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