Irving Berlin

Irving Berlin was born Israel Isidor Baline on May 11, 1888 in Mogilev, Belarus, Russian Empire. Towering composer, songwriter, ("God Bless America", "Always", "Blue Skies", "White Christmas") author and publisher, he came to the United States at age 5 and was educated in New York's public schools. His earliest musical education was from his father, a cantor. He earned Honorary degrees from Bucknell University and Temple University. Beginning his career as a song-plugger for publisher Harry von Tilzer, Berlin worked as a singing waiter in Chinatown.

His second wife, Ellin, was born March 22, 1903. Her father, Clarence H. Mackay, was the son of John W. Mackay (1831-1902), one of the principal owner/operators of the Comstock Lode (Consolidated Virginia and California Mine in Nevada, also Bonanza Firm--a four-way partnership worth some $190 million by 1877), one of the major silver discoveries in the 1870s. A devout conservative Roman Catholic Irishman, Clarence was horrified that his daughter was engaged to a Jew, and he disowned her. They would reconcile in the early 1930s.

In 1909, he was hired as a staff lyricist by the Ted Snyder Company, and became a partner to that firm four years later.

In 1910, he began doing vaudeville appearances in the United States and abroad, and also appeared with Snyder in the Broadway musical "Up and Down Broadway", that ran for 72 performances.

Wrote his first ballad hit, "When I Lost You", in his grief over the death of his first wife, Dorothy Goetz. She had died of typhoid, contracted on her honeymoon, just four months after their marriage in 1912.

He joined ASCAP as a charter member in 1914, and served on its first board of directors between 1914-1918. Berlin enlisted the United States Army infantry in World War I, and was a sergeant at Camp Upton, New York.

After the war, he established his own public-relations firm, and in 1921, he built the 1025-seat Music Box Theatre (at 239 W.

Had four children: Mary Ellen Barrett (born November 25, 1926), Irving Berlin Jr. (December 1-December 25, 1928), Linda Louise Berlin (born February 21, 1932), and Elizabeth Iris Berlin (born June 16, 1936).

Although he wrote what is arguably the most popular secular Christmas song ever written, "White Christmas", Christmas was always a bittersweet time for the Berlin family. Irving and Eileen Berlin's only son, Irving Jr., died at only a few weeks old, of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, on Christmas Day, 1928. Every year, on Christmas Day, the Berlins would lay a Christmas wreath on his grave, a tradition their heirs carry on today.

One of his most popular songs "Easter Parade" (1933) had been published earlier as "Smile and Show Your Dimple".

First meet lifelong best friend Fred Astaire on the set of Top Hat (1935).

After Harris' death in 1941, Berlin assumed full ownership and the theatre remains a Broadway institution to this day.

Among his many awards was the Medal for Merit for his 1942 all-soldier show "This Is the Army", which toured the United States, Europe and South Pacific battle zones; all proceeds were assigned to Army Emergency Relief and other service agencies. Berlin was also a member of the French Legion of Honor and held the Congressional Medal of Honor for "God Bless America", the proceeds from which went to the God Bless America Fund. His songs were sung by Fred Astaire, Al Jolson, Judy Garland, Bing Crosby, Dick Powell, Alice Faye and many others.

During the filming of his singing his composition "Oh How I Hate to Get Up in the Morning" in This Is the Army (1943), one of the backstage crew was heard to have whispered to another crew worker, "If the guy who wrote this song could hear this guy singing it, he would roll over in his grave!".

45th Street, New York) with Sam H. Harris.

His daughter Elizabeth married Edmund Boyd Fisher in London in September 1963. They later divorced.

Had nine grandchildren: Edward Watson Emmet (born 1968), Ellin Emmet, and Caroline Emmet from daughter Linda; Elizabeth Matson (born 1954), Irving Barrett (born 1955), Mary Ellin Barrett Lerner (born 1956), and Katherine Swett (born 1960), from daughter Mary Ellin; and Emily Anstice Fisher (born 1966) and Rachel, from daughter Elizabeth.

Inducted into the American Songwriters Hall of Fame (1970), the American Theater Hall of Fame, and the Jewish-American Hall of Fame.

Won the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Gerald Ford (1977). The citation reads: "Musician, composer, humanitarian and patriot, Irving Berlin has captured the fondest dreams and deepest emotions of the American people in the form of popular music.".

Won the 1978 Laurence Langner Tony Award (New York City) and for a distinguished lifetime in the American theater.

Biography in: "The Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives". Volume Two, 1986-1990, pages 87-91. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons (1999).

He was posthumously awarded a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for Recording at 7095 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, California on February 1, 1994.