Frederick Loewe, best known for his work with lyricist Alan Jay Lerner, was born in Berlin. In 1925 he immigrated to America with his father, a popular German operetta star. Loewe embarked on a number of unsuccessful projects, while playing piano in silent movie houses and other miscellaneous jobs to make ends meet. It was not until he met Lerner that he had a success. In 1947 Lerner and Loewe introduced Brigadoon. This hit established them as the first major Broadway songwriters to emerge in the post war era. Other musicals followed, but is was My Fair Lady in 1956 that proved to be Lerner and Loewe's most enduring hit; it was the longest run of any Broadway musical prior to Cats. While My Fair Lady was in productions, the songwriting team worked on the movie musical Gigi. It was a surprise hit of 1958 and earned the Academy Award for Best Picture. After their musical Camelot in 1960, Loewe announced his retirement. Despite his late start on Broadway, Loewe's taste and musical personality were rooted in the Viennese operetta of his youth. His utilization of this influence was Americanized to some extent, and his settings of Lerner's English lyrics are so natural that they become less than noticeable, almost like speech. It is easy to mistake this hard-won simplicity of expression to a kind of emotional distancing, but the total integration of story and song in the work of Lerner and Loewe is what makes their work so widely appealing to so many. This ensures the survival of shows like My Fair Lady well past their closing date on Broadway.