Cole Porter
June 9, 1891 — October 15, 1964 — United States
Cole Porter was one of the greatest songwriters in American musical history — a composer and lyricist whose wit, melodic sophistication, and double-entendre-laced lyrics set a standard for the Broadway musical and the popular song that few have approached. Songs like "Night and Day," "I've Got You Under My Skin," "Anything Goes," "Anything You Can Do," and "Every Time We Say Goodbye" have never left the repertoire since he wrote them.
Indiana to Paris to Broadway
Born on June 9, 1891 in Peru, Indiana, Porter was the only son of wealthy parents and the grandson of a coal and timber millionaire who dominated his life. He showed musical gifts from childhood and went to Harvard — first to study law, then, with his grandfather's grudging permission, to music. After briefly serving during World War I, he spent much of the 1920s in Europe, particularly Paris, immersed in the expatriate world of artists, aristocrats, and Bright Young Things. He studied composition in Paris as an adult, married the wealthy socialite Linda Lee Thomas (an arrangement that allowed him to live as gay while benefiting from her social position), and built a reputation for spectacular society parties before achieving his breakthrough on Broadway.
The Great Songs
Porter's Broadway success came in the 1930s and 1940s with shows including Anything Goes (1934), Kiss Me, Kate (1948) — widely considered his masterpiece — and Silk Stockings (1955). Simultaneously he wrote for Hollywood, producing songs including "Easy to Love," "In the Still of the Night," and "I Concentrate on You." His sophistication set him apart: while other popular songwriters wrote of simple romantic longing, Porter packed his lyrics with internal rhymes, unexpected vocabulary, and sly double meanings that delighted sophisticated audiences. "You're the Top," from Anything Goes, rattles off a dazzling catalogue of superlatives; "My Heart Belongs to Daddy" is a masterpiece of plausibly-deniable innuendo. His songs remain staples of the jazz and cabaret repertoire.
Did You Know?
In 1937 a horse fell on Porter during a riding accident, crushing both his legs. He endured thirty-four surgical operations over the following years to save them; eventually his right leg was amputated in 1958. He reportedly composed "At Long Last Love" while waiting for doctors in the emergency room immediately after the accident. His productivity and quality never declined during this prolonged suffering.
Legacy
After the amputation of his leg in 1958, Porter wrote almost nothing further and withdrew from public life, refusing to be seen publicly in a wheelchair. He died October 15, 1964, in Santa Monica. His song catalog — concentrated in about three decades of work — is one of the great individual contributions to American popular music. Jazz musicians, cabaret singers, and film composers have drawn on it continuously since his death; "Night and Day," "I Love Paris," and "Anything Goes" are among the most recorded American songs in history.