ASCAP SONGWRITING GREAT YIP HARBURG TO BE HONORED WITH U.S. POSTAGE STAMP ON April 28

ASCAP member and legendary songwriter E.Y. “Yip” Harburg (1896-1981) will be honored by the United States Postal Service with a new 37-cent commemorative postage stamp on April 28. A theatrical concert to launch the stamp and honor Yip Harburg will take place on April 28 at Manhattan’s 92nd Street Y, from 6 - 7:15 P.M.

• Scheduled to appear at the Y concert are Michael Feinstein; Maureen McGovern; Eli Wallach and Anne Jackson; Joel Grey and others, including Yip’s teenage grandson, Ben Harburg, as well as Yip’s son Ernie Harburg, his father’s biographer.
  
  
• Tony Bennett once said, “Yip Harburg was the greatest lyric writer of them all." Known as Broadway’s social conscience, Harburg wrote the lyrics to “Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?” -- the anthem of the Great Depression; lyrics to the renowned score of The Wizard of Oz, including “Over the Rainbow” (Academy Award, 1940); “April in Paris,” “It’s Only a Paper Moon,” “Lydia, the Tattooed Lady,” and many other standards. He joined ASCAP in 1930.
  
  
• Harburg’s most notable Broadway show was the classic Finian’s Rainbow -- written in 1947 with composer Burton Lane, it featured such songs as “Look to the Rainbow,” “Old Devil Moon” and “How Are Things in Glocca Morra?” and was the first Broadway show in which black and white performers danced together. Finian's hit revival off-Broadway at the Irish Repertory Theatre last season will open at the Westport, CT. Playhouse on June 14, 2005, with plans for Broadway and a national tour.
  
  
• Last year, the Yip Harburg-Harold Arlen classic “Over the Rainbow” was named the number one film song of all time by the American Film Institute; in 2001 it was chosen as the greatest song of the 20th century in a Recording Industry Association of America/National Endowment for the Arts poll.

The 92nd Street Y, home of the renowned "LYRICS & LYRICISTS," is located at 1395 Lexington Avenue (corner of 92nd Street). Admission is free on a first come-first serve basis. To reserve press seats, or receive additional materials, please contact e@yipharburg.com or call 212-343-9668.

The famed "LYRICS & LYRICISTS" series at the 92nd Street Y was launched with Yip Harburg as its first guest in 1970. He appeared in three more in the series before he died; four special L&L tributes to Yip have taken place since, the latest in March 2004.