Vic Schoen is best remembered as the musical director for the Andrews Sisters. Schoen first met the trio while a member of Leon Belasco's society orchestra in 1936. In early 1937 Belasco cut a single with the sisters. It went nowhere. The girls were packing their bags to go back home to Minneapolis when Schoen, who was then with Billy Swanson's orchestra, invited them to sing on a radio program. Decca A&R vice president Dave Kapp heard the broadcast and invited the sisters to his office. After a short audition he signed them to a contract. They made their first recording for Decca in October of 1937 with Schoen arranging for their musical backup. Soon they had their first number one hit with ''Bei Mir Bist Du Schon,'' a novelty tune originally recorded as a B-side. The partnership between Schoen and the Andrews Sisters lasted for twenty years.
Schoen worked with a variety of other artists aside from the Andrews Sisters, including Mildred Bailey and Peggy Lee. A self-taught composer and arranger, he worked for Gene Kardos in the early 1930s and also served as music director at Universal and Paramount Pictures during the 1940s. In the 1950s he turned to television, conducting and arranging for such artists as Dinah Shore, Bing Crosby, Shirley Temple, Pat Boone, and Andy Williams. He also recorded for several different labels during that decade. In the 1960s Schoen married former Glenn Miller vocalists Marion Hutton. Vic Schoen passed away in January 2000.