Biography
Ruth Wallis reigned unchallenged as the Queen of the Party Records, issuing a string of bawdy satires laced with double entendres that built a devoted cult audience abroad while drawing the ire of American censors in her home country. Born in Brooklyn sometime in the early 1920s—she steadfastly withheld her precise birth year—Wallis first gained notice performing alongside bandleader Isham Jones, then served a short engagement with the Benny Goodman Orchestra. Throughout World War II she became a regular presence on the New York City cocktail lounge scene, gradually widening her performances throughout the Northeast. While holding an extended engagement at Boston’s Latin Quarter, Wallis began a romance with club manager Hy Pastman, whom she later married. Pastman urged his wife to add more original compositions to her sets; although her sincere torch songs attracted loyal listeners, crowds responded most enthusiastically when she delivered risqué novelties such as “Johnny Had a Yo-Yo.”
Listeners pressed her to make recordings, and after signing with the Newark-based independent DeLuxe she cut “The Dinghy Song,” the story of sailor Davy and “the cutest little dinghy in the Navy.” The single became a major success, moving more than 250,000 copies with virtually no radio exposure and despite bans by several major retailers. Its popularity prompted a series of sequels, among them “Davy’s Dinghy,” “The Admiral’s Daughter,” and “The New Dinghy Song.”
Each new release addressed topics still forbidden in postwar America. Alongside phallic humor, her lyrics repeatedly explored breasts, homosexuality, and adultery; although her work found an eager public in England, Canada, and New Zealand, the discs were prohibited in Australia, where customs agents detained her upon arrival during one tour. Concerned about Federal Communications Commission scrutiny, Boston stations refused to broadcast Wallis, yet sales remained strong even when stores kept the records concealed behind the counter. In 1952 she and Pastman joined DeLuxe executive Joe Liebowitz to establish Wallis Original Records. LPs including Sings for a Café Party, Saucy Calypso, French Postcards Set to Music, and Love Is for the Birds teamed the singer with arranger Jimmy Carroll and top New York session musicians such as the Ray Charles Singers and the Mac Ceppos Orchestra. With 1953’s “Dear Mr. Godfrey,” Wallis achieved a modest pop-chart entry by mocking broadcaster Arthur Godfrey’s dismissal of singer Julius LaRosa for supposedly having “lost his humility.” Later she lampooned the frequently married Gabor sisters in “(Mama Always Told Us) Bring the Boys to the House.”
Wallis attained her greatest professional height in the mid-1960s after traveling to London at the invitation of Philips Records producer and A&R executive Johnny Franz. Besides cutting the album How to Stay Sexy Tho’ Married, she performed a run of sold-out theater shows that finally brought her the acclaim long withheld at home. As cultural attitudes shifted and a bolder cohort of performers such as Rusty Warren and Belle Barth captured public attention, commercial demand for her work declined; although she maintained a schedule of club dates, record sales ceased. Following one last Australian tour she withdrew from both performing and recording in 1970, yet she continued composing, completing several unproduced film scripts and musical scores. Her earlier discs nevertheless retained a following, notably with syndicated radio personality Dr. Demento. In 2000, by then widowed and residing in upstate Connecticut, she approached the ICM agency with the idea of a stage musical built around her classic novelty numbers. Agent Mitch Douglas, a longtime admirer, assembled a creative team that included producer/choreographer Lawrence Leritz, director Donna Drake, and costumer Robert Pease. BOOBS! The Musical: The World According to Ruth Wallis opened at New York City’s Triad Theater on May 19, 2003, and later played engagements in New Orleans and Wichita. After an extended struggle with Alzheimer’s disease, Wallis died on December 21, 2007.
Listeners pressed her to make recordings, and after signing with the Newark-based independent DeLuxe she cut “The Dinghy Song,” the story of sailor Davy and “the cutest little dinghy in the Navy.” The single became a major success, moving more than 250,000 copies with virtually no radio exposure and despite bans by several major retailers. Its popularity prompted a series of sequels, among them “Davy’s Dinghy,” “The Admiral’s Daughter,” and “The New Dinghy Song.”
Each new release addressed topics still forbidden in postwar America. Alongside phallic humor, her lyrics repeatedly explored breasts, homosexuality, and adultery; although her work found an eager public in England, Canada, and New Zealand, the discs were prohibited in Australia, where customs agents detained her upon arrival during one tour. Concerned about Federal Communications Commission scrutiny, Boston stations refused to broadcast Wallis, yet sales remained strong even when stores kept the records concealed behind the counter. In 1952 she and Pastman joined DeLuxe executive Joe Liebowitz to establish Wallis Original Records. LPs including Sings for a Café Party, Saucy Calypso, French Postcards Set to Music, and Love Is for the Birds teamed the singer with arranger Jimmy Carroll and top New York session musicians such as the Ray Charles Singers and the Mac Ceppos Orchestra. With 1953’s “Dear Mr. Godfrey,” Wallis achieved a modest pop-chart entry by mocking broadcaster Arthur Godfrey’s dismissal of singer Julius LaRosa for supposedly having “lost his humility.” Later she lampooned the frequently married Gabor sisters in “(Mama Always Told Us) Bring the Boys to the House.”
Wallis attained her greatest professional height in the mid-1960s after traveling to London at the invitation of Philips Records producer and A&R executive Johnny Franz. Besides cutting the album How to Stay Sexy Tho’ Married, she performed a run of sold-out theater shows that finally brought her the acclaim long withheld at home. As cultural attitudes shifted and a bolder cohort of performers such as Rusty Warren and Belle Barth captured public attention, commercial demand for her work declined; although she maintained a schedule of club dates, record sales ceased. Following one last Australian tour she withdrew from both performing and recording in 1970, yet she continued composing, completing several unproduced film scripts and musical scores. Her earlier discs nevertheless retained a following, notably with syndicated radio personality Dr. Demento. In 2000, by then widowed and residing in upstate Connecticut, she approached the ICM agency with the idea of a stage musical built around her classic novelty numbers. Agent Mitch Douglas, a longtime admirer, assembled a creative team that included producer/choreographer Lawrence Leritz, director Donna Drake, and costumer Robert Pease. BOOBS! The Musical: The World According to Ruth Wallis opened at New York City’s Triad Theater on May 19, 2003, and later played engagements in New Orleans and Wichita. After an extended struggle with Alzheimer’s disease, Wallis died on December 21, 2007.
Albums
