Howie Richmond

Howard Spencer Richmond

In late June 1949, Richmond teamed up with H. Z. Roland, lyricist Carl Sigman, disk jockey Gene Rayburn and British musician Billy Whitlock to form a music publishing company.^[3] The purpose of the new venture was to publish Sigman and Rayburn's new lyrics to the song "Scotch Hot, Hopscotch Polka", which had been composed and recorded in England by Whitlock for British Decca Records.^[3] Richmond was not originally one of the partners in the company, but instead was to handle the publicity. Named Cromwell Music, Inc., the company setup in an office at 119 West 57th Street in New York and affiliated itself with the performance rights organization American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers.^[3] "Hop-Scotch Polka" was officially published on July 6, 1949 and was quickly recorded by Guy Lombardo for Decca Records, Art Mooney for M-G-M Records, The Three Suns for RCA-Victor and Bill Gale for Columbia Records; it was a hit.^[3]

In September 1949, Bob Baumgart was hired as Cromwell Music's East Coast contact man. In October 1949, Bob Stern was hired as West Coast contact man and Saxie Dowell for the Midwest, based in Chicago. In November, Lucky Wilber replaced Bob Stern for West Coast representation. Cromwell Music followed up with the No. 1 hit "Music! Music! Music!", written by Stephan Weiss^[b] and Bernie Baum, and recorded by Teresa Brewer.^[4]

In early February 1950, Richmond bought out Cromwell Music's interests from H. Z. Roland and Carl Sigman and became sole owner of the firm.^[5] Richmond rapidly expanded and formed several other publishing imprints, affiliated with both ASCAP and BMI. In June 1950, he formed his second music publishing company, Spencer Music, Inc., which was named after his middle name and affiliated with Broadcast Music, Inc.^[6] Richmond was General Professional Manager, Peter Kameron was named Professional Manager and Lucky Wilber West Coast Representative of Spencer Music.^[6][7] Richmond's offices then moved to a bigger location at 129 West 52nd Street in New York.^[7]

In September 1950, Richmond formed his third music publishing company, Warwick Music, Inc., affiliated with ASCAP.^[8][9] Only a month later, however, Warwick Music, Inc. was renamed Essex Music, Inc. due to the existence of another already existing, unrelated Warwick Music, Inc. music publishing firm.^[10] In October 1950, he formed his fourth music publishing company, Hollis Music, Inc., which was affiliated with BMI.^[11][12] Loring Buzzell, former employee of Irving Mills' Mills Music, Inc., was named Professional Manager in charge of Hollis Music, under Richmond who was General Professional Manager.^[12] In December 1950, Richmond co-acquired the music publishing company, Folkways Music Publishers, Inc., with Pete Seeger and other members of The Weavers (credited as Paul Campbell).^[13] Folkways Music Publishers was tied to BMI and assigned to Professional Manager Peter Kameron (who also managed The Weavers)^[14] and West Coast Representative Lucky Wilber.^[15][16]

Also in December 1950, Richmond welcomed Al Brackman as general professional manager of Hollis Music and general manager of all BMI affiliates, the later officially stepped into the position on January 2, 1951.^[17][18] In January 1951, Richmond renamed Spencer Music, Inc. to Ludlow Music, Inc.^[18][19] In March 1951, Richmond formed another imprint, Dartmouth Music, Inc. mainly for the purpose of accommodating foreign compositions in the United States. Dartmouth was eventually linked to ASCAP in July 1951 and Richmond placed Loring Buzzell as General Professional Manager of the company.^[20][21] Also in 1951, the Richmond firms moved to an even bigger office, located at 666 Fifth Avenue, New York.^[17] In March 1951, Richmond began working on establishing music publishing firms in the United Kingdom and Europe. In September 1951, he went abroad intending to form Cromwell Music, Ltd., based in London, England, and Éditions Cromwell, based in France, but the companies stalled.^[22]

In 1952, Richmond formed his own record label, Mars Records, which was co-operated with musician Woody Herman.^[23] In April 1952, Richmond formed a country music publishing imprint named Melody Trails, Inc., tied with BMI.^[24][25] Melody Trails officially launched in September 1952 and was based in Nashville, Tennessee and managed by Vic McAlpin.^[25] In 1953, the companies moved to yet another bigger headquarters, located at 151 West 46th Street, New York, where they would remain for several years.^[26] In August 1955, Richmond finally formed a British imprint, Essex Music, Ltd. based in London, England to administer the publishing of songs in the British Empire and to facilitate the licensing of American songs overseas.^[27] He named David Platz as Professional Manager of Essex Music, Ltd., who started the job on September 1, 1955.^[27] Cromwell Music, Ltd., which had originally been planned to launch in England in 1951, was finally launched in June 1956. Platz was named general manager of Cromwell Music, Ltd. Loring Buzzell left the Richmond organization in October 1955 and went on to form his own music publishing company Hecht-Lancaster & Buzzell Music.^[28]

In the late 1950s, Richmond restructured the firm under the umbrella company name of The Richmond Organization (commonly abbreviated as TRO), successfully attracting writers providing songs and record producers looking to find them.

Richmond died at his home in Rancho Mirage, California, on May 20, 2012.^[33][34]

Parent, subsidiaries, imprints (former and current)

Active New York entities (as of January 2015)

Notes