Vernon Duke(1893-1969)
- Music Department
- Composer
- Writer
Composer, songwriter ("April in Paris", "Autumn in New York", "I Can't
Get Started"), author and pianist, educated at the Kiev Conservatory
(which he entered at age thirteen) and a music student of Reinhold
Gliere and Marian Dombrovsky. He had composed ballets for Diaghilev's
Ballet Russe, but he fled Russia after the revolution. He composed the
London stage scoes for "Yvonne" and "The Yellow Mask" and, after coming
to New York in 1929, the Broadway stage scores for "Walk a Little
Faster, "Ziegfeld Follies" (1934, 1936), "Cabin in the Sky", "Banjo
Eyes", "Sadie Thompson", "Two's Company", "It Happens on Ice", "The
Littlest Revue" (off-Broadway), the stage background score for "Time
Remembered", and also "Zenda", in Los Angeles. He wrote songs for
Broadway revues, including "Garrick Gaieties" (1930), "Thumbs Up!", and
"The Show Is On", and he completed the score for "The Goldwyn Follies"
after George Gershwin's death. During World War II, he was a Lieutenant
Commander in the US Coast Guard which helped to inspire themes for his
work on "Tars and Spars". He founded the Society for Forgotten Music,
and served as its president. His autobiography is "Listen Here!".
Joining ASCAP in 1934, his chief musical collaborators included E.Y.
Harburg, Ira Gershwin, Ogden Nash, Howard Dietz, and John Latouche. His
other popular-song compositions include "I Am Only Human After All",
"Too Too Divine", "That's Life", "Speaking of Love", "So Nonchalant",
"Water Under the Bridge", "I Like the Likes of You", "Suddenly", "What
Is There to Say?", "Island in the West Indies", "Words Without Music",
"Now", "Taking a Chance on Love", "Do What You Wanna Do", "Love Turned
the Light Out", "Honey in the Honeycomb", "Cabin in the Sky", "We're
Having a Baby", "Not a Care in the World", "Summer Is A-Comin' In",
"The Love I Long For", "The Sea-Gull and the Ea-Gull", "Spring Again",
"Roundabout", "Out of the Clear Blue Sky", "Just Like a Man", "That's
What Makes Paris Paree", "London in July", "Good Little Girls", "You're
Far from Wonderful", and "Madly in Love".
