Variety (Apr 1941)

Wednestlafr April 16; 1941 MUSIC 43 15 Best Sheet iyr9ek in4ing April 1% iMi) wise Old QwlV*, .a...... ■. .,^,.;..; •..,, Walkii)* by thip River....:;.;.... v.,, v.,., Oh Look at 'Me Now, i ...;:..v., , . ; ; Number 10 LUlliaby Lane ;*.;V^vV;^^.. ,; ^0 .I' Worr3^«v«.•«•■«.• • 4 f • • • • • • »■ • ,■ J-., -i; «, I Underitahd;:..».>••• • ••• ;v...iiV..>.v,...'. My;-Sistfer'.«hd-1 ;>, - '..i^, ,;. ^San Antonio Rose, . . Vi...;... . . . Intermezzo ■; Georgia on:My Mind,.. . .,;;. . , .>,. ...,.. . ,;. .1*11 Bie With You in Apple.Blossorti Time....,:... J&V& ■ JlVfi* • • • • ^«» • • •■•■» • • • • • •r* ,V you Walked By . ....>...!... .. ...... ^ There'll Be Sonie Changes. BJade.,^...!....,,......., • >;... ...Marki ....«. .BMI BMI ;■ '. ..V. -.. .'.iEmbaisy; - Warren ' ■ Southern ,V.v;,...t'eist ' .'. V'... ,'>BMI , .Berlin " ..Schuberth ...;.Southern'. ... ..... Broadway, Advanced . . . . . .BMI ■ ....;..Mair]cs Boston, April 15. . \ .Sirice the break .between ASGAP and the radio .interests (Jan. 1) there has been a steady increase in the ruliibcr of adyertisemehts "carried, by Boston newspapers .from music ^haritis^ 'The .music wiar,' these ads .jnvjiriahly declare,. Hias created -.a ijrcat demand for nfew .song^,' and the sharks, who describe themselves as service, outfits, ask lor 'sonjg poems*., which they offer- to. set to music.'. . .This offier: has now be6h extended ito include a • phonograph' recording ;cf the corripleted song at l>Tices which start at $1 No Need for Sbn^sharks . - New York ,music publishers, who often serve as checking source$ for Better. Business Bureaus [ and others oh song shark inquiries,, declare that they have not been apprised of any partiqular spread jof the songshark thing throughout the country in. re- ■ cent months. '■. They think that the ainatcur songwriters have had avail- able too many legitimate outlets such as the Song Hit Guild, BMI and vari- ous radio programs to make it profltr able for the songshark. These putis aiso predict that peace between radio and ASCAP.may prip- duce the most pronounced cooling- off period among amateUr writer;^ that this country has -evfer . seen. The perciehtage of click tunes made available by amateurs since the ad- vent of BMI has been sp negligible that established publishers will give the product of siich sources a long and complete brushoff. People, they . say, will listen to the output of ama- teurs whein there is nothing else available, but when these ams have to compete with professionals it "will be an altogether-different story. NO COLIIMBIA RECORD SEITLEMENT AS YET Hollywood, April 15. A second meeting to settle the itrike at the Columbia Recbrtdihg plant here was.broken up this morn- ing when the committee represent- ing the struck United .Electrical Radio and Machine Workers of America bolted hegotiationir..- . GoluiTibia Recording oiTicials ofr fered. to increase pay under all .clas- siflcatiotiis by: l;7c per hour but thl^ proposal" was ;teje<;ted as; ridiculous. Edward' Fitzgerald, U!s. labor coii-^ ciliatdr,-has another meeting sched- uled for Wednesday .(16) Walkout has been In: effect sincie last Friday. Repeated atembts to reopen the plant have been balked by refusal; of the clerical workers to , crip.ss the picket line. • ... The union demands: raising pf the minimum exiling .irbm 55c:to 7.5c per hour witii an inorease of apprpxi- : matiely lOc per: hour in the higher classiflcationsi \ Columbia plant has 85. eriiployeeSi . all ot whom art al- fected.: Conip'ariy services the re-. coriding business'in 1,1 western states and also handles a voluminous train- scrlptlon ,trade. The union riegotiatied a niew wage dfeal, with Allifed l^honogliraph 4 Record Manufacturing Co. and has antiouhcied that neither; Allied nor- RCA-Victor wo.iild handle- arty Co-, lumbla biislniess for the duratlori 6f the strike, . Union officials said to- '. day that a mass demonstration would be staged in front of the CBS studios Saturday night i You Zig It Toi)s; in icrewy; loni ,-.tltlies seem^ to have been scored last - vireek by Coiumbia Pictures. ! If registered with th.* Hays office, as,the label of a tune In. a forth- ^ coming picture: 'Zig M(e ;Baby. With Gentle Zag,' i>y, Eddie Chirkbse and- .Jacques Press. Board of directors of the Miisic Publishers Protective Association in a meeting last week instructed its Chsiirmah, Walter G. Douglas, to at- tend the y. S. senate's hearings on the international copyright conven- tion and lodge Its opposition to this country's; adherence to the pact. Hearings opened yesterday (Tues- day) before, a sub-committee of the Senate Foreign Relations' Committee, of which Senator Elbert Thomas is chairman. Curious sidelight on the senate bill in so far as the miisic industry is concerned was the de- cision of. the ASCAP. board last week hot to have a representative at this hearing. ASCAP's publishers are opposed to the ternhs of the interna- tional convention, whereas the writ- ers think favorably of the project, so that the. only . logical thing the ASCAP board cOiild do was take a standoff position. The MPPA board holds to the viewpoint that it. would be hazard- oue for American copyright owners if the Berne convention were to be- come the law of the United States Without Congress first revising this country's copyright law so as to make the terms of the latter consistent' with this provisions in the Berne convention. If the convention were adopted before the U.S. copyright law were revamped, the Ahierican publishers, as the MppAites see it, wOuld be faced with a deluge of; in- fringement suits. Numbers that for years had been tre.ate,d as part of the public domain would suddenly becomie valid- U.iSJ copyrights and millions of dollars spent oii. publish- iijg stiecial arrangements of such cOmfipsitions would . have . be^n wasted.. . Moist of the foreign .copyright laws give the creator Or his assignee pro- tection for life-plus 50 years there- after. . Under the American law prO'- tection .;is: limited to 28 years plus another 28 years if properly renewed. Another: factor that makes' the pub- lishers hostilfe to entry into the con-, vientipn at this time'is, the unstable world condition; With. neV/ boun- daries and: alliances being established: at quick ;interVaIs : the pUbs can't understand why the State department isHpuld be'SO- anxious to became part pf an International; .cpnVehtlon and imperii .the status, of American ;cQp;^- right owners.' ,' . IW Scorns Idea Of Caban Writers^ Group HavanaiV April 15, Ralph S. Peer^.: head of Southern Music and Peer International .Music Corp., vvheii here on the' first lap of ah extiensive South American trip, embracing every, country, to line up songs and i sbngwriters; gave the brushoff to Jack Robbins* scheme oi a Union of. Cuban Cdnippsers. and Authors, Robbins, in;,a previous news .account, stated . that :UC;CA was being, prganized . by him, via his local rep.. Silvia Suarez, in cbl> laboration with Miguel Gabriel, head Of the large radio station here, CM(Q;^■ .: Peer's attitude is that there are. air' ready four ipcal songwriters' so- cieties in existence in Cuba, and al- most; every name songsiniith is al- ready affiliated with any of: these four combines, or with E- B. 'Marks (who has ErneistO Lecuoha, for ex-, ample), or rwith Southern Miisic (PeerO.: Exceptions' are. Tousett, Julio Brito and Osvaldo Estevili, the HOte.V Nacional's maestroTCpmposer, and thiey have been writing lor Robbins. Latter, plans a National Music Co. of Cuba, as a further exRloitatipn gag to empha|;ize the nationalistic, as-; pects-rRobbiiis; naturally, -to - he the sales .agent. Actually; Robbins arid. Miguel. Crabriel are still talking the situa- tion over. - Gabriel and his 'CMi^l have vital advertising and mercharir dizlng affiliations with the CrUcellas CO., as thie local Colgate-Palmplive- Peet company is called, v^hlch plugs its toiletries-over CMQ. Although Gabriel admits that Ro6- blris approached him .withv a mutual pi;ofit scheme, the. former is said, to. have agreed only with reservations,' and requested; that the idea be put Into tangible form on paper so that the CMQ lawyers might go pver it. Gabriel never saW Robbins after that interview, hor was any plan sub- mitted to him.. ' Both Arsenio Rodriguez, blind gui- tarist and composer, and Margarita Lecuoiia, cousin to Ernesto Lequona, arf ,imder contract to Peer at the present' writing and will remain so for the next six months. Where they will go at the termination of their contracts, and what promises they have made to Robbins are conjec- tural, says Peer. . Needs $50,000 Copyright Bureau Makes a DiflFerence Philadelphia, April l5^ .; : . Bert Lemisch's Prchestrai play- ; ing Ih; a North Phllly nitery -Is hounded V by song pluggers. In the past Lemisch; had trouble getting music from 'them, how he's the most sought-after band- leader in town. ; .'. Reason; Lemisch's crew lias a remote pvei' .'WDAS, Pne of the; •' few 'stations with art : ASCAP ' license, ■ . TOPS FOREIGN BMI CATALOG Preference for Polish music leads all other foreign tunes, according to breakdown of. requests of member, stations reaching foreign language groups throughout the country, as compiled by Broadcast Music, Inc. Italian was the second rrjost popu- lar foreign music, according to the BMI survey, with Cubai} and Latin,- American, SCandiilavian end Hun- garian following in that.order. Questionncire covering listen^ preferences Was niailed to the 670 BMI stations, with only approxi- mately 57 outlets catering to foreign language audiences responding to the foreign music query. BMI Is negotiating for acquisition of several fprelgn catalogs, notably Polish. The latest BMI catalog lists music of some 33 nationalities. Raiy Whitley cleffed three songs tor RKO.'s 'Cyclone on Horseback.' Ditties are 'Blue Nightfall,' 'Tumble- weed Cowboy' and 'Bangtail.' Joseph Abend, assistant to Sam Manus of Alfred Music, turned tune, detective while watching a performance of 'Meet the People,' and spotted eight bars from 'Waiting For the Robert E. Lee,' controlled by Manus, in one of the skits. Controversy which followed was settled with pay- ment of a nominal sum by the Hollywood Theatre, Alliance, backers'of 'Meet the People' . Manus got an Okay from L. Wolfe Gilbert, who c6l- laborated on 'Lee' with Lewis F. Muir, to arange an easy settlement with the revue management. , . Manus has just completed cbmpilatiori of musical works of Lewis. F. Muir, composer \>t 'Robert E. Lee' and 'Take Me to That Swanee Shore,' who died in 1916 at the age of 32. Muir wrote 85 songs, mostly based oh American historical events, In collaboration with Lew Brown, Edgar Leslie arid L. Wolfe Gilbert among others. Boston, April 15, Massachusetts' would receive $9,000 yearly by taxing the Amierlcan Spr ciety of Cpmppsers, Authors and Publishers 3% op the $300,000 it col- lects \vlthin the State; but.it would jcost the State |50jdod .tp conduct oa copyright bureau; it: was pointed out ■ (9) to the Legislature's constitutional law committee by Harold E. Fellows, general manager of WEEI arid chair- man of. the Massachusetts . State Broadcasters Committee. = : •This bill would affect Broadcast Music, Inc., also?' Senator W. Mi Bowers asked Fellows, who answered in the affirmative. : ,' ; - , Fellows. : explained ' that, taxing copyrights would riot only be.a bur-. den to the State, but would in turn be passed on to the consumers, 'as is usual whenever any product la taxed.' X ... ... 'Although broadcasters have suf- Ker^d frprii: abusels of copyright com- binations,' said Fellows, 'they do iibt oppose. rightful returns to authors arid 'composers, nor wish -to see. the letter circumscribed, by unnecessary- State'restrictions under the guise of antirriionopoly. 'The two bills aimed against ASCAP apply criminal penalties tp users as well as owners of perfbrrii- Ing rights, permitting prosecution of users even for good faith infringe- ment; One of. these bills , would make It. criminal -for the unauthor- ized rendition of copyrighted works by church groups, amateurs, etc., so long as the performance was for profit. Broadcasters would, need a staff of lawyers to determine whether the owner of each Work licensed had complied with the provisions of the bill ': '.; 'Above all, these bills are unconsti- tutional. And by taking performing licenses either decreases, the return to authors, and hence defeats the purpose pf the copyright act, or adds j additional burdens \. to the dissemN nator of music to the public. 'No legislation by States la neces- sary, for the problerii of supply and demand will solve it' ... Fellows admitted that the policing and supervising of clearances In the present battle between ASCAP arid broadcasters have been costly to his station, as well aa the others. It cost Irwin Dash Music Co., Ltd., of London some six pounds ($24 U.S.) to clipper over a recording of its newest, 'The King Is Still In Loridon,' to New York, only to: reach Dash, who Is now in N.Y„ completely, shat- tered." The waxing was an off-the-air recording of a London! gala, 'King Is Still In London' is by Roma Campbell Hunter and Hughle Charles, the latter co-author with Ross Parker of "There'll Always Be An England,' also a Dash riiusic hit. Dash, meantime, through his new Diash-(Reg) Connelly Co., Iri N.Y., is exploiting 'King in London' for the American market, 'England,' of course, has now assumed stature as a war song, akin tp "Tlpperary* in 1917, and like every great song it has Its sidelights,- One of these, a most vexing one tp ^he patriotic British, came from Scotland where, as a sop to that country's nationalistic pride, a special edition had to go out reading,. 'As long as Scotland's there.' .. This is. a switch on -th.e original phrase, 'There'll always, be an England, while there's* a country lane,' . ' ' . ^ '■' ' .Mills Music. Inc., which for ifnany years has been associated . with tunes of the. 'Sweet Mania, Papa's Gettiri'. Mad* and .'Truckln' genre, finds itself this week Iri ah'envied iiiche in'an entirely alien field, an Iriiportant festi- val of classical music. . A Mills jpublication,. .'Cimarrpri,' by Roy. Harris, has; been chosen for th^ closing of the Trl-State miiislcal festival "at Enid, Oklahoma, and it \vill be played by hundreds of instrumentalists gathered into a single group from the many bands representing .universities, cot- leges and high schoois-at the event. .The festival operis today (Wednes- day) and closes Saturday (19). ••;.../:' - Delegations from, the Mills organizatlpn which left for: Enid last weekr end: comprised Jack Mills, Macit ; Stark -and Mbrtpri Gpul^^^^ : was -born in, Lincoln couhty, Okla,; was also In the .party. It will mark the fltst time that' ^Cimarron' has been perf^^^^ in public. Harry Fox, as agent, and trustee; reported last week that his office his already collectied iseyeral thousand, dollars in adyance'^rbyaltifes from pro- ducers of film for cdihrQperated riiachinea.. He has. already licensed over BO musical compositions, .to.; this new adjunct to .the film business even though there are a Hriiited few of the film type of" jukebox oh location. Anipng the firbducers that, he hajs been licensing on this: sciore are Mdnoco, Cameo and Soundles. . -,'',--' Nine years .ago Fred AUger and Jack: Fay, respectively New England reps- for Bregman, Vpcco, Conn arid Santly-Joy, together with . Mickey Alpert, .maestro ait Boston's GocpanUt Grove, discovered that the- three celebrated their birthdays on the same day, April 9, and so each year since they have met. for a-joirit. party. . - ..' 7TH ON LIST List of sheet beat seller^ for th* week ending April 11 and at carried in this week's issue criedlts ASCAP publishers with more numbers than it has had since the break with radio (Jan. 1). The outstanding de- velopment in this regard is'the ad^ vent of 'I Understand' (Feist) In seventh place. Jobbers are of th* opinion that this number which hat been plugged practically only, through the sale of phonograph rec- ords Is slated for top position. Other ASCAP-afflllated numbers in this, list are '111 Be with You lit Apple Blossom Time' (Broadway), 'San Antonio. Rose' (Berlin) and 'Java Jive' (Advanced). Dash-Connelly Firm Asks For ASCAP Membership The recently formed Irwin Dash-. Reg Connelly Music Co. is applying, for ASCAP membership after wait- ing a couple of months until the radio-music' squabble- rights Itself. New firm, however, has decided not: to wait, their sympathies being en- tirely with the Society. Paradoxically, Reg Connelly's Lon- don firrii, Campbell-Connelly, In the meantime has closed a deal to act as British agerit for Broadcast Music,. Inc., but merely, regarding' BMI songs; as just another ■ ca.talog^ and:' ignoring any anti-ASCAP syriiparf '■ thies which, In turn, must affect the British Performing Rights . Society. The BPRS is ASCAP's rep in Eng- land, by treaty. (Connelly, of course, will have to riiake a separate deal, for BMI sOng Usages with the British Broadcasting ~ Corp, and : other licenses, se^pqrate and apart from BPRS.