LERNER & LOEWE BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES

FREDERICK (Fritz) LOEWE (1901 - 1988)
was born on June 10, 1901 in Berlin, Germany.  Loewe's Viennese father was a successful actor and singer of Viennese light opera songs (such as Franz Lehar's THE MARRY WIDOW), an element in Loewe's youth that undoubtedly influenced some of music he would later write in his collaboration with Alan Jay Lerner.   Fritz himself was a child prodigy, playing the piano at age 5, composing for his father's presentations at 7, and at 13 becoming the youngest soloist to appear with the Berlin Philharmonic.  Loewe wrote a popular song, “Katrina,” at age 15, whose sheet music reportedly sold over 2 million copies.  However, Loewe arrived in the United States in 1924 unheralded and unknown with the desire to compose for the Broadway stage.  He was unsuccessful until he met Alan Jay Lerner in 1942 at the Lambs Club, a theatrical club in New York City. They collaborated on two failed works, WHAT'S UP (1943) and THE DAY BEFORE SPRING (1945),  before achieving success on Broadway with BRIGADOON in 1947. This was followed by PAINT YOUR WAGON (1951), the Tony-winning MY FAIR LADY (1956), the Oscar-winning MGM film GIGI (1958), and the Broadway hit CAMELOT (1960).  Loewe's music ranged from high romance (“If Ever I Would Leave You” from CAMELOT and “On the Street Where You Live” from MY FAIR LADY) to lighthearted melodies (“The Night They Invented Champagne” and “Thank Heaven for Little Girls” from GIGI) to subtle settings for nearly spoken songs (such as those for Rex Harrison in MY FAIR LADY and for Richard Burton in CAMELOT).  Personal differences between Loewe and Lerner surfaced during the writing of CAMELOT, and they suspended their collaboration for more than a decade -- Loewe in retirement and Lerner writing with other composers. They reunited to adapt GIGI for the stage in 1973 and to write the score for the film THE LITTLE PRINCE in 1974.  After that, Loewe retired for good and lived comfortably in Southern California on his laurels and considerable musical royalties until his death at the age of 86 on Feb. 14, 1988 in Palm Springs. 

ALAN JAY LERNER  (1918-1986)
was born on August 31, 1918 in New York City.  His father founded the famous Lerner Stores and Alan grew up in privileged circumstances.  He was educated at private schools in England and Connecticut, the Juilliard School of Music in New York City, and at Harvard University (B.S., 1940).  Lerner's archly romantic and literate librettos (in part the product of his sophisticated background and education) and his witty and romantic lyrics (influenced by his post-college friendship with lyricist Lorenz Hart of Broadway's Rodgers & Hart) matched Loewe's music perfectly.  Lerner skillfully integrated music, character and story into a seamless whole similar to the celebrated works of Rodgers & Hammerstein.  Lerner also won Oscars for two of his musical screenplays, AN AMERICAN IN PARIS (1951) and GIGI (1958).  Three of Lerner's eight  marriages were to actresses: Marion Bell (1947-48) who starred in his 1947 Broadway success BRIGADOON; movie actress Nancy Olson (1950-57) with whom he was married when he wrote PAINT YOUR WAGON and MY FAIR LADY; and his last wife, British actress Liz Robertson, who had starred in a London revival of MY FAIR LADY.  Robertson and Lerner were married from 1981 until his death in New York City on June 14, 1986.  He was 67 years old.