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The Ira Gershwin Newsletter, Fall 2016
Words Without Music
The Ira Gershwin Newsletter
No. 10, Fall 2016
THAT’S THE TICKET!
THE GERSHWINS AND POLITICAL SATIRE
Inside:
George S. Kaufman & Morrie Ryskind
Take on Washington
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Words Without Music
Dear readers,
Ira Gershwin’s name is, quite rightly, inextricably tied to the
wealth of timeless songs he wrote with his brother George. But Ira’s
career encompassed many successes with composers who didn’t
share his last name. Some of those songs, and the shows and lms in
which they were featured, are among his most famous and popular,
while others remain ripe for rediscovery.
Three years before George and Ira collaborated on Lady, Be Good!
Ira—under the pseudonym Arthur Francis, which he derived from the
rst names of his younger brother and sister—wrote his rst success-
ful Broadway show, Two Little Girls in Blue, with composers Vincent
Youmans and Paul Lannin. (Its run in 1921 bested George’s 1920
edition of the George White Scandals by one performance.)
Even during the years George and Ira struck Broadway gold or
critical success with Strike Up the Band, Girl Crazy, Of Thee I Sing, Porgy
and Bess, and more, Ira continued to work with other writers. Two
lavish revues—Life Begins at 8:40 (1934), written with composer Harold
Arlen and lyricist Yip Harburg, and Ziegfeld Follies of 1936, written with
composer Vernon Duke—had successful runs and featured memora-
ble songs like “Fun to Be Fooled” and the classic “I Can’t Get Started.”
Struggling with grief and the myriad of business details that
followed George’s death in 1937, Ira found it hard to begin to write
again. But when he returned to work, with composer Kurt Weill and
librettist Moss Hart, the result was his most successful Broadway show
ever, the phantasmagorical Lady in the Dark (1941), a show that was so
lucrative, it allowed Ira to pay o his entire mortgage!
Other stage and movie projects followed over the next 13 years.
Cover Girl (Jerome Kern, 1944), Where Do We Go from Here? and The
Firebrand of Florence (both with Kurt Weill, 1945), Park Avenue (Arthur
Schwartz, 1946), The Barkleys of Broadway (Harry Warren, 1949), and
Give a Girl a Break (Burton Lane, 1953) may not always have struck
a chord with audiences, but they are lled to the brim with the wit,
wordplay, and erudition that are Ira’s hallmark.
My uncle’s career eectively came to an end in 1954 with two
movie scores written with Harold Arlen: The Country Girl, featur-
ing an Academy Award-winning performance by Grace Kelly, and
A Star Is Born, which included Judy Garland’s iconic performance
of Ira’s third Oscar-nominated song, “The Man That Got Away.”
Ira would spend the remainder of his life caring for the legacy of his
brother George, only gradually coming to realize that his own work
was equally deserving of recognition by posterity.
Audio excerpts of many of Ira Gershwin’s songs with his brother,
as well as Arlen, Weill, and the other composers he worked with, can
be heard by visiting the Gershwin website at www.gershwin.com. Just
look for the icon and have a listen!
—Michael Strunsky
Words Without Music
The Ira Gershwin Newsletter
No.10, Fall 2016 • ISSN 1938-4556
Contents
Letter from Michael Strunsky 2
Feature Story: Stars and Swipes 3
National Recording Registry 9
Gershwin Prize to Willie Nelson 11
Update: Gershwin Critical Edition 12
Update: Gershwin Website 13
In the News / On the Horizon 14
An American in Paris tour dates Back cover
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Words Without Music
Unless otherwise noted, all photographs are from
the collection of the Ira and Leonore Gershwin Trusts.
For further information on Gershwin performances,
please visit the official website at www.gershwin.com
Published by the Ira and Leonore Gershwin Trusts
101 Natoma Street
San Francisco, CA 94105-3703
Letters to the editor are welcome at the above address
or at [email protected] and may be published, subject
to editing for space and clarity.
Design: Glyph Publishing Arts.com
Cover: William Gaxton and Lois Moran make their case for
love in Of Thee I Sing (1931)
Words Without Music Staff
EDITOR MANAGING EDITOR
Abigail Kimball Michael Owen
Ira and Leonore Gershwin Trusts
TRUSTEE ARTISTIC ADVISOR
Michael Strunsky Robert Kimball
VP/ADMINISTRATION DIRECTOR OF LICENSING
Jean Strunsky L. J. Strunsky
CONSULTING ARCHIVIST BOOKKEEPER
Michael Owen Olivia Smith
[email protected] olivias@gershwin.com
FACILITIES MANAGER ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT
Vinny Fajardo La Tasha Meilleur
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The Ira Gershwin Newsletter, Fall 2016
FEATURE STORY
STARS AND SWIPES
The Poisoned, Patriotic, Political Pens and Piano of
the Gershwins, Kaufman, and Ryskind
“But what the hell! / You’ll do as well!” Paul McCullough and Bobby Clark with the ladies of the chorus in the 1930 version of Strike Up the Band
T
he current presidential election is so absurd, so hyperbolic,
and so ridiculous that no one could possibly make this stu
up. However, if one were looking for a cohort of talented
and witty musical comedy writers who could make this stu
up, you couldn’t do any better than the Gershwin brothers,
George S. Kaufman, and Morrie Ryskind. That team pulled
o not one but three interrelated groundbreaking satirical
musicals—Strike Up the Band, Of Thee I Sing, and Let ‘Em Eat
Cake—all produced within the astonishing span of seven years.
Before they started, political satire on the American stage was
a tame, toothless thing; after they were through, Broadway had
not only played host to a corpus of comic operettas worthy
of Gilbert and Sullivan, but had also seen the musical theater
form evolve and mature. Theatrically, the Gershwins & Co.
created an American Revolution.
Politics on the American musical stage before the Gershwins
fell into two categories: sheer patriotism and the minor jocu-
larities of the revue sketch. The former was perfectly served by
George M. Cohan and his jingoistic shows, songs, and sketches
in the early part of the century. On the other hand, moments
on the stage that skewered public policy in high places were few
and far between; social manners of a local nature were more the
by Laurence Maslon
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Words Without Music
FEATURE STORY
Ira Gershwin and George Gershwin (top) with George S. Kaufman (lower
left) and Morrie Ryskind: Collaborators on three of the greatest satires in
American musical theater history
topic of satire in early 1920s revues. The Ziegfeld Follies of 1919
tackled the incipient inconveniences of Prohibition in sketch
and song; the 1927 edition featured Eddie Cantor burlesqu-
ing Mayor Jimmy Walker in an Irving Berlin tune, “My New
York.” With the exception of a sketch poking fun of Calvin
Coolidge in the Garrick Gaieties of 1925, Washington seemed
very far away and, of course, Manhattan was the center of the
known universe.
In 1926, the Manhattan climate was one of self-satised
ease and conspicuous consumption. What summed it up better
than the election of James J. Walker as mayor of New York City,
a renowned playboy whose charm far exceeded his political tal-
ent—and a songwriter no less! (He had a hit with “Will You Love
Me in December as You Do in May?” in 1905.) This was the
cultural backdrop when producer Edgar Selwyn had the notion
to unite the Gershwins—since 1924 the reigning musical team
on Broadway—with the recent champion of Broadway comedy,
George S. Kaufman, to create a new musical. Kaufman was the
most successful comic playwright of his day, having teamed up
with Marc Connelly on several hit spoofs about American busi-
ness. He had just nished his collaboration with Irving Berlin
on The Cocoanuts, which was the Marx Brothers’ rst Broadway
success written by skilled professionals. Working with the Marx
quartet was an exhausting proposition for Kaufman, and the
exercise made him less than enthusiastic about taking on a new
musical. Still, Selwyn prevailed and the prospect of working
with the Gershwins was a welcome one
Kaufman, left to his own devices, came up with an extraor-
dinarily original script for the day, Strike Up the Band. A broad
satire of American greed, self-serving public relations, business
chicanery and war, it took swipes at industry, the government,
and the military, with the road to madness led by Horace J.
Fletcher, a megalomaniacal businessman who owns America’s
most successful cheese factory. (No kidding—his middle initial
is “J,” the same as another businessman who just happens to be
one of the current presidential candidates.) When Switzerland
gets its dander up after Fletcher imposes a tari on imported
cheese (no fan of trade agreements, he), the roused European
nation threatens war. Fletcher then oers to underwrite the war
with Switzerland in exchange for 25 percent of the prots and
his name gloriously branded on all war paraphernalia; he apos-
trophizes his unconventional chutzpah in “A Typical Self-Made
American,” while the army admits in the title number:
We’re in a bigger, better war,
For your patriotic pastime.
We don’t know what we’re ghting for—
But we didn’t know the last time!
The Gershwins matched Kaufman’s verve with a score that,
although it reects the patchwork character of the story, shows a
team working its way through a new challenge, with Ira borrowing
liberally from his idol, W. S. Gilbert. More provocatively, the show
seems to have been written as a Marx Brothers production with-
out the Marx Brothers. As a character, Fletcher seems tailored for
Groucho; there are also supporting parts for a mute comedian and
even a stuy dowager who’s Fletcher’s romantic foil. (No surprise
since Kaufman wrote Strike Up the Band in between assignments for
the Marx Brothers, The Cocoanuts and Animal Crackers.)
None of this anarchic innovation seems to have impressed
out-of-town audiences; rst in Long Branch, New Jersey, in Au-
gust of 1927, then in Philadelphia. Alas, as pugnacious and
imaginative as the story seems, the plot was—as perhaps bets
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The Ira Gershwin Newsletter, Fall 2016
FEATURE STORY
a musical about Swiss cheese—full of holes. After two weeks
of dismal box oce, the show folded, bringing a quick and
unimagined end to what Selwyn billed as “the ultimate collab-
oration of the generation.” Kaufman put it more succinctly:
“Satire is what closes on Saturday night.”
When Selwyn tried to revive the show three years later,
Kaufman had no new ideas and was busy on a number of other
projects, including his rst collaboration with Moss Hart. He
graciously suggested the young writer Morrie Ryskind (who had
previously collaborated with Kaufman and the Marx Brothers
and—not coincidentally—had written the Calvin Coolidge
sketch in 1925) to give the book a fresh approach. While the
Gershwins revised the score, Ryskind softened the satire by
swapping out cheese for chocolate, reconceiving the piece for
the anodyne comedy team of Clark and McCullough, and
wrapping the whole thing in a dream sequence. “What I had
to do,” Ryskind said years later, “was rewrite War and Peace for
the Three Stooges.” The revised Strike Up the Band became the
rst musical to open in the 1930s and the hit that had eluded
Selwyn on the rst go-round.
Kaufman was quite pleased that the show had nally made
good (he accepted a credit as author of the original idea). As
STRIKE UP THE BAND
In 1990, the Ira and Leonore Gershwin
Trusts, in partnership with the Library of
Congress, inaugurated a series of restored
versions of the Broadway shows of George
and Ira Gershwin. After the successful release
of Girl Crazy, the 1927 and 1930 editions of
Strike Up the Band were restored by Tommy
Krasker and recorded with a cast that fea-
tured Broadway stars Rebecca Luker, Jason
Graae, Juliet Lambert, and Don Chastain.
The Trusts’ own Roxbury Recordings, in
conjunction with Elektra Nonesuch, released
the full 1927 show, plus selected songs from
the 1930 production, in 1991. Available on compact disc
and at Apple’s iTunes store.
Tommy Krasker released the full recording of the
1930 production on his own PS Classics label in 2011. It
also is available on compact disc and at iTunes.
OF THEE I SING
A cast recording of the short-lived 1952 Broad-
way revival (72 performances at the Ziegfeld Theater),
which starred Jack Carson as Wintergreen, Betty Oakes
as Mary, and Paul Hartman as Throttlebottom, was re-
leased by Capitol Records and is currently available on
compact disc from Broadway Angel and
on iTunes.
Of Thee I Sing was seen on television
on October 24, 1972, in a 90-minute CBS
broadcast that capitalized on the populari-
ty of All in the Family star Carroll O’Connor
(Wintergreen) and the Mary Tyler Moore
Show’s Cloris Leachman (Mary). Columbia
released the soundtrack just in time for that
year’s presidential election. DRG Records
reissued it on compact disc in 2002.
Fifteen years later, a restored version of
the satire was performed in concert by
Michael Tilson Thomas and the Orchestra
of St. Luke’s at New York City’s Brooklyn Academy of Music.
Stars Larry Kert (Wintergreen), Maureen McGovern (Mary),
and Jack Gilford (Throttlebottom) can be heard on the CBS
Masterworks recording which followed shortly thereafter. It
can now be heard on compact disc and on iTunes.
LET ‘EM EAT CAKE
The only full recording of the sequel to Of Thee I Sing
was also captured on audio tape by CBS Masterworks in
1987. Tilson Thomas conducted, with Kert, McGovern,
and Gilford joined by David Garrison as the union agita-
tor Kruger. Available on compact disc and on iTunes.
Advertisement for the 1972
television production
STRIKE UP THE BAND / OF THEE I SING / LET ‘EM EAT CAKE
A Look at the Full Recordings
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Words Without Music
FEATURE STORY
the story goes, Kaufman accompanied Ryskind to the second
night and, in the back of the house, turned to his colleague and
said, “Next time, let’s do one for ourselves.” They set their am-
bitions higher, moving from the shadows of presidential power
straight into the thick of it. Their new
show, provisionally titled Tweedledee, was to
be about a running battle between two in-
distinguishable political parties over a new
national anthem. They approached the
Gershwins, who were suitably intrigued
but were contracted to go to Hollywood
in late 1930 to write the songs for the lm
Delicious. Kaufman and Ryskind agreed to
write a scenario that the brothers could
take with them to the West Coast.
The librettists soon realized that their
plot had only a limited amount of gas in its
tank. Sooner or later—as Ryskind pointed
out to the unsentimental Kaufman’s cha-
grin, no doubt—some boy-and-girl stu
had to make an appearance in their po-
litical satire. In fact, it was to be central
to their farce. The anthem idea was jet-
tisoned completely and a new story and
new title emerged: Of Thee I Sing, about a
presidential candidate and his rocky and
romantic road to the White House. John P.
Wintergreen (played by the popular lead-
ing man William Gaxton), a political gure
so vacuous he can only run on the “love”
platform, jilts the curvaceous winner of a
beauty contest concocted to gain media at-
tention and marries the much more sen-
sible Mary Turner (the musical comedy
debut of Hollywood actress Lois Moran).
Wintergreen is barely inaugurated before
the clouds of impeachment swirl around
his administration, whipped up by the jilted contest winner
and a voracious media.
Kaufman and Ryskind were abetted in their new venture—
although they might have wished otherwise—by the Depres-
sion. By late 1930, the nation’s spirits were such that they could
be buoyed by sheer escapism or roused to bitter laughter by
incisive sarcasm, and the new show provided both. Franklin D.
Roosevelt was still eleven months away from being elected and
the playing eld was littered with incompetent politicians. The
book writers took for their models Warren G. Harding, who
was elected, it was said, only because “he
looked presidential,” and Mayor Jimmy
Walker, whose song-and-dance bonhomie
was co-opted for Wintergreen. (Could it be
coincidental they shared the same initials?)
The book writers also added a charac-
ter that would epitomize the irrelevance of
career politicians: the thoroughly befuddled
Alexander P. Throttlebottom (crafted for
the endearing comedian Victor Moore),
who becomes vice president on the ticket by
stumbling into a smoke-lled hotel room.
Throttlebottom anticipates, by almost a
year, the indelible comment by John Nance
Garner, FDR’s veep, that the vice presidency
wasn’t “worth a bucket of warm piss.” In the
musical, Throttlebottom requires a basic
tutorial from Wintergreen on the mantle of
the presidency. Wintergreen advises him
that you only make a speech when you want
the stock market to go down. “What do you
do when you want the stock market to go
up?” asks Throttlebottom.” “Boy, wouldn’t
I like to know!” responds Wintergreen.
Of Thee I Sing was also a show nearly
completely conceived in the service of nar-
rative, more than a decade before Oklahoma!
One of its most remarkable qualities is how
the landscape of national grass roots poli-
tics is supplanted by Lower East Side elec-
tioneering in Ira Gershwin’s lyrics. In his
panegyric to Wintergreen, he writes: “He’s
the man the people choose / Loves the
Irish and the Jews!” References to blintzes, alter kackers, and the
Cohns abound in the score. The Gershwins fully Americanized
the achievements of Gilbert and Sullivan, creating a Delancey
Street equivalent of G & S’s Titipu where the immigrant
experience of New York City was exponentially transposed
to a national level.
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The Ira Gershwin Newsletter, Fall 2016
FEATURE STORY
When the show opened on the day after Christmas 1931
(after what appears to have been an eortless Boston tryout),
it was a triumph. Of Thee I Sing was the perfect tonic to
Depression-era woes. It ran for 441 performances, the longest
for any original Gershwin show; was acclaimed by the crit-
ics for being the rst intelligent musical comedy; was the rst
musical to be published (by Knopf) in book form; and in 1932
was the rst musical to win the Pulitzer Prize. Infamously, the
prize was awarded only to Ira, Kaufman, and Ryskind. George
Gershwin was left out, because the prize was considered to be a
“literary” honor—an oversight partially redressed by an honor-
ary Pulitzer Prize to the composer in 1998.
The success of Of Thee I Sing brought new prominence to
all four men, and Kaufman and Ryskind thought to make the
most of their clout and create another work together. This time,
they concocted that rara avis, a musical sequel. Early in 1933,
they thought up another chapter in the lives of the Wintergreens
and the nation, called Let ‘Em Eat Cake. In this story, the Winter-
greens are voted out of oce by another ineectual candidate,
the long-awaited Tweedledee (in a sequence that included a
“Down with all majorities; / Likewise all minorities! / Down with you and you and you!”: The ill-fated Philip Loeb (center) leads his fellow agitators in this
moment from Let ‘Em Eat Cake
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Words Without Music
“You mustn’t chase around when you’re the Prexy. / It’s not my fault if
women think I’m sexy.” Blanche Ring and Bobby Clark ponder their future
in “If I Became the President,” from Strike Up the Band (1930)
FEATURE STORY
contrapuntal dueling anthem originally envisioned by George
Gershwin for Of Thee I Sing). Lacking legal recourse to their
woes, the Wintergreens clothe themselves in blue shirts (sewn
by Mary), overthrow the government, and depose Tweedledee.
Wintergreen installs himself as the dictator of the proletariat
and, worse, seems to enjoy his new-found authoritarianism enor-
mously. Complications, as they say, ensue.
Although the subject matter was considerably more incen-
diary, the basic form of the musical sequel was doggedly simi-
lar to Of Thee I Sing. One piquant addition to the show was a
professional anarchist (who gave speeches in Union Square)
named Kruger. In one of Ira’s more ironically enduring—sad-
ly—lyrics, Kruger sounds o: “That’s the torch we’re going to
get the ame from! / If you don’t like it, why don’t you go back
where you came from?” The entropic nature of anarchy itself
was revealed in a second-act scene where Kruger, now a chief
prosecutor in a show trial, admits that his job is simply to force
out whoever happens to be in oce. “The only thing that’ll
ever get me is if I’m in oce myself,” he reasonably concludes.
(One poignant footnote: Kruger was originally played by Philip
Loeb, a left-leaning actor who eventually committed suicide in
1955, after being blacklisted.)
The Gershwins seized upon this complex, if unpleasant,
scenario and wrote some of their most exciting work, including
the skillful contrapuntal love song, “Mine,” the only song of the
show to gain popularity. But, perhaps not surprisingly, the show
that contained these kernels of satire was not embraced by au-
diences when it opened on October 21, 1933—and closed 90
performances later. Violent labor strikes were breaking out all
over the country, and it’s unlikely that New York audiences
wanted to be reminded of Hitler’s brown shirts and Mussolini’s
black shirts as an antidote to chaos. In the end, however, Let ‘Em
Eat Cake remains a succes d’estime, which George S. Kaufman
dened as “a success that runs out of steam.”
What Kaufman & Co. produced with Strike Up the Band, Of
Thee I Sing, and Let ‘Em Eat Cake, collectively, was a refracted
musical prism through which to view the shenanigans and con-
tradictions of contemporary society. While much of Gilbert and
Sullivan requires diligent annotation to unearth the subtleties of
the Victorian world, the genius of the Gershwin/Kaufman/
Ryskind shows is that they remain timely and timeless; the shows
are both of their era and beyond it. The foibles of American
democracy burlesqued in these shows embrace belligerent nar-
cissism, preoccupations with sex and salesmanship, the over-
reach of executive privilege, the unpredictability of our judicial
branch, the rapacious activism of both radicals and reactionar-
ies, the pandering of electoral politics, the insatiable manip-
ulation of a gullible public by the media, the irrelevancy of
the vice presidency—situations and controversies which have
hardly receded into the “happy days” of the 1930s.
I have no idea what this current election will hold, but I
am absolutely certain that whatever comes to pass, Kaufman,
Ryskind, and the Gershwins would have written a far more satis-
fying second-act curtain.
Laurence Maslon is an arts professor at NYU’s Graduate Acting
Program and the editor of Kaufman & Co.: Broadway Comedies
for the Library of America. He also hosts Broadway to Main Street,
a weekly radio series, available on iTunes podcasts.
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The Ira Gershwin Newsletter, Fall 2016
Home of the Library of Congress’ National Recording Registry at the Packard Campus of the National Audio-Visual Conservation Center in Culpeper, Virginia
GEORGE AND IRA GERSHWIN & THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS’S
NATIONAL RECORDING REGISTRY
Cary O’Dell of the National Recording Registry in Washington, DC, oers
a history of the Registry, how recordings are selected for inclusion, and the
Gershwins’ place on the list.
S
ince announcing its rst 50 titles in 2003, the Library of
Congress’s National Recording Registry has named 450
recorded sound items to its esteemed list. That’s a signicant
chunk of aural product—but considering the billions of record-
ed sound items ever created (including everything professionally
published or produced by so-called “amateurs”), that makes the
National Registry’s litany a very short and exclusive club indeed.
The Registry began as a recorded sound counterpart to the
Library of Congress’s already established National Film Regis-
try (inception, 1989) when the U.S. Congress determined that
it was not just the nation’s moving image legacy that was in
danger of being lost, destroyed or forgotten.
To address the problem, an act of Congress—the recently-
renewed National Recording Preservation Act of 2000—estab-
lished the Registry as well as an advisory body of experts, the
National Recording Preservation Board (NRPB).
In the rst years of the Registry, 50 titles were selected an-
nually for induction. Since 2006, 25 new titles or works have
been named to the list each year.
The pool from which these 25 annual inductees are selected
is as vast as the world’s sound landscape. The Registry is open
to recordings from any genre, any era, any land of origin, or
performed in any language. The only caveats are that a record-
ing must be at least 10 years old and extant (i.e., at least one
true copy should exist somewhere) and that a recording has to
have had an impact on America either historically, culturally or
esthetically. (Or, better yet, all three!)
DISPATCHES FROM WASHINGTON
SHAWN MILLER (LIBRARY OF CONGRESS)
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Words Without Music
DISPATCHES FROM WASHINGTON
That broad scope is reected in the Registry’s current con-
tent: works on the NRR date from the mid-1800’s to 1999 and
include music (opera, classical, country, even novelty); radio
shows; recorded speeches; comedy recordings, and even a bird
call and a train whistle.
Since its inception, the annual list has been based, largely,
upon the recommendations of the Library’s National Record-
ing Preservation Board.
Created by the 2000 Act, the Board is comprised of 44
members (22 members and an equal number of “alter-
nates”), the majority of whom are selected by the Librar-
ian of Congress following nomination by various recorded-
sound-oriented groups, agencies and institutions specied in
the authorizing legislation.
As with the Registry itself, a certain diversity rules. Member
organizations include the American Federation of Musicians,
ASCAP, the Country Music Hall of Fame, the Songwriters Hall
of Fame, the Recording Academy and others. There are 17
organizations represented, in addition to ve “At-Large” slots.
The Board meets annually in Washington with Library
of Congress sta to determine each year’s recommended list
and, additionally, to advise the Library on recording preservation
policy. After discussion and anonymous, post-meeting voting, the
totals are passed on to the Librarian of Congress who, ultimately,
makes the nal 25 selections. For the majority of the Regis-
try’s history, that was Dr. James Billington, who retired from
the position in 2015; Carla Hayden recently succeeded him.
Numerous factors enter into the eventual selections, not the
least of which are the thoughts and opinions of the public: the
NRR has been open to public nominations since the day it be-
gan. The public can suggest recordings by email at recregistry@
loc.gov. Often as well, grassroots campaigns start on Facebook
or other social media sites, which work to “mobilize the troops”
in support of a particular work. This past year, the selection of
the beloved radio show Vic and Sade resulted chiey through an
organized internet campaign.
So, what happens after a recording is selected for the Re-
cording Registry? Ideally, the master materials used to make
this recording are collected for safekeeping at the world’s largest
library—i.e., the Library of Congress. Failing this, the legisla-
tion species that at least one copy of each chosen recording be
added to the Library’s collection.
With only 450 recordings on the list so far, the instance of a
person with more than one work on the Registry is a rare thing.
But, then again, some talents are just so dominant, so important,
to American creativity that they merit multiple recordings. For
example, Cole Porter is on the Registry for both his own rendi-
tion of “You’re the Top” (1934) and for his “Songbook” as sung
by the great Ella Fitzgerald in 1956. Irving Berlin is there three
times, thanks to “God Bless America” by Kate Smith (1938),
“White Christmas” by Bing Crosby (1942), and his own appear-
ance at the “Carousel of American Music” concert in 1940.
But who made it the most? You guessed it—the Gershwins.
One or the other or both of them are represented by Al Jolson’s
recording of “Swanee” (1920), Rhapsody in Blue (1924), Fred and
Adele Astaire’s spirited take on “Fascinating Rhythm” (1926),
and the original cast recording of Porgy and Bess from 1940.
Among a number of other Gershwin songs on Judy at Carnegie
Hall (1961) are Garland’s renditions of “The Man That Got
Away,” “Who Cares,” and “How Long Has This Been Going
On.” Frank Sinatra’s Songs for Young Lovers (1954) includes “Some-
one to Watch Over Me” and “A Foggy Day,” while “Summer-
time” and “I Got Rhythm” were recorded during the “Carousel
of American Music” concert noted above.
And there’s no sign that the Gershwins are nished. Their
work is still being discussed and suggested at just about every
NRPB meeting … and in nominations from the public. It
seems quite possible that the National Recording Registry will
keep hearing about them for a long time to come.
Judy Garland sings the classic “The Man That Got Away” in this deleted
take from A Star Is Born (1954)
11
The Ira Gershwin Newsletter, Fall 2016
DISPATCHES FROM WASHINGTON
THE RED-HEADED STRANGER GETS THE GERSHWIN PRIZE
On November 18, 2015, music legend Willie Nelson became
the seventh honoree of the Library of Congress Gershwin Prize
for Popular Song. The award “celebrates the work of an artist
whose career reects lifetime achievement in promoting song as
a vehicle of musical expression and cultural understanding.”
A star-studded concert was held at DAR Constitution Hall in
Washington, DC to celebrate Nelson’s life and career. The guest
of honor was fêted by musicians from all genres, in performances
of songs from his extensive catalogue of recordings, which dates
back more than 60 years to when he made a demonstration disc
of “The Storm Has Just Begun,” a song he had written—by the
age of 12—in his hometown of Abbott, Texas.
Willie Nelson’s classic songs and albums have spanned the
decades. In the 1960s, his words and music were hits for Faron
Young (“Hello Walls”), Billy Walker (“Funny How Time Slips
Away”), and Patsy Cline (“Crazy”). The 1970s saw Nelson’s star
rise as a performer in his own right, with the outlaw country clas-
sic Red-Headed Stranger. He soon became a superstar, with the likes
of “Mammas Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys”
(a 1978 duet with Waylon Jennings), recordings with the country
supergroup The Highwaymen, and the smash hits “On the Road
Again” (1980) and “To All the Girls I’ve Loved Before,” a 1984
duet with Julio Iglesias. The lyrics for the last song were written by
the late Hal David, the co-recipient of the 2012 Gershwin Prize.
Although Willie Nelson will forever be associated with the
world of country music, he has always expressed his admira-
tion for the Great American Songbook. During the November
concert, entertainer Michael Feinstein noted that Nelson’s 1987
album, Stardust, spent ten years on the record charts and helped
to revive interest in the Gershwins and their fellow songsmiths.
Coincidentally, Nelson released a new record of standards
in February 2016 devoted solely to songs from the Gershwin
catalogue. Summertime: Willie Nelson Sings Gershwin (Legacy Re-
cordings) was acclaimed as a worthy successor to Stardust and
debuted at #1 on Billboard magazine’s jazz album charts. The
honoree and Cyndi Lauper performed their duet of “Let’s Call
the Whole Thing O” during the concert.
PBS broadcast the show on January 15, 2016, and it can be
seen at its website: http://www.pbs.org/gershwin-prize/shows/
gershwin-prize-willie-nelson. (See page 15 to read about the
2016 recipient, Motown legend Smokey Robinson.)
The songs and performers (in order of broadcast)
“Stay All Night (Stay a Little Longer)”
—Neil Young and Promise of the Real
“Funny How Time Slips Away”—Leon Bridges
“Crazy”—Raúl Malo
“Remember Me”—Paul Simon and Edie Brickell
“Poncho and Lefty”—Rosanne Cash
“Georgia on My Mind”—Jamey Johnson
“Angel Flying Too Close to the Ground”
—Alison Krauss
“Seven Spanish Angels”
—Alison Krauss and Jamey Johnson
“I Never Cared for You”—Ana Gabriel
“Whiskey River”
—Neil Young and Promise of the Real
“Man with the Blues”
—Paul Simon and Buckwheat Zydeco
“Let’s Call the Whole Thing O”
—Willie Nelson and Cyndi Lauper
“Night Life”—Willie Nelson
“Living in the Promiseland”
—Willie Nelson and his sons, Micah and Lukas
“On the Road Again”—everyone
12
Words Without Music
UPDATES
Jessica Getman, the Managing Editor of the George and Ira Gershwin
Critical Edition at the University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre
& Dance, and graduate assistant Kristen Clough provide background on
the project and news on the status of editions currently in progress.
I
n our oces at the University of Michigan’s historic Burton
Memorial Tower, our editors and editorial assistants are in full
swing. We have over a dozen Gershwin scores and documents
under way, but ve are in active production in our oce: Porgy
and Bess, Concerto in F, An American in Paris, the jazz band version
of Rhapsody in Blue, and Ira Gershwin’s 1928 travel journal. With
Editor-in-Chief Dr. Mark Clague and Managing Editor Dr.
Jessica Getman at the helm, the team is collaborating to bring
these dynamic and complex editions to you soon.
The rst step in the critical edition process belongs to our
volume editors, dedicated scholars who are experts about the
pieces they are editing and in their correlating source materials.
Volume editors carefully compare their sources—often drafts
and manuscripts in George or Ira Gershwin’s own hands, or-
chestrations crafted by other collaborators (e.g., Ferde Grofé or
Frank Campbell-Watson), fair copies and parts made by copy-
ists, and early recordings—to create their own authoritative
edition of the work. As part of this process, they carefully note
every decision they make, recording them in the volume’s criti-
cal report while explaining and justifying their choices.
Sometimes the changes they make to the conventionally
accepted versions of their
pieces are signicant. Many
have already heard about
Mark Clague’s discovery re-
garding the original taxi horn
pitches in An American in Paris,
but our volume editors have
also located an extra 40 mea-
sures for the Rhapsody in Blue
piano solo, and have ad-
dressed major inconsistencies
between George Gershwin’s
original orchestral score for
Porgy and Bess and its long-
standing piano-vocal score.
But a wide variety of small
corrections also need to be made, such as the standardization
of articulations and lyrics, and the volume editor must pains-
takingly note each of these emendations.
Once the volume editor has nalized the edited score, several
rounds of editing and proong occur in conjunction with our
oce. A team of over a dozen editorial assistants, along with Dr.
Getman, carefully compare the editor’s score, the critical report,
and the work’s principal sources. It’s a meticulous undertaking,
but reading through the Gershwins’ original manuscripts is
riveting. During this editing process, we also work with our or-
chestral partners to give at least one test performance for each
piece, putting the new material into the hands of musicians
who can suggest corrections in real time.
Mark Clague is editing An American in Paris with the goal of
peeling back the layers of time and re-orchestration to present
the piece as George Gershwin originally intended. For the rst
time, Gershwin’s revisions of the score are revealed, conrmed
by his 1929 recording of the work with conductor Nathaniel
Shilkret. This volume re-identies the original pitches of the taxi
horns used in the piece and makes available its original wood-
wind assignments, including eight dierent saxophones doubled
by three players. An American in Paris (1928/29) will be published
in the spring of 2017 by European American Music.
An annotated edition of Ira Gershwin’s 1928 travel journal
(The Gershwins Abroad), is being produced by Michael Owen for
concurrent publication with
the American in Paris volume.
The lyricist’s take on the
Gershwins’ celebrity as his
brother was composing his
famous tone poem is com-
bined with his unique per-
spectives on life as they visit
London, Paris, Berlin, Vienna,
and Budapest.
Rhapsody in Blue (1924;
jazz band) (ed. Ryan Bañag-
ale) will also be published in
the spring of 2017 by Euro-
pean American Music. Us-
ing Ferde Grofé’s holograph
THE GERSHWIN CRITICAL EDITION
February 1929: George Gershwin (left) poses with members of the Cincinnati
Orchestra and the original taxi horns used in An American in Paris
13
The Ira Gershwin Newsletter, Fall 2016
UPDATES
A number of changes and additions have recently been
made to www.gershwin.com, the ocial George and Ira
Gershwin website. We hope that the new information and
resources about the lives and work of the Gershwins will pro-
vide visitors to the website with ways to broaden their knowledge
and to nd out more about where to enjoy live performances of
Gershwin shows and concert works.
The Calendar section is now searchable by the name of
the specic Gershwin work (i.e., Rhapsody in Blue, Porgy and
Bess, Crazy for You), and by the city, state, province, and/or
country where the performance is taking place. Just type your
text into the search box in the upper right hand corner of the
Calendar page.
Our webmaster is at work adding audio clips to every song
and/or concert work in the Gershwin oeuvre. A clip is available
for listening when you see next to a title. When the song or
concert work appears in the media player, you’ll now also be able
to see the name of the performer. (The new player screen is illus-
trated, above right.)
The most recent addition to the website is the debut of a
blog, which is intended to highlight moments in Gershwin his-
tory, neglected areas of the brothers’ extensive catalog, or other
subjects that don’t easily t into existing sections of the site. For
example, the June 16, 2016 posting discussed the production of
Porgy and Bess at the Spoleto Festival USA, and included links
to a glowing New York Times review, related museum exhibitions,
and a new book on the relationship between Porgy and Bess and
the city of Charleston, South Carolina. Each blog entry is cat-
egorized and tagged, making it possible for readers to narrow
their search to specic types of posts (i.e., Gershwin Shows or
Ira Gershwin).
In addition, the Winter/Spring 2015 issue of Words Without
Music, which featured the Broadway musical An American in Paris
on the cover, is now available for download. Just go the Resources
drop-down menu and click on Newsletter.
We welcome comments about the website. Please contact
Michael Owen at the email address listed on the inside cover
of this issue.
NEWS ON THE GERSHWIN WEBSITE
score, as well as the 1924 and 1925 recordings of the piece
with George Gershwin playing the piano solo, Bañagale ana-
lyzes changes that have been made to the jazz band version of
the piece over the decades, returning to the piece around 40
measures of piano solo that have been lost from the score over
decades of re-orchestration.
Test performances of An American in Paris and Concerto in F
(1925) (ed. Timothy Freeze) were given at the University of
Michigan, Ann Arbor, by the University Symphony Orchestra,
on September 23, 2016.
A test performance of Porgy and Bess (1935) (ed. Wayne Shirley)
will be given in February 2018 by the University of Michigan
School of Music, Theatre & Dance, and the University Musical
Society. This will be a concert performance of the entire opera,
and it will be accompanied by a full-day scholarly symposium
on the piece.
Other volumes in production include: Cuban Overture (1932)
(ed. Loras Schissel); Catsh Row Suite (1936) (ed. Wayne Shir-
ley); Second Rhapsody (1931) (ed. James Wierzbicki); A Damsel
in Distress (1937) (ed. Nathan Platte); Lullaby (1919) (ed. Susan
Neimoyer); Tell Me More (1925) (ed. Bradley Martin); Delicious
(1931) (ed. Daniel Goldmark); Shall We Dance (1937) (ed. Todd
Decker); and further arrangements of Rhapsody in Blue (ed.
Ryan Bañagale).
14
Words Without Music
IN THE NEWS / ON THE HORIZON
AN AMERICAN IN PARIS THE MUSICAL
BEGINS A NEW PHASE
After 623 regular and 29 preview performances, the
Gershwin musical An American in Paris closed its successful
run at New York’s Palace Theatre on October 9, 2016. Winner
of four 2015 Tony awards, as well as a number of addi-
tional prestigious theater honors, the show was rapturously
received by sell-out crowds from Paris—where it debuted in
2014—to Broadway.
Now audiences around the United States and in London
will have their opportunity to see the show the Associated Press
hailed as “an elegant, exuberant and sublime new musical.”
The U.S. tour cast is headed by Garen Scribner and Sara
Esty as the star-crossed lovers Jerry and Lise. (The two actors
played the roles in the show’s nal months on Broadway.)
Joining them are Etai Benson and Emily Ferrante (both from
the Broadway cast of Wicked) as Adam and Milo, and Nick
Spangler (The Book of Mormon and Rodgers and Hammerstein’s
Cinderella) as Henri.
The tour began on October 14, 2016 at Proctor’s Theatre
in Schenectady, New York, and travels from coast to coast
well into 2017. (Tour dates and cities are listed on this issue’s
back cover and at www.gershwin.com.) For additional infor-
mation on the American production and ticket availability
for the tour, visit www.anamericaninparisbroadway.com.
❋❋❋
Congratulations to An American in Paris director and choreog-
rapher Christopher Wheeldon, who was awarded the prestigious
OBE from Queen Elizabeth II in the New Years’ Honours List
in January 2016. We are happy to announce that he will be re-
united with the original lead actors of the show, Robert Fairchild
and Leanne Cope, for the London production, which opens at the
Dominion Theatre in the West End on March 4, 2017. For details,
check www.dominiontheatre.com/theatre/american-paris.
IRA GERSHWIN SCHOLARSHIP AWARDED
Ethan Brown, a talented cellist, was the recipient of the 2015
ASCAP Foundation Ira Gershwin Scholarship presented last
December. The scholarship is awarded annually to a member
of the orchestra at New York City’s Fiorello LaGuardia High
School of Art & Music and Performing Arts; it honors Ira Ger-
shwin, who was a graduate of New York City’s public schools.
Ethan started playing the cello at age 5; since then he has won
various music competitions, taken master classes with noted cel-
lists, and was principal cellist of LaGuardia’s symphony orches-
tra and the prestigious New York Youth Symphony. He also nds
time for conducting, photography, hiking, and travel. He is cur-
rently in his freshman year at Northwestern University where he
is majoring in cello performance.
SMOKEY ROBINSON TO RECEIVE
GERSHWIN PRIZE
Smokey Robinson, the legendary singer, songwriter, and pro-
ducer who has helped to shape the sound of popular music, was
recently named as the next recipient of the prestigious Library of
Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song.
For decades, Robinson’s vast songbook has provided hit after
hit. The 1960 smash “Shop Around” by his own group, The
Miracles, was Motown’s rst number one single, and was followed
by successes for Marvin Gaye (“Ain’t That Peculiar”), Mary Wells
(“My Guy”), and The Temptations (“My Girl”). He has also been
cited as a major inuence on the Beatles, who successfully covered
Robinson’s “You’ve Really Got a Hold on Me” in 1963.
In a press release announcing the award, Robinson’s “rich
melodies” were described as “works of art—enduring, mean-
ingful and powerful. And he is a master at crafting lyrics that
Romance in dance: Garen Scribner and Sara Esty lead the cast in the touring
production of An American in Paris
MATT MURPHY
15
The Ira Gershwin Newsletter, Fall 2016
speak to the heart and soul, expressing ordinary themes in an
extraordinary way.”
An all-star concert to celebrate the honoree is scheduled for
November 16, 2017 in Washington, DC.
PORGY AND BESS COMES TO LA SCALA
& GLIMMERGLASS
Porgy and Bess rst appeared at La Scala in 1954, in the his-
toric production that toured the world. The Gershwins’ folk
opera returns to Milan on November 13, in a semi-staged
production conducted by the New York Philharmonic’s Alan
Gilbert. Morris Robinson (Porgy), Kristin Lewis (Bess), Lester
Lynch (Crown), and Chauncey Packer (Sportin’ Life) lead the
impressive cast in performances that run through November
23. For further details, go to http://www.teatroallascala.org/
en/season/2015-2016/opera/porgy-and-bess.html.
Beginning on July 7,
2017, visitors to the Glim-
merglass Festival in bu-
colic Cooperstown, New
York (left), will have the
opportunity to see Franc-
esca Zambello’s produc-
tion of the opera in the
IN THE NEWS / ON THE HORIZON
Smokey Robinson: A beloved part of our musical heritage
917-seat Alice Busch Opera Theater. Musa Ngqungwana (Porgy),
Talise Trevigne (Bess), Norman Garrett (Crown), and Frederick
Ballentine (Sportin’ Life) will be under the baton of John DeMain,
veteran of more than 350 performances of the opera. Costumes
will be designed by Paul Tazewell, who recently won the Tony
Award for his work on the hit musical Hamilton. For more infor-
mation, check https://glimmerglass.org.
JOHN WILSON AND GERSHWIN
FEATURED AT 2016 PROMS CONCERT
AND ON DISC
The popular British conduc-
tor, arranger, and musicologist
John Wilson recently turned his
focus to the George and Ira Ger-
shwin songbook. Following suc-
cessful recordings of music by
Cole Porter and Rodgers and
Hammerstein, he recently released a collection of Gershwin
songs performed in Hollywood movies.
Gershwin in Hollywood (Warner Classics) features arrangements
of many standards like “They Can’t Take That Away from Me,”
“Strike Up the Band,” “The Man I Love,” and “Someone to
Watch Over Me.” Not the versions we’ve become accustomed
to, but sparkling restorations of original arrangements by mu-
sical masters Conrad Salinger, Herbert Spencer, Lennie
Hayton, and Ray Heindorf from The Barkleys of Broadway, The
Helen Morgan Story, the 1940 Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney
Strike Up the Band, and the lavish 1968 musical Star! about the lu-
minous Broadway musical comedy actress Gertrude Lawrence.
Among the lesser known songs are “Let’s Kiss and Make Up”
and “Aren’t You Kind of Glad We Did?”
Wilson’s exploration continued on August 13, when he con-
ducted an evening of Gershwin at London’s Royal Albert Hall as
part of the 2016 BBC Proms. Along with numbers from Gershwin
in Hollywood, Wilson treated the sold-out audience to top-notch
examples of Ira Gershwin’s work with composers Harry Warren
(“You’d Be Hard to Replace”), Harold Arlen (“The Man That
Got Away”), Jerome Kern (“Long Ago and Far Away”), and
Burton Lane (“In Our United State”).
“The evening,” wrote Ivan Hewett in the (London) Telegraph,
“dazzled on every level.”
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
16
Words Without Music
Ira and Leonore Gershwin Trusts
101 Natoma Street
San Francisco, CA 94105-3703
2016
Schenectady, NY
October 14-21
Boston, MA
October 25-November 6
Bualo, NY
November 8-13
Hartford, CT
November 15-20
Philadelphia, PA
November 22-27
Greenville, SC
November 29-December 4
West Palm Beach, FL
December 6-11
Orlando, FL
December 13-18
Tampa, FL
December 20-25
Miami, FL
December 27-January 1
2017
Durham, NC
January 3-8
Charlotte, NC
January 10-15
St. Louis, MO
January 17-29
Dallas, TX
January 31-February 12
Fort Worth, TX
February 14-19
Houston, TX
February 21-March 5
Denver, CO
March 8-19
Los Angeles, CA
March 22-April 9
Las Vegas, NV
April 11-16
Tempe, AZ
April 18-23
Costa Mesa, CA
April 25-May 7
Seattle, WA
May 9-14
Portland, OR
May 16-21
Pittsburgh, PA
May 30-June 11
St. Paul, MN
June 13-18
Cleveland, OH
June 20-July 9
Des Moines, IA
July 18-23
Atlanta, GA
August 15-20
AN AMERICAN IN PARIS U.S. TOUR DATES
Check the calendar at www.gershwin.com for further details and any additional tour dates.
