On Wednesday evening, July 10, community members gathered at the Schwartz Brothers-Jeffer Memorial Chapels in Forest Hills for a free community event.
Funeral Director Jennifer Martin welcomed everyone and explained how Schwartz Brothers decided that since they acquired a couple of other funeral homes and renovated the building, they wanted to offer free monthly events to the community.
On Tuesday, August 6, at 6:30 p.m., G-d willing, they will offer a lecture on Famous People of Queens, presented by Rob Mackay. It will showcase actors, athletes, businesspeople, politicians, religious leaders, scientists, singers, war heroes, writers, and other famous people who weren’t born in Queens but lived in the borough for a long time. The presenter, Rob Mackay, was a longtime award-winning community journalist who started working for the Queens Economic Development Corporation in 2011.
Next, Mr. Marty Schneit, historian and lecturer, shared an entertaining and informative lecture with an accompanying video PowerPoint. He spoke about Cole Porter, who, he said, was one of the greatest composers. Cole Porter was born in Indiana to a wealthy family, and he was the only surviving child. When he was a little boy, he performed shows on the sun porch of his home. He learned to play violin at age six and piano at age eight.
He entered Yale University in 1909. He wrote 300 songs while enrolled at Yale. He composed a song called “Bulldog,” which became the Yale football team song and is still sung today. After college, he went to Harvard Law School in 1913. He transferred to Harvard’s music school.
He joined the French Foreign Legion and took a special piano strapped on his back that he used to entertain the troops.
He married Linda Lee Thomas in 1919. Mr. Schneit then shared all the musicals he wrote, and he shared the names of some of the famous songs that he wrote during that time period. He was inspired by his friend Irving Berlin, who kept his lyrics simplistic. Irving Berlin advised him to not try to write like others, but to be himself.
Reviewers said that Cole Porter was in a class by himself. Someone else said that he wrote with passion.
Cole Porter said, “I don’t know how my music gets that way…I can’t analyze it. I can analyze the music of others, but not my own.”
Next, Mr. Schneit showed an amazing video of Roy Rogers with his horse Trigger, singing Cole Porter’s famous cowboy song written in 1945, “Don’t Fence Me In.” This song reached the hearts of soldiers in foxholes during World War II. The horse actually moved to the rhythm of the song. The viewing audience all clapped for the song.
Porter also wrote a musical, “Jubilee,” in 1935, which was inspired by Britain’s King George V’s Jubilee.
He wrote many musicals that Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, famous tap dancers, performed in.
Cole Porter noted that he can work anywhere and even while shaving. He can tell a bad line by watching audiences. He wrote songs in crowded coffee houses, on boats, trains, and later, on planes.
He shared that he works out the music first before he tries it on the piano, and the last thing he does is to compose the lyrics.
In 1937, he went horseback riding on Long Island and the instructor told him not to choose a horse that was very skittish, but he rode it anyway. The horse crushed both his legs. He had to have 30 operations. Eventually he lost both legs, and he was in constant pain his whole life. He died in 1964, at the age of 73.
By Susie Garber
