Johnny Mercer (1909-76) was a country boy from Savannah, Georgia, who could write very sophisticated lyrics whenever the occasion arose and just as easily capture the flavor of American informal speech. Over a thirty-five year period he worked in partnership with many of America's best composers, including Hoagy Carmichael, Harry Warren, Harold Arlen, Jerome Kern, Richard Whiting and Duke Ellington, and he was eminently capable of writing his own melodies. In all he was a part of writing over 1,500 songs, many of them top and enduring hits ("Blues In The Night", "Moon River", "Days of Wine and Roses", "Autumn Leaves", "Hooray for Hollywood", Ac-Cent-Chu-Ate-The-Positive", "Jeepers Creepers" to name just a few), 19 of which received Oscar nominations, 4 of which won. In addition, he sang, he acted; and produced records.