Editing George Gershwin (section)

===Illness and death===
Early in 1937, Gershwin began to complain of blinding headaches and a recurring impression that he smelled burning rubber. As early as February 1934, he had said he smelled burning garbage at the Detroit railway station, though those with him did not.<ref>Joan Peyser, ''The Memory of All That: The Life of George Gershwin'', 1998 ch. 4, p. 217; ch. 5, p. 262</ref> On February 11, 1937, he performed his Piano Concerto in F in a special concert of his music with the [[San Francisco Symphony]] Orchestra under the direction of French maestro [[Pierre Monteux]].{{sfn|Pollack|2006|p=353}} Gershwin, normally a superb pianist in his own compositions, suffered coordination problems and blackouts during the performance. He was at the time working on other Hollywood film projects while living with Ira and his wife Leonore in their rented house in [[Beverly Hills]]. Leonore Gershwin began to be disturbed by George's mood swings and his seeming inability to eat without spilling food at the dinner table. She suspected mental illness and insisted he be moved out of their house to lyricist [[Yip Harburg]]'s empty quarters nearby, where he was placed in the care of his valet, Paul Mueller. The headaches and [[olfactory hallucination]]s continued.

On the night of July 9, 1937, Gershwin collapsed in Harburg's house, where he had been working on the score of ''[[The Goldwyn Follies]]''. He was rushed to [[Cedars of Lebanon Hospital]] in Los Angeles,<ref name="Jablonski">Jablonski, Edward. "George Gershwin; He Couldn't Be Saved" (Letter to Editor), ''The New York Times'', October 25, 1998, Section 2; Page 4; Column 5</ref> and fell into a coma. Only then did his doctors come to believe that he was suffering from a [[brain tumor]]. Leonore called George's close friend Emil Mosbacher and explained the dire need to find a [[neurosurgeon]]. Mosbacher immediately called pioneering neurosurgeon [[Harvey Cushing]] in Boston, who, retired for several years by then, recommended [[Walter Dandy]], who was on a boat fishing in the [[Chesapeake Bay]] with [[Harry Nice]], the governor of Maryland. Mosbacher called the [[White House]] and had a [[United States Coast Guard|Coast Guard]] cutter sent to find the governor's yacht and bring Dandy quickly to shore.<ref name="autogenerated323">Jablonski, Edward. ''Gershwin''. New York: Doubleday, 1987. p. 323.</ref>

[[File:Gershwin best 800.jpg|thumb|Gershwin's mausoleum in [[Westchester Hills Cemetery]]]]
Mosbacher then chartered a plane and flew Dandy to [[Newark Airport]], where he was to catch a plane to Los Angeles;<ref>Jablonski, Edward. ''Gershwin''. New York: Doubleday, 1987. p. 324.</ref> by that time, Gershwin's condition was critical and the need for surgery was immediate.<ref name="autogenerated323"/> Before Dandy could arrive,<ref>{{Cite magazine |date=July 19, 1937 |title=Music: Death of Gershwin |url=https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,882760,00.html |magazine=Time |language=en-us |access-date=March 17, 2023}}</ref> in the early hours of Sunday, July 11, 1937, doctors at Cedars removed a large brain tumor, believed to have been a [[glioblastoma]], but Gershwin died that morning at the age of 38.<ref name="NEJM">{{Cite journal | doi=10.1016/S0140-6736(17)31623-9| pmid=28816130|title = George Gershwin's death and Duret haemorrhage| journal=The Lancet| volume=390| issue=10095| page=646|year = 2017|last1 = Mezaki|first1 = Takahiro| doi-access=free}}</ref> The fact that he had suddenly collapsed and become comatose after he stood up on July 9 has been interpreted as [[brain herniation]] with [[Duret hemorrhages]].<ref name="NEJM" />

Gershwin's friends and admirers were devastated. [[John O'Hara]] remarked: "George Gershwin died on July 11, 1937, but I don't have to believe that if I don't want to."<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.broadstreetreview.com/index.php/main/article/Gershwins_unrealized_potential/ |title=Broad Street |publisher=Broadstreetreview.com |date=February 27, 2007 |access-date=March 10, 2010 |archive-date=July 26, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110726065615/http://www.broadstreetreview.com/index.php/main/article/Gershwins_unrealized_potential/ |url-status=dead }}</ref> He was interred at [[Westchester Hills Cemetery]] in [[Hastings-on-Hudson]], New York. A memorial concert was held at the [[Hollywood Bowl]] on September 8, 1937, at which [[Otto Klemperer]] conducted his own orchestration of the second of Gershwin's ''Three Preludes''.{{sfn|Pollack|2006|p=392}}