Variety (March 1953)

S» ORCHDESTRAS-MVSIC ■Wednesday, March 25, 1953 E H. Morris Cops Pix Scores Front Results of the settlement be- tween E. H. Morris Music arid Warner Bros., 20th-Fox and Metro last fall, allowing independent pubberies to bid for pic scores, has borne fruit with Morris latching on to the publication rights for the scores from upcoming filmusicals by the three pic studios. The set- tlement was made ^out-of-court on Morris' $6,000,000 suit against the three studios which charged a con- spiracy by pic companies to mon- opolize the publication of pic. scores through their publishing affiliates. Forthcoming pic scores to be published by Morris are WB’s “A “Star Is Born," penned by Harold Arlen and Ira Gershwin; Metro's “Latin Lovers/' by Leo Robin and Nicholas Brodzky; 20th’s “Farmer Takes A Wife," by Dorothy Fields and Harold Arlen and the interpo- lated songs for the same studio's production of “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes" by Hoagy Carmichael and Harold Adamson. Original Broad- way production score was written by Leo Robin and Jule Styne and are published by J. J. Robbins & Sons. ^ Morris also is dickering for pub- lication rights to the score from an upcoming musical on Para- mount's schedule. Par was dropped • from Morris' original suit because he had previously published the scores of several Par pic musicals. In the past, however, the scores from Metro and 20th filmusicals had gone to its subsid, the Big Three, while the Music Publish- ers Holding Corp., .the Warner, firms, got the WB pic scores. Before the Morris-pix companies accord, the studios had an abso- lute right to assign pic tunes to their own publishing affiliates. Norm Weinstoer, Coral Records .sales manager, headed for ‘the Pittsburgh .area‘this week to om. the distrib situation. hold m, mm me, KISS ME Karen Chandler coral R ofcirti Lm - Jerry Gray decca / MuliC Frorn T^O Grocf C o'o-zq Of It’i Maiic by * JESSE GREER Program Today Yesterday's OK THE BEACH WITH YOU WORDS A MUSIC, INC. (1619 Broadway, Now York) RETAIL SHEET BEST SELLERS PftttlETY Survey of retail sheet music sales based on reports obtained from leading stores in 10 cities and showing comparative sales rating for this and last week . * ASCAP t BMI National Rating This Last wk, wk. Title and Publisher w P & tH * 1) fc OT o Id m u <u G w •H d) £ S ■8 V A o o •flfi 4-> G o £ G P w CD TJ m ■A U * ' Ctt •i* A ft •G w l-H a & o o o G cj •pd Pd o 6 co 3 I G CO w it CD A o co HH * o •k O in CO o •M A V o O OT G s £ A o W to CO 0) G a s o O . o •H w G 2 OT G 3 G d) l “9 o CO CO (fl 9 w cu a G cn o ■ H w G 2 w • rH G O P d-» w CO *3 o p » c n CO O Id M d) G- G *C o o id 4) P o U o CO G 2 Dd cO O a? co d) CO T O T A L I* 0 1 N T S. Till I Waltz Again* (Village) 2 4 4 1 2 2 *Poggie in the Window (Santly-J) "3 3 *Keep It a Secret (Shapiro-B)... ~~ Don't Let.the Stars (Four Star) 7 10 10 *1 Believe (Cromwell) 3 6 10 _1_ 7 88 83 58 53 12 7 A 8 ♦Side By Side (Shapiro-B) ♦Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Mc~(Mills). .7 8 8 8 9 8 7B 7 * Anywhere 1 Wander (Frank) 8 ~7C 8 *Pretend (Brandom) 5 10 6 *Oh Happy Day (BVC) 8 8 12 5 tTe/l Me You're Mine (Capri) 10 ♦Wild Horses (Simon) - 9 13_ U 15 11 *Don’t You* Believe Me (Brandom)... 10 8 _28 JS7 26 26 26 21 20 10 9 15 *How Speak to Angel (Chappell) 10 .. .. 5 .. 7 77 *Hate You Heard (Brandom) 7! ~ ~ 7 ~ T6 To T 7! 71 6 CORAL & OKEH PICK UP KIDISK FIRM’S MASTERS Scripts & Scores, -firiri special- izing in the writing and producing of kidisks, moved into the pop field this week. with. the.purchase of four of its independently etched masters by two major platteries. Coral Records picked up two bal- lads, “It’s The Strangest Feeling" and “I Don’t Have To Close My Eyes," while .the. OJkeh . label latched on to two rhythm numbers, “Why, Darling, Why?” and “Go Away." The tunes, which were written by Scripts & Scores’ execs, Hugo Peretti, Luigi Cr.eatQre and Herb Plattner, were waxed with Peretti heading up the orch and crooner Mace Barrett on .the .ballads and a vocal combo, The Travelers, on the rhythm sides. The Travelers also were signed to a. five-year pact by Okeh. Meantime, the ballads were picked up for publication by Shaw- nee Press, Fred Waring’s firm, and the rhythm tunes went to Harman Music. N.Y. Chamber Orch Finally Bows Under AFM Auspices The debut concert. of a new chamber orchestra under the direc- tion of Franz Allers, now is skedded for To.wn Hall,. N. Y., April 5 with cost of the rehearsal and the performance costs jointly underwritten by. the. Local .802, AFM| Music Performance Trust Fund of the recording industry, the Composers-Authors.Guild of Amer- ica, the American Composers Al- liance and the Canadian League of Composers. - Orch’s two previously - skedded concerts, which were to take place at Town Hall under the auspices of the New Friends of Music, were cancelled because the New Friends failed to post a bond covering the musicians’ salaries. • .It was the first cancellation In the New Friends' 17-year history. 7 Another BMI K Pm Up' Hit THE SONG from WOULIN ROUGE Published by BMI P.r. r . RECORDS ManL a T' Felicia ^ ant * eri - -I Columbia I HmH R«b, • I London! Axel Stordahl-Jun* Hutton ‘" iL Vlc t arl BRPADCilBTMWtClKc. ' P ' t0U At 6-Year High Employment rate of songplug- gers around the country hit its highest point in six years last week. Of the 550 members in the plug- gers’ union, Music Publishers Con- act Employees, only 14 weren l t on pubbery’s payroll lists in last week’s tally. Bob Miller, MPCE prez, admits that-the low unemployment is par- tially due to the large number of contactmen who've opened up their own firms in the past couple of years but, he added, there’s a definite upswing in the plugging activities. Although the pubs still need the clicko disk to bring their tune in, they'also realize that they can’t discount value of contacts in tele, radio and orch fields. The New York pluggers, too, are in- creasingly being used as deejay contacts through the east and mid- west. MPCE, incidentally, has appoint- ed Mac Kooper (Walt Disney Mu- sic)' to the exec board, replacing Bernie Alberts (Big Three), who ankled the biz. Leo Diston (Chap- pell Music) was named to head un- ion’s public relations. Joseph Krips Appointed Buffalo Symph Maestro •Buffalo, March 24. Josef Krips was named perma- nent conductor of the Buffalo Phil- harmonic Orchestra this week. Krips, formerly of Vienna and presently conductor of the London Symphony for the. second consecu- tive year, made his American de- but in Buffalo on Feb. 15, receiv- ing an ovation from the newspaper critics. Krips is presently in London where, after conducting in Holland and Strasbourg, he will conduct a series of concerts for the Coro- nation. At the same time, it was announced that in his first season in Buffalo, he will introduce a Beethoven Festival. N.Y. Symph to Nix Choral Works in Tiff With AGMA Hassle between the N.Y. Phil- harmonic and the American Guild of Musical Artists came to a head last week when the Philharmonic declined to recognize AGMA’s ju- risdiction of vocalists, choristers and dancers in choral work pres- entations. Move cancels out, with one exception, presentation of choral works on next season's pro- grams. (Exception will 'be a per- formance of Beethoven’s “Missa Solemnis,” which was skedded for Easter Sunday this year, but will •be carried over to next season be- cause of maestro Dimitri Mitrop- oulos’ recent illness). Break came early last week when AGM 4 . sought to negotiate for renewal of its first contract with the Philharmonic, which was signed last year. Union is -attempt- ing to organize professional’ chor- isters around the country and it’s expected .that other major orchs in the U.S. will have to reach some agreement with AGMA before scheduling choral works. .. According to a Philharmonic rep, the orch was willing to grant AGMA’s jurisdiction in instances of operatic works presented in concert form, but would not recog- nize its jurisdiction over choral work presentations. It also was ad- mitted that the orch’s economy kick was another factor in its de- cision to drop choral music next season. Broader aspect of the disagree- ment is that the union, which reps most of the major singers in the U.JS., could refilse permission to vocalists to appear as soloists with the Philharmonic even in works without chorus. * Stanton to Roxbury Firm Frank Stanton has been named professional manager of Roxbury Music, succeeding Bert Haber who recently shifted to the professional staff of Sheldon Music. Roxbury is owned by Boston deejay Sherm Feller. Stanton previously had been with Southern Music. Legal Field Day In Jack Robbins Row Vs. Kassner The row between Jack Robbins head of the J. J. Robbins & Sons music firm, and Ed Kassner, re- cently ousted vice-prexy of the company, is developing into a law- yers’ field day with four court ac- tioift ..now in the works. Legal claims and counter-claims stemmed from the inability of the *duo to reach a settlement under which both could operate in the samp company. The legal Scoreboard currently stands as follows: (1), Robbins 1 ’ kickoff suit to oust Kassner from the firm for his alleged failure to fulfill the terms of his pact under which he was taken into the J j Robbins firm; (2), Kassner’s coun- ter-suit against Robbins for as- sault, libel and breach-of-contract* (3), Robbins’ suit to collect $475 in personal loans which he made to Kassner; and (4), Kassner’s suit to dissolve the claimed partnership and split the assets. Key actions are Nos. 1 and 4. Robbins launched his action against Kassner on the grounds that the latter failed to finance the music firm as allegedly agreed upon two years ago when he joined the company. According to Rob- bins, Kassner then declared he would float the company without asking Robbins for any more money. In the'subsequent period* however, Kassner is charged with tapping Robbins for more coin with which to operate the company. Kassner’s counter-action for dis- olution for the firm stems from his contention that he Was made a full partner when he originally joined Robbins. Latter contends that Kass- ner had options to buy a 50% share in the company if he paid $5,000 yearly for 10 years. Kassner al- legedly only made the initial $5,- 000 payment and hence permitted the options to expire. Another charge .made by Robbins is that Kassner was giving too much time to his own companies instead of concentrating on the Robbins' setup. ^Kassner was ousted as vice-prexy of the publishing company last week by. the board of directors, consisting, of Jack Robbins; his wife, Rose, and his son, Howard (Buddy). Lew Dreyer is acting as legal rep for Robbins with Mor- ton Miller (& Miller) in Kassner’* corner. Christopher Lynch, Irish tenor, kicks off a 20-city concert tour Fri- day (27) in Chicago. A Solid Ballad Hit! ’ SAY IT WITH YOUR £ HEART ^ LEO FEIST, INC Jake Ops Continued from page 53 censing is criticized by the juke ops as an unwarranted tax. They contend that they already pay the copyright owners of tunes via their purchase of disks. The perform- ance fees hence would be an addi- tional tax. The American Society of Composers, Authors & Publish- ers, as one of the major collection agencies, has been Urging passage of the McCarran bill. Although no specific licensing fee is provided for in the bill, it’s estimated. that a nominal tax of lc per tune per week on the coin machines wduld total over $5,000,000 annually. 200-G Drive For Houston Symph Boston, March 24. A $200,000 maintenance fund drive for the Houston Symphony Orchestra will be conducted here from April 1 to 17 for the 1953-54 season. ftobert W. Kneebone will head the drive. BALLAD SINGERS RECORDING COMPANIES An Old Time Standard ON THE SHORES OF ITALY A BEAUTIFUL WALTZ SONG Pub. by LEO FEIST, Inc. 799 7th Av».. Naw York City America's Fastest Selling Records!