Von Tilzer, Harry, 1872-1946

Harry Von Tilzer (b. July 8, 1872 in Goshen, Indiana; d. January 10, 1946 in New York) was a songwriter, music publisher and performer. The family name was Gumm, but Harry added "Von" to his mother's maiden name to use as a professional pseudonym. His other brothers, with the exception of H. Harold, followed suit. At an early age, he worked in a circus and medicine show as a singer and tumbler. He performed his own songs on the vaudeville circuit and published his first song in 1892. In 1902, he founded the Harry Von Tilzer Music Publishing Co. (HVTMPC) which became one of the most successful American popular music publishing companies in the early 20th century. He may have been responsible for the invention of the term "Tin Pan Alley" when a journalist coined the phrase after noticing Von Tilzer's habit of placing a strip of paper between the strings of the upright piano in his office to produce a more percussive sound. Von Tilzer was one of the few publishers in the late 1920s to remain independent of the radio and cinema companies that began buying up music firms and their songwriting staffs.

H. Harold Gumm (b. 1881 or 1882; d. July 13, 1973 in New Jersey), Harry Von Tilzer's brother, worked as a theatrical agent, producer, and attorney and handled the legal affairs of the Harry Von Tilzer Music Publishing Co. He and partner William V. Goldie started the firm Goldie & Gumm and represented some of the best known black performers of the 1930s and 1940s on both East and West coasts. Gumm became president of the Harry Von Tilzer Music Publishing Co. after his brother's death in 1946 and served as executor of Harry Von Tilzer's estate.

Other Von Tilzer brothers were involved in music publishing in various ways. Jules Von Tilzer was a manager of Remick's and later president of the Harry Von Tilzer Music Publishing Co. Will Von Tilzer was a lyricist and president of the Broadway Music Corporation. Jack Von Tilzer was a co-founder and director of the York Music Co. together with Albert Von Tilzer, who was also a successful songwriter.

Biographical Note

Harry Von Tilzer was born Harold Gumm on July 8, 1872 to Jacob and Sarah Tilzer Gumm in Goshen, Indiana. At the age of fourteen he ran away to join the circus, and at seventeen joined the Chamberlain Stock Company in Chicago, changing his name from Gumm to a variant of his mother's maiden name, Von Tilzer. He moved to New York in 1892, and was a performer on the vaudeville circuit for many years, frequently partnered with George Sidney and managed by Tony Pastor. In conjunction with his vaudeville performing, he had been writing songs, and in New York began to peddle them in Tin Pan Alley -- a slang term for the music-publishing district that has been credited to Von Tilzer himself. He joined the publishing firm of Shapiro, Bernstein in 1899, but soon left to form his own firm, the Harry Von Tilzer Music Publishing Co. (HVTMPC), in 1902.

In his unpublished biography (many drafts of which are found in this collection), Von Tilzer claims to have written over 8000 songs during his career, of which 2000 were published, some of the best known being "A Bird in a Gilded Cage" (1900), "In the Sweet Bye and Bye" (1902), "The Cubanola Glide" (1909), and "That Old Irish Mother of Mine" (1920). In addition, he wrote the music for and financed the production of a number of musicals, including The Fisher Maiden (1903), Heigh Ho (1905), and The Kissing Girl (1909). In addition to writing and publishing songs, Von Tilzer was active in establishing organizations such as the Song Writers' Protective Association, and, as an early and active member of the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP), joined with composers such as Irving Berlin, Jerome Kern, Victor Herbert and John Philip Sousa in attempting to effect changes in the music copyright laws.

Harry Von Tilzer had several brothers, most of whom also took the name Von Tilzer: Will Von Tilzer, a music publisher in his own right who was president of the Broadway Music Corporation; Albert Von Tilzer, a songwriter who settled in California and is best known for songs such as "Take Me Out to the Ball Game;" Jules Von Tilzer, who worked with his brother Harry at the HVTMPC; and Jack Von Tilzer, who also worked for a time in the family business. Only H. Harold Gumm retained the family name, and started the firm of Goldie & Gumm with partner William V. Goldie. Trained as a lawyer, Gumm was active on both the East and West Coasts as a theatrical agent and attorney who had as clients some of the best known black performers of the 1930s and 1940s.

The firm of Goldie & Gumm also handled the legal affairs of the Harry Von Tilzer Music Publishing Co. up to and following Harry's death in January of 1946. At that point, Harold Gumm, executor of Von Tilzer's estate, took over as the president of the publishing company. Partner William Goldie continued to handle the firm's legal matters from that point, but Gumm's activities as a theatrical agent were largely curtailed. Extensive litigation over the HVTMPC catalog dragged through the 1940s and 1950s, and the catalog was put up for sale in 1957.