Johnny Mandel wrote the music for the theme song of MASH, that darkly iconic comedy film directed by Bob Altman in 1969. That music is quietly reflective and unsettling, a lullaby for broken souls. It makes you feel melancholy, and oddly serene. It is perhaps the most hauntingly beautiful television theme song ever written.

But Johnny Mandel didn’t write the lyrics to that song. Those were written by Mike Altman, Bob Altman’s 14-year-old son.

Bob Altman was paid $70,000 to direct MASH in 1969. But young Mike received more that $1,000,000 in royalties for writing the lyrics to the theme song.

MASH became one of the biggest films of the early 1970s for 20th Century Fox and is now considered one of the greatest films ever made. It won the Palme d’Or at the 1970 Cannes Film Festival, and received five Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture. And the film won the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay.

MASH – the television series – was launched in 1972 and ran for 11 seasons.