Variety (May 1946)

W*1n««lay, May 8, 1946 ORCHESTRAS-MUSIC 45 Few N.Y. Cafes Balk BMI License ^Jg^f^ s [Harry James At It Again, $66,000 Broadcast Music, Inc., which only ♦ a 'month ago set out on a- campaign lo license all cafes tot the use of the music it represents, has not been having a top-easy time corralling signatures, but on the other hand asserts there is stiff resistance in. only a few quarters'in the N. Y. area. When it set out to make all cafes pay for the use of its music. BMI didn't coneludeone contract'for the first.two weeks, but thereafter suc- ceeded in signing the 400 .Club, Roseland Ballroom, Arcadia Ball- room, l^oth Cafe Society'spots and a few others, all N. Y. •"'■ " in between, however, it has run into a stone wall at Nicky Blair's Carnival- and ■ the Havana-Madrid, Jailer a Latin spot, the type with which BMI didn't figure to have miich. trouble since it represents a large slice of Mexican music. In- fringement evidence is being gath- ered against '.cerl'aih of the clubs that, do not sign, it's claimed; which will help whip (hem into line. Bill MillerV Embassy Club. N. Y., was another'which-at first refused lo take out a BMI license. However, one is said to be in the process of ner guiiatiph since the debut there of Charles Trend. French singer, who uses BMI-affilialed material almost exclusively. BMI had no trouble with hotels that use music. They all came in Jn a body last year, when a deal was made with the American Hotel Assn.: Just about when rival record men 'and others concerned had given up I hope of ever seeing one' of the .new i Vogue Records put on sale, GimbclV.i ~— : — : " — "~ Donahue's New Band In N - Y ^f> L st0l « ^U'ted disposing , B r y an t Back to Old Love, N,Y. Preem at Roseland i °L ,h< ; m Mond ^. : s ^ ^:!■.-. Forms New 18-Pc. Band For 2 Weeks and Five Days Work Sam Donahue's new band gels its first shot at a N. Y. dale June 10 when it goes into the Roseland Ball- room, N. Y., for four weeks With op- tions. Follows Bobby Byrne's new band, which is Current, Donahue is at the. moment work- ing in the south. He headed the Navy's No. ;1 band during the war, succeeding Artie Shaw, who led the combo when it ehlly has an exclusive on sales of the label in N. Y. for the first week. As a result, , some $25,000 :or. there- abouts was spent in large ads' in virtually every N Y. paper over the Weekend. .Part .of the cost, it's as- sumed, was underwritten 'by 'Vogue. Vogue originally had promised production on its disk, a long-lasting , XpcV'lloT n""y.' .week of Mav composition pressed with pictures „ , Chicago, in July, et al." „, s( .,,.rier lh.- .urtaec. bei'lnnine- Bi)nd is y,e\ng handled . by Gale, was first formed. I 3 llsl - under the surface, beginning 'Jan. 1 last. As the' weeks came and | went, and none appeared on the mar-. ket. -and rumors' constantly circu- lated concerning production difficul- ties, a good many of the leaders un- I der contract to the company started ' Id give up hope of ever seeing pro- id ucl ion on masters, they had-made.. ' Vogue's first ads were almost coni- Musie business, . which last week plelely devoted to the album made Slump Feared Due To Labor Snarls Inc. started slowly to come out. of the slump.that has-gripped sales;during the past six weeks, ran full till into' another sales threat last week—the curtailment of freight movement and the possibility of a railroad strike: Publishers and jobbers are having considerable trouble : distributing copies of music for sale, and have already lost a substantial amount of revenue because of it. They rear that, if the rail employees' strike is for it by Phil Spitalny* AU-Glrl. ■'■Hour of Charm" orchestra. Item is tilled! '"Study in Blue;" Including ar- rangements of "Rhapsody in Blue." itwo sides) "Blue Skies'' and "Ali'-e Blue Gown.'' It sells for $2.89; Small portion, or (he ads -;waa given over [to single disks by- the bands of Shep i alu i ever sent here, Hollywood. May 7. •'Harry'.James, who adviss'd Music Corp. of America weeks back that he ..wouldn't'-'take less than $25,000 Weekly for location Work, is draw- ing coin not far off thai figure for dates at the Steel Pier, Atlantic. City,". Convention Hall, Asbury Park, and Totem Pole Ballroom, Auburndale,. Mass. For the three, bookings James is drawing a total of $66,000; the. dip from what he wanted per week rep-. resented ;by the Totem Pole run. Which is for five days only and en- I iail^ less dough. Dates aren't set. : Main reason the completion ot I James' bookings had been held up j was that MCA did not know whether Coca Cola was going lo'■ renew its broadcasts under the current ar- rangement. James does one or the soft drink shows every Friday and whether.he'was 10 continue would have great bearing on his dales." It's i understood, now that the shows have- been renewed, that the agency, is en- '.'Gypsy." the English song mar- deavoring to .have -James.. do . hla Willie Bryant, once a bandleader but for the past four or five years working as. . a straight, cttmic. has gone back to his first love. He has put together in N. Y. a combination ■of IB pieces which 'goes;-into', the Savoy Ballroom. N. Y.; May 18. and follows'' with : theatre dales, at the 30: Gypsy'Bounces keitd here by Leeds Music, - which weekly stint from the spots he:play*. bounced-in a few short weeks from I No one-niglHcrs have been ar- nowhere to No. 2 in the Best Selling ..ranged for the band as vet. For lists lasl week i its -leading this ' such dates James wants $4:000 against stanza.). , seems to ,be headed for j percentage nightly, Ihe same figure distinction as 'the biggest hit Eng- ] he asked and got last year. Song was be- ASCAP Slate called' later this month, sales will do"; cuttings of pop tunes already dead, a real brodie. ' They sell al $1.05 each. Jobbers find that shipments- of.; ..' ——— ■music by express are now , reaching consignees, two lo ihree days late due lo the restrictions on train serv- ice as a result of the coal si l ike. Delivery bottleneck is worse in the midwest, .which happens to be the : best territory for sheel sales. I Some publishers and jobbers , are . figuring on. or already have begun i-using, the U. S. mails to get copies , Fields. Frankie Masters. Art Moo- i„g .^edited by.'jobbers earlier this ney. Clyde McCoy. Art Kassel. and ;. we ek. asi having begun moving sheet others by Palsy Montana, and Lulu <a ] es upward out of the doldrums jn Belle and Scotly. Many of these are • Writers Favor which the music business has been sunk the past six weeks, i So far. including rack . orders, [•'Gypsy" has soid over. 450.000 copies ! iii.less than a-month. .That it prob- ' ably will turn out to be the holiest ■sales item the British nave marketed here-is partially due. of .course, to Arnstein-Porter Trial On in N. Y. Trial of Ira B. Arnstein's $1,000,-' 000 damage action against Cole Poller started yesteiiday' before the fact that many of lhe English hits Ju<|j , e j ohn ' C . Knox and Songwriters think ,the ideal roy- bf the past lose when the U. S..music business was mil' as. powerful. Pelcr;Maurice released "Gypsy" in England and handed it to Leeds here as a result of a reciprocal pub- When (he names of nominees for , IhiOugh. However, the drawback ally deal should parallel book sales |j sllm(! ' deal whereby Maurice the three positions on the Appeals'- with this method is,that (he regular., w h*re. as the gross sales .mount, the. Board reached the board of directors ■ mails are frequently two to Ihree : of Ihe. American Society - of Com- | days slower than the already ^slowed posers. Authors and Publishers last ! express channel. This opens a dan- week, the name ol Irving Caesar was 1 gerous gap between orders and de ' rale of royalty increases. citing up a Leeds in London, while Average Leeds is setting up a Peter Maurice book publication contracts, for in- stance, call for 10*4. of the retail nol among them. This Only further i livery. It cannot be solved by earlier p,-j ce on n le fu st 5.000 copies: 12''j deepened Ih e wonder of music men. ' order-placing., since most distributors who had known' Caesar had been '. order as they sell, preferring not to offered the post and had accepted— . stock up. as a. publisher—not as a writer.■.-.un- der'which designation he had'occu- pied a chair on the society's director up to 10.000 or 15.000 copies, and a 'straight 15'v for everything above board for years, What happened just before the names were placud before the board for the hitter's offleial okay, to re- move Caesar's name from the. list, nobody seems to., know. They simply know it .wasn't'there when the nominations were made. Caesar -was being put up to take the place cf Max Mayer.. Nominees.for the six posts.on the One angle that hurts most in the . that, slowing of delivery is that, in the j Similarly, instead of the present music, business, an order lost ..is - not j 3 C . flat' royalty, songwriters■'point. -In recoverable. Songs grow and die : -i deals such as Leeds Music has-made loo. fast currently! Aquarium, on Broadway, With Name Bands a la 400 Club Pays Off Big Reconversion of Aquarium. N. Y„ j recently, starting at'4c. a copy; a »c , 'royalty if selling 300.1100 sheets of music: and (ic for everything over j I 400.1100 copies. | ! Name composers.- of course, like I 1 Cole Porter get 6c straight; Irving | Berlin has been known to get 8c j • loyally'. appeals board are. for standard ■'' eatery lo name band policy, is pay- CD.A'e C|>h||lmajj| And m.hl^ht^ «lo.-i»,l Ma,-,. Hliiy- !»■> hii< fm- Ben Harriman. its Ul * Uvllllllliau /milU publishers, one elected. Marc Blitz stein,. Vittorio Giannrni. Douglas Moore. Harvey Enders, incumbent, isn't running again. For Pop pub- lishers; Iwo of whom get the nod: W. C. Handy. Sid Kornheiser. John Lisler; Charles O'Flynn. Kornheiser and Max Mayer are incumbents. Mayer nol running again. Pop . -writers., two - elected: Abel Baer. Peter DeRose. Lee David, Bud Green, Jesse Greer,■ Johnny Red-, mood. Baer and DeRose are in- ing off big for Ben Harriman. ils ; operator. Teeoff will) Lionel Hamp- . ion's orch some weeks ago haying ' proved a profitable experiment for the pop-priced bistro. Harriman will continue to lay it on the line for other lookout fits. Louis Arinslrong currently is to be followed by Gene Krupa band when latter-, winds cur- rent stint at 1 lie 400. N. V. , Harriman. who jumped live gun on competitive dining halls in the Broadway belt by booking lop- Ahlert to Coast To Discuss New Pact New contract being . formulated by the Songwriters Protective Assn jury in New York. Arnslein charges that his unpublished and published tunes were infringed upon by Por- ter, in writing such hit. songs' as, "Don't Fence Me In." "Night and Day." '"You'd"'Be So Nice To Come Home To," "My Heart Belongs To Daddy,"' and "Begin The Beguine." Arnslein, represented oy"! Louis Greenblall and Henry Zeltner, de- clared in his opening .statements that the mood of the music and the lyrics of Poller's "Don't Fence Me In." and other songs Were not in harmony. Through Arnslein and two music •experts. David Sapiro. pianist, and Aaron Fasl'o'vsky;- violinisl. . the at- torneys sought to-"show that Arn- stein's unpublished tune, "A Modern Messiah." was copied by. Porter in writing' "Don't Fence Me In." the To vac* -CIA Tan Out < -' x P f>,ls performing for the court 1<1AC», «pi V I<t|f VUI j ury Hut(e c h a rts of Arnstein's- Youngslown. May 7. songs were displayed for--the jury, 'District Appellate 'Court last week marked, with''the. alleged piracy i"26) upheld a common pleas court, committed by Poller jn writing his decision that a youngstowii city ordi- hit-'tyn.es. nance'charging a $10 annual fee on Although the complaint asks for juke boxes is illegal. In an opinion $1:000.000 damages, the attorneys by Judge Elmer T. Phillips, it was staled'that the jury will be asked declared the levy violates the city to decide only whether or not there' charier. was infringement. because the Court found the lax lo be-1in oc- money damages will involve more eupalional or business tax. which than the amount sued for in the firm here. Outstanding hits of the.past from England include, "fied Sails in the Sunset." "Isle of Capri.' 1 ".Nightin- gale Sang in* Berkeley Square." "South of the Border." "Harbor Lights."' "My Prayer." •■'Dinner' for One. Pleas*,. James.". "Did Your Mother Come From Ireland'.''' . Youngstown Continues To Wrestle Diskbox cannot be imposed w ithout a vole event Ihe action is won. through the to -ifpiue the 'current agreement ( > r ,h e people. City had appealed a use of the Porter nines in motion between writers and music publish- .similar ruling made lasl November pictures. ers won't be acted upon bv both by Judge David G. Jenkins. Arnslein s lunes allegedly copied tactions Tor a while yet. John Suit was brought by Robert P. Ed- by Porter are. "La Priere." and "A Schulman. attorney for' the SPA. wards. Leo J. Dixon. Harold Cope and Fred Ahlerl. leave for the Coast land. Mark A. Osborne. William Mc cumbenls. For standard publisher. m01)ev outfits, claims to be satisfied , Mondav 031 with a draft of Cleary, Abbas Thomas. one elected: John Sengstack. Herbert Colemah. Sengslack is incumbent. with the turnover derived there- rrom. ' By way of coping with the upped outlay for attractions, restau- rant has been renovated, kitchen .ml P. O. the new terms to discuss the propn- Julian, all juke , box operaho.-. II •ulion with the Coast writer faction was ruled the city must refund all of the organization. ' jiike box taxes already paid under the Pair will be lone two weeks at ordinance. OUTSIDERS IN DEAL OH' nll,vtd downstairs.' •capacily ut>(*A | e i^'''»nd'-wlwlever»ugWi<'"' the: A previous measure taxing both BUY INTO PUBLISHERS Mother Prayer." published. 'The Song or David,'-' "1 Love You Mad- ly." unpublished. Suit was originally dismissed by Federal Judge. Francis G. Caffi-y upon Porter's move for summary judgment, but upon appeal by Arn- slein the U. S. Circuit Court of-Ap- There is a dear currently in the from former 290 to 400. and sizable Co -* sl - p 4 . mM , r! 5 make will have to be machines aiid wall outlets had been - -penis reversed the decision, ruling *"' ' ' gone nve'r'a'gain in N. Y. In short, held illegal by Judge Krskine lhal the dismissal was -unwarranted. It. will be a couple : months before Maiden. Jr., on the. ground il was ' —-— - the long-awaited new 'writer con- ; . excessive. Revenue from ihe.- extension of the bar. Latter is lined Ihree-deep alriiost always. The glass-front, not 'unlike Harri- iriaking under which a combine of ' m an' s Metropole. up Ihe st reel, '"gives' tract is presented lo ihe publishers, licenses is -approximately W.S0O an- . tACK OF AIR TQ FOLD - ! N.Y. 400 FOR SUMMER coin held by people never before n, e avenue slrolleis Htiotlier''of the Current pact between the two nually, city records' slio'w. .connected- with'the''amusement. busi-'..-biggest'fr« i e shows on.5«>*'dwa-y- It's croups doesn't expire until Dec. 31 this year. ness in any way; may buy out hvo 8 s marl bally, thai' pays.off. • or possibly three of Ihe more Im- .Armstrong crew, comprising four portant music. publishers. N'egolia- rhyi'bm. live reed and nine brass tions have progressed- Jo the point .. i.incl'uding Salchmo's noodling on where the entire deal hinges oh the trumpet i. is >lriclly on Ihe loud side, willingness of one of the catalogs b V it its solid beat keeps the .floor- involved'to .'sell ' mil. In the past crowded at all times: Save when fhc'y . few days, there has been a. hitch in spot I heir Swing Concert each n .glil the latter. Which may knock all■■ at 'midnight, Prior to ennterjizing. preparations awry. .maestro and band provide solid How much' money is involved In dahsapalion. the-'transfer of' ■■ ownership of the m its earlier days Ihe Aiiiiar-ium three firms is undisclosed. But it .specialized oil comedy bauds.such as lj|inaiM • must be substantial' since each in ils 1 AT Ti ace and Mousfe Powell. It ' " like own way. is importanl in. the busi- j was then gelling ils major play, ness. J,-ck pemp.-ry's and Rogers Corner. Dining (he week, rumors' arose - from service men and women. When about the possible sale of one other j the Japs capitulaled. Harriman Tore- major llrm. C'liiumuia : Pictures was |.-aw that the well-heeled service-. said to be inleresled in the purchase j men. wilh furlough coin would soon of Sliapii'o-Betn.slcin. The idea was.be gone. So he switched band laughed oir by Louis Bernstein, head [ names to hold the biz. of the company. .' Edbu. ASCAP Adds Members, 13 Writers, 9 Pubs American Society of Composer.--. Authors and Publishers'added to. its writer and publisher membership, lasl week. Those '.admitted'-'inehide. among 'popular writers. Gerard Car- .liinmic. Dodil. Vinccnle Goinez. Jose Melis Gtiiu, Inez. James. Fu'd Livingslon'.-niek Maniiing'.'Paul ' Mares. Sidney Miller. Paul -Mills. Standard: David Diamond. Michel GusikolT. Fritz I.oehner-Beda. ■■Publishers taken in were: A-M Miimc. Charles. Music. Enterprise Music. Hudson Music. Lake Shore Pu'oli>hing. Novelty Music. Pic .Mu- <ic, Port.illa Music, Sloue Music S:<* Fee Levied Here .. Middletown. O., May 7. $:t0 annual 'license - on i-oin- ojiei aled phonographs . The 400 Club. N. Y.. will fold for the -unimer again-this year. Ina'oili- wi t'lleit here on July I. when' SIS;.for Ihe lasl six months of IU4will be due. License was'recently vnled by city' conunissioiv. '.which..' disclo-id- il planned an ordinance to rctmlalo limns: during which juke boxes inay be played. ,S" ly lo secure inslallalion of air-con- MERCURY SIGNS VALLEE Hollywood. May 7. Rudy Vallee last week was signed by Mercdry. Records to wax an al- ouin of "Americana" songs, four vides of 12-inch disks. Recording takes place M..y 1V-J2. under the d i r e c I i o n of Jimmy Hilliard. . '' . (Iilioiiinu equipment .forces.;the spot to shutter Julv 1 until September or lal.-r. Band Ibid will close the spot •haMi'l been booked. Benny Good- man follows the cum hi 'Gene. Krupa and closes Ji nc 12. . There's a pos- sibility Boyd Haebiun. who 'recently !gol loose from the-Wi'lljam Mortis ".''agency, w.ll 1)11 in Ihe ' final 'line weeks, bin no deal is made. There was talk -iround N. Y. la-t week Dial the 400 owners would look- for another .-ite during the ! slimmer shutdown, but thai seems , incorrect now-. Spot has GoodVuan "booked lo leliirn Oct. :tl. Tommy ■ Dorsey may precede him, howcvir.