money as a newspaper delivery boy and , despite the lack of musical education, as a singing waiter in chinatast song, merry from sunny italy, berlin received a fee of 37 cents; a couple of years later he had his first international hit and incredible fame. over the next five decades... irwin berlin composed 1,500 songs that shaped the development of american popular music, wrote scores for twenty broadway musicals and soundtracks for eighteen hollywood films. his many awards include a tony award, a grammy award, and an oscar for wide christmas, which was later recognized as the best-selling song of the twentieth century. it was performed by frank sinatra, elvis presley, bob marley, mirai mathieu and others. world music stars irving shaw became the author of jazz standards that broadway adheres to to this day, he comes from a small belarusian town and wrote a song that has become the unofficial anthem of the united states, god bless america. for it, he received the military meritorious service medal from us president harry truman and the congressional gold medal from president dwight eisen. an