Ruth Wallis (January 5, 1920 – December 22, 2007) was a novelty popular cabaret singer of the 1940s, ’50s and ’60s who was known as the Queen of the Party Song for the genteelly risqué numbers she performed for happy, and very occasionally horrified, listeners worldwide. Though Ms. Wallis performed in some of the most glittering nightclubs in New York, Las Vegas, Los Angeles and elsewhere, her career was largely overlooked at the time.
Born Ruth Shirley Wohl in Brooklyn, New York, Wallis began her career singing jazz and cabaret standards – with such bands as Isham Jones and Benny Goodman on road tours for a couple of months. She chose her stage name in honour of Wallis Warfield Simpson, the Duchess of Windsor. From there, she toured around the country with other orchestras, slowly building her own stage presence and confidence. By the early 1940's, she joined the cocktail lounge circuit, where she sat at a piano and sang for the dining customers. 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.
Eventually it became clear that her novelty songs that she wrote herself, were the most popular. These songs discussed a number of topics that were taboo in 1950s America, such as homosexuality and infidelity. For this reason, her songs were banned from Boston radio stations. 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 ,so she started her own record label, Wallis Original Recordings in 1952. Albums were produced roughly at every year's end at least until the material was taken over and reissued again by King. New albums in her later career include a live one for King and one on Mercury. She did have a mainstream hit with "Dear Mr. Godfrey," a song about Arthur Godfrey's public firing of Julius La Rosa, that reached #25 in late 1953. She sang with a studio orchestra and often took on an accent for songs about characters from other countries.
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.
When she arrived in Australia for a tour, customs agents seized her records. Rather than ruin her career, this only brought out crowds and made her more popular, according to later news accounts. Even today, only a fraction of her titles can be rendered in a family newspaper, among them “The Hawaiian Lei Song,” “Hopalong Chastity,” “Your Daddy Was a Soldier” and “A Man, a Mink, and a Million Pink and Purple Pills.” Her signature number, “The Dinghy Song,” is an ode to Davy, who had “the cutest little dinghy in the Navy.”
During the 1960's, Wallis performed around the world - San Francisco, Hong Kong, Melbourne, Johannesburg, London - and although her saucy songs were never heard on the radio, fans still lined up at concert halls and nightclubs to hear her sing. In America, Wallis still made appearances at supper clubs and lounges, playing the same venues as the hottest comedians and bandleaders around.
Wallis’s marriage to her manager, Hy Pastman, ended in divorce, though they were later reconciled. He died in 1987.In March 2007 Wallis was honoured by the National Archives of Australia. Memorabilia of hers was included in 'Memory of a Nation', a permanent exhibition opening in Canberra. Wallis died on 22 Dec 2007 at her home in South Killingly, Connecticut, from complications of Alzheimer's Disease. She was 87.
(Edited from Chuck Miller,Wikipedia & New York Times)