Warner/Chappell collection, 1880-1987

Administrative History

Date	Event
1810	Samuel Chappell, in partnership with Francis Tatton Latour and Johann Baptist Cramer, founded Chappell & Co., which opened for business on London's Bond Street as a shop for sheet music and musical instruments.
1886	The firm of Marcus Witmark & Sons, run by brothers Isidore, Julius, and Jay, was established by their father in New York City, publishing the works of composers such as Victor Herbert, George M. Cohan, Ben Harney, and John Walter Bratton.
1875	Brothers Alexander T. and Thomas B. Harms founded the music publishing firm T. B. Harms.
1904	Brothers Max and Louis Dreyfus of New York City purchased T. B. Harms and went on to publish many of the writers of the Great American Songbook, including Jerome Kern, George Gershwin, Richard Rodgers, Lorenz Hart, Rudolf Friml, Vincent Youmans, Irving Caesar, Cole Porter, Alan Jay Lerner, Frederick Loewe, and Oscar Hammerstein II.
1906	After the demise of Jerome Remick's and Maurice Shapiro's joint venture Shapiro-Remick & Company, Remick started his own firm Jerome H. Remick & Co., signing up writers such as Harry Warren, Al Dubin, Gus Kahn, and Richard A. Whiting.
1914-1917	George Gershwin worked for Jerome H. Remick & Co.
1923	Brothers Harry, Albert, Sam, and Jack Warner formally incorporated their film production and distribution business as Warner Bros. Pictures, Incorporated.
1926	The Dreyfus brothers at T. B. Harms acquired Chappell & Co.
1929	Jack Warner founded Music Publishers Holding Company, and then acquired M. Witmark & Sons, Remick Music Corporation, and T. B. Harms, Inc. to secure music copyrights for use in films.
1935-1994	Warner Bros. packed up the Witmark/Remick/Harms material and stored it in various locations, including Long Island, Meadowlands, and Secaucus, New Jersey.
1957	Seven Arts Productions film production company was founded in 1957 by Ray Stark, Eliot Hyman, and Norman Katz.
1967	Seven Arts Productions acquired the controlling interest in Warner Bros. Pictures from Jack Warner.
1970	Seven Arts, Elektra Records, and Nonesuch were acquired by Kinney National, which in turn became Warner Communications and formed Warner Elektra-Atlantic (WEA Corp.), the first major music distribution company in the U.S., marking the origins of the Warner Music Group.
1987	Warner Communications acquired Chappell & Co. and created Warner/Chappell Music Publishing, at the time the world's largest music publisher. Warner Communications merged with Time Inc. to form Time Warner.
1994	Warner Bros. Publications expanded its print music operations by acquiring CPP/Belwin, the former print music arm of Columbia Pictures. The purchase prompted a move from Secaucus, New Jersey, to Miami, Florida.