Background information about the recordings can be found below the audio selections.
“Just Another Day Wasted Away (Waiting For You)”
The OKeh Melodians; Vaughn De Leath, vocal
(OKeh 40839 mx 81-011) June 14, 1927
“Gorgeous”
The OKeh Melodians; Vaughn De Leath, vocal
(OKeh 40839 mx 81-012) June 14, 1927
From the Edward Mitchell Collection, here are two sides by the OKeh Melodians, one of many recording pseudonyms used by the Sam Lanin orchestra.
The OKeh label was purchased in late 1926 by Columbia, which allowed it to operate as an independent subsidiary. By the time these recordings were made, OKeh was using the same electric recording process and super-quiet laminated playing surfaces found on Columbia’s “Viva-Tonal” records. In my opinion, they are, by far, the best-sounding 78 rpm records of the period in terms of both production quality and playback quality.
Vaughn De Leath provides the vocals on both recordings. Though she is, unfortunately, largely forgotten today, she was a true pioneer and one of the more ubiquitous and widely recognized female vocalists of the 1920s.
De Leath was among the first to employ a new vocal style made possible by the advent of the microphone, known as crooning. She was the first female vocalist to achieve fame through radio. Her first broadcast took place in January 1920 on an experimental station operated by Lee de Forest, some ten months before the initial sign-on of the very first commercial radio station, KDKA, Pittsburgh. This resulted in her being billed as “The Original Radio Girl” and the “First Lady of Radio,” a title she defended in court when Kate Smith began using it. She was also the first woman to manage a large-city radio station.
Vaughn De Leath did not have an exclusive contract with any particular record label and thus freelanced as a studio vocalist for most of the major labels of the 1920s. She recorded well over three hundred sides, some issued under her name, some under a variety of pseudonyms, and others, such as the two here, credited only by the phrase “with vocal refrain.” Most of her recorded output was on Columbia, Brunswick, Edison, and OKeh, but she also recorded for Victor, Gennett, and the various dime-store labels produced by the Plaza Music Company and its successor, American Recording Company.
In 1928, she made history in another brand-new broadcasting medium by performing vocals in a series of experimental television broadcasts.
De Leath’s career faded during the 1930s. The Depression had a devastating impact on the record industry, which resulted in fewer opportunities for recording sessions. She made her last records in 1931. By the late 1930s, she was living in Eaton, Connecticut, and no longer appearing on network radio, though she continued to perform on local New York radio stations. She died in 1943 at age 49.
Here is a link to an article I stumbled across that provides a bit more detail about her later years than I have seen elsewhere, as well as some interesting photographs.