'Shine On Harvest Moon' Ruth Etting America's Sweetheart of Song

Ruth Etting

America's Sweetheart of Song, Ruth Etting, was born November 23rd, 1897 in the town of David City Nebraska.  

According to Wikipedia, my favorite source on the web for Biographical material:

Ruth Etting left David City at the age of seventeen to attend art school in Chicago. Her job designing costumes at the Marigold Gardens nightclub led to employment singing and dancing in the chorus there.

She became a featured vocalist at the nightclub, and married gangster Martin "Moe the Gimp" Snyder on July 12, 1922. He managed her career, booking radio appearances, and eventually had her signed to an exclusive recording contract with Columbia Records.

She made her Broadway debut in the Ziegfeld Follies of 1927. She went on to appear in a number of other hit shows in rapid succession, including Simple Simon and Whoopee!. In Hollywood, she made a long series of movie shorts between 1929 and 1936, and three feature movies in 1933 and 1934. In 1936, she appeared in London in Ray Henderson's Transatlantic Rhythm.

Ruth on Cover of Radio Mirror

Back to Me:

She had over 60 recordings in her career.  Well known for 'Shine On Harvest Moon'  as well as her hit, 'Get Happy' from her Broadway appearance in 'Nine-fifteen Review', she was a household name. 

She was in over 20 short films through the mid thirties as well as 4 feature films.  The best known is her debut in 'Roman Scandals' with Eddie Cantor and Gloria Stuart.  

She sang, 'Shine On Harvest Moon' while in the Ziegfeld Follies, reviving the tune.  This tune has survived big time through the ages, and has even been recorded by an 8 year old Britney Spears on Mickey Mouse Club, and as recently as 2012 by Lon Milo DuQuette on the Baba Lon II release which includes 11 originals as well. 

There was scandal though, involving her marriage and divorce of gangster MOE the Gimp Snyder.  After their divorce in 1937, she fell in love with her pianist, Myrl Alderman.  He was shot by her ex, the gangster.

 Hospitalized, after two gun shot wounds, he would survive the attack.  Ruth and Myrl married, despite the fact that he was 10 years her junior.  Moe did 1 year in jail. The scandal effectively ended her career.

The images abound on image search, and her discography is hefty for a woman of that time.  She lived well, and passed away at the age of 80 in Colorado Springs in 1978.  

She had so many songs I could choose to share, but as this is the Ukulele Blog, lol, and we have all played this song so many times in the learning of our instrument, I thought it fitting to place this one in the archive for future enjoyment!

Here are some images of cover shots on sheet music featuring Ruth Etting. 

Again, there were so many to choose from but I reduced it to three, and now you can investigate this interesting woman further.  Look her up on youtube for big surprises!

                                                        Shine On Harvest Moon.  

And one more for nostalgia's sake.  Just loved this recording of 'Love Me Or Leave Me'.  One of those voice captures that is so elegant.  This one also has some great photos of Ruth Etting.  If you go on youtube and pull her name up with the word FILM attached, you can actually watch some of the very first musical shorts she was in.  I can't believe how they could get a whole story in to a small ten to twenty minute film.  

                                                           Love Me Or Leave Me

Ukulele Lady by Vaughn De Leath "The Original Radio Girl"

Vaughn De Leath, born Leonore Vonderlieth September 26,1984 in the town of Mt. Pulaski, Illinois was known as "The First Lady of Radio". She was a stylized singer, of the crooner method and though quite popular in the 1920s is little known today.

This being a Ukulele blog, about all things Ukulele, I thought it would be cool to start with her!

One of her hit songs, 'Are You Lonesome Tonight' , recorded in 1927, later became a well recognized mega hit for, of course, Elvis Presley in 1960.


According to Wikipedia:
In January 1920, the inventor and radio pioneer Lee DeForest, brought her to his studio in New York City's World Tower, where De Leath sang "Swanee River" in a cramped room. Most radio listeners at the time were only equipped with crystal radio, which limited audio fidelity. This performance is sometimes cited as the first live singing broadcast (although this is disputed by some historians). According to some historical accounts of this incident, having been advised that high notes sung in her natural soprano might shatter the fragile vacuum tubes of her carbon microphone's amplifier, De Leath switched to a deep contralto and in the process invented "crooning", which became the dominant pop vocal styling for the next three decades.

By 1921, in the formative years of commercial radio, De Leath began singing at WJZ, in Newark, New Jersey (a station later known as WABC in New York City). She also performed on the New York stage in the early to mid 1920s, but radio became her primary medium, and she made a name for herself as a radio entertainer.

Her recording career began in 1921. Over the next decade she recorded for a number of labels, including Edison, Columbia, Okeh, Gennett, Victor, and Brunswick. She occasionally recorded for major label subsidiaries under various pseudonyms.[2] These included Gloria Geer, Mamie Lee, Sadie Green, Betty Brown, Nancy Foster, Marion Ross, Glory Clark, Angelina Marco, and Gertrude Dwyer.[1] De Leath had a highly versatile range of styles, and as material required could adapt as a serious balladeer, playful girl, vampish coquette, or vaudeville comedienne.

De Leath's recording accompanists included some of the major jazz musicians of the 1920s, including cornetist Red Nichols, trombonist Miff Mole, guitarists Dick McDonough and Eddie Lang, and bandleader Paul Whiteman. She demonstrated a high level of instrumental ability on the ukulele, and occasionally accompanied herself on recordings. In performance she played banjo, guitar, and piano. She also recorded ukulele instruction records.

In 1923, she became one of the first female executives to manage a radio station, WDT, in New York City, on which she also performed. In 1928, she appeared on an experimental television broadcast, and later became a special guest for the debut broadcast of Voice of Firestone Radio Hour. She also was one of the first American entertainers to broadcast to Europe via transatlantic radio transmission.

De Leath made her last recording in 1931 for the Crown label. She made her final nationwide network performances in the early 1930s. In her waning years, she made radio appearances on local New York stations, including WBEN in Buffalo.

Her 1925 hit recording, "Ukulele Lady", was used in the 1999 film, The Cider House Rules.[1]

Back to me:
I would have rewritten the above but, why mess with something so perfect, right? Better for you to have that info in tact.

She was an amazing lady for her times. She lived well, died poor, as all musicians and artists seem to do, and they say she had health complications from a 'Drinking Problem.' She died at the age of 42 on May 28th, 1943. I give you now, the link to her song, "Ukulele Lady".