“Don’t Take Your Love From Me” (PDF) from the Frank Rosolino album, Free For All

Henry Nemo was no nobody - quite the contrary. An aspiring entertainer and trendsetter, Nemo found himself among the bustling jazz scene of New York City during the late-1930s, socializing and collaborating with some of jazz’s greats, where he was loosely associated with the development of jive talk and the hipster traits celebrated by the Beat Generation. Henry Nemo was the embodiment of a living history.

Before heading on the road toward Hollywood, Nemo gained modest fame as the songwriter of “Don’t Take Your Love From Me,” which became a hit recording in 1941 for clarinetist Artie Shaw and his orchestra, featuring vocalist Lena Horne. The tune eventually became a jazz standard due to its lyrical melody, as demonstrated by trombonist Frank Rosolino’s performance on his 1958 album, Free For All, which captured the bop sounds that all the West Coast beatniks really dug.

However, Nemo’s greatest claim to fame, perhaps, was his influence on the creation of the Star-Kist Tuna mascot, Charlie The Tuna - a commercialized stereotype of post-war American counterculturalism deemed unsuitable for consumption by the higher class through passive aggression: “Sorry Charlie.”

Here is a YouTube webinar about the history of Charlie The Tuna, featuring Henry Nemo around the 20-minute mark:

Recommended reading: Sorry Charlie: How a cartoon fish became America’s most enduring icon of counterculture Capitalism by Angela Romero. Published by California State University - Long Beach.