Jack Yellen - Life and Career

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 and began writing songs in high school. He graduated with honors from the University of Michigan in 1913 where he was a member of the Pi Lambda Phi Fraternity. After graduating he 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, 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. 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 and Harold Arlen.

Yellen's collaboration with vaudeville star, Sophie Tucker, 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. 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" and "Ain't She Sweet."

Yellen's screenwriting credits included George White's Scandals, Pigskin Parade, Little Miss Broadway, and Submarine Patrol.

Yellen was on the board of ASCAP from 1951 to 1969. He was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame 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.