Patrick Bade
Irving Berlin

Patrick Bade - Irving Berlin

- So, all of Irving Berlin’s peers and rivals as songwriters, popular songwriter writers, acknowledged his supremacy. He was the king. He was the great creator of the popular American song. Gershwin said, “He’s the greatest songwriter who ever lived.” That’s a big statement. Jerome Kern said, “Irving Berlin has no place in American music. He is American music.” But I’m going to begin with Cole Porter, who said the same thing, but he said it in words and music, in one of the lyrics of his famous song, “You are the Top,” and it runs: “You are a Waldorf salad. You’re a Berlin ballad.” And this is Ethel Merman socking it to us. ♪ You’re the top! ♪ ♪ You’re a Waldorf salad ♪ ♪ You’re the top! ♪ ♪ You’re a Berlin ballad ♪ ♪ You are the baby grand of a lady and a gent ♪ ♪ You’re an old Dutch master ♪ ♪ You’re Mrs. Astor ♪ ♪ You’re Pepsodent ♪ ♪ You’re romance ♪

• He lived a very long time, 101 years, and he had an active career as a songwriter of 64 years. And in those 64 years, he published over 1,500 songs. So many of them are just very familiar to all of us, I’m quite sure. They’ve become standard repertoire. And I’m sure lots of people at the end will be saying, “Well, why didn’t you play this one? Why didn’t you play that one?” Well, I could talk to you all night and not run out of wonderful songs to play you, so I had to make my choices. Well, he was born on the 11th of May, 1888 in Russia to a very, very poor family. His father was an itinerant cantor. His first memory, in fact, his only memory of life in Russia was being wrapped in a blanket and lying on a pavement and watching his family house burn down in a pogrom. So, like so many Jews in Russia at this time, his family fled to America. He was five years old. I imagine the conditions on the ship must have been pretty grim. They were probably in the hold, like these Orthodox Jews you see in this image here. So he arrived with his family, his mother, his father, and three sisters in 1893. And, I suppose, like everybody else, he would’ve been on board looking as they arrived in New York, the first thing he would’ve seen was the Statue of Liberty. And these words by Emma Lazarus made a great, a lifelong impression on him. I suppose, not at five years old, but he certainly took them to heart. “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free. The wretched refuse of your teaming shore.” This is a time when, by and large, refugees, immigrants, were welcomed to America. There were exceptions. The Chinese, for instance, were not welcomed, but Russian Jews on the whole were welcomed.

Later, much later, towards the end of his career, Irving Berlin wrote a musical called “Miss Liberty,” which revolves around the Statue of Liberty, and he actually turned this poem into a song. So it must, can you imagine the courage it needed to make that leap to cross the Atlantic into the unknown? And it wasn’t easy when you got there. He and his three sisters were separated from his parents and put into a separate pen. And, of course, they had to have health checks. And the whole thing must have been a degrading, dehumanising experience. Oh, I forgot to tell you what his birth name was. His birth name was Israel Berlin, later got changed to Berlin. So they lived in grinding poverty on the Lower East Side in New York, and his father died during his infancy, so his mother was left to try and support four children. He earned some money for the family by selling newspapers from a very early age, and apparently he used to get a few more pennies by singing songs. People would chuck him a few pennies as well as paying for the newspapers. Left school at the age of 13, and at 14, he left his family house. Apparently he felt guilty that he was a burden, ‘cause he wasn’t earning as much as his sisters were. They were doing jobs like wrapping cigars and so on. And sometime he lived on the streets of New York. So he had a really, really tough start in life. And I suppose if you survive that, you can survive pretty well anything. He must have inherited some musical talent from his father, but he had zero formal musical education. But, so he moved a step up in the world by becoming a singing waiter in bars like these. And then from being a singing waiter…

Here he is at this time. So cute, isn’t he? Isn’t that a really friendly, charming face that he had as a young man? And in fact, I was just telling Karina, you know, while I was reading about him for this lecture, I got to like him more and more. I think he was a real mensch. He was a very decent, honourable human being, somebody I think you would’ve been very happy to have as a friend. So from being a singing waiter, he then moves on to Tin Pan Alley as a song plugger, and then he starts to write songs of his own. This is his very, very first published song in 1907. As you see, it’s called “Marie from Sunny Italy,” and he was paid 33 cents. Even then, that must have been… I wonder if you could even buy a meal in 1907 for 33 cents. So his big, big breakthrough came in 1911 with “Alexander’s Ragtime Band,” and this became a huge international hit. In fact, it’s often credited with being the piece that introduced ragtime and American popular idioms to the rest of the world, to Europe in particular. And, as I’m sure you know, it was later the inspiration of the film in 1938. So here is bits of “Alexander’s Ragtime Band,” as it sounded in the 1938 film. So, now, he was, from that point, from the royalties of that song, he was already a wealthy established man. And the following year, 1912, he fell in love and he married a young woman called Dorothy Goetz. Here they are setting off on their honeymoon to Cuba, but this was to have a very tragic ending. She contracted typhoid on the honeymoon and she died shortly thereafter, and he was absolutely distraught, and, for a while, completely broken by this. In a funny kind of way, I suppose, the First World War came to his rescue. And I want to stress his patriotism. Patriotism, for me, is a very double-edged thing. It can lead, you know, it can lead to other things. It can lead to xenophobia, it can lead to racism. But in his case, I think his patriotism was an entirely positive thing.

He was intensely, intensely grateful for the country who took him in and the country that gave him the opportunities for his great career. So when America joins the First World War in 1917, he enlists. And here you see him and he’s looking like, I mean, I suppose he’s not that young, so he’s in his late twenties, but he looks very young. And, in fact, when the American Army was more, I mean, he was a tiny little man, he wasn’t going to be much use as canon fodder on the Western Front, so they decided that he was more useful for morale and propaganda purposes. And there was a headline in the American newspapers in '19, “U.S. Army takes Berlin.” And he wrote a patriotic show in which soldiers took part called “Yip Yip Yaphank.” The most popular song at the time from that show was, “Oh, How I Hate To Get Up in the Morning,” but he wrote another song for that show that they actually didn’t use. It was dropped from the show. It was only much later, at the end of the 1930s, that this song was published and really took off, and, of course, it became a very popular and famous song during the Second World War, and this has become a second national anthem. And here is the most famous exponent of “God Bless America,” Kate Smith. ♪ God bless America, land that I love ♪ ♪ Stand beside her and guide her ♪ ♪ Through the night with the light from above ♪ ♪ From the mountains to the prairie ♪ ♪ To the oceans white with foam ♪ ♪ God bless America, my home sweet home ♪

• Very heartfelt sentiments, I think, from Irving Berlin. Well, in the mid twenties he fell in love again, and this time with a young girl from American high society. Her name was Ellin Mackay, and her father was Clarence Mackay, who you see on the left-hand side. I think actually that photograph tells you all about him, really, doesn’t it? And he was one of the richest men in America, and a huge snob. And he did not want his daughter to marry a Jewish musician no matter how successful he was. And he did everything in his power to stop the marriage, including sending Ellin to Europe for a lengthy voyage in the hope that she’d forget Irving Berlin and find somebody else to marry. Well, he was distraught, 'cause he thought he’d lost his great love for a second time. And during this period when she was away and he was waiting for her anxiously, he wrote this autobiographical song, “What’ll I do when you are far away? Am I blue? What’ll I do?” Oh, something I haven’t mentioned so far, which is very important, is that he was the only really major songwriter other than Cole Porter, who wrote all his own lyrics. And remarkable for a boy who arrived in America at age five, had virtually no kind of formal education. And his words are also very effective.

They are what I just said. They’re from the heart and they reach their target. Course he’s not sophisticated and witty in the way that Cole Porter or Ira Gershwin were. But this time I’m glad to say that Ellin, it was true love and she waited for him. And when he came back, they eloped together. They married. It was big news. Around the world, not just in America, 'cause there was something, you know, a bit scandalous about this high society princess marrying a Jewish musician. Here they are on the right-hand side on their honeymoon voyage. Her father, Clarence Mackay, broke off all relations, and disinherited his daughter. And so Irving Berlin was worried. You know, supposing the marriage didn’t work out. She was disinherited. He wanted to provide her with financial security. And the way he did that was to assign her the rights to one of his most loved and popular songs, “Always.” And I’m going to play you that now with the delicious Canadian singer, Deanna Durbin. ♪ I’ll be loving you, always ♪ ♪ With a love that’s true, always ♪ ♪ When the things you plan ♪ ♪ Need a helping hand ♪ ♪ I will understand, always, always ♪ ♪ Days may not be fair, always ♪ ♪ That’s when I’ll be there, always ♪ ♪ Not for just an hour ♪ ♪ Not for just a day ♪ ♪ Not for just a year, but always ♪

• So that has become a real evergreen, recorded by countless singers. And this is just a reminder of how it’s used in a Noel Coward film, “Blithe Spirit” in 1945. It’s the song that conjures the hero’s dead wife back from the other world. So it was a hugely successful and happy marriage that lasted up until her death in 1988, and which preceded his death by a year. And all everything one reads about them, and all the photographs one sees of them, I think testify to it being a very happy marriage. Of course, she was from a wealthy background, and apparently she was rather spendthrift. And somebody commented on this to him, and he said, “Oh, it doesn’t matter. Rather than restrain her, I’d just rather go out and make more money,” which he could do very easily. And also, of course, his means of making money was recession proof. So when the Wall Street collapse happened… Oh, here they are again, together, and with their children. They actually had four children. They had a boy and three girls, but the boy died in infancy. It was a cot death. I suppose that was the other great tragedy of his life. But when this happened, Ellin’s father, Clarence Mackay, was reckoned. He came to offer his condolences and they were reconciled. And here they are in old age. I think, once again, you just sense that this is a very loving, very happy relationship. And so there are certain ironies in this story. Clarence Mackay, once one of the richest men in America, was nearly wiped out by the 1929 Wall Street crash, so that meant that, of course, by this time, actually Irving Berlin was wealthier, more financially secure, than his father-in-law. Clarence Mackay was very, very Catholic, and his wife had left him, but he wouldn’t divorce her, because he was Catholic, and she died and then he married this woman.

She was a singer called Anna Case. I was very tempted to include one of her records, but sadly, she never recorded anything by Irving Berlin. But she’s a wonderful singer. She was more a classical singer, and her records are extremely beautiful. It’s a very, very lovely voice. I’d like to have heard her singing “Always,” but you can check her out on YouTube. So, with the advent of sound at the end of the 1920s, you’ve got a golden age of Hollywood musicals in the thirties. So Irving Berlin is richly employed by various Hollywood studios, at RKO, MGM, and 20th Century Fox. And here you see him at RKO, rehearsing Ginger Rogers for one of the two films, Fred and Ginger films that he provided songs for, which are, in my view, absolute masterpieces, “Top Hat” and “Follow the Fleet.” Now, I’ve loved those since my early childhood. It was always such a treat on a Sunday afternoon to… They used to very often show those movies on English TV in the 1950s. So here is “Top Hat.” I don’t know how many films there are in the Fred and Ginger series. I think there’s about six or seven of them. And they’re all wonderful. They’re a bit, they’re certainly, you could say, formulaic. That usually the plot is that Fred falls for Ginger and she plays hard to get, and he pursues her very tenaciously.

I think you couldn’t get away with that today. It would probably be described as sexual harassment, particularly this scene in “Top Hat” where he takes over her carriage. He pretends to be a cab man and he follows her into the park, and they are trapped in a pavilion in the park by a heavy downpour of rain, giving rise to this delicious song, “Isn’t This A Lovely Day .” This is from the soundtrack of the movie. ♪ Weather is frightening ♪ ♪ The thunder and lightning ♪ ♪ Seem to be having their way ♪ ♪ But as far as I’m concerned it’s a lovely day ♪ ♪ The turn in the weather will keep us together ♪ ♪ So I can honestly say ♪ ♪ That as far as I’m concerned, it’s a lovely day ♪ ♪ And everything’s okay ♪ ♪ Isn’t this a lovely day to be caught in the rain? ♪ ♪ You were going on your way, now you’ve got to remain ♪ ♪ Just as you were going, leaving me all at sea ♪ ♪ The clouds broke, they broke, ♪ ♪ and oh, what a break for me ♪ ♪ I can see the sun up high ♪ ♪ Though we’re caught in a storm ♪ ♪ I can see where you and I could be cosy and warm ♪ ♪ Let the rain pitter patter ♪ ♪ But it really doesn’t matter if the skies are grey ♪ ♪ Long as I can be with you it’s a lovely day ♪

• And of course they just go elegantly and so spontaneously and naturally into one of their wonderful dance routines. And another great song that comes towards the end of the movie is “Cheek to Cheek.” “Heaven, I’m in heaven, when we’re dancing cheek to cheek.” In fact, Fred wasn’t in heaven when they were filming this. He used to get very irritated by Ginger’s dresses, and particularly the feathers on this dress that kept on getting in his face while they were whirling around the dance floor. And he sang another version of it with his own words. Instead of “Heaven, I’m in heaven,” he sang,“ Feathers, feathers, I hate feathers.” ♪ Heaven, I’m in heaven ♪ ♪ And my heart beats so that I can hardly speak ♪ ♪ And I seem to find the happiness I seek ♪ ♪ When we’re out together dancing to cheek to cheek ♪ ♪ Heaven, I’m in heaven ♪ ♪ And the cares that hung around me through the week ♪ ♪ Seem to vanish like a gambler’s lucky streak ♪ ♪ When we’re out together dancing cheek to cheek ♪ ♪ Oh, I love to climb a mountain ♪ ♪ And to reach the highest peak ♪ ♪ But it doesn’t thrill me half as much ♪ ♪ As dancing cheek to cheek ♪ ♪ Oh, I love to go out fishing ♪ ♪ In a river or a creek ♪ ♪ But I don’t enjoy it half as much ♪ ♪ As dancing cheek to cheek ♪ ♪ Dance with me ♪ ♪ I want my arm about you ♪ ♪ The charm about you ♪ ♪ Will carry me through to ♪ ♪ Heaven, I’m in heaven ♪ ♪ And my heart beats so that I can hardly speak ♪ ♪ And I seem to find the happiness I seek ♪ ♪ When we’re out together dancing cheek to cheek ♪

• Of course, they’re off with their dance routine from that point. The other film at RKO for which Irving Berlin provided the songs for Fred and Ginger was “Follow the Fleet,” and several wonderful songs, but, of course, I have to play you this one, “Let’s Face the Music and Dance,” when they’re in a kind of, they think they’re going to be separated, so they’re very unhappy. And once again, Fred was unhappy with Ginger’s dress, because it was very heavy, actually. It must have been difficult for her. It was entirely made up of metallic beads, and has these long, loose sleeves, so as they whirled around, he kept on being slapped in the face, quite painfully, by these metallic beads. Here sung, not by Fred, but by another great vocalist, Ella Fitzgerald. ♪ There may be trouble ahead ♪ ♪ But while there’s moonlight and music ♪ ♪ And love and romance ♪ ♪ Let’s face the music and dance ♪ ♪ Before the fiddlers have fled ♪ ♪ Before they ask us to pay the bill ♪ ♪ And while we still have a chance ♪ ♪ Let’s face the music and dance ♪ ♪ Soon we’ll be without the moon ♪ ♪ Humming a different tune and then ♪ ♪ There may be teardrops to shed ♪ ♪ So while there’s moonlight and music ♪ ♪ And love and romance ♪ ♪ Let’s face the music and dance, dance ♪ ♪ Let’s face the music and dance ♪

• So over at MGM, which was, I suppose, the most prestigious of the Hollywood studios in the thirties, “The Great Ziegfeld” was the blockbuster of 1936. And this, for its climactic scene, which is, do watch this. If you haven’t seen it, you must watch this on YouTube. It is so amazing. The Germans have a very good word for this, “edelkitsch,” “noble kitsch.” It’s kitsch, taken to the ultimate, really, this scene, the climactic scene that uses the song “A Pretty Girl is Like a Melody” by Irving Berlin. He didn’t write it for the movie. He had actually written it for Florenz Ziegfeld, and it became the signature tune of the Ziegfeld Follies in the 1920s. This, again, is from the soundtrack of the movie. ♪ Just like a heavenly rhapsody ♪ ♪ She pampers you like a massage ♪ ♪ Just like a beautiful melody ♪ ♪ She’ll play on the strings of your heart ♪ ♪ A pretty girl is like a melody ♪ ♪ That haunts you night and day ♪ ♪ Just like the strain of a haunting refrain ♪ ♪ She’ll start upon a marathon ♪ ♪ And run around your brain ♪ ♪ You can’t escape she’s in your memory ♪ ♪ By morning night and noon ♪ ♪ She will leave you and then come back again ♪ ♪ A pretty girl is just like a pretty tune ♪

• Two years later, 20th Century Fox also make a blockbuster movie inspired by his early hit “Alexander’s Ragtime Band,” and so it’s a kind of glorification, really, of Irving Berlin’s career. And this is a soundtrack publicity film for the big movie made at the time.

• [Announcer] 20th Century Fox is on the air presenting the musical highlights of Irving Berlin’s “Alexander’s Ragtime Band,” starring Tyrone Power, Alice Faye, Don Ameche, Ethel Merman, and Jack Haley, Jean Hersholt, Helen Westley, John Carradine, and many other film favourites. ♪ We’re having a heat wave ♪ ♪ A tropical heat wave ♪ ♪ The temperature’s rising ♪ ♪ It isn’t surprising ♪ ♪ She certainly can, can-can ♪ ♪ She started the heat wave ♪ ♪ By letting her feet wave ♪ ♪ And in such a way that the customers say that ♪ ♪ She certainly can, can-can ♪ ♪ Gee, her anatomy ♪ ♪ Makes the mercury ♪ ♪ Jump to 93 ♪ ♪ Yes, so we’re having a heat wave ♪ ♪ A tropical heat wave ♪ ♪ The way that she moves ♪ ♪ That thermometer proves ♪ ♪ That she certainly can, can-can ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ Mister, hey, we mean to say ♪ ♪ We really had a heat wave today ♪

• [Announcer] One of the outstanding elements of the motion picture greatness of “Alexander’s Ragtime Band,” are Irving Berlin’s unforgettable songs. Three of these, “Remember,” “The Easter Parade,” and “All Alone” are now sung by Alice Faye and Don Ameche. ♪ Remember the night ♪ ♪ The night you said, “I love you” ♪ ♪ Remember? ♪ ♪ Remember you vowed ♪ ♪ By all the stars above you ♪ ♪ Remember? ♪ ♪ Remember we found a lonely spot ♪ ♪ And after I learned to care a lot ♪ ♪ You promised that you’d forget me not ♪ ♪ But you forgot ♪ ♪ To remember ♪ ♪ In your Easter bonnet with all the frills upon it ♪ ♪ You’ll be the grandest lady in the Easter parade ♪ ♪ I’ll be all in clover ♪ ♪ And when they look you over ♪ ♪ I’ll be the proudest fellow in the Easter parade ♪ ♪ On the avenue, Fifth Avenue ♪ ♪ The photographers will snap us ♪ ♪ And you’ll find that you’re in the rotogravure ♪ ♪ Oh, I could write a sonnet about your Easter bonnet ♪ ♪ And of the girl I’m taking to the Easter parade ♪ ♪ I’m all alone every evening ♪

• We move on to perhaps his most popular song of all. I would say he was one of those songwriters who instinctively felt the pulse of events. So, over a very long career, there were many occasions where he just wrote the song that hit the spot at that particular moment. And that’s certainly the case with… Ooh, dear. That’s my battery running low. That’s worrying. Oh, I’ve become unstuck. Oh, help. There, that should be it. So yes, I was saying he could write the song that just expressed people’s feelings at that time. And this was a case with “White Christmas,” and this was in a film called “Holiday Inn” that came out in 1942. Of course, America had entered the Second World War at the end of 1941, so when this film came out in the summer of '42, there would’ve been many Americans, millions, I suppose, who were separated from their loved ones, who were longing for to be reunited with their family for a traditional Christmas. So, as I said, it really hit the spot. And this is how it comes in the movie. I’m going to give you a bit of soundtrack again.

• [Jim] Right idea.

• [Linda] Could you use me in your show, Mr. Hardy?

• [Jim] Well, I don’t know. I might find a spot for you somewhere. What can you do?

• [Linda] Oh, I dance a little and sing.

• [Jim] I couldn’t guarantee any salary at first. Right now I’ve got the ledger in an iron lung.

• [Linda] Oh, I don’t care if you pay me off in eggs.

• [Jim] Pay off in eggs? Lady, you’ve either got me mixed up with Bob Hope or some millionaire.

• [Linda] Please give me a chance.

• [Jim] Well, I see what you can do here. You know, this sort of gives me a chance to keep a little promise I made to myself. I swore I was going to sing this song here at the inn tonight. ♪ I’m dreaming of a white Christmas ♪ ♪ Just like the ones I used to know ♪ ♪ Where the treetops glisten and children listen ♪ ♪ To hear sleigh bells in the snow ♪ ♪ I’m dreaming of a white Christmas ♪ ♪ With every Christmas card I write ♪ ♪ May your days be merry and bright ♪ ♪ And may all your Christmases be white ♪

• So, once again, as in the First World War, Irving Berlin wanted to do everything he could for his country, and, of course, there was added dimension, you know, as a Jew, in his desire to defeat Hitler. So he offered his services for free, and he created a musical called “This is the Army” that used enlisted military personnel. And this was launched in New York, then it went to Washington, and then it travelled overseas. And he went with it around the world, really, following the battle lines, sometimes really quite close to battle lines. And there he’s, here he is training the soldiers who were going to take part in this show. And this is Irving Berlin himself with not a great voice, but a very charming way of singing his own song. ♪ This is the Army, Mr. Jones ♪ ♪ No private rooms or telephones ♪ ♪ You had your breakfast in bed before ♪ ♪ But you won’t have it there any more ♪ ♪ This is the army, Mr. Green ♪ ♪ We like the barracks nice and clean ♪ ♪ You had a housemaid to clean your floor ♪ ♪ But she won’t help you out any more ♪ ♪ Do what the buglers command ♪ ♪ They’re in the army and not in the band ♪ ♪ This is the army, Mr. Brown ♪ ♪ You and your baby went to town ♪ ♪ She had you worried, but this is war ♪ ♪ And she won’t worry you anymore ♪

• So here he is, entertaining troops. He completely devoted himself to this for a couple of years in the later part of the war, and he brought the show to London in 1944. And while he was in London, he received an invitation from Winston Churchill to go to Chequers, the country house of the prime minister, to take part in a conference discussing how the world should be reconstructed, how Europe should be reconstructed after the defeat of Adolf Hitler. Now, this is a famous story, and I love it, because apparently Winston Churchill confused Irving Berlin with the philosopher Isaiah Berlin, but I don’t think anybody noticed. He was smart enough to actually take part in discussions and it was all fine. So post-war, when you think, you know, I mean, he’s been writing songs for 40 years, and he’d written many songs for Broadway musicals and many revues. But what he’d never done up to this point was to write a great integrated Broadway musical show like Jerome Kern’s “Showboat” or the various musicals of Cole Porter. And that particular success had eluded him. But, so in 1945, his great friend and colleague and his admirer, Jerome Kern died suddenly when he was about to set work on the musical of “Annie Get Your Gun” about Annie Oakley starring the great Ethel Merman.

And it was all ready to to go, just once Jerome Kern had keeled over died, there was just no composer. So they decided to go to Irving Berlin. Initially he was very, very reluctant, I think partly through his respect for the memory of Jerome Kern. But luckily he changed his mind, and finally had his one really great success, his one great masterpiece of a Broadway musical. And here is Ethel Merman singing one of the famous numbers from this musical.

♪ Folks are dumb where I come from ♪ ♪ They ain’t had any learning ♪ ♪ Still they’re happy as can be ♪ ♪ Doin’ what comes naturally ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ Folks like us could never fuss ♪ ♪ With schools and books and learning ♪ ♪ Still we’ve gone from A to Z ♪ ♪ Doin’ what comes naturally ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ You don’t have to know how to read or write ♪ ♪ When you’re out with a fella in the pale moonlight ♪ ♪ You don’t have to look in a book to find ♪ ♪ What he thinks of the moon or what is on his mind ♪ ♪ That comes naturally ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ My uncle out in Texas can’t even write his name ♪ ♪ He signs his checks with X’s ♪ ♪ But they cash ‘em just the same ♪ ♪ If you saw my paw and maw ♪ ♪ You’d know they had no learning ♪ ♪ Still they raised a family ♪ ♪ Doin’ what comes naturally ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ Uncle Jed has never read an almanack on drinking ♪ ♪ Still he’s always on a spree ♪ ♪ Doin’ what comes naturally ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ Sister Sal, whose musical has never had a lesson ♪ ♪ till she’s learned to sing off key ♪ ♪ Doin’ what comes naturally ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ You don’t have to go to a private school ♪ ♪ Not to pick up a penny near a stubborn mule ♪ ♪ You don’t have to have a professor’s dome ♪ ♪ Not to go for the honey when the bee’s at home ♪ ♪ That comes naturally ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ My tiny baby brother who’s never read a book ♪ ♪ Knows one sex from the other ♪ ♪ All he had to do was look ♪

• So, that was, in a way, the climax of his career, certainly his Broadway career. And although he continued writing songs for another couple of decades, he never achieved such a great success again. And the next musical he wrote, “Miss Liberty,” in 1948, I think it was, was a relative flop. But even this had some wonderful songs, and I want to play you one of those, sung by Ella Fitzgerald.

♪ You can have him, I don’t want him ♪ ♪ He’s not worth fighting for ♪ ♪ Besides there’s plenty more where he came from ♪ ♪ I don’t want him, you can have him ♪ ♪ I’m giving him the sack ♪ ♪ And he can go right back where he came from ♪ ♪ I could never make him happy ♪ ♪ He’d be better off with you ♪ ♪ I’m afraid, I never loved him ♪ ♪ All I ever wanted to do ♪ ♪ Was run my fingers through his curly locks ♪ ♪ Mend his underwear and darn his socks ♪ ♪ Fetch his slippers and remove his shoes ♪ ♪ Wipe his glasses when he read the news ♪ ♪ Rub his forehead with a gentle touch ♪ ♪ Mornings after when he’s had too much ♪ ♪ Kiss him gently when he cuddled near ♪ ♪ Give him babies, one for every year ♪ ♪ So you see, I don’t want him, you can have him ♪ ♪ You can have him, I don’t want him ♪ ♪ For he’s not the man for me ♪

• That’s a text that perhaps you might expect Cole Porter to have said rather than the very straightforward, from the heart, Irving Berlin. But I’m going to finish in a more characteristic mode with one of his loveliest songs, again sung by Ella Fitzgerald. That is “How Deep is the Ocean.” ♪ How much do I love you? ♪ ♪ I’ll tell you no lie ♪ ♪ How deep is the ocean? ♪ ♪ How high is the sky? ♪ ♪ How many times a day do I think of you? ♪ ♪ How many roses are sprinkled with dew? ♪ ♪ How far would I travel to be where you are? ♪ ♪ How far is the journey from here to a star? ♪ ♪ And if I ever lost you, how much would I cry? ♪ ♪ How deep is the ocean? ♪ ♪ How high is the sky? ♪

• I see there’re an enormous number of questions. I will do my best to answer them, but I’m a little bit outside my comfort zone with this. I may have to refer you to my friend Ron Bornstein, who’s a real specialist.

Q&A and Comments:

I did tell the Winston Churchill story, and it’s a true one. It actually comes from his secretary, who wrote an account of his work with Churchill during the Second World War. Where in Russia, I actually can’t remember off the top of my head.

Yes, I should have said that. Sorry, Myrna, that is really quite important, that he… Course he taught himself to play the piano, didn’t have proper Jewish… And initially he could only play in the key of F-sharp because he stuck to the black keys. And he had a special piano constructed where you turned, you cranked it, and the piano could change key. And of course the early songs, it was a long time before he learned proper musical notation, so in fact he had to dictate the songs to his secretary.

Song plugger. Of course, Gershwin also started off the same way, as song plugger. It was this huge industry, producing masses and masses of these popular songs on Tin Pan Alley, and the composers would bring them along. It must have been an unbelievable cacophony. They had these corridors lined with cubicles and people. A song plugger, but in the case of Gershwin, he was playing the songs on the piano. But in the case of Irving Berlin, he was actually singing them, and it was a matter of trying to sell the songs. Yes, as far as I know, for a lot of his ballads, he produced his own words. But I’m presuming that things, I think for things, for the Broadway musicals, certainly for something like “Annie Get Your Gun,” with those very sophisticated lyrics, those would’ve been done by professional lyricists. Yaphank was the town on Long Island where the Army base was located, that soldiers shipped out from.

Kate Smith, do you know, I’m not sure about that. I think you need to maybe check your facts. I did read an article about Kate Smith, and she certainly was very unhappy at being interpreted that way. People make these statements, they make these accusations, so I think I would advise you to read up a bit more about that to make sure that you are right in making such… Yeah, there are certainly other composers who did write their own lyrics, but of the really top ones, I think it’s particularly…

Q: “How did Irving come to meet Ellin?”

A: Well, I suppose in the twenties he was moving in quite sophisticated social circles.

Q: “At what point did his mother and his sisters disappear from the scene?”

A: I don’t know. I can’t tell you that. this is your land. He particularly likes Leonard Cohen’s version of “Always.” It can be done in so many different ways, and there are some very jazzy versions, as well as very sentimental versions. After his success, I don’t know all the details. I assume that he did. You know, he certainly reconnected with his family after his period on the streets as a 14-year-old. Monty, again, the same. I think just that, you know, songwriters were, like Gershwin was moving in very, very smart circles in the 1920s and ‘30s. They were always welcome, because they would be an ornament to an elegant gathering, especially if the composer was prepared to sit at a piano and perform his own songs. I’m not sure if Irving Berlin would been comfortable doing that, actually.

“Recording of…” Yes, this is what I read an article about, Brenda, and yes. And she later apparently regretted having recorded those songs, but I really object to people retrospectively making these judgements. So, one of my favourite records is Rosa Ponselle singing “Carry Me Back to Old Virginny,” and I wanted to use it once in a lecture and was stopped from using it, because I don’t think I’m going to repeat the words that were considered objectionable, but it certainly included “darkie,” but you can’t apply modern standards and modern judgments. And the fact everybody was recording songs with those kind of words in 1931, it does not mean that she was a racist. In 1940, Irving Berlin assigned the royalties from… That’s true. To the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts of America. Thank you, Paula.

Did he… George Steiner. Yes, he did, for his ballads. I’m not for sure, for all his songs. He wrote music and lyrics.

Q: How would I describe the American accent used in his songs?

A: Ed, Edward, who’s just been on a wonderful trip with me, amazing contribution he made to that trip. You would know better than me, surely. I don’t think I can really judge an American accent used in the songs of the 1930s. It’s certainly more comprehensible to me than, for instance, I’ve just watched “Oppenheimer” at the movies, and I found that really hard to follow, the American accent in that movie.

Hannah, “Period is bliss.” I so agree with you. The songs are so wonderful from that period. Thank you, Rita. Yes, Irving Berlin was very popular outside the U.S., and he was even used, or shall we say, misused, by the Nazis when they added Nazi propaganda lyrics to Irving Berlin songs and broadcast them back to the British and the Americans. Thank you, Hannah. Thank you, Carla.

And I’m glad you enjoyed it, and I’m sure, yes, for many people of a certain age, I think it would’ve brought back happy memories of their childhoods song-singing in their houses. Yes, that’s true. He did have a special piano that shifted key mechanically.

Q: “Did he have music lessons?”

A: Not initially, but I know he did learn musical notation later on.

Q: “Do you know why did the words, the introduction of the song, stop being written or sung?”

A: Yes, it was normal in all those songs, not just Irving Berlin, of course, but Jerome Kern, that you would have, what in an opera would be called a recitative, which is an introduction. A lot of Gershwin songs, too. And that was a custom that went out of fashion, and very often in later recordings, those introductions are dropped. I agree with you. It’s a loss. Agree that they’re very simple, heartfelt lyrics. I never feel that they’re kitschy. They’re sincere. That’s what makes 'em so great.

Q: Did Irving Berlin dance?

A: I don’t know. I really don’t know. He seemed to be a quite a lithe and even have a rather athletic figure from the… That is odd. I have no idea why Tyrone Power’s name is spelt on the poster. And yes, the story, the famous Isaiah story. He didn’t learn. He self-taught, and I said it originally, initially he didn’t even know musical notation.

“Doing what comes naturally.” Yes, you could say that. That’s what he did.

This is Ron, my friend Ron. “Berlin’s introduction to 'White Christmas’ is seldom heard and puts it in an entirely different context. ‘The sun is shining, the grass is green, orange and palm trees sway.’ Yes. ‘There’s never been such a day in Beverly Hills.’” That’s true. Thank you, Daphne.

Irving Berlin. I think he felt very Jewish, but he was not at all religious.

“Ella is perfection.” That is perfectly true. I think the special piano has now been mentioned several times. Thank you, all kind comments. And somebody else who’s with happy memories of “Always.” Yes, “Call Me Madam.” That was his last, it wasn’t his biggest success. It was a personal success, of course, for Ethel Merman, ‘cause it was really tailored for her talents, and it was a moderate success, but not as big a success as “Annie Get Your Gun.”

Q: “How could he be a song plugger if he couldn’t read music?”

A: That’s an interesting point. I don’t about whether people could see me on their screen.

This is Bruce. That’s interesting. “Made a piano made especially for Berlin.” Did it have that device on it, I wonder, to change key.

Q: “Did he have a Jewish funeral?”

A: I cannot tell you that. I do not know.

“Call me Madam,” “Miss Liberty.” The song “Suppertime” reveals his social awareness. Town was Yaphank. A former Nazi summer camp for children and adults. That’s a bit creepy, and yes.

Q: “Did he write the lyrics for 'Annie Get Your Gun’?”

A: That I would be surprised, because, as I said, there’s certainly the script for it was prepared for Jerome Kern, not for him, but he may have added lyrics for individual songs. I don’t know about that, actually. Thank you, all.

This says, “Lionel Bart also worked as a song plugger and came to my record shop pushing Tommy Steele.” That’s interesting. And Bruce’s mother’s piano didn’t have a key lever. Well, there’s a big discussion, isn’t it? But I think it’s one of those things where you could get on thin ice, this how Jewish are all these popular American Broadway songs, all the composers apart from Cold Porter being Jewish, is an element of melancholy. Is there a particular turn of musical phrase that is Jewish? I wouldn’t really like to give an answer to that.

I think I’ve made an attempt to answer all your questions. Thank you very, very much. I’m just setting off to have a nice Indian meal with Trudy. There’ll be a bit of a gap. I think I’m not doing any talks for you the next couple of weeks, but I will be back.

• [Administrator] Thanks, Patrick. That was outstanding.