Ira Gershwin

Ira Gershwin
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Name	Ira Gershwin
Caption	Ira Gershwin, 1928
Birth date	1896-12-06
Birth place	Brooklyn, New York City, New York
Death date	1983-08-17
Death place	Los Angeles, California
Occupation	Lyricist
Years active	1918–1983
Notable works	"They Can't Take That Away from Me"; "I Got Rhythm"; "Someone to Watch Over Me"
Spouse	Leonore Rosenbaum (m. 1953)
Relatives	George Gershwin (brother)

Ira Gershwin was an American lyricist who helped define American popular song and Broadway theater in the 20th century. Working primarily with his brother George Gershwin, he produced lyrics for musicals, films, and revues that blended Tin Pan Alley lyricism with Broadway sophistication. His collaborations influenced performers, composers, and institutions across Broadway, Hollywood, and international concert repertoire.

Early life and education

Born in Brooklyn to Russian Jewish immigrants, Ira grew up in a milieu shared with siblings who included composer George and brother Arthur Gershwin. He attended public schools in Brooklyn, where exposure to Tin Pan Alley and vaudeville fueled an early interest in popular song and theater. Family life intersected with cultural institutions such as Yiddish theatre, Carnegie Hall, and local synagogue music, while contemporaries in New York's artistic circles included figures associated with The Times criticism and publishing. He briefly worked in the music publishing offices on Tin Pan Alley before serving as a clerk in firms connected to sheet music distribution and Broadway production offices.

Collaboration with George Gershwin

Ira's partnership with his younger brother George Gershwin began with songs for revues and Broadway shows, linking them to producers like Florenz Ziegfeld and writers associated with the Ziegfeld Follies. Their breakthrough included collaborations for musicals staged at venues such as the Shubert Theatre and the Lyric Theatre. Working with orchestras and conductors who later championed George's works, Ira provided lyrics for compositions performed by stars who included Fred Astaire, Ethel Merman, Al Jolson, Bing Crosby, and Irene Bordoni. The brothers' collaborations intersected with contemporaneous composers and lyricists such as Cole Porter, Jerome Kern, Oscar Hammerstein II, Irving Berlin, Richard Rodgers, Lorenz Hart, Kurt Weill, and Vernon Duke. Their joint projects were presented by producers and impresarios like George White, Billy Rose, Sam H. Harris, and influential music publishers on Broadway and in Hollywood.

Broadway and film career

Ira's lyrics appeared in stage shows including revues, musicals, and operetta-style productions handled by producers at major houses like the Winter Garden Theatre and Imperial Theatre. He worked on film adaptations produced by studios such as RKO Pictures, United Artists, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Paramount Pictures, and Warner Bros. His words were set to music performed in films starring celebrities including Judy Garland, Gene Kelly, Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Barbra Streisand, and Ray Bolger. Collaborations extended to directors and choreographers like Vincente Minnelli, Busby Berkeley, Rouben Mamoulian, and Robert Wise, and arrangers and orchestrators connected to musicians such as Ferde Grofé, William Schuman, and Leopold Stokowski. Later theatrical revivals and film retrospectives engaged institutions including the New York Philharmonic, the Metropolitan Opera, and regional theaters connected to the League of American Theatres and Producers.

Lyrics and musical style

Ira's lyricism combined internal rhyme, colloquial phrasing, and literary allusion, showing affinities with poets and writers whose works influenced American song, including T. S. Eliot, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Dorothy Parker, W. H. Auden, and Edna St. Vincent Millay. Critics compared his craftsmanship to other lyricists such as Lorenz Hart and Cole Porter, while scholars in institutions like The Library of Congress and Smithsonian Institution studied his manuscripts. Performers and arrangers from the Great American Songbook tradition—singers such as Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra, Peggy Lee, Nina Simone, Tony Bennett, and Sarah Vaughan—recorded his songs. Jazz musicians and bandleaders including Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Benny Goodman, Artie Shaw, Charlie Parker, and Miles Davis adapted Gershwin repertoire, with standards appearing on Blue Note Records, Columbia Records, and Verve Records.

Personal life and legacy

Ira married Leonore Rosenbaum in a partnership that connected him to cultural salons and collectors linked to Los Angeles and the Hollywood Bowl. After George's early death, Ira managed the brothers' estate, interacting with legal frameworks involving entities such as the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) and institutions like the Library of Congress for preservation and donation of manuscripts. He collaborated with biographers, historians, and archivists including those at Yale University, Columbia University, Juilliard School, New York University, and the Music Division of the Library of Congress. Honors included recognition from organizations like the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the Grammy Awards, and the Pulitzer Prize committees in discussions of American music history. Ira's legacy endures in Broadway revivals, film restorations, educational curricula at conservatories, and ongoing performances by artists associated with the Great American Songbook and institutions such as Carnegie Hall, the Metropolitan Opera, and international festivals in London, Paris, and Tokyo.

Category:American lyricists Category:20th-century American writers