T. B. Harms & Francis, Day & Hunter, Inc.

T. B. Harms & Francis, Day, & Hunter, Inc., based in the Tin Pan Alley area of New York City, 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 antitrust suit brought by the U.S. Department of Justice for controlling 80% of the music publishing business. The seven defendants were:


 * Consolidated Music Corporation – 144 W. 37th St., New York, New York
 * Irving Berlin, Inc. – 1567 Broadway, New York, New York
 * Leo Feist, Inc. – 231 W 40th St, New York, New York
 * T. B. Harms & Francis, Day & Hunter, Inc. – 62 W. 45th St., New York, New York
 * Shapiro, Bernstein & Co., Inc. – 218 W. 47th St., New York, New York
 * Watterson, Berlin & Snyder, Inc. – 1571 Broadway, New York, New York (sold in bankruptcy to Mills Music in 1929)
 * M. Witmark & Sons, Inc. – 144 W. 37th St, New York, New York

Founded in 1881 as the Thomas B. Harms Music Publishing Company, T. B. Harms & Francis, Day & Hunter, Inc., was eventually incorporated in New York and changed its name to Harms, Inc. in 1921.

Owners and executives

 * Thomas B. Harms (1860–1906)
 * Max Dreyfus (1874–1964) (owned 25% in 1901) &mdash; 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 and Stept, Famous Music, T. B. Harms, and George Gershwin's New World Music, publisher of all Gershwin's music" (109).
 * Jerome Kern (1885–1945) &mdash; 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)

Sale to Warner Bros.
As silent pictures evolved to talkies, Warner Bros. had aimed to build its inventory of published music. Before the Wall Street Crash of 1929, Warner Bros. 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 and named it Music Publishers Holding Company, Inc. Also in 1929, Warner Bros. acquired the music publishing company of M. Witmark & Sons.