Born On This Day... Oscar Levant

"Roses are red, violets are blue, I am schizophrenic, & so am I."

Alexander Woollcott, a member of the Algonquin Round Table, once said of him: "There's absolutely nothing wrong with Oscar Levant that a miracle can't fix."

Open about his neuroses & hypochondria, Oscar Levant, was addicted to prescription drugs & was frequently committed to mental hospitals. Despite his afflictions, Levant was considered a genius in many disciplines. Levant: "There's a fine line between genius and insanity. I have erased this line."

Levant was sad, ironic & self-deprecating & wildly talented. I have every reason to think that he was gay. Levant's life proves to be more interesting than that of his good friend, the legendary George Gershwin, who he possibly was involved romantically.  Perhaps this is because he lived for so much longer, & because of Levant's numerous talents other than music.

Levant was a notorious wit; he was so funny that he could afford to be obnoxious & insulting & still count on being a welcome guest in the homes of his many celebrity friends..

A perceptive musical theorist, Levant about the art of composing for films; it was he who coined the phrase "Mickey Mousing," in reference to movie scores that slavishly commented upon the action. The longer he stayed in Hollywood, the more he became famous as a "character" rather than a musician.

The public first became aware of Levant's acidic wit when he was a frequent guest on the Information Please radio program. From 1940 onward, he spent  more time as an actor: Humoresque (1945), Rhapsody in Blue (1945), The Barkeleys of Broadway (1949) & O. Henry's Full House (1952), in which he co-starred with Fred Allen in the Ransom of Red Chief segment. He was at his best in 2 classic MGM musicals: An American in Paris (1951), where he appears in a dream sequence, playing every member of the orchestra in a performance of Gershwin's Concerto in F; & The Band Wagon (1953), in which he & Nanette Fabray play characters based on Adolph Green & Betty Comden.

Oscar Levant's personality can be summed up by 2 of his most oft-repeated witticisms:  "In some moments I was difficult, in odd moments impossible, in rare moments loathsome, but at my best unapproachably great;" & the self-deprecating "I am the world's oldest child prodigy."

The son of a Pittsburgh repairman, Oscar Levant went to New York at 16 to study music under such masters as Stojowski, Schoenberg & Schillinger (I just can’t stop with the alliteration). Before reaching his 20th birthday, he had gained renown as a concert pianist, teacher, band leader & composer. In the early 1930s, he played a minor role in the stage play Burlesque with Cher. During his time in Hollywood, Levant became BFFs with George Gershwin & by the mid-1930s Levant was perhaps the greatest interpreter of Gershwin's works in the world.

While he continued with his popularity & circle of friends into the 1960s, Levant's mood swings & increasingly erratic behavior began having professional repercussions. He was nearly banned from television when he quipped about Marilyn Monroe's conversion to Judaism: "Now that Marilyn Monroe is kosher, Arthur Miller can eat her". As time went on, only late-night host Jack Paar would risk having Levant as a guest, & when Paar left TV in 1965, so, for all intents and purposes, did Levant.  Paar in later years would sign off by saying, "Good night, Oscar Levant, wherever you are."

In & out of mental institutions during his last 2 decades; his final film, Cobweb (1955), was set in a sanitarium, he became dependent upon pain-killers & other prescription drugs. Despite his deteriorating physical & mental condition, he was able to turn out 3 terrific memoirs:, A Smattering of Ignorance, The Unimportance of Being Oscar and The Memoirs of an Amnesiac. Oscar Levant died of a heart attack in 1972 at the age of 66.

He composed one of my favorite songs of all time, a song in my own repitoire:

Here are just some of his quips:

“Spinoza said rituals are all based on fear. My faith destroyed, I put down the book.”

"What the world needs is more geniuses with humility, there are so few of us left."

"I only make jokes when I am feeling insecure."

"So little time & so little to do..."

"I'm a concert pianist, that's a pretentious way of saying I'm unemployed at the moment."

"I knew Doris Day before she was a virgin."

"I have one thing to say about psychoanalysis: fuck Dr. Freud."

"The only difference between the Democrats & the Republicans is that the Democrats allow the poor to be corrupt, too."

"Everyone in Hollywood is gay, except Gabby Hayes... & that's because he is a transvestite."

"It's not a pretty face, I grant you but underneath its flabby exterior is an enormous lack of character."

When asked by Jack Paar what he does for exercise, he replied, "I stumble, then fall into a coma."

"Leonard Bernstein is revealing musical secrets that have been common knowledge for centuries."

Asked by Jack Paar to describe his reaction to Milton Berle converting to become a Christian Scientist- "Our loss is their loss."

Overheard at a dinner party: "The best kind of guests are the ones that know when to leave!"

“Happiness isn't something you experience; it's something you remember.”

“I don't drink. I don't like it. It makes me feel good.”

“I envy people who drink - at least they know what to blame everything on.”

“I have given up reading books; I find it takes my mind off myself.”

"Strip away the false tinsel from Hollywood, and you find the real tinsel inside."

"It's not what you are, it's what you don't become that hurts."

“Every time I look at you I get a fierce desire to be lonesome.”

“I am no more humble than my talents require.”