Evening star., 1937-07-12
CERSHWIN IS DEAD;'
FAMED COMPOSER
38-Year-0|d Writer Of
RHAPSODY in Blue" Is
Brain Tumor Victim.
By the Associated Press.

L
HOLLYWOOD, July l2.-Death.
striking swiftly, has ended the career
of George GershWin whose Rhapsody
in Blue lifted jazz music from Tin
Pan Alley to the level Of the classics.
He came up from sl5-a-Week song
plugger to compose scores for film
musicals at reputed s25O,O0o a year.
He was Pulitzer Prize winner.
Putting it another way, Pandro S
Berman. who directed Fred AStaire and
Ginger Rogers in picture as they
danced to GershWin's songs. said: He
was a supreme artist in his rare ability
to link classical music with the swift
tempo Of today
Gershwin was 3s. He died here
yesterday OF brain tumor, after a
hurried. futile operation One spe-
ciallst had flown here from Berkeley
and another. DR.. Walter DANDY Of
Baltimore. was ready to fly from New
York.
Was Working on Film Musical.
He and Ira GershWin, his brother
who writes lyrics, were working on
the music for a new motion picture
"Goldwyn Follies" An illness of a
few days before had been accepted as
nervous breakdown. Saturday he
lapsed into a coma from which he did
not emerge The body was to be sent
to New York today for funeral serv-
ices and burial. Memorial services
will be held here Thursday.
Gershwin was born in Brooklyn. He
showed his first interest in music at
the age of 10 and received a meager
education in it, At 19 he wrote his
first musical comedy La. La, Lucille y
and there followed the scores for five
of George Whites Scandals.
His best known work. Rhapsody in
Blue" had its premiere in 1923 at
Aeolian Hall, with the aid of Paul
Whitemans night club band. Lovers
of the classic had come to sniff, but
when Gershwin and Whiteman fin
ished, they rose to cheer. The blue
rhapsody bridged a gap between jazz
and the classics.
Theory Of Music.
Music, to be true and lasting
Gershwin said, must repeat the
thoughts and aspirations of the peo-
pie and the times. My people are
Americans. My time is today"
His popular "Sewanee" sold more
than 100000 copies. His "Of Thee
I Sing" a musical comedy satirizing
Washington's political life, won him a
Pulitzer Prize in 1882 He did an
operatic version of HeyWard's Negro
life play, "Porgy," staged by the Thea
ter Guild besides which there were
the outstanding Concerto in F" and
American in Paris"
Gershwn in recent years had di-
vided his time between New York and
Hollywood, buying home in Beverly
Hills. His brother sister, Mrs. Leo
pold Godowsky OF Rochester, N Y,
and his mother, Mrs. Rose Gershwin,
survive him.
Whiteman. to whom he had dedi-
Gated Rhapsody in Blue" said
GershWin's death was "a great blow to
those millions of music lovers who
received his arresting compositions so
enthusiastically"
His passing is great loss to all
musical America" said DR.. Walter
Damrosch, dean of American con-
ductors
The family finances of Morris and
Rose Gershwin were stretched to pro-
vide 9-year-old George with lessons
at so cents each.
Eventually he came under the tute-
lage of Charles Hambitzer, jr., who
gave him his first direct encourage
ment, and recognized in young Gersh-
win great musical possibilities.
Unfriendly to the limitations OF
prescribed schooling, George left the
high school of commerce after two
years for his first job-"plugging'
songs at Remick's music house.
Became Theater Pianist.
After two years he left that job for
another as pianist in a Fourteenth
street theater, but he fed without
collecting his pay when a comedian
"razzed' him numerically from the
stage.
Then came a period as accompanist
to Louise Dresser, in which Gershwin
met Max Dreyfuss, the guiding
genius OF = "'s' 'u0'''hins house