From his first song in 1907 to his last Broadway hit in 1966, Irving Berlin enraptured generations with such songs as “Alexander’s Ragtime Band,” “There’s No Business Like Show Business,” “White Christmas,” “Blue Skies,” “Puttin’ on the Ritz,” and “God Bless America.” IRVING BERLIN'S SHOW BUSINESS is a nationwide celebration of Berlin that streches from New York to San Francisco, featuring a new book, exhibitions, concerts, and performances.
Author and curator David Leopold has combed private and public collections, including the Berlin Family Archive and America's top performing arts collections, for more than 500 photographs, drawings, posters, set and costume designs, and sheet music covers, that allow us to witness Berlin's career and he and his audience first saw it.
Irving Berlin loved the world of show business. He spent his life in the thick of it, and you can find elements of it in virtually all of his stage and film work. He was our most popular songwriter, the man Jerome Kern said was American Music. Berlin expressed feelings and emotions in his words and music that continue to articulate a wide range of experience for millions of listeners and singers. His art remains part of our vocabulary because its seeming simplicity contains essential truths of human nature.
Few artists have left as profound a mark on 20th-century culture like Irving Berlin. During his extraordinary long and active career, Berlin was at the forefront of every form of mass popular culture: sheet music, the stage, radio, records (he had twenty-six number-one songs), film, and television.
IRVING BERLIN'S SHOW BUSINESS: BROADWAY HOLLYWOOD AMERICA
• The Book •
A critical biography of Berlin, with significant new research into sources previously unavailable or unknown, that tells Berlin’s story in alternating chapters on Broadway, Hollywood, and America. In addition there are more than 400 pieces of Berlin iconography to demonstrate both its ubiquity and its influence on American popular culture. It serves as a catalogue for three exhibitions that examine Berlin's Broadway, Hollywood, and America.
• Exhibitions •
Find out more about the exhibitions that examine Berlin's work on Broadway, in Hollywood, and for America that are being presented over the next 12 months at museums around the country.
SHOW BUSINESS! IRVING BERLIN'S BROADWAY
SHOW BUSINESS! IRVING BERLIN'S HOLLYWOOD
• Events •
Find out more about the Berlin concerts, performances, lectures, and film festivals at venues in cities from coast to coast.
• News •
Tune into radio and television broadcasts to learn more about breaking news of Berlin activities.