Ira Gershwin

Ira Gershwin, born Israel Gershovitz on December 6, 1896, in Chinatown, Manhattan, was an American lyricist whose Broadway credits include Funny Face, Girl Crazy, Lady in the Dark, and productions later derived from his work such as Crazy for You and The Gershwins' Fascinating Rhythm. The oldest of four children born to Morris and Rose Gershovitz, Russian Jewish immigrants from Saint Petersburg who arrived in the United States in 1891, Gershwin grew up alongside siblings George, Arthur, and Frances. The family's home during his childhood years sat in the heart of the Yiddish Theatre District in the East Village, on the second floor of 91 Second Avenue, and the brothers regularly attended the local Yiddish theatres. Gershwin graduated from Townsend Harris High School in 1914, a public institution for intellectually gifted students, where he formed a lifelong friendship with Yip Harburg over a shared enthusiasm for Gilbert and Sullivan. He subsequently attended the City College of New York but did not complete his studies there.

While his younger brother George began composing in Tin Pan Alley from the age of eighteen, Gershwin worked as a cashier at his father's Turkish baths before turning his attention to lyric writing. His first published lyric appeared as a parody in the New York Sun in 1917. Choosing to work independently of his already prominent brother, he initially published under the pseudonym Arthur Francis, a name drawn from the given names of his two younger siblings. Under that pseudonym, he contributed to Two Little Girls in Blue in 1921, collaborating not with George but with composers Paul Lannin and Vincent Youmans. He wrote his first published and recorded song, "Waiting for the Sun to Come Out," with George for The Sweetheart Shop in 1920, a collaboration that earned both brothers a substantial sum. By 1924, having established his own reputation, Gershwin began writing under his own name, contributing lyrics to Be Yourself that year.

The partnership between Ira and George Gershwin became one of the defining forces in American musical theatre. Their first Broadway hit together was Lady, Be Good in 1924, and over the course of their collaboration they wrote songs for thirteen musicals. Among the most celebrated was Girl Crazy in 1930, which marked the stage debuts of both Ginger Rogers and Ethel Merman and introduced songs including "Embraceable You" and "I Got Rhythm." The show was adapted into film three times and later reworked into the 1992 musical Crazy for You. Gershwin also contributed lyrics to several songs in George's opera Porgy and Bess, supplementing the libretto by DuBose Heyward, with his contributions including "It Ain't Necessarily So." Songs produced during the brothers' Broadway years together include "The Man I Love," "Someone to Watch Over Me," and "Embraceable You," among the most recognized in twentieth-century American popular music.

Following the commercial disappointment of Porgy and Bess, the Gershwins relocated to Hollywood, where they wrote songs for three films in rapid succession: Shall We Dance and A Damsel in Distress, both released in 1937, and The Goldwyn Follies, released in 1938. Their output for those films included "They Can't Take That Away from Me," "Let's Call the Whole Thing Off," "A Foggy Day," "Nice Work If You Can Get It," and "Love Is Here to Stay." George Gershwin died unexpectedly of a brain tumor in 1937, ending the brothers' partnership. Gershwin waited nearly three years before returning to work.

When he resumed writing, Gershwin collaborated with a succession of prominent composers. In 1941 he worked with Kurt Weill on Lady in the Dark, an unconventional Broadway musical that proved successful. The two collaborated again in 1945 on the film Where Do We Go from Here? and the operetta The Firebrand of Florence. In 1944, working with Jerome Kern on the film Cover Girl, Gershwin co-wrote "Long Ago (and Far Away)," which ultimately generated more royalties for him than any other song he wrote. His final Broadway production was Park Avenue in 1946, co-written with composer Arthur Schwartz. He worked with Harold Arlen on two films released in 1954, A Star Is Born with Judy Garland and The Country Girl, with the former widely regarded by critics as his last major work. In 1947 he wrote lyrics to eleven previously unused George Gershwin compositions for the Betty Grable film The Shocking Miss Pilgrim, and he later returned to his brother's unpublished work for Billy Wilder's 1964 film Kiss Me, Stupid.

The collaboration between the Gershwin brothers on Of Thee I Sing earned the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1932, making it the first musical to receive that honor. Gershwin's 1959 book Lyrics on Several Occasions, combining autobiography with an annotated anthology of his work, is regarded as a significant resource for the study of lyric writing during the golden age of American popular song. In his later years, American singer and musical historian Michael Feinstein worked for Gershwin assisting with his archive, during which time a number of previously lost musical works were discovered. Feinstein subsequently published The Gershwins and Me: A Personal History in Twelve Songs in 2012, documenting his time working for Gershwin. Ira Gershwin married Leonore Strunsky in 1926 and died on August 17, 1983.