T.B. Harms & Francis, Day, & Hunter, Inc., based in the

Tin Pan Alley Tin Pan Alley was a collection of music publishers and songwriters in New York City that dominated the popular music of the United States in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It originally referred to a specific place: West 28th Street ...

area of

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

, was one of the seven largest publishers of popular music in the world in 1920. T.B. Harms & Francis, Day & Hunter, Inc. was one of seven defendants named in a 1920

Sherman Sherman most commonly refers to: *Sherman (name), a surname and given name (and list of persons with the name) ** William Tecumseh Sherman (1820–1891), American Civil War General *M4 Sherman, a tank Sherman may also refer to: Places United St ...

antitrust suit brought by the

U.S. Justice Department The United States Department of Justice (DOJ), also known as the Justice Department, is a federal executive department of the United States government tasked with the enforcement of federal law and administration of justice in the United State ...

for controlling 80% of the music publishing business. The seven defendants were: *

Consolidated Music Corporation Consolidated Music Corporation was a short-lived American music publishing licensing company formed in early 1920 — initially by seven major music publishers, but eventually six — to handle piano roll licensing. Consolidated and the six remain ...

– 144 W. 37th St., New York, NY *

Irving Berlin, Inc. Bourne Co. Music Publishers is an American publisher of sheet music, and one of the largest privately held international music publishers in the world,''Billboard'', 12 Nov 2005page 61 with over three thousand titles in their catalogue. Subsidiar ...

– 1567 Broadway, New York, NY * Leo Feist, Inc. – 231 W 40th St, New York, NY * T.B. Harms & Francis, Day & Hunter, Inc. – 62 W. 45th St., New York, NY * Shapiro, Bernstein & Co., Inc. – 218 W. 47th St., New York, NY * Watterson, Berlin & Snyder, Inc. – 1571 Broadway, New York, NY (sold in bankruptcy to Mills Music in 1929) * M. Witmark & Sons, Inc. – 144 W. 37th St, New York, NY Founded in 1881 as the Thomas B. Harms Music Publishing Company, T.B. Harms & Francis, Day & Hunter, Inc., was eventually incorporated in

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

and changed its name to Harms, Inc. in 1921.

Owners and executives

* Thomas B. Harms (1860-1906) *

Max Dreyfus Max Dreyfus (April 1, 1874 – May 12, 1964) was a German-born American music publisher, arranger and songwriter. Between the 1910s and 1950s he encouraged and published the work of many of the writers of the so-called Great American Songbook ...

(1874-1964) (owned 25% in 1901) — The Harms empire owned or backed by Dreyfus, included Harms, Inc., Chappell-Harms (its "repository for non-production music"), De Sylva, Brown, and Henderson, Remick Music,

Green Green is the color between cyan and yellow on the visible spectrum. It is evoked by light which has a dominant wavelength of roughly 495570 Nanometre, nm. In subtractive color systems, used in painting and color printing, it is created by ...

and Stept, Famous Music, T. B. Harms, "and George Gershwin's New World Music, publisher of all Gershwin's music" (109). *

Jerome Kern Jerome David Kern (January 27, 1885 – November 11, 1945) was an American composer of musical theatre and popular music. One of the most important American theatre composers of the early 20th century, he wrote more than 700 songs, used in over ...

(1885-1945) — Kern plugged sheet music at a local department store then took a job with T.B. Harms, Inc., and eventually became vice president. * Alexander T. Harms (1855-1901) * Frederick Day (1878-1975)

History timeline

Tin Pan Alley publisher

" was a specific area in New York City on 28th Street, between Broadway and 6th Avenue that, at the turn of the 20th century, was the center of the popular music publishing industry. Many publishing firms were not actually located on that particular block, but, "Tin Pan Alley" was also as much a reference to a music industry district as it was to a music genre (popular music, ragtime – the precursor to what became jazz). T.B. Harms & Francis, Day, & Hunter, Inc. was a Tin Pan Alley firm.

Sale to Warner Brothers

As silent pictures evolved to talkies,

Warner Brothers Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Warner Bros. or abbreviated as WB) is an American Film studio, film and entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios, Burbank, Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, Califo ...

had aimed to build its inventory of published music. Before the

Stock Market Crash of 1929 The Wall Street Crash of 1929, also known as the Great Crash, was a major American stock market crash that occurred in the autumn of 1929. It started in September and ended late in October, when share prices on the New York Stock Exchange colla ...

, Warner Brothers acquired Harms, Inc., using 140,364 shares of its own stock, then valued at $8,421,840. Warner then reincorporated its acquisition under the laws of

Delaware Delaware ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Maryland to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and New Jersey and the Atlantic Ocean to its east. The state takes its name from the adjacent Del ...

and named it Music Publishers Holding Company, Inc. Also in 1929, Warner Brothers acquired the music publishing company of M. Witmark & Sons.''Warner Brothers Get Music Concern'',

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

, Aug. 15, 1929

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:T.B. Harms and Francis, Day and Hunter, Inc. Music publishing companies of the United States Companies based in New York City Publishing companies established in 1881 1881 establishments in New York (state)

Owners and executives

History timeline

Tin Pan Alley publisher

Sale to Warner Brothers

See also

References