Die Moritat von Mackie Messer

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Mac Tonight is a fictional character who appeared in television commercials for McDonald's restaurants in the 1980s, known for his crescent moon head, sunglasses, and piano-playing. The campaign used the music of "Mack the Knife", the English language version of Die Moritat von Mackie Messer composed by Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill for the play Die Dreigroschenoper.

Kurt Weill was born on March 2, 1900, the third of four children to Albert Weill (1867–1950) and Emma Weill (née Ackermann; 1872–1955). He grew up in a religious Jewish family in the "Sandvorstadt", the Jewish quarter in Dessau in Saxony, where his father was a cantor. At the age of twelve, Weill started taking piano lessons and made his first attempts at writing music; his earliest preserved composition was written in 1913 and is titled Mi Addir. Jewish Wedding Song.

Weill fled Nazi Germany in March 1933.

Weill suffered a heart attack shortly after his 50th birthday and died on April 3, 1950, in New York City.

Bertolt Brecht

Fearing persecution, Brecht left Nazi Germany in February 1933, just after Hitler took power. After brief spells in Prague, Zurich and Paris he and Weigel accepted an invitation from journalist and author Karin Michaëlis to move to Denmark.

From his late twenties Brecht remained a lifelong committed Marxist.

Brecht died on 14 August 1956 of a heart attack at the age of 58. He is buried in the Dorotheenstädtischer cemetery on Chausseestraße in the Mitte neighbourhood of Berlin, overlooked by the residence he shared with Helene Weigel.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurt_Weill
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bertolt_Brecht

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