Jimmy Van Heusen 100

You've never heard of Jimmy Van Heusen? Well, the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers has. You certainly know many of his songs.

The songwriter behind "Swinging on a Star," "Love and Marriage," "Come Fly with Me" and "My Kind of Town" won four Academy Awards and one Emmy for his work; he would have been 100 today (Saturday January 26, 2013).

His “Harlem Hospitality” was recorded by Cab Calloway and was his first published song.

Van Heusen had another side. During World War II, while writing songs for Hollywood movies, he was also doing dangerous work as a fighter test pilot.

He would work from 5 a.m. to 1 p.m., five days a week, going over to the Lockheed plant (Burbank), flying these airplanes on behalf of the Air Force, and then, from 2 o'clock onward, he was writing songs.


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