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50 years a music man
Here is an intimate profile of this modest,
dedicated, generous composer whose songs
have thrilled Americans for over half a century.
them all words as well as music. In
fact, some 900 Berlin songs, nearly half
of them hits, have set America hum
ming, whistling, dreaming, and dancing
for half a century.
In 50 amazing years, his popularity
has never waned. He has scored 19
musical revues and 18 movies. For sev
eral decades, as measured by royalties
paid through ASCAP (American Society
of Composers, Authors, and Publishers),
he has been the nation's highest-paid
and most-listened-to song writer.
So expressive of our country has the
work of this composer been that one
song is seriously recommended by some
as a new national anthem: "God Bless
America." Another, "Always," has be
come a wedding favorite. And a 1942
Academy Award winner, "White Christ
mas," has become an all-time holiday
best seller 23 million records and 4
million pieces of sheet music to date!
Berlin's songs seem timeless. "Alex
ander's Ragtime Band," published when
William Howard Taft was President, is
still a standard. "What'll I Do?" "Blue
Skies," and "All By Myself" date back
to the '20s. "A Pretty Girl Is Like a
Melody" is even older.
How has Berlin achieved all this?
A real zeal for work, for one thing.
Age, wealth, and decades of success
didn't deter him from tackling "Call Me
Madam," his latest stage hit, seven years
ago, or furnishing the title song for the
movie "Sayonara" in 1957. He's still as
restless as the time he lost a $50 bet that
he could sit still for five minutes!
Nothing was handed to Irving Berlin
on a silver platter. His struggle up
ward was as difficult as any in America.
The youngest'of eight children, Berlin
was born in 1888 in Russia, and was
brought to this country when he was
four. Four years later, his father, Moses
Baline, died. That left the family in
poverty and near-hopelessness in the
"melting pot" that was New York's
Lower East Side.
At 12, Irving ran a paper r,oute for 50
cents a week. Then, forced to quit school,
he led a blind man about the Bowery,
collecting tips for songs; became a sing
ing waiter for $7 a week; and learned
piano well enough to pick out tunes as
a song plugger. o
Soon the teen-ager tentatively tried
composing songs himself. He couldn't
read music and still can't but one,
"Dorando," impressed a publisher
enough to put Berlin on his payroll as
a $25-a-week lyricist.
His first published song, a 197 col
laboration, "Marie from Sunny Italy,"
brought him less than $1 in royalties.
But four years later he turned out
"Alexander's Ragtime Band" and not
. only was established nationally, but won
a job with. the Ziegfeld Follies at
$100,000 a year.
When World War I came, the young
man from Tin Pan Alley turned over his
talents to the Government. As a sergeant
at Camp Upton, he wrote "Yip Yip
Yaphank," famed soldier show with its
"Oh, How I Hate to Get Up in the
Morning" and other hits. The show raised
$83,000 for Army causes.
. In World War II, that mark was
topped with ease. "This Is the Army,"
the greatest service show ever produced,
smashed records on Broadway and on
tour both here and abroad, even ven
turing into battle zones. "I Left My
Heart at the Stage Door Canteen,"
"American Eagles," "This Is The Army,
Mr. Jones," and other songs stopped the
show wherever it played and Berlin
went along, as a singer.
All proceeds $9,500,000 Berlin
turned over to Army Emergency Relief.
Generously, he also has assigned royal
ties from "God Bless America" nearly
$300,000 thus far to the Boy Scouts
and Girl Scouts of America.
"Irving has given away more than
many people earn in a long lifetime,"
said one of his friends.
This, however, is no less than his col
leagues would expect of Berlin. In a
business where sharpies and dollar-
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Family Weekly, June 14, 1959
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