William McBrien - Cole Porter

William McBrien

C OLE P ORTER

William McBrien is a professor of English at Hofstra University. He has written three other books, including Stevie: A Biography of Stevie Smith. He lives in Forest Hills, New York.

ALSO BY WILLIAM McBRIEN

Stevie: A Biography of Stevie Smith (with Jack Barbera)

Me Again: Uncollected Writings of Stevie Smith (with Jack Barbera)

Stevie Smith: A Bibliography (with Jack Barbera)

FIRST VINTAGE BOOKS EDITION, DECEMBER 2000

Copyright 1998 by William McBrien

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. Published in the United States by Vintage Books, a division of Random House, Inc., New York, and simultaneously in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto. Originally published in hardcover in the United States by Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Random House, Inc., New York, in 1998.

Vintage and colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.

Owing to a limitation of space, all acknowledgments for permission to reprint
previously published material may be found on .

The Library of Congress has cataloged the Knopf edition as follows:
McBrien, William.
Cole Porter : a biography / by William McBrien. 1st ed.
p. cm.
1. Porter, Cole, 18911964. 2. ComposersUnited StatesBiography. I. Title.
ML 410. P 7844 M 33 1998

782.14092dc21
[B] 97-46116

eISBN: 978-0-307-79188-7

www.vintagebooks.com

v3.1

For Andrew J. Kappel
(19511992)

It is a pleasure to salute the many people who have lent accuracy, astuteness, and style to my account of Cole Porters life.

Im often asked what led me to write a biography of Porter. The story of this book begins with Annie Dillard, a writer I admire and a dear friend. It seems that Interview magazine was in search of a likely writer to do a short piece on Cole Porter, and consulted Annie, who had liked Stevie: A Biography of Stevie Smith, which Id recently coauthored with Jack V. Barbera. No doubt she recalled how, as fellows at the Ossabaw Island artists colony, we several times sneaked into the vacant composers studio, played and sang Cole Porter songs, and danced (at least the fleet-footed Annie did, even on the tables, the piano, and the window ledges). So she kindly recommended me to Interview and I wrote Cole Porterland, which people seemed to enjoy. The little research I managed to do revealed to me that, with the exception of George Eellss biography, good as far as it goes, Robert Kimballs elegant Cole (a suavely scholarly collection of stunning photographs with linking commentary), and Brendan Gills essays, too little serious attention had been paid to Porter in print.

I approached Robert Montgomery, trustee of the Porter estate, for permission to consult the Porter Archives, and he graciously granted my request. Throughout the years of my research and writing I have found him to be always urbane, generous, and supportive. He opened many doors for me, often persuading the reluctant to admit me to their corner of Porters world. I owe Robert Montgomery special thanks.

The Cole family have been encouragingly warm and cooperative. The late James O. Cole escorted me around Peru, Indiana, and the places Cole frequented there. He answered all my questions and introduced me to directors of what were then the Porter Archives in Peru. His daughter Margaret Cole, Porters cousin, and her husband, Ralph, have been no less encouraging.

Carol Porr has kept the watch with me since I began writing this book. She has tolerated with the greatest grace my authorial vagaries and transformed my sorry script via the computer into beautifully legible print. I can never exaggerate the assistance she prodigally provided. My reliable major-domo at Hofstra University, Keith Dallas, has also offered me invaluable aid for which I am hugely grateful. My colleagues in the English department at Hofstra University have cheered me on, Robert Sargent and Dana Brand especially. And the administration kindly awarded me special leaves that facilitated my task. I thank them all.

The person whom I thank most is my sister, Suzanne Burnett. She has fed and housed me, looked after me when I was ill, discussed my text as it progressed, and offered invaluable editorial suggestions. In fact she has proved herself to be an editor of the first rank, dogged and discriminating in her perspicacious pursuit of my intentions and my realization of them in the manuscript. Her loving companionship has helped dispel the loneliness of which all working writers complain, and sweetened my tasks.

I thank, too, Robert Kimball, the dean of Porter studies, without whose writings on Porter, especially his book The Complete Lyrics of Cole Porter, I could not have completed this biography. He also read my manuscript and gave me informed and clever criticism about the shape of my work. I am touched that he found time in his busy life to offer articulate, abundant, and nourishing appraisals of this book.

Professor Jack V. Barbera, with whom I coauthored three books (one a biography) about Stevie Smith, is a dear friend who sacrificed weeks of precious summer holiday time to assessments of my work. I value his companionship even more than I do his critical brilliance.

Finally in this listing comes my editor at Knopf, Victoria Wilson, who more suitably might appear first. I shall always be grateful to her for smiling on my proposal for this book and deciding to acquire it. Since that time she has known when to slacken the reins and when to tighten them. (Ditto for Lee Buttala.) Both her taste and intelligence have resulted in a shapelier, more beautiful book. Both Victoria Wilson and my agent, Georges Borchardt, believed that the time had come to have a full biography of Cole Porter and that I might be the person to write it. Was it Hippolyte Taine who said success in writing came from a felicitous conjunction of lhomme, moment, et milieu? I believe, as do my publishers, that this book represents such a conjunction. I can only hope that it will give pleasure to the audience who already know and love Porters work. If others happen upon it, my hope is that they will sample the sortilege that only a Cole song can supply.

Unfortunately I have not the space to describe in detail the assistance so many friends and professional associates of Porter offered me. I name them here with gratitude, well-aware as they must also be of the magnitude of their varying contributions:

David Acheson; Audrey Aurette; Lauren Bacall; Stephen Bach; Ben Bagley; Nelson Barclift; Jerry Barone; Ben Hur Baz; William E. Beaudreau; Earl Blackwell; Charles Bowden; Hazel Bowland; Dr. Leonard Brand; Charlotte Breese; Mrs. Francis Brennan; Bricktop; Mrs. John Otto Briney; Helen Brundage; Frank Campbell; Carmen Capalbo; Margaret Carson; Al Cendry; Cyd Charisse; Saul Chaplin; Mrs. Eleanor Childs; Walter Clemons; Jack Coble; Mrs. Gary Cooper; Anita Colby; Mr. and Mrs. James O. Cole; David Columbia; Betty Comden; Mrs. Howard Cullman; Tony Curtis; Jack Daney; Raymond Daum; Richard DeMenocal; Agnes de Mille; Honoria Murphy Donnelly; Peter Duchin; Louise Dushkin; John Eaton; Tanya Elg; Richard Falk; Joseph N. Farrell; Prince Jean-Louis Faucigny-Lucinge; J. Barry Ferguson; Cy Feuer; Geraldine Fitzgerald; Joan Fontaine; Colin Leslie Fox; Gant Gaither; Helen Gallagher; John Galliher; Nancy Gardiner; Betty Garrett; James Gavin; George [Jongeyans] Gaynes; Leonard Gershe; Elisabeth Giansiracusa; Brendan Gill; Robert Giroux; Carol and John Glanville; Frances Gershwin Godowsky; Leonard Goldstein; Richard Goldstone; Dr. Edward and Marion Goodman; Dolores Gray; Adolph Green; Dick Haas; Jean Haas; Marty Hall; Aurand Harris; Jones Harris; Kitty Carlisle Hart; June Havoc; Anthony Heilbut; Katharine Hepburn; Jane Hermann; Hildegarde; Fred Hill; Dorothy Hirshon; Hanya Holm; Mrs. Arthur Hornblow; Mark Horowitz; Horst P. Horst; Bart Howard; Jean Howard; Henry B. Hyde; Maria Cooper Janis; Polly Kahn; Richard Kamror; Garson Kanin; Frank Kellogg; Mr. and Mrs. Ray Kelly; Edwin Kennebeck; Michael Kidd; Eve Auchincloss Kingsland; James Kingsland; Joseph Kissane; Miles Kreuger; Gavin Lambert; Mark Landeryou; Ward Landrigan; Burton Lane; Paula Laurence; Nicholas Lawford; Florence Leeds; Richard Lehan; Richard Lewine; Lilo; Mrs. Donald J. MacDonald; Dominique Marteau; Ernest Martin; Ava Astaire McKenzie; Alleyn McClerin; George Melly; David Midland; Joyce Miller; Jules Modlin; Ethan Mordden; Patricia Morison; Sheridan Morley; Mr. and Mrs. Bearrs Muhlfeld; Senator George Murphy; Peter Murphy; Charles Nicholson; Jarmila Novotna; Kathleen OBrien; Gretchen OReilly; Valerie Paley; Catherine Paura; Michael Pearman; David Peck; Charles Perrier; Mrs. Alton Peters; Michelle Phillips; Harold Dutch Rader; Charles Reilly; Margaret Cole Richards; Ralph D. Richards; Comtesse de Rochambeau; Gloria Romanov; Steve Ross; Nedda Rubinstein; Keith Runyon; Mrs. John Barry Ryan; Stuart Scheftel; Fifi Laimbeer Schiff; Louise Cole Schmitt; Ann Kaufman Schneider; Marian Seldes; Artie Shaw; Bobby Short; Allen Silverstein; Babs Simpson; Donald Smith; Elise Smith; Sally Bedell Smith; Sam Stark; Stephen Stempler; Roberta Statts; Marti Stevens; Mrs. John Sturges; Arnold Saint Suber; Gisela Svetlik; Selma Tamber; James Tamulis; Samuel W. Thomas; Louise Thwing; Theodore Uppman; Amanda Vail; Jean Vanderbilt; Benay Venuta; Gwen Verdon; Gore Vidal; J. Watson Webb; Elisabeth Welch; Charles Whaley; Robert Wheaton; Janet Wightman; Billy Wilder; Julie Wilson; William Wright; and Gretchen Wyler.