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Cole Porter

May 05, 2023

Cole Albert Porter (June 9, 1891 – October 15, 1964) was an American composer and songwriter. Many of his songs became standards noted for their witty, urbane lyrics, and many of his scores found success on Broadway and in film.

Porter in the 1930s

Born to a wealthy family in Indiana, Porter defied his grandfather's wishes for him to practice law and took up music as a profession. Classically trained, he was drawn to musical theatre. After a slow start, he began to achieve success in the 1920s, and by the 1930s he was one of the major songwriters for the Broadway musical stage. Unlike many successful Broadway composers, Porter wrote the lyrics as well as the music for his songs.

After a serious horseback riding accident in 1937, Porter was left disabled and in constant pain, but he continued to work. His shows of the early 1940s did not contain the lasting hits of his best work of the 1920s and 1930s, but in 1948 he made a triumphant comeback with his most successful musical, Kiss Me, Kate. It won the first Tony Award for Best Musical.

Porter's other musicals include Fifty Million Frenchmen, DuBarry Was a Lady, Anything Goes, Can-Can and Silk Stockings. His numerous hit songs include "Night and Day", "Begin the Beguine", "I Get a Kick Out of You", "Well, Did You Evah!", "I've Got You Under My Skin", "My Heart Belongs to Daddy" and "You're the Top". He also composed scores for films from the 1930s to the 1950s, including Born to Dance (1936), which featured the song "You'd Be So Easy to Love"; Rosalie (1937), which featured "In the Still of the Night"; High Society (1956), which included "True Love"; and Les Girls (1957).

Life and career

Early years

 
Farmhouse at Westleigh Farms

Porter was born in Peru, Indiana, the only surviving child of a wealthy family.[n 1][2] His father, Samuel Fenwick Porter, was a druggist by trade.[3][n 2] His mother, Kate, was the indulged daughter of James Omar "J. O." Cole, "the richest man in Indiana", a coal and timber speculator who dominated the family.[5][n 3] J. O. Cole built the couple a house on his Peru-area property, known as Westleigh Farms.[7] After high school, Porter returned to his childhood home only for occasional visits.[8]

Porter's strong-willed mother doted on him[9] and began his musical training at an early age. He learned the violin at age six, the piano at eight, and wrote his first operetta (with help from his mother) at ten. She falsified his recorded birth year, changing it from 1891 to 1893 to make him appear more precocious.[5] His father, a shy and unassertive man, played a lesser role in Porter's upbringing, although as an amateur poet, he may have influenced his son's gifts for rhyme and meter.[3] Porter's father was also a talented singer and pianist, but the father-son relationship was not close.[9]

 
Porter as a Yale College student

J. O. Cole wanted his grandson to become a lawyer,[5] and with that in mind, sent him to Worcester Academy in Massachusetts in 1905. Porter brought an upright piano with him to school[10] and found that music, and his ability to entertain, made it easy for him to make friends.[10] Porter did well in school and rarely came home to visit.[11] He became class valedictorian[5] and was rewarded by his grandfather with a tour of France, Switzerland and Germany.[12] Entering Yale College in 1909, Porter majored in English, minored in music, and also studied French.[13] He was a member of Scroll and Key and Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity, and contributed to campus humor magazine The Yale Record.[14] He was an early member of the Whiffenpoofs a cappella singing group and participated in several other music clubs;[15] in his senior year, he was elected president of the Yale Glee Club and was its principal soloist.[13]

Porter wrote 300 songs while at Yale,[5] including student songs such as the football fight songs "Bulldog"[16] and "Bingo Eli Yale" (aka "Bingo, That's The Lingo!") that are still played at Yale.[17][18] During college, Porter became acquainted with New York City's vibrant nightlife, taking the train there for dinner, theater, and nights on the town with his classmates, before returning to New Haven, Connecticut, early in the morning.[15] He also wrote musical comedy scores for his fraternity, the Yale Dramatic Association, and as a student at Harvard – Cora (1911), And the Villain Still Pursued Her (1912), The Pot of Gold (1912), The Kaleidoscope (1913) and Paranoia (1914) – which helped prepare him for a career as a Broadway and Hollywood composer and lyricist.[13] After graduating from Yale, Porter enrolled in Harvard Law School in 1913, where he roomed with future Secretary of State Dean Acheson.[19] He soon felt that he was not destined to be a lawyer, and, at the suggestion of the dean of the law school, switched to Harvard's music department, where he studied harmony and counterpoint with Pietro Yon.[3] His mother did not object to this move, but it was kept secret from J. O. Cole.[5]

In 1915, Porter's first song on Broadway, "Esmeralda", appeared in the revue Hands Up. The quick success was immediately followed by failure: his first Broadway production, in 1916, See America First, a "patriotic comic opera" modeled on Gilbert and Sullivan, with a book by T. Lawrason Riggs, was a flop, closing after two weeks.[20] Porter spent the next year in New York City before going overseas during World War I.[13]

WWI, Paris and marriage

 
Lady in Blue, 1906 portrait of Linda Lee Thomas by Emil Fuchs

In 1917, when the United States entered World War I, Porter moved to Paris to work with the Duryea Relief organization.[21][n 4] Some writers have been skeptical about Porter's claim to have served in the French Foreign Legion,[5][20] but the Legion lists Porter as one of its soldiers and displays his portrait at its museum in Aubagne.[23] By some accounts, he served in North Africa and was transferred to the French Officers School at Fontainebleau, teaching gunnery to American soldiers.[24] An obituary notice in The New York Times stated that, while in the Legion, "he had a specially constructed portable piano made for him so that he could carry it on his back and entertain the troops in their bivouacs."[25] Another account, given by Porter, is that he joined the recruiting department of the American Aviation Headquarters, but, according to his biographer Stephen Citron, there is no record of his joining this or any other branch of the forces.[26]

Porter maintained a luxury apartment in Paris, where he entertained lavishly. His parties were extravagant and scandalous, with "much gay and bisexual activity, Italian nobility, cross-dressing, international musicians and a large surplus of recreational drugs".[5] In 1918, he met Linda Lee Thomas, a rich, Louisville, Kentucky-born divorcée eight years his senior.[2][n 5] She was beautiful and well-connected socially; the couple shared mutual interests, including a love of travel, and she became Porter's confidante and companion.[28] The couple married the following year. She was in no doubt about Porter's homosexuality,[n 6] but it was mutually advantageous for them to marry. For Linda, it offered continued social status and a partner who was the antithesis of her abusive first husband.[27] For Porter, it brought a respectable heterosexual front in an era when homosexuality was not publicly acknowledged. They were, moreover, genuinely devoted to each other and remained married from December 19, 1919, until her death in 1954.[5] Linda remained protective of her social position and, believing that classical music might be a more prestigious outlet than Broadway for her husband's talents, tried to use her connections to find him suitable teachers, including Igor Stravinsky, but was unsuccessful. Finally, Porter enrolled at the Schola Cantorum in Paris, where he studied orchestration and counterpoint with Vincent d'Indy.[3] Meanwhile, Porter's first big hit was the song "Old-Fashioned Garden" from the revue Hitchy-Koo of 1919.[2] In 1920, he contributed the music of several songs to the musical A Night Out.[30]

 
Ca' Rezzonico in Venice, leased by Porter in the 1920s

Marriage did not diminish Porter's taste for extravagant luxury. The Porter home on the rue Monsieur near Les Invalides was a palatial house with platinum wallpaper and chairs upholstered in zebra skin.[25] In 1923, Porter came into an inheritance from his grandfather, and the Porters began living in rented palaces in Venice. He once hired the entire Ballets Russes to entertain his guests, and for a party at Ca' Rezzonico, which he rented for $4,000 a month ($64,000 in current value), he hired 50 gondoliers to act as footmen and had a troupe of tightrope walkers perform in a blaze of lights.[25] In the midst of this extravagant lifestyle, Porter continued to write songs with his wife's encouragement.[31]

 
Cole Porter, Linda Lee Thomas, Bernard Berenson, and Howard Sturges in gondola, 1923

Porter received few commissions for songs in the years immediately after his marriage. He had the occasional number interpolated into other writers' revues in Britain and the U.S. For a C. B. Cochran show in 1921, he had two successes with the comedy numbers "The Blue Boy Blues" and "Olga, Come Back to the Volga".[32] In 1923, in collaboration with Gerald Murphy, he composed a short ballet, originally titled Landed and then Within the Quota, satirically depicting the adventures of an immigrant to America who becomes a film star.[33] The work, written for the Ballets suédois, lasts about 16 minutes. It was orchestrated by Charles Koechlin and shared the same opening night as Milhaud's La création du monde.[34] Porter's work was one of the earliest symphonic jazz-based compositions, predating George Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue by four months, and was well received by both French and American reviewers after its premiere at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in October 1923.[34][n 7]

After a successful New York performance the following month, the Ballets suédois toured the work in the U.S., performing it 69 times. A year later the company disbanded, and the score was lost until it was reconstructed from Porter's and Koechlin's manuscripts between 1966 and 1990, with help from Milhaud and others.[36] Porter had less success with his work on The Greenwich Village Follies (1924). He wrote most of the original score, but his songs were gradually dropped during the Broadway run, and by the time of the post-Broadway tour in 1925, all his numbers had been deleted.[37] Frustrated by the public response to most of his work, Porter nearly gave up songwriting as a career, although he continued to compose songs for friends and perform at private parties.[31]

Broadway and West End success

 
Irène Bordoni, star of Porter's Paris

At the age of 36, Porter reintroduced himself to Broadway in 1928 with the musical Paris, his first hit.[38] It was commissioned by E. Ray Goetz at the instigation of Goetz's wife and the show's star, Irène Bordoni.[38] She had wanted Rodgers and Hart to write the songs, but they were unavailable, and Porter's agent persuaded Goetz to hire Porter instead.[39] In August 1928, Porter's work on the show was interrupted by the death of his father. He hurried back to Indiana to comfort his mother before returning to work. The songs for the show included "Let's Misbehave" and one of his best-known list songs, "Let's Do It, Let's Fall in Love", which was introduced by Bordoni and Arthur Margetson.[40] The show opened on Broadway on October 8, 1928. The Porters did not attend the first night because Porter was in Paris supervising another show for which he had been commissioned, La Revue, at a nightclub.[41] This was also a success, and, in Citron's phrase, Porter was finally "accepted into the upper echelon of Broadway songwriters".[42] Cochran now wanted more from Porter than isolated extra songs; he planned a West End extravaganza similar to Ziegfeld's shows, with a Porter score and a large international cast led by Jessie Matthews, Sonnie Hale and Tilly Losch. The revue, Wake Up and Dream, ran for 263 performances in London, after which Cochran transferred it to New York in 1929. On Broadway, business was badly affected by the 1929 Wall Street crash,[n 8] and the production ran for only 136 performances. From Porter's point of view, it was nonetheless a success, as his song "What Is This Thing Called Love?" became immensely popular.[44] Porter's new fame brought him offers from Hollywood, but because his score for Paramount's The Battle of Paris was undistinguished, and its star, Gertrude Lawrence, was miscast, the film was not a success.[45] Citron expresses the view that Porter was not interested in cinema and "noticeably wrote down for the movies."[46]

Still on a Gallic theme, Porter's last Broadway show of the 1920s was Fifty Million Frenchmen (1929), for which he wrote 28 numbers, including "You Do Something to Me", "You've Got That Thing" and "The Tale of the Oyster".[47] The show received mixed notices. One critic wrote, "the lyrics alone are enough to drive anyone but P. G. Wodehouse into retirement", but others dismissed the songs as "pleasant" and "not an outstanding hit song in the show". As it was a lavish and expensive production, nothing less than full houses would suffice, and after only three weeks, the producers announced that they would close it. Irving Berlin, who admired and championed Porter, took out a paid press advertisement calling the show "The best musical comedy I've heard in years. ... One of the best collections of song numbers I have ever listened to". This saved the show, which ran for 254 performances, considered a successful run at the time.[48]

1930s

Ray Goetz, producer of Paris and Fifty Million Frenchmen, the success of which had kept him solvent when other producers were bankrupted by the post-crash slump in Broadway business, invited Porter to write a musical show about the other city that he knew and loved: New York. Goetz offered the team with whom Porter had last worked: Herbert Fields writing the book and Porter's old friend Monty Woolley directing.[49] The New Yorkers (1930) acquired instant notoriety for including a song about a streetwalker, "Love for Sale". Originally performed by Kathryn Crawford in a street setting, critical disapproval led Goetz to reassign the number to Elisabeth Welch in a nightclub scene. The lyric was considered too explicit for radio at the time, though it was recorded and aired as an instrumental and rapidly became a standard.[50] Porter often referred to it as his favorite of his songs.[51] The New Yorkers also included the hit "I Happen to Like New York".[52]

 
Elisabeth Welch starred in Porter's The New Yorkers and Nymph Errant.

Next came Fred Astaire's last stage show, Gay Divorce (1932).[53] It featured a hit that became Porter's best-known song, "Night and Day".[n 9] Despite mixed press (some critics were reluctant to accept Astaire without his previous partner, his sister Adele), the show ran for a profitable 248 performances, and the rights to the film, retitled The Gay Divorcee, were sold to RKO Pictures.[n 10] Porter followed this with a West End show for Gertrude Lawrence, Nymph Errant (1933), presented by Cochran at the Adelphi Theatre, where it ran for 154 performances. Among the hit songs Porter composed for the show were "Experiment" and "The Physician" for Lawrence, and "Solomon" for Elisabeth Welch.[55]

In 1934, producer Vinton Freedley came up with a new approach to producing musicals. Instead of commissioning book, music and lyrics and then casting the show, Freedley sought to create an ideal musical with stars and writers all engaged from the outset.[56] The stars he wanted were Ethel Merman, William Gaxton and comedian Victor Moore. He planned a story about a shipwreck and a desert island, and for the book he turned to P. G. Wodehouse and Guy Bolton. For the songs, he decided on Porter. By telling each of these that he had already signed the others, Freedley gathered his ideal team together.[n 11] A drastic last-minute rewrite was necessitated by a major shipping accident that dominated the news and made Bolton and Wodehouse's book seem tasteless.[n 12] Nevertheless, the show, Anything Goes, was an immediate hit. Porter wrote what many consider his greatest score of this period. The New Yorker magazine's review said, "Mr. Porter is in a class by himself",[59] and Porter subsequently called it one of his two perfect shows, along with the later Kiss Me, Kate.[59] Its songs include "I Get a Kick Out of You", "All Through the Night", "You're the Top" (one of his best-known list songs), and "Blow, Gabriel, Blow", as well as the title number.[60] The show ran for 420 performances in New York (a particularly long run in the 1930s) and 261 in London.[61] Porter, despite his lessons in orchestration from d'Indy, did not orchestrate his musicals. Anything Goes was orchestrated by Robert Russell Bennett and Hans Spialek.[62][n 13] Now at the height of his success, Porter was able to enjoy the opening night of his musicals; he made grand entrances and sat in front, apparently relishing the show as much as any audience member. Russel Crouse commented "Cole's opening-night behaviour is as indecent as that of a bridegroom who has a good time at his own wedding."[59]

Anything Goes was the first of five Porter shows featuring Merman. He loved her loud, brassy voice and wrote many numbers that displayed her strengths.[63] Jubilee (1935), written with Moss Hart while on a cruise around the world, was not a major hit, running for only 169 performances, but it featured two songs that have since become standards, "Begin the Beguine" and "Just One of Those Things".[64] Red, Hot and Blue (1936), featuring Merman, Jimmy Durante and Bob Hope, ran for 183 performances and introduced "It's De-Lovely", "Down in the Depths (on the Ninetieth Floor)", and "Ridin' High".[65] The relative failure of these shows convinced Porter that his songs did not appeal to a broad enough audience. In an interview, he said "Sophisticated allusions are good for about six weeks ... more fun, but only for myself and about eighteen other people, all of whom are first-nighters anyway. Polished, urbane and adult playwriting in the musical field is strictly a creative luxury."[66]

Porter also wrote for Hollywood in the mid-1930s. His scores include those for the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer films Born to Dance (1936), with James Stewart, featuring "You'd Be So Easy to Love" and "I've Got You Under My Skin", and Rosalie (1937), featuring "In the Still of the Night".[67] He wrote the score of the short film Paree, Paree, in 1935, using some of the songs from Fifty Million Frenchmen.[68] Porter also composed the cowboy song "Don't Fence Me In" for Adios, Argentina, an unproduced movie, in 1934, but it did not become a hit until Roy Rogers sang it in the 1944 film Hollywood Canteen.[69] Bing Crosby, The Andrews Sisters, and other artists also popularized it in the 1940s. The Porters moved to Hollywood in December 1935, but Porter's wife did not like the movie environment, and Porter's closeted homosexual acts, formerly very discreet, became less so; she retreated to their Paris house.[70][71] When his film assignment on Rosalie was finished in 1937, Porter hastened to Paris to make peace with Linda, but she remained cool. After a walking tour of Europe with his friends, Porter returned to New York in October 1937 without her.[72] They were soon reunited by an accident Porter suffered.[73]

On October 24, 1937, Porter was riding with Countess Edith di Zoppola and Duke Fulco di Verdura at Piping Rock Club in Locust Valley, New York, when his horse rolled on him and crushed his legs, leaving him substantially crippled and in constant pain for the rest of his life. Though doctors told Porter's wife and mother that his right leg would have to be amputated, and possibly the left one as well, he refused to have the procedure. Linda rushed from Paris to be with him, and supported him in his refusal of amputation.[74] He remained in the hospital for seven months before being allowed to go home to his apartment at the Waldorf Towers.[75][76][n 14] He resumed work as soon as he could, finding it took his mind off his perpetual pain.[75]

Porter's first show after his accident was not a success. You Never Know (1938), starring Clifton Webb, Lupe Vélez and Libby Holman, ran for only 78 performances.[78] The score included the songs "From Alpha to Omega" and "At Long Last Love".[79] He returned to success with Leave It to Me! (1938); the show introduced Mary Martin, singing "My Heart Belongs to Daddy", and other numbers included "Most Gentlemen Don't Like Love" and "From Now On".[80] Porter's last show of the 1930s was DuBarry Was a Lady (1939), a particularly risqué show starring Merman and Bert Lahr.[81] After a pre-Broadway tour, during which it ran into trouble with Boston censors,[82] it achieved 408 performances, beginning at the 46th Street Theatre.[83] The score included "But in the Morning, No" (which was banned from the airwaves), "Do I Love You?", "Well, Did You Evah!", "Katie Went to Haiti" and another of Porter's up-tempo list songs, "Friendship".[84] At the end of 1939, Porter contributed six songs to the film Broadway Melody of 1940 for Fred Astaire, George Murphy and Eleanor Powell.[85]

Meanwhile, as political unrest increased in Europe, Porter's wife closed their Paris house in 1939, and the next year bought a country home in the Berkshire mountains, near Williamstown, Massachusetts, which she decorated with elegant furnishings from their Paris home. Porter spent time in Hollywood, New York and Williamstown.[86]

1940s and postwar

 
Fred Astaire in You'll Never Get Rich

Panama Hattie (1940) was Porter's longest-running hit so far, running in New York for 501 performances despite the absence of any enduring Porter songs.[87] It starred Merman, Arthur Treacher and Betty Hutton. Let's Face It! (1941), starring Danny Kaye, had an even better run, with 547 performances in New York.[88] This, too, lacked any numbers that became standards, and Porter always counted it among his lesser efforts.[89] Something for the Boys (1943), starring Merman, ran for 422 performances, and Mexican Hayride (1944), starring Bobby Clark, with June Havoc, ran for 481 performances.[90] These shows, too, are short of Porter standards. The critics did not pull their punches, complaining about the lack of hit tunes and the generally low standard of the scores.[91] After two flops, Seven Lively Arts (1944) (which featured the standard "Ev'ry Time We Say Goodbye") and Around the World (1946), many thought that Porter's best period was over.[92]

Between Broadway musicals, Porter continued to write for Hollywood. His film scores of this period were You'll Never Get Rich (1941) with Astaire and Rita Hayworth, Something to Shout About (1943) with Don Ameche, Janet Blair and William Gaxton, and Mississippi Belle (1943–44), which was abandoned before filming began.[93] He also cooperated in the making of the film Night and Day (1946), a largely fictional biography of Porter, with Cary Grant implausibly cast in the lead. The critics scoffed, but the film was a huge success, chiefly because of the wealth of vintage Porter numbers in it.[94] The biopic's success contrasted starkly with the failure of Vincente Minnelli's film The Pirate (1948), with Judy Garland and Gene Kelly,[95] in which five new Porter songs received little attention.[96]

 
Porter and Jean Howard in early 1954

From this low spot, Porter made a conspicuous comeback in 1948 with Kiss Me, Kate. It was by far his most successful show, running for 1,077 performances in New York and 400 in London.[97] The production won the Tony Award for Best Musical (the first Tony awarded in that category), and Porter won for best composer and lyricist. The score includes "Another Op'nin', Another Show", "Wunderbar", "So In Love", "We Open in Venice", "Tom, Dick or Harry", "I've Come to Wive It Wealthily in Padua", "Too Darn Hot", "Always True to You (in My Fashion)", and "Brush Up Your Shakespeare".[98]

Porter began the 1950s with Out of This World (1950), which had some good numbers but too much camp and vulgarity,[99] and was not greatly successful. His next show, Can-Can (1952), featuring "C'est Magnifique" and "It's All Right with Me", was another hit, running for 892 performances.[100] Porter's last original Broadway production, Silk Stockings (1955), featuring "All of You", was also successful, with a run of 477 performances.[101] Porter wrote two more film scores and music for a television special before ending his Hollywood career. The film High Society (1956), starring Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra and Grace Kelly, included Porter's last major hit song "True Love".[2] It was adapted as a stage musical of the same name. Porter also wrote numbers for the film Les Girls (1957), which starred Gene Kelly. His final score was for the CBS television special Aladdin (1958).[102]

Last years

Porter's mother died in 1952, and his wife died of emphysema in 1954.[103] By 1958, Porter's injuries caused a series of ulcers on his right leg. After 34 operations, it had to be amputated and replaced with an artificial limb.[104] His friend Noël Coward visited him in the hospital and wrote in his diary, "The lines of ceaseless pain have been wiped from his face...I am convinced that his whole life will cheer up and that his work will profit accordingly."[105] In fact, Porter never wrote another song after the amputation and spent the remaining six years of his life in relative seclusion, seeing only intimate friends.[104] He continued to live in the Waldorf Towers in New York in his memorabilia-filled apartment. On weekends, he often visited an estate in the Berkshires, and he stayed in California during the summers.[25]

Porter died of kidney failure at age 73 on October 15, 1964, in Santa Monica, California.[106] He is interred in Mount Hope Cemetery in his native Peru, Indiana, between his wife and father.[107]

Tributes and legacy

 
Porter family gravesite in Peru, Indiana

Many artists have recorded Porter songs, and dozens have released entire albums of his songs.[108] In 1956, jazz singer Ella Fitzgerald released Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Cole Porter Songbook. In 1972, she released another collection, Ella Loves Cole. Among the many album collections of Porter songs are the following: Oscar Peterson Plays the Cole Porter Songbook (1959); Anita O'Day Swings Cole Porter with Billy May (1959); All Through the Night: Julie London Sings the Choicest of Cole Porter (1965); Rosemary Clooney Sings the Music of Cole Porter (1982); Anything Goes: Stephane Grappelli & Yo-Yo Ma Play (Mostly) Cole Porter (1989)[108] and Love for Sale (Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga, 2021).[109] In 1990 Dionne Warwick released Dionne Sings Cole Porter.[110] In that same year, Red Hot + Blue was released as a benefit CD for AIDS research and featured 20 Cole Porter songs recorded by artists such as U2 and Annie Lennox.[111]

Additional recording collections include Frank Sinatra Sings the Select Cole Porter (1996)[112] and John Barrowman Swings Cole Porter (2004); Barrowman played "Jack" in the 2004 film De-Lovely.[113] Other singers who have paid tribute to Porter include the Swedish pop music group Gyllene Tider, which recorded a song called "Flickan i en Cole Porter-sång" ("That Girl from the Cole Porter Song") in 1982. He is referenced in the merengue song "The Call of the Wild" by David Byrne on his 1989 album Rei Momo. He also is mentioned in the song "Tonite It Shows" by Mercury Rev on their 1998 album Deserter's Songs. After Can-Can was adapted as a film, the soundtrack won the 1960 Grammy Award for Best Sound Track Album.[114]

In 1965, Judy Garland performed a medley of Porter's songs at the 37th Academy Awards shortly after Porter's death.[115] In 1980, Porter's music was used for the score of Happy New Year, based on the Philip Barry play Holiday.[citation needed] The cast of The Carol Burnett Show paid a tribute to Porter in a humorous sketch in their CBS television series.[116] You're the Top: The Cole Porter Story, a video of archival material and interviews, and Red, Hot and Blue, a video of artists performing Porter's music, were released in 1990 to celebrate the one hundredth anniversary of Porter's birth.[117] In contrast to the highly embellished 1946 screen biography Night and Day,[118] Porter's life was chronicled more realistically in De-Lovely, a 2004 Irwin Winkler film starring Kevin Kline as Porter and Ashley Judd as Linda.[119] The soundtrack to De-Lovely includes Porter songs sung by Alanis Morissette, Sheryl Crow, Elvis Costello, Diana Krall and Natalie Cole, among others.[120] Porter also appears as a character in Woody Allen's 2011 film Midnight in Paris.[121]

Many events commemorated the centenary of Porter's birth, including the halftime show of the 1991 Orange Bowl.[122][123] Joel Grey and a large cast of singers, dancers and marching bands, performed a tribute to Porter in Miami, Florida during the 57th King Orange Jamboree parade, whose theme was "Anything Goes".[124][125] The Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra performed a program of Cole Porter music at the Circle Theatre in Indianapolis, which also featured clips of Porter's Hollywood films.[123] "A Gala Birthday Concert" was held at New York City's Carnegie Hall, with more than 40 entertainers and friends paying tribute to Porter's long career in theater and film.[117] In addition, the U.S. Postal Service issued a commemorative postage stamp honoring Porter's birth.[126] The Indiana University Opera performed Porter's musical, Jubilee, in Bloomington, Indiana.[127]

In May 2007, a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame was dedicated to Porter.[128] In December 2010, his portrait was added to the Hoosier Heritage Gallery in the office of the Governor of Indiana.[129] Numerous symphony orchestras have paid tribute to Porter in the years since his death[130][131] including Seattle Symphony Orchestra, with Marvin Hamlisch as conductor[132] and the Boston Pops, both in 2011.[133][n 15] In 2012, Marvin Hamlisch, Michael Feinstein, and the Dallas Symphony Orchestra honored Porter with a concert that included his familiar classics.[135] The Cole Porter Festival is held every year in June in his hometown of Peru, Indiana, to foster music and art appreciation.[136] Costumed singers in the cabaret-style Cole Porter Room at the Indiana Historical Society's Eugene and Marilyn Glick Indiana History Center in Indianapolis take requests from visitors and perform Porter's hit songs.[n 16] Since Porter's death, except for a brief time at the New York Historical Society, his 1908 Steinway grand piano, which he had used when composing since the mid-1930s, has been displayed and often played in the lobby of the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel.[138] Porter is a member of the American Theater Hall of Fame[139] and Great American Songbook Hall of Fame, which recognized his "musically complex [songs] with witty, urbane lyrics".[140] In 2014, Porter was honored with a plaque on the Legacy Walk in Chicago, which celebrates LGBT achievers.[141][142]

Notable songs

See also: Category:Compositions by Cole Porter

Shows listed are stage musicals unless otherwise noted. Where the show was later made into a film, the year refers to the stage version. A complete list of Porter's works is in the Library of Congress (see also the Cole Porter Collection).[n 17]

Notes, references, sources and further reading

Notes

  1. ^ Porter's parents had two children who died in infancy before his birth – Louis Omar (b. and d. 1885) and Rachel (1888–90).[1]
  2. ^ Porter's father came to Peru, Indiana, from Vevay, Indiana. He eventually owned three drugstores in Peru.[4]
  3. ^ Porter's great-grandfather, A. A. Cole, had come to Peru, Indiana, in 1834 from Connecticut, as a child. J. O. Cole grew up in Peru but moved west during the Gold Rush of 1849. He made his fortune in California and invested it in Indiana farmland and West Virginia timber, coal, and oil.[6]
  4. ^ He subsequently enlisted in the First Foreign Regiment, before moving to other regiments prior to his April 1919 discharge.[22]
  5. ^ She divorced newspaper mogul Edward R. Thomas in 1912, receiving more than a million dollars in the divorce settlement.[27]
  6. ^ Porter had "frequent homosexual encounters"[29]
  7. ^ The British classical music journal The Musical Times commented, "There was plenty of excitement of a certain kind – at least for the more excitable spectators".[35]
  8. ^ The Porters were not greatly affected by the crash, having their assets in safe investments and held in a number of foreign banks, which remained solvent.[43]
  9. ^ In 1999, Matthew Shaftel wrote, "Less than two months after the show's opening ... the song was featured on two best-selling recordings and was at the top of sheet music sales. Since then, 83 artists have registered with the [ASCAP] ... to legally perform and record "Night and Day." [Even] today, more than 65 years after its composition, the song earns a stunning six figures, making it Warner Brothers' "crown jewel", and placing it on ASCAP's list of top money-earners of all time.[3]
  10. ^ The film version, starring Astaire and Ginger Rogers dropped all of Porter's score except "Night and Day"[54]
  11. ^ Freedley told Bolton and Wodehouse that he had secured Merman, then contacted Gaxton, Moore, and finally Merman.[57]
  12. ^ In 1934, the S.S. Morro Castle caught fire off the New Jersey shore, killing more than 100 people.[58] Bolton and Wodehouse were by then engaged in other work, and Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse rewrote the book almost completely.[59]
  13. ^ Other Porter shows were orchestrated by Maurice B. DePackh, Walter Paul, Don Walker and Philip J. Lang: see Kimball (1991) pp. 2–3. Porter checked the orchestral parts and amended them as he felt necessary.[3]
  14. ^ Linda, appraising the deteriorating political outlook in Europe, closed the Paris house in April 1939.[77]
  15. ^ In 2012, the Boston Pops presented another tribute to Porter.[134]
  16. ^ The setting is designed to evoke the Waldorf Astoria New York, where Porter lived.[137]
  17. ^ All the songs below (except for "Come to the Supermarket", which is listed in this compilation), are included in one or more of the compilations of Porter songs listed at "A Cole Porter Bibliography" on Soundheimguide.com, accessed March 10, 2011

References

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  2. ^ a b c d Derbyshire, John. "Oh, the Songs!" Archived January 30, 2013, at archive.today, National Review Online, July 28, 2004, accessed May 27, 2010
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  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i Bell, J. X. "Cole Porter Biography" September 23, 2010, at the Wayback Machine, The Cole Porter Resource Site, accessed March 7, 2011
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  12. ^ "The Theater: The Professional Amateur", Time magazine, January 31, 1949
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  19. ^ Algeo, p. 144
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  23. ^ "French Foreign Legion Official web site". Legion-etrangere.com. July 13, 2016. Retrieved September 10, 2016.
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  35. ^ "Paris", The Musical Times, December 1923, p. 874
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  53. ^ "Gay Divorce – Original Broadway Production", Sondheimguide.com, accessed April 16, 2016
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  62. ^ McGlinn, John (1989), "The Original Anything Goes: A Classic Restored", Notes to EMI CD CDC 7 49848 2
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  68. ^ Paree, Paree, SoundheimGuide, accessed February 13, 2013
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  72. ^ McBrien (1998), p. 209.
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  76. ^ Harriman, Margaret Case. "Words and Music", The New Yorker, November 23, 1940, accessed June 17, 2018
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  79. ^ Kimball (1984), pp. 227 and 229
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  90. ^ Kimball (1984), pp. 320 and 343
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  95. ^ Kimball (1992), p. 13–15
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  98. ^ Kimball (1984), pp. 387–99
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  101. ^ Kimball (1984), p. 438
  102. ^ Kimball (1984), p. 468
  103. ^ Citron (2005), pp. 239 and 242
  104. ^ a b Citron (2005), p. 249
  105. ^ Coward (1982), p. 379
  106. ^ Davis, Charles Jr. "Songwriter Cole Porter Dies", Los Angeles Times, October 16, 1964, accessed November 24, 2021
  107. ^ Schwartz (1977), p. 269
  108. ^ a b List of Cole Porter collections at Sondheimguide.com, accessed June 9, 2011
  109. ^ Wilman, Chris (August 3, 2021). "Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga Reveal Love for Sale, Cole Porter Tribute Album Said to Be Bennett's Last". Variety. from the original on August 3, 2021. Retrieved August 3, 2021.
  110. ^ Discogs.com, accessed February 22, 2012.
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  131. ^ "Faith Middleton Show: A Tribute to Cole Porter and Glen Miller", "The Faith Middleton Show", Connecticut Public Broadcasting, November 22, 2010, accessed September 20, 2012.
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  135. ^ "DSO Pops Series: Cole Porter Tribute with Michael Feinstein and Marvin Hamlisch", Last.fm, accessed September 20, 2012.
  136. ^ Cole Porter Festival, accessed September 20, 2012.
  137. ^ Granger, Elizabeth. "Hoosier History", Home & Away, January 2015, p. 37
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  142. ^ Reynolds, Daniel. "7 LGBT Heroes Honored With Plaques in Chicago's Legacy Walk", Advocate.com, October 11, 2014

Sources

  • Algeo, Matthew (2011). Harry Truman's Excellent Adventure: The True Story of a Great American Road Trip. Chicago: Chicago Review Press. ISBN 9781569767078.
  • Citron, Stephen (2005). Noel & Cole: the Sophisticates. Milwaukee: Hal Leonard Corporation. ISBN 0634093029.
  • Coward, Noël (1982). Graham Payn; Sheridan Morley (eds.). The Noël Coward Diaries (1941–1969). London: Methuen. ISBN 0-297-78142-1.
  • Kimball, Robert, ed. (1984). The Complete Lyrics of Cole Porter. New York: Vintage Books. ISBN 0-394-72764-9.
  • Kimball, Robert (1991). Cole Porter: Overtures and Ballet Music, Liner note to EMI CD CDC 7 54300 2. London: EMI Records. OCLC 315563881.
  • Kimball, Robert (1992). "Cole Porter". You're the Top: Cole Porter in the 1930s. Indianapolis: Indiana Historical Society. ISBN 0-871-95089-8.
  • Kimball, Robert (1999). "Cole Porter". You're Sensational: Cole Porter in the '20s, '40s, & '50s. Indianapolis: Indiana Historical Society. ISBN 0-871-95129-0.
  • McBrien, William (1998). Cole Porter: A Biography. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. ISBN 0-394-58235-7.
  • Miller, Michael (2008). The Complete Idiot's Guide to Music History. Penguin. ISBN 978-1-440-63637-0.
  • Schwartz, Charles (1977). Cole Porter: A Biography. New York: Da Capo Press. ISBN 0-306-80097-7.
  • Seuss, Dr (2012). Richard Marschall (ed.). Just What the Doctor Disordered: Early Writings and Cartoons of Dr. Seuss. Mineola, NY: Dover. ISBN 978-0486498461.

Further reading

  • Greher, Gena R. "Night & Day: Cole Porter, hip hop, their shared sensibilities and their teachable moments." College Music Symposium. Vol. 49. 2009. online
  • Hill, Edwin. "Making claims on echoes: Dranem, Cole Porter and the biguine between the Antilles, France and the US." Popular Music 33.3 (2014): 492–508.
  • McAuliffe, Mary. When Paris Sizzled: The 1920s Paris of Hemingway, Chanel, Cocteau, Cole Porter, Josephine Baker, and Their Friends (Rowman & Littlefield, 2016). ISBN 1442253320 [place missing]
  • Porter, Cole. The Letters of Cole Porter (Yale University Press, 2019). ISBN 030021927X [place missing]
  • Randel, Don M., Matthew Shaftel, and Susan Forscher Weiss, eds. A Cole Porter Companion; (U of Illinois Press, 2016). ISBN 0252040090 [place missing]
  • Savran, David. "'You've got that thing': Cole Porter, Stephen Sondheim, and the Erotics of the List Song." Theatre Journal (2012): 533–548. online
  • Spirou, Penny. "From Night and Day to De-Lovely: cinematic representations of Cole Porter." Refractory: a journal of entertainment media 18 (2011): 1–13.
  • Wells, Ira. "Swinging Modernism: Porter and Sinatra beneath the Skin." University of Toronto Quarterly 79.3 (2010): 975–990.

External links

May 05, 2023
cole, porter, cole, albert, porter, june, 1891, october, 1964, american, composer, songwriter, many, songs, became, standards, noted, their, witty, urbane, lyrics, many, scores, found, success, broadway, film, porter, 1930s, born, wealthy, family, indiana, por. Cole Albert Porter June 9 1891 October 15 1964 was an American composer and songwriter Many of his songs became standards noted for their witty urbane lyrics and many of his scores found success on Broadway and in film Porter in the 1930s Born to a wealthy family in Indiana Porter defied his grandfather s wishes for him to practice law and took up music as a profession Classically trained he was drawn to musical theatre After a slow start he began to achieve success in the 1920s and by the 1930s he was one of the major songwriters for the Broadway musical stage Unlike many successful Broadway composers Porter wrote the lyrics as well as the music for his songs After a serious horseback riding accident in 1937 Porter was left disabled and in constant pain but he continued to work His shows of the early 1940s did not contain the lasting hits of his best work of the 1920s and 1930s but in 1948 he made a triumphant comeback with his most successful musical Kiss Me Kate It won the first Tony Award for Best Musical Porter s other musicals include Fifty Million Frenchmen DuBarry Was a Lady Anything Goes Can Can and Silk Stockings His numerous hit songs include Night and Day Begin the Beguine I Get a Kick Out of You Well Did You Evah I ve Got You Under My Skin My Heart Belongs to Daddy and You re the Top He also composed scores for films from the 1930s to the 1950s including Born to Dance 1936 which featured the song You d Be So Easy to Love Rosalie 1937 which featured In the Still of the Night High Society 1956 which included True Love and Les Girls 1957 Contents 1 Life and career 1 1 Early years 1 2 WWI Paris and marriage 1 3 Broadway and West End success 1 4 1930s 1 5 1940s and postwar 1 6 Last years 2 Tributes and legacy 3 Notable songs 4 Notes references sources and further reading 4 1 Notes 4 2 References 4 3 Sources 4 4 Further reading 5 External linksLife and career EditEarly years Edit Farmhouse at Westleigh Farms Porter was born in Peru Indiana the only surviving child of a wealthy family n 1 2 His father Samuel Fenwick Porter was a druggist by trade 3 n 2 His mother Kate was the indulged daughter of James Omar J O Cole the richest man in Indiana a coal and timber speculator who dominated the family 5 n 3 J O Cole built the couple a house on his Peru area property known as Westleigh Farms 7 After high school Porter returned to his childhood home only for occasional visits 8 Porter s strong willed mother doted on him 9 and began his musical training at an early age He learned the violin at age six the piano at eight and wrote his first operetta with help from his mother at ten She falsified his recorded birth year changing it from 1891 to 1893 to make him appear more precocious 5 His father a shy and unassertive man played a lesser role in Porter s upbringing although as an amateur poet he may have influenced his son s gifts for rhyme and meter 3 Porter s father was also a talented singer and pianist but the father son relationship was not close 9 Porter as a Yale College student J O Cole wanted his grandson to become a lawyer 5 and with that in mind sent him to Worcester Academy in Massachusetts in 1905 Porter brought an upright piano with him to school 10 and found that music and his ability to entertain made it easy for him to make friends 10 Porter did well in school and rarely came home to visit 11 He became class valedictorian 5 and was rewarded by his grandfather with a tour of France Switzerland and Germany 12 Entering Yale College in 1909 Porter majored in English minored in music and also studied French 13 He was a member of Scroll and Key and Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity and contributed to campus humor magazine The Yale Record 14 He was an early member of the Whiffenpoofs a cappella singing group and participated in several other music clubs 15 in his senior year he was elected president of the Yale Glee Club and was its principal soloist 13 Porter wrote 300 songs while at Yale 5 including student songs such as the football fight songs Bulldog 16 and Bingo Eli Yale aka Bingo That s The Lingo that are still played at Yale 17 18 During college Porter became acquainted with New York City s vibrant nightlife taking the train there for dinner theater and nights on the town with his classmates before returning to New Haven Connecticut early in the morning 15 He also wrote musical comedy scores for his fraternity the Yale Dramatic Association and as a student at Harvard Cora 1911 And the Villain Still Pursued Her 1912 The Pot of Gold 1912 The Kaleidoscope 1913 and Paranoia 1914 which helped prepare him for a career as a Broadway and Hollywood composer and lyricist 13 After graduating from Yale Porter enrolled in Harvard Law School in 1913 where he roomed with future Secretary of State Dean Acheson 19 He soon felt that he was not destined to be a lawyer and at the suggestion of the dean of the law school switched to Harvard s music department where he studied harmony and counterpoint with Pietro Yon 3 His mother did not object to this move but it was kept secret from J O Cole 5 In 1915 Porter s first song on Broadway Esmeralda appeared in the revue Hands Up The quick success was immediately followed by failure his first Broadway production in 1916 See America First a patriotic comic opera modeled on Gilbert and Sullivan with a book by T Lawrason Riggs was a flop closing after two weeks 20 Porter spent the next year in New York City before going overseas during World War I 13 WWI Paris and marriage Edit Lady in Blue 1906 portrait of Linda Lee Thomas by Emil Fuchs In 1917 when the United States entered World War I Porter moved to Paris to work with the Duryea Relief organization 21 n 4 Some writers have been skeptical about Porter s claim to have served in the French Foreign Legion 5 20 but the Legion lists Porter as one of its soldiers and displays his portrait at its museum in Aubagne 23 By some accounts he served in North Africa and was transferred to the French Officers School at Fontainebleau teaching gunnery to American soldiers 24 An obituary notice in The New York Times stated that while in the Legion he had a specially constructed portable piano made for him so that he could carry it on his back and entertain the troops in their bivouacs 25 Another account given by Porter is that he joined the recruiting department of the American Aviation Headquarters but according to his biographer Stephen Citron there is no record of his joining this or any other branch of the forces 26 Porter maintained a luxury apartment in Paris where he entertained lavishly His parties were extravagant and scandalous with much gay and bisexual activity Italian nobility cross dressing international musicians and a large surplus of recreational drugs 5 In 1918 he met Linda Lee Thomas a rich Louisville Kentucky born divorcee eight years his senior 2 n 5 She was beautiful and well connected socially the couple shared mutual interests including a love of travel and she became Porter s confidante and companion 28 The couple married the following year She was in no doubt about Porter s homosexuality n 6 but it was mutually advantageous for them to marry For Linda it offered continued social status and a partner who was the antithesis of her abusive first husband 27 For Porter it brought a respectable heterosexual front in an era when homosexuality was not publicly acknowledged They were moreover genuinely devoted to each other and remained married from December 19 1919 until her death in 1954 5 Linda remained protective of her social position and believing that classical music might be a more prestigious outlet than Broadway for her husband s talents tried to use her connections to find him suitable teachers including Igor Stravinsky but was unsuccessful Finally Porter enrolled at the Schola Cantorum in Paris where he studied orchestration and counterpoint with Vincent d Indy 3 Meanwhile Porter s first big hit was the song Old Fashioned Garden from the revue Hitchy Koo of 1919 2 In 1920 he contributed the music of several songs to the musical A Night Out 30 Ca Rezzonico in Venice leased by Porter in the 1920s Marriage did not diminish Porter s taste for extravagant luxury The Porter home on the rue Monsieur near Les Invalides was a palatial house with platinum wallpaper and chairs upholstered in zebra skin 25 In 1923 Porter came into an inheritance from his grandfather and the Porters began living in rented palaces in Venice He once hired the entire Ballets Russes to entertain his guests and for a party at Ca Rezzonico which he rented for 4 000 a month 64 000 in current value he hired 50 gondoliers to act as footmen and had a troupe of tightrope walkers perform in a blaze of lights 25 In the midst of this extravagant lifestyle Porter continued to write songs with his wife s encouragement 31 Cole Porter Linda Lee Thomas Bernard Berenson and Howard Sturges in gondola 1923 Porter received few commissions for songs in the years immediately after his marriage He had the occasional number interpolated into other writers revues in Britain and the U S For a C B Cochran show in 1921 he had two successes with the comedy numbers The Blue Boy Blues and Olga Come Back to the Volga 32 In 1923 in collaboration with Gerald Murphy he composed a short ballet originally titled Landed and then Within the Quota satirically depicting the adventures of an immigrant to America who becomes a film star 33 The work written for the Ballets suedois lasts about 16 minutes It was orchestrated by Charles Koechlin and shared the same opening night as Milhaud s La creation du monde 34 Porter s work was one of the earliest symphonic jazz based compositions predating George Gershwin s Rhapsody in Blue by four months and was well received by both French and American reviewers after its premiere at the Theatre des Champs Elysees in October 1923 34 n 7 After a successful New York performance the following month the Ballets suedois toured the work in the U S performing it 69 times A year later the company disbanded and the score was lost until it was reconstructed from Porter s and Koechlin s manuscripts between 1966 and 1990 with help from Milhaud and others 36 Porter had less success with his work on The Greenwich Village Follies 1924 He wrote most of the original score but his songs were gradually dropped during the Broadway run and by the time of the post Broadway tour in 1925 all his numbers had been deleted 37 Frustrated by the public response to most of his work Porter nearly gave up songwriting as a career although he continued to compose songs for friends and perform at private parties 31 Broadway and West End success Edit Irene Bordoni star of Porter s Paris At the age of 36 Porter reintroduced himself to Broadway in 1928 with the musical Paris his first hit 38 It was commissioned by E Ray Goetz at the instigation of Goetz s wife and the show s star Irene Bordoni 38 She had wanted Rodgers and Hart to write the songs but they were unavailable and Porter s agent persuaded Goetz to hire Porter instead 39 In August 1928 Porter s work on the show was interrupted by the death of his father He hurried back to Indiana to comfort his mother before returning to work The songs for the show included Let s Misbehave and one of his best known list songs Let s Do It Let s Fall in Love which was introduced by Bordoni and Arthur Margetson 40 The show opened on Broadway on October 8 1928 The Porters did not attend the first night because Porter was in Paris supervising another show for which he had been commissioned La Revue at a nightclub 41 This was also a success and in Citron s phrase Porter was finally accepted into the upper echelon of Broadway songwriters 42 Cochran now wanted more from Porter than isolated extra songs he planned a West End extravaganza similar to Ziegfeld s shows with a Porter score and a large international cast led by Jessie Matthews Sonnie Hale and Tilly Losch The revue Wake Up and Dream ran for 263 performances in London after which Cochran transferred it to New York in 1929 On Broadway business was badly affected by the 1929 Wall Street crash n 8 and the production ran for only 136 performances From Porter s point of view it was nonetheless a success as his song What Is This Thing Called Love became immensely popular 44 Porter s new fame brought him offers from Hollywood but because his score for Paramount s The Battle of Paris was undistinguished and its star Gertrude Lawrence was miscast the film was not a success 45 Citron expresses the view that Porter was not interested in cinema and noticeably wrote down for the movies 46 Still on a Gallic theme Porter s last Broadway show of the 1920s was Fifty Million Frenchmen 1929 for which he wrote 28 numbers including You Do Something to Me You ve Got That Thing and The Tale of the Oyster 47 The show received mixed notices One critic wrote the lyrics alone are enough to drive anyone but P G Wodehouse into retirement but others dismissed the songs as pleasant and not an outstanding hit song in the show As it was a lavish and expensive production nothing less than full houses would suffice and after only three weeks the producers announced that they would close it Irving Berlin who admired and championed Porter took out a paid press advertisement calling the show The best musical comedy I ve heard in years One of the best collections of song numbers I have ever listened to This saved the show which ran for 254 performances considered a successful run at the time 48 1930s Edit Ray Goetz producer of Paris and Fifty Million Frenchmen the success of which had kept him solvent when other producers were bankrupted by the post crash slump in Broadway business invited Porter to write a musical show about the other city that he knew and loved New York Goetz offered the team with whom Porter had last worked Herbert Fields writing the book and Porter s old friend Monty Woolley directing 49 The New Yorkers 1930 acquired instant notoriety for including a song about a streetwalker Love for Sale Originally performed by Kathryn Crawford in a street setting critical disapproval led Goetz to reassign the number to Elisabeth Welch in a nightclub scene The lyric was considered too explicit for radio at the time though it was recorded and aired as an instrumental and rapidly became a standard 50 Porter often referred to it as his favorite of his songs 51 The New Yorkers also included the hit I Happen to Like New York 52 Elisabeth Welch starred in Porter s The New Yorkers and Nymph Errant Next came Fred Astaire s last stage show Gay Divorce 1932 53 It featured a hit that became Porter s best known song Night and Day n 9 Despite mixed press some critics were reluctant to accept Astaire without his previous partner his sister Adele the show ran for a profitable 248 performances and the rights to the film retitled The Gay Divorcee were sold to RKO Pictures n 10 Porter followed this with a West End show for Gertrude Lawrence Nymph Errant 1933 presented by Cochran at the Adelphi Theatre where it ran for 154 performances Among the hit songs Porter composed for the show were Experiment and The Physician for Lawrence and Solomon for Elisabeth Welch 55 In 1934 producer Vinton Freedley came up with a new approach to producing musicals Instead of commissioning book music and lyrics and then casting the show Freedley sought to create an ideal musical with stars and writers all engaged from the outset 56 The stars he wanted were Ethel Merman William Gaxton and comedian Victor Moore He planned a story about a shipwreck and a desert island and for the book he turned to P G Wodehouse and Guy Bolton For the songs he decided on Porter By telling each of these that he had already signed the others Freedley gathered his ideal team together n 11 A drastic last minute rewrite was necessitated by a major shipping accident that dominated the news and made Bolton and Wodehouse s book seem tasteless n 12 Nevertheless the show Anything Goes was an immediate hit Porter wrote what many consider his greatest score of this period The New Yorker magazine s review said Mr Porter is in a class by himself 59 and Porter subsequently called it one of his two perfect shows along with the later Kiss Me Kate 59 Its songs include I Get a Kick Out of You All Through the Night You re the Top one of his best known list songs and Blow Gabriel Blow as well as the title number 60 The show ran for 420 performances in New York a particularly long run in the 1930s and 261 in London 61 Porter despite his lessons in orchestration from d Indy did not orchestrate his musicals Anything Goes was orchestrated by Robert Russell Bennett and Hans Spialek 62 n 13 Now at the height of his success Porter was able to enjoy the opening night of his musicals he made grand entrances and sat in front apparently relishing the show as much as any audience member Russel Crouse commented Cole s opening night behaviour is as indecent as that of a bridegroom who has a good time at his own wedding 59 Anything Goes was the first of five Porter shows featuring Merman He loved her loud brassy voice and wrote many numbers that displayed her strengths 63 Jubilee 1935 written with Moss Hart while on a cruise around the world was not a major hit running for only 169 performances but it featured two songs that have since become standards Begin the Beguine and Just One of Those Things 64 Red Hot and Blue 1936 featuring Merman Jimmy Durante and Bob Hope ran for 183 performances and introduced It s De Lovely Down in the Depths on the Ninetieth Floor and Ridin High 65 The relative failure of these shows convinced Porter that his songs did not appeal to a broad enough audience In an interview he said Sophisticated allusions are good for about six weeks more fun but only for myself and about eighteen other people all of whom are first nighters anyway Polished urbane and adult playwriting in the musical field is strictly a creative luxury 66 Porter also wrote for Hollywood in the mid 1930s His scores include those for the Metro Goldwyn Mayer films Born to Dance 1936 with James Stewart featuring You d Be So Easy to Love and I ve Got You Under My Skin and Rosalie 1937 featuring In the Still of the Night 67 He wrote the score of the short film Paree Paree in 1935 using some of the songs from Fifty Million Frenchmen 68 Porter also composed the cowboy song Don t Fence Me In for Adios Argentina an unproduced movie in 1934 but it did not become a hit until Roy Rogers sang it in the 1944 film Hollywood Canteen 69 Bing Crosby The Andrews Sisters and other artists also popularized it in the 1940s The Porters moved to Hollywood in December 1935 but Porter s wife did not like the movie environment and Porter s closeted homosexual acts formerly very discreet became less so she retreated to their Paris house 70 71 When his film assignment on Rosalie was finished in 1937 Porter hastened to Paris to make peace with Linda but she remained cool After a walking tour of Europe with his friends Porter returned to New York in October 1937 without her 72 They were soon reunited by an accident Porter suffered 73 On October 24 1937 Porter was riding with Countess Edith di Zoppola and Duke Fulco di Verdura at Piping Rock Club in Locust Valley New York when his horse rolled on him and crushed his legs leaving him substantially crippled and in constant pain for the rest of his life Though doctors told Porter s wife and mother that his right leg would have to be amputated and possibly the left one as well he refused to have the procedure Linda rushed from Paris to be with him and supported him in his refusal of amputation 74 He remained in the hospital for seven months before being allowed to go home to his apartment at the Waldorf Towers 75 76 n 14 He resumed work as soon as he could finding it took his mind off his perpetual pain 75 Porter s first show after his accident was not a success You Never Know 1938 starring Clifton Webb Lupe Velez and Libby Holman ran for only 78 performances 78 The score included the songs From Alpha to Omega and At Long Last Love 79 He returned to success with Leave It to Me 1938 the show introduced Mary Martin singing My Heart Belongs to Daddy and other numbers included Most Gentlemen Don t Like Love and From Now On 80 Porter s last show of the 1930s was DuBarry Was a Lady 1939 a particularly risque show starring Merman and Bert Lahr 81 After a pre Broadway tour during which it ran into trouble with Boston censors 82 it achieved 408 performances beginning at the 46th Street Theatre 83 The score included But in the Morning No which was banned from the airwaves Do I Love You Well Did You Evah Katie Went to Haiti and another of Porter s up tempo list songs Friendship 84 At the end of 1939 Porter contributed six songs to the film Broadway Melody of 1940 for Fred Astaire George Murphy and Eleanor Powell 85 Meanwhile as political unrest increased in Europe Porter s wife closed their Paris house in 1939 and the next year bought a country home in the Berkshire mountains near Williamstown Massachusetts which she decorated with elegant furnishings from their Paris home Porter spent time in Hollywood New York and Williamstown 86 1940s and postwar Edit Fred Astaire in You ll Never Get Rich Panama Hattie 1940 was Porter s longest running hit so far running in New York for 501 performances despite the absence of any enduring Porter songs 87 It starred Merman Arthur Treacher and Betty Hutton Let s Face It 1941 starring Danny Kaye had an even better run with 547 performances in New York 88 This too lacked any numbers that became standards and Porter always counted it among his lesser efforts 89 Something for the Boys 1943 starring Merman ran for 422 performances and Mexican Hayride 1944 starring Bobby Clark with June Havoc ran for 481 performances 90 These shows too are short of Porter standards The critics did not pull their punches complaining about the lack of hit tunes and the generally low standard of the scores 91 After two flops Seven Lively Arts 1944 which featured the standard Ev ry Time We Say Goodbye and Around the World 1946 many thought that Porter s best period was over 92 Between Broadway musicals Porter continued to write for Hollywood His film scores of this period were You ll Never Get Rich 1941 with Astaire and Rita Hayworth Something to Shout About 1943 with Don Ameche Janet Blair and William Gaxton and Mississippi Belle 1943 44 which was abandoned before filming began 93 He also cooperated in the making of the film Night and Day 1946 a largely fictional biography of Porter with Cary Grant implausibly cast in the lead The critics scoffed but the film was a huge success chiefly because of the wealth of vintage Porter numbers in it 94 The biopic s success contrasted starkly with the failure of Vincente Minnelli s film The Pirate 1948 with Judy Garland and Gene Kelly 95 in which five new Porter songs received little attention 96 Porter and Jean Howard in early 1954 From this low spot Porter made a conspicuous comeback in 1948 with Kiss Me Kate It was by far his most successful show running for 1 077 performances in New York and 400 in London 97 The production won the Tony Award for Best Musical the first Tony awarded in that category and Porter won for best composer and lyricist The score includes Another Op nin Another Show Wunderbar So In Love We Open in Venice Tom Dick or Harry I ve Come to Wive It Wealthily in Padua Too Darn Hot Always True to You in My Fashion and Brush Up Your Shakespeare 98 Porter began the 1950s with Out of This World 1950 which had some good numbers but too much camp and vulgarity 99 and was not greatly successful His next show Can Can 1952 featuring C est Magnifique and It s All Right with Me was another hit running for 892 performances 100 Porter s last original Broadway production Silk Stockings 1955 featuring All of You was also successful with a run of 477 performances 101 Porter wrote two more film scores and music for a television special before ending his Hollywood career The film High Society 1956 starring Bing Crosby Frank Sinatra and Grace Kelly included Porter s last major hit song True Love 2 It was adapted as a stage musical of the same name Porter also wrote numbers for the film Les Girls 1957 which starred Gene Kelly His final score was for the CBS television special Aladdin 1958 102 Last years Edit Porter s mother died in 1952 and his wife died of emphysema in 1954 103 By 1958 Porter s injuries caused a series of ulcers on his right leg After 34 operations it had to be amputated and replaced with an artificial limb 104 His friend Noel Coward visited him in the hospital and wrote in his diary The lines of ceaseless pain have been wiped from his face I am convinced that his whole life will cheer up and that his work will profit accordingly 105 In fact Porter never wrote another song after the amputation and spent the remaining six years of his life in relative seclusion seeing only intimate friends 104 He continued to live in the Waldorf Towers in New York in his memorabilia filled apartment On weekends he often visited an estate in the Berkshires and he stayed in California during the summers 25 Porter died of kidney failure at age 73 on October 15 1964 in Santa Monica California 106 He is interred in Mount Hope Cemetery in his native Peru Indiana between his wife and father 107 Tributes and legacy Edit Porter family gravesite in Peru Indiana Many artists have recorded Porter songs and dozens have released entire albums of his songs 108 In 1956 jazz singer Ella Fitzgerald released Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Cole Porter Songbook In 1972 she released another collection Ella Loves Cole Among the many album collections of Porter songs are the following Oscar Peterson Plays the Cole Porter Songbook 1959 Anita O Day Swings Cole Porter with Billy May 1959 All Through the Night Julie London Sings the Choicest of Cole Porter 1965 Rosemary Clooney Sings the Music of Cole Porter 1982 Anything Goes Stephane Grappelli amp Yo Yo Ma Play Mostly Cole Porter 1989 108 and Love for Sale Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga 2021 109 In 1990 Dionne Warwick released Dionne Sings Cole Porter 110 In that same year Red Hot Blue was released as a benefit CD for AIDS research and featured 20 Cole Porter songs recorded by artists such as U2 and Annie Lennox 111 Additional recording collections include Frank Sinatra Sings the Select Cole Porter 1996 112 and John Barrowman Swings Cole Porter 2004 Barrowman played Jack in the 2004 film De Lovely 113 Other singers who have paid tribute to Porter include the Swedish pop music group Gyllene Tider which recorded a song called Flickan i en Cole Porter sang That Girl from the Cole Porter Song in 1982 He is referenced in the merengue song The Call of the Wild by David Byrne on his 1989 album Rei Momo He also is mentioned in the song Tonite It Shows by Mercury Rev on their 1998 album Deserter s Songs After Can Can was adapted as a film the soundtrack won the 1960 Grammy Award for Best Sound Track Album 114 In 1965 Judy Garland performed a medley of Porter s songs at the 37th Academy Awards shortly after Porter s death 115 In 1980 Porter s music was used for the score of Happy New Year based on the Philip Barry play Holiday citation needed The cast of The Carol Burnett Show paid a tribute to Porter in a humorous sketch in their CBS television series 116 You re the Top The Cole Porter Story a video of archival material and interviews and Red Hot and Blue a video of artists performing Porter s music were released in 1990 to celebrate the one hundredth anniversary of Porter s birth 117 In contrast to the highly embellished 1946 screen biography Night and Day 118 Porter s life was chronicled more realistically in De Lovely a 2004 Irwin Winkler film starring Kevin Kline as Porter and Ashley Judd as Linda 119 The soundtrack to De Lovely includes Porter songs sung by Alanis Morissette Sheryl Crow Elvis Costello Diana Krall and Natalie Cole among others 120 Porter also appears as a character in Woody Allen s 2011 film Midnight in Paris 121 Many events commemorated the centenary of Porter s birth including the halftime show of the 1991 Orange Bowl 122 123 Joel Grey and a large cast of singers dancers and marching bands performed a tribute to Porter in Miami Florida during the 57th King Orange Jamboree parade whose theme was Anything Goes 124 125 The Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra performed a program of Cole Porter music at the Circle Theatre in Indianapolis which also featured clips of Porter s Hollywood films 123 A Gala Birthday Concert was held at New York City s Carnegie Hall with more than 40 entertainers and friends paying tribute to Porter s long career in theater and film 117 In addition the U S Postal Service issued a commemorative postage stamp honoring Porter s birth 126 The Indiana University Opera performed Porter s musical Jubilee in Bloomington Indiana 127 In May 2007 a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame was dedicated to Porter 128 In December 2010 his portrait was added to the Hoosier Heritage Gallery in the office of the Governor of Indiana 129 Numerous symphony orchestras have paid tribute to Porter in the years since his death 130 131 including Seattle Symphony Orchestra with Marvin Hamlisch as conductor 132 and the Boston Pops both in 2011 133 n 15 In 2012 Marvin Hamlisch Michael Feinstein and the Dallas Symphony Orchestra honored Porter with a concert that included his familiar classics 135 The Cole Porter Festival is held every year in June in his hometown of Peru Indiana to foster music and art appreciation 136 Costumed singers in the cabaret style Cole Porter Room at the Indiana Historical Society s Eugene and Marilyn Glick Indiana History Center in Indianapolis take requests from visitors and perform Porter s hit songs n 16 Since Porter s death except for a brief time at the New York Historical Society his 1908 Steinway grand piano which he had used when composing since the mid 1930s has been displayed and often played in the lobby of the Waldorf Astoria Hotel 138 Porter is a member of the American Theater Hall of Fame 139 and Great American Songbook Hall of Fame which recognized his musically complex songs with witty urbane lyrics 140 In 2014 Porter was honored with a plaque on the Legacy Walk in Chicago which celebrates LGBT achievers 141 142 Notable songs EditSee also Category Compositions by Cole Porter Shows listed are stage musicals unless otherwise noted Where the show was later made into a film the year refers to the stage version A complete list of Porter s works is in the Library of Congress see also the Cole Porter Collection n 17 1916 See America First 1919 Hitchy Koo of 1919 Old Fashioned Garden 1928 Paris Let s Do It Let s Fall in Love 1929 Wake Up and Dream What Is This Thing Called Love 1929 Fifty Million Frenchmen You Do Something to Me 1930 The New Yorkers Love for Sale I Happen to Like New York Where Have You Been 1932 Gay Divorce After You Who Night and Day adapted as The Gay Divorcee 1934 1933 Nymph Errant Experiment The Physician It s Bad for Me 1934 Hi Diddle Diddle revue Miss Otis Regrets 1934 Anything Goes All Through the Night Anything Goes I Get a Kick Out of You You re the Top 1934 Adios Argentina un produced film Don t Fence Me In 1935 Jubilee Begin the Beguine Just One of Those Things 1936 Red Hot and Blue Down in the Depths on the Ninetieth Floor Ridin High It s De Lovely 1936 Born to Dance film You d Be So Easy to Love I ve Got You Under My Skin 1937 Rosalie film In the Still of the Night 1937 You Never Know At Long Last Love From Alpha to Omega Let s Misbehave 1938 Leave It to Me From Now On Get Out of Town My Heart Belongs to Daddy 1939 Broadway Melody of 1940 film Between You and Me I Concentrate on You I ve Got My Eyes on You I Happen to Be in Love Begin the Beguine 1939 DuBarry Was a Lady But in the Morning No Do I Love You Well Did You Evah Friendship 1940 Panama Hattie I ve Still Got My Health Let s Be Buddies 1941 You ll Never Get Rich film Dream Dancing So Near and Yet So Far 1941 Let s Face It I Hate You Darling Ace in the Hole 1942 Something for the Boys Could It Be You 1942 Something to Shout About You d Be So Nice to Come Home To 1943 Mexican Hayride I Love You 1944 Seven Lively Arts Ev ry Time We Say Goodbye 1946 Around the World Look What I Found 1947 The Pirate film Be a Clown Mack the Black You Can Do No Wrong 1948 Kiss Me Kate Always True to You in My Fashion Another Op nin Another Show Brush Up Your Shakespeare I Hate Men Why Can t You Behave So in Love Tom Dick or Harry Too Darn Hot Wunderbar 1950 Out of This World From This Moment On I Am Loved 1950 Stage Fright film The Laziest Gal in Town 1953 Can Can I Am in Love I Love Paris C est Magnifique It s All Right With Me 1954 Silk Stockings All of You Paris Loves Lovers 1955 High Society film Mind if I Make Love to You True Love Who Wants to Be a Millionaire You re Sensational 1956 Les Girls film Ca C est L amour You re Just Too Too 1958 Aladdin television Come to the Supermarket In Old Peking Notes references sources and further reading EditNotes Edit Porter s parents had two children who died in infancy before his birth Louis Omar b and d 1885 and Rachel 1888 90 1 Porter s father came to Peru Indiana from Vevay Indiana He eventually owned three drugstores in Peru 4 Porter s great grandfather A A Cole had come to Peru Indiana in 1834 from Connecticut as a child J O Cole grew up in Peru but moved west during the Gold Rush of 1849 He made his fortune in California and invested it in Indiana farmland and West Virginia timber coal and oil 6 He subsequently enlisted in the First Foreign Regiment before moving to other regiments prior to his April 1919 discharge 22 She divorced newspaper mogul Edward R Thomas in 1912 receiving more than a million dollars in the divorce settlement 27 Porter had frequent homosexual encounters 29 The British classical music journal The Musical Times commented There was plenty of excitement of a certain kind at least for the more excitable spectators 35 The Porters were not greatly affected by the crash having their assets in safe investments and held in a number of foreign banks which remained solvent 43 In 1999 Matthew Shaftel wrote Less than two months after the show s opening the song was featured on two best selling recordings and was at the top of sheet music sales Since then 83 artists have registered with the ASCAP to legally perform and record Night and Day Even today more than 65 years after its composition the song earns a stunning six figures making it Warner Brothers crown jewel and placing it on ASCAP s list of top money earners of all time 3 The film version starring Astaire and Ginger Rogers dropped all of Porter s score except Night and Day 54 Freedley told Bolton and Wodehouse that he had secured Merman then contacted Gaxton Moore and finally Merman 57 In 1934 the S S Morro Castle caught fire off the New Jersey shore killing more than 100 people 58 Bolton and Wodehouse were by then engaged in other work and Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse rewrote the book almost completely 59 Other Porter shows were orchestrated by Maurice B DePackh Walter Paul Don Walker and Philip J Lang see Kimball 1991 pp 2 3 Porter checked the orchestral parts and amended them as he felt necessary 3 Linda appraising the deteriorating political outlook in Europe closed the Paris house in April 1939 77 In 2012 the Boston Pops presented another tribute to Porter 134 The setting is designed to evoke the Waldorf Astoria New York where Porter lived 137 All the songs below except for Come to the Supermarket which is listed in this compilation are included in one or more of the compilations of Porter songs listed at A Cole Porter Bibliography on Soundheimguide com accessed March 10 2011 References Edit McBrien 1998 p 11 a b c d Derbyshire John Oh the Songs Archived January 30 2013 at archive today National Review Online July 28 2004 accessed May 27 2010 a b c d e f Shaftel Matthew From Inspiration to Archive Cole Porter s Night and Day Journal of Music Theory Duke University Press Volume 43 No 2 Autumn 1999 pp 315 47 accessed March 7 2011 subscription required McBrien 1998 p 8 a b c d e f g h i Bell J X Cole Porter Biography Archived September 23 2010 at the Wayback Machine The Cole Porter Resource Site accessed March 7 2011 McBrien 1998 pp 4 5 Schwartz 1977 p 11 Schwartz 1977 p 18 a b McBrien 1998 p 10 a b McBrien 1998 p 21 McBrien 1998 p 26 The Theater The Professional Amateur Time magazine January 31 1949 a b c d Kimball 1999 p 1 Seuss 2012 p 10 a b McBrien 1998 p 32 Yale Fight Songs Yale Bands Yale University accessed February 21 2020 Schiff David One Swell Party The Atlantic July August 2004 accessed April 2 2020 Ewen David Cole Porter The Great Sophisticate from The Story of America s Musical Theater New York Chilton Company 1961 pp 134 39 Algeo p 144 a b Root Deane L and Gerald Bordman Porter Cole Albert Grove Music Online accessed May 21 2010 requires subscription Kimball 1992 p 1 McBrien 1998 p 59 French Foreign Legion Official web site Legion etrangere com July 13 2016 Retrieved September 10 2016 Salazar Jaime Legion of the Lost Archived December 23 2008 at the Wayback Machine Legionofthelost com 2005 accessed September 16 2016 a b c d Obituary Cole Porter is Dead Songwriter Was 72 The New York Times October 16 1964 Citron 2005 p 48 a b McBrien 1998 p 65 McBrien 1998 p 70 Citron 2005 p 142 and Schwartz 1977 p 114 Cole Porter The Twenties The Stephen Sondheim Reference Guide accessed February 28 2011 a b Kimball 1992 p 2 Citron 2005 p 58 Kimball 1991 pp 4 5 a b Kimball 1991 p 5 Paris The Musical Times December 1923 p 874 Kimball 1991 p 6 Kimball 1984 p 85 a b Kimball 1999 p 5 Citron 2005 p 73 Kimball 1984 pp 101 and 104 Citron 2005 pp 74 and 79 Citron 2005 p 78 Citron 2005 p 85 Citron 2005 pp 80 82 Citron 2005 pp 82 83 Citron 2005 p 83 Kimball 1984 pp 117 29 Citron 2005 p 84 Citron 2005 p 100 Citron 2005 p 101 Kimball 1984 p 145 Kimball 1984 p 147 Gay Divorce Original Broadway Production Sondheimguide com accessed April 16 2016 Citron 2005 p 105 Kimball 1984 pp 158 62 Citron 2005 p 108 Citron 2005 p 109 Kimball 1992 p 70 and McBrien 1998 p 164 a b c d Citron 2005 p 110 Kimball 1984 pp 167 76 Citron 2005 p 111 McGlinn John 1989 The Original Anything Goes A Classic Restored Notes to EMI CD CDC 7 49848 2 Citron 2005 p 141 Kimball 1984 pp 183 96 Kimball 1984 pp 205 16 Kimball 1984 p 205 Kimball 1992 p 9 Paree Paree SoundheimGuide accessed February 13 2013 Kimball 1992 p 7 Citron 2005 p 143 McBrien 1998 pp 189 193 206 and 209 McBrien 1998 p 209 Citron 2005 p 144 Citron 2005 p 145 a b Citron 2005 p 162 Harriman Margaret Case Words and Music The New Yorker November 23 1940 accessed June 17 2018 Citron 2005 p 168 Kimball 1984 p 225 Kimball 1984 pp 227 and 229 Kimball 1984 pp 241 and 243 Citron 2005 p 184 Kimball 1984 p 260 Kimball 1984 p 256 Kimball 1984 pp 259 67 Kimball 1984 pp 252 54 McBrien 1998 p 225 Citron 2005 p 185 Kimball 1984 p 299 Citron 2005 p 189 Kimball 1984 pp 320 and 343 Citron 2005 p 190 Citron 2005 p 193 Kimball 1984 pp 295 313 and 335 Citron 2005 pp 211 14 Kimball 1992 p 13 15 Citron 2005 p 215 Citron 2005 p 419 Kimball 1984 pp 387 99 Citron 2005 p 220 Kimball 1984 p 422 Kimball 1984 p 438 Kimball 1984 p 468 Citron 2005 pp 239 and 242 a b Citron 2005 p 249 Coward 1982 p 379 Davis Charles Jr Songwriter Cole Porter Dies Los Angeles Times October 16 1964 accessed November 24 2021 Schwartz 1977 p 269 a b List of Cole Porter collections at Sondheimguide com accessed June 9 2011 Wilman Chris August 3 2021 Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga Reveal Love for Sale Cole Porter Tribute Album Said to Be Bennett s Last Variety Archived from the original on August 3 2021 Retrieved August 3 2021 Discogs com accessed February 22 2012 Discogs com accessed February 22 2012 Sondheim Guide accessed February 22 2012 Sondheim Guide accessed February 22 2012 Cole Porter Grammy com accessed December 30 2021 The 37th Academy Awards Memorable Moments Oscars org accessed December 13 2019 The Carol Burnett Show Tribute to Cole Porter on YouTube accessed September 20 2012 a b Howard Reich Porter Tributes A Few Highlights Chicago Tribune May 5 1991 accessed September 20 2012 Classicfilmguide com accessed February 27 2012 Johnston Sheila How Cole Porter got his kicks Archived May 10 2007 at the Wayback Machine All About Jewish Theatre 2004 accessed May 27 2010 Phares Heather Original Soundtrack De Lovely Allmusic accessed April 30 2014 The Better Life The New Yorker May 23 2011 Kimball Robert Cole Porter College Man Archived November 14 2012 at the Wayback Machine Yale Alumni Magazine November 1992 accessed May 17 2012 a b Holland Bernard A Hoosier Hurrah on Cole Porter s Centennial The New York Times June 9 1991 accessed May 17 2012 TCM Turner Classic Movies 1990 King Orange Jamboree Parade Turner Entertainment Networks December 31 1990 accessed September 20 2012 Luisa Yanez 500 000 At Parade Ooh Aah King Orange Reigns Under Miami Moon Sun Sentinel January 1 1991 retrieved September 20 2012 Randolph E Schmid Basketball Early Warren and Cole Porter Set for 1991 Stamps Associated Press Essential New Archives accessed September 20 2012 Clair McPhail Year long celebration to honor Cole Porter The News Courier The Evening Post Charleston South Carolina August 12 1990 retrieved September 20 2012 Hollywood star for Cole Porter USA Today May 21 2007 via Associated Press Retrieved September 20 2012 Video on YouTube accessed February 21 2012 NSO at Wolf Trap A Cole Porter Celebration The John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts retrieved September 20 2012 Faith Middleton Show A Tribute to Cole Porter and Glen Miller The Faith Middleton Show Connecticut Public Broadcasting November 22 2010 accessed September 20 2012 A Tribute to Cole Porter Archived January 16 2013 at the Wayback Machine Seattle Symphony Orchestra accessed September 20 2012 Meland Manny Boston Pops in A Tribute to Cole Porter with Conductor Keith Lockhart Archived January 16 2013 at the Wayback Machine Miamiartzine March 7 2011 retrieved September 20 2012 Boston Pops Presents Tribute to Cole Porter on June 5 6 MassJazz blog accessed September 20 2012 DSO Pops Series Cole Porter Tribute with Michael Feinstein and Marvin Hamlisch Last fm accessed September 20 2012 Cole Porter Festival accessed September 20 2012 Granger Elizabeth Hoosier History Home amp Away January 2015 p 37 Cole Porter s Piano Atlas Obscura accessed August 15 2021 and Martinez Jose Cole Porter s apartment at the Waldorf Astoria can be yours for 140K a month New York Daily News July 20 2010 accessed May 16 2014 Members Theater Hall of Fame accessed October 14 2014 Cole Porter 2012 legend Award Great American Songbook Foundation accessed June 16 2019 and Miller p 182 Legacy Walk honors LGBT guardian angels Chicago Tribune October 12 2014 Reynolds Daniel 7 LGBT Heroes Honored With Plaques in Chicago s Legacy Walk Advocate com October 11 2014 Sources Edit Algeo Matthew 2011 Harry Truman s Excellent Adventure The True Story of a Great American Road Trip Chicago Chicago Review Press ISBN 9781569767078 Citron Stephen 2005 Noel amp Cole the Sophisticates Milwaukee Hal Leonard Corporation ISBN 0634093029 Coward Noel 1982 Graham Payn Sheridan Morley eds The Noel Coward Diaries 1941 1969 London Methuen ISBN 0 297 78142 1 Kimball Robert ed 1984 The Complete Lyrics of Cole Porter New York Vintage Books ISBN 0 394 72764 9 Kimball Robert 1991 Cole Porter Overtures and Ballet Music Liner note to EMI CD CDC 7 54300 2 London EMI Records OCLC 315563881 Kimball Robert 1992 Cole Porter You re the Top Cole Porter in the 1930s Indianapolis Indiana Historical Society ISBN 0 871 95089 8 Kimball Robert 1999 Cole Porter You re Sensational Cole Porter in the 20s 40s amp 50s Indianapolis Indiana Historical Society ISBN 0 871 95129 0 McBrien William 1998 Cole Porter A Biography New York Alfred A Knopf ISBN 0 394 58235 7 Miller Michael 2008 The Complete Idiot s Guide to Music History Penguin ISBN 978 1 440 63637 0 Schwartz Charles 1977 Cole Porter A Biography New York Da Capo Press ISBN 0 306 80097 7 Seuss Dr 2012 Richard Marschall ed Just What the Doctor Disordered Early Writings and Cartoons of Dr Seuss Mineola NY Dover ISBN 978 0486498461 Further reading Edit Greher Gena R Night amp Day Cole Porter hip hop their shared sensibilities and their teachable moments College Music Symposium Vol 49 2009 online Hill Edwin Making claims on echoes Dranem Cole Porter and the biguine between the Antilles France and the US Popular Music 33 3 2014 492 508 McAuliffe Mary When Paris Sizzled The 1920s Paris of Hemingway Chanel Cocteau Cole Porter Josephine Baker and Their Friends Rowman amp Littlefield 2016 ISBN 1442253320 place missing Porter Cole The Letters of Cole Porter Yale University Press 2019 ISBN 030021927X place missing Randel Don M Matthew Shaftel and Susan Forscher Weiss eds A Cole Porter Companion U of Illinois Press 2016 ISBN 0252040090 place missing Savran David You ve got that thing Cole Porter Stephen Sondheim and the Erotics of the List Song Theatre Journal 2012 533 548 online Spirou Penny From Night and Day to De Lovely cinematic representations of Cole Porter Refractory a journal of entertainment media 18 2011 1 13 Wells Ira Swinging Modernism Porter and Sinatra beneath the Skin University of Toronto Quarterly 79 3 2010 975 990 External links EditCole Porter at Wikipedia s sister projects Media from Commons Quotations from Wikiquote Data from Wikidata Works by or about Cole Porter at Internet Archive Cole Porter at Curlie Cole Porter discography at Discogs Cole Porter at the Internet Broadway Database Cole Porter at the Internet Off Broadway Database Cole Porter at IMDb Cole Porter Birthplace amp Museum Cole Porter Festival Cole Porter Collection at the Library of Congress Cole Porter recordings at the Discography of American Historical Recordings Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Cole Porter amp oldid 1152869454, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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