In the 1930s, when the Great Depression hit, there was a mass exodus of songwriters who moved from Broadway out to Hollywood, adding their songs to the new art form, the film musical. And one of the first to make a name for himself on the Silver Screen was songwriter Irving Berlin. Berlin’s film songs make up a large portion of what we think of as the Great American Songbook, including songs like “Cheek To Cheek,” “Puttin’ On The Ritz” and “Let’s Face The Music And Dance.” This episode, we’ll explore the songwriter’s work in cinema, as performed by jazz and pop singers like Tony Bennett, Ella Fitzgerald and more
The Jazz Singer
There is hardly a composer more central to “American popular song” in the first half of the 20th century than Irving Berlin. Born in Imperial Russia in 1888, he emigrated to America just before the turn of the 20th century, growing up in abject poverty in New York City. He learned the gift of melody from his father, a Jewish cantor, although the young Irving’s talent for music was much more natural than traditionally learned.
He left school at age 13, and earned money singing in saloons, picking up songs from people on the street and teaching himself how to play some basic piano and improvising some original melodies. He graduated from a song plugger for a publishing company to a full-fledged songwriter by the time he was 20, earning his first international hit song, “Alexander’s Ragtime Band,” at age 23. Over the next several years, Berlin wrote songs for the Broadway stage and the hit parade, becoming one of the most popular songwriters in America.
1927 marked a turning point, not just for Irving Berlin, but for all of American Culture. With Al Jolson’s 1927 film The Jazz Singer, a new form of media was created: the talkie, a film that synced sights and sounds. The silent era was over and the sound era had begun. The film itself does not age well—minstrelsy was still a key component of American entertainment in the 1920s, and so Jolson performs in blackface for much of the film. But its story of an immigrant son of a Jewish cantor making it big in show business was similar to Irving Berlin’s own story. And one of his songs originally written for the stage, “Blue Skies,” was used in the film. This song has been a staple of the Great American Songbook ever since, performed by nearly ever major jazz singer.
Early Film Musicals
Most notable film songwriters from this time—including Richard Rodgers and Jerome Kern—waited until the 1930s to try their luck in Hollywood. It wasn’t until the Great Depression, when their fortunes were drying up on Broadway, that a move out west seemed lucrative.
But Irving Berlin, after the success of The Jazz Singer, started writing songs exclusively for films right away, all while continuing to write other songs for the stage. Berlin wrote new songs like "Marie" for the 1928 film The Awakening, as well as the title songs to the 1930 films Reaching For The Moon and Puttin’ On The Ritz.
Irving Berlin’s song contributions are sometimes the only reason these films are remembered today, having been performed over the years by singers like Ray Charles, Frank Sinatra, and Fred Astaire. Only highly-edited versions of the films Reaching For The Moon and Puttin’ On The Ritz survive today, and a film print of The Awakening is completely lost.
Irving Berlin and Fred Astaire
Contrary to what you might be thinking, the song “Puttin’ On The Ritz” was not introduced by Fred Astaire. It was actor Harry Richman who first sang the song in the 1930 film of the same name. However, Astaire did play a big role in many of the Irving Berlin songs that we remember today. For instance, it was his version of “Puttin’ On The Ritz” from the 1946 film musical Blue Skies, that helped cement its legacy. (that, or Mel Brooks and Peter Boyle singing that song in the 1974 film Young Frankenstein).
Starting in 1930, Irving Berlin had some writer’s block. He had already spent two decades in the business, and was afraid his best years were behind him. Luckily, he broke out of his slump a few years later, when he wrote songs like “Heat Wave” and “Easter Parade” for the 1933 Broadway musical As Thousands Cheer. While these songs were first written for the stage, they would show up in films years later.
It wasn’t until 1935, however, that Berlin returned to writing for film. That was for the 1935 film Top Hat starring, you guessed it, Fred Astaire. By this point, Astaire and his musical partner Ginger Rogers had already had a string of film hits. But now with Irving Berlin’s songs, Top Hat became their most acclaimed and successful musical. Astaire’s star power also helped elevate these songs, including “Cheek To Cheek,” “Top Hat, White Tie, and Tails,” and “Isn’t This A Lovely Day,” to immortal status.
The wildly successful 1935 film Top Hat proved to be a winning formula: take some Irving Berlin songs, combine them with musical numbers performed by the electrifying on-screen duo of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, and you got yourself a hit film. The team at RKO pictures tried the formula again for the nautical-themed film musical Follow The Fleet, which produced more memorable songs, like “Let’s Face The Music And Dance,” “Let Yourself Go,” and “I’m Putting All My Eggs In One Basket.” These songs have been performed over the years by Mel Tormé, Carmen McRae, Ella Fitzgerald, and more.
The Songbook Films
In the late 1930s, Irving Berlin continued his string of hits writing for film. The demand for film musicals with songs by Berlin even began to outpace his own songwriting abilities. By 1938, the film company 20th Century Fox had the idea to began to produce a film borrowing heavily from Berlin’s back catalog of songs. That became the 1938 film Alexander’s Ragtime Band, which told the history of jazz music through the songs of Irving Berlin. Berlin did write some new songs for the film, including "Now It Can Be Told," which later became a standard. However, this idea of using older Berlin songs became another formula for success. Alexander’s Ragtime Band was 20th Century Fox's best-selling film from the 1930s.
The formula was repeated for other films by other film companies, including the 1942 film Holiday Inn, the 1946 film Blue Skies, the 1948 film Easter Parade, and the 1954 film White Christmas. Big stars like Judy Garland, Fred Astaire, Bing Crosby and Rosemary Clooney starred in these films, performing some beloved older Irving Berlin hits, like the title songs "Blues Skies," "Easter Parade," and "White Christmas."
But Berlin continued to add the occasional new song to many of these films, and many of these songs have cotninue to stick around decades later. These include “Be Careful, It’s My Heart” from the 1942 film Holiday Inn, “You Keep Coming Back Like A Song” from the 1946 film Blue Skies, or “Steppin’ Out With My Baby” from the 1948 film Easter Parade. These songs have been performed over the decades by singers like Sarah Vaughan, Jo Stafford, and Tony Bennett.