Styne, Jule

Styne, Jule [né Julius Kerwin Stein] (1905–94), composer. Born in London but brought to America at the age of eight, he proved a child prodigy on the piano, giving recitals with the Chicago and Detroit symphonies and entering the Chicago College of Music at thirteen. He later abandoned classical music in favor of becoming a pianist in a dance band and eventually organized his own band. After many years of composing for Hollywood films and Tin Pan Alley, Styne turned to Broadway and enjoyed a smash hit with his second try, High Button Shoes (1947). Working with a variety of lyricists he scored Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1949), Two on the Aisle (1951), Hazel Flagg (1953), Peter Pan (1954), Bells Are Ringing (1956), Say, Darling (1958), Gypsy (1959), Do Re Mi (1960), Subways Are for Sleeping (1961), Funny Girl (1964), Fade In—Fade Out (1964), Hallelujah, Baby! (1967), Sugar (1972), and The Red Shoes (1993). He also produced a number of Broadway shows, most memorably the 1952 revival of Pal Joey. Styne's traditional but melodic and eminently theatrical music will probably be seen as the last set squarely in the school of great American composers that began with the musical comedy songs of Irving Berlin and Jerome Kern. He was unquestionably the most prolific and successful of composers to appear on Broadway just after World War II. Biography: Jule: The Story of Composer Jule Styne, Theodore Taylor, 1979.