Jack Yellen
Encyclopedia
Jack Selig Yellen was an American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 lyricist
Lyricist
A lyricist is a songwriter who specializes in lyrics. A singer who writes the lyrics to songs is a singer-lyricist. This differentiates from a singer-composer, who composes the song's melody.-Collaboration:...

 and screenwriter
Screenwriter
Screenwriters or scriptwriters or scenario writers are people who write/create the short or feature-length screenplays from which mass media such as films, television programs, Comics or video games are based.-Profession:...

.

Life and career

Born in Poland, Yellen emigrated with his family to the United States when he was five years old. The oldest of seven children, he was raised in Buffalo, New York
Buffalo, New York
Buffalo is the second most populous city in the state of New York, after New York City. Located in Western New York on the eastern shores of Lake Erie and at the head of the Niagara River across from Fort Erie, Ontario, Buffalo is the seat of Erie County and the principal city of the...

 and began writing songs in high school. He graduated with honors from the University of Michigan
University of Michigan
The University of Michigan is a public research university located in Ann Arbor, Michigan in the United States. It is the state's oldest university and the flagship campus of the University of Michigan...

 in 1913 and after graduating became a reporter for the Buffalo Courier, continuing to write songs on the side.

Yellen's first collaborator on a song was George L. Cobb
George L. Cobb
George Linus Cobb was a prolific composer best known for ragtime, including both instrumental compositions and ragtime songs, although he did produce other works including marches and waltzes. Jack Yellen was a frequent lyricist for the songs.Entering Syracuse University in 1905, his first...

, with whom he wrote a number of Dixie songs including "Alabama Jubilee," "Are You From Dixie?," and "All Aboard for Dixieland."
He is best remembered for his collaboration with composer Milton Ager
Milton Ager
Milton Ager was an American composer.Ager was born in Chicago, Illinois, the sixth of nine children. Leaving school with only three years of formal high-school education, he taught himself to play the piano and embarked on a career as a musician. After spending time as an accompanist to silent...

. He and Ager entered the music publishing business as part owners of the Ager-Yellen-Bernstein Music Company. Yellen also worked with many other composers such as Sammy Fain
Sammy Fain
Sammy Fain was an American composer of popular music.-Biography:Sammy Fain was born in New York City. In 1923, Fain appeared with Artie Dunn in a short film directed by Lee De Forest filmed in DeForest's Phonofilm sound-on-film process. In 1925, Fain left the Fain-Dunn act to devote himself to...

 and Harold Arlen
Harold Arlen
Harold Arlen was an American composer of popular music, having written over 500 songs, a number of which have become known the world over. In addition to composing the songs for The Wizard of Oz, including the classic 1938 song, "Over the Rainbow,” Arlen is a highly regarded contributor to the...

.

Yellen's collaboration with vaudeville star, Sophie Tucker
Sophie Tucker
Sophie Tucker was a Russian/Ukrainian-born American singer and actress. Known for her stentorian delivery of comical and risqué songs, she was one of the most popular entertainers in America during the first half of the 20th century...

, for whom he was retained to write special material, produced one of Tucker's most well known songs, "My Yiddishe Momme," a song in English with some Yiddish text. Yellen wrote the lyrics which were set to music by Lew Pollack
Lew Pollack
Lew Pollack was a song composer active during the 1920s and the 1930s.Pollack was born in New York. Among his best known songs are "Charmaine" and "Diane" with Ernö Rapée, "Miss Annabelle Lee", "Two Cigarettes in the Dark", "At the Codfish Ball" , and Go In and Out The Window, now a...

.
Yellen wrote the lyrics to more than 200 popular songs of the early 20th century. Two of his most recognized songs, still popular in the 21st century, are "Happy Days Are Here Again
Happy Days Are Here Again
"Happy Days Are Here Again" is a song copyrighted in 1929 by Milton Ager and Jack Yellen and published by EMI Robbins Catalog, Inc./Advanced Music Corp...

" and "Ain't She Sweet
Ain't She Sweet
Ain't She Sweet was an American album featuring four tracks recorded in Hamburg in 1961 by The Beatles featuring Tony Sheridan and cover versions of Beatles and British Invasion-era songs recorded by the Swallows...

."

Yellen's screenwriting credits included George White's Scandals
George White's Scandals
George White's Scandals were a long-running string of Broadway revues produced by George White that ran from 1919–1939, modelled after the Ziegfeld Follies. The "Scandals" launched the careers of many entertainers, including W.C. Fields, the Three Stooges, Ray Bolger, Helen Morgan, Ethel Merman, ...

, Pigskin Parade
Pigskin Parade (film)
Pigskin Parade is a 1936 musical comedy film which tells the story of husband and wife college football coaches who convince a backwoods player to play for their team so they can go to the big Bowl Game. It was written by William M...

, Little Miss Broadway
Little Miss Broadway
Little Miss Broadway is a 1938 American musical film directed by Irving Cummings. The screenplay was written by Harry Tugend and Jack Yellen. The film stars Shirley Temple in a story about a theatrical boarding house and its occupants, and was originally titled Little Lady of Broadway...

, and Submarine Patrol
Submarine Patrol
Submarine Patrol is a 1938 film starring Richard Greene and Nancy Kelly. The supporting cast includes Preston Foster and George Bancroft. The movie was partly written by William Faulkner and directed by John Ford.-Cast:...

.

Yellen was on the board of ASCAP from 1951 to 1969. He was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame
Songwriters Hall of Fame
The Songwriters Hall of Fame is an arm of the National Academy of Popular Music. It was founded in 1969 by songwriter Johnny Mercer and music publishers Abe Olman and Howie Richmond. The goal is to create a museum but as of April, 2008, the means do not yet exist and so instead it is an online...

 in 1972 and the Buffalo Music Hall of Fame in 1996.

He died in Concord, New York, aged 98. He second wife was Lucille Hodgeman, a dancer who performed under the stage name Lucille Day. She died in 2010.

Broadway musicals

  • What's in a Name? (1920) with music by Milton Ager
    Milton Ager
    Milton Ager was an American composer.Ager was born in Chicago, Illinois, the sixth of nine children. Leaving school with only three years of formal high-school education, he taught himself to play the piano and embarked on a career as a musician. After spending time as an accompanist to silent...

  • Rain or Shine (1928) with music by Milton Ager
    Milton Ager
    Milton Ager was an American composer.Ager was born in Chicago, Illinois, the sixth of nine children. Leaving school with only three years of formal high-school education, he taught himself to play the piano and embarked on a career as a musician. After spending time as an accompanist to silent...

  • John Murray Anderson's Almanac
    John Murray Anderson's Almanac
    John Murray Anderson's Almanac is a musical revue, featuring the music of the songwriting team of Richard Adler and Jerry Ross, as well as other composers...

    (1929)
  • Follow A Star
    Follow a Star
    Follow a Star is a 1959 British comedy film directed by Robert Asher and starring Norman Wisdom.-Plot:The story is rather similar to the ending of Singin' in the Rain, where a singer fraudulently "borrows" the voice of Norman Wisdom's character....

    (1930) with music by Vivian Ellis
    Vivian Ellis
    Vivian Ellis was an English musical comedy composer best known for the song "Spread a Little Happiness" and the theme "Coronation Scot".-Life and work:...

  • You Said It
    You Said It
    You Said It is a musical by Harold Arlen and Jack Yellen that uses a musical book by Yellen and Sid Silvers. The musical opened at the Chanin's 46th Street Theatre in New York City on January 19, 1931 and ran for 192 performances. The production was directed by John Harwood, choreographed by...

    (1931)
  • George White's Scandals of 1935
    George White's Scandals
    George White's Scandals were a long-running string of Broadway revues produced by George White that ran from 1919–1939, modelled after the Ziegfeld Follies. The "Scandals" launched the careers of many entertainers, including W.C. Fields, the Three Stooges, Ray Bolger, Helen Morgan, Ethel Merman, ...

  • George White's Scandals of 1939
    George White's Scandals
    George White's Scandals were a long-running string of Broadway revues produced by George White that ran from 1919–1939, modelled after the Ziegfeld Follies. The "Scandals" launched the careers of many entertainers, including W.C. Fields, the Three Stooges, Ray Bolger, Helen Morgan, Ethel Merman, ...

  • Boys and Girls Together (1940)
  • Sons o' Fun (1941)
  • Ziegfeld Follies
    Ziegfeld Follies
    The Ziegfeld Follies were a series of elaborate theatrical productions on Broadway in New York City from 1907 through 1931. They became a radio program in 1932 and 1936 as The Ziegfeld Follies of the Air....

     of 1943
    (1943)

Film scores

  • The Adding Machine 1969
  • The Affair of Susan 1935
  • Ali Baba Goes to Town
    Ali Baba Goes to Town
    Ali Baba Goes to Town is a 1937 movie starring Eddie Cantor, Tony Martin, and Roland Young. Cantor plays a hobo named Aloysius "Al" Babson, who walks into the camp of a movie company that is making the Arabian Nights. He falls asleep and dreams he is in Baghdad as an advisor to the Sultan...

    1937
  • Another Thin Man
    Another Thin Man
    Another Thin Man is a 1939 American film that is the third film in the six-volume series, The Thin Man. It again stars William Powell and Myrna Loy as Nick and Nora Charles, and is based on the writings of Dashiell Hammett. Their son, Nicky Jr., is also introduced in the film. The cast includes...

    1939
  • Artistic Temper 1932
  • Bells of Capistrano 1942
  • Blonde Crazy
    Blonde Crazy
    Blonde Crazy is a 1931 film by Roy Del Ruth, starring James Cagney, Joan Blondell, Louis Calhern, Ray Milland, and Guy Kibbee famous for Cagney's line, "That dirty, double-crossin' rat!"- Plot :...

    1931
  • Broadway Melody of 1938 1937
  • Bulldog Drummond 1939
  • Call of The West 1930
  • Captain January
    Captain January (1936 film)
    Captain January is a 1936 American comedy drama film directed by David Butler. The screenplay by Sam Hellman, Gladys Lehman, and Harry Tugend is based on the story The Lighthouse at Cape Tempest by Laura E. Richards. The film stars Shirley Temple, Guy Kibbee, and Sara Haden in a story about a...

    1936
  • Chasing Rainbows
    Chasing Rainbows
    Chasing Rainbows is a 1930 American romantic musical film directed by Charles Reisner, starring Bessie Love and Charles King, and released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.- Film preservation :...

    1930
  • The Christmas Party 1931
  • Crashing The Gate 1934
  • George White's Scandals
    George White's Scandals
    George White's Scandals were a long-running string of Broadway revues produced by George White that ran from 1919–1939, modelled after the Ziegfeld Follies. The "Scandals" launched the careers of many entertainers, including W.C. Fields, the Three Stooges, Ray Bolger, Helen Morgan, Ethel Merman, ...

    1934 1935
  • Glad Rag Doll 1929
  • Going Hollywood
    Going Hollywood
    Going Hollywood is an American black-and-white musical film directed by Raoul Walsh, starring Marion Davies and Bing Crosby, written by Donald Ogden Stewart, and released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. The film tells the story of Sylvia , a French teacher at an all-girl school, who wants to find love...

    1933
  • Happy Landing 1938
  • The Heart of New York 1932
  • Hell In The Heavens 1934
  • Hold That Co-Ed 1938
  • Honky Tonk 1929
  • King of Burlesque
    King of Burlesque
    King of Burlesque is a 1936 musical film about a former burlesque producer played by Warner Baxter who moves into a legitimate theatre does very well, until he marries a socialite...

    1936
  • The King of Jazz
    King of Jazz
    King of Jazz is a 1930 motion picture starring Paul Whiteman and His Orchestra. The film's title was taken from Whiteman's controversial, self-conferred appellation...

     1930
  • Little Miss Broadway
    Little Miss Broadway
    Little Miss Broadway is a 1938 American musical film directed by Irving Cummings. The screenplay was written by Harry Tugend and Jack Yellen. The film stars Shirley Temple in a story about a theatrical boarding house and its occupants, and was originally titled Little Lady of Broadway...

    1938
  • Love Is News 1937
  • My Lucky Star 1938
  • Night and Day 1946
  • Our Little Girl 1935
  • Pigskin Parade
    Pigskin Parade (film)
    Pigskin Parade is a 1936 musical comedy film which tells the story of husband and wife college football coaches who convince a backwoods player to play for their team so they can go to the big Bowl Game. It was written by William M...

    1936
  • Rain or Shine 1930
  • Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm 1938
    Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm (1938 film)
    Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm is a 1938 American musical film directed by Allan Dwan and starring Shirley Temple, Randolph Scott, and Bill Robinson. The screenplay by Don Ettlinger and Karl Tunberg is loosely based on Kate Douglas Wiggin's novel Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm...

  • Sally, Irene and Mary 1938
  • Sensations of 1945 - 1944
  • Sing, Baby, Sing 1936
  • Submarine Patrol
    Submarine Patrol
    Submarine Patrol is a 1938 film starring Richard Greene and Nancy Kelly. The supporting cast includes Preston Foster and George Bancroft. The movie was partly written by William Faulkner and directed by John Ford.-Cast:...

    1938
  • The Ice Follies of 1939
    The Ice Follies of 1939
    The Ice Follies of 1939 is a 1939 motion picture directed by Reinhold Schünzel, and starring Joan Crawford, James Stewart, Lew Ayres and Lewis Stone...

  • They Learned About Women
    They Learned About Women
    They Learned About Women is a 1930 American black and white sports drama musical film. Though this film is a "talkie", MGM also issued this movie in a silent version, with Alfred Block writing the titles. The film was remade in 1949 as Take Me Out to the Ball Game...

    1930
  • This Is Heaven 1929
  • Twentieth Century
    Twentieth Century (film)
    Twentieth Century is a 1934 American screwball comedy film. Much of the film is set on the 20th Century Limited train as it travels from Chicago to New York. The film was directed by Howard Hawks, stars John Barrymore and Carole Lombard, and features Walter Connolly, Roscoe Karns and Edgar Kennedy...

    1934
  • Unexpected Uncle 1941
  • Wake Up and Live 1937
  • You Can't Have Everything
    You Can't Have Everything
    You Can't Have Everything is a 1937 Fox musical film directed by Norman Taurog and produced by Darryl F. Zanuck. The movie stars Alice Faye and Don Ameche, and was the film debut for Gypsy Rose Lee.-Plot:...

    1937

Selected songs

  • Alabama Jubilee (song) - 1915
  • There's a Garden in Hawaii with music by George B. McConnell - 1917
  • I'm Waiting For Ships That Never Come In - 1919, recorded by Moon Mullican in 1958.
  • Down By The O-Hi-O - 1921
  • Louisville Lou - 1923
  • Mama Goes Where Papa Goes - 1923
  • Big Bad Bill (is Sweet William Now)
    Big Bad Bill (Is Sweet William Now)
    "Big Bad Bill " is a song with music by Milton Ager and lyrics by Jack Yellen, written in 1924. The song became a vocal hit for Margaret Young accompanied by Rube Bloom, and an instrumental hit for the Don Clark Orchestra...

     - 1924
  • Hula Lou - 1924
  • Hard Hearted Hannah (The Vamp Of Savannah)
    Hard Hearted Hannah (The Vamp of Savannah)
    "Hard Hearted Hannah " is a popular song from Tin Pan Alley.The music was written by Milton Ager, the lyrics by Jack Yellen, Bob Bigelow, and Charles Bates...

     - 1924
  • I Wonder What's Become of Sally - 1924
  • Cheatin' on Me
    Cheatin' on Me
    "Cheatin' on Me" was released as the second and final single from American R&B singer's Kandi Burruss' debut album Hey Kandi. The song saw minor to moderate success only with peak positions of number 72 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart....

     - 1925
  • In Your Green Hat - 1925
  • My Yiddishe Momme - 1925 with music by Lew Pollack
    Lew Pollack
    Lew Pollack was a song composer active during the 1920s and the 1930s.Pollack was born in New York. Among his best known songs are "Charmaine" and "Diane" with Ernö Rapée, "Miss Annabelle Lee", "Two Cigarettes in the Dark", "At the Codfish Ball" , and Go In and Out The Window, now a...

     and a huge success for Sophie Tucker
    Sophie Tucker
    Sophie Tucker was a Russian/Ukrainian-born American singer and actress. Known for her stentorian delivery of comical and risqué songs, she was one of the most popular entertainers in America during the first half of the 20th century...

    .
  • Crazy Words, Crazy Tune - 1926
  • Ain't She Sweet
    Ain't She Sweet
    Ain't She Sweet was an American album featuring four tracks recorded in Hamburg in 1961 by The Beatles featuring Tony Sheridan and cover versions of Beatles and British Invasion-era songs recorded by the Swallows...

     - 1927
  • Glad Rag Doll
    Glad Rag Doll
    Glad Rag Doll is a 1928 song composed by Milton Ager with lyrics by Jack Yellen and Dan Dougherty. It was Ager and Yellen’s first movie theme song, written for the motion picture of the same name starring Dolores Costello....

     - 1929
  • Happy Feet - 1930
  • Happy Days Are Here Again
    Happy Days Are Here Again
    "Happy Days Are Here Again" is a song copyrighted in 1929 by Milton Ager and Jack Yellen and published by EMI Robbins Catalog, Inc./Advanced Music Corp...

     - 1930
  • Are You Havin' Any Fun? - 1939 with music by Sammy Fain
    Sammy Fain
    Sammy Fain was an American composer of popular music.-Biography:Sammy Fain was born in New York City. In 1923, Fain appeared with Artie Dunn in a short film directed by Lee De Forest filmed in DeForest's Phonofilm sound-on-film process. In 1925, Fain left the Fain-Dunn act to devote himself to...


External links

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