Gary May

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 World War II, the Cold War and the 1950s. This account of one man’s life sheds light on this important but overlooked chapter in Hollywood history.

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

The Tunesmith: The Musical Journey of M.K. Jerome has been nominated for the Richard Wall Memorial Award from the Theatre Library Association.

Press Release and Critical Acclaim (opens in a new tab) (PDF)

My grandfather, M.K. Jerome, worked with James Cagney in many films.

Actor Dick Foran sings “My Little Buckaroo” which became a huge hit song after Bing Crosby recorded it.

My grandfather, M.K. Jerome, and his lyricist partner Jack Scholl worked on many westerns in the 1930s.

Moe’s song “Knock On Wood” payed an important role in Casablanca.

“As Easy As Rolling Off a Log” from 1938 cartoon, “Katnip Kollege” was recorded in 2020 by James Taylor for his Grammy winning album “American Standard.” Taylor performed the song in concerts worldwide.

My grandfather, M.K. Jerome, rehearsing with actress Ann Sheridan.

Errol Flynn in “San Antonio” - song “Some Sunday Morning” nominated for an Oscar for Best Song.

Actor Dennis Morgan sings “The Wish That I Wish Tonight” to actress Barbara Stanwyck in “Christmas in Connecticut”.

My grandfather’s first hit song in 1918, sold a million copies of sheet music. Second most popular song in America during the second decade of the 20th century.

“Jazz Baby” written in 1920 later became the “wheaties” theme, the first time music was used to sell products.

Casablanca. His song “Knock on Wood” was the only song written originally for Casablanca

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In Bending Toward Justice, celebrated historian Gary May describes how black voters overcame centuries of bigotry to secure and preserve one of their most important rights as American citizens. The struggle that culminated in the passage of the Voting Rights Act was long and torturous, and only succeeded because of the courageous work of local freedom fighters and national civil rights leaders -- as well as, ironically, the opposition of Southern segregationists and law enforcement officials, who won public sympathy for the voting rights movement by brutally attacking peaceful demonstrators. But while the Voting Rights Act represented an unqualified victory over such forces of hate, May explains that its achievements remain in jeopardy. Many argue that the 2008 election of President Barack Obama rendered the act obsolete, yet recent years have seen renewed efforts to curb voting rights and deny minorities the act's hard-won protections. Legal challenges to key sections of the act may soon lead the Supreme Court to declare those protections unconstitutional.

A vivid, fast-paced history of this landmark piece of civil rights legislation, Bending Toward Justice offers a dramatic, timely account of the struggle that finally won African Americans the ballot -- although, as May shows, the fight for voting rights is by no means over.
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At the time, Rowe’s information and testimony were heralded as a triumph of law enforcement. But as Gary May reveals in this provocative book, Rowe’s history of collaboration with both the Klan and the FBI was far more complex. Based on previously unexamined FBI and Justice Department Records, The Informant demonstrates that in their ongoing efforts to protect Rowe’s cover, the FBI knowingly became an accessory to some of the most grotesque crimes of the Civil Rights era—including a vicious attack on the Freedom Riders and perhaps even the bombing of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church.
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May labored for eight years in reconstructing Remington's case, searching through FBI files, government documents, and waging an epic battle against then-U.S. Attorney Rudy Guiliani to become the first historian to obtain access to grand jury records. The result is a brilliant account of one man's tragic odyssey and a government run amok. Remington's future collapsed in 1948, when he was charged with being a Communist and a Soviet spy. The accuser was Elizabeth Bentley, an admitted ex-Communist herself and a former courier for Soviet spymasters. Remington's life fell into a whirlpool, as he fought government improprieties, illegalities, and the assumption he was guilty. Cleared by government loyalty boards, he was indicted by a grand jury--whose foreman was secretly helping Elizabeth Bentley prepare her memoirs. Remington suffered through two trials for perjury, and the chief witness against him was his own embittered ex-wife. He was convicted and sentenced to the federal penitentiary at Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, where his reputation as a Communist preceded him. But May's account also offers fascinating insight into the depth of Soviet penetration into wartime America: As he follows Remington's life, from the radical circles at Dartmouth and the Tennessee Valley Authority in the 1930s through his Washington career, he finds that Remington may well have been guilty of the charges against him.

Gary May is one of the leading historians writing about postwar America. His first book, China Scapegoat, won the Allan Nevins Prize and was hailed as "as well as a novel, as powerful as a good film" by the The Los Angeles Times. Here he brings his analytical and narrative skills to bear on one of the forgotten stories of the McCarthy era, uncovering a gripping tale of espionage, corruption, and personal tragedy.
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