Jerome Kern was born in 1885 in New York, to a first generation Jewish-German family. He studies piano with his mother when he was young, and when he was in high school, he composed several pieces of music for his school productions. He attended the New York College of music. After he graduated Kern decided to cross the Atlantic - aiming to learn all he could about musical comedy and European operetta. England became a turning point in Jerome Kern's life for another reason: it was there he met his wife Eva, whom he married in 1910. They stayed together for the rest his life. Kern joined forces with an Englishman, Guy Bolton. With both these collaborators, Kern wrote entirely new shows for the Broadway stage. Instead of the royalty, clowns and gods of the European writing tradition, the three men wrote about believable people. They also turned to modern American life (especially new dance crazes) for their inspiration. Their shows included Very Good Eddie, Oh Boy! and Oh, Lady! Lady!! Audiences loved these and the small Princess Theatre where they were staged became a legend. The Broadway musical proper was beginning to evolve. With Show Boat, which hit the New York stage in 1927, it would finally arrive. Kern launched himself into composing for the new 'talkie' films during the early 1930s. It was a task he faced with typical enthusiasm, even moving to Hollywood so he might be close to the action. Of his stage productions, The Cat and the Fiddle and Roberta became the basis for films. Another of his original film musicals, 1936's Swing Time (which featured Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers), won Kern the first of his two Academy Awards. The Oscar was given for his song, 'The Way You Look Tonight'. Despite the excitement and the glamour of working in cinema, Kern missed Broadway. He relished the teamwork needed to work there - Hollywood's composers were required to do little more for films than submit their songs. Thus he was delighted when Hammerstein asked him to...