Oh, Wasn't It All Loverly

Bidding farewell to Master Lyricist Alan Jay Lerner

When he was 23 and breaking into the entertainment world, Alan Jay Lerner kept to "a schedule so tight that it would only work if I didn't sleep on Monday nights." He wrote daily radio sketches for Celeste Holm and Alfred Drake, crafted material for Victor Borge and Hildegarde and contributed audio pageants to Cavalcade of America. Then one lunchtime at Manhattan's Lambs Club, where he hung around hoping to be noticed, a fortyish theater composer impulsively came up to his table. "You write good lyrics," said Frederick Loewe, who had heard Lerner's contributions to the club's Gambols. "Would you like...

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