Vaughn De Leath

Trivia

• De Leath made her last recording in 1931 for Eli Oberstein's Crown label. She made her final nationwide network performances in the early 1930s.
• In 1928, she appeared on an experimental television broadcast and later became a special guest for the debut broadcast of "Voice of Firestone Radio Hour". She also was one of the first American entertainers to broadcast to Europe via transatlantic radio transmission.
• In 1923, she became one of the first female executives to manage a radio station, WDT in New York City, on which she also performed.
• She occasionally recorded for major label subsidiaries under assumed names. De Leath had a highly versatile range of styles, and as material required could adapt as a serious balladeer, playful girl, vampish coquette, or vaudeville comedienne.
• Her recording career began in 1921. She recorded for a number of labels, including Edison, Columbia, Okeh, Gennett, Victor, and Brunswick.
• She adopted the stage name "Vaughn De Leath." Her vocals ranged from soprano to deep contralto. De Leath adapted to the emerging, less restrictive jazz vocal style of the late 1910s - early 1920s.
• While at Mills College, she began writing songs, but dropped out to pursue a singing career.
• De Leath was an early exponent of a style of vocalizing known as crooning. One of her hit songs, "Are You Lonesome Tonight?," recorded in 1927, achieved immortality when it became a hit for Elvis Presley in 1960.
• Was a female singer who gained popularity in the 1920s, earning the sobriquets "The Original Radio Girl" and "First Lady of Radio."