Irving Berlin Biography

Irving Berlin was born Israel Isidore Berlin on 11 May 1888, one of eight children of Moses and Lena Lipkin Baline. It is thought that he was born in a village near the city of Mogilyov, Belarus.

Berlin was five when he and his family emigrated to America. Growing up in New York, Berlin sang for pennies on the streets, before becoming a singing waiter. His father died when he was 13-years-old, meaning a formal education was out of the question as he had to support his family.

Though he never learned to read music, Berlin taught himself the piano sufficiently to write his first song, 'Marie of Sunny Italy', in 1907. The sheet music to this song made history due to a printing error as he was named as I Berlin - a name he would use throughout his career.

His first hit was 1911's 'Alexander's Ragtime Band', which led to ragtime becoming a dance craze across the US. Two dancers Irene and Vernon Castle popularised the craze, with Berlin writing his first complete score for the revue 'Watch Your Step' (1914) in which the couple starred as a result. Berlin went on to contribute songs to several editions of 'The Ziegfeld Follies', and to dozens of Broadway musicals.

By this time, he had written hundreds of popular songs, some expressing his own heartbreak. In 1912, Berlin married Dorothy Goetz but she died six months later of typhoid fever, which she contracted on their honeymoon in Havana.

He expressed his grief through the ballad 'When I Lost You', which became a hit. Other ballads that he wrote include 'The Century Girl' (1916) and 'A Pretty Girl is Like A Melody' (1919), which was the lead song in 'The Ziegfeld Follies'.

In 1917, he was drafted into the army, not to fight, but to do what he did best - write patriotic songs. As a result, he composed the all-soldier musical revue 'Yip Yip Yaphank'. After the First World War, he returned to composing songs for Broadway and wrote 'What'll I Do?' for Paul Whiteman in 1924 and 'Always' in 1925.

The latter was written to woo young heiress Ellin Mackay, whom he had met earlier that year. As she was a Catholic and Berlin Jewish, newspapers followed their romance as this was unusual at this time. Her father Clarence Mackay opposed the match from the start sending Ellin to Europe to forget Berlin. This didn't work and they eloped before marrying in a private civil ceremony on 4 January 1926.

Their union remained a love affair as they were inseparable over their 63-year marriage, during which they had four children. She died in July 1988.

Berlin's association with movies began literally at the dawn of the talkie era - his 'Blue Skies' was performed by Al Jolson in 'The Jazz Singer' in 1927. The first of his Broadway musicals to be adapted for films was the 1929 Marx Bros. vehicle, 'The Cocoanuts'.

Berlin wrote both the score and the original story for 'Reaching for the Moon' (1931), but when the producers decided to cut all but one of the songs before the film's release, the experience soured Berlin to the extent that he would not work in Hollywood again for another three years.

He returned to pen the tunes for such films as 'Top Hat' (1935), 'Follow the Fleet' (1936), 'On the Avenue' (1936), and of course 'Holiday Inn' (1942), producing his most popular song, the Oscar-winning 'White Christmas'.

Berlin himself appeared on camera to sing his own 'Oh, How I Hate to Get Up in the Morning', in 'This is the Army' (1943), a film which also featured Kate Smith singing 'God Bless America', Berlin's own favourite song.

Berlin's last film work was his title song for 1957's 'Sayonara'; five years later, he retired from Broadway with the disappointing 'Mr. President'. He continued to govern the activities of his own music-publishing company.

In 1986, he accepted the Medal of Liberty from President Reagan. His last public appearance was at a star-studded celebration given in honour of his one hundredth birthday.

He died in New York in 1989, aged 101.