Gumm, H. Harold

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.

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