George Gershwin 125th Birthday Celebration

TCM, beginning at 6 p.m.

Jacob Gershwine, better known as George Gershwin, was born in New York on this day 125 years ago: Sept. 26, 1898. The famed composer and pianist died very young, passing from brain cancer at age 38 on July 11, 1937. But in his brief life he created a lasting musical legacy, especially with the way he often blended jazz with classical music, and that has been famously featured in films, including two that Gershwin himself was involved with before his death. Five movies featuring Gershwin music air tonight in commemoration of his birthdate. The lineup begins with 1937’s Shall We Dance (pictured), a musical comedy featuring another terrific pairing of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers that also paired George Gershwin with his similarly accomplished songwriting brother, Ira, behind the scenes as composer and lyricist. The film introduced two of the Gershwins’ most famous songs: “Let’s Call the Whole Thing OŒ” and the Oscar-nominated “They Can’t Take That Away From Me.” The lineup concludes with the final movie that George Gershwin was directly involved with, another 1937 Astaire-led musical: A Damsel in Distress, which also includes George and Ira Gershwin classics like “A Foggy Day (in London Town).” George unfortunately died during this film’s production, and it was released four months later. Between these titles are Girl Crazy (1943), a musical led by Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney and featuring earlier standards written by George and Ira, including “Embraceable You” and “I Got Rhythm”; An American

in Paris (1951), the Best Picture Oscar-winning musical romantic comedy led by Gene Kelly and Leslie Caron, and based on George Gershwin’s 1928 symphonic tone poem of the same name; and Rhapsody in Blue (1945), a biopic about George Gershwin also titled after one of his famed compositions, starring Robert Alda as the composer.