Yvette Rugel

Yvette Rugel was an American singer and vaudeville performer born in New Brunswick, New Jersey, and raised in Philadelphia. Her father, Max Rugel, was a Russian Jewish immigrant who worked as a cigar maker, and her mother was Fannie Nevyaski. Standing under five feet tall as an adult, Rugel performed under the billing "Miniature Prima Donna" and was also advertised on vaudeville programs as an "opera star."

Rugel's Broadway career spanned from 1917 to 1926 and included three productions. She appeared in The Passing Show of 1912, the revue George White's Scandals in 1922, and Earl Carroll's Vanities in 1925. Alongside her stage work, she recorded five songs for Victor in 1921 and made several sound shorts — silent films paired with matching vinyl sound recordings. She also performed music with her husband in some programs during this period.

Critical reception of her voice was varied. In 1923, critic Bland Johaneson wrote that "the quality of Yvette Rugel's singing is startling," noting that she performed vaudeville material in a manner that set her apart. After her 1930 appearances in Rome, Paris, London, and Venice — which included singing arias for Mussolini — critic Burke Henry characterized her voice as a "lyrical spinto." New York columnist Dale Harrison, writing in 1938, described hers as "one of the finest theatre voices in town." Rugel was still performing twice-nightly shows in Philadelphia as late as 1943.

In 1917, Rugel married Scottish-born vaudeville comedian Johnny Dooley. The couple had two children, John and Mary, before divorcing in 1922. Rugel died on September 20, 1975, in San Rafael, California, in her late seventies.