Once Johnny figured out his talents lay in lyrics and songwriting, his career took a turn for the better. Everett Miller, a friend he’d met while acting, had written a song, and he asked Johnny to compose the lyrics for it. This song, “Out of Breath and Scared to Death of You,” ended up in a revue called The Garrick Gaieties, and Miller’s father published the song. In addition to this exciting development, Johnny also met a beautiful young woman, Ginger Meehan, who was performing in the revue.

Ginger was in the chorus, and Johnny started bringing her ice cream and taking her to the movies so they could get to know each other better. It wasn’t long before Johnny met Ginger’s family, all of which pushed Johnny to move on from dreams of acting onto a more solid career in songwriting.

To further his new career track, Johnny began meeting other songwriters and music publishers and soon landed a job to write lyrics for an operetta. This was a wonderful opportunity for the new songwriter, but the downside was that he had to leave New York and Ginger to work in California where the operetta would first be staged.

While in California, Johnny got to see some of his favorite musicians like Bing Crosby and Louis Armstrong perform, though he was working most days and nights to complete the operetta lyrics. Seeing these idols of his was a welcome change from the European opera music he was working with every day.

After returning to New York, Johnny gained fulltime employment with Miller Music, the company owned by his friend Everett Miller’s father who had published “Out of Breath and Scared to Death of You.” The steady employment and income prompted him to propose to Ginger, and the two were married in a small ceremony in New York. Ginger quit her theatrical career and went to work as a seamstress, while Johnny kept working on his career. He was doing well, but it took him a while to write songs and lyrics and his slowness held him back.

He and a friend entered a singing contest, and Johnny won first place. This was exciting but still wasn’t the turning point he was looking for, though it did lead him to a semi-formal apprenticeship on a stage production. Working with Yip Harburg, Johnny got a chance to learn how to work at lyric writing. “I had been a dilettante at it, trying hard but most undisciplined, waiting for the muse to strike,” Johnny said.

It wasn’t until he teamed up with a man called Hoagy Carmichael that Johnny gained recognition and fame among other songwriters and musicians. Hoagy and Johnny spent a year working on just one song, “Lazy Bones,” but it was a hit once it was released on the radio. The success of this one song gained him entrance into the musician brotherhood in New York and made him a valid member of Tin Pan Alley. And Johnny and Hoagy would go on to write many more songs together, including “Skylark” and “In the Cool, Cool of the Evening,” which won an Academy Award®.

Soon Paul Whiteman, the bandleader who had awarded Johnny first place in the singing contest, contacted him. Whiteman wanted Johnny to sing in a duet in addition to writing songs and comic skits. He was offering him a weekly salary that was enough for Johnny and Ginger to leave her mother’s home and move to an apartment in Manhattan. Johnny still went to work each day for Miller Music, then came home for dinner, before he and Ginger went back out to the clubs where Johnny would sing each night.

Johnny was finally riding a wave of success, but something even bigger was on the way for the young songwriter.

Vocabulary

Apprenticeship – a time period when one learns a trade, art, or calling (such as songwriting) by practical experience under skilled workers

Career – a profession for which one trains and which is undertaken as a permanent calling

Chorus - a company of singers and dancers in dramatic performances that participate in or comment on the action onstage

Dilettante – a person having a superficial interest in an art or a branch of knowledge

Genre – a category of artistic, musical, or literary composition characterized by a particular style, form, or content

Operetta – a usually romantic comic opera that includes songs and dancing

Revue – a theatrical production consisting typically of brief loosely connected, often satirical, skits, songs, and dances

Tin Pan Alley – an area in New York City where music publishers and songwriters gathered; the term came to mean the music industry

Teaching Tips

Discuss the different jobs and roles that might be available for someone interested in the music industry. Mercer wrote songs for famous singers, a practice that still goes on in present day. What other “behind the scenes” career opportunities might be available?

Have students create their own revue, divide them up into several groups to create and perform a short skit, song or dance. Pick a theme so everything is somewhat connected, and have students perform for each other

Sources

New Georgia Encyclopedia, Johnny Mercer

Philip Furia, Skylark: The Life and Times of Johnny Mercer (New York: St. Martin's Press, 2003)., 47, 49, 54, 55, 69

Bob Bach and Ginger Mercer, Our Huckleberry Friend, (Lyle Stuart, 1982) 9-10

Wikipedia.org, Johnny Mercer