Today is the 95th anniversary in 1911 of Irving Berlin on Broadway. "The Zigfield Follies" had two great songs by Berlin "There's a Fire Deep in My Heart" and "Woodsman, Woodsman, Spare That Tree". Of course 1911 is also the year of Irving's first big song hit "Alexander's Ragtime Band" What an amazing success story was Berlin's. He was born in 1888 in Russia and his father was a rabbai. Songwriting was a happy accident like mine. He was working in a restaurant in 1906 when the owner of that restaurant commissioned Irving to write a song that could be used to rival another restaurant that was using a catchy tune to attract customers. That song turned out to be a tune called "Marie-- From Sunny Italy" That song began Berlin' s career and earned him a total royalty of thirty-seven cents. Berlin never learned to play piano properly or read music beyond a very rudimentary level. He could play by ear but only the black keys on the piano. That made everything come out as F sharp Major or D sharp minor, since he also wrote songs in minor keys. But he owned a piano that with a pull of a lever transformed everything to middle C while an arranger wrote out everything in the proper way. I have an arranger who's a genius at figuring out my material as well! Funny, how my sisters got all the piano lessons but me the songwriter got not a one! Berlin led a charmed life. He was the only person in the world to have found his own name on the winner's envelope at the Academy Awards afterv he announced the nominees for "Best Song". The song that won him that Oscar was none other than "White Christmas" He was nominated for six other songs by the Academy, but lost. The death of his first wife singer Dorothy Goetz five months after their wedding in 1912 (contacting pneumonia and typhoid fever on their honeymoon to Havana inspired one of his biggest hits "When I Lost You" His second wife was Ellin Mackay, a devout Irish Catholic and heiress to the Comstock Lode mining fortune. They were married in 1926 and she was promptly disinherited by her father and snubbed by rich society including the Vanderbilt's. Finances were never a problem, however as Berlin assigned the royalties to the song "Always" to her in perpetuity which yielded her a huge and steady income. Berlin had three daughters and a son (Irving Berlin Jr.) who died before his first birthday on Christmas Day. Although he declined to attend his 100th birthday celebration he did attend the 100th anniversary ceremonies of the Statue Of Liberty. Hr was proud to be an American-- right to his dying day. So here's to Irving Berlin: the father of American music and a true inspiration to me. Today I meet with Jimmy Chapel and hope to resurrect a property called "First Mother" that I had written way back in 1993. IThe pitch is this: "The most eligible bachelor in the world becomes quite suddenly the first Jewish president of the United States and his Brooklyn mother moves into the White House, lock, stock and bagel and takes Washington by storm!" Funny premise! We will see what becomes of this! I am also developing a new series idea called "Changing Habits"-- this could be interesting!