Moonshine Lullaby - Annie Get Your Gun

"Annie Get Your Gun" Original Cast 1946

Sung by Ethel Merman

"Annie Get Your Gun" Broadway Revival 1999

Sung by Bernadette Peters

And for fun!

A version sung by Reba McEntire

Photos of Irving Berlin

Irving Berlin and Ellin McKay

Irving Berlin and Ellin McKay

Ellin McKay

• Wealthy Socialite
• Irish Catholic
• Was raised Protestant, mother's faith, until her mother divorced her father
• Her father, Clarence McKay did everything he could to stop Irving and Ellin's marriage
• their relationship was considered "tabloid gold"
• She tried to have a catholic priest at their wedding, Berlin didn't allow this
• Father cut her out of his will when she married Berlin, but still had access to her trust fund
• this helped them when the stock market crashed in 1929

Irving Berlin

• father worked as a Cantor before they immigrated
• started singing at 8 after his father died
• Mega-famous song writer when he met Ellin
• never hid the fact that he was Jewish
• adopted the name Berlin because that was how his last name, Baline, was misspelled on a sheet of music
• this sheet music was his first published song

The couple together

• Ellin's trust fund helped them during the stock market crash in 1929
• he regained all of his money again when he started working on the first talking movies
• Clarence and Berlin reconciled after 5 years and after the grandkids were born
• they had 4 children
• They celebrated Christmas with the four daughters, but they were always sad on that day
• The raised their children with the awareness of both, Ellin took them to Yom Kippur and Passover services and informally taught them about Catholicism.
• The children chose if they wanted to follow a religion

This information and more can be found at http://www.interfaithfamily.com/arts_and_entertainment/popular_culture/Irving_Berlin_Ellin_McKay_and_White_Christmas.shtml

"At The Devil's Ball" By Irving Berling and sung by The Peerless Quartet!

Work and Credits

Work and constant use

This link is for a list of all of his work from when he was alive to present. Today his work is still being used in movies or being sung by current artists.

"God Bless America"

Influences

What influenced his music

• When I lost you - written in 1912 in honors of his first wife. His first wife died in the first year of their marriage
• What I'll do, Always, and Remember - written for his second wife

Musical influences

• "White Christmas" - still the best selling Christmas song ever recorded
• "God Bless America" - Celine Dion sang it as a tribute after the September 11 attacks
• Wrote songs for 19 Broadway shows and 18 Hollywood movies
• Influenced the tune and tempo that America would sing and dance to during the 20th century
• songs of his were rerecorded by artists such as Frank Sinatra, Barbara Streisand, Diana Ross, and Bing Crosby, just to name a few