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PRESS RELEASE: For release September 17, 1998
S'Wonderful, S'Marvelous That TCM is Celebrating Gershwin's 100th
With A Seven-Movie, Gershwin In Hollywood Tribute, September 26
The Turner Classic Movies (TCM) cable network will salute the man who penned some of film's most timeless tunes, George Gershwin, marking what would have been his 100th birthday on September 26. TCM's Gershwin In Hollywood tribute includes 1943's GIRL CRAZY (9:30 a.m. ET), starring Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney; and Gershwin's 1945 film biography RHAPSODY IN BLUE (1:30 p.m.). With his brother, lyricist Ira Gershwin, George Gershwin wrote such classic tunes as Porgy And Bess, S'Wonderful, The Man I Love, But Not For Me, Fascinating Rhythm and many other standards, several for the big screen. TCM's Gershwin In Hollywood programming information is as follows:
6 a.m. - GIRL CRAZY (1932) : starring Robert Woolsey and Eddie Quillan
7:30 a.m. - LADY BE GOOD (1941) : starring Eleanor Powell and Ann Sothern
9:30 a.m. - GIRL CRAZY (1943) : starring Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney
11:30 a.m. - BROADWAY RHYTHM (1944) : starring George Murphy
1:30 p.m. - RHAPSODY IN BLUE (1945) : starring Robert Allan and Joan Leslie
4 p.m. - THE BARKLEYS OF BROADWAY (1949) : starring Fred Astaire
6 p.m. - AN AMERICAN IN PARIS (1951) : starring Gene Kelly and Leslie Caron
Songs from many of the pictures mentioned here and more are featured on TCM/Rhino Movie Music's two-CD George & Ira Gershwin In Hollywood soundtrack anthology. Spanning 1932-1959, the 39 songs are interpreted by some of Hollywood's greatest stars, including Al Jolson, Lena Horne, Fred Astaire, Ella Fitzgerald, Judy Garland, Gene Kelly, and Betty Grable. Gershwins' featured artist page can be accessed at for track list, liner notes and more.
Gershwin left school at age 15 to write in New York's Tin Pan Alley. In 1919, he penned his first hit, Swanee, popularized by Al Jolson. The most well-known and popular American composition, Rhapsody in Blue followed in 1924. He wrote songs for George White's Scandals revues and other classical works, movies including AN AMERICAN IN PARIS (1928), STRIKE UP THE BAND(1927), and GIRL CRAZY (1930, 1943). In 1935, Gershwin composed an American opera, PORGY AND BESS, which would be his last major work. He died of a brain tumor in 1937 in Hollywood.
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