Porter, Cole (Albert)

Porter, Cole [Albert] (1891–1964), composer and lyricist. Born into a family of wealth in Peru, Indiana, he was educated at Yale and Harvard. Al‐though he interpolated a few songs into earlier musicals, Broadway heard its first complete Porter score in the short‐lived See America First (1915). While some songs he wrote for Hitchy‐Koo (1919) and Greenwich Village Follies of 1924 were noticed, it was his score for Paris (1928) and its hit song “Let's Do It” that launched his career. It was followed by Fifty Million Frenchmen (1929), Wake Up and Dream! (1929), The New Yorkers (1930), Gay Divorce (1932), Anything Goes (1934), Jubilee (1935), Red, Hot and Blue! (1936), You Never Know (1938), Leave It to Me! (1938), and Du Barry Was a Lady (1939). Porter's wartime musicals were mostly star‐driven vehicles for Ethel Merman or Danny Kaye, but some superb songs could still be found in Panama Hattie (1940), Let's Face It! (1941), Something for the Boys (1943), Mexican Hayride (1944), and Seven Lively Arts (1944). One of his rare flops was Around the World in Eighty Days (1946), followed by his biggest hit, Kiss Me, Kate (1948). Porter's later musicals were Out of This World (1950), Can‐Can (1953), and Silk Stockings (1955). His songs trafficked in a knowing, sometimes showy sophistication, and his generally silken melodies were combined with lyrics that ranged from suave and blasé to sexually obsessive and even raunchy. More than any other major songwriter, his songs seemed, except for some of his last musicals, to have a cavalier detachment from their shows. Biography: Cole Porter: A Biography, William McBrien, 1998.