Animaterra and Joe Offer:

By an odd coincidence, I am watching Hoagy Carmichael on AMC playing the role of Smoke in "Young Man WIth A Horn". The story originally was a retelling of the Bix Beiderbecke story. The real Bix was Hoagy's best friend in his younger years before he died at a far too young age.

I always loved this movie, I read the book when I was maybe twelve and saw the movie a year or two later. I went out and bought the soundtrack (Doris Day and Harry James) and will argue that it is by far the best thing either of them ever did.

I modeled myself as a fifteen year old on Hoagy Carmichael. (I guess that must have been pretty hilarious fifteen year old to watch.) The funny thing was that when I got a chance to spend several months with him, I never mentioned it. It never once came ot my mind, but I did have the chance to talk to him about several of his songs. Your mentioning Johnny Mercer reminded me of a story Hoagy told about about another lyicist. Someone mentioned to Mrs. Mitchell Parrish that Hoagy Carmichael had written 'Stardust' She answered icily, "He did not. My husband wrote 'Stardust', Carmichael just wrote "Dah dah dah dee dee dah dee dah dee dah..." I think he really loved that story.

Sourdough