[78-L] The "real" Rudy Vallee

[Taylor Bowie]

Peter's diagnosis may be right on the mark.  I spent a lot of time going 
through the Vallee material,  including files of letters,  financial 
statements,  etc.  and I was amazed at the number of people whom he'd helped 
during the 30s and 40s out with gifts of money,  chances to appear on his 
show,  etc. And all this while not bringing any attention to himself.  Nor 
does it include the "loans" he made to various down-and-out show biz 
people...most of which were written off after a year or two.

It was very sad to see what had become of the fellow.  After dealing with 
him personally and then with his wife,  it took me a while before I was once 
again able to enjoy his work as a bandleader,  singer  and film actor.  And 
if one  wants the "real" Rudy Vallee,  that's where you should look,  not at 
the sad ramblings of his later years.

Just an aside about his movies...a lot of critics think that his comedy turn 
in The Palm Beach Story is his best.  I think he's even better in The 
Bachelor and the Bobby Soxer,  as Cary Grant's rival for Myrna Loy.  If you 
can hold your own all the way with the likes of Grant and Loy,  you've got 
to be really good!  I think the Sidney Sheldon script for the latter is even 
funnier than the Sturges script for the former,  although I'm sure many 
would disagree.

Taylor



----- Original Message ----- 
From: <muhrp at suffolk.lib.ny.us>
To: "78-L Mail List" <78-l at klickitat.78online.com>
Sent: Thursday, October 29, 2009 12:03 PM
Subject: Re: [78-L] Rudy Vallee writes about SEX! SEX! SEX!


>      This sounds very much as if Vallee was suffering from advancing
> Alzheimer's-like dementia, of which paranoia & delusional behavior are
> well- known symptoms.  Very little was known or understood about this
> condition at the time, until Rita Hayworth's diagnosis gave it a celebrity
> public face a few years later.  Today, celebrities suffering from
> age-related dementia are actively discouraged by staff & family from
> making public appearances and statements, for reasons made plain by
> Vallee's behavior in his later years.  Although by many accounts, he may
> have been an insufferable egomaniac when younger, age-related dementia can
> often have the effect of exaggerating a sufferer's earlier behavior &
> personality, so that they often become a characterture of themselves.
> Sometimes just the opposite happens.  In retrospect, I think it explains
> Vallee's later behavior.
> Peter Muhr
>
>> Just one more note,  pertaining to the original post today about Vallee.
>> Late in life he became convinced that he had been betrayed and dishonored 
>> by
>> just about everyone he'd ever known...and he wrote crude and angry 
>> letters
>> to many of these poor folks,  expressing his displeasure.  He also made
>> multiple copies of all of them,  and I recall seeing no less than forty
>> copies of a nasty multi-page letter he wrote to Dorothy Lamour...and at
>> least a dozen copies of her hurt and bewildered and polite reply to him.
>>
>> Taylor
>>
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