(1896–1983). American lyricist Ira Gershwin collaborated with his younger brother, George Gershwin, on more than 20 Broadway musicals and motion pictures until George’s death in 1937. Ira later collaborated on films and plays with others—including Moss Hart, Kurt Weill, Jerome Kern, Harry Warren, and Harold Arlen—and contributed to Gershwin revivals.
Ira Gershwin was born Israel Gershvin on December 6, 1896, in New York, New York, to Russian Jewish immigrant parents. He attended City College of New York from 1914 to 1916. He subsequently did odd jobs until his brother, already becoming known as a composer and musician, asked him to write lyrics. Their first song of collaboration was “The Real American Folk Song,” which appeared in the musical Ladies First (1918). During the early years, Ira used a pseudonym, Arthur Francis, so as not to capitalize on his brother’s reputation.
Over the years Ira wrote many brilliant lyrics for George’s melodies. Some of those include the popular songs “The Man I Love,” “’S Wonderful,” “I Got Rhythm,” “Embraceable You,” and “Fascinating Rhythm.” He also prepared the lyrics for George’s dramatic folk opera Porgy and Bess (1935), with such songs as “Summertime,” “I Got Plenty o’ Nuttin’,” and “It Ain’t Necessarily So.” The last score completed by the brothers was for the film A Damsel in Distress (1937), which included the song “A Foggy Day.”
When George died, Ira was so devastated that he could not work for more than a year. After he returned to writing, he collaborated with other well-known composers. Some of his credits include “My Ship” with Weill (1940), “Long Ago and Far Away” with Kern (1944), and “The Man That Got Away” with Arlen (1954), written for Judy Garland.
In later years Ira supervised the release of several of George’s unpublished compositions, including several works for piano, Lullaby for string quartet, and the Catfish Row suite from Porgy and Bess. The latter was cobbled together after the show had closed and is now considered to be the last orchestral work composed and scored by George. Ira also put lyrics to tunes from George’s notebooks, creating “new” Gershwin songs for the films The Shocking Miss Pilgrim (1947) and Kiss Me, Stupid (1964).
Ira collected all the lyrics of his best-known songs and wrote commentaries on each in the book Lyrics on Several Occasions (1959). He continued writing until the last year of his life, rewriting lyrics for Gershwin tunes used in the musical My One and Only (1983). Ira died on August 17, 1983, in Beverly Hills, California.