Variety (May 1946)

Wednesday, May 15, 1946 ORCHESTRAS-MUSIC 51 BANDS BOOM SAME OLD TUNE Band Musk Biz Get Preview Of What Protracted Coal Strike Means Coal strike, which last week* seemed well on its way toward crip- pling the entire country until brought up short by a temporary truce, had almost all phases of the band and music business in a wor- ried sweat. As the lack of power for . transportation and lighting be- came more acute Wednesday, Thurs- day and Friday (8-10), the shipment of sheet niusic, and records In cer- tain Instances, was quickly being throttled. Band buyers, particularly of one-nightcrs, began cancelling dates. Some locations were forced to shut down, by state edict. With freight restrictions still in effect, music publishers and jobbers still find It difficult to ship music. Much of It has been going by parcel post, with limitations of 11. pounds per package on weight/Which means breaking orders up into numerous bundles light enough to get by. Some music was being shipped by air ex- press, but most publishers found this loo expensive for only the most urgent orders. Most recordings, at least those on short hauls from factories in N. Y. and Chicago to local distributors, travel by truck, which was not in- terfered with. However, record plants were uneasily watching coal piles, which produce the steam to produce disks; also incoming raw materials were being cut off. No plants have been seriously affected, however. As for band bookings and move- ments, all agencies were notified last Friday (10) that busses for charter were no longer available, that they were to substitute for cancelled trains. As for. cancella- tions, every office from Music Corp. of America on down got Its share from promoters directly cut off from operation by state emergency regu- lations (Virginia closed all amuse- ment places, for example) or those fearing that they d be caught in the middle of impossible trans- portation conditions, no lighting, etc., if they allowed dates two-weeks hence to stand. During the week, the American Federation of Musicians ruled that no redress could be expected from band buyers cancelling dates due to the situation. Conditions were deemed beyond the control of pro- moters. Georgie Auld In FB ReleaseDeal Georgie Auld, fully recovered from the lung ailment that put him out of action several months ago, has arranged a settlement with Frederick ' Bros, agency via which he will be released from a long- term contract. But, after comple- tion of the agreement, he will stay with the agency under a short-term agreement carrying a four-week cancellation clause. This is to take advantage of certain work FB has already obtained to start him off anew as a bandleader. Auld's agreement with FB, loos- ening the agency's long-term grip on the band, calls for him to pay $3,500 this week in lump, form to- ward the $13,900 he owes the book- ers. In . addition, he is to pay $200 weekly over a 65-week period, or another $10,400. The 65-week pe- riod is to allow him a 13-week hiatus from payments in the event a location job is secured for the band. Auld will soon begin reconstruc- tion of the band he broke up when doctors ordered him to rest, in Ari- zona. He has been given a clean bill of health. Perhaps his first work with the new band will be more Muslcraft recordings. He completed a. date for the disk company last week with a picked band. Ersklne Butterfleld, Negro song- w-riter-musician, discharged from the Army last week, plays first date with small combo at : the Three Acre Lounge, Lindhurst, N. J., May '20. Berlin's ASCAP Boost Gets Tacit Board Okay The 4,750 availability ' points awarded Irving Berlin's new Irving Berlin, Inc.; catalog two weeks ago by the board of appeals of the American Society of Composers, Au- thors arid . Publishers, will not be disturbed by ASCAP executives. Berlin's boost to 4,750 from 4,000 points (he wanted 5,500) was tacitly approved last week by the society's board of directors. It was discussed in meeting, but no objections were raised, as Variety predicted. In such cases, the moves by the appeals board do not necessarily de- mand approval by the director board, but the publisher faction of the latter, which operates as the Publisher's Classification Commit- tee, could have rejected the Berlin boost. Par Whipping Up Title Tunes For Picture Plugs Hollywood, May 14. Paramount is prepping sock pub- licity idea, using disk jockeys, which may cue similar stunts by other studios. Film company has had Jay Livingston and Ray Evans write a to-order sOng tagged "To Each His Own," after title of recently, re- leased Olivia De Havilland starrer. Ditty will be published by Para- mount Music, Par subsid. Other pub subsid, Famous Music, is bringing out "Searching Wind," also' new pic title. Eddie Heyman wrote lyrics for .this one to Victor Young's music, which wfes lifted from Young's screen score and twisted into pop vein. Studio has made records of each, Young and ' his orch rendering "Wind" and Robert Emmett Dolan and crew waxing "Own." Bob Gra- ham, who is under disk contract to jewel Records, warbles both for the. studio to whom he is under pact for thesping. Shortly disks will be sent to 800 platter-spinners on as many radio stations across nation. Effort is pri- marily to plug pic, though if either song looks like solid hit material, the respective pub company behind It may campaign to put it over on own merits. -» NO ROOM FOR SPIVAK INTO PENN, N.Y., IN OCT. FOR 8 WEEKS Charlie. Spivak's orchestra, which has played the William Morris- booked Commodore hotel, N. Y., the last two or three tlmea he played the town, Is down for the Pennsyl- vania hotel, N. Y., his next trip. Spivak has been seeking to jet back into the Penn for some time. He drew a choice period, too, opening Oct. 15 for eight weeks. Penn apparently has been unable to secure the materials needed to refurbish its Cafe Rouge. As a re- sult it probably will not close dur- ing August,-as originally planned. Stan Kenton precedes Spivak, open- ing Sept. 2 to Oct. 13. Elliot Law- rence's new band is due July 1 for five weeks with an option covering the planned refurbishing period. George Paxton follows the current Tony Pastor next Monday (20). Hersholt's Moppet Albums Film actor Jean Hershplt has been signed by DeLuxe Records, one of the newer independent firms, to cut a series of children's albums. They will be marketed under the .title, Jean Hersholt's Favorite Fairytales. First cuttings are to be made in Hollywood next month. By BERNIE WOODS In spite of the generally good out- look for the band business, garnered from the: reopening this year of vir- tually all the standard summer and year-round bookings, there is no room for new bands. This fact is ironical In view of agency execu- tives' wartime thoughts, which fore- saw a postwar' boom aided and abetted by new names and styles. They figured, the public was tired of the same old faces and arrangements. Now the talk has turned. Unless a new leader has some special appeal or reason for building a band, agen- cies are discouraging such ventures. They have been swamped by a re- turn to the business of all the maes- troes who broke.up their bands to ■go into service. If it wasn't for the opening this summer of so many bookings closed during the war the agencies would have been in a bad situation trying to find ■ work for their properties. As it is, they are already worrying about what's going to be done, with some of them when fall brings the fold of the dozens of summer operations. What makes the job of keeping new or even minor established bands together so difficult is the fact that operational costs, though they have subsided somewhat from wartime levels, are still unreasonably high in tod many cases. It means 1 that, whereas pre-war a young band could remain alive on four days' work a week, the 1946 combo in virtually all cases must be booked almost con- secutively to keep it breathing. And it's almost impossible to service all bands so well. Look to Wax Top agency men look to the steadily increasing production fig- ures of various major and better in- die recording companies to help the band situation. They feel that the band business must develop a new top name to stimulate new interest in the public. The only way this can be done, it has been proven, is by a record or a series of records. Since the beginning of the war, all disk makers have shied away from new talent because of production limitations, preferring to stick with established names. This throttled the development of new talent. With production opening up, record com- panies will soon be in a position to devote time and production to new artists, out of which a new top name must come ultimately. That the development of this new name must await the attention of one of the major recorders is con- ceded.. With all the hundred-odd in- die companies that have been set up during the past few years, not one new lasting band or vocal name has been developed. That's due to the short production capacities of the smaller flrmSj which cannot flood the country_with pressings of a hit. Plus the 'fact that a large majority of the indies hired as many castoffs of the major companies as they possibly could. Few took a chance with out- right new names. Tommy Dorsey Fans Riot At Winnipeg Drill Hall Now Ban Is on Vs. Bands Winnipeg, May 14. Tommy Dorsey's orchestra, by the simple expedient of drawing too many potential customers, caused a ban to be imposed against further use of an RCAF drill hall near here as a ballroom. With a capacity of only 4,200 the building was jampacked inside and out with over 7,000 peo- ple. When advance ticket-holders couldn't get into the building, a young riot started involving mili- tary police, dancers, etc. ' Those who did gel into the hall found dancing an impossiblity, even breathing a hazard. As a result, RCAF fire marshalls went after Gordon Simon, Who promoted the date, for selling too many tickets and the ban against future use of the hall for name band dates put Radio Burlesque of Together And 'Sonny Boy May Cause Dreyfus to Sue Stravinsky, Leeds In Court Over Tirebird' • Los Angeles, May 14. Igor Stravinsky Has filed suit in Superior Court here asking declatory relief from .Leeds Music. Action stems from plaint that music pub re- fused him out of $1,700 returns from his revised composition, "Firebird Ballet Suite," which Leeds published. Firm contends Stravinsky's share of $850 was part of the usual $2,000 advance binding all such deals; that Stravinsky's composition is an ar- rangement of public domain musk. Contract called for 50-50 split on royalties, according to composer who further contends, according to at- torney Aaron Shapiro, Stravinsky never accepts advances. "It was a down payment, in addition to which royalties accrue to him," states law- yer. Leeds counters that $2,000 was standard advance, a procedure always followed and which sums are applicable to totals as advance. When bonuses are given writers they are distinctly labelled, as such. "Firebird" was cleffed in 1910 and deal between Stravinsky and pub was consummated last June. Leeds must formally reply to suit (Tues.). today BHD Probably Buying Marks For $1,000,000 Broadcast Music, Inc., will prob- ably take up its option for $1,000,000 and buy the Edward B. Marks Music Corp. There have been discussions along these lines. for some months, and the deal may be consummated this summer. v When the BMI-ASCAP fight first started the Marks firm made a $200,- 000-per-annum licensing arrange- ment for five years with Broadcast Music. BMI exercized a second five- year pact at the same $50,000-por- quarter payment, including option for outright buy for a million. . Company which, after all these years has achieved its first hit only now, a tune called "Laughing on the Outside, Crying, on the Inside," with some 400,000 copies sold, figures it will have a good cushion in the Marks catalog through 100% ac- quisition. Hollywood, May 14. New York headquarters of the Dreyfus music publishing companies is said to be discussing with its at- torneys the advisibility. of legal ac- tion against the J. Walter Thomp- son advertising agency for the use of two valuable copyrights on the air in parody form. Ad agency had per- mission to use the two > tunes, "To- gether" and "Sonny Boy" as it saw fit, and at the same time it didn't, which is what the controversy is ail about. Thompson's N.Y. office had con- tacted the Dreyfus office in N.Y. a fortnight ago for permission to twist the lyrics or substitute others of the two above songs to fit a sit- uation on last week's (7) Bob Cros- by broadcast. Dreyfus refused to allow the songs to be done in any way other than' as originally writ- ten. It seems Thompson then con- tacted its Coast office which, in turn, got hold of the Dreyfus local branch. Fearing .that all Dreyfus songs might be kept off Thompson radio programs in the future if - refused, an hour before the broadcast per- mission was granted. The local rep was . unaware his N.Y. bosses nad refused. When the N.Y. office of Dreyfus heard the songs had been used in the manner originally rejected, it ex- ploded. It believes the two copy- rights too valuable as standards to be twisted to fit any radio situation and the idea here seems to be that Dreyfus has taken the attitude that if Thompson wants to bar' its songs from their programs, the "publishing firms can play that way, too. In the Dreyfus group Is the George Gersh- win Co., controlling much of that great writer's material, T.B. Harms. Crawford, Chappell, Williamson, and much of the music written by Jer- ome Kern, Cole Porter, Rodgers & Hammerstein, et al. At any rate, there is said to be le- gal action brewing over the entire affair. DICK POWERS EAST ON METRO-MUSIC CO-OP Dick Powers, Metro-Robbins- Feist-Miller's music coordinator on the Culver City lot, Is in New York for huddles with Charlie Moskowitz and Leopold Freidman. Purpose is to achieve a better studio-music pub coordination for which purpose he was given the assignment. Powers formerly was west coast rep for ASCAP. Metro studio is reportedly dissat- isfied v;ith the eastern plugging co- ordination of fllmusical excerpts. The . coastltes call "Trolley Song" and "Acheson Topeka" hits "natu- rals"—their objective is to plug the secondary ballads into the hit cate- gory. Furthermore, the studio pay- rolled songsmiths have similar ideas and. having the ear of the top brass on the lot, Powers is in the middle. Diesel Power Units Save Ballroom Biz Smart band spot operators in the east and midwest stayed in business last week, during the shortage of power due to the coal strike, by the simple process of supplying their own power. Frank Dailey's Meadow- brook, ordered to shutter at 10 p.m. every other night and at 12 mid- night Sunday (12), kept its lights on via the use of a 50,000-watt portable diesel generator hooked to its power system. Unit cost $35 a night to hire. In Chicago, the recently opened Ralnbo Ballroom stole a march on its opposition by doing the same thing, thereby doubling Its best previous attendance. Meantime, the nearby Aragon Ballroom, with Eddy Howard's orchestra, was closed most of the week, reopening Friday (10).. Stan Kenton's orchestra was at the Ralnbo; he played to 16,000 people, just twice as many as Les Brown played to several weeks ago. Brown had given the spot its best week since opening with Tommy Dorsey. Wm. Morris Agcy Moves Joe Wolfson was last week ap pointed head of the William Morris agency cocktail department to sue ceed Harold Oshry. who left Satur- day (11) to go In the building sup- ply business. Wolfson will work with Harold Nagcl; former band leader who recently joined the agency. Wolfson was previously in the club date department of that office. Metro Recording Subsid \ Set for Fall Production Metro recording subsidiary, headed by Frank Walker, confidently ex- pects to get into production by the coming fall. Setting up of the first factory at Bloomfield, N. J„ has been running into slight difficulty due to delays in the delivery of machinery, but the blocks experienced have not been serious enough, says Walker, to set up an appreciable delay in the start of production. Bloomfield building is the only factory so far arranged for. Others ultimately will be added. As for artists. Metro doesn't seems to-be worrying about that angle.