Kenton members were delighted to welcome Judy Karbritz on Sunday evening for a talk on Irving Berlin. She is renowned locally for her engaging and excellent presentations. In addition, she writes a regular column for Barnet Borough Times and the Harrow Times. She is Harrow’s Community Poet and is co-founder of The Jewish Poetry Society. Judy has also given talks around the world on cruise ships.
The success of her talk is to look behind the camera of classic movies and entertainers to get a real depth of their character and what inspired them in their early years having great talent to become famous. Judy looked at the life of Irving Berlin (1888-1989) his family and where he was brought up by his parents in Siberia before coming to the USA as refugees.
Berlin was eight at the time. His father who had been Cantor was unable to find a position in New York and took a job at a meat market and taught Hebrew. At the age of thirteen had to support his family when his father passed away. To begin with he started as a singing waiter in a saloon, eventually getting a position at a leading Tin Pan Alley music publishing house.
Irving Berlin had no formal music education and was self- taught. He could only play the piano in one key and eventually used his custom- built piano which was equipped with a transposing lever to change key. His first real success was with Alexander’s Rag-Time Band which gave him international popularity.
During the First and Second World Wars he composed patriotic songs. In his long career he composed well over one thousand five hundred songs including Blue Skies, Annie Get your Gun, Putting on the Ritz as a very small example. George Gershwin said of him that he believed “Berlin was the greatest song writer that ever lived.”
Judy was able to draw out the essence of his life with examples of film footage of Berlin and some of the songs which are so universally known.
To round off the evening there were delicious refreshments and the opportunity to chat with Judy about her study of Irving Berlin and some of his associated musicians.
By Rachelle Goldberg