Ruth Wallis
From Philosopedia
Ruth Wallis (5 January 1920 - 22 December 2007)
Brooklyn-born, Ruth Shirley Wohl (she chose Wallis as her stage name to honor Wallis Warfield Simpson, the Duchess of Windsor, according to her son, Alan Pastman) became a novelty cabaret singer who was known for her satirical and risqué songs with double entendres that she penned.
Wallis studied dancing, voice and piano. Early in her career she married her manager, Hy Pastman.
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The 1940s and 1950s
Wallis composed the music and lyrics for all her songs, performing in the 1940s and 1950s mainly in dinner clubs in larger U.S. cities. In Manhattan at 60 East 54th Street, she performed at the Elysée Hotel's original Monkey Bar; at 65 West 54th Street's Raleigh Room in the Hotel Warwick, and at 224 West 49th Street's Hotel Forrest.
She played the main rooms in Miami Beach (the Carillon Hotel, the Fontainebleau, and the Saxony) but, according to her son Alan, "Las Vegas only offered her the lounges.
Starting in 1948 she recorded risqué tunes for established labels, then formed her own company, The Wallis Original Record Corporation based in Linden, New Jersey. It put out 78s, 45s, 78 albums, 45 extended plays and LPs. By 1957 WORC had nine albums available. Wallis generally released a new album every Christmas. The company eventually moved to Miami Beach, Florida.
The 1960s
In 1961 she took her show to Australia, performing in Sydney at the Chequers Nightclub and the main room of the Chevron Hilton Hotel. In 1969 she headlined the Lord Mayor's Fifth Command Performance at Festival Hall in Brisbane. Similar success followed her to the renowned Beverly Hills Hotel in Durban, South Africa, Soloman Kersner's five star hotel. Alan observes, "It seems that her fans overseas didn't have the inhibitions that American audiences had during the 50's and 60's."
The Risqué
Her "The Dinghy Song" sold 250,000 copies and became her theme. It tells of a sailor who possessed "the cutest little dinghy in the Navy." Other of her suggestive titles: “Johnny Has a Yo-Yo,” “De Gay Young Lad,” “Stay Out of My Pantry, and “Don’t Bite Off More Than You Can Chew.” About transvestites, she wrote, "He'd Rather Be a Girl." Many were 78s that were also made into 45rpm records, on 10"LPs, and 45rpm EPs.
Off-Broadway Revue
In 2003 her work served as the basis of an off-Broadway revue, Boobs! The Musical: The World According to Ruth Wallis.
Impact
Linda Seida, of All Music Guide, wrote the following about Wallis:
- During the more innocent era of the '40s, Ruth Wallis' suggestive lyrics were viewed as naughty or risqué. In the U.S., her numerous recordings became fun collectibles, while in countries such as Japan, France, the U.K., and Australia they became best-sellers. A London producer so enjoyed Wallis' saucy innuendoes and double entendres that he brought the Brooklyn-born singer to the U.K. so they could have the opportunity to work together.
- Wallis penned her own material, including one song that sold 250,000 copies and became her theme, "The Dinghy Song." It tells of a sailor who possessed "the cutest little dinghy in the Navy." Other songs addressed sexual topics that Americans were probably not quite prepared to face head-on in mixed company in the '40s and '50s, tunes such as "Boobs" and "The Pop-Up Song." In "He'd Rather Be a Girl," Wallis sang about transvestites. In "Drill 'Em All," she addressed the topic of unfaithfulness.
- Before she made a name for herself by putting a sexual spin on her lyrics, Wallis was a piano, voice, and dance student. She began her career by singing with the day's big bands, one of which belonged to Isham Jones. She became a nightclub vocalist and in 1941 sang at New York City's Hotel Forrest. The saucy vocalist wed Hy Pastman, the man who managed her career, and the couple raised two children.
- A desire to reach for the spotlight pushed Wallis to begin writing songs. She recorded her first in 1948 for well-known labels but soon established her own in Linden, N. J. Calling it The Wallis Original Record Corporation, she put out a number of her risqué songs and also added ballads to her repertoire. Her label issued nine of her albums by 1957. Wallis relocated her company to Florida and later sold the business. She recorded well into the '60s and released a pair of live albums, one each on Mercury and King. She also recorded a number of calypso tunes. She frequently recorded with orchestras led by Jimmy Carroll and Mac Ceppos.
Chuck Miller wrote about Wallis in an extensive article that contains two photos of her and copies showing her LP jackets and record labels. He included the following:
- • ""My favorite song - the one I'm most proud of - is "My Children Are My Treasure." You've never heard that. And the audience never heard that. That was one I wrote specifically for my children, when they were very young. And I only performed it for them."
- • Sometimes she would perform at the hotel lounges from city to city, finally settling down for a time at Boston's Latin Quarter. It was there she met Hy Pastman. He was the manager of the Latin Quarter, and a two-week engagement later became a three-week engagement, then a diamond ring engagement, then marriage. Ruth continued to tour after she and Hy were married, returning to the Latin Quarter for some shows. The patrons liked Ruth's songs, especially the torch ballads she wrote herself. They especially went wild over some songs Ruth inserted into the show - novelty songs with a smidgeon of double-entendre - singing about how Johnny had a yo-yo that he played with all day long, or about Freddy the fisherman's son, and how long his fishing pole was. "There were times when the audience was very funny," she said, "and while they were laughing at me, I was laughing at them."
- • But the large record companies at the time - RCA, Columbia, Decca - were not interested in performers with ribald, sexy double-entendre lyrics. No station would play those records on the radio, for fear of losing their FCC license. Most record stores wouldn't stock them. The few record companies that did produce such records were small labels like DeLuxe or Jubilee, companies who could keep the overhead low and the output high.
- • Wallis Original started releasing 10-inch LP's containing a mixture of previously-recorded material, standards from her Latin Quarter shows, and newly recorded pieces. Wallis sang and played the piano on these discs, with musical accompaniment from New York's best studio musicians, such as the Ray Charles Singers and the Mac Ceppos Orchestra. "On the recordings, we had musicians from big orchestras, who were willing to do outside jobs and recording sessions," said Wallis. "We had some of the finest musicians who got a kick out of doing the stuff, because it was away from their usual pattern. Jimmy Carroll was a very big director and conductor, and he did all the orchestrations, a very talented man. He brought in all the musicians from the big bands, saying, 'Let's go do a session with Ruth Wallis, it'll be fun.' We recorded in New York. When I did my calypso albums, we had a lot of fun. The fellas got such a kick out of that kind of music, it wasn't the kind they were accustomed to playing. I had to attempt to have an accent to record lyrics like, 'Down in the Indies / They don't wear undies / Except on Sundays / Because Sunday is a day of rest,' and songs with titles like, 'The Gay Young Lad from Trinidad.'"
- • One of her songs, "(Mama Always Told Us) Bring The Boys To The House," was a satire of the often-married Gabor sisters. Wallis avoided singing the song if any of the Gabors or their husbands were present, but one night she sang it and "After the show, the Gabor sisters' mother came backstage to meet me. She was in the audience, I didn't know that. And she told me, in that Hungarian accent, 'Darling, oh you are so deliciously dirty.' She was very charming. I was flattered."
- • Wallis: "Since the day I recorded 'Johnny Had a Yo-Yo,' my music was banned in Boston. I had a lot of stories in the newspapers, 'Ruth Wallis is Banned in Boston.' The radio stations wouldn't play my stuff, they said forget it. I could perform at the Latin Quarter and the Bradford Hotel in Boston, but I couldn't hear my songs on the radio. Because I was 'Banned in Boston,' that's was brought people in to hear me."
- • Yet as her career was reaching its peak, Ruth spent so much time writing and performing that her two children - daughter Ronnie and son Alan - were drifting away. "We were living in Boston, but I was never home. I always had a housekeeper, my parents - and Hy's parents - were there all the time. My husband was there some of the time, but he went with me to Australia as my manager. I never tackled business, my husband and Joe Liebowitz ran the business. I would sit myself in the corner with a pad of paper and a pen and start writing. My children would say, 'Mom, mom,' and I would say, 'Please don't bother me, I'm writing.' It happens with children - my son understands now - what went on before. My daughter always thought I loved my son Alan more than I loved her. And consequently, they had not been getting on for years. "A while back, I wrote to my granddaughter Melissa. In the letter, I told her I was not much of a conversationalist, because I've never spoken much. I didn't have many friends when I was going to high school, I sat in a corner when I was home and just kept on writing songs. At the end of the letter, I asked Melissa if she would let her mother read it. So when my daughter Ronnie read it, she understood that it wasn't that I didn't love them any less. I just didn't have enough time to love them more." So in the early 1970's, Wallis retired from performing, giving her final concert in Australia.
Final Years
Generally, Wallis limited her time on the road each year to less than six months, spending the rest of her time with her husband and their two children, Alan Pastman and Ronnie Ramistella.
The marriage ended in divorce, but later they reconciled and Hy Pastman died in 1987.
In 2007, Wallis died in South Killingly, Connecticut, from complications of Alzheimer's Disease.
Trivia
- • Online, one can hear Wallis sing "Johnny Has A Yo-Yo" on You Tube.
- • According to son Alan: "Although most people typecast her as a risque comediene, they don't know that she wrote balads, jazz, calypsos, and four Broadway scripts that are still collecting dust." Asked if agents could see such, he suggests they write: mailto:Pastman@aol.com
{WAS, Alan Pastman, 24 February 2008}
