Research Catalog

Details

Additional authors

1. Godowsky, Frances Gershwin
2. Kantor, Michael, 1961-
3. Hunt, Mead
4. Broadway Film Project, Inc, donor.
5. Thirteen/WNET, donor.

Description

1. 2 videocassettes (VHS) (51 min.) : sd., col. SP; 1/2 in.

Summary

1. Raw interview footage used for the documentary Broadway, the American musical. Frances Gershwin Godowsky, a singer and dancer, and sister of composer George and lyricist Ira Gershwin, discusses her famous brothers. She begins with George's love of entertaining others with his piano playing; their family's acquisition of an upright piano, which George began to play immediately, after it came in through the window of their Second Avenue apartment; George's independent nature, and early job as a "song plugger" at the music publishing firm Remick's; her parents who immigrated from Russia, her father's love of music, and her mother's creativity; the differences between George and Ira, and their love for each other; George's protective feelings for her; George's work on his first musical comedy Lady, be good starring Fred and Adele Astaire, during which he would attempt to teach Frances Fred Astaire's dance routines; taking her to Paris where she met Cole Porter who wanted her to audition for his revue; George and Ira's collaboration; Ira's love of English and reading, and his helping her with her homework; her parents' characters and their impact on her brothers; George's seeming lack of concern about the Anti-Semitism which was pervasive; George's trip to South Carolina to compose his folk opera Porgy and Bess, where he stayed with DuBose Heyward, the author of the novel on which the musical was based; missing her brother George greatly, and her feelings about Ira, with whom she was not as close; George's last illness, and hearing the news of his death in 1937 while she was in Venice, Italy; more on the differences between Ira and George, and the difficulties she and Ira had in getting over their brother's death.
2. Interview resumes on videocassette two with Godowsky's performance of three of her brothers' songs, accompanied by piano. Godowsky does several takes of each the songs, which she prefaces with introductory comments. The songs she performs are: Oh gee, oh joy, (Don't give me) Vodka, and My one and only. Last six minutes, which is audio only, consists of piano instrumental playing of the music for Vodka and Oh gee, oh joy.

Alternative title

1. Broadway, the American musical
2. Broadway : Broadway film project

Subject

1. Godowsky, Frances Gershwin > Interviews
2. Gershwin, George, 1898-1937
3. Gershwin, Ira, 1896-1983
4. Theater > New York (State) > New York
5. Musical theater > New York (State) > New York
6. Musical theater > Production and direction
7. Composers > United States
8. Lyricists > United States
9. Broadway (New York, N.Y.)

Genre/Form

1. Documentaries and factual works.
2. Musicals.
3. Unedited footage.

Call number

1. NCOX 2099

Note

1. This interview is one of a group of interviews with 90 individuals used in making the documentary Broadway, the American musical. The completed production is available on NCOX 2058.
2. Credits for completed production from pbs.org: A film by Michael Kantor ; produced by Jeff Dupre, Michael Kantor and Sally Rosenthal ; written by Marc Fields, Michael Kantor, Laurence Maslon, and JoAnne Young ; directed by Michael Kantor.
3. Time code on frame.
4. Contains various takes, at occasional brief intervals, audio continues without sound.

Credits (note)

1. Cameraman: Mead Hunt.

Performer (note)

1. Interviewer: Michael Kantor. Interviewee: Frances Gershwin Godowsky.

Event (note)

1. Videotaped in New York, N.Y. on June 26, 1997.

Biography (note)

1. Broadway, the American musical, which aired on PBS in October 2004, is a documentary chronicling the entire history of a unique American art form, the Broadway musical. Each of its six episodes covers a different era in American theater history, and features the Broadway shows and songs which defined the period. The series draws on feature films, television broadcasts, archival news footage, original cast recordings, still photos, diaries, journals, first-person accounts, and on-camera interviews with many of the principals involved in the development of the genre.

Title

1. [Interview with Frances Gershwin Godowsky : raw footage] [videorecording] / [directed by Michael Kantor]

Imprint

1. New York, 1997.

Credits

1. Cameraman: Mead Hunt.

Performer

1. Interviewer: Michael Kantor. Interviewee: Frances Gershwin Godowsky.

Event

1. Videotaped in New York, N.Y. on June 26, 1997.

Biography

1. Broadway, the American musical, which aired on PBS in October 2004, is a documentary chronicling the entire history of a unique American art form, the Broadway musical. Each of its six episodes covers a different era in American theater history, and features the Broadway shows and songs which defined the period. The series draws on feature films, television broadcasts, archival news footage, original cast recordings, still photos, diaries, journals, first-person accounts, and on-camera interviews with many of the principals involved in the development of the genre.

Local note

1. Gift of Broadway Film Project, Inc. and Thirteen/WNET, 2005.

Connect to:

1. Request Access to Theatre on Film and Tape Archive Special Collections material

Added author

1. Godowsky, Frances Gershwin, interviewee.
2. Kantor, Michael, 1961- interviewer.
3. Kantor, Michael, 1961- director.
4. Hunt, Mead, cameraman.
5. Broadway Film Project, Inc, donor.
6. Thirteen/WNET, donor.

Research call number

1. NCOX 2099