George Gershwin moved to Beverly Hills in the summer of 1936 to score a RKO musical, Shall We Dance, starring Fred Astaire and Ginger Rodgers. The film included such songs as "Let’s Call the Whole Thing Off," "They All Laughed (at Christopher Columbus)," and "They Can’t Take that Away from Me." The film was released in May 1937 and in July Gershwin passed away from a brain tumor, only 11 months after he moved to Los Angeles.
Though his time in California was short, Gershwin accomplished a great deal and made a lasting impact on the people around him. One of Gershwin’s many acquaintances was the Austrian composer, Arnold Schoenberg.
Gershwin considered studying with Schoenberg when he moved to Los Angles, but his busy Hollywood schedule did not allow for it. Still, when the thirty seven year old Gershwin moved into 1019 North Roxbury Drive, a Hollywood-Spanish mansion with a swimming pool and tennis court, he offered the use of the court to the sixty two year old Schoenberg.
They played tennis weekly at Gershwin’s, and, according to Oscar Levant, Schoenberg did not even miss the game on the day his son was born. Hollywood composer Albert Sendrey once witnessed and described an episode of their game: “He, Gershwin, expresses linear counterpoint in his strokes, whereas Schoenberg concentrates on mere harmony, the safe return of the ball, the more than physical aspect of reaching a well-placed drive in the far corner of his side; he no longer places his returns, while George is more careful than ever to achieve clarity of his intentions.”
For the 11 months leading up to Gershwin’s death two worlds collided on the courts of 1019 North Roxbury Drive. Schoenberg, who often showed up “with an entourage of string quartet players, conductors and disciples,” also met Gershwin’s associates: his brother Ira, Harold Arlen, Jerome Kern, and Yip Harburg.
Home videos give us just a glimpse of life at 1019 North Roxbury Drive:
The world that Gershwin created in Los Angeles came to a sudden end on July 11, 1937, when Gershwin died during surgery to remove a malignant brain tumor. Gershwin’s early death affected countless people, including Schoenberg. He wrote: “Many musicians do not consider George Gershwin a serious composer. But they should understand that, serious or not, this is a man who lives in music and expresses everything, serious or not, sound or superficial, by means of music, because it is his native language…. An artist is to me like an apple tree. When the time comes, whether it wants to or not, it bursts into bloom and starts to produce apples. And an apple tree neither knows nor asks about the value experts of the market will attribute to its product, so a real composer does not ask whether his products will please the experts of serious arts. He only feels he has to say something and says it.”