Cole Porter

Music Biography Video Biography

BORN: June 9, 1891, Peru, IN
DIED: October 15, 1964, Santa Monica, CA

Many arguments could be generated over whether Cole Porter or Irving Berlin should be considered America's greatest tunesmith. Both wrote music and lyrics; it's clearly a pick 'em situation. Porter had violin and piano lessons as a child, pursued undergraduate studies at Yale (where he penned fight songs that endure to this day such as "Bulldog"), and studied law and music at Harvard, all courtesy of a rich grandfather. His grandfather was appalled Porter would consider music as a career and never forgave him. Porter was in the French army during World War I, and spent the '20s in Paris as the husband of a wealthy woman. He began scoring hits in that decade, though "I'm in Love Again," didn't click until 1929, though Porter wrote it in 1924. The list of Porter shows and films is immense; his lyrics were literate, sophisticated, yet could be charming, suggestive, even naughty. His first show was Paris in 1928; it included "Let's Do It." That was followed by Frenchmen in 1929 containing "You Do Something to Me." Porter returned to New York in 1930, but was a lifelong Parisian in his heart. Wake Up and Dream, The New Yorkers, The Gay Divorcee, Jubilee, Leave It to Me, and Kiss Me Kate are only a few of his marvelous shows. The song list is just as impressive; "What Is This Thing Called Love," "Love for Sale," "Anything Goes," "You're the Top," "Begin the Beguine," and "Count Your Blessings," for starters. There were also such films as Silk Stockings, Born to Dance, Broadway Melody of 1940, High Society, and Night and Day. Porter's legs were crushed by a horse in 1937, he endured numerous operations the rest of his life, as well as being a semi-invalid. He finally lost his right leg in 1958, only four years after his wife died. But his songs live on; numerous anthologies and songbooks devoted to his music have been issued and are available on CD, including the Smithsonian four-disc set issued in 1993. ~ Ron Wynn, All Music Guide

For fairly obvious technological reasons, the film credits of celebrated Broadway composer Cole Porter begin with the 1929 all-talkie The Battle of Paris. Fifty Million Frenchman, filmed in 1931, started out as a reasonable faithful adaptation of Porter's Broadway hit. By this point in time, however, the filmgoing public was tired of musicals, thus Warner Bros. blithely chopped out all the tunes: we repeatedly hear the build-up to You Do Something to Me, but never the song itself! (Porter's "leftover" score was later presented intact in the 1934 Bob Hope 2-reeler Paree, Paree). Any other composer might have been crushed by this cavalier treatment, but Porter had never been defeated by any of life's disappointments -- probably because he was cushioned by his vast inherited wealth and a lavish, globetrotting social life. Educated at Yale, Harvard, and the Paris Schola Cantorum, Porter was by 1931 internationally renowned as a composer of sophisticated, wryly risque show tunes, so his early "failure" in Hollywood posed no threat to his career. Porter continued to be represented in films via adaptations of his Broadway successes (Gay Divorcee (1934), Anything Goes (1936)) until 1936, when he penned several original songs for MGM's Born to Dance, including I've Got You Under My Skin and Easy to Love. Among Porter's later direct-to-screen compositions were such hits as Don't Fence Me In (for Hollywood Canteen (1944)), Be a Clown (The Pirate (1948)) and True Love (High Society (1955)). Shortly after completing work on MGM's Rosalie (1937), Porter was seriously injured in a riding accident. Though his crushed legs caused him excruciating pain, Porter continued to maintain his flamboyant lifestyle, stubbornly refusing to allow the doctors to amputate until it became a life-or-death situation in 1958. When Warner Bros. produced its Cole Porter biography Night and Day (1946), with Cary Grant in the lead, the studio used Porter's crippling accident as the film's central dramatic crisis. After all, you couldn't do a rags-to-riches story with a leading character whose life was all riches-to-riches. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide