Back in the day showtune buffs spoke knowlegably about the 'Big Five' by which they meant Jerome Kern, Irving Berlin, Cole Porter, George Gershwin, and Richard Rodgers, acknowledged as the cream of Broadway composers. Berlin never did get a bio-pic but in the three years between 1945 and 1948 the other four were featured as stars of their own lives by MGM (Kern and Rodgers) and Warners (Gershwin and Porter) and whilst facts were thin on the ground in all four cases the music was to die four. The Gershwin bio, the only one of the four in black and white, appeared in 1945 and introduced Robert Alda (father of Alan) as George Gershwin. He made a decent fist of the role but had to wait five years to really make his mark on Broadway as Sky Masterson in Frank Loesser's Guys and Dolls. Alexis Smith played a fictional love interest for Gershwin and would have better luck the following year as Linda (Mrs Cole) Porter in Night and Day and there is not even a mention of Kay Swift, the real life close friend of Gershwin and subject of a great crack by Oscar Levant; spotting the couple entering a restaurant Levant observed loudly 'There goes George Gershwin and the future Miss Kay Swift'. Perhaps significantly Swift's most celebrated composition was Can't We Be Friends. Because of the pettiness of the time there is no mention of Gershwin gems like A Foggy Day, They Can't Take That Away From Me, They All Laughed. Reason: They were written for Fred and Ginger who were with RKO and far be it for Warners to give a plug to a rival studio. That still leaves plenty of fine Gershwin material to draw on and we get a decent selection. Oscar Levant plays himself and dubs Alda on the piano and it's well worth seeing.
Review of Rhapsody in Blue
