Rochelle Gollust
Broadcast: August 22, 2004
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VOICE ONE:
This is Faith Lapidus.
VOICE TWO:
And this is Steve Ember with People in America in VOA Special English. Today we bring you the second part of our program about American songwriter Cole Porter. Porter wrote his songs from the nineteen-twenties to the nineteen-fifties. They continue to be popular today.
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VOICE ONE:
That was a recording of "Anything Goes", one of Cole Porter's most famous songs. Caroline O'Connor sings it in the movie about Cole Porter called "De-Lovely." Kevin Kline and Ashley Judd star in this movie about Porter's life, released in two-thousand-four. The title of the movie is from one of Porter's popular songs, "It's De-Lovely." In the song, Porter plays with words that start with the letter "d." Robbie Williams sings the song.
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VOICE TWO:
As we said in our program last week, Cole Porter went to live in France in nineteen-sixteen before he became famous. He was a wealthy young man who was smart and funny and knew how to enjoy life. He and his wife, Linda, became well known for their costly and exciting parties.
Yet Cole Porter never let other pleasures interfere with what he loved most – writing songs. He worked hard on his songs. Both the words and music had to be perfect.
VOICE ONE:
Porter gained fame as a musical theater writer by the early nineteen-thirties. His musical plays were produced in Broadway theaters in New York City. He had a new musical every year or so during the years of America's great economic depression. His words and music gave people a few hours of pleasurable escape during difficult times.
Some critics still consider one of Porter's early musical plays, "Anything Goes," to be his best. "Anything Goes" opened on Broadway in nineteen-thirty-four. It starred one of Porter's favorite singers, Ethel Merman. She sang a song that became famous immediately. It is called "I Get a Kick Out of You." That expression means I enjoy being with you.
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VOICE TWO:
For years, Porter was Broadway's "King Cole." His musical plays were very successful. Later, he went to Los Angeles, California and wrote music for Hollywood movies. They were very popular, too.
Cole and Linda Porter traveled all over the world. They were happily married most of the time. But Cole Porter was homosexual. He had sex with men. Homosexuality was both accepted and forbidden in high society at that time. Love affairs between men were not exactly secret. Yet they could never be admitted publicly.
