Variety (December 1950)

^^^edneeday, December 20, 1950 Following the* breakdown of rie^-f gollations with American Federa- tion of Musicians Local 802, New York niiery owners face the pros- pect of a musicians walkout before the end of the week. Local 802 execs announced yesterday (Tues.) that they plan a strike against all top N Y. cafes and" hotels which Les Brown's prch takes off on I another sex’ies of flying one-niters in February, playing five dates in SIX nights over several thousand miles. Qrew, which has been booked between two of the Bob Hope Tuesday night radio shows ! on Which it plays, will hit Salt WM Pacts Winterhalter For TV, Theatre Dates . Hugo Winterhalter, RCA Victor musical director, has been inked ' to an overall management pact by William Morris. Pact, which will I run for three years, will cover ! projected video and personal aP* | pearance bookings for the baton- OllCllESTRAS-MUSIC •f Price of popular sheet music, currently centered at about 35c, is likely to be hiked Within a few weeks to 40c by the vast majority of dealers, With practically all the jail to come to terms with musi-^ |Lake City, 7; Hutchinsdn, ciaiis, . j Hob. 8{ Lansing, Mich., Feb. I nlon has been demanding a ; 9-10;. Milwaukee, Feb, 11, and Tulsa, Feh 12. Browm has been guaranteed, $12,500 for the six nights against I ^ mV ' V I Moving into the concert field for !‘he first time, oi-garn^^ . . lUb uisKciy pose. [ grossed an estimated $3,100 for a j Publishers having announced Deal t^'as negotiated, by Milt | two-hour solo performance last price increases to 23c, Ebbins, Winterhalter’s personal] Tuesday (12) at the Lyric theatre, 1 and jobbers selling their copies at manager, wdth the Morris agen''^'. 3 Allentown, Assisted by a fbur-Tman to 30c; its figured that few re^ — . !rhythm unit, El Bando Carioca, she' Jailers will be able to hold the ; played such tunes as ‘‘Tieo, Tico’* * “ and related anecdotes of her re- cent European trip. BritDeca Uses wage hike plus 3% welfare fund impost, to be paid exclusively bv management. Operators coup- ; percentages. Associated Booking ' Ict ed Svitiv a flat 10% offer, but [ Corp, handled the dates. i balked at tax. Union has raised this demand to the level of a principle Whirh it refuses to compromise. /VlVecled wdll be some 250 spots of all descriptions^ including. all niterie.s, hotels, cocktail lounges and restaurants with music. Operators declare that with cur- . rcMit conditions,, it’s impossible to absorb the increased music scale and still come out ahead. In the larger cales, such as the Gppaca- baha. Latin Quarter and Diamond • « -j*- price line. Thus, the publishers face a pps- : sible further shrinkage of an air In a twp-w'eek period early this i t^eady severely shrunken copy mar- month, Miss Smith appeared with | ket. There vvaiS nothing they Could the Indianapolis Symph at the; do, however—cost pressures have I Murat theatre, Indianapolis, Dec, 3, i proved too great. A number of key followed with the Allentown stand | Publishers had announced ijo Oc- Mnnfi Miic,-/. is current at Radio City thea-' tober that they would raise prices rmH Minneapolis. Booked by 1 effective Dec. 1. Despite a 5% artivatprf ^ j .Charles H, Hansen,, she next goes . hike in the cost of printing at that FVm d I Chicago theatre, Chi, for I time, a _ number; of key publishers to Hmsc.-ihoe. Increase asked by^ the ! producers " BritainVl^artinr I Chicago shortly. Initial plug tune u r X ..1 4. to compete in the U. S. market ac- Mood w'as originally set up to . 1. be bonifaces .feel that menu cordine tn Harr« Sarf/^ri publish tunes from Cohimhia Pip- The bonifaces feel that menu prices have reached their peak and it’s .suicidal to raise food and liciiior prices. They’ve just come Ihiough with sizable Increases to to compete in the U. S. market, ac- cording to Harry Sartoh, British Decca artists and repertory chief currently in this country. ‘British Decca, which releases in the U, addUionar music cS^s'^wS fi -oason ;.p:'.iatiom*tlley dSe?“‘ i Li!..”'* differently styled back- ; »u^io_h_andle_^Go_lumbia_ pic Mood w'as originally set up to publish tunes from Columbia Pic tures under a deal that S-B had W'ith the studio. The firm’s biggest hit, before being deactivated, was “The Anniversary Waltz,’’ from the A1 Jolson biopic, “The jolson Firm, ai. affiliate of S-B and partly-l two weeks stalling owned by Decca Records, Will 4 starting Dec. 22. headed by Marvin Cane; w'ho takes ! over the general professional post. Cane, who is perscnal manager for Vic Damone, wdll continue to han- ! die Damone while managing the pub firm. (jane said that Mood plans to Following the footsteps of its film Vwt.^^L'lS'* iroducers. Britain’., leaHin., Shortly. Initial plug tune held Out oh a price increase. How- ever, some printers last week riotiw fied publishers that they were rais-? ing printing prices 10% after the first Of the year, and that another 10% hike would probably be ef- fected by early spring. This, plus the fact that arrangers and copyists and white collar help are getting wage increases, proved too much for the holdout publish- ers, and they have’ announced in- i creases effective Jan. 1, on new I songs. They can’t raise prices on Publishers no longer w'ill have j songs already on the stands. Among to print popular-priced editions of [those announcing increases for the revivals in order to secure “rack” I first of the year were Robbins, On PS ‘Rack’ grounds. Some of the more militant oper- j Sarton, how'ever, pointed up the standing, ators feel that they would welcome ! Close correlation between pop hits I “ closing up for a w'hile at this point. ! purrent in both the U. S. and Eng- The larger, cafes say they are cur- j i renlly operating at losses reach- ing as high as $10,000 weekly. With tunes under an informal under- Ihe e.xception of New Year’s eve. business February, and a closing at this point would eliminate a lot of po- tential los.se.s. Most of the large cafes are cliargirig $1 per drink and they feel that it’s the limit wuth cur- rent conditions. An increased scale, it’s felt, would force upward revision of charges' on the wine list, and they think the public won’t take it. land. While England follow''S the | DREYFUS STILL SEEKS TO orders for tlie songs, Mu^,c Deal- ers Service, with its rack of nearly 100,000 copies, will now permit publishers—-if they so choose—to ! catalogs. Feist and Miller—-the Big Three, and Tommy VaJando for his Lau- rel, Valando and Mark Warnow sell revivals through the rack in higher-priced editions. Currently, printing situation is in a state of utter confusion, and American pattern, he decried talk of America “dominating’" the Brit- ish market to the exclusion of na** will coSe off untli -nl Publishers. He said that an examination of BUY OUTLEO TALENT Once a hit song has subsided, | it’s not entirely the fault of the publishers generally place it in [ printers. Paper supply has been their catalog as “dead” material I fluctuating wildly ever since the l and print editions retailing at 50c i Korean war started, and it’s be- j or 60c, instead of the pop-price of j come increasingly tight over the 35c. Wheft-a tune is revived to the ■ past few weeks. At least one ma- point where it can be considered a ; jor publisher, fearing shortages and new” — I . . o Chappell Music chief M.ax Drey- . . ,fus is still negotiating with Leo American pop hit lists would show .Talent, general professional man- a fair proportion of numbers j ager of Mutual Music, to biiy out which derived from abroad. Among these are “All My Love,” “The Petite Waltz,” “A Rainy Day Re- the latter’s equal interest in the firm jointly owned by the two. Negotiations have been on for some pop song, publishers have price increases later in the year, is generally reprinted it in a pop edi- seriously considering ordering the tion. MDS placed only pop edi-i printing of his entire year’s^'supply tions on the rack, the.se selling at | of standard books and folios im- about 35c. 1 mediately. The only thing that’s New move was initiated mainly | stopping him at present, he said, to iron out inequities resulting! is lack of storage space. JONES PREPS 4.H0NTH train. Count Every Star,” "Au-; weeks, and while they are expected tumn Leaves, among others. to be consummated within the next Concerning recent reports that week or so. Talent is still holding British meffers had petitioned the | out for a higher price then Dreyfus British Broadcasting Co. to alio-; is offering. cate 50% of the playing time to native tunes, Sarton said that Eng- Meanwhile, Dreyfus last week completed a deal under which he from the heavily intensified revital- ization of oldies in past months. While the rack dealers, with the pop-priced edition, had ,songs on sale at 35c, many other dealers who ordered direct from the publishers found themselves selling the re- vivals in the higher-priced editions. Move also should prove of bene Increasing their price is the last thing publishers wanted to do at this time. With the current satu- ration point in sales for a hit song about 300,000 out of a population of over 150,000,000 and with televi- sion threatening to cut even further into sales, publishers feel they have a hard enough time selling miisic. Hollywood, Dec. 19. such a plea regularly^^th^MC^ 'Henry Russell’s share enougn time .selling music, i In rPfllhv Ivy Music and is now partners | J® maj.oiv publishers ^without With a price increase, it’s even if the situation jack Perrin, who was Rus- kurting the minors. Trend of rec-| tougher. Howm^er the move may ’ tn Vesp^ct; sell’s partner. Perrin becomes pro- ord companies and television in j affect volume .sales, they mu^t tunes in England *than”it\Ss^*hP^^ t fessipnal manager of Ivy under its i J'eyivmg standards and other oldies j meet their per unit cost, they point- tunes in England than it was^^^^^ affiliation with Chappell.* [ this year gave publishers their best j ed but ' Memphis Sets Skillman [ _ Memphis, Dec. 19. Unopposed, Vincent E. Skillman ; lp‘’ /J"®lected president of Local] > ot Mu.sicians Union (AFL). Also M'ctejl sans opposition were Aii;; hurell, veepee, and Edgar M. i sec.-treas. Reelected direc-1 Le.ster Bruch,. Sr., Johnny i y®^’nie Adams, Billy Boyle ] * d Robert Van Kannon. Freddie ’ n Ernie Winburn were I ’Jined new directors. I ^IRIETY Next spike Jones road tour, a I foi’e the second World War. Sar- loin -month coast - to - coast effort, i asserted that, the^ritiisb publics lees off Jan. 13 with a date at i hke the American, doesn’t care Long Beach, Trek includes only - from where a good tune originates one location, two weeks at the (lia.se hotel. St. Louis, starting :^larch 23 at a flat $12,500 per '\cok. All other dates are on a sa.OOO guarantee against 60% with tlic split reaching 65% if the gross top.s. $5,000. lour is being booked by Music t orp. of America, which will get tile standard 10% of the take each (late although Jpnes’ pact with lie agency expired, last June and ^ . heen renewed. Deal with MCA i.s to pay it strictly what it OQpks and nothing else. Pitt’s Local 60 Sets Davis; Memphis Elects Skillman W. 1 . Pittsburgh, Dec. 19. : I till Davis has been re-elected pi iysident of Local 60 of Musicians [-nion for his third term. Also iiiiniGd again were James Como- lacln. y.p., and Nicholas Hagarty, 'll-, treasurer. 1 lie only break in the board of y'actors’ .slate was made by K'orge Wilkins, who ousted Gene ! i-rnan, Davis' predecessor as presi- (lonlv : ■ > standard business in j’^ears. In fact, 1 many key publishers managed to | Majestic Records named Irving come out in the black only through Szathmary musical director. ' their great standard business. RETAIL SHEET BEST SELLERS Sur'dey of retail sheet music sales, based on reports obtained from leading stores in 12 cities and showing comparative sales rating for this and last week. Natioilal Ratiiif This Last wk. Week Dec. 16 Title and Publisher ■cn. Q ‘ • At ■o a <u s: o U2 U- ca P ' » e U) 01 u a CO s a> . CD u 04 o CO • o ’ 09 ’0) -a to ,o aj :>> 0) a- o 'B 5 00 o- >» Q. a. 3 W U . CO 3 S CO 3 O P • ■ W ■. ■ (O g a 0 ' ' 4i» cc .CO '2 pq OJ B ■ C. fi- O e h 4-> § E ,3' P CO 0) 'tj .ca >C P - 0 ' la ■X .V 73 «■ to a 2 Ah ca ■ dj CA P-4 . Pi ca .B ca B O U u lO 3 to B • —4 ■ a a>. CA ee B. CO o U o' l-H. to '3 .74 3 ca r“ c to CO O u 0 73 j B 01 o > o o ■u- o CO .3 S' 73 E’ x/i 'm" (A •— O ■ p (tt o B B d) a to o- P ca X ca B T O T A L P 0 1 N : T 14B 13 **Xiiiae In Killarney” tRemick).. 10 CAYANAUGH NAMED RIVERS’ EASTERN AIDE Dave Cavanaugh, Coast band- leader and arranger, has been named assistant to Walter Rivers, Capitol Records’ artists and reper- tory chief in the east. Cavanaugh fills the .spot, recently vacated by Pete Rugolo, who transferred to Hollywood to head the diskery’s jazz and blues operations. Cavan- augh, who has been heading a Dixieland combo at the Chi-Chi -Club, Palm Springs, will lake over the new post early next year. I Appointment was made by James ' B. Cohkling, company vice-prexy and a&r chief, to give Rivers more ; time to devote to promotional and legal activities. Kenton, Anthony In Renewak by GAC General Artists Corp., whose stable of bands includes some of the tpp: namc.s currently active, has renewed Stan Kentpn and Ray Anthony to five-year contracts. Kenton; wh6’.s been with the agency for about 12 years, is scheduled to begin an engagement aU the Click, Philadelphia, tonight (WedJ. He’ll remain there until Pe(j. 30, when he heads for the Kavakos Club. W’'ashingt6n» for a week-long stand stafting Jan. 1. Kenton is alsp booked into the Vogue Terrace, McKeesport. Pa., Jan. 10-13, and from there works his way to the Coast, via one- niters, to begin a six-week .stand at the Palladium ballroom Fob. 20. Anthony is currently appearing at t)ie Hotel Statler, N. Y.