28 Facts About Irving Mills

Irving Harold Mills was an American music publisher, musician, lyricist, and jazz artist promoter.

Irving Mills often used the pseudonyms Goody Goodwin and Joe Primrose.

Irving Mills's father, Hyman Minsky, was a hatmaker who had immigrated from Odessa to the United States with his wife Sofia.

Irving Mills married Beatrice Wilensky in, 1911 and they subsequently moved to Philadelphia.

Irving Mills died in Palm Springs, California in 1985 at age 91.

In 1964, Irving Mills had royalties of $1.3 million.

Irving Mills encompassed 20 music publishing subsidiaries, as well as publishing concerns in Britain, Brazil, Canada, France, then West Germany, Mexico, the Netherlands, and Spain.

Irving Mills started the group Irving Mills and his Hotsy Totsy Gang with Tommy Dorsey, Jimmy Dorsey, Joe Venuti, Eddie Lang, Arnold Brillhardt, Arthur Schutt, and Mannie Klein.

In 1932 Irving Mills founded the Rhythmakers recording group; an ensemble he created as a vehicle to record and promote jazz singer Billy Banks.

One evening, around 1925, Irving Mills went to a small club on West 49th Street between 7th Avenue and Broadway called the Club Kentucky, often referred to as the Kentucky Club, formerly the Hollywood Club.

The owner had brought in a small band of six musicians from Washington, DC, and wanted to know what Irving Mills thought of them.

Irving Mills pushed Ellington to record for Victor, Brunswick, Columbia, the "dime store labels" and even Hit of the Week.

In spite of having a limited vocabulary, Irving Mills was a deft lyricist.

Irving Mills sometimes used a ghostwriter to complete his idea and sometimes built on the idea of the ghost writer.

Irving Mills was instrumental in Duke Ellington being hired by the Cotton Club.

Irving Mills was one of the first to record black and white musicians together, using twelve white musicians and the Duke Ellington Orchestra on a 12-inch 78 rpm record featuring "St Louis Blues" on one side and a medley of songs called "Gems from Blackbirds of 1928" on the other side, Irving Mills himself singing with the Ellington Orchestra.

Irving Mills thought he should ensure that the Ellington Orchestra always had top musicians and protected himself by forming the Irving Mills Blue Rhythm Band, using them as a relief band at the Cotton Club.

Cab Calloway and his band went into the Cotton Club with a new song Irving Mills co-wrote with Calloway and Clarence Gaskill called "Minnie the Moocher".

Irving Mills printed "small orchestrations" transcribed off the record, so that non-professional musicians could see how great solos were constructed.

Irving Mills added the name Hutton and it became the popular Ina Ray Hutton and her Orchestra.

In 1934 as well, Irving Mills Music began a publishing subsidiary, Exclusive Publications, Inc.

In late 1936, with involvement by Herbert Yates of the American Record Corporation, Irving Mills founded the Master and Variety labels, which for their short life span were distributed by ARC through their Brunswick and Vocalion label sales staff.

Irving Mills tried to arrange for distribution overseas to get his music issued in Europe, but was unsuccessful.

Irving Mills continued his M-100 recording series after the labels were taken over by ARC, and after cutting back recording to just the better-selling artists, new recordings made from about January 1938 by Master were issued on Brunswick and Vocalion until May 7,1940.

Irving Mills was recording all the time and became the head of the American Recording Company, which is Columbia Records.

Once radio blossomed Irving Mills was singing at six radio stations seven days a week plugging Irving Mills tunes.

Irving Mills produced one picture, Stormy Weather, for 20th Century Fox in 1943, which starred Lena Horne, Cab Calloway, Zutty Singleton, and Fats Waller and the dancers the Nicholas Brothers and Bill "Bojangles" Robinson.

Irving Mills had a contract to do other movies but found it "too slow;" so he continued finding, recording, and plugging music.