This will be the last column before Christmas, so I am going to tell you all about Irving Berlin, who wrote “White Christmas” for the 1942 film “Holiday Inn,” which wasn’t a great story, but it has Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire in it, plus the music was good.
Irving Berlin, born Israel Baline, in a Russian ghetto, came to the United States in 1892, and lived in New York’s East Side. When Berlin was eight, his father died, so he had to quit school and work. At fourteen, he became a singing waiter in the Bowery. He earned little until he became assistant to Blind Sol, a noted Bowery singer.. Berlin became well known in the cafes, and left Blind Sol to sing alone and plug songs for a music publisher. Berlin wrote songs, using a battered old piano, in one of the Bowery cafes (The “Bowery” is a small area in New York, roughly around 2nd Ave, Bowery, Houston and Delancey streets. Then, it was the location of all the flophouses, whiskey joints and the hangout of bums. It’s changed since then). Soon, his compositions began to earn him some money, and by 1912, he was becoming recognized.
Berlin wrote several songs for the Ziegfeld Follies, including, “By The Light Of The Silvery Moon,” and “A Pretty Girl Is Like A Melody.” He contracted himself to Hollywood, and the royalties from “Cheek To Cheek,” from the smash hit “Top Hat,” were $250,000 for that song alone. “Top Hat,” was the best of the Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire films. Berlin’s royalties from his film compositions were several million dollars, and remember, these were whole dollars, not 2012 dollars! He also wrote songs for “Follow he Fleet,” (1936), “On The Avenue,” (1937), “Carefree,” (1938), and “Second Fiddle,” (1939). When World War Two came along, he wrote for, and even sang in, “This Is The Army.”
Among his many compositions, are “Easter Parade,” “Blue Skies,” and in 1947, in “Annie Get Your Gun,” he got $2500 a week for his performance. Berlin could neither read nor write music! He played the piano only in the key of F sharp major, (black keys), and he had a special piano made for him with a lever under the keyboard, which enabled him to transpose into any key. Usually, he would type the lyrics with one finger, and then reread them until he got a melody. He then played it for his secretary, who wrote it down, and played the song ten or twenty times if necessary, as Berlin made revisions.
Undoubtedly, his most famous work is, “God Bless America,” which I think would be a better National Anthem than “The Star Spangled Banner.” Berlin wrote it in 1917 for a Broadway show, but never released it till World War Two, when it was voted the best song of 1940.
In 1912, Berlin married Dorothy Goetz, who died of typhoid she got while on their honeymoon. Years later, he married Ellin Mackay, heiress to $30 million from her father, who was head of the Postal Telegraph. Mackay threatened to disinherit his daughter if she marred Berlin, a Jew, but they wed anyway, in 1926.
When Berlin celebrated his 100th birthday in 1988, he was still playing the piano and painting. His wife of 62 years, had become a novelist and short story writer, and died in August, 1988. They had three daughters. Berlin lived in his New York townhouse until; his death at age 101 in September, 1989.
Please have the merriest of Christmases, and give a prayer for those dead children and adults in Newtown, CT.
NEWTOWN
The liberals and anti-gun fanatics are having a field day, and are shouting at the top of their lungs, that if there were gun control, this type of thing wouldn’t happen. At the same time the psychopath was shooting little children in Newtown, a similar nut case was dong the same thing to even more children in China, with a huge knife. In Newtown, the killer was either a true, uninhibited mad man, or on drugs, because no one who is even half way normal, would steal a gun from his mother, shoot her three times in the face, and then proceed to kill 26 more innocents. GUNS DON’T KILL PEOPLE, PEOPLE KILL PEOPLE, and they can use anything at their command or disposal, as witness China. In Virginia last year, gun sales went up 77% and crime decreased 24%. If everyone had a gun, as in Switzerland, there would be little crime. It would be a dangerous occupation. We will never know the truth about the killer in Newtown, because if it were told, it would take all the wind out of the sails of the gun control idiots. Since Newtown, gun sales have skyrocketed, which I think is great!
P.S. why should you get gold and silver? In the last ten years, gold has gone up 530%, and silver has gone up 735%. Is that reason enough to GET OUT OF DOLLARS?