Cole Porter was born on June 9, 1891 in Peru, Indiana to a Baptist family. He was an only child. He began violin and piano lessons at the age of 6; he gave up the violin by the time he was 8. At 10, he wrote his first operetta. In 1905, Porter attended Worcester Academy where he was an excellent student. After graduation, he attended Yale University. While at Yale he sang in the Yale Glee Club and the Whiffenpoofs. In 1913, he attended Harvard Law School but soon switched to music; he didn’t graduate.

In 1915, Cole Porter had his first success with the song “Esmeralda” which appeared in the Broadway show, Hands Up.  In 1917, he moved to Paris, France. While there he joined the French Foreign Legion, they sent him to the French Officers School to teach gunnery.  In 1919, he married widow, Linda Lee Thomas. This marriage is largely seen as a “business arrangement” since Cole Porter was quite openly gay. He did remain married to her until her death in 1954. She was buried in the Porter family plot in Mount Hope Cemetery in Peru, Indiana.

Cole Porter returned to the United States in the 1920s where he began his assault on Broadway. Beginning in 1928, he had an incredible run of successful Broadway musicals. His first success was with Paris, which featured the song “Let’s Do It, Let’s Fall in Love.” In 1932, he wrote the music for the Gay Divorcee with Fred Astaire, the most well-known song from that was “Night and Day.” Next came Anything Goes in 1934, which featured the songs “I Get a Kick out of You” and “You’re the Top.” He had non-stop hits on Broadway until the middle 1940s. In 1948, his musical Kiss Me, Kate won the Tony Award for Best Musical; notable songs in this musical include “Too Darn Hot” and “Brush Up Your Shakespeare.” In addition to Broadway, Porter also wrote music for many movies; Born to Dance and Rosalie are two of the films he wrote the scores for. Many of his Broadway musicals were also made into films.

In 1937, Porter was injured in a riding accident that crushed both his legs. From then on he was mainly crippled and in constant pain. His right leg was eventually amputated in 1958 and he was fitted with a prostheses. After this he went into seclusion for the rest of his life.

Cole Porter died on October 15, 1964 of kidney failure. He was buried in the family plot in Indiana between his wife and his mother.

There have been two biographical films made about Cole Porter’s life; Night and Day starred Cary Grant and was released in 1946, De-Lovely starred Kevin Kline and was released in 2004.

The Cole Porter songbook continues to be popular with singers today. While a lot of his songs do remind us of the Roaring Twenties, many of them are timeless and easily understandable by today’s music lovers. He is a true American classic and one of the most prolific popular songwriters of the 20^th century.