Variety (May 1946)

Wednesday, May 15, 1946 British Best Sheet Sellers (Week Etidiiifl Mow 2, '46) Londf-n, May 3. Cliickery Ghick Connelly Can't Begin Tell You. .ChappeU Ashby De La Zouch Gay Cruising Down River Citiephonic Along Navajo Trail... .Maurice Grand Night Singing. .Chappell I'll Buy That Dream Wood Bygones Be Bygones.. .Feldman I Dream Of You. .Macmelodies Might Well Be Spring. .Chappell Kentucky .. .... Connelly If I Had Dozen Dreams.Victoria ORCHESTRAS-MUSIC S3 Morris Negotiating With Louis Dreyfus For English Co.; Third Such Deal Edwin H. (Buddy) Morris music publishing combine becomes the third U. S. company to set up a counterpart in England. Morris* at- torneys are now in the throes of completing negotiations by which Louis Dreyfus, head of the- large Chappell interests in London, will establish a Edwin H. Morris , com- pany in that city. Morris follows oh the heels of Irving Berlin and Leeds Music, both of which have set up their own English publishing companies in as- sociation with firms in that coun- try. Berlin was the first; he made an arrangement, also with Louis Dreyfus, to set up Irving Berlin. Ltd. Leeds worked out a deal with Peter Maurice only a couple months Ago to set up Leeds Ltd. of London while Leeds established a Peter Maurice firm here. Morris' deal with Dreyfus will dis- place- an agreement now being in effect between them under which Dreyfus publishes all Morris times in England. This contract had one ■ and a half years to go. New deal calls for all copyrights of Morris' music, now owned 50% by each firm, to be shifted from the Chappell catalog into the new Morris -setup. This is substantially the same methods in the Berlin and Leeds cases. , Deal involves all of Morris hold-, ings here, i. v c., the various catalogs he owns; Melrose, Mayfair, Burke- Van Heusen, et al. It will be called Edwin H. Morris Co., Ltd;, and will have a separate staff. It will also seek to make British representation deals with other U. S. pubs. Moody's Mills Deal Wally Moody, head of Electrical Miisic Industries of England, made a deal with Irving Mills for some of the old Variety record masters which EMI would press abroad. Moody sailed for London, Monday (13) and Mills returned, to Holly- wood over the weekend. Film Clef Snippers Won't Job Local 47 Hollywood, May 14. Report that film music cutters will switch from present affiliation with IATSE to AFM local 47 is denied by windjammers', union here. Cutters have been reported to have made pitch to 47 more than once during past two years, but office of the In- ternational Studio Representative, under whose jurisdiction studio musikers' fall, has never encouraged change of affiliation. , Any switch would have to be ar- ranged by toppers of the two inter- national unions, so as to circumvent any jurisdictional brawl. There are approximately 100 cutters employed here. Coca Cola Contract Restrictions Hold Up Harry James Dates Completion of contracts for Harry James bookings in the locations dates he will play in the cast, is being held up by the Coca-Cola Co. for which James broadcasts each Friday even- ing. Coke contracts with James, Guy Lombardo and Xavier Cugat, give the company the right to designate the origination points of broadcasts. And it is not too amendable to per- mitting them to be done from the spots James wants to play. How- ever, it's expected" the situation will be straightened out without serious argument. James, at the moment, is tenta- tively set for a week at Convention Hall, Asbury Park, a week at Steel Pier, Atlantic City, and five days at Totem Pole Ballroom, Auburndale Mass., at a combined total of $66,000 in salary. Opening dates aren't definite. 'Annie' Score's 44 Platters Something of a music business record for a legit score is Irving Berlin's "Annie Get Your Gun" music. Firstly, "They Say It's Won- derful," .which in five weeks achieved the Hit Parade under Ber- lin's prop, mgr., Dave Dreycr. It's on next week. Secondly, the score has 44 record- ings set to date, on the. six tunes, of which "Wonderful" alone has 18 platters. "Doing What Comes Natch'IIy," "Sun in the Morning," "Lost in His Arms." "Who Do You Love I .Hope" and The Girl I Marry" are the other sellers. Dash Sees British Films Dominant In Music Publishing As In the U. S. Jarrett Re-Forming Orch Along Kemp Style Hollywood, May 14. Art Jarrett, who exited the Navy last February, is in town re-form- ing an orch. His last crew was dis- banded in 1942 when he entered the service. New outfit plays first date with three-week stand at Plantation, Houston, Texas, opening May 30. In his new crew, Jarrett will pat- tern style after that of late. Hal Kemp. First man signed for crew was Porky Banker, former lead sax under Kemp. MPCE Shindig's 10G Net for Benevolent Fond Annual affair by the Music Pub- lishers' Contact Employees Union in New York last Thursday (9), plus a $12,500 gross journal, has poured more than $10,000 into the union's benevolent fund. Aside from the profits from the journal, a $2,600 profit was realized from the sale of tickets to "St Louis Woman," which the org bought out for the night, and $1,500 from the raffling of a Ford car, won, incidentally, by Solly Loft. MPCE's Chicago affair, held last month, turned up a profit of between $2,700 and $3,000. Added to the N. Y. total was a $1,000 donation from the American Society of Com- posers, Authors and Publishers. Court Nixes Embassy Music Motion to Dismiss Suit Vs. MHPubs on *Blue Blazes' Motion by Embassy Music and other defendants to dismiss a suit by Denton & Haskins, music publishers,' was denied- last week, in Supreme Court, N. Y., by Justice Felix A. Bevenga. Publisher's action is against Embassy on a claim that, it owns the copyright of the song -Blue Blazes," written by Sy Oliver and Jiminie Lunceford, which Embassy is marketing, and against maestro Tommy Dorsey and RCA-Victor for arranging and recording the tune without consent. Embassy asked for a dismissal on the grounds that the complaint fails to state a cause of action and that the court has no jurisdiction. Justice Bevenga held that the allegations of the complaint do not indicate the plaintiff bases his action on alleged infringement of a statutory copy- right. If such infringement had been claimed his court would not have jurisdiction. Embassy published the tune after having taken it from Oliver, an em- ployee of Dorsey, apparently un- aware of Denton's claimed prior ownership. Irwin Dash, the American who became head of the British music publishing firm bearing his name, returned to London on the Queen Mary Monday (13) after several weeks in New York on business. He sees the same major changes occin - ing in postwar England as in America, with the picture companies —Rank and Korda, dominant in England, of course—acquiring musi- cal copyrights just as Metro. Warn- ers and Paramount have done In the U. S. Music would have greater value for pix than for basic publishing purposes, considering, that the live record companies in. England in ag- gregate sell only 90,-100,000 records. And in recent • memory only a tew- ofone song. And in recent memory only a few songs have gone 450- 500,000 sheet copies. The interna- tional smash "Isle of Capri" only hit 900.000 copies, and that was be- cause it was priced only a shilling. Wally Moody.. recording head of Electric Musical Industries ■ Regal- Parlophone, Zonophone. Columbia and His Master's Voice, counterpart of RCA-Victor in the U. S.). went back on the same boat. Decca is EMI's only out-and-out competitor since EMI pools the above brands under one holding company. An im- portant change due in England is the growth of the jukeboxes. The U. S. loan is expected to further that development. While here Dash picked up tunes from U. S. publishers like Ashley Music; the "Chiquita Banana" nov- elty from Maxwell-Wirges; Bob Mil- ler's "Some Day You'll Want Mc to Want You"; Shapiro - Bernstein's "There's No One But You"; Global's "Without A Penny in My Pocket." Dash's associate, Reg Connelly, is still in America,' not due to return to London until June 1. Pat Yankee, singer, signed by Co- lumbia Pictures. On her way from N. Y. to' Coast to start work. WALTER GROSS IS HAPPY TO ANNOUNCE THE RELEASE OF HIS JEROME KERN ALBUM FEATURING HIS ORCHESTRA AND HIS PIANO 358 DON'T EVER LEAVE ME \ WHY WAS I BORN V from "Sweet Adeline' J Musicraft Album N-6 359 ALL THE THINGS YOU ARE ("Very Warm for May") WHO (from "Sunny") 860 SMOKE GETS IN YOUR EYES 1 . ■ ,. Pilhtkrtn ,. THE TOUCH OF YOUR HAND J trom Mbert ° 361 MAKE BELIEVE \ v B WHY DO I LOVE YOU f from Show Boat Musical Director—MUSICRAFT RECORDS Exclusive Management-WILLIAM MORRIS AGENCY