Leading up to the American Renaissance

Cole Porter was born on June 9, 1891 in Peru, Indiana. He began to study music at an early age and by the time he was sent to Worcester Academy in 1905 he had honed his skills and was using his talent as entry into many rooms. He graduated in 1909 as class valedictorian and went on to Yale for his undergraduate education. While at Yale, he wrote several fight songs for the school as well as published his first song, “Bridget McGuire,” in 1910. After graduating from Yale in 1913, he went on to Harvard Law. However, once there, he found that music study was a much better match for him than Law and transitioned from the law school to the school of arts and sciences. He attended Harvard Law for one school year and the school of arts and sciences for two. However, in 1916, the pull of show business was too strong for him and he left school to tour a production he had written for the Yale Dramatist Association as well as a satire about the Mexican Revolution entitled “We’re All Dressed Up and We Don’t Know Huerto Go.” During this time, he was potted by Elizabeth Marbury, a producer and literary agent who decided to stage his first show.

See America First was a satirical salute to his grandfather’s view of international travel, with lyrics like “Don’t leave America, just stick around the USA/ Cheer for America/and get that grand old strain of Yankee Doodle/in your noodle.” Unfortunately, See American First ran for only 15 performances and was a complete flop. Less than a year later, American declared war on Germany; a few short months later, Porter was off for Europe. He did not enlist, nor was he drafted, although he did claim to have worked with or for the French Foreign Legion. That is, of course, a complete untruth which Porter himself started and encouraged throughout his life. What is more likely than a life of service is that Cole worked briefly with an humanitarian aid organization while spending most of his time in Europe hosting and attending parties. These parties would turn out to be the springboard for his career. Elsa Maxwell said “The buzz of the conversation in the room went on when Cole sat at the piano…but soon everyone was straining to catch the droll nuances of his lyrics. He held a critical audience enraptured for a full half hour while he ran through his repertory…which he had been writing for years and hoarding until public taste and sophistication were ready to appreciate them (McBrien, 61).” He so believed in the strength of his music that he simply had to wait for others to come around.

At the end of the war, Porter lingered on in Paris. He was never really accepted into old French society, but “was, among the internationals then in Paris, the toast of the town (McBrien, 63).” He attended and performed at many events, including the wedding in January 1918 of Ethel Harriman and Henry Russell at which Linda Lee Thomas was also a guest. After seeing him perform, she pulled some strings to have him perform at a party she hosted. Little did he know he’d be meeting his future wife. Soon after they were engaged, Cole traveled home to convince his grandfather to increase his allowance to the point where marriage would be feasible. On the ship over, he happened to meet Raymond Hitchcock, a producer who was very interested in Cole’s talent for his next show, a revue called Hitchy-Koo of 1919. Before their ship docked, Cole was on board to write the entire score for the show which had a successful try out in Boston and went on to play (after 9 songs were cut) for 56 performances in New York City starting in October. Cole and Linda were married that same year on December 19.

The 1920s: Cole Porter gets started

To follow-up his work with Hitchy-Koo of 1919, Porter returned to work on Hitchy-Koo of 1922. As his name was beginning to be known, he no longer had to perform in peoples’ living rooms and hoping they’d invited something in the business. He next worked with librettist Gerald Murphy to write Within the Quota, a one act ballet/sketch. It opened in October of 1923 in Paris and the next month for a tour of America, both runs totaling 69 performances. It was probably not this moderate success, but his work with the Hitchy-Koo series that led him to work on another revue: The Greenwich Village Follies of 1924. This revue ran for 127 performances; however, by the end of the run, all of Porter’s songs had been dropped one by one. Many of them appeared later in other shows. His next show played longer than any of the others and was called Paris. Staged in New York for 185 performances, it starred Irene Bordoni and featured several Cole Porter songs, one of which is particularly notable. “Let’s Do It, Let’s Fall in Love” first appears in this show and was never dropped.

While Porter was working on Paris, another show of his was being performed in Paris. La Revue des Ambassaduers opened in Paris on May 10, 1928 and was also successful. Porter was the only songwriter to work on this show and was credited as such. Less than one year after La Revue opened, another Porter revue opened in Europe. Wake Up and Dream ran for 263 performances in London and featured many of the songs that had been cut from other revues. This was finally the success that he had been waiting for. The success of Paris, La Revue and Wake Up towards the end of the 1920s would provide the momentum needed to carry Porter through the 1930s, his golden decade. His last show of the 1920s was Fifty Million Frenchmen which ran for 254 performances from November to July of the following year. It was directed by Monty Woolley and featured at least one song from an earlier show. It was later adapted into a short film and more recently, a studio recording of the score was made in 1991.

The 1930s: Cole Porter shoots to the top

Porter’s first show of this decade opened in early December 1930. The New Yorkers, a comedy/revue in two acts played for 168 performances and spawned many great Porter songs. “Love for Sale” was a poignant song from this show that ignited great controversy with lyrics like:

Love for sale,

Appetizing young love for sale.

Love that's fresh and still unspoiled,

Love that's only slightly soiled,

Love for sale.

Despite the controversy the show was a success and, although no other Porter songs really popped out, several of them were used in later shows. Cole’s next show was musical that was never produced; three songs from it, however, would appear in his next show. Gay Divorce would prove to be one of Porter’s best-known shows. It opened in November of 1932 and ran for 248 performances through July of the next year. The show highlighted Fred Astaire performing two of Porter’s most famous songs: “After You, Who?” and “Night and Day” which Astaire would later become famous for.

Roughly one year later, Nymph Errant opened in London to run for 154 shows. None of the songs from this scare are particularly notable today, but there was a concert recording of the music done in 1989. Another never-produced musical separates the moderate success of Nymph Errant with Porter’s next show Anything Goes. More than a moderate success like his last, Anything Goes ran opened in November of 1934 and ran for 420 performances into November of 1935, only five days shy of a whole year’s run. Moreover, this show marks the first time Porter had worked with Ethel Merman; he would later write songs specifically to fit her. This show contained such notable songs as “I Get a Kick Out of You” and “You’re the Top.” Anything Goes also inspired two television and two film adaptations in addition to five revivals.

Porter’s next stage project found him collaborating with Moss Hart on Jubilee. Once again, this show introduced a song that is still noted: “Begin the Beguine.” Jubilee opened in October of 1935 and ran for 169 performances. Red, Hot and Blue followed as his next stage show and opened in October of 1936 to run for 183 performances. This show was the first appearance of the song “De-Lovely” which would later be used the title of a biographical film based on Porter’s life with his wife. You Never Know, Porter’s next show for stage was relatively unsuccessful, running only 78 performances. It did, however, debut one of Porter’s greatest songs “At Long Last Love.” He is said to have written the lyrics to part of this song as he lay injured after a horse riding accident and waiting to be rescued.

It seems as though You Never Know’s lack of success was simply a fluke because his next show, Leave It To Me was very successful and ran for 291 performances and introducing the song “My Heart Belongs to Daddy.” Porter’s last show of this decade was Du Barry Was a Lady. An astonishing success, it ran for 408 performances starting on December 6th of 1939. The score included songs like “It Ain’t Etiquette” and “Well, Did You Evah?” For Cole Porter, the 1930s ended with a bang. As with the end of the previous decade, he was left with enough momentum to carry him through the 1940s which would see such shows as Something to Shout About and Kiss Me, Kate.

Unfortunately, due to that same riding accident that forced Porter to finish writing “At Long Last Love,” he was later forced to have one of his legs amputated. After that operation, he never wrote again and secluded himself inside the home he had shared with his wife. He passed away on October 16, 1964 and was buried in his hometown of Peru, Indiana.

Cole Porter revolutionized the genre of musical theatre. During the American Theatre Renaissance, there was a progression among the great songwriters towards a new style, but Cole Porter beat them all to it. His songs would pop in out of nowhere and be imitated by other artists. His music was catchy, witty, fun, funny, poignant and beautiful. His rhythms were complex and exciting. His contributions to musical theatre are countless; we are still performing his songs today. Overall, Cole Porter was a musical genius who was adept at communicating his own feelings through song and making the audience realize that they’d felt the same way.

Works Cited

McBrien, William. Cole Porter. New York: Vintage Books, 1998.