What You May Not Know About COLE PORTER
Born in Indiana, he lived luxuriously—in Paris, on cruises.
He once hired the entire Ballets russes to entertain his party guests. He had a
valet. (Do you know anyone who has had a valet?)
Although he had 34 operations on his legs, crushed by horse in 1937, he lived to 73.
He was valedictorian of his
prep school class., Worcester Academy in Massachusetts.
He attended Yale,
then Harvard Law for a while, then took music classes at Harvard. At Yale, he wrote 300
songs.
He studied (briefly) at the Schola Cantorum in Paris, under
a famous composer, Vincent d’Indy. A private music school, its teachers
included Wanda Landowska, Olivier Messian, and Darius Milhaud. Alumni included
Erik Satie and Edgard Varese.
A homosexual, he married a beautiful and wealthy divorcee--
Linda Lee Thomas—partly for decorum’s sake.
Porter’s wife tried to get Stravinsky to give him lessons—unsuccessfully.
He may have served in the French Foreign Legion.
Among his friends: Noel Coward, Monty Woolley (The Man Who
Came to Dinner), Irving Berlin.
At first he was not a successful songwriter. What made the
difference ? His explanation: He learned to write Jewish songs—those with a
little sadness in them.
His musical, “Kiss Me Kate,” was the first winner of a Tony
award.
His most famous songs: Night and Day, Begin the Beguine,
Anything Goes, Don’t Fence Me In. Others: I’ve Got You Under My Skin, Just One
of Those Things,
Fred Astaire wanted to play him in a movie. Given a choice
between having Fred or Cary Grant portray him, guess whom Porter picked?
In the gray and grim 1930s, writes Robert Kimball (co-author
of “You’re the Top: Cole Porter in the 1930s”),
“his was a message of civilized cheer.”
Guess who popularized the song, “Don’t Fence Me In”? Roy
Rogers, in the film 1944 film, ‘Hollywood Canteen.” Which Cole had written for
the failed musical,
“Adios, Argentina) (1934-35).
Roy Rogers, Don’t Fence Me In
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WLoYFvbR0XY&list=RDWLoYFvbR0XY#t=0
(Note: A hobble is a strap to tie together a horse’s legs.)
Like many other Broadway people, Porter fled to Hollywood in
the dismal 1930s. When he came there, he said to Dorothy Kilgallen, people told
him that he would be bored because all that everyone talks about here was
pictures. After he was in Hollywood a week, he confessed that he himself didn’t
want to talk about anything else.
Among those Broadway stars who appeared in his musicals:
Ethel Merman (Zimmerman), Bob Hope, Jimmy Durante, Fred Astaire, Judy Garland, Ginger Rogers.
At one point, he decided that his musicals were too elitist.
“Sophisticated allusions are good for about six weeks.”
Porter needed a singer for “Leave It To Me” (1938). An agent appeared, “leading a dreary little
girl who appeared to be the last word in scared dowdiness. A pianist played and she sang…. A star was
born named Mary Martin.” (“My Heart Belongs to Daddy.”)
“Night and Day” debuted in the film “Gay Divorce” (1932).
Unique. One note is repeated 33 times over eight bars, followed by a note a
semitone higher repeated 29 times.
“Night and Day” became so ubiquitous that some people were
fed up. In 1944 someone wrote a song, “Let’s End the Beguine.” (Cole Porter
himself.) And Porter’s Doppelganger, Noel Coward, wrote this:
She declined to begin the Beguine
Though they besought her to
And in language profane and. obscene
She cursed the man who taught her to.
She cursed Cole Porter too.
Cole was thinking of Jimmy Stewart for a role in the film
Born to Dance. Could he sing? He came over and sang for Cole. “He sings far from well, although he has nice
notes in his voice, and he could play the part of a [clean-cut sailor]
perfectly,” said Porter.
Stewart went to see the movie. Alas, someone else sang his
part. But, later, Stewart’s voice was substituted. Perhaps Cole Porter had insisted. Anyway, said Stewart, “They
never asked me to sing in another movie again.”
Jimmy Stewart, So Easy to Love
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cbyOCKU16gI
Sometimes Porter’s lyrics were rather risque. Ring Lardner, of all people, thought that the
line from “Night and Day” that “There’s
an oh such a hungry yearning burning inside of me” was close to being pornographic.
And Burt Lahr, the cowardly lion, objected: “When Cole got
dirty, it was dirt without subtlety.”
Everyone—or so it seems—tried to devise new lyrics for
“You’re the Top.” So Porter himself forbid
unauthorized parodies. He then wrote some extra lyrics for a radio
broadcast—and was turned down by a network official! “But I am the composer!” expostulated
Porter. “Reply: “Sorry, no exceptions,
not even for Mr. Cole Porter.”
“You’re the Top” does contain some antedeluvian lyrics.
Arrow collars and Coolidge dollars? National Gallery and Garbo’s salary?
Waldorf salad and Berlin ballad?
And who remembers Cellophane, the Brewster body, Irene
Bordoni, Ovaltine, and Whitney stables?
Famous People of the 1930s
On Ella Fitgerald: “I never knew how good our songs were
until I heard Ella Fitzgerald sing them.” – Ira Gershwin
George Jean Nathan, the critic, thought Porter had plagiarized a song—wrongly.
Porter’s response: Nathan “wouldn’t recognize the ‘Star-Spangled Banner’ unless
everyone stood up.”
On Ethel Merman: Toscanini said “She does not possess a
voice but an instrument in the band.” He also supposedly said that she sounded
like a castrato. (Porter himself said she sounded like a band marching by.)
Re Mary Martin: She came from Weatherford., Texas. When she
became famous, someone put a sign up on the courthouse lawn: “Home of
watermelons and Mary Martin.” Griped Miss Martin, “Even in my hometown I didn’t
get top billing.”
Re Lena Horne: She had a clause put in her contract with MGM
that she would never have to play a maid or a prostitute…. She lost out playing
the role of Julie in “Show Boat,” and Ava Gardner got the part. Ava Gardner
stunk.
Libby Holman (Elizabeth Holtzman): Torch songs, like Moanin’
Low, were her specialty. She was, Howard
Dietz wrote, “game for anything…. A
frivolous person who appeared in the nude in her dressing room, and who
therefore had a lot of visitors.” She had married Zachary Reynolds, heir to the
tobacco fortune, and he was shot to death in the bedroom of their North
Carolina mansion, with the singer standing by. Preliminary verdict: suicide.
Then Libby was indicted for murder. But the Reynolds family had the charge
thrown out. Still, Libby’s career was blighted.
Libby Holman, Body and Soul
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