George Gershwin: He Got Rhythm By Ron Cowen At age 12, George
Gershovitz seemed well on the way to becoming a juvenile
delinquent. He skipped school, got into fights and occasionally
stole from pushcarts plying the crowded streets of New York’s
Lower East Side. George excelled at back-alley games—he was the
roller-skating champ of Seventh Street—but reading bored him. At
school, his scholarly brother Ira, two years older, often was
called in to explain George’s poor attendance and bad attitude.
At that point, their mother Rose decided that the family needed
a piano. Her sister had one, and she wanted Ira to start taking
lessons. He was less than thrilled at the prospect. But one day
in 1910, a secondhand upright was hoisted through a front window
of the Gershovitz’s apartment. The piano stool clearly had Ira’s
name on it, but it was rough-and-tumble George who twirled the
seat down to size, lifted the keyboard and banged out an
accomplished version of a popular tune. ''The family was
flabbergasted,'' his sist