Ancestors Gershwin's parents were both Jewish immigrants from the Russian Empire. His paternal grandfather, Jakov Gershovitz, was born in
Odessa, then part of the
Russian Empire, and had served for 25 years as a mechanic for the
Imperial Russian Army to earn the right of free travel and residence as a Jew, finally retiring near
Saint Petersburg, Russia. Jakov's teenage son, Moishe, George Gershwin's father, worked as a leather cutter for women's shoes. George's mother, Roza Bruskina, was born in
Saint Petersburg. Moishe met Roza in
Vilna, Russian Empire (now Vilnius, Lithuania), where her father worked as a furrier. She and her family moved to New York because of increasing anti-Jewish sentiment in Russia, changing her first name to Rose. Moishe, faced with compulsory military service if he remained in Russia, moved to America as soon as he could afford to (arrived on August 14, 1890). Once in New York, he changed his first name to Morris. Gershovitz lived with a maternal uncle in
Brooklyn, working as a foreman in a women's shoe factory. He married Rose on July 21, 1895, and Gershovitz soon Anglicized his name to Gershwine. Their first child,
Ira Gershwin, was born on December 6, 1896, after which the family moved into a second-floor apartment at 242 Snediker Avenue in the
East New York neighborhood of Brooklyn.
Early life George was born on September 26, 1898, in the Snediker Avenue apartment. His birth certificate identifies him as Jacob Gershwine, with the surname pronounced "Gershvin" in the
Yiddish-speaking community. He was named after his grandfather, and, contrary to the American practice, had no middle name. He soon became known as George, and changed the spelling of his surname to "Gershwin" around the time he became a professional musician; other family members followed suit after Ira and George, another boy,
Arthur Gershwin (1900–1981), and a girl,
Frances Gershwin (1906–1999), were born into the family. The family lived in many different residences, as their father changed dwellings with each new enterprise in which he became involved. They grew up mostly in the
Yiddish Theater District. George and Ira frequented the local Yiddish theaters, with George occasionally appearing onstage as an
extra. George lived a boyhood not unusual in New York tenements, which included running around with his friends, roller-skating and misbehaving in the streets. Until 1908, he cared nothing about music. Then, as a ten-year-old, he was intrigued upon hearing his friend Maxie Rosenzweig's violin recital. The sound, and the way his friend played, captivated him. At about the same time, George's parents had bought a piano for his older brother Ira. To his parents' surprise, though, and to Ira's relief, it was George who spent more time playing it as he continued to enjoy it. Although his younger sister
Frances Gershwin was the first in the family to make a living through her musical talents, she married young and devoted herself to being a mother and housewife, thus precluding spending any serious time on musical endeavors. Having given up her performing career, she settled upon painting as a creative outlet, which had also been a hobby George briefly pursued.
Arthur Gershwin followed in the paths of George and Ira, also becoming a composer of songs, musicals, and short piano pieces. George studied with various piano teachers for about two years (circa 1911) before finally being introduced to
Charles Hambitzer by Jack Miller (circa 1913), the pianist in the Beethoven Symphony Orchestra. Until his death in 1918, Hambitzer remained Gershwin's musical mentor, taught him conventional piano technique, introduced him to music of the European classical tradition, and encouraged him to attend orchestral concerts.
Tin Pan Alley and Broadway: 1913–1923 In 1913, Gershwin left school at the age of 15 to work as a "
song plugger" on New York City's
Tin Pan Alley. He earned $15 a week from Jerome H. Remick and Company, a Detroit-based publishing firm with a branch office in New York. His first published song was "When You Want 'Em, You Can't Get 'Em, When You've Got 'Em, You Don't Want 'Em" in 1916. It earned the 17-year-old 50 cents. In 1916, Gershwin started working for
Aeolian Company and Standard Music Rolls in New York City, recording and arranging. He produced dozens, if not hundreds, of rolls under his own and assumed names (pseudonyms attributed to Gershwin include Fred Murtha and Bert Wynn). He also recorded rolls of his own compositions for the Duo-Art and
Welte-Mignon reproducing pianos. As well as recording piano rolls, Gershwin made a brief foray into
vaudeville, accompanying both
Nora Bayes and
Louise Dresser on the piano. His first song to appear on Broadway was "Making of a Girl", written in 1916 with
Sigmund Romberg and lyrics by
Harold Atteridge. It was sung in
The Passing Show of 1916. His 1917 novelty
rag, "Rialto Ripples", was a commercial success. In 1919, Gershwin scored his first big national hit with his song "
Swanee", with words by
Irving Caesar.
Al Jolson, a
Broadway star and former
minstrel singer, heard Gershwin perform "Swanee" at a party and decided to sing it in one of his shows. It was orchestrated by
Ferde Grofé and premiered by
Paul Whiteman's Concert Band, in New York. It subsequently went on to be his most popular work, and established Gershwin's signature style and genius in blending vastly different musical styles, including
jazz and
classical music, in revolutionary ways. In the same year, George and Ira Gershwin collaborated on a stage musical comedy
Lady Be Good, which included such future
standards as "
Fascinating Rhythm" and "
Oh, Lady Be Good!". They followed this with
Oh, Kay! (1926),
Funny Face (1927) and
Strike Up the Band (1927 and 1930). Gershwin allowed the latter song, with a modified title, to be used as a football fight song, "Strike Up The Band for UCLA". In the mid-1920s, Gershwin stayed in Paris for a short period, during which he applied to study composition with the noted
Nadia Boulanger, who, along with several other prospective tutors such as
Maurice Ravel, turned him down, afraid that rigorous classical study would ruin his
jazz-influenced style. While there, Gershwin wrote the
tone poem An American in Paris. This work received mixed reviews upon its first performance at
Carnegie Hall on December 13, 1928, but it quickly became part of the
standard repertoire in Europe and the United States.
New York: 1929–1935 In 1929, the Gershwin brothers created
Show Girl; the following year brought
Girl Crazy, which introduced the standards "
Embraceable You", sung by Ginger Rogers, and "
I Got Rhythm". 1931's
Of Thee I Sing became the first musical comedy to win the
Pulitzer Prize for Drama; the winners were George S. Kaufman, Morrie Ryskind, and Ira Gershwin. Gershwin spent the summer of 1934 on
South Carolina's
Folly Island after he was invited to visit by
DuBose Heyward, author of the novel
Porgy. It was there that he was inspired to write the music to his opera
Porgy and Bess.
Porgy and Bess was considered another American classic by the composer of
Rhapsody in Blue — even if critics could not quite figure out how to evaluate it, or decide whether it was opera or simply an ambitious Broadway musical. "It crossed the barriers," per theater historian Robert Kimball. "It wasn't a musical work per se, and it wasn't a drama per se – it elicited response from both music and drama critics. But the work has sort of always been outside category."
Last years: 1936–1937 After the commercial failure of
Porgy and Bess, Gershwin moved to
Hollywood, California. He befriended
Arnold Schoenberg, with whom he played
tennis.
Illness and death Early in 1937, Gershwin began to complain of blinding headaches and a recurring impression that he smelled burning rubber. As early as February 1934, he had said he smelled burning garbage at the Detroit railway station, though those with him did not. On February 11, 1937, he performed his Piano Concerto in F in a special concert of his music with the
San Francisco Symphony Orchestra under the direction of French maestro
Pierre Monteux. Gershwin, normally a superb pianist in his own compositions, suffered coordination problems and blackouts during the performance. He was at the time working on other Hollywood film projects while living with Ira and his wife Leonore in their rented house in
Beverly Hills. Leonore Gershwin began to be disturbed by George's mood swings and his seeming inability to eat without spilling food at the dinner table. She suspected mental illness and insisted he be moved out of their house to lyricist
Yip Harburg's empty quarters nearby, where he was placed in the care of his valet, Paul Mueller. The headaches and
olfactory hallucinations continued. On the night of July 9, 1937, Gershwin collapsed in Harburg's house, where he had been working on the score of
The Goldwyn Follies. His last words were "
Fred Astaire". and fell into a coma. Only then did his doctors come to believe that he was suffering from a
brain tumor. Leonore called George's close friend Emil Mosbacher and explained the dire need to find a
neurosurgeon. Mosbacher immediately called pioneering neurosurgeon
Harvey Cushing in Boston, who, retired for several years by then, recommended
Walter Dandy, who was on a boat fishing in the
Chesapeake Bay with
Harry Nice, the governor of Maryland. Mosbacher called the
White House and had a
Coast Guard cutter sent to find the governor's yacht and bring Dandy quickly to shore. Mosbacher then chartered a plane and flew Dandy to
Newark Airport, where he was to catch a plane to Los Angeles; by that time, Gershwin's condition was critical and the need for surgery was immediate. in the early hours of Sunday, July 11, 1937, doctors at Cedars removed a large brain tumor, believed to have been a
glioblastoma, but Gershwin died that morning at the age of 38. The fact that he had suddenly collapsed and become comatose after he stood up on July 9 has been interpreted as
brain herniation with
Duret hemorrhages. He was interred at
Westchester Hills Cemetery in
Hastings-on-Hudson, New York. A memorial concert was held at the
Hollywood Bowl on September 8, 1937, at which
Otto Klemperer conducted his own orchestration of the second of Gershwin's
Three Preludes.
Relationship with Kay Swift Gershwin had a ten-year affair with composer
Kay Swift, whom he frequently consulted about his music. The two never married, although she eventually divorced her husband
James Warburg to commit to the relationship. Swift's granddaughter, Katharine Weber, has suggested that the pair were not married because George's mother Rose was "unhappy that Kay Swift wasn't Jewish". The Gershwins' 1926 musical
Oh, Kay! was named for her. After Gershwin's death, Swift arranged some of his music, transcribed several of his recordings, and collaborated with his brother Ira on several projects. ==Musical style and influence==