Hoagy Carmichael, My New Hero
As you'll discover if you listen to this week's podcast, after years--literally, years--of urging from Mr. Rob Long, I finally got around this past weekend to watching The Best Years of Our Lives. Rob was right. The movie is just staggeringly, heart-breakingly good and true and beautiful.
One of the film's many revelations for me was the cool, keen screen presence of Hoagy Carmichael, of whom I'd been only dimly aware as a band leader from sometime in the long, long gone. In the movie, though, Carmichael plays--or rather, underplays--a scene with Harold Russell, the young vet who has lost his hands in the war, that I found just overwhelming. Carmichael, playing "Butch," a saloon owner and the uncle of Russell's young character, "Homer," sits with Russell at a piano, performing lovely, light jazz riffs while Russell describes his frustration at having lost his hands. Carmichael, using his hands magnificently, but unobstrusively; Russell, sitting next to him, with hooks where his hands used to be. That's all. But I defy you to watch it without a lump in your throat.
Interested in Carmichael, I looked him up. Born in Bloomington, Indiana, he was a bandleader, yes, but also one of the most important American composers of the twentieth century, often writing with Johnny Mercer. "Stardust." "Georgia on my Mind." "Up a Lazy River." "The Nearness of You." "How Little We Know." All Carmichael's.
As a kind of sweet little bonus, it turns out that Carmichael was--one of us. "Carmichael was a Republican supporter," Wikipedia reports, "often aghast at the left-leaning political views of his friends in Hollywood."
I was unable to find the piano scene from the "Best Years of Our Lives" on YouTube. But here Carmichael accompanies Lauren Bacall in another of his tunes, "Am I Blue." Note the wonderful wryness and lightness of touch.
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Mar '11
Re: Hoagy Carmichael, My New Hero
You need to move the "show more" jump down. I was aghast when you referred to Carmichael as merely a "bandleader -- an assertion not corrected until after the jump!
Dec '10
Re: Hoagy Carmichael, My New Hero
Peter!
You're telling me you just got around to watching "The Best Years of Our Lives" now???!! That's like saying you've never seen "The Wizard of Oz"! Well, better late than never I always say.
I'm glad you appreciate Hoagy Carmichael as much as I do. "Georgia on my mind" is one of my all time favorites. Can you imagine he and Ray Charles playing it together? Talk about dream team!!
Jan '11
Re: Hoagy Carmichael, My New Hero
Carmichael's 1930s recording of "Two Sleepy People" with an uncredited female vocalist is a charming, light love song. The Bob Hope duet version on youtube comes close. Julie London's is too breathy and earnest.
Jun '10
Re: Hoagy Carmichael, My New Hero
Peter, this clip is from To Have and Have Not, the set on which Lauren Bacall met Bogie. The rest as they say is romantic history.
Edited on Jun 1, 2011 at 6:27pmMay '10
Re: Hoagy Carmichael, My New Hero
There are not superlatives enough to describe the magnificence of The Best Years of Our Lives. But, as Peter says, it fits the three which make up the canon of fine art: it is True, Beautiful, and Good. Everyone, but everyone, should see this movie.
And Carmichael is a gem regardless of his politics.
Edited on Jun 1, 2011 at 6:27pmRe: Hoagy Carmichael, My New Hero
Johannes Allert: Peter!
You're telling me you just got around to watching "The Best Years of Our Lives" now???!! That's like saying you've never seen "The Wizard of Oz"! · Jun 1 at 6:12pm
I confess, I confess. And it wasn't for lack of Rob's trying.
Jun '10
Re: Hoagy Carmichael, My New Hero
P.S. Lauren Bacall was 19 at the time.
May '10
Re: Hoagy Carmichael, My New Hero
There are over 3,000 recordings of Carmichael's "Stardust" and it is probably the only song where a record was made of just the verse (by Sinatra).
Hoagy wrote the music in 1927 where it languished for two years as an up-tempo jazz piece. Two years later Mitchell Parrish wrote lyrics for it, the tune was slowed down and became a classic ballad of lost love.
And now the purple dusk of twilight time
Steals across the meadows of my heart
High up in the sky the little stars climb
Always reminding me that we're apart
You wander down the lane and far away
Leaving me a song that will not die
Love is now the stardust of yesterday
The music of the years gone by...
Jun '10
Re: Hoagy Carmichael, My New Hero
Stardust:
As a public service here's Hoagy Carmichael at the piano.
Here's the great Sarah Vaughan singing.
Whenever I hear Sarah Vaughan, I'm always torn about whether she or Ella Fitzgerald was the best girl singer of the 20th. century.
So here's the great Ella Fitzgerald.
May '10
Re: Hoagy Carmichael, My New Hero
Peter, you're right. It's a profound movie. In a similar vein, I watched "Since You Went Away" on TCM the other night and it also had much to say about the sacrifice required (and made) by so many during those years. Should the sacrifices made today not be spread wider?
May '10
Re: Hoagy Carmichael, My New Hero
My grandfather was a few years behind Carmichael at Indiana U. Hoagy was in the same fraternity, but in law school. Grandpa was a trained musician who made decent dough as a trumpet player in burlesque. At Hoagy's request, Grandpa tried to teach Hoagy to read music. It's probably a good thing that he was a lousy teacher, and/or Carmichael was a poor student. They got nowhere.
Jun '10
Re: Hoagy Carmichael, My New Hero
I can't resist here's Ray Charles doing Georgia on my Mind.
Re: Hoagy Carmichael, My New Hero
I think the McGurns were watching the same time the Robinsons were, though I had seen it several times before. I first came across HC in his hometown of Bloomington, IN, when I was with the American Spectator there. At IU, they even have a room for him, filled with music and contributions from his family.
Agree with Peter: that scene he describes is one of the best in film, powerful for being understated.
May '10
Re: Hoagy Carmichael, My New Hero
Oh yeah, my favorite scene: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yzi4piQ7VLg
Jan '11
Re: Hoagy Carmichael, My New Hero
Different time. Different place. Different country.
We will likely not see the like of either the movie's format, or its theme. I take great pride in being a citizen of a country of that character.
Where did it go, and why?
Re: Hoagy Carmichael, My New Hero
A confession, Peter: I saw it apparently at the same time you did (on TCM), and it was also the first time I had seen it. I don't know why it took me so long, but I'm glad I finally did. Virtually every performance was a gem. Maybe we can get together and watch Citizen Kane one day.
May '10
Re: Hoagy Carmichael, My New Hero
Citizen Kane doesn't come close in my book. Mrs. Miniver, OTOH, perhaps.
Re: Hoagy Carmichael, My New Hero
One of the ten thousand things I love about Pat Sajak is that he's always ready to throw a friend a life saver. Thanks for the cover, Pat. I was taking a beating for never having seen the movie before. No nobody'll dare touch me.
The director, William Wyler, must have been a genius. With the exception of Myrna Loy, the actors are important but not quite major figures: Frederick March and Dana Andrews would never be mentioned in the same breath with, say, Spencer Tracy. But the performances Wyler elicited from them--not to mention the performance he drew from non-actor Harold Russell--are breathtaking. March's drunk scene on his first night back from the way is flawless, just flawless.
Jun '10
Re: Hoagy Carmichael, My New Hero
As great a movie as The Best Years of Our Lives is/was, and it is a truly great movie, Citizen Kane is the best movie made in the first half of the 20th century, and arguably the best movie made in the whole of the 20th century. A monumental achievement. Problem was that Orson Wells did not die right after finishing it. There aren't many things sadder than what happened to him after he completed Citizen Kane. It seldom pays to cock a snook at the most powerful man in your own business and among the most powerful in the country. I could watch either of these movies many times.
Jun '10
Re: Hoagy Carmichael, My New Hero
We'll have to agree to disagree on this one katievs. Citizen Kane pioneered almost everything in film that we take for granted today. Nothing in the first fifty years of movie making even comes close to Citizen Kane. Indeed, the only reason The Best Years of Our Lives comes close is because it is a beautifully told and poignant story, but Citizen Kane rules. Please do not take this as criticism of The Best Years of Our Lives for it is a truly great movie, one worth repeated viewing.