Carmichael wrote the melody for an MGM screen adaptation of A Midsummer Night's Dream in 1935 while he was still in New York. After making the move to Hollywood, in 1937 Paramount assigned him and Washington to write a song for a movie to be called Romance in the Rough. Washington put words to the previously written melody and it became "The Nearness of You." Although Paramount never produced Romance in the Rough, they did make a movie titled Romance in the Dark in 1938 and in it Gladys Swarthout introduced "The Nearness of You." It did not become a hit, however, until 1940 when Glenn Miller recorded it with a Ray Eberle vocal.