Variety (Mar 1948)

40 ORcnm'ntAs-jiiijsic WednesdAy, Marck 3, 1948 Barton Muac Co. Nearer Takeov A conclusion is expected to be reached within the next weelc or so over the future of Barton Musici which for wedks has been embroiled in a financial situation that has kept it. teetering on the brink of a bank- ruptcy petition. In recent weeks there have been three other music firms interested in taking it over, but it appears that: a deal will be con- summated soon via which Henry Ijeyine, music printer and' owner of Jewel'Music, will get the catalog, its assets and its debtSk A plan has. . been worked out whereby songwriters, who are Bar- ton's major creditors, will be paid off 75c on the dollar and general creditors 50c on the dollar. All told, Barton owes between $60,000 &nd $65,000 to the former and . some $17,500 to others, excluding the claim of Charles Koss, onetime professional manager of the ^flrm,' who has launched a suit for $35,000. ■During recent• weeks, the firm's financial position has been improved by the collection of some $IS,000' in royalty collections, debt's outstanding >of its own aiid an e'xtra, undisclosed amount from the sal^ of office furni^ ture and s^ce lease. to Tommy Valando's new^ Laurel Music. Levine woul'd get the catalog for about 420,000, pliis whatever it costs him to satisfy creditors. One, debt df $2,500, owed Frank Sinatra in roy- alties, is being contested, Sinatra has been asked to waive the coin due to the fact that he's now revealed to .'have recovered the copyrights to "Jifancy" and . "Put Your Dreams Away" some time ago for $1 each. This is the way Sinatra is believed to have gotten, out of Barton, (he was « «ne-third stockholder )i Barton and Baiik Sanicdia, the other owners, pdw in California, probably won't ^realize any money out of the dispo- siUon of the company.. FIRST SMASH HIT OF 1948.'/ IITH AHEY AND A HI ANO A HO HO HO! BOURNE INC. 799 Seventr. Ave. Abe Oimah Suggests I'M IN THE iVIOOD FOR LOVE Mmie by *.. JIMMY McMI/OH HOBBINS WANTED Acliva Partner Who Knows Record Mfg. Bis also Music Pub. Bit (BMI) ' Z-r-X. Y. Corporations K««d UO.OOfl for Miunslon and imrtnrr to gpcnil IMtt'tiqio on iiremraes and oiitnldn, 'HSMO m 1/S and other fStOOO to M iw-lnrest«d> la <Mua« br nrcMmt; ^ , Box yM,e,» Varietr, is* Vfi 4m. St. Jfeir York a . RETAIL DISK BEST SELLERS Survey of retail disk best sellers, based on reports obr tained irom leading, stores in 11 cities, and showing com- parative sales rating for this and last tbeeki National Ratine This Last wfc. wk. Week Ending Feb. 28 Artist, Label, Title 6 o . I MOONEY (M-G-M) "Fonr-teaf Clover" 2 2. 103 FEGGY lEE (Capitol) 3 "Manana" ....... ....... i i. 2 jS 3 70 GB4CIE FIELDS (London) "Now Is the Hour" 1 57 PEGGY liEB (Capitol) 4 "Golden Earringrs". 5 4 9» VAUGHN MONROE (Victor) "Ballerina" 3 3 1 4 S , » SI BING CROSBY (Deeca) 6 «fNow Is the Hour" 4 2 .. 37 JO STAFFORD (Capitol) "Serenade of the Bells"... 5 .. 8 S . 6 SAMMY KAYE (Victor) "Serenade of the Bells".. ;. 5 6 15 9 .10 FBANKIE Carle (Columbia) "Ber Your Pardon".., 13 lOA 14 FBANKIE LAINE (Mercury) "Shine" 10 11 lOB FRANK SINATRA (Columbia) "But Beautiful......./ , 11 IOC FRANCIS CRAIG (Bullet) 15 "Ber Sour Pardon"... 7 10. 5 11 lOD 11 B. CLARK-NOBLE ORCH. (Col) "I'll Dance at Your Weddinf"...... 9 6 .. .. 11 LES.PADL (Capitol) f'Lover" ..... * • ' . 'a. * - .. 10 11 15 VAVGHN MONROE (Victor) "Matlnet" 16A B. CLiURK-NOBLE ORCH. (Col) 18 "Treasure of Sierra Madre". ....... 16B. GUY L.OMBARDO (Decca) "I'm My Own. Grandpaw"... 10 16C. 12 ARTtlVB GODFREY (Columbia) "Too-Fat Polka". 5 „ .. 19A STAN KENTON (Capitol) "Lover" ^9B MACKLIN MARROW (M-G-M) "Sabre • Dance".. ............... 20A 21 JO STAFFORD (Capitol) "Best Thinrs in Life Are Free". 20B JO STAFFORD (Capitol) 'VImMy Own -Gi»ndpaw" 5 LA. Plant Agrees To Continue Vita Pressing On Cash Plus Carry Basis Chicago, March 2. After a series of confabs with Viacoustic Records execs, Larr-y, H. Mead, head of Perfection Plaslncs Go^ipany, Los Angeles producer- for the diskery, ha.s agreed to continue pressing and distribution for the company. As a creditor, Perfection will collect the balance due bn Vita's overdue account according to the provisions made, by Judge Walter La^uy; <Vita last week filed for re- organisation und6r Chapter 11 of the Chandler Act). All future com- mitments, will be handled on a cash basis. A newly developed plastic material, less expensive than viny- lite, will be used. While in the midwest, Mead con- tracted with Chi's Rondo Record, to act as its Coai>t distrib. A simi- lar deal was made with Metro-tone Records of Brooklyn. Mead, who is also prexy of the Belda Record and PublishinfJ Co., producers of kiddie disk and book combinations, made arrangements wit* Sear.s & Roebuck, Chi, to' serve as His local retail sales outlet. He also signed-with Pan-American Dis- tributing of Detroit, which will serv- ice Belda through the Kresge Dime Store chain. • ■ « ; Maas' Morris Shift Jack Maas, who represented the Burk6-Van Heusen publishing firm in Hollywood, will not be out of the Edwin H. (Buddy) Morris setup completely when and if the B-VH firm- is revised in scope. He Will .shift to the Melrose Arm and con- rrtSue at his Coast "post. TAVERN JUKES QUIET; OPS BLAME TELEVISION Hollywood, March 2. Juke box operators here are dazed by empty coin boxes in their platter machines and are laying the blame' on television for the worst year in their revenue history.. As a result^ some over-anxious ops are known to be offering machines on as high as a 70%-30% take to locations just to keep the jukes plugged in. There's a difference of opinion among ops over whether they are killing themselves by offering such a huge slice of the profit.s to loca- tion owners during this period when prices on platters, jukes and repairs are also the highest in his- tory. Operators, 14 years ago. placed their machines in locations and were accepted by proprietors merfely as a biz boost. "The next year a 25% Cut was han'ded to the locations, and in 1938 the take jumped to a 50-50 split, with ops ladling out for ma- chines platters' and upkeep. It s Florence' Now on Label, Too Because customers we're asking for Louis Prima's RCA-Victor recording of "1,000 Island Song" as "Oh, Flor- ence," a phrase in the lyric, Victor h switching the title of the tune on forthcoming pressings. Retailers, it was found, were becoming confused, too, by the requests. As a result of Victor's switch 6t the title, Morris Music is also revising the tune's callin' name. On future printings the "Oh, Florence" tag will be used^. Harry Cool Cancelled . In Indpls. Due to Tiff Of Theatre on Standby . Indianapolis, March 2. Harry Cool's orchestra was can- celled out of a scheduled, booking at the Circle theatre here, which was to have started Friday (26), due to the insistence by the American Fed- eration of Mu.sicians local that a standby band be hired. Theatre had agreed to put on a pit band at a co.st of approximately $900 for the week, taut attorneys didn|t want them to actually work, pointing out that would constitute "featherbed- ding" and a violation of the Taft- Hartley law, The entire deal was okayed, but when the AFM local execs were advised that a standby crew for the one week was okay, they insisted on the theatre signing a contract to adhere to the standby principle weekly thereafter. This the theatre ops refused and there was nothing to do but cancel Oool's trav- elling band. Memphis AFM Gripe Memphis, March 2. AFM local here has requested the national office in New York to place the Warner theatre-here on the "un- fair list." Action followed the re- fusal of theatre-operators to hire a standby orchestra during a one-day date played by Vaughn Monroe's or- ciiestra Feb. 16, Monroe was not involved in the dispute. He. played the date. Arthur Lee Simpkins forced to cancel dates at the Town Casino, Buffalo, and the Latin Casino, Phila- del]>hiay. because of illness. ' TJ). s Ideas On Price Structures Tommy Dorsey recently experi- mented with « new and unusual method of aeiling his band on one- nighters as a means oi helping pro- tect promoters against financial loss. Leader developed a plan whereby he asked $1,.900 nightly in guaran- tees plus graduating percentagfti splits. When he played a date, the first $1,500 that came into the b.o. went to him as hLs guarantee, the next $500 to the promoter, the next $500 split 60%.40%, the following $500 cut 65%-35% and all similar sums thereafter split 70%-30%. Dorsey tried out such a financial arrangement on a date in the mid- west recently and it didn't work out well. He felt that it failed because the p;?omoter involved did not lower his admission price commensurate with his lower guarantee. He stiU feels it would work to the advantage of both, himself and promoters. Dorsey, now on vacation in Flori- da, resumes work on a one-night- tour through the southeast April 5, but is not "being sold on the plan he developed. He's being peddled on his-usual $2,000 a night against Indie Union 'Ready' To Make'Records New York recording companies were notified last \veek that the in- dependent Musicians Union, Local 701, New York, were ready and eager to make records for them. This union, which has 320 memhets. Was inaugurated in 1939 and has had sev- eral discussions with the American Federation of Musicians over joining that org but none ever reached a' ■deal. TELL ME A STORY LAUREL MUSIC CO. 1619 Iroadway N*w York TOMMY VALANOO irs TEminc liki he sezi AINT MISBEHAVIN' Featured in "YOU WKRi MEANT FOR MB" •■ •■ ■ ■■ An Old Sweelheait with the New Uoh MARY LOli WHEN YOU*RE SMILING MILLS MUSIC, INC. 1619 troadway New York It "SUNRISE SERENADE" successor , DREAMY LULLABY OXFORD MUSIC CORP. 1619 ftroadwoy New York 19. N. Y. ATTENTION PERFORMERS I am limltinK my wrltlnir to paro- dies only. I>o|i ttiiil Dtundnrd tnnrfi. AH funny nnd dUTtirmt Mtnntlona. Ii Intermf »d HCnd tin }948 Uuta ot over 196 parodies. MANNY GORDON Alft W. TXWth Ave,, Milwaukee 0, Wis.