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| - | {{Музыкант
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| - | | Имя = И́рвинг Б́ерлин
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| - | | Подпись = Irving Berlin
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| - | | Фото = Irving Berlin NYWTS.jpg
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| - | | Описание_фото =
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| - | | Полное_имя = Израиль Моисеевич Бейлин
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| - | | Дата_рождения = {{ДатаРождения|11|05|1888}}
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| - | | Место_рождения = [[Тюмень]]
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| - | | Дата_смерти = {{ДатаСмерти|22|09|1989}} (101 год)
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| - | | Место_смерти = [[Нью-Йорк]]
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| - | | Страна = США
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| - | | Профессии = [[композитор]]
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| - | '''Ирвинг Берлин''' ({{lang-en|Irving Berlin}}; наст. имя ''Израиль Исидор Бейлин'', ''Израиль Моисеевич Бейлин''<ref>[http://www.ellisisland.org/search/passRecord.asp?pID=102838061126 Passenger Record for Israel Beilin]</ref>; 11 мая 1888, Тюмень, Российская империя — 22 сентября 1989, [[США]]) — американский композитор, который написал более 900 песен, 19 мюзиклов и музыку к 18 кинофильмам, в том числе знаменитую песню ''«God Bless America» ("Боже, благослови Америку")'', считается одним из величайших композиторов в американской истории..
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| - | == Биография ==
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| - | Считается, что Ирвинг Берлин родился в Тюмени - ''одном из местечек в районе [[Могилёв]]а'', [[Белоруссия]]<ref>Не путать с сибирским городом!</ref><ref>[http://www.sem40.ru/ourpeople/famous/17769/ Центральный Еврейский Ресурс]</ref><ref>[http://usa-test.ur.ru/ru/uslinks U.S. Virtual Consulate Tyumen]</ref><ref>[http://www.sem40.ru/famous2/m1424.shtml ''Сиротин А.'' Еврей из Тюмени - гордость Америки]</ref><ref>[http://www.jewish.ru/news/culture/2004/05/prn_news994201436.php Jewish.ru]</ref> в семье Моисея и Леи Бейлиных. В то же время в своих интервью 1930-1940 годов И. Берлин рассказывал, что появился на свет в [[Могилёв]]е. Но когда [[Спилберг, Стивен|Стивен Спилберг]] в 1980-х годах задумал снимать фильм о Берлине и встречался по этому поводу с композитором, тот неожиданно поведал, что на самом деле он родом из [[Тобольск]]а.<ref>[http://www.radiorus.ru/issue.html?iid=160600&rid= "Мюзик-холл": американская музыка - это он.]</ref>
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| - | Его отец был [[хазан]]ом в [[Синагога|синагоге]]. Берлин вспоминал впоследствии, как их дом на его глазах сгорел дотла, подожжённый погромщиками.<ref name=Bergreen>Bergreen, Laurence. ''As Thousands Cheer'', Viking Penguin, 1990</ref>{{rp|10}}<ref name=Whitcomb>Whitcomb, Ian. ''Irving Berlin and Ragtime America'', Limelight Editions (1988)</ref>{{rp|19}}
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| - | Вскоре после рождения будущего композитора семья переехала в белорусский [[Толочин]]. Уже оттуда Бейлины нелегально бежали через границу и через порт [[Антверпен]] на корабле "Rhynland" отправились в [[Нью-Йорк]], США,<ref name=Whitcomb/>{{rp|14}} куда прибыли 14 сентября 1893 года.
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| - | Израиль Бейлин вырос на [[Манхэттен]]е, в районе Нижнего Ист-Сайда (''Lower East-Side''), где жило много иммигрантов из России и Восточной Европы. Рано оставшись без отца, И. Бейлин пошёл работать, проучившись в школе только 2 года. Будущий композитор успел поработать посыльным в лавке, разносчиком газет, официантом в музыкальном кафе. По заказу хозяина кафе 16-летний официант написал свою первую песню, «Мэри из солнечной Италии». Гонорар автора составил 37 центов.<ref>[http://www.vilavi.ru/pes/230808/230808.shtml Супер-пупер, или Всё в шоколаде.]</ref>
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| - | В 1907 году будущий композитор захотел впервые издать песню, а наборщики в типографии по небрежности исказили имя заказчика. Благодаря этой ошибке композитор вошёл в историю под фамилией '''Берлин'''. Правда, история умалчивает о причине превращения имени Израиль в Ирвинг.
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| - | Ирвинг Берлин умер во сне 22 сентября 1989 года. Его зять известил об этом прессу, и когда его спросили, умер ли Берлин от какой-либо болезни, он ответил: «Нет, ему был 101 год, он просто уснул». | + | |
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| - | Незадолго перед этим покинувший пост президента США [[Рейган, Рональд Уилсон|Рональд Рейган]], которому Берлин когда-то советовал подумать о карьере артиста, прислал на смерть композитора соболезнование. А действующий президент [[Буш, Джордж Герберт Уокер|Джордж Буш-старший]] на похоронной церемонии в [[Бостон]]е возглавил траурную колонну, певшую «God Bless America», а затем выступил с речью, в которой назвал И. Берлина «легендарным человеком, чьи слова и музыка будут помогать пониманию истории нашего народа».<ref>[http://www.vestnik.com/issues/2000/1205/win/nekhamkin.htm ''Нехамкин Э.'' Пять песен Ирвинга Берлина.]</ref>
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| - | По мотивам жизни Ирвинга Берлина, символизирующей собой воплощение «американской мечты», в 1986 году снят мультфильм «Американский хвост» (An American Tail), продюсером которого выступил [[Спилберг, Стивен|Стивен Спилберг]].
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| - | == Творчество ==
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| - | Американский композитор [[Керн, Джером|Джером Керн]] заявил:
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| - | {{quote|Говорить о месте Ирвинга Берлина в истории американской музыки невозможно, ибо он сам — эта история!<ref>[http://www.nytimes.com/1987/05/10/arts/pop-view-irving-berlin-s-american-landscape.html?scp=1&sq=Irving%20Berlin's%20American%20landscape&st=cse "Pop View; Irving Berlin's American Landscape" New York Times, May 10, 1987]</ref>}}
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| - | Композитор [[Гершвин, Джордж|Джордж Гершвин]] назвал его "величайшим песенным композитором, который когда-либо жил",<ref>Wyatt, Robert; Johnson, John A. The George Gershwin Reader, Oxford Univ. Press (2004)</ref>
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| - | Влияние И. Берлина на создание американской песни вполне сравнимо с влиянием [[Исаак Дунаевский|Исаака Дунаевского]] на создание советской песни. Он писал музыку и тексты в американском народном стиле.
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| - | За свою жизнь И. Берлин создал полторы тысячи песен (из которых 50 считаются хитами), написал музыку для 19 театральных постановок и 15 фильмов. Его песни 25 раз занимали первые места в хит-парадах, их исполняли самые знаменитые певцы Америки.
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| - | Первое признание композитору принесла песня «Александр рэгтайм бенд» (1912), вызвавший "танцевальное безумие" во всей Европе, вплоть до России.
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| - | Самое же известное произведение Берлина — гимн «Боже, благослови Америку» (God Bless America), считающийся неофициальным гимном США (1918). Гимн написан для бродвейского шоу «Гип-гип, Яфанк!», но автор посчитал песню не соответствующей юмористическому характеру спектакля. Поэтому премьера песни отсрочилась ровно на 20 лет, к кануну Второй мировой войны. Причём И. Берлин с трудом разыскал потом песню и изменил в ней несколько фраз.
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| - | Впервые песня прозвучала по радио вечером 11 ноября 1938 года. А уже через 7 месяцев во время исполнения песни на День Поминовения в Бруклине собравшиеся встали и сняли шляпы, как при исполнении национального гимна. В том же 1939 году Кейт Смит спела «God Bless America» на Всемирной выставке в [[Нью-Йорк]]е. К этому времени было продано свыше 400 тысяч экземпляров песни.
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| - | Песня «Боже, благослови Америку» вошла в патриотический мюзикл «Это армия». Посмотрев мюзикл в феврале 1944 года, генерал [[Эйзенхауэр, Дуайт Дэвид|Эйзенхауэр]] настоял на том, чтобы спектакль показывали на всех фронтах. В итоге за полтора года мюзикл увидели 2,5 млн. зрителей по всему американскому театру военных действий.
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| - | Права на песню и все доходы (на ней заработано шесть миллионов долларов) Берлин подарил скаутской организации «New York City Scouts Youth Organization» со словами:
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| - | {{quote|На патриотизме зарабатывать нельзя.}}
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| - | Также среди наиболее известных произведений Берлина — песня «Puttin' on the Ritz» (1929), которую называют неофициальным гимном Голливуда, и «The White Christmas» ("Белое Рождество") — один из культовых символов рождественских праздников в Америке.
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| - | Песня «White Christmas» дебютировала в 1942 году в фильме «Отель на праздники» («Holiday Inn») в исполнении Бинга Кросби. Поначалу песня не произвела впечатления. Но затем её стали петь американские солдаты, сражающиеся за рубежом на полях [[Вторая мировая война|Второй мировой войны]]. Песня выражала их тоску по дому и родным. Уже будучи глубоким стариком, Берлин услышал «White Christmas» в исполнении [[Пресли, Элвис|Элвиса Пресли]] и пришёл в ужас. «White Christmas» вошла в Книгу рекордов Гиннесса как самая продаваемая песня XX века: продано более 30 миллионов пластинок.<ref>[http://a-pesni.golosa.info/drugije/a-narodp.htm ''Клигман Л.'' «Народные» песни и их создатели.]</ref><ref>[http://www.lebed.com/2001/art2535.htm ''Вергасов Ф.'' Джазовая импровизация.]</ref>
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| - | Рождению своего первого ребёнка автор американского гимна посвятил «Русскую колыбельную» (Russian Lullaby), которая была признана лучшей песней 1927 года.
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| - | == Награды и почести ==
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| - | * Получил армейскую медаль за заслуги 2 октября 1945 от генерала Джорджа К. Маршалла по указанию президента [[Трумен, Гарри|Гарри Трумэна]], за написание музыки и текстов спектакля "Это армия".
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| - | * Премия ''Tony'' в 1951 году за лучшую музыку к мюзиклу ''Call Me Мадам''.
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| - | * Получил специальную Золотую медаль Конгресса в 1954 году от президента [[Эйзенхауэр, Дуайт|Дуайта Эйзенхауэр]] за создание песни "God Bless America". Берлин также написал три песни для его избирательной кампании, в том числе "I Like Ike».
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| - | * Получил специальную премию ''Tony'' (Нью-Йорк) в 1963 году за вклад в американский мюзикл.
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| - | * Премия ''Грэмми'' за заслуги в 1968 году.
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| - | * Помещён в Зал славы сочинителей в 1970 году.
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| - | * Награждён Президентской медалью Свободы в 1977 году президентом [[Форд, Джеральд (старший)|Джеральдом Фордом]]
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| - | * Получил премию ''Tony'' ''Лоуренса Лангнера'' (Нью-Йорк) в 1978 году за выдающуюся жизнь в американском театре.
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| - | * Награжден (заочно) Медалью Свободы в ходе празднования столетия Статуи Свободы в 1986 году.
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| - | * Празднование столетнего юбилея - концерт в пользу ''Карнеги-Холла'' и ''ASCAP'' 11 мая 1988 года.
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| - | * Отмечен звездой на Голливудской аллее славы.
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| - | == Музыкальные произведения ==
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| - | Приведенный ниже список включает в себя основные производения Берлина. Хотя некоторые из пьес, где звучат его песни были позже переделаны в сценарии к фильмам, список не будет включать в себя фильм, если он не был основным композитором.<ref name=Bergreen/>
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| - | === Произведения ===
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| - | {{col-begin}}
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| - | {{col-break}}
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| - | *"Watch Your Step" (1914)
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| - | *"Stop! Look! Listen!" (1915)
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| - | *"The Century Girl" (1916)
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| - | *"Yip Yip Yaphank" (1918)
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| - | *"Ziegfeld Follies" (1919)
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| - | *"Music Box Revue" (1921)
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| - | *"Music Box Revue" (1922)
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| - | *"Music Box Revue" (1923)
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| - | *"Music Box Revue" (1924)
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| - | {{col-break}}
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| - | *"The Cocoanuts" (1925)
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| - | *"Face the Music" (1932)
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| - | *"As Thousands Cheer" (1933)
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| - | *"Louisiana Purchase" (1940)
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| - | *"This Is the Army" (1942)
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| - | *"Annie Get Your Gun" (1946)
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| - | *"Miss Liberty" (1949)
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| - | *"Call Me Madam" (1950)
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| - | *"Mr. President" (1962)
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| - | {{col-end}}
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| - | === Список фильмов ===
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| - | {{col-begin}}
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| - | {{col-break}}
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| - | *''The Cocoanuts'' (1929)
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| - | *''Puttin' on the Ritz'' (1930)
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| - | *''Top Hat'' (1935)
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| - | *''Follow the Fleet'' (1936)
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| - | *''On the Avenue'' (1937)
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| - | *''Carefree'' (1938)
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| - | *''Alexander's Ragtime Band'' (1938)
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| - | *''Second Fiddle'' (1939)
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| - | {{col-break}}
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| - | *''Holiday Inn'' (1942)
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| - | *''This Is the Army'' (1943)
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| - | *''Easter Parade'' (1948)
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| - | *''Annie Get Your Gun'' (1950)
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| - | *''Call Me Madam'' (1953)
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| - | *''There's No Business Like Show Business'' (1954)
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| - | *''White Christmas'' (1954)
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| - | {{col-end}}
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| - | == Списки песен ==
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| - | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_850_Irving_Berlin_songs List of 850 Irving Berlin songs]
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| - | === Записи ===
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| - | * [http://www.amazon.com/gp/recsradio/radio/B00000HZEP?refTagSuffix=dp_img "Irving Berlin In Hollywood (Film Score Anthology)"] Song clips
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| - | * [http://www.amazon.com/gp/recsradio/radio/B00000477K?refTagSuffix=dp_img "Irving Berlin Always"] Song clips
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| - | * [http://www.amazon.com/gp/recsradio/radio/B00000470P?refTagSuffix=dp_img "Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Irving Berlin Songbook"] Song clips
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| - | * [http://www.amazon.com/gp/recsradio/radio/B000002648?refTagSuffix=dp_img "Irving Berlin: A Hundred Years"] Song clips
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| - | * [http://www.amazon.com/gp/recsradio/radio/B000001HKL?refTagSuffix=dp_img "The Melody Lingers On: 25 Songs Of Irving Berlin"] Song clips
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| - | * [http://www.amazon.com/gp/recsradio/radio/B00004ZDYZ?refTagSuffix=dp_img "Annie Get Your Gun" (film)] score samples
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| - | * [http://www.amazon.com/gp/recsradio/radio/B00004VVZX?refTagSuffix=dp_img "Annie Get Your Gun (Broadway play)] song samples
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| - | * [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QfQ3f46DcO4&feature=related "How Deep is the Ocean"—Frank Sinatra]
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| - | * [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQD4uRZ51ng "What'll I Do?"—Harry Nilsson]
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| - | * [http://www.loc.gov/jukebox/recordings/detail/id/3521 The International Rag at the Library of Congress Jukebox]
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| - | === Видеозаписи ===
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| - | * [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B5UsQslkZQg "Ordway Center Spotlight on Irving Berlin"] Presentation by [[James Rocco]], V.P. [[Ordway Center for the Performing Arts|Performing Arts]], 8 min.
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| - | * [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ydibzweY6Fc Kaye Ballard Tribute 8 min.]
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| - | * [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LH5tSDBH5gs 1982 Oscars Tribute part 2 videos 7 min.]
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| - | * [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=09Gj7mJbPPc "God Bless America"—sung by Kate Smith];
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| - | * [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6LSarhZpnMs sung by Celine Dion];
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| - | * [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4x4uRUQF9bo&NR=1&feature=fvwp with Irving Berlin]
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| - | * [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t1j5wzMJoaI "Always" Frank Sinatra at Irving Berlin's 100th birthday celebration]
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| - | * [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q77wqDDUDsc "Easter Parade" movie trailer]
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| - | * [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JY7Hh5PzELo "Annie Get Your Gun" "Anything You Can Do"];
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| - | * [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EGxihHkK9MM "Col. Buffalo Bill"]
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| - | * [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9TLosFQFtWU "Alexander's Ragtime Band" movie trailer]
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| - | * [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8hTLZz2hUOA "Follow the Fleet", Fred Astaire on piano]
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| - | * [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3FpsaBqF4sU "A Cheer for the Navy"];
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| - | * [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=150hLZPeYqg Finale scene from "This is the Army"]
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| - | * [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TnfKmNRfLYU "Let's Face The Music And Dance"] with Nat King Cole;
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| - | * [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=18No22_j_bM version] by Diana Krall
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| - | * [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WSCplj40uuY&feature=player_embedded#! "Blue Skies" Willie Nelson];
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| - | * [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Djd1XfwDAQs Al Jolson in "The Jazz Singer" 1927]
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| - | * [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vbMpecOKoDY "Top Hat" movie trailer]
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| - | * [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HYHZh-xnqhE "Cheek to Cheek"] with Fred Astaire & Ginger Rogers
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| - | * [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d1KQAHPsAdY "There's No Business Like Show Business"] movie trailer (1954);
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| - | * [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xg7ooDfP0uo Song clip]
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| - | * [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jmxrqnwiwbg "Shakin' the Blues Away" with—Doris Day]
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| - | * [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SAPasm6a9YM&feature=related "White Christmas" movie trailer]—[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FaEoaaBG51g "White Christmas" Broadway promo]
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| - | * [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DM7rNNzO7uw "Play a Simple Melody" by Greater Boston Intergenerational Chorus]
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| - | * [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_ZTPgugIB8 "I've Got My Love to Keep Me Warm" with Dick Powell & Alice Faye]; [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ebmUpTCtJXE version with] Frank Sinatra
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| - | * [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hrzo5SPaOvg "A Couple of Swells" with Judy Garland & Fred Astaire]
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| - | * [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eLh-m1Z_feY "Always" with Frank Sinatra slide show]
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| - | * [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BIZW3F5Z6XE "Russian Lullaby" (written 1927) with Jacques Gauthe & jazz group]
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| - | * [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IFabjc6mFk4 "Puttin' on the Ritz" with Fred Astaire];
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| - | * [http://www.youtube.com/user/BachScholar#p/search/0/w4UpUkDH_7A played by Cory Hall];
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| - | * [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8GzLb1ve0uQ piano solo with Jim Hession]
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| - | == Источники и ссылки ==
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| - | * [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irving_Berlin Статья "Irving Berlin" в английском разделе Википедии]
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| - | * [http://www.ellisisland.org/genealogy/ellis_island_famous_arrivals.asp Исторический архив, Элис-Айленд]{{ref-en}}
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| - | * [http://www.rusnetusa.com/reference/showart.asp?idref=482 Russian Network USA]
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| - | * [http://eisenhower.archives.gov/Research/Finding_Aids/B.html Papers of Irving Berlin, Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library]
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| - | * [http://www.ibdb.com/person.php?id=6452 Irving Berlin at the Internet Broadway Database]
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| - | * [http://www.lortel.org/LLA_archive/index.cfm?search_by=people&first=Irving&last=Berlin&middle= Irving Berlin at the Internet Off-Broadway Database]
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| - | * [http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000927/ Irving Berlin at the Internet Movie Database]
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| - | * [http://www.irvingberlin.com/ Irving Berlin Music Company]
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| - | * [http://www.pbs.org/wnet/gperf/shows/songbook/multimedia/bio_berlin.html PBS page on Irving Berlin], part of their ''[[Great Performances]]'' series
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| - | * [http://www.straightdope.com/columns/060728.html If Irving Berlin could not read or write music, how did he compose?] (from ''[[The Straight Dope]]'')
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| - | * [http://www.newworldrecords.org/liner_notes/80238.pdf Liner notes for ''The Vintage Irving Berlin'', New World Records NW 238]
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| - | * [http://catnyp.nypl.org/record=b7113133 Irving Berlin collection of non-commercial sound recordings], at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts
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| - | * [http://www.judy-garland.org/ep/index.html The Judy Room "Easter Parade" section]
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| - | * [http://ncohistory.com/files/RemarkableSgts.pdf Remarkable Sergeants: Ten Vignettes of Noteworthy NCOs] Elder, Daniel K.
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| - | * [http://www.armymwr.com/portal/recreation/entertainment/armysoldiershow U.S. Army Soldier Show]
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| - | * [http://www.5thavenue.org/showsandtickets/content/bio-irvingberlin.aspx Irving Berlin | 5th Avenue Theatre]
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| - | * [http://www.broadwayworld.com/tonyawardssearch.cfm Tony Awards]
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| - | * [http://songwritershalloffame.org/exhibits/C3 Songwriters Hall of Fame—Irving Berlin]
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| - | * [http://imslp.org/wiki/Category:Berlin,_Irving Free scores by Irving Berlin at the International Music Score Library Project]
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| - | == Литература ==
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| - | * {{cite book | author = Barrett, Mary Ellin | title = Irving Berlin: A Daughter's Memoir | year = 1994 | isbn = 0-671-72533-5}}
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| - | * David Carson Berry (2001). “Gambling with Chromaticism? Extra-Diatonic Melodic Expression in the Songs of Irving Berlin,” ''Theory and Practice'' 26, 21–85.
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| - | * David Carson Berry (1999). “Dynamic Introductions: The Affective Role of Melodic Ascent and Other Linear Devices in Selected Song Verses of Irving Berlin,” ''Intégral'' 13, 1–62.
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| - | *{{cite book | author = Hischak, Thomas S. | title = Word Crazy, Broadway Lyricists from Cohan to Sondheim | year = 1991 | isbn = 0-275-93849-2}}
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| - | * {{cite book | author = Rosen, Jody |title = White Christmas: The Story of an American Song | year = 2002 | isbn = 0-743-21875-2 }}
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| - | == Примечания ==
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| - | {{Commonscat|Irving Berlin}}
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| - | [[Категория:Персоналии по алфавиту]]
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| - | [[Категория:Евреи в США/Канаде]]
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| - | [[Категория:Еврейские музыканты]]
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| - | ====Settling in New York City====
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| - | They eventually settled on Cherry Street, a "cold-water basement flat with no windows,"<ref name=Whitcomb/> on the [[Lower East Side]]. His father, unable to find comparable work as a cantor in New York, took a job at a [[kosher]] meat market and gave Hebrew lessons on the side, and struggled to support his family. He died a few years later when Irving was thirteen years old. With only a few years of schooling, Irving found it necessary to take to the streets to help support his family.<ref name=NYT-obit>[http://www.nytimes.com/1989/09/23/obituaries/irving-berlin-nation-s-songwriter-dies.html?scp=2&sq=Irving%20Berlin%20dies&st=cse&pagewanted=2 “Irving Berlin, Nation's Songwriter, Dies”] ''New York Times'', September 23, 1989</ref> He became a newspaper boy, hawking ''The Evening Journal.'' On his first day of the job, according to Berlin’s biographer and friend, [[Alexander Woollcott]], the boy “stopped to look at a ship about to put out for China. So entranced was he that he failed to notice a swinging crane, and he was knocked into the river. When he was fished out, after going down for the third time, he was still holding in his clenched fist the five pennies that constituted his first day's receipts, his contribution to the family budget.”<ref name=NYT-obit/><ref name=Woollcott>Woollcott, Alexander. ''The Story of Irving Berlin'', Da Capo Press, 1983</ref> His mother took jobs as a [[midwife]], and three of his sisters worked wrapping cigars, common for immigrant girls. His older brother worked in a sweatshop assembling shirts. Each evening, when the family came home from their day's work, Bergreen writes, "they would deposit the coins they had earned that day into Lena's outspread apron."<ref name="Bergreen"/> {{rp|11}}
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| - | Music historian, [[Philip Furia]], writes that when eight-year-old "Izzy" quit school to sell newspapers in the Bowery, he no doubt would "hear the hits of the day drift through the doors of saloons and restaurants" that lined the streets of New York. He found that if he sang some of the songs while selling papers, people would toss him coins in appreciation, which gave him a vision of things to come. One night to his mother, he "confessed his life's ambition—to become a singing waiter in a saloon."<ref name=Furia-Poets>Furia, Philip. ''The Poets of Tin Pan Alley'', Oxford Univ. Press (1992)</ref>{{rp|48}}
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| - | Before turning fourteen, according to Woollcott, he began to realize that "he contributed less than the least of his sisters... and he was sick with a sense of his own worthlessness."<ref name=Woollcott/> Bergreen writes that it was at this point that he left home to become a "foot soldier in the city's ragged army of immigrants." Berlin entered a lifestyle along the [[Bowery]] where an entire subindustry of lodging houses had sprung up to shelter the thousands of homeless boys choking the [[Lower East Side]] streets. "They were not settlement houses or charitable institutions; rather, they were [[Dickensian]] in their meanness, filth, and insensitivity to ordinary human beings."<ref name=Bergreen/>{{rp|15}}
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| - | ===Early jobs===
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| - | With few survival skills and little education, he realized that formal employment was out of the question. His only ability was acquired from his father's vocation: singing. He joined with a few other youngsters and went to saloons on the Bowery to sing to customers. These itinerant young singers were common on the Lower East Side. He would sing a few of the popular ballads he heard on the street, hoping that customers would "pitch a few pennies in his direction." As Bergreen notes, "it was in these seamy surroundings that the runaway boy received his real and lasting education." Music became his sole source of income and he emerged culturally from the ghetto lifestyle, learning the "language of the street."
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| - | To survive he began to recognize the kind of songs that appealed to audiences: "well-known tunes expressing simple sentiments were the most reliable."<ref name=Bergreen/>{{rp|17}} He began plugging songs at [[Tony Pastor]]'s Music Hall in [[Union Square (New York City)|Union Square]] and finally, in 1906 when he was 18, working as a singing waiter at the Pelham Cafe in [[Chinatown]]. Besides serving drinks, he sang made-up "blue" parodies of hit songs to the delight of customers. Berlin biographer Charles Hamm writes that "in his free time he taught himself to play the piano."<ref name=Hamm>Hamm, Charles. ''Irving Berlin: Songs from the Melting Pot'', Oxford Univ. Press, 1997</ref> When the bar closed for the night, young Berlin would sit at a piano in the back and pick out tunes.<ref name=NYT-obit/> His first attempt at songwriting was "Marie From Sunny Italy," written in collaboration with the Pelham's resident pianist, Mike Nicholson. The sheet music to this song made history because of a printer's error in the score. The name printed on the cover read: 'I. Berlin.' <ref name=Freedland>Freedland, Michael. 'Irving Berlin', Stein and Day, 1974</ref> (Berlin never learned to play in more than one key and used a custom-made 1940 Weser Brothers piano with a transposing lever to change keys.)<ref>[http://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/object.cfm?key=35&objkey=59 Transposing Upright Piano]. [[National Museum of American History]].</ref>
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| - | Berlin admired the words to the songs but the rhythms were "kind of boggy". One night he delivered some hits by friend [[George M. Cohan]], another kid who was getting known on Broadway with his own songs. When Berlin ended with Cohan's "Yankee Doodle Boy," notes Whichtomb, "everybody in the joint applauded the feisty little fellow. Some tarts said they felt proud to be American; a couple of thugs, who specialized in chewing off ears and breaking legs, gave Izzy the nod. And Connors, the saloon's Irish owner, said, 'You know what you are, me boy? You're the Yiddishe Yankee Doodle!'"<ref name=Whitcomb/>{{rp|26}}
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| - | Nobel prize-winning author [[Rudyard Kipling]], living up the coast during that period, "was shocked and intrigued by the screeching squalor he found in the dirty gray tenement canyons of immigrant New York," writes Whitcomb. "He thought it worse than the notorious slums of Bombay. But he was impressed and moved by the Jews, noting the little immigrant boys saluting the Stars and Stripes." Kipling wrote, "For these immigrant Jews are a race that survives and thrives against all odds and flags."<ref name=Whitcomb/>{{rp|20}}
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| - | ===Recognition as songwriter===
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| - | Max Winslow (c.1883-1942),<ref>[http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F5091FF73B5C16738DDDA00894DE405B8288F1D3&scp=1&sq=Max%20Winslow&st=cse "Max Winslow Dead", New York Times, June 9, 1942]</ref> a staff member at music publisher [[Harry Von Tilzer]] Company, noticed Berlin's singing on many occasions and became so taken with his talent that he tried to get him a job with his firm. Von Tilzer described an episode in his autobiography:
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| - | <blockquote>
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| - | Max Winslow came to me and said, "I have discovered a great kid, I would like to see you write some songs with." Max raved about him so much that I said, "Who is he?" He said a boy down on the east side by the name of Irving Berlin... I said, "Max, How can I write with him, you know I have got the best lyric writers in the country?" But Max would not stop boosting Berlin to me, and I want to say right here that Berlin can attribute a great deal of his success to Max Winslow."<ref name=Hamm/>{{rp|viii}}</blockquote>
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| - | In 1908, at the age of 20, Berlin took a new job at a saloon in the [[Union Square (New York City)|Union Square]] neighborhood. There, he was able to collaborate with other young songwriters, such as [[Edgar Leslie]], [[Ted Snyder]], Al Piantadosi, and [[George A. Whiting]], and in 1909, the year of the premiere of [[Israel Zangwill]]'s ''[[The Melting Pot (play)|The Melting Pot]]'', he got his big break as a staff lyricist with the [[Ted Snyder Company]].
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| - | ==Songwriting career==
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| - | ===Before 1920===
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| - | ===="Alexander's Ragtime Band" (1911)====
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| - | From this early position, Hamm writes, his "meteoric rise as a songwriter" in [[Tin Pan Alley]] and then on [[Broadway theatre|Broadway]], began with his first world-famous hit song, "Alexander's Ragtime Band," in 1911. As a result of his instant celebrity, he was the feature performer later that year at [[Oscar Hammerstein I|Oscar Hammerstein]]'s vaudeville house, where he introduced dozens of other songs to the audience. The ''New York Telegraph'' wrote a story about the event, reporting that a "delegation of two hundred of his friends from the pent and huddled East Side appeared... to see 'their boy.'" The news story added that "all the little writer could do was to finger the buttons on his coat while tears ran down his cheeks--in a vaudeville house!"<ref name=Hamm/>{{rp|ix}}
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| - | [[Richard Corliss]], wrote about the song in a ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'' magazine profile of Berlin in 2001:
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| - | :"[[Alexander's Ragtime Band]]" (1911). It was a march, not a [[ragtime|rag]], and its savviest musicality comprised quotes from a [[bugle call]] and "[[Swanee River (song)|Swanee River]]". But the tune, which revived the [[ragtime]] fervor that [[Scott Joplin]] had stoked a decade earlier, made Berlin a songwriting star. On its first release and subsequent releases, the song was consistently near the top of the charts: [[Bessie Smith]], in 1927, and [[Louis Armstrong]], in 1937; # 1 by [[Bing Crosby]] and Connee Boswell; [[Al Jolson]], in 1947. [[Johnny Mercer]] in 1945, and [[Nellie Lutcher]] in 1948. Add [[Ray Charles]]'s [[big-band]] version in 1959, and "Alexander" had a dozen hit versions in a bit under a half century.<ref name=Corliss>Corliss, Richard. [http://www.time.com/time/sampler/article/0,8599,189846,00.html "That Old Christmas Feeling: Irving America: Richard Corliss remembers Irving Berlin"] ''TIME'' Magazine. December 24, 2001</ref>
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| - | Despite its success, the song was not initially recognized as a hit: at a private audition of the song to Broadway producer [[Jesse Lasky]], Lasky’s response was uncertain, although he did put it in his “Follies” show. After a number of performances as an instrumental, the song did not impress audiences, and was soon dropped from the show’s score, causing Berlin to regard it as a “dead failure.” But later that year, after writing lyrics to the music, it played again in another Broadway Review, and ''Variety'' news weekly proclaimed the song "the musical sensation of the decade."<ref name=Bergreen/>{{rp|68}} Composer [[George Gershwin]], foreseeing its influence, said, "The first real American musical work is 'Alexander's Ragtime Band.' Berlin had shown us the way; it was now easier to attain our ideal."<ref name=Gershwin/>{{rp|117}}
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| - | ====Sparking a national dance craze====
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| - | [[Image:Berlin1911.jpg|thumb|upright|Enjoying early success c. 1911]]
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| - | Berlin was "flabbergasted" by the sudden international popularity of the song, and began to ask himself "Why? Why?" Berlin later wrote,
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| - | <blockquote>And I got an answer. The melody... started the heels and shoulders of all America and a good section of Europe to rocking. The lyric, silly though it was, was fundamentally right.<ref name=Bergreen/>{{rp|69}}</blockquote>
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| - | ;"Watch Your Step"
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| - | Furia writes that the international success of "Alexander's Ragtime Band" gave [[ragtime]] "new life and sparked a national dance craze." Two dancers who expressed that craze were Irene and [[Vernon Castle]]. In 1914, Berlin wrote a ragtime revue, "Watch Your Step," which starred the couple and showcased their talents on stage. That musical revue became Berlin's first complete score and Furia notes that "its songs radiated musical and lyrical sophistication." Berlin's ragtime songs, he adds, had "quickly come to signify [[modernism]], and Berlin caught the cultural struggle between [[Victorian America|Victorian]] gentility and the purveyors of liberation, indulgence, and leisure with songs such as "Play a Simple Melody." That particular song, according to Furia, also became the first of his famous "double" songs in which two different melodies and lyrics are [[counterpoint]]ed against one another.<ref name=Furia-Poets/>
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| - | ''Variety'' called it "The First Syncopated Musical," where the "sets and the girls were gorgeous." But most of the success or otherwise of the show was riding on the Berlin name, according to Whitcomb. He notes that ''Variety''... marked the show as a "terrific hit" from opening night alone:
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| - | <blockquote>Irving Berlin stands out like the Times building does in the Square. That youthful marvel of syncopated melody is proving things in 'Watch Your Step', firstly that he is not alone a rag composer, and that he is one of the greatest lyric writers America has ever produced.... Besides rags Berlin wrote a polka that was very pretty, and he intermingled ballads with trots, which, including the grand opera medley, gives 'Watch Your Step' all the kind of music there is.<ref name=Whitcomb/>{{rp|173}}</blockquote>
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| - | Whitcomb also points out the irony that Russia, the country Berlin's family was forced to leave, flung itself into "the ragtime beat with an abandon bordering on mania":
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| - | <blockquote>... like a display of medieval religious frenzy; some seemed to be doing a dance of death. [[Lady Diana Cooper|Lady Diana Manners]], at a London ball reviving the Age of Chivalry, was escorted by [[Prince Felix Yusupov]]. This young man, a recent Oxford undergraduate, had an impeccable Russian noble lineage: a descendant of [[Frederick II of Prussia|Frederick of Prussia]], he was heir to the largest estate in Russia, he would be richer than the Tsar. He was exquisite and heavily bejewelled, but Lady Diana was irritated by his 'wriggling around the ballroom like a demented worm, screaming for 'more ragtime and more champagne'.<ref name=Whitcomb/>{{rp|183}}</blockquote>
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| - | Lady Diana Manners was apparently not alone in her dislike of ragtime. A newspaper clipping found in Berlin's scrapbook included an article titled, "Calls Ragtime Insanity Sign":
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| - | <blockquote>"Alexander's Ragtime Band" is a public menace.... The authority for these statements is Dr. Ludwig Gruener of Berlin, a German [doctor] who has devoted twenty years' study to the criminally insane.... He says, 'Hysteria is the form of insanity that an abnormal love for ragtime seems to produce. It is as much a mental disease as acute mania—it has the same symptoms. When there is nothing done to check this form it produces idiocy'. He also stated that 90 percent of the inmates of the American asylums he has visited are abnormally fond of ragtime.<ref name=Leopold>Leopold, David. ''Irving Berlin's Show Business'', Harry Abrams (2005)</ref>{{rp|23}}</blockquote>
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| - | ====Simple and romantic ballads====
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| - | In future years he made every effort to write lyrics in the American vernacular: uncomplicated, simple and direct, once stating:
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| - | <blockquote>My ambition is to reach the heart of the average American, not the highbrow nor the lowbrow but that vast intermediate crew which is the real soul of the country. The highbrow is likely to be superficial, overtrained, supersensitive. The lowbrow is warped, subnormal. My public is the real people.<ref name=NYT-obit/></blockquote>
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| - | [[Image:Berlin-Jolson27.JPG|thumb|upright|left|With [[Al Jolson]], star of '': американская музыка - это он.]Leopold, David. ''Irving Berlin's Show Business'', Harry Abrams (2005)[[The Jazz Singer (1927 film)|The Jazz Singer]]'', c. 1927]]
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| - | Berlin also created songs out of his own sadness. In 1912, he married [[Dorothy Goetz]], the sister of songwriter [[E. Ray Goetz]]. She died six months later of [[typhoid fever]] contracted during their honeymoon in [[Havana]]. The song he wrote to express his grief, "When I Lost You," was his first ballad. It was an immediate popular hit and sold more than a million copies.<ref name=NYT-obit/> In 1916, he collaborated with [[Victor Herbert]] on the score of "The Century Girl."
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| - | He began to realize that the slang of ragtime would be an "inappropriate idiom for serious romantic expression," and over the next few years would begin to adapt his style by writing more love songs.<ref name=Furia-Poets/> In 1915 he wrote the hit, "I Love a Piano," which was an erotic, but comical, ragtime love song [http://www.sing365.com/music/lyric.nsf/I-Love-A-Piano-lyrics-Irving-Berlin/61706587FB23D96F48256970000E8508 (Read lyrics)].
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| - | By 1918 he had written hundreds of songs, mostly topical, which enjoyed brief popularity. Many of the songs were for the new dances then appearing, such as the "grizzly bear," "chicken walk," or fox trot. After a Hawaiian dance craze began, he wrote "That Hula-Hula," and then did a string of southern songs, such as "When the Midnight Choo-Choo Leaves for Alabam." During this period he was creating a few new songs every week, including numerous rags and songs aimed at the various immigrant cultures arriving from Europe. Furia tells of a train trip Berlin was on where he decided to entertain the fellow passengers. Later on they asked him how he knew so many hit songs, and Berlin would modestly reply, "I wrote them."<ref name=Furia-Poets/>{{rp|53}}
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| - | One of the key songs that Berlin wrote in his transition from ragtime to lyrical ballads was "A Pretty Girl is Like a Melody," which was considered one of Berlin's "first big guns," according to historian [[Alec Wilder]]. The song was written for [[Ziegfeld]]'s ''Follies of 1919'' and became the musical's leading song. Its popularity was so great that it became the theme for all of Ziegfeld's revues, and later the theme song in the 1936 film ''[[The Great Ziegfeld]]'' [http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x3ick8_a-pretty-girl-is-like-a-melody-the_shortfilms (Watch)]. Wilder puts it "on a level with [[Jerome Kern]]'s "pure melodies," and in comparison with Berlin's earlier music, finds it "extraordinary that such a development in style and sophistication should have taken place in a single year."<ref name=Furia-Poets/>{{rp|53}}
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| - | {{clear}}
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| - | ====World War I====
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| - | On 1 April 1917 President [[Woodrow Wilson]] declared that America would enter [[World War I]], and, as Whitcomb writes:
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| - | {{quote|The beleaguered Allies would be rescued from the evil [[Central Powers]] by a noble American game-plan and a barrel of morals.... The whistle was blown, the game was on. There must be no shirkers or doubters in the team. Americans must pull together as one man or else. Said President Wilson: 'Woe to the man or group of men that seeks to stand in our way in this day of high resolution!' Irish-Americans, Italian-Americans, Jewish-Americans, and, especially, German-Americans, must now be plain, straight-ahead Americans.
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| - | [[Tin Pan Alley]] would do its duty and support the slogan at the time that "Music is essential to win the war." Berlin joined the effort and wrote, "For Your Country and My Country," adding "we must speak with the sword not the pen to show our appreciation to America for opening up her heart and welcoming every immigrant group." He then joined with George Meyer and his old colleague [[Edgar Leslie]] in a song that demanded an end to ethnicity: "Let's All Be Americans Now."<ref name=Whitcomb/>{{rp|197}}}}
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| - | ;"Yip Yip Yaphank"
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| - | In 1917 Berlin was drafted into the army, and the news of his induction became headline news: "Army Takes Berlin!" one paper read. However, the army only wanted Berlin, now aged 30, to do what he knew best: to write songs of patriotism. Hence, while stationed at [[Camp Upton]] in [[New York]], he composed an all-soldier musical revue titled "[[Yip Yip Yaphank]]", written to be patriotic tribute to the [[United States Army]]. By the following summer the show was taken to Broadway where it also included a number of hits, including "Mandy" and "Oh! How I Hate to Get Up in the Morning," which he performed himself.<ref name=NYT-obit/> The shows earned $150,000 for a camp service center. One song he wrote for the show but decided not use, he would introduce twenty years later: "God Bless America."<ref name=Corliss/><ref name=Smith/>
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| - | According to Whitcomb, "at the grand finale, General Bell made a thank-you speech from his box, while Sergeant Berlin, on stage, declined to utter a word. Then, under orders from the War Department, Sergeant Berlin led the entire 300-person cast off the stage, marching them down the theater's aisles, singing 'We're on Our Way to France,' all to tumultuous applause. The cast carried off their little producer like he was victor ludorum." Berlin's mother, having seen her son perform for the first (and last) time in her life, was shocked. The soldier-actors continued out into the downtown street and up the plank to the waiting troop carrier. "Tin Pan Alley had joined hands with real life," writes Whitcomb.<ref name=Whitcomb/>{{rp|199}}[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34m5SPPZXQc Watch]
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| - | ===1920 to 1940===
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| - | Berlin returned to [[Tin Pan Alley]] after the war and in 1921 created a partnership with Sam Harris to build the [[Music Box Theater]]. He maintained an interest in the theater throughout his life, and even in his last years was known to call the [[Shubert Organization]], his partner, to check on the receipts. In its early years, the theater was a showcase for revues by Berlin. As theater owner, producer and composer, he looked after every detail of his shows, from the costumes and sets to the casting and musical arrangements.<ref name=NYT-Dreaming>[http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9806E2D71430F930A15751C1A9639C8B63 "Dreaming of Irving Berlin In the Season That He Owned"] ''New York Times'', December 23, 2005</ref>
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| - | According to Berlin biographer David Leopold, the theater, located at 239 West 45th St., was the only Broadway house built to accommodate the works of a songwriter. It was the home of Berlin's "Music Box Revue" from 1921 to 1925 and "As Thousands Cheer" in 1933 and today includes an exhibition devoted to Berlin in the lobby.<ref>Leopold, David. ''Irving Berlin's Show Business: Broadway—Hollywood—America'', Harry N. Abrams, 2005</ref>
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| - | ====Various hit songs====
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| - | By 1926, Berlin had written the scores to two editions of the ''Ziegfeld Follies'' and four "Music Box Revues." ''Life magazine'' called him the "Lullaby Kid," noting that "couples at country-club dances grew misty-eyed when the band went into "Always," because they were positive that Berlin had written it just for them. When they quarreled and parted in the [[crepuscular]] bitter-sweetness of the 1920s, it was Berlin who gave eloquence to their heartbreak by way of "[[What'll I Do]]" and "Remember" and "All Alone."<ref name=Life/>
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| - | ;"[[What'll I Do?]]" (1924)
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| - | This ballad of love and longing was a #1 hit for [[Paul Whiteman]] and had five other top-12 renditions in 1924. Twenty-four years later, the song went to #22 for [[Nat Cole]] and #23 for [[Frank Sinatra]].<ref name=Corliss/>
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| - | ;"Always" (1925)
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| - | Written when he fell in love with Ellin Mackay, who later became his wife. The song became #1 twice (for [[Vincent Lopez]] and [[George Olsen]]) in its first incarnation. There were four more hit versions in 1944–45. In 1959 [[Sammy Turner]] took the song to #2 on the R&B chart. It became [[Patsy Cline]]'s postmortem anthem and hit #18 on the country chart in 1980, 17 years after her death, and a tribute musical called "Patsy Cline ... Always," played a two-year [[Nashville, Tennessee|Nashville]] run that ended in 1995.<ref name=Corliss/>
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| - | ;"[[Blue Skies (song)|Blue Skies]]" (1926)
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| - | Written after his first daughter's birth as a song just for her. In it he distilled his feelings about being married and a father for the first time: "Blue days, all of them gone; nothing but blue skies, from now on."<ref name=DVD/> #1 for [[Ben Selvin]] with five other hits in 1927 besides being the first song performed by [[Al Jolson]] in the first feature sound film, "[[The Jazz Singer (1927 film)|The Jazz Singer]]," that same year. In 1946 it returned to the top 10 on the charts with [[Count Basie]] and [[Benny Goodman]]. In 1978, [[Willie Nelson]] made the song a #1 country hit—52 years after it was written.<ref name=Corliss/>
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| - | ;"Marie" (1929)
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| - | This waltz-time hit went to #2 with [[Rudy Vallee]] and in 1937 reached #1 with [[Tommy Dorsey]]. It was again on the charts at #13 in 1953 for [[The Four Tunes]] and at #15 for [[the Bachelors]] in 1965–36 years after its first appearance.<ref name=Corliss/>
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| - | ;"[[Puttin' on the Ritz]]" (1930)
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| - | An instant standard with one of Berlin's most "intricately syncopated choruses," this song is associated with [[Fred Astaire]], who danced to it in the 1946 film "Blue Skies." It was first sung by [[Harry Richman]] in 1930 and became a #1 hit, and in 1939 [[Clark Gable]] sang it in the movie "Idiot's Delight." It was also featured in the movie [[Young Frankenstein]] by [[Mel Brooks]] and a #4 hit for the techno artist Taco in 1983 (Berlin thus became the oldest songwriter to have a current top Ten hit).
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| - | ;"Say It Isn't So" (1932)
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| - | [[Rudy Vallee]] performed it on his radio show, and the song was a #1 hit for [[George Olsen]] and awarded top-10 positions with versions by [[Connee Boswell]] and [[Ozzie Nelson]]'s band. In 1963 [[Aretha Franklin]] produced a single of the song in 1963–31 years later.<ref name=Corliss/> Furia notes that when Rudy Vallee first introduced the song on his radio show, the "song not only became an overnight hit, it saved Vallee's marriage: The Vallees had planned to get a divorce, but after Vallee sang Berlin's romantic lyrics on the air, "both he and his wife dissolved in tears" and decided to stay together.<ref name=Furia-Poets/>
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| - | ;"I've Got My Love to Keep Me Warm" (1937)
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| - | Performed by [[Dick Powell]] in the 1937 film "On the Avenue." Later it had four top-12 versions, including by [[Billie Holiday]] and [[Les Brown (bandleader)|Les Brown]], who took it to #1.<ref name=Corliss/>
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| - | ===="God Bless America" (1938)====
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| - | [[Image:Pentagon Memorial dedication 2008 Crowd.jpg|thumb|Singing "God Bless America" at [[the Pentagon]] memorial dedication, September 11, 2008]]
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| - | Written by Berlin twenty years earlier, he filed it away until 1938, when [[Kate Smith]]'s manager asked Berlin if he had a patriotic song Smith might sing to mark the 20th anniversary of [[Armistice Day]]. It was "a simple plea for divine protection in a dark time—a plangent anthem in just 40 words," writes Corliss. It quickly became the second [[United States National Anthem|National Anthem]] after America entered World War II and over the decades has earned millions for the [[Boy Scout]]s and [[Girl Scouts of the USA|Girl Scouts]], to whom Berlin assigned all royalties.<ref name=Corliss/><ref name="Smith">[http://www.tomsmithbigband.com/swing-music-history.html "Swing Music History"]. Retrieved January 12, 2010.</ref> The phrase "God Bless America" was taken from Berlin's mother:
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| - | <blockquote>While he was growing up on the Lower East Side, she would say "God bless America" often, to indicate that, without America, her family would have had no place to go.<ref>[http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P1-47901569.html "Irving Berlin's 'God Bless America'"], UPI, November 2, 2001</ref> ''The Economist magazine'' wrote that by writing "God Bless America", Berlin was "producing a deep-felt paean to the country that had given him what he would have said was everything. It is a melody that still makes his fellow countrymen want to stand up and place their hands over their hearts." <ref name=Economist89>"Hand on heart. (Irving Berlin)." ''The Economist'' , September 30, 1989</ref></blockquote>
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| - | On the afternoon of [[September 11 attacks|September 11, 2001]], U.S. senators and congressmen stood on the capitol steps and sang it after the terrorist attacks on the [[World Trade Center]]. Two nights later, when Broadway turned its lights back on, the casts of numerous shows led theatergoers in renditions of the same song.
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| - | Richard Corliss notes that the next day, at an official requiem at the [[National Cathedral]] in [[Washington, D.C.]], it was played by the [[U.S. Army]] Orchestra. The following Monday, to mark the reopening of the [[New York Stock Exchange]], New York Governor [[George Pataki]] and Mayor [[Rudolph Giuliani]] joined traders in singing it. That evening, as major league baseball games resumed around the country it replaced "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" as the theme song of the seventh-inning stretch. Over the following weeks, everyone—[[Celine Dion]], [[Marc Anthony]], [[New York City Police Department]] officer [[Daniel Rodriguez]], the whole country—sang "[[God Bless America]]".<ref name=Corliss/>
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| - | Describing the mood at the time and the significance of the song, Corliss wrote in ''Time'' magazine that December:
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| - | <blockquote>In times of crisis, the nation loses its short-term cultural memory—puts aside idiot movie comics, suicidal rock lyrics, must-see reality TV and the pursuit of the moral triviality that is [[Gary Condit]]—and, like a senior citizen finding solace in the distant past, rekindles that old feeling. In pop culture, at least for a while, many Americans traded in cool pop culture for warm, sarcasm for sentiment, alienation for community. In the blink of a national tragedy, we went from jaded to nice, just like that.<ref name=Corliss/></blockquote>
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| - | The popularity of the song, when it was first introduced in 1938, was also related to its release near the end of the [[Great Depression|Depression]], which had gone on for nine years. As a result, one writer concludes that the song's introduction at that time "enshrines a strain of official patriotism intertwined with a religious faith that runs deep in the American psyche. Patriotic razzle-dazzle, sophisticated melancholy and humble sentiments: Berlin songs span the emotional terrain of America with a thoroughness that others may have equaled but none have surpassed."<ref name=NYT-87>[http://www.nytimes.com/1987/05/10/arts/pop-view-irving-berlin-s-american-landscape.html?scp=1&sq=Irving%20Berlin's%20American%20landscape&st=cse "Pop View; Irving Berlin's American Landscape"] ''New York Times'', May 10, 1987</ref>
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| - | The song has also been adopted by various sports teams over the years. The [[Philadelphia Flyers]] hockey team started playing it before crucial contests and won some 80% of those games—including all three when [[Kate Smith]] arrived to sing it in person. "Many credited Smith for lifting the crowd and the team to new heights," notes columnist John Bacon. When the 1980 [[Ice hockey at the Olympic Games|U.S. Olympic hockey team]] pulled off the "greatest upset in sports history," referred to as the "[[Miracle on Ice]]", the players spontaneously broke into a chorus—not of "The Star Spangled Banner," but "God Bless America,"<ref>Bacon, John U., [http://annarborchronicle.com/2010/02/19/column-oh-say-can-you-see-a-new-anthem/ "Oh, Say Can You See a New Anthem?"] ''Ann Arbor Chronicle'', February 20, 2010</ref> with [[ESPN]] TV noting, "Americans were overcome by patriotism."<ref>[http://espn.go.com/classic/s/miracle_ice_1980.html "College kids perform Olympic miracle"] ESPN TV network</ref>
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| - | ====Other songs====
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| - | Though most of his works for the Broadway stage took the form of revues—collections of songs with no unifying plot—he did write a number of book shows. ''[[The Cocoanuts]]'' (1925) was a light comedy with a cast featuring, among others, the [[Marx Brothers]]. ''[[Face the Music (musical)|Face the Music]]'' (1932) was a political satire with a book by [[Moss Hart]], and [[Louisiana Purchase]] (1940) was a satire of a Southern politician obviously based on the exploits of [[Huey Long]]. ''[[As Thousands Cheer]]'' (1933) was a revue, also with book by Moss Hart, with a theme: each number was presented as an item in a newspaper, some of them touching on issues of the day. The show yielded a succession of hit songs, including "[[Easter Parade (song)|Easter Parade]]" sung by Marilyn Miller and William Gaxton, "[[Heat Wave (song)|Heat Wave]]" (presented as the weather forecast), "Harlem on My Mind", and "[[Supper Time]]", a song about racial bigotry that was sung by [[Ethel Waters]].
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| - | ===1941 to 1962===
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| - | ====World War II patriotism—"This is the Army" (1943)====
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| - | [[Image:Berlin-ship1944.jpg|thumb|Singing aboard [[USS Arkansas (BB-33)|USS Arkansas]], 1944]]
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| - | When the U.S. joined [[World War II]] after the [[attack on Pearl Harbor]] in De with [[ESPN]] TV noting, cember 1941, Berlin immediately began composing a number of patriotic songs. Treasury Secretary [[Henry Morgenthau, Jr.|Henry Morgenthau]] requested a song to inspire Americans to buy [[war bond]]s, for which he wrote "Any Bonds Today?" He assigned all royalties to the [[United States Treasury Department]]. He then wrote songs for various government agencies and likewise assigned all profits to them: "Angels of Mercy" for the [[American Red Cross]]; "Arms for the Love of America," for the [[Army Ordnance Department]]; and "I Paid My Taxes Today," again to Treasury.<ref name=Corliss/>
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| - | But his most notable and valuable contribution to the war effort was a stage show he wrote called "[[This is the Army]]". It was taken to [[Broadway theatre|Broadway]] and then on to [[Washington, D.C.]] (where President [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]] attended). It was eventually shown at military bases throughout the world, including [[London]], North Africa, Italy, Middle East, and Pacific countries, sometimes in close proximity to battle zones. Berlin wrote nearly three dozen songs for the show which contained a cast of 300 men. He supervised the production and traveled with it, always singing "[[Oh! How I Hate to Get Up in the Morning]]". The show kept him away from his family for three and a half years, during which time he took neither salary nor expenses, and turned over all profits to the Army Emergency Relief Fund.<ref name=McCorkle/>{{rp|81}}
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| - | The play was adapted into a movie of the same name in 1943, directed by [[Michael Curtiz]], costarring [[Joan Leslie]] and [[Ronald Reagan]], who was then an army lieutenant. [[Kate Smith]] also sang "God Bless America" in the film with a backdrop showing families anxious over the coming war. The show became a hit movie and a morale-boosting road show that toured the battlefronts of Europe.<ref name=NYT-Barrett/> The shows and movie combined raised more than $10 million for the Army,<ref name=Corliss/> and in recognition of his contributions to troop morale, Berlin was awarded the Medal of Merit by President [[Harry S. Truman]]. His daughter, [[Mary Ellin Barrett]], who was 15 when she was at the opening-night performance of "[[This is the Army]]" on Broadway, remembered that when her father, who normally shunned the spotlight, appeared in the second act in soldier's garb to sing "Oh, How I Hate to Get Up in the Morning," he was greeted with a standing ovation that lasted 10 minutes. She adds that he was in his mid-50's at the time, and later declared those years with the show were the "most thrilling time of his life."<ref name=NYT-Barrett>[http://www.nytimes.com/1995/01/20/books/books-of-the-times-recalling-the-somber-man-behind-so-many-happy-songs.html?scp=1&sq=Irving%20Berlin%20Somber%20Man&st=cse "BOOKS OF THE TIMES; Recalling the Somber Man Behind So Many Happy Songs"] ''New York Times'' (book review), January 20, 1995</ref>
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| - | ===="Annie Get Your Gun" (1946)====
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| - | The grueling tours Berlin did performing "This Is The Army" left him exhausted. But his old and close friend [[Jerome Kern]], who was the composer for "Annie Get Your Gun," suddenly died of a cerebral hemorrhage. Producers [[Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II]] persuaded Berlin to take over composing the score.
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| - | Loosely based on the life of sharpshooter [[Annie Oakley]], the music and lyrics were written by Berlin, with a book by [[Herbert Fields]] and his sister [[Dorothy Fields]]. At first he refused to take on the job, claiming that he knew nothing about "[[hillbilly]] music", but the show ran for 1,147 performances and became his most successful score. It is said that the showstopper song, "[[There's No Business Like Show Business (song)|There's No Business Like Show Business]]", was almost left out of the show altogether because Berlin mistakenly thought that Rodgers and Hammerstein didn't like it. However, it became the "ultimate uptempo show tune." One reviewer stating that "Its tough wisecracking lyrics are as tersely all-knowing as its melody, which is nailed down in brassy syncopated lines that have been copied -but never equaled in sheer melodic memorability—by hundreds of theater composers ever since."<ref name=NYT-87/> McCorkle writes that the score "meant more to me than ever, now that I knew that he wrote it after a grueling world tour and years of separation from his wife and daughters."<ref name=McCorkle/>{{rp|81}}
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| - | Historian and composer [[Alec Wilder]] noted the difference between this score and Berlin's much earlier works:
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| - | <blockquote>To hear... that "Alexander's Ragtime Band" (1911) was the hit of Vienna and probably every large city of Europe by late 1912, and then to realize that the writer of this song, forty years later, wrote the nearly perfect score of ''Annie Get Your Gun'', comes as a profound shock.<ref name=Wilder/>{{rp|94}}</blockquote>
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| - | Apparently the "creative spurt" in which Berlin turned out several songs for the score in a single weekend was an anomaly. According to this daughter, he usually "sweated blood" to write his songs.<ref name=NYT-Barrett/> ''[[Annie Get Your Gun (musical)|Annie Get Your Gun]]'' is considered to be Berlin's best musical theatre score not only because of the number of hits it contains, but because its songs successfully combine character and plot development. The song "There's No Business Like Show Business" became "[[Ethel Merman]]'s trademark."<ref name=NYT-87/>
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| - | ====Final shows====
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| - | Berlin's next show, ''[[Miss Liberty]]'' (1949), was disappointing, but ''[[Call Me Madam]]'' in 1950, starring [[Ethel Merman]] as Sally Adams, a Washington, D.C. socialite, loosely based the famous Washington hostess [[Perle Mesta]], fared better, giving him his second greatest success. After a failed attempt at retirement, in 1962, at the age of 74, he returned to Broadway with ''[[Mr. President (musical)|Mr. President]]''. Although it ran for eight months, (with the premiere attended by President [[John F. Kennedy]]), it did not become a successful show. But as Richard Corliss points out, it did at least prove that Berlin was still the "uncomplicated lover of the country that had adopted and enriched him . . . [and] his feelings were most directly expressed" by the lyrics to the song, "This Is a Great Country:"<ref name=Corliss/>
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| - | :Hats off to America,<br> The home of the free and the brave—<br> If this is flag waving,<br> Flag waving,<br> Do you know of a better flag to wave?
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| - | Afterwards, Berlin officially announced his retirement and spent his remaining years in New York.
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| - | ==Movie scores==
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| - | ===1920s–1950s===
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| - | [[Image:Easter Parade poster.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Easter Parade (1948 film)|Easter Parade]] (1948)]]
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| - | In 1922, [[Madame Butterfly]] was his first composing film debut. In 1927, his song "[[Blue Skies (song)|Blue Skies]]", was featured in the first feature-length [[talkie]], ''[[The Jazz Singer (1927 film)|The Jazz Singer]]'', with [[Al Jolson]]. Later, movies like ''[[Top Hat]]'' (1935) became the first of a series of distinctive film musicals by Berlin starring performers like [[Bing Crosby]], [[Fred Astaire]], [[Judy Garland]], [[Ginger Rogers]], and [[Alice Faye]]. They usually had light romantic plots and a seemingly endless string of his new and old songs. Similar films included ''[[On the Avenue]]'' (1937), ''[[Gold Diggers in Paris]] (1938)'', ''[[Holiday Inn (film)|Holiday Inn]]'' (1942), ''[[Blue Skies (film)|Blue Skies]]'' (1946), and ''[[Easter Parade (1948 film)|Easter Parade]]'' (1948), with [[Judy Garland]] and [[Fred Astaire]].
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| - | ===="White Christmas" (1942)====
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| - | The 1942 film ''[[Holiday Inn (film)|Holiday Inn]]'' introduced "[[White Christmas (song)|White Christmas]]", one of the most recorded songs in history. First sung in the film by [[Bing Crosby]], it sold over 30 million records and stayed #1 on the pop and R&B charts for 10 weeks. Crosby's single was the [[List of best selling singles|best-selling single]] in any music category for more than fifty years. Music critic [[Stephen Holden]] credits this partly to the fact that "the song also evokes a primal nostalgia—a pure childlike longing for roots, home and childhood—that goes way beyond the greeting imagery."<ref name=NYT-87/>
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| - | [[Richard Corliss]] also notes that the song was even more significant having been released soon after America entered [[World War II]]: [it] "connected with... GIs in their first winter away from home. To them it voiced the ache of separation and the wistfulness they felt for the girl back home, for the innocence of youth...."<ref name=Corliss/> Poet [[Carl Sandburg]] said, "Way down under this latest hit of his, Irving Berlin catches us where we love peace."<ref name=Corliss/>
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| - | "White Christmas" won Berlin the [[Academy Awards|Academy Award]] for Best Music in an Original Song, one of seven Oscar nominations he received during his career. In subsequent years, it was re-recorded and became a top-10 seller for numerous artists: [[Frank Sinatra]], [[Jo Stafford]], [[Ernest Tubb]], [[The Ravens]], and [[The Drifters]]. It would also be the last time a Berlin song went to #1 upon its release.
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| - | Talking about Irving Berlin's "White Christmas", composer–lyricist Garrison Hintz stated that although songwriting can be a complicated process, its final result should sound simplistic. Considering the fact that "White Christmas" has only eight sentences in the entire song, lyrically Mr. Berlin achieved all that was necessary to eventually sell over 100 million copies and capture the hearts of the American public at the same time.<ref>Ascap magazine article,Tribute to Irving Berlin December 1989</ref>
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| - | ==Songwriting methods==
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| - | According to Saul Bornstein, Berlin's publishing company manager, "It was a ritual for Berlin to write a complete song, words and music, every day."<ref name=Wilder>Wilder, Alec. ''American Popular Song: The Great Innovators, 1900–1950'', Oxford Univ. Press (1972)</ref>{{rp|92}} Berlin has said that he "does not believe in inspiration," and feels that although he may be gifted in certain areas, his "most successful compositions were the "result of work." In an interview in 1916, when he was 28, he said:
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| - | <blockquote>I do most of my work under pressure. When I have a song to write I go home at night, and after dinner about 8 I begin to work. Sometimes I keep at it till 4 or 5 in the morning. I do most of my writing at night, and although I have lived in the same apartment four years there has never been a complaint from any of my neighbors.... Each day I would attend rehearsals and at night write another song and bring it down the next day.<ref name=NYT-1916/></blockquote>
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| - | Not always certain about his own writing abilities, he once asked a songwriter friend, Mr. Herbert, whether he should study composition. "You have a natural gift for words and music," Mr. Herbert told him. "Learning theory might help you a little, but it could cramp your style." Berlin took his advice. Herbert later became a moving force behind the creation of ASCAP, the [[American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers]]. In 1914, Berlin joined him as a charter member of the organization that has protected the royalties of composers and writers ever since.<ref name=NYT-obit/>
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| - | Years later, he was asked whether he ever studied lyrical writing:
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| - | <blockquote>I never have, because if I don't know them I do not have to observe any rules and can do as I like, which is much better for me than if I allowed myself to be governed by the rules of versification. In following my own method I can make my jingles fit my music or vice versa with no qualms as to their correctness. Usually I compose my tunes and then fit words to them, though sometimes it's the other way about.<ref name=NYT-1916/></blockquote>
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| - | In later years he would emphasize his conviction, saying that "it's the lyric that makes a song a hit, although the tune, of course, is what makes it last."<ref name=Furia/>{{rp|234}}
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| - | According to music historian Alec Wilder, it was well known that Berlin, unable to write his own music, paid a professional musician to harmonize and write his music, but always did so under his close supervision. He notes that "though Berlin may seldom have played acceptable harmony, he nevertheless, by some mastery of his inner ear, senses it, in fact writes many of his melodies with this natural, intuitive harmonic sense at work in his head, but not in his hands."<ref name=Wilder/>{{rp|93}}
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| - | As a result, Wilder concludes that many admirers of the music of [[Jerome Kern]], [[Richard Rodgers]], and [[Cole Porter]] were unlikely to consider Berlin's work in the same category. But he feels that was due primarily to "forgetfulness and confusion," making them inclined to minimize his talent. He writes:
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| - | <blockquote>They forget "Soft Lights and Sweet Music,' 'Supper Time,' and 'Cheek to Cheek' because they are confused by his also having written 'What'll I Do?' and 'Always.' The solid, straightforward pop songs of Berlin are minor masterpieces of economy, clarity, and memorability. But they give little hint of the much more sophisticated aspects of his talent as it is revealed in his theater and film music.<ref name=Wilder/></All Alone.blockquote>
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| - | Wilder tries to describe the source of Berlin's gift for songwriting: "In his lyrics as in his melodies, Berlin reveals a constant awareness of the world around him: the pulse of the times, the society in which his is functioning. There is nothing of the hothouse about his work, urban though it may be."<ref name=Wilder/>
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| - | ==Music styles==
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| - | [[Image:There's No Business Like Show Business movie poster.jpg|thumb|upright|[[There's No Business Like Show Business (film)|There's No Business Like Show Business]] (1954)]]
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| - | Music critic [[Stephen Holden]] writes that composer [[Jerome Kern]] recognized that the essence of Irving Berlin's lyrics was his "faith in the American vernacular" and was so profound that his best-known songs "seem indivisible from the country's history and self-image." He adds that where the songs of Kern, [[George Gershwin]], [[Richard Rodgers]], [[Oscar Hammerstein II]] and [[Cole Porter]] brought together Afro-American, Latin American, rural pop, and European operetta, Berlin's music "did not strive to be lofty in that way." He adds that "The best of it is a simple, exquisitely crafted street song whose diction feels so natural that one scarcely notices the craft.... For all of their innovation, they seem to flow straight out of the rhythms and inflections of everyday speech."<ref name=NYT-87/>
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| - | Wilder also explains Berlin's style of writing:
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| - | <blockquote>Whatever idealism some of his songs revealed, the core of his work has been eminently practical: his has been truly a body of work... his approach to songwriting is that of a craftsman rather than a composer.... I have been searching assiduously for stylistic characteristics in Berlin, but I can't find any. I find great songs, good songs, average songs, and commercial songs. But I find no clue to a single, or even duple, point of view in the music.<ref name=McCorkle/>{{rp|76}}</blockquote>
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| - | Berlin did state a stylistic goal early in his career: to write a "syncopated operetta." He said, "If I were assigned the task of writing an American opera I should not follow the style of the masters, whose melodies can never be surpassed. Instead I would write a syncopated opera, which, if it failed, would at least possess the merit of novelty. That is what I really want to do eventually—write a syncopated operetta."<ref name=NYT-1916/> Two decades later, composer [[George Gershwin]] wrote, "I have learned many things from Irving Berlin, but the most precious lesson has been that ragtime—or jazz, as its more developed state was later called—was the only musical idiom in existence that could aptly express America."<ref name=Gershwin/>{{rp|117}}
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| - | Many musicians and music historians have attempted to define the qualities about Berlin's songs that made them unique. Gershwin once tried:
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| - | <blockquote>His music has that vitality—both rhythmic and melodic—which never seems to lose any of its exuberant freshness; it has that rich, colorful melodic flow which is ever the wonder of all those of who, too, compose songs; his ideas are endless.<ref name=Gershwin>Wyatt, Robert; Johnson, John A. ''The George Gershwin Reader'', Oxford Univ. Press (2004)</ref>{{rp|117}}</blockquote>
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| - | Among Berlin's contemporaries was [[Cole Porter]], whose music style was often considered more "witty, sophisticated, [and] dirty," according to musicologist [[Susannah McCorkle]]. Of the five top songwriters, only Porter and Berlin wrote both their words and music. However, she notes that Porter, unlike Berlin, was a [[Yale]]-educated and wealthy Midwesterner whose songs were not successful until he was in his thirties. However, she notes that it was "Berlin [who] got Porter the show that launched his career."<ref name=McCorkle/>{{rp|76}}
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| - | During the early 1940s, Berlin became an enthusiastic reader of works by the 18th century English poet, [[Alexander Pope]]. He had a genuine "enthusiasm for Pope's lean, compact [[heroic couplets]]." He felt that Pope would have made a "brilliant lyric writer."<ref name=Life/>
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| - | In 2000, composer-lyricist [[Stephen Sondheim]] reflected on the greatest songs in the American Songbook, noting "What distinguishes Berlin is the brilliance of his lyrics. 'You Can't Get a Man With a Gun'—that's as good a comic song as has ever been written by anybody. You look at the jokes and how quickly they're told, and it still has a plot to it. It's sophisticated and very underrated." <ref>Rich, Frank.[http://www.nytimes.com/2000/03/12/magazine/conversations-with-sondheim.html?scp "Conversations With Sondheim"] ''New York Times,'' March 12, 2000</ref>
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| - | ==Personal life==
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| - | ===Marriages===
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| - | In 1912, he married [[Dorothy Goetz]], the sister of the songwriter [[E. Ray Goetz]]. She died six months later of [[typhoid fever]], which she contracted during their honeymoon in [[Havana]]. The song he wrote to express his grief, "When I Lost You," was his first ballad.
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| - | [[Image:IrvingBerlinEllenMackayBain.jpg|thumb|upright|<center>With wife Ellin, c. 1920s</center>]]
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| - | Years later in the 1920s, he fell in love with a young heiress, Ellin Mackay, the daughter of Clarence Mackay, the socially prominent head of the Postal Telegraph Cable Company. Because Berlin was Jewish and she was Catholic, their life was followed in every possible detail by the press, which found the romance of an immigrant from the Lower East Side and a young heiress a good story.<ref name=NYT-obit/>
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| - | They met in 1925, and her father opposed the match from the start. He went so far as to send her off to Europe to find other suitors and forget Mr. Berlin. However, Berlin wooed her over the airwaves with his songs, "Remember" and "Always." His biographer, [[Philip Furia]], writes that "even before Ellin returned from Europe, newspapers rumored they were engaged, and Broadway shows featured skits of the lovelorn songwriter...." During the week after her return, both she and Berlin were "besieged by reporters, sometimes fifty at a time." ''Variety'' reported that her father had vowed their marriage "would only happen 'over my dead body.'"<ref name=Furia/> As a result they decided to elope and were married in a simple civil ceremony at the Municipal Building away from media attention.
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| - | A front-page story in the ''New York Times'' about the wedding stated, "Although Broadway for months had expected the one-time newsboy and Bowery singer of songs to wed the prominent young society girl... the marriage took Clarence H. Mackay, father of the bride, completely by surprise. He was reported to have been stunned when he learned from a third person of the Municipal Building ceremony." However, the bride's mother, who was divorced from Mr. Mackay, was apparently not of the same mind according to the story: "in fact, some quarters pictured her as desirous of seeing her daughter follow the dictates of her own heart. It was reported that the couple motored to the home of Mrs. Blake [her mother], early in the evening and obtained her blessing."<ref>"Ellin Mackay Wed to Irving Berlin; Surprises Father", ''New York Times'', page one, January 5, 1926</ref>
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| - | There were also reports that her father disowned his daughter because of the marriage. Berlin then assigned all rights to a number of popular songs, including "Always," a song still played at weddings, thereby guaranteeing her a steady income regardless of what might happen with their marriage. For some years, Mr. Mackay was not on speaking terms with the Berlins''';''' however, during the [[Great Depression|Depression]] five years later, Berlin is said to have bailed out his father-in-law when he suffered because of the stock market crash.<ref name=NYT-obit/>
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| - | Their marriage remained a love affair and they were inseparable until she died in July 1988 at the age of 85. They had four children during their 63 years of marriage: Irving, who died in infancy; [[Mary Ellin Barrett]] and Elizabeth Irving Peters of New York, and Linda Louise Emmet, who lived in Paris.<ref name=NYT-obit/>
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| - | ===Lifestyle===
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| - | In 1916, in the earlier phase of Berlin's career, producer and composer [[George M. Cohan]], during a toast to the young Berlin at a [[New York Friars' Club|Friar's Club]] dinner in his honor, described Berlin:
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| - | <blockquote>The thing I like about Irvie is that although he has moved up-town and made lots of money, it hasn't turned his head. He hasn't forgotten his friends, he doesn't wear funny clothes, and you will find his watch and his handkerchief in his pockets, where they belong.<ref name=NYT-1916>[http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9904EED71739E233A25751C0A9679C946796D6CF "The Story of Irving Berlin"] ''New York Times'', January 2, 1916</ref></blockquote>
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| - | It has been noted by Furia that "throughout his life he had a habit of returning to his old haunts in [[Union Square (New York City)|Union Square]], [[Chinatown, Manhattan|Chinatown]], and the [[Bowery]], a habit easily indulged in a city where no matter how far up—or down—the ladder of success you had climbed, you could reach your antipodes by walking a few blocks."<ref name=Furia>Furia, Philip. ''Irving Berlin: A Life in Song'' Schirmer Books, (1998)</ref> Berlin would always remember his childhood years when he "slept under tenement steps, ate scraps, and wore secondhand clothes," describing those years as hard but good. "Every man should have a Lower East Side in his life," he said. He used to visit ''The Music Box Theater'', which he founded and which still stands at 239 West Forty-Fifth St.
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| - | George Frazier of ''Life magazine'' found Berlin to be "intensely nervous," with a habit of tapping his listener with his index finger to emphasize a point, and continually pressing his hair down in back and "picking up any stray crumbs left on a table after a meal." While listening, "he leans forward tensely, with his hands clasped below his knees like a prizefighter waiting in his corner for the bell.... For a man who has known so much glory," writes Frazier, "Berlin has somehow managed to retain the enthusiasm of a novice."<ref name=Life/>
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| - | Berlin's daughter later wrote in her memoir that "she found her father a loving, if workaholic, family man who was 'basically an upbeat person, with down periods,' until his last decades, when he retreated from public life...."<ref name=McCorkle/> She adds that her parents liked to celebrate every single holiday with their children. "They seemed to understand the importance, particularly in childhood, of the special day, the same every year, the special stories, foods, and decorations and that special sense of well-being that accompanies a holiday."<ref name=McCorkle/>{{rp|80}} Although he did comment to his daughter about her mother's lavish Christmas spending, "I gave up trying to get your mother to economize. It was easier just to make more money."<ref>[http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000927/bio IMDB bio]</ref>
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| - | Berlin supported the presidential candidacy of General Dwight Eisenhower, and his song "I Like Ike" featured prominently in the Eisenhower campaign. In his later years he also became more conservative in his views on music. According to his daughter, "He was consumed by patriotism." He often said, "I owe all my success to my adopted country" and once rejected his lawyers' advice to invest in [[tax shelters]], insisting, "I ''want'' to pay taxes. I love this country."<ref name=McCorkle/>{{rp|80}}
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| - | Berlin was devoted to the Jewish faith and was a staunch advocate of civil rights. Berlin was later honored in 1944 by the National Conference of Christians and Jews for "advancing the aims of the conference to eliminate religious and racial conflict."<ref name=jonon>{{cite web|url=http://www.amuseum.org/jahf/virtour/page21.html |title=Jewish-American Hall of Fame - Virtual Tour |publisher=Amuseum.org |date=2007-01-15 |accessdate=2011-12-10}}</ref> In 1949, the Young Men's Hebrew Association (YMHA) honored him as one the twelve "most outstanding Americans of Jewish faith."<ref name=jonon /> Berlin's Civil Rights Movement support also made him a target of FBI Director [[J. Edgar Hoover]], who endlessly investigated him for years.<ref>Congressional Record, V. 144, Pt. 1, January 27, 1998 to February 13, 1998, pg. 679</ref>
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| - | ==Death==
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| - | [[Image:Irving Berlin Grave 1024.jpg|thumb|The grave of Irving Berlin in [[Woodlawn Cemetery, Bronx|Woodlawn Cemetery]], [[the Bronx]], [[New York City]]]]
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| - | Berlin died in his sleep on September 22, 1989, in New York City at the age of 101 and was interred in the [[Woodlawn Cemetery, Bronx|Woodlawn Cemetery]] in [[The Bronx]], New York. He was survived by three daughters: [[Mary Ellin Barrett]] and Elizabeth Irving Peters of New York, and Linda Louise Emmet, who lives in Paris. He is also survived by nine grandchildren and six great grandchildren.<ref name=NYT-obit/>
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| - | On the evening following the announcement of his death, the marquee lights of Broadway playhouses were dimmed before curtain time in his memory. President [[George H. W. Bush]] said Mr. Berlin was "a legendary man whose words and music will help define the history of our nation." Just minutes before the President's statement was released, he joined a crowd of thousands to sing Berlin's "God Bless America" at a luncheon in Boston. Former President [[Ronald Reagan]], who costarred in Berlin's 1943 musical ''This Is the Army,'' said, "Nancy and I are deeply saddened by the death of a wonderfully talented man whose musical genius delighted and stirred millions and will live on forever."<ref name=NYT9-24/>
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| - | [[Morton Gould]], the composer and conductor who is president of the [[American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers]] (ASCAP), of which Mr. Berlin was a founder, said, "What to me is fascinating about this unique genius is that he touched so many people in so many age groups over so many years. He sounded our deepest feelings—happiness, sadness, celebration, loneliness." [[Ginger Rogers]], who danced to Berlin tunes with [[Fred Astaire]], told The Associated Press upon hearing of his death that working with Mr. Berlin had been "like heaven." <ref name=NYT9-24>[http://www.nytimes.com/1989/09/24/nyregion/berlin-s-work-is-recalled-with-words-and-music.html "Berlin's Work Is Recalled With Words and Music"] ''New York Times'', September 24, 1989</ref>
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| - | ==Legacy and influence==
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| - | ''[[The New York Times]]'', after his death in 1989, wrote, "Irving Berlin set the tone and the tempo for the tunes America played and sang and danced to for much of the 20th century." An immigrant from [[Russia]], his life became the "classic rags-to-riches story that he never forgot could have happened only in America."<ref name=NYT-obit/> During his career he wrote an estimated 1,500 songs<ref name=NYT-Dreaming/> and was a legend by the time he turned 30. He went on to write the scores for 19 Broadway shows and 18 Hollywood films,<ref name=IMDB/> with his songs nominated for [[Academy Awards]] on eight occasions. Music historian [[Susannah McCorkle]] writes that "in scope, quantity, and quality his work was amazing."<ref name=McCorkle/> Others, such as Broadway musician Anne Phillips, says simply that "the man is an American institution."<ref>[http://cabaret.broadwayworld.com/article/SING_SING_SING_Salutes_Irving_Berlin_At_The_Triad_127_20101103 "SING! SING! SING! Salutes Irving Berlin"] Broadwayworld.com, November 3, 2010</ref>
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| - | During his six-decade career, from 1907 to 1966, he produced sheet music, Broadway shows, recordings, and scores played on radio, in films and on television, and his tunes continue to evoke powerful emotions for millions around the world. He wrote songs like "Alexander's Ragtime Band," "Cheek to Cheek", "There's No Business Like Show Business", "Blue Skies" and "Puttin' On the Ritz." Some of his songs have become holiday anthems, such as "[[Easter Parade (song)|Easter Parade]]", "[[White Christmas (song)|White Christmas]]", and "[[Happy Holiday (song)|Happy Holiday]]". "White Christmas" alone sold over 50 million records, the top-selling single of all time, won an [[ASCAP]] and an [[Academy Award]], and is one of the most frequently played songs ever written.<ref name=NYT-obit/> According to McCorkle, of the top five songwriters in America, only Berlin and [[Cole Porter]] wrote both their words and music.<ref name=McCorkle>McCorkle, Susannah. "Always: A Singer's Journey Through the Life of Irving Berlin", ''American Heritage'', November 1998, pgs 74–84</ref>
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| - | In 1938 "[[God Bless America]]" became the unofficial national anthem of the United States, and on September 11, 2001, members of the House of Representatives stood on the steps of the Capitol and solemnly sang "God Bless America" together. The song returned to #1 shortly after 9/11, when [[Celine Dion]] recorded it as the title track of a 9/11 benefit album. The following year, the [[Postal Service]] issued a commemorative stamp of Berlin. By then, the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts of New York had received more than $10 million in royalties from "God Bless America" as a result of Berlin's donation of royalties.<ref name=NYT-Dreaming/> According to music historian [[Gary Giddins]], "No other songwriter has written as many anthems.... No one else has written as many pop songs, period... [H]is gift for economy, directness, and slang, presents Berlin as an obsessive, often despairing commentator on the passing scene."<ref>Giddins, Gary. ''Weather Bird: Jazz at the Dawn of its Second Century'', Oxford Univ. Press (2004)</ref>{{rp|405}}
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| - | In 1934 ''[[Life Magazine]]'' put him on its cover and inside hailed "this itinerant son of a Russian cantor" as "an American institution."<ref name=DVD>''Irving Berlin: An American Song'', film, 1999</ref> And again in 1943 ''Life'' described his songs as follows:
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| - | <blockquote>They possess a permanence not generally associated with [[Tin Pan Alley]] products and it is more than remotely possible that in days to come Berlin will be looked upon as the [[Stephen Foster]] of the 20th century.<ref name=Life>Frazier, George. ''Life Magazine'', April 5, 1943, pgs. 79–88</ref></blockquote>
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| - | At various times his songs were also rallying cries for different causes: He produced musical editorials supporting [[Al Smith]] and [[Dwight Eisenhower]] as presidential candidates, he wrote songs opposing [[Prohibition]], defending the [[gold standard]], calming the wounds of the [[Great Depression]], and helping the war against [[Hitler]], and in 1950 he wrote an anthem for the state of [[Israel]].<ref name=Corliss/> Biographer David Leopold adds that "We all know his songs... they are all part of who we are."
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| - | At his 100th-birthday celebration in May 1988, violinist [[Isaac Stern]] said, "The career of Irving Berlin and American music were intertwined forever—American music was born at his piano,"<ref name=NYT-obit/> while songwriter [[Sammy Cahn]] pointed out: "If a man, in a lifetime of 50 years, can point to six songs that are immediately identifiable, he has achieved something. Irving Berlin can sing 60 that are immediately identifiable... [Y]ou couldn't have a holiday without his permission."<ref name=NYT-obit/> Composer [[Douglas Moore]] added:
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| - | <blockquote>It's a rare gift which sets Irving Berlin apart from all other contemporary songwriters. It is a gift which qualifies him, along with [[Stephen Foster]], [[Walt Whitman]], [[Vachel Lindsay]] and [[Carl Sandburg]], as a great American minstrel. He has caught and immortalized in his songs what we say, what we think about, and what we believe.<ref name=NYT-obit/></blockquote>
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| - | [[ASCAP]]'s records show that In an interview in 1916, when he was 28, he said:
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| - | 25 of Berlin's songs reached the top of the charts and were re-recorded by dozens of famous singers over the years, such as [[Frank Sinatra]], [[Barbra Streisand]], [[Linda Ronstadt]], [[Rosemary Clooney]], [[Doris Day]], [[Diana Ross]], [[Bing Crosby]], [[Al Jolson]], [[Nat King Cole]], and [[Ella Fitzgerald]].<ref name=IMDB>[http://us.imdb.com/name/nm0000927/ International Movie Database] Irving Berlin</ref> In 1924, when Berlin was 36, his biography, ''The Story of Irving Berlin'', was being written by [[Alexander Woollcott]]. In a letter to Woollcott, [[Jerome Kern]] offered what one writer said "may be the last word" on the significance of Irving Berlin:
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| - | <blockquote>Irving Berlin has no ''place'' in American music—he ''is'' American music. Emotionally, he honestly absorbs the vibrations emanating from the people, manners and life of his time and, in turn, gives these impressions back to the world—simplified, clarified and glorified.<ref name=NYT-87/></blockquote>
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| - | Composer [[George Gershwin]] (1898–1937) also tried to describe the importance of Berlin's compositions:
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| - | <blockquote>I want to say at once that I frankly believe that Irving Berlin is the greatest songwriter that has ever lived.... His songs are exquisite cameos of perfection, and each one of them is as beautiful as its neighbor. Irving Berlin remains, I think, America's [[Schubert]]. But apart from his genuine talent for song-writing, Irving Berlin has had a greater influence upon American music than any other one man. It was Irving Berlin who was the very first to have created a real, inherent American music.... Irving Berlin was the first to free the American song from the nauseating sentimentality which had previously characterized it, and by introducing and perfecting ragtime he had actually given us the first germ of an American musical idiom; he had sowed the first seeds of an American music.<ref name=Gershwin/>{{rp|117}}</blockquote>
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| - | /ref
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| - | It's a rare gift which sets Irving Berlin apart from all other contemporary songwriters. It is a gift which qualifies him, along with [[Stephen Foster]], [[Walt Whitman]], [[Vachel Lindsay]] and [[Carl Sandburg]], as a great American minstrel. He has caught and immortalized in his songs what we say, what we think about, and what we believe.-->
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