On this day in New York · September 26, 1898
George Gershwin Is Born in East New York
The man who'd write the sound of American cities came into the world in a second-floor walk-up in East New York, with no piano in the house yet.
The facts
- Date
- September 26, 1898
- Place
- 242 Snediker Avenue, East New York, Brooklyn
- Birth name
- Jacob Gershwine
- Parents
- Morris and Rose Gershwine, Jewish immigrants from the Russian Empire
On September 26, 1898, Rose and Morris Gershwine had their third child in a rented second-floor apartment at 242 Snediker Avenue, in the East New York section of Brooklyn. The birth certificate reads Jacob Gershwine; the family later Americanized the name to Gershwin. Morris and Rose were both Jewish immigrants from the Russian Empire who had crossed separately in the 1890s and married in New York City. There was no piano in the house yet, and nothing about the block suggested it had just produced the kid who'd write Rhapsody in Blue.
In their words
The day in the words of the people who were there. Every quote is verbatim, and every source links out so you can check it.
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George was born on September 26, 1898, in the Snediker Avenue apartment.
George Gershwin biography
Source: Wikipedia -
as a ten-year-old, he was intrigued upon hearing his friend Maxie Rosenzweig's violin recital.
George Gershwin biography, on the moment that turned him toward music
Source: Wikipedia
Why it still matters
Gershwin grew up to write Rhapsody in Blue, An American in Paris, and a stack of standards that still define what American music sounds like, all traced back to a rented Brooklyn apartment that burned down decades ago. East New York doesn't get much credit for that, but it should.
Sources
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