Cole Porter

1891–1964 · 73 years Tier II

The richest man in Indiana's grandson, who never wrote a song again

Portrait of Cole Porter — unattributed, see link — Public domain via Wikimedia Commons

Porter was born June 9, 1891, in Peru, Indiana, into money his own family had not made: his grandfather J. O. Cole was, by local reputation, the richest man in the state, and his mother Kate was Cole's indulged daughter. His father Samuel, a pharmacist who wrote poetry on the side, barely registered against that. Kate had him playing violin at six and piano at eight, sent him to Worcester Academy in Massachusetts, where he graduated valedictorian in 1909, then on to Yale. He read English, minored in music, wrote football fight songs still sung at Yale games a century later, and started Harvard Law School in 1913 mostly to please his grandfather before quietly switching to Harvard's music department instead.

He studied orchestration in Paris at the Schola Cantorum, married the wealthy, glamorous divorcee Linda Lee Thomas in December 1919, and spent much of the 1920s in Venice and Paris living well and writing songs that mostly went nowhere commercially. The break came in 1928 with Paris, then Fifty Million Frenchmen, then in 1934 Anything Goes, which gave the American songbook "I Get a Kick Out of You" and "You're the Top." Kiss Me, Kate followed in 1948 and won the first Tony Award for best musical. Can-Can came in 1953, Silk Stockings in 1955. Night and Day, Begin the Beguine, and dozens of other standards outlasted every show they were written for.

On October 24, 1937, his horse rolled over him at the Piping Rock Club on Long Island and crushed both legs. Doctors urged immediate amputation. Porter refused, and over the next two decades he submitted to some 34 operations trying to save the right leg while writing hit after hit from a body in constant, documented pain and on increasingly heavy doses of painkillers. The leg came off in 1958 anyway. He and Linda had married knowing he was gay — it suited them both, gave her status and him cover, and by every account they were genuinely devoted until her death in 1954. He never wrote another song after the amputation and spent his last six years in seclusion, seeing almost no one.

He died of kidney failure in Santa Monica on October 15, 1964, and is buried in Mount Hope Cemetery in Peru, Indiana, between his wife and his father. The catalogue never went out of fashion: Ella Fitzgerald recorded an entire Cole Porter songbook in 1956, Frank Sinatra kept his standards in constant rotation, and Kiss Me, Kate and Anything Goes are still revived on Broadway and in London every few years. He got a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2007 and a place in the Songwriters Hall of Fame, and Peru, Indiana, holds an annual festival in his name. His hometown made its peace with the richest man's grandson who left for good.

Lifespan

15401700180019002030

Cole Porter's life against the full span of the corpus.

Notable works

Anything Goes other
"I Get a Kick Out of You" and "You're the Top" 1934
Night and Day song 1932
Begin the Beguine song 1935
Kiss Me, Kate other
Won the first Tony Award for best musical 1948
Can-Can other 1953
Silk Stockings other 1955

Life in brief

with age at each point

June 9, 1891 aged 0 Born in Peru, Indiana
1909 aged ~18 Enters Yale College
1913 aged ~22 Enrolls at Harvard Law School, then switches to music
December 19, 1919 aged 28 Marries Linda Lee Thomas
1934 aged ~43 Anything Goes opens on Broadway
October 24, 1937 aged 46 A horse rolls on him at the Piping Rock Club, crushing both legs
1948 aged ~57 Kiss Me, Kate wins the first Tony Award for best musical
1958 aged ~67 His right leg is amputated after 34 operations
October 15, 1964 aged 73 Dies of kidney failure in Santa Monica