Variety (May 1946)

Wednesday, May 1. 1946 ORCHESTRAS-MUSIC SI Bands at Hotel B.O.'s . . H nlii Hand Hotel Flared JohnnyPineapple'LexIngton (300; 75c-$lJ0) 13 Jerry Wald" New Yorker (400; |1-$1J0).. 4 Tony Pastor Pennsylvania (500; |1-$1.50) 2 Leo Reisman*.... Waldorf (550; $2) 12 Erskine Hawkins. .Lincoln (275; $1-$1.50) 10 Nat Brandwynn*. Roosevelt (400; $1-$1.50). e Ray McKinley... Commodore (400; $1-$1.50).......... 9 Put . Week 1.750 2,075 2,275 3,250 1,100 2,050 2,100 fatal Cotck Oo Date 31,800 8,950 3,775 39,075 10,325 12,800 19,900 • Asterisk* indicate a supporting floor ihoio. New Yorker has tee shout. 'Xexiiiffton, an Hawaiian floor show; Waldorf,' Joan Edwards, John Sebastian. Chicago Sherman Hayes (Walnut Room, Bismarck hotel; 485; $1.50-$2.50 min.). Crawling back up to standard 3,000. Woody Herman (Panther Room f Sherman hotel; 950; $1.50-$2.50 min.). Herman and Think-a-Drink Hoffman opened Friday (26), splitting big 6^400 with Frankie Carle, who closed. Stephen Klsley (Marine Room, Edgewater Beach hotel; 900; $3-$3.50 min.). Kisley, 3 Swifts, Martolls & Mignon got okay 5,500. Frankie Masters (Boulevard Room, Stevens hotel; 650; $3-$3.50 min.). Pretty good 5,500. Griff Williams (Empire Room, Palmer House; 590; $3-$3.50 min.). Okay 5,000. Los Angeles Freddy Martin (Ambassador; 900; $1-$1.50). Figures are returning nifty normal of 3.500 covers. Jlmmle Grler (Biltmore; 900; $1-$1.50). Also getting back to pre-war scores at 3,500 labs. Location Jobs, Not in Hotels (Chicago) I.es Brown (Rainbo; $1-$1.25). Brown came in Tuesday (23), splitting fine 8.000 with Teddy Phillips, who closed. Gay Clarldpe (Chez Parce; 650: $3-$3.50 min.).-Claridge, Ben Blue, Cap- pcila & Patricia, et al, got fine 5,500. Chuck Foster (Blackhawk; 500; $2-$2.50 min.).. Average 3,300. Eddy Howard (Aragon; 90c-$1.15). Howard doubled with George Olscn Sunday (21), with a mob of 7,400, and wound up the week solo with tcrrif 23.000. Henri Lisbon (Frolics; 700; $3-$3.50 min.). Gypsy Rose Lee, Lishoh lured 4,000—good. Baddy Shaw (Latin Quarter; 700; $3-$3.50 min.). Martha Raye, Lou Holt*, etc.. drew 4.500. Benny Strong (Trianon; 90c-$1.15). Strong shared the bandstand with Art Kasscl Sunday (21), with cnd-of-lhc-week figures totaling 19,000 for the mostly-Strong week. Gee-Gee Influence Jack Robbins takes great pride in the new International Business Machines now in the offices of The Big 3 (Robbins, Feist, Miller) which are rather amazing comptometers. These tell the music Arms, at a glance, at the end of each day, not only just how many copies were sold, but also automatically computes the royalties, etc. They're be- hemoth machines which. IBM, incidentally, never sells to any- body—just leases, Harry Link, g.m. of Feist, got a load of the machines and cracked to Robbins, "We're the only music business with our own pari-mutucls." (Los Annclcs) Buddy Rich (Palladium, B, Hollywood, 6th wk.). If lucky, finale stanza might dig 18.000. Benny Carter (Trianon, B, South Gate, 4th wk.). Took a climb for the better and garnered 5,400 admishos. Stan Myers (Slapsy Maxie's, N, Los Angeles, 3rd wk.). Never varies from solid 4,000 customers. Garwood Van (Ciro's, N, Hollywood, 3rd wk.). Advent of Joe E. Lewis has put house into heavy coin with 3,350 covers. * ■ Top Tunes for Ywir Books An All-Time Favorite I FEEL A SONG COMIUP ON Music by . .. JIMMY McHUCU Published by ROBBINS . For Your MOTHER'S DAY Program MY MOTHER'S ROSARY • I'll Hav* Tli* Last Walti With Matter HOME (When Sbadewi Ml) • Teiephow You r Mother MILLS MUSIC. Inc. l6lf ■roadway • New York 11 PAXT0N, FB AGENCY, MAY CALL IT QUITS George Paxton and Frederick Bros., which has handled the band rince its inception, may cap their differences within the next few days by parting. Paxton wants to get away from the agency and as of last week the latter was willing to peddle his contract. It wants $20,- 000 for the outfit, 10G in cash and the remainder weekly over a long period. So far no deal has been closed. Paxton has been battling with FB for months. His contract with the agency calls for certain guarantees, among"them one that makes it man- datory that his bookings reach a stipulated guarantee weekly. Ap- parently, this has not been done in recent weeks because the American Federation of Musicians stepped in at one point and forced FB to make up to Paxton in cash a sum lacking from recent bookings. Estate of more than $500,000 was indicated in Springfield, Mass:, with the filing of a bond by the executors of the estate of the late Robert Cooley, attorney for several music firms, among them Wurlitzer. New Colonna Unit Set for Summer Jerry Colonna will occupy the summer hiatus from the Bob Hope program this year by playing a se- ries of one-night dates in the, east, midwest and possibly Canada, be- ginning June 15. He'll work the standard ballrooms at the head of a unit comprising the new Billy But- terfleld orchestra, guitarist Tony Romano, Bonnie Lou Williams, for- mer vocalist with Tommy Dorsey's orchestra, and a dance act. William Morris agency, which will book the unit, is said to be asking $2,500 a night against .percentages. Colonna, a former trombonist, will exercise his horn along with, his comedy and singing, backed up by the remainder of the unit, which will do four-hour shows. Bill -Butterfleld's orchestra Is a new one, recently formed. Before going out with Colonna, it will play a series of break-in onc-nighters in New England, starting May 15. It has been signed for Capitol record- ings, . which also disks Colonna. Allen. Wylle is vocalist with the band. James Scramming Out of Music Makers, Wants to Forget Pub Biz Harry James is currently negoti- ating to rid himself of his Music Makers publishing company, and if the deal is completed probably will steer clear of such affiliations in the future. James is selling his firm, set 'up less, than a year ago, to E. H. (Buddy) Morris. Final papers, are now on the way west for his signa- ture. Financial details of the deal are undisclosed, so far, It's known only that the Music Makers catalog will be kept together by Morris, either under that name or another, as a separate entity, and James, as part of the deal, will continue to drop into whatever original songs he de- velops in the future. It will not, however, have a staff to work it. Dave Hyltone, who headed the com r pany from the Coast, is out. Charles Lang, who heads the firm in N. Y., ditto Morris also has another deal on Consolidated Edison Again Picks Up Tab For N.Y. Park Dates Consolidated Edison Co. of N. Y. will for the fifth straight year un- derwrite the cost of one-nighters by various name bands in city-parks in the N. Y. area. Dates will start June 27 at the Central Park, N. Y., band- stand, for which no orchestra has been signed as yet. Annual cost to Consolidated for the series of thrice-weekly dates runs in the neighborhood of $50,000. RR WASHOUT TRIPS KAYE COAST DATE Sammy Kaye's orchestra com- pletely muffed a scheduled one- nighter at the Pacific Square Ball- room, San Diego, last Friday night (26) due to a railroad delay. Head- ing Coastward. on the Santa Fe's Chief, a bridge washout near Needles, Cal., held up the train for almost nine hours, dropping Kaye's close time schedule for a complete loss. An effort was made by Pacific op- erators and Music Corp. of America execs to get a plane to Kaye to fly him the remaining miles . from Needles to San Diego. However, in the mountainous country no landing field close enough could be found. Kaye sat. A5HBK PE LA ZOOCH SAMMY KAYE, Victor MERRY MACS, Decca THE STARDUSTERS, Coronet TOMMY TUCKER, Columbia VINCENT LOPEZ, Mercury THE 4 BLUES, De luxe MANHATTAN MUSIC PUBLISHES, 1619 B'way, New York 19 Hollywood Rtp., MILT STEIN the fire. This is for the L. B. Curtis catalog. He has an option to buy the house which expires May 15. It's likely that the deal will be con- summated before then. When final purchase is made, the catalog will go into the Burke-Van Hcusen firm set up by Morris last year for the two songwriters. KAY CONNER TO BE COSMO FEMME ENTRY Cosmo Records has signed Kay Conner, legit singer, who'll go into the pop field for the first time, as its entry in the solo femme disk field. She'll stack up against Columbia's Dinah Shore, RCA-Victor's new Betty Rhodes, et al. Miss Conner is now in "Song of Norway" on Broadway. BM) % SHEET ♦ / Hit Tunes for May (On Records) A STORY BOOK ROMANCE Jimmy Htlt-Ql 101 • Oay Umbaraa-Dac. (mm «• ba ALL THE CATS JOIN IN IIM) (t*f**t) ■amy Ommmh-CoI. MK7 • Roy Bdradfa-OM. MM* ATLANTA, G. A. Sammy Kayo-Vk. 10-17*$ • Woody H»rm— C i l UMf Shop FMdi-Voav* 711 • Rod Capa-Oavk 1101 Andrew* Stolon—0*c IMtl BLUE CHAMPAGNE Jimmy OorMy-Doc. 3773 • Freddy Mill II. 111M FranMo Mciton-Okoh olTt IT KNOW ENOUGH ABOUT YOU (Compb*IVP«*fl«) Johnny Doimond-Vk. 10-1441 • r«tfy U«- C op. Do MM* Irolhora—Oot. 1MM LAUGHING ON THE OUTSIDE - Mtrry Mm-Oac. 1M11 • Toddy Wahtn-AIA 113 Mnoh Sh»»-Cal. 14*44 • tnodi Uofet-CMt. 117S Vlncont lap*!—M*rc«ry 1074 Sammy Kaya-Vk. 20-1454 • Andy RutuS-Mad Mpwt-Caa. Kl Jwty WaM-Saoora 3007 • Manfeo Uwm-Sra. (mm H h* ratMtW) MOON OVER BROOKLYN (Undoa) Qvy ImwnV-D*c 1140* SO IT GOES (Mark) Imlt Madrkjuara— Vms* (mm H ha ro U aiod). '^THERE'S GOOD BLUES TONIGHT ' (EmMay) Martha Tlhan-Cap. 144 • Tammy Darwy-Vk. M-1141 lathy MHUiidor-Doc. 1MM • Ln Ifown-Cal. J4T71 WHAT A DEAL IVonguord) MwrtM TIUm. Cop. 323 WITHOUT YOU (MB PAUItAS) (»•*>> Andy RuiMll-Cop. 134 • Drti Amoi-Vk. JO-01J4 Jaym Waltan-Mtrtury 3001 • Nara motaUt-Maj. SOM Jatk Carrall-Minlc Ait 710 Frontlo Carlo-Col. • Randy •rootfr-Dtc. (torn la b* r»wa«*4) fftafatiW *Vol^aUmb aW^taWtaT^akaalaadjk. at> flBakalai^B^^BMMakafl 'm^^^a^l^ 4*^^^*Oay ^Ftl*amn|PlVH^p^R oam^araWMU^ ^Pa^ iB armr*a*p|>