Variety (Mar 1936)

54 VARIETY M U SI C Wednesday, March 18; 1936 FEB. OFF MONTH FOR SHEET BIZ New Yqrk, March 17. Sheet nouslc business stayed ''way down under during the last three weeks of February. There 'was no outstanding demand for a tune, and the Jobbers found the going the dullest in at least six months. Sit- uation took a reassuring turn the first week In March with the dealers ordering in substantial quantities and over a wide range of selections. Counters are looking- with, hope, particularly toward the score of Irving Berlin's 'Follow "the; Fleet.*: Orders., coining- Ah. ..'showed a pref- erence fpr Tm Putting All My Eggs in One Basket,' 'We Saw the Sea* and 'But Where Are You?' Tunes that ' got runner-up call during February were- 'Rhythm in My Nursery Rhymes' ' (Select), 'Broken Record' (Ohappell), 'I'm Building Up For a Letdown!. (Ber- lin), Tin Gohria Write Mysfelf 'a Letter' (Crawford), 'I'm.- Shootin'; H|gh' (Rc-bblns)y aha 'Please Re- lieve Me'" <§herman /Clay). With the turn Into March the following songs: showed signs of going places: •What i r-the^'Nani[e; of the Song?' (Popular Jilfelodies), 'It's Been So L<>ng'" (Feiat : ) r 'Alone at a Table for Two' V{Shaj)iro), 'Little Rendezvous in,'ftoBoiulu' (Morris) and 'With All My S^rfe''(jPelst). ThingV:'w:4 re 'airly brisk around the disfc; counters last month, Benny Goodman did the lead honors; for tihe Victor list, While Fred Astaire. with 'Jbhnhy Gretbn on thie, podium, ac- counted for' runswicic's best selleiv Jari''Garber* a" newcomer to Decca, became that label's No. 1 man, and Mills Blue Rhythm, band, topped the call, for Columbia.; FEBRUARY MUSIC THIS TABLE SHOWS THE LEADING SIX SELLERS IN SHEET MUSIC AND PHONOGRAPH RECORDS GATHERED FROM THE REPORTS OF SALES MADE DURING FEBRUARY BY THE LEADING MUSI C JOBBERS AND DISC DISTRIBUTORS IN THE TERRITORI Fair in Chi Chicago, March 17. Sheet music sales were just fair during February, due primarily to the lack of one leading' tune to lift the. list. All of the best selling crowd sold within a narrow range; 'Alone' swung up the top after a pull; replacing 'Music Goes . Round,' which plummeted out of the blue ribbon category, entirely, though It did manage to stick its head In the •best 10'..clrcle, rating around eighth or; nint'n.; Others ri*t quite'Mn the tojr- sextet .butr showing strength were' lease Belfetve Me/'^Wah-Hoo' afld'Write Mylielf a Letter/' Relatively, the discs showed better selllrtg power 0an the .- sheets; with all the companies reporting a good February^ p!drtld]ljlarly' ; ; towards the clpse' ip.f-.tlSS*month. . ; Victor v beat the b$l Vithv'Follo^ the jFl0ef picture music'-' ' y- ..•.C^ast Trade' Follows 'Fleet' ' ' Los Angeles, March 17. tstandlng In music field Is Brunswick's sale, of Berlin score trafn 'Follow the Fleet/- Backed by exploitation and picture break in town, Brunswick in last 10 days did a fresh biz on the. spinners. Astaire- Johhny Green combination put their places in 6ne-twp*three ^position oh „ the^. Brunswick list. Fourth 'spot taken by Harriet Hliliard warbling tune, also from 'Fleet.' Both sheets and' discs did healthy biz^for past month, 1 Decca reporting beat period In months. Distribs shoty that about 15 numbers arc bunched at top for largest sheet sales. End of Feb. aiid beginning of March indicate that 'Fleet' score is-.'sure to set. at least two sheets amqng the fast Betters, litonth saw hew numbers pushing old^'stahdbys practically out .of the picture. However, Columbia's 'Ride Red Ride' is still number one with the blue plates, and 'Hors d'Ouevres' sticks among Decca's best sellers for fourth consecutive month.' UPTOWN HEOPENS Portland, Ore., March 17. Jackie. Souders returned to Port- land to open the new Uptown ball- room, formerly De Honey's, re-, modeled. Sbuders who had Just completed 22 weeks at the Seattle Club, brought along his 12-pieee or- chestra. .. MILLER'S CHI, OFFICE Will Rockwell, v.p. and general manager of Miller Music* left yes- terday. (Tuesday), for Chicago,.. Opening a new office for the firm and \ylll designate a localmanager. Also seeing the trade en route. 6 Best Sellers in Sheet Music 2 4 Leading Phonograph Companies Report 6 Best Sellers. Side responsible for the major sales only are reported. Where it is impossible to determine the side responsible for the sales, both sides are mentioned: Inside Stuff—Music Rudy Vallee, who revised'and popularized the 'Maine Stein Song' and other oldtlmers,rhas. dug up an old Yale student tune, 'The Whiffenpoof Song.' Valle« is a Yale alumnus and long sought something traditionally associated with'.his alma 1 mater. •'Whiffenpoof Song,' never copyrighted, was first written by Meade Minnlge-rode. George S. Pomeroy and Tod B. Galloway in 1909. Before Will Rockwell, general manager of Miller Music, Inc., could copyright and publish Vallee's revised version, there was considerable difficulty tracing the authors in order to technically clear all rights. The estate of the late Judge Galloway of Cleveland okayed his end of it. Mlnnlgerode is a well-to-do antique dealer in Sussex, Conn., and Pomeroy is a Penn- sylvania department store tycoon. Pomeroy facilitated the copyright clearance by telling Rockwell that 'the minimum royalty' would be okay with them, in itself, a novelty In Tin Pan Alley since laymen, particularly seem to have inflated. Ideas of song-earnings, royalties, advances, etc. The' songwriters were members of a group of seven who met in Mory's the renowned campus tavern at New Haven, where they serenaded theh- favorite waiter, Louis, with 'The Whiffenpoof Song' over their mugs of beer and ale-. Kapp's Canning Trip < Jack Kapp, president of Decca, >jis en route to Hollywood pn a [recording. trip. • Bing Crosby, Dick Powell,' Victor jYoung,. Jimmy Dorsey and others 'will be personally 'canned' under 'Kapp's o.o., plus other, fllmusical ;and radio artists now on the Coast. •Kapp expects to be away from New Yprk three or four weeks. Cy Kahn, erstwhile m.c. and singer (who also used the nom-de-radlo of Guy Kent on the Paul Whiteman programs) is also a cartoonist avoca- tionally, much as Leo Carrillo and other artists. Kahn conceived the idea of a new mosir. publishers' service of cartooalv exploitation matter on be/talf of the new song issues. As a professional singer he recognized' that all the pubs' letters announcing 'our latest and greatest ballad' or novelty knockout' were as stereotyped as a film blurb. Accordingly Bobbins East and Abroad Hollywood. March 17. Jack Robblns is heading for New York Thursday (19). Going east for the first time since his company took over operation of the Leo Feist company for Loew-Metro. Robbins: figures, after couple; weeks in New York, on going to .London. Breese Wants Wife's 18G Judgment Set Aside Buffalo, March "18th. Louis J. Calabreese, orchestrk leader known as. Lou Breese, for- merly at Shea's Buffalo and now at the Weylin hotel, N. Y.i has started court proceedings-here to set aside the suit by Ina Mai Bentley, bis former wife,,to collect $18,000 back alimony. A motion for dismissal of tho complaint is to be argued. Mrs. Breese obtained a divorce in Massa- chusetts and a judgment - against Breese there' for $13,000 alimony last July. Leon Belasco Into the Lowr.v hotel, St. Paul, for return engagement' March 24. Kahn has enlisted Select, Engel. Santly. Shapiro-Bernstein, Famous, ct al. to use his humorous cartoon service to plug the new pop £dng issues. Creation of a public park and renovation of the Tnlll mentioned ih tM song is to be undertaken at Caledonia^ Canada, to the memory of Geol^* W. Johnston, schoolteacher, who! wrote-in 1864 the lyric of "'When and I Were Young Maggie.' Relatives of Maggie Clark, the 'Maggie _ w ot the famous ballad. :still reside hf-r .'hi.if did not reveal that the lyri" a1 ?". 'title ■' ot later, peared in a book of Johnston's poems, published under the /Maple Leaves' in Hamilton, Ontario, and set to music two years ^lntll newspaper stdric-s carried the claim that the song was wriiten to a millers daughter in Ducktown, Tenn.