George and Ira Gershwin Collection [finding aid ... - American Memory

1918, Dec. 9 The first musical to feature George's songs, Half Past Eight (three songs with lyrics by Edward B.
Perkins, and one by Ira), closes out of town at the Empire Theatre in Syracuse, New York,
after only one week and a scathing review in Variety.
1919 George continues writing songs that he hopes may be interpolated into Broadway musicals. I Was
So Young (You Were So Beautiful) (lyric by Irving Caesar and Al Bryan) was one of two songs
by George included in Good Morning, Judge at the Shubert Theatre. It is the first of George's
songs to achieve some popularity.
1919, May 26 La-La-Lucille! (lyrics by Arthur J. Jackson and B. G. DeSylva) opens at the Henry Miller Theatre
in New York. George's first book musical and his first full-scale Broadway production, the
show is a moderate success, running for 104 performances.
1919 Fall George and lyricist Irving Caesar write Swanee in an effort to capitalize on the current one-step
rage, Hindustan. The song is included in the Capitol Revue at New York’s new 5,300-seat
Capitol Theatre, but it attracts little notice. In December, Al Jolson hears it at a party and
decides to interpolate it in his current hit show, Sinbad. The song then becomes an immediate
success and George's first international hit.
1920, Aug. 31 Waiting for the Sun to Come Out, the first published George-and-Ira song, is introduced in The
Sweetheart Shop at New York’s Knickerbocker Theatre. The sheet music credits Ira as "Arthur
Francis," a name that Ira would use for the next 3-1/2 years. Ira devised the pseudonym
(combining the names of his younger brother and sister) in an effort to avoid the accusation of
attempting to trade on his better-known brother’s reputation.
1921, May 3 Two Little Girls in Blue (music by Vincent Youmans and Paul Lannin) opens at the George M.
Cohan Theatre. It is Ira’s first successful Broadway show, running for 135 performances.
1921 Summer In his continuing desire to increase his musical training, George takes summer courses at
Columbia University: Nineteenth-Century Romanticism in Music, and Elementary
Orchestration, taught by music department head Rossetter G. Cole.
1922, Aug. 28 Blue Monday, a one-act opera with lyrics by B. G. DeSylva, receives its first performance as part
of George White's Scandals of 1922 at New York’s Globe Theatre. Sometimes described as
George's first serious work and the precursor to Porgy and Bess, it is deemed out of keeping
with the rest of the revue, and it is cut after only one performance.
1923 Jan. George studies musical form and composition with arch-traditionalist Rubin Goldmark. Most
sources indicate that the course of study lasted for only three lessons.
1923, Apr. 3 The Rainbow (lyrics by Clifford Grey) opens at London’s Empire Theatre. George makes his first
trip to Europe to supervise the production.
1923, Nov. 1 George makes his concert hall debut accompanying mezzo-soprano Eva Gauthier in a "Recital of
Ancient and Modern Music for the Voice." George accompanies her in a set of American
songs, including some of his own and, it is said, steals the show. The concert (or a version of
it) was later repeated in Boston, London, and Derby, Connecticut.
George and Ira Gershwin Collection 8