The house that George built : with a little help from Irving, Cole, and a crew of about fifty / Wilfrid Sheed

Includes index.

Introduction : I could write a book if they asked me -- The road to Berlin -- Irving Berlin : the little pianist who couldn't -- Of thee I sing, Gershwin -- Harold Arlen : the songwriter's songwriter -- Hoagy Carmichael : the jazz song goes west -- Duke Ellington : royalty -- Jerome Kern : jazz comes to Broadway ... slowly -- Cole Porter : from Peru to Paree to Broadway -- Richard Rodgers : Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Rodgers -- Hooray for Hollywood (sometimes) -- Harry Warren : the king of the unknowns and his quiet reign in Hollywood -- Jimmy Van Heusen : on the road with Bing and Frank -- Johnny Mercer : the all-American voice -- Frank Loesser's great New York musical -- Gershwin's last heir : Burton Lane -- Cy Coleman and the future -- Coda : three more majors (for good measure) -- Appendix : some names that (almost) got away.

From Irving Berlin to Cy Coleman, from "Alexander's Ragtime Band" to "Big Spender," from Tin Pan Alley to the MGM soundstages, the Golden Age of the American song embodied all that was cool, sexy, and sophisticated in popular culture. For four glittering decades, geniuses like Jerome Kern, George Gershwin, Cole Porter, and Harold Arlen enticed unforgettable melodies out of thin air. Gershwin, in his brief but incandescent career, straddled Tin Pan Alley and Carnegie Hall, charming everyone in his orbit. Possessed of a world-class ego, Gershwin was also generous, exciting, and utterly original. Half a century later, his love songs are as moving as ever. Writer Sheed uncovered the legends, mingled with the greats, and gossiped with the insiders. Now he's crafted a dazzling history of the era that "tripled the world's total supply of singable tunes."--From publisher description.