Irving Berlin

Irving Berlin (May 11, 1888 – September 22, 1989), born Israel Isidore Baline, in Tyumen, Siberia (or Mahilyow (Mogilev), Belarus), was an American composer and lyricist, one of the most prodigious and famous American songwriters in history. Although he never learned how to play a piano or read music beyond a rudimentary level, he wrote over 1,000 songs that became popular on Broadway and in Hollywood, leaving an indelible mark on American music and culture with hits such as "God Bless America", and "White Christmas."

Personal life

He was married twice. His first wife, singer Dorothy Goetz, sister of songwriter E. Ray Goetz, contracted pneumonia and typhoid fever on their honeymoon to Cuba, and died five months after their wedding in 1912 at the age of twenty. (Her death inspired Berlin's song "When I Lost You", which became one of his earliest hits. Curiously, a year before Dorothy Berlin's death, Irving Berlin, E. Ray Goetz, and Ted Snyder cowrote a song called "There's a Girl in Havana".)

Related Topics:
Dorothy Goetz - E. Ray Goetz

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His second wife was Ellin Mackay, a Catholic heiress to the Comstock Lode mining fortune as well as a writer who had been published in "The New Yorker." They were married in 1936, against the wishes of both his family, who objected to religious intermarriage, and her father, a prominent Catholic layman, who disinherited her.http://www.nydailynews.com/city_life/big_town/v-bigtown_archive/story/209553p-180590c.html (Her sister, who dated a Nazi diplomat in New York and was known for wearing a diamond swastika, remained a member of the family in good standing).http://www.nationalreview.com/september11/sept11-steyn.asp Without a dispensation from the Church, the two were joined in a civil ceremony on January 4th, 1926, and were immediately snubbed by society: Ellin was immediately disinvited from the wedding of her friend Consuelo Vanderbilt.

Related Topics:
Ellin Mackay - Catholic - Comstock Lode - The New Yorker - Intermarriage - Dispensation - 1926 - Snubbed - Society - Vanderbilt

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The couple had three daughters – Mary Ellin, Linda, and Elizabeth, all of whom were raised Protestant – and a son, Irving Berlin, Jr., who died before his first birthday, on Christmas Day.

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Becoming a virtual recluse in his last years, Berlin didn't attend the 100th birthday party held in his honor.

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Irving Berlin died of a heart attack in New York City at the age of 101 and was interred in the Woodlawn Cemetery in The Bronx, New York.

Related Topics:
Heart attack - New York City - Age of 101 - Woodlawn Cemetery - The Bronx - New York

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