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Theodore Metz

Theodore August Metz (March 14, 1848 – January 12, 1936) was a German-born American bandleader and composer, best known for writing "There'll Be a Hot Time in the Old Town Tonight".

Metz was born in Hanover, where as a child he studied violin at the city's Conservatory. After emigrating to the United States, he worked in a pharmacy in Brooklyn and then as a gymnastics and swimming instructor in Indianapolis, where he took lessons in orchestration. In 1886, he settled in Chicago, where he worked on building projects in the daytime and as a musician at night, conducting local bands in ragtime interpretations of familiar tunes. He became the conductor of a touring company, the McIntyre and Heath Minstrels, and copyrighted "There'll Be a Hot Time in the Old Town Tonight" in 1897.^[1]

According to Metz, he wrote the tune after seeing children starting a fire in a place called "Old Town", although it has also been suggested that he may have first heard the tune played by musicians in Babe Connor's well-known brothel in St. Louis, Missouri.^[2][3] It became his company's signature tune in their street parades, and words were added by one of the company's singers, Joe Hayden. The song became a popular marching tune, especially during the Spanish–American War of 1898, when enemy troops reputedly heard it so often that they believed it to be the national anthem.^[1][4]

Metz wrote a number of other popular tunes, including "When the Roses Are in Bloom" and "Never Do Nothin' for Nobody", as well as an operetta, Poketa, with librettobyMonroe Rosenfeld. He set up a music publishing company in Stamford, Connecticut, later relocating to New York City. He retired there after World War I. In 1935, he received a standing ovation at Madison Square Garden when the band played "There'll Be a Hot Time in the Old Town Tonight". He died in New York in 1936, aged 87.^[1]