More Info on IraSimilar Undetermined MusicSearch Artistopia
Biography
Infobox musical artist| name = Ira Gershwin| image = ira gershwin.jpg| image_size = 160| background = non_performing_personnel| birth_name = Israel Gershowitz| alias = Israel Gershvin Arthur Francis| birth_date = birth date|mf=y|1896|12|06|birth_place = New York City , United States|USA | death_date = death date and age|1983|08|17|1896|12|06|death_place = Beverly Hills, California , United States|USA | genre = Popular music|Popular Classical music|Classical | occupation = Lyricist | years_active = 1910s-1980s| spouse = Leonore Strunsky Ira Gershwin (December 6, 1896 – August 17, 1983) was an American lyricist who collaborated with his younger brother, composer George Gershwin , to create some of the most memorable songs of the 20th century.Obituary Variety Obituaries|Variety , August 24, 1983.
With George he wrote more than a dozen Broadway theatre|Broadway shows, featuring songs such as " I Got Rhythm ", " Embraceable You ", " The Man I Love (song)|The Man I Love " and " Someone to Watch Over Me (song)|Someone to Watch Over Me ". He was also responsible, along with DuBose Heyward , for the libretto to George's opera Porgy and Bess .
The success the brothers had with their collaborative works has often overshadowed the creative role that Ira played. However, his mastery of songwriting continued after the early death of George. He wrote additional hit songs with composers Jerome Kern (" Long Ago (and Far Away) "), Kurt Weill and Harold Arlen .
His critically acclaimed book Lyrics on Several Occasions of 1959, an amalgam of autobiography and annotated anthology, is an important source for studying the art of the lyricist in the golden age of American popular song. http://www.pbs.org/wnet/broadway/stars/gershwin_i.html Ira Gershwin biography pbs.org, March 17, 2009
Biography
Gershwin was born Israel Gershowitz in New York City to Morris (Moishe) and Rose Gershovitz who changed the family name to Gershvin well before their children rose to fame (it was not spelled "Gershwin" until later). Shy in his youth, he spent much of his time at home reading, but from grammar school through college, he played a prominent part in several school newspapers and magazines. He graduated from Townsend Harris High School in 1914, where he met Yip Harburg . He attended the City College of New York but dropped out.Furia, pp.3-4, 11Allmusic|class=artist|id=p79674/biography|pure_url=yes Ira Gershwin biography allmusic.com, accessed March 17, 2009
While his younger brother began composing and "plugging" in Tin Pan Alley from the age of eighteen, Ira worked as a cashier in his father's Turkish bath s.Furia, p. 26 It was not until 1921 that Ira became involved in the music business. Alex Aarons signed Ira to write the music for his next show, Two Little Girls in Blue (written under the pseudonym "Arthur Francis"), ultimately produced by Abraham Erlanger, with co-composers Vincent Youmans and Paul Lannin. Gershwin's lyrics were well received, and allowed him to successfully enter the theatre world with just one show.
It was not until 1924 that Ira and George Gershwin teamed up to write the music for their first Broadway hit Lady Be Good (musical)|Lady, Be Good! . Once the brothers joined together, their combined talents became one of the most influential forces in the history of American Musical Theatre. "When the Gershwins teamed up to write songs for Lady, Be Good , the American musical found its native idiom".Furia, p. 45 Together, they wrote the music for more than twelve shows and four films. Some of their more famous works include " The Man I Love (song)|The Man I Love ", " Fascinating Rhythm ", " Someone to Watch Over Me (song)|Someone to Watch Over Me ", " I Got Rhythm ", and " They Can't Take That Away from Me ". Their partnership continued until George's sudden death from a brain tumor in 1937. Following his brother's death, Ira waited nearly three years before writing again.
After this interlude, he teamed up with such accomplished composers as Jerome Kern ( Cover Girl (film)|Cover Girl ); Kurt Weill ( Where Do We Go from Here? (film)|Where Do We Go from Here? and Lady in the Dark ); and Harold Arlen ( Life Begins at 8:40 ; A Star Is Born (1954 film)| A Star Is Born ). Over the next fourteen years, Gershwin continued to write the lyrics for many film scores and a few Broadway shows. But the failure of Park Avenue in 1946, a "smart" show about divorce, co-written with composer Arthur Schwartz , was his farewell to Broadway. http://www.thestage.co.uk/reviews/review.php/20250/park-avenue The Stage As he wrote at the time, "Am reading a couple of stories for possible musicalization (if there is such a word) but I hope I don't like them as I think I deserve a long rest."Ira Gershwin quoted by Edward Jablonski in Gershwin: A Biography , New York: Simon & Schuster (1988) ISBN 0-671-69931-8 In 1947, he took eleven songs George had written but never used, provided them with new lyrics, and incorporated them into the Betty Grable film The Shocking Miss Pilgrim and he later wrote comic lyrics for Billy Wilder 's movie Kiss Me, Stupid --although most critics believe his final major work was for the 1954 Judy Garland film, A Star Is Born (1954 film)| A Star Is Born ).
American singer, pianist, musical historian Michael Feinstein worked for Gershwin in the lyricist's latter years, helping him with his archive. Several lost musical treasures were unearthed during this period, and Feinstein performed some of the material. http://www.musicianguide.com/biographies/1608001078/Michael-Feinstein.html Feinstein biography musicianguide.com, accessed March 17, 2009
Awards and honors
Three of Gershwin's songs ("They Can't Take That Away From Me" (1937), "Long Ago and Far Away" (1944) and "The Man That Got Away" (1954)) were nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Song , though none won.Gershwin (1959)
Gershwin, along with George S Kaufman and Morrie Ryskind, was a recipient of the 1932 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for Of Thee I Sing .Brennan, Elizabeth A., "Who's who of Pulitzer Prize winners" (1999), Greenwood Publishing Group, ISBN 1-57356-111-8, p. 100
UCLA Spring Sing#The George and Ira Gershwin Award|The George and Ira Gershwin Lifetime Musical Achievement Award was established in 1988 by UCLA to honor the brothers for their contribution to music and for their gift to UCLA of the fight song "Strike Up the Band for UCLA". Past winners have included Angela Lansbury (1988), Ray Charles (1991), Mel Tormé (1994), Bernadette Peters (1995), Frank Sinatra (2000), Stevie Wonder (2002), k.d. lang (2003), James Taylor (2004), Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds|Babyface (2005), Burt Bacharach (2006), Quincy Jones (2007), Lionel Richie (2008) and Julie Andrews (2009). http://www.uclalumni.net/calendarevents/springsing/Gershwin/winners.cfm Gershwin Award Winners uclalumni.net, accessed May 11, 2009
Legacy
Ira Gershwin was a joyous listener to the sounds of the modern world. "He had a sharp eye and ear for the minutiae of living." He noted in a diary: "Heard in a day: An elevator's purr, telephone's ring, telephone's buzz, a baby's moans, a shout of delight, a screech from a 'flat wheel', hoarse honks, a hoarse voice, a tinkle, a match scratch on sandpaper, a deep resounding boom of dynamiting in the impending subway, iron hooks on the gutter."Rosenberg, p.31
In 1987, Ira's widow, Leonore Gershwin, established the Ira Gershwin Literacy Center at University Settlement, a century-old institution at 185 Eldridge Street on the Lower East Side, New York City. The Center is designed to give English-language programs to primarily Hispanic and Chinese Americans. Ira and his younger brother George spent many after-school hours at the Settlement.Staff. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html? res=9B0DE5DB1231F936A15750C0A961948260 Widow of Ira Gershwin Endows Literacy Center", The New York Times , March 25, 1987
The George and Ira Gershwin Collection is at the Library of Congress Music Division. http://www.loc.gov/loc/lcib/9809/gershwin.html The Library of Congress Gershwin Collection The Library of Congress, accessed March 17, 2009 The Edward Jablonski and Lawrence D. Stewart Gershwin Collection at the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center at the University of Texas at Austin holds a number of Ira's manuscripts and other material. http://research.hrc.utexas.edu:8080/hrcxtf/view? docId=ead/00062.xml Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center at the University of Texas at Austin
In 2007, the Library of Congress named its Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song|Prize for Popular Song after him and his brother George. Recognizing the profound and positive effect of popular music on the world's culture, the prize will be given annually to a composer or performer whose lifetime contributions exemplify the standard of excellence associated with the Gershwins. On March 1, 2007, the Library of Congress announced that Paul Simon , one of America's most respected songwriters and musicians, was the first recipient of the annual Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song. http://www.loc.gov/today/pr/2007/07-010.html LoC: "Paul Simon To Be Awarded First Annual Gershwin Prize for Popular Song by Library of Congress" The second Gershwin Prize for Popular Song was awarded to Stevie Wonder by U.S. President Barack Obama on February 25, 2009. http://www.loc.gov/today/pr/2009/09-031.html LoC: "President Obama Gives Gershwin Prize for Popular Song to Stevie Wonder Feb. 25"
Personal life
He married Leonore (née Strunsky) in 1926.Brennan, p.100 He died in Beverly Hills , California, on August 17, 1983 at the age of 86. He is interred at Westchester Hills Cemetery , Hastings-on-Hudson, New York .
Notable songs
" But Not For Me (song)|But Not For Me "
" Embraceable You "
" I Can't Get Started "
" I Got Rhythm "
" Nice Work if You Can Get It "
" The Man I Love (song)|The Man I Love "
" They Can't Take That Away From Me "
" Someone to Watch Over Me (song)|Someone to Watch Over Me "
cite book | last=Gershwin | first=Ira | title=Lyrics on Several Occasions | edition=First | location=New York | publisher=Knopf | year=1959 | oclc=538209
cite book | author=Rosenberg, Deena | title=Fascinating Rhythm: The Collaboration of George and Ira Gershwin | publisher= Penguin Books USA | year=1991 | isbn=0-525-93356-5
cite book | last=Gershwin | first=Ira | coauthors=Kimball, Robert | title=The Complete Lyrics of Ira Gershwin | edition=First | location=New York | publisher=Alfred A Knopf | year=1993 | isbn=0-394-55651-8
cite book | last=Furia | first=Philip | coauthors= | title=Ira Gershwin: The Art of the Lyricist | edition=First | location=New York | publisher=Oxford University Press | year=1996 | isbn=0-19-508299-0
External links
wikiquote
Official website|1= http://www.gershwin.com
IBDB name|6435
IMDb name|314857
http://www.loc.gov/loc/lcib/9809/gershwin.html Library of Congress Gershwin collection
http://research.hrc.utexas.edu:8080/hrcxtf/view? docId=ead/00062.xml& query=gershwin,%20Ira& query-join=and Ira Gershwin Collection at the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin
http://www.gershwinfan.com/ Gershwin fan site
PulitzerPrize DramaAuthors 1926-1950PorgyGershwins Persondata | NAME = Gershwin, Ira | ALTERNATIVE NAMES = | SHORT DESCRIPTION = | DATE OF BIRTH = December 6, 1896 | PLACE OF BIRTH = New York City , United States|USA | DATE OF DEATH = August 17, 1983 | PLACE OF DEATH = Beverly Hills, California , United States|USA DEFAULTSORT:Gershwin, Ira Category:American musical theatre librettists Category:American musical theatre lyricists Category:American Theatre Hall of Fame inductees Category:Burials at Westchester Hills Cemetery Category:City College of New York alumni Category:Congressional Gold Medal recipients Category:Jewish American composers and songwriters Category:Pulitzer Prize for Drama winners Category:Songwriters Hall of Fame inductees Category:People from New York City Category:1896 births Category:1983 deaths
