Rodgers & Hart’s “Manhattan” at 100 – A Birthday Celebration

By John Bigelow
Contributing Writer

It was a century ago, 1925, the middle of the Roaring Twenties, in New York. The country was on fire. Captains of industry, titans of finance, and show business impresarios were creating fortunes and reputations and making American into a world powerhouse. The Great War was over and it seemed there was nothing but smooth sailing ahead. Optimism was in the air.

But for a couple of struggling songwriters in Manhattan it wasn’t all roses. Composer Richard Rodgers and lyricist Lorenz Hart were looking for a hit and on the verge of throwing in the towel. But they didn’t and it was all because of a jaunty melody with catchy memorable lyrics they titled Manhattan.
Manhattan was a song for the era. Although it spoke to everyone its heroes were the guy and the doll with not much money in their pockets and maybe holes in their shoes. Rodgers and Hart said they had Manhattan, the Bronx and Staten Island too as their playground and dance hall. All they really had to do was get out of their apartments.

The zoo, and the wilds of Yonkers, and the pushcarts down on Mott Street, and even the notoriously smelly and noisy subways were the antidote to whatever ailed that boy and girl as they turned Manhattan and the rest of New York City into their own isle of joy. And if they got hungry they could go to Coney--and eat baloney on a roll--even if Coney was in Brooklyn.

The song caught on and caught on big. You could whistle it, sing it, hum it. Its infectious melody and rhyming couplets made you feel good and forget your cares for a while. It fit right in with the spirit of the Roaring Twenties and it changed the lives and careers of Rodgers and Hart forever.
Manhattan a century later is still as much fun as it was when they wrote it and it put its creators on the musical map. Their successes starting with several shows in the next couple of years put them in with the other giants of the Great American Songbook.

The next time you fly into LaGuardia and look down at Central Park and the rest of that greatest of American cities, you might find yourself singing to yourself, I’ll take Manhattan. And you just might because as Rodgers and Hart framed it, it’s there for the taking.