Variety (April 1953)

Wednesday, April 8, 1953 Pfi&iWFr OMWESTKAS-msiC 37 INSTRUMENTALS AS DISK STAPLES ASCAP Shies From Tavorite Son Electioneering, Though Time Short Although the ASCAP president tial race is still wide open with jess than a month to go before the board must name a successor to Otto A. Harbach, the exec eche- lons of the American {Society of Composers, Authors & Publishers are not engaging in any election- eering to date for “favorite sons.” Neither the writers nor publishers on the ASCAP board have met together in any sort of factional grouping to push for one or an- other pandidate. At this point, however, it’s un- derstood that Stanley Adams is forging ahead as one of the more likely nominees. Adams has the support of the writer group on the board and he has reportedly been gaining among some of the leading publishers. Jack Yellen has also been named as a possi- bility by the writers but has re- ceived little publisher support. Some top publishers believe that if a deadlock occurs, either Fred E. Ahlert or Deems Taylor, both former prexies* may be asked to take the top post. Ahlert, however, has indicated that he would decline to serve. The balloting for writer-members of the ASCAP board, which re- sulted in the reelection of all in- cumbents, gave the following results: 138,822 votes for Oscar Hammerstein 2d; 138,289 for Har- bach; 132,405 for Ahlert; 124,982 to Adams; 124,327 for Yellen; 121,858 for Gene Buck; 119,229 for Edgar Leslie; 118,889 for Deems Taylor; 115,931 to John Tasker Howard; 115,562 to George Meyer; 112,171 to Paul Cunningham; and 98,596 to A. Walter Kramer. Aberbachs Prep Alamo Buildup Music publishers Jean and Julian Aberbach, who have be- come among the leading hillbilly publishers via their Broadcast Music, Inc., Hill & Range firm, are currently making a bid to build lip their Alamo company, an ASCAP affiliate. In the last couple of weeks, the Abefbachs have made exclusive deals with four ASCAP writ'ers. Lee Morris, a history teacher in Boston, joined the Alamo stable under a one-year pad with two- year options. Morris, who has done special material for such perform- ers as Hildegarde and Carl Bris- son, is currently on a hillbilly kick after making a trip to Nash- ville. The Aberbachs also inked Kay Twomey, also from Boston, Fred wise and A1 Weisman. Latter three writers work as a team. Wally Cox’s RCA Disks Wally. Cox, nitery comic and the “Mr. Peepers” of the NBC-TV show, will make his bow on ... wax via RCA Victor release later this month. Cox has- etched a comedy monolog, “What A Crazy Guy” and the standard, “There’s A Tavern In The Town.” Accent on diskings by the TV comics is also being made by Co- lumbia with their recent slice of a Red Buttons disk. Victor cut Some disks with Milton Berle a couple of years ago as did Coral Records with Jerry Lester. N.Y. Court Rule Blow to Goody’s ROBBINS, NAT COLE FORM NEW PUBBERY Jack Robbis, head of J. J. Rob- bins & Sons, has formed N a new publishing company in partnership with Nat (King) Cole. Firm, called King Cole Music, will issue piano method folios written by Cole in the Dixieland and progressii idioms. Robbins recently made a similar jji'al with Jack Barry, emcee of Juvenile Jury,” in the Robar company which is publishing a to] io of p.d. tunes, in new arrange- ments under the title of “Life Be- gins At 80—Old Time Songs.” Jack Robbins may publish the scoi-e of the nev* Fred Finklehoffe- Jo»wny Mercer legit musical. An- odur legit venture is the forth- e () mng Albert Lewis production of uic late) Fulton Oursler’s “Great- ly . st °ry Ever Told.” Domenico ~ avino » longtime J. J. Robbins it ‘•vt 1s . Sta ^ er » has arranged a yary g Lullaby” thematic for the dramatic play. The case for establishing firm list prices on disks wa,,s given the biggest support to date when the Raxor Corp. won its suit against Sam Goody, N. Y. discount re- tailer, in N. Y. Supreme * Court last week. Raxor, in behalf of Cetra-Soria Records, was granted an injunction prohibiting Goody from cutting prices on their mer- chandise. In a long decision by Judge Isidor Wasservogel, the court ruled the Feld-Crawford fair-trading act fully applied to Cetra. The judge threw out Goody’s claim that Raxor was indulging in the illegal price-fixing or in restraint of trade. The court 'ruled, however, that the Feld-Ora.wford Act did not apply to Goody's inter-state or foreign sales, which excludes his mail order operation from the in- junction. Capitol Records took over the distribution of the Cetra catalog April 1 and is continuing the policy of maintaining list prices by en- tering a number of fair trade agreements. .The court ruled that- Raxor’s deal with Capitol had no bearing on the suit against Goody since there was nothing in this pact which-was illegal. The tieup between Raxor in the U. S. and Cetra. in Jtaly, which Goody con- tended involved illegal price-fix- ing, also was approved by the court as a legitimate deal to buy- foreign masters by a U. S. com- pany. Decca Drops Stock Incentive Plan For Its Key Personnel Due to negative reaction from stockholders, Decca’s board has agreed to drop its proposed stock incentive plan, to key employees. Directors made the decision at its meeting last “week because “they have received adverse comments upon the stock option plan as sub- mitted sufficient to warrant recon- sideration of the matter.” • Plan would have opened the way for the issue of 150,000 shares, with key employees entitled to be award- ed options for purchase of a speci- fied number of- the stocks at 95% of the prevailing market price. Dedca prexy Milton R" Rackmil was given the first option to buy 100,000 shares. Opposition to the incentive plan by Decca stockholders is Surpris- ing in light of its beir\g-a common practice in corporations in and out of show business. Loew’s and Co- lumbia ^Pictures, for instance, have such plans, currently In operation. The Decca plan*was. to have come up for approval at the stockholders’ meeting in N.Y.'April 14. - - - ■- • • • » ■ • ■ — Al Salinas has been named pro- fessional manager of Peer Inter- national’s Latin-American division. While it’s been the hillbilly tunes and the novelties which have seemingly captured the music biz for the past couple of years, instru- mental numbers in the class brack- et have bucked the tide to become among the most staple items in the bestselling lists. Instrumental clicks, of course, are as old as the disk industry, but their vitality in face of the recent cornball surge is a current phenomenon in the trade. All of the major platter labels are now pulling for the instrument- al vogue with one or more orchs batoned by “house” musical direc- tors. Victor has Hugo Winterhal- ter and Henri Rene; Columbia has Percy Faith and Mitch Miller; Dec- ca has Leroy Anderson, Tutti Camarata and Gordon Jenkins, and Capitol has Les Baxter, while among “the Little Three” com- panies, M-G-M has Tony Acqua- viva, David Rose and Macklin Har- row; Mercury has Dick Hayman and Ralph Marterie, and London has Edmundo Ros. The disk companies have been laying on the instrumentals be- cause they have been steady, and occasionally standout sellers such as “The Third Man Theme,” with Anton Karas for London several years ago and more recently Ander- son’s “Syncopated Clock” and “Blue Tango.” Such hits, more- over, have proved to be solid sheet music sellers in a period when the usual run of^ disk hits have gen- erally been 4 disappointing copy movers. The key, perhaps, to the consistent showing of the instru- mentals may be found in their steady spinning by the disk jockeys who want a change from the pop lyric diet. No Critics This Year No instrumental has broken through for a hit this year as yet, but there are currently a flock of contenders for such ranking. “Ruby”, theme from the 20th-Fox pic, “Ruby Gentry,” is rapidly mov- ing upwards via the Hayrffan slice for Mercury, and a Mitchell Par- (Continued on page 45) • • Manie Sacks Sets Joe Carlton as A&R Topper of RCA’s New Record. Label ‘Da, Da* Subversive The anti-Commie mood of the nation is now sweeping through Tin Pan Alley. In the original version of the tune, “Say Si Si,” there’s a line which goes, “and in Russia, the girls say ‘da da’!” For the tune’s current revival, however,. the line has been dropped. Al Stillman and Francia Luban wrote the tune on a theme* by Ernesto Lecu- ona. E.B. Marks is publishing. Ellington Exits Col for Capitol After waxing under the Colum- bia Records banner for the past five years, Duke Ellington last week switched to the Capitol label. Ellington’s Cap deal will run a year with options and calls for a hefty guarantee. Col’s negotiations for a renewal of Ellington’s pact fell through when the maestro and the diskery couldn’t come to terms on the guarantee stipulation. In the past year a number of major diskerles have squawked about their orch pactees’ high guarantees and have been threat-, ening to crack down when renewaf time came due. Ellington, who recently celebrated his 25th anni in the music biz, etched for- the now-defunct Musicraft label before rejoining Columbia in 1948. Disney Follows Santly-Joy Deal With RMI Subsid Another ASCAP firm moved into the dual publishing operation with a Broadcast Music, Inc., affiliate this week with Walt Disney Music reactivating its Wonderland subsid in a tieup with the broadcasters. Move marks the second time with- in a month that BMI has added a new firm from the ASCAP strong- hold. Previous deal was with Sant- ly-Joy's new. Trinity .Music subsid. In line with the Wonderland set- up, Disney is regaining the copy- rights to the scores from the pix, “Bambi” and “The Reluctant Drag- on.” Both scores were placed with BMI before Disney had set up his own music firm. Scores from his pix previously had been spotted among several Tin Pan Alley pubs arid he handed the “Bambi” (pen- ned by Frank Churchill and Ed- ward Plumb) and “The Reluctant Dragon” (by Churchill and Larry Morey) copyrights to BMI because the pix were released during radio’s ban on ASCAP. Both scores, of course, will now be placed in the Wonderland firm. Wonderland was organized two years ago as selling agent for the “Alice In Wonderland” score which was published by Disney. Firm, however, was never placed in ASCAP or BMI. Disney’s move in- to the BMr fold is attributed to the dissatisfaction with ASCAP’s payoff system. ( Wonderland’s operation will be delayed until Disney Music’s gen- eral manager, Fred Raphael, re- turns from a six-week European trek which began yesterday (Tues,). BMl’s guarantee deals and point payoff plan for Wonderland will be worked out then. Geo. Frazier to RCA For ‘Special Projects’ Writer George Frazier' joined RCA Victor last week in - a ne>vly created post a$ coordinator of spec- ial projects. In his new spot, Fraz- ier will supervise pop reissues and show albums long with originating special album ideas out of Victor’s extensive wax archives. .... A jazz critic, Frazier has an in timate working knowledge of Vic : tor's accumulation of jazz classics reaching back to the 1920s. Victor has been releasing numerous jazz albums recently but most of 1930- 40 vintage. Court Backs Agent’s Fee on Song During 2d Copyright Term An agent’s fee on a song publica- tion, .made during the first copy- right term, is valid during the second copyright term as well, ac- cording, to a N. Y* Federal Court decision last week in the case of Jack Val vs. Feist Music. Val was suing for 10% of the royalties on the oldie, “Running Wild,” which he sold to Feist, in 1922 on behalf of the writers, A, Harrington Gibbs, Joseph Gray and Leo Wood, the first two agreeing to pay Val the agent’s cut. Unique aspect of the case was that the publisher argued against the concept thafcan original agree- ment under the initial copyright term is valid for the second term. Abner Greenberg, attorney for Val, based his contrary claim on the Witmark vs. Fred Fisher ruling by the Supreme Court in 1942 in the “Wild Irish Rose” case. RCA Victor is moving into a brand new disk operation witn the formation of a subsid label, as yet unnamed, which will be aimed at all markets, except the classical. Joe Carlton, • currently Mercury Records’ eastern artists & reper- toire chief takes over the top a&r spot of the new label which will be handled through an entirely inde- pendent distrib system. He starts April 20 but marketing may not occur until late summer. New label" will complement Vic- tor’s Bluebird line which was re- activated last fall for low-priced classical and kiddie platters One of the suggested names for the new diskery is Arc, an anagram of the RCA trademark. Manie Sacks, who conceived the extra lftbel, is also partial to the Arc tag, which he Coined. Arc will have the same price as Victor’s pops. Selling of the new label will be unique for Victor insofar as the. distrib outlets will have no con- nection with RCA’s regular out- lets which handle the company’s radio-TV sets, air-conditioning and stove merchandise for consumers. Victor . execs. are aiming to . hypo the new label via this push from distribs who only handle disks. Victor’s move is similar to Dec- ca's in its formation of Coral Records.' Latter company is virtu- ally independent of Decca with all facets of Coral’s operation, except for top echelon decisions, handled by separate personnel. Columbia Records also launched a subsid la- bel, Okeh Records, on a similar basis. Coral has' been clicking steadily in the pop fields while Okeh has established itself in the rhythm & blues market with a pop buildup in the works. While Camden will handle both the Victor-affiliated brands, includ- ing Arc (or whatever the new title) on billings, operations will other- wise be decentralized. Carlton will be at RCA’s East 24th St. (N. Y.) studios, and in every respect inde- pendent. Pressing, printing, bill- ing, etc., will be from the common depots, for obvious cost reasons. RCA Disk Biz In 16% Hike for ’53 RCA Victor’s disk biz continued strong last quarter, according to publisher royalty payments which showed a 16% boost o\>er the pre- vious quarter. It was 14% over the payments made for the same quar- ter last year. Upbeat was acounted foivby such hits Pcn'y Como’s “Don't Let The Stars Get In Your Eyes” and a couple of Eddie Fisher clicks: Per- centages cover payments made to publishers collecting through the Harry Fox office of the Musip Pub- lishers Protective Assn. Ernst Von Dohnanyi, composer- pianist, Will be guest soloist at the premiere concert of the Atlantic City Symphony Orchestra, tomor- row (Tliurs.) in the Atlantic City High SchooL AQUAVIVA SWITCHES FROM M-G-M TO CORAL Tony Aquaviva, who’s billed on his orch waxings by his surname only-> ended his year-long affilia- tion with M-G-M Records last week when he pacted with the Coral label. The Aquaviva acqui- sition is part of Coral’s plan to strengthen its orch pactee stable in line with current vogue for in- strumental platters. Aquaviva joined the M-G-M roster when diskery bought up' several of his independently-made masters. It’s expected that bis first Coral sides will be out on the market during the latter part of May. Rpss to Dorsey Music Benny Ross lias been name$l pro- fessional manager of Dorsey Bros. Music and its subsid, Embassy Music. Ross was formerly associated .. • j i . 1 ■■ r. _ f _