The Goldwyn Follies Remind Me The Goldwyn Follies Independent producer Sam Goldwyn jumped on the all-star musical bandwagon in 1938, determined he could be Hollywood's answer to Broadway impresario Florenz Ziegfeld. He assembled a top roster of talent for The Goldwyn Follies (1938), from George and Ira Gershwin writing the songs to George Balanchine as choreographer and ballet sensation Vera Zorina in front of the cameras. Naturally, he got one of the biggest flops in his career. Most of the major Hollywood studios had their own musical series: MGM was selling tickets with the Broadway Melody films, Warners had their Gold Diggers and Paramount showcased radio talent in their Big Broadcast films. So it seemed only natural that Goldwyn, who had brought Busby Berkeley, Eddie Cantor and the Goldwyn Girls to the screen, should top them all. Inspired by the death of Florenz Ziegfeld, he started working on his screen version of the Follies in 1932, spending six years trying to get just the right mix of talent. For starters, he asked Irving Berlin to write the score. But Berlin said no.

He didn't particularly like Goldwyn, and though he might consent to sell the producer the occasional song, he didn't want to work on an entire film score with him. Goldwyn then turned to the Gershwins, offering them a persuasively large paycheck and the chance to film a ballet based on George's tone poem "An American in Paris." To that end he brought together one of the ballet world's most innovative choreographers, Balanchine, with a 20-year-old ballerina who had just made the successful transition from the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo to the London company of the hit Broadway musical On Your Toes. Goldwyn was so impressed with Zorina, in fact, that he signed her to a seven-year contract. All he needed was a script. His first choice to write it was Lillian Hellman, who had adapted her play The Children's Hour for him as These Three (1936). Only Hellman had no idea how to write a musical. She tried to refuse the assignment several times, but eventually took a stab at it.

By this time, he had also hired The Ritz Brothers and radio stars Edgar Bergen and Phil Baker as comedy relief and classical singers Helen Jepson and Charles Kullmann to throw in a little opera. Hellman couldn't come up with a plot to tie all that talent together, nor could anyone else until Goldwyn turned to one of Hollywood's most facile problem-solvers, Ben Hecht. He concocted a story about a film producer who hires a simple country girl to help him get in touch with what the average audience member wants to see on screen (which amazingly included grand opera and Romeo and Juliet with a happy ending). He then falls in love with her only to discover that she's given her heart to a singing soda jerk. Goldwyn bought the plot without realizing that Hecht had modeled the producer's character on him. As work progressed on the film, even without a script, most people on the Goldwyn lot were aware that their boss was infatuated with Zorina. He even hired a taxi to follow her when she left the studio each day. Mrs. Goldwyn was aware of it, too, growing suspicious when he started bringing her surprise gifts. She almost left him, but eventually decided to tough it out.

Apparently the only person not aware of Goldwyn's infatuation with Zorina was Zorina, who was too busy falling in love with Balanchine to notice. A failed love affair was the least of Goldwyn's worries, however. After writing two great songs for the film, "Our Love Is Here to Stay" and "Love Walked In," George Gershwin started experiencing debilitating headaches. Goldwyn blamed it on high living; there were rumors linking the composer to former Goldwyn chorus girl Paulette Goddard and French actress Simone Simon. But when Gershwin had to be hospitalized, doctors discovered he had a brain tumor. He passed away on July 11, 1937, and, on Ira's recommendation, Goldwyn hired Broadway composer Vernon Duke to finish the songs. Plans to film a ballet based on Gershwin's "An American in Paris" came to a sad end, too. Balanchine spent weeks rehearsing the number and planning out every camera move. He'd even managed to keep Goldwyn out of his rehearsals. Finally came the grand unveiling, with the choreographer dragging his producer around the set to show him exactly how the number would be filmed.

Goldwyn didn't make it through the number. With his arm in a sling after a fall at home, he was more short-tempered than usual and walked out. Later he summoned Balanchine to his office and announced that the number was being cut because it was too "artistic…the miners in Harrisburg wouldn't understand it." Balanchine tried to change his mind, even pointing out that there were no miners in Harrisburg, but to no avail. Instead, he had to stage a musical version of Romeo and Juliet with jazz-dancing Montagues fighting more reserved Capulets. It would be 13 years before "An American in Paris" would make it to the screen in director Vincente Minnelli's Oscar®-winning film for MGM. With so much chaos in its production, it would be the perfect Hollywood story for the film to turn out a huge hit. But perfection was to elude Goldwyn, even in this. Although critics praised some elements of the film -- the Gershwin songs and Balanchine's choreography in particular -- and later audiences have been convulsed by The Ritz Brothers' antics, the film was an all-around flop, losing almost half of Goldwyn's investment.

As a result, the producer abandoned plans for any further all-star musicals. With his marriage on the line, he also abandoned plans to follow up on Zorina's positive reviews. For the rest of her contract, he allowed her to work on Broadway and at other studios, but never worked with her again on a personal basis. Not knowing the real reasons for his rejection, she spent the rest of her life thinking she had let him down professionally. Producer: Samuel Goldwyn Screenplay: Ben Hecht, Ray Golden, Sid Kuller, Sam Perrin, Arthur Phillips Cinematography: Gregg Toland Art Direction: Richard Day Music: George Gershwin, Vernon Duke, Ray Golden, Alfred Newman Cast: Adolphe Menjou (Oliver Merlin), The Ritz Brothers (Themselves), Vera Zorina (Olga Samara), Kenny Baker (Danny Beecher), Andrea Leeds (Hazel Dawes), Edgar Bergen (Himself), Helen Jepson (Leona Jerome), Phil Baker (Michael Day), Bobby Clark (A.

Basil Crane, Jr.), Ella Logan (Glory Wood), Jerome Cowan (Lawrence), Nydia Westman (Ada), Charles Kullmann (Alfredo in La Traviata), Alan Ladd (Auditioning Singer). C-120m. Is George Gershwin the Greatest American Composer of All Time? Is George Gershwin the Greatest American Composer of All Time? Gershwin at 18 George Gershwin was perhaps the greatest American composer of the twentieth century. His works, both classical and for Broadway, earned him national and international fame. He was born in New York to Russian immigrants in 1898. Gershwin was one of four children, all of whom had careers in music. At the age of ten Gershwin began to play the piano. George had many piano teachers, some of which he clashed with, some of which he did not. One of his teachers, Charles Hambitzer, taught him piano from 1910 to 1918, acted as his mentor, introduced Gershwin to classical music and encouraged him to attend orchestral concerts.

At fifteen George left school to become a 'song-plugger', a person who plays previews of music in sheet music stores. Simultaneously with his song-plugging he published his own songs and recorded piano rolls, which are used in Reproducing Pianos. Fred and his sister, Adele Astaire Gershwin's big break was Swanee, which earned him national fame and sold more than two million recordings. Swanee was the biggest-selling song of Gershwin's career. A composer at the time said 'It's ironic that he never again wrote a number equalling the sales of Swanee, which for all its infectiousness, doesn't match the individuality and subtlety of his later works.' Gershwin wrote many musicals and often collaborated with his brother, Ira. One of their collaborations, Lady, Be Good!, became very successful. It starred the tap-dancer and singer Fred Astaire, who was a close friend of George.

A contemporary critic when describing Gershwin's friendship said 'I don't know whether George Gershwin was born into this world to write rhythms for Fred Astaire's feet or whether Fred Astaire was born into this world to show how the Gershwin music should really be danced.' One of the Gershwins' later musicals, Of Thee I Sing, was the first musical comedy ever to win a Pulitzer Prize. The First Performance of Porgy and Bess Gershwin's first, and most popular, classical work, Rhapsody in Blue, premiered in 1924. It received mixed reviews at the time but has since become Gershwin's most popular Classical work. Gershwin stayed in Paris for a brief period, where he applied to study composition with composers such as Boulanger and Ravel. All the composers rejected his applications, afraid that classical study would destroy his unique jazz-influenced style. While in Paris, Gershwin wrote An American in Paris. Like Rhapsody in Blue, An American in Paris received mixed reviews but soon became part of standard orchestral repertoire. Gershwin then returned to the United States. Gershwin's most ambitious work was Porgy and Bess.

Gershwin described it as a 'folk opera' and it is now widely regarded as the most important American opera of the twentieth century. Sound Links Gershwin: A Biography Edward Jablonski Astair: The Man, The Dancer Bob Thomas All of the singing characters in Porgy and Bess are black. Gershwin combined popular music of the day with typical opera techniques, such as recitative (singing with the rhythms of ordinary speech), through-composition (music in a song that does not repeat), and extensive use of leitmotifs. Porgy and Bess contains some of Gershwin's most sophisticated works, for example, a fugue, a passacaglia, usage of atonality, polytonality and polyrhythm. Porgy and Bess attracted a lot of controversy for its depiction of African Americans. Many people criticized it saying that it displayed an out-of-date stereotype. Many productions of Porgy and Bess were cancelled because actors refused to preform. Over time, Porgy and Bess has been accepted as the brilliant opera it is.

An aria from Porgy and Bess, Summertime, is the most covered song ever written, with over seventeen thousand five hundred recordings. Summertime has been covered on just about every instrument – from conventional ones to the Theremin. After Porgy and Bess Gershwin was commissioned to write the film score for Shall We Dance, starring Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. Gershwin's score combined ballet with jazz and took Gershwin months to write. Gershwin in his later life In 1937 Gershwin complained of blinding headaches and an impression that he was smelling burned rubber. Doctors diagnosed him with a type of brain tumour that is nearly always fatal. This diagnosis as been questioned, however. While in Hollywood, working on the score of a new film, The Goldwyn Follies, Gershwin collapsed. He died on Sunday July 11 1937 at 10:35 AM. According to letters written by Fred Astaire, Gershwin whispered Fred's name before passing away. Two months after his death, Gershwin received his sole Oscar nomination for Best Original Song for They Can't Take That Away From Me from Shall We Dance.

So is Gershwin the Greatest American composer of the Twentieth Century? He is certainly the most well known. Not only that but he received a Pulitzer Prize, was nominated for an Oscar, wrote the greatest American opera of the twentieth century, was admired by many other famous classical composer and, it was later calculated, was the wealthiest composer of all time. Dan Wray is a Trumpet Virtuoso and a Gershwin aficionado George Gershwin - the American composer - in a nutshell.

Family Born: Jacob Gershowitz, Brooklyn, New York, 26 September 1898 Father: Morris (Moishe) Gershowitz - changed his name to Gershvin soon after arrival in USA from St Petersburg, Russia Mother: Rosa Bruskin, Russian immigrant Siblings: Older brother: Ira, younge brother Arthur, younger sister Frances Partner: Kay Swift (10 year affair) Children: none (though there may be an allegedly illegitimate son Alan ) Died: 11 July 1937, Hollywood, California Cause of Death: Brain tumor Grave: Westchester Hills Cemetary, Hastings on Hudson, New York (see findagrave ) Ira: George's elder brother, eventually became his lyricist for many of his most successful works. You can read more about him at gershwinfan.com Arthur: His younger brother. Also a composer but his day job was as a stockbroker. More at Wikipedia Frances: George's kid sister (Frankie) was also very musical and was the first of the siblings to earn money from it. She was a gifted painter and died in 1999 at the grand old age of 92.

Read more at her New York Times obituary. Gershwin plays 'I've got Rhythm' Gershwin - the man As a boy George was quite a handful. He was full of energy and liked sports and playing more than classes. He loved jazz and ragtime music and taught himself to play the piano. He was however fortunate in later having teachers who not only taught well the techniques but also encouraged and nurtured his taste of classical and jazz music. He also loved art and became a talented painter, like his sister Frankie. He spent a lot of his earnings on building a valuable art collection. His composing output was prolific, it is said he wrote six songs a day. He was very popular and sociable, always in demand at parties for his piano playing. He was tall, dark and handsome - and intelligent. The ladies loved him and he loved the ladies. He had several affairs but the steadiest was the ten years with Kay Swift, also a composer, who after he died helped Ira on various projects. Money: In 1905 the Guardian newspaper researched and published a compose 'Rich List'. Gershwin was the top earner. Read the article here . He died without having made a will.

Works plus hundreds of songs and six film scores Summertime - Porgy & Bess Brief Biography and Career 1910 -Age 12 : A piano was bought for Ira, but it was George that used it most. 1913 - age 15: dropped out from school. Got first job as a performer/song plugger in New York's Tin Pan Alley. 1915 - age 17: First published song: "When You Want 'Em - You Can't Get 'Em" 1919 - age 21: First nationally successful song: 'Swanee' popularised by Al Jolson - worked for various music publishers arranging and recording piano rolls for automated pianos. - with lyricist Buddy DeSylva wrote 'Blue Monday' a jazz opera considered a precursor to 'Porgy & Bess'. 1924 - age 26: George and his brother Ira as lyricist produced the musical comedy 'Lady Be Good' (which included 'Fascinating Rhythm') - composed 'Rhapsody in Blue' his first classical (and most popular) work. It was premiered by Paul Whiteman's concert band.

1930 - age 28: stayed a few months in Paris where he met with Ravel, Stravinsky, Prokofiev and Milhaud. He asked Ravel for lessons but he apparently replied 'You should give me lessons'. While there he started work on 'American in Paris'. 1934 - age 36: hosted his own radio show for NBC 'Music by Gershwin' 1935 - age 37: completed 'Porgy & Bess' 1936 - age 38: commissioned by RKO to compose score for 'Shall We Dance' 1937 - age 38: collapsed in Hollywood while working on the score of 'The Goldwyn Follies'. Died following surgery on his brain tumor. Honours: 1932: Pulitzer Prize for the musical comedy 'Of Thee I Sing' 1937: Oscar nomination (George and Ira) for 'Best Original Song: 'They Can't Take That Away From Me' from the film 'Shall We Dance' 1985: Congressional Gold Medal to George and Ira.

Rhapsody in Blue Quotes - Life is a lot like jazz.. it's best when you improvise. - True music must repeat the thought and inspirations of the people and the time. My people are Americans and my time is today. - Why should I limit myself to only one woman when I can have as many women as I want? - "I frequently hear music in the heart of noise." An American in Paris NYSO in Korea Links - where to go for more information George Gershwin: His Life and Work - Howard Pollack - Google Books George Gershwin: His Life and Work 2 Reviews This comprehensive biography of George Gershwin (1898-1937) unravels the myths surrounding one of America's most celebrated composers and establishes the enduring value of his music. Gershwin created some of the most beloved music of the twentieth century and, along with Jerome Kern, Irving Berlin, and Cole Porter, helped make the golden age of Broadway golden.

Howard Pollack draws from a wealth of sketches, manuscripts, letters, interviews, books, articles, recordings, films, and other materials—including a large cache of Gershwin scores discovered in a Warner Brothers warehouse in 1982—to create an expansive chronicle of Gershwin’s meteoric rise to fame. He also traces Gershwin’s powerful presence that, even today, extends from Broadway, jazz clubs, and film scores to symphony halls and opera houses. Pollack’s lively narrative describes Gershwin’s family, childhood, and education; his early career as a pianist; his friendships and romantic life; his relation to various musical trends; his writings on music; his working methods; and his tragic death at the age of 38. Unlike Kern, Berlin, and Porter, who mostly worked within the confines of Broadway and Hollywood, Gershwin actively sought to cross the boundaries between high and low, and wrote works that crossed over into a realm where art music, jazz, and Broadway met and merged. The author surveys Gershwin’s entire oeuvre, from his first surviving compositions to the melodies that his brother and principal collaborator, Ira Gershwin, lyricized after his death.

Pollack concludes with an exploration of the performances and critical reception of Gershwin's music over the years, from his time to ours. George Gershwin - News, Photos, Videos, Bio. Free music downloads at MP3.com George Gershwin Genres: Classical , jazz , piano , composers , composer Biography George Gershwin (September 26, 1898 – July 11, 1937) was an American composer and pianist. Gershwin's compositions spanned both popular and classical genres, and his most popular melodies are widely known. Among his best known works are the orchestral compositions Rhapsody in Blue (1924) and An American in Paris (1928), as well as the opera Porgy and Bess (1935). Read More... Gershwin studied piano under Charles Hambitzer and composition with Rubin Goldmark and Henry Cowell. He began his career as a song plugger, but soon started composing Broadway theatre works with his brother Ira Gershwin and Buddy DeSylva. He moved to Paris to study with Nadia Boulanger, where he began to compose An American in Paris.

After returning to New York City, he wrote Porgy and Bess with Ira and the author DuBose Heyward. Initially a commercial failure, Porgy and Bess is now considered one of the most important American operas of the twentieth century. Gershwin moved to Hollywood and composed numerous film scores until his death in 1937 from a brain tumor. Gershwin's compositions have been adapted for use in many films and for television, and several became jazz standards recorded in many variations. Countless celebrated singers and musicians have covered his songs. He was born Jacob Gershowitz in Brooklyn, New York to Russian Jewish immigrant parents, the second of four children. George wrote most of his vocal and theatrical works together with his elder brother, lyricist Ira Gershwin. Among the many songs the two composed which are now considered jazz standards (widely performed and recorded by jazz musicians) are "But Not for Me," and "Embraceable You," as well as "The Man I Love," and "Someone to Watch Over Me." Undoubtedly, their song most recorded by other musicians is "Summertime" from Porgy and Bess.

(Miles Davis, Charlie Parker, Billie Holiday, John Coltrane, Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong, Bill Evans, Duke Ellington, Nina Simone, Sarah Vaughan, Stan Getz, Chet Baker, Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, Brian Wilson, Paul McCartney, and Willie Nelson are among the hundreds of artists who have recorded the song.) Gershwin composed successfully both for Broadway and for the classical concert hall. Perhaps most notably his epic works An American in Paris and Rhapsody in Blue have been featured on many classical music compilations, in Disney's animated film Fantasia 2000, and are roundly regarded as great music of the 20th century. On leaving school at the age of 15, Gershwin found his first job as a "song plugger" for Jerome H. Remick and Company, a publishing firm on New York City's Tin Pan Alley, where he earned $15 a week. His first published song was "When You Want 'Em, You Can't Get 'Em, When You've Got 'Em, You Don't Want 'Em".

It was published in 1916 when Gershwin was only 17 years old and earned him $5. His 1917 novelty rag, "Rialto Ripples", was a commercial success, and in 1919 he scored his first big national hit with his song, "Swanee", with words by Irving Caesar. Al Jolson, a famous Broadway singer of the day, heard Gershwin perform "Swanee" at a party and decided to sing it in one of his shows. In 1916, Gershwin started working for Aeolian Company and Standard Music Rolls in New York, recording and arranging. He produced dozens, if not hundreds, of rolls under his own and assumed names. (Pseudonyms attributed to Gershwin include Fred Murtha and Bert Wynn.) He also recorded rolls of his own compositions for the Duo-Art and Welte-Mignon reproducing pianos. As well as recording piano rolls, Gershwin made a brief foray into vaudeville, accompanying both Nora Bayes and Louise Dresser on the piano. In the late 1910s, Gershwin met songwriter and music director William Daly.

The two collaborated on the Broadway musicals Piccadilly to Broadway (1920) and For Goodness' Sake (1922), and jointly composed the score for Our Nell (1923). This was the beginning of a long friendship; Daly was a frequent arranger, orchestrator and conductor of Gershwin's music, and Gershwin periodically turned to him for musical advice. In the early 1920s, Gershwin frequently worked with the lyricist Buddy DeSylva. Together they created the experimental one-act jazz opera Blue Monday, set in Harlem. It is widely regarded as a forerunner to the groundbreaking Porgy and Bess. In 1924, George and Ira Gershwin collaborated on a stage musical comedy Lady Be Good, which included such future standards as "Fascinating Rhythm" and "Oh, Lady Be Good!". They followed this with Oh, Kay! (1926); Funny Face (1927); Strike Up the Band (1927 and 1930).

Gershwin gave the song, with a modified title, to UCLA to be used as a football fight song, "Strike Up The Band for UCLA". He and his brother created Show Girl (1929); Girl Crazy (1930), which introduced the standard "I Got Rhythm"; and Of Thee I Sing (1931), the first musical comedy to win a Pulitzer Prize (for Drama). Europe and classical music In 1924, Gershwin composed his first major classical work, Rhapsody in Blue, for orchestra and piano. It was orchestrated by Ferde Grofé and premiered by Paul Whiteman's concert band in New York. It proved to be his most popular work. In the mid-1920s, Gershwin stayed in Paris for a short period of time, during which he applied to study composition with the noted Nadia Boulanger who, along with several other prospective tutors such as Maurice Ravel, rejected him. She was afraid that rigorous classical study would ruin his jazz-influenced style. While there, Gershwin wrote An American in Paris.

This work received mixed reviews upon its first performance at Carnegie Hall on December 13, 1928, but it quickly became part of the standard repertoire in Europe and the United States. Growing tired of the Parisian musical scene, Gershwin returned to the United States. In 1929, Gershwin was contracted by Fox Film Corporation to compose the score for the movie Delicious. Only two pieces were used in the final film, the five-minute "Dream Sequence" and the six-minute "Manhattan Rhapsody". Gershwin became infuriated when the rest of the score was rejected by Fox Film Corporation, and it would be seven years before he worked in Hollywood again. Opera Gershwin's first opera, Blue Monday, is a short one-act opera which was not a financial success and has only received limited performances. Gershwin's most ambitious composition was Porgy and Bess (1935). Gershwin called it a "folk opera", and it is now widely regarded as one of the most important American operas of the twentieth century.

"From the very beginning, it was considered another American classic by the composer of 'Rhapsody in Blue'—even if critics couldn't quite figure out how to evaluate it. Was it opera, or was it simply an ambitious Broadway musical? 'It crossed the barriers,' says theater historian Robert Kimball. 'It wasn't a musical work per se, and it wasn't a drama per se – it elicited response from both music and drama critics. But the work has sort of always been outside category." Based on the novel Porgy by DuBose Heyward, the action takes place in the fictional all-black neighborhood of Catfish Row in Charleston, South Carolina. With the exception of several minor speaking roles, all of the characters are black. The music combines elements of popular music of the day, with a strong influence of Black music, with techniques typical of opera, such as recitative, through-composition and an extensive system of leitmotifs. Porgy and Bess contains some of Gershwin's most sophisticated music, including a fugue, a passacaglia, the use of atonality, polytonality and polyrhythm, and a tone row.

Even the "set numbers" (of which "Summertime", "I Got Plenty o' Nuttin'" and "It Ain't Necessarily So" are well known examples) are some of the most refined and ingenious of Gershwin's output. For the performances, Gershwin collaborated with Eva Jessye, whom he picked as the musical director. One of the outstanding musical alumnae of Western University in Kansas, she had created her own choir in New York and performed widely with them. The work was first performed in 1935; it was a box office failure. After the commercial failure of Porgy and Bess, Gershwin moved to Hollywood, California. He was commissioned by RKO Pictures in 1936 to write the music for the film Shall We Dance, starring Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. Gershwin's extended score, which would marry ballet with jazz in a new way, runs over an hour in length. It took Gershwin several months to write and orchestrate it. Early in 1937, Gershwin began to complain of blinding headaches and a recurring impression that he smelled burning rubber.

On February 11, 1937, Gershwin performed his Piano Concerto in F in a special concert of his music with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra under the direction of French maestro Pierre Monteux. Gershwin, normally a superb pianist in his own compositions, suffered coordination problems and blackouts during the performance. He was at the time living with his brother Ira and Ira's wife Lenore in a rented house in Beverly Hills while they worked on other Hollywood film projects. Lenore Gershwin began to be disturbed by George's mood swings and seeming inability to eat without spilling food at the dinner table. She suspected the onset of mental illness and she insisted he be moved out of their house to lyricist Yip Harburg's empty quarters nearby where he was placed in the care of his valet, Paul Mueller. The headaches and olfactory hallucinations continued and on June 23rd, after an incident in which Gershwin tried to push Mueller out of the car in which they were riding, Gershwin was admitted to Cedars of Lebanon Hospital in Los Angeles for observation. Tests showed no physical cause and he was released on the 26th with a diagnosis of "likely hysteria".

His troubles with coordination and mental acuity worsened, and on the night of July 9, Gershwin collapsed in Harburg's house where he had been working on the score of The Goldwyn Follies. He was rushed back to Cedars of Lebanon where he fell into a coma. Only at that point did it become obvious to his doctors that he was suffering from a brain tumor. An immediate call was made to pioneering neurosurgeon Dr. Harvey Cushing in Boston who, retired for several years by then, recommended Dr. Walter Dandy, who was on a boat fishing in Chesapeake Bay with the Governor of Maryland. Dandy was quickly brought to shore by the Coast Guard and sent on to Newark Airport to catch a plane to Los Angeles; however, by that time Gershwin's condition was judged to be critical and the need for surgery immediate. An attempt by doctors at Cedars to excise the tumor was made in the early hours of the 11th, but it proved unsuccessful, and Gershwin died on the morning of July 11, 1937 at the age of 38. Gershwin's many friends and fans were shocked and devastated.

John O'Hara remarked: "George Gershwin died on July 11, 1937, but I don't have to believe it if I don't want to." He was interred at Westchester Hills Cemetery in Hastings-on-Hudson, New York. A memorial concert was held at the Hollywood Bowl on September 8, 1937 at which Otto Klemperer conducted his own orchestration of the second of Gershwin's Three Piano Preludes. Gershwin received his sole Academy Award nomination, for Best Original Song at the 1937 Oscars, for "They Can't Take That Away from Me", written with his brother Ira for the 1937 film Shall We Dance. The nomination was posthumous; Gershwin died two months after the film's release. Gershwin had a ten-year affair with composer Kay Swift, whom he frequently consulted about his music. The two never married, although she eventually divorced her husband James Warburg in order to make it possible.

Swift's granddaughter, Katharine Weber, has suggested that the pair were not married because George's mother Rose was "unhappy that Kay Swift wasn't Jewish".[33] Oh, Kay was named for her. After Gershwin's death, Swift arranged some of his music, transcribed several of his recordings, and collaborated with his brother Ira on several projects. Musical style and influence Birthday party honoring Maurice Ravel in New York City, March 8, 1928. From left: Oskar Fried; Éva Gauthier; Ravel at piano; Manoah Leide-Tedesco; and George Gershwin. Gershwin was influenced by French composers of the early twentieth century. In turn Maurice Ravel was impressed with Gershwin's abilities, commenting, "Personally I find jazz most interesting: the rhythms, the way the melodies are handled, the melodies themselves. I have heard of George Gershwin's works and I find them intriguing." The orchestrations in Gershwin's symphonic works often seem similar to those of Ravel; likewise, Ravel's two piano concertos evince an influence of Gershwin. Gershwin asked to study with Ravel.

When Ravel heard how much Gershwin earned, Ravel replied with words to the effect of, "You should give me lessons." (Some versions of this story feature Igor Stravinsky rather than Ravel as the composer; however Stravinsky confirmed that he originally heard the story from Ravel.) Gershwin's own Concerto in F was criticized for being related to the work of Claude Debussy, more so than to the expected jazz style. The comparison did not deter Gershwin from continuing to explore French styles. The title of An American in Paris reflects the very journey that he had consciously taken as a composer: "The opening part will be developed in typical French style, in the manner of Debussy and Les Six, though the tunes are original." Aside from the French influence, Gershwin was intrigued by the works of Alban Berg, Dmitri Shostakovich, Igor Stravinsky, Darius Milhaud, and Arnold Schoenberg. He also asked Schoenberg for composition lessons.

Schoenberg refused, saying "I would only make you a bad Schoenberg, and you're such a good Gershwin already." (This quote is similar to one credited to Maurice Ravel during Gershwin's 1928 visit to France – "Why be a second-rate Ravel, when you are a first-rate Gershwin?") Russian Joseph Schillinger's influence as Gershwin's teacher of composition (1932–1936) was substantial in providing him with a method of composition. There has been some disagreement about the nature of Schillinger's influence on Gershwin. After the posthumous success of Porgy and Bess, Schillinger claimed he had a large and direct influence in overseeing the creation of the opera; Ira completely denied that his brother had any such assistance for this work. A third account of Gershwin's musical relationship with his teacher was written by Gershwin's close friend Vernon Duke, also a Schillinger student, in an article for the Musical Quarterly in 1947. What set Gershwin apart was his ability to manipulate forms of music into his own unique voice.

He took the jazz he discovered on Tin Pan Alley into the mainstream by splicing its rhythms and tonality with that of the popular songs of his era. Although George Gershwin would seldom make grand statements about his music, he believed that "true music must reflect the thought and aspirations of the people and time. My people are Americans. My time is today." In 2007, the Library of Congress named their Prize for Popular Song after George and Ira Gershwin. Recognizing the profound and positive effect of popular music on culture, the prize is given annually to a composer or performer whose lifetime contributions exemplify the standard of excellence associated with the Gershwins. On March 1, 2007, the first Gershwin Prize was awarded to Paul Simon. Recordings and film Early in his career Gershwin recorded more than one hundred and forty player piano piano rolls both under his own name and pseudonyms, which were a main source of income for him. The majority are popular music of the period and a smaller proportion are of his own works. Once his musical theatre-writing income became substantial his regular roll-recording career became superfluous.

He did record additional rolls throughout the 1920s of his main hits for the Aeolian Company's reproducing piano, including a complete version of his Rhapsody in Blue. Compared to the piano rolls, there are few accessible audio recordings of Gershwin's playing. His first recording was his own Swanee with the Fred Van Eps Trio in 1919. The recorded balance highlights the banjo playing of Van Eps, and the piano is overshadowed. The recording took place before Swanee became famous as an Al Jolson specialty in early 1920. Gershwin did record an abridged version of Rhapsody in Blue with Paul Whiteman and his orchestra for the Victor Talking Machine Company in 1924, soon after the world premiere. Gershwin and the same orchestra made an electrical recording of the abridged version for Victor in 1927. However, a dispute in the studio over interpretation angered Paul Whiteman and he left. The conductor's baton was taken over by Victor's staff conductor Nathaniel Shilkret.

Gershwin made a number of solo piano recordings of tunes from his musicals, some including the vocals of Fred and Adele Astaire, as well as his Three Preludes for piano. In 1929, Gershwin "supervised" the world premiere recording of An American in Paris with Nathaniel Shilkret and the Victor Symphony Orchestra. Gershwin's role in the recording was rather limited, particularly because Shilkret was conducting and had his own ideas about the music. When it was realized that no one had been hired to play the brief celeste solo, Gershwin was asked if he could and would play the instrument, and he agreed. Gershwin can be heard, rather briefly, on the recording during the slow section. Gershwin appeared on several radio programs, including Rudy Vallee's, and played some of his compositions. This included the third movement of the Concerto in F with Vallee conducting the studio orchestra. Some of these performances were preserved on transcription discs and have been released on LP and CD. In 1934, in an effort to earn money to finance his planned folk opera, Gershwin hosted his own radio program titled Music by Gershwin.

The show was broadcast on the NBC Blue Network from February to May and again in September through the final show on December 23, 1934. He presented his own work as well as the work of other composers.[45] Recordings from this and other radio broadcasts include his Variations on I Got Rhythm, portions of the Concerto in F, and numerous songs from his musical comedies. He also recorded a run-through of his Second Rhapsody, conducting the orchestra and playing the piano solos. Gershwin recorded excerpts from Porgy and Bess with members of the original cast, conducting the orchestra from the keyboard; he even announced the selections and the names of the performers. In 1935 RCA Victor asked him to supervise recordings of highlights from Porgy and Bess; these were his last recordings. A 74-second newsreel film clip of Gershwin playing I Got Rhythm has survived, filmed at the opening of the Manhattan Theater (now The Ed Sullivan Theater) in August 1931. There are also silent home movies of Gershwin, some of them shot on Kodachrome color film stock, which have been featured in tributes to the composer.

In addition, there is newsreel footage of Gershwin playing "Mademoiselle from New Rochelle" and "Strike Up the Band" on the piano during a Broadway rehearsal of the 1930 production of Strike Up the Band. In the mid-30s, "Strike Up The Band" was gifted to UCLA to be used as a football fight song, "Strike Up The Band for UCLA". The comedy team of Clark and McCullough are seen conversing with Gershwin, then singing as he plays. In 1965, Movietone Records released an album MTM 1009 featuring Gershwin's piano rolls of the titled George Gerswhin plays RHAPSODY IN BLUE and his other favorite compositions. The flip side of the LP featured 9 other recordings. In 1975, Columbia Records released an album featuring Gershwin's piano rolls of the Rhapsody In Blue, accompanied by the Columbia Jazz Band playing the original jazz-band accompaniment, conducted by Michael Tilson Thomas. The flip side of the Columbia Masterworks release features Tilson Thomas leading the New York Philharmonic in An American In Paris.

In 1976, RCA Records, as part of their "Victrola Americana" line released a collection of Gershwin recordings, taken from 78s recorded in the 1920s and called the LP "Gershwin plays Gershwin, Historic First Recordings" (RCA Victrola AVM1-1740) and included recordings of "Rhapsody in Blue" with the Paul Whiteman Orchestra and Gershwin on piano, "An American in Paris", from 1927 with Gershwin on celesta; "Three Preludes", "Clap Yo' Hands" and Someone to Watch Over Me", among others. There are a total of 10 recordings on the album. In 1998, two audio CDs featuring piano rolls recorded Gershwin were issued by Nonesuch Records through the efforts of Artis Woodhouse. It is entitled Gershwin Plays Gershwin: The Piano Rolls.

Countless singers and musicians have recorded Gershwin songs, including Fred Astaire, Louis Armstrong, Dean Martin, Al Jolson, Bobby Darin, Percy Grainger, Art Tatum, Yehudi Menuhin, Bing Crosby, The Moody Blues, Janis Joplin, John Coltrane, Frank Sinatra, Mel Tormé, Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, Sam Cooke, Diana Ross, Neil Sedaka, Miles Davis, Herbie Hancock, Hiromi Uehara, Madonna, Judy Garland, Julie Andrews, Barbra Streisand, Marni Nixon, Natalie Cole, Patti Austin, Nina Simone, Maureen McGovern, John Fahey, The Residents, Kate Bush, Sublime, Sting, Amy Winehouse, and Liquid Tension Experiment. In October 2009, it was reported by Rolling Stone that Brian Wilson is completing at least two unfinished compositions by George Gershwin for possible release in 2010. Brian Wilson Reimagines Gershwin was released on August 17, 2010.

The album consists of covers of ten George and Ira Gershwin songs, bookended by passages from Rhapsody in Blue, along with two new songs completed from unfinished Gershwin fragments by Wilson and band member Scott Bennett. Baseline Studio Systems announced in January 2010 that Steven Spielberg may direct a biopic about the composer's life; 32-year-old American actor Zachary Quinto was named for the leading role of George Gershwin.

Compositions: Rhapsody in Blue (for piano and orchestra, 1924) Piano Concerto in F (1925) An American in Paris (for orchestra, 1928) Dream Sequence (for chorus and orchestra, 1929) Second Rhapsody, originally titled Rhapsody in Rivets (for piano and orchestra, 1931) Cuban Overture (for orchestra, 1932), originally entitled Rumba March from Strike Up the Band (for orchestra, 1934) Variations on "I Got Rhythm" (for piano and orchestra) (1934) Catfish Row (for orchestra, 1936) a suite based on music from Porgy and Bess Shall We Dance (1937 film) a movie score feature-length ballet Solo Piano: George Gershwin's Song-book (1932) (solo piano arrangements of 18 songs) Operas: Blue Monday, (1922) one-act opera Porgy and Bess (1935) at the Colonial Theatre in Boston[52] London Musicals 'S Marvelous - The Music Lives On

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'S MARVELOUS-the Music Lives On The UCLA Film Archive will be screening most of the movies containing songs written by George Gershwin and his brother, Ira, from Thursday to May 30. These include the 1945 biopic "Rhapsody in Blue"; the rare original version of "Girl Crazy" (1932); the spectacular revue "The Goldwyn Follies" (1938), during the making of which George Gershwin suddenly died, and the masterpiece "An American in Paris" (1951). The series, marking the 100th anniversary of George Gershwin's birth, is called "Strike Up The Band!" Musicologist Ian Whitcomb tells the story of George Gershwin's experience in Hollywood. By Ian Whitcomb Ian Whitcomb is a highly respected performer, composer, and music historian. You can find all of his CD's, DVD's, Books, and Songbooks by clicking here , or by going to ianwhitcomb.com "When you hire me, you hire Beethoven, Brahms and Wagner!"proclaimed songwriter Fred Fisher to the movie mogul in 1930.

Talkie tunes were all the rage and he was a veteran Tin Pan Alley man with such old hits as "Chicago" and "Come Josephine in My Flying Machine" under his belt. The statement, fired in his trademark German accent, busted with braggadocio, but it was tempered with pleading: Please, please let me into your big party with the lovely presents! Like today, everybody wanted in on the fabulous movie kingdom. And the gatekeepers knew it and smiled. Starting in the late 1920s, a gold rush of New York songwriters had descended on Hollywood to manufacture snappy songs for hungry studios. Pretty soon the one-shot Alley men were joined by their classier brethren from Broadway-the show-tune song jewelers with their French harmonies, rhyming dictionaries and New Yorker subscriptions. Men who wrote book musicals and strove to integrate song into story so that their work could be elevated into a seamless-even serious-work of art. Jerome Kern, Rodgers & Hart, Irving Berlin-all were eventually to answer the challenge and the checkbook's call; all were to be shocked by the lack of respect: their precious songs scissored out, books defaced by studio hacks, sometimes only a musical's title remaining.

And what of the great kid genius George Gershwin? How would Broadway's brightest light fare in the glare of Hollywood's cruel Kliegs? Would Mr. Music, who had helped make "a lady out of jazz" by tickling blues from the gutter into the heady brew of a rhapsody, be vanquished by that West Coast gang of fairground barkers? No fear. For all his concert hall sheen, George Gershwin harbored inside him a rough diamond tunesmith talent nurtured on the rock pile of Tin Pan Alley. In the late teen years, he'd served an important apprenticeship as a song plugger and demonstrator before striking gold in 1919 with "Swanee," a mammy number that Al Jolson pushed and shoved into becoming a multimillion-seller. In fact, it was to remain Gershwin's biggest hit, an alarmclock melody with striking shifts from major to minor in the verse-very Russian, said some; very Yiddish, said others-and which then bursts bright into a triumphant one-step at the chorus, marching onward to a never-never-land called Dixie.

During the Jazz Age of the 1920s, he'd gravitated to Broadway shows, first revues and then full-blown book musicals: "I'll Build a Stairway to Paradise" employed effective blue (or crushed) notes, a pop fashion of the time; "Fascinating Rhythm" showed that Gershwin was right up there with Irving Berlin as a fabricator of clever syncopation devices; "The Man I Love" proved he could write as good a torch song as any on the market-a constant blue note used for yearning sentiment while the harmony changed sinuously until you just had to reach for a hankie. For several years he'd had his brother Ira, a Gilbert & Sullivan buff, writing the lyrics, instead of the rude Alley men of yore. Ira was a bookworm who ate dictionaries for breakfast, but he had his feet squarely on the sidewalk and was nifty with the wordplay: "'S Wonderful" is a swishing mouthfest, while "The Man I Love," describing a dream home from which you'd never roam, goes on to surprisingly ask, "Who would, would you?" like a mother tempting one with a pastry.

Of course, there was always the concertizing side of brother George, a restless soul who longed to be up in the pantheon with Beethoven and all of Fred Fisher's other alter egos. "I wonder if my music will be played a hundred years from now," asked George of a friend. "Yes-if you're around to play it," was the retort. In 1924, he'd been seriously reviewed by the quality press for his "Rhapsody in Blue." Was it a true marriage of art music to pop, of jazz to classical? Time would tell, but more immediately the music industry and the masses quickly recognized two terrific tunes when they heard them, and the flash piano filler in between was 'smarvelous. Hollywood bought the rhapsody for a tidy sum, only to make a dog's dinner out of it in "King of Jazz," an early talkie from 1930 starring the kindly bandleader-publicist Paul Whiteman.

It was not an auspicious start to the Gershwin movie relationship, what with a row of extras on a piano bench poking at a giant keyboard as the masterwork was performed, and this monstrosity followed by a cartoon in which portly Paul is pursued by natives through Africa. Now what could be despoiled in 1932's "Girl Crazy," a comic western full of bad men, lovelies and a score ranging from the red-hot "I Got Rhythm" to the sure-fire couch ballad "Embraceable You"? Well, Radio Pictures threw out the stage cast, including Ethel Merman and her amazing high Cs in "Rhythm," as well as the delectable Ginger Rogers, and made the musical into a vehicle for the vaudeville team of Wheeler & Woolsey. Songs were cut and a novelty number ordered up for stars Eddie Quillan and Dorothy Lee; the Gershwins obliged by mailing "You've Got What It Takes." Actually, the picture is a decent slapstick effort studded with a few songs acting as welcome relief to the belly laughs. Eventually the Gershwins were required in person.

They arrived in Hollywood just as the movie-musical craze was in its dying days. Fox assigned them to supply songs for "Delicious," a 1931 vehicle for the popular team of Janet Gaynor and Charles Farrell. Neither of the stars could sing, but they looked awful cute when romancing on the screen. The brothers came up with a cleaver number in "Delishious," which was Ira's homage to his immigrant father-in-law's fractured English. The family was a trove of such misheard words: The Gershwin father spoke of "Fashion on the River" rather than "Fascinating Rhythm." Perhaps this made Ira aware of the fun that could be had by messing around with words for sound's sake. The Fox songs took no time at all to complete. George was always quick at songwriting-doodling them up from piano improvisation or else, if in a deadline hurry, dashing in tuxedoed from a party to knock out a tune for the ever-ready homebody Ira. Thus there were plenty of days for George to play golf, work on his tan and sleep in Greta Garbo's old bed.

He couldn't resist, however, writing a serious program piece for "Delicious." Another rhapsody, this time evoking rivets being driven into Manhattan skyscrapers, the work is only heard briefly in the finished film. But he was allowed to return to New York with his Second Rhapsody under his arm, explaining that although he could turn out hits whenever so commanded: "The old artistic soul must be appeased every so often." New York, as always, was a fine artistic breeding ground, and the next few years saw four new Gershwin shows-but only one hit ("Of Thee I Sing," which also won a Pulitzer Prize). "Porgy and Bess" was a box-office flop on Broadway, strange as it seems today. So George put out the word to Hollywood that they were available again. But having a reputation as a composer of tone poems, rhapsodies and a "folk" opera was no help in winning the hard hearts of Hollywood. Pulitzer Prizes made for even greater distance. The studio buzz was that George had gone high hat and long hair.

Quickly he sent out a wire "RUMORS ABOUT HIGHBROW MUSIC RIDICULOUS STOP AM OUT TO WRITE HITS." By 1937 there was lots of competition on the coast. Writers in residence like Harry Warren and Ralph Rainger could serve up exactly what was wanted: short, catchy choruses that could be dinned and dinned into audiences until they cried for piano copies and phonograph records. RKO Pictures (once called Radio) was proving to be a safe refuge for Broadway musical men. Their successful Astaire & Rogers pictures had provided work for Jerome Kern and Irving Berlin. RKO liked prestige Broadway names and the Gershwins had written for Fred Astaire in "Lady Be Good!" and "Funny Face." Astaire's insouciance and articulate crooning were perfect for the Gershwin brand of smart, shiny songmanship. RKO signed them, hoping they'd meet the market. The brothers wrote scores for "Shall We Dance" and "A Damsel in Distress," while Sam Goldwyn wanted them for his spectacular revue "The Goldwyn Follies." This was an exciting time, filled with high promise.

Holed up in comfy Beverly Hills digs (swimming pool, tennis court, etc.), they proceeded to create a collection of hit songs that soon became standards, lapidary anthems that seem now to have existed forever: "Let's Call the Whole Thing Off," "They All Laughed," "They Can't Take That Away From Me," "Nice Work If You Can Get It," "A Foggy Day." For the most part, their 1930's pop is less antsy, less chrome-and skyscraper than it was in the Roaring '20s. War clouds were looming over Europe, the Great Depression wouldn't go away; the lyrics turned inward and the melodies smoothed out (frequently along pentatonic lines--the black notes on the piano). For example, "A Foggy Day" is about a spiritual change made by a vision of loveliness; the chorus strikes a characteristic Gershwin blue note on "day," but it's supported by a nice chocolate chord and from then on the warmth of the thick ninth chord sees us safely home where the sun is shining through the fog.

The only high-cultural reference is to the British Museum--and even that has "lost its charm." Even so, Sam Goldwyn was worried. When George demonstrated his "Follies" songs to the great producer, he was told to try "writing hits like Irving Berlin, songs you can whistle." This only made Gershwin's headaches worse. Lately he'd been getting too many of them, skull-splitters that some times spoiled his piano playing: At an L.A. performance of his Concerto in F, he hit some clangers when his fingers stiffened. Afterward he said he'd smelled burnt rubber. In fact, his brain contained a tumor as big as a grapefruit, and on July 11, 1937, he died on the operating table. He was 38. Composer Vernon Duke finished the rest of the required score, touching up some uncompleted verses. But what choruses!

Two of the loveliest ballads--melodious and accessible--are in 1938's "The Goldwyn Follies": "Love Is Here to Stay" deals with the impermanence of the material world (mountains are only made of clay, horrid atmosphere of cash-cow requirements, beautifully illustrate not only the lost art of the movie musical but also of the well-made pop song, a gem of gentility, witty intelligence and the warmth of love. Rock, with its hobnail boots in the glorious mud of roots music, cleaved a great divide like a hardchewing frontiersman. Of course, rock was only doing its duty as a mirror of the manners of a changing society. Gone forever are the days when the masses looked to top hat and tails and the decorous gestures of a Fred Astaire as the model for modem living. Finally what we're left with are the songs--imperishable so long as paper doesn't crumble. For you don't need product values--singers, orchestras--to enjoy these treasures. You don't need to use them as a trampoline for flights of hot jazzing. You don't even need electricity.

You can sing them in the shower. But it's better to have a piano. Because then, examined anew under the fingers, clouds of fresh pleasure appear as you pick out the culture is full of passing fancies) to a tune that falls on safe, homey notes (tonics and thirds), mattressed by those familiar ninth chords; "Love Walked In" is easy as pie, a straightforward sentiment with a melody as reassuring as a Brahms lullaby sung by a barbershop quartet. Both numbers were introduced in the movie by the cleanly boyish Kenny Baker, who sang them straight and with no embellishment. Both numbers became immediate hits. The Gershwins had proved they still could muster up the common touch. George had never believed his pop songs would outlast their period. He was dead wrong. After his death and into the next decades, the Gershwin catalog grew greener as the world learned to appreciate the brothers' easy artfulness at moving around within the prison form of the pop song. Movies such as "Rhapsody in Blue," " An American in Paris" and "Funny Face," all loaded with Gershwin delicacies, took the feast global in the best tradition of exported American culture.

Seen today, these Hollywood concoctions, free now from the original melodies and perfect harmonies. It becomes clear as a liberty bell that the classic American pop song is this country's real contribution to world culture. And that the Gershwins stand foursquare in the center of the song smithy of the West, beating out a rhythm of the heart and head (with tasteful portions of gut), and providing a balm for all our wounds. Who could ask for anything more? "Strike Up the Band!" tickets are available one hour before show time at the James Bridges Theater (the old Melnitz). The theater is at the northeast corner of the UCLA campus, near Sunset Boulevard and Hilgard Avenue. Admission is $6 general and $4 for students and seniors. Parking is available for $5 in Lot 3. Information: (310) 206-3456. Ian Whitcomb is a songwriter, composer and entertainer. He is the author of "After the Ball--Pop Music From Rag to Rock" (Limelight) and producer of the Grammy-winning CD "Titanic--Music Heard on the Fateful Voyage" (Rhino).

Ian Whitcomb is a highly respected performer, composer, and music historian. You can find all of his CD's, DVD's, Books, and Songbooks by clicking here , or by going to ianwhitcomb.com George Gershwin's World | Georgetown University Library Photograph of George and Ira Gershwin Quigley Photograph Archives Like today, the opening of a major Hollywood release in Gershwin's lifetime was a star-studded event. This photograph shows the dapper Gershwin brothers (George and his older brother, the lyricist Ira) at the opening of The Green Pastures at Radio City Music Hall on July 16, 1936. Gershwin was fascinated with African-American life; so it is no surprise that he attended the premiere of this film, which tells biblical stories with black actors. Review of Gershwin's Porgy and Bess by Lawrence Gilman, New York Herald Tribune, October 11, 1935 In many ways the "American folk opera" Porgy and Bess was Gershwin's crowning achievement.

The opera is based on Dubois Heyward's novel Porgy and paints an image of black life in Charleston, South Carolina during the first decades of the twentieth century. The music critic Lawrence Gilman (whose papers are held by Georgetown's Special Collections) heaped praise on Gershwin's choral writing, which he called "the music of anguish and supplication and despair and faith.” Tastes, however, change, and Gilman was none too happy with the "song-hits" he found in Gershwin's only full-length opera. Gilman called the famous "Bess, You is My Woman Now," "sure-fire rubbish." Modern Washingtonians will be interested to know that the original Porgy was played by Todd Duncan, a professor at Howard University. Lawrence Gilman was the grandnephew of Daniel Coit Gilman, the first president of The Johns Hopkins University. Article by George Gershwin on Porgy and Bess in the New York Times October 20, 1935 Gershwin was often interviewed about his works, and here he writes an entire column on Porgy and Bess.

The idea for the opera first occurred to Gershwin in 1926 (although he had already written a short, theatrical, and very serious work on black life, Blue Monday in 1922). While hardly an ethnological endeavor, Gershwin did spend most of the summer of 1934 in South Carolina, where he absorbed local color and music. One wonders if in this article Gershwin was replying to Mr. Gilman when he writes: "It is true that I have written songs for Porgy and Bess. I am not ashamed of writing songs at any time so long as they are good songs." Al Jolson from the movie The Jazz Singer (1927) Quigley Photograph Archives In his early years, Gershwin worked as a song-plugger in New York's Tin Pan Alley and as a rehearsal pianist for Jerome Kern on Broadway. Several Broadway shows carried songs by Gershwin, and in 1919 he composed the full Broadway score, La La Lucille.

But his first real hit came in 1920 when Al Jolson introduced the Gershwin/Caesar collaboration "Swanee" at the Winter Garden in the show Sinbad. From the resulting recording, Gershwin earned some $10,000. Here we see Jolson in what is often described as the first sound film The Jazz Singer. The plot revolves around the young Jakie Rabinowitz who must balance the traditions and expectations of his cantor father with his own desire to transform himself into Jack Robin, a "jazz" singer. The story is not so different from Jolson's own (he was born Asa Yoelson and his father was a cantor in Washington, D.C.). Apparently one didn't need improvising skills in 1927 to make it in "jazz" - Jolson achieved his transformation simply by wearing blackface makeup. Columbia Records Recording of Al Jolson singing “I’m Saving up the Means to Get to New Orleans" (1916) by Harry De Costa and Howard Johnson Our collection doesn't have a recording of Jolson singing Gershwin' s songs, but this recording from Georgetown's George O'Connor Collection features Jolson in another novelty number.

It was quite common for nineteenth- and early twentieth-century American songs to evoke a longing for the Old South (a continuation of the minstrel spirit found in the song "Dixie"). The sheet music to "I'm Saving up the Means to Get to New Orleans" depicts African Americans happily toiling away and performing music. On the backside of this recording is a performance by the former Georgetown student and Troubadour to the Presidents, George O'Connor. Aline Fruhauf, George Gershwin (1954) Photolithograph, Gift of Roderick S. Quiroz The American artist and caricaturist, Aline Fruhauf (1907-78), first met George Gershwin at the premiere of An American in Paris in December 1928. She was covering the event for Musical America who had commissioned her to create a portrait of Gershwin for their pages. When Fruhauf went to Gershwin's apartment for the sitting, his appearance surprised her: He was slender, athletic-looking, with a dark, rosy complexion and a very easy, unassuming manner. For some reason I couldn't fathom, he didn't look anything like his photographs ...

his hair, instead of being smooth, stuck straight up, inches high, into the air. I told him he looked different from what I expected. "I know," he said. "It's my hair. I just washed it." (Cf. Making Faces, ed. Erwin Vollmer (Seven Locks Press, 1987) Fruhauf's first impression of Gershwin, captured in this photolithograph, obviously did not please her editor. The image she eventually published, entitled "Mr. Gershwin Sets the Pace", shows him in a more public guise, dashing across the stage for a final curtain call at Carnegie Hall. Group Photo of America’s Musical Elite taken at a 1916 Actors Fund Benefit The blend of story and song that defines the Broadway musical has captured audiences for most of the century, but who gave the genre its characteristic feel? The recognized dean of the Broadway musical was Jerome Kern, who is pictured here with the leading figures of American popular music. These were Gershwin's musical heroes, the primary influences behind his early song-writing years. Grouped around Oscar Hammerstein (seated at the piano) we see (left to right): Jerome Kern, Louis Hirsch, A.

Baldwin Sloane, Rudolf Friml, Alfred Robyn, Gustave Kerker, Hugo Frey, John Philip Sousa, Leslie Stuart, Raymond Hubbell, John Golden, Silvio Hein and Irving Berlin. Gershwin probably got to know many of these men a few years after this photo was taken. He was Kern's rehearsal pianist at the Princess Theater, a New York hotspot for young, creative talent. This photo was presented to Father Repetti, in July 1958, by an old Gonzaga classmate, William Deriny (A.B. 1902). George Gershwin and Ginger Rogers (1937) Quigley Photograph Archives This photo shows Gershwin and Rogers rehearsing one of the six songs he composed for the film score to Shall We Dance (1937). Gershwin teamed up with his lyricist brother, Ira, for this production, but their contribution was soon overshadowed by another famous pair Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers.

The film's comic-romantic plot is typical for the period: Ballet star Pete "Petrov" Peters travels across the Atlantic aboard the same ship as a dancer he's smitten with, but barely knows - the musical star Linda Keene. By the time the ocean liner pulls into New York's harbor, the rumor mill has churned what began as a little white lie into a hot gossip item: the two celebrities are secretly married! George Gershwin at Samuel Goldwyn Studios (1937) Quigley Photograph Archives This is quite possibly the last photograph ever taken of George Gershwin. He and Ira were working on the film score for The Goldwyn Follies (1937) when Gershwin's life was cut short by a malignant cystic brain tumor at age 33. The photograph was taken just before Gershwin collapsed in the studio. Pictured left to right are: George Gershwin, Alfred Newman (musical director), Samuel Goldwyn and Ira Gershwin.

At the time of his death, Gershwin was working on the melody for "Our Love Was Here to Stay." Since his passing, the numerous songs he wrote with Ira have been the basis for several films (American In Paris, Rhapsody In Blue) and stage musicals (My One And Only, Crazy For You, Fascinating Rhythm). Samuel Goldwyn (1937) Quigley Photograph Archives Samuel Goldwyn was one of the most prominent movie producers of the twentieth century. He had an instrumental role in the formation of the two largest Hollywood studios, Paramount Pictures and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, and his career spanned multiple generations of film production. A Hollywood mogul archetype in his early years, he later reinvented himself as an independent producer, forming a production company that became the model for the independents who followed. Goldwyn was a huge fan of Gershwin's music, and he hired the composer for various film projects. Even after Gershwin's death, in 1937, Goldwyn continued to promote his music. In 1959 he produced a film version of Porgy and Bess starring Sammy Davis, Jr. The Gershwin family strongly objected to this film.

They felt that Goldwyn had "Hollywoodized" Gershwin's original. They were also upset that the producer had fired the film's original director, Rouben Mamoulian (director of the original stage version in 1935). The film was withdrawn from release in 1974 and is currently only available in film archives. Bandleader Paul Whiteman (1890-1967) Quigley Photograph Archives Paul Whiteman, star of Universal's "King of Jazz Revue" trying it out on his piano in the bungalow built especially for him at Universal City (1830) Paul Whiteman shooting a "little" pool at Universal City Paul Whiteman led the most popular dance band (The Paul Whiteman Orchestra) in 1920s New York. He was something of a character - as these photos clearly reveal - and he never missed an opportunity for self-promotion. Today Whiteman is a controversial figure among many jazz historians. Whiteman billed himself as "The King Of Jazz," even though his "orchestra" rarely played what is considered real Jazz.

For the most part, his group performed commercial dance music and semi-classical works. No doubt, Whiteman secured his place in history in 1924 when he commissioned George Gershwin's Rhapsody In Blue for a concert he organized entitled: "An Experiment in Modern Music."

Question: Which American composer was working on the music for a film called The Goldwyn Follies at the time of his death in 1937 ?
Answer: GEORGE GERSHWIN