Bloom, Sol, 1870-1949

Sol Bloom (March 9, 1870 – March 7, 1949) was a songwriter, real estate investor, and American politician. A member of the Democratic Party, he served fourteen terms in the U.S. House of Representatives from the West Side of Manhattan representing the 19th (1923-1945) and 20th (1945-1949) congressional districts.

Born in Pekin, Illinois, he and his parents soon moved to San Francisco, California. Bloom first went to work in San Francisco at the age of seven and made his way up from the factory to the theater to the import business. As a young man, he moved to Chicago to manage the Midway amusements at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition. His lucrative music publishing company (which issued songs that he wrote) led him to settle in New York in 1903. Seven years later, Bloom devoted himself to the real estate business, and made another fortune by building substantial apartment houses and some of Manhattan’s best known theaters (including the Apollo, Harris, and Music Box). When Representative-elect Samuel Marx of New York's 19th Congressional District died in 1922, Bloom was invited to run and won the usually Republican "silk stocking district" of Manhattan's Upper East Side by 145 votes.

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