The Tunesmith: The Musical Journey of M.K. Jerome (ebook)
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The Tunesmith: The Musical Journey of M.K. Jerome
Gary May
Nominated for the 2023 Richard Wall Memorial Award, honoring books on film and broadcasting
Gary May’s The Tunesmith brings to vivid life the sights and sounds . . . of M.K. Jerome, whose songs become a sort of time capsule for vital American musical and cultural history, from Tin Pan Alley to early Hollywood to World War II patriotic blockbusters. This is a beautifully researched and rendered story, not only about a moment in American music, but also a cherished relationship between a lifelong tunesmith and his grandson.
— Dahlia Lithwick, senior editor, State, and author of Lady Justice: Women, the Law, and the Battle to Save America
As an animation historian, I’m so pleased to have such a wonderful resource to one of Warner Bros. most prolific songwriters, whose work, by extension, appears and is immortalized in so many Warner cartoon shorts. So many Jerome tunes are burned into my brain, and the stories behind them are so wonderfully told. Gary May makes it as easy as “rolling off a log.”
— Jerry Beck, author of The Warner Brothers Cartoons (with Will Friedwald)
and other works on American cartoon history
I’m a sucker for stories of old-time show business, and this book has plenty of good ones. If you love Tin Pan Alley and Hollywood’s Golden Age, you’ll find a lot to enjoy in The Tunesmith.
— Leonard Maltin, film critic and historian
With its beautiful balance of well-informed historical research and absorbing narrative prose, The Tunesmith both enlightened and informed me. Bravo to May on this achievement.
— Katherine Spring, associate professor of English and film studies, Wilfrid Laurier University, and author of Saying It With Songs: Popular Music and
the Coming of Sound to Hollywood Cinema
This is a story of the Great American Songbook and the Golden Age of Film, told through the discerning eyes of the grandson of M.K. Jerome, one of the forgotten greats.
— Larry Tye, author of Demagogue: The Life and Long Shadow of Senator Joe McCarthy
and Bobby Kennedy: The Making of a Liberal Icon
Thoroughly exceeded my expectations. . . . It reads like a documentary. It’s cinematic. I visualize stills and motion pictures on a screen, with narration. . . . The final chapter of [May’s] life with his grandfather is a healthy mix of charming, amusing, and wistful. Loved it.
— Alex Hassan, pianist and entertainer
Three enthusiastic cheers for Gary May, who has written a fascinating biography of his grandfather, M.K. Jerome, one of the greatest unsung songwriters of the Jazz Age. I hope this book secures a well-deserved legacy for Jerome and his delightful work. The book will be a valuable resource for all of us who are interested in the Great American Songbook and the songwriters who created it.
— Norman von Holtzendorff, co-editor of Things That Were Made for Love:
The Songsheet Art of Sydney Leff
The Tunesmith is a beautifully rendered portrait of the too-often unsung songwriter M.K. Jerome, an affectionate tribute to him and to the dozens, if not hundreds, of songwriters who labored for more than half a century in the hard-nosed purlieus of Tin Pan Alley and Hollywood.
— Malcolm Jones, culture writer and senior editor, The Daily Beast
One cannot call M.K. Jerome an “unsung hero,” because after nearly a century his songs still emanate from 20th century theaters and 21st century flatscreens. Moe personified the indefatigable, prolific writer that was the backbone of the film music industry ever since the movies learned to talk.
— Peter Mintun, Ph.D., pianist, music historian, and archivist
A very fine book. . . . Years ago, I was tasked with inventorying boxes of old records in a dark corner on the Warner Brothers lot. I was completely astonished at how many song credits referenced the name of one M.K. Jerome. I finally know why, thanks to this tuneful, affectionate, and pitch-perfect look at the man, who, it turns out, helped define the sound of that studio and of a full century of American popular music.
— Steven Bingen, author of Warner Bros.: Hollywood’s Ultimate Backlot
From Tin Pan Alley to Hollywood, M.K. Jerome lent a soundtrack for generations of Americans. In this appealing biography, Gary May tells his story with historical depth and personal affection.
— Aram Goudsouzian, Bizot Family Professor of History, University of Memphis, and author of Down To The Crossroads: Civil Rights, Black Power,
and the Meredith March Against Fear
Gary May’s The Tunesmith brings to vivid life the sights and sounds . . . of M.K. Jerome, whose songs become a sort of time capsule for vital American musical and cultural history, from Tin Pan Alley to early Hollywood to World War II patriotic blockbusters. This is a beautifully researched and rendered story, not only about a moment in American music, but also a cherished relationship between a lifelong tunesmith and his grandson.
— Dahlia Lithwick, senior editor, Slate, and author of Lady Justice: Women, the Law, and the Battle to Save America
"Too often these days you’ll pick up a biography of a star, director or composer from the Golden Age of Hollywood and find it is a cut and paste job; meaning the author looked up news articles about the making of a movie or interesting moments from that person’s life and just added that to the book chronologically. There are no interviews with the subject or co-workers since the person is long dead and was perhaps private.
That is not the case with The Tunesmith:The Musical Journey of M. K. Jerome - author Gary May knew his subject composer M. K. Jerome well. Jerome, nicknamed Moe, was his grandfather. And friend.
As Senior Researcher and Fact-checker at Turner Classic Movies for over 20 years, I know the history of studio composers and songwriters. I had seen M. K. Jerome’s name - particularly during TCM’s 31 Days of Oscar month - since he was nominated two years in a row. The first nomination was for “Sweet Dreams Sweetheart” from Hollywood Canteen (1945) and the second was for “Some Sunday Morning” from San Antonio (1946).
But there were many more credits that I had not known. The American Film Institute lists 72 credits for Jerome starting in 1929 running all the way to 1956. That does not include shorts or the cartoons to which that he contributed. Or movies on which he was not credited for some reason.
From working for Irving Berlin starting in 1911, plus vaudeville, to a 18 year employment at Warner Bros. studio, Moe wrote incidental music, songs for both features and shorts PLUS music that was used by the legendary Warner Bros. Animation Department for Bugs Bunny. He contributed to the first known film appearance of Frances Gumm (later known as Judy Garland) and her sisters, when they performed in the Vitaphone short Bubbles (1930).
All Casablanca fans know that Dooley Wilson was a drummer not a piano player and how “As Time Goes By” was in danger of being cut since composer Max Steiner disliked it and wanted it replaced by a song of his own. But did you know the only ORIGINAL song written for this iconic 1942 picture “Knock on Wood” was composed by Moe?
During his 18 years at Warners, Moe worked with all of the major stars and became friends with many of them, including James Cagney, Ann Sheridan and Dennis Morgan. He could adapt to any situation using all styles of music with any number of lyricists. He was a diplomat and a nice guy.
Moe’s music continues to live on - in both movies of the past and current movies - such as O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000) and Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood (2002). It is refreshing to read his story from a relative who actually knew him."
Alexa Foreman
Director, Producer, Author and Film Historian
"If you like old show-business anecdotes you’ll enjoy this review of M.K. Jerome’s musical career as much as I did. He moved from Tin Pan Alley to Warner Bros. where, with his partner Jack Scholl, he provided songs for any occasion—a novelty number for Dooley Wilson to sing in Casablanca, new connective tissue for a George M. Cohan medley in Yankee Doodle Dandy, etc. Illustrations include the sheet music covers for many of his songs that many of us recognize from Warner Bros. cartoons like “My Little Buckaroo,” “Angel in Disguise,” and “As Easy as Rolling off a Log,” recently revived by James Taylor. I had fun with this breezy biography."
- Leonard Maltin