Lerner and Loewe

Alan Jay Lerner
BORN: August 31, 1918, New York, NY
DIED: June 14, 1986

American pop lyricist and librettist from the 1940s through the 1960s, Alan Jay Lerner had many movie musical and Broadway successes with songwriting partner Frederick Loewe, including their first hit, Brigadoon, and their biggest hit, My Fair Lady. Lerner was born in N.Y.C. in 1918 into a wealthy family; his father was the founder of Lerner's, the women's clothing chain. Alan Jay Lerner went on to study at Juilliard, in England and, finally, at Harvard, where he wrote for college productions. After graduating, Lerner wrote radio scripts from 1940-1942, but already had ambitions for Broadway by the time he met composer Frederick Loewe. Thus began the successful duo of Lerner & Loewe, whose first songs appeared in the 1943 stage production What's Up? The duo had their first success four years later with the Broadway smash Brigadoon. Other stage and movie successes followed, such as Paint Your Wagon (1951), 1958's Gigi (an Academy Award-winning score), and Camelot (1960), but no success was bigger for the duo than 1956's My Fair Lady, which had a record-breaking run of over 2,500 performances. In 1961, Loewe suffered a heart attack and retired and Lerner teamed up with Richard Rodgers. Lerner had teamed up with another composer once before, in 1948, with Kurt Weill for the successful stage production Love Life. Some of Lerner's best-known songs include "Almost Like Being in Love" (1947), "I Could Have Danced All Night," "On the Street Where You Live" (1956), "If Ever I Would Leave You" (1960), and "On a Clear Day You Can See Forever." ~ Joslyn Layne, All Music Guide

Alan Jay Lerner is perhaps best remembered for the many Broadway musicals he penned with long-time collaborator Frederick Loewe. A number of these, including Brigadoon, Paint Your Wagon, My Fair Lady, and Camelot have become classics and were later successfully adapted to the screen by Lerner who was also a noted playwright and a screenwriter. Born into a wealthy family (the owners of Lerner's clothing stores), Lerner had a privileged education at Choate and Harvard. He teamed up with Loewe in 1943 to write What's Up?, and the pair remained together through 1960 when Lowe retired. Lerner later teamed up with other composers, including Burton Lane with whom he wrote On a Clear Day You Can See Forever. As a screenwriter, Lerner earned an Oscar for his screenplay and story for An American in Paris in 1951. Seven years later, he won again for Gigi. He and Loewe also shared an Academy Award for the film's title song. In 1974, he and Lowe reunited to work on the Little Prince. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide