Rudy Vallee
Birth : 1901-07-28, Island Pond, Vermont, USA
Death : 1986-07-06
History
Rudy Vallee started his career as a saxophone player and singer and later became a band leader. In the 1920s and early 30s he had a hit radio program, The Fleishmann's Yeast Hour (where he was hated by his cast and crew due to his explosive ego-driven personality). In the early 1930's he was ranked with the likes of Bing Crosby and the tragic Russ Columbo in the Hit Parade. A huge hit on radio in 1933 with his program, initially known as 'The Fleischmann's Yeast Hour,' Vallee was considered a slave driver by his staff. He was known to instigate fist fights with virtually anyone who got on his nerves. During the run of his show he slugged photographers, threw sheet music in the faces of pianists' heads and if provoked, would sock hecklers in the nose. While audiences loved him, he was hated by most of his staff. As a very popular star in night clubs and on records, as well as in movies, he helped other singers like Alice Faye - who was for a while his band singer - and Frances Langford to start their careers. In his early movies he often played the romantic lead, but he switched later to stuffy and comic parts. He also appeared on Broadway. The mid-60's Broadway hit "How To Succeed in Business Without Really Trying" was filmed in 1967 with him in his original Broadway role.
Self (archive footage)
A retrospective of Chita Rivera's film, television and stage career, including interviews with Dick Van Dyke, Ben Vereen, Carol Lawrence and others. Originally aired as Episode 2 of Season 43 of the PBS series Great Performances.
Self (archive footage)
From the A&E "Biography" series, a review of the birth, development and cinematic history of Betty Boop, the flapper cartoon character who has been a popular icon since the 1930s.
(archive footage)
Robert Preston hosts this documentary that shows what people of the 1930s were watching as they were battling the Depression as well as eventually getting ready for another World War.
Autograph Hound
A would-be filmmaker and actress shake up the industry with a trick dog who gets discovered by a studio bus driver in the 1920s.
Self (archive footage)
Period music, film clips and newsreel footage combined into a visual exploration of the American entertainment industry during the Great Depression.
Proprietor
A couple on vacation in the woods is stalked by a pair of rapists.
Rudy Vallee
A rock band is invented by the government as a cover to find hostages in a remote castle in Albania held by communist enemies of the USA.
Opening Narrator (voice)
Rachel arrives in New York from her Amish community intent on becoming a dancer. Unfortunately Billy Minsky's Burlesque is hardly the place for her Dances From The Bible. But the show's comedian Raymond sees a way of wrong-footing the local do-gooders by announcing the new Paris sensation "Mme Fifi" and putting on Rachel's performance as the place is raided. All too complicated, the more so since her father is scouring the town for her and both Raymond and his straight-man Chick are falling for Rachel.
Louis Penlow
Photographer Greg Nolan moonlights in two full-time jobs to pay the rent, but has trouble finding time to do them both without his bosses finding out.
Jasper B. Biggley
A young but bright former window cleaner rises to the top of his company by following the advice of a book about ruthless advancement in business.
Ken Murray narrates his 16mm home movies shot over 35 years in Hollywood.
Himself
Torch singer Helen Morgan rises from sordid beginnings to fame and fortune only to lose it all to alcohol and poor personal choices.
Self (archive footage)
A made-for-TV musical revue, compiled from soundies and film and TV performances by jazz greats from the 1930s to the 1950s.
Rudy Vallee
Two Broadway showgirls, who are also sisters, are sick and tired of New York as well as not getting nowhere. Quitting Broadway, the sisters decided to travel to Paris to become famous.
Worthington Higgenmacher
Marjorie Main is the whole show in the Universal programmer Ricochet Romance. Playing the outspoken new cook at a rundown dude ranch, Marjorie forces everyone around her to pitch in and bring some life back into the place. She also sets her sights on old layabout Chill Wills, scheming to rope the critter into marriage. Veteran comedy director Charles W. Lamont moves the proceedings along with style, never missing an opportunity for a low-comedy slapstick turn. The most surprising aspect of Ricochet Romance is that it is not an entry in Marjorie Main's Ma and Pa Kettle series.
Peter Pedigrew
Ex-WAVE encounters four fun-loving, work-hating men, all of whom want to marry her.
Himself (archive footage)
Feature-length compilation of 1920s newsreel footage, with commentary about news, sports, lifestyles, and historical figures.
Mr. Jessup
Coach George Copper's college football team is losing game after game, much to the dismay of stiff-and-stuffy but influential alumni Roger Jessup, and also having trouble at home with his oldest daughter, Connie. The team keeps losing and Coach Cooper is about to lose his job as his efforts to win the last game of the season, against the team's Big Rival, end in disaster. But, unknown to he and his wife, Elizabeth, Connie has sold an article, called "I Was a Bubble Dancer" to a 'True-Confession" magazine, and the girl-who-couldn't-get-a-date becomes suddenly popular and, because of her, the high-school football star from another town decides to play his college-ball for Coach Cooper. Jessup is forced to keep Cooper on as the school's football coach.
Charles Hingleman
Saloon-bar singer Freddie gets very angry whenever boyfriend Blackie seems to be playing around. She always packs a six-shooter, so this is bad news for anything that happens to be in the way. As this is usually the local judge's rear-end, Freddie and friend Conchita are soon hiding out teaching school in the middle of nowhere.
John Heaslip
Widow Abby Abbott is having serious money problems and has to dip into the family trust in order to pay for her daughter Susan's college tuition. The catch: Abby must also become a co-ed or she can't touch the money. After passing her entrance exams, Abby goes to college and becomes very popular, especially with a handsome English professor whom Susan has a crush on.
August Henshler
Before he left for a brief European visit, symphony conductor Sir Alfred De Carter casually asked his staid brother-in-law August to look out for his young wife, Daphne, during his absence. August has hired a private detective to keep tabs on her. But when the private eye's report suggests Daphne might have been canoodling with his secretary, Sir Alfred begins to imagine how he might take his revenge.
Charles Harris
A budding young writer thinks it's her lucky day when she is chosen to be the new secretary for Owen Waterbury, famous novelist. She is soon disppointed, however, when he turns out to be an erratic, immature playboy. Opposites attract, of course, but not without sub-plots that touch on competitiveness within marriage and responsibility.
Herbert Daley
A small town man inherits a significant fortune and takes his family to New York City whereupon they are continually shocked at the alien culture of the Big Apple.
Dr. Johnson
Norwegian immigrant Marta Hanson keeps a firm but loving hand on her household of four children, a devoted husband and a highly-educated lodger who reads great literature to the family every evening. Through financial crises, illnesses and the small triumphs of everyday life, Marta maintains her optimism and sense of humor, traits she passes on to her aspiring-author daughter, Katrin.
Tommy Chamberlain
Teenager Susan Turner, with a severe crush on playboy artist Richard Nugent, sneaks into his apartment to model for him and is found there by her sister Judge Margaret Turner. Threatened with jail, Nugent agrees to date Susan until the crush abates.
Lyricist
Christine Hunter kills an intruder and tells her husband and lawyer that it was an act of self-defense. It's later revealed that he was actually her lover and she had posed for an incriminating statue he created.
Lynn Sargent
Twenty-three years after scoring the winning touchdown for his college football team mild-mannered Harold Diddlebock, who has been stuck in a dull, dead-end book-keeping job for years, is let go by his pompous boss, advertising tycoon J.E. Wagglebury, with nothing but a tiny pension. Harold, who never touches the stuff, takes a stiff drink with his new pal... and another, and another. What happened Wednesday?
Hendrick Courtney Jr.
Suzanne, a waitress, comes up with a sure-fire method for winning at the racetrack and, later, when she inherits a fortune from a customer of the restaurant, she use the same system for investing her money. Her stock broker tries to dissuade her, but she persists and her investments increases her wealth.
Ormsby Jamison
A comedy based on NBC's "People Are Funny" radio (and later television) program with Art Linkletter with a fictional story of how the program came to be on a national network from its humble beginning at a Nevada radio station. Jack Haley is a producer with only half-rights to the program while Ozzie Nelson and Helen Walker are the radio writers and supply the romance. Rudy Vallee, always able to burlesque himself intentional and, quite often, unintentional, is the owner of the sought-after sponsoring company. Frances Langford, as herself, sings "I'm in the Mood for Love" while the Vagabonds quartet (billed 12th and last) chimes in on "Angeline" and "The Old Square Dance is Back Again."
Gordon Tolliver
A reportedly dead man haunts his wife and her boyfriend.
Rudy Vallee
The ringmaster of a flea circus inherits a fortune...if he can find which chair it's hidden in.
Himself - Bandleader
A patriotic wartime short showcasing the U.S. Coast Guard Band, led by singer Rudy Vallee, and saluting the Naval branches of the military.
Himself
Actors are seen in their new roles as military men during WWII: Robert Stack displaying his remarkable skill as an artillery training officer; Tyrone Power as a Marine drill instructor; Rudy Vallee leading a military band; and Glenn Ford in the everyday grind of a Marine private.
Alfred Monroe
A gold-digger hopes to land a rich husband in Trinidad, but gets mixed up with a beach boy and voodoo.
Narrator Hopper covers two war benefit affairs, a garden party and a USO fashion show, at Pickfair, "The White House of Hollywood."
John D. Hackensacker III
A New York inventor, Tom Jeffers, needs cash to develop his big idea, so his adoring wife, Gerry (Geraldine), decides to raise it by divorcing him and marrying an eccentric Florida millionaire, J. D. Hackensacker III.
Dick Kerrigan
The plot centers on a husband-wife radio team, Dick (Rudy Vallee) and Virginia (Helen Parrish). When Dick is caught in an innocent but compromising situation with brassy blonde showgirl Hortense (Iris Adrian), Virginia is encouraged to inaugurate divorce proceedings by her oily ex-beau Ted (Jerome Cowan). It all winds up in Mexico, with Dick ardently chasing Virginia until she catches him.
Daniel 'Danny' Collins
A producer and his partner clash over two women in show business.
Rudy Vallee
After a trip to Hollywood, two young ladies attempt to hitchhike home but end up at a star filled rodeo.
Roger Maxwell
Studio publicist discovers Minnesota skating teacher and takes her to Hollywood. She goes back to Minnesota but he follows her.
Terry Moore
When the representative of the Paris International Dance Exposition arrives in New York to invite the Academy Ballet of America to compete for monetary prizes, the taxi driver mistakenly brings him to the Club Ballé, a nightclub on the brink of declaring bankruptcy. The owners, Terry Moore and Duke Dennis, jump at the chance to go, despite being aware of the mistake. They hire ballet teacher, Luis Leoni, and his only pupil, Kay Morrow, to join the group, hoping to teach their two dozen show girls ballet en route to Paris by ship. Also going along and rooming with Kay is Mona, Terry's ex-wife, who wants to keep an eye on her alimony checks. Naturally, Kay and Terry fall in love.
Rudy (archive footage) (uncredited)
This was one of the annual "blooper" reels screened by the Warners Club, an organization of Warners actors, crew and executives. It was meant to poke fun at the flubs and bloopers that occurred ont the set of some of the major Warner Bros. pictures of 1938.
Self
Collection of Warner's stars blundering through missed takes.
Skip Houston
A midwest band leader and his lead singer share a love-hate relationship as they try for success in New York.
Himself (uncredited)
This short shows the entrances of the various Hollywood studios, then specifically visits Warner Bros. / First National Studios. We start at the casting office, then see Busby Berkeley and choreographer Bobby Connolly working with chorus girls on production numbers. Then come some candid shots of several contract stars. Finally we see comedian Hugh Herbert filming a scene for an upcoming release, then the various behind the scenes steps that transition the raw film in the camera into the finished product.
Self
Jimmy Durante asks popular song writing team Mack Gordon and Harry Revel to demonstrate some of their songs. There is interplay with impersonator Florence Desmond, Ben Turpin, Rudy Vallee and many others.
Jimmy Martin
Reporter Miss Lee is looking for a story and approaches George White as he's assembling the latest edition of his famous revue. As it turns out, she has lots of backstage gossip to choose from
Himself
Foreign investors converge on a luxury hotel in China to bid on a new kind of radioscope. But, this is a hotel where Burns and Allen are the in-house medical staff, a measles risk sends the whole building into quarantine, and a madcap millionaire crashes dinner in his autogyro. Hotel and radioscope become a stage for an all-star cast of comedians and musicians, from vaudeville to the new generation.
Dr. Vallee
Rudy Vallee cures patients at Dr. Vallee's Musical Hospital by means of music.
Self
Betty Boop, trying to keep a party lively, is aided by Rudy Vallee, who comes to live-action life from a sheet music cover and sings several songs with the Bouncing Ball.
Singer with Handlebar Moustache
Sun bonneted Betty Boop takes a train to "Rudy Valley" where she gains weight and Rudy Vallee performs the title song with Bouncing Ball.
Himself
A young dog calls on Betty but fraternity hazers kidnap him. With a Bouncing Ball, Rudy Vallee sings the title tune.
Self
A young woman, who wants to be in the Follies, is making ends meet by working at a department store's sheet music department, where she sings the latest hits. She is accompanied on piano by her childhood boyfriend, who is in love with her, despite her single-minded interest in her career. When a vaudeville performer asks her to join him as his new partner, she sees it as an opportunity to make her dream come true. Upon arriving in New York City, our heroine finds out that her new partner is only interested in sleeping with her and makes this a condition of making her a star. Soon, however, she is discovered by a representative of Ziegfeld.
Rudy Bronson
A zany musical about an amateur musician in search of work who impersonates a big band leader.
