From en.wikipedia.org:
[American composer (1885–1945)] [the lawyer and business executive]
[date=April 2024] <!-- Please do not add an infobox to this article, per Talk
page, unless a new consensus is reached. --> JEROME DAVID KERN (January 27,
1885 – November 11, 1945) was an American composer of musical theatre and
popular music. One of the most important American theatre composers of the
early 20th century, he wrote more than 700 songs, used in over 100 stage
works, including such classics as "Ol' Man River", "Can't Help Lovin' Dat
Man", "A Fine Romance", "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes", "The Song Is You", "All the
Things You Are", "The Way You Look Tonight" and "Long Ago (and Far Away)". He
collaborated with many of the leading librettists and lyricists of his era,
including George Grossmith Jr., Guy Bolton, P. G. Wodehouse, Otto Harbach,
Oscar Hammerstein II, Dorothy Fields, Johnny Mercer, Ira Gershwin and Yip
Harburg.
A native New Yorker, Kern created dozens of Broadway musicals and Hollywood
films in a career that lasted for more than four decades. His musical
innovations, such as 4/4 dance rhythms and the employment of syncopation and
jazz progressions, built on, rather than rejected, earlier musical theatre
tradition. He and his collaborators also employed his melodies to further the
action or develop characterization to a greater extent than in the other
musicals of his day, creating the model for later musicals. Although dozens
of Kern's musicals and musical films were hits, only _Show Boat_ is now
regularly revived. Songs from his other shows, however, are still frequently
performed and adapted. Many of Kern's songs have been adapted by jazz
musicians to become standard tunes.
** Biography
*** Early life
Kern was born in New York City, on Sutton Place, in what was then the city's
brewery district.<ref name=nyt>"Jerome Kern Dies; Noted Composer, 60" (see
https://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/bday/0127.html)
[url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200607182051/https://www.nytimes.com/section/learning
]. _The New York Times_, November 12, 1945 His parents were Henry Kern
(1842–1908), a Jewish German immigrant, and Fannie Kern _née_ Kakeles
(1852–1907), who was an American Jew of Bohemian parentage.<ref
name=baker>Slonimsky, Nicholas and Laura Kuhn (ed). Kern, Jerome (David)"
(see http://bakr.alexanderstreet.com/View/673896)
[url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110707104617/http://bakr.alexanderstreet.com/View/673896
]. _Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Musicians_, Volume 3 (Schirmer
Reference, New York, 2001), accessed May 10, 2010 (requires subscription)
<!--"They named him Jerome because they lived near Jerome Park (named after
Winston Churchill's grandfather, Leonard Jerome), a favorite place of theirs."
IS THERE A RELIABLE CITATION TO SHOW THAT THIS IS WHY HE WAS NAMED JEROME? -->
At the time of Kern's birth, his father ran a livery stable; later he became a
successful merchant.<ref name=baker/> Kern grew up on East 56th Street in
Manhattan, where he attended public schools. He showed an early aptitude for
music and was taught to play the piano and organ by his mother, a professional
player and teacher.<ref name=grove>Byrnside, Ronald and Andrew Lamb. "Kern,
Jerome (David)" (see
http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/grove/music/14917?q=jerome+kern&source=omo_epm&source=omo_t237&source=omo_gmo&source=omo_t114&search=quick&pos=1&_start=1#firsthit)
[url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200531065116/http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/grove/music/14917?q=jerome+kern&source=omo_epm&source=omo_t237&source=omo_gmo&source=omo_t114&search=quick&pos=1&_start=1#firsthit
]. _Grove Online_, Oxford Music Online, accessed May 10, 2010 (requires
subscription).
In 1897, the family moved to Newark, New Jersey, where Kern attended Newark
High School (which became Barringer High School in 1907). He wrote songs for
the school's first musical, a minstrel show, in 1901, and for an amateur
musical adaptation of _Uncle Tom's Cabin_ put on at the Newark Yacht Club in
January 1902.<ref name=baker/> Kern left high school before graduation in the
spring of his senior year in 1902. In response, Kern's father insisted that
his son work with him in business, instead of composing. Kern, however,
failed miserably in one of his earliest tasks: he was supposed to purchase two
pianos for the store, but instead he ordered 200.[1] His father relented, and
later in 1902, Kern became a student at the New York College of Music,
studying the piano under Alexander Lambert and Paolo Gallico, and harmony
under Dr. Austin Pierce.<ref name=who/> His first published composition, a
piano piece, _At the Casino_, appeared in the same year. Between 1903 and
1905, he continued his musical training under private tutors in Heidelberg,
Germany, returning to New York via London.<ref name=grove/><ref
name=who>"Kern, Jerome David" (see
http://www.ukwhoswho.com/view/article/oupww/whowaswho/U227709/KERN_Jerome?index=1&results=QuicksearchResults&query=0)
.. _Who Was Who_, accessed May 10, 2010 (requires subscription)
*** First compositions
left For a time, Kern worked as a rehearsal pianist in Broadway theatres and
as a song-plugger for Tin Pan Alley music publishers. While in London, he
secured a contract from the American impresario Charles Frohman to provide
songs for interpolation in Broadway versions of London shows. He began to
provide these additions in 1904 to British scores for _An English Daisy_, by
Seymour Hicks and Walter Slaughter, and _Mr. Wix of Wickham_, for which he
wrote most of the songs.[2]
In 1905, Kern contributed the song "How'd you like to spoon with me?" to Ivan
Caryll's hit musical _The Earl and the Girl_ when the show transferred to
Chicago and New York in 1905.<ref name=grove/> He also contributed to the New
York production of _The Catch of the Season_ (1905), _The Little Cherub_
(1906) and _The Orchid_ (1907), among other shows.[3] From 1905 on, he spent
long periods of time in London, contributing songs to West End shows like _The
Beauty of Bath_ (1906; with lyricist P. G. Wodehouse) and making valuable
contacts, including George Grossmith Jr. and Seymour Hicks, who were the
first to introduce Kern's songs to the London stage.<ref name=grove/> In 1909
during one of his stays in England, Kern took a boat trip on the River Thames
with some friends, and when the boat stopped at Walton-on-Thames, they went to
an inn called the Swan for a drink. Kern was much taken with the proprietor's
daughter, Eva Leale (1891–1959), who was working behind the bar. He wooed
her, and they were married at the Anglican church of St. Mary's in Walton on
October 25, 1910. The couple then lived at the Swan when Kern was in
England.[4]
Kern is believed to have composed music for silent films as early as 1912, but
the earliest documented film music which he is known to have written was for a
twenty-part serial, _Gloria's Romance_ in 1916.<ref name=banfield50/> This was
one of the first starring vehicles for Billie Burke, for whom Kern had earlier
written the song "Mind the Paint", with lyrics by A. W. Pinero. The film is
now considered lost, but Kern's music survives. Another score for the silent
movies, _Jubilo_, followed in 1919.<ref name=banfield50>Banfield, p. 50 Kern
was one of the founding members of ASCAP.<ref name=who/>
Kern's first complete score was Broadway's _The Red Petticoat_ (1912), one of
the first musical-comedy Westerns. The libretto was by Rida Johnson Young.
By World War I, more than a hundred of Kern's songs had been used in about
thirty productions, mostly Broadway adaptations of West End and European
shows. Kern contributed two songs to _To-Night's the Night_ (1914), another
Rubens musical. It opened in New York and went on to become a hit in London.
The best known of Kern's songs from this period is probably "They Didn't
Believe Me", which was a hit in the New York version of the Paul Rubens and
Sidney Jones musical, _The Girl from Utah_ (1914), for which Kern wrote five
songs.<ref name=grove/> Kern's song, with four beats to a bar, departed from
the customary waltz-rhythms of European influence and fitted the new American
passion for modern dances such as the fox-trot. He was also able to use
elements of American styles, such as ragtime, as well as syncopation, in his
lively dance tunes.<ref name=bordman>Bordman, Gerald. "Jerome David Kern,
Innovator/Traditionalist", _The Musical Quarterly_, Volume 71, no. 4, April
1985, pp. 468-73 Theatre historian John Kenrick writes that the song put Kern
in great demand on Broadway and established a pattern for musical comedy love
songs that lasted through the 1960s.[5]
In May 1915, Kern was due to sail with Charles Frohman from New York to London
on board the RMS _Lusitania_, but Kern missed the boat, having overslept after
staying up late playing poker.[6] Frohman died in the sinking of the ship.[7]
*** Princess Theatre musicals
Kern composed 16 Broadway scores between 1915 and 1920 and also contributed
songs to the London hit _Theodore & Co_ (1916; most of the songs are by the
young Ivor Novello) and to revues like the Ziegfeld Follies. The most notable
of his scores were those for a series of shows written for the Princess
Theatre, a small (299-seat) house built by Ray Comstock. Theatrical agent
Elisabeth Marbury asked Kern and librettist Guy Bolton to create a series of
intimate and low-budget, yet smart, musicals.<ref name=bordman/>
The "Princess Theatre shows" were unique on Broadway not only for their small
size, but their clever, coherent plots, integrated scores and naturalistic
acting, which presented "a sharp contrast to the large-scale Ruritanian
operettas then in vogue"<ref name=grove/> or the star-studded revues and
extravaganzas of producers like Florenz Ziegfeld. Earlier musical comedy had
often been thinly plotted, gaudy pieces, marked by the insertion of songs into
their scores with little regard to the plot. But Kern and Bolton followed the
examples of Gilbert and Sullivan and French _opéra bouffe_ in integrating song
and story. "These shows built and polished the mold from which almost all
later major musical comedies evolved. ... The characters and situations
were, within the limitations of musical comedy license, believable and the
humor came from the situations or the nature of the characters. Kern's
exquisitely flowing melodies were employed to further the action or develop
characterization."<ref name=bordman/> The shows featured modern American
settings and simple scene changes to suit the small theatre.<ref
name=Kenrick>Kenrick, John. _History of The Musical Stage 1910-1919: Part I_
(see http://www.musicals101.com/1910bway.htm)
[url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181009095512/http://www.musicals101.com/1910bway.htm
], accessed May 11, 2010
The team's first Princess Theatre show was an adaptation of Paul Rubens' 1905
London show, _Mr. Popple (of Ippleton)_, called _Nobody Home_ (1915).<ref
name=grove/> The piece ran for 135 performances and was a modest financial
success.<ref name=baker/> However, it did little to fulfill the new team's
mission to innovate, except that Kern's song, "The Magic Melody", was the
first Broadway showtune with a basic jazz progression.<ref name=bordman/> Kern
and Bolton next created an original piece, _Very Good Eddie_, which was a
surprise hit, running for 341 performances, with additional touring
productions that went on into the 1918-19 season.<ref name=baker/> The British
humorist, lyricist and librettist P. G. Wodehouse joined the Princess team
in 1917, adding his skill as a lyricist to the succeeding shows. _Oh, Boy!_
(1917) ran for an extraordinary 463 performances.<ref name=Bloom>Bloom and
Vlastnik, pp. 230–31[8] Other shows written for the theatre were _Have a
Heart_ (1917), _Leave It to Jane_ (1917)[9] and _Oh, Lady! Lady!!_ (1918).[10]
The first opened at another theatre before _Very Good Eddie_ closed. The
second played elsewhere during the long run of _Oh Boy!_<ref name=bordman/> An
anonymous admirer wrote a verse in their praise[11] that begins: right
{{poemquote| This is the trio of musical fame, Bolton and Wodehouse and Kern.
Better than anyone else you can name Bolton and Wodehouse and Kern.[12]}}
In February 1918, Dorothy Parker wrote in _Vanity Fair_: {{blockquote|Well,
Bolton and Wodehouse and Kern have done it again. Every time these three
gather together, the Princess Theatre is sold out for months in advance. You
can get a seat for _Oh, Lady! Lady!!_ somewhere around the middle of August
for just about the price of one on the stock exchange. If you ask me, I will
look you fearlessly in the eye and tell you in low, throbbing tones that it
has it over any other musical comedy in town. But then Bolton and Wodehouse
and Kern are my favorite indoor sport. I like the way they go about a musical
comedy. ... I like the way the action slides casually into the songs. ...
I like the deft rhyming of the song that is always sung in the last act by two
comedians and a comedienne. And oh, how I do like Jerome Kern's music. And
all these things are even more so in _Oh, Lady! Lady!!_ than they were in _Oh,
Boy!_ [13]}}
_Oh, Lady! Lady!!_ was the last successful "Princess Theatre show". Kern and
Wodehouse disagreed over money, and the composer decided to move on to other
projects.[14] Kern's importance to the partnership was illustrated by the fate
of the last musical of the series, _Oh, My Dear!_ (1918), to which he
contributed only one song: "Go, Little Boat". The rest of the show was
composed by Louis Hirsch and ran for 189 performances: "Despite a respectable
run, everyone realized there was little point in continuing the series without
Kern."<ref name=Kenrick/>
*** Early 1920s
right The 1920s were an extremely productive period in American musical
theatre, and Kern created at least one show every year for the entire decade.
His first show of 1920 was _The Night Boat_, with book and lyrics by Anne
Caldwell, which ran for more than 300 performances in New York and for three
seasons on tour.<ref name=baker/> Later in the same year, Kern wrote the score
for _Sally_, with a book by Bolton and lyrics by Otto Harbach. This show,
staged by Florenz Ziegfeld, ran for 570 performances, one of the longest runs
of any Broadway show in the decade, and popularized the song "Look for the
Silver Lining" (which had been written for an earlier show), performed by the
rising star Marilyn Miller. It also had a long run in London in 1921,
produced by George Grossmith Jr.<ref name=baker/> Kern's next shows were _Good
Morning, Dearie_ (1921, with Caldwell) which ran for 347 performances;
followed in 1922 by a West End success, _The Cabaret Girl_ in collaboration
with Grossmith and Wodehouse;[15] another modest success by the same team,
_The Beauty Prize_ (1923); and a Broadway flop, _The Bunch and Judy_,
remembered, if at all, as the first time Kern and Fred Astaire worked
together.<ref name=baker/>
_Stepping Stones_ (1923, with Caldwell) was a success, and in 1924 the
Princess Theatre team of Bolton, Wodehouse and Kern reunited to write _Sitting
Pretty_, but it did not recapture the popularity of the earlier
collaborations.<ref name=oepm>"Kern, Jerome" (see
http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com:80/subscriber/article/epm/14926) .
_Encyclopedia of Popular Music_, Oxford Music Online, accessed May 11, 2010
(requires subscription) Its relative failure may have been partly due to
Kern's growing aversion to having individual songs from his shows performed
out of context on radio, in cabaret, or on record, although his chief
objection was to jazz interpretations of his songs.[date=January 2017] He
called himself a "musical clothier – nothing more or less," and said, "I write
music to both the situations and the lyrics in plays."<ref name=nyt/> When
_Sitting Pretty_ was produced, he forbade any broadcasting or recording of
individual numbers from the show, which limited their chance to gain
popularity.<ref name=baker/>
1925 was a major turning point in Kern's career when he met Oscar Hammerstein
II, with whom he would entertain a lifelong friendship and collaboration. As
a young man, Kern had been an easy companion with great charm and humor, but
he became less outgoing in his middle years, sometimes difficult to work with:
he once introduced himself to a producer by saying, "I hear you're a son of a
bitch. So am I."[16] He rarely collaborated with any one lyricist for long.
With Hammerstein, however, he remained on close terms for the rest of his
life.<ref name=grove/> Their first show, written together with Harbach, was
_Sunny_, which featured the song "Who (Stole My Heart Away)?" Marilyn Miller
played the title role, as she had in _Sally_.<ref name=oepm/> The show ran for
517 performances on Broadway, and the following year ran for 363 performances
in the West End, starring Binnie Hale and Jack Buchanan.[17]
*** _Show Boat_
Because of the strong success of _Sally_ and _Sunny_ and consistent good
results with his other shows, Ziegfeld was willing to gamble on Kern's next
project in 1927. Kern had been impressed by Edna Ferber's novel _Show Boat_
and wished to present a musical stage version.<ref name=nyt/> He persuaded
Hammerstein to adapt it and Ziegfeld to produce it. The story, dealing with
racism, marital strife and alcoholism, was unheard of in the escapist world of
musical comedy. Despite his doubts, Ziegfeld spared no expense in staging the
piece to give it its full epic grandeur. According to the theatre historian
John Kenrick: "After the opening night audience filed out of the Ziegfeld
Theatre in near silence, Ziegfeld thought his worst fears had been confirmed.
He was pleasantly surprised when the next morning brought ecstatic reviews and
long lines at the box office. In fact, _Show Boat_ proved to be the most
lasting accomplishment of Ziegfeld's career – the only one of his shows that
is regularly performed today."<ref name=kenrickshowboat>Kenrick, John. "Three
Landmarks" (see http://www.musicals101.com/1920bway5.htm)
[url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230718135717/http://www.musicals101.com/1920bway5.htm
]. _History of The Musical Stage_, accessed May 11, 2010 The score is,
arguably, Kern's greatest and includes the well-known songs "Ol' Man River"
and "Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man" as well as "Make Believe", "You Are Love",
"Life Upon the Wicked Stage", "Why Do I Love You", all with lyrics by
Hammerstein, and "Bill", originally written for _Oh, Lady! Lady!_, with lyrics
by P. G. Wodehouse.[18] The show ran for 572 performances on Broadway and
was also a success in London.<ref name=kenrickshowboat/>[19] Although Ferber's
novel was filmed unsuccessfully as a part-talkie in 1929 (using some songs
from the Kern score), the musical itself was filmed twice, in 1936, and, with
Technicolor, in 1951.[20] In 1989, a stage version of the musical was
presented on television for the first time, in a production from the Paper
Mill Playhouse telecast by PBS on _Great Performances_.[21]
While most Kern musicals have largely been forgotten, except for their songs,
_Show Boat_ remains well-remembered and frequently seen. It is a staple of
stock productions and has been revived numerous times on Broadway and in
London. A 1946 revival integrated choreography into the show, in the manner
of a Rodgers and Hammerstein production, as did the 1994 Harold Prince–Susan
Stroman revival, which was nominated for ten Tony Awards, winning five,
including best revival. It was the first musical to enter a major opera
company's repertory (New York City Opera, 1954), and the rediscovery of the
1927 score with Robert Russell Bennett's original orchestrations led to a
large-scale EMI recording in 1987 and several opera-house productions.<ref
name=grove/> In 1941, the conductor Artur Rodziński wished to commission a
symphonic suite from the score, but Kern considered himself a songwriter and
not a symphonist. He never orchestrated his own scores, leaving that to
musical assistants, principally Frank Saddler (until 1921) and Robert Russell
Bennett (from 1923).<ref name=grove/> In response to the commission, Kern
oversaw an arrangement by Charles Miller and Emil Gerstenberger of numbers
from the show into the orchestral work _Scenario for Orchestra: Themes from
Show Boat_, premiered in 1941 by the Cleveland Orchestra conducted by
Rodziński.<ref name=nyt/><ref name=baker/>
Kern's last Broadway show in the 1920s was _Sweet Adeline_ (1929), with a
libretto by Hammerstein. It was a period piece, set in the Gay 90s, about a
girl from Hoboken, New Jersey (near Kern's childhood home), who becomes a
Broadway star. Opening just before the stock market crash, it received rave
reviews, but the elaborate, old-fashioned piece was a step back from the
innovations in _Show Boat_, or even the Princess Theatre shows.[22] In January
1929, at the height of the Jazz Age, and with _Show Boat_ still playing on
Broadway, Kern made news on both sides of the Atlantic for reasons wholly
unconnected with music. He sold at auction, at New York's Anderson Galleries,
the collection of English and American literature that he had been building up
for more than a decade. The collection, rich in inscribed first editions and
manuscript material of eighteenth and nineteenth century authors, sold for a
total of $1,729,462.50 ([US]) – a record for a single-owner sale that stood
for over fifty years. Among the books he sold were first or early editions of
poems by Robert Burns and Percy Bysshe Shelley, and works by Jonathan Swift,
Henry Fielding and Charles Dickens, as well as manuscripts by Alexander Pope,
John Keats, Shelley, Lord Byron, Thomas Hardy and others.<ref
name=nyt/>[23]<ref name=times>"Obituary, Mr. Jerome Kern", _The Times_,
February 17, 1947, p. 8
*** First films and later shows
In 1929 Kern made his first trip to Hollywood to supervise the 1929 film
version of _Sally_, one of the first "all-talking" Technicolor films. The
following year, he was there a second time to work on _Men of the Sky_,
released in 1931 without his songs, and a 1930 film version of _Sunny_.<ref
name=baker/> There was a public reaction against the early glut of film
musicals after the advent of film sound; Hollywood released more than 100
musical films in 1930, but only 14 in 1931.[24] Warner Bros. bought out
Kern's contract, and he returned to the stage.<ref name=baker/> He
collaborated with Harbach on the Broadway musical _The Cat and the Fiddle_
(1931), about a composer and an opera singer, featuring the songs "She Didn't
Say Yes" and "The Night Was Made for Love". It ran for 395 performances, a
remarkable success for the Depression years, and transferred to London the
following year.[25] It was filmed in 1934 with Jeanette MacDonald.
_Music in the Air_ (1932) was another Kern-Hammerstein collaboration and
another show-biz plot, best remembered today for "The Song Is You" and "I've
Told Ev'ry Little Star". It was "undoubtedly an operetta", set in the German
countryside, but without the Ruritanian trimmings of the operettas of Kern's
youth.[26] _Roberta_ (1933) by Kern and Harbach included the songs "Smoke Gets
in Your Eyes", "Let's Begin" and "Yesterdays" and featured, among others, Bob
Hope, Fred MacMurray, George Murphy and Sydney Greenstreet all in the early
stages of their careers. Kern's _Three Sisters_ (1934), was his last West End
show, with a libretto by Hammerstein. The musical, depicting horse-racing,
the circus, and class distinctions, was a failure, running for only two
months. Its song "I Won't Dance" was used in the film _Roberta_.[27][28] Some
British critics objected to American writers essaying a British story;[29]
James Agate, doyen of London theatre critics of the day, dismissed it as
"American inanity,"[30] though both Kern and Hammerstein were strong and
knowledgeable Anglophiles.[31] Kern's last Broadway show (other than revivals)
was _Very Warm for May_ (1939), another show-biz story and another
disappointment, although the score included the Kern and Hammerstein classic
"All The Things You Are".<ref name=oepm/>
*** Kern in Hollywood
In 1935, when musical films had become popular once again, thanks to Busby
Berkeley,[32] Kern returned to Hollywood, where he composed the scores to a
dozen more films, although he also continued working on Broadway productions.
He settled permanently in Hollywood in 1937.[33] After suffering a heart
attack in 1939, he was told by his doctors to concentrate on film scores, a
less stressful task, as Hollywood songwriters were not as deeply involved with
the production of their works as Broadway songwriters. This second phase of
Kern's Hollywood career had considerably greater artistic and commercial
success than the first. With Hammerstein, he wrote songs for the film
versions of his recent Broadway shows _Music in the Air_ (1934), which starred
Gloria Swanson in a rare singing role, and _Sweet Adeline_ (1935). With
Dorothy Fields, he composed the new music for _I Dream Too Much_ (1935), a
musical melodrama about the opera world, starring the Metropolitan Opera diva
Lily Pons. Kern and Fields interspersed the opera numbers with their songs,
including "the swinging 'I Got Love,' the lullaby 'The Jockey on the
Carousel,' and the entrancing title song."[34] Also with Fields, he wrote two
new songs, "I Won't Dance" and "Lovely to Look At", for the Fred Astaire and
Ginger Rogers film version of _Roberta_ (1935), which was a hit. The show
also included the song "I'll Be Hard to Handle". This was given a 1952 remake
called _Lovely to Look At_.[35]
Their next film, _Swing Time_ (1936) included the song "The Way You Look
Tonight", which won the Academy Award in 1936 for the best song. Other songs
in _Swing Time_ include "A Fine Romance", "Pick Yourself Up" and "Never Gonna
Dance". _The Oxford Companion to the American Musical_ calls _Swing Time_ "a
strong candidate for the best of the Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers musicals"
and says that, although the screenplay is contrived, it "left plenty of room
for dance and all of it was superb. ... Although the movie is remembered as
one of the great dance musicals, it also boasts one of the best film scores of
the 1930s."[36] For the 1936 film version of _Show Boat_, Kern and Hammerstein
wrote three new songs, including "I Have The Room Above Her" and "Ah Still
Suits Me".<ref name=baker/> _High, Wide, and Handsome_ (1937) was
intentionally similar in plot and style to _Show Boat_, but it was a
box-office failure. Kern songs were also used in the Cary Grant film, _When
You're in Love_ (1937), and the first Abbott and Costello feature, _One Night
in the Tropics_ (1940). In 1940, Hammerstein wrote the lyric "The Last Time I
Saw Paris", in homage to the French capital, recently occupied by the Germans.
Kern set it, the only time he set a pre-written lyric, and his only hit song
not written as part of a musical.<ref name=nyt/> Originally a hit for Tony
Martin and later for Noël Coward, the song was used in the film _Lady Be Good_
(1941) and won Kern another Oscar for best song. Kern's second and last
symphonic work was his 'Mark Twain Suite'' (1942).<ref name=grove/>
In his last Hollywood musicals, Kern worked with several new and distinguished
partners. With Johnny Mercer for _You Were Never Lovelier_ (1942), he
contributed "a set of memorable songs to entertain audiences until the plot
came to its inevitable conclusion".[37] The film starred Astaire and Rita
Hayworth and included the song "I'm Old Fashioned". Kern's next collaboration
was with Ira Gershwin on _Cover Girl_ starring Hayworth and Gene Kelly (1944)
for which Kern composed "Sure Thing","Put Me to the Test," "Make Way for
Tomorrow" (lyric by E. Y. Harburg), and the hit ballad "Long Ago (and Far
Away)".<ref name=HCover>Hischak, Thomas. "Cover Girl" (see
http://www.oxfordreference.com/views/ENTRY.html?subview=Main&entry=t282.e416)
.. _The Oxford Companion to the American Musical_, Oxford University Press
2009. Oxford Reference Online, accessed May 15, 2010 (requires subscription)
For the Deanna Durbin Western musical, _Can't Help Singing_ (1944), with
lyrics by Harburg, Kern "provided the best original score of Durbin's career,
mixing operetta and Broadway sounds in such songs as 'Any Moment Now,' 'Swing
Your Partner,' 'More and More,' and the lilting title number." "More and More"
was nominated for an Oscar.[38]
Kern composed his last film score, _Centennial Summer_ (1946) in which "the
songs were as resplendent as the story and characters were mediocre. ...
Oscar Hammerstein, Leo Robin, and E. Y. Harburg contributed lyrics for
Kern's lovely music, resulting in the soulful ballad 'All Through the Day,'
the rustic 'Cinderella Sue,' the cheerful 'Up With the Lark,' and the torchy
'In Love in Vain.'" "All Through the Day" was another Oscar nominee.[39] The
music of Kern's last two films is notable in the way it developed from his
earlier work. Some of it was too advanced for the film companies; Kern's
biographer, Stephen Banfield, refers to "tonal experimentation ... outlandish
enharmonics" that the studios insisted on cutting.[40] At the same time, in
some ways his music came full circle: having in his youth helped to end the
reigns of the waltz and operetta, he now composed three of his finest waltzes
("Can't Help Singing", "Californ-i-ay" and "Up With the Lark"), the last
having a distinctly operetta-like character.[41]
*** Personal life and death
Kern and his wife, Eva, often vacationed on their yacht _Show Boat_. He
collected rare books and enjoyed betting on horses.[42] At the time of Kern's
death, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer was filming a fictionalized version of his life,
_Till the Clouds Roll By_, which was released in 1946 starring Robert Walker
as Kern.[43] In the film, Kern's songs are sung by Judy Garland, Kathryn
Grayson, June Allyson, Lena Horne, Dinah Shore, Frank Sinatra and Angela
Lansbury, among others, and Gower Champion and Cyd Charisse appear as
dancers.[44] Many of the biographical elements are fictionalized.[45]
In the fall of 1945, Kern returned to New York City to oversee auditions for a
new revival of _Show Boat_, and began to work on the score for what would
become the musical _Annie Get Your Gun_, to be produced by Rodgers and
Hammerstein. On November 5, 1945, at 60 years of age, he suffered a cerebral
hemorrhage while walking at the corner of Park Avenue and 57th Street.[46]
Identifiable only by his ASCAP card, Kern was initially taken to the indigent
ward at City Hospital, later being transferred to Doctors Hospital in
Manhattan. Hammerstein was at his side when Kern's breathing stopped.
Hammerstein hummed or sang the song "I've Told Ev'ry Little Star" from _Music
in the Air_ (a personal favorite of the composer's) into Kern's ear.
Receiving no response, Hammerstein realized Kern had died.[47] Rodgers and
Hammerstein then assigned the task of writing the score for _Annie Get Your
Gun_ to the veteran Broadway composer Irving Berlin.<ref name=grove/>
Kern is interred at Ferncliff Cemetery in Westchester County, New York. His
daughter, Elizabeth "Betty" Jane Kern (1918–1996)[48] married Artie Shaw in
1942 and later Jack Cummings.<ref name=nyt/> Kern's wife eventually remarried,
to a singer named George Byron.[49]
** Accolades
Jerome Kern was nominated eight times for an Academy Award, and won twice.
Seven nominations were for Best Original Song; these included a posthumous
nomination in each of 1945 and 1946. One nomination was in 1945 for Best
Original Music Score. Kern was not eligible for any Tony Awards, which were
not created until 1947. In 1976, _Very Good Eddie_ was nominated for a Drama
Desk Award as Outstanding Revival, and the director and actors received
various Tony, Drama Desk and other awards and nominations. Elisabeth Welsh
was nominated for a Tony Award for her performance in _Jerome Kern Goes to
Hollywood_ in 1986, and _Show Boat_ received Tony nominations in both 1983 and
1995, winning for best revival in 1995 (among numerous other awards and
nominations), and won the Laurence Olivier Award for best revival in 2008. In
1986, _Big Deal_ was nominated for the Tony for best musical, among other
awards, and Bob Fosse won as best choreographer. In 2000, _Swing!_, featuring
Kern's "I Won't Dance" was nominated for the Tony for Best Musical, among
others. In 2002, _Elaine Stritch at Liberty_, featuring Kern's "All in Fun",
won the Tony Award for Best Special Theatrical Event. In 2004, _Never Gonna
Dance_ received two Tony nominations.
Kern was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame posthumously, in 1970. In
1985, the U.S. Post Office issued a postage stamp (Scott #2110, 22¢), with an
illustration of Kern holding sheet music. The Grateful Dead guitarist Jerry
Garcia was named after Kern by his Dixieland bandleader father.[50]
*** Academy Award for Best Original Song
- 1935 – Nominated for "Lovely to Look At" (lyrics by Dorothy Fields and Jimmy McHugh) from _Roberta_
- 1936 – WON for " The Way You Look Tonight " (lyrics by Dorothy Fields) from _Swing Time_
- 1941 – WON for " The Last Time I Saw Paris " (lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II) from _Lady Be Good_
- 1942 – Nominated for "Dearly Beloved" (lyrics by Johnny Mercer) from _You Were Never Lovelier_ .
- 1944 – Nominated for " Long Ago (and Far Away) " (lyrics by Ira Gershwin) from _Cover Girl_
- 1945 – Posthumously nominated for "More and More" (lyrics by E. Y. Harburg) from _Can't Help Singing_
- 1946 – Posthumously nominated for "All Through the Day" (lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II) from _Centennial Summer_ .
*** Academy Award for Best Original Music Score
- 1945 – Posthumously nominated for _Can't Help Singing_ (with H. J. Salter).
** Selected works
Note: All shows listed are musical comedies for which Kern was the sole
composer unless otherwise specified.
During his first phase of work (1904–1911), Kern wrote songs for 22 Broadway
productions, including songs interpolated into British musicals or featured in
revues (sometimes writing lyrics as well as music), and he occasionally
co-wrote musicals with one or two other composers. During visits to London
beginning in 1905, he also composed songs that were first performed in several
London shows. The following are some of the most notable such shows from this
period:<ref name=grove/>
- _Mr. Wix of Wickham_ (1904) – contributed most of the songs for this musical's New York production
- _The Catch of the Season_ (1905) – contributor to this Seymour Hicks musical's New York production
- _The Earl and the Girl_ (1905) – contributor of music and lyrics to this Hicks and Ivan Caryll musical's American productions
- _The Little Cherub_ (1906) – contributor to this Caryll and Owen Hall musical's New York production
- _The Rich Mr. Hoggenheimer_ (1906) – contributor of eight songs
- _The Beauty of Bath_ (1906) – contributor to the original London production of this Hicks musical, with lyricist P. G. Wodehouse
- _The Orchid_ (1907) – contributor to this Caryll and Lionel Monckton musical's New York production
- _The Girls of Gottenberg_ (1908) – contributor of "I Can't Say That You're The Only One" to this Caryll and Monckton musical's New York production
- _Fluffy Ruffles_ (1908) – co-composer for eight out of ten songs
- _The Dollar Princess_ (1909) – contributor of songs for American production
- _Our Miss Gibbs_ (1910) – contributor of four songs and some lyrics to this Caryll and Monckton musical's New York production
- _La Belle Paree_ (1911) – revue – co-composer for seven songs; the Broadway debut of Al Jolson
From 1912 to 1924, the more-experienced Kern began to work on dramatically
concerned shows, including incidental music for plays, and, for the first time
since his college show _Uncle Tom's Cabin_, he wrote musicals as the sole
composer. His regular lyricist collaborators for his more than 30 shows
during this period were Bolton, Wodehouse, Caldwell, Harry B. Smith and
Howard Dietz. Some of his most notable shows during this very productive
period were as follows: [col-begin] [col-2]
- _The "Mind-the-Paint" Girl_ (1912 play; starring Billie Burke ) – incidental music
- _The Red Petticoat_ (1912) – Kern's first complete score
- _To-Night's the Night_ (1914) – contributor of two songs to this Rubens musical
- _The Girl from Utah_ (1914) – added five songs to the American production of this Rubens musical
- _Nobody Home_ (1915) – the first "Princess Theatre show"
- _Very Good Eddie_ (1915; revived in 1975)
- _Ziegfeld Follies of 1916_ (1916; a revue ; the first of many) – contributed four songs
- _Theodore & Co_ (1916) – contributed four songs to young Ivor Novello 's London hit.
- _Miss 1917_ - the musical comedy
- _Miss Springtime_ (1917) – contributor of two songs to this Emmerich Kalman success
- _Have a Heart_ (1917) – composer and contributor of some lyrics [51]
- _Love O' Mike_ (1917)
[col-break]
- _Oh, Boy!_ (1917) – the most successful Princess Theatre show
- _Ziegfeld Follies of 1917_ (1917) – contributor of "Because You Are Just You (Just Because You're You)"
- _Leave It to Jane_ (1917; revived in 1958 Off-Broadway)
- _Oh, Lady! Lady!!_ (1918) – the last Princess Theatre hit
- "Oh, My Dear" (1918) – contributed one song to this last "Princess Theatre show"
- _The Night Boat_ (1920)
- _Hitchy-Koo of 1920_ (1920) – revue
- _Sally_ (1920; revived in 1923 and 1948) – one of Kern's biggest hits
- _The Cabaret Girl_ (London 1922)
- _The Bunch and Judy_ (1922) – Kern's first show with Fred Astaire
- _Stepping Stones_ (1923)
[col-end]
During the last phase of his theatrical composing career, Kern continued to
work with his previous collaborators but also met Oscar Hammerstein II and
Otto Harbach, with whom Kern wrote his most lasting, memorable, and well-known
works. The most successful of these are as follows:
- _Sunny_ (1925) – a follow-up to _Sally_ and almost as big a hit; first collaboration with Hammerstein and Harbach
- _Criss Cross_ (1926) – with Harbach
- _Show Boat_ (1927; revived frequently) – with Hammerstein
- _Blue Eyes_ (1928; London)
- _Sweet Adeline_ (1929) – with Hammerstein
- _The Cat and the Fiddle_ (1931) – Kern collaborated with Harbach the music, book and lyrics
- _Music in the Air_ (1932; revived in 1951) – composer and co- director with Hammerstein
- _Roberta_ (1933) – with Harbach (remade as _Lovely to Look At_ (1952)) [52]
- _Three Sisters_ (1934; London)
- _Mamba's Daughters_ (1939; revived in 1940) – play – featured songwriter
- _Very Warm for May_ (1939) – with Hammerstein; Kern's last stage musical, and a failure
In addition to revivals of his most popular shows, Kern's music has been
posthumously featured in a variety of revues, musicals and concerts on and off
Broadway.
- _Jerome Kern Goes to Hollywood_ (1986) – Broadway revue consisting solely of Kern songs with lyrics by twelve different writers
- _Big Deal_ (1986) – a Bob Fosse dance revue; includes "Pick Yourself Up"
- _Something Wonderful_ (1995) – concert celebrating Oscar Hammerstein II 's 100th birthday – featured composer
- _Dream_ (1997) – revue – includes "You Were Never Lovelier", "I'm Old Fashioned", and "Dearly Beloved"
- _Swing!_ (1999) – dance revue; includes "I Won't Dance"
- _Elaine Stritch at Liberty_ (2002) – one-woman show; included "All In Fun"
- _Never Gonna Dance_ (2003) – musical consisting solely of songs composed by Kern, with lyrics by nine different writers
- _Jerome Kern: All the Things You Are_ (2008) – K T Sullivan's revue biography of Kern featuring Kern's songs
- _Come Fly Away_ – a Twyla Tharp dance revue; includes "Pick Yourself Up"
** Kern's songs
[List of Jerome Kern songs]
Among the more than 700 songs by Kern are such classics as "They Didn't
Believe Me" (1914), "Look for the Silver Lining" (1920), "Ol' Man River",
"Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man", "Make Believe", "You Are Love" and "Bill" (all
from _Show Boat_, 1927), "The Song Is You" (1932), "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes",
"Yesterdays" and "Let's Begin" (all from _Roberta_, 1933), "I Won't Dance"
(1935), "A Fine Romance" and the Academy Award-winning "The Way You Look
Tonight" (both from _Swing Time_, 1936), "All the Things You Are" (1939) and
"I'm Old Fashioned" (1942).[53] Another Oscar winner was "The Last Time I Saw
Paris".<ref name=nyt/>[54] One of Kern's last hits was "Long Ago (and Far
Away)" (1944).<ref name=HCover/>
** Notes
[reflist]
** References
- Banfield, Stephen and Geoffrey Holden Block. _Jerome Kern_ , New Haven, Connecticut, Yale University Press, 2006. [978-0-300-11047-0]
- Blackman, Michael Ernest (1989). _A short history of Walton-on-Thames_ , Walton and Weybridge Local History Society. [24159639] .
- Block, G. "Show Boat: In the Beginning", _Enchanted Evenings: the Broadway Musical from 'Show Boat' to Sondheim_ (New York, 1997), pp, 19–40; 319–24
- Bloom, Ken and Vlastnik, Frank. _Broadway Musicals: The 101 Greatest Shows of all Time._ Black Dog & Leventhal Publishers, New York, 2004. [1-57912-390-2]
- Bordman, Gerald . _Jerome Kern: his Life and Music_ (New York, 1980)
- Davis, L. _Bolton and Wodehouse and Kern: the Men who made Musical Comedy_ (New York, 1993)
- Denison, Chuck, and Duncan Schiedt. _The Great American Songbook_ . Bandon, Oregon, Robert D. Reed Publishers, 2004. [978-1-931741-42-2] .
- Ewen, D. _The World of Jerome Kern_ (New York, 1960)
- Fordin, Hugh. _Jerome Kern: the Man and his Music_ Santa Monica, CA, 1975
- Freedland, M. _Jerome Kern: a Biography_ (London, 1978)
- Green, Benny. _P. G. Wodehouse – A Literary Biography_ , Pavilion Books, London, 1981. [0-907516-04-1]
- Green, Kay (ed.) _Broadway Musicals, Show by Show_ , Hal Leonard Corporation, 1996. [0-793577-50-0]
- Jasen, David. _P. G. Wodehouse – Portrait of a Master_ , Garnstone Press, London, 1972. [0-85511-190-9]
- Lamb, Andrew. _Jerome Kern in Edwardian London_ (Littlehampton, 1981; 1985)
- McLean, Lorraine Arnal. _Dorothy Donnelly_ . Jefferson, North Carolina, McFarlan, 1999. [978-0-7864-0677-7] .
- Wilder, A. '' American Popular Song: the Great Innovators, 1900–1950 {"content": "''", "type": "DELIM", "wikinode": "WikiDelimNode"} (New York, 1972)
** External links
[Author:Jerome Kern] [Jerome Kern]
- Jerome Kern's biography (see https://web.archive.org/web/20080402041908/http://www.songwritershalloffame.org/exhibit_home_page.asp?exhibitId=67) at the "Songwriters Hall of Fame".
- [IBDB name]
- [11862]
- [6153]
- "Dorothy Fields on Kern" (see https://web.archive.org/web/20071017103228/http://dorothyfields.co.uk/fieldsonkern.htm) at the Dorothy Fields website (see http://www.dorothyfields.co.uk/) ; describes circumstances of the composer's death.
- Jerome Kern Collection (see https://hdl.loc.gov/loc.music/eadmus.mu002004) at the Library of Congress
- Jerome Kern recordings (see https://adp.library.ucsb.edu/names/102963) at the Discography of American Historical Recordings .
- [id=Kern, Jerome]
[AcademyAwardBestOriginalSong 1934–1940] [Authority control]
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