Variety (April 1953)

49 Wednesday, April 29, 1953 ORCHESTRAS-MUSIC Adams, New ASCAP Prez, Strikes Note 0( Harmony; Eyes TV and Pix Deals Stanley Adams, newly-elected*- ^resident of the American Society ^Composers, Authors & Publish- Jr* will aim at strengthening the cnc'iety by solidifying the writer- publisher ranks and by entrench- ing ASCAP’s position with the vari- ous users of music, including the Jukebox operators. Adams said he will continue the policy of his predecessor, Otto A. Harbach, in creating an era of intra-organiza- tional harmony by giving all mem- bers an opportunity to voice their grievances. Adams, a 45-year-old lyricist and youngest member of the ASCAP board, was named last week in an unusual atmosphere of unanimity. He was named by acclamation on a motion by Louis Bernstein, after being nominated by Gene Buck and seconded by Saul H. Bourne. Adams has been a member of the ASCAP board for the past 10 years, and his activity in committee work and as a negotiator brought him forward as the sole nominee for ASCAP prexy this year. He was elected for the regular one-year term. Reshuffling The ASCAP elections also brought a complete reshuffling of ASCAP officers. Bernstein, formerly treas- urer, was named vice-prexy- along with Fred E. Ahlert. They replaced Frank H. Connor and- Oscar- Ham- merstein 2d. John Tasker Howard was named for the secretary’s post, (Continued on page 50) EMI’s U. S. Subsidy Angel, Slated for a Sept Start; Dramas Added To Music Angel Records, longhair label which will release British Colum- bia Records in this country, will be launched in September with' Dario Soria as president of ‘ the newly- formed company. Electric & Musi- cal Industries (XJ. S.), Ltd. EMI made the deal y£Lth Soria after its deal with U. S: Columbia expired at the end of last year. The Angel label will comprise British Colum- bia’s catalog as well as other for- eign diskeries which are. part of EMI's other subsid, Columbia Graphophone Co., in North Amer- ica. Dorle Jarmel Soria (Mrs. Sorja) will be artists and repertoire chief for the new company, having re- signed her post as public relations chief for the N. Y. Philharmonic. The initial release schedule, due in the fall, will include the first officially-sponsored recordings of La Scala Opera Co. in Milan. In addition to music, Angel will devote a section of its catalog to dramatic, literary and poetical works. First to be released in this category will be Oscar Wilde’s "The Importance. of Being Ear- nest,” with John Gielgud, Pamela Brown, Dame . Edith. Evans • and Robert Morley..Play .will be. cut-in London shortly. .... Gets RightsTo 20th’s Soundtracks M-G-M Records has completed a deal with 20th-Fox to release soundtrack albums of studio’s fijm- usicals. M-G-M will get soundtrack rights to all of 20th’s future, pic musical output except in instances where pic’s star is. tied to another (Soundtrack album.. of Lail Me Madam”, want .to .Decca because Ethel Merman is an ex- clusive Decca pactee.). M-G-M moved in to the 20th orbit for the first time about six months ago with the soundtrack album release of “Stars and Stripes orever.” Second album due. in nectieup is “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.” u c ? nn er, Decea promotion f h pads for Chicago this week mf,i, C . on ! a ^ the diskery’s new kmr^G j0Ckey contactman Young Buck Although the new ASCAP prexy, Stanley Adams, is only 45, Gene Buck was the young- est president the Society has had to date. Buck became prez in 1924 at the age of 39, succeeding publisher George Maxwell, ASCAP’s first prexy. Buck also served in that post for the longest time, being prexy for 17 years until 1941. Under ASCAP’s new by- laws, a president can now serve only for a maximum of three consecutive one-year terms. Diskers Worried About Full Return Policy on Pops Disk industry execs are becom- ing increasingly concerned over the spread of the 100% return guarantee privilege on pop disks to retailers. This sales policy was launched a few of years ago by some of the top companies on iso- lated disks, but in recent months the practice has spread to the point where at least one major company is taking 100% returns on its full pop release schedule. v Trade toppers frankly concede that this sales pattern has grown to the danger point. They point out that full return guarantees put the whole burden of the in- dustry on the distribs, and manu- facturers, while the retailer is al- lowed to coast without taking any risks. From the retailers’ view- point, of course, the 100% returns policy is great, since he can stock up with a big variety of mer- chandise without fear of getting stuck with dead inventory. In the New York area, Capitol Records has* gotten a competitive jump on the rest of the majors by selling virtually all its releases on consignment. Via this tactic, Capftol has been able to get wide coverage on all its numbers over the metropolitan area. Many re- tailers are reciprocating Capitol’s policy by pushing the Capitol la- bel on numbers which have been covered by other labels. The 100% return guarantee originated with the idea of blanket- ing the market with a potential hit in order to get maximum sales. At the outset, the major companies used this policy sparingly, but now have been forced to extend the guarantees even on lesser numbers. In most cases, they are getting stuck with hefty returns on initial pressings that run anywhere from 50,000 to 200,000 copies. One of the most disturbing fac- tors is that the major companies are using the guarantee policy at a time when business is compara- tively good. Industry execs are wondering what sort of giveaways will be made if and when business' drops off. Finally, they believe that it will be difficult to train re- tailers back to the old sales format in which he was only accorded a 5% return on his merchandise. CARLTON TO TOUR U.S. FOR NEW RCA DISKERY ‘ Joe Carlton, artists & repertoire chief of RCA Victor’s new quasi- indie label, as yet unnamed, will hit the road late this week on a national tour to line up distributors for his operation. As projected, this line of RCA disks will be han- dled through exclusive platter dis- tribs instead of RCA Victor’s out- lets, which also deal in radio-TV sets, air conditioners, stoves, etc. Carlton will also o.o 3 the talent picture in various cities for pos- sible pactees to the new label. Riding with a couple of current picture tune hits in “Moulin Rouge” and “Ruby” on top of last year’s “High Noon” winner, Holly- wood producers are again becom- ing song-conscious in a big way. They are being impressed anew by the boxoffice stimulation of a hit pic tune disk. The Hollywood outlook on songs is also being hy- poed by the influx of platter per- sonalities, such as Rosemary Clooney, Guy Mitchell and John- nie Ray, into the picture market. Although the batting average of pic tunes on wax is far better than the negative attitude of the disk companies indicates, the film scores have not been as productive as they once were. Six numbers, out of a total of over 60 pix score tunes, registered as some form of a hit during the past year, an av- erage that exceeds that of the straight pop releases. Despite this showing, however, disk execs believe that Hollywood is losing a golden opportunity in not wrapping up the new crop of writers, who have found the pulse of the pop market, for picture as- signments. The arguments against accenting . those special material numbers, which are good only in the picture situations but mean little on wax, are expected to hear (Continued on page 53) M-G-M Inks HI In Tyro Kid Sparked by the big payoff of wax tyro Joni James, M-G-M Records is on an all-out prowl for new faces. In the past several months the diskery has tagged about 10 new- comers for a shellac buildup. Now in the label’s stable are such novice diskers as Ken Remo, Betty Cox, Doreen Davis, Bob San- ta Maria, Danny Winchell, Jilla Webb, Jo Aifti Tolley, Ginny Gib- son, Victor Marches! and Ricky Vallo. For the most part, M-G-M is giving these youngsters top priority on song assignments and pitching in with strong exploitation and pro- motion assists. «=, Diskery has developed no set pol- icy in pacting the new artists. Deals range from longtermers to one-record pacts with options. Rival diskeries, too, have been prowling young singers and have even gone so far as to raid the indie labels in their search. Sipce it’s still a wide-open wax market, the record company execs are al- most pacting the newcomers at ran- dom,* hoping that in the bunch a hot wax potential will turn up. Four ‘I Believe’ Cleffers Win Christopher Award For the first time in the five-year history of the religioso Christopher . Award, the writers of pop tune were named award recipients. Writers honored by the Christo- phers are Erwin Drake, Irvin Gra- ham, Jimmy Shirl and A1 Stillman for their song, “I Believe.” Tune was written especially for Miss Froman’s CBS-TV show, “U.S. Canteen.’’ It’s being published by Howie Richmond. The award will be presented to the songsmiths to- morrow (Thurs.) at the Park Lane Hotel, N. Y., by Father James Kel- ler. RCA Hawks Hawkshaw Hawkshavv Hawkins, one of the topsellers in the rhythm & blues market, is moving into the RCA Victor r&b artists fold under Steve Scholes. Hawkins deal with King Records expires April 30. Director Laszlo Halasz has signed duo-pianists Pierre Luboshut* and Genia Nemenoff, violinist Ossy Renardy and pianist Eugene List for Remington recordings. SPA Execs Eye Foolproof System For Collecting defer Royalties Dig That 3-D Plug The third dimension fever in Hollywood has spread to the music biz and has resulted in a new pop tune, “3-D Baby Of Mine.” Number was writ- ten by Jack Ellis, who doubles as film distributor, in col- laboration with Henry Tobias and Dave Ormont. Tobey Music, owned by the Tobias brothers (Charles, Henry and Harry), is publish- ing. United Artists Sets Music Firm For Film Plugs Underscoring the importance of picture tunes for film exploitation campaigns. United Artists, major pix distribution company, has set up a new subsid, United Artists Music. According to present plans, firm will not publish tunes directly but will act as a holding corpora- tion for the rights to music in pix which UA handles. The subsid will make separate deals with estab- lished publishers for regular pub- lication and plugging. Coin from the music rights will be used for promoting pictures via tieups with disk jockeys and field reps of the disk companies which cut the picture tunes. UA execs have found that “The Song From Moulin Rouge” has given a power- ful boxoffice boost to the John Hus- ton-Jose Ferrer pic from which it was taken. It was at UA’s in- sistence, incidentally, that the song was given its final title, although it was originally named “.Where Is Your Heart.” The tune is pub- lished by Broadcast Music,. Inc. Obvious advantage' of a title song is that every tune plug means an- other plug for the picture. Such was the case with “Moulin Rouge” and “High Noon.” The upcoming UA pic, “Heturn From Paradise,” will also have a title song by Dimi- tri Tiomkin. STAFFORD-WESTON FORM PUB OUTFIT The performer - to - publisher vogue, which had dropped off dur- ing the past year, was given a revitalization kick last week with the formation of music firm by thrush Jo Stafford. She’ll operate the pubbery, which will be tagged Grady Music, with her husband Paul Weston, Columbia Records’ west coast chief. ‘ u Firm, for the time being, will op- erate with a Coast office only. No professional staff has yet been designated. It’ll be affiliated with ASCAP. Jane Russell in Longhair Stint With B’ham Orch Birmingham, April 28. Jane Russell will make a per- sonal appearance here Friday (1) with the Birmingham Symphony Orch in a Music-Under-The-Stars program at Legion Field for an an- ticipated crowd of $35,000. ' Last year at the annual free event sponsored by the Birming- ham News, when Lizabeth Scott appeared with the symphony, the stadium was only set up to handle 21,000 and many were turned away. The city park board is providing more room this year. Tommy Riggs, of WAFM-TV and WAPI, will emcee. The Tuskegee Choir will sing and students from the public grade schools will dem- onstrate folk dancing. Some top execs of the Songwrit- ers Protective Assn, are pressing for a new system of collecting writers r royalties on sheet music that will involve a radical depar- ture from the accounting systems now used by publishers. New plan would have all royalties earned by writers set aside into special bank accounts having no relation with other funds of the publishers. Proposal is designed to protect the interests of writers from num- erous small publishers who use the cleffer royalties as part of their working capital. Frequently, these pubs become strapped for cash and hence are unable to pay off the writers on time. SPA execs’ think- ing is that the music business is tough enough for writers without having them hung up for moneys rightfully earned. Publishers, on the other hand, claim that they cannot lay aside the cleffer royalties as each copy of sheet music is sold until they know what the returns will be from the jobbers. The exact total of copy sales on any number can be figured only several months after the song has died and all unsold copies come back. The SPA execs rebut these ob- jections by pointing out that any deduction for returns can be made just as easily from the special writers’ account. Since royalty statements are made on a. six- month basis, they claim that there is ample time for the publisher to make such deductions before mak- ing payments to the writers. The philosophy of the publish- ers’ accounting system is com- pletely wrong, according to the SPA proponents of the new plan. The pubs now consider royalties as expenses whereas, in the opinion of the writers, such royalties should not be counted in the publishers’ gross revenue. The writers main- tain that the publishers only act as collection agency for their earn- ings and that such money should not be tampered with in any way. J. J. Robbins & Sons Files Bankruptcy Petition But Agrees to Pay Off 100% J. J. Robbins Sons, Jack Rob- bins’ publishing firm, has agreed to pay off all creditors in full in a voluntary bankruptcy petition in N. Y. Federal Court last week. The company listed liabilities of $345,- 893 against assets of $47,082, and declared in the petition that it had lost money on its pop operations during the past two years, although it earned a profit on its standard publications. Filing of the bankruptcy petition follows recent suit by Robert Teller Sons & Dorner, music prin- ters, for $18,000 in unpaid bills against Robbins. This action in N. Y. Supreme Court has been stayed pending the outcome of the bankruptcy hearings. A meeting of the 10 largest creditors will be held next Monday (4), at which time Robbins will present his in- stalment payoff plan for their ap- proval. A large part, $290,000, of the liabilities of the Robbins firm is owed to Consolidated Music, also owned by Robbins and which han- dles the distribution end of the business. Robbins has stated that he will pay off royalties due writers over 18 months, while other creditors will get instalments spread over 36 months. The Songwriters Protec- tive Assn, is virtually certain to okay this agreement with the pro- viso that less affluent cleffers be paid off first. Jack Robbins some years ago sold out his interest in Robbins Music (Metro-20th), one of the Big Three. Pianist Andor Foldes in May will undertake his first South Afri- can tour, which will include 25 concerts in Johannesburg, Nairobi, Capetown, Durban, Port Elizabeth, etc.