Variety (December 1950)

Wednesday, December 27, 1950 ORCHESTRAS-MUSIC 81 spotlighting the problem faced by major platter companies in keeping their tune-feeders happy, llCA yictor once again is revamp- ing its system of publisher con- tacts. In place of the current set- up in which each of the company’s three^man artists and repertory staff is assigned to a number of publishers, new procedure will set aside one or two days a week for the pubs to submit their tunes for an on-the-spot verdict by the col- lective a&r Staff. New setup is similar to the one how in opera- tion at Capitol Records. Charles Grean, Victor’s pop a&r chief, said the contact method was bverhauled to cut out the over- whelming number Of queries made by the pubs each day. Under the new setup, each publisher will be given a chance to enter his tune at a specified date, at which time he’ll get a definite okay or nix by victor’s staff. Grean said that no phone palls would be accepted from pubs in the new system. Since taking over the top a&r spot early this year, Grean said he had been receiving between 75 and 100 calls a day from pubs. Accord- ing to Grean, a typical telephone routine by a publisher after his tune is accepted involves more than a half-dozen followup queries as follows: (1) “What’s cooking”; (2) ‘’When are you making the tune”; (3) “Is the artist in good health”; (4^ “How did the side turn but”; (5) “When can we get a dub”; (6) “Why isn’t the disk available in the stores”; (7) “We have a new tune that’s a sure smash.” And then the Cycle goes around once niore. Victor tried but the new setup two years ago but it flopped be- cause the a&r setup was too un- wieldy. At that time, over 10 dif- ferent department heads sat in judgment on a tune, and agree- ment on a single entry was vir- tually impossible. Under the new system, piily Grean aiid Victor’s two other a&r staffers, Hugo Win- terhalter and Dewey Bergman, will act as a jury. on Art Mooney has disbanded in order to devote his time to the operation of La Boheme Club, Hol- lywood, Fla., which he has leased. Mooney also operates the Hamp- shire House hotel in the Same town. Bandleader will probably reor- ganize in early spring, after he gets his nitery operation into shape. Perry Como, top-selling male vocalist in RCA Victor’s stable, haS been re-signed by the diskery to a 10-year pact. Terms are the same as the one recently signed by Dinah Shore when she switched from Co- lumbia. It’s understood that Como, like Miss Shore, is getting substan- tially over a $50,000 per annum guarantee. Pointing up Como’s sales pull, the singer was awarded four gold disks by Victor last week, marking Como’s sale of 1,000,000, or over, on four different numbers. Gold- plat..d platters were awarded for Como’s “Prisoner Of Love,” “When You Were Sweet 16,” “Because” and “Hubba Hubba Hubba.” Victor had awarded only 13 gold disks pre-r viously, and it’s the first time that a single artist received more than one. Ai Brackmaii resigned Friday (22) as professional chief of Lou Levy’s Pickwick Music to Join Howie Richmond as general pro- fessional manager of Hollis Music, one of Richmond’s BMI firms. Brackman starts at his new post Jan, 2. Meanwhile, no replacement has been set for Brackman at Pick- wick. Brackman Is preparing an un- usual type of operation for Hollis, which currently is publishing “The Thing” and “The Roving Kind.” He’s got 10 tunes of an offbeat nature on hand, for which he’ll try to secure records on an exclu- sive basis. For the exclusive record- ing of each tune, he will guarantee to spend a minimum of about'$2,- 500 for exploitation of that record only. Brackman will also be in charge of the standard operation for all Richmond’s firms. He’ll prepare simplified piano copies, band and choral arrangements, etc., of the tunes. Up to now, Richmond has turned out only regular piano copies'^'and prchestrations. Brack- man will also Work out some of the foreign copyright problems of the firms. Brackman activated the Pickwick catalog when he joined Levy last March. Prior to that, he was with Mills . Music and Big Three, where he worked with Richmond. Meadowbrook Respite Frank Dailey will shutter his Meadowbrook, Cedar Grove, N. J., until Jan. 19, following closing Of Ralph Flanagan’s orch on New Year’s Day. At that time Elliot Lawrence’s band comes in for three weeks and three days, fol- lowed on Feb. 16 by Charlie Splvak for four weeks. Shuttering is a seasonal affair, due to poor early-January burt- ness. Tops of the Tops Retail . Disk Best Seller “Tennessee Waltz” Retail Sheet Besv Seller “Tennessee Waltz” **Most Requested” Disk “Tennessee Waltz” Seller on Coin Machines “Tennessee Waltz” Best British Seller "Rudolph the Reindeer” Presaging a major expansion in the longhair field, Decca Records has concluded a deal with Deutsche Grammaphoh Co. of Germany whereby the lattef firm gives Decca the exclusive rights to its entire catalog for distribution in the U.S. and its possessions and Canada. Deutsche Grammaphoh, in turUj will have sole rights to ijecca’s catalog in Germany, Austria and Norway. Deal with the German company was worked out several months ago by Decca ptexy Milton R. Rackmil while on a trip to the Contiriertt for that purpose. Decca came iip with the Deutsche Grammaphon catalog, one of the most extensive on the Continent, despite bids'by British and other American com- panies for a similar deal. Under the agreement, Decca will have access to all past catalog mar terial of the German outfit, includ- ing the Archive Series, which is de- voted to the reproduction of early German and other European music. Deutsche Grammaphon is current- ly recording a number of leading longhair groups and soloists in Ger- many, including the Berlin Philhar- monic Orchestra. Decca’s initial release from the German catalog will be made in February as part of the Gold Label series. This deal, incidentally, doesn’t affect Decca’s deal with British Decca, whereby the latter company distributes Decca’s cata^ log in England. Gilbert Returns to Coast For ASCAP Payoff Report L. Wolfe Gilbert, Coast rep of the American Society of Com- posers, Authors and Publishers, returned to Hollywood over last Weekend to report to Coast cleffers on the recent meetings of ASCAP’s classification committee on revis- ing the 60-20-20 payoff plan. Ned Washington, Coast cleffer who came east recently to present his plan to ASCAP, also returned home. » ASCAP’s committee, meantime, has adjourned its sessions' until early in January, when Gilbert will return. Price Boosts Despite GovL RoDbad Diskers Eye Les Brown As Col Pact Expires Number of record coDtipanies are reported to be dickering with Les Brown, whose contract with Colum- bia Records is about to expire. Co- lumbia wants to renew, but Brown is reportedly listening to all offers. Most prominently mentioned among the diskeries after Brown is Coral. It’s undexstood Brown has talked terms with the Decca subsid, but hasn’t made any commitments to any firm. Max Dreyfus and Leo Talent last week reached a verbal agreement whereby the Chappell Music chief will buy oiit Talent’s 50% interest in Mutual Music Society, Inc. While no papers have yet been signed, Dreyfus will become full owner of the firm. Talent, Who was general professional manager of the firm, gets some of the copyrights, with which he will start his own firm. Just what Dreyfus intends to do with the firm isn’t clear. He intends to move Ivy Music, in which he.re- cently purchased an interest, into Mutual’s present quarters, which are next to the Chappell office. There’s a possibility hq. may inac- tivate thd firm. Mutual’s catalog includes a great many of the old Glenn Miller copy- rights; including “A String of Pearls.” Miller, before his death, owned part of the firm, and after his interest passed to his widow, Helen, she sold out. Firm was equally owned by Dreyfus and Tal- ent for the past five years. ^Hopalong’ Tie-Ins Number of unique tie-ins are be- ing piahned for the exploitation of “The Hopalong Cassidy March,” Wolfie Gilbert-Naclo Herb Brown tune published by Naclo Publica- tions, which is owned by Jack Rob- bins, Brown and Bill (Hopalong) Boyd. The Frank DeVol Capitol record- ing of the song will be dubbed into the: Hopalong TV and radio shows on NBC as an opening theme. Song will also be plugged in the syn- dicated “Hopalong Cassidy” comic strip, and in tie-ins with Boyd-li- censed merchandise. In addition, Boyd will lead the Rose Bowl Pa- rade in Pasadena Jan. 1, while the band plays the tune. Despite* the Government’s re- quest last week for a voluntary rollback of prices to the Dec; 1 level, the disk industry is planning to keep in force the price hikes made two weeks ago. It’s under- stood, however, that RCA Victor may revert to its former price structure because of , the public re- lations sensitivity of the RCA par- ent company. Latter’s war contract with the Government te another important factor which may lead Victor to a rollback. Rest of the mdustry, hbwever, is holding firm oh. boosts^ Speaking for his company and the industry as a Avhole, Decca prexy Milton H. RaCkmil declared that the price hikes are necessary for the survival of most companies. Pointing out that labor and materials had risen appreciably over the last half year, Rackmil s^d the disk industry had not raised its prices for the past five years. Under the old price structure, he asserted, even k large increase of volume sales next year would not put several big compa- nies in the black due to the in^ creased production costs. Should the. Government contest the price' hikes, several companiei are already preparing briefs to sup-, port the economic legitimacy Of their actions. It!s believed, how-* ever, that the Government will hot pay too much attention to the plat- ter price boosts at this time since disks are hot essential commodities* However, the Government may at- tempt to impose a ceilihg in the disk industry as part of its general price-fixing policy. ON RADIO-TEEVEE Vaughn Monroe has decided to forego the road for the next few months, arid perhaps permanently, in order to devote full time to his CBS radio and television activities in New York. Monroe Will play an occasional college date or Ipcation- er when it does not interfere with his programs. Monroe is the first major band to take this step, but others may hot be too far behind. Sammy Kaye IS auditioning a television version of his “Sunday Serenade,” which may, if‘sold, restrict his travels, and Guy Lombardo is understood to be Interested in a regular video show. Savannah Churchill Set Savannah Churchill, Negro song- stress, has been inked to an ex- clusive pact by Regal Records, indie N. Y. outfit. Miss . Churchill, who formerly worked for Manor Records, cut her first sides this week. OUT NEXT WEEK The Of Forms dosing Usual Advertising rotes Copy and space reservations may be sent to any Variety office •NEW YORK 19 154 W. 46th Sf« HOLLYWOOD 28 6311 Yucco Sh CHICAGO 11 612 N* Mlchlgoii Av«. LONDON. Wi C. 2 8 St. Martin's Ploee Trafalgar Square Paul Southard, who resigned last week as vicepresident in charge of merchandising for Columbia Rec- ords, will join Times-Columbia, Inc., Columbia’s New York dis^ tributor, as executive v.p. on Jan. 2. Southard, who while with Columbia held a board membership and stock Interest In Times-Colum- bia, retains his directorship and financial interest in the distribut- ing outfit. Meanwhile, Columbia has filled the gaps left by the resignations of Southard, and of advertising-pro^ motion director Ken McAllister two weeks earlier. Sales manager Paul Wexler will take over all sales activities, including those supervised by Southard, who was actually sales veepee. Al Earl, formerly assistant ad- vertising chief under McAllister, has been appointed advertising manager, and will be in charge of both advertising and promotion. The board of directors vacancy left by Southard has not been filled. VICTOR 10 Slow DP ' RELE ASES ON POPS Beginning with the first week of 1951, RCA Victor is cutting down on the number of pop tunes to be released. In place of the six or seven disks currently put out week- ly, Victor will hold down its re- leajses to four or five a week. Pop artists and repertory chief Charles Grean stated that Victor will work only on guaranteed pub- lisher plug tunes arid will no long- er attempt to cover every side put ' out by the other majors. With a j lesser number of releases, company will be able to space releases by its top artists more effectively. In the past there have been frequent ‘ squawks from retailers and disk ; jockeys that releases by top names j have been turned put too quickly to permit, adequate exploitation of any sirigle side. Manson-Welles to Do Col Harmonica Album Columbia Records has signed the harmonica team of Eddy Manson j and his wife, Margery Welles, to do a harmonica album. Pact car- ries options for longterm deal. I Pair, whose work has been more or less confined to vaude, will re- j edtd pop and classical numbers. I They’ll be backed by a small rhythm section.