Joseph Malachy White was born on October 14, 1891 in New York City, the son of John White, a typographer, and Rose Anne Lackaye. His mother came from an American theatrical family and was a cousin of Wilton Lackave, famous for his characterization of Svengali in Trilby.
White was educated in New York public schools and sang as a boy soprano in various New York churches.
He made his first appearance on stage at the age of ten as "a village urchin" in a play called Checkers. His first vocal teacher was Charles Abercrombie, and he worked with E. Presson Miller throughout most of his career. In 1910, he joined Denman Thompson's Old Homestead Quartet. From 1914 to 1917 he was entertainer at Billy Gallagher's Film Café and, in the summer of 1916, manager of the Swan Lake Casino. His first recording test took place in the Edison studios in 1915, but nothing was issued at that time. Edison, who insisted on personally passing on every record, was not impressed. White's first release was "Molly Brannigan, " issued in January 1917. That year he also recorded for Columbia as J. Malachy White and enlisted in the 102nd Engineers, 27th Division. He made ten record sides for Columbia, some of which were announced in the catalog supplements with pictures of White in uniform. One announcement read: "J. Malachy White, be it known, sings the good old Irish songs in the good old American uniform. " On one occasion, during war service abroad, he was called out of the trenches to sing for Field Marshall Douglas Haig and King Albert I of Belgium. In 1919, White joined Neil O'Brien's Minstrels as soloist and between 1921 and 1923 toured the United States on the Klaw and Erlanger circuit. A pioneer broadcaster, he was the first singer heard in England on a transatlantic broadcast, from the WJZ studio in Newark, N. J. , on July 4, 1922. In 1924 he joined Joseph Knecht and his B. F. Goodrich Silvertown Orchestra as vocalist. One day Phillips Carlin, the announcer, in a jocular mood, told his radio audience that the members of the orchestra, in honor of the Silvertown cord tires that they advertised, all played silver instruments and that the tenor soloist always wore a silver mask. The announcement created a sensation, and fan letters poured in. From then on, "The Silver-Masked Tenor" was the mystery man of Station WEAF. For many years White never sang publicly without a mask, even though on radio he was invisible to the audience. This was perhaps the earliest radio publicity stunt, and it paid off handsomely. Not until his connection with the orchestra ended in 1930 was his identity revealed. Ben Gross, the radio critic, recalls in his memoirs, "Some letter writers to newspapers guessed he was John McCormack, the great Irish tenor, and a few women even accused him of being their long-lost husbands. " The mask became a part of White's act, and he retained it long after his Silvertown days were over. By then he had become one of radio's major stars. "I shall always remember, " writes Gross, "his performance on a night in 1933, when NBC moved from 711 Fifth Avenue to its studios in Radio City. Joe sat atop a heap of chairs and desks on the last vanload of furniture leaving the old quarters, broadcasting via short wave over a portable microphone. He sang Kathleen Mavourneen, the beginning of the song going out in the air from the Fifth Avenue building and its end from the towering RCA structure in Rockefeller Center. " White's most successful records were made for the Victor label, beginning in September 1925, when the new electrical process was being introduced. His first release coupled "Brown Eyes, Why Are You Blue?" and "A Kiss in the Moonlight. " His records, both with dance band and as soloist in Irish ballads and popular songs, were big sellers throughout the 1920's. After 1930 he went on the RKO vaudeville circuit, appearing all over the United States and Canada, but he continued to sing regularly on the radio. White's career ended in April 1943, when he slipped and broke his leg, which then had to be amputated. For the remainder of his life he remained active as a vocal coach. Jim Walsh, writing in Hobbies magazine, recalled meeting White in 1940. He died in New York City.
White was "a stocky, short, rather florid man with a friendly manner . .. casually dressed . .. a friendly, down-to-earth fellow as plain as an old shoe. "
On October 8, 1924, he married Maureen Burns. They had six children, one of whom, Robert, also became a singer.
