Released: May 14, 2008
Hollywood, CA 90028
Video Clip : Click to Watch
My Time is Your Time, The Maine Stein Song, My Vagabond Lover, There’s A Tavern in the Town; these songs all evoke the same two words: Rudy Vallee. Famous for singing through his trademark megaphone, Rudy Vallee is a legend in show business as a singer, musician, radio variety/talk show host, bandleader, musical arranger and actor on Broadway, in movies and on television. Vallee was the crooner who set the stage for the likes of Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra and Perry Como, just to name a few of who benefited from his popularity and style.
In the 1920s, Vallee honed his skills playing with the Savoy Havana Band at the famous Savoy Hotel in London. After returning to the United States, Vallee found success with a couple of hit songs in 1928 before being picked to host the “Fleischmann’s Yeast Hour” radio show in 1929. One of the most popular radio shows of the early 1930s and better known as “The Rudy Vallee Hour,” this vaulted him to superstardom and broke ground in terms of being the first in a long line of radio talk/variety shows.
This major break in Vallee’s career took place in large part because of radio pioneer Bertha Brainerd. In 1928, she was the assistant manager at WJZ in New Jersey when David Sarnoff, founder of NBC Radio and media icon in his own right, bought the station and moved it from New Jersey to New York City. Sarnoff, rather than firing her, surprisingly promoted Brainerd to program manager of the NBC Radio Network. She had to push hard to hire the singer and bandleader to host a new NBC variety show in 1929, later explaining, “Only a woman could understand the allure of Rudy Vallee’s voice.”
The rest is history and too voluminous to explain here, but a career spanning over 50 years that broke boundaries and set standards deserves national recognition. So now Eleanor Vallee, his widow and author of “My Vagabond Lover: An Intimate Biography of Rudy Vallee,” is mounting a campaign to get a commemorative stamp issued from the United States Post Office in honor of this American icon.
In anticipation of the formal application being submitted to the Citizens’ Stamp Advisory Committee in March 2008, shooting for a July 28, 2011 issuance to coincide with Rudy Vallee’s 110th birthday, a campaign is being mounted to collect personal letters and signatures through the online petition which can be accessed through the official Rudy Vallee Commemorative Stamp Campaign website at www.rudyvalleestamp.com.
Eleanor Vallee, in addition to the other activities mentioned, is appearing on radio shows across the country to get people to sign the online petition or send in letters of support. Numerous websites of various types have posted the mock stamp logo seen above with links to the campaign website and are sending out bulletins and newsletters as the campaign picks up steam.
For media interviews contact Promotion in Motion at 323-461-3921 or send emails to info@rudyvalleestamp.com
Irwin Zucker (irwinzuckerpr@aol.com)
President
Promotion In Motion
6464 Sunset Blvd. Suite 755
Hollywood, CA 90028
Phone : 323-461-3921
Fax : 323-461-0917
Official Website of The Rudy Vallee Commemorative Stamp Campaign
More Information Official Website of Rudy Vallee
Courtesy FeaturesUSA.com