Barbershoppers are very familiar with much of his music and know him well. And most barbershop singers know and sing the barbershop arrangement of one of Berlin's most beloved songs, "God Bless America." The Greater Pittsburgh Chapter often includes this song in chorus performances.
Berlin's "There's No Business Like Show Business" will open our annual show on May 7th. Many Irving Berlin songs have been featured on our shows over the years. More recently, you may recall, the chorus sang Berlin's "The Song Is Ended."
Many people familiar with American music like to quote Jerome Kern's famous assessment; "Irving Berlin has no place in American music. He is American music."
Few composers in world history were more prolific than Irving Berlin whose catalog boasted more than 1000 songs in a lifetime that spanned over 100 years.
Born Israel Berlin in a Russian Jewish ghetto to a cantor and his wife in May 1855, Berlin was five when his family came to America. He grew up on New York's lower east side. After his father died when he was 13, Berlin took to the streets working as a busker and singing for pennies to help support the family. A few years later he became a singer/waiter at a China town cafe'. In 1907 he published his first song, "Marie from Sunny Italy" and by 1911 he connected with his first major international hit, "Alexander's Ragtime Band."
Although Berlin never learned to read music, he taught himself to play the piano sufficiently enough to write his songs. He had a special key-transposing piano built because he was only able to compose his songs in the key of F sharp major.
Irving Berlin was an intuitive business man. He established his own publishing company and was a co-founder of ASCAP. He and his business partner, Sam Harris, built their own Broadway Theatre, the Music Box. He was an unabashed patriot and his generosity and love of his country is legendary. He donated millions of dollars to Army Emergency Relief, the Boy Scouts of America and many other organizations.
He wrote 17-complete scores for Broadway musicals and revues and was equally comfortable writing music for Hollywood movies such as "White Christmas" and "Annie Get Your Gun," to mention a few.
Berlin's centennial celebration in 1988 was held at Carnegie Music Hall. Among the luminaries there to pay tribute to him were Frank Sinatra, Leonard Bernstein, Isaac Stern, Natalie Cole and Willie Nelson. Irving Berlin died in his sleep at the age of 101 on September 22, 1989 in New York City.
Here are some of Irving Berlin's most famous songs:
Easter Parade; Blue Skies; Happy Holiday; How Deep
Is The Ocean; Puttin' On The Ritz; Stepping Out With
My Baby; Drinking Song; They Say It's Wonderful;
Always; Cheek To Cheek; A Pretty Girl Is Like A
Melody; Anything You Can Do I Can Do Better and
This Is The Army Mr. Jones.
Phone Tree for member retention:
[Editor note - this is a iteration of an idea by Don Redshaw to make more expanded use of the phone tree. This action was initiated at the 2-16-05 Board meeting and phone tree captains were already notified by separate letter from Don.]
I thought the phone tree would be an excellent tool in a plan concerning retention of members as it is already in place and working. There are presently 12 phone tree captains and no captain has more than six names to call.
Here is what phone tree captains are being asked to do. Each should check the attendance of members in their group, each week. If a member is absent for 2 weeks in a row and you don't know why (such as away on vacation), phone the individual and determine the circumstances. If the reason is something correctable, contact me, or any member of the Board, so we can take action to try to get this member back. Your responsibility is to determine the facts and report back so possible corrective action can be taken.
For members who haven't been attending due to ill health, old age, etc., an occasional phone call will at least let them know they are not forgotten.
Overall, attendance has been down, and this plan is one attempt to get it back up. We need your cooperation to make this work!
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