Radio revue (Dec 1929-Mar 1930)

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RADIO REVU E a national figure and, in some respects, almost a national problem — the joy of the wife, the despair of the husband, the idol of the flapper and the envy of the young man. Does the secret of Rudy's success lie in his personality or his appearance? Possibly — although there is nothingunusual about this Don Juan of the radio. He is of average height, slender, and carries himself well. He is invariably well groomed and exudes a feeling of quiet confidence. He is of fair complexion, with blue eyes that slant slightly downward at the outer corners. He has a well-formed head, crowned by a wealth of light, curly hair. His appearance is not unlike that of the average young college man. Further light is shed on his personality by John S. Young, NBC announcer, who was a fellow student of Rudy's at Yale. He says : "With all the success and good fortune that have been showered upon him. Rudy remains the same unassuming, modest and splendid young man that I remember on the Yale campus. He is modest to the point of being diffident and shy. I believe that his success is due to the old formula of hard work. At least it was made without benefit of press agent and, best of all, it has not spoiled him." Is Rudy's singing the reason for his rapid rise? Possibly so. At the microphone he is truly a romantic figure. Faultlessly attired in evening dress, he pours softly into the radio's delicate ear a stream of mellifluous melody. He appears to be coaxing, pleading and at the same time adoring the invisible one to whom his song is attuned. The bare microphone seems strangely cold and unresponsive to his serenading. \\ hen he is not broadcasting, Rudy sings through a small black megaphone that has accompanied him all the way from Yale. The recent observations of Richard Watts. Jr., feature writer of the Xew York Herald-Tribime, on the Vallee craze, are interesting. Referring to Rudy as "the Clara Bow of the orchestras." Mr. Watts writes: "The reason for Mr. Vallee's enormous success has always been something of a mystery. True, he offers the novelty of being a wistful, rather than a wise-cracking, leader, and his calm crooning has a curious way of making each woman in the audience think he is singing directly to her. Both of these traits have been convincingly advanced as an explanation of his success, but the matter Studied SaxopJwnc by Mail remains puzzling. A commonplace looking young man, with a commonplace voice, and a second-rate orchestra, he still manages to be the matinee idol of his day." One of Mr. YYatts's correspondents summed up the case for her hero somewhat devastatingly, when she concluded : "No matter how atrocious he seems to the gentlemen (and all whom I have encountered have nothing favorable to say of this 'male Clara Bow of the orchestras') the women like him. They are entitled to like him, because it was they who made this lad what he is today. No matter if he be on the air, in a short subject or in person, the majority of women will continue to worship him." "All this being conceded,"' Mr. Watts continues, "it might be of assistance to us jealous male outsiders to note what the women correspondents have to sav of Mr. Vallee's virtues and endeavor to profit thereby. Carefully itemized, his admirable qualities are, unless the letters to this department are deceptive, in the following" order: ( 1 ) He is a gentleman ; (2) he is modest ; ( 3 ) he is adorable ; (4) he croons nice sentimental melodies; (5) he is, as one correspondent puts it, 'anything but a hardened Broadway showman type and, therefore, he was a refreshing change from the general type of masters of ceremonies.' Something of a Genius "The amazing thing about these suddenly admired qualities is that they are so negative and, hitherto, so completely neglected. 'A boyish modesty while taking encores' ; 'no swell head about him, and if anyone ought to have a swell head, it is he"; 'reserved and quiet in manner, no hot numbers like the usual band plays over the radio' — these attributes, so confidently advanced by his fans to explain his success, have somehow never been considered in the past as short cuts to popularity, and the news that being modest and a gentleman aid in Broadway success, is just a bit overwhelming. When Mr. Vallee can make a lack of aggressiveneess and an absence of biatancy assist rather than handicap him in his chosen occupation, then maybe he is something of a genius, after all. "It i> because the thought that a young man. bringing such incredible qualities to Broadway and getting away with it. is now overwhelmingly popular so pleases him, that it is with deepest regret that this observer confesses he is still puzzled by the Vallee success. Gentility and modesty and the change from the spirit of the jazz age may be admirable things, but it is still difficult to see why they should cause the emotional hysteria among the girls that Rudy Vallee has aroused. It still seems to me that he is a commonplace looking young man, with a commonplace voice and a second-rate orchestra." A later correspondent of Mr. Watts writes of Rudy Vallee : Too Emotional for Comfort "It is quite true that he is idolized and-lauded, for what reason no one, apparently, has been able to discover except myself. The reason Rudy Vallee is so popular is Rudy Vallee. the name itself. You will note that it is nothing more nor less than that of the beloved screen