Albert Victor Young (August 8, 1899– November 10, 1956) was an American composer, arranger, violinist and conductor. Young was posthumously awarded the Academy Award for Best Music Score of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture for Around the World in 80 Days at the 29th Academy Awards in 1957.
Biography
Young was reportedly born in Chicago on August 8, 1900, but per U.S. Census data and his birth certificate, he was born in 1899. He was born into a very musical Jewish family; his father was a tenor with Joseph Sheehan's touring opera company. However, his father abandoned the family after Young's mother died.
The young Victor, who had begun playing violin at the age of six, was sent to Poland when he was ten to stay with his grandfather and study at Warsaw Imperial Conservatory (taught by Polish composer Roman Statkowski), where he earned the Diploma of Merit. He also studied piano with Isidor Philipp of the Paris Conservatory. While still a teenager, he embarked on a career as a concert violinist with the Warsaw Philharmonic under assistant conductor Juliusz Wertheim in 1915–16.
When Young graduated from the Warsaw Conservatory, World War I prevented him from returning to the United States. He remained in Poland (then under German occupation), partly earning his keep by playing with the Philharmonic and in a quartet and a quintet. He also gave lessons. His future wife, Rita Kinel, who met him in late 1918, used to smuggle food to him since he could not afford it.
He returned to Chicago in 1920 to join the orchestra at Central Park Casino, then traveled to Los Angeles to join Kinel. He first worked as a fiddler in impresario Sid Grauman's Million Dollar Theatre Orchestra, and was later appointed concertmaster for Paramount-Publix Theatres. After turning to popular music, Young worked as a violinist-arranger for Ted Fio Rito.
In 1930, Chicago bandleader and radio star Isham Jones commissioned Young to write an instrumental ballad band arrangement of Hoagy Carmichael's "Stardust", which until then had been played as an up-tempo number. Young slowed it down and played the melody as a gorgeous romantic violin solo which inspired Mitchell Parish to write lyrics for what then became a much-performed love song. Bing Crosby recorded it at least three times: in 1931, 1939, and 1942.
In the mid-1930s, he moved to Hollywood where he concentrated on films, recordings of light music and providing backing for popular singers, including Bing Crosby. His composer credits include "When I Fall in Love", "Blue Star (The 'Medic' Theme)", "Moonlight Serenade (Summer Love)" from the motion picture The Star (1952), "Sweet Sue, Just You", "Can't We Talk It Over", "Street of Dreams", "Love Letters", "Around the World", "My Foolish Heart", "Golden Earrings", "Stella by Starlight", "Delilah", "Johnny Guitar" and "I Don't Stand a Ghost of a Chance with You".
Records
Young was signed to Brunswick in 1931 where his studio groups recorded scores of popular dance music, waltzes and semi-classics through 1934. His studio groups often contained some of the best jazz musicians in New York, including Bunny Berigan, Tommy Dorsey, Jimmy Dorsey, Joe Venuti, Arthur Schutt, Eddie Lang, and others. He used first-rate vocalists, including Paul Small, Dick Robertson, Harlan Lattimore, Smith Ballew, Helen Rowland, Frank Munn, The Boswell Sisters, Lee Wiley and others.
One of his most interesting recordings was the January 22, 1932, session containing songs written by Herman Hupfeld: "Goopy Geer (He Plays Piano And He Plays By Ear)" and "Down The Old Back Road", on which Hupfeld sang and played piano (his only two known vocals).
In late 1934, Young signed with Decca. He continued recording in New York until mid-1936, when he relocated to Los Angeles.
Radio, film and television
On radio, Young was musical director of The Old Gold Don Ameche Show and Harvest of Stars. He was musical director for many of Bing Crosby's recordings for the American branch of Decca Records. For Decca, he also conducted the first album of songs from the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz, The Big Broadcast of 1937 (1936), Dr. Max Nussbaum, rabbi of Temple Israel, Hollywood, officiated.
Broadway
- Murder at the Vanities (1933) – musical – contributing composer
- Blackbirds of 1933 (1933) – revue – featured songwriter
- Arms and the Girl (1950) – musical – performer for the role of "Son of Liberty"
- Pardon Our French (1950) – revue – composer
- Seventh Heaven (1955) – musical – composer
Awards and nominations
Academy Awards
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Year
! Film
! Category
! Result
|-
| rowspan="2" | 1939
| Breaking the Ice
| Best Original Score
|
|-
| Army Girl
| Best Original Score
|
|-
| rowspan="4" | 1940
| Man of Conquest
| Best Original Score
|
|-
| Gulliver's Travels
| Best Original Score
|
|-
| Golden Boy
| Best Original Score
|
|-
| Way Down South
| Best Music (Scoring)
|
|-
| rowspan="4" | 1941
| North West Mounted Police
| Best Original Score
|
|-
| Dark Command
| Best Original Score
|
|-
| Arizona
| Best Original Score
|
|-
| Arise, My Love
| Best Music, Score
|
|-
| 1942
| Hold Back the Dawn
| Best Scoring of a Dramatic Picture
|
|-
| rowspan="3" | 1943
| Take a Letter, Darling
| Best Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture
|
|-
| Silver Queen
| Best Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture
|
|-
| Flying Tigers
| Best Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture
|
|-
| 1944
| For Whom the Bell Tolls
| Best Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture
|
|-
| rowspan="2" | 1946
| Love Letters
| Best Original Song for "Love Letters" (shared with Edward Heyman)
|
|-
| Love Letters
| Best Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture
|
|-
| 1949
| The Emperor Waltz
| Best Scoring of a Musical Picture
|
|-
| 1950
| My Foolish Heart
| Best Original Song for "My Foolish Heart" (shared with Ned Washington)
|
|-
| 1951
| Samson and Delilah
| Best Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture
|
|-
| rowspan="2" | 1957
| Around the World in 80 Days
| Best Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture
|
|-
| Written on the Wind
| Best Original Song for "Written on the Wind" (shared with Sammy Cahn)
|
|}
Golden Globes
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Year
! Film
! Category
! Result
|-
| 1952
| September Affair
| Best Original Score
|
|-
| 1953
| The Quiet Man
| Best Original Score
|
|-
|}
Primetime Emmy Awards
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Year
! Project
! Category
! Result
|-
| rowspan="3" | 1955
| Light's Diamond Jubilee
| Best Scoring of a Dramatic or Variety Program
|
|-
| Medic
| Best Original Music Composed for TV
|
|-
| Light's Diamond Jubilee
| Best Original Music Composed for TV
|
|}
References
External links
- Victor Young Collection of Television Music. UCLA. Performing Arts Special Collections, findaid.oac.cdlib.org.
- Victor Young's Web, victoryoung.czechian.net
- Victor Young Collection at Brandeis University
- Victor Young recordings at the Discography of American Historical Recordings
- Victor Young Biography Project