After spending a few hours with Ruth, I was enamored with her passion, her talent, her beautiful voice and her life’s song. I couldn’t help but smile when her fingers met the piano keys and she began to sing. It’s as if the songs came to life. What an amazing and talented life she continues to live!
Ruth Allen’s dreams of pursuing a career in music were temporarily halted as she chose to raise a family. However, the singer and songwriter never lost the passion to sing and write. Last year, the Santa Clarita resident released her new book, a musical memoir, I’ll Still Be Me that talks about her life, a time of war and peace, sadness and happiness.
Ruth was born on January 20, 1929, in London, and at a very young age, music began shaping her life. She was only 10 when London went to war, and it was during the air raids, when Ruth’s singing career began. She sang in a choir and on stage. After the war, she went under the stage name Ronnie Graham, and quickly became the talk of the town.
“I continued to entertain even after the war,” remembers Ruth. “I used to perform in a band in East Anglia, on the American Air Force Base. I was just the singer, but one night the piano player didn’t show up, so I told them I could play.”
From then on, the band never replaced the piano player. And the Americans loved it.
At 21, Ruth was single with two kids and not a penny to her name. She continued to sing with the band and then one night her friends Tony and Basil encouraged her to audition at the Chic Astor Club in Berkley Square in London.
“I got up on the bandstand and did my three numbers and they all applauded like mad.” Shortly after, they booked Ruth for the next two weeks. “On the fourth night, Bertie Green, who had taken over the Astor Club, called me into the office. He wanted to book me for a year! So there I was, 24 years old, with a one year contract, the first time ever that anyone has ever been offered a year’s contract.” It was all over the newspapers. “Unknown Plays at Astor Club”…well that unknown was Ronnie Graham who became Ruth Allen.
Ruth even spent some time in Paris, performing at the Mars Club where she met and dined with Billy Holiday! “The work was dreadfully hard, 10 o’clock in the evening until 4 o’clock in the morning, seven days a week. When I got back to England, I was sick, but it was quite an adventure. It was the same year that Ruth met Bill, an American Flyer. The two married, and Bill, who was in the Navy, adopted her two kids from a previous marriage. The family moved to the United States, Key West, Florida to be exact. Continuing to raise her kids, Ruth never lost her passion.
Shortly after the birth of Beth, Bill and Ruth went on a much-needed night out and went to see Duke Ellington and his band at the N.C.O. Club. “The concert was marvelous, and I had to meet him.” Duke gave Ruth some advice. “Don’t deal with the middlemen. Make a good demo, and take it to my producer in New York.”
And so she did. It didn’t take too long before Ruth was offered a contract by Columbia Records. She also performed her own composition in a Royal Command Performance in England, where she met Princess Anne, not to mention, performed at Carnegie Hall in New York, per invitation of Michael Feinstein.
Since this time, Ruth has recorded multiple full-length albums and even wrote a full-length, musical with 18 original songs called Ring Out the Bow Bells, which she hopes to see on stage in the near future. She moved to the SCV just last year and you can see her performing at various venues around town.
Now at the age of 86, she continues her love for music and is living proof that it’s never too late to pursue your dreams, hers now being the stage production of Ring Out The Bow Bells.
Ruth’s book I’ll Still Be Me can be purchased on www.Amazon.com. To learn more about Ruth or to see upcoming performances at Larsen’s Steakhouse/Valencia, Ruth’s resident venue, visit www.ruth-allen.com or like her on Facebook. She will be available for a book signing at The Open Book in Valencia, 24250 Town Center Drive on Saturday, February 28, from 6 p.m. until 8 p.m.
