Variety (January 1953)

Wedn esday, January 2 8, 195£ ^ 1 »m Mila PSxitefr ^ • - - - ©HCIIESTItAS-MUSIC 45 N Scoreboard OF TOP TALENT AND TONES Compiled from Statistical *Reports of Distribution % Encompassing the Three Major Outlets Coin Machines Retail Disks Retail Sheet Music as Published in the Current Issue for — 1 ■ WEEK ENDING JANUARY 24 —— t- - NOTE} The current comparative sales strength oj the Artists and Tunes listed hereunder is arrived at under a statistical system comprising each of the three major sales outlets enu- merated above. These findings are correlated with data from wider sources, which are exclusive with Variety. The positions resulting from these findings denote the OVERALL IMPAC1 de- veloped from the ratio of points scored : two ways in the case of talent idisks* coin machines >. and three tcays in the case of tunes (disks, coin machines, sheet music). POSITIONS This Last Week Week 1 i 2 2 3 3 4 5 5 4 6 7 7 8 8 10 9 9 10 POSITIONS This Last Week Week 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 1 3 2 6 5 4 7 8 9 10 TALENT ARTIST AND LABEL JONI JAMES (MGM)...... PERRY COMO (Victor).... TERESA BREWER (Coral). JO STAFFORD (Columbia) MILLS BROS. (Decca)^ GAYLORDS (Mercury).... PATTI PAGE (Mercury).... DON HOWARD (Essex)... LAWRENCE WELK (Coral) DORIS DAY (Columbia)... TUNES TUNE . (Why Don’t You Believe Me /Have You Heard Don’t Let the Stars Get in Your Eyes Till I Walts: Again ^ (Keep it a Secret . . ) You Belong to Me Glow Worm Tell Me Your Mine ' (Doggie in the Window^ ) I Went to Your Weeding Oh Happy Day Oh .Hagpy tfay ' ■ 1 % 'Tap Toe ' TONE . PUBLISHER' • DON’T LET THE STARS GET IN YOUR EYES ....Four Star TELL I WALTZ AGAIN .• • Village WHY DON’T YOU BELIEVE ME ..Brandon OH HAPPY DAY :... BVC KEEP IT A SECRET Shapiro-B GLOW WORM ,'e. B. Marks TELL ME YOU’RE MINE Capri HAVE YOU HEARD .Brandon BECAUSE YOU’RE MINE Feist HOLD ME, THRILL ME, KISS ME......... Mills Best British Sheet Sellers (Week ending Jan. 17 ) London, Jan/ 20. You Belong to Me.. Chappell Walkin’ to Missouri Dash Here in My Heart . ...Mellin Outside of Heaven Wood Feet Up Cinephonic *r Isle of Innisfree.... . Maurice:... ‘ Forget-Me-Not Reirie' Faith Can Move........ Dash Half as Much Robbins Comes Along a Love.Kassner I Went Wedding Victoria Sugarbush’ Chappell Second 12 Zing a Little Zong .. .Maddox Because You’re Mine. .Robbins Stars in Your Eyes. .. .Morris Homing Waltz Reine That’s-A Why Connelly Wonderful Copenhagen Moms.. Takes to Tango... F. D. & H. Walkin’ My Baby . . Victoria Blue Tango . Mills My Love and Devotion . Fields Make It Soon Connelly Woods on Fire... .New World Boston Pops Tour Orch Off to Okay Start On 10-Week, 65-Date Trek The Boston Pops Tour Orches- tra, under direction of “Arthur Fiedler, got off to a good start in Troy, N. Y., last Tuesday (20), playing to a house of 5,000 on the R.P.I. series. Group was in on a $4,000 guarantee. Orch of 70 men has been set for what’s regarded as thjfc^ longest and most ambitious tour ever undertaken by a classi- cal "group, with a 10-week trek of 65 dates, going as far south as Miami and Houston and west to Chicago. Tour, booked by Bill Judd, of the Judson, O’Neill & Judd divison of Columbia Artists. Mgt., will end March 28 in' Syracuse. Following Tuesday’s Troy date, orch played Wednesday in Amherst (-Mass.) U. gym to 4,800, biggest house town’s ever had. The Thurs- day White Plains showing was good; Friday's Scranton house pulled 4,500, and Saturday's Bal- timore date* was $RO. Orch played Sunday in Washington, Monday in Harrisburg and Altoona last night (Tues.). Orch is the unit Fiedler assem- bled for the traditional Pops jsgring series in Boston last year, : when the Boston Symphony Or- chestra (from which the Pops group is ordinarily recruited) went to Europe for a tour. Fiedler has been careful to pick a group of equal calibre, as Columbia is count- ing heavily on the orch drawing because of the rep of the Boston Pops Orchestra via its recordings. The Boston Pops leads in RCA Vic- tor’s bestsellers, exceeding even the NBC Symphony and Boston Symphony, with 16 titles on Vic- tor’s 101 all-time bestsellers list. Bulk of the tour dates are at $4,000, with some at $3,500 and a few at $4,500, depending on loca- tion and seating capacity. Jolly Roger Platters Still in Circulation Many of the Jolly Roger jazz disks are still being peddled by re- tailers despite the crackdown on the pirate label last summer. Re- tailers feel free to sell the disk- legged platters due to the defeat of the Bennett-Wilson bill, vetoed by Gov. Thomas E. Dewey last year. Bill, however, has been rein- troduced in current Albany ses- sion and would make manufacture or sale of pirated disks a penal offense: The Jolly Roger platters are be- ing openly advertised by tjie re- tailers in collectors’ magazines. Mills’ Dfckery Inks * New Valentine Orch Latching on to the orch-on-wax upbeat, -Mills Music last week pacted the Jimmy Valentine band for its indie American Recording Artist* outfit. Valentine will be making his disk debut with the ARA slice which are being cut this week. Bob Craig to Decca Bob Craig, Coast singer, has been inked to a term pact by Decca Records. He’s bding given a special build- up by the diskery as a “new sounds” And and has been given a Gordon Jenkins’ backing on his first release. Pension Plan Exec board of the Music Pub- lishers Contact Employes Union has dropped the pension plan clause from the new 'contract which it’s proposing to the pub- lishers. Decision to omit the pen- sion clause was decided, at the MPCE huddle last week with the Music Publishers Protective Assn. Pluggers union and MPPA agreed that inclusion of the plan in the contract wouldn’t be fair to pUbs who’ve been maintaining separate pension agreements with their staffers. MPCE now will submit their pension plan to the pubs on an individual basis. Plan calls for a 3% assessment of a $100-a-week salary from plugger and pub. The union expects to resume the pen- sion talks as soon as negotiation* on the new contract have been completed. The contractual confabs have come to a temporary halt while Bob Miller, MPCE prez, makes hi* annual Coast trek. Miller, .who headed west Monday (26) expect* to be back in New York Feb. 22. RCA ISSUES EDUC’L DISK CATALOG FOR SCHOOLS In a move to hypo disks for school use, RCA Victor has com- piled its most comprehensive edu- cational record catalog for use by teachers. Catalog was turned out by Victor’s educational service* division..,.^ -DiSJc guide is designed for use in two major phases' bf music education. One part lisite educa- tional platters created for stimu- lating interest in music and the other part is devoted to the major classics keyed to various age groups. Special selections cover folk dances, the various orchestral instruments, language study and children’s records. T. D. Pulls R800 In Memphis 1-Niter Memphis, Jan. 27. Tommy Dorsey orch played to SRQ last week in a one-nighter packaged at the* Silver Slipper nitery here, grossing $1,800. The Slipper, Memphis’ only nitery, booked T.D. on his tour of the South which followed with dates at JaCkson, Term., two nights in Birmingham and a three-nfght stand at Atlanta. On the basis of the boff turnout for the Dorsey aggregation* Slipper management now planning a series of name bands for one and two-night en- gagements at elub. Club was scaled at $2.50 per ducat with no dinner or extras in- cluded in the admish charges. Jimmy Dorsey, meantime, moves In here for a two-week stint in the Claridge Hotel’s Balinese room booked by hotel manager, Scott Stewart. Crane Adds 24 Copyrights Prom Hennig’s Catalog Crane Music last week added 24 copyrights from Frank Hennig’s Music to its catalog. Deal moved eight of Hennig’s recently acquired Maria Grever compositions to the Crane firm. Under the agreement, Jil George, who had been partnered with ften- nig in the latter’s firm, will head up Crane Music while Hennig con- tinues as Hennig’s Music topper. George also appointed Bernard Kassin to assist him in the .opera- tion of Crane. Walter Piston’s BMI Deal Walter Piston, longhair com- poser and teacher, has made a deal with Broadcast Music, Inc., by which he will publish all of his future compositions through As- sociated Music Publishers, a BMI subsid. Piston is currently profes- sor of music at Harvard Music. Inking of Piston to a BMI deal follows the recent moveover of another noted contemporary com- poser, William Schuman, from the American . Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers into the BMI fold.