The Southern Jewish weekly. [volume], July 25, 1941, Page Page Two, Image 2

About The Southern Jewish weekly. [volume] (Jacksonville, Fla.) 1939-1992

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Page Two
IRVING BERLIN,
The Nation's Songwriter
An Interview By LAWRENCE GOULD
Fascists boo when “God Bless America” is played. Ir
ving Berlin wrote it and the disciples of Hitler seek to im
port “Aryanism” to America. A glimpse of the personality
of the composer is provided in this sketch.
. . . The Editor
There is a new song on the air today upon which ASCAP has
released all restrictions. Its copyright is held by Henry Morgenthau,
Jr., Secretary of the Treasury. The tune is growing familiar to the
entire nation but no commercial barometer will ever gauge the degree
of its success.
“Any Bonds Today?” Irving
Berlin has asked of the American
people. “Here comes the free
dom man, scrape up what you
[ f
IRVING BERLIN
can” —and Berlin, whose output of
hits over the past three decades
has made him the most prolific and
successful songwriter in America,
has turned out another hit.
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How did “Any Bonds Today?”
come to be written? “Mr. Mor
genthau called me up one day and
told me that he would like to
have a song to help him sell the
new defense bonds. In a couple
of weeks I had something prepar
ed, took it down to the Treasury
and found that the men there lik
ed it very much. But I wasn’t
satisfied. I added a few touches
and that’s all there is to it.”
That’s all there is to it with
all of Berlin’s songs except that
the unfailing ability to capture
the public fancy goes along with
every note that Berlin composes.
When the Army Ordinance As
sociation wanted to popularize its
work to equip the new American
defense forces, i$ naturally called
upon Berlin—and “Arms for the
Love of America,” with its copy
right transferred to the Associa
tion, has become the theme song
for those who want to help the
“man behind the man behind the
gun.”
Irving Berlin sees his job as
that of a songwriter, but his songs
today have purpose, insight and
emotion which reflect his deep
love for America. To him Amer
ica is a word weighted with mean
ing. It .is a fabulous land still.
The land which was good enough
to take him out of the East Side
and to give him fame in a land to
which he is profoundly grateful.
He is giving generously of his
gratitude today in his work.
“I have never used the word
America in anything but a serious
song,” he says. When asked what
he thinks of those who howl down
“God Bless America” at “anti
war” meetings, he only smiles.
“It ought to be pretty obvious,”
he replies.
Carl Sandburg has spoken out
against the bundists and the
under-cover Nazis who boo and
hoot because “God Bless America”
was written by a Jew. He has
attacked the “hideous, slimy and
subhuman crew” who direct the
innocents in Chicago and Phila
delphia to whom "God Bless
America” is anathema.
But Berlin is content to say
nothing. He wants the song to
speak for itself.
This is the key to the person
ality of a man who speaks in the
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THE SOUTHERN JEWISH WEEKLY
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common idiom and who feels that
in this country there is no room
for the prejudice and the oppres
sion of Europe. He enjoys remi
niscing over the old days when he
knew bitter poverty. That pov
erty, he feels, did not seem so
bitter at that time. It was the
accepted way of life in his neigh
borhood.
Today he keeps always before
him the remembrance of those
days. In his tastefully furnished
office in New York’s theatrical
district stands an old Monarch
upright piano which he bought
second-hand in 1909 for SIOO, and
which he has taken all around
the world with him.
But it is typical of Berlin that
he doesn’t say, “I keep this piano
because it has fond memories for
me.” He says instead, “For some
people this piano would be no
good at all, but you see” —and he
manipulates a lever —“I can
change the keyboard around to
suit the type of music I want to
write. I write only in one key
and for me this piano is perfect.”
On subjects of Jewish interest
he speaks forcefully and intelli
gently. Yet on such subjects he
feels that men like Rabbi Stephen
S. Wise are best equipped to ex
press their points of view and,
with characteristic modesty, he
prefers that they speak for the
Jewish people.
To him the job of songwriting
represents his best contribution,
as an American and as a Jew, to
the task of keeping America free.
Continued freedom in America, he
feels, means continued freedom
for Jew as well as Gentile. Anti-
Semitism, he insists, will wane.
He knows that the dislike of Jews
which was once purely social has
burgeoned into a more active
movement He is confident that
the good sense of the American
people will ultimately reduce the
like or dislike of the Jew to the
matter of individual taste, where
it belongs
Hitler, he says originally traf
ficked only in hatred of Jews.
But now, like a businessman
whose enterprise has flourished,
he has entered into the profession
of hatred on a wholesale scale,
and it is no longer the Jews who
are the especial object of his
fury. In that fact he sees a pro
found lesson for this country.
The man who started with
Alexander’s Ragtime Band” arjd
who became the author of ballads
which are as much American as
our folk music can ever be, sees
our way of life gravely menaced
by Hitler and Hitlerism. In the
way some might say: “That isn’t
right,” he says, “That isn’t Amer
ican,” when he talks of racialism,
persecution and the Nazi lust for
power.
New Songs for New Army
On the wall of his office hangs
a neatly framed poster advertising
the “new show,** “Yip, Yip Yap-
hank,” which brought out that
battlecry of the sleepy-head:
“Oh, How I Hate To Get Up in
the Morning.” “Yip, Yip Yap
hank” was staged to provide some
desperately needed money for the
army boys stationed at that camp
during the last war. Irving Ber
lin confides that he is ready to
put out a new edition for the boys
in the same area now. It seems
that the army post on Long Island
needs a new recreation center and
Berlin, enthusiastic over the type
of men now in the American
army is practically fore-ordained.
The new qrmy, Mr. Berlin feels,
is much superior to that of 1917.
It is quicker, more intelligent and
determined to see its job through.
Irving Berlin will heartily agree
that the songs whidh were popular
in the last war could not be re
vived to meet the music needs of
1941. But he will not agree that
a basically different type of ap
proach is required. People react
to essentially the same stimuli
now as they did then. The same
basic emotions are there. And
his America remains, the America
he knew as a boy and as a young
man. The boom and the depres
sion have not soured It.
He will not say that this coun
try has changed fundamentally.
Its strivings to him will always
be freedom and hope and decency
for all men.
Irving Berlin has succeeded as
no other American in capturing
the spirit of a swiftly changing
age. To him America never
changes because he has changed
with America. The “Let’s Have
Another Cup of Coffee—Let’s
Have Another Piece of Pie” re
frain of 1932 has given way to
“Arms for the Love of America”
in 1941. Irving Berlin, balladist
and patriot, is like the Uncle Sam
he loves--“the freedom man.”
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