Variety (December 1952)

tPwlnetday, 10, 1952 PfimETf OHCHKSTHAS-MUSIC 4S DISK DATE JUMPING N.Y. AFM Elects Manuti Prez, Leading New Regime Into Power; Incci Stays Three out of four top adminis-4 ♦ration leaders of New York Lo- • 802, American * * Federation of Musicians, went down to defeat in last week's union balloting. A1 Manuti, veteran oppositionist, .who had run unsuccessfully in several Previous elections, was elected president, - replacing incumbent Sam Suber, leader of the Blue Ticket The vote was 4,960 for Manuti to 4,400 for Suber in a dis- appointingly low turnout of mem- bers for the election. A1 Knopf, who bolted the Blues a couple of months before the elections, also was voted in with Manuti’s Musicians’ Group ticket In the viceprexy post, replacing Jack Downey. Hy Jaffe, another bolter, won the treasurer's post held by the defeated Jack Stein. Only Charles R. Iucci held the' fort for the administration among the top posts and was reelected secretary. Iucci was elected to the AFM exec board at the last na- tional convention. The 802 election results puzzled union execs insofar as most of the incumbent exec board and trial board members were returned to office. Out of 18 spots on these two boards, 15 incumbents were reelected as against three oppo- sitionists. This retains policy con- trol with the Blue Ticket even though the top officers are mem- bers of the opposition caucus. New officers will take office Jan. 1, when the top officers and the exec board will launch a re- organization of leading personnel assignments. Adler Set for Montreal • In Yiddish-Israel Show; May Open On Broadway Larry Adler flew to London over the weekend for a series of concerts and returns to open Jan. 26 in Montreal in a revue which will be headed by Leo Fuchs, the Yiddish musicomedy star (who has also appeared in English), Shoshana Damari, the Israeli nit- ery singer, and himself. There will be other acts, and if the tour warrants it may come to Broad- way. Samuel Rope and Jack Ami- dor, who managed the harmonica virtuoso’s Israeli concert tour, are the producers. The English concerts include one on Dec. 11 in Buckingham Palace for 500 Korean vets, un- der auspices of the Princess RoVal, Alexandria (Queen Mary’s sister), one in Festival Hall with the Lon- don Symphony; one at the Phil- harmonic, and another in Bourne- mouth Symphony Hall. Concert Hall Society, meantime, is readying two new series of Adler harmonica disks in the classical and semi-classical field. On one platter, “Larry Adler Plays a Clas- sical Recital,” Adler is substituting his harmonica for the violin solo on one of the selections. MORROW BAND UPS PRICE AFTER DISCUCKS Further pointing up effect of ’ or( * ^ sc licks on the band's price on the market is recent jump taken by the Buddy Morrow orch. Mor- row, who’s currently riding with three platter hits, has springboard- into the four-figure bracket during the past couple of months, "and, which previously had been booked in the $750-$H50 range, has bracket PP<2d t0 the S 1 ’ 000- * 1 ' 250 The trio of consecutive platter clicks which Morrow cut for RCA victor are “Night Train,” “One Julep” and “Greyhound.” inniino k already has topped* the 10 °.000 sales mark. ? looin took over the con- u a * ns spot at sid Proser Mu- ll v xiffu ™ ee k- Bloom was former- ly Jrnih .«►**•*• Tune Tout Tops Tellers Hollywood, Dec. 9. The song pluggers can now say, “one of our boys made it.” Meaning that Dick Pow- ers, who used to be one of them, will be president of the soon-to-be Bank of Encino, on the outskirts of Hollywood. Since that far cry back to hustling tunes, Powers has been successively a music pub- lisher, Coast head of ASCAP and chief of Metro’s music de- partment. He is now an agent (Powers & Stanley), which also gives him the distinction of being the only commission man to head up a banking in- stitution. || BAD Acts to Avoid Duplication © Of Titles in Drive Among Its Pubs Disk Co. Grades Pubs in Order Of Ad Budgets Breach between publishing firms and record companies over latter’s demands that the pubs shell out coin.for trade ads is being further widened by the continuing practice of several diskeries to give priority treatment to the pubs who are will- ing to spend the most in the pro- motion and exploitation of a disk. One major diskery has gope so f^r as to post pub classification charts in its exec offices, grading pubs according to the coin they spend on advertising: Top spot is given to firms which shell out a minimum of $1,500. The coin ex- penditure is broken down further to show where the money is to be spent. The pubs who fall into a bottom group are finding it tough to get a hearing and their waxing average is on the downgrade. The Music Publishers Protective Assn, is working on plans to heal the strained pub-diskery relations. Some pubs are pessimistic about a solution since the diskeries con- tinue to claim that they've got an impartial attitude to all comers. Alan Miller, former- Leeds Music disk jockey, rep and son of Ber- nard Miller, music biz attorney, has opened his own firm,- Brentwood Music, in N. Y. Release-date jumping by the major disk companies has again come into sharp focus with likeli- hood of a legal solution to the re- current industry problem. Moe Gale, who heads the pub- lishing firm, Sheldon Music, is aim- ing for a showdown with the disk- ers as a result of Decca’s jumping of his tune, “A Stolen Waltz,” with an A1 Morgan slice seven weeks in advance of his Jan. 15 release date. Although Decca happens to be in- volved in this case, Gale states that his action is designed to block date-jumping by all the diskers. Gale, through attorney Sidney Wattenburg, wants to establish legally that publishers suffer eco- nomic damages when, their release dates are violated. This question has never been settled in court before, since the diskers previous- ly made quiet out-of-court settle- ments when they were challenged by publishers. Latter, moreover, have been reluctant to press their claims for fear of getting the “iron door” treatment from the all-impor- tant waxworks. Gale has stated that he is not interested in getting money dam- ages out of his legal moves against Decca but wants to set up a prin- ciple for the whole industry to ob- serve. Gale asserted that the sit- uation has gotten out of hand, with' no one diskery responsible, but the date-jumping has always given the publisher and the songwriter the dirty end. Injured pubs have pointed out that they can’t plan an exploita- tion plan around a tune if the disk- ers put out their releases prema- turely. The date-jumping also puts the pubs in the position of violat- (Continued on page 50) Crosby’* Xmas Pacer Although such artists as Jimmy Boyd, Gene Autry and Spike Jones are currently heading the Christmas wax sweepstakes, Bing Crosby is still way out in front as a sus- tained seller. Crosby's etching of Irving Berlin’s “White Christmas” has gone over the 8.000. 000-marker', while his cut of the traditional “Silent Night”' carol has passed 6.500.000. Crosby’s Xmas numbers are still going strong and are now topping Decca’s bestseller lists. ‘Believe Me Big On Sheet Disk Sales; Cant Hit ‘Parade DREYFUS DICKERS JUBILEE PUB DEAL Max Dreyfus, Chappell Music topper, is negotiating with Jerry Blaine, Jubilee Music head, for a buy-in deal on latter’s publishing firm. Although contracts h*.ve not yet been inked, Chappell staffers currently are working on the Jubi- lee copyright, “A Million Tears.” The Chappell-Jubilee projected tie-up is a step in Dreyfus’ plans to broaden his firm’s material sources. Via Jubilee, Dreyfus ex- pects to pick up songs in the coun- try and rhythm & blues field. Music biz execs are wondering what it takes to get on the Lucky Strike “Hit Parade” these days. For the past three weeks, the NBC radio and video show has omitted “Why Don’t You Believe Me” from its top seven, although the tune has been one, two or three on the sheet and disk bestseller lists. Current situation spotlights a longstanding gripe of music men against the “Hit Parade” since the show has set itself up as a barome- ter of song hits and has become a powerful promotional peg for addi- tional performances. The show's execs, however, have always brushed off criticisms of their se- lections by referring to their own tabulations of the nation's hits. “Believe Me,” incidentally, is the latest instance of an indie publish- er catapulting into the big coin via a smash recording. Tune is pub- lished by Brandom Music, which is owned by Bud Brandom, Chicago jukebox operator. Linda Shannon Set Linda Shannon, working, in Long Island cafes for the past two years, has been inked to a term pact by King Records. Cleffer Suhny Skylar and song- plugger Johnny Farrow are manag- ing songstress. Sparked by industry concern over confusion caused by song-title duplication, Broadcast Music, Inc., has taken the lead in stamping out the practice among its affiliated publishers. BMI vice-prexy Robert Burton also stated that BMI would be willing to join in any industry- wide move to set up a title-clear- ance bureau. In a communique to its member pubs, BMI said that for some time past it “has been making a sincere effort to avoid duplications of titles, whether they be those of publishers affiliated with, us or not.” BMI pointed out that such duplications were not only unfair, but also created difficulties in log- ging performances. As a practical move to wipe out the duplications, BMI is advising all its publishers to follow the basic song-clearance procedure by which BMI can always detect improper duplications. Under BMI’s basic contract with pubs, it has the right to reject any. tune which is similar in lyric, music or title to a pre- viously existing work. BMI has pointed out, however, that- despite its clearance pro- cedure, duplications appear be- cause publishers wait until record- ings are made before filing their numbers with BMI. With the disk on the market, it is too late to cor- rect the duplication. As a result, BMI is warning its affiliates that it cannot clear compositions merely because they are recorded. The (Continued on page 48) OUT SOON! * K The 47th Anniversary Number Of Forms closing shortly Usual Advertising rates prevail Special exploitation advantages Copy and space reservations may he sent to any Variety office NEW YORK 34 154 W. 44th St, HOLLYWOOD 2* 4311 Yucca St* CHICAGO 11 412 N, Michigan Avt. LONDON, W. C. t • St. Martin's flaca Trafalgar Square Novelties Blanketing Seasonal Bestsellers Since 'White Christinas’ Fast getaway of “I Saw Mommy Kissin’ Santa Claus” in this year’s Christmas song sweepstakes fur- ther^ indicates the potency of nov- elty and jive items in the Yule tune field. Not since Irving Ber- lin’s “White Christmas” broke through 10 years ago to establish itself as a seasonal standard has a ballad entry had any impact on the Xmas market. Although the music pubs and record companies have been cut- ting to Xmas ballads for the past couple of years, field has con- sistently been blanketed by the novelty output. Ballads such as “White Christmas” and “Winter Wonderland” continue to crop up on the December hit lists year after year, but the new ballads get lost in the novelty scramble. Nov- elty entries such as “Rudolph, the Red Nosed Reindeer,” “Frosty the Snowman” and “Santa Claus Is Coming To Town” already have made their mark as Xmas stand- ards. An oldie ballad, “Silver Bells,” incidentally, is getting a revival spurt this year after a long period as a quiet catalog item.' Chappell Music, however, is prepping a big drive for next year on the Richard Rodgers-Oscar Hammerstein 2d Yule ballad, “Happy Christmas, Little Friend.” The tune will be showcased in the Dec. 26 issue of Life mag. It’s the first non-production song ever written by R&H; Hammerstein and Jerome Kern wrote one pop to- gether, “The Last Time I Saw Paris.” INSURANCE CLAUSE KILLS COAST TOOTER MERGERS Hollywood, Dec. 9. Proposed merger of Negro Musi- cians Local 767 with Local 47 was voted down at a special meeting of 767 members. By a count of 44 to 26 they adopted a resolution to dis- continue all negotiations for the merger, although the proposition is on the ballot for Local 47*s elec- tion on. Dec. 15. Understood the members at the special meeting objected especi- ally to the insurance clause in the proposed merger, under which vet- eran members of 767 would receive only. $4Q0 l in death - benefits... -.