Born in Chicago, Illinois, on August 4, 1897, to an Ashkenazi Jewish immigrant family, Lyman's name at birth was Abraham Simon.

Around 1919, he was regularly playing music with two other notable future big band leaders, Henry Halstead and Gus Arnheim, in California.

In Los Angeles Mike Lyman opened the Sunset, a night club popular with such film stars as Mary Pickford, Norma Talmadge, Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, and Harold Lloyd.

The Lyman Orchestra toured Europe in 1929, appearing at the Kit Cat Club[2] and the Palladium in London and at the Moulin Rouge and the Perroquet in Paris.

Lyman and his orchestra were featured in a number of early talkies, including Hold Everything (1930), Paramount on Parade (1930), Good News (1930) and Madam Satan (1930).