Leopold Feist (January 3, 1869, New York City or Mount Verson, New York[2] – June 21, 1930, Mount Vernon, New York) was a pioneer in the popular music publishing business.[3] 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.[4][5][6][7] The company used the motto "You can't go wrong, with any FEIST Song."[8]
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.[9]
Leo Feist, Inc.
K-K-K-Katy, cover of the original publication by Leo Feist in New York, 1918
The first publishing hit was Smokey Mokes in 1895.[2] 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."[10] Feist also set up branch offices in several locations abroad, increasing the popularity of American music in Europe and Australia.[2]
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.[13][Note 1] The two merged units operated somewhat independently, with the former owners acting as principals and as board members of the new holding company.[13][14] The combined company was capitalized at $6.6 million[15] and did $3.6 million of business annually at the time.[9] 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.[16]
The company published about 2,000 titles in its founder's lifetime.[2]
In 1935, five years after the death of the founder, and three years after the company was taken private again, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) acquired a controlling interest in the capital stock of Leo Feist, Inc.[17]
In mid-1973, MGM consolidated the offices of its four music publishers, sold Robbins-Feist & Miller (known as Big 3), and Hastings.[18][19][20] The same year, it sold the Big 3 to United Artists (UA).[21][22] In 1981, MGM acquired UA and formed MGM/UA Communications Co.[23] In 1983, MGM/UA sold its music publishing business to CBS Records.[24] CBS then sold the print music arm, Big 3 Music, to Columbia Pictures.[25]
Personal life
In a pseudo-secret ceremony, Feist married Bessie Meyer on June 24, 1904.[26] They had three children: Leonard S. Feist (1911–1996),[3] Nathan Feist (1905–1965), and Milton Feist (1907–1975).
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.[9] He was born April 17, 1905 in New York City, and died there December 2, 1965.[29] Nathan lived in Mount Vernon for 50 years, and was married to Beatrice Friedman in 1934;[30] they had two children, Richard and Marilyn.[29]
Milton Feist, also known by his Hebrew name, Meir, was a rabbi, scholar, teacher, publisher, and translator of books and opera.[15][31] He contracted polio when he was four years old, and was an invalid thereafter,[32] 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.[9] Rabbi Meir Feist spent the last four years of his life studying Torah full-time at Beth Medrash Govoha, in Lakewood, NJ.[33] Milton also ran Mercury Music Corp.[34][35][36]
Death
Feist died at home in Mount Vernon, New York on June 21, 1930.[9]
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.
Notes
^Fischer's obituary indicates that the merger involved 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 confused Harms and Fischer, since they both were merged in separate transactions in 1929.
^ abTin 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); OCLC51631299
^Biographical Dictionary of American Music, by Charles Eugene Claghorn (1911–2005), West Nyack, New York: Parker Publishing Co. (1973); OCLC609781
^Jasen, David A. (1988). Tin Pan Alley: the Composers, the Songs, the Performers, and their Times. New York: Donald I. Fine, Inc. p. 35. ISBN1556110995.
^Irv Lichtman (January 8, 1983). "CBS Songs Grows With MGM/UA Deal". Billboard. Archived from the original on March 11, 2023. Retrieved September 1, 2019 – via Google Books.
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