"People took me in and treated me like one of the family." - Huey Vallis

"This is Huey Vallis singing songs for you"

BY CARL ROSE
The Southern Gazette

Ewart (Huey) Vallis is a household name around the island of Newfoundland, remembered by many for his golden voice and his clean dry sense of humour.
Starting in 1949, he toured the coast of Newfoundland for many years, singing songs and telling stories, providing the only source of entertainment for many coastal communities. He did this mainly in the winter when he wasn't going to sea. And people still remember how he started every show, his masterful rendition of popular country songs, and his sidesplitting stories about things that happened to him when he was growing up in Grand Bank. He started his '30 song - 30 joke show' in every community with the same jingo, one that still vibrates in many peoples' memories today.

Hello everybody, how do you do,
this is Huey Vallis singing songs for you.
Hope that you will like them
and hope you don't be blue,
Hello, everybody and how do you do.
Huey explained how his singing career began.

"I was on a cargo boat, the 'Linda May', in Bay de Verde with Captain Beaton Winsor. Sometimes, I would go out on deck with my guitar and the wharf would block full. I thought to myself, 'if I went up to the parish hall, people could probably come out to hear me.' "I tried it and I made $143 in an hour - not bad when you consider I was making $92.50 a month on the boat. I said to the skipper, 'I'll have to pay off.' "He replied 'if you don't, I'll have to fire you; you shouldn't be here anyway making that kind of money in an hour. '"Huey got off the boat, and began touring the island. "I would sing a song and then relate a little story, something you could tell in Sunday school." It didn't take much prompting for Huey to provide a sample of the type of humour he offered audiences along the coast.
"One day when we were boys, my buddy next door, Bert White, suggested we'd go out for a row in the dory. We didn't have a dory, so Bert decided we would take one from the 'Freda M.' - nobody would miss her and we'd bring her back. "It was calm in the harbour, but it got loppy outside the pier. I got afraid and began to cry. Bert kneeled down in the dory and started to pray. 'If you let us get in safely, I'll never swear again, and never tell lies to my mother. I'll give you a $1,000, no $2,000.'
"I asked Bert where he was getting all the money. "He replied, 'shut you mouth until we gets in.'"

PEOPLE WERE SPECIAL
Huey, now 75 and still performing recalled it was the people, and their hospitality that made it all worthwhile. With 25-cent admission for children and 50-cents for adults, it certainly wasn't a get rich scheme. "People took me in and treated me like one of the family." He recalled one instance when he was performing in Gaultois. "People called me from Dawson's Cove to come up there and play. When I said it wouldn't be worth my while, they offered to send a boat for me, and said I could have the parish hall for nothing. "Shortly after I got there, the church bell started to ring. I said to one of the ladies, 'I'll never do anything here tonight with church service on.' "Oh, that bell is for you - that's what we do to welcome guest to our community." Mr. Vallis never performed on Sundays. Often he would visit the sick with the minister. "He would pray and I would sing hymns." As well as entertaining in parish halls around the province, Huey has performed with Harry Hibbs at the Newfoundland Club, and on Newfoundland radio stations - VOCM (the Big 6), CBY in Corner Brook and CKYQ in Grand Bank. For many years, he had a weekly two-hour program, but gave it up in 1965 to move his family to St. Catherines, Ontario, to be closer to where he worked on the Lake boats.

SEAMAN
Working at sea was the other part of Huey's life. His father was a deep sea captain so it was natural for him, he said, to turn to sailing as a career. In 1944, at the age of 14, he went out on a two-masted schooner and was a sailor for four decades, working at everything from a porter to a mate. Being a man of many talents, he also dabbles in poetry. He never ever purchased a card for his wife, who passed away in 1990 - for all special occasions, he wrote her a poem. He is a man with a strong sense of family. He spoke fondly of his four daughters, 17 grandchildren and five great-grandchildren. Huey is still active, plays his guitar every day and sings in the United Church choir. "It's what keeps me up there."

Huey Vallis still plays his guitar and sings every day.

Carl Rose Photo

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