Variety (November 1954)

Wednesday, November 3, 1954 MUSIC r 45 Kitty Kailen, who jumped into the disk bigtime early this year with pecea’s “Little Things Mean. A Lot," has been selected as official songstress for 1954’s Christmas Seal campaign by the National Tuber- culosis Assn. A three-way tieup between Decca, Chappell Music and KTA Will get under way next week to plug Miss Kallen’s Xmas entry, "The Spirit of Christmas." Tune was penned especially for the Christ-, jrias Seal pitch by Matt Dennis and Tom Adair. A special deejay disk, featuring the '54 Christmas Seals on the iDecca label, is being sent to 2,00b jockeys with an accompanying voice-track intro to the song by Miss Kailen pitching Christmas Seals. Chappell’s sheet, copies of the tune Will display the new Christmas Seals. r- MGM Records’ exploitation and promotion artillery is being geared for a big Christmas disk push. Label already has its Yule promotional ^material- in. the field. Diskery’s Xmas hypo includes. special hangers listing its seasonal; product and folders listing its Xmas packages suit- able as gift items. . MGM also has distributed special order blanks to dealers and department'stores around the country tq be sent to cus- tomers With *their November invoices. MGM also has whipped up a special oil reproduction of its “Christmas Carol" . album cover for retail store display; Album, Which stars Lionel*Barrymore, is one of t’s hottest selling sets. Producers and writers of the Roy Rogers radio show apparently didn’t do a thorough scouting job when they were hunting for a tune titled “Nevada." A couple of Weeks ago Rogers; was preppirig a show localed in Nevada and couldn’t find a suitable tune to use. Writer- director Ralph Rose and musical direector Frank Worth then batted out an original tagged “Nevada." A previous “Nevada," however, had been penned i 1943 by Walter Donaldson and Mort Greene for the Columbia pic, . “What’s Buzzin’ Cousin?" The Donaldson-Greene "Nevada" r is published by Dorsey Bros. Music. Juliette, Label ’ X’s Canadian thrush, already a fave on CBC radio and tv, says she has an agreement With Jimmy Hilliard, X’s a&r pop topper, that if she’s a disk hit she’ll always, thereafter do one Canadian- (Continued on page 48) Roberts Subs Reinschild On CobTranscriptions Calvin Roberts has moved into Columbia Records’ transcription division as account exec. Re’s re- placing Carl Reinschild, who re- signed his post to take a job in the manufacturer’s representative field. Roberts will also specialize in premium and promotional records. He formerly was associated with Fulton Recording. 41 Pulley Named RCA Waxing Administrator Albert A. Pulley, manager of recordings for RCA Victor, has been upped to the post of adminis- trator of general Recording for the diskery. Pulley will Work directly with Roy McCiay, general plant manager,; and will serve in a gen- eral advisory capacity to all phases of Victor’s recording processes. Pulley, who recently was elected president of the Audio Engineering Society* has been with RCA and its predecessor since 1920, becoming manager-of recording in 1938. William Miltenberg, former . re- cording engineer for Victor on the Coast and a-technical staffer for several film studios, will. step, into the recording manager’s slot vacat- ed by Pulley.', Cab Calloway Award Cab Calloway last week received the 10th annual Award of Merit of the George Washington Carver Institute, an association devoted to the advancement, of arts and sci- ence . among Negroes. Award was made, at the Las ! Vegas. High School, Las Vegas, by D.iv. Robert Hoday; Institute’s di- „ rector. Calloway is currently play- ing at the Sahara Hotel in Vegas. Coral .Records is continuing its comedy-on-wax kick With, the pact- pirig of Henny Youngmah. . Nitcry comedian will etch some of his more popular routines for the label. In the past year, Bob Thiele, Coral’s artists & repertoire. chief, has inked such nitery comedians as Jackie,Miles,' Phil Foster and Joey Adams for his comedy disk series.. BETJUL DISK BEST SELLEBS PfatlETY —— Survey 6 f retail dink best sellers based on reports ob- tained from leading stores in 22 cities and shotting com- parative. sales rating for this and last week. National Ratine This Last wk. wk. Artist, Label, Title o O >» o ca a td A u e * 4) <U ul •H & u (U •G w t-r ft- ft CO .a e U & 'S •« > o o o ‘ . CO ■3 a (h <U o s 5 tn O tt o •pH •. CO 3 a ■■•Sj •fc< ft' o G (0 > ' >>.■ R ' & & « .6 3 (0. ft AS tr* ’ft ■F— -ft)' «. 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Y musical his- tory was last Wednesday’s concert, at Carnegie Hall, of the Symphony of the Air. The foymer NBC Symphony Orchestra, bereft qf a regular maestro now that Ar- turo Toscanini has retired,'': and dropped by the network because Toscy’s departure permitted th web to lop off an expensive luxury, was appearing i its first public concert under its new title. Dedi- cating its concert to its..; onetime maestro (now iff Italy), tire sympii decided to play, a full program (and an overlong one, at that) without: conductor. This was novelty enough. What Was perhaps more force- ful,' however, was the pungent fact that in the face of economic reali- ties, this orchestra wouldn’t quit, wouldn’t obligingly lie down and die. No symphony can exist today in America without a social- r. ‘ dustriar sponsor, or. set of backers, without financial backing or sub- sidy of some kind. But this ohe is trying.. It tried so well ’.that’ th hall was. hlled, payment for spon- sor and patron boxes helped to up the take to : a fat $13,0.00, and a concert ensued that was artistical- ly as fine. as. ahy given this yeaiy and emotionally far more ;po\vcr^ : ful-.. As the 100. musicians filed;, on- stage at tlie start, one after an- | other, rapidly, the applause began .‘ accelerating in volume, to ah..ova- tioh,. as more, and mor of the audience, rose, to stand in tribute. It was not only a most unusual re- ception; it was. a very moving • event. . It made more poignant the feeling (at . least to this : listener) that a terrible thing had been done to this crCw. Orch played not dnly with spirit and brio, but wtih amazing co- hesion; considering the absence of a leader to cue in the sections,. modulate the. choirs and weave the ensemble together; Actually, eon- certmaster Daniel Guilet was do- ing the conducting, informally, from his seat, by nod of Head or wave of bow, cuing not only his own section of . violins, but all the strings, and the brass and winds besides, while playing ..beautifully besides, for a yeoman :job;« Trum- peter Harry Glantz was also tak- ing a. sub-niaestfo part, helping to cue the brass and winds, Symphony Foundation, of Am ica, formed to aid the orch, is now negotiating with several industrial corporations to back the group for a six-week European or South American tour; ;in midwihtqi’, Meantime, .another Carnegie date li0s been lined up, for Jan. 19, thi time with a maestro. Foundation, headed by Don Gillis (former pro- ducer, of the NBC Symph air pro- ;grams). is trying to raise revenue in various’ ways. A disk of sev- eral selections recorded by th group being offered to $10 donors, and over .700 orders have been received. Only four members, of the orch ate now employed steadily at NBC, although many are called in for single jobs, as with the NBC Tele- vision. Opera Co, series. Most, are freelancing, and not getting by too well. Cap Brass to Coast For Capitol Records’ brass the east, Bill Fowler, acting general manager, and Hal Cook, national sales manager, headed, for., the. f diskery’s Coast headquarters last, week for. top-level huddles. . Meantime, Dick Linke,. Cap’s eastern prorpotion manager, re- turned to his New York desk Mon- day ( 1 ). after , a three-week, tour around the country. Switch Band on Coward London, Oct, 26. . Surprise change of dance band •has taken place at the Cafe \de Paris, where George Smith and his orchestra, who have -held the stand there for two years, were replaced yesterday-, (Mon.) by Sydney Si- mone and his band. Changeover took place in the middle of Noel Coward’s cabaret season, and . he rehearsed his act ‘with the new band over the week- end.