Variety (Sep 1946)

W<'<lneBdfly, September 25, 1946 ORCnESTRAS-MVSIC 49 SPA TERMS MAKE PUBS BOUNCE y LEFT OPEM |Starr (WB) BowsioM Plenty of Friction As Aftermath Of N. Y. Musikers Strike; Hotels In Move to Make Up for Added Costs While the New York Local 802 oXt the American Federation of' Musici- ' Hiis stril^e against N. Y. hotels was settled more than a week ago, the aftermath of the walkout is still causing friction between the princi- pals. Hotels are taking their time in ptJlting music back into the vari- ous rooms and are doing quite a bit of'baggling with agents, all of which has caused Local 802 executives to turn. ■■. ■ ■ " ■'" ^ ;:■ ; Hotels, according: to agents isei'ving them, are doing quite a, bit of revis- ing of pre-fight music ■ schedules in order to make up for the" increased cost to them based on the 20% boost 802 won. They ■ are revising hours downward, cutting out men (802 al- lowed .this in the settlement so long as the/original men were first taken back, then given two weeks notice).' AS: a, result, some hotels are paying ivo more for music than they did be- fore the strike. One, as a result of - its schedule manipulations, is paying $30 less weekly. Meanwhile, the' name band spots went through a scramblei as ex- pected, to reopen with music. New Yorker, for example, found no one available (Chuck Fo.?ter, who had teen, set until later this month, had started a four-week run in Dono- hue^"!, Mouiitain Vievv, N. J,). As a result, Joe Glaser's ABC, Music Corp. of America and General Art- i.sts combined to , loosen Les Elgart from a Thursday opening at the Knickerbocker Yacht Club, Port Washington; L. I., to make him available to the hotel, Ted Straeter, who is waiting for the Biltmore's Bowman Room to be refurbished lit's being delayed by : lack of ma- terials), took the Knickerbocker job. . Claude ThornhiU was hurriedly •pulled out of dates, including a week at the Earle theatre, Philadelphia, to £q into the Penn Monday (23). Blue Barron went back into the Edi- son; Grift' Williams returned to the Waldorf. Astor Hoof, which would have had Sammy Kaye until Sept. 29, decided to call it a season and Jet Kaye go his way (to the golf course and racetrack for a vacation). Henry King reopened at the Roose- ■•veJt,', • He Should Have Owned The Joint by This Time Pittsburgh, Sept. 24. Longest local run on^rocord for a musical unit came to an end here last week when the Ken Bailey trio closed at the Port Pitt hotel after a 10-year span. Outfit went into down- town inn .shortly after repeal and had been there continuously ever since.\.'' ; Bailey was replaced by Billy Yates foursome, another Pittsburgh unit, . Muzak's Disb For Sears Label Muzak and Sears-Roebuck will start merchandising shortly a rec- ord-of-the-month idea, on tlie same basis of the book-of-the-month club, featuring vlnylite waxings which Will average over $1 a platter. , Aimed at the great midwest mar- ket, folksy standards, waltzes and 'ne like will be recorded by artists such as Vivian delta Chiesa, Lanny «oss, Teddy Dales band, Dinning Sisters, et al, Platters will go out under the ^ears label. Idea of Muzak pro- micing the biscuits may eventually be extended to embrace great de- partment stores, like Macy's, Bam- wrger, etc.,, in the metropolitan area, each to have its own .label.' . CARLE PROBABLY WILL STAY WITH COLUMBIA Frankie Carle's orchestra, objec- iive of several major recording com- Pames, since his current contract iih Columbia expires in November, probably will stay: with Columbia. .paries representatives had been :Seriously .dickering with the new .,«,-G-r.M company, but the fact that ^n.e latter will not begin producing records until after the first of the year helped kill negotiations, til ^' name has become one of 'ne strongest record sellers in the ousme.<;s. His Columbia sales of last and this, rates him right up with we leaders in sales totals. ARA Goes Into Receivership To Liquidate Debts ,, Hollywood, Sept. 24. Following survey which should be completed before end of this week, ARA either will continue to operate as disk firm or be liquidated. Max Fink, attorney for receivers, -stated chances look good for possible con- tinuance of plattery, but only thorough survey can point to final decision. Meanwhile, ARA went into receivership Friday, beating government. tax seal by matter of minutes, when U. S. tax men were kept from padlocking assets by prior petitioning of creditors. Petition, signed by committee of creditorsj staled disk firm: has assets totaling $560,000i consisting of equip- ment, materials and recordings. However, against this sum are back taxes of .$110,000 owed to the U. S., $62,000 owed to Union Bank and Trust, payroll default and general creditors' demands totaling $350,000, plus notes held by Mark Leff and family for $490,000. General credit- ors will a.sk Leif claims be subordi- nated to theirs in event of liquida- tion. Government; bank and em- ployee debts will-be paid first, with creditors asking second position. Although government has already .seized warehouse with raw stocks, ii's understood the padlock will be taken off provided company decides to continue to operate in order to liquidate debts. Francis Quitner, who was . appointed receiver, -will meet with creditors to decide course of action. N.Y. Music Printers In Bad Way Due To Shortage of Paper New York music printers are in a particularly bad way regarding paper on which to print music. Some of them may be forced to shut down this week because the truckers who serve them have not yet settled their portion Of the re-, cent city-wide strike. If that hapr pens, music pubs, who have had a difficult time the past couple weeks, being iihable to ship music through normal channels, will be hit harder. Meanwhile, the ieyt publishers .vyhp before the war had the fore- sight to stock up on paper and who still have reasonable amounts of it on hand, are being diligently chased by contemporarie.s who haven't any. And the former, in most case.s, are hanging on to what they have.. HOW the remaining strikes of dif- ferent ■ triickdriver locals are still tying things up is exemplified by the spot one publisher currently flnds himself in; he has a carload pf, paper in a N. Y. yard, but the drivers who serve the latter are still on strike- and others won't break their picket line.- So the paper can- not be touched. An attempt was being made earlier this week to have the car shifted, to another yard where there is no strike. FOR TIILKS Though Walter Douglas, thairman of the Music Publishers Protective Assn., and Herman Starr, head of the Warner Bros, music combine, were last week (19) handed copies of a new contract by representatives of the Songwriters Protective Assn., few of the rank and file music publishers are as yet aware of the details of the proposals asked by the SPA as the basis of the new con- tract with publishers effective Jan, 1; Those publishers, however, who have received copies of the pro- posed contract did two things; (1). They fell out of their comfortable leather chairs; (2) they bounced and hit the ceiling. This reaction to their proposed terms wasn't wholly unexpected by the SPA committee who set up the proffered contract, after working on it for almost a year. It has empha- sized to publishers' representatives that the terms as presented consist only of "proposals" that are open to negotiation. The. aforementioned publishers . leel- that" there will be plenty of the latter, ^esHiiey might as well lock their doors and go home, turning the keys of their of- fices over to songwriters they meet on the way out. Meanwhile, everyone connected with the negotiations has developed a clam-like attitude. SPA gave to publisher reps a minimum number of copies of the proposals, which were distributed to various major pubSi As a resuU of this, attorneys began working overtime as of Mon- day (23) digesting the SPA ideas. MPPA attorneys got it before they did and thus began the skuU work earlier. MPPA, incidentally, refused to comment on the situation until the proposals are completely, di- gested and the first meeting of, its board on the problem. Latter oc- curred last night (Tuesday). Inci- dentally, all MPPA meetings on the subject will be held at night so as to avoid interference with ASGAP meetings, since the boards of both are interlocked. While the new terms have been (Continued on page 50) Disk Royalty a Quarter-Cent; See Concession Breaking Down Others RCA's Big Hoopla On Billionth Disking RCA*Victor is preparing a big hoopla for next month v;hen its pressing machines wiU turn out the billionth disk made by the company. Billionth pressing will be a 12-incher inscWbed by : the Boston Symphony under Serge Koussevitsky with ."Semper .Fidelis" and "Stars and Stripes Forever." Event will be marked by national promotion and a dinner to RCA ex- ecutives by Camden, N. J., city of- jficials. Camden is the,site of RCA's main disk factory. Sejk Song Rights For $m It Now Facchine Quits MCA On Coast Hollywood, Sept. 23. Russ Facchiije, who has headed the band department at the local of- fice of Music Corp. of America since being discharged from the Navy earlier this year, resigned his post as of last Friday (20). What he in- tends doing is so far undisclosed, but it's suspected he's going into a per- sonal management deal. Meanwhile,: Facchine's resignation has caused shifts in other MCA out- posts. Maurie Lipsy, head of the Chi branch, moves here about Oct. 1, while Jim Breyley takes over as chief of the latter office. Looms As Big Hit Dick Rogers, co-writer with Hughie Prince of the «ong, "I Guess I'll Get the Papers and Go Hofne," being published by Campbell-; Porgie, is in a spot few, songwriters find themselves. He sold his interest in the tune for $300 months ago and the melody is now giving promise of becoming a .solid .sheet sales hit. Prince, too, is thought to have dis- posed of a portion of his rights. Rogers, probably figuring that nothing would: ever come of "Papers," handed his interest in it to Arthur Jarwood, owner of Cam- bridge Music. Music men remember this firm as the one involved last year in the "Swagger" program on WJZ. This show, backed by a Broadcast Music, Inc., publisher-affiliation, was I the program which started quite a controversy in the music biz since for' weeks its own songs were plugged on WJZ time seven nights weekly—at BMl's $48. per plug re- turn. 'iPapers" was one of the tunes put on the show in this manner. Jarwood, after the "Swagger" show was pushed off its time by WJZ executives, made a deal with Camp- bell-Porgie to. publish. That' was last February and the firm had held the tune since. Cosmo Reinstated By AFM in Deal To Pay Off Larry Clinton Cosmopolitan Records, which went on the "unfair" list at N. Y. local 802 of the American Federation of Musicians, recently, due to-its failure to pay Larry .Clinton some $6,000 owed him, has. been reinstated. Mid- dle of last week, Cosmo's president, Harry Banks, made a deal with 802 whereby he \yould pay. Clinton a stipulated .surii, . said to be $1,000,■ every time the company did any new recording. Clinton drew the fifst payment .on account last week when Cosmo did a date with a small band. Settlement of the affair, however, does not re- scind the resignation Clinton filed with Cosmo which ended a one-year- with-pptions contract between theiw. Pact hadn't run its first year and was cancelled on the advice, of APM executives. . Carroll Gibbons, Yank, Britain's No. 1 Dance Fave, May Do U.S. Tour American bandman Carroll Gib- bons, a longtime fixture in England, returned to London from: New York Monday (23) on the Queen Mary to open Sept. 30 at the Hotel Savoy in London with a band com- prising five reeds, five brass and four rhythm. There's a good chance, however, that Gibbons may accept some U. S. dates in three months, having had a; number of offers. What impres.sed the Britishers about Gibbons is that, just before the blitz, he was in America on a holiday andi as an American, he didn't have to return, but did, and stayed throughout. Gibbons was in and around his native Boston for a week, and also spent a week in New York. • . Accompanying: Gibbons back to London is Eddie Standring, director and g, m. of Campbell-Connelly, making his first American visit. While caught in the middle of the Local 802 (American' Federation of Musicians) strike in : New York, which muted most dance Spots, Briton did see enough of New York and environs in ? the 2\k weeks he was in the U. S. Reg Connelly, on his recent visit, had aligned a number of Anglo- American music deals with Shapiro- Bernstein's new Mood Music (Co- lumbia Pictures) affiliate, E. B. Murks Corp. for the Ernesto Le- cuona catalog, etc. ; A crack |dovelpped late last week in. the line set up 'by major musio publishei's against granting RCA,*; Victor a concession on royalty fees, based on the company's new 60c re- tail price for pop disks. Herman Starr, head of the Warner Bros, pub- lishing group, after a meeting with.- Jim Murray, head of RCA's disk di- vision, agreed to accept from Victor . a fee. of l44c per side for all. r.oeo>:d-- ings of his music sold at tH^ .Recently installed 60c price. . ; V By this: move,: Starr became'the: fir.st major publisher to accede, to RCA's plea, On the 50o price the company had been paying publishers iy20 per side, but when the pop disks' ■ went : to 60c, tliis royalty cut auto,- matically jumped to 2c'. After in«; creasing the retail price first,, RCA ,approached the, publishers seeking a ,, y4C concession, asking the pubs to ac- cept l%c. None did, at least none' admitted they did, until : Starr laist , week made his deal with Victor. ' . Tlie fe'W? . publishers whp know of Starr's move are plenty peeved. They are curious, too. They saw Starr in recent months demand- , ing RCA pay the full statutory rate of 2o for the use of all WB musiOi on the basis of Starr's claim that the music of his three companies waE not being assigned tO'his liking, that it was not being distributed to top ar- tists at the same ratio, the music of Other publishers was turned over to these people. Why Starr should sud- . denly reverse his field and give RCA the l%c concession it had been ask- ing, after forcing a 2c per side roy- : alty all along, is .something about which they're speculating. Break Others Down Since Starr represents Harms, Wit- mark and Remick, three of the most powerful catalogs in the music busi- ness (Harms is the most powerful; it is rated at 11,000 availability points in ASCAP, which Is double the rat- ing of its nearest competitor), it's fig- ured that his move in okaying RCA's request for a l%c royalty will break other publishers down. They -will follow in his wake sooner, or later, though some may hold out for a (Continued on page 53) Jack Robbins' Buy Of li-Yr.-Old Co Jack Bobbins' ASCAP entree will be via the Hamilton S. Gordon, Inc., catalog, a 100-year-old house special- izing in sacred and' standard musie which enjoys seniority. J. J. Rob- bins & Sons may continue to op- erate this as a .subsidiary unit, under its original firm name, and still build up a new Robbins catalog. He is consummating the deal to buy that firm's catalog, including a five-year employment contract to one pf the surviving brothers. Robbins is set to publish the next Bob Wright and Chet Forrest musi- comedy score they're dPing for Ed- win Lester ("Song of Norway," etc.). He's also setting partnership pub- lishing deals with Ferde Grofe, Desi Arnaz. and Duke Ellington besides publishing new folios by Dr. Hugo Frey O'Music for Millions") and Domenico Savinoi : HAROLD STERN TO HEAD EAGLE-LION'S MUSIC : Harold Stern,' vet musical director for Broad-way tunesh.ows, .lea'ves for the Coast today (Wedneday) to be- come a musical director at Eagle-Lion studios. Long a.ssociated with Olsen & J;phnspn,injjtheir prattfaU revues, he led the orch for "Hellzapoppin" for four years and for "jSons o' Pun" for two years. Stern headed the orch whfch played in the bandshell at Manhat- tan Beach, N. Y., for 27 seasons, and. also played for long stretches at the Ambassador, Biltmore .and : other New York hot-els.