Traditionally, the Franco American Center has hosted a three-day Rassemblement (Gathering) for writers, artists and creative thinkers in the month of April. I am writing to you today because I believe that this year’s opening event may be of interest to you. On Friday April 21, at 3:30 p.m. at the Franco American Centre on the University of Maine campus in Orono, Professor Pierre Lavoie of the Université de Montréal will open this year’s event with a keynote lecture in English based on his recent publication, Mille après Mille, which explores Rudy Vallée within the larger context of French-Canadian migrations to the United States.
Hubert Prior Vallée, known professionally as Rudy Vallée, was the first male singer to rise to national popularity as a “crooner.” (He was, I tell my students, an early twentieth-century Justin Bieber!) Born in Island Falls, Vermont of a Franco-American father and an Anglo-Irish mother, his family was among the early migrants to the United States. Vallée grew up in Westbrook, Maine and spent his first year of university studies at the University of Maine before transferring to Yale. He went on to become one of the most visible figures in the world of entertainment as a singer, musician, band leader, and early star in the developing world of radio, movies, and television. In spite of the brevity of his stay at UMaine, that experience remained a source of happy memories for him. His first calling card in the world of entertainment was the University’s “Stein Song” which he popularized the world over.