George Gershwin (George Bruskin Gershovitz)

George was the second of four children born to Russian immigrants Morris Gershovitz (arrived 1891) and Rose (Bruskin) Gershovitz (arrived 1892), who were married on July 21, 1895. Also in the family were his older brother and eventual lyricist Isadore (12/6/1896), younger brother Arthur (3/14/1900), and younger sister Frances (12/6/1906), born exactly a decade after her oldest brother. Morris' brother Aaron had also immigrated around the same time and was living nearby. Most available sources claim that George was born as Jacob Gershovitz on September 26, 1898. There are a couple of official documents that challenge those points and explanations to support the likely circumstances.

Gershwin's birth certificate (#14691) has a date of September 26 and the name Jacob Bruskin Gershwine, but with the correct parents listed so it is his. George's 1917 draft record claims a birth date of September 25, which is written in his own hand.

Morris and Rose Gershovitz
in the mid-1890s

Was he misinformed as a child or did the attending doctor write the wrong date as well as a misspelled last name? It could also be due to the Jewish tradition of not recognizing the new day until sunset, and George was born mid-day. What seems less of an error is that on the 1900 Census taken June 7, 1900, when he was less than 21 months old, he is clearly listed as George Gershvin (could be Gershwin), not Jacob Gershovitz or Gershwine. The same goes for his older brother Ira, shown as Israel Gershovitz on his birth certificate (#53973), but who was consistently referred to after his birth variously as Ysidore, Isidore or Isadore.

One possible explanation of the variance goes to poor communication between the doctor or staff and the parents when the birth certificate was filled out. Another more viable explanation is that many American immigrant Jewish families had two different names for their children - one in Yiddish, and the other an Anglicized version. This may be the case with George whose Yiddish name may well have been Jacob, as much as Isadore's was Israel. However, it appears that George is the only name he ever knew or went by. On the family name: Isadore was born with the name Gershovitz. Therefore Morris or his brother Aaron simplified or Anglicized the family name sometime between the births of their first two boys. On most available sources it appears variously as Gershvin or Gershwin throughout the early 1900s. In any case, he was never George Gershovitz.

The Gershwin household was a mobile one, sometimes moving as many as three times in a year, as Morris evidently liked to live near his constantly changing place of business. When George was born he was said to have been in leather. By 1900 he was listed as a shoemaker, which may have been an offshoot of the leather business. He dabbled in other areas of clothing, retail, bookmaking, and even running a Turkish bath, as more of his immigrant peers were flooding the lower East Side of Manhattan and over into Brooklyn, the family bouncing back and forth between each borough. This instability may have affected George, even more so than his brother Izzy, as the youth did not fare well in school. While capable, he was distracted and showed little interest in sitting in class much less learning. In spite of his slight build, George was athletic and preferred to be out roller skating or playing at some other sport. It was clear that Izzy would be the studious one who would achieve the American dream. That is, if not for Max Rosenzweig.

Maxie was one of George's younger school friends and at ten years old becoming a fine violinist as well (he had a fine career with the instrument as virtuoso Max Rosen).

A 1910 Knabe similar to what the
Gershwin family purchased from
George Hochman.

The family also had a piano (some sources report it was a player piano, but this is hard to verify), for which George quickly discovered his aptitude and learned to play a few popular ragtime melodies over a period of perhaps two years from 1909 to 1910. Then one day at the Gershwin household, it was decided that Izzy was to receive a piano and lessons for his 12th birthday, given the potential for his musical talent from the perspective of Rose. His parents bought a new Knabe upright piano from dealer George Hochman on time payments. After it was lifted up several floors and through a window into their flat, it is possible that Izzy reluctantly picked at it a bit, and then George sat down and amazed the family at what he already knew on the instrument. (In fact, it is likely that Rose had already heard him play at Max's house.) While both took lessons for a while, it was George who continued with the lessons while a relieved Izzy looked in other directions for something to fit his talents. Frances also received some musical training in voice at an early age. In general, Frances and Arthur were in many ways removed from their older siblings, and shared only a passing relationship according to some biographies. As of the 1910 Census the family is shown living in Manhattan with Morris running an unspecified business. The family also had a live-in servant, Ida Beckowitz, so business must have been good.

School was tough enough on George. Being surrounded by ragtime and popular songs while taking lessons in classical music was even more frustrating. His first two teachers were Miss Green and an unnamed Hungarian band director. However, after more than two years George had outgrown their patience and skills, and needed something more. Having been playing in a few public locations, he was befriended by pianist Jack Miller who in turn introduced George to Charles Hambitzer. The instructor would become George's mentor over the next four or so years (he died in 1918), and would go beyond technique, giving Gershwin a new perspective on European composers including contemporaries such as Ravel and Debussy. He also encouraged George to attend symphonic concerts featuring piano, which must have given the boy a taste for the stage as well as some excitement about the scope of such works. Hambitzer further directed George to Edward Kilenyi for additional lessons in theory and composition as time and money permitted. Around the same time, determined to pursue a music career, George quit high school with his mother's blessing and understanding, and tried to find work either playing or working for a publisher. Sister Frances was also becoming adept at singing and dance, and actually may have preceded her older brother in earning money through music. However, she married very young and gave up music and dance for painting and motherhood.

After searching around a bit, George managed to get hired by Mose Gumble as a song plugger at the publishing house of Jerome H. Remick for $15.00 per week. when you want 'em you can't get 'em cover

when you want 'em you can't get 'em cover

This meant that he would play new songs for potential customers, often producers or stage singers, in poorly insulated cubicles amidst a sea of other pianos. However, it did earn him some income, and it inspired George to write some as well. He also found some work arranging and playing piano rolls of ragtime and popular songs for Standard Music Rolls at Perfection Studios in East Orange, New Jersey. With another friend, Murray Roth, George composed When You Want 'Em, You Can't Get 'Em (When You've Got 'Em, You Don't Want 'Em), a clever ragtime tune with an unwieldy title. Gumble and others at Remick showed no interest, with Gumble having to admonish Gershwin, saying "You're here as a pianist, not a writer. We've got plenty of writers under contract." The pair ended up selling it to Harry Von Tilzer based on some urging by singer Sophie Tucker, with Roth accepting $15 up front, but George holding out for royalties. He eventually received a mere $5 from Von Tilzer after asking for at least something. George also committed to piano roll for Standard at one of his Saturday recording sessions, becoming only a moderate seller. But George Gershwin was now a song writer at only seventeen.

In spite of the setbacks, Gershwin penned another tune with Roth, My Runaway Girl. It somehow caught the interest of composer Sigmund Romberg as it made the rounds, and was interpolated into the Passing Show of 1916, the first Gershwin tune to make it to the Broadway stage. As it turns out, Romberg had more interest in the composer and player than he did for the song, which more or less ended Roth's career, but started George's. Even better, Gershwin was employed as a rehearsal pianist for the show, and wrote the music for another tune, The Making of a Girl, with lyrics by Romberg and seasoned writer Harold Atteridge. He also made a step up in the piano roll business, working for Aeolian by late 1916. Over the next several years George would record over 100 piano rolls of popular tunes, including some of his own compositions. He was known to have worked under pseudonyms as well, including Fred Murtha and Bert Wynn.

Hoping to make his way as a composer of any genre, perhaps even improving on that genre or successfully merging popular forms with the classical ones he had been learning from Hambitzer and Kilenyi, rialto ripples cover

Gershwin teamed up with Will Donaldson, a somewhat older peer at Remick, for the rag Rialto Ripples. In reality, Donaldson may have applied his name to the piece, perhaps lightly arranging it, to give it more of a shot at publication. In fact, composer Felix Arndt, another mentor to George, may have had more influence on Rialto Ripples than anyone else. It was not immediately accepted, but by the time George got frustrated and either quit or was discharged from Remick in mid-March of 1917, it became the only Gershwin tune that the publisher took in. Ironically, Rialto Ripples was, in the short term, quite a sensation for Remick, but it was too late for them to capitalize on it and request more from George, who was now working as a rehearsal and performance pianist. One of the shows he worked for starting in July was Miss 1917 by Jerome Kern and Victor Herbert.

By late 1917 George had worked out a few more tunes with another lyricist he met while making the rounds, Irving Caesar. Three years his senior, Irving already had some connections in the theater world which would soon pay off. But George found another writing partner as well, one Arthur Francis. They gave the partnership a try, and eventually found their stride, working together for the next 20 years. In truth, the name was a pseudonym from Ira Gershwin derived from the names of their younger siblings. It was supposedly to keep Ira's own identity and not capitalize on George's growing reputation, but in 1917 that was not fully realized yet. After Miss 1917 opened in November, George remained at the Century Theater as an organizer of and accompanist for a series of popular concerts they had each Sunday evening. nobody but you cover

Through this gig word of his talents both as a pianist and composer spread, and very soon in early 1918 he was offered a regular position as a staff pianist and composer by Max Dreyfus, a manager at T.B. Harms Publishing Company. This included a fairly decent weekly salary in exchange for rights on any future compositions he would produce, a forward looking move on the part of Dreyfus.

On his 1918 draft record George is listed as an actor composer for the Nora Bayes Theatrical Company, and as being employed by the T.B. Harmes [sic] Publishing Company. For a short while he worked on the vaudeville stage as an accompanist for the more famous Bayes, as well as singer Louise Dresser. The listed address on the draft record is different than that of his parents. On Ira's draft record he is listed under the name Isidore, not as a lyricist however, but rather as an employee of his fathers at the St. Nicholas Bath. George lists his mother Rose as a reference and Ira lists his father Morris. There is a bittersweet irony in this as a few years later, around the time that George was receiving great acclaim for his symphonic works, Rose credited Ira for their overall success, a contention she held to the end of her life, and a frustration for the composing half of the Gershwin team. Indeed, one of their first songs written together, The Real American Folk Song is a Rag, was getting some notice in the music Ladies First, and There's Magic in the Air would find its way into Half Past Eight later in the year. But George was working with other lyricists as well, mostly in short term relationships. By the end of 1918 his songs would be in three Broadway shows. Still a fresh talent, even as a veteran at age 19, George Gershwin would not see his first real hit until the following year.

From this point on nearly every song that came from Gershwin would either find its way into a Broadway show, or be specifically composed as part of one. (Note that this does not include his famous instrumental works.) original swanee cover

In 1919 various Gershwin songs found their way into three Broadway musicals, and he would write the scores for two others. La, La, Lucille, a show composed with prolific lyricist Buddy G. DeSylva and associate Arthur J. Jackson, would be his first full-fledged assignment. It ran for 104 performances, not bad for a first attempt. He was also charged with Morris Gest's Midnight Whirl, a revue comprised of Gershwin music to lyrics by DeSylva and John Henry Mears. It ran for a less impressive 68 performances before closing. But in the interim, George and Irving Caesar had dashed off a little ragtime song, supposedly in a mere 15 minutes, that was interpolated into the unimpressive Capitol Revue. A three part song titled Swanee, it did not go far until Caesar asked an acquaintance to give it a try. That acquaintance heard Gershwin's dynamic performance of it at a party and decided to give it a new home. Thus it was that Swanee was interpolated into the decidedly non-Southern show Sinbad by singer Al Jolson who ran with it and never stopped. To think that Jolie made George famous, and that at some point Gershwin's fame would handily eclipse that of the bombastic stage star. It was further a hit in London when injected into Jig Saw, and within a year George , also establishing a fan base for the composer in England. By the end of 1920, both Irving and George would be overwhelmed by a reported $10,000 each in performance and sales royalties. As it turned out, this would be his biggest song hit during his lifetime, and one of his biggest breaks. It was also featured in the first audio recording with Gershwin at the piano, albeit with the trio of famed banjoist Fred Van Eps. Given the nature of acoustic recording, the banjo dominated this track so Gershwin is difficult to hear, but glimpses of his genius are still present.

Fortunately for fans with reproducing pianos and for future preservation, Gershwin also recorded some reproducing rolls starting in 1919 for both the Welte-Mignon and Duo-Art formats. His most celebrated series of rolls were still a few years off, but these demonstrated his forward thinking as a pianist brought up on ragtime and popular song, and advancing it through complex rhythms and chord progressions. Where Swanee was a fine example of a contemporary tune, George was already looking to advancing his classical training into new forms of music that in some cases forecast what was to com. Having lost Hambitzer as an instructor, George soon moved on to classical Rubin Goldmark, and for an alternate point of view, composer and music theory teacher Henry Cowell, known for some rather avant garde material. where is the man of my dreams cover

Even in advance of Zez Confrey's series of novelties of the 1920s, in 1919 George managed his Novelette in Fourths, which actually has some kinship with Confrey's Kitten on the Keys and My Pet, pieces that would emerge within two years. In pursuit of advancing the classical form, he also composed Lullaby for a string quartet, part of his training with Kilenyi.

But in spite of his ambition to be the great American classical or jazz composer, Broadway was calling, literally. It was another George who would keep Gershwin busy for the next several years. George White hoped to compete with Florenz Ziegfeld by putting on his own revue, giving it the salacious and enticing title of George White's Scandals. The first edition was in 1920, running for 134 performances, featuring songs composed by Gershwin and Arthur Jackson. There were no big hits, but a lot of notice of this new force on the great white way. They would repeat the feat in 1921, with the memorable Drifting Along with the Tide outlasting most of the rest of the songs. Meanwhile in 1920, George had another nine tunes interpolated into four more musicals, which got him even more work in 1921. The 1920 Census showed that he was once again living with his parents, as was Ira. George was listed as a composer and Isadore as a lyric writer. Morris was in the restaurant business at that time.

With Caesar and DeSylva he tried to recreate the success of Swanee with Swanee Rose (a.k.a.) Dixie Rose, but nothing happened with it. Slightly discouraged but moving forward, he teamed up with a cadre of young composers for The Broadway Whirl, and had pieces interpolated into or commissioned for no less than six other musicals. Among those requesting Gershwin's services was lyricist and producer E. Ray Goetz, who had high regard for the composer, and would work with him on a number of shows. Goetz and DeSylva replaced Jackson as the lyricists for 1922 edition of George White's Scandals, which ran 89 performances and yielded I'll Build a Stairway to Paradise. Another ambitious effort from that show ran only the first night before it was dropped. Titled Blue Monday it was a miniature opera co-composed with DeSylva, running around 25 minutes, with a format and plot that bears some similarity to the later Slaughter on Tenth Avenue by Richard Rodgers. There may be a variety of reasons why it was dropped, such as slowing down the second act of the show, or perhaps being too cerebral for the time. do it again cover

It generally demonstrates Gershwin's ambitions to move beyond mere popular music, but also shows that he needed a little more fine tuning in the execution of this form. The Blue Monday Blues from the work remained in the show. Another DeSylva/Gershwin piece included in The French Doll, Do It Again, would become another Gershwin standard over the next few years. Gershwin was also tapped for Our Nell with another trio of lyricist composers, which fell flat at 40 performances and yielded nothing memorable.

The year 1923 was only a bit slower for the young composer, who may have taken pause after a few misfires in order to recharge and turn out better material. Fulfilling his agreement with White, Gershwin and DeSylva, with some help from Goetz, created a score for George White's Scandals of 1923, which improved over the previous year for a total of 168 performances. He also made contributions to The Dancing Girl and Little Miss Bluebird, both relatively successful productions. Earlier in the year Gershwin had met British lyricist Clifford Grey who asked him to collaborate on a new work for the London stage. George ended up visiting London and Paris for a while, becoming known to many there while he finished work on The Rainbow. Not a raging success, it still established his presence in the United Kingdom. At the end of the year, George and Buddy finished off Sweet Little Devil which played in 1924. In the meantime, the sometimes overworked Gershwin may have forgotten a meeting with one of his admirers, bandleader Paul Whiteman, who was impressed with much of what he had heard of Gershwin, particularly at a November 1, 1923 recital at Aeolian Hall where he performed with Canadian mezzo-soprano Eva Gauthier which featured some of his songs and those by contemporaries Irving Berlin, Jerome Kern and Walter Donaldson. Whiteman was planning on a concert in the same venue for early 1924 that would feature some of the best available jazz music of that time in a formal setting, and asked George if he might contribute a symphonic work of some kind to be featured in the program. The understanding was that George agreed to do so, but it may have been a handshake commitment because it was evidently forgotten.

Just after the New Year started in 1924, Ira pointed out a blurb in a New York newspaper to George, claiming he had agreed to write a Jazz Concerto for Whiteman's orchestra. With just five weeks left before the concert, it was clear to Ira that George hadn't even started on it yet, and given that the piece was already generating buzz in the press it became paramount that work get underway. whiteman concert poster

The next day George was on his way to Boston and heard the rhythm of the train wheels, inspiring him towards at least one of the melodies in the concerto. Soon after this he improvised a placid and lush melody while playing at a party, and realized it was the main theme he had hoped for. So Gershwin quickly dashed off a two-piano score for the concerto, leaving some of the pages for his part of the piece blank. Whiteman handed it off to composer and arranger Ferdé Grofé, who turned it into a score for the Whiteman orchestra.

Thus it was that on February 12th, in a concert titled An Experiment in Modern Music, that featured works by Victor Herbert, Edward Elgar and Zez Confrey, a less than confident Gershwin took his seat at the piano near the end of the concert. The clarinet started on what would become a famous slide up to a high Bb, and the first performance of Rhapsody in Blue was underway. Gershwin himself ended up improvising in some sections of the score that he had not yet filled in, but the orchestra managed to stay in synch with him. At one point, by his own account, he started crying he was so moved by the experience - or perhaps intimidated - and came to his senses several pages later, not knowing how he had conducted that far. The final chords brought a standing ovation and noisy acclaim from an audience that included violinists Fritz Kreisler and Jascha Heifitz, conductor Leopold Stokowski, and composers Serge Rachmaninov and Igor Stravinsky. This was the moment that set in stone George Gershwin's place in American and world music history and development, and redefined him as a musician as well as composer. The critics weren't sure how to categorize the piece in their reviews, either as classical or jazz, or even a hybrid. But they could not ignore that it was popular with the general public, as well as with his peers.

That was just the beginning of 1924. Soon after the concert Gershwin recorded an abridged version of the work with Whiteman's orchestra on an acoustic recording. He also embarked on his most ambitious Broadway shows to date. With DeSylva and Goetz, the trio wrote the annual score for George White's Scandals, lasting 196 performances. It would the last Scandals he would be directly involved in. Following that, George turned to Ira, with whom he had already composed several songs, for a purely Gershwin show. Lady Be Good was immensely successful, playing for 330 performances in its original run. Among the memorable tunes were the title song, Oh, Lady Be Good, and Fascinatin' Rhythm. The show opened in December and featured the brother/sister dance team of Fred and Adele Astaire, who had also been making a splash in London around that time. It also served as some evidence that perhaps Ira was the best possible fit as a lyricist for George's music. Even before Lady Be Good, the brothers had also co-composed the score for Primrose with British lyricist Desmond Carter, a show which like The Rainbow was produced exclusively for the London stage, and not performed in the United States until sixty-three years after its British debut.

At some point in 1925, now flush with money and fame, George was able to move uptown to the upper West Side of Manhattan, providing a much more fashionable and comfortable home for his parents there as well. He also put his money to use engaging more in art, attempting to paint to a degree (Ira turned out to be a fairly accomplished oil canvas artist), original rhapsody in blue cover

and collecting a number of pieces of art as well. Being that Gershwin was in vogue, he was frequently invited to parties given within the theatrical or literary circles of New York, and was implored to play at virtually all of them. It has been said that sometimes it was a little hard to push George towards the piano, but once there he dominated the evening with his repertoire and repartee. George was also traveling a bit more in 1925, overseeing productions in England as well as visits to Paris. Among those that he developed a close social relationship with was Fred Astaire, with whom George would remain friends to the end of his life.

While Gershwin had recorded countless rolls from the late 1910s on, most of them to date had been standard non-expression piano rolls with a few reproducing rolls done along the way. Duo-Art managed to get him exclusively in 1925, as announced in the February 7 edition of The Music Trade Review: "George Gershwin, the young American composer who leaped into sudden fame with his jazz-classic, the 'Rhapsody in Blue,' has recorded that composition for the Duo-Art. Gershwin has been known on Broadway for several years as a writer of popular song hits, and as a pianist of much ability. It was but a year ago, however, that his 'Rhapsody in Blue,' first performed by Paul Whiteman's Orchestra in Aeolian Hall, stamped him as something more than a jazz composer. He is now hailed as the one composer capable of translating the true spirit of American jazz into classic composition. In future he will record exclusively for the Duo-Art... The 'Rhapsody' is written for augmented jazz orchestra with solo piano. For the Duo-Art Gershwin has recorded his own arrangement of the work for piano alone, a clever combination of the brilliant and difficult solo part and the rich orchestration. The composition will be published in two rolls." Indeed, it required two passes at the very least to create the arranged rolls of the large-scope work. In recent times, many fine recordings of Rhapsody in Blue with Gershwin at the piano have been achieved by using edited versions of this fine roll set.

The first musical of that year was Tell Me More co-written with Ira and Bud DeSylva. It fared moderately well on Broadway at 100 performances, but was also taken to London with three additional tunes composed with Desmond Carter, and did a little better there. gershwin on the cover of time magazine 7/20/1925

gershwin on the cover of time magazine 7/20/1925

Tip-Toes was next, lasting for an admirable 192 performances over half the year. Among the great tunes that came from it were Looking for a Boy, That Certain Feeling and Sweet and Low Down. With the unusual combination of Herbert Stothart, Otto Harbach and Oscar Hammerstein Jr., Gershwin stepped a bit closer to classic theater with Song of the Flame. Even though it lasted into 1926 at 219 performances, he would not team with them again.

George also had a lot on his plate, having been commissioned to write another symphonic work by conductor Walter Damrosch and the New York Symphony Orchestra, who had attended the premiere of Rhapsody in Blue. He spent most of the summer and early fall of 1925 focusing on the work. Still lacking some of the necessary theory and orchestration skills he needed, Gershwin hit the books to become self-taught in these to a degree. The experience also prompted to later seek out training from Wallingford Riegger and Henry Cowell to help fill out his musical knowledge base. Originally titled New York Concerto, it emerged in November as Concerto in F. Unlike Rhapsody in Blue, this was a full-fledged three section concerto, and it was orchestrated completely by Gershwin with a little advice from Damrosch dispensed during early run-throughs. Premiering at Carnegie Hall on December 3rd, it was well attended and well received by most. Stravinsky was there once again and thought the difficult work to be brilliant. Sergei Prokofiev had no use for it, making it clear that he did not like Gershwin's work at all. Some thought it to be too classical in the same vein as French impressionist Claude Debussy, and not more closely associated with American jazz. Just the same, it further cemented George's reputation as a contemporary American classicist at age 27, a worthy accomplishment. A lasting impression has been left by this piece, with one of the most ambitious and eclectic performances by Gershwin's admirer and slightly younger peer Oscar Levant, who performed the third movement (with himself shown on screen as all of the members of the orchestra) in the all-Gershwin MGM film An American in Paris.

One happy event in Gershwin's life was an ongoing relationship with composer Kay Swift, who had met in 1925. This made Swift's husband Jimmy Warburg rather unhappy, but he tolerated it for a time trying to compete with Gershwin for her attention. In the end, their marriage collapsed. Kay was involved with Gershwin nearly to the end of his life. One rather blatant show of affection on George's part was naming his next show, Oh, Kay!, for her. With lyrics by Ira it opened in 1926 and turned out to be a very inspired and romantic turn for the brothers, running an impressive 256 performances, and yielding the lasting hit Someone to Watch Over Me. Surprisingly, in its original form that song was not the slow ballad we know today, but more of lilting swinging tune, performed on piano roll by George the same year in that manner. He would also contribute a couple of pieces to the London production of Lady Be Good, including the memorable I'd Rather Charleston.

While in London, George met again up with Fred and Adele Astaire. Taking advantage of the advanced electronic recording technology in studios there, the trio recorded some tracks together. They represent some of the finest audio recordings of Gershwin's playing, as well as some of Fred's dancing. Yet George still pursued his desire to compose classically infused jazz pieces, still somewhat influenced by the French impressionists. three preludes cover

Now taking some instruction in advanced composition, he penned a set of preludes that year, and by some reports was planning a series of etudes as well. Even though there may have been as many as six composed, George performed his Three Preludes for Piano in December of 1926 as part of a recital where he also accompanied contralto Marguerite d'Alvarez. Historians have further extrapolated that the unpublished pieces found in the archives titled Sleepless Nights and Novelette (restructured as Short Story may have also been intended as part of the prelude set.

The next Gershwin musical would leave a sour taste in the mouth of many, including the Gershwin brothers. Teaming up with playwright George S. Kaufman, who had recently scored with the Marx Brothers' musicals The Cocoanuts (with Irving Berlin), he teamed with the Gershwins to write and produce the political satire Strike up the Band in early 1927. In spite of a fine score in which Ira took Kaufman's libretto and turned it into workable lyrics, the show did not make it to Broadway, closing in Philadelphia after only a few performances. While this somewhat expensive proposition was not too much of a burden for the brothers, the loss to them musically after the effort put into it was disheartening. One of the pieces included had already been dropped from a show in 1924. The Man I Love ended up being dropped once again, as was the entire show soon after. However, it has become one of the most enduring ballads composed in the 20th century, and sold very well on its own once it was heard on recordings. The show was simply set aside and they moved on to other projects. Among those was Funny Face, which at 244 performances was far from a disappointment for the brothers. Among the memorable pieces from that production was the enduring 'S Wonderful and the clever The Babbitt and the Bromide.

While George had recorded Rhapsody in Blue with the Whiteman orchestra in 1924, it was an acoustic recording of only moderate quality. So in 1927 he joined the orchestra again for another take at an abbreviated version of the piece recorded electronically by Victor. However, even with the composer present and at the piano, Paul Whiteman had some issues with how the piece was to be interpreted and ended up leaving the session. In order to get a take while the musicians were still present, Nathan Shilkret, a staff conductor who was on hand that day, took over to finish the recording. In spite of this, Whiteman would still long be associated with the piece in two different guises. The original orchestration by Grofé was for jazz band, but a later orchestration had many string elements added, making the piece more symphonic in presentation. This later version would be included in the 1930 Whiteman movie, King of Jazz, with the piano in that interpretation played by the very capable novelty pianist Roy Bargy. While Gershwin did not perform in the film, he still performed at the premiere of the picture on May 2, 1930. Whiteman was not the only who capitalized on the work. It was incorporated into George White's Scandals of 1926 even though Gershwin was no longer composing for the leader, in Americana also in 1926, the musical Lucky in 1927, and George White's Musical Hall Varieties of 1932). It would eventually be utilized in a number of other movies as well, the most iconic being Woody Allen's Manhattan, and one of the finest renditions featured in the Disney Studio's Fantasia 2000, both of which starred New York City as their logical background, and even as the star. So it was that even by the late 1920s Rhapsody in Blue was deeply associated with Gershwin, New York, and Whiteman.

The following year was quite eventful for the Gershwins as well. The brothers debuted two ambitious musicals that year - one a hit and one a near-miss. Rosalie was first, including some input from Sigmund Romberg and writer P.G. Wodehouse. george gershwin self-portrait

While it did not yield any lasting hits, it ran for nearly a year at 335 performances, a worthy run even in those pre-Depression times. They followed this up with Treasure Girl, which lasted for a mere 68 performances before the final curtain. One nice piece came out of this, albeit as more of a jaunty dance tune than the ballad most are familiar with today. (I've Got a) Crush on You rose above the rest, and has been frequently recorded over the decades since. But after all this writing for Broadway, George needed a break, and had a desire to explore more of the fusion of jazz and classical forms, hoping to fuse them into something that would eclipse even his Rhapsody in Blue

Part of 1928 found George Gershwin in Paris, France, where he sought new musical direction and training in composition. Among those that he approached were Nadia Boulanger and composer Maurice Ravel, both of who informed Gershwin that there was little they could do to assist him, in part because they respected the work he already had done and did not want to remove the jazz elements by infusing him with too many classical tenets. Ravel in particular was a big fan of George and found his symphonic jazz works intriguing. He was also clear on the point that George was much better paid for his works, and when asked to give Gershwin lessons, he evidently replied "How about you give me some lessons?" This was further reinforced with the quote, "Why be a second-rate Ravel, when you are a first-rate Gershwin?" In any case, while on this sojourn, George soaked in as much French influence as he could, and in the spring started on what would be perhaps his finest and second most famous orchestral work. Intended to musically portray the impressions of a visitor to Paris, it turned into a one movement symphonic poem, one of the first which Gershwin also worked to orchestrate with mixed results. At some point during the year Gershwin ended up frustrated with the music scene in Paris and returned home to finish the work. An American in Paris debuted in Carnegie Hall on December 13th with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra under Walter Damrosch. Containing representations of many emotions as well as tangible elements such as taxi horns, and a very wistful blues suggesting homesickness, it was instantly acclaimed as a masterpiece and has remained very popular since.

Early in 1929 RCA Victor asked George to help with a recording of An American in Paris with their resident Victor Symphony Orchestra under Nathaniel Shilkret, who had previously conducted Rhapsody in Blue. Ultimately Gershwin had less influence on the outcome of the interpretation than Shilkret did, so his role in the process was minimized. He likely would not have been in the recording at all if not for the fact that nobody had seen to hiring a celesta player. So on that recording George is heard briefly on the short celesta solo. That summer, Gershwin made his debut as a conductor in an unusual outdoor concert at Lewisohn Stadium in New York where conducted the New York Philharmonic Orchestra in both An American in Paris and both conducted and played the piano for the now familiar Rhapsody in Blue, for an audience of more than fifteen thousand people. An American in Paris would ultimately be interpreted in many ways, one of the most memorable being dancer Gene Kelly's ballet set to the piece in the 1952 film of the same name. That same movie would also feature the Levant performance of Concerto in F and a number of other Gershwin songs performed by the cast, closing with the vivacious and wistful tone poem from France.

Given how much time the trip to France had taken, along with the work necessary to complete An American in Paris and attend the many early performances of it, there is no wonder that George and Ira only got one musical to Broadway in 1929. Show Girl got a relatively tepid response, making the best of 111 performances overall before the economic reality of the Wall Street crash started to settle in. It incorporated the blues section of An American in Paris for a short ballet. The finale of the show became a near-instant hit, and a song quickly adopted by singer and Gershwin fan Al Jolson. Liza (All the Clouds'll Roll Away) caught on quickly of its own accord, but it was not enough to keep the entire show alive beyond four months. The Great Depression was looming ahead and about to settle in. At this point in his life, it has been determined historically that George Gershwin was likely the wealthiest composer in the world, based on how many of his songs were generating royalties on a regular basis through performances and sheet music sales, in addition to his personal appearances. The Gershwin brothers would manage to hold on to that wealth during the lean years ahead, but they had to continue work for it, which they ultimately did to great acclaim.

As of the 1930 Census George was shown still living in Manhattan along with his personal cook, Frank Diudl. Even though he was pretty much a confirmed bachelor by now, he still had some ongoing relationships, not just the one with Kay Swift, and was known for being the life of the party, something he at times reluctantly enjoyed, along with a good cigar. strike up the band cover

His exquisite playing, which was occasionally heard on radio by now, spoke volumes. There were many times when he was limited by the time capacity and sound quality of 78 rpm discs, so they don't always represent the dynamic or temporal nuances of his performances as well as the live radio or concert performances. But he was still in demand for other works. One of those, contracted in 1929, was a Jewish-themed opera that was given the working title of The Dybbuk. Although a contract was signed with the Metropolitan Opera, work on his other serious compositions, travel to Europe, and ultimately time spend in Hollywood superseded this obligation, and the opera, though allegedly started, was never completed.

One of the projects was a resurrection of Strike Up the Band in 1930, this time with a revised libretto by Morrie Ryskind. In light of changes in the political climate in the previous three years as well as the subtle changes in the plot and song, this Band struck a chord with the public, and it survived 191 performances, pretty good considering the weakened economy. This was followed by finely crafted Girl Crazy, a smash in both New York and London, which ran for 272 performances and yielded a number of classic Gershwin/Gershwin hits. These included Bidin' My Time, Embraceable You, and the poignant But Not for Me. Adding to the workload, the Gershwin brothers were commissioned to compose their first film score for Delicious, and spent November 1930 to February 1931 in Hollywood, California. The film featured eight Gershwin songs, with two other pieces that didn't make the cut. One of those, Mischa, Yascha, Toscha, Sascha, was the only true ethnic comic song written by the brothers. During their occasional down time, George started on his second piano rhapsody, and the brothers also started on their next stellar work for Broadway.

Of Thee I Sing was the best received Gershwin product since Rhapsody in Blue. It surpassed all others by running an amazing 441 performances from 1931 to 1932, deep into the Great Depression. A much needed parody of the presidency in advance of the Franklin Delano Roosevelt campaign and election, the musical generated more than just good buzz and reviews. Other than the title tune and Love is Sweeping the Country, many would be hard-pressed to name any tunes from this work, which was successful as a complete entity. In addition to the accolades, it was the first piece of American Theater Musical Comedy to win the Pulitzer Prize for drama, a significant achievement. A less impressive reception was given to his Second Rhapsody, which while completed in 1931 was not debuted until January 29th, 1932. Gershwin played for the event in Boston's Symphony Hall with the orchestra conducted by Serge Koussevitsky, but the overall reception was tepid, as many were comparing it to his original Rhapsody in Blue. The new work was more classical and cerebral in content, which may have been part of the reason it was much less popular.

In need of a break from the grind of composing musicals, Gershwin would take much of 1932 off to pursue other interests. Ira had already taken up painting like his younger sister, and George would follow in a fashion, but not with the same focus. Just after the Second Rhapsody premiere, George and some buddies took off for a vacation in Havana, Cuba. While there he heard many of the dance orchestras playing the indigenous island music and was most captivated by their rhythms and the use of percussion instruments. This gave him the inspiration for his Cuban Overture, which would be completed and orchestrated over the next several months. Another project released that year was a challenging set of eighteen song choruses transcribed by Gershwin in the way he typically played them at parties, one of the few direct insights into his performance style committed to paper.

It was during this period George sought out more musical training. Still captivated by contemporary classical composers, including Dmitri Shostakovich, Darius Milhaud and Arnold Schoenberg, he reportedly encountered Schoenberg who had a similar response to that of Ravel, stating "I would only make you a bad Schoenberg, and you're such a good Gershwin already." One teacher who did take him on over the next three or more years was Russian composer and music theorist Joseph Schillinger. He was able to provide George with new tools to use in his approach to serious composition. That influence would appear over the next few years. Schillinger ultimately claimed to have been a large influence of the style of Porgy and Bess, but this was after Gershwin's death, so no support was available for this claim from the composer himself.

After completing a new song for the film version of Girl Crazy, George set his sights on the first All-Gershwin Concert, which would debut his Cuban Overture completed a week before the event. Held on August 9th, 1932 at Lewisohn Stadium in New York with and attendance of around 18,000, it was, in his own words, "...the most exciting night I have ever had." Cuban Overture was well received, as were the arrangements of many of his most popular pieces to date. But he had already planted a seed in his head for something even greater in the near future. For moment, George was ready to get back into the swing of things with Ira, and they set their sights on 1933.

Two musicals came from the Gershwin boys in 1933, but neither of them did particularly well, likely in part because of the continuing financial depression. The first was Pardon My English which ran for 43 performances and yielded no recognizable hits. Let 'Em Eat Cake, a cousin to Of Thee I Sing, did marginally better at 90 performances, but again with no standout tunes amongst the substantial amount of pieces within the production. George also made some appearances on radio shows, including one hosted by Rudy Vallee on which he performed the third movement of his Concerto in F and accompanied Vallee singing Gershwin tunes. As it turned out, radio would be of great assistance to George and Ira in their next grand endeavor.

In 1926 George had read a novel by DuBose Heyward titled Porgy. It concerned the life of black residents of the real life "Catfish Row" in Charleston, South Carolina, and planted a seed for what would become a full-length opera. Late in 1933, George and Ira, along with Heyward, signed a contract the Theater Guild of New York to write and produce the opera for the stage. gershwin at work in the mid-1930s

George had started composing the work in February of 1934 with several ideas based on authentic black music forms he had studied. In spite of the details in the book, on site research was required by the Gershwins as a matter of inspiration from the environment in which the story transpired. Money was also required to finance the composition and staging. So for a time, George hosted a radio program on CBS called Music by Gershwin on which he played not only his own works, but stellar arrangements of pieces by his peers. Over the summer, George and Ira stayed with Heyward near Charleston at Folly Beach absorbing local influences, particularly at gospel services in local black churches. They also studied a group called the Gullahs on nearby James Island, and they became influential in the development of the characters in their songs and their staging. DuBose and Ira both contributed lyrics which Gershwin set to a wide variety of musical styles, some of them intertwined with each other. By fall the brothers were back in New York City and George was back on the radio performing many of his more challenging works for the sponsors and the listening audience. Among his more interesting acquisitions at that time was the very first commercially available Hammond organ, making him the first owner of the instrument that would soon become a staple of everything from radio organists to rock and roll bands.

The sheer volume of work required to refine what would become the self-described "folk opera" Porgy and Bess into the masterpiece that George strived for took up most of the fall and winter, with the task of orchestration progressing into early summer of 1935. It was beyond a labor of love for Gershwin, and he thoroughly believed in the quality of the end product, having at times said to be in wonder of how it turned out and how fortunate he was to have been the composer. The stage production was directed by Rouben Mamoulian with the rural stage sets by Sergei Soudeikine. The process of staging the elaborate show in Boston was fraught with problems that made for long running times in an already long opera. It opened on September 30, 1935, and in spite of critical acclaim following opening night it did not resound with an already depressed public. The production moved to New York for another premiere in the Avalon Theater, a Broadway venue and not an opera house, the latter of which may have served the show better. Gershwin supervised and played on recordings of arranged highlights of the work for RCA with the original cast members in mid-October, including Lawrence Tibbitt as Porgy. They show that the opera would even undergo some more minor editing following this session.

In context of the time, what was essentially a non-Broadway show with a nearly all-African-American cast written and produced by white composers that featured a somewhat depressing story about a crippled protagonist and his search for love, summer time cover

particularly depicting an environment that most who could afford to see the show had virtually no familiarity with, was a difficult sell for the public. Given the Schillinger influence and large scope, it was potentially overwhelming for many theater patrons, either in spite of or because of how advanced it was. It contained elements of classic opera mixed with dances and spirituals, plus advanced harmonic progressions and complex rhythms. Also present were tone rows, fugues, polytonal passages, the standard opera elements of recitatives and leitmotif choruses, and the intertwining of recurring musical themes. In terms of the story and staging, some saw it as casting a negative view on Black life in the South. Still, it yielded several memorable melodies including I Loves You Porgy, Bess You Is My Woman Now, and the effusive Summertime.

Porgy and Bess ultimately closed in early 1936 after only 124 performances, having not earned the amount of money invested into it. While it was considered a marvel and a success for Gershwin, it was overall considered a financial failure. In the decades since, the collective efforts of Heyward and the Gershwins have been vindicated several times over. Porgy and Bess remains as a fine template of American Theater that would be later echoed in the works of Rodgers and Hammerstein or Lerner and Lowe in terms of story telling integrated with musical styles and content. It is both interesting and sad to note that George and DuBose discussed plans to write another opera which would be a sequel, Porgy in New York, but both men died before anything could be done on it. George did follow up the magnum opera with a suite of pieces from it, a work which Ira rediscovered in the late 1950s and released as Catfish Row.

After some recovery time following Porgy and Bess, George and Ira signed with RKO Film Studios (perhaps at the insistence of George's friend Fred Astaire) in June to write the songs for the upcoming films Shall We Dance?, A Damsel in Distress and The Goldwyn Follies. This facilitated a move from their native New York, so in August the brothers and Ira's wife moved to Beverly Hills for the duration. Shall We Dance was the first of the released films, yielding the title song and They Can't Take That Away from Me as bona-fide hits for George and Fred. Even as the film was in production, George and Ira managed to write more songs for the other two films, as well as other tunes which would be used for a later production. They also were commissioned for a theme song to accompany the upcoming 1939 World's Fair in New York. In January of 1937, Gershwin performed in a special concert of his music with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra conducted by the French maestro Pierre Monteux, then returned to Los Angeles to continue his work.

Early in the same year, George started to complain about blinding headaches which had likely started late in the previous year. He also noted that he smelled burning rubber on a regular basis. By late spring the recurrences were chronic, and even while he was still working on his final tunes, including Our Love Is Here to Stay, George collapsed while still at work on July 9 and fell into a coma. The diagnosis was that he had developed a type of cystic malignant brain tumor known as glioblastoma multiforme.

Promotional Poster for Shall We Dance, the film which earned Gershwin his posthumous Oscar.

To date the cause of this type of cancer is still unknown, yet some have insisted it was from a injury caused by a golf ball. In any case, the diagnosis came too late as this form of cancer is always fatal. Efforts to remove the tumor at Cedars of Lebanon Hospital could not stave off his death hours later on July 11. There is a persistent story that he briefly came out of the coma before dying, and according to a letter of Fred Astaire's revealed by Adele, Fred's name was one of the last things he said before he passed on. The 38-year-old musical prodigy that had led the direction of American theatrical and classical music for two decades was gone. The entire world from London's West End and Broadway's theater district to small town America was grief stricken from the premature loss. On July 15, after memorial services in New York and Hollywood, he was buried in Mount Hope Cemetery at Hastings-on-Hudson, New York.

One of the first public gestures was a memorial concert at the Hollywood Bowl on September 8 conducted by Otto Klemperer. Ira continued to finish polishing the remaining songs the brothers had worked on for The Goldwyn Follies. His former long-time love, Kay Swift, transcribed many of George's recordings and helped Ira with the completion and arrangement of some of the pieces. All of his estate was passed to his mother Rose, who benefited from his copyright income for the remainder of her life. Gershwin was awarded a posthumous 1937 Oscar for Best Song for They Can't Take That Away from Me. Some of the late songs that Ira and George had composed while in Beverly Hills were finally incorporated into the film The Shocking Miss Pilgrim in 1946. Even more songs from the archives were incorporated into the film Kiss Me Stupid in 1964, 27 years after his death.

Ira survived George until 1983, composing many more fine works with the best of American music composers. The honors and accolades for both Gershwins have continued to pour in for decades, and many fine performances of Gershwin works have found their way into recorded media every time the technology advanced. While less appreciated in the United States for his classical and operatic works during his lifetime, George was well recognized by his European peers as a genius in these genres. As time has gone on, even his most eclectic works have become assimilated into the greater bodies of both musical theater and advanced American musical forms. In 2006 he was inducted into the Long Island Music Hall of Fame, one of a number of such organizations in which he has been recognized. There is a theater on Broadway named for him. The Library of Congress in Washington, DC, named a new prize for popular song after the composer and his brother in 2007. The first recipient of the George and Ira Gershwin award was another American treasure, Paul Simon. The amazing Stevie Wonder was also given the prize by President Barack Obama in February of 2009. One of the recent recipients was Sir Paul McCartney in 2010, for his inestimable contributions to the world of popular song.

The continually popular and instantly recognizable Rhapsody in Blue has lived on as one of the only Gershwin pieces licensed for advertising with United Airlines as of the late 1980s. This move in part, along with involvement of the Walt Disney Organization, helped spur long time popular musician and California congressman Sonny Bono to champion a copyright extension act in 1998, significantly increasing copyright protections for the works all American composers dating back to 1923. The elements of this were linked in the inclusion of total Americana elements such as illustrator Al Hirschfeld and the music Rhapsody in Blue in the 1999 Disney film Fantasia 2000 The word "Gershwinesque" has found its way into the musical vocabulary, which reinforces George's place in history as having created his own unique genre as well as the influence it has wielded since. The boy who started playing and writing ragtime as a basis for developing his own style ended up, in a lifetime about as long as the great Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, creating a new language American music that has since spread around the entire planet, and will outlive him by hundreds of lifetimes. We should be thankful we had him at all, even if it was not for long enough.