Variety (Jan 1948)

52 OHCHESTRAS-MU$IC WcKlnevday, January 14, 1948 Decca Sitting On Top of World Decca Records may be in a slight- ly better spot than most major re- cording companies, due to the un- usual arrangments it has always made with musical artists who record for World Transcriptions, a wholly owned subsidiary. When talent is contracted for by World, the pacts have always carried clauses permitting Decca to transfer from a transcription to a Decca recOtfd any tune thought to have sales value in that medium. To achieve the switch, Decca only had ■to pay the talent involved in the scale rate demanded by the Ameri- can Federation of Musicians, with, possibly a separate arrangement if I the bandleader or singer involved ! was of sufficient name value. | This "arrangement worked well at diffieten't times when an artist who ! turned out an unusual' item for World was also under contract to Decca for recording purposes. Espe- cially at the rai'e times that Decca was caught .napping without a recording of a fast-action hit song. It simply took the desired tune ofE a World master.-: ' Now, with the disk ban already on, it's possible that" .there are tunes recorded by Decca artists for World which have not been cut for Decca itself;' If any . one of them shows promise through public reaction to a World transcription , it. would be simple for Decca to market them. In that way, the company could con- ceivably come up with a tune othei- popular disk companies haven't got and they Wouldn't be able to get. Capitol,, since it owns its own trans- scription service, may be able to duplicate Decea's position if its con- tracts carry the Same'provisions. RETAIL SHEET BEST SELLERS ' Survey o} retnil sheet music sales, bosed on reports obtotned fram leading stores in 10 cities, and showing comparative sales rating for this and last week/ ■ Natioiia.I Bating This Last wk. wk. Week Ending Jan. 10 title Publisher .T O T A L P O I N X Wblpiti's Pact Renewal Eddie Wolpin's contract as general manager of . Famous and Paramount Music companies:, has iieei) renewed for twi) '.years^ - Wolpin's original deal, for the same period of time, cqcfilires Feb. 1». ' New pA(it' wall concluded Monday NO TROUBLE GEHING FEMME DIALERS HERE PhoetUx, Jan. 13. Local disk jockey has come up with ne'Or twist in giveaways. Gil Lee, KOOL platter spinner, plays three records on Wednesday morn- ing show, "Mother's Night Out," and challenges listeners to identify vocalists. First to phone in correct answers wins services of baby sitter for a night! Miekey Glass shifted Iro m Sha- piro-Bernstein to Paramount Music staff in New York. Court Directs Marks To Pay. $500 Fee in Bank Suit Harry W- Bank, founder and ex- prexy of the defunct Cosmo Becords, was awarded $500 counsel fees to be paid by E. B. Marks Music, according to a "N. Y. federal court ruling last week. Platter exec successfully de- fended a test infringement suit, last month brought by Marks. Marks' action against Bank was predicated on the theory that where chief stockholders or officers ' domi- nate a company, they should be held liable for any wrong the corporation may commit. AFM OKAYS DISKED ARMY SHOW AIRINGS Hollywood, Jan. 13. American Forces Radio Service l>as been jfiven the "go ahead" sign by James C. Petrillo on transcribing airshows for broadcast to service- men, vets in hospitals and its world- wide short wave broadcasts. Unqualified clearance despite re- cording ban m effect since Jan. 1 parallels union's okay to government services during war years. Suggest Pooling OfDiskSalesData Proposal has been made within the phonograph recording field that it borrow a leaf from other industries and set up a statistical pool covering its manufacturing output. Advocates of the idea point out that the cen- tralized data would be of major value to the record business in chart- ing the factors that influence sales, in determining the relation of turn* table sales . to redord sales and in estimating business for the succeed- ing year. . At present there is no authorita- tive source of inclusive information involving record manufacturing, as there does exists for a score of other busing/sses, including automotive, of- fice machines, etc. All these busi- nesses are sharply competitive but ttiey have found that the collated data has been of immeasurable serv- ice to them in figuring what con- stitutes a normal year and in en- abling them to forecast product and sales trends. Those proposing the phonograph record statistical pool hold that such a project would not only give the Industry an insight into tlie various factors tliat raalce sales go up or down but afford a means of analyz- ing public interest in music, So that the whole thing could be handled without suspicion it is suggested that the Census Bureau, which is part of the U. S. Department of Com- merce, be entrusted with the data. Information could be submitted on a monthly, quarterly or annual basis and the figures broken ao'wn into such classifications as pop, classical, country and folk and children's rec- ords. Bob Miller, HIPCE prez, to Coast end of this month. Burnham Ailing Bill Burnham, William Morris agency band booker, came up With a heart twinge Sunday (11) evening at his home in Westchester, N. Y., and will be bedded for two weeks at least while doctors try to deter- mine whether he had a heart at- tack. Cardiographs were taken im- mediately. . Burnbam's chores at Morris wiU [ l>e distributed to other staffers in the meanwhile. AFTER 3 YEARS ABSENCE- AND HIS Musical Knights SMASHED ALL EXISTING RECORDS ON THEIR FiRST ENGAGEMENT AT THE ORPHEUM THEATRE, Omaha HORACE ''HEIDT'S NEW SHOW IS WHAT AMERICAN PUBLIC HAS BEEN WAITING FOR ... I PREDICT THIS SHOW WILL BREAK RECORDS EVERYWHERE. IT'S HEIDT'S BEST IN 25 YEARS." JAKE RACHMAN, Omaha World-Herald, PHILIP MORRIS WIGHT WITH HQBflGE HEIPtTT, SUNDAY, im, E,S,T, Ail;l 5:ry'"4 wiS, | Congratulations Horace MUSIC CORPORATION OF AMERICA JULES STEIN • LARRY BAKNETT • JOHN DUGAN • CHARLES MILLER • HERB ROSENTHAL