1929 HITS ARCHIVE: Honey - Rudy Vallee

1929 Song

Written by Seymour Simons, Haven Gillespie, & Richard A. Whiting

1929 hit for Rudy Vallee & His Connecticut Yankees

Rudy Vallee

July 28, 1901 - July 3, 1986

American singer, saxophonist, bandleader

as well as actor and entertainer

- Career -

Music ... Radio and Film ... Vallee-Video

• Music

Rudy Vallee & His Connecticut Yankees

Discography

- Included two violins, two saxophones, piano, banjo, and drums

- Rudy Vallee's saxophone and tenor voice

Vallee's song style was known as crooner.

Noted hit - "As Time Goes By" (popularized in Casablanca, 1942)

• Radio and Film

Filmography

The Fleischmann's Yeast Hour - musical variety radio program, broadcast on NBC, 1929-1936, hosted by Rudy Vallee ... sponsored by the popular brand of yeast, Fleischmann's Yeast

Rudy Vallee hosted radio programs in the 1930s and 1040s, including his own The Rudy Vallee Show.

First feature film - The Vagabond Lover, 1929

Featured role - Gentlemen Marry Brunettes, 1955

Broadway appearance - How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying ("J.B. Biggley," 1961) ... Reprised role for 1967 film version

• Vallee-Video

Television production company 

Owned by Rudy Vallee

1948 - 1952

Breakthrough production - 15-minute television series based on the Dick Tracy comic starring Vallee's friend, Ralph Byrd.  Dick Tracy theatrical serials ran from 1937 to 1941.  The program was sold as a pilot to NBC.  Vallee and Byrd also developed a proposed radio show based on the comic, Hawkshaw the Detective.  

When Ralph Byrd passed away in August 1952, Valle-Video came to an end.

Personal notes -

Rudy Vallee was known for a strongly admiring female fanbase, quick and hot temper, multiple marriages lasting less than a year each (his fourth and final marriage was only the longest due to his passing), harsh mouth especially aimed at his orchestra, and devastating violent claims made by his previous marriages.

Hubert Prior Vallee - known by Rudy Vallee

(Wikipedia)

I will always know Rudy Vallee for "As Time Goes By" for reasons set in modern British pop culture.

Another story for another time