Irving Berlin’s War: The Ellis Island Immigrant Who Wrote America’s WWI Soundtrack

One of Ellis Island’s most famous immigrants wrote the soundtrack to America’s part in the First World War.

From Russia to Tin Pan Alley

Israel Berlin came through Ellis Island from Russia in 1893, at the age of five, with his parents and five siblings. The family had fled the pogroms targeting Jews across eastern Europe; young Israel watched his Russian home burn before they set out for a new life in New York City.

His musical gift came from his father, a synagogue cantor. As a teenager he sang in saloons and cafés, and in 1907 he published his first song. A spelling error on the sheet music credited the composer as “I. Berlin,” and the name stuck. Hired as a songwriter by a Tin Pan Alley publisher, Irving Berlin wrote his first big hit, “Alexander’s Ragtime Band,” in 1911.

Songs for a nation at war

When the United States entered the war in 1917, Berlin and other Tin Pan Alley writers turned to patriotic music. His songs that year included “For Your Country and My Country” and “Let’s All Be Americans Now,” both reflecting the immigrant experience — and he kept writing lighter songs for people who needed a break from the war.

Corporal Berlin and Yip Yip Yaphank

In 1918, at 30, Berlin was drafted. The Army put his talent to use: serving with the 152nd Depot Brigade at Camp Upton in Yaphank, New York, Corporal Berlin created a musical revue performed by soldiers, Yip Yip Yaphank, to raise money for a community center on the base. It went on to play in New York City, complete with acrobats, dancers and jugglers, its songs mixing a salute to the Army with humor about the common soldier’s life.

Two classics came out of it:

• “Oh! How I Hate to Get Up in the Morning,” sung by Berlin himself as a grumbling soldier. A night owl by nature, he wrote irreverent lyrics about early army mornings that have struck a chord with soldiers ever since. It became a hit again in World War II, when Berlin performed it in his Broadway revue and film This Is the Army.
• “God Bless America,” an immigrant’s thanks to the country that gave him a home. Meant as the revue’s finale, it was set aside because Berlin felt it too solemn for the show. It was released two decades later, when Kate Smith sang it on her radio show in 1938.

Berlin never saw combat and was honorably discharged as a sergeant in 1919.

A lifetime of classics

Over a 60-year career Berlin wrote more than a thousand songs, including the scores of 17 Broadway shows and 16 Hollywood films — among them “Always,” “Blue Skies,” “Cheek to Cheek,” “Easter Parade,” “Puttin’ on the Ritz,” “There’s No Business Like Show Business” and “White Christmas.” He received a Congressional Gold Medal, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, an Academy Award and a Tony Award, and his music has long inspired Americans in and out of uniform.

Sources

Based on "The War in Popular Music: Irving Berlin," National Park Service (Ellis Island, Statue of Liberty National Monument); a work of the United States government in the public domain.