- Collection:
- Johnny Mercer Oral History Project
- Title:
- Robert Rush oral history interview
- Creator:
- Rush, Robert
- Contributor to Resource:
- Paton, Christopher Ann, 1956-
- Publisher:
- Georgia State University Library
- Date of Original:
- 1998-01-20
- Subject:
- Lyricists
Popular music - People:
- Mercer, Johnny, 1909-1976
Mercer, Ginger (Elizabeth Meltzer) 1909-1994 - Location:
- United States, 39.76, -98.5
- Medium:
- oral histories (literary works)
- Type:
- Text
Sound - Format:
- application/pdf
audio/mpeg - Description:
- Mr. Rush discusses his first acquaintance with Johnny and Ginger Mercer, which occurred when Mr. Rush served as interior decorator for the Mercers' Lido Isle home. Rush describes his work on the Lido Isle house as well as his later work on the Mercers' Bel-Air, Savannah, and Palm Springs homes. Rush talks about Johnny Mercer's affable personality, including anecdotes about him and about his activities with his children. He speaks about a party where Mercer and Cole Porter met for the first time, Mercer's writing of the song ""Something's Gotta Give"" and a singing of ""The Star-Spangled Banner"" at a theater. He discusses the relationship between Johnny and Ginger Mercer, describing especially the party at Romanoff's that the couple gave to celebrate their twenty-fifth wedding anniversary. Rush also talks about Ginger's life after Johnny's death. He mentions Marc Cramer and Cramer's memorial service, Ginger's other close friends in her later life, a trip to Baden-Baden that Ginger Mercer took with Mr. Rush, and Mrs. Mercer's final years of life in Los Angeles.
Robert Rush (d. 1998) was a professional interior decorator who worked for several celebrities in the Los Angeles area, including Ginger and Johnny Mercer. - Local Identifier:
- M154_RushR
- Metadata URL:
- http://digitalcollections.library.gsu.edu/cdm/ref/collection/merceroh/id/39
- IIIF manifest:
- https://digitalcollections.library.gsu.edu/iiif/2/merceroh:39/manifest.json
- Language:
- eng
- Additional Rights Information:
- Copyright to items in this collection is owned by Georgia State University Library. Georgia State University Library has made this digital collection available under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License. Please see http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ for more information.
- Bibliographic Citation (Cite As):
- Cite as: M154_RushR, Johnny Mercer Oral History Project, Popular Music and Culture Collection, Special Collections and Archives, University Library, Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA.
- Extent:
- Audio: 01:07:84, Transcript: 36 pages
- Holding Institution:
- Georgia State University. Special Collections
- Rights:
-
