Evening star., 1954-12-10
NEW YORK

NEW YORK.
Words and Music: With Irving
Berlin's mo Business Like Show
Business" q hit on national
movie screens, with Cole Porter's
"Silk Stockings" winning rave
notices In the tryout towns and
Rodgers and Hammerstein' s
"Oklahoma" completed for the
screen, the thought occurs that
the Nation would be q poorer
place without the melodies Of
these veterans. The companion
thought is: Who will replace
them when they're gone?
Berlin has been writing since
1907. Porter has been writing
since 1914. It was in May,
1925, that Rodgers and Hart
opened their "Garrick Gaieties. "
although they had been trying
since 1917. It was In 1917 that
Oscar Hammerstein I'd wrote
some OF the Columbia University
Varsity Show and played the
comedy lead. So all Of them have
been around q good many years.
Add up ell of their years Of writ
ing and you have the somewhat
staggering total OF 1871 years in
which they've churned out lyrics,
melodies and librettoS.
It liz interesting to note that
oil but one of these are New
Yorkers. The exception, Cole
Porter, Is from Peru, Ind. All
Of them, with the exception OF
Berlin, are college graduates.
My lack of a musical educa-
ton was responsible for my first
big hit" said Berlin. Il play
only In r sharp, the black keys,
SO my piano is equipped with a
lever under the keyboard. BY
moving the lever, it automa-
tically transposes F. sharp to any
key 7 want. AS a result. I got
certain harmonies that other
writer's missed because they
knew more about music than !
did. That's how came up with
"Alexander's Rag Time Band"
\ X X X
"Five of my songs" said Ber-
lin, "have been the key songs
of my career because once
found certain harmonies and
rhythms, 7 completely exhausted
them. In other words, the basic
song always suggested four or
five others, each a bit different
but basically the same.
Prom the harmonic or rhy-
thmic form of 'Alexander's Rag
Time Band I developed Rag
Time Violin 'Everybody's Do
ing It. and 'Syncopated Walk
From the rhythmic form of
'Everybody's Step another key
song, I got Pack Up Your Sins,
Putting on the Ritz Top Hat,
White Tie and Tails From a
third key song of mine. "A Pretty
Girl Is Like a Melody" I wrote
such tunes as Say It With
Music Still another key song,
'What'll 7 Do developed such
other tunes such as "All Alone,
Remember Always and Blue
Skies"
Back around 1914, Indiana's
Cole Porter penned two OF Yale's
most famous tunes, "Bingo" and
Bulldog" In 1916, his first
Broadway show, See America
First" was a flop and the sensi-
tive Porter was so Inundated
that he actually sailed to France
and joined the Foreign Legion.
It wasn't until 1919 that he
. with his "Old Fash
ioned Garden" which Ziegfeld
bought for Raymond Hitchcock
"Hitchy -Koo." Yet from 1919
to 1928, Porter never landed
another song in any Broadway
show, a nire-year drought COM
parable to the 11-year drought
which bedeviled Oscar Hammer
stein, I'd.
Berlin and Rodgers never had
similar experience of lean years.
Each has sailed along serenly.
one a college graduate with a
vast musical background, the
other singing waiter from the
the Bowery with a gadget on his
piano atoning for his lack OF
musical education.
X \ Il
You can guess that 1t Is un-
necessary to worry where the