Hoagy Carmichael
b. Nov. 22, 1899, Bloomington, Indiana, USA.
d. Dec. 27, 1981, Rancho Mirage, California, USA.
Overview
Born in 1899; in 1925 wrote his "Washboard Blues"; in 1927 he composed Stardust; in 1959, he wrote "In the Cool, Cool, Cool of the Evening". Hoagy Carmichael, often called the "lazy man's songwriter," was a composer, an entertainer, and an author. Over the years, he collaborated with some of America's best known lyricists, including Mitchell Parish, Johnny Mercer, Paul Francis Webster, Ned Washington, and Irving Mills, among others. In 1916, Black pianist Reginald DuValle (an Indianapolis musician) told a young hoosier with a passion for music, "Never play anything that ain't right. You may not make any money, but you'll never get hostile with yourself." Hoagy Carmichael, ollowing that advice to his death in 1981, composed a string of lovely, enduring melodies that led to his rise as one of America's foremost songwriters.

Hoagy's mother was a pianist in a local motion picture theater, and so there was always a piano in the house. He started playing piano by ear, but no doubt his mother must have helped. In 1915, the family moved to Indianapolis, where the 16 year old Hoagy left school and worked at a variety of jobs, including one as a cement mixer on a 12 hour night shift. It was in Indianapolis that Black musician Reginald DuValle (Reginald DuValle and the Blackbirds) gave Hoagy Ragtime and Jazz piano lessons.

In 1919, Hoagy returned to Bloomington, IN, to complete his education. He finished high school in 1920 and entered Indiana University in the fall of 1920, with intentions to study Law. During his college years, he supported himself by playing piano in various bands some of which he organized. (Mr Bradley D. Cook, Reference Specialist and Photograph Curator of the Indiana University Archives, has advised us that one of Hoagy's bands was called "Carmichael's Collegians". They played for fraternity, sorority, and club dances, as well as providing musical entertainment at one of the local movie houses.) While still in college, he started writing his first songs, one of which, the instrumental "Riverboat Shuffle" (1924), was recorded by the Wolverines, with Bix Beidebecke on cornet. In 1925, he wrote "Washboard Blues" with lyrics by Fred Callahan. Paul Whiteman recorded it. In 1926, Hoagy received his Law degree. He settled in Florida to practice, but when he heard a recording of "Washboard Blues" by Red Nichols, he decided to make music his future. He returned to Bloomington, IN, where he worked with the Paul Whiteman orchestra on a new version of "Washboard Blues". He became a song plugger, and also worked with the Jean Goldkette and Don Redman orchestras.

One evening, in 1927, while sitting on the 'spooning wall' of Indiana Unversity, thinking of an old flame, a melody came to him. He went over to the 'Book Nook', a campus restaurant hangout for students, coaches and University administrators that had a piano, and composed the music for "Stardust". The song was destined to travel a long path before becoming the greatest American success. (See note below)

Carmichael traveled to New York City, where he supported himself by working on some non-musical jobs, while still writing on the side.
In 1930, he wrote "Georgia On My Mind" with lyric by Stuart Gorrell. In the same year, he wrote music and lyrics to "Rockin' Chair".
In 1931, he wrote "Lazy River" with lyric by Sidney Arodin. In 1932, he wrote "Lazybones" with lyric by Johnny Mercer. (This was the start of a Carmichael and Mercer relationship that lasted many years and produced a harvest of hits.)
In 1934, Hoagy wrote "Judy", with lyric by Sammy Lerner.
In 1937, "Little Old Lady", with lyric by Stanley Adams, was a hit in the Broadway revue, The Show Is On.
In 1936, Hoagy started to writing for motion pictures. Hoagy worked with the following lyricists.
In 1936, Hoagy and Edward Heyman produced "Moonburn".
Hoagy and Frank Loesser wrote "Small Fry" (sung by Bing Crosby in Sing You Sinners), and "Two Sleepy People" (sung by Bob Hope in Thanks For the Memory).
Hoagy and Mercer wrote "The Old Music Master" (for film True to Life.)
Hoagy and Paul Francis Webster wrote "Doctor, Lawyer, and Indian Chief" (for the film Stork Club), and also "Memphis In June" (for Johnny Angel).
Hoagy and Jack Brooks wrote "Ol' Buttermilk Sky" (for film Canyon Passage).
Hoagy and Mercer's "In the Cool, Cool, Cool of the Evening" (for film Here Comes The Groom) won the 1951 Academy award.
In 1940, Hoagy and Johnny Mercer wrote the score for the Braoadway musical Walk with Music, starring Kitty Carlisle and Mitzi Green.
In 1945, Hoagy was acting in the film, 'To Have and To Have Not', where he played the piano and introduced some of his own songs, including "Hong Kong Blues", and "How Little We Know", with lyrics by Johnny Mercer.
Later Hoagy and Ned Washington wrote "The Nearness of You". Hoagy and Ned Washington wrote "The Lamplighter's Serenade".
Hoagy also wrote the words and music for his hit "Ivy".

(NOTE)
In it's first version, "Stardust" was a piano rag, introduced by Don Redman Orchestra. Later, Jimmy Dale, an arranger, suggested that the piece be played in a slower tempo and in a more sentimental styule. In 1928, Emile Seidel recorded it with the Hoagy on the piano. In 1930, Isham Jones orchestra then recorded it in the new style. In 1928, Hoagy's publisher, (the ubiquitous) Irving Mills prevailed on Hoagy to have a lyric added. The job fell to Mitchell Parrish. After this, many singers and bands started featuring the tune. In 1935, an Artie Shaw Orchestra's version sold 2,000,000 copies.

Famed lyricist Oscar Hammerstein II once wrote that the song "rambles and roams like a truant schoolboy in a meadow....its structure is loose, its pattern complex". While Hoagy himself has said, in his autobiography, that while listening to the playback of the Emile Seidel recording, he realized that "This melody was bigger than I." "It didn't seem to be a part of me. Maybe I hadn't written it at all. It didn't sound familiar, even......To lay my claims, I wanted to shout back at it, 'Maybe I didn't write you, but I found you!'"

Gerard Carbonara
b. Dec. 8, 1886, New York, New York, USA, d. Jan. 11, 1959, Sherman Oaks, California, USA.
Educated at New York's National Conservatory (on a scholarship), and at the Naples Conservatory. He also studied with Martucci Dworczak. In 1910, he was an opera coach in Milan, Italy, and a concert violinist and opera conductor throughout Europe and the United States. Among his popular-music compositions are "Calm", "Song to Pierrot", "Waiting" and "Dusk of Roses".

He also contributed music to the Hollywood studios, with his best known being music for the 1939 epic Western, 'Stagecoach'.

Leroy Carr
b. 1905, d. 1935, Indianapolis, IN, USA. .
A Black pianist, this tall, lanky, arthritic, and large-handed composer died at just 30 years of age from Alcoholism.

During his short seven year recording career, he deeply influenced male blues singers by bringing them to a more mellow - almost crooning - style from the older nasality type of Blues shouting. In 1928, he teamed with Jazz guitarist Scrapper Blackwell.

Among the songs for which Carr is remembered are:
1929 "How Long, How Long Blues"
1933 "(In The Evening) When The Sun Goes Down", which Carr recorded with Scrapper Blackwell. Leroy Carr died later in this same year.

Michael Carr
Michael Carr, a British "light music" composer, is remembered for such tunes as "Cowboy", "Dinner for One", "Orchids to My Lady", "Somewhere in France" and, "When You Talk About Old Ireland" (1950). Carr is also one of several British composers who doubled as conductors of the BBC Variety Orchestra. Other such composers included Charles Murray Winstanley Shadwell.

In private correspondence, his great, great grandson, has advised us that Michael Carr worked with Gilmore's Band in New York City during the very late 1800s. And, he may also have had some music published by the Rogers Brothers Music Publishing Company, with the help of Everett J. Evans, an employee of that firm (then located in the Broadway Theater Building at Broadway and 41st Street.

Over his career, he collaborated with a great other many British composers including: Tommy Connor, James Gilroy, Hamilton Kennedy, Jimmy Kennedy, (whose collaborations with Carr included: "The Sunset Trail", "Two Bouquets", "The Handsome Territorial", "Rosita", "The Spice of Life", and "The General's Fast Asleep"), Jimmy Leach, Eddie Pola, Raymond Wallace (in Merrily We Roll Along), and Leo Towers.

Among the musical revues on which Carr work are: 'The Little Dog Laughed', 'London Rhapsody' (which contained hits like the "Waltz of the Gypsies", "Sing a Song of London", and "Home Town") and 'Let's Make a Night of It' ("When My Heart Says Sing" was the hit tune).

The films on which Carr worked include 'She Shall Have Music' (1935), 'Follow Your Star' and 'Flight From Folly' - both Warner Bros films of 1941, 'O'Kay For Sound' (1951). 'Talk of a Million' (1951), and 'Calling All Stars'.

Carr also wrote for some stage musicals including 'Get a Load of This, (698 performances at the London Hippodrome between 1941-'43). As late as 1972, Carr also worked on 'The Londoners', (mainly Lionel Bart's music),

Earl Carroll
b. Sept. 16, 1893, Pittsburg, PA, USA. d. June 17, 1948, Mt. Carmel, PA, USA.
Overview
Probably Florenz Ziegfeld's only real competition in producing lavash Revues was Earl Carroll. This former Pittsburgh songwriter was a true glorifier of the Female body. He had a famous sign over the theater's stage door which read "Through these Portals Pass the Most Beautiful Girls in the World." Carroll made a fetish of posing mostly undraped chorus girls against every conceivable background.

Carroll carried on in a fierce competition with Ziegfeld. He often would try to 'steal' Ziegfelds's stars. (Fannie Brice and Leon Errol did appear in Carroll's 'Sketch Book' in 1929). He once advertised that lovely chorine Joyce Hawley would take a champagne bath onstage. She did, and though the the Champagne was mostly Ginger Ale Soda, the police arrested Carroll for violating the Prohibition laws. He was convicted of perjury for denying that he had violated any of the Prohibition laws and sentenced to One Year in Jail; he was released after serving four months and eleven days.

Carroll never approached Ziegfeld's elegant taste and his shows, with their scantily dressed chorus girls, drew a much coarser audience. His only real 'finds' were Lillian Roth and later movie star Patsy Kelly. Curiously, his Vanities produced no memorable songs, even though he used the talents of such men as Ted Snyder; Yip Harburg; Charles and Harry Tobias; Benny Davis and Billy Rose. Nevertheless, his shows were very popoular Broadway attactions.

The Broadway revues were most popular during the 1920's, and began to fade away with the Depression of 1929, but a different style of revue continued well into the 1940's with good success. During the 1920's there were strict laws regarding nudity on stage, and Earl Carroll was one of the producers agressively tested the limits of legality. In his Vanities of 1924, he placed a nude female on a swinging pendulum, thuse evading the requirement that nudes were not permitted to move around on stage.

Carroll did write the lyric for the 1931 hit "Goodnight Sweetheart", heard in the 'Vanities of 1931'.

Miguel Calo
b: Oct. 1907, Buenos Aires, Argentina. d: May 24, 1972
bandoneonist, Leader, composer
Calo played in the orchestras of Osvaldo Fresedo and Francisco Pracánico until 1926 at which time he formed his own orchestra. Some time Later, he played in the Cá'tulo Castillo group, and the Puloil trio, directed the 'Orquesta de las Estrellas' (Orchestra of the Stars), and again formed his own orchestra.

Among the Tangos that he composed are:
      "Voy pa Viejo", "I Go pa Old",
      "Al mundo de los Dos", "To the world of both",
      "A Mi me Gusta... A Usted?", "To my likes... To You",
      v"Aquel lugar Querido", "That wanted Place",
      "Cobrate y Dame el Vieja", "As I say to Him to the Old One",
      "Cuento Azul", "Blue Story",
      "Declaraci�", "Declaration",
      "Desorientado","Disorienting",
      "Me llamo Anselmo Contreras", "I am Called Anselmo Contreras",
      "Milonga Porte�", "Buenosairean Milonga",
      "Para Osmar Maderna", "For Osmar Maderna",
      "Soy Milonguero", "I Am a Milonguero",