Victor Young was born in Chicago in 1900 of Polish descent.. He came from a musically talented family. His father was tenor with the Chicago Opera in the early 1900s and was also a member of a touring opera company. When Victor's mother died in 1908, he and sister Helena were sent to Poland to be raised by their grandparents because their father was constantly on tour. Victor's grandfather recognized his grandson's talent and enrolled him in the Warsaw Conservatory where he studied violin He also studied piano at the Paris Conservatory.but made his debut as a violinist with The Warsaw Philharmonic. His talent caught the eye of the Nicolas, Czar of Russia, who invited him to tour Russia. While in Russia, the Russian Revolution began and Victor was sentenced to death for his association with the Royal family. Victor managed to escape to Poland and wanted nothing more to do with Europe. He made his way back to the US where the Polish violinist became musical director of Brunswick records in New York. While there he employed the best musicians and vocalists for Brunswick~including Lee Wiley and Bunny Berigan. And thus began the blazing four year love affair between Bunny and Lee.
Victor moved to California around 1935 to become musical director of Cecil B deMille's Paramount Pictures. Lee Wiley follwed Victor to Calfornia where the love triangle was completed. Lee and Victor also had a long affair at great expense to Lee's career but I do suspect that it was Young who got Brunswick to hire Lee to make all of those amazing records for Liberty MusicShops (See Lee Wiley-But Not for Me) on this channel. Young and His Orchestra also provided the music for the Baby Rose Marie Film on this channel. Young wrote the scores for over 50 movies at Paramount, 300 movies in total,received 22 academy award nominations and his greatest achievement in film was his academy award for his composition "Around the World in 80 Days.".