Variety (May 1946)

50 OBCHESTBAS-MITSIC Wednesday, May 15, 1946 Capitol Records Shows Only $95,145 Net Despite $5,119,528 Gross Biz Band and music people who were hot after pieces of Capitol Records slock two weeks ago, have cooled off a bit during the past fortnight since getting a look at the "pros- pectus" gotten up by the Wall Street firms connected with the stock transaction. Many tradespeople are amazed at the figures in the panv phlct and are wondering what all the shooting was. about In the search for Capitol shares. To begin with, the prospectus re- veals that Capitol's net income for 1945 was $95,145, after all charges, from a gross business amounting to $5,110,528. Company's net before ■taxes came to $318,545, the Govern- ment's slice eating away $223,400. That hardly compares with the busi- ness done by Decca, for. example, which this week issued a first quar- ter statement,, after taxes,- citing a $511,050 net Income (see separate story;. Portion of the prospectus the band field can't reconcile with previous thoughts on Capitol's business, how- ever, is the 1945 salaries to artists. Top earner was Betty Hutton, J24.- 1(54; then came Jo Stafford with $21,349; Stan Kenton, with at least two hits, $21,094; Nat (King) Cole. $20,471: Pied Pipers, $20,165; Andy Russell, $14,471; Tex Ritter; $12,870. Company lists other disbursements, $72,892 to the American Federation of Musicians under, the lattcr's roy- - ally per disk sold; $65,542 to Capitol Songs (subsidiary in song royalties. The figures to artists are far below what the biz expected in view of all the hullabaloo Capitol was making and the progress the firm seemed to be achieving. Among the officers, salaries were high. 1945. George (Buddy) Do Slyva. chairman of the board, drew $50,000; Johnny Mercer, as artist, drew $49,575, plus an extra $20,000 as president and director of artists and repertoire; Glenn Wallichs, exec v.p. drew $49,000; Paul Weston, artist and musical director, was paid $17,125. Deal via which Capitol sold 30,- 000 shares of Treasury stock at $50 per and 400,000 shares of common at $1G. realized $3,193,900 for the company, of which $2,740,000 was poured into the final purchase of Scranton Record Co. and Scranton Distributing .Co., leaving $453,900 to play with in. further expansion. Scranton plant as of March 1 last, has an estimated annual capacity of 30,000,000 disks, to be upped to 40,- 000,000 later this year. That's Plenty of Nickels Dcs Moines, May 14. ■ A three-year prison term and $10,- 000 line for Federal income lax eva- sion doesn't relieve Fred C. Cave of liability for the taxes involved, amounting to $79,477 for the years 1941 -1944 inclusive. Cave. Des Moines slot machine operator, has signed an affidavit admitting his slot machine income to be approximately the. $190,320 the Government has charged. Cave paid $1,941 taxes in the-two years. He is now free on a $10,000 bond for a .30-day period , to permit, his attorney to prepare a possible appeal. Coast'Disk of Month* Firm Planned at $1.05 Per Recording of Hits Hollywood, May 14. "Record of the Month," disk pro- motion stunt.patterned on "Book of Month," has been organized here by Al Ortale, former insurance exec. He is now lining up. platter experts to act as judges and plans to release Vinylite platters, peeled off monthly at $12.60 a year to subscribers. First lie must clear stunt with recording companies. Ortale currently Is dickering with waxeries for use of their mother-plates, offering deal whereby "Month" will pay royalties to writ- ers, pubs and performers, plus slic- ing original diskers into cut of profits. Tune selections probably will be chosen by popularity charts, with experts then picking best recording of top tune. Ortale is making pitch to diskeries on basis that his . stunt essentially is a. sales' stimulant, in that "Month's" selection would be secret until released and therefore could not adversely affect normal sales. "Disk of Month" ideas' are not new, although the idea has not been used in California, Several firms have been set up In New York and midwest along similar lines. They all have had trouble getting pro- duction. Crosby s 28-30% Of Decca Output Hollywood, May- 14. Bing Crosby 'is now getting be- tween 28 and 30% - of all Decca Record production, perhaps the highest amount of pressing facilities ever devoted to an individual star by any disk, company. Remainder of Decca's output is split about even- ly between the company's long list of albums and. ils remaining pop artists. Crosby came in with the highest record royalty statement \ ever handed a recording artist, for -all of last year. He was paid, il's asserted here, nearly $450,000. PAN-AM ROYALTIES SHORT, SEZ GILBERT Hollywood, May 14. Vet songwriter L. Wolfe Gilbert last week bluntly challenged a fi- nancial statement tendered him by Pan-American Records. It included a royalty check of $212 for use of Gilbert's ditty, "Rather Do Without You, Baby" and was for the period ending March 31. Gilbert charged that Pan-Am deducted from pay- ment records returned to plattery by dealers throughout month of April. Franz Green, veepee- of Pan-Am. claimed statement is accurate and also flatly denied Gilbert's charge that waxery promised to publish "Rather" as a sheet-music item. Gil- bert's contention is that he accepted Pah-Am as a recorder of tune he wrote with Emory' Heym because he was given impression the diskery would "exploit it widely" via sheet copies. In view of fact song has not been .published, Pah-Am is of course pocketing one-cent per side royalty which normally would accrue to a pub. Gilbert asserts if he had known waxery would' not publish his tune he wOuld have done so himself through Magnetic Music Co., in which he is partnered with George Jessel and Ben Oakland.' Gilbert has both phoned and written Harry Fox, trustee of Music Publishers' Protective Assn. at his N.Y. office, asking aid in tussle with recorder. Gilbert has demanded also of Green a new statement, prepared by certified public accountant. ARA's Moppet Wax Hollywood, May 14i ARA pop-plaltcry over weekend pacted' Martha Blair Fox, who for- merly conducted kiddie programs over WLS, Chicago, to build up li- brary of albums arrowed at children. First fling at wee-folks' trade ARA ever has made Chi Diskbox Ops Seek To Lower License Fee Chicago, May 14. There were some conflicting opin- ions broached in a city Council sub- committee hearing Friday (10) on the annual take of diskboxes here. Meeting was called at the behest of the Chi' Coin Machine Operators' Assn. (mostly taverns), who com- plained through attorney Jake Arv.ey that the city's present license fee re- duces profits on .the 10,000 boxes in. town to about $5 a year on each box. Fee is $50, and they're asking that it be reduced to $20. City budget director Arthur Gi Lindell, however, said the profit, is much more than that, and that con- sideration has been made of this fact by- the council—to. the extent that .they expect to reinforce their 1946 budget with a $315,000 take from the biscuit flippers. . Council subcommittee conducting the hearing did a little hemming- and-hawing, however, postponing a decision on the request to a later date. .'..■'. Dorsey Pic Troubles Hollywood, May 14. Trfimmy and Jimmy Dorsey arc having a bit of trouble setting a definite date on the start of the film based on their- lives. Difficulty in obtaining studio space for the film- ing has set the rolling date back to July 5 again. Both Dorseys are said to have been a bit dissatisfied with the story built by Richard English around the careers from' boyhood up, but c'linges apparently have dissolved their attitudes. Decca Doubling Its '45 Earnings Decca Records' reports of greatly expanded production and sales for the first quarter of 1946, are borne out by the financial statement issued by the company last week. For the period ending March 31 last, Decca move than doubled its income for the same period of the previous year, when production difficulties, had all diskers tied down. Net profit, after setting aside of $460,523 for taxes, amounted to $511,050, a hefty jump over the $227,587 reported for the first quarter of 1945. Above profit turned up $1.32 per share earnings for 388,325 shares of capital stock outstanding, as against earnings of 58c. per share the previ- ous year. Decca now has six fac- tories in operation, one in Bridge- port, Conn., two in New York, one at Richmond. Ind., one in Holly- wood, and the last in Chicago, which has just gotten under way. Decca slock is now quoted, incidentally, .at 73'/<. Decca's two major rivais, Colum- bia and RCA-Victor, also jumped production considerably in the first quarter of this ' year. RCA and Decca are now running neck and neck in production, in round figures at about a 7,000,000 per month pace, with Columbia not far behind.' Both RCA and Columbia are subsidiaries of National Broadcasting and Colum- bia Broadcasting, respectively, which makes individual statement com- parisons impossible. GI TROUPE'S ALUMNI TEAMED IN SHOW BIZ . Associations formed by men in the services are'being carried over into civvie life in many cases as ex-G.I.'s from the Army's entertainment branch continue their teamwork started during the war. Good case is that of the Air Transport Com- mand flying soldier show, "Contact Caravan," which broke up last De- cember. ("Contact Caravan" was the only service show selected by Variety for the Radio Hall of Fame.) . One example of a GI combo work- ing together in mufti is the CBS show, "Matinee at Meadowbrook," which preemed last Saturday (11). Draper Lewis, writer; Al Blnnie, sound effects man, and Berni Gould, comedian, had the same jobs with the "Contact" show in the Army. Yvette, who appeared on the Meadowbrook opener, also trouped with the Army show during the war and was presented with a special award Saturday by ATC command- ing General Harold L. George, via his aide-de-camp, Major George Stinchfleld. former commanding of- ficer of "Contact Caravan." Frank Barrow, announcer, and Don Rulter, singer on the soldier show, have joined orch leader Sonny Dunham as manager and vo- calist respectively. Sonny Dunham, who made several guest shots with "Contact," may also take on Frank Hasselberg, the show's comedy trum- peter. Dwight Deere.Wiman, Broad- way producer who traveled with "Contact" in Europe, is discussing revue ideas with Joseph Leahy, ex- maestro and arranger for the soldier show, and also with Draper Lewis. Leahy, Al Greincr, ex-"Contact" orch. player, and Al Cechvala have formed "Vocal-Ork," a songplugging idea: In addition, the Leahy- Cechvala team, music arrangers for the Army show, continue to turn out arrangements for bands and vocal- ists including Dunham, Yvette, Bobby Sherwood, and Art "Mooney, all contacts of the soldier troupe. Outfit in some cases are even solving housing shortage by living together, one example being Harry Lewis, under contract to Warner's; John Springer, RKO publicity man; Greiner and Cechvala who are shar- ing an apartment In barracks man- ner. . RECOMMENDED RECORDS (For Jocks and Jukes) By BARRY GRAY (WOR-Mutual's AU-Night M.C.) Johnny Mercer (vocal with Paul Weston Orch) "Li'l Augie Is a Natu- ral Man"-"Any Place I Hang My Hat Is Home" (Capitol 254). Both from the ''St. Louis Woman" score by Mercer-Harold Arlen team. "Li'l Augic" is a yarn about a jockey. Its got a lot of bounce, excellent rhythm, and the< usual adept Mercer word- age. Will do fine in the diskbox race. "Any Place" strikes a melodic theme and thoughts of home. Sub- dued Mercer vocal is well-sold, and will, iii the long run, prove a more valuable commercial bet. Only com- plaint is occasional overbearing backgrounds. Rccoih mended; Bill McCune (vocal by the Star- dusters) "The Talk of the Town"- "Winter Interlude" (Coronet 8B). McCime's debut on wax. His group plays ordinary society music. V6- caled by the "Starduslcrs" "Talk" is an average disk. Certainly can't buck better competition on this tune. Technically poor is its recording, too. With the exception of one fiddle trick, the arrangement is pure stock. "Winter Interlude," backing, sounds like a McCune. idea of what Russ Morgan would play like, if he had McCime's men. Lovely tune. Easy wordage. but very average rendition. Not recommended. Marie Greene (vocal with orch) "September Song'V A Woman's Prerogative" (Signature test press- ing, utinumbcrcdi. Miss Greene es- tablishes herself as_ Signature's ace bet for top coin, in the femmc de- partment, with-this platter. Assigned Walter Huston's great offering, she racked up a top vocal job. Formerly an expert with the coloratura oc- taves. Miss Greene parades her ac- complishments expertly oh a song hard to sing. She falls just short of Huston's superb job. It'll sell. Sig- nature backed the soprano with a full group, and laid the strings on heavy. On the flipovcr Miss Greene goes rhythmic. Her versatility is convincing. "Prerogative," although not up to Pearl Bailey's, still; is han- dled competently. Will sell mildly. .Talking points: Marie Greene, a for- mer choir singer, studied for the opera, but a throat ailment forced her to forsake the high C's and triple-octave tries. Delta Rhythm Boys and Charlie Barnet Orchestra (vocal.chorus with orch) "Just A-Sittin' And A-Rock- 23541). This is a twin-sided riff. in"'-"No Pad To Be Had" (Decca "Just A-Sitlin' worked by the Delta Rhythm group is good—for a group (best side by June Christy). Barnet's band plays well. Excellent sax work. Too late for diskbox coin, however. Tune is well worked over by prior disks. "No Pad" develops into the lament of the "reefer" smoke. A buy for the lovers' of the "Harle- mania" type. Stix won't understand it, but they'll dance to it for rhythm alone. It's bouncey. Bay McKlnley (inst.) "Sand Storm" (reverse of "Land Of The Buffalo Nickel" reviewed in previous Issue) (Majestic 7184). McKlnley backed his commercial "Buffalo Nickel" side, with bars for ears attuned to "beat" alone. Musicianly, but weird. Lis- ' tens like a jazz symposium, or like something "he's always wanted ui do for he' felt the music world needed it." It isn't commercial. It isn't even understood, except by the very-much initiated. Still; proves his crew can play anything. Poll Brito (vocal with Walter Gross Orch) "Mama"-"If Somebody Ever Breaks My Heart It's Gonna Be You" (Musicraft 1506(i\ Brito talent is presented on an "M is for the ninny things you taught me..'." type tune on first side. Titled .'"Ma--, ma," it carries a definite Italian tempo and "feel." Sling well. Won't do big business, however. "If : Some- body" is rhythm side. Brito backed by the "Stardusters" (last seen on the fore going Bill. McCune work). It's a bad tune all 'round. Not good enough for Brito, too good for the group. Backing by Gross Is inade- quate. Lyrically weak. Not recom- mended. '! Skltch Henderson (vocal by Jcne Byron) "Cynthia's In Lovc"-"S\van Lake" (Capitol 255). "Cynthia" ,is played well by pianist Henderson. Then the band joins the fun, and it becomes ordinary. Co-written by Jack Owens of "Breakfast Club" ra- dio fame, "Cynthia" will, be n song hit it played properly. Jene Byron handles voice work not too well. Her pipes are too thin, and she obvi- ously is worried more about tempo than the meaning of the.lyric.. Only bright spot is Henderson's fine piano work.. Recommended for that. Flipped, the disk scques to, a mod- ern version of Tschaikovsky's "Swan Lake," showcasing Hender- son. Capitol Charters Air Transport to Horry 3,000 Bob Hope Albums Capitol Records on Sunday (12) received first air transport-load of records ever shipped cross-country, with arrival in Hollywood of 3,000 new. Bob Hope albums.: Plane was specially chartered to lug disks post-haste to . Coast, hot off Cap's presses at Scranton, Pa., plant. Waxery drew publicity on stunt by having Hope at airport to receive platters. Capitol went for the extra cost of shipping the 7,300 pounds Of disks in order to effect day-rate release of albums to dealers on both coasts. Normally, records pressed In • east ■ are' released along Pacific slope any- where from two weeks to two months later, . Peabody hotel, Memphis, opens its Plantation Roof for the summer Monday (20). George Olsen orches- tra is first booked. - 10 Best Sellers on Coin-Machines l- Gypsy (3) (Leeds).;;....,... ■..\{jSJftU"Z t jo& 2. Prisoner of Love (6) (Mayfair).. ....... {^fev.V.V.V.V.K 3. Laughing On the Outside (3) (BMI)..... Dinah Shore ..',.. .Columbia 4. All Through the Day (6) (Williamson):. {^fe^-ColSl 5. Oh What It Seemed to Be (14) (Santly-J) { ^^.V;; ££52 6. I'm a Big GirlNow (3) (World)........, Sammy Kaye ........Victor 7. Sioux City Sue (Morris) 6. Shoo-Fly Pie (8) (Criterion) \*&™& y.^ygg* 9. Day By Day (11) (Barton).............. {^^^.C^ 10. You Won't Be Satisfied (11) (Mutual).. . {^Como \\\ .V.^vK? Coming Up I Don't Know Enough About You (CP).... '{J^^ll'/.y^SSS Don't Be a Baby, Baby (Triangle).......... {^^•^:;;;;.» S«ms Like Old Times (Feist)../.... A ..... { v ^to^o c ;".V, S In Love In Vain (T. B-Harms) Margaret Whiting ..Capitol Bumble Boogie (Martin) Freddy Martin .......Victor Atlanta. Ga. (Stevens) [? ammy Ka j e . « c *°f ( Andrews Sisters. Decca Hey Ba-Ba-Re-Bop (Leeds) Lionel Hampton.Decca Cement Mixer (Mills) Slim Gaillard ....... Cadet