was born Israel Beilin on May 11, 1888. In 1907 he published his first song and by 1911 had his first international hit, “Alexander’s Ragtime Band.” Over the next five decades, Irving Berlin produced songs that defined American popular music for much of the century. He wrote seventeen complete scores for Broadway, including The Cocoanuts, As Thousands Cheer, Louisiana Purchase, This Is the Army, Miss Liberty, Mr. President, Call Me Madam and Annie Get Your Gun. Among his Hollywood scores are Top Hat, Follow the Fleet, On the Avenue, Alexander’s Ragtime Band, Holiday Inn, Blue Skies, Easter Parade, White Christmas and There’s No Business Like Show Business. Among his many awards were a special Tony (1963) and the Oscar for Best Song for “White Christmas” (1942). An intuitive business man, Irving Berlin was a co-founder of ASCAP, founder of his own music publishing company, and co-builder of his own Broadway theater, the Music Box. Through several of his foundations, he donated millions of dollars in royalties to Army Emergency Relief, the Boy and Girl Scouts and other organizations. On September 22, 1989, at age 101, Irving Berlin died in his sleep in his townhouse in New York City.