Remembering musical theater historian Robert Kimball
7/10/202647 min
Kimball, who died July 2, was artistic advisor to Ira Gershwin. He wrote books about the Gershwins, Cole Porter and Irving Berlin, and helped unearth unknown songs and manuscripts by them and other early 20th-century songwriters. Kimball also rescued and rediscovered the music of the Black Broadway team of Noble Sissle and Eubie Blake. He spoke with Terry Gross in 1994.
David Bianculli reviews the remake of ‘Little House on the Prairie,’ and John Powers reviews the second season of ‘Sugar,’ starring Colin Farrell.
See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.
Clips
Transcript preview
First 90 secondsSpeaker 10:00
This message comes from Whole Foods Market with their Summer Fruit Fest, highlighting seasonal organic produce, complimentary pairings like prosciutto and cheeses, and proteins raised without antibiotics. Savor the season. Shop Summer Fruit Fest at Whole Foods Market.
David Bianculli· Host0:15
This is Fresh Air. I'm David Bianculli. Robert Kimball, the musical historian who rediscovered and rescued music and manuscripts by George Gershwin, Cole Porter, and others, and who co-wrote important books about George and Ira Gershwin, Cole Porter, and Eubie Blake, died last week. He was 86 years old. Kimball, who was born in New York City in 1939, fell in love with Broadway musicals and musical composers when he was taken as a child to see Ethel Merman star as Annie Oakley in Irving Berlin's Annie Get Your Gun. Later in life, after publishing several books on popular songwriters, Kimball got a call from Irving Berlin himself, sparking a friendship that brought Kimball's life full circle. Robert Kimball graduated from Yale in 1961. His undergraduate thesis was on Broadway musicals of the 1920s. But when he returned to Yale, it was for law school, from which he graduated in 1967. While a senior in law school, Kimball was asked to organize the collection donated to Yale by composer Cole Porter. Kimball did such a good job and enjoyed it so much that when he earned his law