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George
Gershwin:
the
highlights
of his Life & Times
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| In
the early 1920s...
Gershwin collaborates
with dancer-producer George White on the vaudeville production of Scandals
of 1920 (and
the subsequent shows in the series through 1924), for which he writes
songs that have since become famous - like Stairway
to Paradise
and Somebody Loves
Me; he becomes
more exposed to "jazz" as interpreted by bandleaders like Paul
Whiteman, and attempts to write a "jazz opera" called Blue
Monday - which
fails. In 1923 he accompanies Eva Gauthier in a "Recital of Ancient
and Modern Music" that combines jazz with concert repertory - Gershwin
is acclaimed by the critics. 1920:The League of Nations is inaugurated; the first commercial radio station begins broadcasting in Pittsburgh; the 19th Amendment gives women the vote; Russia becomes first country to legalize abortion; Prohibition begins. 1921: Band Aid plasters become available; Rudolf Valentino 
is a hit as
The Sheik;
Wassily Kandinsly founds
the Academy of
Arts and Sciences of all the Russias in
Moscow; Russia suffers great
FAMINE; Canadian
scientists isolate INSULIN
from human pancreas.
1922: USSR is proclaimed; Egypt declares independence; jazz becomes the rage in northeastern US; the British Broadcasting Company 
is founded; James Joyce publishes
Ulysses in
Paris, which is banned in the US and UK. 1923:The great Tokyo EARTHQUAKE kills 200,000; Germany is devastated by hyperinflation ($1 = 4,200 billion German Mark!!); Lenin retires due to poor health; Cotton Club opens in Harlem; the Charleston 
becomes the rage
in dance theYANKEE
Baseball stadium
opens; Henry Luce
founds
Magazine;
Cecille B. De Mille's
The Ten Commandments
premieres in
NY. 1924: Gershwin begins work on Rhapsody in Blue on January 7, which premieres February 12 at the Aeolian Hall in NY to great critical acclaim; a few months later, he is commissioned by Walter Damrosch, conductor of the New York Symphony, to write his first truly symphonic work - Concerto in F (originally planned as the New York Concerto"); he and Ira produce their first full collaboration, Lady Be Good - which includes Fascinatin' Rhythym, The Man I Love. Lenin dies; Hitler writes Mein Kampf in prison; Republican Calvin Coolidge wins US election; MGM 
is founded; Native
Americans are granted full citizenship; first Winter
Olympics are held
in Chamonix, France; Surrealist
Movement
is founded in France 1925: Gershwin begins work on Concerto in F in July, which premieres on December 3, 1925 at Carnegie Hall with Walter Damrosch conducting; produces more musical comedies with Ira - Primrose, Tell Me More, Tip Toes, Three Piano Preludes. Ho Chi Minh founds Vietnamese Nationalist Party; Lux soap goes on sale; George Balanchine becomes principal choreographer of Ballets Russes; the new style, Art Deco, is introduced in Paris; the world's first motel opens in San Luis Obispo; the Chrysler Corporation 
is founded;
Josephine Baker
is a hit in Paris; Eisenstein's
film Battleship
Potemkin is acclaimed.
1926 - 31: George and Ira produce more musical comedies: Oh, Kay! (1926), Strike Up the Band, Funny Face (1927), Rosalie, Treasure Girl (1928), Show Girl (1929), Girl Crazy (1930), Of Thee I Sing and songs and incidental music to the film Delicious (1931). Gershwin favorites: Someone to Watch over Me, Funny face, 'S Wonderful, I've Got a Crush on You, Embraceable You, and I Got Rhythym are all from this period.In 1926, he reads Dubose Heyward's Porgy and Bess. In 1928, he visits Europe where renews acquaintances with Ravel, Milhaud, Poulenc, Auric, Prokokiev, Alban Berg and William Walton; Rhapsody in Blue is performed by the Pasdeloup Orchestra and in April, a ballet rendering of Rhapsody is performed ; in May European premiere of Concerto in F takes place; he takes home with him a draft of An American in Paris, which premieres on December 13 at Carnegie Hall, Walter Damrosch conducting the New York Philharmonic. In 1930, he composes his Second Rhapsody for Piano and Orchestra. As these events take place in the rest of the world: 1926: Emperor Hirohito's 
reign begins in Japan; STALIN
era begins in the USSR; Spanish architect Gaudi
dies; Rudolf
Valentino dies
at 31; Skaggs establishes Safeway
Stores; the
British Commonwealth of
Nations is established.1927: Al Jolson stars in the first talking picture - 
THE JAZZ SINGER;
Martha Graham
opens her School of Contemporary Dance; architect
Mies van der Rohe launches the INTERNATIONAL
STYLE; 10-year old Yehudi
Menuhin 
causes a sensation in Paris with his performance of Lalo's Symphonie
Espagnole;
Charles Lindbergh takes
the Spirit of St.
Louis on the first
solo transatlantic flight; Isadora
Duncan  dies.1928: Alexander Fleming discovers penicillin; first black and white TV sets go on sale in the US; Albert Szent-Gyorgi discovers Vitamin C; Republican Herbert Hoover wins US election; Walt Disney creates first Mickey Mouse 
cartoon; peanut butter
goes on sale in the US. 1929: Nazis become poweful in Germany; Popeye the Sailor is created by Elzie Seger; the 
Museum of Modern Art
is founded in NY; the first
Academy Awards 
are given in the US; STOCK MARKET 
crashes.1930: Stalin orders collectivization of farms; US passes protectionist Smoot-Hawley bill and the Great Depression begins; worldwide unemployment soars; Chrysler Building is completed in NY; Pluto is discovered by American Clyde Tombaugh. 1931:Banks fail in Europe; Charlie Chaplin'sCity of Lights is a big success; Alka Seltzer is introduced in the US; first movie starring Bela Lugosi is made; CFCs (chlorofluorocarbons) are first produced for use in aerosols; Star Spangled Banner becomes US national anthem; Empire State Building, 
the world's tallest, opens.1932: Gershwin premieres Second Rhapsody with the Boston Symphony Orchestra under Serge Koussevitsky in January; takes a pleasure trip to Havana in February, the inspiration for Cuban Overture which premieres with the New York Philharmonic under Albert Coates in August Agricultural depression hits US and Europe; first dishwasher goes on sale; RADIO CITY MUSIC HALL opens in NY; neon lights illuminate first advertisements in London's Picadilly Circus; 
FRANKLIN DELANO ROOSEVELT wins US election.1933-35: Gershwin signs contract for creation of Porgy and Bess after years of negotiation (1935); begins work on Porgy and Bess (1934); completes composition in early 1935, completes orchestration in September and rehearsals begin; October 10, Porgy and Bess opens at the Alvin Theater. And the following events take place during this period: 1933: FDR holds series of radio fireside chats; US abandons gold standard; Nazis win German elections and Fascism sweeps Europe; exodus of German artists takes place; Imperial Chemicals Inc. makes first synthetic detergent. 1934: Mao Tse Tung begins the Long March; Donald Duck 
makes movie debut;
Hitler becomes German President. 1935: Benny Goodman 
is "King of Swing"; 
introduces Kodachrome;
Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers 
star in Irving
Berlin's Top Hat.
Broadway is devastated by the Depression;
FDR establishes the Federal
Theater Project to provide
employment for hundreds of out-of- work theater professional.
1936: George and Ira negotiate contract with RKO to do songs for Fred Astaire-Ginger Rogers musical Shall we Dance; 
in August they move to the greener pastures
of Hollywood, settling at Roxbury Drive in Beverly
Hills; George meets Arnold
Schoenberg. Spanish Civil War breaks out; FDR wins second term; Black American Jesse Owens wins 4 gold Olympic medals in Berlin; Salvador Daliopens International Surrealist Exhibition in London wearing a diving suit; Hitler opens first VW factory in Saxony; King Edward VIII abdicates. 1937: George and Ira deliver songs for Shall We Dance, A Damsel in Distress and The Goldwyn Follies; In February, George experiences a blackout during his performance of Concerto in F with the LA Philharmonic; he later suffers from severe headaches which are incorrectly diagnosed. On July 9, he lapses into a coma, undergoes brain surgery at the Cedars of Lebanon Hospital in Los Angeles on July 10 for removal of a tumor. But it is too late. George Gershwin dies on the morning of July 11, 1937. The Duke of Windsor marries Wallis Simpson; the Golden Gate Bridge 
opens to traffic in San Francisco; the first dry
photocopier is devised by a Chester
Carlson, law student; AEG/Telefunken makes first magnetic tape
recorder; Amelia
Earhart disappears; Bessie
Smith dies; Jean
Harlow, Hollywood's first sex goddess, dies; Picasso
displays his painting GUERNICA.
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