If you ask me, he’s a son of a master

ALAN Gershwin, always known as — but never proven to be — George Gershwin’s unnamed son just left us. Twice married, four children, three grandchildren, stone broke.

I knew him well. He and my husband brunched every Sunday in the Village’s now-gone Penny-feathers.

He always maintained George Gershwin — whose estate then was estimated in the millions, meticulously guarded by his survivors — had a five-year affair with his mother, tall brunette Ziegfeld chorine Mollie Charleston.

I reported in January ’93, Alan, born in Brooklyn Maternity, under last name Schneider, told his parents were dead, was raised by Mollie’s sister. As Mollie’s fortunes burgeoned, George’s brother, Ira, acting as the beard, was her escort.

Alan’s face, voice, hands were identical to George’s. His handwriting paralleled George’s. He had a neck lipoma. So did George. Said Alan to me:

“Gershwin genes are hard to hide.”

Interviewed friends said the era’s morality was such that an illegitimate child scandal could kill off Gershwin’s career. His family accosted me, saying, “We have nothing to do with this man. You must never write about him again.”

Alan told me: “Unsavory guys in dark suits frightening me told me my life wouldn’t be worth anything if I said anything. And to keep out of the spotlight, away from lawyers and courts if you know what’s good for you.

“But I always knew I was George Gershwin’s son. I knew that all my life.” A story known only in New York, kids, only in New York.