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Cole Porter was born in Peru, Indiana on June 9,
1891. He was the only surviving child of Samuel Fenwick Porter, a
druggist, and Kate Cole. He began studying music - violin and piano
- at a very early age, and by ten he had written his first song,
"Song Of The Birds". In 1902, his mother had his composition "The
Bobolink Waltz" privately published. Porter was sent to Worcester
Academy in Massachusetts, for prep school, and he entered Yale in
1913. There he became a famous figure on campus, writing two of
Yale's best known football songs ("Bingo Eh Yale" and "Bull Dog"),
and supplying the songs for several Yale Dramatic Association
"smokers". Upon graduation he was voted the most entertaining member
of his class; he also received votes for being the most original and
most eccentric.
See America First, Porter's first Broadway
show, opened in 1916. It ran for a dismal 15 performances. It may
have been the failure of the show which prompted him to sail to
France. He was attached to. a relief organisation in France during
World War 1, and seems to have spent a good deal of the war enjoying
himself in Paris. In 1919 he wrote several songs for Hitchy Koo
Of 1919, among them "An Old Fashioned Garden", his first popular
hit. Also in 1919 he married the wealthy socialite Linda Lee Thomas,
who was at one time considered to be the most beautiful woman in the
world. Cole and Linda had a long and happy marriage which lasted
until her death in 1954.
The Porters spent much of the 1920s living in
Europe amongst the "lost" generation of writers, artists and
intellectuals. They were renowned for their lavish lifestyle and
party giving. Many regarded Cole as little more than rich dilettante
who wrote amusing party songs about his friends. However, Porter
took his music seriously, studying at the Schola Cantorum in Paris.
In 1923, Porter wrote the score for Within The Quota, an ambitious
jazz ballet staged by the Ballet Suedois, with Gerald Murphy as the
librettist.
As the 1920s came to an end, Porter finally began
to achieve real success on the Broadway stage. Paris (1928) which
introduced "Let's Do It, Let's Fall In Love", was followed by
Fifty Million Frenchmen in 1929, whose score yielded up such
treasures as "You Do Something To Me" and "You've Got That Thing".
Porter style became recognisable as a sophisticated blend of
sensuality, wit, and innuendo.
The 1930s were Porter's Golden decade. He had a
string of hit shows, among them The New Yorkers, Gay Divorce,
Anything Goes, jubilee, Red Hot And Blue, and Dubarry Was A Lady. He
also wrote the score to several wonderful Hollywood musicals, such
as Born To Dance and Rosalie.
In 1937 Porter suffered a crippling horseback
riding accident. His mother and wife talked the doctors out of
amputating his legs, as they were sure such a blow to his vanity
would kill him. For the rest of his life, despite over 30
operations, Porter was to suffer almost constant pain. His remedy
was to lose himself in his work, and the early 1940s saw a number of
hit shows - Panama Hattie, Let's Face It, and Something
For The Boys. However, the mid 1940s seem to find Porter
faltering, and in a profession where your only as good as your last
show, he was considered washed up. Then, in 1948, he scored his
greatest triumph with Kiss Me, Kate, a show which portrayed
the backstage bickering of a couple of ham actors as they produced
Shakespeare's "The Taming Of The Shrew". It was a brilliant success
and ran for over 1000 performances. It is still widely performed
today, and, along with Anything Goes, it is one of Porter's
most popular scores.
Porter had several more hits up his sleeve -
Can-Can, Silk Stockings, and High Society were all
produced in the 1950s. His last score was for a television
"spectacular" of the Aladdin story, in 1958.
The last year of Porters life were sad ones. He
finally had to have one of his legs amputated in 1958, and after
that he led a lonely and reclusive life. In 1960 Yale honoured him
with a Honorary doctorate. He died in October of 1964 in
Hollywood. |
