George Gershwin

Originally Aired: February 27, 1939 Cavalcade of America #154, "George Gershwin," traces the early struggles of a musical genius determined to forge a uniquely American sound. Growing up on New York's Lower East Side, young George Gershwin drives his music teacher to distraction by transforming Mozart into ragtime, unable to suppress the native rhythms and urban energy pulsing through his imagination. Against his father's wishes, the fifteen-year-old drops out of school to work as a song plugger in Tin Pan Alley for fifteen dollars a week, where he meets performers like Fred Astaire and dreams of writing his own musical comedies. The episode follows Gershwin's determination through early setbacks and rejections. When he's fired for playing his own compositions instead of the company's music, he faces months of unemployment and loneliness, pounding the pavements of Manhattan while the city's rhythms continue ringing in his ears. His persistence finally pays off when publisher Max Dreyfus recognizes something special in the young composer's work, offering him a five-year contract and a crucial break writing tunes for a musical opening in Syracuse.