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Berlin's daughter, Mary Ellin Barrett, states that the song was actually "very personal" for her father, and was intended as an expression of his deep gratitude to the nation for merely "allowing" him, an immigrant raised in poverty, to become a successful songwriter. [37] "To me," said Berlin, "'God Bless America' was not just a song but an ...
- He Started At Rock Bottom. Forced to leave Russia after his childhood home burned to the ground during a terrifying Pogrom, five-year-old Israel Beilin must have felt that life was stacked against him.
- They Lost His Name. Shuffling along amid throngs of huddled, scared immigrants arriving on Ellis Island, young Israel Beilin unwittingly became Israel Baline, as a hard of hearing clerk got his family's surname wrong.
- He Lived In Dickensian Poverty. The Lower East Side of New York was about as down and out as you could get in 1910. Young Izzy, along with his parents and 6 siblings, crammed into a dingy basement flat where they could barely make ends meet.
- He Sang For His Supper. Berlin proved he was something special from the very beginning. Newspaper boys in NYC were a dime a dozen in the 1900s but singing newspaper boys?
When his father died, Berlin, just turned 13, took to the streets in various odd jobs, working as a busker singing for pennies, then as a singing waiter in a Chinatown Cafe. In 1907 he published his first song, "Marie from Sunny Italy," and by 1911 he had his first major international hit "Alexander's Ragtime Band."
Irving Berlin was born Israel Baline in Temun, Russia, on May 11, 1888. He was the youngest of Moses and Leah Lipkin Baline's eight children. His father, a cantor (a singer in a Jewish place of worship) who gave him singing lessons, was the first to expose Israel to music.
When Berlin married Ellin Mackay, the Comstock Lode heiress, the bride's father wrote her out of his will for marrying a Jew. Berlin then assigned the copyright of his popular song, "Always", to her, which yielded very handsome royalties as the years went by.
- May 11, 1888
- September 22, 1989
May 11, 2018 · Berlin's father, Moses Baline, had been a cantor (one who leads prayer songs) in Russia, but had trouble finding steady work in America. He died of chronic bronchitis when Berlin was just 13.
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Irving Berlin (May 11, 1888–September 22, 1989) was an American composer and lyricist. Born Israel Isidore Baline, in Tyumen, Siberia (or Mahilyow (Mogilev), Belarus ?), he emigrated to the United States in 1893 with the rest of his family. Following the death of his father in 1896, Irving found himself having to work to survive.
