Remembering
Star-Bulletin
Rudy Vallee
My Vagabond Lover: By Eleanor Vallee with Jill Amadio (Taylor), $22.95Twelve years after Rudy Vallee's death in 1986, his widow Eleanor felt the world was beginning to forget the legendary crooner.
Now she has written a book, "My Vagabond Lover," with the help of writer Jill Amadio, to preserve Vallee's legacy and to capture the romance of their life together.
"He was the first to sing naturally, which was called crooning. He brought in the megaphone before microphones came in," she said. "I thought the world should know about him because he was the Elvis Presley of his day. He was there before Bing Crosby, before Frank Sinatra."
Eleanor, who now lives in Brentwood, Calif., will be signing copies of her book Saturday at Borders Ward Centre and Sunday at Borders Waikele.
Having spent a lot of time in Hawaii in the '60s and '70s, she said Hawaii has changed a lot. "But once you're in the hotels - the Moana, Halekulani, Royal Hawaiian, Mandarin Oriental - time seems to have stood still. The ambience is beautiful."
She met Vallee in the '40s. She said she was a teen-ager more than 30 years his junior. Vallee had attained stardom in the late 1920s and '30s. He sang "As Time Goes By" before it became associated with the film "Casablanca."
At the height of his popularity, he hosted "The Fleishman Hour," counting among his discoveries Eddie Cantor, Louis Armstrong and Bob Hope.
"He put them all on and they all became famous through his show," Eleanor said.
As Vallee's career faded with Bing Crosby's arrival, he switched to a career on stage and screen.
Vallee died at age 84. He and Eleanor had been married 28 years.
"We had a great marriage and that's what I wanted to share in the book," she said. Among her tips for making a marriage work are, "Really be friends, that's No. 1; have lots of humor and fun, and tie him to the bed post once a week and give him lots of love."
Signing: Eleanor Vallee signs copies of "My Vagabond Lover"
