The best-known set of Yacht Club Boys consisted of Charlie Adler, George Kelly, Billy Mann, and Jimmie Kern.
The Yacht Club Boys' screen career and on-screen behavior paralleled those of The Ritz Brothers, a musical-comedy trio doing the same type of musical burlesques.
The Yacht Club Boys began in 1926 as a "smart set" nightclub act: Chick Endor (lead vocalist and guitarist), George Walsh (piano), Tommy Purcell (violin), and Billy Mann (comedian).
The group now dressed in varsity-styled sweaters and slacks, and sang novelty tunes in breezy fashion ("I'm Wild About Horns on an Automobile", "Nasty Nancy, the Meanest Gal in Town").
The Yacht Club Boys became strictly comic singers, abandoning their musical instruments, and refined their act to include sharper, broader humor, satirizing current events and trends.
The Yacht Club Boys brought great energy to their performances, with brash songs like "You're Broke, You Dope" and "My, How the Country's Changed."