[Dixielandjazz] Vaughn Monroe -- Pittsburgh Post-Gazette blog, March 31, 2014

[Robert Ringwald]

Jeannette's Vaughn Monroe: Singer, Bandleader, TV Personality
by Rich Kienzle
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette blog, March 31, 2014
The Jeannette School Board's decision to name their high school auditorium for Vaughn
Monroe (1911-1973), class of '29, is probably a mystery to the vast majority of the
student body and a good many others below the age of 65. In an era of vastly different
musics and technologies, Monroe, a vocalist and orchestra leader, is almost an ancient
figure, a star of the 20th century who gained stardom during the big band era of
the 30's and 40's.
Vaughn Wilton Monroe's actual birthplace was Akron, Ohio, the son of a researcher
who worked in the rubber industry. His birth year was in dispute but his headstone
(in Florida) shows the year as 1911. He began playing trumpet around 1921, when he
was ten. The family lived in the Akron area until moving to Cudahy, Wisconsin. They
relocated to Jeannette in 1927 when his father joined Pennsylvania Rubber (later
known as General Tire and Rubber) and Vaughn entered Jeannette High as a junior.
He became a popular athlete at Jeannette as well as a member of the school band and
choir and senior class president. He met future wife Marian Baughman there. They
would marry in 1940. Bent on following his dad into industry, he didn't stay in Jeannette
long. He left to study at Carnegie Tech, playing trumpet in local dance bands to
earn money for tuition. Finally, in 1932-33 he focused on a full-time musical career.
As a member of Austin Wylie's band, Monroe was in good company. A number of Wylie
sidemen later became top bandleaders including Artie Shaw, Tony Pastor, Claude Thornhill
and Jack Jenney.  After working with Jack Marshard's orchestra in Boston, Monroe
formed his own orchestra there in 1940.
Monroe was a decent trumpeter but his rich baritone and crooning skills, highly bankable
in an era of Bing Crosby, set him apart. A 1940 recording deal with RCA Victor brought
forth a steady stream of hit singles featuring Monroe's vocals. "There I Go" was
his first big hit in 1940. A year later came "Racing With The Moon," not quite as
big a hit, but the song that became his lifelong signature tune. Along with touring
the country, he and the band were regulars on network radio shows during the 40's.
At some point before 1945, he wrote a new school song for Jeannette High.
Unlike many bandleaders, Monroe had business smarts. He owned the Meadows, a nightclub-restaurant
outside Framingham, Massachusetts and had other business interests as well including
a sizable investment in RCA itself. Among the future greats in his band: singer Georgia
Gibbs and jazz greats Ray Conniff, Alvin Stoller and Bucky Pizzarelli. Ballads were
Monroe's specialty, and he gave fans what they wanted, yet he also loved swing music
and often let his musicians tear loose on the bandstand.
As the big band era ended, Monroe hosted TV shows in the 50's. After dissolving his
orchestra in 1953 he worked as a solo vocalist. He semi-retired to Florida in the
60's, recording and doing occasional performing before he died unexpectedly in 1973
at 61, following major surgery. His wife died in 2013 at 101.
In 1958 he re-recorded some of his hits in stereo for the RCA album There I Sing/Swing
It Again, including "Let It Snow." The slightly more swinging version of the Sammy
Cahn-Jule Style winter favorite surfaced 30 years later, in 1988, over the closing
credits of the original Die Hard, 15 years after Monroe's death.
YouTube samples:
http://communityvoices.post-gazette.com/arts-entertainment-living/get-rhythm/item/37844-jeannette-s-vaughn-monroe-singer-bandleader-tv-personality
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-Bob Ringwald K6YBV
www.ringwald.com
916/ 806-9551
“As I hurtled through space, one thought kept crossing my mind - every part of this rocket was supplied by the lowest bidder.” ~ John Glenn