Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Email
Answers.com

Vincent Youmans

 
Britannica Concise Encyclopedia: Vincent Millie Youmans
Home > Library > Miscellaneous > Britannica Concise Encyclopedia

(born Sept. 27, 1898, New York, N.Y., U.S. — died April 5, 1946, Denver, Colo.) U.S. songwriter. He started writing songs while in the navy during World War I and later worked as a song plugger in Tin Pan Alley. He collaborated with lyricists such as Ira Gershwin and Oscar Hammerstein on the Broadway musicals Wildflower (1923), No, No, Nanette (1925), Hit the Deck (1927), Great Day (1928), and the first Fred Astaire-Ginger Rogers vehicle, Flying Down to Rio (1933). His standards include "Tea for Two," "More Than You Know," "Time on My Hands," and "Carioca."

For more information on Vincent Millie Youmans, visit Britannica.com.

Search unanswered questions...

Enter a question here...
Search: All sources Community Q&A Reference topics

American Theater Guide: Vincent [Millie] Youmans
Top
Home > Library > Entertainment & Arts > American Theater Guide

Youmans, Vincent [Millie] (1898–1946), composer. Born in New York, where his father and grandfather were well‐known hatters, he originally considered a career in engineering but soon turned to music. A stint in the navy in World War I, during which time John Philip Sousa played one of his compositions, confirmed him in his decision. Youmans served as a song plugger and inserted interpolations into a failed revue before writing much of the score for Two Little Girls in Blue (1921). In 1923 he collaborated on Wildflower and Mary Jane McKane, then a year later wrote his first complete score for Lollipop. The biggest musical comedy success of the 1920s was his No, No, Nanette (1925), whose songs included “I Want to Be Happy” and “Tea for Two.” Oh, Please! (1926) offered “I Know That You Know,” while from the far more successful Hit the Deck! (1927) came “Hallelujah” and “Sometimes I'm Happy.” Thereafter Youmans decided to abandon musical comedy writing and return to operetta. He had also co‐produced Hit the Deck! and ambitiously attempted to produce other offerings. But his subsequent shows proved failures and drove him to bankruptcy. Rainbow (1928) was followed by Great Day (1929), which despite its short run left behind its title melody as well as “More Than You Know” and “Without a Song.” Youmans's last shows were Smiles (1930), Through the Years (1932), and Take a Chance (1932). Especially in his early years, his identifying signature was his employment of the shortest themes, often two to four notes, repeated with variations in harmony and in tempo. In later years Youmans's musical line was frequently longer, but he never fully discarded his early technique. After writing the music for the film Flying Down to Rio, he contracted tuberculosis. This, his heavy drinking and partying, coupled with a curious intractability in negotiations, all combined to remove him from the scene and hastened his death. Biography: Days to Be Happy, Years to Be Sad, Gerald Bordman, 1982.

 
Columbia Encyclopedia: Vincent Youmans
Top
Home > Library > Miscellaneous > Columbia Encyclopedia - People
Youmans, Vincent, 1898-1946, American composer, b. New York City. He first began composing while in the navy during World War I. His first musical, Two Little Girls in Blue, with lyrics by Ira Gershwin, opened (1921) on Broadway. It was followed by such successes as Wildflower (1923), No, No, Nanette (1925), and Hit the Deck (1927).
Artist: Vincent Youmans
Top
Home > Library > Entertainment & Arts > Pop Artists

Similar Artists:

Herbert Stothart

Formal Connection With:

Gus Kahn, Edward Heyman, Otto Harbach, Oscar Hammerstein II, Ira Gershwin, Buddy DeSylva, Irving Caesar, Billy Rose, Leo Robin, Mack Gordon, Anne Caldwell
  • Born: September 27, 1898, New York, NY
  • Died: April 05, 1946, Denver, CO
  • Active: '20s, '30s
  • Genres: Jazz
  • Instrument: Songwriter
  • Representative Albums: "Tea for Two: The Songs of Vincent Youmans," "Forty-Second Street (Rare Piano Roll Versions from the Musical Comedies of the 20's & 3," "Through the Years"

Biography

A famed composer of the '20s and '30s, Vincent Youmans wrote popular songs and became famous for his Broadway musical hits. Among his Broadway hit songs are "Who's Who With You," "Country Cousin" and "Oh Me, Oh My, Oh You."

Vincent Youmans' career began when he was four-years-old. He was born in New York to a hat chain owner and a housewife. His parents encouraged his musical genius when they gave him piano lessons at age four. His education took him to Trinity College, Heathcote Hall, and finally to Yale University where he studied engineering. With no interest in engineering, he dropped out of Yale. He then entered the U.S. Navy preparing musical shows for the troops. One of his songs was used by John Philip Sousa and renamed "Hallelujah" in 1927.

After his stint in the Navy, Youmans concentrated heavily on his musical career. His first Broadway hit "Who's Who With You" was performed in the 1918 show From Broadway to Piccadilly. In 1920 his song, "Country Cousin," was published and earned him a job at Harms Music as a pianist and songplugger. Youmans then worked with Victor Herbert, assisting him in rehearsing singers for his musicals. The experience he gained in his first two jobs made him one of many successful composers of his time.

In 1923 Youmans collaborated with Herbert Stothart for the musical The Wildflower. Another show for the duo, Mary Jane McKane, was unsuccessful in 1923 but garnered much musical success for Youmans under its 1925 title No, No Nanette. It featured the songs "Tea for Two" and "I Want to Be Happy." During the late '20s Youmans did several Broadway musicals including Oh, Please, Hit the Deck, Rainbow and Great Day.

Success came for Youmans with Flying Down to Rio. The cast included such film legends as Gene Raymond, Delores Del Rio, Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. With hits such as "Carioca," "Music Makes Me," "Flying Down to Rio" and "Orchids in the Moonlight," it is no wonder Youmans, along with Edward Eliscu and Gus Kahn, earned a 1935 Oscar nomination for Best Music in the film.

Unfortunately, in 1933 Youmans contracted tuberculosis and entered a sanatorium in Colorado. After a few years he was able to leave and parted to Louisiana where he began to compose again. In 1943 he opened The Vincent Youmans Ballet Revue in Boston. The show was full of ballet, puppets, music and costumes. Not a rousing success, the show ended without playing New York City as Youmans planned.

In 1945 Youmans was forced to return to the Colorado sanatorium because of his failing health. At the age of 48 he died in Denver, Colorado. "Through the Years" was played at his funeral. A popular musical figure on the Broadway circuit, Vincent Youmans was also a member of the Songwriter's Hall of Fame. ~ Kim Summers, All Music Guide
Wikipedia: Vincent Youmans
Top
Home > Library > Miscellaneous > Wikipedia

Vincent Youmans (September 27, 1898 - April 5, 1946) was an American popular composer and Broadway producer.

Vincent Youmans
Birth name Vincent Millie Youmans
Born September 27, 1898
New York City, New York
Origin United States
Died April 5, 1946 (aged 45)
Denver, Colorado
Occupations composer, Broadway producer, orchestrator

Contents

Life

Vincent Millie Youmans was born in New York City on September 27, 1898 and grew-up on Central Park West on the site where the Mayflower Hotel once stood. His father, a prosperous hat manufacturer, moved the family to upper-class Larchmont, New York.[1] Youmans attended the Trinity School in Mamaroneck, NY and Heathcote Hall in Rye, New York. Originally, his ambition was to become an engineer and attended Yale for a short time. He dropped out to become a runner for a Wall Street brokerage firm before he was drafted to fight in World War I. He took an interest in the theatre when he produced troop shows for the Navy. After the war, he was a Tin Pan Alley song plugger for the TB Harms Company and then as a rehearsal pianist for famed composer Victor Herbert’s operettas.[2]

No, No, Nanette was the biggest musical-comedy success of the 1920s in both Europe and the USA and his two songs "Tea for Two" and "I Want to Be Happy" are considered standards. From 1927, Youmans also produced his own shows. He had another major success with Hit the Deck! (1927; including ‘Hallelujah’), but his subsequent productions were failures, though many of their songs remain popular. His last contributions to Broadway were some songs for Take a Chance (1932).[3]

Youmans collaborated with the greatest songwriters on Broadway: Herbert Stothart, Otto Harbach, Oscar Hammerstein II, Irving Caesar, Anne Caldwell, Leo Robin, Clifford Grey, Billy Rose, Edward Eliscu, Edward Heyman, Harold Adamson, Mack Gordon, Buddy De Sylva and Gus Kahn.[2] He collaborated with lyricist Ira Gershwin on the score for Two Little Girls in Blue, which won wide acclaim. His next show, with lyrics by Otto Harbach and Oscar Hammerstein II, was Wildflower. His most enduring success, however, was No, No, Nanette, with lyrics by Irving Caesar.

Youmans’s early songs are remarkable for their economy of melodic material: two-, three- or four-note phrases are constantly repeated and varied by subtle harmonic or rhythmic changes. In later years, however, apparently influenced by Jerome Kern, he turned to longer musical sentences and more free-flowing melodic lines.[3]

Youmans was forced to retire in 1934, after a professional career of only 13 years, only returning to Broadway to mount the ill-fated extravaganza The Vincent Youmans Ballet Revue (1943), an ambitious mix of Latin-American and classical music, including Ravel's Daphnis and Chloe. Choreographed by Leonide Massine, it lost some $4 million.[4] More than any of his contemporaries, he made constant re-use of a limited number of melodies; he published fewer than 100 songs, but 18 of these were considered standards by ASCAP.[3]

He died of tuberculosis in Denver, Colorado. At his death, Youmans left behind a large quantity of unpublished material.

In 1970, Youmans was inducted into the Songwriter's Hall of Fame.

Broadway musicals with music by Vincent Youmans

  • Two Little Girls in Blue - 1921
  • Wildflower - 1923
  • Mary Jane McKane - 1923
  • Lollipop - 1924
  • No, No, Nanette - 1925, revived 1971
  • Oh, Please! - 1926
  • Hit the Deck - 1927
  • Rainbow - 1928
  • A Night in Venice (Youmans) - 1929
  • Great Day! - 1929
  • Smiles - 1930
  • Through the Years - 1932
  • Take a Chance - 1932 (additional songs only)
  • The Vincent Youmans Ballet Revue - 1943

Movies with music by Vincent Youmans

Songs

References

  1. ^ Suskin, Steven. "Vincent Youmans". Show Tunes: The Songs, Shows, and Careers of Broadway's Major Composers. Oxford University Press: 2000.
  2. ^ a b http://www.songwritershalloffame.org/exhibit_bio.asp?exhibitId=288
  3. ^ a b c Gerald Bordman: 'Vincent Youmans', Grove Music Online ed. L. Macy (Accessed [12 July 2008]), <http://www.grovemusic.com>
  4. ^ Vincent Youmans. (2001). In The Faber Companion to 20th Century Popular Music. Retrieved April 13, 2008, from http://www.credoreference.com/entry/4413590
  5. ^ a b http://www.songwritershalloffame.org/discog_song_list.asp?exhibitId=288
  6. ^ Vincent Youmans at the Internet Movie Database
  7. ^ http://www.nfo.net/cal/ty1.html
  8. ^ IBDB: The official source for Broadway Information

External links



This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)

 
 
Learn More
Meet Andre Kostelanetz (1955 Album by Andre Kostelanetz & His Orchestra)
Irving Caesar (Vocal Music Artist, '10s-'40s)
Philip Goodman (American Theater)

Who is vincent cassel? Read answer...
What rhymes with Vincent? Read answer...
Is vincent perverted? Read answer...

Help us answer these
Who is Norman Vincent?
Who was Saint Vincent?
Where is the gulf of vincent?

Post a question - any question - to the WikiAnswers community:

 

Copyrights:

Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. © 2006 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. All rights reserved.  Read more
American Theater Guide. The Oxford Companion to American Theatre. Copyright © 2004 by Oxford University Press, Inc. All rights reserved.  Read more
Columbia Encyclopedia. The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition Copyright © 2003, Columbia University Press. Licensed from Columbia University Press. All rights reserved. www.cc.columbia.edu/cu/cup/.  Read more
Artist. Copyright © 2009 All Media Guide, LLC. Content provided by All Music Guide ®, a trademark of All Media Guide, LLC. All rights reserved.  Read more
Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Vincent Youmans".  Read more

Related answers
» More
 
Answer these
» More

Mentioned in

» More» More