Variety (Sep 1939)

40 VARIETY MUSIC—DANCE BANDS Wednesdaj, September 27, I939 On the Lipbeat Katharine I<ane has been replaced by Dolores O'Neill as vocalist with the Bob Chester orchestra, currently •t the Van Cleve hotel, Dayton. Tommy Dorsey will continue his Monday night NBC full hour sus- tainers wherever possible while he's away from New York. Program ex- plains arrangements and other in- side dope on. each number used. Jack Teagarden orchestra and George Jessel have been signed as part of a unit to circulate through the four Brandt combo houses in New York. Open Oct, 19 at the Flatbush, Brooklyn. 30, for fall dance season. Spot's been dark all summer and boys have been jobbing through tri-state terri- tory. Ann Cleaveiand new ditty-doer with Don Ramon's orchestra at Nite Spot, Dallas. Bill Bardo's crew moved Into Plan- tation, Dallas, Sunday (24), for one- week stand, to be followed by Jan Garber's one-nighter Oct X, closing the place. ♦ ♦♦ M Band Bookmgs | ■♦•♦♦♦♦♦» I Benny Goodman changed trom- bone player, Ted Vesely taking the chair held by Bruce Squires. He shifts to Harry James. Loo Breese now at Hotel Adolphiis Century Room, Dallas, following Ran Wilde. Joe Relcbman may open fall sea- son at Baker Hotel's. Mural Room, Dallas, Oct. 14. Sammy Kaye's opening at the Commodore hotel, N. Y, set bjck to Oct. 27 from Oct 1 by four weeks of vaude still unplayed. Ends at Palace, Cleveland, Oct 26, opening In N. Y. next day. Teddy Powell orchestra, which debuted at Famous Door, N. Y., re- cently, signed for four test record sides at DecCa. Cutting starts next week. Johtany Magee's new band, now at Donohue's, Mountain View, N. J., signed to record for United States Records. Will Bradley-Ray McKinley new crew now out on one-nighters. Plays Johnson City, N. Y., and Pottstown, Pa., Friday and Saturday (29-30). Don Redman replaced Cab Callo- way at the Cotton Club, New York, Saturday (23) for two weeks. Lou Armstrong's band comes in for new show. Johnny Bnrkarth band shifts to Bluegrass Country club, Lexington, Ky., for an indef stay beginning tO' night (Wednesday). —GeoTge~DameraI, son of Myrt- of the 'Myrt and Marge' radio team, currently leading a small sweet combo at the Trocadero, N. Y. Bobby Hackett, who recently, gave up his own band after finishing a stand at the Trocadero, N. Y., has joined Horace Heidt's orchestra. Woody Herman band last week cut a 15-min. transcription by re. quest for statiop 2SM, Sydney, Aa stralia. Platter explained and dem- onstrated 'blues' style. Station has a swing program on Fridays. Hal Kemp set for N. Y. Strand the- atre end of October. Johnny Dnffy, novelty organist, after three-month run at Willows, Pittsburgh, goes into Nixon Cafe there Oct 1 for indefinite stay. Ran Wilde opens at the Cosmopoli- tan hotel, Denver, on Oct. 12 for an indefinite stay. Don Bestor goes into the Paxton hotel, Omaha, Oct 3. No closing date set. Ttaelma White has organized 16- piece all-girl band and is touring Australia, with a South African jaunt if war permits. Cappy Lewis, trumpeter, replaced Clarence Willard in the Woody Her- man band. Willard goes to Emery Deutsch. Slim Gatllard, of Slim and Slam, signed to record for Vocalion with a five-piece band. Erskine Hawkins, Oct. 22, Savoy I Ballroom, Chicago; 28-29, Blossom ' Heath Inn, Oklahoma City. I Blue Barron, Oct 11, Yankee Lake, Brookfleld, Ohio; 13, Armory, Grand ' Rapids, Michigan. i Glenn Miller, Oct. 12, George F. Pavilion, Johnson City, N. Y.; Oct. 27, week, Stanley theatre, Pitts- burgh. Ina Ray Hutton, Oct. 11-12, Or- pheum theatre, Madison, Wis. Bill Bardo, Oct 6, five days, Or- phcum theatre, Memphis. Mai Hallet, Oct, 19, Paramount theatre, Springfield, Mass.; 22, week, Earle theatre, Philadelphia; 29-30, Astor theatre, Reading, Pa. Al Donahue, Oct '3-14. Washing- ton and Lee U., Lexington, Va. Inkspots, Oct. 12, 5 days. State the- atre, Hartford; Oct 19, week. Royal theatre, Baltimore. Woody Herman, Oct. 27, weelt, in- tead of Oct. 20, Hipp, Baltimore. Charles Agnew, Oct 12, ohe-night- er, Stevens Hotel, Chicago. Freddie Fisher, Oct 1-3, Grand theatre, EvansvlUe, Ind.; 8, Bass Lake, Judson, Ind.; 15-16, Ann Arbor, Mich. Ina Ray Hutton, Oct 20, week. Paramount theatre, Anderson, Ind.; 2'-22, Trianon-Aragon B's, Chicago; 29-30, Michigan theatre, Ann Arbor, Michigan. Bill Marshall, Sept. 29-Pct. 11, Club Trocadero, Henderson, Ky. Ben Pollock, Oct 2, .four weeks, Hofbrau, San Diego. Cal. Blue Barron, Oct 7-8, Castle Farm, Cincinnati; 11, Yankee Lake, Brook- fleld, Ohio; 14, .Ima Auditorium, Flint Mich.; Oct 16, Edison Hotel, N. Y. Glenn Garr, Oct. 11, indef., Henry Grady Hotel, Atlanta, Ga. SPONSORS RETURN, CBS STAFF DOWN Bob Znrke's new band set for the New York Paramount about Nov. 1. Dinah Shore, vocalist, set for four single solo recordings on Bluebird. She records with the Xavier Cugat band on Victor. Tim Gale, road manager of EUa Fitzgerald orchestra, reported mar- ried in the middle west last week. Paul WhUeman's two Decca al- bums of Irving Berlin tunes set to be released this week. Jan Savltt's theme tune basis for new pop titled 'Moonrise' by Johnny Watson and Harold Adamson. Glenn Miller booked for ASCAP's ..Carnegie Hall,.N. .Y.,..music festival week. He's down, for Oct. 6. Jack Negley, WINS, N. Y., com- mentator, set for role in Gray Gor- don's musical 'Golden Glory.' Benny Goodman goes back to the New York World's Fair bandstand Oct. 2-3. Band is set for Oct 6 at N. Y.'s Mayor LaGuerdia's Music Week. Johnny Green's 'Gershwin Day' at the New York World's Fair has been postponed to Oct 28. Sammy Kaye added.Maury Cross as arranger for his band. Bert Shefter's Rhythm Octette signed by NBC Artists Bureau. Hal Kemp orchestra makes a re turn .trip. to.4h.e_ New Y ork World' s Fair Oct. 6. He was there over Labor Day. Larry Clinton's Victor recording of 'In a Persian Market* has been okayed by the Ketelbey estate, which at first objected to it being swung Little Jack Little closes his stand at Edison hotel, N. Y:, Oct. 14. Shifts to Ford exhibit at Astor hotel, N. Y:, for one day, 15th. RachmanlnoB Cycle at Carnegie Hall, N. Y., Nov. 26, will mark 30th anni of composer's first appearance as conductor of Philadelphia or- chestra. Joe Frasetto's orchestra, now winding up a six months' engage ment at Jack Lynch's Philly, signed for Eli Oberstein's U. S. Record Co. Mickey Whalen's orchestra went to work at Metro in 'Broadway Mel ody of 1940.' Ray Noble's band moves into Bev- erly Wilshire hotel in Beverly Hills Oct. S for three months. Brad Hunt's orchestra, out' of Pittsburgh, opened engagement Mon- day (25) at Deshler-Wallick hotel in Columbus. For two weeks with options. Ralph Allen and his Detroiters Into .New Penn, Pittsburgh road- house, for an indefinite stay. Jimmy Walsh's band moved Into the Del Mar Club, Santa Monica, for the fall, season. Howdy Baam band moves back into Hotel Schenley, Pittsburgh, Sept Ben Cutler outfit opens at the Rainbow Room, Radio City, N. Y, Oct 11. Kirk Torney to N. Y. kirk Torney, of CRA's San Fran Cisco office, has been shifted to New York to handle bookings^ of small cocktail units. Jump in' demands for abbreviated units forced the switch. He handled same department on the Coast. Inside Stuff-Bands Unique situation rare In the band biz sees two leading theatre stands trying to option a new band hardly out of rehearsal. Paramount and Striand on Broadway are both wrangling for Bob Chester's orchestra which opened at the Van Cleve hotel, Dayton, last week (14), and prior to that had comparatively few. dates, since coming out of rehearsal a short time ago. Also In that time the Chester crew has been grabbed by Victor Records for which It has already cut 10 sides. Chester is a scion of the Fisher Body family of Detroit Arthur Michaud, band's manager, has left it to Music Corp. of America, booker, as to \yhich theatre will play the outfit CBS broke a long standing rule this past week by giving six across-the- board sustaining shots to the new Chester band out of the Van Cleve. hotel, Dayton. Net has never before (within the memory of its N. Y. office) given a band such solid time. Starting Monday (25) crew is picked up at 11 p.m. Monday through Saturday each week for the duration of its run there. In the east the band will air only 15 mins., the 11-11:15 slot being taken by a news period. Tommy Dorsey's orchestra played a benefit Thursday night (21) In a temporary ballroom In Bernardsville, N. J:, specially constructed for the occasion. Dance floor, one acre in size, was made of plain wood strips nailed together with the ground as underpinning. It was covered by a hired circus tent big enough to protect 450 tables placed around the dance floor.' Benefit was in behalf of the Bernardsville volunteer fire dept. where Dorsey lives. His band finished at the Pennsylvania Roof, N. Y., Saturday night (16) and plays one-nighters until Sept 28 when it opens at the Ainsley Roof, Atlanta. Goes to the Palmer House, Chicago, Oct 12, for three months. Failure of the General Amusement Ciorp. to produce Jimmy Dorsey's orchestra at a private party tossed by A. B. Dick, dictaphone magnate, in Chicago, cost the booking organization $350 out of pocket. After the dat« had been set Dorsey decided to give himself and his men a three-week vacation. James PetriUb, head of the Chicago musicians' union, was ap- pealed to by Ray O'Hara, the original agent for the date, and since it couldn't furnish Dorsey the general office flew Ji;nmy Luncetord's crew out to Chicago. At Petrillo's order GAC absorbed over half of the cost of plane passage, which amounted to $600. Now that summer time filling sus- tainers are being replaced by spon- sored shows, CBS is slicing its house musician staiT. Seven-piece string band of Leon Goldman is currently on two week notice as are six men in the dance orchestra. Goldman's crew averaged between 20-25 pro- grams per week. Ray Bloch has been made a regu- lar stafT conductor and Charles Paul is sub-leading in New York for Leith Stevens, who's on the Coast back- grounding the 'Big Town' show for Lever Bros. Disc Row .Continued from page 37. Philadelphia local 77 of the American Federation of Musicians has taken steps against the domination of the city's Class A spots by outside bands and bookers. Stands rated A, mostly hotel rooms, have had their scale upped $20 per man per week unless a band is booked in for at least 24 weeks, in which case it remains normal, which Is said to be $68. Obvious intention is to force the use of local outfits. None of the spots can afford to keep any sort of crew that long. As a rule the welcome mat is threadbare long before that time. Edgar Sampson has a tmique arrangenicnt with the Ella Fitzgerald or« chestra. While the band is playing in the New York area he plays a fifth sax. When it's on the road for any length of time, he stays in N. Y. mak- ing arrangements of the newest tunes, thereby keeping band's books stocked with fresh material. Few bands have such a routine and many have been caught on the road without an arrangement of an overnight sensation. Strictly from Joe Rines' radio buildup for a French waltz, 'Ca Fait Bourn,' Liberty Music recorded that maestro's version of the time, and Chappell arranged for the American rights to the foreign composition. Inside Stuff-Music EMU 6ABBEB WITH KARZAS Chicag6, Sept 26. Emil Garber has been appointed advertising and publicity chief for the two Andrew Karzas ballrooms, Aragon and Trianon. Garber was formerly promotion manager of the now defunct morning Hearst Herald-and-Examiner. that various recording companies, as a result of recent court decisions, are using every effort to control the provision to have members assign iheir propertv rights therein to the recording companies. As a result the International Executive Board has adopted the following rule: 'Any member who assigns any property rights in any recording to any recording compony or to any other party U)i(hout the consent of the American Federation of Mu- sicians, by such action gives notice to tlie Federotion and makes effec- tive immediately Iits resignation from the Amcricon Federation of Musici(}7is. 'This rule is effective immediately and will be strictly enforced.' The rule is an important imple- ment in the union's drive to ex- ercise some measure of control over records used in broadcasti/ig and in coin - operated machines, whose spread among taverns and similar places, it claims, has contributed to unemployment in musicians' ranks. In the last AFM convention one resolution was introduced which went so far as to urge that the AFM 'executive board': immediately in- vestigate the feasibility of having all musiciahs who make musical record- ings assign the rights of same to. the AFM or some legal entity be created' for the pooling of such rights which would be administered by the union. Heads of the AFM are reported as loath to pursue either of these sug- gested procedures, but they do feel that so long as the creative or in- terpretive artist retains for himself the property rights In such inter- pretations, the union will at least have a say as to the purposes to which the phonograph records are put AFM board has not determined the line of legal attack it . will adopt in curbing the use of phonograph records on the air or in coln-op erated machines, but it proposes meanwhile to keep' its membership Sammy Cahn and Saul Chaplin. Warner Bros, music contract writers, were signed last week to do the tunes for the new Cdtton Club, New York, show which is scheduled to open about first week in October, Since both writers are tied to Warners the latter wouldn't allow them to score the show if one of the WB firnjs didn't get the songs to publish. Either one of Harms, Remick or Witmark will get them. Mills Music had published the C. C. show tunes almost exclusively for past 12 years or so. Cahn and Chaplin are also writing tunes for Harry Delmar's 'Revels of 1940,' musical set to open on Broadway soon, Louis Armstrong orchestra will probably play , the C. C. show. Major point holding it up is the recent ruling of N. Y. local 802 of the AFM which forbids a seven-day week for musicians. Latter didn't interfere with Cab Calloway's playing of the last show as it was made during his run there and was not applicable to runs already started. Stepin' Fetchit will be featured comic. Warner Bros.' music companies, Remick, Harms and Witmark, and th« Shapiro-Bernstein Music Co. have con'sented""tO""the-TJse-of-their-tune3-on- a royalty basis of 1% cents on American Record's new 50c. Columbia label. Companies had been demanding 2c. per side but capitulated after meeting with Joe Higgins, Columbia exec, late last week. Both outfits were the only ones Higgins hadn't been able to come to terms with. First of Columbia's 50c. line hit the stands several weeks ago. Mitchell Parish, who hadn't had a hit for about three years until 'Deep Purple,' stands to be top royalty collector for this year. He'll get a cut on about 1,000,000 sales if his two latest 'Starlit Hour* and 'Lilacs in ths Rain,' reach 100,000 apiece. 'Purple' sold 450,000, 'SUirway to the SUrs' 150,000, 'Lamp Is Low* 100,000, and 'Annabelle,' 'Don't Be. That Way,' and 'Moon Is a Silver Dollar' an aggregate 100,000. All are published by the Robblns combine. from disposing of something which later may prove an invaluable as- set in treating with the phonograph companies. . Efforts have been dropped by the music publishing industry to in- duce the United States Record Corp. to accept a license that would re- strict, the use of its product to home phonograph machines. The license form issued to U. S. will contain but one restriction, the use of the record for broadcasting purposes, a condi- tion which applies to the wares of all other recording outfits. U. S. Corp. had been discussing with counsel for certain publishing houses a license which included a ban on coin-operated machines, but it was agreed last week that United's sales Interests would be Impeded if- it alone were a party to this restric- tion. Though unsuccessful through negotiation, industry counsel in- tends to resort to other means to effect for their clients a greater roy- alty return on records used in coin- operated machines. It is proposed to issue a license containing this coin machine restriction for all record companies, which will leave the lat- ter no alternative but to act under the compulsory provision of th« copyright law which calls for the payment of a 2c royalty, in place of the l^c and lV4c collected on li- censed works. The next step will be to restrain by litigation the use of records ob- tained under the compulsory clause, in coin-machines. Due for citation in this court action is the following paragraph in the finding of Federal Judge Leibell in the Victor-White- man case: 'The very nature of the phonograph record indicated limited form of its publication. It was in- tended for listening at a phonograph, not for a radio audience.' Publish- ers' counsel will contend that this latter principle also applies to coin- operated machines, since the latter caters to multiple persons in places operated for profit