14 Facts About Vincent Youmans

1.

Vincent Millie Youmans was an American Broadway composer and producer.

2.

Vincent Youmans published fewer than 100 songs, but 18 of these were considered standards by ASCAP, a remarkably high percentage.

3.

Vincent Youmans was born in New York City, United States, into a prosperous family of hat makers.

4.

Vincent Youmans attended the Trinity School in Mamaroneck, New York, and Heathcote Hall in Rye, New York.

5.

Vincent Youmans's ambition was initially to become an engineer, and he attended Yale University for a short time.

6.

Vincent Youmans dropped out to become a runner for a Wall Street brokerage firm, but was drafted in the Navy during World War I, although he saw no combat.

7.

Vincent Youmans's next show was Wildflower, with lyrics by Otto Harbach and Oscar Hammerstein II, which was a major success.

8.

Vincent Youmans's most enduring success was No, No, Nanette, with lyrics by Irving Caesar, which reached Broadway in 1925 after an unprecedented try-out in Chicago and subsequent national and international tours.

9.

Vincent Youmans left his publisher TB Harms Company and began publishing his own songs.

10.

In 1933, Vincent Youmans wrote the songs for Flying Down to Rio, the first film to feature Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers as a featured dancing pair.

11.

Vincent Youmans spent the remainder of his life battling the disease.

12.

Vincent Youmans died of tuberculosis at age 47, in Denver, Colorado.

13.

At the time of his death, Vincent Youmans left behind a large quantity of unpublished material.

14.

In 1970, Vincent Youmans was posthumously inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame.