Variety (Sep 1939)

Woanceday, Seplenaber 27, 1939 MUSIC—DANCE BANDS VARIETY S7 A.F.M. ENTERS DISC ROW Discs on Publishers Agenda Boar<1 of directors of the Music Publishers Protective Assoeintion i? Kliitt'ri to meet today (Wednesday) to discuss developments along the ^lionogiaph record front. Matters which Walter Douglas, chairman, will report to the direc- ioi.s include the $150,000 suit against the American Record Co. for un- paid royalties, enforcement of the copyright owner's rights on disks used other than in the home and the pressing of a test action against im)id manufacturers on the right of arrangement without permission of the copyright owner. Buddy Morris, Johnny Mercer Set To Launch Own Pubfishing House NEED T Signing Over to Phonograph Record Manufacturers of Property Rights Necessary for Radio Use of Discs Is Prevented by Rule That Such Action Must Be Con- firmed by Union. ECHOES RULING EUlwin H. I Buddy) Morris and Juhnny Mercer will have their own music publi.<:hing firm in operialion Ijy next wtek. Morris was still ne- gotiiiting yesterday (Tuesday) for a ciiliiloj! whi<-h would serve as the jiucieus of the business. The deal f(ir Ihe Joe Davis catalog, accord- jnj; t<, Davlf' statement yesterday nfteiriooi), h;is fallen through. The new film will function as Mercer & Moiris, Inc. M & M are already primed for an entry into the legit production field. Mercer has been signatured to do Iwc .-icorts for the Shuberts with Hoagy Carmii-hael as his writing partner, and M & M will publish both score."!. The two shows are "Thiet Blind Mice' and the next edi- lion ot -Zicgfcld Follies.' The new organivialion will start off with the publication of three tunes by Mer- rei and .limmy Van Heusen, namely, 'Bl'iie Paih,' I Thought About You' iind 'Makt with the Kisses.' While Mercer and Morris own the j firm between thorn there is a possi- bility of Van Heusen becoming a • t;tochh<.lder later. Charlie Warren, who resigned from Remick the week j befoie last, is expected to come in »x pioff ■s'-iona l manager. Buddy Mor- | r'. was Kirinerly opcrating-WSTd'Ot"] the Wajntr Bros, music publishing group. Union City Bands The Top Hat, Union City, N. J., which because of its combined ca- pacity of three rooms fates as the largest nitery in the east, is engag- ing name band policy booked via Music Corp. of America. Van Alex- ander follows George Hall, current; thence Oz/.ie Nelson, Ben Bernie and others. Al Davis books the floor shows. Johnny Hanna is the operator. Main room has an 850 capacity. NEW RULING ONORCHESTRA TAXES Chartered Albany, Sept. 26. Mercer & Morris, Inc., has been riiartered to ■ conduct a business in the publi.shing of sheet music in New Yo/k. Capital slock is 100 shares, no par value. Aithur L. Fishbein was the filing •Homey. ASCAP HOLDS MUSIC FETE American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers opens its festival of American music in cele- bration of it.«. 25th anniversary with b concert of light opera and musical comedy mu.>:ic at Carnegie Hall, N. Y., Sunday (1). Frank Black will conduct the orchestra for the initial concert of the series which is sched- u)e<l for a full week. On the following evening (Mon- day) the concert will be devoted ex- clusively to Negro composers, ar- tists and musicians, while Tuesday's event will feature the works of John Phillip Sousa and have Bklwin Fianko Goldman as the conductor. American folk .songs and Rudy Val- let as one of the artists is set for Wednesday night. For Friday it's '■ymphonic works of American com- po.sers with a number of the latter directing the orchestra, Dante combinations get their In- . nings Friday, with Paul Whiteman, Benny Goodman, Glenn Miller and Fred Waring included in the roster. .There will be a Saturday matinee of chiklren's- songs and that evening the festival will close with a group of !-Vmphonic work.-^. Weil Now Sun Music Title of ihe Millon H. Weil Music C<i. hiis bttn cliKiiged to the Sun Mii'ic Co. Weil is the .outfit recently bought by Tommy Do/tty. Washington, Sept. 26. Purcha.sers of musical acts may be fesponsible~foi~ioclaTWctlrity 'faxes' in some circumstanceg de.spite the general principle that the leader of a name band is the employer of the members of his team, the Internal Revenue Bureau ruled last week. Throwing more light on the tricky situations arising from the booking customs followed by orchestras and agencies, the Treasury unit repeated prior as.sertions that exact answers to involved questions depend on the circumstances )n individual cases and the terms of the particular conr tracts. Test remains the amount of supervision over the actual musicians by either the leader, the agency, or the purchaser. An instance where the purchaser was the actual employer, and thus required to make the reports, con- tributions, and deductions from wages required by the Social Secur- ity Act involved a contract with a theatre corporation under which the orchestra was to fit into a stage show under instructions given by the man- agement of the house where it ap- peared. Purchaser by contract re- tained the right to use the act 'in any manner desired' and could en- joy 'a substantial degree of control over the manner in which the lead- er and the members of the orches- tra rendered the particular services for which they were engaged,' the official decision stated (Ruling 10022 in Internal Revenue Bulletin 1938, Social Security Tax Office No. 3751. Particular facts in the several cases discu.<wcd were that while the outfit is a name band, it is not main- tained as a unit except during en- gagements and make-up changes often. Neclcus of regular pl:iyers is kept together through lay-offs but members are not required to give preference to the leader and exdn performers often are added lor vari- ous dates. The leader normally is not liable for pay of the member.-? unless the purchaser ha.« d' -harged his contractural obligatioi. to the leader, while members do not ati fixed .'salaries, minimum pay, or .-et amount of work. The leader pny.--- none of Ihe members expen.scs ex- cept tran.iportation co.sts as required by the unions. 'Under Subchapters A and C Chapter 0 of the Internal Revenue Code, Ihe relationship of employer ' and employee exist* when the per- I (Continued on page 38> American Federation of Musicians la.st week struck a potent blow at the efforts of RCA Victor and Decca Record Co. to administer the broad- cast rights of their product when the union warned its members that any assignment of the property rights to the recording companies would re- sult in automatic dismissal from the AFM. The union reserves to itself the right to permit any member id make such assignment. AFM's policy will, in effect, pre- vent the recording companies from licensing the future disks of any type of musical organization, whether name or studio-formed. In his de- ci.sion on the Whiteman case .Judge Vincent L. Lcibell, of the N. Y. fed-, eral court, held that unless the man- ufacturer was in control of the tal- ent's property rights he was not au- thorized to license, the br.oa,dcast u.se of the record. The talent was also restrained from licensing its prop- erty rights unless it were okay with Ihe manufacturer. At the request of Ihe National Association of Broad- casters Victor has agreed to post- pone putting its proposed licensing arrangement into effect- for three months. The AFM letter to member.s, sig- natured by President Joseph N. Weber, was as follows: • The nttention of the Federation has again been cntled to the /act (Continued on page 40) Milwaukee Trustees Paying ASCAP But They've 'Heard' of Radio Suits Casa Loma Free of MCA Glen Gray's. Casa Loma orchestra is currently on the loose, band's con- tract with Music Corp. of America having expired. MCA, however, is still setting dates for. the outfit. It's currently at the New York World's Fair. Band one-nighta it westward to open Oct. 28 at the Palace hotel, San Francisco. FOX TACKLES CANADIAN FEE JAM Harry Fox, agent and trustee for publishers on mechanical rights, left Monday (25) for Canada to make a study of the methods iised by the Dominion's phonograph record man- ufacturers in accounting for royal- ties due copyright owners. It's his first look-see on the subject in that region. • Fox will also undertake to remedy a situatipn which has caused the Canadian recorders to hold up royalty payments on many Ameri- can works due to the confusion as to accurate copyright owner identity resulting from the Dominion's amended copyright law of 1924. The recorders have declined to release -the-accumulated—Foyalties-until—the American writers involved have filed the proper copyright assign- ments on works published in the United States prior to 1924 as re- quired by the' revised Canadian statute. Revised Availability Ratings Three Pop Houses Lose Points, Two Gain—Writers Appeal From Cut-In Chastisement With Gus Schirmer presiding as the new chairman, the availability committee, of the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publish- ers last week slashed the ratings of three pop publishing firms and raised the standing of two others. Those clipped were Bregman, Vocco Si Conn, Ager, Yellen & Bornslein and the Joe Morris Music Co. TilLs went to Santly-Joy-Selecl, Inc., and ABC Music Corp. BVC was reduced from 1,800 to 1,400 points, AY&B from 1,575 to 1.325 points and Morris from .765 to 700 points. Sanlly was jumped from 750 to 1,000 points and ABC from 1,000 to 1,100 points. Two quarters ago the BVC catalog was rated at 2.000 points; AY&B, 1,150 poinLs; Morri.s, 8,500 points, and Sanlly, 6.500 points. Bitter Exchanire There were also a couple chnn.ijcs of rating in the standard publishers' group. The Bo.ston • Music Co.. which is owned by G. Schirmer. wi's reduced lO^i to 1.3.50 points, while the Church Music Co., a subsidinry of the Theodore Press; r Co.. was r.li.'scd from 1,000 to 1,250 points. The pub.s' availability mcctin"; w,ns mr.rkcd by many bitlor .-■rgumcnl.s in which pcr.son.nlitics were losortcd to freely. Lester Sisntly, of S; ntly- I Joy-Sclecl, who had been .si'minnnc.d ! to jii.slify. his claim for a boost in j rating, offered consid.-rrble supporl- inp; data, among which wii". com- parisons of hi.s catiilo;; with tho-e ol Rrcsman - Vocco - Conn and Ager, Yellen & Eornstein, When asked what he though would be a fair way of settling the issue, Santly said that he would strike the a.verage rating for all three firms and allot each an equal number "of p'oThts;' While the committee was debating the question of reducing B-V-C, Jack Bregman, its president, stated that he and his partners had bought the whilom Donaldson, Douglas & Gum- ble catalog because of its rating at the time in ASCAP and that it was unfair for the committee to elect to impair the threesome's in- vestment. Comeback from members of the committee was that the pur- chase of a catalog carried with it no guarahlec of rating and that the trio took that chance when they took over the D-D-G catalog. ASCAP writers' cla.ssification com- mittee, which also met last week, considered the pleas of several writers who had had their ratings reduced because they had given "co- author credit to band leaders and projiiam impre.«.sarios on some of their more recent son^s. The.«ie wiilers admitted that Ihcy had been indi.scrcet, but pointed out that they were un.Tware. of doing wrong since tilt practice of cutting in pcriorm- cr.s had been going on for many yjiirs. It is believed th?l the writers' classilicoiion commiLLee will rc.^jard those writer members as having been amply chrsli.ssd and vo;e to return them ;.i their former royalty stand- in'.'f. The committee acted to pre- vent leaders and olhcrs in radio from accumulating so many co- writer credit."; throu;{h the cut-in de- vice that ASCAP would have to ad- mit them as members. Milwaukee, Sept. 26. Board of trustees for the Milwau- kee Auditorium, municipal project, voted last Thursday (21) to continue to pay a licensing fee to the Ameri- can Society of Composers, Authors after listening to various legal opin- ions on the validity of ASCAP and the fee. Attitude of the: board ob- viously reflected the effect that pub- licity obtained by radio in its cam- paign against ASCAP has had on this local body. Charles W. Babcock, first assist- ant city attorney, told the board that an anti-ASCAP measure similar to that introduced in the. Wisconsin, legislature is now being tested in the highest Nebraska court, but City Attorney Walter Mattison advised that the fee be paid rather than risk costly law suits for copyright in- fringenrient. The auditorium's fee this year was $100. Manager Joseph C. Greib said that the secretary of state had ad- vised him that ASCAP is not regis- tered to do business in Wiscpnsiit and therefore the law does not ap- ply. ASCAP issues its contracts to Wisconsin licensees through th« Chicago representative. Using Network To Ballyhoo CBS Pancakes Colu mbia Phon ograph Corp., CBS subsid, proposes to use radio to plug its classical records as well as th* label's popular product. The CPC has a merchandising idea that It will try out on CBS' managed and owned stations before extending tha air campaign to national spot or net- work proportions. Series starts Friday (29) over a 31 station net. It will go to' the Coast. Horace Heidt starts it ofT and is followed in order by Jack Tea- garden, Benny Goodman, Eddy Du- chin, and Kay Kyser. Those are all that are set so far, Harry James, originally skedded to open, being set back to November by interfering bookings. Raymond Sebtt's new full- size band, not yet started, will be used. Although the original idea was to conflne~th'e'TaTie.'! -to 'orchestras 'on Columbia's new 50c label exclusively, company plans to ring in the bands on its 35.C Vocal ion label later on. LON MOONEY SUCCEEDS HOROWITZ AT MILLER Willie Horowitz, professional man- ager of Miller Music, one of the Rob- bins combine, is out. He'd been di- recting Miller since its inception and had been with Robbins over 10 I years. Currently on a vacation trip throu.i'h New England, it's not known what Horowitz will do when he re- j turns. His .spot al Miller will be talien by Lon Mooney, who moves over from I Fcl.st, .nnother of the Robbins cata- I logs. Mooney will work with Benny Goldber.g, y/hom Robb'ns is moving in from his Chicago office to become business manager of Miller. I Jones' Reversal I Memphis, Sept. 26. l.-h; m Jones wrote one doughboys* theme song, 'We'r'e in the Army Now,' for the last World War. Here for recent date at the Clar- • Ige Hot; I. Jones .says if he docs one for Ihe present war it w'lU be some- thinjj like this; 'We Ain't in the , Arn)y This Time.'