1 00:00:01,280 --> 00:00:04,320 Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class, a production 2 00:00:04,400 --> 00:00:13,640 Speaker 1: of I Heart Radio. Hello, and welcome to the podcast. 3 00:00:13,720 --> 00:00:18,280 Speaker 1: I'm Tracy V. Wilson and I'm Holly Fry. Irving Berlin 4 00:00:19,120 --> 00:00:22,840 Speaker 1: is really, to me amazing example of the kind of 5 00:00:22,920 --> 00:00:27,600 Speaker 1: story that the United States likes to tell about itself 6 00:00:27,720 --> 00:00:31,520 Speaker 1: as a nation. So the whole idea of being a 7 00:00:31,560 --> 00:00:34,560 Speaker 1: melting pot and a land of opportunity and a place 8 00:00:34,600 --> 00:00:38,600 Speaker 1: where immigrants can make a better life for themselves. And 9 00:00:38,840 --> 00:00:44,400 Speaker 1: also he's simultaneously an amazing example of just how complicated 10 00:00:44,520 --> 00:00:50,680 Speaker 1: and imperfect and incomplete that very idealized story can be, 11 00:00:50,680 --> 00:00:53,680 Speaker 1: because he was a Jewish immigrant from Russia who went 12 00:00:53,800 --> 00:00:58,840 Speaker 1: on to become a colossally famous songwriter and an enormous 13 00:00:58,880 --> 00:01:02,360 Speaker 1: contributor to what's own is the Great American Songbook. So 14 00:01:02,440 --> 00:01:06,640 Speaker 1: that's a loosely defined collection of jazz standards and popular 15 00:01:06,680 --> 00:01:09,399 Speaker 1: songs from the early twentieth century that have just had 16 00:01:09,400 --> 00:01:14,199 Speaker 1: a really enduring appeal and are still being sung decades later. 17 00:01:14,959 --> 00:01:18,240 Speaker 1: So just a few of Irving Berlin's contributions to the 18 00:01:18,280 --> 00:01:22,760 Speaker 1: Great American Songbook, or the songs White Christmas, God Bless America, 19 00:01:23,680 --> 00:01:27,759 Speaker 1: putting on the Ritz, Easter Parade and anything you can 20 00:01:27,760 --> 00:01:30,240 Speaker 1: Do I can do better from the Broadway musical any 21 00:01:30,319 --> 00:01:33,680 Speaker 1: Get Your Gun. I found working on this really challenging 22 00:01:33,680 --> 00:01:36,320 Speaker 1: because I kept stopping what I was doing to go 23 00:01:36,560 --> 00:01:43,240 Speaker 1: watch YouTube videos of people singing these songs, including watching 24 00:01:43,280 --> 00:01:48,200 Speaker 1: a video of Laura Austiness and Sentino Fontana singing anything 25 00:01:48,240 --> 00:01:51,120 Speaker 1: you Can Do, which I did in the middle literally 26 00:01:51,200 --> 00:01:54,400 Speaker 1: of writing this paragraph. And if you're like Tracy, why 27 00:01:54,400 --> 00:01:57,040 Speaker 1: why that version in particular one, I'd never seen it 28 00:01:57,080 --> 00:02:02,760 Speaker 1: before too. I miss Crazy Ex Girlfriend, which which Santino 29 00:02:02,840 --> 00:02:06,600 Speaker 1: Fontana was on. But in addition to all those things 30 00:02:06,600 --> 00:02:10,520 Speaker 1: that I just said, Irving Berlin also worked in an 31 00:02:10,560 --> 00:02:15,240 Speaker 1: industry that discriminated against people of color, while also drawing 32 00:02:15,360 --> 00:02:19,960 Speaker 1: inspiration from and even appropriating musical styles and traditions that 33 00:02:20,000 --> 00:02:24,520 Speaker 1: were developed by those same people, and also writing and 34 00:02:24,560 --> 00:02:28,680 Speaker 1: performing musical numbers that could be really offensive to them. 35 00:02:28,760 --> 00:02:34,240 Speaker 1: So while I originally envisioned this as a winter holiday 36 00:02:34,360 --> 00:02:38,520 Speaker 1: slash Christmas episode thanks to the song White Christmas and 37 00:02:38,600 --> 00:02:42,080 Speaker 1: the nineteen fifty film by the same name, this instead 38 00:02:42,120 --> 00:02:45,120 Speaker 1: turned into a two parter that's not really about Christmas 39 00:02:45,120 --> 00:02:47,720 Speaker 1: that much at all. It's more about the musical and 40 00:02:47,760 --> 00:02:51,240 Speaker 1: cultural context of Irving Berlin's work. So today we are 41 00:02:51,240 --> 00:02:53,919 Speaker 1: going to talk about his life and work through World 42 00:02:54,000 --> 00:02:56,799 Speaker 1: War One, and then in part two we will pick 43 00:02:56,880 --> 00:02:59,720 Speaker 1: up in the years between the two World Wars and 44 00:03:00,360 --> 00:03:03,920 Speaker 1: go through the rest of his career. Irving Berlin's family 45 00:03:04,000 --> 00:03:07,800 Speaker 1: immigrated to the U s. In eighte from Tolequin in 46 00:03:07,880 --> 00:03:10,440 Speaker 1: what's now Belarus, which at the time was part of 47 00:03:10,480 --> 00:03:14,840 Speaker 1: the Russian Empire. There are some variations in the spelling 48 00:03:14,880 --> 00:03:17,880 Speaker 1: and pronunciation of their name. It would have been written 49 00:03:18,000 --> 00:03:22,240 Speaker 1: using either the Hebrew alphabet or Cyrillic script, so English 50 00:03:22,280 --> 00:03:26,519 Speaker 1: speaking officials creating things like ship manifests and immigration records, 51 00:03:26,880 --> 00:03:29,960 Speaker 1: we're basically making their best guests at writing down the 52 00:03:30,040 --> 00:03:33,960 Speaker 1: name that they heard in English. When talking to journalists 53 00:03:34,000 --> 00:03:38,240 Speaker 1: and biographers. Berlin's descendants have also used two slightly different 54 00:03:38,440 --> 00:03:44,200 Speaker 1: pronunciations of the family's last name, Balin and Baleine. Yes, 55 00:03:44,240 --> 00:03:47,360 Speaker 1: they're very similar, but just different enough to go wait, 56 00:03:47,440 --> 00:03:52,440 Speaker 1: subble accents shift. Yeah, So we don't know much detail 57 00:03:52,520 --> 00:03:56,480 Speaker 1: about their lives before they immigrated. Irving Berlin was born 58 00:03:56,640 --> 00:04:00,200 Speaker 1: Israel Bilin, also known as Izzy, on May eleven, eight 59 00:04:01,080 --> 00:04:03,760 Speaker 1: and some accounts give his place of birth as a 60 00:04:03,840 --> 00:04:08,160 Speaker 1: stuttle in Siberia. He was the youngest of eight children 61 00:04:08,360 --> 00:04:12,560 Speaker 1: born to Leah and Moses Bullim. Moses was a canceler 62 00:04:12,640 --> 00:04:15,680 Speaker 1: and also worked as part of the kosher butchering process. 63 00:04:16,480 --> 00:04:20,040 Speaker 1: Sources contradict about exactly what his role was in that process, 64 00:04:20,080 --> 00:04:23,240 Speaker 1: whether he actually conducted the slaughtering or whether he was 65 00:04:23,480 --> 00:04:26,960 Speaker 1: inspecting and certifying that this process had been carried out 66 00:04:27,000 --> 00:04:30,680 Speaker 1: according to Jewish law. The family moved to the US 67 00:04:30,839 --> 00:04:33,920 Speaker 1: because they were trying to escape widespread programs and other 68 00:04:33,960 --> 00:04:38,600 Speaker 1: anti Semitic persecution. Czar Alexander the Second had been assassinated 69 00:04:38,600 --> 00:04:43,839 Speaker 1: in eight and although his assassin was not Jewish, rumors 70 00:04:43,880 --> 00:04:48,080 Speaker 1: had spread that Jews were responsible for it. Massive anti 71 00:04:48,120 --> 00:04:51,599 Speaker 1: Semitic violence followed, and the Bailin family left when it 72 00:04:51,680 --> 00:04:54,960 Speaker 1: was still at its peak. They arrived in New York 73 00:04:54,960 --> 00:05:00,520 Speaker 1: City aboard the s s Rhineland on September when Izzy five. 74 00:05:01,560 --> 00:05:04,599 Speaker 1: While the US would have been physically safer for a 75 00:05:04,680 --> 00:05:07,960 Speaker 1: Jewish family than the Russian Empire was at that point, 76 00:05:08,400 --> 00:05:11,200 Speaker 1: the nation was also in the middle of an economic crisis. 77 00:05:11,720 --> 00:05:15,000 Speaker 1: Multiple factors had fed into the Panic of eighteen ninety three, 78 00:05:15,080 --> 00:05:18,960 Speaker 1: which started months before the family's arrival and continued until 79 00:05:19,000 --> 00:05:25,240 Speaker 1: eight This economic depression affected virtually every industry and people 80 00:05:25,360 --> 00:05:29,720 Speaker 1: lost all their money as stock prices collapsed and banks failed. 81 00:05:29,880 --> 00:05:34,719 Speaker 1: So after arriving in the US, Izzie's father struggled to 82 00:05:34,720 --> 00:05:38,960 Speaker 1: find work, like literally any work. Eight members of the 83 00:05:39,040 --> 00:05:42,080 Speaker 1: family wound up living together in a window lists three 84 00:05:42,160 --> 00:05:46,200 Speaker 1: room tenement with no running water. That's not three bedrooms, 85 00:05:46,240 --> 00:05:49,080 Speaker 1: to be clear, that is three total rooms, and they 86 00:05:49,120 --> 00:05:52,080 Speaker 1: all tried to make ends meet however they could, including 87 00:05:52,520 --> 00:05:55,360 Speaker 1: renting out their beds to night shift workers so they 88 00:05:55,360 --> 00:05:58,640 Speaker 1: could sleep there during the day. By the age of eight, 89 00:05:58,880 --> 00:06:03,080 Speaker 1: is he was doing his part by selling newspapers. Beyond that, 90 00:06:03,279 --> 00:06:06,160 Speaker 1: we really don't know very much about his childhood. We 91 00:06:06,279 --> 00:06:09,200 Speaker 1: know that his first language was Yiddish and that he 92 00:06:09,240 --> 00:06:12,799 Speaker 1: didn't have a lot of formal education. As an adult, 93 00:06:12,880 --> 00:06:16,040 Speaker 1: he tended to tell the same very few stories about 94 00:06:16,120 --> 00:06:19,600 Speaker 1: his early years, including that he learned about Christmas from 95 00:06:19,680 --> 00:06:24,160 Speaker 1: Irish neighbors whose tiny, very scraggly Christmas tree seemed just 96 00:06:24,320 --> 00:06:28,159 Speaker 1: magical to him. A lot of articles described this as 97 00:06:28,200 --> 00:06:31,320 Speaker 1: like the Charlie Brown Christmas tree. I think that's probably 98 00:06:31,320 --> 00:06:35,240 Speaker 1: what most of us envisioned. As you were saying, they're 99 00:06:35,279 --> 00:06:39,440 Speaker 1: already difficult. Financial situation actually got even worse in nineteen 100 00:06:39,440 --> 00:06:41,719 Speaker 1: o one, when Izzie's father died at the age of 101 00:06:41,720 --> 00:06:46,039 Speaker 1: fifty three. Izzie had just turned thirteen, and soon he 102 00:06:46,200 --> 00:06:50,200 Speaker 1: left home. Some accounts attribute this to his feeling that 103 00:06:50,320 --> 00:06:53,000 Speaker 1: as a growing teen, he had become a liability to 104 00:06:53,120 --> 00:06:56,760 Speaker 1: his family. He also described it as a challenge to 105 00:06:56,800 --> 00:06:59,640 Speaker 1: be the only boy in a home that was otherwise 106 00:06:59,720 --> 00:07:03,679 Speaker 1: over crowded with women and girls. Soon he was trying 107 00:07:03,720 --> 00:07:07,680 Speaker 1: to earn a living by busking, including singing in saloons, 108 00:07:07,760 --> 00:07:10,600 Speaker 1: and he was living mostly in low rent boarding houses. 109 00:07:11,160 --> 00:07:13,960 Speaker 1: As I got some musical experience, he started trying to 110 00:07:14,000 --> 00:07:17,160 Speaker 1: find work in tin Pan Alley, which was a place 111 00:07:17,680 --> 00:07:20,960 Speaker 1: and an umbrella term for the music that was broadly 112 00:07:21,080 --> 00:07:23,640 Speaker 1: popular in the US and the late nineteenth and early 113 00:07:23,640 --> 00:07:27,280 Speaker 1: twentieth centuries, and a name for the composers and performers 114 00:07:27,320 --> 00:07:30,040 Speaker 1: and publishers and others who were all part of making 115 00:07:30,080 --> 00:07:34,800 Speaker 1: that music. The exact place shifted somewhat over the decades, 116 00:07:34,880 --> 00:07:38,720 Speaker 1: but it started out on West twenty Street. Today West 117 00:07:38,880 --> 00:07:42,120 Speaker 1: twenty between Broadway and sixth Avenue is known as tin 118 00:07:42,200 --> 00:07:45,120 Speaker 1: Pan Alley. The source of that name is also a 119 00:07:45,160 --> 00:07:48,240 Speaker 1: little bit vague. One popular theory is that it came 120 00:07:48,480 --> 00:07:52,320 Speaker 1: from the sheer cacophony of different songs being played simultaneously 121 00:07:52,680 --> 00:07:57,640 Speaker 1: on multiple upright pianos. Some were played by aspiring songwriters 122 00:07:57,640 --> 00:08:00,400 Speaker 1: hoping to find a publisher for their work, and some 123 00:08:00,760 --> 00:08:05,640 Speaker 1: by people employed as song pluggers, who were basically musical demonstrators, 124 00:08:05,720 --> 00:08:08,600 Speaker 1: playing songs to try to entice people to buy the 125 00:08:08,640 --> 00:08:12,280 Speaker 1: sheet music from them. I can imagine what this sounded 126 00:08:12,320 --> 00:08:14,800 Speaker 1: like in my head and why people might have equated 127 00:08:14,840 --> 00:08:17,640 Speaker 1: it to the sound of tin pans being banged around. 128 00:08:19,520 --> 00:08:22,880 Speaker 1: At this point, sheet music was really at the heart 129 00:08:22,920 --> 00:08:25,280 Speaker 1: of the economic model for the music business in the 130 00:08:25,360 --> 00:08:29,600 Speaker 1: United States. The phonograph had been invented in the nineteenth century, 131 00:08:29,720 --> 00:08:33,400 Speaker 1: and Thomas Edison had unveiled his version in eighteen seventy seven, 132 00:08:34,040 --> 00:08:36,640 Speaker 1: so by the early nineteen hundreds this was still a 133 00:08:36,760 --> 00:08:42,559 Speaker 1: really new and still developing technology. Phonographs themselves could be expensive, 134 00:08:42,679 --> 00:08:45,560 Speaker 1: and the wax cylinders they played can only hold a 135 00:08:45,600 --> 00:08:49,439 Speaker 1: couple of minutes of sound at first. The cylinders also 136 00:08:49,480 --> 00:08:52,440 Speaker 1: had to be recorded one at a time, so musicians 137 00:08:52,440 --> 00:08:54,880 Speaker 1: had to play the same thing over and over, and 138 00:08:54,920 --> 00:08:58,880 Speaker 1: that meant the finished product was also expensive. Even as 139 00:08:58,960 --> 00:09:02,960 Speaker 1: mass production techniques improved, they still just did not sound 140 00:09:03,120 --> 00:09:07,720 Speaker 1: very good. Meanwhile, pianos were seen as almost a requirement 141 00:09:07,800 --> 00:09:10,880 Speaker 1: for middle class families. They had become a marker of 142 00:09:10,920 --> 00:09:15,520 Speaker 1: both social status and respectability. Many boarding houses had a 143 00:09:15,520 --> 00:09:19,120 Speaker 1: piano in a common area, so did community gathering places 144 00:09:19,200 --> 00:09:23,280 Speaker 1: like churches, schools, and hotels. So a lot of people 145 00:09:23,360 --> 00:09:25,920 Speaker 1: bought sheet music so they could play and sing popular 146 00:09:26,040 --> 00:09:30,200 Speaker 1: music for themselves. Often that sheet music was printed with 147 00:09:30,240 --> 00:09:33,600 Speaker 1: a colorful, illustrated cover and a list of other music 148 00:09:33,640 --> 00:09:37,400 Speaker 1: available from the same publisher on the back, and from 149 00:09:37,400 --> 00:09:39,480 Speaker 1: a lot of publishers. It wasn't just the notes on 150 00:09:39,559 --> 00:09:41,080 Speaker 1: the page that you're buying. It was sort of this 151 00:09:41,240 --> 00:09:48,360 Speaker 1: nice thinges kind of so. Fourteen year old Izzy Bailen 152 00:09:48,520 --> 00:09:51,240 Speaker 1: got his start in this industry as a song plugger, 153 00:09:51,400 --> 00:09:55,160 Speaker 1: hired by songwriter and music publisher Harry von Tilzer in 154 00:09:55,240 --> 00:09:59,319 Speaker 1: nine two. This was a job that Izzy pursued for 155 00:09:59,400 --> 00:10:01,960 Speaker 1: himself in spite of the fact that he did not 156 00:10:02,160 --> 00:10:06,160 Speaker 1: know how to read music or play a piano. He sang. 157 00:10:06,280 --> 00:10:09,640 Speaker 1: He performed fon tills or songs to the public, and 158 00:10:09,840 --> 00:10:11,960 Speaker 1: two people in the music industry and for this he 159 00:10:12,040 --> 00:10:15,600 Speaker 1: was paid five dollars a week. A couple of years later, 160 00:10:15,679 --> 00:10:18,440 Speaker 1: he was hired as a singing waiter at Mike Salter's 161 00:10:18,480 --> 00:10:22,800 Speaker 1: Pelham Cafe in Chinatown. The venue in its proprietor both 162 00:10:22,800 --> 00:10:25,880 Speaker 1: had a nickname that included a racist slur, because while 163 00:10:25,920 --> 00:10:29,800 Speaker 1: Salter was of Russian Jewish descent, he also had dark skin. 164 00:10:30,640 --> 00:10:33,600 Speaker 1: At Pelham Cafe is he made seven dollars a week 165 00:10:33,679 --> 00:10:37,319 Speaker 1: plus tips. This was an overnight job. The cafe was 166 00:10:37,360 --> 00:10:40,800 Speaker 1: open from eight pm until six am, which seems to 167 00:10:40,840 --> 00:10:43,720 Speaker 1: have set the stage for Irving Berlin's lifelong habits as 168 00:10:43,720 --> 00:10:48,680 Speaker 1: a night owl and his chronic insomnia. Unsurprisingly, given this 169 00:10:48,800 --> 00:10:53,040 Speaker 1: establishments hours, the crowd tended to be on the courser side. 170 00:10:53,480 --> 00:10:57,800 Speaker 1: They were often inebriated and loud. The waiters were nicknamed 171 00:10:57,920 --> 00:11:01,760 Speaker 1: nickel kickers because those tips that they got came in 172 00:11:01,800 --> 00:11:05,200 Speaker 1: the form of throne coins, which the waiters had to 173 00:11:05,280 --> 00:11:08,679 Speaker 1: chase after as they rolled across the floor. Is He 174 00:11:08,720 --> 00:11:10,680 Speaker 1: had already figured out that he had a knack for 175 00:11:10,760 --> 00:11:14,199 Speaker 1: writing lyrics during his early years as a busker. He 176 00:11:14,240 --> 00:11:16,520 Speaker 1: had found ways to put his own twist on songs 177 00:11:16,520 --> 00:11:19,760 Speaker 1: that he was singing, and when he improvised. His lyrics 178 00:11:19,760 --> 00:11:22,679 Speaker 1: were usually clever or funny, and then that usually got 179 00:11:22,720 --> 00:11:25,480 Speaker 1: him bigger tips. And he also seemed to have an 180 00:11:25,480 --> 00:11:28,360 Speaker 1: instinct for picking out a good melody, one that was 181 00:11:28,400 --> 00:11:32,160 Speaker 1: simple and memorable and often already felt familiar to people, 182 00:11:32,679 --> 00:11:35,760 Speaker 1: so something that was grounded and established tunes and patterns, 183 00:11:35,840 --> 00:11:39,080 Speaker 1: but also which he managed to turn into something new. 184 00:11:39,720 --> 00:11:43,600 Speaker 1: So he started trying to write new songs of his own. Again, 185 00:11:44,000 --> 00:11:46,840 Speaker 1: he had no formal musical training. He probably would have 186 00:11:46,880 --> 00:11:49,160 Speaker 1: been exposed to music at home, but he had not 187 00:11:49,440 --> 00:11:52,800 Speaker 1: been formally taught anything. He didn't know how to read 188 00:11:53,000 --> 00:11:55,560 Speaker 1: or write music. He did not know how to play 189 00:11:55,600 --> 00:11:58,440 Speaker 1: the piano. He would hear a melody in his head 190 00:11:58,559 --> 00:12:00,559 Speaker 1: and then pick it out in the key of F 191 00:12:00,720 --> 00:12:04,160 Speaker 1: sharp major, which on a piano F sharp major scale 192 00:12:04,240 --> 00:12:07,679 Speaker 1: is played almost exclusively on the black keys of the piano. 193 00:12:08,559 --> 00:12:11,840 Speaker 1: This required a lot of trial and error and a 194 00:12:11,840 --> 00:12:14,880 Speaker 1: lot of craftsmanship and revision, and for the rest of 195 00:12:14,960 --> 00:12:18,160 Speaker 1: his professional life he would talk about working on songs 196 00:12:18,320 --> 00:12:22,720 Speaker 1: through the night to get them exactly right. On May seven, 197 00:12:22,840 --> 00:12:25,679 Speaker 1: a couple of days before his nineteenth birthday, is He 198 00:12:25,760 --> 00:12:30,040 Speaker 1: Bilin published his first song, Marie from sunny Italy. This 199 00:12:30,120 --> 00:12:33,080 Speaker 1: was certainly not his greatest work as a lyricist. Some 200 00:12:33,240 --> 00:12:37,240 Speaker 1: of his later work features delightfully clever phrasing that doesn't 201 00:12:37,320 --> 00:12:40,840 Speaker 1: quite rhyme, but in this song it's more like, please 202 00:12:40,920 --> 00:12:43,920 Speaker 1: come out tonight, my queen. Can't you hear my mandolin? 203 00:12:46,800 --> 00:12:49,720 Speaker 1: But just to say this started getting his name out there. 204 00:12:50,920 --> 00:12:53,480 Speaker 1: The name he was getting out there was not Israel 205 00:12:53,559 --> 00:12:57,600 Speaker 1: Bilin though. Instead the cover of this sheet music read 206 00:12:57,880 --> 00:13:03,160 Speaker 1: words by I Berlin, music by M. Nicholson. M Nicholson 207 00:13:03,320 --> 00:13:08,480 Speaker 1: was Mike Nicholson, pianist at Pelham Cafe. Some sources describe 208 00:13:08,679 --> 00:13:12,719 Speaker 1: I Berlin as a printer's error, and others as more 209 00:13:12,720 --> 00:13:15,760 Speaker 1: of a reflection of how people were pronouncing his last 210 00:13:15,880 --> 00:13:19,240 Speaker 1: name by that point. Still others, though, say that he 211 00:13:19,320 --> 00:13:21,640 Speaker 1: was looking for a name for himself that was less 212 00:13:22,080 --> 00:13:26,160 Speaker 1: recognizably Jewish, and that, in addition to the shift from 213 00:13:26,200 --> 00:13:29,959 Speaker 1: Berlin to Berlin, that he had been thinking about adopting 214 00:13:30,000 --> 00:13:34,680 Speaker 1: the name Irving for a while. Regardless of exactly how 215 00:13:34,720 --> 00:13:38,120 Speaker 1: the name change came about, soon is he Bylin was 216 00:13:38,200 --> 00:13:41,520 Speaker 1: professionally known as Irving Berlin. And we'll talk more about 217 00:13:41,559 --> 00:13:53,720 Speaker 1: that after we take a quick sponsor break. As Irving 218 00:13:53,800 --> 00:13:58,160 Speaker 1: Berlin published his first song, the entertainment industry in New 219 00:13:58,240 --> 00:14:02,320 Speaker 1: York City was growing and shifting. New York's first subway 220 00:14:02,400 --> 00:14:06,600 Speaker 1: line opened on October n four, and one of the 221 00:14:06,640 --> 00:14:09,760 Speaker 1: stations on that first line was at Times Square, by 222 00:14:09,760 --> 00:14:13,920 Speaker 1: the intersection of Broadway and Fort Street. Soon the surrounding 223 00:14:14,000 --> 00:14:17,920 Speaker 1: area was developing into a theater district. When Marie from 224 00:14:17,960 --> 00:14:22,240 Speaker 1: Sunny Italy was published, Berlin was still working at Pelham Cafe, 225 00:14:22,480 --> 00:14:26,320 Speaker 1: but he was fired from that job that year. Reportedly, 226 00:14:26,440 --> 00:14:28,720 Speaker 1: he fell asleep while he was supposed to be tending 227 00:14:28,720 --> 00:14:31,040 Speaker 1: the cash register and at the end of the night 228 00:14:32,440 --> 00:14:36,360 Speaker 1: was missing from the till Berlin got another job pretty quickly, though, 229 00:14:36,480 --> 00:14:38,520 Speaker 1: and it was a step up. It was at Jimmy 230 00:14:38,600 --> 00:14:42,240 Speaker 1: Kelly's Folly, where his wages were a little better the 231 00:14:42,360 --> 00:14:46,320 Speaker 1: clientele was a little more upscale. He earned enough money 232 00:14:46,440 --> 00:14:48,800 Speaker 1: that he was able to afford to rent a place 233 00:14:48,840 --> 00:14:52,240 Speaker 1: with his friend and colleague Max Winslow, rather than staying 234 00:14:52,240 --> 00:14:56,200 Speaker 1: in low rent boarding houses. He started meeting and making 235 00:14:56,240 --> 00:15:01,120 Speaker 1: more connections and friendships with other entertainers, including past podcast 236 00:15:01,120 --> 00:15:04,920 Speaker 1: subject Fanny Bryce, and he kept trying to publish songs, 237 00:15:04,960 --> 00:15:07,560 Speaker 1: often as the lyricist at that point with somebody else 238 00:15:07,600 --> 00:15:10,960 Speaker 1: writing the music. If you look up music from this era, 239 00:15:11,240 --> 00:15:14,360 Speaker 1: whether it's by Irving Berlin or by someone else, you're 240 00:15:14,400 --> 00:15:16,800 Speaker 1: going to find a lot of stuff that's offensive or 241 00:15:16,840 --> 00:15:20,880 Speaker 1: at the very least insensitive by today's standards. And there 242 00:15:20,880 --> 00:15:24,360 Speaker 1: were people who pointed out its offensiveness at the time. 243 00:15:25,200 --> 00:15:28,360 Speaker 1: For example, black face had become an established part of 244 00:15:28,400 --> 00:15:33,640 Speaker 1: popular entertainment, with white actors wearing exaggerated black makeup and 245 00:15:33,720 --> 00:15:38,560 Speaker 1: adopting a heavily stereotypical way of speaking and singing. Black 246 00:15:38,560 --> 00:15:42,880 Speaker 1: Face has multiple roots, including white performers appropriating the music 247 00:15:42,960 --> 00:15:46,080 Speaker 1: and dance styles of black communities and using them to 248 00:15:46,120 --> 00:15:50,200 Speaker 1: make money, while also largely excluding black performers from the 249 00:15:50,240 --> 00:15:54,560 Speaker 1: same industry. Black Face had become so widespread and popular 250 00:15:54,640 --> 00:15:58,080 Speaker 1: that there were also black actors who performed in black face, 251 00:15:58,200 --> 00:16:02,200 Speaker 1: although that of core added additional layers of nuance to 252 00:16:02,280 --> 00:16:06,880 Speaker 1: their performances. By the time Irving Berlin started writing songs, 253 00:16:06,920 --> 00:16:10,040 Speaker 1: people had been criticizing white performers use of black face 254 00:16:10,520 --> 00:16:14,760 Speaker 1: for decades. For example, Frederick Douglas was a vocal critic 255 00:16:15,040 --> 00:16:18,160 Speaker 1: as early as the eighteen forties, so like six decades 256 00:16:18,200 --> 00:16:21,400 Speaker 1: worth of criticism. Yeah, and this is something that was 257 00:16:21,480 --> 00:16:28,120 Speaker 1: always racist, but was incredibly normalized at this point. Some 258 00:16:28,200 --> 00:16:30,840 Speaker 1: of the music that came out of Tin pan Alley 259 00:16:31,000 --> 00:16:34,920 Speaker 1: was essentially audio blackface songs that were written and sung 260 00:16:35,120 --> 00:16:39,560 Speaker 1: by white performers that leaned really heavily into racist stereotypes 261 00:16:39,600 --> 00:16:42,760 Speaker 1: of how black people spoke and acted, and in a 262 00:16:42,840 --> 00:16:45,760 Speaker 1: lot of ways, Tin pan Alley took a very similar 263 00:16:45,800 --> 00:16:50,000 Speaker 1: approach to other racial and ethnic groups. Music and lyrics 264 00:16:50,080 --> 00:16:53,680 Speaker 1: and the accents that were adopted to sing them reflect 265 00:16:53,760 --> 00:16:59,520 Speaker 1: really stereotypical perceptions of immigrants from Italy and Ireland and particular, 266 00:17:00,080 --> 00:17:03,240 Speaker 1: as well as perceptions of Jewish immigrants from various parts 267 00:17:03,240 --> 00:17:07,080 Speaker 1: of Europe and of indigenous people in North America. Basically, 268 00:17:07,080 --> 00:17:11,800 Speaker 1: if there is a group you can stereotype, there was 269 00:17:11,920 --> 00:17:16,240 Speaker 1: music that played into those stereotypes. And feeding into all 270 00:17:16,280 --> 00:17:19,639 Speaker 1: of this was a broad fascination with anything that white 271 00:17:19,680 --> 00:17:24,040 Speaker 1: people thought of as exotic. Because entertainment was one of 272 00:17:24,040 --> 00:17:27,480 Speaker 1: the industries that was open to Jewish immigrants, many of 273 00:17:27,520 --> 00:17:32,240 Speaker 1: Tin Paney's songwriters and composers were Jewish immigrants themselves or 274 00:17:32,320 --> 00:17:36,560 Speaker 1: were the children of Jewish immigrants. They knew that they 275 00:17:36,600 --> 00:17:39,960 Speaker 1: could make money through these exotic sized depictions, whether they 276 00:17:39,960 --> 00:17:44,600 Speaker 1: were of their own community or someone else's and as 277 00:17:44,680 --> 00:17:47,479 Speaker 1: is the case today, another big money maker was sex, 278 00:17:47,680 --> 00:17:50,400 Speaker 1: or at least innuendo, which means a lot of these 279 00:17:50,440 --> 00:17:54,359 Speaker 1: songs could also lean into stereotypes around gender and relationships. 280 00:17:55,040 --> 00:17:58,520 Speaker 1: Irving Berlin's first really big money maker was My Wife's 281 00:17:58,560 --> 00:18:02,040 Speaker 1: Gone to the country hooray hooray, and which hooray is 282 00:18:02,080 --> 00:18:04,760 Speaker 1: spelled like hurrah in the sheet music, which I find 283 00:18:04,840 --> 00:18:08,600 Speaker 1: kind of delightful. He co wrote this with George Whiting 284 00:18:08,640 --> 00:18:12,040 Speaker 1: and Ted Snyder. Ted Snyder was a music publisher who 285 00:18:12,119 --> 00:18:16,280 Speaker 1: also published the sheet music for this song. As that 286 00:18:16,359 --> 00:18:20,000 Speaker 1: title suggests, this song is about a man whose wife 287 00:18:20,000 --> 00:18:23,240 Speaker 1: says she can't stand the heat anymore, so she's taking 288 00:18:23,240 --> 00:18:27,159 Speaker 1: the children out to the country. It's chorus goes, my 289 00:18:27,240 --> 00:18:30,639 Speaker 1: wife's gone to the country, hooray, hooray. She thought it 290 00:18:30,800 --> 00:18:34,000 Speaker 1: best I need a rest, That's why she went away. 291 00:18:34,119 --> 00:18:37,520 Speaker 1: She took the children with her. Hooray, hooray. I don't 292 00:18:37,520 --> 00:18:41,120 Speaker 1: care what becomes of me. My wife's gone away. This 293 00:18:41,160 --> 00:18:43,520 Speaker 1: man is so excited that his wife and kids are 294 00:18:43,560 --> 00:18:45,520 Speaker 1: gone that he puts an ad about it in the 295 00:18:45,560 --> 00:18:49,399 Speaker 1: paper announcing it and also looks up a pretty girl 296 00:18:49,480 --> 00:18:52,919 Speaker 1: he used to know named Molly if she listens to 297 00:18:53,040 --> 00:18:55,879 Speaker 1: a recording of this song. It's generally recorded in a 298 00:18:55,920 --> 00:19:01,439 Speaker 1: way that sounds exuberantly gleeful. Uh. And it was a 299 00:19:01,480 --> 00:19:05,119 Speaker 1: huge hit. Three hundred thousand copies of the sheet music 300 00:19:05,119 --> 00:19:08,840 Speaker 1: were sold, and Irving Berlin made a penny per copy 301 00:19:08,880 --> 00:19:11,800 Speaker 1: that added up to three thousand dollars, which was more 302 00:19:11,840 --> 00:19:14,520 Speaker 1: money than he had ever seen in his life. He 303 00:19:14,640 --> 00:19:17,480 Speaker 1: used some of the proceeds to move his mother and 304 00:19:17,600 --> 00:19:20,040 Speaker 1: one of his sisters out of their Lower East Side 305 00:19:20,040 --> 00:19:22,680 Speaker 1: tenement to a place in the Bronx where he lived 306 00:19:22,680 --> 00:19:25,919 Speaker 1: as well. He also bought his mother a rocking chair, 307 00:19:26,720 --> 00:19:30,919 Speaker 1: and he bought a transposing piano, one that used a 308 00:19:31,040 --> 00:19:34,119 Speaker 1: lever to change the key so he could keep picking 309 00:19:34,119 --> 00:19:37,199 Speaker 1: out the melodies enough sharp major while then hearing what 310 00:19:37,240 --> 00:19:40,480 Speaker 1: they sounded like in a different key. This is so 311 00:19:40,560 --> 00:19:45,720 Speaker 1: fascinating to me. Yeah. Uh. In Irving Berlin became both 312 00:19:45,760 --> 00:19:50,320 Speaker 1: a Freemason and a Shriner. The Shriners are connected to Freemasonry, 313 00:19:50,359 --> 00:19:54,200 Speaker 1: and while not all Freemasons become Shriners, a man has 314 00:19:54,240 --> 00:19:58,760 Speaker 1: to become a master Mason before becoming a Shriner. A 315 00:19:58,840 --> 00:20:02,200 Speaker 1: year later, Berlin published what's often cited as his first 316 00:20:02,280 --> 00:20:07,840 Speaker 1: international hit, Alexander's Ragtime Band. This definitely was not his 317 00:20:07,920 --> 00:20:11,040 Speaker 1: first song to sell internationally, but in the course of 318 00:20:11,040 --> 00:20:14,480 Speaker 1: a single year, more than two million copies of the 319 00:20:14,520 --> 00:20:20,000 Speaker 1: sheet music were sold, earning Berlin roughly forty dollars. We 320 00:20:20,040 --> 00:20:22,760 Speaker 1: mentioned earlier that Earling Berlin was a night owl, and 321 00:20:22,800 --> 00:20:26,040 Speaker 1: in particular, he often talked about working through the night 322 00:20:26,160 --> 00:20:29,720 Speaker 1: in just a grueling effort to finish a song, or 323 00:20:29,800 --> 00:20:33,080 Speaker 1: sometimes more struggling to write a song until the very 324 00:20:33,160 --> 00:20:35,760 Speaker 1: last minute, and then having to pack all that same 325 00:20:35,760 --> 00:20:38,520 Speaker 1: effort into a very short window to hit a deadline. 326 00:20:39,240 --> 00:20:42,480 Speaker 1: Alexander's Ragtime Band was an exception to that. It came 327 00:20:42,480 --> 00:20:47,760 Speaker 1: together for him really quickly. Berlin biographer James Kaplan describes 328 00:20:47,840 --> 00:20:52,480 Speaker 1: this song as quote a joyous tribute to African American 329 00:20:52,600 --> 00:20:56,560 Speaker 1: musical genius, the first great and lasting one in American 330 00:20:56,600 --> 00:21:01,160 Speaker 1: popular song from a Jewish American musical genius us. Kaplan 331 00:21:01,240 --> 00:21:05,480 Speaker 1: also calls the song a celebration of America itself. There 332 00:21:05,520 --> 00:21:09,040 Speaker 1: are some ironies involved in this song and its success. 333 00:21:09,640 --> 00:21:12,879 Speaker 1: It introduced a lot of people to the idea of ragtime, 334 00:21:13,240 --> 00:21:16,919 Speaker 1: like its musical successor, jazz, ragtime is a style of 335 00:21:17,000 --> 00:21:21,440 Speaker 1: music initially developed by black musicians and performers before becoming 336 00:21:21,440 --> 00:21:26,480 Speaker 1: popular among white performers and songwriters. The name ragtime comes 337 00:21:26,520 --> 00:21:30,119 Speaker 1: from the syncopated rhythms and ragged rhymes that are hallmarks 338 00:21:30,160 --> 00:21:35,119 Speaker 1: of the style. But even though Alexander's Ragtime Band included 339 00:21:35,160 --> 00:21:39,840 Speaker 1: the word ragtime in the title and celebrated ragtime and 340 00:21:39,920 --> 00:21:43,879 Speaker 1: in some ways introduced ragtime to a broader audience, it 341 00:21:44,000 --> 00:21:47,440 Speaker 1: is not really a rag This song is often described 342 00:21:47,560 --> 00:21:51,920 Speaker 1: really more as a march, and ragtime did have roots 343 00:21:51,960 --> 00:21:58,000 Speaker 1: in marches, but it's a little bit different. Uh. Before long, 344 00:21:58,359 --> 00:22:01,840 Speaker 1: rumors were also spreading that Berlin had stolen the work 345 00:22:01,880 --> 00:22:05,600 Speaker 1: of a black musician in writing this song. Some people 346 00:22:05,640 --> 00:22:09,120 Speaker 1: gave the credits to composer and songwriter Lukey Johnson, who 347 00:22:09,160 --> 00:22:11,440 Speaker 1: said he didn't have anything to do with it and 348 00:22:11,600 --> 00:22:16,440 Speaker 1: counter quote, I wish I had written that song. Decades later, 349 00:22:16,720 --> 00:22:20,119 Speaker 1: Lottie Stokes Joplin, the widow of Scott Joplin, who was 350 00:22:20,240 --> 00:22:23,440 Speaker 1: known as the King of Ragtime, said that Berlin had 351 00:22:23,560 --> 00:22:27,399 Speaker 1: stolen the tune from her late husband, But scholars who 352 00:22:27,440 --> 00:22:31,360 Speaker 1: have compared Alexander's Ragtime Band to various pieces of Joplin 353 00:22:31,480 --> 00:22:35,320 Speaker 1: surviving work, have not found a clear example of like 354 00:22:35,440 --> 00:22:40,600 Speaker 1: definite copying. Irving Berlin would face other accusations of plagiarism 355 00:22:40,680 --> 00:22:44,639 Speaker 1: during his career, including accusations of plagiarizing the work of 356 00:22:44,640 --> 00:22:49,399 Speaker 1: black performers. He vigorously denied these allegations, sometimes in a 357 00:22:49,400 --> 00:22:52,359 Speaker 1: way that could sound really dismissive toward the performers or 358 00:22:52,400 --> 00:22:57,240 Speaker 1: communities whose work he was allegedly copying. He absolutely drew 359 00:22:57,280 --> 00:23:01,240 Speaker 1: influence from things like folk songs and commonlities as well 360 00:23:01,320 --> 00:23:04,360 Speaker 1: as from other people's work, and some of his work 361 00:23:04,400 --> 00:23:08,639 Speaker 1: can definitely be seen as appropriating other cultures and musical traditions. 362 00:23:09,000 --> 00:23:12,240 Speaker 1: But there are not really clear cut examples of lifting 363 00:23:12,280 --> 00:23:16,359 Speaker 1: other people's entire songs note for note. Most of the 364 00:23:16,440 --> 00:23:19,400 Speaker 1: examples that have been brought up are sequences of four 365 00:23:19,520 --> 00:23:23,280 Speaker 1: or five notes that are part of a longer piece. Yeah, 366 00:23:23,320 --> 00:23:25,520 Speaker 1: I saw descriptions that were like, if people had heard 367 00:23:25,560 --> 00:23:29,040 Speaker 1: this song before, they might recognize these four notes as 368 00:23:29,080 --> 00:23:32,920 Speaker 1: the same as those four notes, which is not as 369 00:23:32,960 --> 00:23:37,000 Speaker 1: obvious as something like taking the entire baseline of under 370 00:23:37,040 --> 00:23:40,800 Speaker 1: pressure and using it to make ice ice baby, which 371 00:23:40,840 --> 00:23:43,240 Speaker 1: is like a thing that jumps out to me, is 372 00:23:43,240 --> 00:23:46,240 Speaker 1: like a clear example of musical copying. Well, that's considered 373 00:23:46,280 --> 00:23:49,520 Speaker 1: a sampling though, isn't it. Yeah, But it wasn't acknowledged 374 00:23:49,560 --> 00:23:52,760 Speaker 1: when it originally came out, I think, which was the problem, right, 375 00:23:52,880 --> 00:23:55,119 Speaker 1: I mean that was when like the concept of sampling 376 00:23:55,280 --> 00:23:59,920 Speaker 1: was still dead. Um. But like that's a more direct 377 00:24:00,080 --> 00:24:03,600 Speaker 1: obvious this thing turned into this thing than most of 378 00:24:03,600 --> 00:24:06,080 Speaker 1: the examples that people are like, what's It's more like, okay, 379 00:24:06,080 --> 00:24:08,199 Speaker 1: they're the sequence of four notes is the same as 380 00:24:08,240 --> 00:24:12,840 Speaker 1: this other sequence of four notes. In February of nineteen twelve, 381 00:24:13,000 --> 00:24:17,840 Speaker 1: Irving Berlin married Dorothy Gets, and their marriage was tragically short. 382 00:24:18,119 --> 00:24:22,280 Speaker 1: She died on July sevent of that same year. She 383 00:24:22,440 --> 00:24:25,280 Speaker 1: likely died as a result of typhoid, which she contracted 384 00:24:25,400 --> 00:24:29,560 Speaker 1: during their honeymoon in Cuba. Berlin wrote the ballad When 385 00:24:29,640 --> 00:24:31,720 Speaker 1: I Lost You after her death, and that is a 386 00:24:31,760 --> 00:24:35,200 Speaker 1: song that's often described as really the most personal one 387 00:24:35,240 --> 00:24:38,080 Speaker 1: that he ever wrote. It took a while for Berlin 388 00:24:38,240 --> 00:24:40,960 Speaker 1: to really start writing again after his wife's death, and 389 00:24:41,000 --> 00:24:44,680 Speaker 1: when he did, his next career move was writing for Broadway. 390 00:24:44,800 --> 00:24:56,720 Speaker 1: And we'll get into that after a sponsor break. As 391 00:24:56,760 --> 00:25:00,440 Speaker 1: we said earlier, Irving Berlin started working for Ted Snyder 392 00:25:00,600 --> 00:25:04,159 Speaker 1: in nineteen o nine. Into the nineteen teens, he became 393 00:25:04,240 --> 00:25:08,120 Speaker 1: more involved with that business, with Ted Snyder, Henry Watterson, 394 00:25:08,200 --> 00:25:12,440 Speaker 1: and Irving Berlin eventually coming together to become Waterson, Berlin 395 00:25:12,600 --> 00:25:15,960 Speaker 1: and Snyder, which became one of the most prominent sheet 396 00:25:16,040 --> 00:25:19,040 Speaker 1: music publishers in the US in the early twentieth century. 397 00:25:19,800 --> 00:25:23,280 Speaker 1: During these years, Berlin had also started working with his 398 00:25:23,400 --> 00:25:27,520 Speaker 1: first musical secretary, Cliff Hess, who the Snyder Company hired 399 00:25:27,560 --> 00:25:32,080 Speaker 1: in nineteen thirteen. Berlin and Hess worked together extensively over 400 00:25:32,080 --> 00:25:35,240 Speaker 1: the next five years, with Hess even moving into Berlin's 401 00:25:35,280 --> 00:25:37,880 Speaker 1: apartment to keep up with his work. Through the night 402 00:25:37,920 --> 00:25:42,440 Speaker 1: writing habits. Berlin routinely woke up at noon, ate breakfast, 403 00:25:42,560 --> 00:25:45,359 Speaker 1: and started working, going to bed at five o'clock the 404 00:25:45,400 --> 00:25:47,720 Speaker 1: next morning, which I will just say sounds like a 405 00:25:47,800 --> 00:25:53,159 Speaker 1: dream schedule, I think for him it was until life 406 00:25:53,160 --> 00:25:56,960 Speaker 1: intervenes to make it deeply inconvenient to be on that schedule. 407 00:25:58,119 --> 00:26:01,520 Speaker 1: Hess was the first of several musical secretaries and arrangers 408 00:26:01,560 --> 00:26:04,359 Speaker 1: who Berlin worked with during his career, which really helped 409 00:26:04,400 --> 00:26:06,560 Speaker 1: him compensate for the fact that he didn't know how 410 00:26:06,600 --> 00:26:09,720 Speaker 1: to read or write music, or really to play the piano. 411 00:26:10,119 --> 00:26:13,359 Speaker 1: These were skills that he only started to develop much later, 412 00:26:13,480 --> 00:26:17,040 Speaker 1: and even then most accounts say he was never really 413 00:26:17,080 --> 00:26:21,280 Speaker 1: proficient at them. Often Berlin would sing a melody or 414 00:26:21,320 --> 00:26:24,320 Speaker 1: pick it out on his transposing piano, and his musical 415 00:26:24,320 --> 00:26:27,119 Speaker 1: secretary would play it back, adding in the harmonies and 416 00:26:27,160 --> 00:26:31,159 Speaker 1: other musical elements. People described Berlin as being able to 417 00:26:31,240 --> 00:26:34,600 Speaker 1: point out spots where his secretary had used different notes 418 00:26:34,720 --> 00:26:37,960 Speaker 1: or chords than what Berlin had intended, because while he 419 00:26:38,000 --> 00:26:40,840 Speaker 1: could not read the notes on the page, he could 420 00:26:40,880 --> 00:26:43,879 Speaker 1: hear them in his mind. He also had a sharp 421 00:26:43,960 --> 00:26:46,760 Speaker 1: business sense, both for his own work and for the 422 00:26:46,840 --> 00:26:50,520 Speaker 1: industry in en. He was one of the co founders 423 00:26:50,520 --> 00:26:54,399 Speaker 1: of the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers or 424 00:26:54,760 --> 00:26:59,000 Speaker 1: as CAP, along with other prominent composers and publishers. As 425 00:26:59,080 --> 00:27:01,199 Speaker 1: CAP has its own history that we are not going 426 00:27:01,240 --> 00:27:04,240 Speaker 1: to get into, but at its founding, the purpose was 427 00:27:04,280 --> 00:27:07,720 Speaker 1: to help members to copyright and license their music, making 428 00:27:07,760 --> 00:27:10,919 Speaker 1: it easier to protect their work and earn money from it. 429 00:27:11,960 --> 00:27:16,159 Speaker 1: Berlin's first full Broadway score was for Watch Your Step, 430 00:27:16,240 --> 00:27:20,920 Speaker 1: which opened at the New Amsterdam Theater in Berlin wrote 431 00:27:20,960 --> 00:27:23,280 Speaker 1: the music and the lyrics, and this was the first 432 00:27:23,320 --> 00:27:26,560 Speaker 1: time that a tin pan alley composer made the move 433 00:27:26,720 --> 00:27:30,440 Speaker 1: to Broadway. This drew a lot of influence from Ragtime, 434 00:27:30,560 --> 00:27:33,520 Speaker 1: and one of its best remembered songs is the overlapping 435 00:27:33,600 --> 00:27:37,280 Speaker 1: duet play, a simple melody which listeners of a certain 436 00:27:37,320 --> 00:27:41,200 Speaker 1: age may remember from when Jane Stapleton and Fozzy Bear 437 00:27:41,280 --> 00:27:44,880 Speaker 1: sang it on The Muppet Show. It is so charming, 438 00:27:45,160 --> 00:27:47,879 Speaker 1: It's a very delightful song. In the seven years that 439 00:27:48,000 --> 00:27:52,120 Speaker 1: had passed since his first song publication in seven Berlin 440 00:27:52,240 --> 00:27:55,840 Speaker 1: had published roughly one ninety other songs as either a 441 00:27:55,840 --> 00:27:59,399 Speaker 1: composer or a lyricist. While he had mostly been writing 442 00:27:59,400 --> 00:28:02,119 Speaker 1: the lyrics for his first songs, over time that had 443 00:28:02,160 --> 00:28:06,720 Speaker 1: shifted until he was almost always responsible for both of 444 00:28:06,720 --> 00:28:10,159 Speaker 1: those nineties songs published over seven years, he had written 445 00:28:10,160 --> 00:28:14,000 Speaker 1: both the music and lyrics to about two thirds of them. 446 00:28:14,160 --> 00:28:18,040 Speaker 1: This was a lot part of his creative process involved 447 00:28:18,160 --> 00:28:21,520 Speaker 1: just churning out a huge amount of material, knowing that 448 00:28:21,600 --> 00:28:24,879 Speaker 1: only some of it would be really great. In one story, 449 00:28:24,960 --> 00:28:28,000 Speaker 1: somebody complimented him at a party saying, no one has 450 00:28:28,000 --> 00:28:31,879 Speaker 1: written as many hits as you have. His response was, 451 00:28:32,040 --> 00:28:34,840 Speaker 1: I know there's no one who has written so many failures. 452 00:28:35,760 --> 00:28:39,760 Speaker 1: During these years, Berlin had honed his songwriting style and craft. 453 00:28:40,280 --> 00:28:43,280 Speaker 1: He was really focused on getting just the right melody, 454 00:28:43,320 --> 00:28:47,040 Speaker 1: often a very simple melody, and just the right lyrics, 455 00:28:47,040 --> 00:28:50,720 Speaker 1: which again were often really simple, but tucked in with 456 00:28:50,760 --> 00:28:54,520 Speaker 1: that simplicity returns of phrase and patterns and rhymes they 457 00:28:54,600 --> 00:28:58,040 Speaker 1: were very catchy and evocative. This work drew from a 458 00:28:58,080 --> 00:29:02,440 Speaker 1: lot of musical influences, including ragtime and blues in the 459 00:29:02,480 --> 00:29:05,640 Speaker 1: earliest years of jazz. As a musical style, his work 460 00:29:05,760 --> 00:29:10,800 Speaker 1: was sometimes described as jazz. He definitely incorporated some elements 461 00:29:10,840 --> 00:29:14,720 Speaker 1: that were really common in jazz, including the syncopated beats 462 00:29:14,720 --> 00:29:17,760 Speaker 1: that were also part of ragtime, but he didn't really 463 00:29:17,800 --> 00:29:22,040 Speaker 1: incorporate the more improvisational elements that are often found in jazz. 464 00:29:22,880 --> 00:29:25,840 Speaker 1: At the same time, as was the case with Alexander's 465 00:29:25,920 --> 00:29:29,600 Speaker 1: Ragtime Band, introducing the idea of ragtime to a white 466 00:29:29,600 --> 00:29:34,000 Speaker 1: audience without actually being a rag his jazz like work 467 00:29:34,160 --> 00:29:37,040 Speaker 1: became an entry point for a lot of white audiences 468 00:29:37,120 --> 00:29:40,600 Speaker 1: and in some cases even defined for those audiences what 469 00:29:40,840 --> 00:29:45,040 Speaker 1: jazz was all about. World War One started in nineteen fourteen, 470 00:29:45,160 --> 00:29:49,120 Speaker 1: following the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and 471 00:29:49,240 --> 00:29:52,800 Speaker 1: his wife, Sophie, Duchess of Hohenburg. In the face of 472 00:29:52,880 --> 00:29:56,320 Speaker 1: war and a growing sense of isolation and xenophobia in 473 00:29:56,320 --> 00:30:00,560 Speaker 1: the US, Berlin started the process of becoming US citizen 474 00:30:01,520 --> 00:30:04,760 Speaker 1: in nineteen seventeen. The United States became involved in World 475 00:30:04,760 --> 00:30:08,200 Speaker 1: War One. In early nineteen eighteen, Irving Berlin took his 476 00:30:08,280 --> 00:30:11,320 Speaker 1: oath of citizenship and he was also drafted at the 477 00:30:11,360 --> 00:30:15,600 Speaker 1: age of thirty. He was almost too old to be drafted. 478 00:30:15,640 --> 00:30:18,760 Speaker 1: The cutoff was thirty one, and he was really surprised 479 00:30:18,800 --> 00:30:22,120 Speaker 1: that he passed. As physical. In addition to the chronic 480 00:30:22,160 --> 00:30:25,280 Speaker 1: insomnia that we already talked about, he was also chronically 481 00:30:25,360 --> 00:30:29,040 Speaker 1: ill with what's usually described as nervous indigestion, and that 482 00:30:29,120 --> 00:30:32,240 Speaker 1: affected him for his whole life. There are some accounts 483 00:30:32,240 --> 00:30:33,880 Speaker 1: of all this that make it sort of sound like 484 00:30:34,240 --> 00:30:37,360 Speaker 1: he started his citizenship process in spite of the war, 485 00:30:38,000 --> 00:30:40,440 Speaker 1: thinking that he wouldn't be drafted because of his health. 486 00:30:40,480 --> 00:30:43,840 Speaker 1: But like the draft applied to people regardless of whether 487 00:30:43,920 --> 00:30:46,160 Speaker 1: they were citizens or not, like it applied to all 488 00:30:46,200 --> 00:30:48,440 Speaker 1: men living in the United States, so whether he was 489 00:30:48,480 --> 00:30:51,360 Speaker 1: a citizen or not was not part of whether he 490 00:30:51,400 --> 00:30:54,520 Speaker 1: was going to be drafted. In May of nineteen eighteen, 491 00:30:54,560 --> 00:30:57,000 Speaker 1: Berlin became a private in the U. S Army and 492 00:30:57,080 --> 00:31:00,000 Speaker 1: was stationed at Camp Upton in yap Hank, New York. 493 00:31:00,000 --> 00:31:03,520 Speaker 1: Work he was intensely patriotic, and he seems to have 494 00:31:03,600 --> 00:31:07,520 Speaker 1: really wanted to serve his adopted country, but he also 495 00:31:07,560 --> 00:31:11,320 Speaker 1: found life in the army very difficult. In particular, he 496 00:31:11,400 --> 00:31:14,080 Speaker 1: hated how early he had to get up, which really 497 00:31:14,160 --> 00:31:16,640 Speaker 1: is not surprising given his tendency to go to bed 498 00:31:16,720 --> 00:31:18,560 Speaker 1: at five in the morning and get up at noon. 499 00:31:19,280 --> 00:31:22,320 Speaker 1: He described himself as hating revelie so much that he 500 00:31:22,320 --> 00:31:25,600 Speaker 1: would lie awake at night thinking about it. I felt 501 00:31:25,640 --> 00:31:29,960 Speaker 1: this so much in my bones, in my bones. He 502 00:31:30,000 --> 00:31:32,880 Speaker 1: wrote a song about this, called Oh How I Hate 503 00:31:32,880 --> 00:31:35,320 Speaker 1: to get up in the morning, and that song started 504 00:31:35,320 --> 00:31:40,160 Speaker 1: to catch on around Camp Upton. Soon. Berlin proposed writing 505 00:31:40,200 --> 00:31:43,240 Speaker 1: a musical about army life to be used to raise 506 00:31:43,360 --> 00:31:45,640 Speaker 1: funds that would be sort of along the lines of 507 00:31:45,680 --> 00:31:49,080 Speaker 1: George Cohen's song Over There, which came out in nineteen seventeen, 508 00:31:49,720 --> 00:31:52,920 Speaker 1: as well as a musical review that the US Navy 509 00:31:53,080 --> 00:31:57,240 Speaker 1: had staged the previous spring. Exactly how this all came 510 00:31:57,280 --> 00:31:59,800 Speaker 1: about is a little bit fuzzy, but the result was 511 00:32:00,520 --> 00:32:02,960 Speaker 1: Yip Yip Yap Hank, which was a review with a 512 00:32:03,040 --> 00:32:06,640 Speaker 1: cast of army recruits. It was performed at Camp Upton 513 00:32:06,800 --> 00:32:09,400 Speaker 1: before moving to the Century Theater in New York City 514 00:32:09,640 --> 00:32:14,120 Speaker 1: and running for thirty two performances. This was a vaudeville 515 00:32:14,120 --> 00:32:17,800 Speaker 1: style review with music and dance and acrobatics, and a 516 00:32:17,840 --> 00:32:21,400 Speaker 1: black face number and a drag number. Berlin, who at 517 00:32:21,400 --> 00:32:24,560 Speaker 1: this point had been promoted to sergeant, performed Oh How 518 00:32:24,600 --> 00:32:27,840 Speaker 1: I Hate to Get up in the morning himself. After 519 00:32:27,880 --> 00:32:30,479 Speaker 1: the end of World War One, Berlin looked back at 520 00:32:30,480 --> 00:32:32,560 Speaker 1: his career and tried to figure out what his next 521 00:32:32,560 --> 00:32:36,400 Speaker 1: step should be. While his name was still part of Waterson, 522 00:32:36,480 --> 00:32:41,240 Speaker 1: Berlin and Snyder, he wasn't really working with that company anymore. Ultimately, 523 00:32:41,360 --> 00:32:45,520 Speaker 1: he established his own publishing house, Irving Berlin, Inc. So 524 00:32:45,640 --> 00:32:48,360 Speaker 1: he could control the copyrights and the royalties to his 525 00:32:48,400 --> 00:32:52,719 Speaker 1: own music. Two years later, he wrote fourteen musical numbers 526 00:32:52,760 --> 00:32:55,800 Speaker 1: for the Zigfield Follies. He went on to do various 527 00:32:55,800 --> 00:32:58,560 Speaker 1: work with the Follies in the years that followed. In 528 00:32:59,480 --> 00:33:02,280 Speaker 1: one he teamed up with Joseph M. Shank and Sam 529 00:33:02,320 --> 00:33:06,400 Speaker 1: Harris to establish his own Broadway theater, The Music Box. 530 00:33:07,240 --> 00:33:11,800 Speaker 1: This was a colossally expensive and difficult venture with technically 531 00:33:11,880 --> 00:33:16,920 Speaker 1: complicated stage equipment, including an elevator. His work and his 532 00:33:17,000 --> 00:33:20,840 Speaker 1: name recognition continued to grow in the early nineteen twenties, 533 00:33:20,960 --> 00:33:24,000 Speaker 1: and he also fell in love again. And that is 534 00:33:24,000 --> 00:33:27,080 Speaker 1: where we are going to pick up next time. Do 535 00:33:27,200 --> 00:33:30,240 Speaker 1: you have some yummi listener mail to tide us over 536 00:33:30,320 --> 00:33:34,000 Speaker 1: until our next episode? I do. This is from Angela 537 00:33:34,480 --> 00:33:38,040 Speaker 1: and Angela wrote after our recent episode on Charles Drew 538 00:33:38,120 --> 00:33:42,040 Speaker 1: and blood banking. Angela said, Hi, Holly and Tracy. I'm 539 00:33:42,080 --> 00:33:45,600 Speaker 1: sure you recorded the behind the scenes about blood banks 540 00:33:45,680 --> 00:33:48,160 Speaker 1: before this news came out, but I thought I would 541 00:33:48,160 --> 00:33:50,560 Speaker 1: put out the p s A that the deferral for 542 00:33:50,720 --> 00:33:53,840 Speaker 1: donating blood if you were in Europe during Mad Cow 543 00:33:53,880 --> 00:33:57,400 Speaker 1: has been lifted. Blood donation is very important to me 544 00:33:57,600 --> 00:33:59,560 Speaker 1: and has been a regular part of my life since 545 00:33:59,600 --> 00:34:02,120 Speaker 1: I turned eighteen. I won't say how old I am, 546 00:34:02,240 --> 00:34:05,040 Speaker 1: but I have recently gotten my six gallon pin and 547 00:34:05,080 --> 00:34:07,600 Speaker 1: that doesn't include the different places I donated when I 548 00:34:07,640 --> 00:34:10,520 Speaker 1: was younger. Since I have loved many people who have 549 00:34:10,600 --> 00:34:13,359 Speaker 1: benefited from blood donation. Anything that makes it so more 550 00:34:13,440 --> 00:34:16,160 Speaker 1: people can donate makes me happy. I'm glad the f 551 00:34:16,239 --> 00:34:19,240 Speaker 1: d A is constantly going back and reevaluating the policy 552 00:34:19,360 --> 00:34:21,439 Speaker 1: is to try to maximize the number of people who 553 00:34:21,520 --> 00:34:24,120 Speaker 1: can donate, but I do agree with you that it 554 00:34:24,160 --> 00:34:27,480 Speaker 1: seems like there are some in place for the wrong reasons. 555 00:34:28,320 --> 00:34:31,279 Speaker 1: Thank you, as always for your continued work to keep 556 00:34:31,360 --> 00:34:34,640 Speaker 1: listeners informed of the past and its impact today, Angela, 557 00:34:34,719 --> 00:34:37,839 Speaker 1: Thank you so much Angela for this update. So yeah, 558 00:34:38,080 --> 00:34:41,239 Speaker 1: the last time that I gave blood, before writing that 559 00:34:41,320 --> 00:34:45,520 Speaker 1: episode and doing the behind the scenes UM, the f 560 00:34:45,719 --> 00:34:50,040 Speaker 1: d A had actually issued new guidance UM, but the 561 00:34:50,080 --> 00:34:52,799 Speaker 1: Red Cross had not incorporated that new guidance into their 562 00:34:52,840 --> 00:34:55,760 Speaker 1: process yet. So when I gave blood at that point, 563 00:34:56,080 --> 00:34:59,000 Speaker 1: folks who had lived in Europe during the big Mad 564 00:34:59,040 --> 00:35:04,840 Speaker 1: Cow outbreak, we're still excluded from donating. UM. They actually changed. 565 00:35:04,880 --> 00:35:09,080 Speaker 1: They announced that they were changing the policy UM shortly 566 00:35:09,160 --> 00:35:13,719 Speaker 1: before we recorded this episode, and also shortly before the 567 00:35:13,760 --> 00:35:16,920 Speaker 1: next time I gave blood. But I'm pretty sure that 568 00:35:17,040 --> 00:35:19,400 Speaker 1: was still in the questionnaire that day. It's not in 569 00:35:19,440 --> 00:35:24,120 Speaker 1: the questionnaire anymore. UM. This directly affects people I know 570 00:35:24,280 --> 00:35:28,120 Speaker 1: who either like lived in the UK for a period 571 00:35:28,239 --> 00:35:31,120 Speaker 1: while they were in college or grad school, or folks 572 00:35:31,120 --> 00:35:34,320 Speaker 1: I know who moved from the UK to the United States. 573 00:35:35,000 --> 00:35:38,000 Speaker 1: So yeah, that that rule has changed from what was 574 00:35:38,000 --> 00:35:39,920 Speaker 1: in place for a very long time. So thank you 575 00:35:39,960 --> 00:35:42,680 Speaker 1: Angela for letting me know about that. A couple of 576 00:35:42,719 --> 00:35:46,319 Speaker 1: folks I know who this applies to also said something like, 577 00:35:46,960 --> 00:35:49,799 Speaker 1: within two or three days of getting this email that 578 00:35:49,840 --> 00:35:51,480 Speaker 1: we're like, hey, I can give blood again and we're 579 00:35:51,560 --> 00:35:53,960 Speaker 1: very excited about it. If you would like to send 580 00:35:54,000 --> 00:35:56,080 Speaker 1: us a note about this or any other podcast where 581 00:35:56,280 --> 00:35:58,799 Speaker 1: history podcast that I heart radio dot com and we're 582 00:35:58,800 --> 00:36:01,799 Speaker 1: all over social media at miss in History, So you'll 583 00:36:01,800 --> 00:36:04,600 Speaker 1: find our Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram, and you can 584 00:36:04,640 --> 00:36:07,479 Speaker 1: subscribe to our show on the I heart Radio app 585 00:36:07,760 --> 00:36:15,800 Speaker 1: or wherever else you like to get your podcasts. 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