Time/Date
11-14-2009 2:00 PM
Abstract
During the 1930s, noted popular music songwriters Johnny Mercer and Hoagy Carmichael both moved to southern California for work in the film industry. Like many songwriters who had left New York for the promise of lucrative film work, both composers would make a name for themselves at the height of the Hollywood studio system. In addition to being songwriters, they each performed the part in front of the camera as well. My presentation seeks to provide some preliminary answers to the questions: Why have songwriters in front of the camera? What might this suggest about the role of the Tin Pan Alley songwriter in Hollywood? During a period in which the film musical was in its ascendancy, musical numbers were constantly in need of catchy songs. But beyond this, did the songwriters themselves add to the Hollywood myth onscreen and off?
Going Hollywood with Hoagy Carmichael and Johnny Mercer
During the 1930s, noted popular music songwriters Johnny Mercer and Hoagy Carmichael both moved to southern California for work in the film industry. Like many songwriters who had left New York for the promise of lucrative film work, both composers would make a name for themselves at the height of the Hollywood studio system. In addition to being songwriters, they each performed the part in front of the camera as well. My presentation seeks to provide some preliminary answers to the questions: Why have songwriters in front of the camera? What might this suggest about the role of the Tin Pan Alley songwriter in Hollywood? During a period in which the film musical was in its ascendancy, musical numbers were constantly in need of catchy songs. But beyond this, did the songwriters themselves add to the Hollywood myth onscreen and off?
Comments
Presented in the Fourth Plenary Session: American Popular Music in Film
Video footage of presentation