One of the greatest contributors to the American Songbook, Cole Porter was born in Peru, Indiana on June 9, 1891.His mother, Kate, started Porter in musical training at an early age; he learned the violin at age six, the piano at eight, and he wrote his first operetta at 10. Porters mother, Kate, recognized and supported her son's talents. She changed his legal birth year from 1891 to 1893 to make him look like an advanced child. Porte's grandfather J.O. Cole wanted the boy to become a lawyer,[2] and with that career in mind, sent him to Worcester Academy in 1905 (where he became class valedictorian)[2] and then Yale University beginning in 1909.Porter was a member of Scroll and Key and Delta Kappa Epsilon, and sang as a member of the original line-up of the Whiffenpoofs. While at Yale, he wrote a number of student songs, including the football fight songs "Yale Bulldog" and "Bingo Eli Yale" (aka "Bingo, That's The Lingo!") that are still played at Yale to this day. Cole Porter wrote 300 songs while at Yale.[2]Cole spent a year at Harvard Law School in 1913, and then transferred into Arts and Sciences.
In 1915, his first song on Broadway, "Esmeralda," appeared in the revue Hands Up. The quick success was immediately followed by failure; his first Broadway production, in 1916, See America First (book by Lawrason Riggs), was a flop, closing after two weeks. He soon started to feel the crunch of rejection, as other revues for which he wrote were also flops. After the string of failures, Porter banished himself to Paris, selling songs and living off an allowance partly from his grandfather and partly from his mother.Porter was working as a songwriter when the U.S. entered World War I in 1917. He traveled all over Europe, socializing with some of the best known intellectuals and artists in Europe, and becoming a charter member of the Lost Generation.In 1918, Porter met Linda Lee Thomas, a rich, Louisville, Kentucky-born divorcée eight years his senior,[1] whom he married the following year.Although Porter was often photographed in the arms of beautiful women and was married for 34 years to one wife who conceived and miscarried, it is the current consensus that he was homosexual.Unlike contemporaries such as George Gershwin and Irving Berlin, Porter had not succeeded on Broadway in his early years. However, born to as well as married to wealth, he did not lack for money, and sat out most of the 1920s, living in luxury in Europe. Porter continued to write. Some of these songs would later be hits.Porter reintroduced himself to Broadway with the musical Paris (1928), which featured one of his greatest songs, "Let's Do It (Let's Fall In Love)." Following this Gallic theme, his next show was Fifty Million Frenchmen (1929), which included several popular numbers including "You Do Something To Me" and "You've Got That Thing." Finishing out the decade, opening on December 30, 1929, was Wake Up and Dream, with a score that included "What Is This Thing Called Love?"He started the 1930s with the revue The New Yorkers (1930), which included a song about a streetwalker, "Love For Sale." The lyric was considered too explicit for radio at the time, but has gone on to become a standard. Next came Fred Astaire's last stage show, Gay Divorce (1932). It featured a hit that would become perhaps Porter's best known song, "Night And Day."In 1934, Porter wrote what is thought by most to be his greatest score of this period, Anything Goes (1934). Its songs include "I Get A Kick Out Of You," "All Through The Night," perhaps his ultimate "list" song "You're The Top," and "Blow, Gabriel, Blow," as well as the title number. For years after, critics would compare most Porter shows — unfavorably — to this one. Anything Goes was also the first Porter show featuring Ethel Merman, who would go on to star in five of his musicals. He loved her loud, brassy voice, and wrote many numbers that featured her strengths.
Jubilee (1935), written with Moss Hart while on a cruise around the world, was not a major hit, but featured two songs that have since become part of the Great American Songbook -"Begin The Beguine" and "Just One Of Those Things."Red Hot And Blue (1936), featuring Merman, Jimmy Durante and Bob Hope, introduced "It's De-Lovely," "Down in the Depths (on the Ninetieth Floor)" and "Ridin' High."
Porter also wrote for Hollywood, including the scores for Born To Dance (1936), featuring "Easy To Love" and "I've Got You Under My Skin," and Rosalie (1937), featuring "In the Still of the Night." In addition, he had composed the cowboy song "Don't Fence Me In" for an unproduced movie in the 1930s, but it didn't become a hit until Roy Rogers and Bing Crosby & The Andrews Sisters, as well as other artists, introduced it to the public in the 1940s.Porter continued to live the high life during this period, throwing lavish parties. Now at the height of his success, Porter was able to enjoy the opening night of his musicals; he would make a grand entrance and sit up front, apparently relishing the show as much as any audience member.
Then, in 1937, a riding accident crushed his legs and left him in chronic pain, largely crippled. Doctors told Porter's wife and mother that his right leg would have to be amputated and possibly the left one as well. Porter underwent more than 30 surgeries on his legs and was in constant pain for the rest of his life.Despite his pain, Porter continued to write successful shows. Leave It To Me (1938) (introducing Mary Martin singing "My Heart Belongs To Daddy"), DuBarry Was a Lady (1939), Panama Hattie (1940), Let's Face It! (1941), Something For The Boys (1943) and Mexican Hayride (1944) were all hits.In 1948, Porter wrote what was by far his biggest hit show, Kiss Me, Kate. The production won the Tony Award for Best Musical, and Porter won for Best Composer and Lyricist. The score — generally conceded to be his best — includes "Another Op'nin' Another Show," "Wunderbar," "So In Love," "We Open In Venice," "Tom, Dick or Harry," "I've Come To Wive It Wealthily In Padua," "Too Darn Hot," "Always True to You (In My Fashion)," and "Brush Up Your Shakespeare." Porter was back on top.Though his next show — Out Of This World (1950) — was not greatly successful, the show after that, Can-Can (1952), featuring "C'est Magnifique" and "It's All Right With Me," was a major hit. His last original Broadway production, Silk Stockings (1955), featuring "All Of You," was also successful.
After his riding accident, Porter also continued to work in Hollywood, writing the scores for two Fred Astaire movies, Broadway Melody of 1940 (1940), which featured "I Concentrate On You," and You'll Never Get Rich (1941). He later wrote the songs for the Gene Kelly/Judy Garland musical The Pirate (1948) and High Society (1956), starring Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra and Grace Kelly, had Porter's last major hit, "True Love."Eventually, his injuries caught up with him. After a series of ulcers and 34 operations on his right leg, it had to be amputated and replaced with an artificial limb in 1958. The operation followed the death of his beloved mother in 1952 and the end of his wife's battle with emphysema in 1954. The combined hardships Porter endured proved to be too much. He never wrote another song and spent the remaining years of his life in relative seclusion.
Cole Porter died of kidney failure at the age of 73 in Santa Monica, California and is buried between his wife and father.
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