Variety (Aug 1941)

Wednesday) Aagust 27, 1941 MUSIC 4S 15 Best Sheet Music SeDers (Week ending Aug. 23, 1941) You and I Willson Intermezzo Schuberth Maria Elena Southern' Things I Love Campbell Til Reveille' Melody Daddy Republic Yours Marks Do You Care? Campbell You Are My Sunshine Southern Blue Champagne Encore Green Eyes Southern Apple Blossom Time Broadway I Guess I'll Have to Dream the Rest Block ♦Kiss Boys Goodbye ('Kiss Boys Goodbye') Famous Until Tomorrow Republic *FU7niisical. CBS, NBC Getting Xareless' With ASCAP Tunes; Either Peace Sign Or Due to Name Singers Pressure Publlshers affiliated with the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers have during the past week expressed themselves as puzzled by the increasing inclu- sion of ASCAP numbers in commer- cial programs on NBC and Colum- bia. The pubs can't make out whether the networks* checking staffs have become careless, or whether the laxity is due to the ac- ceptance by these staffs of a near settlement with ASCAP and ajfeel- jng that under such circumstances ASCAP would not be Inclined to take any infringement action. The ASCAP pubs involved also wonder whether the clearance staffs of the two webs have assented to the requests for the use of ASCAP tunes from name vocalists on the ground that the publishers would overlook much unauthorized per- formances rather' than antagonize the singers. These" ^ubs have nei- ther called attention to the networks to what has been going on, nor in- dicated any intention to bring suit. They have in most instances merely advised ASCAP of the songs, pro- gram, network and date. Two vocalists that have of late been dipping Into the ASCAP rep- ertoire for their network programs are Bing Crosby and. Lanny Ross. Only last week Crosby (Kraft Cheese) did 'Wrap Your Troubles In Dreams' and Ross (Franco-Amer- ican Products), 'Casey Jones.' Both numbers are owned by Shapiro Bernstein & Co. PHONOGRAPH RECORD PRICE BOOST SEEN An idea of mounting costs for disk production is shellac having gone from 8c a pound to 24c, which some • believe will inevitably force 35c platters up to 50c a copy. Jack Kapp, Decca prez, however, states that, so far as his own com- pany is concerned, they foresaw that and stocked up, and undoubtedly the others must have done likewise; furthermore, Decca has been doing all right at the 35c price and he doesn't see any immediate need for retail record price upping. Juker Bankrupt Robert Grenner, general manager of the Robert Grenner Amus. Co., filed a voluntary petition of bank- ruptcy in N. Y. federal court Thurs- day (21), listing no assets and $4,473 In liabilities. Grenner earns $100 weekly. Among some of the creditors are Babe Kaufman Music Corp. and sundry jukebox outfits. 6-to-l Ratio ■ Hollywood, Aug. 26. KFAC, which took out an ASCAP license not so long ago, reported yesterday (Monday) that it received requests for 162 ASCAP tunes and 22 BMI num- bers during a four-day period. The requests were directed at seven recorded programs. Music Notes Jacques Press and Eddie Cherkose turned in 'I'm Gonna Swing My Way up to Heaven' to universal for 'Swing It, Soldier.' Smiley Burnetie cleffed 'Drifting Smoke' and 'Strings of My Lonesome Guitar' for Paramount's 'Stick to Your Guns.' Gnadalajara Trio sold its song, "El Relajo,' to Hal Roach for use in 'Fieste.' Balph Balnjrer and Leo Robin as- signed to write songs for 'Rise and Shine' and 'Coney Island.' Harry Tobias and Harry Baris sold 'Two Bravest Hombres,' to be sung in 'Fiesta' at Hal Roach studio. Raoul Krastaaar turned in the score for 'Down Mexico Way" at Republic. ' Don Woods sold his cowpoke ditty, 'Lonely Buckaroo,' to Gene Autry's Western Music Publishing Co. 'By-U By-O' is latest novelty crea- tion of the Hut Sut trio, Ted Mc- Michael, Leo Killian and Jack Owens. Latter is publishing. Harry Revel and Mort Greene are doing score for two RKO pictures, 'Call Out the Marines' and 'Dying to Live.' Phil Silvers and Dudley Chambers are preparing special songs for the premiere of 'Navy Blues.' Harry Peale and Allen Lair cleffed 'You've Gone' for publication by the Syndicate Music Publishers. Franz Waxman, who wrote the score for 'Suspicion' at RKO, fin- ished the job by conductiong a 50- piece orchestra. Bob Russell, lyric writer of "Maria Elena' and "Time Was,' has placed 'Rainbow Ridge,' new pop, - with Southern Music. Feist's Harry Link Thinks If s Up to ASCAP Writers New York. Editor, Vahicty: Isn't it remarkable that, with about 50 new non-ASCAP publish ers flooding the market with songs for the last eight months, how few numbers have stepped out for 'nat- ural hits' as compared with songs by ACAP writers previously? Now that there Is every indication that we will be back on the major networks by Sept. 1, the ASCAP publishers are getting back in ac tion. The hardest job our industry faces is making the dealers, leaders, singers and radio stations conscious of the vast amount of great material available to them. They will have to realize that the catalogs available after Sept. 1 are not material they are compelled to use, because there's nothing else to pick from, but there is open to them the best works of the past 25 years ' of America's greatest writers. They will find this material is not made up of pseudo hits, forced on them by the attitude of the networks to- ward the music industry, which was mainly instrumental in the networks reaching their present position; but is material the merit of which was decided by the public through their own free and voluntary acceptance or rejection of songs—and not be- cause they were forced for months to listen to 'synthetic hits.' Writers Stagnant In my opinion, during this period, most of our best writers became stagnant. Their attitude has been that it was futile to write material when there was no outlet to get it published or plugged. My idea of the quickest way to bring back the music business would be to flood the market with ASCAP songs. There are 1,300 writer-members in this organization. If the 700 or 800 popular writers would each produce two songs, and the 300 standard and production writers do likewise, within the next 30 days the Industry would have a couple of thousand songs being submitted to them. Out of this great number at least 30 or 40 would be hits. This would put the business well on its way to re- covery and return the source of good music to the ASCAP writers and publishers. This should make the dealer and music trade in gen- eral realize that their 'bread and butter' producer was still the ASCAPwriter. This amount of ASCAP material being exploited by firms with large and high-powered contact men staffs would eliminate the small, 'shoe- string' publisher who, during the last eight months, has taken advan- tage of our imfortunate and en- forced position. A lot of great songs on the market would stimulate the sale of sheet music and would go a long way in offsetting losses. Harry Link. ATiliateslHayHoIdUpNBC-ASCAP Deal T3 Oct 1 to Save on Fees: NAB Meets Today (Wed.) on Contract On Hot Seat The suspense is brutal now, for the music men, as they're awaiting the ASCAP go-signal. In many respects it's worse than the many-month enforced em- bargo on the radio, because they were keyed for a long drawn out fight. Now, as Sept. 1 looms—and then again looks to be stalled another week or so before 'peace' is ratified—they're chaf- ing at the bit, hungry to tee off. 3(1 Quarter Plum From ASCAP Will Be Around 650G If the present rate of collection continues through September, the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers will, it was disclosed last week, distribute at least $650,000 among its members for the third quarter of 1941. The roy- alty divvy for the like quarter of 1940 was $900,000. For the previous quarter of this year (April-June) it was $1,000,000. ASCAP's operating expenses, since the break with radio, have been reduced around $600,000 a year, and it is estimated that, while the So- ciety under its new contract with radio will collect less, the overhead savings will make it possible for the members to derive in 1942 al- most as much in royalties as they did during 1940. Thnmbs Up' Official Thumbs Up,' published by Santly- Joy-Select, has been made the offi- cial song for the British War Relief Fund in this country. Santly's tieup with the organization provides for the latter getting a share of the roy- alties. Number was co-written by Moe JafTe, Jack O'Brien and Bert Lee. Rodgers, O'Hara, Gilbert Murray, Kramer New ASCAP Board Members New ASCAP directors in the writer and publisher classifications sees Deems Taylor, Otto Harbach, Richard Rodgers and L. Wolfe Gilbert, among the songsmiths, elected to three-year terms; Oley Speaks, two years; and Geoffrey O'Hara for one year. Among the publishers, Walter Fischer, Jack Robbins, Jack Breg- man and Dick Murray are new three- year termers; Gustav Schirmer, two years; A. Walter Kramer for one year. The election balloting closed Mon- day (25) midnight and the totals disclosed yesterday (Tuesday). Gilbert is new to the board, this giving the Hollywood contingent its first directorial representation. Rodg- ers is also new, as is O'Hara. Of the two pop songsmiths and one stand- ard writer, one of the replacements is for Edgar Leslie, who resigned re- cently in pique at the manner in which ASCAP was conducting its radio negotiations. A. Walter Kramer succeeds to the late George Fischer (J. Fischer & Bro.) and Dick Murray (Paramount and Famous) replaces Will Von Til- zer (Broadway Music). The other pubs are reelections. There were two other pop pub- lisher candidates, Edwin H. Morris and Lester Santly, but these had, after the ballots went out, expressed a preference to stay out of the run- ning. Despite Santly's statement that he did not want to be a candi- date at this time, Louis Bernstein, of Shapiro, Bernstein & Co., sent letters to a group of publishers the week before urging that they give favor-' able consideration to Santly's candi- dacy. Ballot count showed a large vote for Morris from among the smaller pop pubs, while Santly re- ceived much consideration from the standard group. NBC will probably determine a date for the resumption of ASCAP music, on the network's facilities after the executive committee of the National Association of Broadcasters, at a special meeting today (Wednes- day), approves the licensing contract forms that have been completed be- tween the web and the Society. Even though NBC had indicated that it would be inclined to give the ASCAP repertoire the greenlight next week, the belief persists In both ASCAP and broadcasting quarters that the bitter-enders among the affiliated stations will seek to stretch the starting date to Oct. 1, so that they won't have to pay on ASCAP music prior to the final quarter of 1941. Intimations have been given by NBC that it would like to make the ASCAP catalogs available to its ad- vertisers by at least Sept. 15, but it also wants to make sure that an overwhelming majority of the affili- ated stations have actually com- mitted themselves on paper to re- ' imburse the web for their share of the network licensing fee. In other words, NBC doesn't want to find it- self at the end of a month or so holding the bag for the major share of the fees due ASCAP. NBC and ASCAP, as well as the executive committee of the Indepen- dent Radio Network Affiliates, are agreed on the substance of the con- tract and there are just a few legal phrases that have to be revised. Should the NAB's executive com- mittee ratify the agreement as It stands at today's meeting, it will then be up to ASCAP to print the forms and get them out to the sta- tions. The agreement witih NBC al- lows that network 90 days In which to get all its affiliates to comply with the terms. See NAB Campaign Approval of the contract forms by NAB's executive committee Is ex- pected, to be followed by a campaign on the association's part to sell Its membership on the idea of signing up with ASCAP and thereby bring the music war to an end. ASCAP's radio committee is scheduled to meet tomorrow (Thursday) to give the contract forms the final okay, but the matter of similar approval will not be put before the ASCAP board of directors until NBC, having received a satisfactory number of okays from its affiliates, states that it is ready to signature the contract. Hints have emanated from ASCAP quarters during the past week that the whole NBC deal can yet run Into a serious snag if the actually sig- naturing is delayed much longer. The ASCAP board is faced with a change of membership as the result of the recent elections, and, even though the present board okayed the terms of the NBC agreement, the new board of directors, when it takes office next month, can kick over the applecart. The votes that approved the NBC deal were far from overwhelming and ^he attitude of the new board members can be of such strength as to veto what has already happened and leave ASCAP no alternative but to go through with the anti-trust suits that it had under consideration when NBC made its counter-offer. Addy With SahtlyJoy Mickey Addy has joined the pro- fessional staff of Santly-Joy-Select in New York. He last was with the Warner Bros, publishing group. FIRST ON THE LIST I!! "I GUESS I'LL HAVE TO DREAM THE RESF . TOMMY DORSEY — VICTOR BOBBY BYRNE — DECCA MARTIN BLOCK PUBLISHING CO., NEW YORK GLENN MILLER — BLUEBIRD LANNY ROSS — VICTOR HARRY JAMtS — COLt/MB(A LE8 BROWN E OKEH Distributed by MDS, 799 Sewanth Ave., New York,^Nk Y.