Cole Porter

Most critics admit that Cole Porter was no George Gershwin. But he did - and still does - continue to enjoy popularity with enthusiasts of the Broadway musical. Among the - quote - "contemporary" - unquote - musicians who have recorded Cole's songs are Rod Stewart, Paul McCartney, Sinéad O'Connor, Julio Iglesias, Jamie Cullum, and U2.

That said, we have to admit that Cole isn't sung today as much as he was. And some critics have suggested that recent recordings are kind of like when film actors take time off from making pictures like Slash 'Em, Blast 'Em, and Hash 'Em to do something by Shakespeare. If nothing else, it adds a bit of highbrow respectability to their oeuvre.

Cole wasn't like George Gershwin in one non-musical aspect. George's family was of modest means, and his dad worked as a supervisor in a local factory. The job produced a steady and for the time a comfortable lifestyle, but they did have to count their pennies.

Cole, as everyone knows was born in Peru, Indiana, and his dad was the local druggist. Now you might think this put Cole in a slightly elevated economic class but not enough to make much of a difference.

Well, there is one big difference in George's family and Cole's. Cole's maternal granddad was - to put it honestly - a Guilded Age money-grabbing mogul and was loaded - and we mean loaded. There is some thought that Cole's mom, Kate, didn't like the influence her dad had on her son and when Cole was 14, she sent him to the prestigious Worcester (Massachusetts) Academy boarding school.

She also encouraged his musical talents from an early age. Before he started school he could play piano and violin, and as a kid he wrote songs for school plays and the singing groups.

At college Cole put up a show of going into respectable studies to please his granddad, but his main interest remained music. Eventually he gave up any pretense of pursuing any career other than being a composer, and he studied at both Yale and Harvard. He kept writing songs, one of which was the Yale football fight song "Bull Dog". He also sang in the glee club but admitted his voice - a bit thin and high pitched - wasn't that great.

Out of college Cole had the connections to pursue a musical career. His professional debut was not auspicious. Two of his songs written in college were used in two Broadway productions which were flops. But in 1916 he collaborated with a college classmate to produce See America First. Sadly this first of Cole's musicals ran only fifteen performances. Throughout his career a number of Cole's shows did so-so and are not often performed today.

Of course, Cole did have success, and his biggest hit came in 1948 with Kiss Me Kate. Cole wrote the songs (music and lyrics) and the book was by the husband and wife team, Samuel and Bella Spewack. This musical is still popular today, and it's a good bet you'll find a performance has been staged somewhere within the last few years.

Of course, a lot of Cole's songs became hits in their own right. A particular favorite has been Night and Day which you'll hear sung by everyone from top name stars to high school choruses. The styles of rendering are so different, though, you have to pay attention or you may not know they're singing Cole's song.

By all accounts Cole was a nice guy and once he was eating dinner with the writer George Eells. Seeing that the menu was in French, George tried to wing it and accidentally ordered (gasp!) two appetizers. The waiter expressed his incredulity at such a scandalous faux pas, but Cole - understanding what happened and not wanting to embarrass George - said that was a great idea and did the same.

It's no secret now - nor was it then - that Cole had a number of same-gender relationships but in 1919, he married Linda Lee Thomas. Although the immediate purpose of the marriage was most likely to quell the rumors about Cole's preference, the couple traveled together extensively. Nevertheless, they often stayed in separate rooms and at home Cole preferred a small out of the way cottage while Linda stayed at the main house. Still, although clearly not a typical union, the marriage turned out to be happy, and when Linda died in 1954, Cole was devastated.

We see then - and returning to the difference between Cole and George - is that it really didn't matter if Cole's songs or musicals were successful or not. Although generally Cole's later musicals did generate a good income, his monetary support mainly came from his grandfather's estate of timberlands, gas fields, and coal mines, an estate which Cole inherited in 1923. Linda, too, was wealthy and throughout the Depression there were few people who lived as lavishly as the Porters.

Despite Cole's wealth and opulent lifestyle, he did indeed have real hardships, the like of which many people avoid. In 1937, he had his famous riding accident at the Piping Rock Club on Long island. He and his friends had taken some horses and gone out for a jaunt. Cole, though, had selected a particularly skittish steed. At one point something startled the horse who reared up and sent Cole tumbling to the ground. Normally this might have been no big deal except that the also horse toppled back and came down on top of Cole's legs.

Cole put on a brave face and the story is that before he reached the hospital he worked on the lyrics to a song (either "At Long Last Love" or "You'll Never Know" depending on who's telling the story). Suffering from multiple fractures of both thighs with the right leg being more seriously injured, Cole had to undergo major surgery. The doctors found the breaks were not clean and the breaking of the bones had left jagged edges that were difficult to set. Almost inevitably in those pre-antibiotic days, osteomyelitis developed which even now is a serious infection and treated only with difficulty.

Cole was in considerable pain the rest of his life. After numerous treatments (including additional surgery that required the rebreaking of both legs), finally in 1958 and now in his mid 60's, Cole had to have the more seriously injured right leg amputated. His last song was also written that year. Cole lived until 1964 and died at age 73 - at the time a respectable enough age.

References

Cole Porter, William McBrien, Knopf, 1998.

"Cole Porter: The Life That Late He Led", George Eells, Putnam, 1967.

"The Painful Life of Cole Porter", Howard Markel, MD, PhD, Medscape General Medicine, Volume 6, Issue 2, 2004.

"King Cole: The not so merry soul of Cole Porter", John Lahr, The New Yorker, July 2004.

The Gay and Lesbian Theatrical Legacy - A Biographical Dictionary of Major Figures in American Stage History in the Pre-Stonewall Era , Billy J. Harbin, Kim Marra, and Robert A. Schanke (Editors), University of Michigan Press, 2005.