The Tunesmith:
The Musical Journey of M.K. Jerome
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