George Gershwin

He was born Jacob Gershowitz, 26 September 1898, in Brooklyn, New York, of Russian-Jewish immigrants. As a boy he could play popular and classical works on his brother Ira's piano by ear.

In 1913 he quit school to study music and began composing for Tin Pan Alley; by 1919 he had his first hit "Swanee" and his first Broadway show "La, La, Lucille.

" In less than three weeks in 1924 he composed "Rhapsody in Blue," originally for Paul Whiteman's relatively small swing band and later orchestrated by Ferde Grofé. "Concerto in F" followed the next year, and his musical success "Oh, Kay!" (which included "Someone to Watch Over Me") the year after that.

Alan Gershwin who long claimed to be his son was born Albert Schneider in Brooklyn, 18 May 1926 and died 27 February 2018 in the Bronx.

Success continued: "Funny Face" (1927), the tone poem "American in Paris" (1928), "Girl Crazy" (1929), "Of Thee I Sing" (1931 the first musical to win the Pulitzer Prize), and the first true American opera: "Porgy and Bess" (1935). He moved to Hollywood were his songs were performed by Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers.

Some of his stage musicals, such as "Oh, Kay!" and "Tip-Toes", were made into silent pictures (Oh Kay! (1928), Tiptoes (1927)), but never re-made in the sound era. "Tip-Toes" was staged on television as a Christmas season episode of the British anthology The Jazz Age (1968) in 1968.

Won the 1932 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for the musical "Of Thee I Sing" collaborating with George S. Kaufman, Morrie Ryskind, and Ira Gershwin.

Although Gershwin completed only four songs for his score for the film The Goldwyn Follies (1938) at the time of his premature death, three of them are considered among his best, "Love Walked In," "Love Is Here to Stay," and "I Was Doing Alright". Vernon Duke completed the songs for the film, which was neither a critical or popular success.

Portrayed by Robert Alda in the somewhat fictionalized biopic Rhapsody in Blue (1945).

Inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1970.

His satirical musical, "Of Thee I Sing", which lampooned the U.S. Presidency, the Vice Presidency, and the entire impeachment process, was never filmed by Hollywood because it was considered too much of a political hot potato. It was, however, produced as a television special in a very toned-down and altered version, in 1972.

Pictured on an 8¢ US commemorative postage stamp in the American Arts series, issued 28 February 1973.

The first two truly complete recordings of Gershwin's opera "Porgy and Bess" won back-to-back Grammy Awards for Best Opera Recording--in 1976 (for Decca/London's studio recording conducted by Lorin Maazel) and in 1977 (for RCA Victor's recording of the critically acclaimed and highly successful Houston Opera stage production, in which the opera was restored to completeness after playing onstage in a slightly abridged version). The 1989 complete recording, however, often praised as the best so far, did not win a Grammy.

His "Porgy and Bess", is still, as of 2003, the most beloved American opera ever written, and the most famous, despite what dissenting critics have said about it over the years.

Ira Gershwin and his musical, "Porgy and Bess", at the Court Theatre in Chicago, Illinois was nominated for the 2011 Equity Joseph Jefferson Award for Musical Production (Large).

Ira Gershwin and his musical, "Crazy for You" at the Drury Lane Productions Theatre in Chicago, Illinois was nominated for a 2017 Joseph Jefferson Equity Award for Large Musical Production.