Jack Yellen; Composer of ‘Happy Days Are Here Again’

Jack Yellen, whose songs and lyrics ranged from Franklin D. Roosevelt’s first presidential campaign theme--the upbeat “Happy Days Are Here Again”--to Sophie Tucker’s plaintive plea to her boyfriend, “Mr. Siegal, You Gotta Make It Legal,” has died in his Upstate New York home.

The son of a Polish pawnbroker who emigrated to the United States near the turn of the century was 98 when he died Wednesday in the Erie County community of Springville.

For more than four decades, he provided the words or music--or both--to more than 130 popular songs, many of them among the most durable ballads in America’s musical history.

There also were smash scores--from the bluesy revue “Rain or Shine” to the “Ziegfeld Follies of 1943.”

His “Yiddishe Momme” was performed by Al Jolson, among others, while his lyrics to “Ain’t She Sweet” became a Roaring ‘20s anthem for much of the country.

For Tucker, he provided both a song and an epitaph with “The Last of the Red Hot Mommas.”

His collaborators included some of the legendary names of American music--Harold Arlen, Sammy Fain, Lew Pollack and others.

Yellen, the oldest of seven children, began his career as a police reporter for the old Buffalo Courier in 1913.

He quit the newspaper business to write songs for a living and moved to New York City, where he promoted them in dance halls.

Some of them were “Mama Goes Where Papa Goes,” “I Wonder What’s Become of Sally,” “Are You Havin’ Any Fun” and “Are You From Dixie?”

His other theatrical credits included the scores to “What’s in a Name” and “George White’s Scandals,” while his film scores ranged from “Road Show” to “The King of Jazz” and “Happy Landing.”

Yellen was one of the earliest members of the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (1917) and served on its board of directors from 1951 to 1969. In 1976, he was named to the Songwriters Hall of Fame.

Yellen retired to his farm in the late 1940s, where he operated an egg business.