Gary May’s The Tunesmith Reveals M.K. Jerome’s Golden Age Journey

Required to write popular songs at a moment’s notice, Jerome’s life shows us what it was like to labor in the boiler room of one of the great studios.

NEWARK, DELAWARE, UNITED STATES, June 9, 2023/EINPresswire.com/ — A book for those who love The Golden Age of American Film, the movies of James Cagney, Bette Davis, Barbara Stanwyck, and Humphrey Bogart!

Gary May’s The Tunesmith takes you from Tin Pan Alley early in the 20th century to Hollywood in 1929, when Warner Brothers first brought sound to the movies.

After spending fourteen years writing hits on Tin Pan Alley, M.K.”Moe” Jerome was hired by Warner Brothers to write songs for their movies. His grandson, famed historian Gary May, tells his story filled with anecdotes about your favorite films from Yankee Doodle Dandy to Casablanca.

Required to write popular songs at a moment’s notice, Jerome’s life shows us what it was like to labor in the boiler room of one of the great studios, stoking the engines which allowed the production of hundreds of films every year from the 1930s through the Second World War, the Cold War, and the 1950s. This account of one man’s life sheds light on this important, but overlooked, chapter in Hollywood history.

Moe’s life also illustrates the dark side of the Golden Age of American film. Warner Brothers were as much a factory as Ford and Armour and treated their employees just as harshly. In 1937, during a single year, Jerome wrote songs or musical themes for 32 films from comedies and dramas to westerns and romances. The stress produced by such daily activity led to frequent illnesses that often took him to the hospital.

The Tunesmith has already received acclaim from specialists in popular movies, culture, and politics:

Leonard Maltin, film critic and historian writes,’’ I’m a sucker for stories of old-time show business, and this book has plenty of good ones. If you love Tin Pan Alley and the Golden Age of Film, you’ll find a lot to enjoy in The Tunesmith.’’

Dahlia Lithwick, senior editor, Slate, and author of Lady Justice: Women, the Law, and the Battle To Save America: ‘’Gary May’s The Tunesmith brings to vivid life the sights and sounds…of M.K. Jerome, whose songs became a sort of time capsule for vivid American musical and cultural history. ..This is a beautifully researched and rendered story, not only about a moment in American history but also a cherished relationship between a lifelong tunesmith and his grandson.’’

The Tunesmith: The Musical Journey of M.K. Jerome is available on Amazon.

About the Author

Gary May was born and reared in a family of composers and writers. His grandfather, M.K. Jerome was a songwriter at Warner Brothers and a two-time Academy Award nominee. His uncle, Stuart Jerome, was a veteran television writer from the 1950s until his death in 1983. He wrote for ‘’Alfred Hitchcock Presents’’ and ‘’The Fugitive.’’ Therefore, it seemed inevitable that he would become a writer.

Among May’s earlier works is the Allan Nevins Prize-winning China Scapegoat: The Diplomatic Ordeal of John Carter Vincent (New Republic Books); Un-American Activities: The Trials of William Remington (Oxford University Press), selected by Alan Dershowitz for inclusion in his ‘’Notable Trials’’ series. The Informant: The FBI, the Klu Klux Klan, and the Murder of Viola Liuzzo (Yale University Press), optioned for a television mini-series in 2023; John Tyler, The American Presidency series (Times Books); Bending Toward Justice: The Voting Rights Act and the Transformation of American Democracy (Basic Books), paperback edition, Duke University Press.

The Tunesmith:The Musical Journey of M.K.Jerome was published by BearManorMedia.

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