Hoagy Carmichael's Jazz Years in Bloomington

8 Locations | Curated by Monroe County History Center

The “roaring twenties” were a decade of dramatic change and growth. World War I (1914-1918) had ended and the economy was booming as a result of all money paid to industry by the US government. Prohibition had made the manufacture and sale, but not the consumption, of alcohol illegal. Most Americans now lived in cities rather than on farms. And in those cities, many Americans embraced nightlife and drinking illegal liquor.

The migration of African Americans from the US South to northern cities as part of the Great Migration brought jazz music to clubs and dance halls throughout the country. Recorded music was becoming widely available, so that people without access to live concerts could listen to the latest records of popular bands. College campuses, like Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana, were especially receptive to these new musical trends. As Carmichael biographer Richard Sudhalter notes, “What rock-and-roll would be to a much later generation, hot jazz . . . was to the ‘flaming youth’ of the 1920s,” and bands both local and visiting were in demand for fraternity and sorority dances.

White Jazz musician Howard Hoagland “Hoagy” Carmichael epitomized this turbulent new era. Hoagy was one of the most inventive and adventurous of the great American songwriters. Hoagy was a star and American icon. He was someone you knew, a guy you wished you could have a drink and share a laugh with. He had the same joys and desires, disappointments and fears you had. Some of his songs--"Lazy River," "Heart and Soul"-- became so familiar they sounded as if no one had written them, they'd just always been there. Hoagy composed over 650 songs, appeared in nine different movies, and was voted into the inaugural group of the Songwriters Hall of Fame.

This tour will take you through the Bloomington of Hoagy's youth and childhood. It will show how different communities and experiences -- from working class whites to Black musicians and community members to the student who roamed the halls of Indiana University -- helped shape the man and musician he was.

Hoagy Carmichael's songs and musical style were heavily influenced by the Black musicians he heard in the jazz clubs of Indianapolis and at the socials he frequented at the homes of Black friends in Bloomington. One was the 1920s home of Collett Johnson and Vertis Hunter Johnson, a Black couple who…
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Hoagy learned of Black life through socializing with Black communities in Indianapolis and Bloomington. He told a story in his autobiography The Stardust Road about spending many of those spring afternoons with friends out at Granny Campbell’s “drinking the home brew she dispensed.” Hoagy wrote,…
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The house on Dunn Street is one of several homes where the Carmichael family lived during Hoagy’s childhood. Born in Bloomington on November 22, 1899, Howard Hoagland was the first child and only son of Howard Clyde (“Cyclone”) and Mary Lida Robison Carmichael. Three girls were to follow. The…
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In his unpublished memoir Jazzbanders, Hoagy said of his hometown, “Bloomington offered everything. Creeks, ponds, rabbits, circuses and wide open spaces. I could cross a dusty street here in my bare feet without the aid of a traffic cop.” The Carmichaels lived close to the IU campus. As a boy…
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Robert Harris’s Princess Theatre opened on June 23, 1913, with the photoplay Mlle. Coquette accompanied by a six piece orchestra. The program also featured chimes playing Ethelbert Nevin’s “The Rosary.” As the first built-from-the-ground-up-movie theatre in Bloomington, it featured a 400-seat…
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The Book Nook played a major role in Hoagy’s social life and musical career.  A  soda and sandwich shop popular among Indiana University students, the Book Nook was frequented by campus musicians who kept strict control over who was allowed to play the piano on site. When he was still in high…
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Hoagy attended Indiana University from 1920-1926. His mother and grandmother encouraged him to study law as a more practical and reliable career than music. Hoagy obliged, but as a student at IU he put most of his time and energy into playing at dances, movie theatres, and other venues with his…
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Howard Hoagland Carmichael died in Rancho Mirage, California, on December 27, 1981. Although he had lived first in New York City and then in California since 1929, he chose to be buried next to his mother, father, and little sister Joanne in Bloomington. Hoagy remained fond of his hometown and…
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This tour was created in partnership with the Monroe County History Center and made possible by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities.

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