Leo Feist Explained

Leo Feist
Birth Date:	January 3, 1869
Nationality:	American
Occupation:	Executive
Children:	3
Relatives:	Felix F. Feist (brother) Felix E. Feist (nephew) Raymond E. Feist (great-nephew)

Leopold Feist (January 3, 1869, New York City or Mount Verson, New York^[1] – June 21, 1930, Mount Vernon, New York), was a pioneer in the popular music publishing business.^[2] In 1897, Feist 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.^{[3] [4] [5] [6]} The company used the motto "You can't go wrong, with any FEIST Song."^[7]

Career

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.^[8]

Leo Feist, Inc.

The first publishing hit was Smokey Mokes in 1895. 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." Feist also set up branch offices in several locations abroad, increasing the popularity of American music in Europe and Australia.

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. 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.^[9]

"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.

Mergers and reacqusition

Feist bought competitors Balmer & Weber (1907), and the Morse Music Co. (1915).

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.^{[10] [11]} The two merged units operated somewhat independently, with the former owners acting as principals and as board members of the new holding company.^[12] The combined company was capitalized at $6.6 million^[13] and did $3.6 million of business annually at the time. 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]

The company published about 2,000 titles in its founder's lifetime.

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.

In mid-1973, MGM consolidated the offices of its four music publishers, sold Robbins-Feist & Miller (known as Big 3), and Hastings.^{[15] [16] [17]} The same year, it sold the Big 3 to United Artists.^{[18] [19]} In 1981, MGM acquired UA and formed MGM/UA Communications Co.^[20] In 1983, MGM/UA sold its music publishing business to CBS Records.^[21] CBS then sold the print music arm, Big 3 Music, to Columbia Pictures.^[22]

Personal life

In a pseudo-secret ceremony, Feist married Bessie Meyer on June 24, 1904. They had three children: Leonard S. Feist (1911–1996), Nathan Feist (1905–1965), and Milton Feist (1907–1975).

• Leonard Feist was a music publisher, copyright expert, and advocate for the music publishing industry. He was still in college at the time of his father's death. He was married in 1937 to Mary Regensburg.^[23] He ran the classical music publishers Century Music, Mercury Music, and Associated Music Publishers. Leonard was leader of industry trade group National Music Publishers Association, and an officer of the National Music Council, the National Academy of Popular Music, and the Copyright Society of the United States. He led effforts at copyright and royalty legal reforms in the United States.^[24] He died November 18, 1996.
• Nathan Feist was a publisher and advertising executive. He was a member of his father's firm at the time of its sale to NBC.^[25] He was born April 17, 1905 in New York City, and died there December 2, 1965.^[26] Nathan lived in Mount Vernon for 50 years, and was married to Beatrice Friedman in 1934;^[27] they had two children, Richard and Marilyn.
• Milton Feist, also known by his Hebrew name, Meir, was a rabbi, scholar, teacher, publisher, and translator of books and opera.^{[28] [29]} He contracted polio when he was four years old, and was an invalid thereafter,^[30] confined to a wheelchair vfor the rest of his life. Milton was also a member of the firm at the time of its sale to NBC. Rabbi Meir Feist spent the last four years of his life studying Torah full-time at Beth Medrash Govoha, in Lakewood, NJ.^[31] Milton also ran Mercury Music Corp.^{[32] [33] [34]}

Death

Feist died at home in Mount Vernon, New York on June 21, 1930

Relatives

Leopold Feist had several other well-known relatives in the entertainment industry. 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.

External links

• Leonard Feist papers, 1901–1991, New York Public Library

Notes and References

1. Web site: 1999 . Leo Feist Collection - Guides to Special Collections in the Music Division of the Library of Congress . Library of Congress.
2. News: Press . The Associated . 1996-11-20 . Leonard Feist, Music Executive, 85 . 2024-06-11 . The New York Times . en-US . 0362-4331.
3. "Leo Feist Dead; Music Publisher," The New York Times, June 22, 1930
4. The New Grove Dictionary of American Music (Feist is in Vol. 2 of 4), H. Wiley Hitchcock & Stanley Sadie (eds.), London: Macmillan Press (1986);
5. 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);
6. Biographical Dictionary of American Music, by Charles Eugene Claghorn (1911–2005), West Nyack, New York: Parker Publishing Co. (1973);
7. Web site: Pal of my cradle days : A beautiful, mother waltz ballad .
8. News: 1930-06-22 . Obituary for Leo Feist . 2024-05-31 . Daily News . 306.
9. Book: Jasen . David A. . Tin Pan Alley: the Composers, the Songs, the Performers, and their Times . 1988 . Donald I. Fine, Inc. . New York . 1556110995 . 35.
10. News: 1929-12-15 . Music Publishers in Huge Combine - Carl Fischer and Leo Feist Concerns are in Merger; NBC Has Part . 2024-05-31 . The Birmingham News . 83.
11. 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.
12. News: Ussher . Bruno David . 1929-11-08 . Music and Musicians . 2024-05-31 . Los Angeles Evening Express . 28.
13. News: June 24, 1930 . Leo Feist, Music Publishing King, is Dead at Sixty . live . https://web.archive.org/web/20191027171430/https://www.jta.org/1930/06/24/archive/leo-feist-music-publishing-king-is-dead-at-sixty . October 27, 2019 . October 27, 2019 . Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
14. News: 1932-01-30 . 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. . 2024-05-31 . The New York Times . en-US . 0362-4331.
15. News: 1973-06-12 . New Office Unites MGM Music Firms . 2024-05-31 . The Los Angeles Times . 68.
16. News: 2012-04-03 . Obituary for JAY LEIPZIG . 2024-05-31 . The Santa Fe New Mexican . A007.
17. News: Gilbert . Justin . 1940-06-05 . Scene On Broadway . 2024-05-31 . The Record . 15.
18. News: Big 3 Sold to UA; Plus 1/2 Can. Co. . Billboard Magazine . October 27, 1973 . 3 . September 1, 2019 . March 7, 2023 . https://web.archive.org/web/20230307172223/https://books.google.com/books?id=LwkEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA3 . live .
19. News: 1973-10-19 . United Artists to distribute MGM films . 2024-05-31 . The San Francisco Examiner . 46.
20. Book: International Directory of Company Histories, Volume 25. 1999. St. James Press. Detroit. 9781558623675. February 13, 2015. February 13, 2022. https://web.archive.org/web/20220213144356/http://www.fundinguniverse.com/company-histories/metro-goldwyn-mayer-inc-history/. live.
21. News: Irv Lichtman. CBS Songs Grows With MGM/UA Deal. Billboard. 1983-01-08. Google Books. September 1, 2019. March 11, 2023. https://web.archive.org/web/20230311020429/https://books.google.com/books?id=PSQEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PT2. live.
22. News: Irv Lichtman. Columbia Pictures To Acquire Big 3. Billboard. 1983-02-12. Google Books. January 2, 2022. March 11, 2023. https://web.archive.org/web/20230311020409/https://books.google.com/books?id=9iMEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PT39. live.
23. News: 1937-12-07 . Marriage of Regensburg / Feist . 2024-06-11 . Mount Vernon Argus . 10.
24. News: Wage . Walter . 1980-10-29 . The Songwriter's Worth . 2024-06-11 . Daily News . 53 (archive p. 190) .
25. News: 1930-06-22 . Obituary for Leo Feist . 2024-05-31 . Daily News . 306.
26. News: 1965-12-04 . Obituary for Nathan Feist . 2024-06-11 . Mount Vernon Argus . 2.
27. News: 1933-04-24 . Marriage of Feist / Friedman . 2024-06-11 . Mount Vernon Argus . 8.
28. News: June 24, 1930 . Leo Feist, Music Publishing King, is Dead at Sixty . live . https://web.archive.org/web/20191027171430/https://www.jta.org/1930/06/24/archive/leo-feist-music-publishing-king-is-dead-at-sixty . October 27, 2019 . October 27, 2019 . Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
29. News: Affelder . Paul . 1954-08-11 . Spicy French Comic Work Presented by Punch Opera . 2024-06-11 . The Brooklyn Daily Eagle . 11.
30. Web site: Feist v. Fifth Avenue Bank of New York, 255 App. Div. 324 Casetext Search + Citator . 2024-05-19 . casetext.com.
31. Book: Hertsman, Elchanan Yosef . The face that shone: Rabbi Meir Feist . 1981-01-01 . [s.n.] . English.
32. News: 1967-06-15 . Selected Short Subjects . 2024-06-11 . Newsday (Suffolk Edition) . 82.
33. News: 1950-05-19 . Here and There About the State . 2024-06-11 . The Barre Daily Times . 11.
34. 1968 . ACDA Industry Associate Members Listed . The Choral Journal . 26.