Variety (November 1954)

VtAwnby, November 17, 1954 MUSIC 55 »f 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 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 firidnigs 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 (coin machines, retail disks) and three ways in the case of tunes (coin machines, retail disks and retail sheet musicK POSITIONS This Last Week Week TALENT Artist and label ROSEMARY CLOONEY (Columbia) 2 3 4 5 6 2 3 7: 4 5 8 9 10 8 9 EDDIE FISHER (Victory ........, PERRY COMO (Victor) CHORDETTES (Cadence) DORIS DAY (Columbia)............. DON CORNELL (Coral) BILL HALEY’S COMETS (Decca) De CASTRO SISTERS (Abbott) RALPD MARTERIE (MercUry) FOUR ACES (Decca) TUNE (This Ole House Hey There Mambo Italiano (I Need You Now . j Count Your Blessings (Fanny (Papa Loves Mambo ) Things I Didn’t Do Mister Sandman If 1 Give My Heart to You Hold My; Hand f Shake, Rattle and Roll . {Dim, Difn the Lights (Rock Around the Clock Teach Me Tonight Skokiaan (It’s a Woman’s World ) Mister Sandman POSITIONS This: Last. TUNES (•ASCAP. fBMI) Ousting of Ward French Monday (15) as president of Community Concerts Inc. by his fellow direc- tors, after a 20-year tenure as a top exec in the Columbia Artists Mgt. setup, may have stunned the concert field, but it was no surprise to insiders.. Action is regarded as just another move in a long history of internal struggle in. the huge Columbia combine (of which Com- munity Concerts is a subsidiary), It’s also be,en awhile arbrewing and Isn’t recent development, as supposed. What’s more, it’s looked on as forerunner of other bat.tlfes or managerial changes. Struggle for power j Columbia, largest concert, management in the vorld and composed of an, amalga- mation of seven artists bureaus, is a.-matter .of* 10 years or more rec- ord! with heads of. the different segments at various ‘ times not seeming able to live and work to- gether in peace. Situation has re- sulted from a . spread of many mi- nority stockholders, none having enough votes to take over control, ■'with different lineups Of execs and changing combines over the years as conditions or rivalries fluctu- ated. . .. Current crisis was seen develop- ing, by some as far back as. a half dozen years ago, when Arthur Jud- son, vet concert man often referred to as “czar of the longhair field,” was unexpectedly shifted upstairs from his Columbia presidency post to honorary chairman of the board., Judson stayed on the sidelines for a While, only to’plunge back active- ly into the situation, a couple of seasons or so ago, to be one of the'; t\v powers behind the scenes to- day, the other being Frederick C. Schang, Col’s current prez. French’s departure is the third change of important Col execs in recent years, Lawrence Evans, an- other 20-year vet, being pushed out a couple of seasons ago from his board chairman job, and the late Arthur Wismer, another vet, being ousted a.s prez of Community Con- certs two years ago. These three” had a large part in the creation of Columbia and buildup of Commu- ity, French, a pioneer in the or- ganized concert-audience move- ment which Community repre- sents, was a founder of Commu- ity: The Dept, of Justice has been in- vestigating Columbia for a-couple of years (on complaint of indie managers) on antitrust grounds. Columbia, however, hasn’t been loo perturbed, awaiting outcome of the Government’s similar case against the Shuberts. Feeling is that if the Government loses in the Shu- bert matter, it will drop its activity this regard against Columbia. Corpmunity’s board of directors on Monday voted to “relieve” French and Robert Ferguson of their posts a$ prlz and vice-prexy. David Ferguson, Robert’s brother, .and manager of the Coast opera- tions, was named prez of Com- munity. Herbert O. Fox was elect- ed managing director. French claimed his buster was made by “a small, group Of en- trenched managers,” who objected to his "outspoken championing of the rights of local associations and the freedom of artists,” Schang had no comment. REICHMAN’S COMEBACK STRETCHING TO DISKS Bandleader Joe Reichman, who in'de a comeback in the band biz a few months ago after laying off several years,, is again clicking on disks via the Camden label, RCA’s low-priced platter line. Reichman is,now playing a long stand at the Baker Hotel in Dallas; His “Piano Reveries” longplay set is currently among Camden’s bestsellers, as is Reichman’s “The Very Thought of You” set in the EP form. These sets. were pack- aged from disks originally made for RCA Victor several, years ago. FIELDING'S DECCA SPECIAL Jerry Fielding reports to Decca next week to cut a special album. Fielding will arrange and con- duct bis ' o\v prehestra for the untitled pa’ckage. It’s a one-shot deal. Bullish Outlook for Mpls. Orch; Season Tix Sale Up; Cut in Deficits Likely Minneapolis, Nov. 16. Season’s outlook is very bullish for the Minneapolis Symphony Or- chestra, Attendance i$. up, with season ticket sales the factor. Orch’s 52d year teed Nov. 5 with 3,500 in the audience. For the first time in its history the orchestra conducted a season ticket sale campaign, which resulted in a 6% increase in season sales. In addition, the Sunday Pops concerts showed a good increase in season ducat sales. Ten concerts were scheduled—an increase from last year’s seven—and. 1,300 sea- son books were sold at $5, against 1,100 season books last year at $3.75, First Pops concert, had at- tendance of 3,300, Single admis- sions are 75c with entire capacity (4,822) unreserved.; Format of con- certs is on the light side, suph as all- Tchaikovsky, waltz music, Grieg; Gershwin-Grofe, etc. Budget fot the 1954-55 season shows anticipated income of $319,- 000 up from the previous year’s ac- tual figure of $289,000. Expendi- tures for the ’54-’55 season show an anticipated $581,680 over last year’s $557,913. Main reason for increase in expenses is the grant- ing of state unemployment bene- fits to the orchestra and a raise of $1. per day in the per diem when i on tour. However, the expected deficit this year is $262,403 against an actual deficit last year of $268,- 084.21. This is about $6,000 less for the coming year. Money is raised through local appeal to individuals and firms in the Twin City area; about 55% of money comes from corporations and businesses. Regular subscrip- tion concerts consist of 18 during year of 26 .weeks, 18 at home, one special week during Xmas when it puts on Menotti’s “Aniahl” in con- nection with U. of Minnesota. The- atre and seven weeks on tour. This year orch goes to Texas and Lou- isiana in course of four-week tour; one week north up to Winnipeg and back and two weeks in Iowa, Illinois, Wisconsin. Antal Dorati is conductor and Boris Sokoloff manager of the orchestra. LAINE SET FOR HECTIC PIC, RECORDING SKED Hollywood, Nov. 16. Frankie Laine faces a hectic film and recording schedule when he re- turns here this week from his Eu- ropean trek. Singer is' slated to go before the cameras for the Jonie Taps production of “Exactly Like You” at Columbia. In addition, Laine has a hefty J recording schedule on tap at Co- lumbia Records, where his big backlog of disks hay been greatly diminished. He hasn’t recorded in some time and the label wants to build up a new stockpile. Laine will also finalize plans for an Australian trek next spring. Music-On-Tape Firm Pitches for D.J. Plugs Via Special Acetates New plugging vistas, are opening up for the tape industry via disk jockey programs. Audio-Video is spearheading the deejay push by supplying the platter spinners with special acetates culled from Its tape library. A-V has confined the project thus far to the New York area but expects to get the acetates out to jocks in the key cities before long. Move was made by A-V to get add- ed exposure for the artists its .roster. Initial acetates were made of tapes etched by The Smith- Glamman Quintet antt-Dotig Duke; Key jocks in the tape bally so far have been A1 (Jazzbo) Collins, of WNEW and Bob Haymes of: WCBS. Collins, for example, has been spinning the acetates on his midnight show throwing in hefty plugs for the A-V line. 1 Walker on Annual Biz Trek to Coast Studios Frank Walker, MGM Records topper, headed out on his annual trek to the Coa^t studios last week. He’ll huddle with Metro; brass on Upcoming filmusicals and sound- track album projects. . Walker expects to wind up his Coast stay in about three weeks. 29th ‘Opry* Anni Record company execs, publish- ers and hillbilly disk jockeys will converge on Nashville Friday G9> for the 29th anni of WSM’s “Grand Old Opry” program, Station Will play host to more than 1,000 dee-!- jays during the two-day fete. The annual hillbilly bash was launched by WSM last year.. Festival will be kicked off Fri- day morning with a WSM welcome. RCA Victor will host, the platter, spinners at a luncheon and Cedar- Wood Music is sponsoring a cock- tailery later in the afternoon. . Hill & Range takes over Satur-: day morning with a “Breakfast at the Opry” shindig. WSM Will pick up the tab at an afternoon recep- tion and Capitol Records will wind the whole thing up with a midnight supper.. In between the partying, file dee jays, will attend roundtable discussions on record service and programming problems. There will also be cuffp tix to the 29th anni show of “Grand Old Opry” on Saturday night. 1st Pop Pension Concert Of 113-Yr.-0ld NY. Orch Richard Rodgers came to the aid of the N. Y. Philharmonic- Symphony’s Pension Fund Monday (15), by supplying the bait for a Carnegie Hall concert with both baton and compositions. It was the first time in modern days that the 1 ^year-old orch gave a Pension Fund concert devoted to a contem- porary composer, or to the- works of a pop tlmesmith for a full eve- ning in Carnegie Hall. The pop comnoser as a maestro also added to the night's unique quality. A full house added $16,000 to the fund. Since the bulk of Rodgers’ ma- terial was written to be sung to words by Lorenz Hart and Oscar Hammerstein 2d, the orch served primarily as a pit,band for vocal- ists Annamary Dickey, Claramae Turner, Davis Cunningham, John Raitt and a rousing mixed chorus under the direction of Crane Calder,- I * •• As a legi tuner pit .band, the Philharmonic showed the neces- sity for an out-of-town tryout or at least more rehearsal time before opening cold in New York. In many, instances the orch ran ahead of the vocalists and in one case maestro Rodgers had them stop, and start all oyer again. The wide range and richness of Rodgers’, music, however, was given a full showcasing, although his -efforts*..with. Hart were limited to only four numbers. The bulk of the songalog was devoted to his collaboration with Hammerstein, with, tunes being culled from such legiters as ^Carousel,” “The King and I,” “South Pacific.” “Okla- homa” and the pic score for "State Fair.” There were only three in- strumental segments—a medley of Rodgers’ waltzes, the “Slaughter on Tenth Aye.” ballet piece from “On Your Toes” and the “sym- phonic scenario” from the back- ground score from the documen- tary, “Victory At Sea.” Standouts in the vocal depart- ment were, the chorus workover of “There Is Nothing Like a Dame,” John Raitt’s “Soliloquy,” Miss Turner’s “You’ll Never Walk Alone” and Miss Dickey’s “Hello Young Lovers,” Tix. were priced at a $10 top with first tier boxes ($eating eight) going .for $125, Among the show biz boxholders were legit backer Howard S. Cullman, maestro An- dre Kostelanetz, radio-tv newscas- ter, Edward R. Murrow, RCA Vic- tor veepee - recording director Manie Sacks; restaurateur Vincent Sardi and Hammerstein.. ASCAP, Chappell Music and the Music Publishers Holding Corp. also were repped in the boxes. > Gros. MAC’s R&B Bug Mercury Artists Corp. has caught the rhythm & blues bug. Percentery added an r&b division to its activi-. ties recently. The new department will be headed up by Lee Kraft and Bob i Roberts.