The Story of VAUGHN MONROE
Google Pictures for Vaughn Monroe
Photo no longer available: Before game time exchanging good wishes with slugging star Ted Williams.
Ohio, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts and New York all could claim Vaughn Monroe as their product. And all could support their claims, because the "life and times" of America's top bandleader ahs given him roots in many localities.
Vaughn's first home was in Akron, Ohio, where he was born October 7, 1911. At the time, the senior Monroe was working in a rubber processing factory, but soon moved to Cudahy, Wisconsin, and later to Jeanette, Pennsylvania. It was in Jeanette that Vaughn was graduated from high school in 1929. While there he also met Marian Baughman, who is now Mrs. Monroe. At the senior prom, Mrs. Monroe relates, Vaughn, who had been voted the "boy most likely to succeed," was supposed to lead the grand march. Ten minutes late, Vaughn rushed breathlessly into the room and informed Marian that he had just won a trumpet contest in a nearby town. Which, Marian felt, was "succeeding" almost too soon.
Vaughn had begun his trumpeting career at eleven. One day, he calmly walked in to his parents, holding a new trumpet in hand. In response to their questioning looks, the future "moonracer" explained, "The kid down the block gave it to me. He can't play it on account of his teeth."Two factors helped Vaughn make up his mind: 1) although he liked engineering, he didn't think he could be satisfied at it for his life's work; and 2) despite the fact that his voice teachers told him he had a big future ahead as a baritone, he had a big frame that had to be fad in the immediate present.
The trumpet turned out to be exceedingly useful. All through high school and for two years following his graduation, Vaughn was able to earn and save by working in neighborhood bands. Finally, in 1931, having saved enough for college, he enrolled at Carnegie Tech's School of Music at Pittsburgh, where he also took engineering courses, and later at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston for further vocal training. While attending these schools Vaughn continually wavered between his desire to become an engineer, and the desire to become a concert singer. In 1933, he made his decision--to quit school and devote all his time to dance bands. In college, as in high school, he had earned while he learned by playing trumpet with small bands in his spare time.
Vaughn's first job after leaving college was with Austin Wiley's band. It lasted two years, ending when the band broke up in Ohio. At the time orchestra leader Larry Funk was playing a date in the vicinity. He had heard Vaughn on the trumpet, like him and gave him a job.That's when Monroe took his "boot training" on the road, for the band did a group of one-nighters that took them from Ohio to Boston, Colorado, Texas, Kentucky, and back to Boston. "Enough was enough," says Vaughn. "When we got back to Boston it looked like Paradise to me. I thought it would be a good idea to settle down there for a few years."
Vaughn got in touch with a friend, Jack Marshard, for advice. Marshard, at that time, fronted a society band, in addition to owning several similar units which operated in the Cope Cod area. Not only did Jack give Vaughn advice, he gave him a job in one of the units. For the next year and a half Monroe played trumpet, did some vocalizing, and was perfectly content. Finally, in 1937, the band moved into the "Terrace Gables" in Falmouth, Mass.Here Marshard asserted himself. All along Jack had felt Vaughn belonged out front, not hidden in with the brass section where his talent was more or less buried. Jack offered Vaughn the choice of either leaving, or taking the baton. And so--Monroe became a bandleader.
The twelve piece orchestra played the "Terrace Gables" for the season then moved to a Boston hotel, thence to the Dempsey-Vanderbilt in Miami, Florida. By this time, Marshard was again discontent: He wanted the maestro to go into business for himself. The boys in the band also urged Vaughn to do the same. Talent scout Willard Alexander entered the picture and he too prevailed upon Monroe to take the leap.In 1940 Vaughn finally gave in. He disbanded the Marshard unit at the end of the Miami engagement, asking those who wanted to join the new band to meet him two weeks later up north. Jack Marshard became manager, and Alexander was to handle booking. Monroe then got into his car and without stopping to rest, drove straight to New York. Marian Baughman was waiting for him there, as was a train to take them to Jeanette, where they were married a few days later. Almost immediately after the ceremony, the newlyweds returned to Boston where Marshard had collected the nucleus of the new Monroe band. Weeks of hectic rehearsal followed.
The new band made its debut in Siler's Ten Acres in New England. On the night of April 10, 1940, they made their first radio broadcast--over NBC. RCA-Victor heard a later broadcast, and signed Vaughn immediately to a record contract.During the next year, the Monroe band traveled extensively, playing hotels, theaters, ballrooms and night spots throughout the New England and Mid-West areas. The husky, masculine tones of Vaughn's voice soon won him a reputation as a "man's singer," without costing him the loyalty of his feminine followers. His recording of IF YOU SEE MAGGIE became one of the nation's top sellers. Since then any number of Monroe records have moved into this same category. To name a few: SHRINE OF ST. CECELIA; THERE! I'VE SAID IT AGAIN; LET IT SNOW, LET IT SNOW; and I WISH I DIDN'T LOVE YOU SO. Vaughn himself, feels that BALLERINA is one of his top performances on records.
The year 1941 really marks Monroe's entry into big-time. In June of that year he opened at New York's Paramount Theater, and a few months later took his band into the Century Room of the Commodore. He has played there every year since, sometimes more than one engagement. To date, Vaughn has played twelve engagements in all at the Commodore. He says it almost seems like a "second home" to him.In 1944, Monroe needed another trombone. After a long and futile search, Vaughn finally gave up, bought a trombone and taught himself to play. Now, when the occasion arises, he still stands in with the trombone section, apparently having deserted the trumpet. Monroe is a man of many hobbies. He likes photography, motorcycling, miniature trains, carpentry, swimming, golf, and especially flying. His earnings are large enough to permit him to be an active flying enthusiast and he owns two planes--Cantina II and Cantina III (named from first three and last four letters of his daughters' names). On dates played within three hundred miles of New York, Vaughn is able to fly home for a visit on his day off.
He often uses the planes for getting from one engagement to another. "It gives me extra time for business," say Vaughn, "and it breads up the monotony of road life when we're doing one-nighters." sometimes, it breaks up the monotony too well. Recently, Vaughn had to make a forced landing in a Pennsylvania cabbage patch, after being blown about fifty miles off his course. It's the only time he's been late on a job.That's a pretty good record for a man who directs RCA-Victor's top-selling recording band, plays a hundred one-nighters a year, usually fifteen weeks of theater dates, a dozen other week engagements at night clubs and the like, and is on the air every Saturday night for Camel cigarettes.
The Monroes, with daughters Candace (born Dec. 13, 1941) and Christina (born Oct. 16, 1944), live in a smart New York apartment on Park Avenue. Vaughn calls it "home" but with the exception of his long engagement at Hotel Commodore every year, he sees very little of it.------------------------------
RUNNING A "NAME" BAND A BIG BUSINESS, 25-HOUR-A-DAY JOB, NOT MUCH TIME FOR REST
PHOTO: With Gold Records
According to RCA-VICTOR, one of their artists--six-foot-two, 180 pound Vaughn Monroe sold over five million records last year. Hit followed hit in ever widening circles-- DREAMS ARE A DIME A DOZEN; IVY; TALLAHASSEE; I WISH I DIDN'T LOVE YOU SO; KOKOMO, INDIANA; a revival of THERE! I'VE SAID IT AGAIN; a sequel to a wartime hit, I'M STILL SITTING UNDER THE APPLE TREE and, one that Vaughn feels is among the best records he's ever made, BALLERINA. Add to these a hundred one-nighters (mostly ballroom dates), one long engagement (usually New York's Hotel Commodore for two months each fall), approximately fifteen weeks of theatre dates a year, a smattering of one week engagements at night clubs, country clubs and the like, plus his weekly CBS Saturday night stint for Camels, and a movie or two (the most recent, "Carnegie Hall"), and you get a rough idea that leading a band is a whale of a lot more than waving a baton. It more closely resembles being a corporation president. Only most corporations presidents don't have to sing for their suppers.
"As a bandleader," says Vaughn, "people expect you to be artistic. But to be successful, you've got to also develop a keen sense of business. On the bandstand you sing, play or direct. A show is expected, and you provide it. But off the stand, when it comes to picking new tunes, choosing spots to play, trying to work out recording dates and broadcasts, negotiating contracts, and things of that sort--well, that's the other side of the picture. The part that doesn't show."In addition to the twenty-one musicians of his band, the four Moonmaids, featured vocalist Ziggy Talent, three arrangers and one arranger-conductor, Vaughn employs and personally directs an entire staff of specialists, including a personal manager, a booking agent, lawyer, treasurer-accountant, a road manager, press relations director, and many others.
the bandleader, who has to look and perform his best on the stand every night, has often worked at breakneck speed all day , just like many of the people he is entertaining. Many nights Vaughn doesn't get to bed before 2:30 a.m. and is up again at seven-thirty for a rehearsal at nine.Vaughn maintains two planes so that, for dates within three hundred miles of New York, he can fly home on his "day off" to visit with his family and conclude important business conferences. He is a licensed pilot, himself, but retains a co-pilot in case he must move ahead because of poor weather. The pilot than catches up to him as quickly as weather permits.
A "name" band today is no lazy man's plaything. It's a big business.
-----------
The Story of VAUGHN MONROE
PHOTO: Taking requests.
The story of the country's most popular band leader is truly an American success saga. While today his name is a national by-word, just a few years ago Vaughn Monroe was an unknown factor in the entertainment world, who had experienced a tough, discouraging struggle for survival and recognition.
Vaughn was born in Akron, Ohio, on October 1, (sic) (This should read 7. Italics mine.) 1911, the son of a rubber experimental engineer. During his early years the family took up residence in Kent, Ohio; Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio; Cudahy Wisconsin; and finally Jeannette, Pennsylvania, as his father changed jobs in various rubber factories.It was in Kent, at the age of eleven, that Vaughn began his musical career when he came home from school one day carrying a battered old trumpet. He explained to his puzzled parents that "The kid down the street gave it to me on account of he just got a drum and likes it better."
Much to the chagrin of the household, young Vaughn took up the instrument seriously and eventually became proficient enough to win a statewide championship trumpet contest in Wisconsin at the age of 14. The trumpet also served a more worthy purpose, for throughout his high school days and for two years after graduation, he played with local bands earning and saving money to help finance a college education. One such aggregation was called Gibby Lockhard's Jazz Orchestra who appeared on stage wearing white knickers and blazers with the monogram "GL" on them , and with whom Vaughn was occasionally allowed to sing through a megaphone.By this time Vaughn had developed quite a reputation, for on graduating from Jeannette High School in 1929 he was voted the "Boy Most Likely To Succeed." His high school sweetheart, Marion Baughman, who later became Mrs. Monroe, thought he was rushing things a little when he dashed breathlessly into the senior prom ballroom ten minutes late with the startling news that he had just won another trumpet contest in a nearby town.
Up to this point, Vaughn's musical activities had revolved almost exclusively around his trumpet. But in the back of his mind what he really wanted to do was sing. He had done some vocal work with the Jeannette Methodist Church Choir and had been encouraged to continue with voice study. Therefore, several years later he enrolled in the School of Music at Carnegie Tech during the day while working with the Lockhard group at night. However, he was forced to give up his ambition of a concert stage career when the grind became too grueling to continue. He left school at the end of his sophomore year and took a job with Austin Wiley's band, and later with a larger group led by Larry Funk. In addition to his musical chores, he served as driver for the instrument truck and as treasurer for the band. Vaughn took his boot training in one-nighters at this time, as the band toured the country from Boston to Texas. "Every once in a while, when I think we have it rough on our one-nighter junkets now," says Vaughn, "I think back and shudder."In 1937 he left Funk and went to Boston to accept a previous job offer from the late Jack Marshard, who had built a reputation for himself in the east organizing and managing a group of society orchestras. Vaughn began as a trumpet player, later did some vocalizing and finally was promoted to leader of one of the units. Throughout this period, he looked upon his band experience as only temporary, for he had enrolled in the New England Conservatory of Music to continue his classical voice training.
However, other plans were in the making. It was while Vaughn and the unit was playing a Florida hotel date that Jack Marshard and Willard Alexander, former vice president in charge of bands for the Music Corporation of America, who now has his own agency and is booking manager for the band, met and discussed the possibilities of developing Vaughn into a singing bandleader personality. Several hours later, the three signed a contract and the present Monroe organization was born.One of the first things Vaughn did following the signing was to propose to Marion Baughman. They were married at once and spent a one-day honeymoon traveling to Boston where the new band was to be organized.
Almost immediately, Jack Marshard began to put into action all the ideas he had for building Vaughn into a popular singing star. He proceeded to eliminate the "classical sound" Vaughn had so painstakingly learned by hiring a New York vocal coach, who worked with Monroe for four months toning down his booming concert baritone to a more subdued, mike-style voice. Vaughn claims this was one of the hardest jobs he has ever taken on. "I got panicky when I realized all I had accomplished in the way of singing was being thrown out the window." However, he stuck it out and the band got underway, making its debut at Seiler's Ten Acres, in New England.The year was 1940, and from then until 1945 things were touch and go. His weekly salary averaged $25 and Mrs. Monroe, who suddenly found herself traveling with the band in the capacity of bookkeeper and general assistant, began to feel that his earlier optimism was a little premature, and that the high school prophecy of his success was not exactly running true to form. The band played its first big theatre date in June, 1941 at the Paramount Theatre in New York, and a few months later landed an engagement at the Commodore Hotel. It then embarked on its first string of one-nighters and gradually began to attract some attention.
In the meantime, RCA-Victor signed the band to a recording contract. But it was not until January, 1945 that the really first big break came along when the recorded "THERE, I'VE SAID IT AGAIN." It was made merely to fill space on the second side of a record that featured the smash tune of the day, "Rum and Coca Cola." By one of those inexplicable flukes that happen again and again in show business, the first side flopped and "THERE, I'VE SAID IT AGAIN" became a national sensation, selling 1,250,000 copies. The band was in.From this point on, record hits seemed to follow at almost breath-taking pace--"LET IT SNOW, LET IT SNOW," "BALLERINA," COOL WATER," "RIDERS IN THE SKY," "SOMEDAY." As a result of this new popularity on records, Camel Cigarettes signed Monroe for the Saturday night CBS Caravan show which has never been interrupted to date.
Also as a result of his records, his western tunes in particular, he was signed to star in his first picture, "Singing Guns", which was produced at Republic Studios during the summer of 1949, and which co-stars Walter Brennan, Ella Raines and Ward Bond.Today, Monroe lives with his wife and two daughters, Candace, 8 and Christina, 5 in a beautiful, Georgian-styled home in the suburbs of Boston. In spite of his tremendous success as the leading singing personality in the band business, he is happiest when he is at home, surrounded by family, friends and hobbies. Of the latter, he enjoys building model trains, photography, pipe collecting, flying and motorcycling. He is a licensed pilot and owns his own Lockheed-12 plane, which he uses all the time when he is on the road.
Other Monroe interests include The Meadows, one of the most famous restaurants in New England, located in Framingham, Mass., and a company called Stories for Young America, which produces children's educational toys and songs.--------
Vaughn Monroe was one of the top singing bandleaders
Like several of the other headliners with "name" bands, Mr. Monroe weathered the advent of rock 'n' roll and other later styles of music by leaving center stage and forming small bands to play club dates and at weddings and other private occasions--mostly for the generation that clung to the less energetic music of the period before the "new sound" become dominant.As recently as last year, several Vaughn Monroe "units" were playing in various parts of the country. But the leader himself had been forced to phase out his own appearances.
A native of Akron, Ohio, he began playing the trumpet in high school and won a state-wide trumpet contest. He entered Carnegie Institute of Technology in Pittsburgh with a career as an engineer in view, but after two years he left college and went with a band. It was 1932, the depths of the Depression, and young Monroe could earn good money as a trumpeter and singer.In 1937 when he was with a band headed by Jack Marshard that was well known in society circles, Marshard son found that his trumpet player and vocalist--who stood 6 feet 2 inches and had movie star features--was especially popular with audiences. So Vaughn Monroe was launched as a bandleader and Jack Marshard became the band's business manager.
By the outbreak of world War II, Mr. Monroe had become nationally known. His band played lucrative one-night stands, they headlined at stage shows in movie palaces across the country, and the band was featured on radio.His success as a showman concealed the fact that his voice was unusual in its "operatic" nature in contrast to other popular singers. It proved to augment his warm manner and handsome appearance, and to captivate audiences.
At the peak of his career, Mr. Monroe issued hit record after hit record, "There, I've Said It Again," "Ballerina," "Mule Train," and dozens of others.
When television came in, Mr. Monroe adapted to it, but after the first few years most of the big bands like his found themselves superseded by newer forms of entertainment.Mr. Monroe also was featured in some films, but Hollywood never claimed him as it did several of his contemporary bandleaders.
--------------------------
...Last January, for instance, a gentleman named Ed McKenzie, known to the Detroit radio audience as Jack the Bellboy, was passing a slow night at his turntables in the studio. On a whim, he picked up a Vaughn Monroe record and said, "Well, let's hear now from Old Nasal Nose, the poor man's John Charles Thomas. In the recording by Old Mushmouth, note carefully the muscles on the tonsils, the sinews on the adenoids. Here he is, Vaughn Mon-schmoe!"
The next day, angry teen-agers swarmed upon the radio station. Jack the Bellboy was deluged with letters, typical of which was the following:
Dear Empty-head:After reading thousands of such letters Jack the Bellboy (who actually is a close friend of Monroe) smiled contentedly, piled up the letters, and walked in to ask for a raise. Today, whenever the Bellboy wants to give his Hooper rating a boost he attacks Monroe and happily waits for the letters to come pouring in.
Why don't you drop dead, take the A-train, or jump in the river? Boy-- you're nowhere. When you start picking on my boy Vaughn Monroe, the fireworks really start. First of all, he's the most wonderful man, the best-looking male vocalist in the country and he can outsing anybody you can name any day. Why don't you keep your rotten opinions to yourself? How about playing Vaughn Monroe's latest-- without your usual sarcastic remarks? An ex-Bellboy fan
"This," says Jack the Bellboy, "doesn't happen with any other star-- not even Crosby or Sinatra."
Apparently, a lot of things are happening to Vaughn Monroe lately that are not happening to other stars. The entertainment world is in a slump, but not the deep-toned Mr. Monroe, whose controversial voice has brought him titles like the Voice with Muscles and the Voice with Hair on Its Chest (friendly); and the Foghorn, Old Leather Lungs and the Million-Dollar Monotone (critical). His weekly radio program is in its fourth year, and a good deal of money is rolling in from a number of other sources.
[This article continues on page 64 of Collier's Magazine for August 20, 1949]
-------------
THE VERY BEST OF VAUGHN MONROE / Taragon, 1998/ Taragon Records / BMG Special Products/ Released: October 20, 1998 / Item Code: TARCD-1032 / DRC11533 / Not available on Cassette/
1. Racing With The Moon (Vaughn's Theme) / 2. There I Go / 3. My Devotion / 4. When The Lights Go On Again (All Over The World) / 5. Let's Get Lost / 6. The Trolley Song / 7. There, I've Said It Again / 8. Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow / 9. I Wish I Didn't Love You So / 10. Ballerina / 11. Red Roses For A Blue Lady / 12. Riders In The Sky / 13. Someday (You'll Want Me To Want You) / 14. That Lucky Old Sun / 15. Bamboo / 16. Thanks Mister Florist / 17. Sound Off / 18. They Call The Wind Maria / 19. Lady Love / 20. They Were Doin' The Mambo /
---------------------------------
TITLE: THERE! I'VE SUNG IT AGAIN
Audio CD (July 21, 1998) / Label: Memoir Classics (UK) / ASIN: B000009NME / Amazon.com Sales Rank: 40,353
1. Racing With The Moon/ 2. There I Go/ 3. We Could Make Such Beautiful Music/ 4. It's Only A Paper Moon/ 5. Did You Ever See A Dream Walking / 6. Sleepy Lagoon / 7. There, I've Said It Again/ 8. Last Time I Saw Paris/ 9. I'll See You In My Dreams/ 10. Moonlight And Roses / 11. Blue Moon/ 12. It's My Lazy Day/ 13. Drifting And Dreaming / 14. My Devotion/ 15. Rum And Coca Cola / 16. A Sinner Kissed An Angel / 17. Life Can Be Beautiful / 18. Tangerine / 19. The Things We Did Last Summer / 20. Moonglow / 21. All The Time / 22. The Very Thought Of You / 23. G'bye Now / 24. Dream
-----------