Variety (April 1953)

Public Relations Blues An "editorial” fly-leaf in a coin-machine service, published by the Music Guild of America, deadpans ASCAP’s public rela- tions job in Washington, with a name-powered troupe of enter- taining songwriters junketing to the National Press Club for the obvious purpose of winning friends and influencing solons. Catering to the coin ops, the Music Guild’s phlegmatic exposi- tion of ASCAP’S D. C. public relations counsel, Arthur Newmeyer & Co., arranging .for a $5.25 filet mignon luncheon value- at the Press Club’s $1.75 normal table d’hote rate,- puts accent on the fact these junkets, including all expenses for the Holly- wood and Broadway “and then I wrote” kiddies, the cutrate food tab, etc., costs the Society $5,000. The sum-up is that this is 5G presumably well spent, excepting that the jukebox impresarios, according to the coin-machine spokesmen, al- legedly haven’t that kind of coin to combat the performing rights societies (presumably §MI is, at least, on the rooting sidelines) in their pitch for a music tax on the jukes. Last week the Society staged its annual dinner in the grand ballroom of the Hotel Astor, awarded plaques 'and honors to George Jessel, himself an ASCAPer, and Ed Sullivan, the latter for his “Toast of the Town” salute on his CBS-TV shows. There was also some good talent via personals and addresses by prexy Otto A. Harbach, past prez Deems Taylor, Coast rep L. Wolfe Gilbert, Red Buttons, Jarmila Novotna and Sissle & Blake. A good time was had by all. Everybody cheers on the Society. All agreed the American Society of Composers, Authors & Pub- lishers was serving a most useful function. Everybody was giv- ing him and hersejf a- great big pep talk. It was a pre-sold audience. There were few if any there who didn’t know all that via hearsay and tradition. » t Only one thing was lacking. There wasn’t a working news- paperman in the house. AH this readymade, natural, spon- taneous, not-necessary-to-sell was all in one package, and none within ASCAP seemingly had the foresight, inclination or elementary concept? of public relations to see that the ASCAP story would be 'projected'in the most effective manner that counts—in printer's’ ink, as part” of the passing scene. Junkets to D. C. yes, and]undoubtedly’good. .Ed Sullivan video presen- tations; unquestid.n9.bly.g00d.. The natural, automatic, news-in- th^-making—not a newspaperman, in .a. carload. Abel. 4 - TO FAR EAST Having convincingly demonstrat- ed to U. S. record pirates the folly of paying substantial damages in court actions, .in lieu of a license fee, Harry Fox is now extending his base of operations across the Pacific. The trustee of the Music Publishers Protective Assn, has re- tained Julian T. Abeles (& Bern- stein), who obtained such favorable results in the N. Y. and Chi test actions, to make a trip to Japan in the interests of his principals. Abeles planes for the Orient on April 24. Japan is now one of the great amusement centers of the world. It is in the top bracket in motion picture earnings. American music is in vogue and record sales are flourishing. English is compulsory in Japanese schools and it is said that the first words spoken by a Japanese infant are the lyrics of an American pop. With the advent of television in the immediate fu- ture American music publishers (Continued on page 58) Mills Projects Global Program With Snbsids Juke Ops See ‘Obstacles’ for ASCAP t o In Getting Fees; Hint Compromise The American Society of Com- posers, Authors & Publishers may have a tough time collecting per- formance feds from jukebox oper- ators if one of the several proposed amendments to the Copyright Act passes Congress this session. That, at least, is the ’ opinion of some coin machine ops’ who are unoffi- cially sending up trial balloons to see whether they’ can come to some kind of a deal with] the performing rights societies. Brown’s 5G for 4 Hours • - Chicago, April 14. A* touch of the “good old days” is being brought back when, as in the 1920s, orchestras would pick up big fees for private party dates, Les Brown is playing a four-hour dance for the employees of the Briggs Manufacturing Co., De- troit May 9 for $5,000. The juke ops believe that a roy- alty fee on each disk in a machine is completely unfeasible due to the diffuse and disorganized state of their industry. They 1 claim that estimates of $5,000,000 arinually in performance revenues from the machines is a figment of the imagi- nation since that figure exaggerates by far the juke industry’s net pro- fit. If ASCAP or Broadcast Music, Inc., however, attempts to collect such performance fees, the juke ops warn that the ‘ administrative and policing setup for such a pro- gram will prove tirieconomically costly. Some of the juke ops apparently, are in favor of a compromise with. ascap. One proppsai. that. has. turned up involves the licensing of the coin machines on a flat basis annually. If $l or therabouts per machine is charged, the performing rights societies will stand to gain a clear $500,000 yearly without having to log the machines on a weekly or monthly basis. That's on an estimate of 500,000’jukes being in operation. The juke ops, however; would only go for such*a proposition on a A°S gterm deal * They - fear* that ASCAP may start with*a*$l annual fee but only to hike the licensing rate soon after it' got its • foot in the door. The coin machine ops claim that only by a - deal covering fO or 20 years couid they achieve t, l e ft ® e ded security and stability oi their business operation. BSO'S FIVE-WEEK TOUR rp. Boston, April 1 i he Boston Symphony Orch< leaves Monday (20) for’ the transcontinental tour in its 72- history. • • _ he . five ”Week tour will carrj ichestra to California and bai Date was inked by Paul Bannis- ter of the Associated Booking Office here. HapanVice Carlton As Merc’s N.Y. A&R Head Chicago, April 14. . . Richard Hayman, arranger and conductor, takes over the Mercury eastern artists & repertoire post vacated last week by Joe Carlton who joined RCA Victor’s new label, yet untitled. New a&r top- per has two hits riding for Mer- cury in his harmonica stylings of “Ruby” and “April In Portugal.” Hayman was an arranger for Vaughn Monroe and other hands. He’ll be 'directly under Art Tal- 'madge; Mercury veepee, and cuts hlS ’ 'flf’St ' sessions with Richard Hdyca artd Bobby Wayne in New Yo’rk this week. ‘ ’ He’ll work clqsely with Bobby Shad, who supervises,the race and blues department for Mercury With the’ firm also continuing to use outside arrangers. Hayman, in- cidentally, was once an arranger for the Boston Pops Orchestra, under maestro Arthur Friedler. ] Joseph H. Santarlasci has been named assistant manager of the Philadelphia Orchestra. He’s treas- urer of the Philadelphia Orchestra Federal Credit Union, and assist- ant treasurer of the Orchestra’s Pension Foundation. I ,.* A multi-faceted global music ; publishing program is being : mapped by Jack Mills, Mills Music topper, to exploit the firm's copy- rights, especially in Europe, and to take full advantage of Europe as source of new material. In his recent trek abroad, Mills started the ball rolling for setting up subsids in Germany, France and Italy as well as strengthening ties with such British pubberies as Lawrence Wright, Joseph Williams and Alfred Lengnick to rep their copyrights in the U. S. Mills also made a deal with Francis, Day & Hunter to handle its classical cata- log here. • According to Mills, there are a flock of untapped copyrights in these catalogs, as well as in the catalogs .of firms on the Continent. Negotiations are under way to tie- up firms in France, Germany and Italy along similar lines to the British deals. ! “There’s also plenty of good writ- ing talent in Europe today,” Mills adds, “and they can be developed into' important writer^ for the U. S. market with proper guidance from American publishers.” Another as- pect of Mills stepped up move into foreign song representation is his interest in building a steady cul- tural exchange and developing goodwill between the U. S. and for- eign countries via music. r In setting up a spread of subsids on the Continent (a Belgium firm already has been lined up), Mills believes that the firm’s copyrights will receive more attention than if he signed them over to some for- eign pub rep. “Most of the Euro- pean firms,” . he. adds, “will take nothing but hits and when they do pick up a song you’re taking a chance on whether they’ll work on it properly.” Via the string of sub- sids Mills expects to build all his copyrights along the promotion and exploitation lines set up by the homeoffice. Widow of Yermie Stern Takes Over ‘Strip’ Service The jukebox title’ strip service, which was operated by the late Yermie Stern under the firm name of the Hit Parade Program Service, has been taken over by his widow. Stern died March 20 after a long illness. Stanley Pass will continue as general manager of the com- pany. Mrs. Stem, a vet show biz per- former, was known professionally as Bea Saxon of the Saxon Sisters/ a vaude-nitery team. RCA’s New Label Accents Bid By Majors to Cat Into Indie Market Axe Arc Tag The tag of Arc Records, which was suggested for RCA Victor’s new indie disk opera- tion, had to be scrapped due to its previous registry by an- other platter company. Manie Sacks, RCA veepee over disks, coined the Arc name as an anagram out of the RCA trade- mark. Company execs are currently looking for a suitable monicker for the label. Pubs Push Flock Of Legal Suits Vs. Remington Remington Records, low-priced disk label, is. currently the target for a flock of law suits opened.by publishers individually and by their agent and trustee, Harry Fox. Latest action was launched last week by Fox in N. Y. Supreme Court, charging incomplete royalty statements to the numerous pub- lishers whom he reps. Fox, through attorney Sidney Wm. Wattenburg (& Wattenburg), is asking for $24,000. Already in the works against Remington is the action brought by Julian T. Abeles (& Bernstein) in behalf of Fox for a group of pub- lishers in which the plaintiffs charged the diskery with making unlicensed.recordings. In this case, the court appointed a Master to determine damages after ruling in behalf of the publishers. Abeles is seeking a recovery of $20,000 for royalty claims totalling $472. This is orf the basis of a minimum of $5,000 for each infringement, in- stead of the $250 precedent estab- lished in last year’s suit against Paradox Industries. Remington is also under fire from the Music Publishers Holding Corp. in suits charging both un- derpayments of royalties and use of unlicensed tunes. Philip P. Wat- tenburg, brother of Sidney, is legal rep for Warner Bros, combine in this suit. Livingston-Evans to Do Outside Fix Tunes Via Non-Exclusive. Par- Pact Hollywood, April 14. Expanding their operations for outside motion picture work, Broadway shows and TV, Para- mount's songwritiilg team of Jay Livingston and Ray Evans have received a .new non-exclusive con- tract with the studio. This replaces the exclusive pact which they signed in 1945 and had three more years to run.- •New five-year deal leaves them free ta take on. other work- when Paramount does not require their services, but the studio remains their home base. The non-exclu- sive contract becomes effective upon completion of their cur- rent assignment, “Red Garters,” for which they are writing 14 songs. The Technicolor film will topline Rosemary Clooney, Guy Mitchell, Joanne Gilbert and Gene Barry, and rolls on or about May 11. Their eight years at one lot is one of the. longest tenures for a current Hollywood cleffing team. During this period they garnered Academy “Oscars” for “Buttons and Bows” in 1949 and ‘‘Mona Lisa” two years later. Among their other hits are “To Each His Own,” their first click; “Golden Earrings,” “I’ll Always Love You,” “Ruby and the Pearl” and “Silver Bells.” . Move by RCA Victor to set up a new subsid label, as yet without a tag, on an independent basis once again spotlights the money-making operations of the numerous indie labels now in the field. Like Decca and Columbia, which previously set up quasi-indie diskeries, Victor is also trying to cut into the indie market. Key to the indie click is seen by the majors in the flexibility of their setups and the concentration of their distribs on disks alone. Many distribs of the major com- panies, who handle other merchan- dise besides platters, tend to brush off disks in favor of the more ex- pensive products. Such indies as Dot, Derby, Tri- ple-A, BBS, etc., have established fast-moving distrib liaisons which permit them to exploit their re- leases to the maximum. The indies, moreover, are in a position to make special # deals to the distribs by cutting prices or offering 100 free records, for every purchase of 500 platters. The majors, on the other hand, are too hemmed in by contractual commitments to in- dulge iii such deals. The indies’ hookups with disk jockeys is one of the most impor- tant factors in their consistent breakthrough into the hit lists. Via these jock tieins, which are usually handled in a given city by the dis- trib, the indies can exploit a local situation under the most favor- able auspices. The same ..goes for their deals with* the jukebox ops. The indies, moreover, are not saddled by any large roster of art- ists or big release schedule. The indies pinpoint their targets and go all out on single disks instead of scattering their fire over a num- ber of releases. The majors, however, believe they can lick the indies at their own game by taking advantage of the low overhead gained from operating under the wing of a major label. The pressing of Coral and Okeh are handled by the par- ent companies, Decca and Colum- bia respectively, and the same will go for Victor’s new label. Distri- bution, is handled separately to gain the desired flexibility. Indie label execs, however, be- lieve they still have the edge in this market since, they contend, the majors’ subsids tend to take on all the operating features of a big* company sooner or later. That in- cludes the relatively large artists’ rosters and the heavier release schedules. ROBBINS-EXITS PAXTON TO SET UP OWN FIRM Howard (Buddy) Robbins ex- ited George Paxton Music as pro- fessional manager this week to set „ up his own firm, as yet unnamed. Robbins will also work with Cork O'Keefe on exploiting the Words & Music catalog which is owned 50% by Jack Robbins, Buddy’s father. He’ll headquarter in O’Keefe's offices. Robbins worked with Paxton for the last two years. ASCAP Quarterly Divvy Near $3,250,000 Mark Quarterly dividend of the Amer- ican Society of Composers, Authors & Publishers, which was mailed to member writers and publishers last week, was near the $3,250,0-19 marker. Melon was virtually the same as for the previous quarter and represents an ASCAP payoff rate for this year of over $13,000,000. Included in the quarterly divi- dend total was about $250,000 for performances of foreign works which will be remitted overseas. ASCAP distributed $400,000 from foreign performance rights in a special dividend last month. * • -