https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vVlDs5DYEUI&feature=related




">41 years ago this coming week Judy Garland died--some say she is
responsible for the Stonewall Inn riots that started the modern Gay
movement--here she salutes a Gay legend Cole Porter.
Cole
Albert Porter (June 9, 1891 – October 15, 1964) was an American
composer and songwriter. His works include the musical
comedies Kiss Me, Kate, Fifty
Million Frenchmen, DuBarry Was a
Lady and Anything Goes,Night and
Day," "I Get a
Kick out of You," "Well, Did You
Evah!" and "I've
Got You Under My
Skin." He was noted for his sophisticated, bawdy lyrics, clever rhymes and
complex forms. Porter was one
of the greatest contributors to the Great
American Songbook. Cole Porter is
one of the few Tin Pan
Alley composers to have written both the lyrics and the music for
his songs. as well
as songs like "

Paris and marriage

In 1917, the year in which the U.S. entered World War I, Porter
moved to Paris. He distributed
relief supplies for three months, but the extent of his other war work
is
unclear. Some writers have been skeptical about Porter's claim to have
served in
the French
Foreign Legion,^[3][6] although the
Legion itself lists Porter as one of its soldiers^[7] and displays his portrait at its museum in Aubagne.^[8] By some accounts, he
served in North Africa and was transferred to the French
Officers School at
Fontainebleau,
teaching
gunnery to American soldiers.^[9] One obituary notice
said that, while in the Legion, "he had a specially constructed portable
piano
made for him so that he could carry it on his back and entertain the
troops in
their bivouacs."^[10]
Porter maintained a luxury apartment in Paris, where he entertained
lavishly.
His parties were extravagant and scandalous, with "much gay and bisexual

activity, Italian nobility, cross-dressing, international musicians, and
a large
surplus of recreational drugs."^[3] In 1918, he met
Linda Lee Thomas,

a rich, Louisville,
Kentucky-born divorcée eight
years his senior,^[1] whom he
married the following year. She was in no doubt about Porter's
homosexuality,^[11] but it was
mutually advantageous for them to marry: for Linda it offered continued
social
status with a partner who was the antithesis of her abusive first
husband; for
Porter it brought a respectable heterosexual front in an era when
homosexuality
was not publicly acknowledged. They were, moreover, genuinely devoted to
each
other and remained married from December 19, 1919 until Linda's death in

1954.^[3] Linda remained
protective of her social status, and believing that classical music
might be a
more prestigious outlet than Broadway for her husband's talents, she
tried to
use her social connections to find him suitable teachers, including Igor Stravinsky,
but
was unsuccessful. Finally, Porter enrolled at the Schola
Cantorum in Paris where he studied
orchestration and counterpoint with Vincent d'Indy.^[2] Meanwhile,
Porter's first big hit was the song "Old-Fashioned Garden" from the
revue Hitchy-Koo in
1919.^[1]
Marriage did not diminish Porter's taste for extravagant luxury. The
Porter
home on the rue Monsieur near Les Invalides was a
palatial house with platinum
wallpaper and chairs upholstered in zebra skin.^[10] In 1923, Porter
came into an inheritance from his grandfather, and he began renting Venetian palaces. He once hired the entire
Ballets RussesCa' Rezzonico,
which he rented for $4,000 a
month ($51,000 in current value), he hired 50 gondoliers to act as
footmen and
had a troupe of tight-rope walkers perform in a blaze of lights.^[10] to

entertain his house guests, and for a party at
Shows listed are stage musicals unless otherwise noted. Where the
show was
later made into a film, the year refers to the stage version. A complete
list of
Porter's works is in the Library of Congress (Complete List of Cole Porter works, and Cole Porter Collection at the Library
of Congress).

• (1916) See America First


• (1919) Hitchy-Koo
  of
  1919—"Old-Fashioned Garden"


• (1928) Paris—"Let's
  Do It, Let's Fall in
  Love"


• (1929) Wake
  Up and Dream—"What
  Is This Thing Called
  Love?"


• (1929) Fifty
  Million Frenchmen—"You Do
  Something to Me"


• (1930) The New
  Yorkers—"Love for
  Sale", "I Happen to Like New
  York"


• (1932) Gay
  Divorce—"After
  You, Who?", "Night And
  Day" (basis for film renamed
  The Gay
  Divorcee in 1934)


• (1933) Nymph Errant—"Experiment",
  "The Physician", "It's Bad for
  Me"


• (1934) Anything
  Goes—"All
  Through the
  Night", "Anything
  Goes", "Blow Gabriel, Blow", "I Get a Kick
  Out of You", "You're the Top"


• (1934)
  Adios Argentina (un-produced)—"Don't
  
  Fence Me In"


• (1935) Jubilee—"Begin the Beguine",
  "Just
  One of Those Things"


• (1936) Red,
  Hot and Blue—"Down
  in the Depths (on
  the Ninetieth Floor)", "It's De-Lovely"


• (1936)
  Born to
  Dance (film)—"You'd Be
  So Easy to Love", "I've
  Got You Under My
  Skin"


• (1937) Rosalie (film)—"In
  the Still of the
  Night"


• (1937) You
  Never Know—"At Long
  
  Last Love", "From Alpha to Omega", "Let's Misbehave"


• (1938)
  Leave It
  to Me!—"From Now On", "My Heart
  Belongs to Daddy"


• (1939) Broadway
  Melody Of 1940—"Between
  You And Me", "I Concentrate
  on You", "I've
  Got My Eyes on You",
  "I Happen to Be in Love", "Begin the Beguine"


• (1939)
  Dubarry Was A
  Lady—"Do I Love You?",
  "Well, Did You
  Evah!", "Friendship"


• (1940) Panama
  Hattie—"Let's Be Buddies", "Make It Another Old-Fashioned,
  Please"


• (1941) You'll Never Get Rich (film)—"Dream
  Dancing", "So Near and
  Yet So Far"


• (1941) Let's Face
  It!—"Everything I Love", "I Hate You, Darling"


• (1942) Something for
  the Boys—"Could It Be
  You"


• (1942) Something
  to Shout About—"You'd
  Be So Nice to Come Home
  To"


• (1943) Mexican
  Hayride—"I
  Love You"


• (1944) Seven Lively Arts—"Ev'ry
  Time We Say Goodbye"


• (1946) Around
  the World—"Look What I
  Found"


• (1947) The
  Pirate—"Be a
  Clown"


• (1948) Kiss Me,
  Kate—"Another Op'nin', Another Show", "Brush Up Your
  Shakespeare", "I
  Hate Men", "So in Love", "Too
  Darn Hot"


• (1950) Out
  Of This World—"From
  This Moment On", "I
  Am Loved"


• (1950) Stage Fright (film)—"The Laziest Gal In
  Town"


• (1953) Can-Can—"I
  Am in Love", "I Love Paris", "C'est Magnifique"


• (1954)
  Silk
  Stockings—"All of
  You", "Paris Loves Lovers"


• (1955) High
  Society—"Mind
  if I Make Love to You?", "True Love",
  "Who
  Wants to Be a
  Millionaire?", "You're
  Sensational"


• (1956) Les Girls—"Ca, C'est
  L'amour", "You're Just Too, Too"


• (1958) Aladdin (television)—"Opportunity
  Knocks But Once", "Come To The Supermarket (In Old Peking)"