IRVING BERLIN

Irving Berlin, original name Israel Baline, (born May 11, 1888, Mogilyov, Russia [now in Belarus]—died Sept. 22, 1989, New York, N.Y., U.S.), American composer who played a leading role in the evolution of the popular song from the early ragtime and jazz eras through the golden age of musicals. His easy mastery of a wide range of song styles, for both stage and motion pictures, made him perhaps the greatest and most enduring of American songwriters. Israel was born to the family of a Jewish cantor that immigrated to New York City in 1893. His father died when the boy was eight years old. Having obtained only two years of formal education, he worked as a street singer and a singing waiter in New York’s Lower East Side. He began writing song lyrics, and his first published song, “Marie from Sunny Italy,” appeared in 1907; a printer’s error on this song read more...