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Wiera Gran & Orkiestra taneczna Syrena Rekord – Orchidea (Orchids In The Moonlight) z filmu “Flying Down To Rio” (Youmans /Jerry), Syrena-Electro 1935 NOTE: Wiera Gran was one of the most fascinating personalities in the history of Polish song. A rising great star shortly before the onset of WWII, she continued her career during the nazi occupation of Poland, singing in the cafes or on the concerts in the Warsaw Ghetto and becoming a living legend of her time. With a help of her husband, who was a Polish doctor, she managed to survive the Holocaust on so-called “aryan” side in the Warsaw suburbs, to live up to the most terrible time of her life, that started immediately after the end of war, when she was accused by her compatriots of being a “Gestapo-collaborator” during the war. The decades to come meant for her a desperate struggle to regain her good fame and artistic position, in which she never succeeded. Bitter and disillusioned, she died in 2007 in old people’s home near Paris. She managed to describe her tragic life as victim of accusations that have never been justified or documented – in her book “A Raly Of Caluminators” (1981). Available are in YT several recordings of Wiera Gran, with a lot of biographical infos about her. The best known American version of that great tune is by Rudy Vallee www.youtube.com
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Rudy Vallée (28 July 1901 – 3 July 1986) was an American singer, actor, bandleader, and entertainer. Born Hubert Prior Vallée in Island Pond, Vermont. Rudy grew up in Westbrook, Maine. In high school, he took up the saxophone and acquired the nickname “Rudy” after then famous saxophonist Rudy Wiedoeft. Having played drums in his high school band, Vallée played clarinet and saxophone in various bands around New England in his youth. In 1917, he decided to enlist for World War I, but was discharged when the Navy authorities found out that he was only 15. He enlisted in Portland, Maine on March 29, 1917, under the false birthdate of July 28, 1899. He was discharged at the Naval Training Station, Newport, Rhode Island, on May 17, 1917 with 41 days of active service. From 1924 through 1925, he played with the “Savoy Havana Band” in London. He then returned to the States to obtain a degree in Philosophy from Yale and to form his own band, “Rudy Vallée and the Connecticut Yankees.” With this band, which featured two violins, two saxophones, a piano, a banjo and drums, he started taking vocals (supposedly reluctantly at first). He had a rather thin, wavering tenor voice and seemed more at home singing sweet ballads than attempting vocals on jazz numbers. However, his singing, together with his suave manner and handsome boyish looks, attracted great attention, especially from young women. Vallée was given a recording contract and in 1928, he started performing on the radio. Vallée …
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