documentary · 41 min

George Gershwin - The Tragic End of a Musical Prodigy | Biographical Documentary

Professor Graeme Yorston · preferred source

One of the best loved composers and songwriters of all time, George Gershwin had no interest in music as a boy. But when he was 10 his parents bought a piano for his older brother, and to everyone’s surprise, he was able to pick out tunes he had learned by following the keys on a neighbour’s pianola. He dropped out of school at 15 to work as a song plugger, pounding out ditties for people buying sheet music, but within three years his songs were being included in Broadway musicals. The rest is history, he achieved worldwide fame with his musical theatre, movie scores and genre crossing jazz inspired classical music. He was intelligent, charming, witty, he painted, kept himself fit and had no secret vices. But at the age of 38 he started behaving erratically, had an absence attack when playing at a concert and hallucinations of the smell of burning rubber. Tragically his symptoms were

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