Geraghty

Kyle Geraghty

Nathan Hurwitz

Musical Theatre Repertoire I

16 September 2014

Ira Gershwin

Ira Gershwin was lyricist known for writing popular musicals such as Porgy and

Bess. Along with his brother, George Gershwin, the duo created many loved songs, and

made a lasting impact on the world of music.

On December 6th, 1896 in the Lower East Side of Manhattan Israel Gershowitz

(later, Ira Gershwin) was born to a family of Russian Jewish immigrants. His parents,

Rose Brushkin and Morris Gershovitz, had four children (biography.com). Ira was the

oldest of the four siblings. His brother, George, was two years younger than Ira. After

George was Arthur. After Arthur, a sister, Frances, who happened to be born on the same

day of Ira (biography.yourdictionary.com). Later in his life Ira thought back to the day

that his sister was born. He remembers going to the barbershop and looking at the pulp

novels they kept for customers to read. He also said that at this time (1906) the

Gershwin’s lived in a building with an elevator. This impressed him because he didn’t

know too many people with elevators in their buildings (Feinstein).

As a child Ira went by the nickname of “Izzy.” Not until applying for a passport in

1928 did Ira know his true given name. He had believed it to be Isidore.

(biography.yourdictionary.com). It was noted by a question directed to Ira Gershwin that

he changed his name because there were too many Isidores in his class (Feinstein).

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Being that his father, Morris, held many different jobs the family had to move

around New York City many times. The family moved a total of 30 times before Ira

turned 18 (gershwinfan.com). Morris Gershwin liked to live within walking distance to

his place of business, as recorded by George Gershwin’s first biographer, Isaac Goldberg.

Ira also said that landlords “knew that my mother could be encouraged to move by the

offer of a free months rent.” He also commented that George was much better at

adapting to the change than Ira was (Kimball). At one of their childhood homes, the

birthplace of George, the Gershwin’s rented the 2nd floor of an apartment on Snediker

Avenue. The lady of the house was Ira’s wet nurse, feeding him because his mother,

Rose, wouldn’t or couldn’t. This might help explain Ira’s distant relationship with his

mother (Feinstein).

Ira and his siblings occupied their time playing together, roller-skating and

playing games in the street. When they had gotten older the boys often went to the

billiard halls (biography.yourdictionary.com). Mainly his brother, George, used the

family piano that was purchased for Ira. Where George had a fascination with music, Ira

had a fascination with literature (gershwinfan.com).

Ira, shy in his youth, spent a lot of time reading due to his fascination with

literature (Princeton.edu). His introduction to literature, as explained by Ira, came from

Paul Potter, a playwright, who used to go to the Lafayette Baths, where Ira worked as a

cashier. He, Paul Potter, would give Ira magazines to read and encouraged him to send in

a short story that Ira had written. “The Shrine” was sent to the Smart Set in 1917

(Kimball). He read poetry, and saved his favorite poems in a scrapbook. As a teenager,

Ira collected over 200 poetry anthologies. His favorite works were those by Ibsen and the

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songs of Gilbert and Sullivan. Robert Kimball, a musical theatre historian commented on

Ira’s love for literature. He said, “Ira was enormously well read and drew upon a range

of knowledge. He had a great library of several thousand books in his house and he

consulted it frequently. He knew a lot about language, literature and history,”

(new.investors.com). In 1909, Ira began compiling a list of all the books he’d read and

by 1912 he was reading more than a book a week. In 1916, Ira began to keep a record of

his visits to the theatre (Kimball). In High School, Ira developed a talent for writing and

drawing. He also wrote a column in the school newspaper (allmusic.com). He and his

friend Isadore Hochberg began writing their “Much Ado” column in the school literary

magazine in 1913 (Kimball). Ira went on to become an English major at New York’s

City College at the age of 16 (gershwinfan.com). Ira Gershwin made his first addition to

The Campus, a weekly journal of the City College of New York. (Kimball). Before

leaving after two years without a degree, he began contributing to the Conning Tower and

Don Marquis’ column in the Evening Sun (rnh.com). One of his poems, “Aunt Prudella”,

is featured in this column. Another one of Ira’s poems, “I Remember!” is published in

the City College monthly newsletter, College Mercury (Kimball).

After dropping out from New York’s City College after two years Gershwin spent

a lot of time moving from job to job. He worked as a steam room attendant, a

photographer’s assistant, and also joined the circus (as a business manager)

(biography.com). The only job that Ira had used his education, as an English major was

when he was writing theatre reviews (gershwinfan.com).

While Ira was off at school and working several jobs his brother, George, was

making a name for himself. Prompted by his brother Ira began to write lyrics to their first

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collaboration, ‘The Real American Folk Song’ which appeared in Ladies’ First

(thebiographychannel.co.uk). This is the first George and Ira Gershwin song to be

performed in a Broadway show (Kimball). Using the names of his other brother and his

sister, Ira used the pseudonym Arthur Francis to avoid charges of nepotism

(thebiographychannel.co.uk). Ira had once said, “I always felt that if George hadn’t been

my brother and pushed me, I’d have been contented to be a bookkeeper.”

Still using the pseudonym, Ira wrote his first published song, “You May Throw All the

Rice You Desire but Please Friends, Throw No Shoes,” (Gale Encyclopedia). The song

was published in Don Marquis’s column in the New York Evening Sun. “Waiting for the

Sun to Come Out” is the first George and Ira Gershwin song to be published. It is

introduced to the public on Broadway in The Sweetheart Shop (Kimball).

Ira had his first Broadway hit in 1921. Vincent Youmans and Ira created Two

Little Girls in Blue (biography.com). In 1921, as Arthur Francis, Ira wrote “The

Piccadilly Walk” from Pins and Needles. He worked with Arthur Riscoe and Edward A.

Horan on this project.

In 1922, Ira wrote a new song for Molly Darling called “When All Your Castles

Come Tumbling Down” with Milton E. Schwarzwald. Ira Gershwin also added to the

score of “Fascination”, a film with the same name. The score of the film “Fascination”

was also written by Schuyley Greene and Louis Silvers. (Gale Encyclopedia)

Though working with others, Ira once again worked with his brother, George.

Together they had the first major hit of their career, ‘I’ll Build a Stairway to Paradise’

from George White’s Scandals (1922)(biography.com). The show opened on August 28,

1922 and had 88 performances (Kimball). Years earlier, in 1919, Ira had written a lyric

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called “A New Step Every Day.” Three years after, Buddy DeSylva approached them on

if they would like to rewrite it into what would become “Stairway to Paradise.” They

turned it into a jazzy number that was destined to become a hit. (Furia 249). George

Gershwin and Arthur Francis (Ira Gershwin) wrote the theme song to the film The

Sunshine Trail (Kimball).

In May of 1923, Arthur Francis (Ira Gershwin) wrote lyrics to “Little Rhythm Go

‘Way.” This lyric has many phrases that Ira will use in his piece “Fascination Rhythm.”

Ira has his first published piece in 1924. “Imagine Me Without You” was the song that

was first credited to Ira B. Gershwin (Kimball). It was then that the brothers began

making their mark in American musical theatre history.

From 1924 until George’s death in 1937, the brothers composed over two-dozen

scores for both Broadway and Hollywood (Gershwin.com). In 1924, the brothers began

their work on their first operetta, Primrose, with Desmond Carter. On September 11,

1924 with 255 performances. The show opened with favorable reviews.

The score that really helped form their reputation in the musical world was an

Alex Arrons/Vinton Freedley production called Lady, Be Good. This was the Gershwin

brother’s first complete and independent collaboration. The movie starred the Adaires,

Adele and Fred. It opened on Broadway on December 1st, 1924 and ran for 330

performances. It then moved onto a run in England (Gale Encyclopedia).

At the Gaity Theatre on April 12, 1925 another Gershwin musical opened. Tell

Me More was a musical score from the joint minds of not just the Gershwin brothers, but

also Buddy DeSylva. It was by now that Ira Gershwin had finally dropped his

pseudonym and came out as an accomplished lyricist.

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In 1926 the brothers were contacted by Gertrude Lawrence to write a score for a

new musical. The show, Oh, Kay! received raving reviews when it opened at

Broadway’s Imperial Theatre on November 8. Ok, Kay! ran for 256 performances (Gale

Encyclopedia).

Ira Gershwin married Leonore Strunsky on September 14, 1926. They met in

1919 when George introduced them. Around this time was when the brothers decided

that it was best to move in together. Both brothers brought their families into a five-story

house in Manhattan (biography.com). Ira lived with his wife, Leonore, on the fourth

floor. The house was always alive with a great number of visitors. The brothers had

artistic colleagues, neighbors, and friends at the house frequently (Gale Encyclopedia).

The house served as a creative center for the brothers and their friends. (biography.com)

Ira longed for a quieter lifestyle and preferred spending time at a farm north of

New York City. The farm that Ira spent time at was Chumleigh Farm in Ossining.

George would come up from New York City in the spring and summer months as a time

away from the hectic pace of vaudeville. It was here where the brothers wrote a musical

called Strike Up the Band, which opened the summer of 1927.

Strike Up the Band failed to attract pre-Broadway audiences in New Jersey and

Philadelphia. The brothers decided it was time to rewrite the score. After a reworking

the show ran a successful run on Broadway in 1930.

Another reworking of the Gershwin’s was for a production originally called

Smarty. The producer Aarons and Freedley called the Gershwin’s in to help. The

reworked version was titled Funny Face, and stared both Adele and Fred Astaire.

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One of Ira’s more famous lyrics was from this show. “’S Wonderful” is a wonderful

lyric where the guy drops out mid line and the female sings back to him. The back and

forth play between the male and female helped lead this song to become an enormous

success. It grossed over $44,000 within a few weeks and had a total run of 244

performances on Broadway (Gale Encyclopedia).

Music historians note that the fact of the Gershwin’s large success was due to

their new style and combinations. They say that Ira Gershwin was skilled at using new

lyrical styles. He used unusual word combinations and timing. Charles Schwartz once

said, according to Biography.com, that the brothers had “the uncanny knack for coming

up with the fresh songs and the novel ballads appropriate for their time and genre with

wonderfully creative lyrics, songs of chivalric love and gallantry”(biography.com).

George and Ira Gershwin moved back into adjoining penthouses in 1928. Ira

spent time updating the lyrics to some discarded compositions of Georges. Ira added

some Sigmund Romberg tunes, and the result was a Flo Ziegfeld production, Rosalie.

Rosalie opened in January 10, 1928 and ran for 335 performances on Broadway. There

was another Ziegfeld review that was supposed to open that same year, but was canceled.

Some pieces from that score survived and made their way into other popular Gershwin

productions (Gale Enclyopedia).

Ira Gershwin, along with his wife, Leonora Gershwin, accompanied George

Gershwin and the brothers’ sister Frances Gershwin on a European holiday in 1928. This

trip was the inspiration for the orchestral, “An American in Paris”(biography.com). The

group of travelers left on March 11 and went through London, Paris, and Vienna.

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When they had returned from Europe the Gershwin brothers started a new

Broadway musical, Treasure Girl. This show had a very popular song for singers of the

time called “I’ve Got a Crush on You.” The show opened on Broadway at Times Square

Theatre on January 14, 1930. The show ran for 68 performances. (Gale Encyclopedia)

“I’ve Got Rhythm” was actually written as a slow song for Treasure Girl, but ended up

being better fit for a later musical Crazy Girl.

At this time songs from the failed Ziegfeld review that the Gershwin’s had in

1928 made their way into mainstream culture. “Embraceable You,” was a very popular

song that found its way into Girl Crazy (1930). It was this show that “I’ve Got Rhythm”

found its home. When Ira first heard George play the melody, Ira wrote down a “dummy

lyric” – lyrics that would be used for the final version of the song, but would give the

lyricist a feel of how the tune will go with words. Feinstein says “George felt that the use

of rhymes with that tune sounded too cloying, so then he started experimenting with

words that did not rhyme, which was absolutely taboo. And he finally decided to create a

lyric that had no rhymes… except for the bridge, which is how it stood,” (Feinstein).

On November 5, 1930, George, Ira and Lee Gershwin leave New York City and

travel to California by train. This is where George and Ira began to work on the film

score for Delicious. A famous song, “Blah, Blah, Blah”, is heard in the 1931 movie,

Delicious (Kimball). By 1929, though, the long-lasting collaboration between the

Gershwin’s and Ziegfeld ended after an overdone production called Show Girl. The

show opened at the Ziegfeld Theatre in New York City and ran for a total of 111

performances (Kimball).

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The pair worked together very well. George was a perfectionist, but melodies

came easy to him. Ira was a “proud procrastinator,” as mentioned in Michael Feinstein’s

book The Gershwin’s and Me. Ira often felt the pressure to hand in lyrics to George.

Michael Feinstein commented, “In his later years he (Ira) seemed to cultivate a sedentary

nature as part of his persona. He expected his cat, Tinkerbelle, to come and fawn over

him, not wanting to exert the energy to pick her up. Ira really should have had a dog, but

his wife was a cat fancier,” (Feinstein). Part of Ira’s great success was the fact that he

knew that his audience wanted. Ira Gershwin once wrote, “Lyrics are written up to

public taste. The words musn’t be precious or condescending. A good lyric should be

rhymed conversation.” Gershwin treated his work as a labor of love. Lawrence D.

Stewart said in a recent interview “Ira was never in competition with anyone other than

himself. He didn’t worry about money…He never thought of his lyrics as turning them

into dollars and cents.” Referring to his brother, Ira once said, “My job was to sit and

listen to music that George created and then set words to it.” Composer Burton Lane

remembers Ira normally had backup ideas and didn’t think his job was finished until the

composer was completely satisfied. He often had three or four different sets of lyrics,

and if he didn’t get the reaction he wanted he would try something else. He often revises

lyrics years after the song had been written. He found the title of the song to be very

important and would always try to work on it first. Ira had once said that what he wanted

to was write standards. He wanted to write songs that would always be there. “Songs

that would always have an appeal and an audience,” (news.investors.com)

It was in 1932 that Ira Gershwin was awarded a Pulitzer Prize. Along with Ira,

George S. Kaufman and Morrie Ryskind were given the prize for the satirical score of the

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musical comedy Of Thee I Sing (Gale Encyclopedia). It was the first American musical

with a consistently satiric tone. Everyone who had worked on the show wondered how

the public would react to this new kind of show. The winning of the Pulitzer brought

new respect to musical comedies.

George and Ira Gershwin rented a residence on Fire Island in 1935. The brothers

rented with Vernon Duke, Joseph Schillinger, and Moss Hart. This Fire Island home is

where they wrote much of Porgy and Bess. Porgy and Bess is based off the DuBose

Heyward novel set in Charleston’s Catfish Row. The opera opened at the Alvin Theatre

on October 10, 1935. The run on Broadway lasted 124 performances (Gale

Encyclopedia). The musical exclusively had classically trained African – American

singers. The Gershwin’s insisted on hiring only black singers to play the parts. At this

time blackface entertainment was still common, and the decision to hire only play singers

was a very progressive move at the time. The production remains popular today because

it was the brothers most ambitious and successful musical composition (biography.com).

After Porgy and Bess, Ira Gershwin began working only on motion pictures. The

Gershwin brothers, George and Ira, were under contract to complete another musical, the

Goldwyn Follies, as George became ill (Gale Encyclopedia). George died of a brain

tumor in 1937, and Ira devoted himself to organizing his brother’s legacy. Ira hoped to

preserve it for future generations. Ira had always been his brother’s business manager

and always looked after his money (biography.com). Ira became the holder of the

lucrative royalties from his brother’s musical scores and a priceless collection of

artworks. It is valued at untold millions of dollars (Gale Encyclopedia). Michael

Feinstein, in an interview, recalled on what Ira had told him on the loss of his brother:

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George was the person to whom Ira was closer than anybody else on the planet. They had collaborated together for almost 20 years – George’s music to his older brother Ira’s lyrics. And Ira could not conceive living life without George, because George was truly his world. It was the kind of experience that Ira never got over. In the years that I knew him – 50 years after George’s passing – he still would get very, very depressed if he started to talk about George, because he felt that nobody ever came close to the kind of talent that George displayed on this Earth. [He went on to work] with Aaron Copland and with Kurt Weill and with Burton Lane and Harold Arlen, and he said that of all of the people he worked with, only George was one whom he considered to be a true genius.

After George Gershwin’s death, Ira began working with Jerome Kern and Harry

Warren on Goldwyn Follies of 1938. The production ran for 115 performances, and after

its revision, 112 performances. It was not known until 1968, but at this time Ira and Kern

had worked on more pieces together. Some collaborations are “Once There Were Two of

Us,” “Now That We Are One,” and “No Question in my Heart.” Jerome Kern and Ira

Gershwin also worked together on Where Do We Go from Here? a movie, and an

operetta, The Firebrand of Florence (Gale Encyclopedia).

Ira Gershwin also collaborated with Kurt Weill. Kurt Weill was a German-born

composer who became acquainted in 1935 with Ira Gershwin. They worked together on

Lady in the Dark, which opened on January 23, 1941 at the Alvin Theatre in New York

City. It ran for 467 performances and was later turned into a movie of the same title

starring Ginger Rodgers (Gale Encyclopedia).

Ira Gershwin worked on the score for North Star, a Samuel Goldwyn film. After

North Star, Ira worked on a movie musical, Cover Girl (1944) (Gale Encyclopedia).

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Gershwin had his final musical on Broadway in 1946. Park Avenue opened at the

Shubert Theatre on November 4, 1946 (biography.com). Park Avenue ran for a total of

72 performances. It is said to be Ira Gershwin’s last “new” Broadway score (Kimball).

While living in Hollywood, in the house next door to the one they had lived in

with George during the last months of his life, Ira and Leonore would always have

friends over. Close friends like Judy Garland, Lauren Bacall, and Adolph Green came

over for battles at the pool table, sing-alongs, and regular poker games.

After saying goodbye to Broadway, and many years later, Ira took a young man

under his wing. The young mans name was Michael Feinstein. For six years Michael

worked at Ira Gershwin’s cataloger and archivist. Through his book, The Gershwin’s and

Me, we have a look into a life of Ira Gershwin after his long career as a lyricist. Ira had

spent most of his life after George’s death, as we know, preserving his legacy. It was

during this time that many unpublished Gershwin works were unearthed. Ira had a room

full of old manuscripts, a floral binder filled with scraps of paper with a melody line, or a

small peak into an unwritten song, and recordings of unheard songs. Even more music

was found in the warehouse of Warner Bros. Music along with scores and manuscripts

from Jerome Kern, Cole Porter, Vincent Youmans, Richard Rodgers, Lorenz Hart and

many others. Most of the Gershwin material found here is now at the Gershwin

Collection in the Music Division of the Library of Congress (Kimball).

Ira Gershwin died August 17, 1983 in Beverly Hills, California. He and his

brother had left the earth leaving a lasting impact on the world of music and art. The

lyrics and melodies of the Gershwin brothers live on.

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Works Cited

Encyclopedia of World Biography. Detroit: Gale Research, 1998. Print.

Furia, Philip. Ira Gershwin: The Art of the Lyricist. New York: Oxford UP, 1996. Print

Gershwin, Ira, and Robert Kimball. The Complete Lyrics of Ira Gershwin. New York: A. Knopf, 1993. Print

"Gershwinfan.COM." Gershwinfan.COM. Web. 16 Sept. 2014. <http://www.gershwinfan.com/Ira.html>.

"Ira Gershwin." Bio. A&E Television Networks, 2014. Web. 16 Sep. 2014.

"Ira Gershwin | Biography | AllMusic." AllMusic. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Sept. 2014. <http://www.allmusic.com/artist/ira-gershwin-mn0000200301/biography>.

"Ira Gershwin Facts." Ira Gershwin Facts. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Sept. 2014. <http://biography.yourdictionary.com/ira-gershwin>.

"Ira Gershwin." :: Rodgers & Hammerstein. Web. 16 Sept. 2014. <http://www.rnh.com/bio/82/Gershwin-Ira>.

"Ira Gershwin Biography." Ira Gershwin. Web. 16 Sept. 2014. <http://www.thebiographychannel.co.uk/biographies/ira-gershwin.html>.

"Lyricist Ira Gershwin His Attention To Detail Brought Listeners Joy." Investor's Business Daily. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Sept. 2014. http://news.investors.com/management-leaders-in-success/030601-345587-lyricist-ira-gershwin-his-attention-to-detail-brought-listeners-joy.htm

"Two Brothers Make History."  | Gershwin Music. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Sept. 2014. <http://www.gershwin.com/about/the-brothers>.

Staff, NPR. "Michael Feinstein: What I Learned From The Gershwin’s." NPR. NPR, n.d. Web. 21 Sept. 2014. http://www.npr.org/2012/10/13/162738387/michael-feinstein-what-i-learned-from-the-gershwins

Gershwin, Ira, and Robert Kimball. The Complete Lyrics of Ira Gershwin. New York: A. Knopf, 1993. Print

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