Ira Gershwin

Songwriter

• Born: December 6, 1896
• Birthplace: New York, New York
• Died: August 17, 1983
• Place of death: Beverly Hills, California

American composer

From the 1920’s to the 1960’s, Gershwin helped popularize the American musical by writing lyrics for Broadway productions and motion pictures that combined slang with light verse. Three of his songs were nominated for Academy Awards, and in 1932 he won a Pulitzer Prize for his work in Of Thee I Sing.

Area of achievement Music

Early Life

Morris and Rose Gershvin, Jewish immigrants from Russia, gave birth to their first child, Israel, in 1896. A shy, easygoing, and scholarly boy, Ira Gershwin grew up on the Lower East Side of New York with his brothers, George and Arthur, and his sister, Francis. Poetry and books fascinated Ira during his childhood years. In 1910, he earned a position in Townsend Harris Hall, a high school for bright students. While attending Townsend, Ira wrote a column for the school newspaper in which he mocked his teachers and fellow students in light verse. That same year, Rose bought a piano to further encourage her oldest son’s gifts. Ira’s little brother George, however, stunned the family by immediately sitting down at the instrument and playing a song. Rose abandoned her idea of providing Ira with lessons and instead allowed George to begin studying. While George developed his skills as a pianist, Ira continued to focus on his schoolwork and writing. In 1914, he began attending City College, where he wrote humorous poems in a column called “Gargoyle Gargles” for the campus newspaper.

In 1917, Ira dropped out of college and disappointed his parents by spending his free time going to see vaudeville shows and motion pictures. George, meanwhile, composed music for Broadway productions and convinced the family to change their last name to Gershwin. Although Ira toyed with the idea of becoming a lyricist, it was not until 1920, when George approached him to write the words for a song in the musical The Sweetheart Shop, that he seriously pursued this goal. Ira wrote the lyrics for “Waiting for the Sun to Come Out” under the pseudonym Arthur Francis. The show’s producers not only included the song in The Sweetheart Shop but also had it recorded and published the sheet music. Pleased with the success of this initial undertaking, George and Ira, who was still using the name Arthur Francis, cooperated to supply all the songs for a new musical, A Dangerous Maid (1921). George also introduced Ira to other composers, and, during the next few years, “Arthur” wrote songs for the shows Two Little Girls in Blue (1921), Pins and Needles (1922), The Greenwich Village Follies (1923), and Top-Hole (1924). Ira initially wrote his lyrics after a composer completed the music. He experimented, however, with developing new techniques and using novel material such as slang and dialect. Later he would earn the nickname the Jeweler for crafting verbal phrases that precisely matched the musical notes provided by his brother and others. In 1924, Ira started to view himself as an accomplished lyricist and even allowed his real name to be used in the musical Be Yourself.

Life’s Work

By December, 1924, the Gershwins were standing at the center of the United States’ cultural awakening. Ira had developed his writing sufficiently to begin collaborating full time with George. He admired his brother’s musical talents without reservation and considered himself a helpmate to George’s genius. Both Gershwins expressed interest in writing for musical comedies, a new genre that mixed vaudeville revues with light operettas. Ira especially favored this style, since he disliked writing freestanding songs not linked to scripts or stories. He always wanted to start with a title, an idea, and a witty last line when beginning a new song.

Many critics regarded the first George and Ira Gershwin musical to open on Broadway, Lady Be Good (1924), as one of the first “truly” American productions. George’s music mixed blues and jazz, while Ira’s lyrics used everyday phrases and slang. The production moved faster and more energetically than similar shows of the time. It starred Fred and Adele Astaire and featured the songs “Oh, Lady Be Good!” and “Fascinating Rhythm.” After a strong run in New York, it traveled to London. The Gershwins followed this success by composing for a series of lively musicals, including Tell Me More (1925), Tip-Toes (1925), Oh, Kay! (1926), Funny Face (1927), and Rosalie (1928). During this string of hits, Ira began to receive significant notice for his witty and sophisticated lyrics. This recognition made him more determined to write clever songs that contributed to a story’s development.

Ira’s resolve alone, however, could not produce a successful musical. In 1927, the Gershwins collaborated on Strike Up the Band, a political satire that examined the question of war profiteering. This show integrated more fully than any previous Gershwin production the songs with the script. Unfortunately, the story did not resonate with the public and closed prior to its New York opening. Ira and George bounced back from this failure, and in 1930 their musical Girl Crazy produced a large array of popular songs, including “I Got Rhythm,” “Embraceable You,” “Bidin’ My Time,” “Sam and Delilah,” and “Boy! What Love Has Done to Me.” These songs showcase Ira’s talent at mixing wit with singable and moving lyrics. With Girl Crazy, the Gershwins went as far as possible within the current style of musical comedy. One of the most successful songwriting teams of the 1920’s, their music celebrated the ascendancy of a secular, urban, and industrial society.

Following the stock market crash in 1928 and the onset of the Great Depression, the theatergoing audience changed. The public became more cynical and less satisfied with light comedies and romantic musicals. In this atmosphere the Gershwins again turned toward political satire. Their first production revised Strike Up the Band, and this time it experienced a respectable run on Broadway. Moreover, critics praised Ira’s lyrics. The success of this show encouraged the brothers to stage another political production, Of Thee I Sing (1931). This musical satirized the office of the president and, like Strike Up the Band, closely tied the script’s action to the music and lyrics. Both the public and reviewers made Of Thee I Sing an immediate hit. The show was the first to have its complete lyrics published and also the first musical to win a Pulitzer Prize. The Gershwins’ effort to produce shows that closely integrated their songs with the musical’s action paved the way for this style to become the standard for musicals during the 1940’s.

The Gershwins also introduced the great features of European opera into the American popular theater. George wanted to write an opera in English with American characters that would be accessible to the growing middle class. In 1933, he began working with DuBose Heyward to turn the novel Porgy (1925) into an opera. Although a skilled poet, Heyward had never written lyrics before. Therefore, he and George turned to Ira to help smooth the process of collaboration. Ira soon became a vital party to the creation of Porgy and Bess (1935). He wrote about two-thirds of the lyrics and “polished” many of Heyward’s songs. The opera represented the Gershwins’ most thorough and effective mixture of popular and classical elements. Despite the high quality of the production, few people were enthralled when it opened. However, many now regard it as a classic piece of American music.

By 1936 film musicals resembled Broadway shows with integrated songs and stories. Hollywood producers sought out the Gershwins to compose for films. Ira and George wrote the music for the Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers film Shall We Dance (1937). Immediately popular, the motion picture featured the songs “Let’s Call the Whole Thing Off” and the Academy Award nominee “They Can’t Take That Away from Me.” The Gershwins then worked on the music for the films Damsel in Distress (1937), and The Goldwyn Follies (1938). While composing for The Goldwyn Follies, George began to experience blackouts and partial paralysis; on July 9, 1937, he lapsed into a coma. The doctors discovered a brain tumor and operated, but George died two days later. He was only thirty-eight years old.

Devastated by George’s death, Ira did not work on another project until 1940. He returned to collaborate on Lady in the Dark (1940), a play with music. The show opened on Broadway and became a huge success. Many reviewers lauded Ira’s lyrics as the best he had ever written. He continued to work sporadically in New York but spent most of the next twenty years working for Hollywood. He wrote the lyrics for the films The North Star (1943), Cover Girl (1944, which included another of Ira’s Academy Award-nominated songs, “Long Ago and Far Away”), and The Barkleys of Broadway (1949). Ira expressed satisfaction with his work for A Star Is Born (1954). July Garland regarded the film as her comeback vehicle. The film cost Warner Bros. five million dollars, an astounding figure for the period. To recover their investment, studio executives insisted on cutting the film to shorten its running time. The cuts, however, wrecked the overall quality of the production. The film received six Oscar nominations, including one for Ira’s “The Man That Got Away,” but did not win in any category.

Besides working on his own projects in the years following George’s death, Ira also wanted to ensure that his brother’s music would not be forgotten. He began to write lyrics for songs left behind by George. The music for the film The Shocking Miss Pilgrim (1947) was completely composed of material previously written by George. The film An American in Paris (1951) best represents Ira’s goal to keep George’s music popular. The film producers selected some of George and Ira’s former songs and had the film’s script written around them. The film won seven Oscars and became the first musical since 1936 to win Best Picture.

Significance

Ira Gershwin retired in 1954 but remained active until his death in 1983. He continually labored to get his brother’s works performed. He also established a Gershwin archive in the Library of Congress and spent almost thirty years cataloging the material and correspondence George had left behind. In 1959, Ira published Lyrics on Several Occasions, a collection of several of his songs. The book is still considered one of the best sources on twentieth century lyric writing. Ira’s most cherished honor, however, came in 1966 when the University of Maryland awarded him an honorary doctor of fine arts.

Considered one of the best lyricists of the “golden age” of song writing, Ira cleverly integrated slang and regular speech into popular music. Indeed, the innovations that characterized Ira’s work, especially his desire to tie songs to a musical’s story, helped shape the development of American musical theater. This style, however, often bound Ira’s songs so closely to a script that his lyrics were trapped in a particular context. His most popular songs continue to be those that were least connected to a show or motion picture.

Bibliography

Furia, Philip. Ira Gershwin: The Art of the Lyricist. New York: Oxford University Press, 1996. This thorough examination of Gershwin’s work as a lyricist links his personal style and disposition to historical developments in the music business.

Gershwin, Ira. The Complete Lyrics of Ira Gershwin. Edited by Robert Kimball. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1993. This compilation of Gershwin’s lyrics contains more than seven hundred songs arranged chronologically. It also supplies production information about each of the shows and films in which the songs were first performed.

Jablonski, Edward, and Lawrence D. Stewart. The Gershwin Years: The Story of George and Ira Gershwin in Words and Poems. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1958. This biographical work focuses on the musical accomplishments of the Gershwins during the 1920’s and 1930’s.

Kimball, Robert, and Alfred Simon. The Gershwins. New York: Antheneum, 1973. This book examines the shows and songs developed by the Gershwins. It includes lyrics and letters written by Ira and George discussing various productions.

Rosenberg, Deena. Fascinating Rhythm: The Collaboration of George and Ira Gershwin. 1991. New ed. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1997. Rosenberg discusses the collaborative relationship between George and Ira and their impact on the creation of an American identity between World Wars I and II. This edition includes a new preface.

Zinsser, William. Easy to Remember: The Great American Songwriters and Their Songs. Jaffrey, N.H.: David R. Godine, 2001. A history of popular American songwriters, including Ira and George Gershwin.

Related Articles in Great Events from History: The Twentieth Century

1901-1940: February 13, 1914: ASCAP Forms to Protect Writers and Publishers of Music; February 12, 1924: Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue Premieres in New York; October 10, 1935: Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess Opens in New York.