Biography for
Cole Porter
Mini biography
Cole Porter was born June 9, 1891 at Peru, Indiana the son of Samuel Fenwick Porter, a pharmacist and Kate Cole. Porter's
grandfather J. G. Cole was a multi millionaire who made his fortune in the coal and western timber business. Cole was raised on a 750 acre fruit ranch. Kate Cole married Samuel Porter in 1884 and issued two children,
Louis and Rachel who both died in infancy. Cole began riding horses at six and began to learn the piano at eight at the Marion Conservatory in Indiana. By ten he had began to compose songs and his first song was
entitled "Song of The Birds". His mother introduced him to the violin and the piano. He later attended Worcester Academy in Worcester, Massachusetts in 1905. The academy was an elite private school and he
graduated in 1909 as class valedictorian and that summer he toured Europe as a graduation present from his grandfather. That same year he entered Yale University and lived in a single room at Garland's Lodging House at
242 York Street in New Haven, CT. And became a member of the Freshman Glee Club. In 1910 he published his first song entitled "Bridget Mcguire". While at Yale he wrote football fight songs including the Yale
Bulldog song and Bingo Eli Yale, which was introduced at the Yale dining hall dinner concert. One of his clasmates was poet Archibald Macleish and Bill Crocker of the banking industry giant, Crocker Bank of San
Francisco, CA. In his senior year he was president of the University Glee club and a football cheerleader. Porter graduated in 1913 with a BA degree. He later attended Harvard Law school from 1913 to 1914 and the
Harvard School of music from 1915 to 19166. Dean Acheson the later secretary of state for the united states lived in the same dorm with Porter and was a good friend. In 1917 he went to France and distributed food stuffs
to the war stricken villages. In April 1918 he joined the 32nd Field Artillery Regiment and worked with the Bureau of the Military Attache of the United States. During this time he met his wife Linda Lee Thomas, a
wealthy Kentucky divorcee at a breakfast reception at the Ritz Hotel in Paris. On April 20, 1918 he joined the First Foreign Regiment of the French Foreign Legion and became a French Officer in WWI. In 1919 he as
discharged and rented an apartment in Paris and enrolled in a school specializing in music composition. He studied with Vincent D'indy in France and on December 18, 1919 he married Linda Lee Thomas, honeymooning in the
south of France. She had been married to a newspaper publisher and was described as a beautiful woman and known as one of the most celebrated hostesses in Europe. The porters made their home on the Rue Monsieur in
parish where their parties were described as long and brilliant. They even hired the Monte Carlo Ballet for one of their affairs. On another occasion, on a whim all of their guests were transported to the French
Riviera. In 1923 they moved to the gay life of Venice, Italy where they lived at the Rezzonico Palace, the former home of Elizabeth and Robert Browning the poet. They even had an extravagant floating nightclub built
that would accommadate up to one hundred guests. They conducted elaborate games including treasure hunts through the canals and arranged spectacular balls. His first play on broadway featured a former ballet dance,
actor Clifton Webb. He once collaborated with E. Ray Goetz, the brother in law of irving berlin on several broadway plays as Goetz was an established producer and lyricist. In 1934 his hit "Anything Goes"
appeared on Broadway. During the show's hectic rehersal Porter once asked the stage doorman what he thought the show should be called. The doorman responded that nothing seemed to go right, so many things being taken
out and then put back in that "Anything Goes" might be a good title. And the title was born. His ballad "Love For Sale" was introduced on December 8, 1930 in a revue that starred Jimmy Durante and
was introduced by Catherine Crawford. Walter Winchell , the newspaper and radio columnist promoted the song which was later banned by radio stations because of its' content. In 1936 while preparing for "red, hote
and blue" with Bob Hope and Jimmy Durante, Ethel Merman was used to do stenographic work to help Porter in rewriting scripts of the show. He once said she was one of the best stenographers he ever had. While a
guest at a countess home, Piping Rock Club, Locust Valley, New York, on October 24, 1937, he was injured riding horseback and was kept in the hospital for two years. Both of his legs were smashed and he suffered a nerve
injury. He was confined to a wheelchair for five years and endured over 30 operations to save his legs over the next 20 years. During his recuperations he wrote a number of Broadway musical plays. On August 3, 1952 his
devoted mother died of a Cerebral Hemorrage. His wife later died on may 20, 1954. On April 3, 1958 he sustained his 33rd operation and suffering from chronic pain, his right leg was amputated. He refused to wear an
artificial limb and lived as a recluse in his apartment at the Waldorf Astoria hotel in New York City. He sought refuge in alcohol, sleep, self pity and overwhelming despair. He refused to attend a salute to Cole Porter
night at the Metropolitan Opera house on May 15, 1960 or the commencement exercises at Yale university in June of 1960 when he was conferred with an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters or his 70th birthday party
arranged by his friends at the Orpheum Theater in New York City in June 1962. After what appeared to be a successful kidney stone operation at St. John's hospital in Santa Monica, California, he died very unexpectedly.
His funeral instructions were to have no funeral or memorial service and he was buried adjacent to his father and wife in Peru, Indiana. His songs include Lets Do It in 1928, You Do Something To Me in 1929, Love For
Sale in 1930, What Is This Thing Called Love in 1929, Night and Day in 1932, I Get A Kick Out Of You in 1934, Begin the Beguine in 1935, My Heart Belongs to Daddy in 1938, Dont Fence Me In in 1944, I Love Paris 1953,
I've Got You Under My Skin, In the Still of The Night, You'd Be So Nice To Come Home To, True Love, Just One Of Those Things, Anything Goes, From This Moment On, You're The Top, Easy to Love and many many more.
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