Beyond the Rainbow: Harold Arlen's Influential Accomplishments in American Popular Song Examined in Centennial Exhibition at the Library for the Performing Arts

Harold and Fayard Nicholas, Ruby Hill and Pearly Bailey in St Louis Woman, 1946. Photo: Vandamm, from the Billy Rose Theatre Collection, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts.

New York, NY, February 5, 2005 -- "Over the Rainbow," "Blues in the Night," "Come Rain or Come Shine," "It's Only a Paper Moon." Not only did Harold Arlen write these and many other beloved song standards, but by infusing traditional theatre music with stylistic elements of blues and jazz, he brought a new dimension to songwriting. Opening on the centennial of his birth, a new exhibition at The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts digs deep into the treasury of Arlen's music to explore the full range of his work from the 1930s to the 1960s. Beyond the Rainbow: Music of Harold Arlen is on view at The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, 40 Lincoln Center Plaza, from February 15 through May 27, 2005. Admission is free. The Library will also present two related free public programs.

Beyond the Rainbow features more than one hundred audio recordings from the Library's Rodgers and Hammerstein Archives of Recorded Sound that provide insight on the innovations and artistry inherent in Arlen's work. It also showcases manuscripts, photos, designs, caricatures, posters and clippings, and many other items drawn primarily from the collections of the Library's Music Division, Billy Rose Theatre Collection, and Jerome Robbins Dance Division.

Arlen's first professional songwriting success, "Get Happy," was developed with lyricist Ted Koehler from a vamp Arlen had devised as a rehearsal pianist. The team went on to write songs for a string of shows at the Cotton Club in the early 1930s, where their works were performed by the Cab Calloway and Duke Ellington orchestras. The exhibition showcases sheet music for songs like "Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea" from Rhyth-Mania, a 1931 Cotton Club revue, as well as "I Gotta Right to Sing the Blues" from the 1932 edition of Earl Carroll's Vanities, also written with Ted Koehler. Arlen soon was given the opportunity to create songs for a number of Broadway revues written with Ira Gershwin and Yip Harburg. For the 1936 musical The Show Is On, for example, they wrote "The Song of the Woodman," the standout comic turn performed by Bert Lahr that undoubtedly helped him to land the role of the Cowardly Lion a few years later. The exhibition features Lahr's vocal score for the number as it was revived in a later revue.

Harold Arlen singing for a radio broadcast, ca. 1940. Photo: Billy Rose Theatre Collection, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts.

By 1939, Arlen had collaborated with lyricist Yip Harburg on several musicals and films, and the two were drafted by producer Arthur Freed to write the songs for The Wizard of Oz. The movie has become a beloved classic, and the songs are among the most popular of all time. From the Library's Yip Harburg Collections, the exhibition features lyric sheets for the movie's songs. Also. included is a large original poster showing the familiar characters from the film, a musical score used in production, and other promotional materials and memorabilia.

In the early 1940s, Arlen wrote several films with Johnny Mercer. Although the movies themselves are less than vividly remembered, they produced such stellar songs as "Blues in the Night" and "One for My Baby (And One More for the Road)." The exhibition includes the original sheet music for "That Old Black Magic," from the 1942 film Star Spangled Rhythm.

As Broadway moved away from the revue-style show and toward plotted musicals in the 1940s, Arlen returned in 1944 with Bloomer Girl, written with Harburg. Set during the Civil War era, it touched on issues of women's rights and civil rights. The exhibition features Lemuel Ayers original set renderings for the musical as well as Harburg's lyric worksheets. Also featured are Ayers's designs for St. Louis Woman, a 1946 collaboration with Mercer that produced "Any Place I Hang My Hat Is Home" and "Come Rain or Come Shine." Other materials, such as caricatures and promotional materials, illustrate 1954's House of Flowers, which Arlen wrote with Truman Capote, and 1957's Jamaica, which starred Lena Horne and for which Arlen revived his partnership with Yip Harburg.

Arlen's last great songs for film were written for the 1954 film A Star Is Born.The exhibition includes Buster Davis's original vocal arrangements for such numbers as "The Man That Got Away" and "Someone at Last."

Recordings
Beyond the Rainbow features two audio kiosks that allow exhibition visitors to listen to an extensive selection of Arlen's compositions, including a wide range of early and rare recordings. These include "Dynamite," a 1926 recording by Fletcher Henderson and his Dixie Stompers, a 1931 recording by Cab Calloway and his Orchestra of "Kickin' the Gong Around," from Rhyth-Mania, as well as "Get Yourself a New Broom," from Cotton Club Parade of 1933as recorded by Duke Ellington & his Famous Orchestra with Ivy Anderson. Other rarities include a radio broadcast featuring Arlen and Johnny Mercer singing their song "Blues in the Night" and a private demo tape featuring Arlen and lyricist Yip Harburg performing "Walkin' and Talkin'," a song they wrote for Jamaica but which was never used in the show. Among the artists performing Arlen's compositions in the exhibition are Eddie Cantor, Ethel Merman, Fred Astaire, Lena Horne, Judy Garland, Groucho Marx, Bing Crosby, and The Andrews Sisters. Also included are a selection of recordings illustrating the influences that shaped Arlen's compositional style, and interpretations of his songs by such jazz greats as Dave Brubeck and Miles Davis.


Public Programs

The Library for the Performing Arts will present two free public programs related to Beyond the Rainbow. For more information about Public Programs, please call 212-642-0142.

A is for Arlen, or, Did He Write That Too?
Thursday, February 24 at 6:00 p.m.
By Barry Day. Performed by Klea Blackhurst, Eric Comstock, Barbara Fasano, and Steve Ross


Agnes de Mille: Dance Modernism in the American Musical
Thursday, May 5 at 6:00 p.m.,
Lecture by Liza Gennaro


Harold Arlen-Biography

Promotional flyer for tour of the musical Bloomer Girl, 1946 by Harold Arlen and Yip Harburg. Photo: Billy Rose Theatre Collection, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts.

Harold Arlen was born February 15, 1905 in Buffalo, New York. At age seven he began singing in the choir of the synagogue where his father was cantor. His father also gave Arlen piano lessons. As a teenager, Arlen played piano in a succession of local groups, making his way to New York in 1925 with The Buffalodians. Among the engagements he found there was a job as a rehearsal pianist for Vincent Youmans's 1929 musical Great Day. Arlen's improvisation on a standard rehearsal vamp attracted attention and was expanded with lyricist Ted Koehler into the song "Get Happy" Although it was initially performed in an unsuccessful Broadway revue, it set Arlen's songwriting career in motion.

In 1930, Arlen and Koehler then began writing for revues at Harlem's legendary Cotton Club. Among the team's many successful songs there was "Stormy Weather," introduced by Ethel Waters in Cotton Club Parade of 1933. Arlen and Koehler continued contributing to Broadway revues, but the composer also began working with other lyricists. In 1932, he and Yip Harburg wrote "It's Only a Paper Moon" for a nonmusical play, The Great Magoo.

Arlen and Koehler's first assignment for Hollywood was the 1934 film Let's Fall in Love. In the 1930s, Arlen alternated between composing for stage and screen. Notable work on Broadway included the 1934 revue Life Begins at 8:40, written with Harburg and Ira Gershwin, and the score to a 1937 political satire, Hooray for What?, created with Harburg.

Arlen composed songs for a succession of films, including Strike Me Pink (1936), The Singing Kid (1936), Stage Struck (1936), and Gold Diggers of 1937. In 1938, he and Harburg were hired by MGM for The Wizard of Oz, and their songs for the film have become classics.

In 1941, Arlen began a collaboration with lyricist Johnny Mercer. Among the songs they wrote for a succession of Hollywood musicals are "Blues in the Night," "That Old Black Magic," and "One for My Baby (And One More for the Road)." Arlen returned to Broadway in 1944, with Bloomer Girl, a collaboration with Harburg. Then, in 1946, came St. Louis Woman, a stage musical written with Mercer.

Arlen's last great composition for the movies was "The Man That Got Away," sung by Judy Garland in the 1954 remake of A Star Is Born. The same year, House of Flowers, a collaboration with Truman Capote for Broadway, had a well-received score, but ran for only 165 performances. His next work for the New York stage was Jamaica, a 1957 collaboration with Harburg starring Lena Horne. His final contribution to Broadway, written with Mercer, was the score for the 1959 musical Saratoga, which lasted for only 80 performances.

Arlen married Anya Taranda in 1937 and the couple remained together until her death in 1970. Harold Arlen died at home in Manhattan on April 23, 1986. His son Samuel is the head of S. A. Music.

Beyond the Rainbow: Music of Harold Arlen is on view from February 15 through May 27, 2005 in the Vincent Astor Gallery at The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center, 40 Lincoln Center Plaza. Exhibition hours are Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday from noon to 6 p.m.; and Thursday from noon to 8 p.m.; closed Sundays, Mondays, and national holidays. Admission is free. For more information about exhibitions at The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, the public may call 212-870-1630 or visit the Library’s website at www.nypl.org.

The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts gratefully acknowledges the leadership support of Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman. Additional support for programs and exhibitions has been provided by Judy R. and Alfred A. Rosenberg and the Miriam and Harold Steinberg Foundation.

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