Jule Styne (1905-1994)
PROLIFIC SONGWRITER & LEGENDARY COMPOSER OF CLASSICS
Jule (pronounced JOO-lee) Styne was born December 31st, 1905 in London, England, was a brilliant, prolific tunesmith who, over the course of a nearly 75-year long career, composed 2,000 songs, published 1,500 of them, and had somewhere around 200 of them become enormous hits or later song standards. Jule was a stocky, feisty man much loved in showbiz circles for his sputtered, incomplete sentences, his wit, adaptability and showmanship.
With the scores of such Broadway classics as GENTLEMEN PREFER BLONDES, PETER PAN, BELLS ARE RINGING, GYPSY and FUNNY GIRL to his credit, composer Jule Styne ranks as one of the undisputed architects of the American musical theatre. Although he was born in London’s East End, Styne’s family moved to the United States in 1912.
Young Julius showed such a talent for the piano that he had performed with the Chicago, St. Louis, and Detroit Symphonies by age 10. He developed his feel for popular music working with the jazz bands of 1920s Chicago, and as vocal coach to such 1930s Hollywood stars as Shirley Temple and Alice Faye.
Teaming with lyricist Sammy Cahn in the 1940s, he created a string of Hit Parade leaders including the Oscar-winning “Three Coins In The Fountain.”
In addition to Sammy Cahn, Styne’s collaborators include Betty Comden and Adolph Green, Stephen Sondheim, Bob Merrill, Leo Robin and E.Y. Harburg, and their combined efforts have produced such showstoppers as “The Party’s Over,” “Everything’s Coming Up Roses,” “People” and “Diamonds Are A Girl’s Best Friend.”
Famous lyricists collaborated with Jule: Frank Loesser, Sammy Cahn, Leo Robin, E.Y. Harburg, Stephen Sondheim, Susan Birkenhead, Betty Comden and Adolph Green and Bob Merrill.
Jule was elected to the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1972, the Theatre Hall of Fame in 1981, and became a Kennedy Center Honoree in 1990. On the occasion of his 25th anniversary in show business, the following tribute was read into the Congressional Record: “The lives of Americans throughout our land, as well as the lives of people throughout the corners of the world, have been enriched by the artistry and genius of Jule Styne.”
The creator of songs ranging from the joyous “Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!” and “Make Someone Happy” to the heartbreaking melancholy of “Guess I’ll Hang My Tears Out to Dry” to the triumph of “Just in Time” received many deserved honors before his death at age 88.
It would be difficult to conceive of the careers of Broadway’s brightest female stars – Carol Channing as Lorelei Lee in GENTLEMEN PREFER BLONDES, Judy Holliday as the daffy telephone operator in BELLS ARE RINGING, Mary Martin as PETER PAN, Barbra Streisand as Fanny Brice in FUNNY GIRL, or Ethel Merman singing “Rose’s Turn” in GYPSY – without the show-stopping songs, so precisely molded to the outstanding talents of each, of Jule Styne.
Jule died on September 20, 1994 in New York City.
Key Shows
BELLS ARE RINGING
DO RE MI
FUNNY GIRL
GENTLEMEN PREFER BLONDES
GYPSY
HALLELUJAH, BABY!
PETER PAN
SUGAR
Key Artists
Carol Channing
Sammy Davis Jr.
Marvin Hamlisch
Angela Lansbury
Arthur Laurents
Mary Martin
Ethel Merman
David Merrick
Cole Porter
Chita Rivera
Jerome Robbins
Frank Sinatra
Stephen Sondheim
Barbra Streisand
Elaine Stritch
My Memories
I was engaged by Jule’s widow Margaret Styne to catalog and digitize legendary pop, film and musical composer Jule Styne’s personal and professional documents, awards, compositions, diaries etc.. to ensure his legacy was not lost, then utilize some of these digital assets to create an enduring web presence.
Here, I spent weeks inside his musty old offices with the Actors Equity building, sifting through filing cabinets and cardboard boxes stuffed with original hand notated scores, diaries (“lunch with E. to discuss G.” ) [E = Ethel Merman G = GYPSY] etc…
I was photographing, scanning and discussing with Margaret in determining what should be sent to the Ransom Center at The University of Texas in Austin, The Smithsonian Archive, and/or making recommendations on what should be considered family legacy items.
Finding his original Oscar statuette in a box inside an old filing cabinet with Margaret exclaiming “I wondered where that was“.
This was an American Theatre treasure trove.