Band leader, singer. Born Hubert Prior Vallee, on July 28, 1901, in Island Pond, Vermont. Even though he intended to become a pharmacist, Vallee took up the saxophone in his late teens. While at the University of Maine, and later Yale, he formed a band. After graduation Vallee continued with his band and by the late 1920s he began to enjoy great popularity as a vocalist with a genteel style that made him the first to be called a "crooner." One of his first hits was "The Vagabond Lover," which became his nickname as well as the title of his first movie, released in 1929. Vallee was also known for carrying a little megaphone. For three decades he enjoyed a successful career on radio, in movies, in Broadway musicals, and with a solo nightclub act. During World War II he joined the Coast Guard and conducted a band. His style of singing had gone out of fashion by the late 1950s, but he enjoyed a reprise in the 1961 hit musical, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying. He recreated the role in the 1967 film version starring Robert Morse and Michele Lee. He also formed a successful talent agency and music publishing company.