TRIBUTE TO GEORGE GERSHWIN

Originally broadcast on WNIB
Saturday, July 12, 1997

FAMILY HOUR (6-24-45) “Musical Salute to George Gershwin” prior to the opening of the Warner Bros film, “Rhapsody in Blue.” Features Eileen Farrell, Earl Wrightson, Jack Smith, Al Goodman and the orchestra.

CAVALCADE OF AMERICA (2-27-39) “George Gershwin” is a dramatization of the life story of the great American composer, from his early years to his Tin Pan Alley days, to the “Rhapsody in Blue” and “Porgy and Bess.”

MUSIC BY GERSHWIN (2-19-34) First program in the series starring George Gershwin, “America’s leading modern composer” with “an intimate revue of present day music.” Gershwin tells the “inside story” of “The Man I Love” and plays “I Got Rhythm.”

SINGING LADY (1950s) Ireene Wicker, the fabled singing storyteller, presents the “true story of the boyhood days” of composer George Gershwin and his brother Ira. 

ANDRE KOSTELANETZ (10-11-45) “Portrait of George Gershwin” featuring Kostelanetz and his orchestra in a concert of Gershwin’s music with commentary by Oscar Levant, plus soprano Dorothy Kirsten.

OUR SPECIAL GUEST is music historian BILL SHELDON who will talk about Gershwin and his contribution to American music and introduce his guests, singer SPIDER SALOFF and, via telephone, singer MARGARET WHITING.