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Leopold Feist (January 3, 1869, New York City or Mount Verson, New York – June 21, 1930, Mount Vernon, New York) was a pioneer in the popular music publishing business. 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."Leo Feist Dead; Music Publisher," The New York Times, June 22, 1930 The New Grove Dictionary of American Music (Feist is in Vol. 2 of 4), H. Wiley Hitchcock & Stanley Sadie (eds.), London: Macmillan Press (1986); 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); Biographical Dictionary of American Music, by Charles Eugene Claghorn (1911–2005), West Nyack, New York: Parker Publishing Co. (1973); The company used the motto "You can't go wrong, with any FEIST Song."
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. (1988). 9781556110993, Donald I. Fine, Inc.. ISBN 9781556110993
"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 Song-plugger it in vaudeville and in the Ziegfeld Follies of 1927. It sold over five million copies of sheet music.
In 1929, Feist negotiated a merger of his company into the NBC (NBC), along with rival sheet music publisher Carl Fischer Music, which was also a family-owned business.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. The two merged units operated somewhat independently, with the former owners acting as principals and as board members of the new holding company. The combined company was capitalized at $6.6 million 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.
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 (MGM) 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. The same year, it sold the Big 3 to United Artists (UA). In 1981, MGM acquired UA and formed MGM/UA Communications Co. In 1983, MGM/UA sold its music publishing business to Sony Music. CBS then sold the print music arm, Big 3 Music, to Columbia Pictures.
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