Variety (April 1953)

w™1n«6Jay, April 8, 1953 RCA Maps AD-Ont Effort to Build * Europe Disk Market; Big Italy Push A multip*ofig6d sales, talent, rep- ertoire and equipment program is feeing mapped by - RCA Victor to jielp build the European disk mar- ket. to. its full potential. • Disk sales \n England and free Europe cur- rently are under 55,000,000 an- tmallv with England accounting for about 28,000,000; France, 9,000,000; West Germany, 11,000,000, and Italy 4,000,000. It’s believed that Europe could absorb double- this amount. . . . : . x . ■ , Victor’s artist? & repertoire chief, George Marek, and the company’s international manager, Meade Bru- net, believe that the key to more extensive sales .can be feund- in <1) more turntable^; (2), lower prices; (3), use of local repertoire, and -(4), the release of more classi- cal and standard pop repertoire. Kid Kick Waxes on Disks The indie Jubilee label got on the juve kick last week with the pacting of 12-year old Andrew Wideman to a longterm waxing deal, Wideman currently is fea- tured on NBC-TV’s kid variety’ show, “Star Time.” His first sides will he released April 15. GOV. DEWEY AGAIN VETOES PIRACY BILL! Albany, April 7. Governor Thomas E. Dewey, vetoed without comment a bill by Assemblyman Malcolm Wilson of Yonkers, aimed at preventing the bootlegging of phonograph records Victor execs, are particularly aim- or radio broadcasts. ; It was the ing at widening their impact in second consecutive year the Gov» Italy. Currently that country. is ernor had disapproved such a dominated by the Cetra label, which measure. is a subsid of RIA, the Italian radio The bill propped to make it network. Tieup between the net- a misdemeanor to anyone to tr.ans work and native talent has given the Cetra company a pronounced edge. The Italian market, how- ever, is far from developed and fer sounds from a record or similar device, or from a broadcast, with- out the consent of the performer, record manufacturer or the person Victor plans to work with home- owning the performance rights. Re- grown talent in that country by cording. companies* supported the way of developing ah Italian fol- act, sponsored in the Upper House lowing. An Arturo Toscanini or Perry Como on the Victor label also Is figured to be of consider- able help when the promotion starts rolling. With the initial impetus from Italy, where its plant will be com- pleted next month for fall opera- tion, Victor will embark on simi-J lar talent and repertoire maneu-' vers in the other western European countries. France is one target for the buildup- since U. 5. pop disks at present have no impact there at all. Germany, on the other hand, is U.S. pop-conscious and at pres- ent, the tunes from the legit mu- sical, “South Pacific,” are getting wide play. by Senator John . D. Nassau County. Bennett, of PjSiWfr wifnirli6S8aam— Best British Sheet SeDers (Week ending March 28) London; Match 31, Doggie in Window.. .Connelly : Broken Wings Fields Wonderful Copenhagen.Morris Red Feathers Dash Outside ;of: Hjeayen.... .Wood Don’t Let the Stars.... Morris Now Dash Golden Coach. .;.. Box & Cox Don’t Believe Me...F.D.&H. Because You’re Mine. .Robbins • Oh Happy Day. . j. . Chappell Glow Worm Lafleur Second 12 Littie Red Monkey.. .Robbins Make It Soon '.. Connelly Talk to the Trees.... .Chappell ’Till I Waltz F.D.&H. You Belong to Me.. .Chappell . That’s '.A-.Why .;... .Connelly Comes Along a Love.Kassner Fall Asleep Reine : Love of My Life.....'.. .Reine I Will Never Change Yale Got You on My Mind. Feldman Keep It a Secret... Cinephonic ‘Curtain Call’ Series Expanded by Decca Dipping into its back catalog, Decca ‘ Records is enlarging its “Curtain Call” series of reissues with four more single disks. Releases include George Jessel's two-part “Hello, Momma,” platter; Ben Bernie’s *!Au Revoir, Pleasant Dreams” and “It’s a Lonesome Old Town”; Marlene Dietrich's “The Boys In the Backroom” and “Fall- ing In Love Again” and Libby Holman's “Love For Sale” and “Moanin’ Low.” OKCHESTKAS-MUSIC S9 (Mere Beef Over ASCAP Logging System, Claim They’re Underrated Tarr’s RCA Sales Post Irwin Tarr, who handled pro- motion for RCA Victor’s Red Seal’ line, has been upped to sales man- ager for coin machines and syndi- cate stores. He replaces Jim Len- non who took over the direction of Victor’s' company-owned stores for its employees at the eight plants located around the U. S. Dick Weddell moves into Tarr’s Red Seal spot. WOODY IN ROSELAND DATE, ANNIHOOPLA Marking his 15 anni as a band- leader and 40th birthday, Woody Herman has been booked into the Roseland, N. Y., May 15, where he made his first public appearance with his original cooperatively- owned band. There’s a possibility that the original musicians in the coopera- tive band, which was composed of ex-Isham Jones sidemen, will re- assembly for the Roseland date. Leading jazzmen of the late 1930s are also being invited to participate with the band on that date. COLE’S ILLNESS FORCES CARNEGIE HALL REFUND “The Record Show of . 1953!’ got off to a bad start Sunday (5) at Carnegie Hall, N. Y. ( when the second of the two evening shows skedded was forced to cancel due to the illness of Nat (King) Cole, who was co-headlinlng with Sarah. Vaughan and the Billy May orch. Both performances had been sell- outs. Money for the cancelled per- formance was refunded. Cole, who is suffering from an ulcer, currently is under observa- tion at New York Hospital and it’s undetermined whether he’ll be able to continue with .the tour, which has been ; booked solid through May 3. Package played its regular skedded daite in Newark last night (Tues.) with Billy Eckstine, doubling from the Band- box, N. Y., subbing, for Cole. Gale Agency, which is booking the unit, is waiting for word from Cole before lining up a flock of substitutions. 6,000 Tix for 1,500 Seats Adds Up to Riot The Brunswick label’s cuffo jazz concert at Pythian Temple, N. Y., Saturday (4), backfired into near- riot proportions before the police dispersed the shutout mob. Disk- cry, which is a Coral Records sub- sid, had distributed 5,000 *cuffo tix via A1 (Jazzbo) Collins, WNEW, disk jockey. Pythian Temple J^ds about l,fi00 and it’s estimated that about 6,000 jazzophiles showed hp for the cuffo bash. Brunswick planned the affair to get a “live” concert atmosphere * or a . recording session featuring sidemen as Georgie Auld, Smith, Tony Scott and Terry 'jibbs. The concert went on as planned—but 30 minutes after the scheduled starting time. Miller, Faith Back to NX Mitch Miller, Columbia Records crtists & repertoire chief, and Col’s Musical director, Percy Faith, are back in N. Y; this week from * . Coast after wrapping up a deal with J udy. Garland. Faith will precede Miller by a couple, of.days. • ,, M;u r » tu:>' Scoreboard OF TOP TALENT AND TUNES Compiled from Statistical Reports of Distribution Encompassing the Three Major Outlets Coin Machines Retail Disks Retail Sheet Music as Published in the Current Issue + With tiie ASCAP, payoff system no. longer a factor for rank^and- fi’er. contention, an /undercurrent of cleffer criticism is now being directed against the so-called in- adequate logging methods used by the American Society of Com- posers, Authors & Publishers in figuring performance ratings. These beefs, however, are being brushed off by ASCAP execs as stemming from ignorance of the new techniques used by the So- ciety. At present, ASCAP is reportedly paying Dr. John Gray Peatman, head of the Audience Research Institute, over $50,000 annually to handle the logging operation. Every day, 10 independent stations are covered in 10 key cities for a total of over 300 monthly. In addi- tion, ASCAP regularly covers all . the networks. ASCAP’s current coverage, which is a result of the antitrust consent decree, is held by ASCAP execs to give an accurate picture as possible under a sampling system. It's pointed out, however, that the networks have to get the major accent since they shell out the greatest share of the Society’s revenue. Some ASCAP writers believe they are being underrated because most of their plugs are heard on disk jockey shows over indie sta- tions which rarely, if ever, get logged. That’s particularly true of . those ASCAP writers who have been turning out country-styled material. ASCAP execs point out that most of the stations which ac- cent hillbilly material pay little performance money and do not rate wide logging. ' Some ASCAP toppers, • more- over, argue that, more extensive logging would not increase the payoff for the average writer. More logging would show that the Irving Berlins, Cole Porters, etc., are. getting even more perform- ances than they are presently rated at and hence they would earn morq, money. That would mean paying more to the U. S. Government, a reference to the steep tax cut on the earnings of the top ASCAP writers who usually have other lucrative sources of income. NOTE: The current comparative sales strength of 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 Vabiety. The positions resulting from these findings denote the OVERALL IMPACT de- veloped from the ratio of points scored: two ways in the case of talent (disks, coin machines ), and three ways in the ease of tunes (disks, coin machines , sheet music ). POSITIONS This Last Week Week 1 2 4 5 6 8 1 2 8 6 10 TALENT » ARTIST AND LABEL TUNE PATTI PAGE (Mercury) ........ Doggie in the Window TERESA BREWER (Coral) Till I Waltz Again FRANKIE LAINE (Columbia) KrCheatin’Heart F. LAINE-J. BOYD (Columbia) Tell Me a Story NAT (KING) COLE (Capitol) Pretend (Don’t Let the Stars PERRY COMO (Victor) ) Wild Horses JONI JAMES (MGM) j?our Cheatin ? Heart GAYLORDS (Mercury) Tell Me You’re Mine PERCY FAITH (Columbia) jlwedish Rhapsody KAY STARR (Capitol) Side by Side POSITIONS This Last Week Week 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 1 2 4 3 6 5 10 8 9. 7 TUNES . (♦ASCAP. fBMI) TUNE PUBLISHER ♦DOGGIE IN THE WINDOW Santly-Joy tTILL I WATLTZ AGAIN Village ♦I BELIEVE Cromwell ♦PRETEND .'Brandom fDON’T LET THE STARS GET,IN YOUR EYES Four Star fTELL ME YOU’RE MINE Capri fYOUR CHEATIN’ HEART. Acuff-R ♦SIDE BY SIDE :Shapiro-B fTELL ME A STORY Montclare ♦KEEP IT A SECRET Shapiro-B. r * * t"*’^ >K.i,i ■ r i mI.)?. ✓ NIPPON VICTOR’S NEW SETUP IN COIN CRISIS Tokyo, March 31. Former Japanese ambassador to the United States, Kichisaburo Nomura, was elected to the presi- dency of the Victor Gramaphone Company in a shakeup in Japan’s phonograph industry. Nomura re- places Kosaku Tachibana, who re- signed early this month along with veepee Rikichi Yamaguchi after they failed .to tide over a financial pinch brought about by b..nk loans amounting to about $1,- 400,00,0. Nomura represents the Matsus- hita Kosan Co., which received 64% of Victor’s $70,000 capital from the Industrial Bank in the form of 300,000 shares of Victor stocks held by the bank as secur- ity for the unpaid loan. The loan - had been 'obtained for purposes Ct rehabilitation of war damage to Victor factories and offices which were about 80% de- stroyed. At one time Japan Victor tried to forestall the collapse by offering half their share holdings to RCA Victor, a cooperating com- pany in the U.S., but were rebuffed by the U.S. firm because of unpaid royalties accumulated during the war years amounting to about $840,000. The new controlling company is one of the country’s top manufac- turers of electrical appliances. President is Konosuke Matsushita. Lorber to Col As Legal Aide to Adler Alfred Lorber has been named assistant to Norman Adler, general attorney for Columbia Records. Lorber was with the law firm of Rosenman, Goldmark, Colin & Kaye ahd recently was assistant general attorney for the Celanese Corp. of America. Alex Alstone, bandleader-com- poser, moved over from General Artists Corp. tb Music Corp/ of America.*--* «•* • * • •*