Editing Jerome Kern (section)

===First compositions===
[[File:Angela Lansbury in Till the Clouds Roll By.jpg|left|thumb|[[Angela Lansbury]] sings "How'd you like to spoon with me?" in ''[[Till the Clouds Roll By]]'' (1946)]]
For a time, Kern worked as a rehearsal pianist in [[Broadway theatre|Broadway]] theatres and as a [[song-plugger]] for [[Tin Pan Alley]] music publishers. While in London, he secured a contract from the American impresario [[Charles Frohman]] to provide songs for interpolation in Broadway versions of London shows.  He began to provide these additions in 1904 to British scores for ''An English Daisy'', by [[Seymour Hicks]] and [[Walter Slaughter]], and ''Mr. Wix of Wickham'', for which he wrote most of the songs.<ref>Bordman, Gerald and Thomas Hischak, eds. [http://www.oxfordreference.com/views/ENTRY.html?subview=Main&entry=t149.e1700 "Kern, Jerome (David)"]. ''The Oxford Companion to American Theatre'', third edition, Oxford University Press 2004. Oxford Reference Online, accessed May 15, 2010 (requires subscription)</ref>

In 1905, Kern contributed the song "How'd you like to spoon with me?" to [[Ivan Caryll]]'s hit [[Edwardian musical comedy|musical]] ''[[The Earl and the Girl]]'' when the show transferred to Chicago and New York in 1905.<ref name=grove/>  He also contributed to the New York production of ''[[The Catch of the Season]]'' (1905), ''The Little Cherub'' (1906) and ''[[The Orchid]]'' (1907), among other shows.<ref>Banfield, p. 11</ref> From 1905 on, he spent long periods of time in London, contributing songs to [[West End theatre|West End]] shows like ''[[The Beauty of Bath]]'' (1906; with lyricist [[P. G. Wodehouse]]) and making valuable contacts, including [[George Grossmith Jr.]] and Seymour Hicks, who were the first to introduce Kern's songs to the London stage.<ref name=grove/>  In 1909 during one of his stays in England, Kern took a boat trip on the [[River Thames]] with some friends, and when the boat stopped at [[Walton-on-Thames]], they went to an inn called the Swan for a drink.  Kern was much taken with the proprietor's daughter, Eva Leale (1891–1959), who was working behind the bar.  He wooed her, and they were married at the [[Anglican]] church of St. Mary's in Walton on October 25, 1910.  The couple then lived at the Swan when Kern was in England.<ref>Banfield, pp. 13-14; Blackman, p. 10; and [http://www.swanwalton.com Official website] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230322022801/http://www.swanwalton.com/ |date=March 22, 2023 }}. The Swan at Walton-on-Thames, History, accessed May 12, 2010.</ref>

[[File:Mind the Paint.pdf|thumb|right|upright|[[Billie Burke]], for whom Kern wrote stage and screen music]]
Kern is believed to have composed music for [[silent film]]s as early as 1912, but the earliest documented film music which he is known to have written was for a twenty-part serial, ''[[Gloria's Romance]]'' in 1916.<ref name=banfield50/>  This was one of the first starring vehicles for [[Billie Burke]], for whom Kern had earlier written the song "Mind the Paint", with lyrics by [[Arthur Wing Pinero|A. W. Pinero]].  The film is now considered [[lost film|lost]], but Kern's music survives.  Another score for the silent movies, ''Jubilo'', followed in 1919.<ref name=banfield50>Banfield, p. 50</ref> Kern was one of the founding members of [[ASCAP]].<ref name=who/>

Kern's first complete score was Broadway's ''[[The Red Petticoat]]'' (1912), one of the first musical-comedy Westerns.  The libretto was by [[Rida Johnson Young]].  By [[World War I]], more than a hundred of Kern's songs had been used in about thirty productions, mostly Broadway adaptations of West End and European shows.  Kern contributed two songs to ''[[To-Night's the Night (musical)|To-Night's the Night]]'' (1914), another Rubens musical.  It opened in New York and went on to become a hit in London.  The best known of Kern's songs from this period is probably "[[They Didn't Believe Me]]", which was a hit in the New York version of the [[Paul Rubens (composer)|Paul Rubens]] and [[Sidney Jones (composer)|Sidney Jones]] musical, ''[[The Girl from Utah]]'' (1914), for which Kern wrote five songs.<ref name=grove/> Kern's song, with four beats to a bar, departed from the customary [[waltz]]-rhythms of European influence and fitted the new American passion for modern dances such as the [[fox-trot]].  He was also able to use elements of American styles, such as ragtime, as well as syncopation, in his lively dance tunes.<ref name=bordman>Bordman, Gerald. "Jerome David Kern, Innovator/Traditionalist", ''The Musical Quarterly'', Volume 71, no. 4, April 1985, pp. 468-73</ref> Theatre historian [[John Kenrick (theatre writer)|John Kenrick]] writes that the song put Kern in great demand on Broadway and established a pattern for musical comedy love songs that lasted through the 1960s.<ref>Kenrick, John.  [http://www.musicals101.com/1910bway.htm "Jerome Kern: 'They Didn't Believe Me'"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181009095512/http://www.musicals101.com/1910bway.htm |date=October 9, 2018 }}, ''History of The Musical Stage, 1910-1919: Part I'', The Cyber Encyclopedia of Musical Theatre, TV and Film (2008)</ref>

In May 1915, Kern was due to sail with Charles Frohman from New York to London on board the [[RMS Lusitania|RMS ''Lusitania'']], but Kern missed the boat, having overslept after staying up late playing poker.<ref>Denison, pp. 21–22; and McLean, p. 98</ref>   Frohman died in the sinking of the ship.<ref>[https://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9E0CE5DE1F3EE733A0575AC0A9639C946496D6CF "Theatre District Mourns Frohman"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160305114025/https://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9E0CE5DE1F3EE733A0575AC0A9639C946496D6CF |date=March 5, 2016 }}. ''The New York Times'', May 9, 1915, p. 3</ref>