Harry Von Tilzer

July 8, 1872 (age 73)

Detroit, Michigan, United States

At fourteen he left home to become a tumbler in the Cole Brothers circus, and a year later he joined a traveling repertory company and then a burlesque troupe. It was around this time that he took his mother's maiden name, adding the "Von" for distinction. A vaudeville star he met in Chicago, Lottie Gilson, liked his work and advised him to seek his fortune in New York City. Arriving there in 1892, he found a job as a saloon pianist and began writing songs for vaudeville performers; within a couple of years the famous Tony Pastor was featuring several Von Tilzer tunes at his Union Square Music Hall. He sold most of these songs outright for modest sums, and few were published. In 1894 he joined George Sidney in a moderately successful "double Dutch" vaudeville act. Von Tilzer's first notably successful song was "My Old New Hampshire Home, " written in 1898 with the lyricist Andrew B. Sterling, who became his most frequent collaborator. It sold more than two million copies and induced Maurice Shapiro, a leading publisher, to take the young composer into his firm, which was renamed Shapiro, Bernstein, and Von Tilzer. Two years later Von Tilzer published one of his best-known works, "A Bird in a Gilded Cage, " which he later described as the "key that opened the door of wealth and fame" for him. Presenting the theme that money cannot buy happiness, the song was conceived by its lyricist, Arthur J. Lamb, as telling the story of a kept woman, but the upright Von Tilzer, insisting that the heroine be married, adjusted a crucial line to read "She married for wealth, not for love. " The year 1905 was perhaps Von Tilzer's most productive, for in that year he wrote "On a Sunday Afternoon, " "Down on the Farm, " "In the Sweet Bye and Bye" (not to be confused with the hymn of that title), and two widely popular songs: "The Mansion of Aching Hearts, " a pathetic sequel to "A Bird in a Gilded Cage, " and "Down Where the Wurzburger Flows, " which Nora Bayes sang to such acclaim in her Orpheum Theatre act that she became known as the Wurzburger Girl. On the strength of these hits, Von Tilzer set up his own music publishing company on Twenty-eighth Street between Fifth and Sixth avenues, a section later known as Tin Pan Alley. (Von Tilzer himself is credited with inspiring the phrase when a music journalist noted that his piano, which had newspaper strips against the strings, made a sound like hitting a tin pan. ) His success attracted four of his brothers to New York and the music business, all of whom took the name Von Tilzer. Albert became a songwriter, best known for his "Take Me Out to the Ball Game. " The other three became the heads of music publishing companies (Jules headed his brother's Harry Von Tilzer Music Publishing Company). A fifth brother became a theatrical attorney. Von Tilzer continued his rise to the top of the music industry. Sensitive to what the public wanted, he had a keen ear for the sentimental. The hits came easily: "Wait 'til the Sun Shines, Nellie" (1905), "Where the Morning Glories Twine Around the Door" (1905), "I Want a Girl Just Like the Girl That Married Dear Old Dad" (1911), "And the Green Grass Grew All Around" (1912). These were not merely tunes to be sung and forgotten; they became institutions. Where there were barbershop quartets, there were Von Tilzer ballads. His songs are as reminiscent of early vaudeville shows as straw hats and canes. Von Tilzer was equally adept at other popular styles: Negro dialect songs like "Alexander" (1904) and "What You Goin' to Do When the Rent Comes 'Round?" (1905); Irish ballads like "That Old Irish Mother of Mine" (1920); catchy melodies like "I Love, I Love, I Love My Wife, But Oh You Kid" (1909). He was one of the earliest composers to write a song based on a popular dance ("The Cubanola Glide, " 1909). Von Tilzer tried his hand at several Broadway musicals, but with indifferent results, probably because of his ignorance of orchestration. Von Tilzer's songwriting career largely ended with World War I. His decline was hastened both by the geographical dispersal of the publishing industry, which broke the monolithic influence of Tin Pan Alley, and by the unsentimental musical tastes of the Jazz Age. Although he continued in the publishing business, his only postwar song of any success was "Just Around the Corner" (1925). Early in his publishing career Von Tilzer encouraged the young Irving Berlin, and in 1916 he accepted the first song of George Gershwin. After the death of his wife in 1932, he lived at the Hotel Woodward in New York City, where he died of a heart attack at the age of seventy-three. His brothers carried on the family's musical tradition after his death.

Harry Von Tilzer Edit Profile

also known as Harry Gumm

composer songwriter

Background

He was born Harry Gumm on July 8, 1872 in Detroit, Mich. He was the third of six sons of German Jewish parents, Jacob Gumm and Sarah (Tilzer) Gumm.

Shortly after his birth the family moved to Indianapolis, Ind. , where his father acquired a shoe store. A theatrical stock company that rehearsed immediately above the store early lured Harry toward show business.

Education

Although lacking formal musical training, Harry learned to play the piano and several other instruments by ear and soon began to write and sing his own compositions.

Career

At fourteen he left home to become a tumbler in the Cole Brothers circus, and a year later he joined a traveling repertory company and then a burlesque troupe. It was around this time that he took his mother's maiden name, adding the "Von" for distinction.

A vaudeville star he met in Chicago, Lottie Gilson, liked his work and advised him to seek his fortune in New York City. Arriving there in 1892, he found a job as a saloon pianist and began writing songs for vaudeville performers; within a couple of years the famous Tony Pastor was featuring several Von Tilzer tunes at his Union Square Music Hall. He sold most of these songs outright for modest sums, and few were published.

In 1894 he joined George Sidney in a moderately successful "double Dutch" vaudeville act. Von Tilzer's first notably successful song was "My Old New Hampshire Home, " written in 1898 with the lyricist Andrew B. Sterling, who became his most frequent collaborator. It sold more than two million copies and induced Maurice Shapiro, a leading publisher, to take the young composer into his firm, which was renamed Shapiro, Bernstein, and Von Tilzer.

Two years later Von Tilzer published one of his best-known works, "A Bird in a Gilded Cage, " which he later described as the "key that opened the door of wealth and fame" for him. Presenting the theme that money cannot buy happiness, the song was conceived by its lyricist, Arthur J. Lamb, as telling the story of a kept woman, but the upright Von Tilzer, insisting that the heroine be married, adjusted a crucial line to read "She married for wealth, not for love. "

The year 1905 was perhaps Von Tilzer's most productive, for in that year he wrote "On a Sunday Afternoon, " "Down on the Farm, " "In the Sweet Bye and Bye" (not to be confused with the hymn of that title), and two widely popular songs: "The Mansion of Aching Hearts, " a pathetic sequel to "A Bird in a Gilded Cage, " and "Down Where the Wurzburger Flows, " which Nora Bayes sang to such acclaim in her Orpheum Theatre act that she became known as the Wurzburger Girl. On the strength of these hits, Von Tilzer set up his own music publishing company on Twenty-eighth Street between Fifth and Sixth avenues, a section later known as Tin Pan Alley. (Von Tilzer himself is credited with inspiring the phrase when a music journalist noted that his piano, which had newspaper strips against the strings, made a sound like hitting a tin pan. )

His success attracted four of his brothers to New York and the music business, all of whom took the name Von Tilzer. Albert became a songwriter, best known for his "Take Me Out to the Ball Game. " The other three became the heads of music publishing companies (Jules headed his brother's Harry Von Tilzer Music Publishing Company). A fifth brother became a theatrical attorney. Von Tilzer continued his rise to the top of the music industry. Sensitive to what the public wanted, he had a keen ear for the sentimental. The hits came easily: "Wait 'til the Sun Shines, Nellie" (1905), "Where the Morning Glories Twine Around the Door" (1905), "I Want a Girl Just Like the Girl That Married Dear Old Dad" (1911), "And the Green Grass Grew All Around" (1912). These were not merely tunes to be sung and forgotten; they became institutions. Where there were barbershop quartets, there were Von Tilzer ballads.

His songs are as reminiscent of early vaudeville shows as straw hats and canes. Von Tilzer was equally adept at other popular styles: Negro dialect songs like "Alexander" (1904) and "What You Goin' to Do When the Rent Comes 'Round?" (1905); Irish ballads like "That Old Irish Mother of Mine" (1920); catchy melodies like "I Love, I Love, I Love My Wife, But Oh You Kid" (1909). He was one of the earliest composers to write a song based on a popular dance ("The Cubanola Glide, " 1909).

Von Tilzer tried his hand at several Broadway musicals, but with indifferent results, probably because of his ignorance of orchestration. Von Tilzer's songwriting career largely ended with World War I. His decline was hastened both by the geographical dispersal of the publishing industry, which broke the monolithic influence of Tin Pan Alley, and by the unsentimental musical tastes of the Jazz Age.

Although he continued in the publishing business, his only postwar song of any success was "Just Around the Corner" (1925). Early in his publishing career Von Tilzer encouraged the young Irving Berlin, and in 1916 he accepted the first song of George Gershwin.

After the death of his wife in 1932, he lived at the Hotel Woodward in New York City, where he died of a heart attack at the age of seventy-three.

His brothers carried on the family's musical tradition after his death.

Achievements

Harry Von Tilzer was one of Tin Pan Alley's most prolific composers; by his own estimate he wrote some eight thousand songs, about two thousand of which were published. His hits included "A Bird in a Gilded Cage, " "The Cubanola Glide, " "Wait 'Til The Sun Shines Nellie, " "Old King Tut, " "All Alone, " "Mariutch, " "The Ragtime Goblin Man, " "I Love My Wife, But Oh You Kid!" "They Always Pick On Me, " "I Want A Girl (Just Like The Girl That Married Dear Old Dad)" (with lyrics by William Dillon), "And The Green Grass Grew All Around, " "On the Old Fall River Line, " "Under the Anheuser Bush, " and many others.

Works

$Wait \'Til the Sun Shines, Nellie Wait \'Til the Sun Shines, Nellie$ I Love I Love I Love My Wife But Oh! You Kid! I Love I Love I Love My Wife But Oh! You Kid!