Rudy Vallee

Vallée grew up in Westbrook, Maine, where he studied the piano and later played drums in his high-school band.

Between 1921 and 1922, he attended the University of Maine, then transferred to Yale University, from where he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy in 1927. During college, he played clarinet and saxophone. He admired saxophonist Rudy Wiedoeft so much that he assumed the first name "Rudy" himself.

After graduation, he formed his own band, "The Yale Collegians," who soon turned into Rudy Vallee And His Connecticut Yankees. In early 1928, still as "Yale Collegians," they landed an engagement at the newly opened "Heigh-Ho Club" on 53rd Street in New York City, thanks to band leader Bert Lown. When the club owner insisted that Vallee replace his singer, he sang himself, using a megaphone to project his rather thin and nasal tenor voice without a mike. Both the megaphone and the greeting "Heigh-ho, everybody!" became Vallée's trademarks even though microphones soon relieved him of the need to use a megaphone.

The Connecticut Yankees became so popular that radio station WABC broadcasted them from the club. This started Vallée's long and successful career as a nationally known "crooner" and the host of a series of radio shows during the 1930s and 1940s, starting with The Fleischman Yeast Hour in 1929. He also performed on Broadway, in "George White's Scandals of 1931," and in several movies, starting with "The Vagabond Lover" in 1929 and including Preston Sturges' screwball comedy "The Palm Beach Story" (1942). As late as 1961, Vallée played the role of J.B. Biggley in the Broadway hit musical, "How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying."