Tribute to Berlin: They’ll Be Loving Him--Always

NEW YORK — Broadway paid a fond farewell Tuesday to Irving Berlin, its greatest songwriter, with an all-star gathering that sang many of his greatest songs and shared memories of the man who died last September at age 101.

Actress Helen Hayes described the trip to Berlin’s apartment during her courtship with author Charles MacArthur. Plagued with doubts about their future together, they heard Berlin play for them his then brand new love song, “Always.”

“We were healed,” Miss Hayes said, “our doubts dispelled, and we played that song during each of our 30 anniversaries together after that.”

Director/choreographer Jerome Robbins called Berlin an inspiration to others, like himself, who were immigrants or children of immigrants and had “a desire to fit in, achieve, succeed, be recognized and move on.”

Several of Berlin’s many classics, including “Always,” “What’ll I do?” “There’s No Business like Show Business,” “Remember,” “Cheek to Cheek” and “Alexander’s Ragtime Band,” were performed by singers Rosemary Clooney, Tony Bennett, Dorothy Louden, Roberta Flack and others and by fellow songwriters Burton Lane, Sammy Cahn, Julie Styne and Cy Coleman.

Kitty Carlisle Hart, producer David Brown and composer Morton Gould were among the others paying tribute on the stage of the Music Box theater, which Berlin built as a showcase for his music in 1919.

The memorial was presented by the Berlin family and produced by the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers, which Berlin joined in 1914.