Cole Porter

Cole Porter, the composer and lyricist whose witty, worldly songs became the backbone of the American songbook, died in Santa Monica, California, on October 15, 1964. He was seventy-three. He was born on June 9, 1891, in Peru, Indiana, to a wealthy family. His mother encouraged his music from childhood; his grandfather wanted him to become a lawyer. At Yale he wrote football songs and college shows, and after a brief try at law school he turned to music for good. His first Broadway score, See America First in 1916, closed quickly. He spent much of the 1920s in Europe, and in 1919 he married Linda Lee Thomas, who became his lifelong companion and champion. Success came with Paris in 1928, which introduced "Let's Do It, Let's Fall in Love," and Fifty Million Frenchmen the next year. Through the 1930s he was one of the great names of the Broadway stage. Gay Divorce gave the world "Night and Day," and Anything Goes, in 1934, offered "I Get a Kick Out of You" and "You're the Top." "Begin the Beguine," "I've Got You Under My Skin" and "My Heart Belongs to Daddy" followed. Unusually among Broadway composers, he wrote both words and music. In 1937 a horse fell on him during a ride on Long Island, crushing both legs. He lived in pain for the rest of his life and underwent many operations, yet kept writing. In 1948 he returned in triumph with Kiss Me, Kate, his most successful musical and the winner of the first Tony Award for best musical. Can-Can and Silk Stockings followed, along with film scores including High Society. Linda Porter died in 1954, and in 1958 his right leg was amputated. He wrote little afterward and spent his last years largely out of public view. He died of kidney failure and was buried in Mount Hope Cemetery in his hometown of Peru, Indiana. His songs, sung by generations of performers from Fred Astaire to Ella Fitzgerald, remain among the most recorded and admired in American popular music.