Which three songs of Ira Gershwin were nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Song?”
Three Ira Gershwin songs were nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Song, though none won: “They Can’t Take That Away From Me” (1937), “Long Ago and Far Away” (1944) and “The Man That Got Away” (1954). Ira Gershwin, with George S. Kaufman and Morrie Ryskind, received the 1932 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for Of Thee I Sing. The George and Ira Gershwin Lifetime Musical Achievement Award was established in 1988 by UCLA to honor the brothers for their contribution to music and for their gift to UCLA of the fight song “Strike Up the Band for UCLA”. Past winners have included Angela Lansbury (1988), Ray Charles (1991), Mel Torme (1994), Bernadette Peters (1995), Frank Sinatra (2000), Stevie Wonder (2002), k.d.
Gershwin was born Israel Gershovitz in New York City to Morris and Rose Gershovitz who changed the family name to Gershwin well before their children rose to fame. Shy in his youth, he spent much of his time at home reading, but from grammar school through college, he played a prominent part in several school newspapers and magazines. He graduated from Townsend Harris High School in 1914, where he met Yip Harburg. He attended City College of New York but dropped out. While his younger brother began composing and “plugging” in Tin Pan Alley from the age of eighteen, Ira worked as a cashier in his father’s Turkish baths. It was not until 1921 that Ira became involved in the music business. Alex Aarons signed Ira to write the music for his next show, Two Little Girls in Blue (written under the pseudonym “Arthur Francis”), ultimately produced by Abraham Erlanger, with co-composers Vincent Youmans and Paul Lannin. Gershwin’s lyrics were well received and allowed him to successfully enter th
