Lecture-in-Song: The Other Jewish Songwriters

When millions of Eastern European Jews poured through Ellis Island in the decades surrounding the turn of the twentieth century, no one could predict that this People would completely alter the culture of the American Promised Land. Immediately responding to the American spirit of free enterprise, the Jews powered the entertainment industry from every corner. If they weren't running the theaters, pushing talent or producing the films, they were writing the best songs of the day.

The most accomplished creative figures of that Golden Age of Broadway & Hollywood were predominantly Jewish: Gershwin, Kern, Rodgers, Berlin, Arlen, all bearing newly minted Americanized versions of their forefathers´ surnames.“The Other Jewish Songwriters” specifically deals not with the aforementioned heavyweights, each of whom merits his own Lecture-in-Song, but with several other outstanding but less prolific Jewish songwriters: Arthur Schwartz, Burton Lane, and Sammy Fain.

Pianist/singer/narrator Fred Miller focuses in his customary fashion on the lives, careers and, most significantly, the enduring songs of these 3 great musical artists. This tribute to Jews in songwriting concludes with a sing-along tribute to Al Jolson, perhaps the era´s single most brazenly visible symbol of Jewish ascendancy in modern American life. He, like his songwriting colleagues, brightened and beautified the world in ways, over time, that seem only to increase exponentially in value.

Fred Miller is the founder of the Copper Penny Players, a singing class for amateurs that has been operating for the past quarter century. He has experience in many different musical fields, including opera, comedy and piano music. There are now more than seventy Lecture-in-Song programs that he performs around New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

This event is sponsored by the East Brunswick Friends of the Library.