Variety (June 1952)

ir«bH»J«r, !«* 4 ,1952 In & move to erase one of the most chronic ailments of price-cut- ting hi the disk industry, all' of the major platter companies are giving full support to “fair trade” legislation which is due to come up for hearings before the Senate Interstate and Foreign Commerce Committee shortly. All efforts to control the price situation via fair trade laws, in individual states have been rebuffed ip t^ie courts. -Price-cutting situation has been growing Worse over Vhe past couple of years as the discount stores have spread out of the New York area into dther cities. Some “of the big retail stores have upped their dis-’ counts; from 30%, Which is already regarded as “normal,” up to 40% and over in some cases. Huge dis- counts have been made possible by Special deals with some indie long- hair disk companies who needed cash fast and sold their releases at discounts ranging up to 70% to the retailers. While the discount outlets have been harvesting the major portion of the: ♦sales, ; the small; neighbor- hood stores have been all but squeezed out of business. Latter stores have not been in a position to do the volume needed on a discount. operation, and. have not been able to make their regular markup due to the advertised com- • petition on the price-cutters. Omi- nous sign in the industry has been the spread of the discount practice from the long-play field, where it is still most prevalent, into the sales of single pop records which, • Up to now, have been- the mainstay of the’ nabe retail stores. Via national fair trade laws, the • disk companies hope to be able to regulate the prices at which • their merchandise can be sold. The Record Industry Assn, of America, representing all of the major com- ' panies. and many smaller ones, has already gone on record before the Senate committee in favor of such legislation. • • Pinkard Loses Appeal In : Action Vs. Robbins On ‘Sugar’ Promotion Albany, June 3. The; Court of Appeals, in an unanimous decision hut. Without opinion, upheld dismissal of the : $50,000 suit brought by Maceo . Pinkard and Edna Alexander charging breach of contract and unfair 1 competition against the Robbins Music,. over the latter’s alleged failure to advertise and ex- ploit properly “Sugar,” while con- ducting a sales campaign on the company-owned “Candy.” Julian T. Abeles, attorney for Robbins, said that the company had purchased the rights to “Su- gar” for revival during the World War II civilian, shortage, but that the number “just didn’t catch on.” The Court of Appeals was told that more than 400,000 copies of “Candy” were sold in its first year of publication, while only 200 copies of “Sugar” was peddled be- tween 1944 and 1947. “Sugar” “was recorded by several top stars of tbe 1920’s when it first came out and sold well. Pinkard and Miss Alexander ap- pealed an Appellate Division de- cision unanimously upholding the dismissal of their action by Su- preme Court Justice Aaron Steuer of New York. They did not claim plagiarism. Abeles, in recent ar- guments before the Court of Ap- peals, submitted a list of 100 songs in which “Sugar” was part of the title. Decca’s 17|e Dinj Decca Records declared another 17V£c quarterly dividend to stock- holders at the company’s board meeting last week. Melon slice is another in the. consecutive pay- ments to stockholders paid by Dec- ca over the last 14 years. Dividend is payable June 30 to stockholders of record June 16. Marks, Capitol Settle Row Over Pre-1909 Tunes A precedental court ruling on the • copyright validity of pre-1909 tunes was sidestepped last week when E. B. Marks withdrew its ac- tion against Capitol Records for mechanical royalty payments on “In the Good Old Summertime” in an amicable out-of-court settle- ment. Tune had been etched by the diskery last summer with the Les Paul-Mary Ford team with Cap refusing to pay royalties because the tune was written prior to the 1909 copyright act. Trade had been awaiting court decision on the wrangle because disposition of songs penned prior to 1909 and still within the 56-year copyright tenure has never had. a court clarification. 'Although simi- lar hassles have come up in the past, the pubs have always settled out of court. “Summertime,” penned by George Evahs and Ren Shields in 1902, was first published by Howell, Haviland &; Dresser. Marks obtained the copyright from the authors’ widows when the tune came up for renewal in 1929 after the initial copyright term of 28 years. Tune, which was originally etched as part of a Paul-Ford al- bum, was recently released by Cap as a single. The diskery was repped In the settlement by Mortimer S. Edelstein and Marks by Abeles Jk Bernstein. By MIKE GROSS Extent to which the overload of gimmick records has affected the music industry was reflected last week in a Variety survey of sev- eral of the disk jockeys in the metropolitan New York area. Gen- eral opinion Is that the deejays, for the most part, abhor the stuff they have to spin., but that there are indications from listener re- sponse that the “new sound” rec- ords have reached their peak and a resurgence of straight waxed mu- sic can be -expected by mid-1953. With the bottom falling out'of the disk and sheet market during the past few months, the shellac spinjners feel that the diskeries and publishing firms will begin a con- centrated effort to bring back good music on unadulterated plat- ters.” The d.j.’s point to the up- surge of straight instrumental etchings, in recent months, as spearheading the trend. Most of the jocks admit that the record companies have been dish ing out the “new sound” platters in an overdose because that’s what the platter buying market has been asking for. Only a few of the straight waxings have been able to break through and a record company cSh’t be condemned for sticking to the payoff item. How- ever, the jocks agree that the. “new sound” is dying of a surfeit and the time is ripe for gpod mu- music to move in once. *jfain. One of the platter-spielers as- serted that the recent wax trend toward big voices Is just a strain on the u record companies’ part to venture into the • semi-classical field as an adjunct to the mediocre melody and lyric of the current pop output Music biz’s biggest need today is new writers who can knock out tunes that cabstand up without benefit of superimposed vocals or hoked up orch work- overs. ■’ ' Art Ford, of WNEW, N. Y., sug- gested that the two licensing so- cieties, American Society of com- (Cofltinued on page 44) Tuxedo Build* Roster Moving into the spiritual and calypso field, Tuxedo Records, indie label, last week pacted The Kings of Harmony and Millie Daniels. Kings of Harmony, spir- itual combo, were pacted for three years. Miss Daniels is a calypso singer from the West Indies. t Initial releases will be out with- in a few weeks. M-G-M PREPS SERIES OF DANCE BAND SETS Hopping on the current record, .companies’ drive to hypo dance music, M-G-M Records is prepping a series of dance albums whichTl feature some of the country’s nitery and hotel orchs. Although the diskery doesn’t expect to buck the name bands with this series, it figures it can cash in on the terping upsurge being sparked by the agencies and ballroom oper- ators. Initial album of the series will be tagged “Dancing at the Copa” and will feature, the Mike Durso orch, show-backing house orch at the New York nitery. Other hotel- nitery crews are currently being lined up by the diskery’ Seeks 15G Each For His 26 Western Tunes Hollywood, June 3. His hillbilly ballads are worth $15,000 apiece, oatunesmith Johnny Bond charged in a suit in Los An- geles Superior Court, and he wants either the money or the songs. Bond sued David M. Gordon of Sunshine Music* asking for a re- turn of 26 western titles or for $390,000, or $15,000 each. Bond claims Gordon failed to publish and exploit the tunes as agreed upon in their contract. In addition to demand either the dough or the dit ties. Bond wants $25,000 in royal- ties he feels is due for the last few years. At Disk Pirates Disk pirates, after taking a. pow- erful drubbing from the music in- dustry’s legal battery for the past six months, were' given ‘a lethal blow last week in N. Y. Federal Court when another decision was rendered against Dante Bolletino, head of the Jolly Roger label. Court ruling by Judge Edward Conger awarded four “ publishers $2,500 in damages to be paid by Bolletino as a penalty for using copyrighted tunes on his. wax re- leases without licenses. Award gave $1,000 to Miller Mu- sic, $750 to Shapiro-Bernstein, $500 to Robbins and $250 to Feist Bolletino did not contest the case and will be forced to pay the $2,- 500 on top of the $1,000 he’s al- ready paid to Louis Armstrong for using the latter’s sides on- several of the- Jolly Roger long-play re- leases. . Case was handled by attorney Julian T. Abeles for the publishers who acted through their agent and trustee Harry Fox. Fox has been making an intensive drive against the bootleggers and the court de- cision is seen as the ultimate vic- tory In the campaign. Columbia Records teed off on the pirates first with its suit against Bolletino early this year. Fields-Seeley Decca Album Set for Sept. Release of the Benny Fields- Blossom Seeley album, “Somebody Loves Me,” has been set for Sep- tember In order to precede the picture which will start its show- ing in October. Paramount has done the Seeley biog. Decca is doing the album with •Victor Young supplying the music. Cuds Performance Payoff Trim D. J. Cldferi Okayed Anent the clelflng and pub- lishing efforts of some disk jockeys, all members of the - platter « spinning fraternity agreed that it was o.k. so long as the jockey didn’t abuse his airtime privilege by overplug- ging the song. Jack Lacy said that the deejays have as much right to. be in the publishing or writing field as anyone else but that they should treat their product exactly as they do any other tune. Art Ford, who penned the lyrics for.’The Mask Is Off,” 1 a current pop entry,- asserted that a deejay-cleffer or p dee- jay publisher goes out on a limb when he starts plugging his own tune. There’* a, big dialing audience he’s got to an- swer to if he tries to hypo a bad song so it’s got to be treat- ed as just another new re- lease. If the. d.j.’s tune hap- pens to hit paydirt, Tom Reddy summed up, it won’t .be be- cause of a single platter spin- ner’s hypo because no jockey today can build a song -alone. Petrillo Bid For . Santa Barbara* Cal., June fl. James C. Petrillo is expected to make another strong pie** for Gov- ernment subsidization of symphony groups And other cultural music groups when the 55th annual con- vention of the American Federa- l \ tion of Musicians opens in this city next Monday (9). Petrillo has been urging such a step as a means Of preserving the country’s muslr cal heritage, and, at the same time, providing employment for the unfon’s 242,167 ^members, Some jt,100‘ delegates represent- ing 700 AFM locals will assemble here for the four-day conclave. Elections of new officers will be held Wednesday (11) and It’s not expected tHaf.Petrillo will face any opposition -from' any other candi- date in the presidential race. In fact, the opposition to Petrillo has been so silent In recent years that the whole administration ticket will probably run without opposi- tion, There will, ( however be the usual contest for' executive board posts on which Petrillo customarily takes a hands-off positibn. Governor Earl Warren of Cali- fornia will address the convention with Bob Hope and Bis radio troupe furnishing the entertain- ment after the opening day's ses- sion. * Spotlighting the decline In im- portance of band network remotes for the music biz, the American Society of Composers, Authors Ac Publishers is planning to overhaul its performance’ payoff on tunes 1 programmed on such shows. New system will result in a much smaller return to conform to the**, actual situation which finds feyrer' and fewer network affiliates pick- ing up the sustaining network re- motes. Up to the present time, the per- formance payoff was based on a half-point rating for each tune on a sustaining show multiplied by -the number-^of network stations carrying the show. ‘ New system calls for an averaging of the num- ber of stations in a network hook- up over a given hourly period and setting that figure as a fixed quan- tity regardless of whether the sta- tions involved exceed or fall below the "average. Of key interest to the publish- ers is the fact that the average net- work hook up figure will be low. It’s understood that the average has been set at 24- to 45 stations ‘ per network remote. At about 10c value per half. point, the new* system will .mean from $2.40 to $4.50 per perform- ance for any song spotted on such shows. Since such a payoff will not even cover the minimum ex- penses involved in contacting bandleaders 1 for plugs* . itfs ex- pected that. such publishers who have retained eontactmei\ for this purpose will stop this type of con- tacting. * Payoff for sponsored program*** s not affected by the new system” since the ASCAP count covers all stations carrying such 'shows. It’s understood that ASCAP deckled to institute the new method for sustaining shows in order , to cut down bookkeeping and other ad- ministrative costs. . Decline of the network remotes is explained by tha fact that, most affiliates prefer to. run their own disk jockey shows instead, lit thd latter case, the affiliates cart spot the usual number Of plugs whites* that’s impossible iij the remotes. One of the by-products of the new system will be the demise of the payola to some orch leader* who demand that the publisher* pay for arrangements before "they use any tune. Whereas the previ- ous payoff for band plugs might have warranted such an invest- ment, the present coin 'Involved doesn’t make it worthwhile at all. SATHERLY QUITS COL FOLK MUSIC V.P. SPOT Arthur Satherly, Columbia Rec- ords v.p. in charge of folk music artists and repertory, resigned his post with the diskery yesterday (Tues.). Satherly was associated with Col for n\pre than 25 years. Don Law, who’s been assisting Satherly for the past five years, was named director of the folk music division. Gordon Exits YJR Jerome Gordon, New York sales manager for Young People’s- Rec- ords, has exited the company to form his own agency specializing in juve- disks, books and'toys.' Irv Katz has been named to fill the vacated spot. Andrews Sisters Win 157G Judgment From Their Own Corporation Hollywood, June 3. Andrew* Sisters, a* majority owner* of the Andrew* Sister* Eight to the Bar Ranch, ignored the protests of minority owner Lou Levy and defaulted on a 'complaint brought in Los Angeles Superior Court. The corporation was thus or- dered to pay a $157,650 judgment—» to the Andrews Sisters individua- lly. Levy, owner of>only 25% of the stock in the corporation, was unable to file an answer legally and the sisters obviously didn’t want to. Case brought by the sisters as individuals against their corpora- tion stated that they bad given the corporation $50,000 in 1946 and assigned their Decca Records royal- ty rights to the firm. In return they were to receive $10,000 per year. Under the terms of the judg- ment,. Patti Andrews gets $44,265, Laverne gets $42,254 and Maxette get* $71,130. Latter figure includes a $9,000 loan made to the corpo* ration. Sisters and Levy are partners in the corporation set up several- year % ago when Levy was managing th§ gal trio and was married to MaX* ene. Each has a 25% interest. Arnold Shaw, Duchess Music vice-prexy, planed to Europe last [-week on a four-week business- vacation trip.