The Ottawa Citizen from Ottawa, Ontario, Canada • 38

Page 38, The Citizen, Ottawa, Thursday, May 11, 1978 Irving Berlin: Mr. 'American Music' 90 today Entertainment pages 38-42 has an uncommon respect for words. "Watch your lyrics," he once advised young songwriters. 'They must say something, tell a story, convey an idea, carry a message. Catchy tunes don't make a song hit." Of popular songs, he once wrote: Born to live for a short space of time.

Often without any reason or rhyme. Hated by highbrows who call it a crime. Loved by the masses who buy it. Still though you die after having your sway, To be forgotten the very next day, A rose lives and dies the very same way. Let that be your consolation.

Berlin recently admitted he has many unpublished songs "lying around" and since he's always been a compulsive worker, they're bound to include some gems. Surely they'll come out one day. Of all America's songwriters, he remains peerless. So, happy birthday, Mr. Berlin, even though you think "having birthdays is damn boring." Thanks for the rare words and melodies and the promise of more to come.

One thing about Berlin is not apocryphal: no one ever has gone on the record with an unkind word about him. He was admired from the start, and, at age 24, was a co-founder of ASCAP, the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers, with such older peers as Victor Herbert and Jerome Kern. All the in-crowd and, later, Gershwin and Cole Porter considered themselves his inferiors. Kern once said: "Berlin is American music." Berlin's reticence has not discouraged biographers, though David Ewen's book of nearly 30 years ago is based on the public record. Five years ago an English writer, Michael Freedland, published a 500-page volume without a face-to-face meeting, though they had chatted on the telephone.

Affable with the press at informal meetings, Berlin increasingly avoided formal question sessions though on prearranged phone calls he can be direct and obliging. Aware of his lack of education he was a singing waiter at 14 on New York's Lower East Side he By Richard E. Coe Times-Post Newt Service WASHINGTON He composes only on the black keys sharp on a piano with a special lever to move into any key. He has written words and music to America's most lasting, most loved songs, starting 71 years ago with Marie from Sunny Italy, for which he earned 37 cents. He once named his eight personal favorites as Alexander's Ragtime Band.

I Love a Piano. Always, Say it With Music. A Pretty Girl Is Like a Melody. Easter Parade. White Christmas and God Bless America which made millions of dollars.

He was born in Siberia, where his rabbi father and his mother were determined to move their children from the anti-Jewish pogroms. He has had all the honors from Congress and presidents his adopted country can prevail on him to accept. He is small, natty, painfully shy and intensely romantic. He is 90 years old today and his name, of course, is Irving Berlin. Mr.

Berlin and that's how his associates always have spoken of him and still do is much missed by his neighbors in New York's Beekman Place area because they used to relish seeing him walk his dog and pass the time of day: "Good afternoon, Mr. Berlin." In this tony neighborhood, they like to point out his house. Incurably romantic Romantic, this little man? Yes. In 1912, his wife Dorothy, sister of songwriter-producer E. Ray Goetz, died of typhoid fever within a few months of their return from a Cuban honeymoon.

Until then, Berlin's songs had been humorous or pure rhythm, but putting his grief into his song, he created his first ballad, When I Lost You. His unique tone of restrained sentiment would filter through many more: Blue Skies, All Alone. What'll I Do? Remember? and The Song Is Ended. That last song scared him. It was composed 1 5 years after Dorothy's death, and just after his second marriage one no one thought could last, although Irving and Ellin Berlin celebrated their 52nd wedding anniversary in January.

Inspiration seemed to desert him after The Song Is Ended, but when Rudy Vallee aired his neglected How Deep Is the Ocean? the spark returned. Admired from start He was 40, Ellin 19, the daughter of telegraph tycoon Clarence H. Mackay. They were complete oppo-sites, introduced at a party. Though Mackay sent Ellin to Europe to lure her into other worlds, she refused to forget the composer her father viewed as an upstart.

After their City Hall marriage and even after the birth of the first of two daughters and the loss of their only son, Clarence H. Mackay would have nothing to do with the Berlins. Only after the crash of 1929 did he break. As with many a Berlin song, there was a happy ending: the shattered rich man grew to have high regard for his son-in-law. There is a story that Berlin helped his father-in-law financially but since the crash had been rough on Berlin, too, the story may be apocryphal.

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Angel Street continues through Saturday; curtain time is 8 p.m. COWffry, Warehoim fill matinee FURNITURE SHOWCASE FUEIilTURf CE5I0N STUDIO 1255 BANK ST. (OTTAWA SOUTH) 7319987 IbtMOimH DO Thw fnday i lo I IO gree of atmosphere and suspense. The star of the show is undoubtedly Florence Moore, who has the taxing role of the unfortunate wife Bella and handles it with the greatest of ease. She's on stage most of the time, and makes it clear how a gentle, trusting woman who defers to her husband in everything, according to the custom of the time, could be driven to the edge of madness.

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Bruce Sinclair is haughty but not quite diabolical enough as the wicked husband suave rather than strong. However, he rises to the occasion very well in the last act, where his dastardly plot is uncovered and he has something to get his teeth into. Rick Henderson deserves triple credit, for besides directing and designing the production he has stepped in at short notice to play the roles of the policeman, Sergeant Rough, owing to the sudden illness of the actor originally cast in the role. Henderson gives a fine performance, with absolutely no apologies necessary, in this hefty and important role. He makes Rough a thoroughly likeable man, utterly trustworthy and combining authority with a kindly sense of humor.

The supporting roles are exceptionally well-handled, by Sheila Wood as the loyal housekeeper and Francine Hotte-d'Eca as the insolent young maid, Nancy. Rick Henderson has made good use of the small stage in designing a room that has the appro- By Audrey M. Ashley Citizen music and drama editor An interesting addition to the local theatre scene is Theatre Horizons, which operates in a small but serviceable theatre space in the Redemptorist monastery on Aylmer's main street. Wednesday night saw the opening of their final production of the current season, Patrick Hamilton's durable Victorian thriller, Angel Street, and they made a remarkably good job of it. Angel Street, which was adapted for the screen back in 1944 as Gaslight, is the story of a husband trying to drive his wife to insanity for nefarious reasons which unfold during the course of the play.

He hides things and then produces them later, almost convincing his poor trusting wife that her memory and indeed her mind are failing her. As he prowls about in the upper rooms of the house at night, the gaslight in the livingroom dims when he lights a mantle elsewhere which is where the movie got its title. In the end, the wife and her sanity are rescued, thanks to the dogged efforts of a diligent policeman. It's a good yarn, and the Theatre Horizons company has managed to imbue it with the right de- War flick ATHENS (UPI) Filming began recently on the Aegean island of Rhodes of a multi-million dollar war picture starring Roger Moore, David Ni-ven, Claudia Cardinale and Telly Savalas. A spokesman for George Cosmatos, director of Escape to Athens, said the film would be shot entirely on Rhodes.

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