Editing George Gershwin (section)

===Tin Pan Alley and Broadway: 1913–1923===
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In 1913, Gershwin left school at the age of 15 to work as a "[[song plugger]]" on New York City's [[Tin Pan Alley]]. He earned $15 a week from Jerome H. Remick and Company, a Detroit-based publishing firm with a branch office in New York. His first published song was "When You Want 'Em, You Can't Get 'Em, When You've Got 'Em, You Don't Want 'Em" in 1916. It earned the 17-year-old 50 cents.<ref name="ven">{{cite book|last=Venezia|first=Mike|title=Getting to Know the World's Greatest Composers: George Gerswhin|year=1994|publisher=Childrens Press|location=Chicago IL}}</ref>

In 1916, Gershwin started working for [[Aeolian Company]] and Standard Music Rolls in New York City, recording and arranging. He produced dozens, if not hundreds, of rolls under his own and assumed names (pseudonyms attributed to Gershwin include Fred Murtha and Bert Wynn). He also recorded rolls of his own compositions for the Duo-Art and [[Welte-Mignon]] [[reproducing piano]]s. As well as recording piano rolls, Gershwin made a brief foray into [[vaudeville]], accompanying both [[Nora Bayes]] and [[Louise Dresser]] on the piano.<ref>Slide, Anthony. ''The Encyclopedia of Vaudeville'', Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1994. p. 111.</ref> His first song to appear on Broadway was "Making of a Girl", written in 1916 with [[Sigmund Romberg]] and lyrics by [[Harold Atteridge]]. It was sung in [[The Passing Show of 1916]].<ref>Baral, Robert, Revue, Fleet Publishing, NY, 1962, pp. 109-110.</ref> His 1917 novelty [[ragtime]], "Rialto Ripples", was a commercial success.<ref name=ven /> In addition to his musical activities, he took over the management of the popular and famous gay bathhouse Lafayette Baths together with his brother Ira.<ref>{{Cite web |title=TR Center - Before Stonewall: The Ariston Bath Raids of 1903 |url=https://www.theodorerooseveltcenter.org/Blog/Item/Ariston |access-date=November 26, 2023 |website=theodorerooseveltcenter.org}}</ref>

In 1919, Gershwin scored his first big national hit with his song "[[Swanee (song)|Swanee]]", with words by [[Irving Caesar]]. [[Al Jolson]], a [[Broadway theatre|Broadway]] star and former [[minstrel show|minstrel singer]], heard Gershwin perform "Swanee" at a party and decided to sing it in one of his shows.<ref name=ven /> In the late 1910s, Gershwin met songwriter and music director [[William Merrigan Daly|William Daly]]. The two collaborated on the Broadway musicals ''Piccadilly to Broadway'' (1920) and ''For Goodness' Sake'' (1922), and jointly composed the score for ''Our Nell'' (1923). This was the beginning of a long friendship. Daly was a frequent arranger, orchestrator and conductor of Gershwin's music, and Gershwin periodically turned to him for musical advice.{{sfn|Pollack|2006|pp=191–192}}