Lewis John Fuiks (aka Victor Arden) (March 8, 1893 to July 31, 1962)
Compositions
1909 Safety Pin Catch [1] 1918 Just Blue [2] 1919 In My Dreams Lucille [2] Marilynn [2] Honeymoon: Waltz [w/Ray Sherwood] 1920 Hy n' Dry Rose of the Orient [2,3] Dolly, I Love You [2,4] Molly [2,4] Who Wants a Baby? [3] Dottie Dimples [3] In Blossom Time [w/Louis Weslyn] 1921 'Round the Town Hand Painted Doll [3]	1921 (Cont) Lonesome Land [3] 1922 After A While (You're Goin' to Feel Blue)     [3] [w/Walter Hirsch] My Sweet Gal (Girl) [3] I'm Happy: Fox Trot [3] 1941 Hearts in Harmony We'd Rather Die Upon Our Feet (Than Live     Upon Our Knees) [w/Harry Murphy] Unity [w/J. Russel Robinson] Let's Incorporate [w/Lawrence M. Klee]    1. as Lewis J. Fuiks    2. w/F. Wheeler Wadsworth    3. w/George Hamilton Green    4. w/Dick Long

     Victor Arden was born, in theory and in name, a lot later than the man who actually created him as a pseudonym, Lewis John Fuiks. The only son of Samuel and Vallie Fuiks, both Illinois natives, Lewis was born and raised, for a time, in Wenona, Illinois, not far from Peoria. His father is listed in 1900 as working in "general merchandise," likely managing or owning a general store of some kind. Not much has been reported about Lewis' early musical training, but there was probably some piano instruction involved, along with harmony and theory. As evidence of this, Fuiks was able to publish a rag at age 16 in Chicago with the unusual title of Safety Pin Catch. By the time of the 1910 census the family had moved to Chicago, where they were erroneously enumerated as the "Fox" family. Samuel was shown to be working in a clothing store as an assistant buyer.
     In the fall of 1910 Lewis was enrolled in the University of Chicago, and he emerged with a degree in music in short order. This was followed by training at the American Conservatory of Music, also in the "windy city." There is some possibility that Fuiks was producing piano rolls as early as 1915, likely in Chicago. There are some roll titles that were released by Imperial, a Chicago company, in the mid to late 1910s. In their advertisements of 1916 they promote Fuiks as "the Chicago University Musical Wonder." He and fellow dynamo performer Zema Randale were considered the primary "raggists" of the Imperial label. In a Music Trade Review notice in the October 7, 1916 edition, it was noted that: "...the Jazz-Ragger Fuiks and the inimitable syncopating star, Zema Randale, are coming under the protection of insurance companies. The Imperial Co. sells its high-grade products at such fair prices that it will not subject itself to loss through the inability of any of its staff to play."
     Yet Imperial did suffer that very loss shortly thereafter as Lewis moved on to greener pastures. To compound things, their other star, Miss Randale, tragically died in 1918. It is not known for certain when Fuiks moved to New York City, but given that his first output from there came in 1917, and he is known to have contributed at least four "operas" to the Chicago Blackfriars, the last presented at annual musical in May of 1916, he likely left for Manhattan late in 1916, along with his new wife Ilse Fuiks.
     One of Fuiks' first jobs in New York may have been as an accompanist for the movies and, given his training, for hire by singers as well. However by February 1917 he was arranging and recording piano rolls as his primary career. There was some output from the Rythmodik roll company in 1917 through 1919, including his own Honeymoon Waltz which was considered somewhat of a hit. However, the bulk of Fuiks' early works were on the Ampico label, the parent company of Rythmodik, turning out "hand-played" expression rolls of popular dance tunes, tangos, and operettas. When the Rythmodik label was finally abandoned many of his cut were re-released on Ampico rolls. Early advertisements for both labels touted him as a jazz artist.
     While about two dozen of these were printed under his given name of Lewis J. Fuiks, this may have proved problematic to either Lewis or Ampico management for obvious linguistic reasons (this has not been officially established in fact but has been discussed), and he was soon rechristened as Victor Arden on his popular jazz rolls as early as February, 1917.

The All Star Trio around 1920 with (l to r) George Hamilton Green, Wheeler Wadsworth and Victor Arden

Even though Lewis still used his given name for legal purposes, Arden would be the name he was professionally known as for the rest of his life, although rolls played by Fuiks were still shown in the listings as late as 1929. In at least one 1920 advertisement, both names are listed, a matter of continuity and removing the necessity to relabel all of the older rolls with the artist's new name. His 1917 draft record, taken in New York City, shows him working for the American Piano Company (Ampico) as a musician, with an address north of the city in Yonkers.
     Starting around 1918, Victor formed a group called the All Star Trio, with George Hamilton Green on saxophone and F. Wheeler Wadsworth on the newly-minted vibraphone and other tuned percussion. They recorded for the next two years on the Edison label initially, turning out recordings for Victor, Brunswick, Pathé, Okeh, Paramount, Emerson, and for the Vocalian label of Aeolian, a subsidiary of the American Piano Company. Fellow pianist and roll arranger Max Kortlander stepped in for Arden on occasion. Arden also continued to turn out great rolls of popular tunes during this time, earning him the title of King of the Piano Roll. The bulk of Victor's compositions were from this period. In either June or July of 1918 Arden shifted gears and labels as he started arranging and playing for QRS, the dominant standard roll manufacturer.
     It was at QRS that Victor first met pianist Fillmore (Phil) Ohman, who had been there for a couple of years. They found they had similar backgrounds, abilities and points of view concerning performance, and neither lacked the energy to explore new ways to play things. The duo quickly found they could produce some amazing roll arrangements with little effort, and were soon inseparable. Their first QRS rolls started to appear within weeks off Arden joining the firm. Ohman sketched out the general direction of what they would play without full notation, then they would record with Arden in the bass and Ohman in the treble.
     One critic who observed them up close found Ohman to be the "wag and clown of the pair," calling Arden the "serious minded, painstaking musician." While a slightly imbalanced point of view, Ohman's humor was more likely to come out in his playing, even during serious classical recitals that he accompanied. Both quickly became celebrities both in and outside the circle of jazz performers, and the public proved to be thirsty for their duet piano rolls. Lewis is listed in the 1920 census as a "musician recorder" living in Yonkers with Ilse, and a new addition, Lewis John Fuiks Jr., born in July of 1919. Son Robert Spindler Fuiks would follow in 1921.
     While Arden and Ohman continued to make rolls both together and separately, Phil, through praise brought for his public performances, was offered a job in the fast-rising orchestra of Paul Whiteman, the so-called "King of Jazz." Not able to keep all his various positions, Ohman had to quit QRS and break up the duo for a while. Victor would continue to do duets through the mid 1920s, but with Kortlander, who he had been playing with since joining QRS, filling in for Ohman. Victor also kept busy with outside obligations. The All Star Trio expanded from 1921 to 1922 as the All Star Trio with Orchestra, featuring the distinctive Billy Murray on vocals. They signed a contract with the B.F. Keith Vaudeville Circuit for a 1922 tour.
     While the job with Whiteman was both good for his exposure as well as making connections, Ohman realized, as did Arden, that it was less fulfilling than their duo performances. So after a year or so he quite Whiteman's orchestra and concentrated on local gigs with Arden. They built their repertoire playing in clubs in midtown Manhattan, particularly on 52nd Street, and finally went into the studio late in 1923 to record live as a duo. Among their eclectic choices were the 1888 galop Dance of the Demons by multi-piano composer Eduard Holst and the popular rag turned song Canadian Capers. They were also one of the earliest piano duos to appear on radio as early as 1922, and were featured in one notable broadcast on wireless Chicago station KYW on April 11, 1925, for an estimated audience of 300,000 listeners. Phil had further exposure on the popular Roxy and His Gang Show which was broadcast from the Capitol theater where Ohman had worked. He brought Arden on for occasional appearances on the show.
     The performances were a sensation, and Broadway soon discovered them as well, knowing that they would be an additional draw to certain shows. The use of dual pianists or pianos was not new on Broadway, but their reputation was about as solid as their first Broadway employer/collaborator, Gershwin himself. So it was that they co-led the pit orchestra for Lady Be Good in 1924. According to the January 3, 1925 edition of The Music Trade Review: "An interesting anecdote relative to the two Story & Clark small grands being used by Phil Ohman and Victor Arden in the musical show 'Lady Be Good,'... was told this week by L. Schoenewald, New York district manager of the Story & Clark Piano Co. 'The original arrangement was that two of our pianos were to be used by the show when it opened in Philadelphia... but an error on the part of the stage carpenters resulted in building of the special moving platform too small to hold them. Although they had requested Story & Clark grands, Ohman and Arden were compelled to play their duet numbers on two 4 feet 8 grands of different make during the Philadelphia engagement. They were not satisfied with the tone of these pianos, so on coming to New York Victor Arden prevailed on the management to enlarge the platform to hold our 5 feet 2 inch grands. It has afforded the Story & Clark Piano Co. much pleasure to realize that our pianos are held in such esteem by two such talented pianists as Phil Ohman and Victor Arden.'
     Gershwin started what would become a popular trend throughout the remainder of the 1920s and into the 1930s, supported in the end by the economy of having two pianists and requiring less orchestra personnel. This trend was noted in The Music Trade Review of July 16, 1927, in the following excerpt:

     Phil Ohman moved from QRS to Aeolian in July, 1925, to cut Duo-Art rolls, effectively ending the six year run of QRS duets he had done with Arden. However, it was not the end of their partnership by any means. Their first Broadway success would be followed by more Gershwin shows such as Tip Toes in 1925, Oh, Kay in 1926, and Funny Face in 1927. Other shows included Treasure Girl in 1928, both Spring is Here and Heads Up in 1929.

Victor Arden (l) and Phil Ohman (r) in a
late 1920s publicity shot.

In between the Broadway shoes they recorded and performed on the road on the vaudeville circuits. Among the labels Ohman and Arden appeared on were Columbia, Victor (soon to be RCA Victor) and Gramophone.
     It should be noted that when they were billed in any venue that the order of their names did not matter to them, the sign of a solid partnership. They were also sought out in the late 1920s, as many New York acts were, by Warner Brothers for a few Vitaphone sound shorts, one of the first being The Piano Dualists in 1927. They were later seen and heard playing Dancing the Devil Away in the 1930 RKO musical The Cuckoos. Arden turned out many interesting arrangements during the 1920s of dance tunes on record, many sold very cheaply in Woolworths and similar outlets, making his name perhaps even better known than Ohman's.
     One of their contemporary critics, Gay Stevens, said the following concerning this formidable duo: "There is not a piano player in the land who, after hearing Ohman and Arden interpret a piece of jazz music on their two pianos, has not wanted to throw his piano out of the window. The keyboard magic of this duo-team has been the inspiration and despair of every real American youngster who sedulously practiced his Czerny with a secret desire to win excited gasps of admiration from the fair young things in his circle by his jazz piano playing."
     Arden, Ohman and Kortlander appeared together often for QRS promotions in the mid 1920s, playing live performances of their collective solo and duet piano rolls in addition the occasional trio. While Victor and Phil often performed just with the piano, the Arden-Ohman orchestra was started in 1925, initially for recording but later for both live performance and radio work. It was the latter that gave them their best overall exposure in the late 1920s through the first part of the Great Depression.
     In addition to this live duo, Arden went back to work for Ampico in the spring of 1928, turning out new popular roll arrangements. As announced in The Music Trade Review of February 11, 1928: "J. Milton Delcamp, vice-president of the Ampico Corp., announces that arrangements have been made with Victor Arden, the well known young American pianist and devotee of popular music to record his playing exclusively for Ampico records [rolls] in the future. Mr. Arden, a graduate of the University of Chicago and of the American Conservatory of Music of that city, came to New York several years ago, and in company with Phil Ohman has played in a number of musical comedy successes and has also been a member of Roxy's Gang." This job soon expanded into a series of duets with Ampico roll artist Adam Carroll. Carroll subsequently briefly joined Arden and Ohman to create a piano trio for a few performances on radio and for special functions.
     From 1928 to the mid 1930s, Arden and Carroll turned out over 60 rolls with their names on them. However, while some may have been arranged initially by Arden, many were filled in (and some created) by Frank Milne at the factory (often edited with colored pencils on Milne's kitchen table). They are still often considered to at least be in the style of Arden and Carroll, even if not entirely played by them. Both turned out rolls separately as well, but the player piano business faded fairly quickly as the Great Depression set in and free entertainment was available via radio.

A 1931 broadcast transcription disc of Arden and Ohman with the Victor Orchestra.

When Ampico failed in the late 1930s many of these rolls were re-coded for Duo-Art performances, making them among the rarer rolls that were available for both reproducing systems. As off the 1930 census Lewis and Ilse were still living in Yonkers with their sons Lewis and John and one servant, and Lewis Sr. was listed as a musician/performer.
     Realizing that the best possible future for success was on the radio, the most effective medium of the 1930s, the dynamic piano duo re-teamed and hit the airwaves. Arden and Ohman had no issue finding good sponsorship, playing for everything from news programs to two or three numbers advertising toothpaste or fine watches. Some of their musical shows included The Bayer Music Review, The Buick Program, and the landmark American Album of Familiar Music. But the stresses of performance partnership eventually interfered, more on the professional level than on the personal level, and in 1934 Arden and Ohman split to go different directions, remaining friends. The duo reunited for one more recording session on Brunswick in 1935. Ilse Fuiks had her own hobby as well, dabbling in the world of equestrian competitions. She owned a few different horses during the 1930s, including one fine jumper named Happy Days.
     While Ohman went on to some fame in Hollywood, Arden chose to stay back east where radio was still the predominant form of entertainment during the waning days of the Great Depression. He was able to secure work as both pianist and conductor on NBC (National Broadcasting System), including such shows as Kings of Melody, Sweetest Love Songs Ever and Broadway Varieties. Arden also worked and recorded with his own dance band, but with all the other engagements he had to keep it fizzled out before too long. He also filled in for leader Abe Lyman on many occasions, conducting for his popular Waltz Time shows. Arden enjoyed one last stretch on Broadway playing for the revue George White's Scandals of 1939.
     Lewis and Ilse and their sons were still living in Yonkers in 1940 for the census, along with one servant, although father and oldest son listed themselves as John L. instead of Lewis J. For his "Victor" side he listed himself as a musician for "own orchestra & for others." In 1944 their younger son, Lieutenant Robert Fuiks, USNR, was first engaged to Thirsa Burr Sands that October. In the 1940s during World War II, Lewis continued to make records with various orchestras as Victor Arden, and was featured on the Manhattan Merry-Go-Round for a while in 1947, eventually landing steady spot on The American Melody Hour near the end of the decade. In the 1950s Arden again led an orchestra, this time behind the charismatic Dick Powell, the singing star of many MGM movies. One of his last projects was a reincarnation of his first group, the All Star Trio, after which he went into retirement. He had moved from Yonkers in 1951, buying an apartment at Douglas Park, located at W. 236th Street and Henry Hudson Parkway in Riverdale.
     Lewis was remarried in the 1950s to Frances Newsom. During his last few years the couple lived at 77 Park Avenue in Manhattan. His former partner Phil Ohman died in the summer of 1954. Lewis Fuiks a.k.a. Victor Arden died almost exactly eight years later in 1962 at age 69 leaving behind a wealth of recordings allowing us a look into some of the most exciting music of the 1920s and 1930s. His work both alone and with Ohman brought a vitality to the driving rhythms and languid ballads of the 1920s and beyond, making the player piano a glamorous instrument, and its listeners always wanting more.

     Thanks to New Zealand piano roll historian Robert Perry for additional information and clarification on Arden's career with various piano roll companies, and for the Gay Stevens quote. For more on piano roll artists, please visit him at www.pianola.co.nz. The remaining information was researched by the author in public records, periodicals and recorded media.

Marvin E. Ashbaugh (October 4, 1914 - August 21, 1974)
Known Compositions
Pearl House Rag (1947) The Little New Yorker (1949) T 5 Blues (1951) Cajon Lament (w/Gus Call) (1955) Du a Ferdinand (1955)
Collective Discography
10" 78s (Some released on 7" 45s) Big Leg Mama/Last Call for Alcohol [1] South Rampart Street Parade/Mama Inez [2] Here Comes Your Pappy/Come Back Sweet Papa [2] Original Dixieland One Step/They Called It Dixie Land [3] Oh Baby/Ja Da [4] I Wish I Could Shimmy Like My Sister Kate [3] Sweet Woman/I Wonder What's Become Of Joe [3] Sensation Rag/Sweet Lorraine Lonesome Lovesick Blues/Sister Kate Peg O' My Heart/Cannon Ball Cannon Ball/Maple Leaf Rag Pearl House Rag/Sweethearts on Parade [5] How Come You Do Me Like You Do/Washington and     Lee Swing [2] Fidgety Feet/A Bag of Rags 10"/12" LPs Honky-Tonk Piano Marvin Ash Marvin "Ash" New Orleans at Midnight Ukulele Ike Sings Again [6] Deep in the Heart of Dixieland [6]   1. w/Wingy Manone Band   2. as Nappy Lamare's Levee Loungers   3. as Rosy McHargue's Memphis Five   4. as Rushton's California Ramblers   5. as Marvin Ash and His Mason Dixon Music   6. w/George Bruns' Wonderland Jazz Band	Matrix and Date [Gilt Edge 535] 1945 [Capitol 15050] 10/27/1947 [Capitol 15325] 10/27/1947 [Jump J13] 12/07/1947 [Jump J19] 12/07/1947 [Jump J22] 12/07/1947 [Jump J28] 12/07/1947 [Jump J62] 12/08/1947 [Jump J66] 12/08/1947 [Vel-Tone SQ-601-A/B] 12/1947 [Capitol 15435] 1949 [Capitol 855] 11/15/1949 [Capitol 884] 11/15/1949   [Capitol CCR-323] 1950   [Capitol T-188] 1950 [Jump JL-4] 1951 [Jazz Man LJ-335] 9/14/1954 [Decca DL-8346] 1956 [Disneyland WDL-3003] 1956 [Disneyland WDL-3009] 1958

     Marvin Ash was a remarkable and under-recorded New Orleans style pianist who actually spent much of his life wanting to visit the Crescent City, making him all that much more remarkable for his playing gifts. Born in Lamar, Colorado, one of two children to barber Roy Ashbaugh and his wife Nora Ashbaugh, Marvin grew up in Junction City, Kansas. He had a younger sister, Willie (likely Wilhemina) born in 1918. The family is shown in the 1920 Census living in Junction City.
     By 1925, the Ashbaugh family had moved to Emporia, Kansas, where they appear in the 1925 Kansas Census. The following year they were living directly between Topeka and Kansas City in Lawrence, Kansas, where Marvin's graduation from Quincy Elementary School was announced in the paper on June 3, 1926. The greater Topeka area was where Marvin started playing with a number of bands as early as his high school years. Among the known musicians he worked with from Kansas City, the town that made the career of the legendary Count Basie, include Wallie Stoeffer, composer Con Conrad, Herman Waldman and Jack Crawford. He was greatly inspired while visiting Abilene one day in 1931 and heard "Fatha" Earl Hines perform in his capacious style. There was also an encounter one day at Jenkin's Music when seated at one of three grand pianos was Joe Sullivan teaching Thomas "Fats" Waller and Arthur Schutt, sitting at the other two, his own Little Rock Getaway. It set a desire in Ash to be able to play like all three of them - at once.
     When Marvin was 22 he moved to Tulsa, Oklahoma to expand his musical horizons and do some work in radio as a studio pianist, musical director and sometimes announcer of station KVOO. With so much exposure to recordings from all around the country he was able to further hone his skills while absorbing a variety of piano styles. Among his favorites influences were James P. Johnson and Waller, masters of stride, boogie man Pete Johnson, for whom he played the relief shift at the Sunset Cafe in Kansas City, jazz players Hines, Art Tatum, Teddy Wilson, and long-time friend and traveling roommate Bob Zurke. As of the 1940 Census, taken in Tulsa, Marvin was shown as divorced, indicating a brief marriage in the 1930s. He and his older roommate, Joseph O'Neil, also divorced, were both listed as radio musicians. On November 20, 1941, Marvin married Wavel Davis, a Creek/Cherokee American Indian-descendant of one of Tulsa's pioneer families. This may have been a second marriage since his enlistment card status indicates he had been divorced.
     After a few years in Tulsa, Ash enlisted in the Army for World War II service on January 16, 1942, assigned initially to Fort Sill in Oklahoma. The terms indicated an enlistment "for the duration of the War or other emergency, plus six months, subject to the discretion of the President or otherwise according to law." His civil occupation was listed as "Blacksmith or Band or Orchestra Leader... or Musician." It is hard to determine for certain, but Marvin likely spent at least some of his Army service in entertainment, something that head General Dwight D. Eisenhower in particular felt was essential for morale on the front lines. The army was true to their word and indeed kept him nearly six months after the end of the European segment of the war.
     Following his four year stint (Marvin claims it was five in one source) Ash was let loose in Los Angeles and quickly found a place with the band of trumpeter Wingy Manone, resulting in some of his earliest ensemble recordings in late 1945. He also played in many of the clubs around the greater Los Angeles area, slowly growing his fine reputation. In 1947, jazz guitarist/banjoist Nappy Lamare and associates opened Club 47 (named for Musician's Union #47, not the year) on famed Ventura Blvd. in Studio City, an active music strip in the burgeoning San Fernando Valley. Ash was a regular there for the five years. Lamare ran the club, and it led to his initial sessions with Clive Acker's Jump Records as a soloist in late 1947 and with Rosy McHargue's Memphis Five. With a national musician's strike against the record companies looming in 1948, recording studios were very crowded in November and December of 1947 trying to get in last minute sessions, and Marvin was kept busy during that two month period. His work with McHargue also resulted in sessions with Lamare, drummer Ray Bauduc and others at Capitol Records (both companies used Radio Recorders, the best Hollywood studio at that time), recording as Nappy Lamare's Levee Loungers and Marvin Ash and his Mason Dixon Music. He also kept regular broadcast performance stints on radio at KRKD, as well as the aptly named Hangover Club on Vine Street in Hollywood where his late friend Zurke had held court from August 1942 to his death in Feburary 1944 at age 32.
     Ash's accurate no-nonsense jazz playing and his propensity for ragtime caught the ear of Capitol's producer and A&R man Lou Busch (who would later gain fame as Joe "Fingers" Carr), and he invited Ash to record a few more sides in 1949 with a small ensemble. Most of these would be incorporated into the groundbreaking 10" and later 12" Honky Tonk Piano LPs. His jazz interpretations of Maple Leaf Rag, Cannon Ball and Fidgety Feet were a nice contrast to Busch's arranged honky-tonk style and colleague Ray Turner's brilliant novelty recordings. Still, there would be no further work with Capitol.
     Marvin was in the right place when television really took hold in Hollywood. He was one of the earliest traditional jazz pianists to perform live on the air in Los Angeles in 1949, first heard several times on KFI-TV (later KHJ) on various shows, often with actor Harry Hickox in an interview and performance format. Lamare often joined them for some musical fun. In 1950 he was featured for a while on a talent program, Stars of Tomorrow, which aired on KTTV Channel 11. The Marvin Ash Trio was featured on the show for several weeks. There were many more live television and radio appearances throughout the early 1950s. One of his more enjoyable pursuits from 1949 to the early 1950s was traveling to the San Fernando Valley and entertaining veterans at Birmingham Hospital in Van Nuys. Ash would push his piano from ward to ward to entertain disable veterans, building up a strong fan base for his efforts. He was often called on to entertain at Veterans' Reunions.
     Ash spent much of the 1950s playing in various lounges in the Los Angeles area, but had few recording dates under his name, instead working on many undocumented studio dates. Some include recording or live sessions with trombonist Jack Teagarden, clarinet player Matty Matlock, New Orleans' sax player Pud Brown and cornetist Pete Daily, a favorite of Dragnet creator Jack Webb. Marvin's most significant sessions resulted in a continuous suite of an album for Decca titled New Orleans at Midnight, a virtual pastiche of elegant jazz and even a Scott Joplin rag. In 1956 he was part of an all star mega-band at the annual Dixieland Jubilee at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, a group that sometimes-Firehouse Five Plus Two member George Bruns, FH5+2 and Kid Ory Band clarinetist George Probert, FH5+2 trumpeter Don Kinch, bassist Jess Bourgeois, Red Roundtree on banjo and veteran traditional jazz drummer Monte Mountjoy. They received the largest ovation of the event for Probert's emotional performance of Canal Street Blues.
     The incurable entertainer also found some steady employment in the Walt Disney Studios music department playing for movie and television soundtracks, acting as the resident arranger and pianist for the Mickey Mouse Club Show, and performing with Bruns and his aptly-named Wonderland Jazz Band. Marvin's musical direction during this period was later described by Clive Acker, who noted that he had little patience for playing rags as written, and even taking liberties with the more complex works by composers such as Bix Beiderbecke, even though he could play note for note. "Even when humdrumming his way through the days at the [Disney] studios, he would seek a place, any place, where he could ply his first love, being a jazz pianist." Acker also cynically noted that Los Angeles was a town that had been hard on jazz pianists, such as Bob Zurke, Joe Sullivan and Jess Stacy, but that Ash was still a survivor in spite of the overall attitude of Angelenos.
     Marvin was often sighted with this group or with his own small ensemble playing for events at Disneyland as well. He was a fixture at Jim's Roaring 20s restaurant and bar in the early 1960s with the band of Johnnie Lane. His regular haunt as a soloist during the late 1950s and early 1960s was Nick Arden's Restaurant at the piano bar. In 1962 he migrated to the Brass Tiger Lounge at The Inn in Studio City on Ventura Blvd. Another favorite spot where Marvin and his buddies would drop in was Wit's End, also in Studio City near Laurel Canyon Blvd. Among those he played with at Wit's End included "Wild Bill" Davidson, Sonny Criss, Matty Matlock, Benny Carter and Barney Bigard, all storied names in jazz music.
     After his retirement from Disney in the mid-1960s, Ash spent some his last few years playing older jazz, stride and (sometimes allegedly grudgingly) ragtime in the cocktail lounge of Victory Bowl, a large San Fernando Area area bowling alley. He had a steady stream of regular customers and admirers, and was reportedly very happy with the situation. Another frequent haunt was The Pump Room in Studio City. He was still called on for special gigs and appearances up through his death, including festivals held by the Blue Angels Jazz Club for their 1969 and 1971 events. As late as October 1973 Ash was frequently noted in the Los Angeles Times Calendar section playing at south valley locations such as the Tail of the Cock in North Hollywood. He passed on in an Encino, California hospital in August 1974 at age 59, largely as a result of overindulgence in alcohol combined with a heart problem caused by Rheumatic Fever as a child, the reported cause being a heart attack. Marvin was survived by Wavel, his wife of 33 years, his sister (now Billie Katherine Freegard), and his mother Nora. According to her niece Wavel celebrated her 100th birthday in 2010.
     Marvin left many jazz and ragtime fans wanting for more in terms of recorded legacy, but also sadly forgotten by all but a few hard-core fans. The author, who lived in Studio City as a teen, was fortunate enough to hear Ash perform on two occasions, and still vividly remembers how captivating and engrossing his performance was in the noisy restaurant bar. Marvin's ability to merge styles, and also to approach the same piece in many different ways made him versatile and listenable, and his "always-on" smiling demeanor made him a popular friend to all who crossed paths with him. His approach to ragtime was successful in showing that piano rags were the root of jazz, and therefore could fuse well into the genre, creating a fresh look at older material while still respecting that material.

Roy Frederick Bargy (July 31, 1894 - January 16, 1974)
Compositions
1920 * Slipova * Justin-Tyme * Sunshine Capers * Pianoflage * Jim Jams * Behave Yourself Omeomy Ditto (I'll Have the Same) 1921 It Must Be Someone Like You [1]     [w/Harold G. Frost] When You Come to the End of a     Sometime [1] Blue Streak Rickety Stairs [1,2] 1922 Little Thoughts [1] [w/Hal Billings] Lonely [1,2] The Old Garden Gate [1,3]	1922 (Cont) * Knice and Knifty [3] (1918/1922) * Rufenreddy [3] (1918/1922) Tee-pee Blues [w/Roger Lewis &     Ernie Erdman] Broken Hearted Blues [w/Frank Henri     Klickmann & Dave Ringle] 1923 Sweet and Tender Foolish Child [w/McPhail/Nelson] 1924 Get Lucky (Chicago Stomp) Feedin' the Kitty    * From 8 Piano Syncopations    1. w/Charley Straight    2. w/George Moriarity    3. Both likely composed by       Charley Straight around 1918,       but listed as collaborations.
Selected Solo Discography
1921 Slipova (Unissued) Justin-Tyme 1922 Sunshine Capers Knice 'N' Knifty Pianoflage Rufenreddy 1924 Jim Jams Behave Yourself (Unissued)	Matrix and Date [Victor 25708] 09/30/1921 [Victor 25709] 09/30/1921   [Victor 26557] 06/27/1922 [Victor 26854] 08/31/1922 [Victor 26855] 08/31/1922 [Victor 26856] 08/31/1922   [Victor 29668] 03/17/1924 [Victor 26856] 03/17/1924

     Roy Bargy was born in Newaygo, Michigan, to Frederich H. Bargy and Jessie E. Bennett McKee, the youngest of two children including his sister Myrtle (8/1888). However, he grew up mostly in Toledo, Ohio. Roy began to study piano at age five and proved to be a child prodigy at the instrument. Fred Bargy was listed as a musician in the 1900 census, so likely had some direct influence on his son's talent and musical direction. Roy continued taking lessons for 12 years and developed as a very competent classical pianist. He had aspirations of becoming a concert artist, but the thinking of the time was that serious pianists needed to study in Europe in order to be seriously regarded within classical music circles, a practice that continued into the 1940s. Family economics made this dream impossible to achieve at that time, as by 1910 his father was no longer working as a musician, but instead was listed as a market superintendent.
     Discouraged but not daunted, Roy began to hang around the growing Toledo jazz community and, still in his teens, found work playing piano and organ in silent movie houses. He also organized his own pickup orchestra, which played for school dances. Roy took lessons in both organ and piano with C. Max Ecker of Toledo for as long as seven years. He often cited Ecker as the person responsible for the development of his dazzling technique. He claimed to have attended no music conservatory, and beyond his time with Ecker to have never studied composition, harmony, theory, or similar courses that most arrangers and composers were taking at that time. His knowledge in these fields was mostly self-taught, and came from his observation of how the instruments in an orchestra complimented or interplayed with each other.
     Roy's 1917 draft card shows him listed as a musician playing for a Toledo country club. He ended up being enlisted for five months of 1918, serving in the Army in Central Officer's Training School in Georgia, and was honorably discharged at the end of November. In a Music Trade Review article of September 13, 1919, it was noted that: "Mr. Bargy was in an officers' training camp when the Germans resigned, and while in the service was a great organizer of bands and orchestras among the soldiers. He has played in many parts of the country and wherever he has appeared his true musicianship has been appreciated."
     In the summer of 1919, Bargy auditioned for pianist Charley Straight, manager of the Imperial Player Rolls company. He was asked to arrange a pop tune for roll. The initial cut was so good that Bargy was quickly hired and the tune was put into their catalog. Straight cultivated Roy's arranging abilities as he was assigned to record novelties and popular songs. He soon challenged Bargy to compose some of his own novelties in an effort to compete with rising star Zez Confrey of QRS. Bargy came back with six of the Eight Piano Syncopations that were every bit as innovative as Confrey's (with whom he became a long-time friend), but his pieces were not quite as accessible to the average pianist.

Bargy (the pianist) leading the Benson Orchestra in 1922.

The six were committed to piano rolls in 1920 and published as sheet music from the rolls two years later. Two others were most likely written by Straight in 1918 or so, but Bargy got collaboration credit when they went to sheet form.
     It was Straight that introduced Bargy to booking agent Edgar Benson who had just formed a dance orchestra which was slated to record for Victor Records. Benson was impressed by Bargy's skills and took him on as both pianist and musical director. The Victor recordings of The Benson Orchestra, which were very progressive for the time, helped secure many other bookings for Bargy as a pianist and arranger for other recording bands such as Isham Jones. Roy married to his first wife Gretchen Butler, also from Toledo, around this time. Their daughter Jeanne Phyllis was born in 1922. Patricia followed in 1924.
     After creative conflicts with Benson in late 1921, Bargy left to launch his own orchestra, taking many members of Benson's group with him. He was helped by music entrepreneur Ernie Young, who managed not only to get Bargy's group booked for a solid year at the Trianon Ballroom in Chicago, but made certain that the group was the highest paid dance orchestra in the country in 1923. But the group disbanded after only a couple of years, after which Bargy joined the Isham Jones organization for a while. Roy traveled with that group to England and Europe in 1925, shown arriving back in the United States on the Mauretania on December 8, 1925. He had also done a couple of recordings with Arthur Pryor's band earlier in the year.
     In 1926 Bargy continued again with his own orchestra, this time playing at the Hotel Stevens in Chicago. In May 1927 Roy was signed by Ampico as a roll recording artist. Bargy then migrated to Paul Whiteman's orchestra 0n February 1, 1928, quickly becoming Whiteman's musical assistant. Whiteman had been looking for a sound beyond the conventional dance band, and Bargy's arrangements provided much of that sound, some of them commissioned even before he joined the orchestra. Bargy claimed he joined Whiteman's organization so he could go to Europe with the group, which did happen in short order. Roy's piano was the featured attraction in Whiteman's film debut of George Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue in King of Jazz, released in 1930. Bargy was partially responsible for the symphonic arrangement of Rhapsody in Blue, which varied in many ways from the original jazz band arrangement by his colleague Ferdé Grofé. It was played at the Hollywood Bowl in the summer or fall of 1929 while the band was staying in Los Angeles waiting for King of Jazz filming to start. His pianistic skills were also utilized on some of the early recordings made by Whiteman's star singer, Bing Crosby and the famous Rhythm Boys. For the 1930 enumeration Roy was difficult to locate as he was on tour, although Gretchen and their two daughters were living in his home base of Toledo.
     During the 1930s when Bargy wasn't playing with Whiteman during the occasional hiatus of the group, he would again assemble his own orchestra to work during the tour breaks. He and his groups continued to record for Victor Records, and were frequently heard on national radio broadcasts, mostly on NBC stations. As a member of the Whiteman Orchestra Roy became one of the premier interpreters of Rhapsody in Blue, and as of 1938 likely held the record for the number of performances of the work by one pianist. Soon after it was premiered, he was also featured in many performances of Gershwin's highly challenging Concerto in F. Bargy was also the assistant conductor, put in charge whenever Whiteman left the podium. By 1936 Roy and Gretchen had divorced. On June 15, 1937 he was remarried to Virginia MacLean, two decades his junior, who he had met in Zanesville, Ohio, while on tour with Whiteman.
     In 1940, Bargy left Whiteman after a twelve year stint to arrange and conduct radio orchestras and bands. These included gigs with Lanny Ross (with whom he recorded some Irish tunes), Garry Moore, and famed Latin bandleader Xavier Cugat. As of the 1940 Census, taken in North Hempstead, Long Island, New York, Roy and Virginia had his daughter Patty was living with him, and he was listed as a musician in broadcasting. (Gretchen died in Ohio in 1946.)
     In a 1937 article published in Amarillo, Texas in September, 1937, Roy looked back on his fortunes and success. In spite of his lack of formal music education, Bargy said: "I certainly don't wish to discourage people from going to the conservatory and studying those courses which I did not have... Nevertheless, I believe the method I followed of studying privately with one excellent piano teacher for some seven or eight years, and the way I had to dig out my extra musical knowledge alone, was the best thing for me." When asked if his former instructor, Max Ecker, was proud of his achievements, he continued: "Proud of me? Oh no, he's disappointed! He thinks it's been very fine for me to be with a great orchestra like Whiteman's, but he doesn't think that is my field. He accepts the concert stage for me and nothing else." Bargy also made it clear that he liked his work on the radio more than anything else at that time.
     Comedian Jimmy Durante, himself a competent pianist who got his start playing at Coney Island during the ragtime era, hired Bargy as musical director in 1943, and it was in this capacity that he remained until both of them retired from show business two decades later. Bargy and his orchestra were featured on the radio weekly on the show that originally starred both Durante and Moore on NBC radio. When Moore went to TV, Durante re-teamed with Alan Young, and retained Bargy for radio and live appearances. Roy's daughter Jeanne had debuted at age 13 on WPSD radio in Toledo in the mid 1930s as "the Voice of the Blues." She started to make a name for herself as a pianist and singer in the mid 1940s, appearing at various venues around the country, and favoring the style of her mother's good friend, singer Mildred Bailey. Jeanne also had a stint on CBS radio from 1948 to 1949.
     While the circumstances are not fully clear yet, Roy and Virginia acquired two more children by adoption, who appear to be a brother and sister born in South Dakota. Roger Michael (MacLean) Bargy (03/08/1941) and Susan M. (MacLean) Bargy (c.1945), possibly the children of one of Virginia’s siblings, became members of the Bargy clan in the mid 1940s. An unfortunate accident involving a soda pop bottle exploding resulted in Roger losing his left eye in 1948, to which Roy sued the company (unnamed in the news reports) on Roger's behalf for $25,486.
     There were two bits of nostalgic resurgence involving Roy in the early 1950s. The first was a series of brilliant interpretations of his early piano novelties by performer Ray Turner, who was known as "The Hollywood Pianist" due to his soundtrack work that made actors sound like accomplished musicians. Turner's recordings for Capitol Records appeared both as solos on a 16" radio transcription and on two albums as well, the pioneering Honky Tonk Piano and Turner's own Kitten on the Keys.
     There was also a brief reunion of Roy with Paul Whiteman in 1953 when the two played along with others in a traveling revue. An ad for them in Reno in July, 1953, shows the "King of Jazz" on the same bill as the "Piano Extraordinary" of Bargy along with some teen-aged musical acts from Whiteman's television show. Unfortunately, performing became more difficult for Roy in the mid to late 1950s due to the onset of arthritis, so appearances by Bargy with Whiteman or Durante diminished throughout the decade. One of their last performances together was for Durante's Fiftieth Anniversary in Show Business special, broadcast in full color on NBC Television on August 9, 1961.
     Roy spent the remainder of his years in the California sunshine playing golf for enjoyment, but also helping his second wife Virginia with the Country Day School she founded in Vista, CA. Students have memories of him as both the cook for lunch time, as well as the entertainer from time to time for assemblies or casual afternoons. Their daughter, Jeanne, composed lyrics and some music for several stage productions throughout the 1960s with composer Jim Eiler, including some that were broadcast on NBC Television.
     Novelty pianist extraordinaire Roy Bargy died in his home in early 1974 after a fruitful career in music and helping with the Country Day School. It is reported that Virginia, who moved in with one of their daughters (likely Patricia) after his death, likely disposed of some additional compositions or arrangements that he had kept around their house. Roger (a.k.a. Michael) died in 1981 on Roy's birthday in San Diego. Virginia Bargy survived Roy until April, 2005, and Susan is still around as of this writing, as is Patricia. Although Bargy left behind only a few compositions, his contributions to recorded jazz are considerable but hard to measure because he left his imprint in so many places.

     Thanks to to ragtime researcher Robert Bradford, a friend of Susan Bargy, who was able to provide a few pieces of information on Bargy and his later years. The remaining information was culled by the author from public records, periodicals and collective writings on novelty piano, including piano roll catalogs.

George Gershwin (George Bruskin Gershvin) (September 26, 1898 to July 11, 1937)
Instrumental Compositions
c.1914 Tango Ragging the Traumeri 1917 Rialto Ripples [1] 1919 Lullaby (A String Quartet) Novelette in Fourths c. mid-1920s Three Quarter Blues (Irish Waltz) 1923 Rubato (Novelette-Prelude) 1924 Rhapsody in Blue 1925 Short Story (Novelette) Sleepless Night Concerto in F     1. Allegro     2. Adagio - Andante con moto     3. Allegro Agitato 1926 Three Preludes for Piano    1. Bbm - Allegro    2. C#m - Andante (Blue Lullaby)    3. Ebm - Allegro (Spanish Prelude) 1928 An American in Paris Merry Andrew 1929 Impromptu in Two Keys (Yellow Blues) 1931 Second Rhapsody 1932 Cuban Overture (a.k.a. Rumba)	1932 (Cont) Piano Transcriptions of Eighteen Songs     1. Swanee     2. Somebody Loves Me     3. My One and Only     4. Who Cares     5. I'll Build a Stairway to Paradise     6. The Man I Love     7. Strike Up the Band     8. Sweet and Low Down     9. Do It Again    10. Fascinatin' Rhythm    11. 'S Wonderful    12. Oh, Lady Be Good    13. Do-Do-Do    14. Nobody But You    15. That Ceratin Feeling    16. Clap Yo' Hands    17. Liza    18. I Got Rhythm 1933 Two Waltzes in C 1934 Variations on "I Got Rhythm" 1936 Catfish Row Suite from Porgy and Bess     1. Catfish Row     2. Porgy Sings     3. Fugue     4. Hurrican     5. Good Morning, Brother 1937 Promenade (a.k.a. Walking the Dog)
Popular Songs/Broadway Shows
1916 When You Want ’Em, You Can’t Get ’Em       (When You’ve Got ’Em, You Don’t Want       ’Em) [2] The Passing Show of 1916: Revue    The Making of a Girl [3,4]    My Runaway Girl [2] 1917 Gush-Gush-Gushing [5] When There's a Chance to Dance [5] When the Armies Disband [6] A Good Little Tune [6] Beautiful Bird [7] We're Six Little Nieces of our Uncle Sam [7] 1918 Hitchy-Koo of 1918    You-oo, Just You [6] Ladies First: Musical    The Real American Folk Song Is a Rag [5]    Some Wonderful Sort of Someone [8] Half Past Eight: Musical    There's Magic in The Air [5]    The Ten Commandments of Love [9]    Cupid [9]    Hong Kong [9] 1919 Oh Land of Mine, America [12] Good Morning Judge: Musical    I Was So Young (You Were So       Beautiful) [6,13] Lady in Red: Musical    Something About Love [7] Capitol Revue: Musical    Swanee [6]    Come to the Moon [7,14] La, La, Lucille 1919: Musical [10,11]    Kindly Pay Us    When You Live in a Furnished Flat    The Best of Everything    From Now On    Money, Money, Money!    Tee-Oodle-Um-Bum-Bo    Nobody But You    Hotel Life    (Oo, How) I Love to Be Loved By You [7]    It's Great to Be in Love    There's More to the Kiss than the       Sound [X-X-X] [6]    Somehow It Seldom Comes True    The Ten Commandments of Love    Our Little Kitchenette †    The Love of a Wife †    Kisses † Morris Gest's Midnight Whirl: Revue [10,15]    I'll Show You a Wonderful World    The League of Nations (Depends on Beautiful       Clothes)    Doughnuts    Poppyland    Limehouse Nights    Aphronightie (Parody on Fokine's Bacchanal       from Aphrodite)    Let Cutie Cut your Cuticle    Baby Dolls    East Indian Maid Dere Mabel: Musical [6]    We're Pals    Back Home    I Don't Know Why (When I Dance with You) 1920 Yan-Kee [6] George White's Scandals of 1920: Revue [11]    My Lady    Everybody Swat the Profiteer    On My Mind the Whole Night long    Scandal Walk    Tum On and Tiss Me    The Songs of Long Ago    Idle Dreams    The Lattice Room Number    My Old Love is My New Love The Sweetheart Shop: Musical    Waiting for the Sun to Come Out [5] Broadway Brevities of 1920: Musical    Spanish Love [6]    Love Me While the Snowflakes Fall [11]    I'm a Dancing Fool [11]    Lu-Lu [11] Ed Wynn's Carnival: Musical    Oo, How I Love You to be Loved by You [7] 1921 Molly on the Shore [5] Phoebe [5,7] [Unpublished] Swanee Rose (a.k.a. Dixie Rose) [6,10] Tomalé (I'm Hot for You) [10] In the Heart of a Geisha (Nippo San of     Japan) [16] Blue Eyes: Musical    Wanting You [6] From Piccadilly to Broadway: Revue    Something Peculiar [5,7] Snapshots of 1921: Revue    On the Brim of Her Old-Fashioned       Bonnet [17]    Baby Blues [17]    Futuristic Melody [17] The Broadway Whirl: Musical [10,15,18,19,20]    From the Plaza to Madison Square    Button Me Up the Back    Three Little Maids    Poppy Land [10,15]    Lime House Nights [10,15]    Stars of Broadway    The Husband, The Wife and Lover A Dangerous Maid    Boy Wanted [5]    Just to Know You are Mine [5]    Some Rain Must Fall [5]    The Simple Life [5]    The Sirens † George White's Scandals of 1921: Revue [11]    I Love You    South Sea Isles (Sunny South Sea Islands)    Mother Eve    Where East Meets West    Drifting Along with the Tide    (She's) Just a Baby The Perfect Fool: Musical    No One Else But that Girl of Mine [6]    My Log Cabin Home [6,10] For Goodness Sake: Musical    Someone [21]    Tra-La-La [21] 1922 The Flapper [10,22] The French Doll: Musical    Do it Again [10] For Goodness Sake: Musical    Someone [21]    Tra-La-La [21]    All To Myself [21] George White's Scandals of 1922: Revue [10,17]    Little Cinderlatives    (Oh, See What) She Hangs Out in Our Alley    (My Heart Will Sail) Across the Seas    I Found a Four Leaf Clover    I'll Build a Stairway to Paradise    Argentina    Little Cinderlatives    I Can't Tell Where They're From When They       Dance    Just a Tiny Cup of Tea    Where is the Man of My Dreams?    You Can Tell Who We Are by the Things       That We Have Done Blue Monday (Miniature Opera) [10]    Overture    Prologue: Ladies and Gentlemen    Blue Monday Blues (a.k.a. 135th Street       Blues)    Has Anyone Seen My Joe?    Monday's the Day That All the Earthquakes       Quiver    I'll Tell the World I Did    I'm Gonna See My Mother Spice of 1922: Revue    The Yankee Doodle Blues [6,10] Our Nell: Musical [22,23,24]    Gol-Durn!    Innocent Ingenue Baby    Old New England Home    The Cooney County Fair    Names I Love to Hear    By and By    Madrigal    We Go to Church on Sunday    Walking Home with Angeline    Oh, You Lady!    (All the) Little Villages    The Custody of the Child † 1923 The Dancing Girl: Musical    That American Boy of Mine [6]    Why Am I So Sad [3]    Cuddle Up [3]    Pango Pango [3] The Rainbow: Musical [25]    Sweetheart (I'm So Glad I Met You)    Good-Night, My Dear    Any Little Tune    Moonlight in Versailles    In the Rain    Innocent Lonesome Blue Baby [22,24,25]    Beneath the Eastern Moon    Oh! Nina    Strut Lady with Me    Sunday in London Town George White's Scandals of 1923: Revue [10]    Little Scandal Dolls    You and I [26]    Katrinka    There is Nothing Too Good for You [10,17]    Throw Her in High [10,17]    Let's Be Lonesome Together [10,17]    Lo-La-Lo    The Life of a Rose    Look in the Looking Glass    Where is She?    (On the Beach) How've You Been?    Laugh Your Cares Away Little Miss Bluebeard: Musical    I Won't Say I Will (But I Won't Say I       Won't) [5,10] The Sunshine Trail: Musical    The Sunshine Trail [5] Nifties of 1923: Musical    Nashville Nightingale [6]    At Half-Past Seven [10] 1924 Sweet Little Devil: Musical [10]    Strike, Strike, Strike    Virginia, (Don't Go Too Far)    Someone Who Believes in You    System    The Jijibo    Quite a Party    Under a One-Man Top    The Matrimonial Handicap    Just Supposing    Hey! Hey! (Let 'Er Go!)    The Same Old Story    Mah Jongg    Hooray for the U.S.A.    Pepita    Be the Life of the Crowd †    You're Might Lucky, My Little Ducky †    Sweet Little Devil † George White's Scandals of 1924: Revue [10,27]    Just Missed the Opening Chorus    I'm Going Back    (I Need) A Garden    (Night Time in) Araby    Somebody Loves Me    Year After Year We're Together    Tune in (to Station J.O.Y.)    Rose of Madrid    I Love You My Darling    Kong Kate    Lovers of Art Primrose [28]    Leaving Town While We May    The Countryside    Boy Wanted [5,28]    This Is the Life for a Man    When Toby is Out of Town    Some Far-Away Someone [5,10]    The Mophams    I'll Have a House in Berkely Square    (Isn't It Terrible What they Did to) Mary       Queen of Scots    Wait a Bit, Susie [5,28]    Naughty Baby [5,28]    Primrose Ballet    Till I Meet Someone Like You    That New Fangled Mother of Mine    I Make Hay when the Moon Shines    Isn't it Wonderful! [5,28]    Roses of France    Berkely Square and Kew    Can We Do Anything? [5,28]    Four Little Sirens    Beau Brummel Lady Be Good: Musical [5]    Seeing Dickie Home    Hang on to Me    A Wonderful Party    The End of a String    We're Here Because    Fascinating Rhythm    The Robinson Hotel    So Am I    Oh, Lady Be Good    The Half of it Dearie Blues    Juanita    Leave It to Love    Little Jazz Bird    Carnival Time    Swiss Miss [5,11]    The Man I Love †    Evening Star †    Will You Remember Me? †    The Bad, Bad Men †    Weatherman/Rainy Afternoon Girls †    Singin' Pete †    Laddie Daddie † 1925 Tell Me More: Musical [5,10]    Tell Me More!    Mr. and Mrs. Sipkin    When the Debbies Go By    Three Times a Day    Why Do I Love You?    How Can I Win You Now?    Kickin' the Clouds Away    Love Is in the Air    My Fair Lady    In Sardinia    Baby!    The Poetry of Motion    Ukulele Lorelei    Oh, So 'La' Mi    Murderous Monty (and Light-Fingered       Jane) [28] [London production only]    Love, I Never Knew [28]       [London production only]    Shop Girls and Mannikins [sic] [Unusued]    I'm Something on Avenue A [Unusued]    The He-Man [Unusued] Tip-Toes: Musical [5]    Waiting for the Train    Nice Baby! (Come to Papa!)    Looking for a Boy    Lady Luck    When Do We Dance?    These Charming People    That Certain Feeling    Sweet and Low Down    Our Little Captain    Harbor of Dreams    It's a Great Little World    Nightie-Night    Tip-Toes    Harlem River Chanty †    Gather Ye Rosebuds †    We †    Dancing Hour †    Life's Too Short to Be Blue † Song of the Flame: Musical [29,30,31]    Far Away    Song of the Flame (Don't Forget Me)    A Woman's Work is Never Done    Great Big Bear    The Signal    Cossack Love Song (Don't Forget Me)    Tar-Tar    (You May) Wander Away    Finaletto    Vodka    Finale    I Want Two Husbands    You Are You    Midnight Bells    The First Blossom Ballet    Going Home on New Year's Morning    Finale Ultimo 1926 Oh, Kay!: Musical [5]    The Woman's Touch    Don't Ask!    Dear Little Girl (I Hope You've Missed Me)    Maybe    Clap Yo' Hands    Do, Do, Do    Bride and Groom    Someone to Watch Over Me    Fidgety Feet    Heaven on Earth    Oh, Kay!    What's the Use †    When Our Ship Comes Sailng In †    Bring on the DIng Dong Bell †    Guess Who †    Isn't It Romantic †    The Moon is on the Sea †    The Sun is on the Sea † Americana: Revue    That Lost Barber Shop Chord [5] Lady Be Good: Musical    [London production only]    I'd Rather Charleston [28]    Buy a Little Button from Us [28] 1927 Strike Up the Band: Musical (Original) [5]    * Denotes numbers cut or revised in 1930    Fletcher's American Cheese Choral Society *    Seventeen and Twenty-One *    A Typical Self-Made American    Meadow Serenade *    A Man of High Degree    The Unofficial Spokesman    Patriotic Rally *    Three Cheers for the Union    This Could Go On for Years    The Man (Girl) I Love *    Yankee Doodle Rhythm *    Finaletto Act 1	1927 (Cont)    Strike Up the Band    Oh, This is Such a Lovely War *    Hoping That Someday You'd Care *    Military Dancing Drill    How About A Boy? How About A Man       Like Me? *    Finaletto Act 2    Homeward Bound    The Girl I Love *    The War That Ended the War *    Finale Funny Face: Musical [5]    We're All A-Worry, All Agog    When You're Single    Those Eyes    Birthday Party    Once    Funny Face    High Hat    'S Wonderful    Let's Kiss and Make Up    Come Along, Let's Gamble    If You Will Take Our Tip    He Loves and She Loves    Tell the Doc    My One and Only (What Am I Gonna Do?)    Sing a Little Song    In the Swim    The World Is Mine    The Babbitt and the Bromide    Dance Alone With You    Acrobats †    When You Smile †    Aviator †    Blue Hullabaloo † 1928 Rosalie: Musical [4,5,32]    Show Me the Town    Here They Are    Entrace of the Hussars    Hussar March    Say So!    Let Me Be a Friend to You    West Point Bugle    Oh Gee!-Oh Joy!    Kingdom of Dreams    New York Serenade    The King Can Do No Wrong    Ev'rybody Knows I Love Somebody [5]    How Long Has This Been Going On?    Setting-Up Exercises    At the Ex-Kings' Club    The Goddesses of Crystal    The Ballet of the Flowers    Rosalie †    Beautiful Gypsy †    When Cadets Parade †    Follow the Dream †    I Forgot What I Wanted to Say †    You Know How it Is † Treasure Girl: Musical [5]    Skull and Bones    (I've Got a) Crush on You    I Don't Think I'll Fall in Love Today    Oh, So Nice    According to Mr. Grimes    Got a Rainbow    Feeling I'm Falling    Place in the Country    K-ra-zy for You    What Are We Here For?    Where's the Boy? Here's the Girl!    I Want to Marry a Marionette †    This Particular Party †    What Causes That? †    Treasure Island †    Dead Me Tell No Tales †    Good-Bye to the Old Love, Hello to the       New †    A-Hunting We Will Go † 1929 Show Girl [5,33]    Happy Birthday    My Sunday Fella    How Could I Forget Lolita?    Lolita (My Love)    Do What You Do!    Spain    One Man    So Are You!    I Must Be Home by Twelve O'Clock    Black and White    Harlem Serenade    An American in Paris (Blues Ballet)    Home Blues    Follow the Minstrel Band    Liza (All the Clouds'll Roll Away)    Feeling Sentimental †    Home Lovin' Gal/Man †    Adored One †    Tonight's the Night! †    I'm Just a Bundle of Sunshine †    At Mrs. Simpkin's Finishing School †    Someone's Always Calling a Rehearsal †    I Just Looked at You †    I'm Out For No Good Reason Tonight †    Minstrel Show †    Somebody Stole My Heart Away †    In the Mandarin's Orchid Garden [5] † 1930 Strike Up the Band: Musical (Revised) [5]    * Denotes numbers added or revised from 1927    Fletcher's American Chocolate Choral       Society Workers *    Seventeen and Twenty-One (I Mean to Say) *    A Typical Self-Made American    Soon *    A Typical Self-Made American    A Man of High Degree    The Unofficial Spokesman    Three Cheers for the Union!    This Could Go On for Years    If I Became President *    (What's the Use) Hangin' Around with You?*    He Knows Milk *    Strike Up the Band    In the Rattle of the Battle *    Military Dancing Drill    Mademoiselle from New Rochelle *    I've Got a Crush on You *    (How About a Boy) Like Me? *    I Want to Be a War Bride *    The Unofficial March of General Holmes *    Official Resume: First There Was Fletcher *    Ring a Ding Dong Bell (Ding Dong) *    Finale Girl Crazy: Musical [5]    Bidin' My Time    The Lonesome Cowboy    Could You Use Me?    Broncho Busters    Barbary Coast    Embraceable You    Goldfarb, That's I'm!    Sam and Delilah    I Got Rhythm    Land of the Gay Caballero    But Not for Me    Treat Me Rough    Boy! What Love Has Done to Me    (When It's) Cactus Time in Arizona    The Gambler of the West †    And I Have You †    You Can't Unscramble Scrambled Eggs † Nine-Fifteen Revue: Revue    Toddlin' Along [5] 1931 Delicious: Musical Film [5]    Delishious    Welcome to the Melting Pot    Somebody from Somewhere    Katinkitschka    You Started It    Dream Sequence    Blah, Blah, Blah    Rhapsody in Rivets (Manhattan Rhapsody)    Thanks to You †    Mischa, Yascha, Toscha, Sascha [21] † Of Thee I Sing: Musical [5]    Wintergreen for President    Who is the Lucky Girl to Be?    The Dimple on My Knee    Because, Because    As the Chairman of the Committee    How Beautiful    Never Was There a Girl So Fair    Some Girls Can Bake a Pie    Love is Sweeping the Country    Of Thee I Sing    (Here's) A Kiss for Cinderella    I Was the Most Beautiful Blossom    Hello, Good Morning    Who Cares? (So Long as You Care for Me)    Garcon, S'il vous plait    The Illegitimate Daughter    The Senatorial Roll Call    Jilted    We'll Impeach Him    I'm About to Be a Mother       (Who Could Ask for Anything More?)    Posterity is Just Around the Corner    Trumpter, Blow Your Golden Horn    On That Matter No One Budges    Call Me Whate'er You Will † 1932 Girl Crazy: Musical Film (Added Song)    You've Got What Gets Me [5] 1933 Till Then [5] Pardon My English: Musical [5]    In Three Quarter Time    Lorelei    Pardon My English    Dancing in the Streets    So What?    Isn't It a Pity    Drink, Drink, Drink    My Cousin in Milwaukee    Hail the Happy Couple    The Dresden Northwest Mounted    Luckiest Man in the World    What Wort of Wedding is This?    Tonight    Where You Go, I Go    I've Got to Be There    He's Not Himself    Fatherland, Mother of the Band †    Freud and Jung and Adler †    Together at Last †    Bauer's House †    Poor Michael, Poor Golo † Let 'Em Eat Cake: Musical [5]    Wintergreen for President    Tweedledee for President    Union Square    Down With Everyone That's Up    Shirts by the Millions    Comes the Revolution    Mine    Climb Up the Social Ladder    Cloistered from the Noisy City    What More Can a General Do    On and On and On    Double Dummy Drill    I've Brushed My Teeth    The General's Gone to a Party    All the Mothers of the Nation    Yes, He's a Bachelor    There's Something We're Worried About    What's the Proletariat    Let 'Em Eat Cake    Blue, Blue, Blue    Who's the Greatest    No Comprenez, No Capish, No Versteh!    Why Speak of Money?    No Better Way to Start a Case    Up and At 'Em! On to Victory    Oyez, Oyez, Oyez    Play Ball    When the Judges Doff the Ermine    That's What He Did    I Know a Foul Ball    Throttle Throttlebottom    A Hell of a Hole (A Hell of a Fix)    Down With Everyone Who's Up    It Isn't What You Did    Let 'Em Eat Caviar    Hang Throttlebottom in the Morning    First Lady and First Gent † 1935 Porgy and Bess: Musical/Opera [5,34]    Prelude - Catfish Row    Summertime    A Woman is a Sometime Thing    Street Cry (Honey Man)    They Pass By Singing    Crap Game Fugue (Oh Little Stars)    Crown and Robbins' Fight    Gone, Gone, Gone    Overflow    My Man's Gone Now    Leavin' 'fo' de Promis' Lan'    It Takes a Long Pull to Get There    I Got Plenty O' Nuttin'    Woman to Lady    Bess, You Is My Woman Now    Oh I Can't Sit Down    It Ain't Necessarily So    What You Want With Bess?    Time and Time Again    Street Cries (Strawberry Woman, Crab Man)    I Loves You, Porgy    Hurricane    Oh de Lawd Shake de Heaven    A Red Headed Woman    Oh, Doctor Jesus    Clara, Don't You Be Downhearted    There's a Boat That's Leavin' Soon for       New York    Oh Bess, Where's My Bess    I'm On My Way    Buzzard Song †    Lonesome Boy †    I Ain't Got No Shame †    Jazzbo Brown Blues †    I Hate's Yo' Struttin' Style †    Oh, Heavn'ly Father (Six Prayers) †    Occupational Humoresque † 1936 The King of Swing [35] Doubting Thomas [35] Strike Up the Band for UCLA [5] The Show is On: Musical    By Strauss [5] 1937 Shall We Dance: Musical Film [5]    Shall We Dance?    (I've Got) Beginner's Luck    Watch Your Step    Let's Call the Whole Thing Off    Walking the Dog (a.k.a. Promenade)    They Can't Take That Away From Me    Slap That Bass    They All Laughed    Wake Up, Brother, and Dance †    Hi-Ho! At Last † A Damsel in Distress: Musical Film [5]    A Foggy Day (In London Town)    I Can't Be Bothered Now    Put Me to the Test    Stiff Upper Lip    Nice Work if You Can Get It    Things Are Looking Up    The Jolly Tar and the Milkmaid    Sing of Spring    Pay Some Attention to Me † 1938 (Posth) Dawn of a New Day [5] (Song of the 1939     New York World's Fair) The Goldwyn Follies: Musical Film [5]    Love Is Here to Stay    I Was Doing All Right    Spring Again    Love Walked In    I Love to Rhyme    Just Another Rhumba †    Exposition: Idea for a Ballet † [5,36] 1946 (Posth) The Shocking Miss Pilgrim: Musical Film [5]    Changing My Tune    Stand Up and Fight    Aren't You Kind of Glad We Did?    The Back Bay Polka    One, Two, Three    Waltzing is Better Sitting Down    Demon Rum    For You, For Me, For Evermore    Sweet Packard    Welcome Song    Tour of the Town † 1964 (Posth) Kiss Me Stupid: Musical Film [5]    I'm a Poached Egg    All the Livelong Day (and the Long,       Long Night)    Sophia    1. w/Will Donaldson    2. w/Murray Roth    3. w/Harold Atteridge    4. w/Sigmund Romberg    5. w/Ira Gershwin    6. w/Irving Caesar    7. w/Lou Paley    8. w/Schuyler Greene    9. w/Edward B. Perkins    10. w/Buddy Gard (B.G.) DeSylva    11. w/Arthur J. Jackson    12. w/Michael E. Rourke    13. w/Alfred Bryan    14. w/Ned Wayburn    15. w/John Henry Mears    16. w/Fred Fischer    17. w/E. Ray Goetz    18. w/Harry Tierney    19. w/Joseph McCarthy    20. w/Richard Carle    21. w/Ira Gershwin as Arthur Francis    22. w/William Daly    23. w/A.E. Thomas    24. w/Brian Hooker    25. w/Clifford Grey    26. w/Jack Green    27. w/Ballard Macdonald    28. w/Desmond Carter    29. w/Herbert P. Stothart    30. w/Otto Harbach    31. w/Oscar Hammerstein II    32. w/Pelham Grenville (P.G.) Wodehouse    33. w/Gus Kahn    34. w/DuBose Heyward    35. w/Al Stillman    36. w/George Balanchine     † Dropped from or Unused in a Show

     Few composers of any century, much less the 20th century, were as productive or creative as George Gershwin, a true American treasure. While his semi-meteoric rise was not quite an overnight success, it was well deserved and was achieved with determination, talent, and little hesitation. Within a life span only a little longer than that of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Gershwin revolutionized and even codified the relationship between popular songs and the Broadway stage, carrying along with him his friends Irving Berlin and Cole Porter in the process. In fact, given the spread of styles he covered, it is hard to pigeonhole Gershwin's music into any predefined genre, suggesting in some cases that his style was a genre unto itself. His was also a similar story to some of his composer peers who came out of the immigrant neighborhoods to rise to the pinnacle of fame in the growing entertainment industry.

     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.

Morris and Rose Gershovitz in the mid 1890s

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. 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 some time 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. 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, 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. 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.) 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. 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. 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. 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 Ferde 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), 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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, 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. The most recent recipient 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.