In a Life of Glamour and Wit, Anything Goes

‘Anything Goes: The Life and Music of Cole Porter’By Paul Matthew Kaplan Applewood Books, 240 Pages The musical, “Anything Goes,” is one of Cole Porter’s “most famous and is performed globally and in high schools, universities, regional and dinner theaters, and in Broadway revivals,” notes Paul Matthew Kaplan in his perceptive and succinct biography of the composer.Wait a second, a play titled “Anything Goes” can be performed in a high school? So it was when I sang and danced in a Warren, Michigan high school production, which included lyrics such as:“Good authors, too, whoonce knew better wordsNow only use four-letter wordsWriting proseAnything goes.”Writing both the words and music it seemed Cole Porter could get away with almost anything if it rhymed right, set to music that seems to take off with such velocity that it is too late to consider the suggestiveness of the song.Only Cole Porter could get away with “Love For Sale,” a song sung by a prostitute, with exquisite melancholy:“Love for sale, appetizing young love for sale;Love that’s fresh and still unspoiled;Love that’s only slightly soiled, love for sale.”Although happily married, Porter engaged in many assignations with male lovers, usually with at least the tacit approval of his wife who adored him, except for one period when she left him, rather than tolerate his increasingly indiscreet affairs while they lived in Hollywood. She returned to him, though, after his shocking horseback riding accident that crushed one leg and badly broke the other. Doctors advised amputation, but she refused, certain that her husband would stop composing if he lost his legs.Porter had always been a risk-taker, including on the day he was advised not to ride a skittish horse, which threw him to the ground and then fell on him, twice. Undaunted even when suffering excruciating pain, he continued to write music into his sixties. After the amputation could no longer be put off, he stop writing.Porter, born to wealth and raised in Peru, Indiana, was supposed to go to Yale Law School. That’s what his grandfather, funding his education, demanded. Porter tried Yale Law but could not hack it and eventually, as he became successful, got his grandfather to relent.Porter spent lavishly on entertaining, courting Broadway producers and Hollywood moguls to back his shows. Many productions like “Let’s Face It” and “Kiss Me Kate” were huge hits. Others were huge flops. Regardless of the outcome, Porter persevered. When Hollywood wanted to film his life story, he agreed as long as it did not actually tell the truth. His main concern was that Cary Grant play him in what turned out to be a dull biopic, “Night and Day.” It hardly mattered to Porter, well paid for the rights to film his life.Mr. Kaplan shows how many of Porter’s greatest songs were put together without becoming pedantic about it. Porter, performing on the piano for his friends, often tried out songs, like “I Get a Kick Out of You,” “Just One of Those Things,” and my favorite, “Let’s Do It, Let’s Fall in Love,” which has such an encouraging beginning:“Birds do it, bees do itEven educated fleas do itLet’s do it, let’s fall in love.”Starting out, though, Porter had a hard time. Most songwriters, like Irving Berlin, had not come from wealth, and many in show business found it hard to believe that Porter, with his privileged background, could possibly deal with the experiences that most people wanted to hear about. Berlin, a lifelong friend of Porter’s knew better, and never doubted his fellow composer’s genius.Porter constantly adapted to the changes in Broadway and Hollywood productions and in the last stages of his career even took on television. His outreach to the world, until his wife died and his health finally failed, remained indefatigable and courageous, no matter his suffering.He reminds me of another master of the lyric mode, Amy Lowell, also scorned because of her wealth and the assumption she could not write for all kinds of audiences, which she entertained in much the same way as Porter.And if you know any of Porter’s songs, I’ll bet you’ve been humming along with this review.Mr. Rollyson is the author of “Amy Lowell Anew: A Biography.”

In a Life of Glamour and Wit, Anything Goes

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