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Johnny Mercer
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==Awards and legacy== ===Academy Awards=== Mercer won four [[Academy Awards]] on eighteen nominations for [[Academy Award for Best Original Song|Best Original Song]]: *1946: "[[On the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe]]" (music by [[Harry Warren]]) for ''[[The Harvey Girls]]'' *1951: "[[In the Cool, Cool, Cool of the Evening]]" (music by [[Hoagy Carmichael]]) for ''[[Here Comes the Groom (1951 film)|Here Comes the Groom]]'' *1961: "[[Moon River]]" (music by [[Henry Mancini]]) for ''[[Breakfast at Tiffany's (film)|Breakfast at Tiffany's]]'' *1962: "[[Days of Wine and Roses (song)|Days of Wine and Roses]]" (music by Henry Mancini) for ''[[Days of Wine and Roses (film)|Days of Wine and Roses]]'' Mercer was also nominated for [[Academy Award for Best Original Score|Best Original Song Score]] for the 1970 Mancini collaboration ''[[Darling Lili]]''.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://awardsdatabase.oscars.org |title=Academy Awards Database |publisher=Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences |access-date=June 19, 2016}}</ref> ===Other=== In 1980, the Songwriters Hall of Fame established the annual [[Songwriters Hall of Fame#Johnny Mercer Award|Johnny Mercer Award]] as its highest honor, for songwriters with a history of outstanding creative works.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.johnnymercerfoundation.org/johnny-mercer/songwriters-hall-of-fame/ |title=The Johnny Mercer Award Winners |access-date=June 10, 2016 |publisher=The Johnny Mercer Foundation |archive-date=June 30, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150630091418/http://www.johnnymercerfoundation.org/johnny-mercer/songwriters-hall-of-fame/ |url-status=dead }}</ref> Mercer was honored by the [[United States Postal Service]] with his portrait placed on a [[People on stamps of the United States|stamp]] in 1996. Mercer's star on the [[Hollywood Walk of Fame]] at 1628 Vine Street is a block away from the Capitol Records building at 1750 Vine Street. In 1983, Mercer earned a posthumous nomination for a [[Tony Award for Best Original Score]] for his original lyrics and for Gene de Paul's original music and score with new songs by [[Al Kasha]] and [[Joel Hirschhorn]] for the stage musical ''[[Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (musical)|Seven Brides for Seven Brothers]]'' at the [[37th Tony Awards]],<ref>[https://www.ibdb.com/broadway-production/seven-brides-for-seven-brothers-4179#awards "1983 Best Original Score (nominee)"] ibdb.com. Retrieved March 25, 2019</ref> but lost to [[Andrew Lloyd Webber]] and [[T. S. Eliot]] for ''[[Cats (musical)|Cats]]''. Mercer was given tribute in [[John Berendt]]'s 1994 novel ''[[Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil]]''. The [[Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (film)|1997 film adaptation]] directed by [[Clint Eastwood]] features prominently [[Hoagy Carmichael]]/Johnny Mercer song "[[Skylark (song)|Skylark]]", sung by [[k.d. lang]]. The [[Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (film)#soundtrack|movie soundtrack]] contains 14 Mercer songs performed by artists such as [[Alison Krauss]], [[Paula Cole]], and [[Cassandra Wilson]]; the film's star, [[Kevin Spacey]], sang Mercer's 1942 hit "[[That Old Black Magic]]". [[File:John Mercer statue, Ellis Square.jpg|thumb|A bronze statue of Mercer stands in Savannah's [[Ellis Square (Savannah, Georgia)|Ellis Square]].]] For the occasion of Mercer's 100th birthday in 2009, Eastwood produced a documentary film about Mercer's life and work called ''[[The Dream's on Me]]'' ([[Turner Classic Movies]]). The film was nominated for a [[Primetime Emmy]] in the category of Outstanding Nonfiction Special. ''The Complete Lyrics of Johnny Mercer'' was published by [[Knopf Publishing Group|Knopf]]<ref>[http://www.randomhouse.com/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9780307265197 ''The Complete Lyrics of Johnny Mercer''] on the Random House website.</ref> in October 2009. ''The Complete Lyrics'' contains the texts to nearly 1,500 of his lyrics, several hundred of them appearing in print for the first time. In November 2009, a bronze statue of Mercer was unveiled in [[Ellis Square (Savannah, Georgia)|Ellis Square]] in [[Savannah, Georgia]], his hometown and birthplace. It was commissioned by the Friends of Johnny Mercer. The Johnny Mercer Collections, including his papers and memorabilia, are preserved in the library of [[Georgia State University]] in Atlanta. GSU occasionally holds events showcasing Mercer's works. On March 25, 2015, it was announced that Mercer's version of the popular song "Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate the Positive" would be inducted into the Library of Congress's National Recording Registry for the song's "cultural, artistic and/or historical significance to American society and the nation's audio legacy".<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://blogs.loc.gov/now-see-hear/2015/03/national-recording-registry-adds-new-titles/|title=National Recording Registry Adds New Titles! | Now See Hear!|first=Karen|last=Fishman|date=March 26, 2015|website=Blogs.loc.gov|access-date=October 6, 2019}}</ref> The music was written by Harold Arlen and the lyrics by Mercer. The song was nominated for the "Academy Award for Best Original Song" at the 18th Academy Awards in 1945 after being used in the film "Here Come the Waves". In describing his inspiration for the lyrics, Mercer told the "Pop Chronicles" radio documentary "[my] publicity agent ... went to hear [[Father Divine]] and he had a sermon and his subject was 'you got to accentuate the positive and eliminate the negative.' And I said, 'Wow, that's a colorful phrase!'"<ref>Gilliland, John (1994). "Pop Chronicles the 40s: The Lively Story of Pop Music in the 40s" (audiobook). {{ISBN|978-1-55935-147-8}}. OCLC 31611854. Tape 1, side B.</ref>
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