Vaughn De Leath

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Vaughn De Leath (born September 26, 1894 in Mount Pulaski , Illinois , † May 29, 1943 in Buffalo , New York ) was an American singer who became famous in the 1920s and was nicknamed The Original Radio Girl ( Eng .: The original radio girl ) and First Lady of Radio (German: First Lady of Radio ) led. Despite its popularity in the 1920s, De Leath is little known today. De Leath was an early representative of a style of singing known as crooning . One of her hit singles, Are You Lonesome Tonight? , recorded in 1927, achieved world fame in the 1960 version of Elvis Presley .

Life

She was born Leonore Vonderlieth in Mount Pulaski , Illinois , in 1894 and grew up in various locations in California . Her parents were George and Catherine Vonderlieth. At the age of 12, Leonore moved to Los Angeles with her mother and sister , where she graduated from high school and studied music. During her time at Mills College she began to write her own songs, some of which she published before 1912. She took the stage name Vaughn De Leath, a derivative of her last name. Her considerable vocal range ranged from soprano to alto .

De Leath was married twice. She married her first husband, the artist Leon Geer, in 1924, and the couple divorced in 1934. She married her second husband, the musician Irwin Rosenbloom, in 1936. Little is known about the last decade of her life. At the time of her death in 1943, she was living impoverished and with drinking problems in Buffalo. Her age was incorrectly given as 42 on her obituary in the New York Times , despite the fact that she was 48 years old. She was buried in her native Mount Pulaski, Illinois.

Act

The sources are uncertain about the first radio appearance. According to contradicting sources, she is said to have sung to a few dozen listeners in December 1919 or January 1920 at the request of the inventor and radio pioneer Lee De Forest in his laboratory in New York City. In October 1920, her first record, titled I Love the Land of Black Old Joe, was released on Edison Records . Over the next decade, she recorded for a number of music labels, including Edison Records, Columbia Records , Okeh Records , Gennett Records , Victor Records, and Brunswick Records . The occasional recordings for the majors' sub- labels were published under various pseudonyms, mostly as Gloria Geer . De Leath accompanied himself on ukulele , banjo , guitar and piano both in studio recordings and in live performances . Her recording of Ukulele Lady (1925) was a hit and was used in the 1999 film God's Work and the Devil's Contribution .

In 1923 she became one of the first female managers of a radio station, WDT, in New York City. After she completely devoted herself to her appearances again from 1925, she appeared in various test programs for television in 1928. In 1928 or 1929 she was the star guest on the first broadcast of the Voice of Firestone Radio Hour . She was one of the first American entertainers to be heard in Europe on the transatlantic radio broadcast. De Leath's last recording was made in 1931 for the Crown label by Eli Oberstein . In the same year she accused Kate Smith of using the nickname First Lady of the Radio unjustifiably. Smith failed to do so, but continued to use the name after De Leath's death. In the following years, De Leath only got engagements with local radio stations and ran a nightclub in Stamford . Her last public appearance was on January 6, 1939, on the anniversary of the Voice of Firestone Radio Hour .

Achievements and honors

Her greatest success to date was her version of the ballad Are You Lonesome Tonight? Written by Roy Turk and Lou Handman . , with which it reached number 4 on the charts in 1927. De Leath is dedicated to a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame .

The evergreen I Wanna Be Loved By You (music: Herbert Stothart and Harry Ruby, text Bert Kalmar), later sung by Marilyn Monroe in Billy Wilder's comedy Some Like It Hot , was also successfully published by Vaughn De Leath around 1930.

Discographic notes

  • Ukulele Lady (ASV Living Era, 2006)
  • The Radio Girl: 1921-1929 (Van Up, 2009)
  • The Edison Collection: Dancing The Devil Away (Document, 2006)
  • Volume One: Recorded 1925-1927 (MC Productions, 2012)
  • Volume Two: Recorded 1927-1928 (MC Productions, 2012)
  • Volume Three: Recorded 1928-1938 (MC Productions, 2012)

literature

  • Tim Gracyk, Frank W. Hoffmann: Popular American Recording Pioneers 1895-1925 . Routledge, 2000, ISBN 978-1-56024-993-1 , pp. 89-93 .
  • Ross Laird: Moanin 'Low: A Discography of Female Popular Vocal Recordings 1920-1933 . Greenwood Publishing, 1996, pp. 126-145 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Tim Gracyk, Frank W. Hoffmann: Popular American Recording Pioneers 1895-1925 . Routledge, 2000, pp. 90 .
  2. ↑ a b Tim Gracyk, Frank W. Hoffmann: Popular American Recording Pioneers 1895-1925 . Routledge, 2000, pp. 89 .
  3. ↑ Tim Gracyk, Frank W. Hoffmann: Popular American Recording Pioneers 1895-1925 . Routledge, 2000, pp. 92 .
  4. ↑ Vaughn De Leath , reproduction of an article in the Los Angeles Times dated May 29, 1943, accessed August 26, 2011.
  5. ^ I Wanna Be Loved By You on the Internet Archive , accessed January 9, 2014.
personal data
SURNAME De Leath, Vaughn
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American singer
DATE OF BIRTH September 26, 1894
PLACE OF BIRTH Mount Pulaski
DATE OF DEATH May 29, 1943
Place of death Buffalo