Variety (August 1955)

1 Wednesday, '‘Atigtist 21, * W5lj MUSIC 51 Established idea in the dish biz that note-for-note copying of someone else's disk is ethically okay, has. finally met some formal opposition. Bob Smith, program manager of WINS, New York in- die, has ordered all of the station’s jockeys to cut out disk copies from their shpws. Smith has drawn a distinction between a “copy** disk, in which the original version’s, arrangement is duplicated completely even to the vocal tricks of the artists, and, a "cover”, disk, in which ap artist does a version of a song with his own interpretation.. Covers will continue to be played on the station. Smith has started to compile a' list of recent original waxings on which "copies/’ some of which turned out"to be bigger hits than the kickoff version, have been made. The originals include such sides as The Nutmegs’ “Story Untold”; Laverne Baker’s “Tweedle Dee”; Billy Vaughn’s “Melody of Love”; .Fats Domino’s “Ain’t It a Shame”; the Crazy Otto piano disks; Roger Williams’ “Autumn Leaves”; Priscilla Wright’s “Man in the Raincoat”; Chuck Berry’s ’“Mabelline”; Lillian Briggs’ “I Want You to Be My Baby,” and a flock of r&b tunes. Smith stated that the new policy versus carbons was being inau- gurated as a matter of fairness to the artists. It will, he said, help to; prevent the “stealing of hits.” / on Video Another round of shooting fo-j; song hits via a video dramatic showcase is coming up. On the CBS-TV “Studio One Summer Theatre” show next Monday (2.9). a new tune, “A Chance At Love,” will be introduced In a draitta of the same title. Tune, recorded by Paul Weston- for .Columbia, was written by Eugene Cines, director of. CBS-TV program music, with lyrics by Carl Sigman. On Sept. 4, “Philco Playhouse” is doing a show called “Miss Amer- ica,” which’ will feature a title song by Bemie Wayne. Johnny Desmond, who clicked with another tv tune, “Play Me Hearts and Flowers,” from a Show in which he appeared, will star in the show and disk the tune for Coral Records. Tune is also due for a plug at the Mis? America Pageant in At- lantic City, Sept. 10. E. B. Marks Music is publishing. ' The drive to get that video plug Was launched in earnest early this year after the CBS-TV “Studio One” plug,for “Let Me-Go, Lover,” as sung and recorded by Joan Weber for Columbia. It was an overnight smash that underlined video’s power to make hits by a "single mass exposure. Although no tv song since has reached the status of “Let Me Go, Lover,” several other video- plugged ftines have made the grade.' In addition to “Play Me Hearts and Flowers,” there have been Gisele MacKertzie’s “Hard To'Get,” from the “Justice” series; •‘Blue Star/’ the theme of “Medic,” recorded with . lyrics by Felicia- Sapdeps for Columbia; and the Puccini aria, ‘ * “O Mio Babbino Caro,” also' spotlighted on a •‘Studio One” show and recorded for Mercury by' Ralph Marterie. Gelatt’s ‘Fabulous Phonograph’History A Conrorehensive Work By JIM WALSH Thomas A. Edison invented the phonograph almost 80 years ago— 7P years ago,. to. be exact—but, culturally speaking, it has come of age only since the introduc- tion and .popularization of; satisfac- tory LP records, during the past decade. Anothe’r sign that the plat- ter-player has reached musical ma- turity is the appearance of the first accurate and comprehensive book ever devoted to the story of the talking machine—-“The Fabulous Phonograph,” by Roland Gelatt (Liepincott; $4.95.) Gelatt has done a job that need- ed. doing and did it well. Over the years, other writers in such widely separated spots as New Zea- land, England and the U.S.A., have tripd to trace’ the history of Edison's favorite- instrument, but only musicologist Gelatt has writ- ten lucidly and . entertainingly, given the whole story, or nearly all of it, and made the ifninimum Qf mistakes.. There are omissions, as there necessarily must be in Disk Jockey Is Boss . ... Rutland, Vt., Aug. 23. One way for a disk jockey to set his own policy is to buy the station. That’s exactly what Jack Bennett, jockey on WHWB in this town, did. Transfer of the 1,000-watter from the former owner Charles J. Bates to Bennett was re- cently approved by the FCC. First largescale Jazz show for the arena and auditorium trade is being produced by Joe Glaser’s Associated Booklhg Corp. for . a swing around the country this fall. Show will comprise Dave Brubeck Quartet with Paul Desmond, Gerry Mulligan Sextet, Australian Jazz Quartet and Carmen MacRae. Lay- out in the modern idiom to be de- signed for the arenas. Group .will, hit 41 cities starting at the Arena, New Haven on Nov. 1 and will hit Carnegie Hall, N.Y., oh Nov. 4 or. 5,. both, nights. have been reserved in the Hall, but de- cision as to playdate will be made later. Since “The Biggest Show of 1955” had to curtail its route*-last season because of declining biz, there has been little activity in jazz shows "for arenas except, for “Jazz at the Philharmonic.”, Glas- er’s outfit marks an attempt to re- activate what was once a lucrative business. LANDOWSKA’S $50 SET A QUICK RCA SELLOUT In another display of the selling power of some longhair packages, RCA Victor’s $50 limited edition set of Wanda Landowska’s harpsi- chord playing of Bach’s. “Well- Tempered Clavier” was a sellout in less than. four weeks after its re- lease in June. Company execs, initially figured it-would take at least six months to turn over the 1,000 albums, which contained .six 12-inch LPs each. Rapid sellout occurred de- spite the fact that the.album did not comprise new disks. They all had been issued previously as single LPs. Mischa Violin's Agency Spot Hollywood, Aug.. 23. Mischa Violin, formerly musical director of the Roxy Theatre, N. Y., in the ’30s, has joined the Jack Linder agency as head, of the music department. He will book bands and orches- , Developing .dealer reaction to the Columbia Record LP Club; which was launched last week, will determine whether -similar plans will be put into operation by some of the other major companies. If the dealers support the Columbia project, then it’s likely that other club plans will be set up. Another disking exec, for ’instance, indi- cated that * if the Col club plan proves successful in pulling plus business without antagonizing the retailers, his label could also be expected to come up with a disk club. The dealer jury, ‘however, is still out on the Columbia club plan. While Col has received support frorh many outlets. around the country, opposition to the' Club plan "was also shaping up aS a strong factor in several cities. Crystalization of dealer opinion to the Col plan will take place in the next couple of weeks after the dealers have a chance to become more familiar, with the Col setup. During this time, dealer groups; in several cities have scheduled meet- ings to discuss Col’s move and* to determine whether to support or oppose it. Columbia, meantime, has. made several refinements in the club’s promotion to accommodate the lo- cal dealers. Full-page Col adver- tisements in the press over last weekend, for instance, included the names and addresses of local dealers through whom member- ship applications could be ob- tained. The ads' also informed prospective members that they could join the Col club directly by applying to the national headquar- ters jn N. Y. The big bone of con- tention oyer the Col plan is whether the direct membership applications will draw business away from the local dealers. Col execs are taking precautions to prevent or minimize this devel- opment. Spot radio announcements plugging the club in-various locali- ties were revamped to push dealer membership rather than direct ap- plications. Followup ads in the - (Continued on page 58) Rome, Aug. 16. Louis Armstrong makes his third grand tour of Italy this September, during a European swing, in a combo which is to include Barney Bigard at the clarinet and Trammy Young, among others. Armstrong’s package, which in the past two stanzas here has received top wel- come, will be followed on a penin- sular tour by the Jerry Mulligan Quartet. Fall jazz, activity in Italy will spotlight a two-day. Jazz Festival, to be held in Milan, this year on an ^international scale. All the Italian combos will be repped as in past years, including the Milan College Jazz Society, the Roman New Or- leans Band, etc. Among the soloists to be featured are such European names as Albert Nicolas, pianist Lil Armstrong, Lays Guilin from Sweden, and Hans Roller from Germany. GOLDEN JUBILEE YEAR 1905 -1955 ^ « Xf .1 M » J « Jf 7 * • 9 Mitch ‘Tex* Miller Mitch Miller, Columbia Rec- ords’ artist^ repertoire chief who is currently riding with a click in “Yellow Rose of Texas,” was made an honorary citizen of; the Lone Star* state in Dallas last’ week. He was palmed in Texas en route to the Coast where’s due to stay about two weeks. Jerry Blaine has sold out his two indfe labels, Jubilee and Josie, to an investment syndicate for a re- ported $200,000. Syndicate, which owns extensive holdings in diversi- fied fields, has named Herb Dex- ter as general manager of the two labels. Dexter, 'former Philadelphia disk jockey Who has been artists & repertoire chief for* Blaine’s disk operation for the past three years, takes over the g.m. spot.Sept. 1. Blaine, who organized Jubilee some nine years ago, will hence- forth concentrate on his wholesal- ing outfit, Gosnat Distributors. Latter is one of the biggest indie distrib outfits in the disk biz, with five branches in as many cities handling such labels as Dot and Atlantic. Cosnat will continue to •distribute for Jubilee; Under Blaine’s ategis, Jubilee concentrated on pops and packages while the Josie diskery was slanted for the rhythm & blues market. It’s expected that Dexter "Will continue the same operational format. KING GOES P0PWARDS; HY GRILL JOINS LABEL King Records, which has, jbtan virtually dormant in the pop mar- ket since the exit of Dewey Berg- man about two years "ago, will again become active in that field. Hy Grill, formerly artists & repertoire staffer at RCA Victor and Decca, has' been named pop a&r. chief. He’ll headquarter in New York, Kang, which is a prominent label in rhythm & blues and the country & western markets, has its home- office in Cincinnati. Grill currently is looking for talent to showcase on the King label. - 4 - Houston, Aug. 23. Objectionable rhythm and blues records have been cleared off Houston airlanes for the most part, says a committee that has declared war on them. Group is the “wash- out-the-air” committee of Hous- ton’s juvenile., delinquency and crime commission. Commission was formed uder a city ordinance. Main targets of the committee were records beamed to this area’s large Negro audience. Movement to clean up the ether got big impetus from a “Miss Peaches”- broadcast which burlesqued Negro singing. Local chapter of the National Assn, for the Advancement of Colored People was stirred to action by the show, which originated live from a Houston station. As a result of strong feeling in Negro quarters over the broadcast, Dr. H. A. • Bulloch, sociology pro- fessor at Texas' Southern. Univ., (a Negro school), took the matter before the commission. ' The. cleanup committee-resulted, with Dr. Bulloch named, chairman. First act of the group was to" list 26 waxings mostly by indie labels, that had bothered Negro leaders as degrading or possibly, contribu- tory to juvenile delinquency. Most of the 26 were by. Negro artists. List was sent to Houston’s nine -stations, which include two stations that beam most or all of their programs to Negroes—KCOH and KYOK. ' '• Tacit indication of the move ac- cording to Dr. Bulloch, was that if the station didn’t clean up, the FCC would be notified. All nine outlets cooperated sooner- or later, said Dr. Bulloch, and the 26 bis- cuits disappeared from the air in (Continued on page 55) D.C. Legalite Enters Disk Biz With New Label Washington, Aug. 23. New company, Ruby Records, has opened here with plans for pushing pop disks in the national market. First platter, by Dolly McVey, nitery singer who has made several records under other labels, will be released next month. She has done “It’s My Heart” with “Nobody Told Me” on the reverse. Firm is .headed .by James Sfarn- as, D. C. attorney with some show biz experience. Capitol Records is doing the pressing for Ruby. Capitol Pacts Judy Hollywood, Aug. 23. Judy Garland has been signed by Alan Livingston, Capitol rec- ords artists & repertoire veepCe, to a new recording pact. Miss Gar- land’s initial album under the new pact will be “Miss Show Business,” which diskery plans to have in re- lease late next month. Simultaneously, Capitol signed single pop records pacts with Rob- ert Roubian, and with three coun- try and western artists: Ray Parks, Gloria* Hensoif nmd* Freddy* Fran hr. 4 Jack Robbins Fortes New Mdsic Co^ With Herb:'Wise of Ashley Vet : music publisher Jack Rob? bins, who sold out his J. J. Rob* bins &. Sons music firm to the Ashley Music interests several months ago, has organized a^new publishing operation in partner- ship with Herbert H. Wise. New firm is called Robbins-Wise Inc. and will specialize primarily in legit and film production tunes. Wise, incidentally, is the son of the late A1 Wise, part owner of the Ashley combine, which also in- cludes such firms as Amsco, Lewis and Consolidated. The Robbins-Wise firm has wrapped up the John Latouche- Jimmy Mundy score for the legiter, “Delilah,” which went into re- hearsal for fall production last week." RCA Victor, incidentally, has the inside track on the original cast album of the Carol Channing starrer. The firm also has the rights to the Sammy Gallup theme song, “Moon Magic,” and the David Broekman score for the IMPS pic production, “Crowded Paradise,” a film about Puerto Rico which has been bankrolled by that coun- try with Nancy Kelly and Hume Cronyn starring. The firm is-also publishing the Leonard Bernstein score from the film “On the Waterfront.” Coming up on the new firm’s roster is the score to a projected legit musical, “Lady Luck,” an Al- bert Lewis production.. Score is by Ted Fetter (lyrics) and Milt Peterson (music). Wiswell Back to N. Y. Andy Wiswell, Capitol Records’ eastern artists & repertoire chief, returns to his N.Y. desk this week after a two-week trip to the Coast. Wiswell, who was recently ap- pointed to his new post, visited Cap’s Coast homeoffice to be oriented 1 on* the* diskery’fi*p©Hoies.*