Porteriana

Speranza

Cole Porter was born on June 9, 1891, in Peru, Indiana -- the grandson of "the richest man in Indiana".

He died on October 15, 1964, in Santa Monica, California.

Cole Porter's father, a druggist, played a very small part in his life.

His maternal grandfather, however, was industrial magnate J. O. Cole.

While Cole wanted the boy raised to take over his business, Porter's mother cultivated his love of music.

She even had an early composition, "Bobolink Waltz", published in 1902.

By his fourteenth birthday, Porter was away at Eastern schools, and in 1913 he graduated from Yale -- where he majored in writing football songs ("Bulldog" is still sung) and varsity shows.

His first Tin Pan Alley song was the 1910, "Bridget".

Porter forsook Indiana for high society.

A New York patroness was theatreical agent Elisabeth Marbury, creator of the innovative "Princess Theatre Show" series (see NOBODY HOME, Kern April 20 1915).

Latching onto the entertaining sophisticate, she went about getting him a Broadway hearing.

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