“Happiness isn’t something you experience; it’s something you remember.”
Bearing in mind the words of Oscar Levant, I hope that you had a happy Christmas.
Levant was born in Pittsburgh on this date in 1906 to Orthodox Jewish parents from Russia. It was his father’s desire that his sons become either doctors or dentists. Ever the contrarian, Levant opted to become everything else instead.
A preternaturally talented musician, Levant studied in New York with the great Polish pedagogue Zygmunt Stojowski. By his early 20s, he was in Hollywood, where he met and befriended George Gershwin. With Gershwin’s death, Levant became regarded as the foremost interpreter of the composer’s piano music.
Levant himself was a composer of talent. In Hollywood, he scored over 20 films. He also wrote and co-wrote popular songs, including the enduring “Blame It on My Youth.” Determined to become a “serious” composer, he sought out and undertook private studies with Arnold Schoenberg. He also found work as a Broadway composer and conductor.
But it was likely through his memorable appearances on radio and television that he became best known, as a brilliant panelist possessed of impeccable timing and an acid wit. His remarks were invariably off the cuff, and this spontaneity would sometimes throw the sponsors into a panic. A show was cancelled after he remarked, “Now that Marilyn Monroe is kosher, Arthur Miller can eat her.”
Now a certified – some would say certifiable – celebrity himself, Levant appeared in a number of feature films, including “An American in Paris” (1951) and “The Band Wagon” (1953). He played himself in the Gershwin biopic “Rhapsody in Blue” (1945). He would receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in recognition of his recording career.
On top of everything else, Levant wrote three books: “A Smattering of Ignorance” (1940), “The Memoirs of an Amnesiac” (1965), and “The Unimportance of Being Oscar” (1968).
Levant was as famous for his neuroses and hypochondria as he was for any of his actual talents. He smoked prolifically, became addicted to prescription drugs, and was frequently in and out of mental institutions. He died of a heart attack in 1972, at the age of 65.
“There is a fine line between genius and insanity,” he once quipped. “I have erased this line.”
Happy birthday, Oscar Levant – even if only in remembrance.
Levant plays Gershwin:
Levant on “The Tonight Show” with Jack Paar:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nVOl49AHD6Q
Levant plays his Sonatina:
Levant in “An American in Paris:”
