the role, although the Broadway show has been revived countless times. Another high point of the movie was Rudy Vallee. Vallee, who was a top crooner in the 1920s and 1930s until Bing Crosby surpassed him in popularity, was perfect as well as the clueless company president. It was really the last important role that Vallee had in his career.

My favorite song in the film is one that is barely ever mentioned: "Brotherhood Of Man" was basically the finale of the film where the whole company joins Robert Morse singing. A song that my son and daughter like is "It's Been A Long Day". I guess they like the repetitiveness of the song lyrics, but it is catchy.  Do yourself a favor and watch How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying. It's a harmless 1967 romp, and I guarantee you'll be tapping your feet and almost wishing you worked in an office...

MY RATING: 9 OUT OF 10

PHOTOS OF THE DAY: EVEN MORE ODD PAIRINGS

This is the third addition of this series. I love featuring different pairings of movie stars in pictures that you are used to seeing together. There always seems to be different photos that I discover:

ELVIS PRESLEY and RUDY VALLEE

CHARLIE CHAPLIN and AL JOLSON

MICHAEL JACKSON and FRED ASTAIRE

EDDIE CANTOR, JUDY GARLAND, GEORGE JESSEL

MARY TYLER MOORE and JIMMY DURANTE

GROUCHO MARX and JAYNE MANSFIELD

MORE ODD PAIRINGS-JULY 16, 2012

ODD PAIRINGS-APRIL 19, 2011

RUDY VALLEE: A VERMONT CROONER

For all of the readers who associate Vermont Crooners with frogs or cicadas, have we got news from you. He was born in Island Pond, Vermont on July 28, 1901, and was one of the most successful entertainers and voices of early American entertainment. His name was Hubert Prior Vallee which he changed to Rudy Vallee and during the 1920’s and 1930’s his deep and crooning vocals and trademark megaphone were the talk of Hollywood and catapulted him to hosting his own variety hour, “The Rudy Vallee Show” from 1929 to 1943.

Young Vallee idolized professional saxophone player Rudy Wiedoft and actually changed his first name in honor of his idol. He began his friendship with the saxophone player after graduating college and the pair remained staunch friends until Wiedoft’s death. Vallee owned one of Wiedoft’s saxophones and ironically it ended up being sold to an Arkansas attorney, who then gifted it to then current Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton. Vallee’s first professional break came with the band The Yale Collegians at the Heigh Ho Club in New York City. His voice was rough but quickly became labeled as crooning by club guests and Hollywood reviewers alike.

Well ahead of Frank Sinatra and Bing Crosby, Vallee started using a megaphone during his performances and would switch back and forth projecting his voice to great distances in the clubs or achieving softness and lower ranges previously not heard in a crowded setting. Vallee not only recorded successful albums during his incredibly long career but hosted the first radio talk show to 200 million listeners. He invited people of all walks of life and ethnicity. Louis Armstrong came as well as other newcomers to the clubs in Harlem. While he starred in thirty-three films during his career it is surprisingly his last career move that most people remember him for. He starred in the early 1960s Broadway hit, “How to Succeed in Business Without Even Trying” which ran for four years before also starring in the movie version of it.

Vallee summed up why he felt his fame was just as important as legends like Sinatra and Crobsy, but that his style came from his upbringing and his lack of awe for the Hollywood crowd during a February 22, 1958 interview with Mike Wallace “ I felt that the little musical gifts that I had were in a sense--not great, but they were gifts and if I could bring that pleasure to people in those first series of letters that said we'd brought them something different, soothing and pleasing and -- it was an honest reaction -- there was no newspaper publicity -- the newspapers have never forgiven us for the fact that they were created through radio. That one year of radio catapulted us into this great fame, and I felt that we justified it in that our music and my little attempts at singing were pleasing enough to justify it. There was no hokum --it wasn't forced or artificial, and I never stopped to think about it very much.” With the wonders of the Internet and video archives accessible to the masses, Vermonter Rudy Vallee’s songs, radio show and crooning style of voice are all available to be listened to and watched.

One afternoon when your fingers are flashing over the secrets of the Internet and you are peeking into that window on a global world, Google the sounds and stories of a Vermont crooner who was known for his style, frugality and staunch independent thought at a time when blending into the Hollywood magical machine was the norm. The Valley Voice salutes Rudy Vallee for keeping his Vermont roots and staying true to his own plans for a career and walking to his own drummer. As Vallee expressed to Mike Wallace in that famed interview, “I never went with the Beverly Hills pack ... Benny, Burns and Allen, that type of crowd,-for some reason I just never got to know well, and never moved with them...I have a great many friends in show business, and I go out with them quite occasionally ...I don't want to be sort of put on a pedestal to be with somebody that is out of show business with the feeling that they're going to give me reverence... pay homage, and so forth. No... it just so happens for no reason at all, I pick laymen and people not associated with show business for my closest associates...” Use your fingers and search out a Vermonter who is virtually unknown to most but a legend in his own time and place in American history. See how crooning started with a young man from Island Pond early in the 20th century and perhaps even listen to his 1931 version of “As Time Goes By” nearly a decade before the famed Casablanca recording.

SOURCE

THE LAST WORDS OF CLASSIC STARS

True movie fans, especially fans of classic movies put Hollywood stars up on a pedestal. The classic stars of Hollywood seemed larger than life and so far removed from the movie fan. However, there is one thing that the stars had in common with average people...they both will eventually face death. It is sort of ghoulish but I thought it would be interesting to look at some of the last words of some of our favorite icons of classic Hollywood...


Codeine . . . bourbon.
~~ Tallulah Bankhead, actress, d. December 12, 1968

How were the receipts today at Madison Square Garden?
~~ P. T. Barnum, entrepreneur, d. 1891

Is everybody happy? I want everybody to be happy. I know I'm happy.
~~ Ethel Barrymore, actress, d. June 18, 1959

Die? I should say not, dear fellow. No Barrymore would allow such a conventional thing to happen to him.
~~ John Barrymore, actor, d. May 29, 1942

I should never have switched from Scotch to Martinis.
~~ Humphrey Bogart, actor, d. January 14, 1957

That was the best ice-cream soda I ever tasted.
~~ Lou Costello, comedian, d. March 3, 1959

Goodnight my darlings, I'll see you tomorrow.
~~ Noel Coward, writer, d. 1973

That was a great game of golf, fellas.
~~ Harry Lillis "Bing" Crosby, singer / actor, d. October 14, 1977

I've never felt better.
~~ Douglas Fairbanks, Sr., actor, d. December 12, 1939

Yes, it's tough, but not as tough as doing comedy.
(When asked if he thought dying was tough.)
~~ Edmund Gwenn, actor, d. September 6, 1959

Nothing matters. Nothing matters.
~~ Louis B. Mayer, film producer, d. October 29, 1957

Don't worry chief, it will be alright.
~~ Rudolph Valentino, actor, d. August 23, 1926

This is it. I'm going. I'm going.
~~ Al Jolson, singer, d. October 23, 1950

This isn't Hamlet, you know, it's not meant to go into the bloody ear. (To his nurse, who spilt water over him while trying to moisten his lips.)
~~Laurence Olivier, actor, d. July 11, 1989

"Don't you dare ask God to help me!" (Said to her housekeeper who had begun to pray aloud.
~~Joan Crawford, actress, d. May 10, 1977

"I think I'm losing it."
~~Frank Sinatra, singer, d. May 14, 1998

"Just don't leave me alone"
~~John Belushi, comedian, d. March 5, 1982

"I'm going to go be with Gloria now"
~~Jimmy Stewart, actor, d. July 2, 1997

"Curtain! Fast music! Light! Ready for the last finale! Great! The show looks good, the show looks good!" (he was yelling this in delirium on his death bed)
~~Florenz Ziegfeld, Broadway producer, d. July 22, 1932

You know how I love a party!
~~Rudy Vallee, singer, d. July 3, 1986

SINGER SPOTLIGHT: RUDY VALLEE

When Bing Crosby burst onto the scene in the early 1930s, many crooners scrambled to find a place in the business of crooner. Stars like Gene Austin and Harry Richman faded away from the limelight and a more romantic and sincere type of baritone took over the country. However, one pre Crosby crooner that remained fairly popular, despite have a nasal voice, was Rudy Vallee.

Rudy Vallee was one of the most popular vocalists of the pre-swing era. With his megaphone and nasal voice he will forever be remembered as the archetypal image of the early crooners. He was also instrumental in the careers of several other talented stars. Alice Faye, Frances Langford and Paul Weston all received their big break from him.

Rudy Vallée was born Hubert Prior Vallée on July 28, 1901 in Island Pond, Vermont, the son of Charles Alphonse and Catherine Lynch Vallée. Both of his parents were born and raised in Vermont, but his grandparents were immigrants. The Vallées were French Canadians from neighboring Quebec, while the Lynches were from Ireland.

Vallee grew up in Westbrook, Maine, where he played drums in his high school band. He dropped out of school and joined the Navy in 1917, at the start of America's involvement in WWI, but was soon discharged when the Navy discovered that he was only fifteen years old. Returning home, he found work as a movie projectionist and began to study the clarinet but switched to the saxophone when he first heard recordings of sax player Rudy Wiedoeft. He also re-entered high school and graduated, enrolling at the University of Maine in 1921. Hubert's fraternity brothers, knowing of his great admiration for Wiedoeft, nicknamed him 'Rudy' Vallee, a name which stuck.

In the fall of 1922 Vallee transferred to Yale University, where he worked for his tuition by playing at country clubs, social functions, and school dances, often as a member of the Yale Collegians. He also began to sing, using a megaphone to enhance his voice. It quickly became one of his trademarks and, in those days before electric amplification, was later copied by other vocalists.

In 1924 Vallee dropped out of Yale and went to London, where he worked at the Savoy Hotel, playing sax with the eight-piece Savoy Havana Band. He remained there for a year, making his first recordings. He then returned to Yale, playing in the school marching band and earning a degree in philosophy. After graduation, he briefly moved to Boston and then to the New York area, where he played alongside Tony Pastor in John Cavallaro's orchestra. Later he met bandleader Bert Lown. The two decided to form a group, fronted by Vallee, with Lown as a silent partner. It debuted in January 1928 at the Heigh-Ho Club. The band was an unusual one, consisting of two violins, two saxophones, and a piano. They played only choruses. No chorus was repeated, and no two tunes were played in the same key. Vallee sang in English, Spanish, French and Italian, using his megaphone.

The group quickly became very popular with those looking for something new and interesting. Radio broadcasts began the following month and Vallee's fame began to grow. Soon he was playing the Palace and Paramount theaters. In 1929 he appeared in his first film, Vagabond Lover, and began his long-running radio program, which was sponsored by Fleischmann's Yeast.

From the beginning the main purpose of the band, the Connecticut Yankees, had been to back Vallee's singing, but Vallee himself had a large ego, which often led to resentment from many of the musicians. Despite their often hard feelings, Vallee was clearly the main attraction, and he quickly became a major star, continuing to perform on stage, appear in films, and broadcast his radio program up until the war years. In the late 1930s, he also starred in the Sealtest radio show with John Barrymore.

During WWII Vallee joined the Coast Guard, where he led a forty-piece orchestra until he was placed on the inactive list in 1944. He then briefly returned to radio. Vallee's last major hurrah as a singer was in 1943, with a reissue of the song ''As Time Goes By,'' which had recently been featured in the film Casablanca. The tune had previously been a big hit for Vallee twelve years earlier.

Vallee continued to work in film up until the 1970s. He made appearances on Broadway, where he scored a big hit in Frank Loesser's How To Succeed in Business without Really Trying. Vallee also appeared on television, guest starring on such programs as Petticoat Junction, Batman (as the villain Lord Phogg), Night Gallery, Alias Smith and Jones, and CHIPs.

In the twilight of his years, Vallee’s Yankee work ethic kept spurring him on. He kept a wide correspondence with celebrities and fans; he entertained lavishly at Silver Tip, his home in California; and he played benefit concerts for many veterans’ hospitals and charitable causes. Vallee passed away July 3, 1986, with his fourth wife Eleanor at his side. As they watched the Independence Day celebrations on television, Vallee’s last words were, “Wouldn’t it be fun to be there? You know how I love a party"...

RUDY VALLEE (1901-1986)

Hard to believe that Rudy Vallee was one of the most popular singers out there before Bing Crosby jumped onto the scene in the early 1930s. Vallee did not have a great voice, but he had a way with a song. He also had a very enjoyable band as well. He was quite the rage in the late 1920s...