Ruth Wallis (January 5, 1920 – December 22, 2007) was a
novelty
Novelty (derived from Latin word ''novus'' for "new") is the quality of being new, or following from that, of being striking, original or unusual. Novelty may be the shared experience of a new cultural phenomenon or the subjective perception of an ...
popular
cabaret
Cabaret is a form of theatrical entertainment featuring music, song, dance, recitation, or drama. The performance venue might be a pub, a casino, a hotel, a restaurant, or a nightclub with a stage for performances. The audience, often dining or d ...
singer.
Career
Born Ruth Shirley Wohl in the
Brooklyn
Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...
borough of
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
, Wallis began her career singing jazz and cabaret standards – with such bands as
Isham Jones
Isham Edgar Jones (January 31, 1894 – October 19, 1956) was an American bandleader, saxophonist, bassist and songwriter.
Career
Jones was born in Coalton, Ohio, United States, to a musical and mining family. His father, Richard Isham Jones ...
and
Benny Goodman
Benjamin David Goodman (May 30, 1909 – June 13, 1986) was an American clarinetist and bandleader known as the "King of Swing".
From 1936 until the mid-1940s, Goodman led one of the most popular swing big bands in the United States. His co ...
on road tours for a couple of months; but gained fame in the 1940s and 1950s for her risqué, satirical songs, rife with
double entendre
A double entendre (plural double entendres) is a figure of speech or a particular way of wording that is devised to have a double meaning, of which one is typically obvious, whereas the other often conveys a message that would be too socially ...
s that she wrote herself. She did have a mainstream hit with "Dear Mr. Godfrey," a song about
Arthur Godfrey
Arthur Morton Godfrey (August 31, 1903 – March 16, 1983) was an American radio and television broadcaster and entertainer who was sometimes introduced by his nickname The Old Redhead. At the peak of his success, in the early-to-mid 1950s, Godf ...
's public firing of
Julius La Rosa
Julius La Rosa (January 2, 1930 – May 12, 2016) was an American traditional popular music singer, who worked in both radio and television beginning in the 1950s.
Early years
La Rosa was born of Italian-immigrant parents in the Brooklyn borough ...
, that reached #25 in late 1953.
She sang with a studio orchestra and often took on an
accent for songs about characters from other countries. Her music was occasionally featured on the
Doctor Demento
Barret Eugene Hansen (born April 2, 1941), known professionally as Dr. Demento, is an American radio broadcaster and record collector specializing in novelty songs, comedy, and strange or unusual recordings dating from the early days of phonograp ...
show in the 1970s.
She started singing in lounges and cocktail bars, where she met her husband Hy Pastman. Eventually it became clear that her novelty songs, which relied mostly upon double entendres, were the most popular. These songs discussed a number of topics that were
taboo
A taboo or tabu is a social group's ban, prohibition, or avoidance of something (usually an utterance or behavior) based on the group's sense that it is excessively repulsive, sacred, or allowed only for certain persons.''Encyclopædia Britannica ...
in 1950s America, such as
homosexuality
Homosexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction, or sexual behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality is "an enduring pattern of emotional, romantic, and/or sexual attractions" to peop ...
and
infidelity
Infidelity (synonyms include cheating, straying, adultery, being unfaithful, two-timing, or having an affair) is a violation of a couple's emotional and/or sexual exclusivity that commonly results in feelings of anger, sexual jealousy, and riva ...
. For this reason, her songs were banned from
Boston
Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...
radio stations. She often had difficulty securing distribution for her works, so she started her own record label, Wallis Original Recordings. When she arrived in
Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
for a tour customs agents seized her records. Rather than ruin her career, this only brought out crowds.
Wallis retired in the 1970s to spend more time with her husband and two children, but continued to work on material for Broadway shows. Some of her most famous songs were collected and became the Off-Broadway hit, ''
BOOBS! The Musical: The World According to Ruth Wallis''. ''BOOBS!'' opened at the Triad Theater in New York City on May 19, 2003; by closing date it had played nearly 300 performances. Produced and choreographed by
Lawrence Leritz
Lawrence Leritz (born September 26, 1962) is an American actor, dancer, singer, producer, director, fitness expert and choreographer.
Life and career
Born in Alton, Illinois, Leritz made his stage debut in the children's chorus of the world st ...
, it has had subsequent runs in
and
Wichita.
In March 2007 Wallis was honored by the National Archives of Australia. Memorabilia of hers was included in 'Memory of a Nation', a permanent exhibition opening in Canberra.
Wallis died on December 22, 2007, in
South Killingly, Connecticut, from complications of
Alzheimer's disease
Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegeneration, neurodegenerative disease that usually starts slowly and progressively worsens. It is the cause of 60–70% of cases of dementia. The most common early symptom is difficulty in short-term me ...
.
Track listing for ''Ruth Wallis' Greatest Hits – Boobs''
# "Queer Things"
# "Boobs"
# "Drill 'Em All"
# "Ubangi"
# "The Pistol Song"
# "He'd Rather Be a Girl"
# "Follies Bergere"
# "Admiral's Daughter"
# "Pizza"
# "De Gay Young Lad"
# "The Pop-Up Song"
# "Cape Canaveral Blues"
# "The Army Gave My Husband Back"
# "The Dinghy Song" (often confused with a similar song, "Davy's Dinghy")
# "Freddie the Fisherman's Song"
# "Hawaiian Lei Song"
# "The Same Little Yo-Yo"
# "Marriage Jewish Style"
# "The Bell Song"
Wallis Original Records
Wallis Original Records was a record label which was started in 1952 by Joel Leibowitz and Hy Pastman to release records by Ruth Wallis, the "queen of the double entendre". Their last release was ''Ruth Wallis' Greatest Hits – Boobs'' on December 1, 1998.
References
"Ruth Wallis, Singer-Writer of Risqué Songs, Dies at 87"(January 3, 2008) ''New York Times''
Boobs! The Musical.com"Ruth Wallis: Return of the Saucy Chanteuse"
an article originally published in '' Goldmine'' magazine, written by Chuck Miller
External links
*
Ruth Wallis tracks available for streaming
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wallis, Ruth
King Records artists
American comedy musicians
Musicians from Brooklyn
American women comedians
Deaths from dementia in Connecticut
Deaths from Alzheimer's disease
1920 births
2007 deaths
Singers from New York City
20th-century American singers
Jewish American musicians
20th-century American women singers
20th-century American comedians
20th-century American Jews
21st-century American Jews
21st-century American women