Today is the birthday of songwriter Nathaniel Hawthorne “Nat” Vincent (1889-1979). In the early days, Vincent was a song plugger and department store music demonstrator. In vaudeville he worked in the teams Franklyn and Vincent, and Tracey and Vincent (which titled its act “A Trip to Hitland”.) Then he performed on radio and on records with Fred Howard and His Happy Chappies. Songs that Vincent wrote or co-wrote include “I’m Forever Blowing Bubbles”, “When the Bloom is on the Sage”, “Pucker Up and Whistle” and dozens of others.
Here’s Burr and Campbell’s 1919 version of “I’m Forever Blowing Bubbles”.
To learn more about vaudeville consult No Applause, Just Throw Money: The Book That Made Vaudeville Famous, available at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and wherever nutty books are sold.
And don’t miss my new book Chain of Fools: Silent Comedy and Its Legacies from Nickelodeons to Youtube, just released by Bear Manor Media, also available from amazon.com etc etc etc
