

The two became friends and played music together. Īround 1922 Carmichael first met Leon "Bix" Beiderbecke, a cornetist and sometime pianist from Iowa. He was a member of the Kappa Sigma fraternity, and played the piano around Indiana and Ohio with his band, Carmichael's Collegians. Ĭarmichael attended Indiana University Bloomington, where he earned a bachelor's degree in 1925 and a law degree in 1926. We couldn't afford a good doctor or good attention, and that's when I vowed I would never be broke again in my lifetime." Joanne may have died of influenza, which swept the world that year.

He later wrote "My sister Joanne-the victim of poverty. The death of Carmichael's three-year-old sister in 1918 affected him deeply.
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Carmichael earned $5 playing at a fraternity dance in 1918, marking the beginning of his professional musical career.

The bleak time was partly relieved by piano duets with his mother and by his friendship with DuValle, who taught him piano-jazz improvisation.
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At 18, Carmichael helped supplement his family's meager income by doing manual jobs in construction, at a bicycle-chain factory, and in a slaughterhouse. For musical inspiration Carmichael would listen to ragtime pianists Hank Wells and Hube Hanna. The family moved to Indianapolis in 1916, but Carmichael returned to Bloomington in 1919 to complete high school. With the exception of some piano lessons in Indianapolis with Reginald DuValle, a bandleader and pianist known as "the elder statesman of Indiana jazz" and billed as "the Rhythm King", Carmichael had no other musical training. Ĭarmichael's mother taught him to sing and play the piano at an early age. In 1910, the Carmichaels were living in Missoula, Montana. Hoagy spent most of his early years in Bloomington and in Indianapolis, Indiana. Because of Clyde's unstable job history, the family moved frequently. Hoagy had two younger sisters, Georgia and Joanne.
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Howard worked as a horse-drawn taxi driver and later as an electrician, while Lida, a versatile pianist, played accompaniment at movie theaters for silent movies and at private parties to earn extra income. His parents named him after a circus troupe called the "Hoaglands" that had stayed at the Carmichael house during his mother's pregnancy. He was the first child and only son of Howard Clyde and Lida Mary (Robison) Carmichael. Hoagland Howard "Hoagy" Carmichael was born in Bloomington, Indiana, on November 22, 1899. Carmichael also appeared as a character actor and musical performer in 14 films, hosted three musical-variety radio programs, performed on television, and wrote two autobiographies.Ĭarmichael's house in Bloomington, Indiana (2011)

" In the Cool, Cool, Cool of the Evening", with lyrics by Mercer, won the Academy Award for Best Original Song in 1951. Carmichael's " Ole Buttermilk Sky" was an Academy Award nominee in 1946, from Canyon Passage, in which he co-starred as a musician riding a mule. He also collaborated with lyricist Johnny Mercer on " Lazybones" and " Skylark". He is best known for composing the music for " Stardust", " Georgia on My Mind" (lyrics by Stuart Gorrell), " The Nearness of You", and " Heart and Soul" (in collaboration with lyricist Frank Loesser), four of the most-recorded American songs of all time. Carmichael was one of the most successful Tin Pan Alley songwriters of the 1930s, and was among the first singer-songwriters in the age of mass media to utilize new communication technologies such as television, electronic microphones, and sound recordings.Ĭarmichael composed several hundred songs, including 50 that achieved hit record status. Hoagland Howard Carmichael (November 22, 1899 – December 27, 1981) was an American musician, composer, songwriter, actor and lawyer.
