PLAY GUIDE
2015
2016
About ATC ................................................................................................................................................. Introduction to the Play ............................................................................................................................ Meet the Playwright and Performer .......................................................................................................... Meet the Composer ................................................................................................................................. Who’s Who ................................................................................................................................................ World Context: 20th Century ...................................................................................................................... The Works of Irving Berlin ......................................................................................................................... Glossary ................................................................................................................................................... Discussion Questions and Activities .........................................................................................................
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Hershey Felder as Irving Berlin Play Guide written and designed by Katherine Monberg, ATC Literary Associate, with
assistance from April Jackson, Learning & Education Manager; Bryanna Patrick and Luke Young, Learning & Education Associates.
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ABOUT ATC Arizona Theatre Company is a professional, not-for-profit theatre company. This means that all of our artists, administrators and production staff are paid professionals, and the income we receive from ticket sales and contributions goes right back into our budget to create our work, rather than to any particular person as a profit. Eash season, ATC employs hundreds of actors, directors and designers from all over the country to create the work you see on stage. In addition, ATC currently employs approximately 50 staff members in our production shops and administrative offices in Tucson and Phoenix during our season. Among these people are carpenters, painters, marketing professionals, fundraisers, stage directors, sound and light board operators, tailors, costume designers, box office agents, stage crew - the list is endless - representing am amazing range of talents and skills. We are also supported by a Board of Trustees, a group of business and community leaders who volunteer their time and expertise to assist the theatre in financial and legal matters, advise in marketing and fundraising, and help represent the theatre in our community. Roughly 150,000 people attend our shows every year, and several thousand of those people support us with charitable contributions in addition to purchasing their tickets. Businesses large and small, private foundations and the city and state governments also support our work financially. All of this is in support of our vision and mission:
The mission of Arizona Theatre Company is to inspire, engage and entertain - one moment, one production and one audience at a time. Our mission is to create professional theatre that continually strives to reach new levels of artistic excellence that resonates locally, in the state of Arizona and throughout the nation. In order to fulfill our mission, the theatre produces a broad repertoire ranging from classics to new works, engages artists of the highest caliber, and is committed to assuring access to the broadest spectrum of citizens.
The Herberger Theater Center, ATC’s performance venue in downtown Phoenix.
The Temple of Music and Art, the home of ATC shows in downtown Tucson.
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INTRODUCTION TO THE PLAY Hershey Felder as Irving Berlin
Lyrics & Music by Irving Berlin Book by Hershey Felder Directed by Trevor Hay From the depths of Czarist Russia to New York’s Lower East Side, Irving Berlin’s story embodies the American dream. Hershey Felder, the bravura performer, compelling storyteller, and superb Hershey Felder in ATC’s production of Hershey Felder as Irving Berlin. Photo by Eighty-Eight Entertainment, LLC.
concert pianist who thrilled us with George Gershwin Alone
returns to ATC in another not-to-be-missed musical. Felder’s latest brings to vibrant life the remarkable story of “America’s Composer,” Irving Berlin, who wrote such classics as “White Christmas” and “God Bless America”. Hershey Felder’s performance makes this evening an unforgettable journey.
MEET THE PLAYWRIGHT AND PERFORMER Hershey Felder (Irving Berlin/Playwright) created and performed George Gershwin Alone, which played on Broadway at the Helen Hayes Theatre, in the West End at the
Duchess Theatre, and in theatres around the country. His Composers Sonata—George Gershwin Alone; Monsieur Chopin; Beethoven, As I Knew Him; Maestro Bernstein; Hershey Felder as Franz Liszt in Musik; Hershey Felder as Irving Berlin—has been
presented at dozens of theatres across the U.S. and around the world. His compositions and recordings include Aliyah, Concerto for Piano and Orchestra; Fairytale, a musical; Les Anges de Paris, Suite for Violin and Piano; Song Settings; Saltimbanques for Piano and Orchestra; Etudes Thematiques for Piano; and An American Story for Playwright and performer Hershey Felder.
Actor and Orchestra. As director, he premiered Mona Golabek in The Pianist of Willesden Lane at the Geffen Playhouse in 2012 and, earlier this year, produced and
created scenic design for Taylor Hackford’s Louis Hackford’s Louis and Keely ‘Live’ at the Sahara. Mr. Felder has been a scholar-in-residence at Harvard University’s Department of Music and is married to Kim
Campbell, the first female Prime Minister of Canada. 2
MEET THE COMPOSER Journey to the New World Irving Berlin was born Israel Baline on May 11, 1888, one of eight children to Moses and Lena Lipkin Beilin. There is some contention regarding the actual city of his birth, but it was in or near what was then the Russian Empire. His father was a cantor in a synagogue, and in 1893 the Balines joined thousands of other Jewish families in a mass exodus to America in response to the anti-Jewish sentiment of Tsar Alexander III. The Beginnings Alexander III, ruler of Imperial Russia from 1881 until 1894.
The Balines made their way through Ellis Island to the Yiddish Theater District on
the Lower East Side of New York City. Unable to find employment as a cantor, Moses worked at a kosher meat market and taught Hebrew on the side, but the income was not enough to support his young family. Young Israel “Izzy” became a newspaper boy, selling The Evening Journal on the streets. He discovered that singing popular songs of the day, heard through the doors of the saloons and restaurants near which he sold his papers, increased his daily income. He later quit selling papers to become an itinerant singer, visiting saloons to earn pennies from customers, earning his musical education in partnership to his poverty and simultaneously discovering that his greatest profits came from “wellknown tunes expressing simple sentiments.” At age 18, Izzy realized his ambition to become a singing waiter, taking a job at the Pelham Café in Chinatown. Proprietor Mike Saulter was a colorful character of the underworld, operating a bar on the ground floor with a whorehouse upstairs. Eager to overshadow his competitors, Saulter encouraged Izzy toward ambitions as a songwriter, hoping to capitalize on his talents. Israel teamed up with the Pelham’s resident pianist and knocked out his first complete song, “Marie from Sunny Italy”, which was met with acclaim from Mulberry Street on New York City’s Lower East Side, 1900, at the center of “Little Italy.”
the local immigrant population. Along with his first copyright fee of 37 cents, through a printing error on the score young Izzy also acquired a new name: Irving Berlin.
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Berlin soon made his way to an uptown nightclub, Jimmy Kelly’s at Union Square, a show business hangout owned by an exprize fighter. It was there that Berlin made his first contacts in the music business, composing and selling songs to the local clientele. With the first appearance of one of his songs in the annual Ziegfeld Follies – “Good-bye, Becky Cohen”, performed by vaudeville star Fanny Brice – Irving began his rise through the industry to fame. Serving as both composer and lyricist, one of only a few composers of the era to do so, Berlin took up residence in Tin Pan Alley and began to experiment with ragtime, a fast, rowdy style popularized by Scott Joplin. Berlin authored his first major hit, “Alexander’s Ragtime Band”, in 1911. The song sparked a music and dance sensation, both in America and abroad, earning him the nickname, “The Ragtime King”. In 1912, Berlin married Dorothy Goetz, the sister of fellow songwriter E. Ray Goetz. However, their happiness would be short lived, as Dorothy died a mere six months later of typhoid fever, contracted while on their honeymoon to Havana. Berlin expressed his anguish in a dramatic change of his musical style and authored the first of many Buildings of Tin Pan Alley, 1910.
ballads for which he would come to be known: “When I Lost You” (1912).
Berlin continued to rule as the “King of Tin Pan Alley” through the early 1900s, becoming a charter member of the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) in 1914, along with his Broadway partner Victor Herbert, and founding the Irving Berlin Music Corporation to control his many copyrights in 1919. He composed prolifically for the Follies and Broadway until the rhythm of the world was interrupted with the outbreak of World War I, which would plunge the U.S. into an international conflict of unprecedented scale and destruction. World War I Berlin, fiercely patriotic and grateful to the United States for his own journey to success, energetically joined the war effort through the production of patriotic songs to engender support and a sense of American nationalism. When the U.S. officially joined the war in April 1917, Berlin made headline news as one of nearly three million men drafted into military service. While stationed at Camp Upton with the 152nd Depot Brigade, Berlin drew upon his show business background and developed the musical Yip! Yip! Yaphank!, written as a patriotic tribute to the U.S. Army. The show transferred to Broadway the following summer, where it was met with wild success during a limited run. 4
1920 to 1940 After his discharge from the U.S. Army following the war, Berlin returned to Tin Pan Alley and forged a partnership with Sam H. Harris to build the Music Box Theater, which would serve as the home of his Music Box Revue from 1921 until 1925 and would produce the premiere of his later work As Thousands Cheer (1933); the Music Box remains the only Broadway house built to accommodate the work of a singular songwriter. In 1925, Berlin met and fell in love with Ellin Mackay, daughter and heiress to Clarence Mackay, head of the Postal Telegraph Cable Company and responsible for laying the first cable across the Atlantic Ocean. The press was intensely interested in the love affair between a Jewish immigrant and the Catholic socialite, further propelled by Clarence Mackay’s intense disapproval. The couple eloped, had four children, and remained together until Ellin’s death in 1988 at the age of 85. Ellin Mackay and Irving Berlin, 1925.
Over the next two decades, Berlin continued to oversee operations at the Music Box as theater owner, producer and composer, and penned many of the iconic standards of American music, with the Irving Berlin Music Corporation successfully weathering the storm of the Great Depression. Some notable musical hits include “What’ll I Do” (1924), known for numerous famous renditions including those by Nat Cole and Frank Sinatra; “Always” (1925) which would top the charts with renditions by Vincent Lopez and George Olsen and later become known as Patsy Cline’s postmortem anthem; “Blue Skies” (1926) which would become the
Exterior of Berlin’s Music Box Theatre as it looked in 1958.
first song performed by Al Jolson in the first feature sound film, The Jazz Singer, the following year; “Marie” (1929), which would
reach Number 2 with Rudy Vallee and Number 1 with Tommy Dorsey in 1937; “Puttin’ on the Ritz” (1930), which would become an instant hit and known for accompanying dancer Fred Astaire in the 1946 film Blue Skies; “Say It Isn’t So” (1932), originally performed by Rudy Vallee, and later by George Olsen and Aretha Franklin; “I’ve Got My Love to Keep Me Warm” (1937), performed by Dick Powell in the 1937 film On the Avenue and go on to top-twelve versions performed by Billie Holiday and Les Brown. 5
In 1938, singer Kate Smith’s management approached Berlin for a patriotic song she could perform as part of the 20th anniversary celebration of Armistice Day and the end of World War I. Berlin dusted off an old tune, composed decades earlier but removed from the program of Yip! Yip! Yankhap!, providing the music and lyrics to “God Bless America,” which would grow into an unofficial national anthem with the outbreak of World War II in just a few short years. Berlin donated the copyright and royalties to the Boy Scouts of America and the Girl Scouts of the USA, for whom it has earned millions, and which earned Berlin a special Congressional Gold Medal from President Dwight D. Eisenhower. Woody Guthrie’s later song “This Land is Your Land” (1940) was composed in response, and was originally titled “God Blessed America for Me.” World War II When the United States entered World War II in 1941 after the attack on Pearl Harbor, Berlin immediately began composing patriotic songs for a number of government agencies in support of the war effort. The royalties for “Any Bonds Today?”, “I Paid My Income Tax Today”, and “Arms for the Love of America” were assigned to the U.S. Treasury Department; “Angels of Mercy” was assigned to the American Red Cross; and the proceeds from “Arms for the Love America” was donated to the Army Ordinance Department. Berlin followed up with the composition of an entire show, This Is the Army, which premiered on Broadway before moving on to
Washington, D.C., and then continued to tour military bases the world over for the next three and a half years. The show included nearly three dozen original songs and a cast of nearly 300 conscripted men; Berlin toured with the show, taking no salary and donating all proceeds to the Army Emergency Relief fund. This Is the Army was adapted into a film in 1943 starring Joan Scene from This is the Army on Broadway, 1942.
Leslie and Ronald Reagan, and evolved into a road show that
toured European battlefields throughout the war. The adaptations combined to raise more than $10 million for the U.S. Army, for which Berlin was awarded the Medal of Merit by President Harry S. Truman. After World War II, Berlin returned home, exhausted. In 1946, Berlin’s old friend and colleague and composer for the developing Broadway show Annie Get Your Gun, Jerome Kern, died suddenly of a cerebral hemorrhage, and producers Rodgers and Hammerstein persuaded Berlin to finish composing the score. Running for 1,147 performances, the show would become Berlin’s most successful, and included the famous “There’s No Business Like Show Business”, which would also become known as the trademark of performer Ethel Merman.
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In 1949, Berlin composed the Broadway show Miss Liberty, which opened to disappointing acclaim, but reclaimed his fame with the film Call Me Madam starring Ethel Merman the following year. After a brief, failed attempt at retirement, Berlin composed his final Broadway show, Mr. President, in 1962. On Film The 1920s brought with it a theatrical departure from the light comedies and minstrel shows of Berlin and his contemporaries, leading Berlin to a temporary foray into film with an adaptation of The Cocoanuts, originally created with George S. Kaufman and Morrie Ryskind and starring the Marx Brothers. He followed with Reaching for the Moon, directed by Edmund Goulding, originally intended to
feature a complete Berlin Score. However, creative clashes between composer and director resulted in the excising of all but one Berlin song, “How Deep is the Ocean?” which became a 1933 hit even as the film itself failed. In the 1930s, Berlin returned again to film, signing with RKO pictures, generally regarded as the oddball studio derivative of the Albee theater chain of vaudeville fame. Just emerging from bankruptcy, RKO offered Berlin an incredible deal, Original film poster for The Cocoanuts, 1929, starring the Marx Brothers.
including ten percent of the gross and the retention of all his copyrights. The partnership flourished with the production of Top Hat (1935), which ambitiously paired Broadway performer Fred Astaire with a new young dancer from Texas: Ginger Rogers. The film was a massive success, and led to another collaboration in Follow the Fleet (1936). The 1938 film Alexander’s Ragtime Band featured such Berlin hits as “Easter Parade” and the 1914 hit “When That Midnight Choo Choo Leaves for Alabam”. Both “Easter Parade” and “White Christmas” would be developed into the films of the same names in 1948 and 1954, respectively. Berlin’s Legacy As the 1950s faded into the 60s, Berlin faded from public life, spending more and more time at his Beekman Street townhouse until his death in his sleep on
Original film poster for Top Hat (1935), starring Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers.
September 22, 1989. His life represents the consummate self-made man of the American Dream, leading him to become one of the most iconic composers of 7
American musical history, despite never learning to read music and composing in only one key (he used a customized piano that could transpose for him as needed). Berlin is known for the creation of hundreds of songs and numerous American standards that “reach[ed] the heart of the average American” with his uncomplicated, simple, and direct musical style, designed to speak to “the real soul of the country.” Known as a musical legend before the age of 30 and with a career spanning more than 60 years, Irving Berlin composed an estimated 1,500 songs, wrote the scores for 19 Broadway shows Irving Berlin.
and 18 Hollywood films, and was nominated for eight Academy Awards. His
songs have reached number one on the charts 25 times and have been recorded and re-recorded by some of the greatest American singers of all time, including Ethel Merman, Frank Sinatra, Judy Garland, Barbra Streisand, Linda Ronstadt, Diana Ross, Bing Crosby, Nat King Cole, Billie Holiday, Bob Dylan and Ella Fitzgerald, among many others. Composer George Gershwin called Irving Berlin “the greatest composer that ever lived,” and he is perhaps best immortalized by the words of fellow composer Jerome Kern: “Irving Berlin has no place in American music – he is American music.” Berlin interestingly also had an inadvertent influence on music copyright when he sued Mad Magazine in 1961 for parodies of his songs published in “Sing Along with MAD,” which provided new lyrics to classic songs. However, the trial and circuit courts both ruled on the magazine’s behalf. When the Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal, the precedent was officially set and the legal right to song parody was incorporated into U.S. law.
WHO’S WHO The Music
Fred Astaire (1899-1987) and Ginger Rogers (1911-1995): American dancers, singers, and actors, perhaps best known for their ten collaborations for RKO Pictures, which elevated the duo to stardom. Famous film collaborations include Top Hat and Follow the Fleet, both with scores by Irving Berlin. Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers.
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Fanny Brice (1891-1951): American singer, actress and comedian of stage, radio and film fame, known as the star and creator of the popular radio comedy series, The Baby Snooks Show.
Fanny Brice as Baby Snooks, 1940.
George M. Cohan (1878-1942): American entertainer, playwright, composer, lyricist, performer and producer, known for such musical standards as “The Yankee Doodle Boy”, “You’re a Grand Old Flag”, and “Give My Regards to Broadway.” Known prior to World War I as “the man who owned Broadway,” he continued to perform until 1940 and is commemorated by a statue in Times Square, New York City, for his contributions to musical theatre. George M. Cohan.
Bing Crosby (1903-1977): American singer and actor who became one of the best-selling musical artists of the 20th century with his trademark bass-baritone voice. Crosby’s biggest career hit was his recording of Irving Berlin’s “White Christmas,” first heard on a radio broadcast on Christmas Day in 1941, and which remains the best-selling single of all time. Bing Crosby.
Stephen Foster (1826-1864): American songwriter of parlor and minstrel music, sometimes referred to as “the father of American music” and reportedly one of Berlin’s favorite composers. Foster is known for such songs as “Oh! Susanna”, “Camptown Races”, and “My Old Kentucky Home,” among others, noted as cornerstones of American musical identity. Stephen Foster.
George Gershwin (1898-1937): American pianist and composer of both popular and classical music, whose best-known works include Rhapsody in Blue (1924) , An American in Paris (1929), and the opera Porgy and Bess (1935). Like Berlin, Gershwin’s family immigrated to America in the 1890s, fearful of increasing anti-Jewish sentiment in Russia under Tsar Nicholas II and resulting pogroms. The classically-trained Gershwin also made his name in Tin Pan Alley and George Gershwin.
on Broadway stages, and became a revered cornerstone of American music and composition.
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Edmund Goulding (1891-1959): British film writer and director of Reaching for the Moon, Berlin’s film depicting his relationship with Ellin Mackay. Originally intended to be a complete Berlin score, the querulous relationship between director and composer resulted in only one Berlin song in the score: “How Deep Is the Ocean?” (1930), which became a hit, nevertheless. Edmund Goulding.
Oscar Hammerstein II (1895-1960): American librettist, theatre producer, and director, many of whose songs remain current as standard repertoire for singers and jazz musicians, and was bestknown for his longtime collaboration with Richard Rodgers whose partnership produced such works as Oklahoma! (1943), Carousel (1945), South Pacific (1949), The King and I (1951), and The Sound of Music (1959). Oscar Hammerstein II.
Sam H. Harris (1872-1941): Broadway producer and theater owner, with whom Irving Berlin partnered in 1921 at the conclusion of World War I to build the Music Box Theater for Berlin’s Music Box Revue. Upon Harris’s death in 1941, his shares in the theater were sold primarily to
Berlin and to former competitor, the Shubert Organization, with whom Berlin and, later, his estate, retained a partnership until 2007. Sam H. Harris.
Moss Hart (1904-1961): American playwright and theatre director, particularly known for his partnership with George S. Kaufman, which resulted in You Can’t Take It with You (1936) and The Man Who Came to Dinner (1939).
Moss Hart.
Victor Herbert (1859-1924): American cellist, conductor, and composer of many successful Broadway operettas between the 1890s and World War I. He was a prominent product of Tin Pan Alley and worked closely with Irving Berlin, John Philip Sousa, and others to found the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) in 1914. He was also a composer for numerous Broadway revues including the shows of Irving Berlin and Jerome Kern, and was a Victor Herbert.
contributor to the annual Ziegfeld Follies from 1917 to 1924. 10
J. Edgar Hoover (1935-1972): First Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Hoover reportedly investigated Irving Berlin for the composer’s political involvement. Berlin frequently donated rights to his songs to serve as rallying points for causes, including support of Al Smith and Dwight Eisenhower as presidential candidates (“I Like Ike”), as well as songs opposing prohibition, defending the gold standard, helping the war against Hitler, and a 1950 anthem for J. Edgar Hoover.
the state of Israel. Scott Joplin (1867/68 - 1917): African-American composer and pianist known as the “King of Ragtime Writers” during his brief career, who popularized the ragtime genre prior to World War I.
Scott Joplin.
George S. Kaufman (1889-1961): American playwright, theatre director and producer, drama critic and humorist. Kaufman is best known as the winner of the 1937 Pulitizer Prize for Drama for You Can’t Take it With You, written with Moss Hart; Of Thee I Sing, with Morrie Ryskind and Ira Gershwin; and director of the Tony Award-winning Guys and Dolls. George S. Kaufman.
Jimmy Kelly: An ex-prize fighter and proprietor of Jimmy Kelly’s, a popular show business hangout, where young Berlin wrote and sold songs until Fanny Brice performed his “Good-bye, Becky Cohen” in the annual Ziegfeld Follies in 1910, sparking Berlin’s prolific rise through the industry.
Irving Berlin, age 18.
Jerome Kern (1885-1945): American composer specializing in popular music and musical theatre, best-known for such classics as “Ol’ Man River”, “The Way You Look Tonight”, and numerous collaborations with leading lyricists and librettists of the era. He was a close friend and contemporary of Irving Berlin, and his musical innovation included 4/4 dance rhythms, syncopation, and jazz progressions building out of the ragtime and musical theatre traditions. Jerome Kern.
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Ethel Merman (1908-1984): American actress and singer primarily known for musical theatre, designated the “First Lady of the musical comedy stage”. Merman originated the role of Annie Oakley in Annie Get Your Gun (1946), from which the song “No Business Like Show Business” would become her personal theme song. Ethel Merman.
Cole Porter (1891-1964): American composer and songwriter, known as one of the major Broadway songwriters of the 1930s. Like Berlin, Porter was one of the few composers of the era who also wrote his own lyrics, though his witty, loftier style is sometimes described in contrast to Berlin’s more direct musical approach. Some of Cole Porter’s notable hits include the musicals Kiss Me, Kate and Anything Goes, and songs such as “I’ve Got You Under My Skin”, “I Get a
Kick Out of You”, and “You’re the Top”, which contains a reference to his contemporary, Irving Cole Porter.
Berlin: “You’re the top! You’re a Waldorf salad. You’re the top! You’re a Berlin ballad.” Richard Rodgers (1902-1979): Prolific American composer of Broadway musicals, as well as scores for film and television, and best known for his partnerships with Lorenz Hart and Oscar Hammerstein II. Some of his best known credits include compositions for Carousel (1945), South Pacific (1949), The King and I (1951), The Sound of Music (1959) and songs such as
“Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin’”, “If I Loved You”, “Some Enchanted Evening”, “Getting to Know Richard Rodgers.
You”, and “My Favorite Things.” Morrie Ryskind (1895-1985): American dramatist, lyricist, and writer of theatrical shows and films, known for his collaborations with George S. Kaufman, and winner of the 1932 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for Of Thee I Sing. At left, Ryskind is pictured with Kaufman (bottom left), and Ira and George Gershwin (top).
Morrie Ryskind (bottom right).
Mike Saulter (1868-1922): Underworld figure and proprietor of the Pelham Café in New York City’s Chinatown, where 18-year-old Irving Berlin (then known as Israel Baline) found his first employment as a singing waiter. Eager to combat his competitors, Saulter pressed young Berlin toward ambitions as a songwriter. Teaming up with the resident pianist at the Pelham Café, Berlin wrote his first song, “Marie from Sunny Italy,” in 1907 for which he earned 37 cents and, The Pelham Café, New York City, early 1900s.
due to a printing error on the score, a new name: Irving Berlin.
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Kate Smith (1907-1986): American singer known as The First Lady of Radio, and for her rendition of Irving Berlin’s “God Bless America.” Seeking a song in 1938 to perform for the 20th anniversary of Armistice Day celebrating the end of World War I, Berlin provided the song written twenty years earlier and filed away ever since. “God Bless America” would grow to immense popularity as a second national anthem when the United States entered World War II a few years Kate Smith.
later. Ezra Stone (1917-1994): Young stage director chosen by Irving Berlin to direct the stage show This Is the Army, intended as a large-scale fundraiser for the Army during World War II. Berlin
selected only enlisted men for the company of 300 performers, eventually removing Stone from the project. This Is the Army went on to tour American bases and camps overseas, and was made into a film in 1943. Ezra Stone served out the remainder of World War II overseas, returning Ezra Stone.
afterward to become a successful New York stage director.
Personal Life Moses Beilin: The father of Irving Berlin, a cantor, who emigrated with his family from Russia in 1893 to flee the Cossack pogroms of Russia and the anti-Jewish violence under Alexander III. The family name was altered to Baline by the 1900 census, perhaps during their journey through Ellis Island. Unable to find work as a cantor, he found work in a kosher meat market and teaching Hebrew to support his family, until his death when Irving Berlin was just 13 years old. Irving Berlin, New York City, 1911.
Dorothy Goetz (1892-1912): The first wife of Irving Berlin, whom she married in 1912. She died a mere six months later of typhoid fever, contracted during the couple’s honeymoon in Havana. Upon her death, Irving Berlin composed his first ballad, “When I Lost You,” as an expression of his grief, and which marked a significant transition in his musical style.
Irving Berlin and Dorothy Goetz.
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Ellin Mackay (1903-1988): Second wife of Irving Berlin, as well as daughter and heiress to Clarence Mackay, head of the Postal Telegraph Cable Company, responsible for laying the first cable across the Atlantic Ocean. Clarence Mackay was strongly opposed to the match between his Catholic socialite daughter and the Jewish rags-to-riches composer, forcing the two to elope in 1926. Ellin’s father disowned her and rescinded her inheritance; Berlin then bequeathed the Ellin Mackay and Irving Berlin.
rights to several of his songs to his wife, to secure her personal financial future. Irving and Ellin remained happily married until her death in 1988.
WORLD CONTEXT: 20TH CENTURY Tzarist Russia and Jewish Persecution The assassination of Tsar Alexander II in 1881 by members of the Narodnaya Volya, a Russian left-wing revolutionary organization, sparked a huge wave of anti-Jewish riots in the southwest region of Imperial Russia, resulting in the destruction of thousands of Jewish homes and livelihoods from 1881-1884. The next successor to the Russian throne, Immigrants arriving at Ellis Island, visible in the background, 1892.
Tsar Alexander III, further persecuted the Jewish population with the issue of the May Laws in 1882, a series of harsh restrictions on Jewish civil and
workers rights. The tacit governmental support of Jewish persecution initiated large-scale emigration from the region, with many Jews choosing to build new lives in the United States. Berlin’s family left Russia for the U.S. in 1893, a mere decade before a more brutal wave of pogroms swept the region under Tsar Nicholas II from 1903-1906. Ellis Island and the Immigrant Experience Ellis Island in the Upper New York Bay served as the landing point and gateway to the United States for over 12 million immigrants as America’s first Federal immigration inspection station from 1892-1954; approximately one-third of the current U.S. population can trace their roots to the immigrants who passed through Ellis Island during its operation. New arrivals at the immigration station were asked a total of 29 questions, primarily regarding their name, occupation, family status, and the amount of money they carried, followed by a physical examination by the army surgeons who staffed the Ellis Island Immigrant Hospital. Entrance to the U.S. could be denied to those with observable diseases or health problems, or those deemed likely to become a public burden such as unskilled workers, those with a criminal record, or those who 14
demonstrated symptoms of mental illness or insanity. The medical inspection in particular came to be regarded as an intimidating admission exam: unusual techniques were employed, such as the use of a buttonhook to flip up the eyelid to examine immigrants for symptoms of eye diseases, and a chalk mark code placed on clothing to identify potential physical ailments observed by examiners while the applicants candidly climbed the stairs from the baggage area to the rest of the facility. Once through Ellis Island, new immigrants found themselves in the midst of New York City, a major metropolitan melting pot rife with burgeoning industry and large communities of immigrants striving toward the New arrivals awaiting inspection at Ellis Island.
American dream. Many found themselves working long hours in dangerous work environments for wages that couldn’t stretch far enough to feed a
family, and crowded into dingy tenements in which sanitation was low and poverty was high. The early 1900s brought Theodore Roosevelt and the Progressive Era to the country, largely in response to the economic and social hardships endured by the lower and middle classes as modernization encroached, and the political and economic infrastructure struggled to keep pace with the capitalism and corruption induced by the previous Gilded Age. The Statue of Liberty An icon of the “land of opportunity” and the American dream, the Statue of Liberty was dedicated on October 28, 1886, a gift from the people of France to the United States. The neoclassical “Lady Liberty” stands on Liberty Island in New York Harbor, serving as the visual confirmation of arrival to the New World for the more than 12 million immigrants that passed through Ellis Island. Designed in copper by French sculptor Frederic Auguste Bartholdi and built by Gustave Eiffel, the statue is a robed effigy of Libertas, the roman goddess of liberty, bearing a torch and a tabula ansata inscribed with the date of the American Declaration of Independence: July 4, The Statue of Liberty, dedicated in 1886.
1776. Inside the lower level of Lady Liberty’s pedestal is a plaque engraved with the sonnet “A New Colossus” by Emma Lazarus, written and donated to raise money for the construction of the pedestal:
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“The New Colossus” by Emma Lazarus
Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame, With conquering limbs astride from land to land; Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame. Plaque of “The New Colossus” by Emma Lazarus, inside the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty.
"Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"
World War I On June 28, 1914, the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria sparked an international diplomatic crisis that drew in all the great economic powers of the world, divided into two opposing alliances: the Entente Powers or Allies, and the Central Powers. The Allies initially consisted of the United Kingdom, France, and the Russian Empire (united by the Triple Entente alliance of 1907), and were eventually joined by Italy, Japan, and the United States. The Central Powers consisted of Germany and Austria-Hungary, and were eventually joined by the Ottoman Empire and Bulgaria. The Allies claimed victory in the global conflict on November 11, 1918, though a formal state of war continued until the implementation of the Treaty of Versailles on June 28, 1919. By its end, World War I had escalated into one of the largest and most destructive wars in history, aided by new technologies such as chemical warfare, and resulting in more than 16 million casualties worldwide, including seven million civilians. Major international changes were initiated upon its
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conclusion, including the dissolution of the German, Russian, Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman Empires, and a series of treaties imposed during the Paris Peace conference of 1919 which included the formation of the League of Nations, to prevent any such conflict from happening again. Map depicting the Allied (green) and Central Powers (orange) in World War I.
The Great Depression The Stock Market Crash of 1929 began on October 24, also known as Black Tuesday, and marks the most devastating stock market crash in the history of the United States that fueled the subsequent ten-year-long Great Depression. The wealth and excess of the Roaring Twenties poured profits into American cities and created widespread financial hardship for American farmers, coupled with wild speculation in the stock market. After the crash, business uncertainty led to massive layoffs, declining consumption, bankruptcies and bank failures; unemployment in the U.S. rose to 25%, and the economic effects were felt internationally as worldwide GDP fell 15% from 1929 to 1932. In the early 1930s, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s New Deal domestic programs sought to stimulate demand and provide work and relief from impoverishment through increased government spending and financial reform. By 1936, many economic indicators had recovered to their pre-Crash levels, though unemployment remained high and rising at approximately 11%. Some world economies improved throughout the 1930s, but many did not recover until the Crowd gathering outside the New York Stock Exchange after the Stock Market Crash of 1929.
outbreak of World War II, when wartime economies provided military employment and necessitated increased industrial production.
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World War II After World War I, the weakened economic and political state of much of Europe combined with a renewed sense of nationalism and resentment, which fused with the economic hardship of the Great Depression to fuel the rise of Nazi Germany under Adolf Hitler. World War II is generally thought to have begun with the German invasion of Poland on September 1, 1939, and subsequent declarations of war by France and the United Kingdom. Germany conquered much of Europe from 1939 until early 1941, forming the Axis alliance with Italy and Japan, and countered by the primary Allied forces of the United Kingdom, the British Commonwealth, and the Soviet Union (after its invasion by Germany in June, 1941). China, already at war with Japan since 1937, joined the Allies in 1941 along with the U.S., who escalated from a financial to physical alliance with the Allies after the Japanese attack upon Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. The Second World War became the most widespread war in history, with fronts in South-East Asia, the Middle East, North Africa, and across Europe and involving more than 100 million military personnel from over 30 countries. The use of nuclear weapons, strategic bombing of population centers, and mass killings of civilians, including the 11 million deaths of the Holocaust, resulted in an estimated 50-85 million fatalities worldwide, marking it as the deadliest conflict in history.
Map depicting the Allied (light green) and Axis (blue) alliances of World War II.
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THE WORKS OF IRVING BERLIN Notable Songs “Marie From Sunny Italy” (1907)
“I’ve Got My Love to Keep Me Warm” (1937)
“A Pretty Girl is Like a Melody” (1919)
“He Ain’t Got Rhythm” (1937-1941)
“Oh! How I Hate to Get Up in the Morning” (1910)
“God Bless America” (1938)
“Alexander’s Ragtime Band” (1911)
“White Christmas” (1942)
“When I Lost You” (1912)
“This Is the Army, Mister Jones” (1942)
“When the Midnight Choo Choo Leaves for Alabam” (1912) “Happy Holiday” (1942-1946) “Daddy, Come Home” (1912-1916)
“There’s No Business Like Show Business” (1946)
“Down in Chattanooga” (1912-1916)
“Anything You Can Do, I Can Do Better” (1946)
“Down in My Heart” (1912-1916)
“You’re Just in Love” (1947-1951)
“Follow the Crowd” (1912-1916)
“An Old-Fashioned Wedding” (1966)
“Ragtime Soldier Man” (1912-1916) **A complete list of Irving Berlin’s songs is available at https://
“That Hula Hula” (1912-1916)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_songs_written_by_Irving_Berlin
“Watch Your Step” (1912-1916) “I Love a Piano” (1915) “For Your Country and My Country” (1917) “Mandy” (1919) “What’ll I Do?” (1924) “Always” (1925) “Blue Skies” (1926) “Marie” (1929) “Puttin’ on the Ritz” (1930) “Say it Isn’t So” (1932) “How Deep is the Ocean?” (1932-1936) “Cheek to Cheek” (1932-1936) “Harlem on My Mind” (1933) “Heat Wave” (1933)
Hershey Felder in ATC’s production of Hershey Felder as Irving Berlin. Photo by Eighty-Eight Entertainment, LLC.
“Easter Parade” (1933) “Supper Time” (1933) 19
Stage Works
Film Scores
Watch Your Step (1914)
The Cocoanuts (1929)
Stop! Look! Listen! (1915)
Puttin' on the Ritz (1930)
The Century Girl (1916)
Top Hat (1935)
Yip! Yip! Yaphank! (1918)
Follow the Fleet (1936)
Ziegfeld Follies (1919)
On the Avenue (1937)
Music Box Revue (1921)
Carefree (1938)
Music Box Revue (1922)
Alexander's Ragtime Band (1938)
Music Box Revue (1923)
Second Fiddle (1939)
Music Box Revue (1924)
Holiday Inn (1942)
The Cocoanuts (1925)
This Is the Army (1943)
Face the Music (1932)
Blue Skies (1946)
As Thousands Cheer (1933)
Easter Parade (1948)
Louisiana Purchase (1940)
Annie Get Your Gun (1950)
This Is the Army (1942)
Call Me Madam (1953)
Annie Get Your Gun (1946)
There’s No Business Like Show Business (1954)
Miss Liberty (1949)
White Christmas (1954)
Call Me Madam (1950) Mr. President (1962) White Christmas (2004, post-mortem production) Top Hat (2012, post-mortem production)
Hershey Felder in ATC’s production of Hershey Felder as Irving Berlin. Photo by Eighty-Eight Entertainment, LLC.
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GLOSSARY ASCAP: The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers, formed in 1914 as a nonprofit performance rights organization that protects members’ copyrights by monitoring public performances, and compensating the copyright holders appropriately. Broadway: A coalition of 40 professional theatres located in the Theatre District and Lincoln Center along Broadway, in the New York City borough of Manhattan, widely considered to ASCAP logo.
represent one of the greatest commercially successful level of theatre in the English speaking world. Chinatown: A region in Lower Manhattan, New York City that is home to the largest group of Chinese people in the Western Hemisphere, located between the Lower East Side, Little Italy, Civic Center and Tribeca. Manhattan’s Chinatown is one of nine Chinatown neighborhoods in New York City, and one of twelve in the greater New York metropolitan area. Composer: A person who writes music, especially as a professional occupation.
The corner of 45th and Broadway, 1936.
Congressional Medal of Honor: The highest decoration in the U.S. military, awarded by Congress to a member of the armed forces for gallantry and bravery in combat, at great risk of life above and beyond the call of duty. Copyright: The exclusive legal right to print, publish, perform, film or record literary, artistic, or musical material, given to an originator, who may assign it to another person or organization.
Great American Songbook: The recognized canon of the most important and influential American popular songs and jazz standards of the early 20th century, also known as “American The Congressional Medal of Honor, U.S. Army.
Standards.” Lyricist: A person who writes the words or lyrics to a song or musical.
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Music Box Theater: The theatrical home of Berlin’s Music Box Revue, built by Berlin and partner Sam H. Harris in 1921 upon Berlin’s return from World War I. In 1925 the theatre presented its first play, and was often the home of playwriting team George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart, as well as Cole Porter, George and Ira Gershwin, and playwright William Inge. The theatre was co-owned by Berlin’s estate until 2007, when the Shubert Organization assumed full ownership. Crowd in Broadway Square, outside the Music Box Theater in 1935.
Pelham Cafe: Located at 12 Pell Street in New York City, the Pelham Cafe was the early 1900s headquarters of Russian-Jewish gangster Mike Salter, who was involved in numerous illegal enterprises including prize fights, dice games, opium parlors, and voting fraud. Salter was arrested in 1907 on charges of false voter registration; he skipped bail and fled to Canada for the next three years. Berlin wouldn’t see his old boss again until Salter’s funeral in 1922.
Ragtime: Music characterized by a syncopated melody with regularly accented accompaniment, especially as played on a piano, evolved via the works of black musicians in the 1890s.
Today’s 12 Pell Street, former home of the Pelham Cafe.
RKO: The film studio which evolved from the Albee chain of vaudeville theatres in the 1920s, known in the 1930s for signing oddballs and outcasts. Berlin signed with RKO in the 1930s, just as the studio was emerging from bankruptcy; he accepted a generous contract that allowed him copyright retention and 10% of the gross.
Tin Pan Alley: The collection of New York City music publishers and songwriters that drove popular music production of the U.S. in the late-19th and early-20th centuries, originally referring to West 28th Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues in Manhattan.
Plaque designating the origin of Tin Pan Alley.
Vaudeville: A type of entertainment especially popular in the U.S. during the early 20th century, which featured a mixture of specialty acts such as song, dance, burlesque and comedy.
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Yiddish Theater District: The center of New York City’s thriving Yiddish theatre scene in the early 20th century, located primarily on Second Avenue. By the outbreak of World War I in 1914, the Yiddish Theatre District rivaled Broadway in quality and scale, but began to decline in the 1940s and had all but disappeared by the mid-1950s as NYC’s Yiddish-speaking population grew older.
ZIEGFELD FOLLIES: An annual series of Broadway theatrical productions from 1907 to 1931, Artwork for the 1912 ZIEGFELD FOLLIES.
known for sparking the careers of many great American performers, songwriters, musicians and composers.
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS AND ACTIVITIES Discussion Questions 1. Why does Irving Berlin make a good subject for a musical? What events in his life make an interesting story? 2. Irving Berlin discovered his talent and passion for music at a young age. What talents have you discovered about yourself? Do you think those abilities could lead to a future career? List three possible careers your talents and interests could lead to. 3. What challenges do you think Irving Berlin and his family faced being immigrants to the United States during this period? What challenges exist for immigrants today who come to this country looking for new opportunities? 4. As a self-made man, Irving Berlin embodies the classic “American dream”. Does that dream still exist for people in our country today? How has it changed over time? Are there any self-made men or women working today that you admire? 5. Irving Berlin was a composer AND a lyricist which was not common during this time, yet this combination provided him with many opportunities. What skills do you have that would compliment each other? How can those skills be used in a future job or career?
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6. Irving Berlin lost his court case against Mad Magazine for creating parodies of his songs. Do you agree with the court’s decision? Why or why not? List any other musical parodies you have heard. 7. How many of Irving Berlin’s songs were you familiar with before you saw the show? Even if you were familiar with some of the songs, did you know that they were written by Berlin? 8. How did the production elements (set, lighting, costumes, sound design, etc.) support this one-man show? What special considerations do you think designers keep in mind when creating a show like this one?
Activities 1. Create a timeline for the major events in Irving Berlin's life. Provide details for each event you list and describe why you felt it was important to include in your timeline. 2. Imagine you are Irving Berlin arriving at Ellis Island. Create a fictional narrative describing your experience immigrating to America. 3. What other musicians would make interesting musical stories? Write a proposal to a Broadway producer describing which musician's life you would like to turn into a musical and include at least four songs you would include in the story. 4. Composer Improv: Ask students to think of a line or phrase from one of their favorite songs (try to keep them short, just a few words if possible). Have five students stand at the front of the class. Each will say or sing their phrase as dramatically as possible with accompanying gestures. The chosen “composer” will point to each student in turn; each student will have to repeat their phrase and gesture exactly the same way. Now the “composer” can point in any order, as fast as they want to, to create an improvised song. Switch out students and repeat, or see if the whole class can compose a new song together.
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