6 Things You Need to Know About Irving Berlin

Irving Berlin, one of the great songwriters in American history, was born on May 11. His songs were part of the Great American Songbook, a term used for tunes of enduring popularity, from Broadway theatre to Hollywood musical film.

The current generation of music lovers will only remember his hits, such as "White Christmas", which Bing Crosby sung in "Holiday Inn" (1942). (The song won an Academy Award for Best Original Song.) But what about the man himself? Here are six interesting things about his whereabouts:

1. Irving Berlin was born in Mogilev, once a part of the Russian Empire, now a metropolis in eastern Belarus. He was one of eight children of Jewish parents, who were uprooted to America, like the other Jewish families, during the late nineteenth century. (It was due to the anti-Jewish programs, creating the spontaneous exodus.) Berlin had no recollection of his life in the continent, except witnessing his home being burned.

2. The family settled in New York's Yiddish Theater District on the Lower East Side. Moses Beilin, Irving's father, tried to meet ends, working at a kosher meat market while giving Hebrew lessons on the side. He died a few years later, when Irving was thirteen years of age. This forced the teenager to work to support his family.

3. Irving's first job was a newspaper boy, hawking the Evening Journal. It didn't take long for him to realize that he wasn't doing much to help his family, as his little education made formal employment not possible. So he chose singing, an ability he acquired from his father's vocation.

4. The young Irving was sensible, aware that only tunes with mass appeal would provide food to his family's table. So he became a singing waiter at Tony Pastor's Music Hall in Union Square. During his free time, he taught himself to play the piano. It was also during that period when he made his first attempt at songwriting.

5. It didn't take long for the others to notice Berlin's talent. One of those was Rudyard Kipling, author of "The Jungle Book", who lived within that area. Another one was Max Winslow, who was working for Harry Von Tilzer, a very popular songwriter during that era. The young Berlin soon find himself working with the likes of Ted Snyder. (He, along with Edgar Leslie, Al Piantadosi, and George A. Whiting, would be successful songwriters later in life.) He was only twenty.

6. Berlin's meteoric rise was due to his early composition; he perceived what the listeners wanted, while keeping his works original. "Alexander's Ragtime Band", his first song, was embraced by the public. It was followed by songs that were simple and direct. "My ambition is to reach the heart of the average American, not the highbrow nor the lowbrow, but that vast intermediate crew which is the real soul of the country. The highbrow is likely to be superficial, over-trained, supersensitive. The lowbrow is warped, subnormal. My public is the real people," he said. The rest was history.