Marilyn Bergman, Oscar-winning composer, passes away at 93
New York, Jan 9: Marilyn Bergman, the Oscar-winning lyricist who teamed with husband Alan Bergman on The Way We Were, How Do You Keep the Music Playing? and hundreds of other songs, passed away at her Los Angeles home Saturday. She was 93.
She died of respiratory failure not related to COVID-19, according to a representative, Jason Lee.
Her husband was at her bedside when she died.
The Bergmans, who married in 1958, were among the most enduring, successful and productive songwriting partnerships, specialising in introspective ballades for film, television and the stage that combined the romance of Tin Pan Alley with the polish of contemporary pop.
They worked with some of the world's top melodists, including Marvin Hamlisch, Cy Coleman and Michel Legrand, and were covered by some of the world's greatest singers, from Frank Sinatra and Barbra Streisand to Aretha Franklin and Michael Jackson.
If one really is serious about wanting to write songs that are original, that really speak to people, you have to feel like you created something that wasn't there before which is the ultimate accomplishment, isn't it? Marilyn Bergman told The Huffington Post in 2013.
And to make something that wasn't there before, you have to know what came before you.
Their songs included the sentimental Streisand-Neil Diamond duet You Don't Bring Me Flowers, Sinatra's snappy Nice 'n' Easy and Dean Martin's dreamy Sleep Warm.
They helped write the uptempo themes to the 1970s sitcoms Maude and Good Times and collaborated on words and music for the 1978 Broadway show Ballroom.
But they were best known for their contributions to films, turning out themes sometimes remembered more than the movies themselves. Among the highlights: Stephen Bishop's It Might Be You, from Tootsie ; Noel Harrison's The Windmills of Your Mind, from The Thomas Crown Affair ; and, for Best Friends, the James Ingram-Patti Austin duet How Do You Keep the Music Playing?
Their peak was The Way We Were, from the Streisand-Robert Redford romantic drama of the same name.
Set to Hamlisch's moody, pensive melody with Streisand's voice, it was the top-selling song of 1974 and an instant standard, proof that well into the rock era, the public still embraced an old-fashioned ballad.
Fans would have struggled to identify a picture of the Bergmans, or even recognize their names, but they had no trouble summoning the words to The Way We Were : Memories, may be beautiful and yet / What's too painful to remember / We simply choose to forget / So it's the laughter / We will remember / Whenever we remember / The way we were.
The Bergmans won three Oscars for The Way We Were, Windmills of Your Mind and the soundtrack to Streisand's Yentl and received 16 nominations, three of them in 1983 alone.
They also won two Grammys and four Emmys and were inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame.
Marilyn Bergman became the first woman elected to the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers and later served as the chair and president.
She was also the first chair of the National Recorded Sound Preservation Board of the Library of Congress.
Streisand worked with them throughout her career, recording more than 60 of their songs and dedicating an entire album, What Matters Most, to their material.
The Bergmans met her when she was 18, a nightclub singer, and soon became close friends.
I just love their words, I love the sentiment, I love their exploration of love and relationships, Streisand told The Associated Press in 2011.
Like Streisand, the Bergmans were Jews from lower-middle-class families in Brooklyn.
They were born in the same hospital, Alan four years earlier than Marilyn, whose unmarried name was Katz, and they were raised in the same neighbourhood and were fans of music and movies since childhood.
They both moved to Los Angeles in 1950 Marilyn had studied English and psychology at New York University but didn't meet until a few years later, when they were working for the same composer.
The Bergmans appeared to be free of the boundaries and tensions of many songwriting teams.
They likened their chemistry to housework (one washes, one dries) or to baseball (pitching and catching), and were so in tune with each other that they struggled to recall who wrote a given lyric.
Our partnership as writers or as husband and wife? Marilyn told The Huffington Post when asked about their relationship.
I think the aspects of both are the same: Respect, trust, all of that is necessary in a writing partnership or a business partnership or in a marriage.
Besides her husband, Bergman is survived by their daughter, Julie Bergman.
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Never entered into pact to operate airport in Kenya: Adani group
New Delhi, Nov 23: Billionaire Gautam Adani's group on Saturday clarified on reports of Kenya cancelling more than USD 2.5 billion in deals after US indictment on bribery charges, saying it had not entered into any binding agreement to operate Kenya's main airport.
On the pact it had signed last month to build and operate key electricity transmission lines in Kenya for 30 years, the group said the project did not fall within the ambit of Sebi's disclosure regulations, thereby not warranting any disclosure on its cancellation.
The group was responding to notices sent by stock exchanges to confirm reports of Kenyan President William Ruto ordering the cancellation of a procurement process that had been expected to award control of the country's main airport after the conglomerate's founder was indicted in the United States.
Adani Enterprises Ltd, the flagship firm of billionaire Gautam Adani's group which houses its airport business, in a filing said it had in August this year incorporated a step-down subsidiary in Kenya to upgrade, modernise, and manage airports.
"While the company was in discussion with the relevant authority for the said project, till date neither the company nor its subsidiaries (i) have been awarded any airport project in Kenya, or (ii) entered into any binding or definitive agreement in connection with any airport in Kenya," the firm said.
It did not confirm or deny reports of Kenya cancelling the airport deal.
Adani Energy Solutions Ltd, the firm that operates power transmission lines, in a separate filing said on October 9 it was awarded the project to construct transmission lines in Kenya. Thereafter, it had incorporated a step-down subsidiary in Kenya.
"We submit that the project does not fall within the ambit of item 4 of Para B, Part A, Schedule III of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Listing Obligations and Disclosure Requirements) Regulations, 2015, as amended (Sebi Listing Regulations) which requires intimation to be made for any awarding, bagging/ receiving, amendment or termination of awarded/bagged orders/contracts other than in the ordinary course of business," it said refusing to confirm or deny the cancellation.
It went on to state that the award of the project was in the ordinary course of business of the company and its subsidiaries as they are engaged in the business of transmission and distribution of energy (among other things).
"Consequently, any cancellation of such Project will also not fall within the ambit of item 4 of Para B, Part A, Schedule III of the Sebi Listing Regulations," it added.
Under the proposed airport deal worth nearly USD 2 billion, the conglomerate was to add a second runway at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport and upgrade the passenger terminal. It was also to operate it on a 30-year lease.
Kenya's President in his state of the nation address on Thursday also stated that he was cancelling a separate 30-year, USD 736-million public-private partnership that an Adani Group firm signed with the Ministry of Energy and Petroleum last month to construct power transmission lines.
That followed US authorities indicting group Founder and Chairman Gautam Adani and seven others for allegedly agreeing to pay USD 265 million to Indian officials to win lucrative solar power supply contracts.
The Adani Group denied the allegations as baseless and said it would seek "all possible legal recourse".
The tender to operate Kenya's main airport was put on hold following local protests.
Adani Energy Solutions Ltd had last month signed a project agreement with the Kenya Electricity Transmission Company Ltd (Ketraco) for developing three transmission lines and two substations.
