Eric Blue

Milton Eric Blau (born June 1, 1921 in Bridgeport , Connecticut , † February 17, 2009 in New York City ), was an American writer . He was one of the authors of the musical Jacques Brel Is Alive and Well and Living in Paris .

Life

Eric Blau is the son of Hungarian immigrants and grew up in the Lower East Side of Manhattan . His father worked as a taxi driver in New York. Blue attended City College of New York but dropped out without a degree. During the Second World War he came to Europe with the US Army , where he published his first translated poems in French magazines. After returning to America, he worked as a freelance writer and in advertising. He has worked as a ghostwriter for various sports greats, designed The Adventures of Danny Dee , a TV show for children, and published the communist- oriented literary magazine Masses and Mainstream .

With Jacques Brel Blue made in 1960, the American music producer Nat Shapiro known. Blau translated the three chansons Marieke , La valse à mille temps (as Crazy Carousel ) and Ne me quitte pas (as If You Go Away ) for the actress and singer Elly Stone . The following year he designed a musical revue called O Oysters! in which he built the songs and ran for three months in Village Hall in Greenwich Village . Six years later, he worked with the musician and singer Mort Shuman , with whom Blau designed the musical revue Jacques Brel Is Alive and Well and Living in Paris .

The musical was on the Village Gate's program for over four years from January 22, 1968, and became one of the three longest-running off-Broadway musicals in history. Several thousand other productions followed worldwide. After this success, Blau wrote books, poetry and novels , and produced a few other off-Broadway musicals, without being able to build on the success of Jacques Brel Is Alive and Well and Living in Paris .

Eric Blau was married twice. His second wife was the singer Elly Stone. A total of three sons result from the two marriages. Blau died in 2009 of pneumonia following a stroke .

Works

• Jacques Brel Is Alive and Well and Living in Paris . EP Dutton, New York 1971
• Let Me Tell You About Moses. An Experience of Israel . Bobbs-Merril, Indianapolis 1972
• The Keys to Billy Tillio . Pinnacle, New York 1984
• The Beggar's Cup (novel). Knopf, New York 1993
  • German: The begging cup . Lübbe, Bergisch Gladbach 1994

Web links

• Bruce Weber: Eric Blau, a Creator of 'Jacques Brel' Show, Dies at 87 . In: The New York Times, February 24, 2009.
• Reflections Written By Eric Blau - Spring 1999 on Mort Shuman's website .
• Literature by and about Eric Blau in the WorldCat bibliographic database

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c} Bruce Weber: Eric Blau, a Creator of 'Jacques Brel' Show, Dies at 87 . In: The New York Times, February 24, 2009.
2. ↑ ^{a b} Reflections Written By Eric Blau - Spring 1999 ( Memento of the original from October 22, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on Mort Shuman's website. 
3. ↑ Biography ( Memento of the original from November 28, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on Mort Shuman's website.