Leopold Feist (January 3, 1869, New York City – June 21, 1930, Mount Vernon, New York), in 1897 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.[2][3][4][5] The company used the motto "You can't go wrong, with any FEIST Song."[6]
Leo Feist | |
|---|---|
 Leo Feist Photo from Music Trade Review, 1922[1] | |
| Born | January 3, 1869 |
| Died | June 21, 1930 (aged 61) |
| Nationality | American |
| Occupation | Executive |
| Spouse |
Bessie Meyer (m. 1904) |
| Children | 3 |
| Relatives | Felix F. Feist (brother) Felix E. Feist (nephew) Raymond E. Feist (great-nephew) |
Career edit
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.[7]
Leo Feist, Inc. edit
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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."[8]
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.[9] 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.[10]
"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.[4]
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.[11][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.[11][12] The combined company was capitalized at $6.6 million[13] and did $3.6 million of business annually at the time.[7] 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.[14]
In 1935, five years after the death of the founder, and three years after the company was taken private again, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer acquired a controlling interest in the capital stock of Leo Feist, Inc.[15]
In mid-1973, MGM consolidated the offices of its four music publishers, sold Robbins-Feist & Miller (known as Big 3), and Hastings.[16][17][18] The same year, it sold the Big 3 to United Artists.[19][20] In 1981, MGM acquired UA and formed MGM/UA Communications Co.[21] In 1983, MGM/UA sold its music publishing business to CBS Records.[22] CBS then sold the print music arm, Big 3 Music, to Columbia Pictures.[23]
Personal life edit
In a pseudo-secret ceremony, Feist married Bessie Meyer on June 24, 1904.[24] They had three children: Leonard S. Feist (1911–1996), Nathan Feist (1905–1965), and Milton Feist (1907–1975).
Feist died at home in Mount Vernon, New York on June 21, 1930[7]
Leonard Feist was a music publisher, copyright expert, and advocate for the music publishing industry.
Nathan Feist was a publisher and advertising executive.
Milton Feist, also known by his Hebrew name, Meir, was a rabbi, scholar, teacher, publisher, and translator of books and opera.[13] He contracted polio when he was four years old, and was an invalid thereafter,[25] confined to a wheelchair vfor the rest of his life. Rabbi Meir Feist spent the last four years of his life studying Torah full-time at Beth Medrash Govoha, in Lakewood, NJ.
Leopold Feist had several other well-known relatives. 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 edit
- ^ Fischer's obituary indicates that the merger inovolved 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 confised Harms and Fischer, since they both were merged in separate transactions in 1929.
References edit
- ^ 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
- ^ "Leo Feist Dead; Music Publisher," The New York Times, June 22, 1930
- ^ 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
- ^ 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
- ^ Biographical Dictionary of American Music, by Charles Eugene Claghorn (1911–2005), West Nyack, New York: Parker Publishing Co. (1973); OCLC 609781
- ^ "Pal of my cradle days : A beautiful, mother waltz ballad".
- ^ a b c "Obituary for Leo Feist". Daily News. June 22, 1930. p. 306. Retrieved May 31, 2024.
- ^ New York Clipper, August 8, 1914, p. 5 (with photo)
- ^ "Music Publishers Sued Here As Trust," The New York Times, August 4, 1920
- ^ 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.
- ^ 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.
- ^ Ussher, Bruno David (November 8, 1929). "Music and Musicians". Los Angeles Evening Express. p. 28. Retrieved May 31, 2024.
- ^ 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.
- ^ "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.
- ^ "Metro Acquires Leo Feist, Inc.," The New York Times, October 29, 1935
- ^ "New Office Unites MGM Music Firms". The Los Angeles Times. June 12, 1973. p. 68. Retrieved May 31, 2024.
- ^ "Obituary for JAY LEIPZIG". The Santa Fe New Mexican. April 3, 2012. pp. A007. Retrieved May 31, 2024.
- ^ Gilbert, Justin (June 5, 1940). "Scene On Broadway". The Record. p. 15. Retrieved May 31, 2024.
- ^ "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.
- ^ "United Artists to distribute MGM films". The San Francisco Examiner. October 19, 1973. p. 46. Retrieved May 31, 2024.
- ^ 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.
- ^ 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.
- ^ 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.
- ^ "Band and Friends Greet Bridal Pair," Archived April 15, 2015, at the Wayback Machine, Evening World (Evening Edition), August 29, 1904, pg. 5
- ^ "Feist v. Fifth Avenue Bank of New York, 255 App. Div. 324 | Casetext Search + Citator". casetext.com. Retrieved May 19, 2024.
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