Variety (May 1941)

Wednesday, May 28, 1941 »TBA8 t7 Swingor Sweet Both B. O. Swing music and sweet music seem to be idternatlng places this spring. .Results of the 'experiment' with Sammy Kaye's sweet outfit at Frank Dailey's Meadowbrook, Cedar Grove, N. J., Jive spot, gave Kaye new records. For the four-week stretch completed Sunday (25) the outfit set attendance and gross marks, topping figures originally established by Glenn Miller, Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey, the three most powerful swing groups. In only one instance did Kaye beat a former weekend record, that for the past Friday and Saturday (23-24). His business was evenly strong over the four weeks. Band bookers were intensely Interested in the date, one. of Its rtsulta being that Kaye was offered a stretch at the Palladium, Hollywood, which has used only one sweet band so far—Kay Kyser's, In contrast to sweet music's invasion of Meadowbroow is the acci- dental change from sweet to swing made by the Log Cabin, Armonk, N. Y. Latter spot has always been a sweet band harbor, using such groups as Herbie Holmes', Ray Herbeck, etc., in the past. When the present Gray Gordon band was bought to replace Holmes recently, the Cabin's management was under the impression that it would be con- tinuing to present the quiet rhythms for which the place had become known. But what the operators didn't know, and apparently were never told, was that Gordon's band had'changed from its exclusively sweet Tick Tock Rhythm' to a hot band style. Night Gordon opened, the Cabin's management almost became hospital cases when It found that what had been bought as a sweet band was Actually a swing band. It wanted Gordon's run to end the night he opened, but in less than a week changed its mind with improved business. Now the spot -apparently Intends remaining In the jive groove be- cause the bands that have been mentioned as possible successors to Gordon are all swing outfits. ™"""NBCs'Excliisive'RuIeEasesItFroin Sundry Spot!:; CBS, MBS Don't Care B. A. Talks of GeUing U. S. Band After Bio de Janeiro Buenos Aires, May 27. Completion of plans to have Eddy. Duchin and his band fly to Rio de Janeiro for an eight-week date at the Casino Copacabana has started talk here about possibility of bring- ing unit to Buenos Aires afterward. Prior unwillingness of U. S. name bands to fly (the B. A.-Rio air trip takes eight hours; the boat journey five days) has previously kept show- men, here from .even' considering possibility. However, with Duchin in Rio and a major part of the ex- penses already paid, they feel it may be possible to bring him here for a short stay. Duchin's dansapation is well known on short wave and discs. illiams CoDege Music Tastes Hot-Same as Rest of Country Williamstown, Mass., May 20. Definite difference between na- tional and coUeglate musical pref- erences is seen by Bob Hinman, mu- ■ic 'expert' of WMS here, Williams College's intra-campus radio 'net- work.* Hinman, a sophomore, runs the Williamstown Hit Parade, cam- pus counterpart of the Lucky Strike show. ^ 'In making a careful check week- ly of record sales, jukebox plugs and personal requests in order to pick the most popular tunes,' Hin- man declared, 'I find considerable variation in campus popularity of songs from that in the nation as a whole. The ballads that sweep the na- tion rate only fair at Williams, while the strictly pop tunes, such as 'Prac- tice Makes Perfect' and The Wise Old Owl,' make no headway at all on our local preference list. Rhythm songs, such as 'Oh Look at Me Now,' lire the type that at- tain great popularity on the campus. 1 have also noticed that hit songs reach popularity quicker locally than they do nationally. A success- ful hit takes only three weeks from the time it was first recorded to make our hit parade. In the case of LUcky Strike's 'Hit Parade,' the same song will take three to four weeks, longer to make its -first ap- pearance. Once on our 'Parade,' a hit usually lasts eight to 10 weeks. On the national survey It will last 10 to 15 weeks, and with such tunes as 'Perfldia' and 'There I Go' even longer. These two factors tend to put Lucky's show some five to six weeks behind ours. Also, we have the advantage of being able to play ASCAP music' Despite lack of plugs (until the Mutual breakaway) of ASCAP tunes on big national shows, Hinman pointed out, a number of the So- ciety's songs have achieved and held popularity on the WMS 'Pa- rade.' 'Dolores' lasted 10 weeks and, more recently, 'I Undirstend' cele- brated its second consecutive week In first place and lis seventh on the show. Other ASCAP tunes which managed to break through this sea- son were 'Memory of a Rose,' 'Be- witched' and 'It's Always You.' ^/'Another thing I've .noticed, in con- ducting my local "song suiwey,' Hin- man said, 'are the great possibilities of 'plugging* a tune to popularity. I have an arrangement with the local jukebox operator whereby he places any tune I want in his ma- chines and at the end of the week gives me the number of times each song has been played. 'I was particularly interested in an experiment of taking 'Lullaby I<ane,* which I predicted on Feb. 3- would ri^e to the top, and placing It in all jukeboxes, locating it in 'record players of various social grdups and doing a little vocalizing .OQL It myself. In this way I man- aged to get it Into 'Hit Parade' brackets for eight weeks. More re- cently I've experimentally exploited The Things I Love,' which last week jumped to No. 2 position.' TED STEELE MUSICAL BlOG ■Boy Meet* Band* Has ConUnnity About the Personnel NBC will begin a new program June 7 built around the life of Its | Ted Steele and the didoes of his mu- sicians. Titled 'Boy Meets Band,' the thing will be a weekly serial actually based on events in the lives of Steele and his men. It wiU be a half-hour show airing at 8 p.m. on the Red. Welboume Kelly i» writing the script Oldtime Dances Click Big In NW Jukeboxes . Coin machines In the Minnesota! region are so hungry for recorded versions of polkas and achottlsches, which they don't get enough of through regular record channels, that Harvey Goldstein, owner of a music shop in Minneapolis, was in New York recently to arrange to have pressings made from masters he will supply. Goldstein expects to record local Minnesota bands play- ing the various numbers most de- . manded In his territory, ship the masters east and distribute the re-' sultant pressings among Minnesota ' I machine operators. Says that about ' 5,000 copies of every tune cut can be disposed of, making the Idea workable from a financial standpoint inasmuch as cost of bands, arrange- ments, ete, won't be high with local, outfits doing the recording. Too, the bands wUI be ones known in that area. Reason for - the specially made records, according to Goldstein, Is that various standard record labels don't turn out sufficient quantities of the style of music the Northwest de- mands and the few cuttings that are occasionally distributed are not properly played. Says that when it; comes' to" p*)lkas,' etc, 'Minnesota| fanners would take any one of the ^ local outfits in preference to a name band. Which seems to stack up with' I the huge sale of 'Beer Barrel Polka' I of a couple years ago. Will Glahe's ! European band outsold any Ameri- can version of the number. 10,000 at Dinner-Dance Buffalo, May 27. WBEN's staff band of 14 Is being expanded to 25 under Bob Arm-; strong to take date at Curtiss air-| plane workers shindig June 7, billed as the 'nation's largest dinner dance.', Affair will alttract sojne 10,(100 perr: sons and will take ovier municipal, aud for the event ' Colombia Plant Sti%e On Coast Is Settled; Wage Demands Compronused Hollywood, May 27. The-seven-weeks-old strike at Co- lumbia Recording Corp. ended yes- terday (Mon.). Members of the United Electrical Radio Machine Workers of America returned, to their jobs when the company Inked a contract calling for 'a - minimum wage scale of 6Sc per hour. The salary increases will range from two to 15c per hour in the various classifications. Agreement provides for a five-day, 40-hour week. Time and a half will be paid for Saturday morning, double time for Saturday afternoon, and triple time for holidays. The workers will receive pay for six holidays, will draw five days injury pay (waiting time for workmen's compensation), and get one week's vacation. Union agrees not to call a strike unless the company violates Its con- tract New Improved grievance ma- chinery provides that either party can call for arbitration, with a de- cision guaranteed in nine days. The union is guaranteed 48 hours notice before dismissal of any employee. The principle of plant-wide senior- ity is maintained, with a modifica- tion appljdng to certain classifica- tions of skilled workers enabling the company to move them from one department to another.* The union negotiations were han- dled by William B. Elconin, inter- national representative of Congress of Industrial Organization, and a committee composed of Robert Ken- nedy, Mat Vidaver, Robert Green, William Pope, Ray Wllleford. At- torney Homer I. Mitchell and Gen- eral Manager Paul Crowley acted' for the company. The settlement was arranged through Edward Fitz- gerald, U.S. labor conciliator. Cocoanut-Shaped Even network microphones at Monte Proser's Dance Carnival in Madison Square Garden, New York, will conform with the tropical atmosphere. When the spot opens Friday (30) bands of Benny Goodman, Larry Clinton and Charlie Barnet will play into mikes built in the form oC cocoa- nuts. They were designed by WOR engineers. Mutual will devote three hours of remote time to bands at the Garden the first two nights (30- 31). Three bands will each get a half hour of time both eve- 'nings. In addition WOR's special events man Dave DriscoU is to do a special quarter hour inter- view with workmen readying the place for opening. It airs to- night (Wednesday) at 11:16 p.m. Plead 10% Tax Not Be Levied On Instruments National Music Council, which Is composed of many organizations of cultural and' commercial Interest In the field of music, has petitioned President Roosevelt Secretary of the Treasury Heiuy Morgenthau, Jr.," and Congress not to include a 10% tax on musical instruments as has been j proposed for new tax legislation by the treasury department The petition argues that not only is. music a 'most important factor in the preserving of morale in national defense but that musical Instruments now form one of the most Important tools in the public school system and higher htstltutions of learnings and should not be subject to tax any more than books, maps, laboratory equip- ment and other essentials to educa- tion.' NBC's rule that it must have an exclusive on any spot from which It picks up dance band remotes can- celled a scheduled series of pickups from the Astor hotel, New York, last week and is to erase a wire it now has at Glen Island Casino, New Ro- chelle, N. Y. NBC's Blue was set to pick up Tommy Dorsey's band from the Astor Roof, and after installing the line^ and having everything In readiness the night before Dorsey opened, the line was cancelled be- cause arrangements had also been made with WOR-Mutual for pickupsi NBC's Red net now goes into Glen Island to Charlie Spivak's band, but after Sunday (1) it will be replaced by Mutual and CBS. There is no confiictlon between the latter two nets in coverage, but there is be- tween Mutual and the NBC-Blue. Some of the independent stations around the ' country are affiliated with both Mutual and the Blue, one reasop why NBC objects to sharing an origination point with MBS. Lat- ter and NBC had the same sort of argument last fall "at Meadowbrook, Cedar Grove, N. J., at which time NBC. was dropped and CBS substi- tuted. One of the reasons why most spots prefer MBS to NBC Is that few NBC remotes originating in New York get beyond the midwest because of re- broadcasts out of Ne.w York. Im- portant NBC commercials go to tho west coast at about the time bands in the east are getting air time. Mutual Is devoting, more and mora time to picking up remote band broadcasts, and Is even going as far as to spilt Its time Into IS-mlnuto segments Instead of the usual half hour, as a means of giving mora bands opportunity to get on the air. In addition, many of the bands picked up get double coverage via WOR's frequency modulation outlet W71NY. Mutual claims that tha fact It can carry A5CAP musls has nothing to do with, the Increasing number of remote band broadcasts It carries, explaining that many of them had reservations for time long before the settlement' Manie Sachs to Coast Manie Sachs, head of Columbia Records' New York office, leaves for CViast about June 1 . He'U be on a talent liiinTior bands and singers. Junket wlU be for several weeks. City-Run Beach Opens Season With T. Dorsey I. Bridgeport, May 27. Pleasure Beach, city-run amuse- ment _park, tees off dance season Sunday (1) with Tommy Dorsey and has MCA attractions eet through July 6. Dorsey, coming put of Hotel Astor, N. Y., for one-nighter, will be sold at $1.10 per. Coming up after opener are Mc- Farland Twins (8), Bob Chester (15), Tommy Tucker (22), Frankle Masters (20) and Sammy Kaye, July 6. Rltz Ballroom, Bridgeport fall and winter m'ecca, is ready to button up after successful season. Kra- kowska orchestra of WTIC, Hart- ford, pWys Sunday (1). Band Tmanciers That Put Up No Cash Petrillo Proposal Starts Some Talk About Owners Who Trade Long' Dates for Part of Band Seven Dates From Park Board for Jack Sonders Seattle, May 27. Jackie Souders and bis band has been awarded a $2,500 contract by the Seattle Park Board for seven concerta In 'Volunteer Park, one in Seward, one In Lincoln and one In Woodland Park during the summer season/ First popular orchestra to ba awarded such a contract. Geneva New AJ.M. Local Band bookers, managers and lead- ers are not in accord in their re- actions-to the iepott.ihat.James.C- Petrillo, head of the American Fed- eration of Musicians, expects to In- troduce legislation at the forthcom- ing AFM convention that will curb the activities of band financiers. Most, however, are for it figuring that any rule to that effect will be good for" the business in that it will tend to keep certain elements in line. Dissenters, of bourse, ^re most- ly thpse whom the rule will be aimed at. Most bandtnen say, however, that such a rule will not be completely effective if it Isn't designed to en- compass in some manner the in- vestor who doesn't Actually put up cash, but takes a financial. Interest in a band In another w6y. They re- fer to owners of advantageously placed roadhouses, ballrooms, some Rochester, N. Y., May 27. Leonard Campbell, traveling, sec- retary of the American Federation of Musicians and president of tha Rochester local, has organized a new local in Geneva. Officers are: Presi- dent James Lynch; v.p., Jan Perry; secretary, Frank Fennell; treasurer, George Schenck; sergeant-at-arms, Frank Farr; executive board, CSiarlea Gibson, L. B, McQuillen, Georga Taylor, Arthur Dwyer and Philip Spillane, Fennell is acting business agent The new charter covers an area within a radius of 10 miles Includ- ing Waterloo, Seneca Falls and Phelps. of whom are not averse to accepting an Interest In a band merely for granting a long stay at their spot with • the- all-importent-network- wire counted on to boost the popularity pf the property. It's pretty much of an open secret that some places within and on the fringes of New York operate in that manner. Trjue, they give an up, and comlh'g b'knd an opportunity to make something of itseli, at the same time gambling with their regular clientele. But that's the only chance they take and if the band clicks they stand to collect heavily for investing nothing but working time which would have had to been filled anyway. AFM and its locals frown upon such prac- . tices as 'unfair competition' and .also have another .-regulation, which-..is - supposed to ,X6tJ}id. .a' .spb^j bwi^ .from -par^pipatlhg in,'an orcl^estra. Nobody is supposed, to. bfive. .a Snj^ei In both ends. Nagel at Hotel Utah Salt Lake City, May 21. - -St^rllte-Gardens of- the-Hotel Utah- opened May 24 for the summer sea- son, Freddie Nagel and his orchestra have been engaged for .an indefinite run, with Mary t,ane, vocalist Policy of dinner dances Monday through Saturday, Semi classical concert Sundays as usual. . Mike IiOiing Incorporatei AlbanyMay 27. Michael Lorlng's Band,; Inc, has been chartered to conduct an enter- tainment business with principal of- fices in New York. Capital stock is ';2,0Q shares, 100 preferred at $10 per ^t^re and 100 shares of; common 5)6 par v^ue. ' Arthur J. Stepping, of New York. I was the filing attorney.' |