Youmans, Vincent

(Millie), American composer of POPULAR MUSIC, including the perennial favorite of songs, Tea for Two; b. N.Y., Sept. 27, 1898; d. Denver, April 5, 1946. Youmans took piano lessons as a child but was apprenticed by his father to enter the business world. He served as a messenger in a Wall Street bank, then enlisted in the U.S. Navy, where he also played the piano in a Navy band. He wrote a song, Hallelujah, which was picked up by JOHN PHILIP SOUSA, who performed it with his own bands. Later it was incorporated by Youmans in his musical Hit the Deck in 1927.

After World War I Youmans earned a living as a song plugger for publishers in N.Y. He produced two musical comedies, Two Little Girls in Blue in 1921 and The Wildflower, two years later. Both were moderately successful, but he achieved fame with his next production, No, No, Nanette. It opened in Detroit in the spring of 1924, then was staged in Chicago. After a 49-week run there, it moved to London, where it was produced in early 1925. It finally reached Broadway in the fall of 1925, and proved to be one of the most beguiling and enduring American musicals.

Its hit song, Tea for Two, became a perennial favorite all over the world.

There followed several other successful musicals: A Night Out (1925), Oh, Please! (1926), Rainbow (1928), Great Day (1929), and Through the Years (1932). In 1933 Youmans went to Hollywood to complete his score for the film Flying Down to Rio. Because of an increasingly aggravated tubercular condition, he retired to Denver in the hope of recuperation in its then-unpolluted environment, and remained there until his death.

Among Youmans's songs the following were also hits: Bambalina, I Want to Be Happy, Hallelujah, Sometimes I'm Happy, Great Day, Without a Song, Time on My Hands, Through the Years, Carioca, Orchids in the Moonlight, Drums in My Heart, More Than You Know, and Rise V Shine.