Vaughn DeLeath

Living Era presents a portrait of Vaughn DeLeath, the very first vocalist to achieve popular success through the medium of radio. Here are 24 of her best recordings, made between May 1921 and March 1929. The studio orchestras that accompany her are sprinkled with authentic jazz musicians Eddie Lang, Harry Reser, Bix Beiderbecke, Red Nichols, Dick McDonough, Miff Mole, and Vic Berton. This singer handled popular melodies in a very accessible manner, crooning the romantic songs, putting across the cheery tunes, and showing a knack for comedy when presenting novelties like "The Whisper Song (When the Pussy Willow Whispers to the Catnip)" and what was perhaps her cleverest routine, "Banana Oil"; the title refers to a bygone expression that served the same dismissive purpose as the word "Baloney." At her best and jazziest, DeLeath could sound almost as good as Annette Hanshaw. A native of Mount Pulaski, IL, who grew up in southern California, Leonora Vonderlieth was the daughter of an agricultural windmill manufacturer. Transforming her surname into the androgynous stage moniker Vaughn DeLeath, she premiered on-stage in Los Angeles at the age of 17 and eventually made her way to New York City, where she is believed to have been the first woman ever to sing over live radio. The circumstances surrounding this historical feat seem like something out of an early Edgar Rice Burroughs novelette, for DeLeath's first broadcasts occurred in December 1919 or January 1920 inside of experimental radio station 2XG, a facility housed within a laboratory operated by a brilliant scientist named Lee DeForest, inventor of the Audion, a three-element vacuum tube that revolutionized radio broadcasting and led to the development of electrical sound recording and motion picture soundtracks. Vaughn DeLeath's mid-range, low-toned voice was ideal for the primitive broadcasting and recording equipment in use during the years immediately following World War I. Her first known recording was an Edison disc issued in October of 1920, and was eventually followed by a flood of releases bearing the Odeon, OKeh, Columbia, Victor, and Brunswick labels. Although her records bore as many as nine different pseudonyms, it was as Vaughn DeLeath that she became one of the most successful radio stars of the 1920s, managing various radio stations, participating in what must have been the very first attempts at television broadcasting in 1928, hosting her own biweekly show on CBS, and appearing with popular bandleader Paul Whiteman. Her 1928 recording of Rodgers & Hart's "You Took Advantage of Me," a delightful duet with Irving Kaufman, showcases her largely untapped multi-octave range. The Great Depression radically altered the entire entertainment industry and effectively shattered her career. Her only known recordings after 1931 were a series of kiddie records for Bluebird. She took to drinking, managed a nightclub in Stamford, CT, and died in Buffalo, NY, in May of 1943 at the age of 48. This excellent compilation contains the heart of her musical legacy. ~ arwulf arwulf, All Music Guide