Variety (April 1953)

52 ORCMHESTRAS-MUSIC PRUETT Wednesday, April 29, 1953 mr^T^rTfi—irirrn ttti i ■- - Goodman-Satcbmo P’kge Hit by Internal Beefs; B.G. May Not Come Back Already hit by the absence of Benny Goodman from the touring Goodman-Louis Armstrong pack- age, troupe is also suffering from internal dissension. Armstrong is reportedly squawking that he’s be- ing brushed off in the promotion and ad campaigns. In addition, it’s now unlikely that Goodman will rejoin the unit for any of the dates lined up through June 7. The Goodman orch has been helmed by Gene Krupa since the maestro was felled 10 days ago by an acute respiratory attack. Al- though none of the promoters have been hurt too badly, more favor- able deals op upcoming dates are now being worked out by Asso- ciated Booking Corp. Package racked up fair grosses over the weekend pulling in $9,000 in Norfolk Saturday (25) and over $10,000 in Washington the follow- ing night. NSG B.O. In Reading Reading, Pa., April 28. The Benny Goodman-Louis Arm- strong package, minus Goodman who is ill, played here Wednesday (22) at the Rajah Theatre. Irving Feld, booker for the show.of Super Attractions, Washington, said he had half houses for the two per- formances. The theatre seats 2,100 and was scaled at $2.60 to $3.90. Many reserved tickets were not being picked up and some money was refunded. Poor b.o. was attributed to Goodman absence. PAR MUSIC PEDDLES TWO DEMOS TO M-G-M In a departure from its regular ' publishing activities. Paramount Music this week set two of its tunes for major label release by peddling the demonstration disks to M-G-M Records. The demos were a Ken Curtis etching of “The'Call of the Far Away Hills,’’ the theme music from the Par pip, “Shane,’’ by Victor Young with a Mack David lyric, and Dick Thomas' cut of a pop entry by Charlie Tobias & Jerry Livingston, “Brass Ring Love.” The “Far Away Hill” slice has a few of juve actor Brandon De Wilde’s . lines from- the “Shane” soundtrack dubbed in the disk. The sides will be released back-to- back by M-G-M. Gillespie Gets Bopped* With Paternity Rap Toljedo, April 28. John B. (Dizzy) Gillespie, bop orch leader, was arrested Saturday (25) in Toledo, where he had been booked for a dance that evening in the Civic Auditorium. He was freed In time to make his date. He was charged with neglect of an illegiti- mate child, and placed under $500 bond. . Last July 2, in Domestic Rela- tions Court here, Gillespie admit- ted paternity of the Toledo child and was ordered to pay $40 a month support and $80 a year clothing allowance. In December the mother charged the payments were not being received. In court yesterday (Mon.) Gillespie paid up his arrears and was released on a $500 bond, enabling him to go to; Cleveland where he had a booking that night. RETAIL DISK BEST SELLERS " PKiatrrY Survey of retail disk best sellers based on reports ob tained from leading stores in 10 cities and showing com- parative sales rating for this and last week * National Rating This Last wk, wk. Artist* Label, Title (A a t-i o -w CO at W) tt> > aS P M u o >< It 0) fc o O o W 3 3 a 0 •*-> 01 O 0 a o •*> CO o M 0 U 01 s at B * as •rn •8 A *—i <u >0 as M o U 0 1 p 0 S as < 1 j •JS at CO ca 3 d 0 01 ♦O £ at o a , o i 0 01 I 0 •pH w 3 3 ♦H 1 * T3 3 1 5 W & at <U P d 0 Q 1 8 , co- al I s o 0 Cl •pH 3 3 01 a s as t—i o <3 d as a> A CO I s (9 0) CO T O T A L P 0 1 A T 5 Mangano Paces Joni As M-G-M Bestseller For the first time in more than six months, another disk has sided up to Joni Janies to pace M-G-M Records’ bestselling lists, Miss James had the diskery’s bestselling slot all to herself until last week the Sylvana Mangano soundtrack disk from the Italo pic, “Anna,” began racking up neck-and-ueck sales. In three weeks on the market, •'Anna” has passed the 250,000 mark nationally and was selling at a 5,000 copies-a-day clip in the New York area. Diskery is tying in with pix exhibitors around the country to plug the record in ads and on local radio spots. 16B 16 KAY STARR (Capitol) “Side by Side” • • 8 12 JOHNNIE RAY (Columbia) 16C 12 “Somebody Stole My Gal” .. 12 19 HAMISH MENZIES (Decca) “Less Than Tomorrow” 10 11 20 11 GEORGIA GIBBS (Mercury) “Seven Lonely Days” 7 10 6 .. .. 10 FIVE TOP ALBUMS 1 | 2 , HANS CHRISTIAN WONDERFUL TOWN Broadway Cat! ANDERSEN DANNY KAYE Decca DL 5433 A 919 9-364 Decca DL-9010 DA-937 9-391 SWEETHEARTS Marlon Marlowo Frank Parkor Columbia B 331 4 PETER PAN Hugo Winterhalter Victor EP A407 MUSIC FOR LOVERS ONLY Jackie Gleason Capitol H-352 Hank Williams Immortal Continued from page 1 Albany Disk Salesmen Shifts Albany, April 28. Les Deuel; former WOICO disk jockey, has been named Albany area salesman for Capitol Records. 4 J’ e j S n Ce -^ Hal Slason, who added, “Williams was primarily i Jothed Williams on all the major disk labels. The absence of commer- cialism and the honesty of the emotion is underlined by the gen- eral move to contribute the royal- ties from these disks to various funds set up in honor of Williams, Ernest Tubb, for example, is do- nating the royalties from his Decca disk, “Hank, It Will Never Be The Same Without You,!’, to the Hank Williams, Jr., trust fund. The tune, incidentally, was penned by Tubb in collaboration with his son, Jilstin. Johnnie & Jack, RCA Vic- tor hillbilly pacte&s* composed and etched “Hank Williams Will Live. Forever,” the royalties of which* are going to the Hank Williams Memorial Fund. A childhood friend of Williams, Jack-Cardwell, penned “The Death of Hank Williams,” which was cut by King Records. Latest tribute is the formation of Hank Williams Memorial Scholar- ship at the U. of Alabama by Coun- try Song Roundup, a cornball mag. Mag started with a $1,000 donation and is conducting a campaign for reader donations via its editorial columns. The reverence of his country col- leagues is attributed' to the fact that he sparked the hillbilly vogue of pop music and built it into a nation-wide commodity. According to Frank B. Walker, bead of M-G-M Records which waxed Williams, the country artists have a deep group loyalty, and when anyone in their group breaks through for national prominence he receives unending respect and admiration. Walker a and the devotion of hundreds of thousands of rustic fans was prob ably won because the people in the south- have- a deep sense of reli gion.” -r Widened Output • When Williams expanded his out- put to include rhythm novelties (‘IJambalaya” .and “Kaw-Liga”) and heart bailads (“Cold, Cold Heart,” “Your Cheatin’ Heart” and “Hey, Good Lookin’”), he hit the national music biz jackpot via the M-G-M disks and the publication of h!s tunes by Acuff-Rose. Other diskers also cashed in on the Wil- liam’s compositions. Frankie Laine spored .with “Jambalaya” via Co- lumbia. Dolores Gray has a Pecca click in’“Kaw Liag” and Joni James is hitting the top brackets with Your Cheatin' Heart.” An example of the wave of senti- ment that was set off- by Williams’ death is this excerpt from a letter written to Williams on the day of his death and addressed c/o “Song Writers Paradise” by Walker. “Re- member the time the newspaper man asked you how you wrote a song? I’ll never forget your an- swer—'I just sit down for a few minutes, do a little thinking about things, and God writes them for me.’ You were so right, Hank, and do you know I think He wanted to have you just a bit closer to him, Nashville’s pretty far away, so He just sent word this morning, Hark, that He wanted you with him. You’re going to be kept b (, sy too, there’s lots of work to bo done way up there for we aren’t improving’too much here on earth. You’ll be writing for -the greatest wonderful—I know they’ll want you to join them.” Requests for copies of the letter have been flooding the diskery’s New York office for the past three months and Jimmy Sw^nn, dee jay on WFOR, Hattiesburg, Miss., etched excerpts, for an M-G-M disk tagged, “The Last Letter.” Diskery also reports that more than 25,000 requests for Williams’ photos have been received since his death. Ne- gotiations for the disposal of the royalties from “The Last Letter” into one of the Williams’ .founda- tions is currently under way. Walker has waived all royalties as author of the letter. According to Walker, M-G-M has enough Williams’ waxings in the cans to keep hitting the'market at regular intervals for the next sev- eral years. The tunes are all origi- nals and will be published by Acuff-Rose. Incidentally, “Your Cheatin’ Heart,” a Williams’ com- position released a few weeks after his death, broke into the “Hit Pa- rade” circle for the first time last week. It’s undecided as yet as who’s the legal heir to the forth- coming Williams’ royalty coin. The courts are now deciding be- tween Williams* mother, son, wid- ow, first wife and sister. Jones Goodwill Trek Nets 51G for Fla. Charities Spike Jones, a native Califor- nian, was an ambassador of good- will to Florida last week when'he raised $51,000 for charities in six towns via six nightly performances of his band and revue.- Jones’ troupe is currently work- ing its way up the east coast and ‘Biggest Show of 1953’ Pulls Fair $14,000 In Carnegie Hall Stand “Biggest Show' of 1953,” touring jazz-vaude package headlining Frankie Laine, Ella Fitzgerald and Woody Herman’s orch, racked up a moderate $14,000 gross in two con- certs at Carnegie Hall, N. Y., Fri- day (24). Unit has been hitting slow grosses in key cities but has been doing SRO biz in small-city dates. Current “Biggest Show” is cut from the same pattern as all its predecessors. It’s a potpourri of standard vaude turns (Frank Mar- lowe, Dusty Fletcher and Bobby Ephram), socko vocalling (Ella Fitzgerald and Frankie Laine) and lively instrumentals (Woody Her- man and Louis Jordan’s Tympany Five). Repertoires of Miss Fitzgerald and Laine were familiar, but they belted ’em out for socko effect Herman’s orch offered plenty of drive with some vivia musical ideas and Jordan brought some humor into his songalog. Marlowe’s prattfall comedies Ephram’s tapping and Fletcher’s “Open the Door Richard” reprise, seemed wasted. in this concert form. The Carnegie Hall dates were promoted by Patricia Music. Gros. Buffalo Boff I 31 / 2 G Buffalo, April 28. “Biggest Show of 1953” with Frankie Laine, Louis Jordan, Ella Fitzgerald and Woody Herman Orch netted a lusty $13,500 in two shows at the Paramount Thursday (23) night. Attraction was heavily .billed in a 60-mile radius from here, includ- ing Canada. House was scaled at $1.80 to $3.60. Fair 11G in Pitt Pittsburgh, April 28. Big last-minute sale for “Biggest Show of 1953” package at The Gar- dens last Wednesday night (£2) helped boost the take to better than $11,000 and permitted pro- moters to get off the hook- with a short profit. Two performances were sched- uled, first at 8:30 p. m. and sec- ond at midnight, but latter was pretty much of a bust, drawing less than $2,000. Plays Camp Lejeune, N. C., tonight KAHL JOINS LEVY AS PATRICIA PARD Phil Kahl, former New York head of Disney Music, has. part- nered with Morris Levy in latter’s Patricia Music. Kahl also will have a one-third interest in Patri- cia’s jazz concert promotion ac- tivities. In recent months Patricia has sponsored Carnegie Hall, N. Y., jazz concerts with the “Biggest Show of 1953” with Duke Elling- ton. c> Kahl also, formed a new pubbery under his own nanie last week which will be operated on a 50-50 split with Levy. Both Kahl and Patricia Music firms are affiliated with BMI. . - Settle Sammy Kaye Suit Against CBS A $400,000 suit brought several years ago in N. Y. Supreme Court by bandleader Sammy Kaye against CBS has been settled and discon- tinued, it was disclosed this week. Terms of the settlement were not revealed. Kaye’s action charged that CBS wrongfully appropriated an idea for a radio-TV show-which he had submitted to the net ip 1949. Philly Narcotic Squad Weeds Out Musicians Philadelphia, April 28. Beaton Schwartz, 22, saxophonist and bandleader known profession- ally as Buddy Savitt, was held in $500 bail for the grand jury last week charged with illegal use of narcotics. Savitt, according to po- lice, is on probation after a drug conviction, last F ^ruary. Held on similar, charges along with.Savitt were Mary Ann Ross, 27, former Chorus girl, and Vincent Piselli, 27, a non-pro. Narcotic squad members also picked up George Freedman, 22, nitery pianistf now working in a South Jersey cafe. Freedman was