Birthday of composer-lyricist for "God Bless America" -- Israel Baline (prof. name Irving Berlin)

from Writer's Almanac (American Public Media / Minn. Public Radio: Garrison Keillor)

May 11 is the birthday of the composer who said, "My ambition is to reach the heart of the average American. Not the highbrow nor the lowbrow but that vast intermediate crew which is the real soul of the country": Irving Berlin, born Israel Baline in Tyumen, Russia (1888). He got his new name as the result of a printer's error on the first song he ever sold; the printer typeset "Berlin" instead of "Baline," so Irving kept the new name. His family immigrated to New York City when the boy was five years old, and his father, a Jewish cantor, died three years later. He left school and went to work selling newspapers and singing on the streets for handouts and later got a job as a singing waiter in Chinatown.
He published his first song in 1907 and was paid 37 cents for it. His first big success came in 1911, with Alexander's Ragtime Band. "Ragged time" music was the rage, and Berlin's song became one of the most popular and enduring examples of it. Less than a decade later, he was writing complete musical scores, revues, and Broadway shows. He never learned to read or write music, and he only composed in the key of F-sharp. He once said, "I feel like an awful dope that I know so little about the mechanics of my trade." He wrote many beloved American songs, including "White Christmas," "God Bless America," "Easter Parade," "Puttin' on the Ritz," and "There's No Business Like Show Business."
In 1925, he fell in love with a debutante, Ellin Mackay. Her father, who was head of the Postal Telegraph Cable Company and very wealthy, disapproved of this rags-to-riches Lower East Side immigrant upstart. He took his daughter away to Europe, but his "out of sight, out of mind" strategy failed, because Berlin reached her ears through the radio. He wrote romantic ballads like "Always" and "All Alone" to court her. They were married in a civil ceremony when she returned to New York, and they remained married for 62 years, until her death in 1988.  He survived until September 22, 1989.