Variety (Mar 1949)

WedncBday, March 23, 1949 ORCHESTRAS-MUSIC 89 Macy's. N;y. Preems We of RPHTs, Sj^l^hting CoL, Victor Booths Macy's New York department+ store began the battle of the rVm's last week with the establish- ment of two sales booths, one demonstrating Columbia Records Microgroove Long-Playing record- InM and other demonstrating RCA- Victor's new 45 rpm platters, side by side. Huge ads Sunday (20) in daily newspapers cited the "battle of the record speeds." Columbia's booth drew attention Monday (21) due to a new player machine being marketed by Lincoln Engineering Co.. St. Louis. This equipment, which isn't in the low-price class, .plays both LP aftd conventional 78 recordings. But It plays the LP's automatically, and uses both sides—plus using the seven, 10 and 12-inch disks inter Mel AUen's Sports Tune Mel Alien, sportscaster, is co- writer of a tuiie that's now seek- ing a publisher and/or a record- ing. It's titled, "Don't Forget to Touch All Those Bases." Allen collaborators are Walter Bishop an' Alan Courtney; latter was a co-writer of "Joltin' Joe DiMaggio" years ago.; J. DORSEY SEHLES FOR 115G IN HOME FIRE LOSS Tops of the Tops RetaU Disk SeUer "Crulsgig Down the River" Retail Sheet Mnsio SeUer "Cruising Down the River" "Most Requested" Disk "Cruising Down the River" Seller on Coin Maehinea "Cruising Down the River" King Preps 1st Pop Ksk Issue Pub Squav^ to DA Over bdn Recorders Royalty Statements WBMiisic'»HolIaiidRep King Records vvill debut within the next 10 days. It's a pairing ■ of "Pal-ing Around 'With You'* .an,d I ''Why Should t Worry!' tiy; L^ Carlylej the Satisfieirs .and I'ony Mottola's small isides ■ w^ niade ' fdonte by the Satisfiers fOr fjuture releaise: and King has signed. Al Gerhak, Arthur Godfrey,'tali^nt wiiin^^ ;SOl0S.;.-.^.i,.-';;y.:.,:,^ ' ■ V King.',pnlj^.^^^r^^^ decided on goihjg into tile j>pt) ; field .'(majority l,^nnr, iin a ^'^-r,ape^ hnnklpt dp-1 """'y "dmageu. ne ma lose of its Issues in the past have been SeS to^xpla'Ke 45 dfiks and 000 recordings however. hillbilly, novelty Jazz, race, etc.) the equipment that plays them to ! . ^^^'f ^« wife, who was badly and it signed Dewey Bergman, ■ Hollywood, March 22. ' Jimmy Dorsey managed to coIt mrxed 'Vcan"handle"u7 to'-^S \ Ject $115,000 in insurance covering hours of continuous music without "'e/oss of his Toluca Lake home attention. Another machine, mar- by fire a few weeks ago. Actually, keted by General Instrument, will 1 damage was higher ill thrpp <!nppd<! Tt uses a I ^^^^ ^^^^ Dorsey asseitedly S-speed S^^^ $130,000, but settled arm to reproduce the 33. 45 ind 78 l?'^ ^^e lower figure. His exten- sp^ed disks, a spindle block being ' f.^'' manuscript library, mcident- used to fill the larger center hole ' ^"y- .^^s saved because it was of the 45s. Victor, incidentally, has l f;^^?'^ » ^'ng oi uic Tioo. V . _ _ J , _ ( badly damaged. He did lose 19.- 4- A major New York music pub* Usher has taken a complaint to the N. Y. district attorney con* cerniiig fraudulent royalty state- ments made by a N. Y. indie record manufacturer. Move, more than anything that has happened in re- cent months, indicates the increas- ing refus«|l uniong major pubUsli-' :ers^;td\staid :stiU'-^or' ihfr^ evasions of all - kin^s by some indie ;rpeoi^eiis;' i'-y. C ■ '' '[l Case handed to the P.A. involves a statement returjied to the pub by a fairly prominent indie, which cited a certain number of sales of a particular record. Total was far beneath the number of sales the head of the firm had boasted about, and this caused the pub to have the indie's books audited. They sfe said to have found the. diskcr to • clarinetist and well-known expon-1 {ja^e used two sets^of master nura- ent of ia?z, died at his home in I bers relating to the same hit re Amsterdam, March 14. Les Editions Internationales Ba- sart. Inc., of this city, has been ap- pointed representative of the Mu- sic Publishers Holding Corp. (War- ner Bros, mu^ic publishing firms) in this country. : Deal includes the Harms. Reraick, Witmark, and New V.'orld Music catalogs. initial release of pop material by j lem"' ^' IRYIN FAZOLA DIES IN NEW ORLEANS, 36 Irvin (Fazola) Prestopnik, , 36, the public. Dealers will relay them to record buyers. burns will disappear, doctors say,' singers within the next few weeks. in the fire; , may have to former Guy Lombardo arranger, undergo plastis. surgery. Her arm [ as artists and repertoire head, in Coluiiibia"'Refcords claims that shoulder, particularly the lat-' New York. He. is signing a couple during the past few weeks its ,W'^''? seriously scared. Face' of bands in addition to other pop Microgroove sales have steadily """" """"^ ' ....*u,_ ii ^ risen. There was a lull for a while, presumably due to indecision Caused by the confusion of the dif- ferent speeds, but that apparently has been dissipated. Victor, on the other hand, asserts that dealer. reaction to its 45s, Which originally was not good, has, now gone so far beyond expecta- tions that the company had to ex- pand its production schedule to handle debut releases, due the end of this month. New Orleans,' March 20. : In recent months he was playing with Dixieland band in French cording. On the firm's books the numbers were connected with re- cordings cf public-domain, or roy- Quarter '..itery. New Orleans, and aUy-free music. But in actual sajies in weekly jazz jamboree session in ^ae numbers .Wei'e connected with Parisian room there, Fazola was top clarinetist with Bob Crosby, and also, played in bands of Teddy Powel, Claude Thornhill and Horace Heidt. He melody owned by the complaining publisher. Exactly how the audi- tors determined > that the entries were fraudulent is undisclosed; It's asserted that the case against sister. Vote Procedure Revamp Before ASCAP Board Only one resolution was okayed for submission to the general mem- i bership meeting next Wednesday ! (302, In New York, by the_director I board of the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publish- ers, in meeting Thursday (17).. That resolution was one that has been fought over many times before and always knocked down. It has an effect on ASCAP's weighted voting system. In the past, when an issue went to balloting, the potential votes of those who had for some reason or another neglected to cast a ballot, always have been counted as nega- tive, that is, against the proposi- .ti*SB«.« Resolution ■ .okajed for pres- entation'tb the membership calls for a change in the society's by- laws, to eliminate entirely those Votes not cast. In other words, to count results only on the basis of votes actually returned. Many times in the past issues have been counted out, despite the fact that they would have passed if only those votes actually filed were ac- cepted. Though the "yeahs" did outnumber the "nays," the unfiled .voting power provided the balance against, It has long been deemed m- unfair method of vote tabulat- . Ing, but was never changed.: Pinky Herman submitted resolution. the Discovery Records' In Canada Distrib Setup 1 ^ Hollywood, March 22. Discovery Records, Coast liidie of which Albert Marz, one of the founders of the Musicratt label, -Is president, made a Canadian dis- s^tribution arrangement last week. M.a.ple_ieaf Records,-Ltd., will han- dle Discovery's 78 and 33 Micro- groove Long-playing line above the border. Deal calls for Discovery to serv- ice Maple Leaf with stampers of «s material, which the latter will press in Montreal for Canadian distribution. Maple Leaf also han- dles the M-G-M label in a Uke manner. returned to New Orleans in 1942 I the indie is clear-cut and the pub- due to poor, health. I li.sher apparently intends pressing : Survived by wife, parents and a i" ihe fullest extent. • An earlier, almost jis concrete in- dication of how music publishers are reacting to indie royalty state- ments, which they didn't bother loo much about duriug the war when business was good, occurred two weeks ago. Pubs then insisted that certain indie Anns being given rates per side lower than the statu- tory : 2c., 'must :f.{(i^y';..'eyie,ry three tnonths in 'full;.:.!!' .0^^^ pay the full 2c. rate and account for sales every 30 days instead Of quarterly. > ASCAP Bd. Okays Plan for Coast Representation American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers director board, in meeting in New York Thursday (17), approved the plan under which 'Coast members of the Society will be allowed to set up a committee of representatives to keep them in contact with the N.Y. ■ execs. This plan, broached to the Coast membership a couple weeks ago at the semi-annual meeting of N.Y. execs with the Coast contin- gent, calls for the latter to elect a' six-man committee, the chairman of which will-come east every three months to huddle with headquar- ters execs, be informed of what's going on in the east, and relay Coast complaints. Plan was ; deviiied by N.Y. execs ■ and offered to the Coast men be- fore the Society's executive board or director board had been ad- vised of it. About two xyeeks ago the plan was explained to the exec board and last week: the director board approved it. ASCAP will pay the transporta- tion and living expenses in N.Y, of the rep who comes east each three months. Si}C-man committee, which will be named via balloting of the Coast men, will serve for three years, the chairmanship rotating each "six months. Hollywood. March 22.' Committee' of six to rep' ASCAP members in dealings with national headquarters in New York will be named Friday (25) following tabulation of secret ballots. Colony of 250 ASCAP, members now ;s voting on the committee from a slate of 12 names. . . Unlike voting system used na- tionally by ASCAP in choosing. . board members, balloting for com- { mil4ee members -locally" is secret; Votes will be counted at an open meeting by a committee of five tellers headed by Ruby Cowan. Candidates are Louis Gruenberg, Archie Gottler, Johnny Green, L. Wolfe Gilbert, Eddie Heymann, Walter Kent, Sammy Lerner, Leo iRobin, Andy Razaf, Harry Ruby, Harry Warren and Ned Washing- ton.