Variety (Nov 1936)

MUSIC VARIETY 45 jfack/ Bobbins is h^ddlihg' witb Charles R. Rogers, prez of Univer-. aai, both now in N. Y. oh a U filinu- si^ publishing deal. .Already Bobbins has a team of his •loiters fmd . arrangers on .the U, lot. Jjjnhiy. McHugh and Harold Adam-- son are 'tvOrking on two pictures; Frank r Skinner is iarranging, and Charles. Henderson i$ orchestratoi' on vocU xiecordings, , As with ]N);etro. ..and 20th-Fox, itherthis: Feist pr .Rdbbins firms would publisiti the U, tunes. Claims BiUy M Owes $250,000 on Tunc Deal / Lbs Angeles, Nov. 3.. . Suit for $25()i000Vhas: been :filed: iagfiinst Billy Hill, composer, in U. S> District Court here' by^. Morrill Geiger» who ^a^ims this amount for a half interest in five songs written by . Hiil. Cteiger asserts in suit that he pur- Ch|ts<^:^ phe»hali interest in the five ttUie9»: iw4 HiU bas fail^ to turn oyier half of ah alleged proi^t of airouiad $500,000 accruing from the songs. Hill composed 'The liast Bbtmdtijpi' and The Old Spinning "^eer among other tunes. IN MU.5IC Giiarantcad thi quiftkeii hi' year; DID YOU MEAN IT? A New -Rhythni Tune THERE'S FROST ON THE MOON Prom th« RKO Picture 'Tlie -Smartest Gin In T«wn", WILL TOO? Anothtr ^^prlngtirne In the Rockies' I'saSilverMoon On the GoMen Gate HA WHY ll«^K IRVINC DCRLIN Most Played on Air To /amiliartze t\ie trade toith .:,,.the: tunes most on the oir around Neio Yprk, the /ollow- song^ were most played on Ttetworks laat tueek. Com- iTied plugs on WEAF, WJZ and "WABC co'mputed jor the week from Sunday through Saturday night. iOct. 25-31) Did You Mean It? Way You Look Tonight Who Loves Yon? I'll Sine 1,000 Love Songs A Fine Rbnwncie When Did You Leave Hea^ven? You Turned The Tables Midnight Bluies South Sea Island Magic : Chapel in Til^e Moonlight Dream Atirhlle Me and' The Moon To Mary—With Love Sing, Baby Sing Close to Me When Lady Meets, a Gentleman I Can't . Escape Fr.om You Talking Thru My^Heart . Organ Grinder's Swing Did I Remember? It Can Happen to .You ■Taln't Good Until Real Thing Conies Alons Love What Are Yon Doing One, Two, Button Yottr Shoe MORRIS RETURNED TO ASGAP BOARD Edward H. (Buddy) Morris, in charge of the Warner Bros, music interests, was last week elected back to the board of directors of the American Society of Composers, Au- thors and Publishers. He has beeii bflf the' board since last Jiine, when Herman Starr, Warner y. p., re' placed him, sO that he could be in closer contact, with . the ASGAP board, in negotiating hew terms for the Warner publishing . houses, Starr's resignatioh from ASCAP ac- companied Warner's withdrawal of its publishing houkes from the So- ciety membership. Warner . last week submitted, to the Society's . publisher Javailability committee in factual form the forr iner's protest against the ratings given the various. ;WB firms. The protests will be studied by the com- mittee and it is expected that sorne action will be taken by the time the. next, royalty allocation ' of the Society takes place. 7<7<7 Ttm av: Capana Switches ASCAP Membership fo Lincoln pirectorate of the American So- ciety of Composers, Authors and Publishers last week approved the transfer of the membership of the Frank Capano Music Co., of Phila- delphia, to the newly organized Lin- coln Music Co. Lincoln Co., which was organized in New York, is understood to be owned by Joe Davis and Charles Bayha. This firm is apart from Joe Dayis^ Inc. FTC Documenit^ However j Ppes Not Petail Specific Prattices It Wnnts to Taboo—Up to MPPA Dir rectors to Translate. Code Trade Terms MENTIONS BRIBERY US Buy$ Crawford WiA M U io0m Fim Deal; Confinning' iUe nibst amazing Mt record of all time, we offer "TO MARY3WITH LOVE" "PICTURE ME WITHOUT YOU" (ifrom tlie picture, "DlmjiIesV' starrhir Shirley Tcniplc)i "SOMEONE TO~CARE FOR ME" JProm Valvcrsars " " LEO FEIST. Inc. 1629 BROADWAY NEW YORK ' Federal Trade Commission's legal division has devised a code of fair trade practices for the music indus- try. jPrafts of this dociimeni are now in the hands of the individual directors of the Music Publishers', Protective Association. It is now up to the MPPA to suggest , how the FTC's paper can be . so phrased as to make it specifically applicable to the music business* various tiade practices and thoroughly imder- standable' to everybody in the ."in- dustry,, ' Cpde, as drawn by the FTC's le- galises, adheres merely to the. lan- guage of the Federal Trade Com- mission Act and does not make de- tailed mention of the specific prac- tices: that it seeks to make taboo. It mentions, for instance, bribery,, but does not stipulate the divers forms of bribery as jpracticed in th^ 'music business. As it is now couched, the BTC's proposed code is decidedly more silihgent than the pledge which the popular faction of the publishing, industry put into effect Aug^ 20. Lots of rules'bearing upon the Hobinson-Patinah anti-chain sto.re act have been written into the FTC's document and it is proposed to have this code apply to standard publish- ers also. '■ ' Difficulty which the FTC experi- enced in writing a code for the music industry was largely due tO the fact that the commish's previous dpcu- mehts had confined themselves to the sale and distribution of merchandise^ In the music industry, the major eviT has had to do with the exploitation of this nierchandise, and the prob- lem facing the FTC is to frame a set of trade practice rules that will le- gally conform with the commission's authority. John G. Paine, MPPA chairman, obtained a draft of the FTC's pro- posed code during a visit to Wash- ington last week. Paine leiarned that the MpPA's' application for a trade conference for the industry had been passed upon by the FTC and turned over to the latter's legal department for use in writing the rules of trade practices for the music industry. It was. also disclosed that the De- partment of Justice had urged the FTC to pursue an investigation of the music industry, but that the com- mission had elected to defer making this probe until it became ^convinced that the music publishers were se- rious about holding a trade confer- ence and devising an industry code of fair trade practices. What SLdlwlly halted the inviesKgation was the adoption of a voluntary code by the pubs last August. Complaints have been filed recent- ly with the FTC that several pub- lishing firms are violating the pledge which became effective last summer. One of the pubs named is not a sig- natpr of thie code, while the two others cited are charged with engag- ing • i subterfuges. Whether the MPPA will act in these cases is up to Joseph V. McKee, MPPA general counsel and cd-ordihatbr for the Acquisition of certain stock hold- ings .. ■ Crawford Music Corp. by Lbtiis Dreyfus presages the ultimate withdrawal of Bobby Crawford from the niusic publishing company bear- ing hiis name. Crawford, a veteran nvusic man and, showman, is en joute to" Hollywood On one of three film sti|dip propositionis. Active direction of the firm shifts to Larry Spier as general profes- sional' head, put into the spot by Dreyfus. Crawford conti as Robbins' Bid Bobbins could have made a deal for Crawford Mu- sic Corp. last Monday. Consid- eration wouldn't have exceeded $100,000 and David .Bernstein, treasurer of Loew-Metro, told music publisher that it's okay with the film company if .Robbins thinks he ought to add on another music company. Robbins told Bernstein that he'd prefer to have Robbins Music Corp. first pay off the $400,000 or so on the Feist deal, whereby Robbins boujght that firm with moneys advianced from Metro. presi the company, as' now, and Harry Liebman remains treas- urer, per now.. The deal releases ' Crawford for Hollywood, an idea he has been en- tertaining for no little time, although approached in the past for studio ex- ecutive positions. It shifts the valu- uable Crawford Music, catalog to Dreyfus, veteran London music pub- lisher, who is slated to sail baclc Nov. 11. Crawford Music Co.'s ASCAP rev- enue has. been around $100,000 per annum. Louis Dreyfus is brother of Max Dreyfus, head of the Harms publish- ing interests in America. Louis Dreyfus heads Chappell 8p Co., Eng- lish music firm. Both companies have interlocking and international music pub affiliations. Both broth- ers, also, as a separate and distinct venture, are financially interested in music industry. It is /his task to de- cide what legal action can be taken, particularly against the two signa- tors of the code. As far as the FTC's code is cdiir cerned, a special MPPA committee may go to Washington next week to confer with the commission On the rules and discuss the advisability of holding the trade. conference iii New York City. Chappell & Co. America, which ^c^k latter firm is being professionally '' and financially' directed by Henry M.' Spitizer, much in the samife light that Spier will direct Crawford Music's interests. Spier Harms' Spier has been with T. Hai:m» Co. for many years. 'This is a War- ner Bros.-owned and directed .musi firm, but with Max Dreyfus and .Je- rome Kern, aliso finaiicially - inter- ested. ' Spieir also had a participati interest in. B. Harms Co. Tlu? (Continued On page.;46) UT«iiwiiiTK The -Marks Hit Parade MNIIIIIG A TEMPEMTTOE (Para Wgt M e Vdyl Am THEY SAID IT WOULDTTLAST! AFTER6L0W Orcbeatrntibna 60e Trestttts CLOSE to ME (Definifely; tjie BiH: Wnltz Hit) -'• LOVE—WHAT ARE YOU DOING TO MY HEART I'M GOING HOME FOR CHRISTMAS T. a/HARNIS CO. l2Mf Rtxth Ay«, KCA suatii at, With justifiable pride we announce that we publish the new Sigmund Romberg-Otto Harbach musical operetta "Forbidden Melody" which succetsfuily premiered Men*: day at the New Amsterdam Theatre, the yery important score includes: '*No' Uee Pretending'' — "You Are AU IVe Wanted'* "How Could a Fellow Waitt Mofc"' "Shadows That Walk in th« Nlisht" "JuBl Hello'^ — "Moonlight and Violins'' >Xady in the Window'' ROBBINS MUSIC CORP. •. 799 7th AVE. NEW YORK MUSIC PIIBLiSHERS SHAPIRO, BERNSTEIN & CO.„«ic NOW IN THEIR NEW QUARTERS - RKO Radio City Music Hall BLDG. 1270 SIXTH m., NEW YORK