Ървинг Бърлин

Israel Beilin reached New York as a small child from the Russian Empire and made his way through the city's cafés first as a singing waiter, then as a lyricist, then as the writer of both words and music. He had almost no formal training; he composed at the piano in a single key and used a transposing instrument and assistants to move the results where they were needed. Alexander's Ragtime Band, in 1911, put syncopation in front of a mass audience and made him famous at twenty-three. Over the next half-century came the revues and the shows — As Thousands Cheer, This Is the Army, Annie Get Your Gun, Call Me Madam — and the songs that outlived them: White Christmas, Cheek to Cheek, Puttin' on the Ritz, There's No Business Like Show Business, God Bless America. He was his own publisher and part-owner of his own theatre, keeping control over his catalogue. An Academy Award for White Christmas, a gold medal authorized by Congress and the Presidential Medal of Freedom followed. He died in 1989, at a hundred and one. He was born on 11 May 1888 in the Russian Empire, to Lena Lipkin and Moses Beilin, and the family reached New York in 1893; after his father died in 1901 he sold newspapers and sang in the street. Across sixty years he produced some fifteen hundred songs, music for Broadway productions and films, and was nominated eight times for an Academy Award; Easter Parade and Anything You Can Do are among his songs.