Showing posts with label George and Ira Gershwin. Show all posts
Showing posts with label George and Ira Gershwin. Show all posts

Friday, April 24, 2015

The ghost in the workroom: George appears to Ira


     

Quite a long time ago I wrote in my diary, “George is a spook”. I wasn’t quite sure what I meant by that. Then, in one of the better GG bios, I read this:

“As Ira grew older, he became not less but more obsessed with George. When he was in his eighties, Michael Feinstein, who had become something of a surrogate son to him, heard him talking to George in his sleep. These were, according to Feinstein, “lengthy conversations” that were “often filled with anger, centering around Ira’s desire not to stay here on earth and George’s insistence that he stay”. Just before Ira’s death in 1983, he revealed to Feinstein in a hushed voice something he had never told anyone else. Shortly after George’s passing, he had looked into his brother’s workroom upstairs at 1019 North Roxbury and seen him “sitting on the sofa, smiling and nodding to me. It terrified me. I wasn’t drinking. I wasn’t drunk. But I saw him.”

This may have started the whole thing for me, because I had consciously forgotten it. George died in 1937, Ira in 1983. It looks like maybe the one who was “stuck” was Ira, and George was trying to help him get unstuck. Ironic, since GG went far too soon, and because of the horrific manner of his dying, didn’t really know what was happening to him. Ira was a very practical, down-to-earth businessman who just happened to be a genius lyricist, and this wasn’t some wraithlike, ghostly apparition, but GG sitting happily in his workroom, his sanctuary and favorite place, smiling and nodding: “see, I’m OK, don’t worry about me.” Ira unfortunately had the same reaction to “ghosts” that most people do: terror, and thinking “I’m going crazy”. It’s interesting this wasn’t just an impression but a real 3D, solid appearance of someone who was dead. I also had the thought, though, that GG always kept his wounded side turned away from view, and it could be that he was appearing to be happy for Ira’s sake. Understandable, if Ira wanted to die. They protected each other to an extraordinary degree. 



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Thursday, April 23, 2015

I wonder who (unless it's Harold!)



It seems there's none for me although
My aching heart discovers
In a story play or picture show
A host of perfect lovers

The first of all was Romeo
That passion isn't cool yet
This world would have a rosy glow
If I had been his Juliet





For Antony, I'd learn to care
Ah, he was strong and graceful
If other lovers held two pair
That fellow held an aceful 

Somebody loves me, I wonder who
I wonder who he can be
Somebody loves me, I wish I knew
Who can he be worries me

For every boy who passes me
I shout, "Hey, maybe
You were meant to be my loving baby"
Somebody loves me, I wonder who maybe it's you




At one time, Harold Lloyd, I thought
Was grand in every flashback
To see him, oh, the seats I bought
I wish I had the cash back 

'Twas Big Bill Hart who took his place
He's western and he's classy
He had an open spaces face
And oh, girls, what a chassis 

Then, Jackie Coogan came along
He had the other shown-up
And to him, I will sing my song
As soon as he is grown up




Somebody loves me, I wonder who
I wonder who he can be
Somebody loves me, I wish I knew
Who can he be worries me 

For every boy who passes me
I shout, "Hey, maybe
You were meant to be my loving baby"
Somebody loves me, 
I wonder who 
maybe it's you

(George and Ira Gershwin)



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