Today, whistling is often viewed as a casual habit or a novelty act, but in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, it was a celebrated discipline of the performing arts. This era, the "Golden Age" of whistling, saw whistlers commanding salaries comparable to opera singers, headlining Vaudeville stages, and establishing academies of instruction. This article chronicles the rise and fall of artistic whistling, highlighting the key figures who defined the genre and the cultural shifts that silenced it.
As the Vaudeville circuit exploded in popularity across North America and Europe, novelty acts were in high demand. Whistlers, or siffleurs (and siffleuses for women), found a natural home on these stages. The act usually involved a mix of bird mimicry—a Victorian obsession—and the performance of popular operatic arias. The ability to whistle a complex aria like "The Queen of the Night" was seen as a valid virtuoso skill, distinct from singing.
One of the most significant figures of this era was Agnes Woodward. In 1909, she founded the California School of Artistic Whistling in Los Angeles. Woodward was not merely a performer but a pedagogue who codified the art form. Her textbook, Whistling as an Art (1925), remains a seminal text. She treated whistling with the academic rigor of vocal training, developing a specific notation system for bird calls and identifying muscle groups required for varying tones.
Woodward viewed whistling as a liberating, "healthy" art for women, contrasting with the restrictive parlor norms of the time. She championed the slogan: "Girls who whistle and hens that crow will make their way wherever they go." Her students went on to become professional bird imitators and performers. Her influence even reached Hollywood; she notably taught Bing Crosby, influencing his relaxed, melodious vocal style.
While Woodward dominated the pedagogy, stars like Ronnie Ronalde dominated the stage. A British music hall legend, Ronalde was billed as "The Voice of Variety." He blended singing, yodeling, and virtuoso whistling, selling millions of records. His style was characterized by a rich, vibrato-heavy tone that mimicked the aesthetics of romantic era violinists. Ronalde's success was immense; he filled Radio City Music Hall in 1949 for ten straight weeks.
Another giant of the era was Fred Lowery, a blind whistler who recorded with the Big Bands. Lowery lost his sight at age two and turned to whistling as his primary musical outlet. His recording of "Indian Love Call" sold over 2 million copies, proving that a whistler could carry a commercial hit. Similarly, Elmo Tanner, whose whistling on the song "Heartaches" became a massive chart-topping success, demonstrated the commercial viability of the instrument in the jazz age.
The decline of artistic whistling coincided with the rise of the microphone and the crooner. As music transitioned into the Rock and Roll era, the "novelty" aspect of whistling began to overshadow its musicality. The earnest, bird-mimicking style began to feel antiquated—"cornball" entertainment for a bygone generation.
Furthermore, the ubiquity of recorded music meant that people no longer needed to make their own music to pass the time. Whistling, once the primary way a worker entertained themselves, was replaced by the transistor radio and the Walkman. Culturally, whistling also faced a backlash. In high society, it became viewed as "lower class" or unprofessional. Winston Churchill famously hated the practice, once scolding a paperboy. This interaction highlights the shift of whistling from a celebrated art to a public nuisance.
By the mid-20th century, whistling had largely retreated to the realm of rural folk art or comedy. Yet, the legacy of the Golden Age remains in the recordings of Ronalde and the texts of Woodward—testaments to a time when a pucker was as potent as a tenor's voice.
