Cole Porter
Cole Porter (b. Peru, June 9, 1891 – d. Santa Monica, California, October 15, 1964) – Songwriter, singer, and pianist. Born into an upper-class family in Peru, Porter played violin and piano as a young child and wrote his first operetta (with assistance from his mother) at age ten. Like Hoagy Carmichael, Porter prepared for a law degree, but his family fortune afforded him a more expensive route, as he attended the Worcester Academy in Massachusetts, Yale University, and Harvard Law School. During his years at Yale, his songwriting skills blossomed while writing over 300 songs including fight songs that are still sung at football games. During his one year at Harvard, he switched his formal studies to music and wrote several songs that were performed on Broadway with little success. Living off his family’s wealth, he spent most of the 1920s in Europe—especially Paris—fraternizing with upper class intellectuals. In the late 1920s—now married—he returned to Broadway, where he produced several successful musicals, some of which included songs that he conceived while living as an expatriate. Perhaps his biggest splash of this period was Anything Goes, which included the hits “You’re the Top” and “I Get a Kick out of you.” During the 1930s, he also composed for Hollywood, where he lived among the socially elite. Among his famous songs for film are “Don’t Fence Me In” and “Begin the Beguine” (an instant jazz standard). Although a horse riding accident in 1937 left him disabled and severely depressed, he continued to produce new works, but they were generally lackluster in comparison to his earlier hits. Despite his setbacks, he mounted a huge comeback in 1948 with Kiss Me Kate, which garnered Tony awards in Best Musical and Best Composer and Lyricist (both Porter). In 1958, his injured leg was amputated, thus ending his professional career. Along with fellow Hoosier Hoagy Carmichael, Porter is among the most significant American songwriters of the 20th century.