He was successful in selling his own music through the new venture, and turned it into a full business, Leo Feist, Inc.[9] The first publishing hit was Smokey Mokes in 1895.

Favored employees were rewarded with corporate largesse; in 1914, for instance, selected managers gathered in Atlantic City, where it was said that "money flowed like water.

"[10] Feist also set up branch offices in several locations abroad, increasing the popularity of American music in Europe and Australia.

[2] As evidence of the size of his firm, Leo Feist, Inc., was one of seven defendants named in a 1920 Sherman antitrust suit brought by the US Justice Department for controlling 80% of the music publishing business.

Harms & Francis, Day & Hunter, Inc., Shapiro, Bernstein & Co., Inc., Waterson, Berlin & Snyder, Inc., and M. Witmark & Sons, Inc.[12] "My Blue Heaven," written by Walter Donaldson (music) in collaboration with George Whiting (lyrics), became the biggest song in the history of Leo Feist, Inc. Gene Austin recorded it (Victor 20964), selling over five million copies, and Eddie Cantor plugged it in vaudeville and in the Ziegfeld Follies of 1927.

[13][Note 1] The two merged units operated somewhat independently, with the former owners acting as principals and as board members of the new holding company.