During the first half of his life, Ira Gershwin lived in more than 30 rented apartments and houses. Consequently, when in 1940 he and his wife, Lee, bought their own residence for the first time, they could scarcely have envisioned making it their home for the rest of their lives. Although 1021 N. Roxbury Drive in Beverly Hills was slightly remodeled before they moved in, it was not until 1956 that the property was almost completely rebuilt. This required a temporary abandonment of 1021, and for seven months the Gershwin household lived in a furnished house nearby. So bound was Ira to his home, to which he had given the name Gershwin Plantation, that he was determined to vacate the site for no more than seven months.
Thus, much to the contractor's alarm, seven months from the day we had given up 1021, he saw a huge moving van trying to maneuver into the driveway. Ira was not to be further dispossessed, no matter the unfinished state of the house. Since the English basement of the old house (the billiard room and the poker area) were "ready," it was there that Ira moved his books, papers, typewriter and me. Only one bedroom was inhabitable, while the kitchen was in such chaos that we temporarily lost our cook and lived off a hot plate and delicatessen. Awakened daily at 8 o'clock by the hammering of carpenters, Ira and Lee, passing over electrical cables and around wooden sawhorses, would eventually trail down to my office for morning coffee, the mail and a slight respite from the din. The carpenters stopped work around four, when we would reassemble a card table and a few straight chairs in the music room to give the illusion of livable space. Large hospital screens were wheeled before living room windows. No wonder that director George Cukor called us Bohemians.
Yet amid all this chaos, both Ira and Lee managed to create. Ira continued work on his memoirs, Lyrics on Several Occasions, while Lee welcomed the evenings when friends dropped in for Scrabble or poker or from curiosity about how we were faring. Ira was indifferent to physical inconveniences so long as Lee was happy in the making of the new house and he could happily still keep his feet on ground that was entirely theirs.
