John Mehegan

About

Jazz artist, lecturer, and critic whose career was hampered after he was an uncooperative witness for the House Un-American Activities Committee.

Before Fame

He was a teaching assistant in the jazz department to pianist Teddy Wilson at the Metropolitan Music School in 1945.

Trivia

He was a honky-tonk saloon player on The Gabby Hayes Show, a TV series from the early 1950s.

Family Life

His mother tried to interest him in the violin, but the piano won out.

Associated With

He had a piano composition dedicated to him by Leonard Bernstein in Bernstein's collection Four Anniversaries from 1948.