Variety (December 1952)

^Tncwlay, December 17, 1952 PtSMEty ORCHESTRAS-MtTSIC SWAN SONG FOR DISK GUARANTEE Longhair Disks Now 35% of Total Platter Biz; 125 Companies Compete With total sales of pop and long- hair disks estimated in the trade at about $200,000,000 -a year, the Classical end of the business, ac- cording to Goddard Lieberson, Co- lumbia Records exec veepee, has moved up in the last three or four yZs from 20% to 35% of the t0 In some months, says Lieberson, ivlio is in charge of artists and rep- ertoire, among other duties, Colum- bia's own figures have run higher than this average. Longhair up- heat has been due almost entirely to introduction of the LP, or 33 rpm long-play disk. 0 There are at present about 125 record companies issuing classical disks in this country, which is be- ginning to present other problems than just those of economic com- petition. Most of these companies \which are small) are offering music recorded abroad, as against the recordings of the Big Two— Columbia and RCA Victor—which are mainly domestic. The music recorded abroad (and pressed here) is being offered gen- erally at lower prices than domes- tic disks, but Lieberson doesn't see the former hurting the sale of the latter. Most domestic-recorded disks or albums are made by art- ists better known in the U. S. than foreign talent. Well-known home 1 names, like Met Opera stars, will usually offset foreign tags, he says. A problem concerning Lieberson more is that of repertoire, which he says will eventually be used up by the competing companies. He doesn’t know when that will hap- pen, or what the remedy will be. But he hopes thgt the public will want to buy more than one record- ing of a masterwork, for the cake of comparison, just as one would want to compare a John Barrymore interpretation of “Hamlet” with that of a John Gielgud. But what concerns the Columbia exec most, he says, is the fact that disks are not exposed suffi- ciently to the public. The big prob- lem, he says, is ho.w to make the public as conscious of records as it is of books. The public isn't aware of disks in that way; a re- cording isn’t identified in their minds as is a book; for some rea- son, records don’.t. get the proper presentation. Lieberson hasn't got the answer to this problem, but he’s thinking about it. Vogue of opera albums is on the increase, he says, with the peak not hit yet. Theatre TV, such as last week’s presentation of the Met’s Carmen” on theatre screens throughout the country, will widen the market. Dreyfus in Hassle With Jack Perrin Over Future Of Ivy, Sunflower Firms Hassle between Max Dreyfus, Uiappeii Music topper, and Jack rernn, general manager of the ^happen subsids. Ivy Music and sunflower Music, over future dis- position of latter firms has been jtakmated. Hassle stems from fi..l yfus desire tp deactivate the ;i!" s ™d realign Perrin to an- ther slot in the Chappell org. tu.V\ r - nn ’ ' v ho owns 50% of the ODeraVlUl?’ *° conti nue active hSs tnl?!^ the companies and w tl f n ne( . down Dreyfus’ offer to quired P, snfi 1S / t 31 ' 6, Dre V fus »c- three mU’X o£ , Ivy and Sunflower orgnni?i?i nt K S a£ter the £irms were S u l h Z and Henry Drevfnc ° n the , c °ast two years ago. York aVfi! 10 K e ^* ^e fr rms to New Perrin buying Russell's share. Panics east with the com- ment lnder . R two-year employ- ed rntn With Drey£us gen- flower ZT? Ivy and Sun- which evnf 0t i a V ons £or a new P act the ni>pvf re( !, as ^ month brought head y US " Perrin fracas to a to-G'J ^ general manager of from 8 a Tf/e subsidiaries, hack and Paris ^ ay blz to k° ndon Anthony Inks Mayo In Now P.M. Operation Orch leader Ray Anthony and his manager, Fred Benson, have opened their own personal man- agement office. Initial Anthony-Benson pactee is warbler Mary Mayo, who begins a four-week engagement at the Ho- tel Statler, Washington, Dec. 25. M-G-M Prepsfash Into Rhythm Field With a steady flow of disk coin being racked up by record com- panies from their rhythm and blues releases, M-G-M Records is hop- ping on the bandwagon with a complete expansion of its r. & b. line. Diskery’s r. & b. activities will be carried on in cooperation with music publisher Joe Davis (Beacon Musjc) who'll.assist in the selection of material and artists. M-G-M’s expansion move in the r. & b. field, was stimulated by diskery’s general manager Frank B. Walker's recent trek through the south and midwest visiting M-G-M's territorial distributors. Distrib demand for irtore r. & b. platters brought about the drive for the r. & b. market. Diskery is prepping a monthly release schedule of the r. & b. platters (to tee off Jan. 9) of not less than three disks. Initial re- lease of five waxings will include such r. & b. artists as Basil Spears, Gabriel Brown, Irene Redfield, Eddie Carter Quartet and The Blues Chasers. Name Deutsch Pro Mgr. Of Peer-Southern Pubs Irving Deutsch has been named professional manager of the Peer and Southern Music firms,. He fills the post vacated by Mark Schreck who died three weeks ago. Deutsch, who was associated with the J. J. Robbins staff, takes over Jan. 1. He’ll work under Ben Selvin, general manager of the Peer firms. ARTISTS GET ’EM Future pattern of artists’ pacts with the major disk companies was delineated last week with RCA Vic- tor’s renewal of Spike Jones and Phil Harris to three-year contracts, with no guarantees reportedly in- volved. It’s understood that all of the major companies will cut out the guarantee clauses in all artists' deals as they expire and will pay off strictly on the sales figures. ' An exec of one major diskery said that guarantees will be given in the future only in rare instances. “Guarantees,” he said, “tend to make the artist lazy. For his own good, the artist should be made to hustle for that hit. After all, the money we can guarantee is only® negligible compared to the box- office value of a hit record.” Among the artists, Rosemary Clooney summed up the value of a hit by saying that “only records work for me night and day as -an exploitation medium.” Established artists will probably get regular royalty deals in lieu of the former guarantees. In the case of Jones and Harris, Victor gave them the standard 5% rate. The 5% figure for the vets, however, is exactly twice as much as the newcomers are currently getting. Most of the new vocalists are be- ing signed under 2V£% deals, and only when they come through with a hit are they getting better rates. The era of guarantees is fading (Continued on page 46) ASCAP LOWERS RATES FOR EXHIB LULL MUSIC In a move to soften the increas- ing resistance from theatreowners against paying fees for recorded intermission and exit music, Amer- ican Society of Composers, Au- thors & Publishers has lowered its rate schedule after conferences with several exhib groups. Changes mainly affect the smaller theatres and drive-ins. New rates for conventional the- atres range from a minimum of $12 annually for theatres up to 400 seats, to $48 for theatres with over 1,600 seats. In the drive-in cate- gory, rates will spread from $24 for ozoners with up to 250-car ca- pacity to $60 for drive-ins with more than 700-car capacity. For theatres or drive-ins that operate only part of the year, the ASCAP rate will be pro-rated on the basis of the annual fee. Big Decca Catalog Set for Foreign Release With N.Y. Consent Decree Satchmo Gets Hub Collegian Citation Boston, Dec. 16. Before,, a jampacked crowd at Hub’s Storyville jazz club last Sunday (14), Louis Armstrong, making his first U. S. appearance since his return from Europe, was presented a scroll for “capable ef- forts in bringing to free world of Europe a vital facet of the Ameri- can cultural scene” by the New England All-College Conference. •f A substantial catalog of Decca Records, not yet released overseas, has been freed for foreign distri- bution as a result of the antitrust consent decree entered in N. Y. Federal Court last week by Judge Sidney Sugarman, The decree dis- solved the vestiges of the original 1934 cartel agreement among U. S. Decca, British Decca and the Elec- trical & Musical Industries (EMI) of England. Key provision of the consent de- cree, which goes into operation Jan. 1, permits Decca to sell or lease its masters to any other for- eign distributor if British Decca Presentation was skedded to be made by Tallulah Bankhead, but j or EMI does not accept them wilh- at last minute actress was forced to cancel and sent along a tape recording of her regrets and pres- entation speech which was played at ceremonies. in 90 days after their release. De- cree does not otherwise affect U.S. Decca’s current deal with British Decca for distribution in England and Europe, and EMI for South America and Asia. Decca lawyers pointed out that British Decca and EMI have passed over numerous releases in the past and these can be made available for other foreign distributors if they are not picfciv? W* days among Chappell Mulls Hillbilly Finn Chappell Music is eyeing the Nashville market for possibilities of tieing in with a country music firm or setting up a subsid there!. Although no definite deals have been made, it’s understood that Dreyfus has been scouting the Nashville territory for a 1953 move-in. _ „ Chappell’s interest in the folk- j sa * es . of country market further points u p I b > o£ i,!C companies. By 1946, however, British Dec- ca lost control of U. S. Decca, and the latter company sought* to re- lax the original agreement. In 1947 the pact was revised to per- mit British Decca to come into the U. S. with its London Records label. In 1949, the original pact was completely amended and Brit- ish Decca had to give substantial guarantees to U. S. Decca for han- dling its disk line. A couple of months ago, Decca prexy Milton R, Rackmil and his attorney, Henry Cohen (& Bing- ham), went to England to confer with British Decca and EMI execs on bringing their agreements into line with the proposed antitrust decree. Only minor changes had to be made, aside from the ,90-day deadline on picking up releases, since the inter-company agree- ments had previously been revised to conform with U. S. antitrust laws. growing interest in that field by major New York pubberies. In recent months E. H. Morris Music. Shapiro-Bernstein, and the Big Three (Robbins, Feist & Miller) have moved into the alfalfa opera- tion via exclusive pacting of coun- try writers or forming their own cornball publishing operations. Geo. Levy Sells Out To Brother Lou in Leeds Lou Levy and his brother George have terminated their 12- year association in the music busi- ness with the latter selling out his share in Leeds Music and its affili- ated companies. George Levy had been handling the sales end of the publishing company. Parting was amicable, with George Levy planning to go into business for himself. OUT SOON! The 47th Anniversary Number Of Forms closing shortly Usual Advertising rates prevail Special exploitation advantages Copy and space reservations may be sent to any Variety office NSW YORK n 194 W, 44th St. HOLLYWOOD 29 4311 Ymcc« St. CHICAGO 11 412 N* Mlchlfun Av«, LONDON. W. C. 2 9 St. Martin's Plata Trafalfar Square Cap Reshuffles Distrib Echelons; Gordon Fraser Shifts to Coast from Chi In a move to strengthen its dis- trib setup for 1953, Capitol Rec- ords last week reshuffled its sales veepees and district managers. Major move was Cap’s reassigning of Gordon R. Fraser, veepee and sales manager of the Chicago area, to its Coast merchandising office under veepee Lloyd Dunn. Fraser’s Chicago chores will be taken over by A1 Latauska. Cap veepee Paul Featherstone has been assigned the direction of field sales activities for the Boston area but for the time being will handle the operation out of his New York headquarter^, In the Philadelphia area, veepee Vic. Blanchard will take over the management of the Philly branch office replacing George Mansour who is exiting the diskery. Marvih E. Townsend, who had been working with Gene Becker on the Coast on advertising-promotion assignments, was switched to the New York sales office and Max Callison, veepee and sales mana- ger of the Cleveland area, will emporarily take over the manage- ment of the Cleveland branch of- ice replacing, Thorpe Thompson who is exiting the company at the end of the year. Callison will be assisted by Tom Bell.