{"id":2461,"date":"2013-11-18T22:05:44","date_gmt":"2013-11-19T02:05:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/christmasclassics.com\/christmasmusic\/?p=2461"},"modified":"2013-11-18T22:05:44","modified_gmt":"2013-11-19T02:05:44","slug":"christmas-classics-person-day-james-kimball-gannon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/christmasclassics.com\/christmasmusic\/christmas-classics-person-day-james-kimball-gannon","title":{"rendered":"Christmas Classics PERSON OF THE DAY: James Kimball Gannon"},"content":{"rendered":"

On this day in 1900, James Kimball Gannon was born in Brooklyn, New York. Better known as Kim Gannon, he was an American songwriter and lyricist for the perennial Christmas favorite I\u2019ll Be Home for Christmas<\/span><\/strong>.<\/i><\/p>\n

Gannon attended St. Lawrence University and as a senior wrote the school\u2019s alma mater<\/em> song The Scarlet and the Brown<\/i><\/span><\/strong>. A proud graduate of St. Lawrence in 1924, he had every intention of becoming a lawyer. The Great Depression delayed that career pursuit and in 1930 he was working as a salesman for a utility company. By 1934 he passed the New York state bar examination, but five years later the songwriting bug struck and soon after he composed his first commercial song, For Tonight<\/i><\/span><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

The year 1942 found Gannon writing songs during the \u201cswing era\u201d and for films including the lyrics of the film title song Always in My Heart\u00a0<\/em><\/span><\/strong><\/i>that earned him an <\/i>Academy Award nomination for Best Song. He replicated that achievement\u00a0 twice more: 1) Too Much In Love<\/i><\/span><\/strong> for the film Song of the Open Road<\/i> in 1944,\u00a0 and 2) Endlessly<\/i> <\/span><\/strong>in 1945 for the film Earl Carroll Vanities<\/i>. But in between he collaborated with Walter Kent in 1943 to produce I\u2019ll Be Home for Christmas<\/span><\/strong>. <\/i>Gannon also wrote songs for the films Powers Girl<\/i> and If Winter Comes <\/i>before Broadway beckoned in 1951 when he teamed up with Walter Kent again on the score for Seventeen.
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Despite his success with film and Broadway, Gannon is best remembered for his popular and wistful Christmas lyric I\u2019ll Be Home for Christmas<\/i><\/span><\/strong>. First recorded by Bing Crosby in 1943, it has since been recorded more than three hundred times and is an important part of American Christmas Classics<\/i>.<\/p>\n

The amiable Kim Gannon, who died in 1974, was always true to his alma mater<\/em>. In his will he stipulated that after his wife Norma\u2019s passing (she died in 2006), 30% of all royalty proceeds from his songs were to go to St. Lawrence University. The majority of those royalties, you can bet, come from his 39-word holiday classic I\u2019ll Be Home for Christmas<\/i><\/strong><\/span>.<\/p>\n

\"Kim<\/a>

Kim Gannon<\/p><\/div>\n