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Leo Feist

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Leopold Feist (January 3, 1869, New York City or Mount Verson, New York[2] – June 21, 1930, Mount Vernon, New York) was a pioneer in the popular music publishing business.[3] In 1897, Feist founded and ran a music publishing firm bearing his name. In the 1920s, at the height of the golden age of popular music, his firm was among the seven largest publishers of popular music in the world.[4][5][6][7] The company used the motto "You can't go wrong, with any FEIST Song."[8]

Leo Feist
Leo Feist
Photo from Music Trade Review, 1922[1]
BornJanuary 3, 1869
DiedJune 21, 1930(1930-06-21) (aged 61)
NationalityAmerican
OccupationExecutive
Spouse
Bessie Meyer
​
(m. 1904)​
Children3
RelativesFelix F. Feist (brother)
Felix E. Feist (nephew)
Raymond E. Feist (great-nephew)

Career

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Feist started his career as a corset salesman, with songwriting as a hobby. He had trouble selling his music to a publisher, so he formed his own publishing house. He was successful in selling his own music through the new venture, and turned it into a full business, Leo Feist, Inc.[9]

Leo Feist, Inc.

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K-K-K-Katy, cover of the original publication by Leo Feist in New York, 1918

The first publishing hit was Smokey Mokes in 1895.[2] Feist marketed his publications very aggressively, even by Tin Pan Alley standards. He maintained offices in most major cities, each with a regional manager (in Boston, for instance, his delegate was Billy Lang). Favored employees were rewarded with corporate largesse; in 1914, for instance, selected managers gathered in Atlantic City, where it was said that "money flowed like water."[10] Feist also set up branch offices in several locations abroad, increasing the popularity of American music in Europe and Australia.[2]

As evidence of the size of his firm, Leo Feist, Inc., was one of seven defendants named in a 1920 Sherman antitrust suit brought by the US Justice Department for controlling 80% of the music publishing business.[11] The 7 were Consolidated Music Corporation, Irving Berlin, Inc., Leo Feist, Inc., T.B. Harms & Francis, Day & Hunter, Inc., Shapiro, Bernstein & Co., Inc., Waterson, Berlin & Snyder, Inc., and M. Witmark & Sons, Inc.[12]

"My Blue Heaven," written by Walter Donaldson (music) in collaboration with George Whiting (lyrics), became the biggest song in the history of Leo Feist, Inc. Gene Austin recorded it (Victor 20964), selling over five million copies, and Eddie Cantor plugged it in vaudeville and in the Ziegfeld Follies of 1927. It sold over five million copies of sheet music.[6]

Mergers and reacqusition

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Feist bought competitors Balmer & Weber (1907), and the Morse Music Co. (1915).

In 1929, Feist negotiated a merger of his company into the National Broadcasting Company (NBC), along with rival sheet music publisher Carl Fischer Music, which was also a family-owned business.[13][Note 1] The two merged units operated somewhat independently, with the former owners acting as principals and as board members of the new holding company.[13][14] The combined company was capitalized at $6.6 million[15] and did $3.6 million of business annually at the time.[9] Feist died less than a year later, and the two families took their two companies private again less than two years after that, buying them back from NBC.[16]

The company published about 2,000 titles in its founder's lifetime.[2]

In 1935, five years after the death of the founder, and three years after the company was taken private again, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) acquired a controlling interest in the capital stock of Leo Feist, Inc.[17]

In mid-1973, MGM consolidated the offices of its four music publishers, sold Robbins-Feist & Miller (known as Big 3), and Hastings.[18][19][20] The same year, it sold the Big 3 to United Artists (UA).[21][22] In 1981, MGM acquired UA and formed MGM/UA Communications Co.[23] In 1983, MGM/UA sold its music publishing business to CBS Records.[24] CBS then sold the print music arm, Big 3 Music, to Columbia Pictures.[25]

Personal life

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In a pseudo-secret ceremony, Feist married Bessie Meyer on June 24, 1904.[26] They had three children: Leonard S. Feist (1911–1996),[3] Nathan Feist (1905–1965), and Milton Feist (1907–1975).

  • Leonard Feist was a music publisher, copyright expert, and advocate for the music publishing industry. He was still in college at the time of his father's death.[9] He was married in 1937 to Mary Regensburg.[27] He ran the classical music publishers Century Music, Mercury Music, and Associated Music Publishers.[3] Leonard was leader of industry trade group National Music Publishers Association, and an officer of the National Music Council, the National Academy of Popular Music, and the Copyright Society of the United States.[3] He led efforts at copyright and royalty legal reforms in the United States.[3][28] He died November 18, 1996.[3]
  • Nathan Feist was a publisher and advertising executive. He was a member of his father's firm at the time of its sale to NBC.[9] He was born April 17, 1905 in New York City, and died there December 2, 1965.[29] Nathan lived in Mount Vernon for 50 years, and was married to Beatrice Friedman in 1934;[30] they had two children, Richard and Marilyn.[29]
  • Milton Feist, also known by his Hebrew name, Meir, was a rabbi, scholar, teacher, publisher, and translator of books and opera.[15][31] He contracted polio when he was four years old, and was an invalid thereafter,[32] confined to a wheelchair vfor the rest of his life. Milton was also a member of the firm at the time of its sale to NBC.[9] Rabbi Meir Feist spent the last four years of his life studying Torah full-time at Beth Medrash Govoha, in Lakewood, NJ.[33] Milton also ran Mercury Music Corp.[34][35][36]

Death

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Feist died at home in Mount Vernon, New York on June 21, 1930.[9]

Relatives

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Leopold Feist had several other well-known relatives in the entertainment industry. His brother, Felix F. Feist (Jul 15, 1883 – Apr 15, 1936), was a sales executive at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. His nephew, Felix Ellison Feist (Feb 28, 1910 – Sep 2, 1965), was a film and television director. His great-nephew was fantasy author Raymond E. Feist.

Notes

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  1. ^ Fischer's obituary indicates that the merger involved his company and Harms, which appears to refer to Harms, Inc.. Harms was bought by Warner Brothers in 1929, and not RCA/NBC, and the obituary writer may have confused Harms and Fischer, since they both were merged in separate transactions in 1929.

References

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  1. ^ Leo Feist Celebrates 25th Business Anniversary Archived March 11, 2023, at the Wayback Machine Music Trade Review (journal), Vol. 75, No. 13, September 23, 1922, pg. 44
  2. ^ a b c d "Leo Feist Collection - Guides to Special Collections in the Music Division of the Library of Congress" (PDF). Library of Congress. 1999.
  3. ^ a b c d e f "Leonard Feist, Music Executive, 85". The New York Times. Associated Press. November 20, 1996. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved June 11, 2024.
  4. ^ "Leo Feist Dead; Music Publisher," The New York Times, June 22, 1930
  5. ^ The New Grove Dictionary of American Music (Feist is in Vol. 2 of 4), H. Wiley Hitchcock & Stanley Sadie (eds.), London: Macmillan Press (1986); OCLC 13184437
  6. ^ a b Tin Pan Alley: An Encyclopedia of the Golden Age of American Song (new ed.), by David Alan Jasen (born 1937), New York: Routledge (2003) (biography contains portrait); OCLC 51631299
  7. ^ Biographical Dictionary of American Music, by Charles Eugene Claghorn (1911–2005), West Nyack, New York: Parker Publishing Co. (1973); OCLC 609781
  8. ^ "Pal of my cradle days : A beautiful, mother waltz ballad".
  9. ^ a b c d e f "Obituary for Leo Feist". Daily News. June 22, 1930. p. 306. Retrieved May 31, 2024.
  10. ^ New York Clipper, August 8, 1914, p. 5 (with photo)
  11. ^ "Music Publishers Sued Here As Trust," The New York Times, August 4, 1920
  12. ^ Jasen, David A. (1988). Tin Pan Alley: the Composers, the Songs, the Performers, and their Times. New York: Donald I. Fine, Inc. p. 35. ISBN 1556110995.
  13. ^ a b "Music Publishers in Huge Combine - Carl Fischer and Leo Feist Concerns are in Merger; NBC Has Part". The Birmingham News. December 15, 1929. p. 83. Retrieved May 31, 2024.
  14. ^ Ussher, Bruno David (November 8, 1929). "Music and Musicians". Los Angeles Evening Express. p. 28. Retrieved May 31, 2024.
  15. ^ a b "Leo Feist, Music Publishing King, is Dead at Sixty". Jewish Telegraphic Agency. June 24, 1930. Archived from the original on October 27, 2019. Retrieved October 27, 2019.
  16. ^ "2 MUSIC PUBLISHERS QUIT RADIO MERGER; Carl Fischer, Inc., and Leo Feist, Inc., Effect Transfer of Stock Ownership. PLAN HELD IMPRACTICABLE Firms Had Functioned for 2 Years as Units in Radio Music Company, N.B.C. Subsidiary". The New York Times. January 30, 1932. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved May 31, 2024.
  17. ^ "Metro Acquires Leo Feist, Inc.," The New York Times, October 29, 1935
  18. ^ "New Office Unites MGM Music Firms". The Los Angeles Times. June 12, 1973. p. 68. Retrieved May 31, 2024.
  19. ^ "Obituary for JAY LEIPZIG". The Santa Fe New Mexican. April 3, 2012. pp. A007. Retrieved May 31, 2024.
  20. ^ Gilbert, Justin (June 5, 1940). "Scene On Broadway". The Record. p. 15. Retrieved May 31, 2024.
  21. ^ "Big 3 Sold to UA; Plus 1/2 Can. Co". Billboard Magazine. October 27, 1973. p. 3. Archived from the original on March 7, 2023. Retrieved September 1, 2019.
  22. ^ "United Artists to distribute MGM films". The San Francisco Examiner. October 19, 1973. p. 46. Retrieved May 31, 2024.
  23. ^ International Directory of Company Histories, Volume 25. Detroit: St. James Press. 1999. ISBN 9781558623675. Archived from the original on February 13, 2022. Retrieved February 13, 2015.
  24. ^ Irv Lichtman (January 8, 1983). "CBS Songs Grows With MGM/UA Deal". Billboard. Archived from the original on March 11, 2023. Retrieved September 1, 2019 – via Google Books.
  25. ^ Irv Lichtman (February 12, 1983). "Columbia Pictures To Acquire Big 3". Billboard. Archived from the original on March 11, 2023. Retrieved January 2, 2022 – via Google Books.
  26. ^ "Band and Friends Greet Bridal Pair," Archived April 15, 2015, at the Wayback Machine, Evening World (Evening Edition), August 29, 1904, pg. 5
  27. ^ "Marriage of Regensburg / Feist". Mount Vernon Argus. December 7, 1937. p. 10. Retrieved June 11, 2024.
  28. ^ Wage, Walter (October 29, 1980). "The Songwriter's Worth". Daily News. p. 53 (archive p. 190). Retrieved June 11, 2024.
  29. ^ a b "Obituary for Nathan Feist". Mount Vernon Argus. December 4, 1965. p. 2. Retrieved June 11, 2024.
  30. ^ "Marriage of Feist / Friedman". Mount Vernon Argus. April 24, 1933. p. 8. Retrieved June 11, 2024.
  31. ^ Affelder, Paul (August 11, 1954). "Spicy French Comic Work Presented by Punch Opera". The Brooklyn Daily Eagle. p. 11. Retrieved June 11, 2024.
  32. ^ "Feist v. Fifth Avenue Bank of New York, 255 App. Div. 324 | Casetext Search + Citator". casetext.com. Retrieved May 19, 2024.
  33. ^ Hertsman, Elchanan Yosef (January 1, 1981). The face that shone: Rabbi Meir Feist. [s.n.]
  34. ^ "Selected Short Subjects". Newsday (Suffolk Edition). June 15, 1967. p. 82. Retrieved June 11, 2024.
  35. ^ "Here and There About the State". The Barre Daily Times. May 19, 1950. p. 11. Retrieved June 11, 2024.
  36. ^ "ACDA Industry Associate Members Listed" (PDF). The Choral Journal: 26. 1968.
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