Jacob Gershowitz, known popularly as George Gershwin, was born September 26, 1898, in Brooklyn, New York. Although Gershwin was born in the United States, both his parents were Russian Jewish immigrants. Moishe Gershowitz, Gershwin’s father, changed the family name to Gershwin in an attempt at Americanization.
Gershwin was one of four children, and his proclivity for music emerged at an early age. By ten years old, he was fascinated with music and began tinkering on his Ira’s piano. While it is Gershwin who is hailed as the musical genius, his sister Frances actually was the first to earn a living through music. She married young, however, and abandoned her singing and dancing career.
Gershwin began his musical studies in earnest and worked under numerous tutors. As this extensive training ensued, he also began dabbling in composition. Gershwin found steady employment in the business and was finally at liberty to truly begin composing.
By 1924, he and Ira composed Lady Be Good with now famous songs "The Man I Love" and "Fascinating Rhythm." In this same year, he also created arguably his most famous work, "Rhapsody in Blue." By 1931, Of Thee I Sing found its way onto national stages and earned Gershwin a Pulitzer Prize. It was the first musical comedy to ever secure such an honor.
His 1935 work Porgy and Bess is regarded in retrospect as an important and unparalleled example of American opera.
With seemingly unstoppable success, Gershwin composed the music for the feature film Shall We Dance in 1935, with Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, and Edward Everett Horton. For his work on this film, specifically the song "They Can’t Take that Away from Me," Gershwin was nominated for an Oscar in the Best Original Song category.
Gershwin was also responsible for the music behind the Oscar darling An American In Paris (1951), starring Gene Kelly and Leslie Caron.
After frenzied and constant work, Gershwin began complaining of crippling headaches and the constant sensation of smelling burning rubber. Erroneously blaming the symptoms on overwork, Gershwin had actually developed a fatal brain tumor. On July 11, 1937, he underwent surgery, but it proved too late. He died at the young age of thirty-eight.
In his personal life, Gershwin was romantically linked to actress Paulette Goddard. He is also known to have had a ten-year relationship with fellow composer Kay Swift, who arranged some of his music posthumously. Friends and colleagues described Gershwin as a warm man who fell often to the prey of vanity and egoism.
As of 2005, considering money earned during his life as well as after, Gershwin was deemed the richest composer to ever live.
His recordings live on through musicians such as Ella Fitzgerald, Bing Crosby, John Coltrane, Frank Sinatra, Miles Davis, Billie Holiday, Judy Garland, and Sting.
YUDDY
