Variety (April 1953)

Wednesday, April 29, 1953 Pfi*SiE?¥ ORCUKSTRAS^fllSIC 51 Disk Flacks’ Romancing of Deejays Makes ’Em Key Ping Force for Artists In the past couple of years the record promotion flack has emerg- ed as a key. factor in the new mu- sic business. Before the disk be- came “king” of Tin Pan Alley, the publishers’ contactmen were solely responsible for the tune plugs, but in today’s wax age, the disk pro- motion man, operating on-an indie, basis, has becom^ the dominant plug force. Disk promotion developed into a booming biz during the last five years as artists realized that the disk jockey outlet was the main source of pop record sales promo- tion at the consumer and juke level. As they began latching on to disk promoters for personal service, an increasing number of flacks moved into this field. Via contacting, correspondence and sundry favors, the disk pro- moters have developed strong ties with the deejays and the latter usually reciprocate with platter spins. The disk promoters, depend- ing on the areas in which they operate (local or national) maintain regular deejay visiting hours and carry on a steady stream of mail- ings (including news about clients and new releases) so that the jock- ey will always be aware of the artists or disks being plugged. The artists have moved to the specialized disk promoters for a fulltime promotion job. The disk- eries maintain disk promotion staffs but their efforts have to be spread about among the -entire roster. Artists are also maintain- ing disk .promoters to prevent any of their etchings to get lost in the flood of waxings hitting the deejays from the major and indie disk- companies. in some instances, publishers recently have been turning to the indie promoters to work on their tune. Friction has developed be- tween these pubs and the Music Publishers Contact Employees Un- ion, which claims that pluggers are being deprived of their jobs when a pub goes to an outside pro 1 • moter, but no serious hassles have yet developed. The disk promotion biz was kicked off in the late 1930s and early ’40s by such names as Barney McDevitt, Mel Adams, Henry Okun, Leige McElvey, Milton Karle, Jack Egan and Jim McCar- thy. Since then such disk promot- ers as Jerry Simon, Marvin Drager (who also operates a regular pub- lic relations setup), Buddy Basch, Morris Diamond, Buddy Fried- lander, Paul Brown, Pinky Roller and Nat Lorman also have be- come- prominent in the New York area. The growing biz also has brought such femme promoters into the field as Virginia Wicks (in addition to her p.a. setup), Kappi Jordan, Ellie Koffler and Elaine Bergman. The comparatively nev^biz also has launched several indie promoters in careers in other phases of the music biz; for example, Howie Richmond now tops his own pub- lishing firms, Bernie Lang is man- aging Johnnie Ray' and Dick Linke is publicity manager tor Capitol Records. Fees for a disk promotion job generally range from $25 to $150 per week depending on the artists and whether the flacking is to be on a local or national basis. As one disk promoter put it—“we’re to the record industry what an adver- tising agency is to any other biz.” Spina, Wood Form New. BMI Pubbery Pubbery’ topper Jack Spina and publisher-recording exec, Randy Wood, have teamed up in the for- mation of a new firm, Gallatin Mu- sic. The ptibbery will be affiliated with BMI. Both will continue to handle their other operations independ- ently. Spina heads an ASCAP'firm, Spinlan Music, and Wood is topper of Dot Records as well as an ASCAP pubbery, Randy Smith Mu- sic. The new firm will have head- quarters in New York and in Gal- latin, Tenn. Eugene Ormandy has been signed f?r smother five-year period as mu- Sector and conductor of the Philadelphia Orchestra. This is the tourth successive five-year contract awarded Ormandy by the orchestra •directors. Three Dons & Greer Team Inked to Coral Term Pact Three Dons & Ginny Greer, vocal team which kicked off “Say You’re Mine Again” for the indie Allied label on the Coast, were inked to a term pact by Milt Gabler, Coral Records’ artists & repertoire top- per, during his recent visit Hol- lywood. Gabler also added Coast singer Johnny Prophet to the Coral label. Several masters which Prophet made on his own have been bought by Coral. Mills Platter Subsid Sells Masters To Indies The American Records, Mills Music wax subsid, peddled 14 mas- ters last week to the Jubilee and BBS diskeries. Jubilee picked eight masters by the Jimmy Valentine orch and two by Freddy Kohlman’s band, while BBS latched on to four sides cut by the Starnoters, instru- mental combo. For the past year Sidney Mills, pubbery’s general professional manager, has been pacting artists for wax. sessions and subsequently peddling the disks to other record companies or releasing them via their American label. Groovy Civic Plugs The Three Flames, instru- mental-vocal combo, are hit- ting the public service trail with original jive numbers for civic campaigns. Group’s latest tune, “Clean up! Fix Up! Paint Up!” is being pegged for a New York citizens commit- tee in its May 4-16 campaign for beautifying the city. Trio also is penning a song for Far Rockaway’s Playland stressing precautionary meas- ure on amusement rides. Tune, which is tagged “Be Cool, Dig The Rule!” will be played over the park’s public address sys- tem. Other civic-angled songs penned by The Flames were “Get Hep, Watch Your Step!'’ for the National Safety Council and “Obadiah, Put Out the Fire!” for the N. Y. Fire De- partment. Combo is comprised of Bill Pollard, bass; Roy Testamark, piano, and Tiger Haynes, guitar. Stadium Concerts Sked 6 Weeks for 36th Season The Stadium Symphony Orches- tra of N. Y. will offer a six-week season of 30 concerts, from June 22 through Aug. 1, at Lewisohn Sta- dium this summer, for its 36th successive season. Conductors will include Leonard Bernstein, Pierre Monteux, Thomas Schipper, Andre Kostelanetz and Alexander Smallens. Band Prospects Spotty, But Disclicks By Orchsters Seen as Hopeful Omen Fred Jackson Upped In Mills’ Brit. Firm London, April 21. Fred Jackson has been upped to managing director of Mills Music, Led., following the death April 3 of Harry Ralton, who served in that post. Jackson had been Ralton’s as- sistant. Army To 0.0. More Tunes For Official Song Hunt Washington, April 28. The Army intends to try out four other songs before deciding wheth- er to adopt “The Army’s Always There,” by Sam H. Stept as the official song. Publisher of the latter is the Sherwin Music, N. Y. “Army's Always There” has been under test .for three months, but the final decision is still months off, said an Army spokesman. There have been many complimentary comments, and also some adverse ones. The Daughters of the Ameri-,| can Revolution objected that the song failed to mention God and the flag, and that it was “too ag- gressive.” Titles of the four other songs which will receive public trials are being withheld. P&RIETY Scoreboard OF TOP TALENT AND TUNES Compiled from Statistical Reports o/| Distribution - Encompassing the Three Major Outlets Coin Machines Retail Disks Retail Sheet Music as Published in the Current Issue 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 Variety. 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 case of tunes (disks, coin machines A sheet music). POSITIONS This Last Week Week 1 2 3 5 6 7 8 9 10 1 3 2 7 5 4 8 9 TALENT ARTIST AND LABEL TUNE PATTI PAGE (Mercury) Doggie in the Window NAT (KING) COLE (Capitol) Pretend FRANKIE LAINE (Columbia) IvourCheatih’Heart' PERCY FAITH (Columbia) j s we di s h Rhapsody F. LAINE-J. BOYD (Columbia) Tell Me a Story TERESA BREWER (Coral) Till I Waltz -Again fHave You Heard JONI JAMES (MGM) \ Your Cheatin’ Heart [Almost Always SYLVANA MANGANO (M-G-M) Anna fDon’t Let the Stars •PERRY COMO (Victor) ] Wild Horses [Say You’re Mine GAYLORDS (Mercury) Tell Me You’re Mine TUNES POSITIONS (*ASCAP. tBMI) This Last ' Week Week TUNE PUBLISHER 1 1 *DOGGIE IN THE WINDOW Santly-Joy 2 2 . *1 BELIEVE Cromwell 3 3 *PRETEND Brandom 4 8 fSONG FROM MOULIN ROUGE Broadcast 5 4 tTILL I WALTZ AGAIN ■ Village 6 5 fYOUR CHEATIN’ HEART Acuff-R 7 .. "APRIL IN PORTUGAL Chappell 8 7 fTELL ME A STORY.: Montclare 9 6 *SIDE BY SIDE Shapiro-B 10 9 fDON’T LET THE STARS GET IN YOUR EYES .Four Star it r t"itt r . T- * r-• sj*. ■i TTuT- . ft J.r ■■ ■ ■ ■— ■ ■ ■ " ■ ■ 1 + Although many orchs are rolling out of an encouraging winter and spring season, the band picture still remains spotty. Agency men and orch leaders are unsure of the biz's prospects while vet ballroom oper- ators are^divided on the shape of things to come. General upped b.o. ballroom grosses around the country and the resurgence of bands on wax indi- cate some kind of an upbeat. No- body is claiming that the band biz will return to the heydays of the 1930s but they hold that ’it's iq, a healthy and profitable state. The pessimistic angle is that only a handful of bands are racking up the big takes and scoring on wax. The struggle is seen getting tougher for the majority of working orchs touring the one-niter circuit. Vaughn Monroe’s decision to quit the band biz after 13 years to do a single has been offset by the re- organization of the Artie Shaw orch for a swing through Texas as a test jaunt, the launching of the Sauter Finegan orch and the reteaming of Tommy & Jimmy Dorsey. The re- forming of the “old” Benny Good- man orch for a concert trek has also cued the hand biz hopefuls to see a return to swing. Strongest upbeat factor in the band biz remains the disclicks that a flock of orchs have been turning out. Such orchs as Ralph Marterie (Mercury), Ralph Flanagan and Buddy Morrow (Victor), and Billy May and Ray Anthony (Capitol) have been consistently hitting the payoff disk bracket and making the public more orch conscious. In the ballroom operators field, the biggest clincher that the band biz ain’t what it used to be is deci- sion of Frank Dailey to. put his Meadowbrnok, Cedar Grove, N. J., on the block. Dailey has been oper- ating the spot for the past 24 years and had developed it into an orch mecca. During the ’30s it was the hottest ballroom spot in the east and an incubator for new bands. Rising costs and the decline of the terping crowd brought about Dailey’s decision to sell out if the price is right. So far none has come up with a satisfactory offer. In other ballrooms around the country the situation isn’t as clear cut. Some ops are going all out in renovating their spots and shelling out more coin to promote their one- niter attractions while in others the ops are pulling in their belts running dances on weekends only and renting their spots for fairs and exhibitions during the week- days. Clovers Sell 2,000,000 Platters for Atlantic Impact of rhythm & blues disks in the grassroots areas was pointed up this week when The Clovers, vo- cal combo, racked up 2,000,000 disk sales in less than two years. Combo waxes on the indie Atlan- tic label and have kicked off six r&b disclicks. Current highrider is v Crawling” backed by “Yes It’s You.” Combo includes Johnny Bai- ley, Mathew McQuarter, Hal Lucas, Harold Winley and guitarist Bill Harris. . Boston Post’s Ensemble As Pub Relations Peg Boston, April 28. John Fox, financier who recently took over as publisher of the Bos- ton Post, and former member of Local 9, American Federation of Musicians, has added a string en- semble to his payroll, which will • be booked on a non-commercial basis through the daily’s public re- lations department. Group, recruited from Local 9, is under direction of violinist Saul Levitan and is slated to present concerts at various hospitals and charity events. Group will appear only at non-competitive functions. Russ Morgan to Frisco Russ Morgan orch has been booked for a two-week tour of the San Francisco area, opening June 5. He’ll cover Santa Cruz, Los Al- tos, Oakland, Palo Alto and Sac- ramento and will play for the Stanford Univ. senior bML* *