Donald's Encyclopedia of Popular Music

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YOUMANS, Vincent

(b 27 September 1898, NYC; d 5 April 1946, Denver CO) Composer, producer; nicknamed 'Millie'. Worked in Wall Street, became a song-plugger, served in US Navy WWI, then plugged songs again alongside George Gershwin and became a rehearsal pianist for Victor Herbert. He eventually had a small output of high quality: many of his shows had short runs or flopped, but included great songs; he was a poor producer and businessman, trying to do too much instead of delegating to professionals. He also changed lyricists more often than any of the other great songwriters.

No, No, Nanette '25 was a big hit (with Otto Harbach and Oscar Hammerstein II), including 'I Want To Be Happy', 'Tea For Two'; Oh, Please '26 was a flop, but included 'I Know That You Know' (with Harbach); Hit The Deck '27 was a hit, including 'Halleluja' (first written as a march while he was in the Navy), 'Sometimes I'm Happy' (Irving Caesar lyric); Great Day! '29 ran only 36 performances; originally called Horse Shoes, it was modelled after Jerome Kern's Show Boat and called for a black band: Duke Ellington was supposed to take part, but backed out; Fletcher Henderson did it instead and producer Youmans allowed the white conductor to fire Henderson's men one by one until there were almost none left. It was one of the worst disasters of Henderson's career and the show flopped, but included songs 'More Than You Know' and 'Without A Song' (with Billy Rose). Smiles '30 was produced by Florenz Ziegfeld but ran only 63 nights, including 'Time On My Hands' (with Harold Adamson, Mack Gordon); he contributed 'Rise 'n' Shine' to Take A Chance '32 by Richard Whiting and Nacio Herb Brown, a hit, but he gave up on Broadway and went to Hollywood, where Flying Down To Rio '33 (the first film teaming Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers) was a hit, including title song, 'The Carioca' and 'Orchids In The Moonlight' (with Gus Khan). Several others were not as successful: Hit The Deck was filmed '30, again '55; Nanette in '41. His publishing company went broke, he himself went bankrupt '35; he had TB but ignored the doctors' orders. A big project The Vincent Youmans Ballet Revue '44 was a disaster. Nanette was revived on stage '71, one of the all-time great shows. In 1982 original manuscripts and orchestrations by Broadwy composers including Youmans were discovered in a warehouse in New Jersey, and Nanette was susequently revived again; for the story of the discovery, go here.