Quick Q&A: Herbert Keyser

I spoke with author Herbert Keyser, whose soon-to-be-available book Geniuses of the American Musical Theatre: The Composers and Lyricists compiles the personal stories of most of the theatre’s greatest songwriting legends.

What makes a genius?

Well, if you mean why did I include someone in the book and not someone else, there’s an apology in the introduction to some wonderful composers and lyricists – such as Boch and Harnick, and Cy Coleman. I started researching the book 5 years ago- it took a long time but I was thrilled for every minute of it – and I read countless full length biographies. Some of the people are deceased and just didn’t have enough written about their personal lives. I didn’t want the book to be like Wikipedia – you can get information very easily about the work of these artists. I wanted this to be an anthology of life stories. So to be included in the book somebody had to think that your life was important enough to write about it previously.

Do you think the fact that both your parents are deaf has had an impact on your interest in music?

It wasn’t because I was taking a negative position toward their deafness or to the absence of any exposure to music in my house growing up. I’m a physician – I’ve been involved in Medicine and in writing about it for fifty years – and I truly believe that there is a genetic component to this. My father was artistically inclined and whenever he was working – everyone who knew him knew this about him – he would be humming and singing music. Not real music that we could discern as such, but music of his own. I believe that if he was not a non-hearing person he would have had a genetic feeling for music. You can’t take just anybody and with training make them a composer.

Who was the easiest, and who was the most difficult, to research?

There are probably more full length biographies on George Gershwin than on all the other composers combined. There wasn’t a lot written about the personal lives of Kander and Ebb. I decided after some research that I could tell some of the stories of these composers as well as write them. I harangued several directors of entertainment on cruise ships and finally I was given one shot to try it one time. It was a success and I’ve done that for the past 3 and a half years. But in all those occasions I never present Kander and Ebb. People ask “Don’t you like their music?” I adore it. But they were known as such nice, lovely guys. People want to hear the stories that are crazy and mean and everybody loved John Kander and Fred Ebb.

photo of Jerry Herman and Carol Channing 1964: Photofest

Who would you say is at the other end of the spectrum?

Richard Rodgers probably falls into that category. He was a terrible womanizer and very difficult in negotiations. He was not well-loved. For bad behavior the name that comes up again and again is not that of a composer or lyricist but of a producer, David Merrick. Time after time he behaved in a way that was totally unacceptable. Jerry Herman was treated horribly; Merrick made his life miserable.

Whose story surprised you the most?

I didn’t know much about Johnny Mercer; his personal and secret love life shocked me. He was married to one of three women who were life long friends who started out as chorus girls. They grew up to marry Johnny Mercer, Bing Crosby and Bob Hope. Mercer’s wife constantly made him feel inferior to Bing Crosby. It’s sad – Mercer was a great genius but he lived a very unhappy life.

Oscar Hammerstein amazed me. I never realized until I looked at the whole context of his life how much self-confidence and tenacity he must have had. This is a man who, after his first big success at the very top with Show Boat, pushed himself through 12 years of failure to finally become one of the biggest names on Broadway. Rejection for some people takes one time, for others it’s several. 12 years of failure takes a tremendous strength of character.

I think it’s fair to say that many of the people you cover in the book had big egos. Who in the book do you think was least aware of having a gift?

Most of them had big if not massive egos. Maybe Howard Dietz. He was down to earth about himself maybe because only half his life was devoted to writing lyrics. His other life was working in publicity for MGM surrounded by glamor.

Whose story did you think was the saddest?

George Gershwin’s is sad because there was so much promise there that was snuffed out. But no one’s story is sadder than Fats Waller. No one even knows how many songs he wrote – amazing songs like “Honeysuckle Rose”. He was devastated by poverty so he sold songs for 25 or 50 cents just to survive.

photo of Irving Berlin 1942: Photofest

Irving Berlin grew up in abject poverty. As a child he lived a Dickensian life on the streets of New York to become one of the most famous and important people in music. His story’s got to grab you. Personally, the story of Yip Harburg touched me. He was a man who had a very strong social conscience, probably more so than any of these other great composers and lyricists. Everyone knew he was not a Communist. But the McCarthy era destroyed him.

The most contemporary people in the book are Andrew Lloyd Weber and Stephen Sondheim. Who if anyone do you think is currently on par with the great composers and lyricists of the past?

Stephen Flaherty and Lynn Ahrens I would say are examples. We have a situation now on Broadway where producers are not so willing to take a chance on new writers. For a while now the biggest hit shows have been revivals – that production of South Pacific at Lincoln Center is magnificent. As far as I know, when there is an exception – In The Heights, Billy Elliot – those scores don’t produce hit songs. That’s very different than how it used to be.