Sign up to save your podcasts
Or
Share The Rudy Vallée Files: Secrets of America's First Pop Star
Share to email
Share to Facebook
Share to X
Share to email
Share to Facebook
Share to X
Or
The Rudy Vallée Files: Secrets of America's First Pop Star
The Rudy Vallée Files: Secrets of America's First Pop Star episodes
- Why He Didn't Tell
Silvana de la Osa tells the story of coming into possession of her great-grandfather's manuscript and eventually his whole archive. Her great-grandfather, Ralph de la Osa Sr., worked for the first pop star and mass media star ever, Rudy Vallee. Rudy was considered King of the Air and beyond being the most famous man in America in 1929, he was also someone that could make anyone he wanted a star. But at a cost, as Silvana would come to learn.
What Silvana finds when she started reading and researching was more than just some scandal. She found connections historians haven't found yet. She evolves her understanding of her own family history. She will reveal just why her great-grandfather carried guilt with him until his death.
Learn more at the Substack and get ad free listening with a paid subscription at whatsurfaced.substack.com. Buy the book on Amazon or buy it wherever you get your books.
Be sure to subscribe, rate, comment, and share, so that others can find this podcast.
Credits
Narrated, Directed, Written, Produced, and Edited by Silvana de la Osa
"Mom" - herself, Jo Ann de la Osa-Robinson
Cover Art Design
Ali Diaz-Tello
Voice Actors
"Gramps" - Kevin Gosnell
"Fay Webb" - Nicole Bernard
"Rudy Vallee" - Callum Walz
"Alice Faye" - Madison Satterfield
Music in this episode:
"Serie Noire (Instrumental)" and "Reprise (Instrumental)" by Arms and Sleepers
"Investigation (Instrumental)" by CAPE
"Secret Place (Instrumental)" by Dominique Charpentier
Licensed through Audiio.
Theme music - "Deep Night" Remix by Joe Gilberti
33 min - Finding Fay's Family and Rudy's Rise
Silvana talks with Fay Webb's cousin, Rob Race, and learns more about the impact of Fay's marriage on Fay and her parents. She also dives into what makes Rudy Vallee so famous and why Fay might have left her fiancee behind in favor of Rudy.
Silvana includes excerpts from Dr. Allison McCracken's lecture on early crooning history and her one on one interview with Dr. McCracken.
Trigger warning for SA at 25:55.
Learn more at the Substack and get ad free listening with a paid subscription at whatsurfaced.substack.com. Buy the book on Amazon or buy it wherever you get your books.
Be sure to subscribe, rate, comment, and share, so that others can find this podcast.
Credits
Narrated, Directed, Written, Produced, and Edited by Silvana de la Osa
Rob Race
Dr. Allison McCracken
Cover Art Design
Ali Diaz-Tello
Voice Actors
"Gramps" - Kevin Gosnell
"Fay Webb" - Nicole Bernard
"Rudy Vallee" - Callum Walz
"Alice Faye" - Madison Satterfield
Music in this episode:
"Serie Noire (Instrumental)" and "Reprise (Instrumental)" by Arms and Sleepers
"Investigation (Instrumental)" by CAPE
"Secret Place (Instrumental)" by Dominique Charpentier
Licensed through Audiio.
Theme music - "Deep Night" Remix by Joe Gilberti
28 min
About The Rudy Vallée Files: Secrets of America's First Pop Star
From the publisher's feed
In the 1930s, Ralph de la Osa Sr. was Rudy Vallée's chauffeur. He spent the rest of his life writing about it. Ninety years after the events Ralph wrote about, his great-granddaughter, Silvana de la Osa, is testing his account against court transcripts, financial records, and archives: the wiretaps he swore were faked, the photographs never explained, and what his own family never knew.
Check out the details at whatsurfaced.substack.com, where Silvana has published several posts about her research. You can also find the manuscript that Ralph wrote on Amazon or where you buy your books, called "The Secrets My Great-Grandfather Tried to Tell": https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0HFCMB32F .