Photos: The Johnny Mercer Collection

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Photos: The Johnny Mercer Collection

Take a look at some of the treasures in the Johnny Mercer archive at Georgia State University.

Johnny Mercer visited his boyhood home of Savannah and the Georgia coast in later years. Mercer left the city early and moved to New York in search of an acting career, but went back to writing songs, something he has been doing since he was 15, to make money. He ended up being one of America's greatest lyricist. Frederick C. Baldwin

Mercer, known for his lyrics, found a musical collaborator in Harold Arlen whose jazz and blues-influenced compositions were perfect for Mercer's style. Their wrote "Blues in the Night" (1941), one of the duo's great hits. Georgia State University

Johnny Mercer visited his boyhood home of Savannah and the Georgia coast in later years. Mercer left the city early and moved to New York in search of an acting career, but went back to writing songs, something he has been doing since he was 15, to make money. He ended up being one of America's greatest lyricist. Frederick C. Baldwin

Johnny Mercer was what would pass for a multi-media star in today's world. He wrote and recorded hit songs, co-founded Capitol Records, appeared on radio, TV and movies and was nominated for and won Academy Awards and Grammy Awards. Georgia State University

Prolific Georgia songwriter Johnny Mercer worked with many of the great musical artists from the Jazz Age to the 1970s. Here, he's pictured with Nat King Cole, who recorded with Capitol Records, which was co-founded by Mercer. Georgia State University

Johnny Mercer visited his boyhood home of Savannah and the Georgia coast in later years. Mercer left the city early and moved to New York in search of an acting career, but went back to writing songs, something he has been doing since he was 15, to make money. He ended up being one of America's greatest lyricist. Frederick C. Baldwin

Johnny Mercer received this letter from Irving Berlin after Berlin's musical "Mr. President" opened in 1962, with President John F. Kennedy in attendance. Georgia State University is the home of much of Mercer's personal papers. Georgia State University.

The Mercer Archives at Georgia State University include this sheet of hand-corrected lyrics for "Blues in the Night, " which was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Song in 1941. Georgia State University.

Henry Mancini, left, was one of Johnny Mercer's great collaborators. In 1961, Mancini wrote the music and Mercer wrote the lyrics to "Moon River" for the movie "Breakfast at Tiffany's" It received an Academy Award for Best Original Song for its first performance by Audrey Hepburn. It also won Mancini the 1962 Grammy Award for Record of the Year and Mercer the Grammy Award for Song of the Year. Georgia State University

Johnny Mercer not only wrote popular songs, he wrote for the screen and stage as well, such as his lyrics for "Li'l Abner, which opened on Broadway in 1956 and ran for nearly 700 performances. Georgia State University

"Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate the Positive" was a collaboration with Harold Arlen (music) with the lyrics by Johnny Mercer. Mercer told the Pop Chronicles radio documentary: "I 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!'" Mercer recorded the song and it reached the charts in 1945. Georgia State University

The Rialto Center for the Arts has held a tribute to Georgia song writer Johnny Mercer since 1991. This year's headliners will be Joe Gransden on trumpet and singing and also Carmen Bradford, a former vocalist wit the Count Basie Orchestra.

Margaret Whiting and Johnny Mercer recorded "Baby, It's Cold Outside," which Mercer did not write. It first reached the Billboard Best Seller chart in 1949 peaking at number 4. Georgia State University

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Johnny Mercer visited his boyhood home of Savannah and the Georgia coast in later years. Mercer left the city early and moved to New York in search of an acting career, but went back to writing songs, something he has been doing since he was 15, to make money. He ended up being one of America's greatest lyricist. Frederick C. Baldwin

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