Editing George Gershwin (section)

==Recordings and film==
Early in his career, under both his own name and pseudonyms, Gershwin recorded more than one hundred forty [[player piano]] [[piano rolls|rolls]] which were a main source of his income. The majority were popular music of the period and a smaller proportion were of his own works. Once his musical theater-writing income became substantial, his regular roll-recording career became superfluous. He did record additional rolls throughout the 1920s of his main hits for the [[Aeolian Company]]'s reproducing piano, including a complete version of his ''[[Rhapsody in Blue]]''. Compared to the piano rolls, there are few accessible audio recordings of Gershwin's playing. His first recording was his own "[[Swanee (song)|Swanee]]" with the [[Fred Van Eps]] Trio in 1919. The recorded balance highlights the banjo playing of Van Eps, and the piano is overshadowed. The recording took place before "Swanee" became famous as an [[Al Jolson]] specialty in early 1920. Gershwin recorded an abridged version of ''Rhapsody in Blue'' with [[Paul Whiteman]] and his orchestra for the [[Victor Talking Machine Company]] in 1924, soon after the world premiere. Gershwin and the same orchestra made an [[Victor Talking Machine Company#Electrical recording era (1925–present)|electrical recording]] of the abridged version for Victor in 1927. However, a dispute in the studio over interpretation angered Whiteman and he walked out on the session. Victor's staff conductor and arranger [[Nathaniel Shilkret]] led the orchestra, though Whiteman is still credited as conductor on the original record labels.{{sfn|Peyser|2007|p=133}}

Gershwin made a number of solo piano recordings of tunes from his musicals, some including the vocals of Fred and [[Adele Astaire]], as well as his ''[[Three Preludes (Gershwin)|Three Preludes]]'' for piano. In 1929, Gershwin "supervised" the world premiere recording of ''An American in Paris'' with Nathaniel Shilkret and the [[RCA Victor Symphony Orchestra|Victor Symphony Orchestra]]. Gershwin's role in the recording was rather limited, particularly because Shilkret was conducting and had his own ideas about the music. When it was realized that no one had been hired to play the brief [[celesta|celeste]] solo, Gershwin was asked if he could and would play the instrument, and he agreed. Gershwin can be heard, rather briefly, on the recording during the slow section. Gershwin also appeared on several radio programs, including [[Rudy Vallee]]'s, and played some of his compositions. This included the third movement of the ''Concerto in F'' with Vallee conducting the studio orchestra. Some of these performances were preserved on [[transcription disc]]s and have been released on [[LP record|LP]] and [[Compact Disc Digital Audio|CD]].

In 1934, in an effort to earn money to finance his planned folk opera, Gershwin hosted his own radio program titled ''Music by Gershwin''. The show was broadcast on the [[NBC Blue Network]] from February to May and again in September through the final show on December 23, 1934. He presented his own work as well as the work of other composers.{{sfn|Pollack|2006|p=163}} Recordings from this and other radio broadcasts include his ''Variations on I Got Rhythm'', portions of the ''Concerto in F'', and numerous songs from his musical comedies. He also recorded a run-through of his ''Second Rhapsody'', conducting the orchestra and playing the piano solos. Gershwin recorded excerpts from ''Porgy and Bess'' with members of the original cast, conducting the orchestra from the keyboard; he even announced the selections and the names of the performers. In 1935, [[RCA Victor]] asked him to supervise recordings of highlights from ''Porgy and Bess''; these were his last recordings.

RCA Victor issued a 5 record 12-inch 78 rpm Memorial Album (C-29) recorded from the RCA Magic Key program broadcast on July 10, 1938, over the NBC Radio Network. It featured the Victor Salon Group conducted by Nathaniel Shilkret and singer [[Jane Froman]]. A 74-second newsreel film clip of Gershwin playing ''I Got Rhythm'' has survived, filmed at the opening of the Manhattan Theater (now The [[Ed Sullivan Theater]]) in August 1931.{{sfn|Jablonski|Stewart|1973|p=70}} There are also silent home movies of Gershwin, some of them shot on [[Kodachrome]] color film stock, which have been featured in tributes to the composer. In addition, there is newsreel footage of Gershwin playing "Mademoiselle from New Rochelle" and "[[Strike Up the Band (song)|Strike Up the Band]]" on the piano during a Broadway rehearsal of the 1930 production of ''Strike Up the Band''. In the mid-30s, "Strike Up The Band" was given to UCLA to be used as a football fight song, "Strike Up The Band for UCLA". The comedy team of [[Clark and McCullough]] are seen conversing with Gershwin, then singing as he plays.[[File:George Gershwin USPS stamp 1973.jpg|thumb|1973 U.S. commemorative stamp honoring Gershwin]]
In 1945, the film biography ''[[Rhapsody in Blue (film)|Rhapsody in Blue]]'' was made, starring [[Robert Alda]] as George Gershwin. The film contains many factual errors about Gershwin's life, but also features many examples of his music, including an almost complete performance of ''Rhapsody in Blue''. In 1965, [[Movietone Records]] released an album MTM 1009 featuring Gershwin's piano rolls of the titled ''George Gershwin plays RHAPSODY IN BLUE and his other favorite compositions''. The B-side of the LP featured nine other recordings. In 1975, [[Columbia Records]] released an album featuring Gershwin's piano rolls of ''Rhapsody in Blue'', accompanied by the Columbia Jazz Band playing the original jazz band accompaniment, conducted by [[Michael Tilson Thomas]]. The B-side of the [[Columbia Masterworks]] release features Tilson Thomas leading the [[New York Philharmonic]] in ''An American in Paris.'' In 1976, RCA Records reissued a collection of Gershwin's original recordings on the album ''Gershwin plays Gershwin, Historic First Recordings'' (RCA Victrola AVM1-1740). Included was the first LP release of the 1924 recording of ''Rhapsody in Blue'' with the Paul Whiteman Orchestra and Gershwin on piano; ''An American in Paris'', from 1929 conducted by Nathaniel Shilkret with Gershwin on celesta. Also included were ''Three Preludes'', "Clap Yo' Hands" and "Someone to Watch Over Me", among others.

The soundtrack to [[Woody Allen]]'s 1979 film [[Manhattan (1979 film)|''Manhattan'']] is composed entirely of Gershwin's compositions, including ''Rhapsody in Blue'', "[[Love is Sweeping the Country]]", and [[But Not for Me (song)|"But Not for Me"]], performed by both the New York Philharmonic under [[Zubin Mehta]] and the Buffalo Philharmonic under [[Michael Tilson Thomas]]. The film begins with a monolog by Allen, in the role of a writer, describing a character in his book: "He adored New York City ... To him, no matter what the season was, this was still a town that existed in black and white and pulsated to the great tunes of George Gershwin." In 1993, two audio CDs featuring piano rolls recorded by Gershwin<ref>[http://www.richard-dowling.com/GershwinRollsNotes ''George Gershwin and the player piano 1915–1927''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080704123824/http://www.richard-dowling.com/GershwinRollsNotes |date=July 4, 2008 }}. richard-dowling.com. Retrieved December 28, 2007.</ref> were issued by [[Nonesuch Records]] through the efforts of Artis Wodehouse, entitled ''[[Gershwin Plays Gershwin: The Piano Rolls]]''.<ref>Yanow, Scott.[http://www.allmusic.com/album/r158642 " 'Gershwin Plays Gershwin: The Piano Rolls' Overview"] ''AllMusic''. Retrieved August 22, 2011</ref> In 2010, [[Brian Wilson]] released ''[[Brian Wilson Reimagines Gershwin]]'', consisting of ten George and Ira Gershwin songs, bookended by passages from ''Rhapsody in Blue'', with two new songs completed from unfinished Gershwin fragments by Wilson and band member Scott Bennett.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20091011124642/http://www.rollingstone.com/rockdaily/index.php/2009/10/08/brian-wilson-will-complete-unfinished-gershwin-compositions/ "Brian Wilson Will Complete Unfinished Gershwin Compositions"] ''Rolling Stone'', October 2009</ref>