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January 26, 2023

Almanac of Story Tellers: Jerome Kern

Every day brings a new story.  And each day contributes to the art of story telling -- in prose and poetry, in music, on the stage, on the screen, in podcasts, and in books

Today is a story of January 27th

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    It is the 27th day of the year, leaving 338 days remaining in 2023.
   
    On this date in 1885, the American composer Jerome Kern was born.

    He told his stories on the stage and screen, composing the musical accompaniment for more than 100 plays and movies. He was one of the most accomplished composers of the early 20th Century, and his musical innovations helped make musical theater a serious form of art, particularly his work on Show Boat.

    His music had a natural flow and his melodies a folksy rhythm that helped move along the action in the plays. Many of his songs, including Ol' Man River, Smoke Gets in Your Eyes, and Long Ago (and Far Away) are classics of musical theater.

    He later turned to film with equal success, including eight Academy Award nominations, which produced two Oscars. 

    Jerome John "Jerry" Garcia, the founder of the Grateful Dead, was named after him.

    Kern's earliest compositions were for musicals in London, where he worked with the famed lyricist P.G. Wodehouse. His first work on Broadway was with the production The Echo in 1910. That same year, he is credited for writing some of the featured songs and music in Our Miss Gibbs.

    By 1912, he was credited with his first full musical score, in The Red Petticoat. 

    He created at least one show a year in Broadway in the 1920s, working with Oscar Hammerstein II and Otto Harbach. By the end of the decade, he was also working in Hollywood, where he wrote songs and music for Gloria Swanson, Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers.

    He died in 1945.

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