Biography
The family surname, originally Gummbinsky, was shortened to Gumm after the move to America. While growing up in Indianapolis, Harold Gumm took up the piano. At fourteen he left home to perform as a singing acrobat with a traveling circus. Seeking a more refined identity, he took his mother’s maiden name, Tilzer, and prefixed it with “Von” for added elegance. The change proved so persuasive that his four brothers eventually adopted the same surname. In 1892 he issued his debut composition, “I Love You Both.” Eager for greater opportunity, he traveled to New York by caring for a railcar of horses and managing their waste throughout the journey—an entrance fitting the city’s entertainment world. Between 1892 and 1898 he sang and played piano in saloons before gaining entry to vaudeville through work with a traveling medicine show.
Although he had already composed hundreds of pieces, only one appeared under his own name; the others were sold outright for immediate payment. Collaborating with lyricist Andrew B. Sterling, he created “My Old New Hampshire Home” on the reverse of an eviction notice, launching his swift ascent in sheet-music publishing. Early catalog entries often traded in ethnic caricatures, such as the 1897 release “De Swellest Ladie’s Coon in Town.” The 1898 number “Rastus Thompson’s Rag-Time Cake Walk” capitalized on two fashionable trends of the moment. In 1899 Von Tilzer issued the still more demeaning “The Coldest Coon in Town” and “Mammy’s Kinky-Headed Coon.” A shift toward broader appeal arrived with the profitable sentimental ballad “A Bird in a Glided Cage” in 1900. He established his own publishing firm in 1902; among its earliest successes was the drinking song “Down Where the Wurzberger Flows,” followed in 1903 by “Under the Anheuser Busch.”
The year 1902 proved especially lucrative, yielding “In the Sweet Bye and Bye,” “The Mansion of Aching Hearts,” “Jennie Lee,” “I Wants to Be an Actor Lady,” “Down on the Farm,” and “Pardon Me, My Dear Alphonse, After You My Dear Gaston,” the last of which anticipated the comic dialogue style later heard in “Mr. Gallagher and Mr. Shean.” Although not written by Von Tilzer, “Please Go ’Way and Let Me Sleep” became linked to him through publication that same year. His modified piano, its strings muffled with scraps of paper to produce a metallic timbre, contributed to the origin story of “Tin Pan Alley.” Reporter Monroe Rosenfeld encountered the altered instrument in Von Tilzer’s office and then heard a chorus of similar uprights along West 28th Street; in print he likened the din to rattling cookware, thereby naming the district.
Von Tilzer became known for flamboyant promotional antics. The 1905 catalog included “Wait Till the Sun Shines, Nellie” and “What You Goin’ to Do When the Rent Comes ’Round?” Two further titles appeared in 1907—“Take Me Back to New York Town” and “Top o’ the Mornin’”—while “The Cubanola Glide” scored in 1909. In 1911 both “I Want a Girl Just Like the Girl That Married Dear Old Dad” and “They Always Pick On Me,” the latter containing the line “I’ll eat some worms and then I’ll die,” enjoyed success. The cyclic round “And the Green Grass Grew All Around” followed in 1912, and 1914 brought “You Can Tango You Can Trot Dear But Be Sure and Hesitate.” His final notable works were “Give Me the Moonlight, Give Me the Girl” (1917) and “Just Around the Corner” (1925), the latter later associated with Ted Lewis.
Although he never embraced the Jazz Age, Von Tilzer provided early opportunities to future songwriters; Irving Berlin plugged new material for the firm as a teenager, and George Gershwin sold his first song to the company in 1916. Von Tilzer spent his final two decades residing at the Hotel Woodward in New York City, where he died in his room on 10 January 1946.
Although he had already composed hundreds of pieces, only one appeared under his own name; the others were sold outright for immediate payment. Collaborating with lyricist Andrew B. Sterling, he created “My Old New Hampshire Home” on the reverse of an eviction notice, launching his swift ascent in sheet-music publishing. Early catalog entries often traded in ethnic caricatures, such as the 1897 release “De Swellest Ladie’s Coon in Town.” The 1898 number “Rastus Thompson’s Rag-Time Cake Walk” capitalized on two fashionable trends of the moment. In 1899 Von Tilzer issued the still more demeaning “The Coldest Coon in Town” and “Mammy’s Kinky-Headed Coon.” A shift toward broader appeal arrived with the profitable sentimental ballad “A Bird in a Glided Cage” in 1900. He established his own publishing firm in 1902; among its earliest successes was the drinking song “Down Where the Wurzberger Flows,” followed in 1903 by “Under the Anheuser Busch.”
The year 1902 proved especially lucrative, yielding “In the Sweet Bye and Bye,” “The Mansion of Aching Hearts,” “Jennie Lee,” “I Wants to Be an Actor Lady,” “Down on the Farm,” and “Pardon Me, My Dear Alphonse, After You My Dear Gaston,” the last of which anticipated the comic dialogue style later heard in “Mr. Gallagher and Mr. Shean.” Although not written by Von Tilzer, “Please Go ’Way and Let Me Sleep” became linked to him through publication that same year. His modified piano, its strings muffled with scraps of paper to produce a metallic timbre, contributed to the origin story of “Tin Pan Alley.” Reporter Monroe Rosenfeld encountered the altered instrument in Von Tilzer’s office and then heard a chorus of similar uprights along West 28th Street; in print he likened the din to rattling cookware, thereby naming the district.
Von Tilzer became known for flamboyant promotional antics. The 1905 catalog included “Wait Till the Sun Shines, Nellie” and “What You Goin’ to Do When the Rent Comes ’Round?” Two further titles appeared in 1907—“Take Me Back to New York Town” and “Top o’ the Mornin’”—while “The Cubanola Glide” scored in 1909. In 1911 both “I Want a Girl Just Like the Girl That Married Dear Old Dad” and “They Always Pick On Me,” the latter containing the line “I’ll eat some worms and then I’ll die,” enjoyed success. The cyclic round “And the Green Grass Grew All Around” followed in 1912, and 1914 brought “You Can Tango You Can Trot Dear But Be Sure and Hesitate.” His final notable works were “Give Me the Moonlight, Give Me the Girl” (1917) and “Just Around the Corner” (1925), the latter later associated with Ted Lewis.
Although he never embraced the Jazz Age, Von Tilzer provided early opportunities to future songwriters; Irving Berlin plugged new material for the firm as a teenager, and George Gershwin sold his first song to the company in 1916. Von Tilzer spent his final two decades residing at the Hotel Woodward in New York City, where he died in his room on 10 January 1946.