The WELL: inkwell.vue.264: David Leopold - "Irving Berlin's Show Business"

#80: David Scott Marley (nightdog) Wed 1 Mar 06 15:49

Wed, 01 Mar 2006 15:49:00 PST

Oh, you HAVE to read the Wilder book! I think you'd love it. I hit it in my 20s so I was at an impressionable age for new ideas, but I've reread chapters of it recently and it still holds up for me. It opened my eyes and ears in a lot of ways, and I started listening to songs and thinking about their melodies and harmonies with a lot more understanding and appreciation for the details of craftsmanship.

Wilder's book particularly changed how I thought about Berlin. In my 20s I was very much under the spell of Sondheim, and Berlin's music sounded too simple for my taste. Wilder's book showed me how, even though Berlin wasn't a technically sophisticated composer, his music was much more inventive and ingeniously crafted than I'd given him credit for. I'd never really listened carefully enough before; from Wilder I learned all sorts of new things to be listening for.

Even Wilder can't get me to like "All Alone" or "The Ocarina", but I became a Berlin fan all the same. [Read entire topic]

#79: David Scott Marley (nightdog) Wed 1 Mar 06 15:25

Wed, 01 Mar 2006 15:25:00 PST

Yes, Lehman Engel was one of the greats, all right. Easily the greatest writing teacher I ever had, which is pretty amazing to me when I consider that he was primarily a musician and not a writer, and he didn't understand how dramatic writing is constructed on anything like as deep a level as he understood how dramatic music is constructed. In spite of that, he was far and away the most inspiring and the most practical writing teacher I've ever had. [Read entire topic]

#78: David Leopold (dleopold1) Thu 23 Feb 06 04:18

Thu, 23 Feb 2006 04:18:00 PST

Art, I agree with you, "What'll I Do" is brilliantly constructed. On Tuesday, Barbara Cook did a Master Class of Irving Berlin songs as part of the programming for the exhibition in NY. she thinks Berlin songs are ideal to work with singers because they don't allow you to hide, you have to really sing them. She always cites "What'll I Do" as one of her favorites for this reason. The Class was simulcast onthe Web and they hope to archive on the nypl.org website soon.

David, Engel was one of the greats, and for good reason. He knew what he was talking about. I had not known he used this case as an illustration of the changes inthe musical, but I mention in the book, for just that reason. also to show that Berlin understood the changing requirements, especially when it would have been very easy just to leave it alone.

I have never sat down and read the Wilder book but your post makes me realize that I have missed something. It is not surprisingly that Berlin did not give permission. It was in the darkest period of his life and he was suspicious of everything that he could not control. In his correspondience with Harry Ruby and Irving Hoffman, he alludes to the book and wondered why Wilder wanted to write aobut music that no one cared about any more.

And for anyone who cares I am including the URL for a review of the Broadway exhibition at the NYPL which describes more of what is included in the show http://www.talkinbroadway.com/rialto/past/2006/02_21_06.html [Read entire topic]

#77: David Scott Marley (nightdog) Wed 22 Feb 06 11:28

Wed, 22 Feb 2006 11:28:00 PST

> Unlike many of the songwriters of his generation, > he owned the copyrights to his work, and as the > years went on, he guarded them closely, and > sometimes bitterly.

I discovered Alec Wilder's book AMERICAN POPULAR SONG something like 25 years ago. It's an excellent book and really changed how I think about songs and how they're constructed. Wilder often went into technical details of melody and harmony and construction. So the book benefits from having a lot of musical excerpts to illustrate his points. A notable omission, though, is the chapter on Berlin, which has no excerpts because Berlin declined to give permission.

Wilder gave Berlin extraordinarily high praise anyway. [Read entire topic]

#76: David Scott Marley (nightdog) Wed 22 Feb 06 11:16

Wed, 22 Feb 2006 11:16:00 PST

> Berlin suggested to producer Richard Rodgers that > the secondary romance of the show, *the dull stuff,* > be dropped. He felt that it was necessary in the > forties, but now it was superfluous.

Lehman Engel used to point to this as a change worth studying if we wanted to understand how musical books are constructed and how the style had changed over the decades. The main couple's story is mostly driven by the situation and characters and the secondary couple's is driven more by finding ways to work in their songs. [Read entire topic]

#75: art siegel (arto) Tue 21 Feb 06 12:45

Tue, 21 Feb 2006 12:45:00 PST

Thanks, David. Just listening to "What'll I Do" today, and I think it's a perfect song. It seems very simple, but it's quite complex in its way, and very powerful. [Read entire topic]

#74: David Leopold (dleopold1) Fri 17 Feb 06 04:50

Fri, 17 Feb 2006 04:50:00 PST

After the critical failure of MR. PRESIDENT, Berlin turned to Hollywood to create another hit. With Arthur Freed at MGM he conceived a twenty-five-song cavalcade of his greatest hits, SAY IT WITH MUSIC. He wrote seven new songs specifically for the film. Freed was excited by the prospect and suggested that it be a Berlin biography, but, as always, Berlin turned him down.

Announced in June 1963, with Freed producing, Vincente Minnelli directing, and Arthur Laurents writing the script. The cast included Frank Sinatra, Fred Astaire, Judy Garland, Ethel Merman, Pat Boone, and Connie Francis. Only three months earlier, Hollywood acknowledged Berlin*s remarkable talent in a star-studded dinner for the Screen Producer*s Guild Milestone Award.

On the dais with Berlin at the Beverly Hills Hilton were many of the men and women who had played prominent roles in his film career. Sam Goldwyn, Adolph Zukor, Jack Warner, Daryl Zanuck, Fred Astaire, Arthur Freed, Ginger Rogers, Groucho Marx, Bob Hope, Frank Sinatra, and Danny Kaye. After five hours of testimonials, jokes, and songs, Berlin sat down at a piano and led the thousand-plus crowd in *God Bless America.*

Nevertheless, over the next six years there would be various cast changes, and replacements in the creative team of SAY IT WITH MUSIC, and just when it looked as it would go into production, MGM was sold and its new owners killed the project. Berlin was furious, but there was little he could do. *If Louis B. Mayer had been the head of Metro,* he dictated to his secretary in a quote he never sent out, *SAY IT WITH MUSIC would have been made, released and piled up a large profit for MGM.*

At seventy-eight he wrote his last show-stopper: *Old Fashioned Wedding* for the 1966 revival of ANNIE GET YOUR GUN. Berlin suggested to producer Richard Rodgers that the secondary romance of the show, *the dull stuff,* be dropped. He felt that it was necessary in the forties, but now it was superfluous.

The production was a rousing success, and it was the only Broadway revival he would ever see of his work. Its triumph got him thinking about other ventures. He talked about new Music Box Revues and a musical about life on the Lower East Side. Writing came easier to him now because *I recognize the wrong choices quicker.* He even tried to sell a remake of the film of ANNIE GET YOUR GUN to Daryl Zanuck, with Barbra Streisand in the lead.

But he knew his working days were over. When asked if he would retire, he responded *Here all I can tell you about that*some day I expect people to say *Berlin*s slipping*He*s falling*he fell*No, he*s dead!** But he knew that he, and the group of contemporaries that were friends, rivals, and collaborators, were viewed as *antiques, museum pieces.*

Unlike many of the songwriters of his generation, he owned the copyrights to his work, and as the years went on, he guarded them closely, and sometimes bitterly. According to Berlin, a Japanese consortium had tried to buy his publishing rights for an incredible sum, but he said he wouldn*t know what to do with the money, and they wouldn*t know what to do with the songs.

Although the American public seemed to be turning its back on his type of music, he still felt strongly about the country. *Who has the right to love this country more than I do?* he asked in 1968 at eighty. *I don*t forget where and how I started. Nowhere but in America. I*m worried about the sprit of America right now, but I have deep faith*.we*re in a period of revolution and change, but we*re going to be all right. If America were a company, I*d buy all the stock I could get, put it away. It*s the greatest land in the world.*

He was devoted to his wife, Ellin and his growing family, and when he felt well, he wrote songs for his grandchildren. After visiting the White House to welcome home returning POWs from Vietnam in 1973 (at the age of 85), he never made another public appearance (although he posed for photos in September 1974). He maintained contact with the world through the phone, calling his office several times a day to check on business, and also a small circle of friends and admirers, who, he felt, understood his work.

So Berlin did spend 16 years out of view, but by then he was in his late 80*s and nineties. Not surprisingly, it was physically difficult for him to make appearances and/or write new music. One of the reasons I wanted to write this book was to show how full and vital his career had been. I think many people remember the later years when he was out of view, and was difficult. But with the career in context, this was only a small part of life. [Read entire topic]

#73: Cynthia Dyer-Bennet (cdb) Wed 15 Feb 06 16:04

Wed, 15 Feb 2006 16:04:00 PST

debuted in SF in July? oh dear, I'm so sorry I missed it. arg! [Read entire topic]

#72: art siegel (arto) Wed 15 Feb 06 15:52

Wed, 15 Feb 2006 15:52:00 PST

Thanks, David, for the book and your conversation here. I bought a Berlin CD, the 100th anniversary tribute, and in it was a clipping from USA Today discussing the centennial and how Berlin was regarded as "the Howard Hughes of music", having not been seen in so many years. Made me wonder what those final decades were like for him. [Read entire topic]

#71: David Leopold (dleopold1) Wed 15 Feb 06 14:55

Wed, 15 Feb 2006 14:55:00 PST

Cynthia, the Broadway exhibition debuted in San Francisco in July and ran through the middle of December. The Hollywood exhibition will probably come to LA but no date has been set yet.

Thank you for the kind words about the press. The Associated Press also just gave the show a good review, as did Playbill. If you are in New York anytime between now and may 26th, you can see the show. It's free, and open most days. [Read entire topic]