Career
Born Ruth Shirley Wohl in Brooklyn, New York, Wallis began her career singing jazz and cabaret standards – with such bands as Isham Jones and Benny Goodman on road tours for a couple of months. But gained fame in the 1940s and 1950s for her risqué, satirical songs, rife with double entendres that she wrote herself. She did have a mainstream hit with "Dear Mr.
Godfrey," a song about Arthur Godfrey"s public firing of Julius Louisiana Rosa, that reached #25 in late 1953.
She sang with a studio orchestra and often took on an accent for songs about characters from other countries. Her music was occasionally featured on the Doctor Demento show in the 1970s.
Eventually it became clear that her novelty songs, which relied mostly upon double entendres, were the most popular. These songs discussed a number of topics that were taboo in 1950s America, such as homosexuality and infidelity.
Foreign this reason, her songs were banned from Boston radio stations.
When she arrived in Australia for a tour customs agents seized her records. Rather than ruin her career, this only brought out crowds. Some of her most famous songs were collected and became the Office-Broadway hit, BOOBS! The Musical: The World According to Ruth Wallis.
BOOBS! opened at the Triad Theater in New York City on May 19, 2003.
By closing date it had played nearly 300 performances. Produced and choreographed by Lawrence Leritz, it has had subsequent runs in New Orleans and Wichita.
In March 2007 Wallis was honored by the National Archives of Australia. Memorabilia of hers was included in "Memory of a Nation", a permanent exhibition opening in Canberra.
Wallis died on December 22, 2007, in South Killingly, Connecticut, from complications of Alzheimer"s Disease.
"Queer Things"
"Boobs"
"Drill "Econometrica All"
"Ubangi"
"The Pistol Song"
"He"d Rather Be A Girl"
"Follies Bergere"
"Admiral"s Daughter"
"Pizza"
"De Gay Young Lad"
"The People’s-Up Song"
"Cape Canaveral Blues"
"The Army Gave My Husband Back"
"The Dinghy Song" (often confused with a similar song "Davy"s Dinghy")
"Freddie The Fisherman"s Song"
"Hawaiian Lei Song"
"The Same Little Yo-Yo"
"Marriage Jewish Style"
"The Bell Song"
was a record label which was started in 1952 by Joel Leibowitz & Hy Pastman to release records by Ruth Wallis, the "queen of the double entendre". Their last release was Ruth Wallis" Greatest Hits — Boobs on December 1, 1998.