Ira Gershwin
The colored dots show the fastest links (How?)
Home or Tribute Pages:
Biographies:
Reviews:
Other:
The brothers formed a partnership that produced musicals with hits such as “Fascinatin’ Rhythm” (Lady Be Good, 1924), “Someone to Watch Over Me” (Oh, Kay! 1926) “S’Wonderful” (Funny Face, 1927), and “But Not for Me,” “Embraceable You,” and “I Got Rhythm” (Girl Crazy, 1930). In 1931 Of Thee I Sing won the first Pulitzer Prize ever awarded to a musical.
The first American opera, Porgy and Bess (1935), on which they collaborated with DuBose Heyward, was full of memorable songs such as “Summertime.” “They Can’t Take That Away From Me,” from the Astaire/Rogers film Shall We Dance? (1937), was nominated for a Best Song Oscar.
George died suddenly in 1938 and a grief stricken Ira took a break from writing. But in 1941 he returned to work with Kurt Weill on Lady in the Dark, introducing “My Ship.” His film credits include Cover Girl with Jerome Kern (1944), which won the Oscar for Best Score and introduced “Long Ago and Far Away,” and A Star Is Born with Harold Arlen in which Judy Garland memorialized “The Man That Got Away,” nominated for Best Song of 1954.
Ira’s work was honored by a performance at Carnegie Hall in 1996 and by a star on the Walk of Fame in 1998. A film, Rhapsody in Blue (1945), rhapsodizes the brothers’ lives.
- Sandra Burlingame
At Amazon.com you can often buy used for a fraction of the new price
Philip Furia
Ira Gershwin: The Art of the Lyricist
Oxford University Press; Reprint edition
Lyrics on Several Occasions
Limelight Editions
George Gershwin, Ira Gershwin
The Gershwin Collection
Hal Leonard Corporation
Ira Gershwin, Robert Kimball (Editor)
The Complete Lyrics of Ira Gershwin
Da Capo Press
Judy Garland, James Mason
A Star Is Born (1954)
DVD
Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers
Shall We Dance? (1937)
VHS
Rita Hayworth, Eve Arden, Gene Kelly
Cover Girl (1944)
Robert Alda, Joan Leslie, Alexis Smith, Charles Coburn
Rhapsody in Blue / Movie
MGM (Video & DVD)
Copyright 2008 - JazzBiographies.com - All Rights Reserved Permission and contact information