Biography

Johnny Mercer

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Johnny Mercer started his career as singer and songwriter for Paul Whiteman. He started writing songs for Hollywood in 1935, where he also had a few small parts in musicals. Among his famous songs is the inoffical anthem of Hollywood, "Hooray For Hollywood" that he wrote for the movie "Hollywood Hotel". He also had radio programs and made records, some with Bing Crosby.
- IMDb mini biography by: Stephan Eichenberg <eichenbe@fak-cbg.tu-muenchen.de>
Johnny Mercer is an American lyricist, songwriter, and singer. He was also a record label executive who co-founded Capitol Records with music industry businessman Buddy G. DeSylva and Glen Wallichs.

He is best known as a Tin Pan Alley lyricist, but he also composed music. He was a popular singer who recorded his own songs as well as songs written by others. From the mid-1930s through the mid-1950s, many of the songs Mercer wrote and performed were among the most popular hits of the time, including "Moon River", "Days of Wine and Roses", "Autumn Leaves", and "Hooray for Hollywood". He wrote the lyrics to more than 1,500 songs, including compositions for movies and Broadway shows. He received nineteen Oscar nominations, and won four Best Original Song Oscars.
- IMDb mini biography by: Tango Papa

He had an on-off affair with Judy Garland.
His music is featured prominently in the both the book and film: Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (1997), which was set in his birthplace of Savannah, GA.
His grandchildren called him Beebah and his wife Granginger.
A non-song writer fan of Mercer's named Sadie Vimmerstedt once wrote him a letter saying that "I Wanna Be Around to Pick Up the Pieces When Somebody Breaks Your Heart" would make a good title for a song. Mercer was so taken by the suggested title that he went ahead and wrote a complete song based on it which became a big hit and of which he gave Ms. Vimmerstedt half the royalties.
In 1942 he founded Capitol Records with songwriter Buddy G. DeSylva and businessman Glen Wallichs. Sold out in 1955 to EMI. He used part of the proceeds to repay his father's debts that resulted from the Florida real estate bust and the Great Depression. Mercer and DeSylva also founded Cowboy Records (Philadelphia, PA) in 1942.

[on Tin Pan Alley from the 'twenties forward] Cole Porter is definitive of an era. He IS those years, you know? He is the style of all those shows, all that period. He represents it better than anybody else, better even than Kern or Berlin. Porter's so...thirties!
Hollywood was never much of a night town. Everybody had to get up too early... The movie people were in bed with the chickens (or each other) long before curfew.

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