Hubert Prior Vallée

 Hubert Prior Vallée , known professionally as Rudy Vallée (July 28, 1901 – July 3, 1986)

While growing up, Vallee developed an interest in music, learning to play the drums, the piano, the clarinet, and the saxophone. Vallee attended the University of Maine (1921–22) before transferring to Yale University. He frequently performed in musical groups at Yale, and he spent a year in London (1924–25) playing the saxophone with the Savoy Havana Band. After forming his own dance band, first called the Yale Collegians and then renamed the Connecticut Yankees, he concentrated on singing. In 1928 Vallee signed his first recording contract, and he and his band quickly scored a number of hits. That same year they began performing at the exclusive Heigh-Ho Club in Manhattan. As one of the first radio crooners, Vallee became immensely popular. In the early 1930s thousands of women mobbed the Brooklyn Paramount Theatre, where he performed several shows a day, earning the impressive sum of $40,000 a week. As his career flourished, Vallee moved into other aspects of show business, becoming a nightclub owner, a talent agent, a theatrical master of ceremonies, a composer, and a stage and film actor. Beginning in Hollywood as a singer in the film Vagabond Lover (1929), he evolved into an accomplished light comedian and a character actor. He appeared in more than 40 films, including Sweet Music (1935), The Palm Beach Story (1942), Unfaithfully Yours (1948), and Gentlemen Marry Brunettes (1955).

In 1942 Vallee joined the U.S. Coast Guard, becoming its bandleader, and throughout World War II he entertained the troops in every branch of the services. However, his career began to wane in the 1950's, due to television and the popularity of rock and roll music. Although he continued to act throughout the 1960s and ’70s, most of his work consisted of bit roles in films and guest appearances on TV series. Vallee married four times. Among his wives were the movie star Jane Greer and the actress and model Eleanor Norris. Vallée died of cancer at his home on July 3, 1986, age 84. He is buried at Saint Hyacinth Cemetery in Westbrook, Maine.