No, That Isn't
H
oratio
rvinsi
Alger,
Berlin
ts
Creator Of Jazz Now Writing
Sones For Movies
y w r :iVW 1 will
' '
CJ yT' fJ,"' aiJ Didowduicenc Avenue," V'SVSSSNssv. ' ' J i , .
1li'Tirr"i iV VKiAj thc Music for whicn Dcrlin Has Just Finished. ' ' f U' OTTOjj
I &JS "lMm The Background is a Reproduction of Old-Time ""'"- w;s..i';l ' JW?i&ii
I I NX y(jAil Atlantic City. "3 J, . ?RJ0
By Doris Lockett 11 ' A I I3Y ISC
IT WAS exactly 30 years ago that a young
singing waiter, still in his 'teens, thought he
would put on paper the lyrical quality he had
discovered in himself while entertaining and
serving the half-stewed customers in Nigger
Mike's saloon In New York's Chinatown.
That first song which he wrote and published
brought no financial returns, and no ripple In
the world of popular, music but It was the be
ginning of the man who was responsible for
ragtime and the jazz age. It was called "Marie
From Sunny Italy" but no one cared,
And 30 years later, Irving Berlin is still writ
ing America's greatest song hits, but through
a medium which reaches a simultaneous world
audience ithe movies. In a Beverly Hills home
and an office in the 20th Century-Fox studio, ,
Berlin has completed six song hits for the pic
ture, "On the Avenue," in which Dick Powell,
Madeleine Carroll, Alice Faye, and the Ritz
Brothers take part. That finished, he is now
starting another cycle of songs for his next pic
ture, "Alexander's Ragtime Band," named after
his 1911 song hit which first set feet shuffling to
the new rhythm which he had then discovered
Despite his 30 years of activity and his posi
tion as an historical pioneer in American music,
Berlin is still a young man, dark, slim and dap
per, with a nervous excitcability which becomes
heightened whenever he is In the throes of
creaUon.
Another thing that has not changed about
Berlin is his piano. This battered old upright
instrument has, like its owner, become of his
torical importance in American music. For over
25 years it has poured out thc melodies, rhythms
and tempos which have been accepted by the
world as the musical mirror of modern Ameri
can life.
Beside its ordinary wear and tear, thc piano
owes much of its battering to Its well traveled
existence. It has boarded many a ship plying
between American, European and West Indian
Ports. It has rattled its way many times across
the continent between New York and Holly
wood. Hundreds of moving vans have carted it
between offices, mansions and apartment houses
to various cities and countries.
Today it reposes In thc Beverly Hills home
h!ch Berlin has made his headquarters. There
Jangles out Its tunes at ungodly hours of the
bight and early morning.
IT WAS this same piano, which composed the
ong hits for "On the Avenue," which also
aided Berlin in crystallizing America's nascent
J Age over a quarter of a century ago with
me composition of "Alexander's Ragtime Band."
At the time, negro rhythms and "ragging"
ere just being recognized by a few white people
"welted in such things. Small negro bands,
particularly n the South, were experimenting
win It Berlin was the first composer to put it
into concrete form in the song which he named
"wr just such a negro band. The word "rag
, e cught on and was used to designate
j1r of muiric unU1 11 waa supplanted by
Sine that time, Berlin has composed nun
"reH of songs which have been played, sung,
oumrned and whistled in every corner of the
J"' 11 di! not take him long to become the
'Wing MUSC of American music, even though,
w this day, he has never taken a music lesson
lb his life.
Like his general education, Irving Berlin';
jc is entirely self-taught. He began picking
M . ln" tt1th one finger on the piano in Nigger
it . By a hit ami miss method on the black
njL ' he "n ught himself to Improvise
Wla with his left hand.
kW black key hRDlt 8tuck t0 nlm' ana
aZ CRn only Plav ln th ky ' F-sharp.
' that la why he atlcka nli 0Bt fsvorite
' all through the year..
b-, r0" he ah,c to ffrd p'an-na
t.n w uPrtRht and had the keyboard re
4"y that, with a little lever, the key.
lsillB ,1 X une ot tnc foremost rV. t.
" I 4J-J Sonc Writers in the Y A
j a 1 1 1 1 r r world. sfesKtV Tv
I 11 I (Left) Alice Fayc in a Scene ""- - ' 'J
I (Above) Six Girls in a Pen-
I sive Mood From thc Same
I Picture. Dcrlin Wrote Six
CV Songs for This Movie.
L
r MiKe s saioon to ue y
board could be shifted to any position. With tho
aid of the action of this lever he can shift to any
key he desires while still actually pounding only
his favorite black keys.
During the years, he has taught himself to
play the piano ln a very effective manner, nor
does he have to be coaxed to perform, even for
strangers.
An Interviewer who drops In on him after he
has finished one of his compositions Is bound
to be made a provlcw audience for the song.
While talking about "On the Avenue" which was
in tho midst of production, Berlin naturally
talked about the six songs he had written for it,
and without any coaxing sat down at the piano
and played and sang them.
HE PLAYED lustily and sang In a barely
audible voice such numbers as "You're
Laughing At Me," "He Ain't Oot Rhythm," "The
Girl On the Police Gazette," "Slumming On Park
Avenue," and others.
This seemed like a rare honor for the lone
Irving Berlin, Who
Rose From Nigger
Mike's Saloon 10 Be
One of die Foremost
Song Writers in the
World.
Interviewer to have Berlin play and sing all of
his new numbers. But a little Inquiring revealed
thc fact that as soon as Berlin finishes a song
he will press the first person he sees Into service
as an audience, ln this matter of "trying It on
the dog," messenger boys, servants and casual
acquaintances have been thc first persons to hear
many of tho greatest hlta he has written.
Although his voice Is not like It was when he
was a youngster earning his money by singing
in Bowery SHloons, Berlin still has the flair of
the performer. Unlike most composers, he is not
an Introvert, but has a lot of thc qualities of
the. actor who likes to display his wares.
"Writing music for the movies," Berlin said,
offers a different method of approach than In
dtflgc revues. I am quite enthused over the six
numbers I have written for 'On the Avenue,"
not because they happen to be my most recent
but because I have been given a chance to dc
something different.
"Instead of writing songs which are fitted Into
the picture Irrespective of what tho story Ir
about, I have used definite Ideas which fit right
Into thc story and thc people playing In It.
"In thc Music Box revues which I did In New
York, thc procedure was usually that of first
writing a song and then figuring out the num
ber that could be staged around it. Now the
procedure takes somewhat of a reverse angle."
To Illustrate what he rrujanl, Berlin sat down
at his old, upright piano with the shifting key.
board, and played and sang "Slumming On Park
Avenue." When he was through, he said:
"This song, which can become a popular num
ber for singing and dance orchestras apart from
the movies, has a definite bearing on tho story
which we are filming. Our script deals with the
richest girl In tho city, played by Madeleine
Carroll, and a musical show which was written
as a burlesque on her, her father, and her
fiance. Thus, Instead of breaking off in the middle
of our story and bursting Into song, we have
something which tells our story and adds moti
vation for what happens after that."
To understand Berlin's enthusiasm for "idea"
.longs, one must first know that his first attempts
at music writing were centered around the lyrics.
The writing of thc music came a llbtle later, but
since then he has never needed a collaborator,
but does words and music himself.
He cannot work In the daytime, for ever since
his night work as a singing waiter when he would
always go homo to sleep when others wuro just
getting up to go to work, he has stuck to these
owl hours. Ho will stay up all night at the piano,
and his usual rising hour is never before noon.
It was this habit which was responsible for his
most popular song during the World War period.
Aa a private in tho United States Army at Camp
Upton, his greatest hardship was getting up at
bugle call In the small hours of the morning.
This he translated Into the song, "Oh, How I
Hate To Get Up In the Morning," which, to
gcthcr with George M. Cohan's "Over There,"
became one of the doughboys' favorite march
ing songs.
PAGE THRC6