Cole was born on June 9, 1893 and he died on October 15, 1964 at the age of 71. He is buried at a family
gravesite in Mt. Hope Cemetery
in Peru. (See below for the circumstances of his death and a picture of his specific grave marker.)
The musical "Anything Goes" and one of the main characters, Reno Sweeney, is
loosely based on the life of Aimee Semple
McPherson 1890 -- 1944.
Amiee was an Evangelist, born near Ingersoll, Ontario, Canada. She was the
daughter of a Salvation Army soldier. She married a
Pentacostal missionary and was widowed "way, way out
in China" in 1910. She returned to North America with
her daughter and set out on a career as an evangelist, offering
a fundamentalist message of hope and salvation that
brought in enormous money contributions over the
course of some 25 years. She'd "marry 'em and divorce 'em, marry 'em
and divorce 'em" again, (thus all her names!}. Often accompanied by her mother, she
traveled around the U.S.A. to conduct her revival
meetings. Flamboyant and innovative, she expanded
her Los Angeles-based (after 1918) evangelical empire
by adding a radio station, a Bible school, and a
magazine. She was often accused of improprieties, but
nothing was ever proved. She died in
Oakland, Calif., of an overdose of sleeping powders.
Cole Porter wrote what is considered by many to be
his most popular song, "Anything Goes," in 1934. The
play is built around that title song, however
Porter considered "I Get A Kick Out of You" to be his
best song in the show and purposely placed it near the
beginning of the show (in the first 5 minutes) breaking a Broadway
tradition in order to teach some of his
"high society" friends a lesson about their rude habit
of arriving as much as 20 minutes late to a Broadway
show in order to "make an entrance." The
ploy worked and many of his "friends" never forgave
him for this. Cole merely smiled when told of their
displeasure.
While he had the means and desire to travel abroad, living
much of his life in Paris,
Cole enjoyed New York City and he was a very popular
figure in Hollywood in the 1950's as
evidenced by these two letters:
Here are some the films that feature music by Cole Porter:
- The Gay Divorcee (1934)
- Anything Goes (1936)
- Born to Dance (1936)
- Rosalie (1937)
- The More the Merrier (1943)
- The Pirate (1943)
- Hollywood Canteen (1944)
- Young Man with a Horn (1950)
- Night and Day (1946)
- Lullaby of Broadway (1951)
- High Society (1956)
- Bullets Over Broadway (1994)
- Forget Paris (1995)
- Everyone Says I Love You (1996)
Cole and "Silk Stockings"
In 1937, Cole fell from his
horse while
riding on Long Island and broke both legs rather
severely. He never fully recovered, walking with a
cane the rest of his
life. Eventually, in 1958, Cole lost one of his
legs to amputation as circulatory problems occurred
and he died of complications and
declining health in 1964.
