Variety (Aug 1939)

Wednesday, August 30, 1939 MUSIC—DANCE BANDS VARIETY 35 15 Best Sheet Music SeDers (Week ending Aug. 26, 1939) Beer Barrel Polka Shapiro Sunrise Serenade Jewel • Moon Love • Famoug ♦Over the Rainbow-('Wizard ot Oz') Feist •I Poured My Heart Into a Song ('Second Fiddle') Berlin Man With the Mandolin Santly Cinderella Stay in My Arms ....Shapiro Stairway to the Stars » ....Robbins White Sails ^^ist Especially For You Shapiro It Makes No Difference Now Southern ♦Wishing ('Lov« Affair') ..Crawford Lamp Is Low Robbins In an Eighteenth Century Drawing Room.. Circle To You ..i. ••• ■ .....Paramount •Filmusical. 3-WAY BATTLE PROBABLE ON IRISH EYES' Late Chauncey Olcotfs renewal rights to 'When Irish Eyes Are Smil- ing' have been obtained by'Witmark, one ol the Warner Bros, groua from his estate. By the time the renewal rights becomes effective, August, 1940, Witmark will likely find itself engaged, in a three-way legal fight, since the rights of the song's other two writers, the late Ernest R. Ball and George Graff, Jr., have been as- signed to two othei: publishers. Mills Music, Inc., and Fred Fisher Music Co. Witmark claims the renewal rights In all three cases. Mills last year obtained the exclusive renewal right to all Ball's numbers, while Fisher bought its rights to this tune from Graff himself. Both firms are on notice from Witmark. It is Witmark's contention that it holds Ball's rights by virtue of an exployment- contract dating back to 1908 and in 1918 Graff gave it an out- right bill of sale covering his rights. Latter contract, sUted Witmark, not only authorized it to take out the i-e- newal In.his najne, but appointed 11 a-i ai'torney in fact, to assign such rights to itself. JIN MUNDI SETTING HIS OWN 14-PIECE BAND Jim Mundl, former arranger for Benny Goodman, Gene Krupa and others, is currently rehearsing a 14- plece crew of his own. Band has no debut date. John Gluskin is han- dling. Mundi will have as his vocalist Madeline Green, uncovered recently In St. Louis" by Benny Goodman. Latter was reported at one time to have contracted her to sing with his outfit, Mills Goes Latin Mills Music, ■ Inc., is establishing t Spanish-Latin-American catalog. It makes the first time that Mills has specialized in this type of music, which heretofore has been domi- nated by such firms as Southern Music Co. and E. B. Marks. Mills is meanwhile negotiating with some one to head the new divi- sion. Jack Mills, head of the firm, last week also signed Emory Hein, ■ refugee composer, under an ex- clusive contract. Hein, who Is now in this country, has written film scores in France, Germany and Hungary. BEVmE lOSES LEASE Indianapolis, Aug. 29. Tom Devine, who operated the Indiana Roof Ballroom for 12 years, lost his lease recently to Harold Cork, who operates the nitery. Sky Harbor, near Municipal Airport. ■Devine had been spending the sum- yier at Lake Manitou, Rochester, Ind., and when he returned to set up Indiana Roof for fall he found that the building owners had leased to Cork. At Manitou, Devine spotted in name bands at his Hotel Colonial oance pavilion. Ben Taft, former head of the de- "'.ncl Radio Orchestra Corp., is now with the Harry Norwood agency. Battle of Bands Hits Peak in Atlantic City Atlantic City, Aug. 29. The battle of bands which has been going on between the Hamid Pier and the Steel Pier all sum- mer reached its peak this week,'with both piers concentrating on name orchs rather than vaudeville and pictures. Hamid"s Pier is pTesenting Jimmy Dorsey, Eddy Morgan and Reg Kehoe, while Steel Pier is countering with Benny Goodman, Alex Bartha and Gene Krupa. Band battle will reach its peak on the Labor Day weekend, for which Steel Pier has booked Rudy Vallee and the Hamid Pier will present Artie Shaw and a 'surprise band,' which is not being announced until the last minute. Both piers are swinging all thejr advertising to the band names ar^d sacrificing the vaudeville and other (tuff to. put them over. U. S. RECORDS MANY NAME BANDS Ell Ober.<!tein soon expects to be- gin recording popular bands for his United States. Record Corp. labels. He claims to have one year contracts with various name crews, calling for at least 36 platters to be cut at 'mu- tually convenient timesj According to . Oberslein, he has signed Tommy Dorsey, Sammy Kaye, Eddie DeLange, Van Alexander, Glenn Miller, Larry Clinton, Johnny Me-iisner, Buddy Clark (.singer) and Richard Himber, among others. Miller's contract with Victor has un- til February, 1940, to run. Heib Young was appointed na- tional sales manager of the company last week, which was followed by the designation of Bill Cone as sales nianager ot New York Stale and New England, and Ed Denham as head ot southern sales. Cone will headciuarler In Boston, and Denham In Washington. Music Notes Sam Ltrner. and Ben Oakland eleffed four dillles for 'Listen; Kids' at Univeisal. Numbers are 'Who's Going to Keep Your Wigwam Warm,' 'Doin' the 1940,' 'My Dreams and I' and -Laugh It Off.' Moe Jerome and Jack Scholl wrote 'You, You Darlin" to be sung in 'State Cop' at Warners. Band Bookings AI Donahue, Sept. 3, Pleasure Beach, Bridgeport, Conn.; Manhat- tan Beach, N. Y., week Sept. 4 . Sammy Kaye, Sept. 1, Lake La- bluff, Waterford, Pa.; 2, Asbury Park, N. J.; 3, Pavilion, Johnson City, Pa.; 4, Syracuse State Fair, Syracuse, N. Y. Claude Hopkins, Sept. 2, North Hempstead Country Club, Port Washington, L. I, . Glenn Miller, Sept 15-19, Slate theatre, Hartford. Chas. Agnew, Sept. 2-4, Stratford theatre, Chicago. Segei: Ellis, Sept. 2, Lake Shore, Glencoe, 111. ■ Freddie Fisher, Sept. 11, Fenni- more, Wis.; 15, Paramount theatre, Anderson, Ind. Lou . Breese, Sept. 16, Century Country Club, White Plains, N; Y. Inkspots, Oct 20, Earle theatre, Washington. Nano Rodrigo. Sept 14, week, Loew's State, N. Y. Carlos Molina, Sept. 6, Indef., La Conga, N. Y . Milt Herth, Sept. 15, week, Chi- cago theatre, Chi. Rita Rio, Sept. 8, week, Colonial theatre, Dayton. Ella Fitzgerald, Sept 6-7, Joyland Park, Lexington, Ky. Hartford Board RuIesvs.MPPA On Bootlegging Hartford, Aug. 29. If a licensed newsstand vendor, operating on a city, street, wants to sell pirated song sheets that's his privilege, the Street Board has told Attorney Charles N. Segal, counsel in Connecticut for the Music Pub- lishers Protective Association. At- torney Segal had appealed to the board to revoke the licenses of a half dozen downtown newsstands that he claims have been selling song sheets in violation of the fede'ral copyright laws. The Street Board took the stand that the selling of illegal song sheets was a matter to be straightened out between Attorney Segal and the in- dividual newsies. 4 NAME ORCHS SET FOR N. Y. STATE FAIR Syracu.se, Aug. 29. Scheduled as the big attractions for the coming week, four name bands will move Into the New York Stale Fair Coliseum starting on Labor Day. Sammy Kaye will play a malince and at night on Monday (4). Tommy Tucker is scheduled for night ap- pearances on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. A floor show is planned in connection with his ap- pearances. Glenn Miller's unit moves in for Friday afternoon and Friday night while Guy Lombardo comes in for two performances on Saturday (9). Lombardo is the only repeat from last year, when Whiteman, Tommy Dorsey and others were featured. ■ Johnny O'Connor May Be Ist Prexy of MPCE; Once Head of Publishers Freeze-Out Philadelphia, Aug. 29. Contract of Leo ZoUo's orch at Rainbow Gardens, al fresco spot at Strafford, Fa:, has been extended with a novel clause. Instead of setting time limit, termer reads: 'This contract will expire when . temperature drops below 60 degrees Fahrenheit.' COL OFFERS I1/2C ROYALTY ON SOcDlSCS Columbia Phonograph Corp. Is currently making a drive to induce music publishers to-accept a VAc royalty on the firm's proposed 50c catalog. Metro-Robbiiis group has already assented to this arrangement This 50c catalog will contain all the popular artists now carried under the Brunswick (75c) label. The pub- lishers' royalty on '75c records is 2c, while for those selling at 35c they collect IVic. Robbins firm last week explained that It readily okayed the l'/4c proposition because of what hap- pened several months ago, when it raised the royalty fee for all phono- graph discs to a flat 2c. Robbins burned at the time because other pubs failed to co-operate with it by insisting on the same royalty setup. The legal royialty fee by U. S. copyright law is 2c per composition. Columbia drops its Brunswick label at 75c in favor of a 50c platter tagged Columbia with the issuing of the first of the platters cut by Benny Goodman Sept 3. Artists who'll hop to the reduced di.sc, beside Goodman, are Kay Kyscr, Eddy buchin, Horace Heldt Duke Ellington, Teddy Wil- son. CoUnt Basle, now on Vocalion, Is a possibility for that category.. According to Goodman, his con- tract with Victor allowed that com- pany to continue pressing his cut- tings after he left there, but a clause prevents them from marketing them at a price lower than that his new affiliation demands. Puts Victor in the position of trying to sell his stuff at 75c. while he can be bought for 50c. That is, of course, if they con- tinue selling his discs. Band's first records for Columbia Include the tunes, 'Comes Love,' ■Rendezvous In Paree,' 'Jumpin' at the Woodside,' 'There'll be Some Chan.i!es Made.' 'Blue Orchids' and 'What's New.' Others are standards. James H. Hunter, formerly with ! Victor, has been appointed v.p. In I charge of production by Columbia. SAMUELS ASKS SUIT VS.'COMES LOVE' TUNE Walter G. Samuels, one ot the writers of "Fiesta,' has asked Santly- Nilo Mehendci and Eddie Cherkose doing songs for Sol Lesser's picture, 'Escape to Paradise.' Ramon Armengod, Mexican stage and screen singer, is in New York under exclusive contract to Decca to record an album of tangos and rhumbas, several being of his own composition. George Bassman joined Max Stein- er on musical score for 'Gone With the Wind' at Selznick-lnternational. laid Gluskin doing the musical score on Hal .Roach's 'The House- kcicper's Daughter.' Frank Skinner and Ralph Freed eleffed 'Pancho Gonzales.de Gaucho/ to be sung in 'Rio' at Universal. If I Didn't Gare' Figures in Theft Suit Los Angeles, Aug. 29. El-nest Dale Brown, songwriter, filed suit In Federal court against Chappell & Co., music publishers, charging the ditty, 'If I Didn't Care,' by Jack Lawrence, Is a snatch from 'Just Wondering Why,' eleffed by the plaintiff and George Rodney In 1928. Brown asks $250 damages for each infringement in playing or broad- casting the number, plus $1 for each copy sold. Joy-Select-Inc, to bring an Infringe- ment action again.st Chappell 8t Co. in connection with the latter's cur- rent publication, 'Comes Love.' The questioned tune Is from the score of 'Yokel Boy' and was co-authored by Sammy Slept, Charlie Tobias and Lew Brown. Samuels, who wrote 'Fie.sta' with Leonard Whitcup and Henry Busse, claims that 'Comes Love' is slml- I lar In .style, construction and melody to his number. Johnny O'Connor, manager for Fred Waring and head of Words Sc Music, Inc., is being named as the likely first president of the Music Publishers Contact Employees of Greater New York, which last week received a charter from the Ameri- can Federation of Labor. Leaders of the newly created union see nothing irregular, in the selection of an em- ployer as president since a goodly percentage of• the charter members are either partners in their pres- ent connection.?, or hold executive positions. O'Connor was formerly president of the Music Publishers Protective Association, which organ- ization he helped form. Membership in the union, it waS explained last week, would be con- fined to persons doing contact work. It will not include stenographers and clerks employed by publishers, un- less the former actually double in the work of obtaining plugs. Elec- tions of 'officers and . the appoint- ment of a constitution committee has been deferred for a w^ile. Professional staffs of the Metro- Robbins group and Shapiro, Bern- stein & Co. remain about the only holdouts from the union's member- ship. A spokesman for the M-R group stated Monday (28) that its professional men have been formal- ly advised that they were free to ex- ercise their own inclination to join the union, while Jonie Taps, profes- sional manager for Shapiro-Bern- stein, explained that he has declined to come in until he was apprised Just what were the objectives of the or- ganization. Among those that spoke at the charter presentation ceremonies at the Edison hotel last Thursday (24) were Jack Rosenberg, president ot the New\York musicians union, Wil- liam Feinberg, the latter local's v.p., William Collins, state organizer for the AFL, and P. J. Dillon AFL spe- cial representative. The meeting was attended by 118 of the 137 mem- bers ot the Professional Music Men, Inc. Rocco Vocco, prez of PMM, was aTso mentioned at first as head of MPCE, but will confine himself to the benevolent organization exclu- sively-. . NBC ENDS SONG CREDITS ON SUSTAINERS NBC has barred the mentioning of source credits to film and show tunes on .sustaining programs, so credits will hereafter be confined to spon- sored shows. Network explained that this action had been prompted by a tendency of the music business to overdo the credit thing. Not only were publish- ers insisting on getting credits for pic and show tunes of ancient vint- age, but songwriters themselves got in on the abuse by demanding that such credits include the mention ot their names. Record High Disc Tieups Pic Score on 'Oz' Coast Lamaze Bookings Hollywood, Aug. 29. Cafe Lamaze, county strip nitery, booked three name acts last week. Wlni Shaw opens Aug. 31, followed by Alice Marble, tennis champ- canary, and Hildegarde. Each in four weeks. I Goldkette's Talent Hunt ! Detroit Aug. 29. Jean Goldkette, who led bands here lor 15 years, is in Detroit ' searching for musical talent and j compositions for his American Symph. Accompanied by his bride, I Lee McQuillan, his former publicity I rep. Will move on the Chicago from here, thence to Hollywood for nego- tiations on short musicals with film execs. Perhap.c- a record high tieUp of disks with a film's score is the case •of the five E. Y. Harburg-Harold I Arlen tunes out of 'Wizard of Oz,' I which has seen 28 different waxings i so far. In addition, a special Decca album of the entire score by Judy Garland, Victor Young's orchestra and the Ken Darby Singers has just been made. The 28 simultaneus pop releases on the divers disk brands embrace dance and vocal forms, sweet and hot. TWO FOR ONE Sca't Davis' Band Splittinr Into Two Units After Chi Date Jcihn Leipold borrowed from Para- mount by Boris Morros to score 'The I Flying Dutchman.' Chlcagv., lUg. 29. i Scat Davis' band will split up after its current Blackhawk engagement Vito Musso, Davis' contractor, is taking half the boys and heading east to start in N. Y., while Davis , takes the remainder as basis for new I organizatloa