Gershwin at 80; Part 8

<v Speaker>["Slap that Bass" and "They Can't Take That Away from Me" plays] <v Speaker>

<v Radio Host>One of the loveliest Gershwin ballads is sung by Fred Astaire to Joan Fontaine in "A <v Radio Host>Damsel in Distress": "Things Are Looking Up." <v Speaker>["Things Are Looking Up" plays] <v Speaker>

<v Radio Host>From "A Damsel in Distress," Fred Astaire sings "A Foggy Day.".

<v Speaker>Find Father, and tell him not to admit Mr. Hemingway. <v Speaker>Yes, m'lady. <v Speaker>And tell him, that I never want to see the gentleman again. <v Speaker>[Fred Astaire sings "A Foggy Day"] <v Radio Host>Jan Duggan, Mary Dean and Betty Rone sing "Nice Work if You Can Get It,"

<v Radio Host>with interruptions by Fred Astaire. <v Speaker>["Nice Work if You Can Get It" plays] <v Radio Host>George Gershwin was hard at work on "The Goldwyn Follies," when he began to complain of

<v Radio Host>severe headaches. Because of his great personal vigor, the complaints were not <v Radio Host>taken very seriously until too late. <v Radio Host>The young composer, it was discovered, was suffering from a brain tumor. <v Radio Host>Yet the 4 songs he composed for "The Goldwyn Follies" are relaxed and as graceful as any <v Radio Host>in the Gershwin catalog. From that final score, Kenny Baker <v Radio Host>sings "Love Walked In." <v Speaker>[Kenny Baker sings "Love Walked In"] <v Speaker>

<v Radio Host>Yip Harburg, the brilliant lyricist of "Finian's Rainbow," "The Wizard of Oz" and dozens <v Radio Host>of other major songs, was a lifelong friend of the Gershwin family. <v Radio Host>He recently reminisced about George's brief life and the day of his death, July <v Radio Host>11th, 1937. <v Miles Krueger>I guess it must be hard for you to imagine that had he lived, George Gershwin would be <v Miles Krueger>80 years old now. <v Yip Harburg>Hm. No, I can't imagine it, because he was always a boy. <v Yip Harburg>George Gershwin was a- almost boyish, even when he was <v Yip Harburg>in his- in his 30s. He always reminded me of a young kid. <v Yip Harburg>He was always bouncing around like a young child. <v Yip Harburg>George was the- the 1 guy who really had fun working. <v Yip Harburg>He played at it. He did it as a child does, not <v Yip Harburg>as a- as a workman or as a craftsman, but uh

<v Yip Harburg>as somebody who is playing with a balloon, you know, a kid playing with a balloon. <v Yip Harburg>And that was his approach to work, whereas most of the people I've worked with, their <v Yip Harburg>approach to uh writing music is one of great anxiety, <v Yip Harburg>great fear. Where is it coming from? <v Yip Harburg>And uh all the concomitant symptoms that go with anxiety. <v Miles Krueger>I think you told me once that although it isn't generally known, you actually did write <v Miles Krueger>some songs with George. <v Yip Harburg>Not some songs. It was a- a funny coincidence when George was <v Yip Harburg>just beginning to feel his ?oats?. <v Yip Harburg>He was about 16 or 17 as a young kid and <v Yip Harburg>uh was beginning to play the piano and just working at Remicks. <v Yip Harburg>Had his first job. <v Yip Harburg>Ira and I were buddies all the time. <v Yip Harburg>We went to high school, we were going to high school. <v Yip Harburg>And uh George was sort of, oh, the young kid in the family. <v Yip Harburg>You know, that Ira was sort of embarrassed with because he ran around with

<v Yip Harburg>girls and he was uninhibited. <v Yip Harburg>And Ira was very shy and terribly inhibited and <v Yip Harburg>George embarrassed Ira. He said, "Oh, Georgie likes to wear ?inaudible? <v Yip Harburg>And dress up and take out girls." He says, "A girl came over to the house the other day. <v Yip Harburg>You know what? He sat on the armchair of that girl!" Ira was shocked. <v Yip Harburg>He was a puritan. <v Miles Krueger>Amazing [laughs] <v Yip Harburg>Yeah! <v Miles Krueger>A downright libertine. <v Yip Harburg>Right! <v Yip Harburg>?inaudible? <v Yip Harburg>And George was uninhibited. <v Yip Harburg>He played with everything, you know, whether it was life or people or the piano, it was <v Yip Harburg>all the same. And uh what was the point I was going to say? <v Miles Krueger>Oh, you were going to tell me about the song you wrote with him. <v Yip Harburg>Oh, yes. So uh finally George wanted to tack on <v Yip Harburg>to wherever- we went to a um class uh <v Yip Harburg>festivity. He wanted to come along. Ira wasn't taking George too seriously about <v Yip Harburg>this piano business, about writing it. <v Yip Harburg>And George says "Oh, he doesn't wan- come on, write a song with me!" He said, "Well,

<v Yip Harburg>come on, Yip!" He says, "Ira won't write with me." And Ira took the whole thing <v Yip Harburg>as a- as sort of a- oh- oh, a lark. <v Yip Harburg>George playing piano, this kid wants to write a song. <v Yip Harburg>And I said, "Fine." And I said, "Let's- let's do a song about the war." This was just <v Yip Harburg>before the war started. <v Miles Krueger>First World War. <v Yip Harburg>First World War. And there was talk about going to war. <v Yip Harburg>Nothing very serious yet. <v Yip Harburg>And uh I was vaudeville conscious at the time, every night <v Yip Harburg>that was the- our big fun. And I said, "Come on, we'll write a vaudeville act show." <v Yip Harburg>And he said, "Fine." When Ira was doing something else and I sat down <v Yip Harburg>with him and we knocked out this tune. <v Yip Harburg>And I remember the lyric and I remember the- I remember the- his- his <v Yip Harburg>melody. And it went like this: "When <v Yip Harburg>my son Sy heard the Sheriff's proclamation, that war <v Yip Harburg>was on with the golding dutch, he enlisted in the Navy

<v Yip Harburg>to protect the Yankee nation, to show them foreigners, they <v Yip Harburg>ain't darn much. Oh, he's got the sailor swagger and he's learned to <v Yip Harburg>chew the bagger. And he chews it by the bushel and the peck. <v Yip Harburg>And it ain't darn doubtful, that with one good mouthful, he could drown <v Yip Harburg>that fleet by heck. <v Yip Harburg>I tell you, [mimics cocking a gun] he'll wring the Kaiser's neck." [laughs] <v Yip Harburg>?inaudible? He said, "Oh," he says, "I can sell that to vaudeville, I sell it to, you <v Yip Harburg>know, one them ?Hiram? Guys with the whiskers." <v Miles Krueger>Was it performed in a vaudeville ever? <v Yip Harburg>No. No, it was just the gag-. <v Miles Krueger>So this is its public debut? [laughs]. <v Yip Harburg>This is before we- we took George seriously. <v Miles Krueger>Right. So this is-. <v Yip Harburg>Before Ira took George seriously. <v Miles Krueger>Your performance just now was its public debut, is that right? <v Miles Krueger>[laughs] <v Yip Harburg>That's right. It was meant for a farmer, you know, for one of them patriotic guys. <v Yip Harburg>It was gonna show them for one good mouthful you could -. <v Miles Krueger>Of course, on radio, nobody can see that [mimics cocking a gun] sound is you spitting

<v Miles Krueger>into the- into the hay, [laughs] or into the grass. <v Miles Krueger>That's very cute. <v Yip Harburg>But then when uh I left, I was away <v Yip Harburg>for a while, from Ira, George came up very fast. <v Yip Harburg>And uh before we knew it, George was this big <v Yip Harburg>shot having these- he came up so fast, it was like lightning <v Yip Harburg>flashed at me. It was irrepressible, irresistible, <v Yip Harburg>and the whole- the whole genius was there right off the bat. <v Yip Harburg>There was no fooling around about it, I mean, George didn't have to travel <v Yip Harburg>any bumpy roads, you know, to get to the place. <v Miles Krueger>He seemed to be a man welcomed by everyone, by society and by the critics <v Miles Krueger>and by all the publishers. <v Miles Krueger>He seemed to be the man of the hour on every level. <v Yip Harburg>Well, he broke the ice of mediocrity <v Yip Harburg>in contemporary music with such an impact.

<v Yip Harburg>It was so obvious that here was something new. <v Yip Harburg>New chords, new- new melody combined with rhythm, <v Yip Harburg>a new form of expression and musically that was both <v Yip Harburg>original and yet purely American. <v Yip Harburg>The Semitic something that he inherited from, you know, the Jewish background <v Yip Harburg>and the black uh milieu which America <v Yip Harburg>always uh wallowed in more or less. <v Miles Krueger>Well, Kay Swift described to me that he used to go up to Harlem very often to go to the <v Miles Krueger>jazz clubs. And then quite obviously he was influenced, I should think, by that <v Miles Krueger>kind of music. <v Yip Harburg>Yeah, that and Jewish music. <v Miles Krueger>And Jewish music. It's interesting, the combination. <v Yip Harburg>And of course, Harlem music is an awful lot. <v Yip Harburg>The blues are this- a Semitic music, really. <v Yip Harburg>The wails and the- <v Miles Krueger>That's very interesting. I hadn't thought about that. <v Miles Krueger>Did you ever want to write with him again or was it just out of the question once Ira <v Miles Krueger>started? <v Yip Harburg>Once Ira was in it, I couldn't write with him.

<v Yip Harburg>No. I would have loved to have written with him. <v Yip Harburg>I didn't wanna step on Ira's toes. And Ira was, at that point, you know, <v Yip Harburg>wanting to make good, so. <v Yip Harburg>But uh I didn't stop writing at that point when Ira did. <v Yip Harburg>I went into business. <v Miles Krueger>It seems to me that every creative artist suddenly comes to a point <v Miles Krueger>in his career at which his own identity, his <v Miles Krueger>own personal style begins to emerge. <v Miles Krueger>We always begin, I think, as an amalgam of all the influences upon us. <v Miles Krueger>But suddenly one moment occurs creatively. <v Miles Krueger>Perhaps it could be a poem. It could be a painting or whatever. <v Miles Krueger>And I wonder if uh you noticed in George <v Miles Krueger>that particular moment? Do you think it was when he did "Rhapsody in Blue" or was it a <v Miles Krueger>particular song? Or can you recall his ever going through <v Miles Krueger>a kind of cathartic experience like that? <v Yip Harburg>Well, George was always pretty cocky about himself. <v Yip Harburg>He was always sure-footed.

<v Yip Harburg>At least he gave you that impression uh because he was accepted so readily by <v Yip Harburg>everybody. And people who knew got the feeling immediately that here was <v Yip Harburg>a brand new talent with a new kind of music on the horizon. <v Yip Harburg>And it was a new kind of music. It still is, as far as I'm concerned. <v Yip Harburg>You see the music we were accustomed to was uh Victor Herbert <v Yip Harburg>and uh and Victor Herbert was an offshoot <v Yip Harburg>of ?Carl Mann? and the Viennese group, and Lehar <v Yip Harburg>and Jerome Kern came along and he developed that kind of music a little <v Yip Harburg>bit further. He had a little more Americana to it, but it was still based on <v Yip Harburg>the old Viennese, uh, and <v Yip Harburg>uh Offenbach style of overwriting. <v Yip Harburg>But George came in with our whole new impact. <v Yip Harburg>It was not based on that European musical comedy <v Yip Harburg>thing. It was a whole brand new thing-.

<v Miles Krueger>Do you remember a particular show that- of his that really excited you the first time and <v Miles Krueger>would it have- would it have been "Lady Be Good" or "Funny Face" or any of them? <v Miles Krueger>Did you see all those shows that he did? <v Yip Harburg>Yes, I did. I saw all those shows. But it was even before that. <v Yip Harburg>I mean, when- when he wrote uh um "Swanee," <v Yip Harburg>you knew immediately that there was more there than the old <v Yip Harburg>uh European theme taken and- and developed. <v Miles Krueger>Do you miss him? <v Yip Harburg>Oh, well, I thought- I thought I was cheated. <v Yip Harburg>The world was cheated. I mean, when he died, there was something. <v Yip Harburg>There was such a feeling of loss. <v Yip Harburg>There was such a- I can't I- I don't know of anybody <v Yip Harburg>that made that kind of impact on me.