Vaughn De Leath
"I'm Just Wild About Harry"
Gennett 4905
Song by Noble Sissle and Eubie Blake.
Recorded on June 8, 1922.
Oh, I'm just wild about H-A-double R-Y,
And Harry's wild about me, me, me!
The heavenly blisses
Of his kisses
Fill me with ecstasy!
The singer was born in Mount Pulaski, Illinois, as Leonore Vonderleath.
Her performing name was based upon her real last name, which was itself probably too German to be suitable for an American entertainer in the years immediately after World War I.
"Von" became "Vaughn," and "-derleath" was simplified to "de Leath."
Raised in California, she attended public schools in Pomona as well as Riverside and then attended Mills College in Oakland.
Nicknamed "The Original Radio Girl" and "The Radio Girl," De Leath--occasionally given as DeLeath, deLeath, and de Leath--performed on countless broadcasts from the early 1920s to the mid-1930s.
Radio history books suggest that she was before a radio microphone in December 1919 or January 1920 in the laboratory of inventor Lee De Forest, performing for dozens of listeners (the first station with regular broadcasts would not be established until late 1920).
Details about her radio debut are murky. Sources conflict not only on the date but on what she sang. In 1939 she was a television pioneer.
She sang in a crooning style (sometimes with a little-girl affectation) that was best captured in the electric era, but she made many recordings in the acoustic era, beginning in 1920.
She could croon in an alto range or sing in a very high soprano voice. Irving Settel states on page 58 of A Pictorial History of Radio (New York: Grosset & Dunlap, 1960) that her crooning style "was imposed on her by the limitations of the radio equipment of the day, since the high notes of sopranos often blew out the delicate tubes of the transmitters."
Page 136 of the March 1922 issue of Talking Machine World discusses her early years: "Miss de Leath's rise to popularity has been unusually rapid, for ten years ago she was playing the piano and leading the High School Orchestra in the evening in one of the Los Angeles theatres.
The quality of her voice attracted the attention of several Los Angeles musical critics, and by sheer hard work she soon advanced rapidly in the musical world."
The article adds, "While in Detroit [in early 1922] Miss de Leath sang over the radiophone, accompanied by Paul Specht's Society Serenaders."
Her recording debut was "I Love the Land of Old Black Joe" from the revue Ed. Wynn's Carnival. Issued as Blue Amberol 4097 in October 1920, this was her only Edison record issued in the early 1920s. Six years later she returned to the Edison studio and worked regularly for the company, with the first of over 40 Diamond Discs issued in early 1927. She is featured on the last numbered Diamond Disc: "Oh! Susanna" and "Honey, I'se A-waitin' Jes' Fo' Yo'" (52651), issued on November 1, 1929. The latter song was composed by De Leath.
Announcing the release of her Blue Amberol of 1920, Edison promotional literature states, "Vaughn de Leath's voice is well adapted to the colored accent. Her enunciation is so good that every word is intelligible."
After making this single Edison recording she worked regularly for the General Phonograph Corporation, making Okeh records beginning in late 1920 with "I'm A Little Nobody That Nobody Loves" (4292), issued in May 1921.
For that label, and its Odeon subsidiary, she sometimes used the name Mary Miller.
The July 1921 issue of Talking Machine World announced that she "signed a contract to make Okeh records exclusively....Miss De Leath's voice is an exceptionally rich contralto which lends itself admirably to recording....In addition to her recording activities, Miss De Leath is one of the composers on the staff of Irving Berlin, music publisher, and several of her numbers have attained considerable success."
She composed many songs, a couple published as early as 1912.
Compositions that enjoyed moderate success include "It's A Lonely Trail" and "At Evenside."
On May 3, 1924, she married Livingston Geer, a portrait painter. They divorced in 1934. She married again in 1936.
The singer died in Buffalo, New York, on May 28, 1943. Her sister Alma Cunningham of Los Angeles had been named as sole beneficiary.
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