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.

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