Variety (June 1956)

40 MUSIC VS&ffiTY Wednesday, June 27, 1956 RKO—Unique Corrals Pic Cleffers, Artists for Pubbery, Disk Buildup RKO-Unique’s move into the 4- publishing field via its Lamas Mu¬ sic subsid was strengthened last week with the inking of film com¬ posers Victor Young, Max Steiner and Dimitri Tlomkin. The ^act¬ ings are tied in with the diskery- pubbery affiliation with General Teleradio, which also owns RKO- Pictures. In line with the plan to get the pic scores into the Lamas opera¬ tion, RKO cancelled its music pub¬ lishing tieup with Mills Music. Latter firm had an agreement to publish background and theme mu¬ sic from RKO pix since 1951. Lamas is currently dickering for the score to the RKO filmusical, ‘ Bundle of Joy,” which stars Eddie Fisher. The eight new songs in the pic were cleffed by Mack Gor¬ don and Joe Myrow. Already wrapped up are two songs by Matt Malneck for “Public Pigeon No. 1,” Herschel Gilbert's title song for “Beyond a Possible Doubt”; and Tiomkin’s “Tension at Table Rock.” All are upcoming RKO pix. The disk division also hopes to move in on the- soundtrack album field by pacting the new artists scheduled for showcasing in up¬ coming RKO musicals. Studio now has 11 filmusicals on its agenda. Also in the soundtrack set field, label is mulling album releases of earlier RKO musical product. Mar¬ tin .Machat, firm’s secretary and general counsel, is currently going through the old contracts to see if there are any hitches in the plans to release the artists under the RKO-Upique banner. Machat heads for the Coast July 14 to final¬ ize several more deals. Also Coast¬ ing in mid-July is Joe Leahy, disk- ery’s prez and artists & repertoire topper, who’s been set to compose and conduct the background score for an upcoming RKO pic. Machat will head for Europe in early August to set up overseas ” affiliations for the disk company and the publishing firm. In line with the publishing firm expansion, Mickey Garlock was brought in this week as profes¬ sional manager. He’ll oversee the activities of the Lamas (ASCAP) and Britton (BMI) firms. Garlock will headquarter in the east. A Coast and a Chicago office .will be set up in the near future. In line with its expansion pro¬ gram, the label last week added three thrushes to its roster. Join¬ ing the diskery were Frances Langford, Bunny Paul and Jean Martin. Latter cut her first session last week with the initial release set for early July. SKED POP CONCERTS FOR N.Y. COLISEUM sessions. Lined up for wax datejrare Tony Perkins. Dolores Hawkins and Lil¬ lian Briggs. BILLY WARD FORMS FIRM Billy Yard is the latest pei'- former to step into the publishing field. Ward heads up the vocal group. The Domirfoes. Billy Ward Music will be affiliat¬ ed with BMI. Percy Faith Wraps Up Brit. Deal for Pub Firm London, June 20. Musical director Percy Faith ar¬ rived in London yesterday (25). He is wrapping up a deal with Es¬ sex Music here to undertake Brit¬ ish distribution for his publishing concern in the U. S., Marpet Music. While in Britain, Faith may do some tv and radio dates. JERRY SIMON, IN MUFTI, INTO DORIS DAY FIRM Jerry Simon is back in action after a two-year hitch in the U.S. Army. Simon will take over the professional manager post at Artist Music and Daywin Music starting July 2. Both firms are operated by Marly Melcher, Doris Day’s hus¬ band. A disk promotion matt before entering the service, Simon will also handle exploitation of Doris Day’s Columbia platters. Col Ups Grady William Grady has been upped to the post of assistant to Herbert M. Greenspon, vice-president in charge of operations at Columbia Records. Grady has been assigned to the phonograph record manu¬ facturing activities and will assist Greenspon in the coordination of company’s manufacturing func¬ tions in all the factories. Alan Keenan, general traffic manager, and Robert McColgin, process engineer, will report di¬ rectly to Grady. He was formerly Col’s director of cost accounting. Bally Bows Packaged Line With Six Albums Chicago, June 26. Bally Records, indie Chicago firm, bows its first album offerings in August. Ranging from pops to progressive jazz, six albums will go on the market the first month. Thereaftei\ production will be two per month. Bally albums will retail at $3.98. Decision to enter the package mar¬ ket was dictated by steadily mount¬ ing album sales reported through¬ out the record industry, with a corresponding fall-off in singles biz. Fact that, in the EP max'ket, fewer sales mean more dollar volume also prompted the move. Ocean City, Gets New Ballroom in Ex-Cafe Ocean City, Md., June 26. A new band showcase has opened in this Maryland ocean resort with Rick's Raft, a former night club, converted into a huge ballroom. It's called Danceland. Only soft drinks and snacks will be dispensed at the bar of the Danceland under the new policy. Vaughn Monroe played there last Friday (22) with the Richard Fay orch. Others signed so far include Woody Herman, starting July 6; Richard Maltby, July 20; and Duke Ellington, July 31. Ocean City, Maryland’s board¬ walk pier ballroom, was converted to a convention hall, thus eliminat¬ ing it from the name band field. CHAPPELL FINDS ONE ‘BY HEX' TUNE IN BMI In wrapping up the rights to the off-Broadway musical, “By Hex,” last week, Chappell. had to settle for all but one of the tunes. Show’s cleffer, Howard Blankman, had previously assigned one of the tunes, “It Takes Time,” to Larry Utall's Monument Music firm. * Monument is a BMI affiliate, while Chappell is an ASCAP fii'm. “It Takes Time” has already been cut by Jane Froman for Capitol Records. Columbia Pays Artists to Get Jazz Fete’s Tag Columbia Records will pay the performance fees for its artists ap- pearing at the American Jazz Fes- tical at Newport, R. I., next month. In return Col is getting exclusive rights to cut an on-the-spot album using the American Jazz Festival tag. The label will also pay its artists their regular recording fees for ap¬ pearing in the set. Howfever, one- third of the monies laid out on the performance fee rap will be de¬ ducted from the artist’s royalties on the package. Only Col artists appearing at the fest will be put into the groove. They include Louis Armstrong, Dave Brubeck, Jay & Kai, Eddie Condon, Buck Clayton, The Jazz Messengers, and Duke Ellington, who is now freelancing. Set will be cut by Geoi'ge Avakian, who heads up Col’s jazz division. Norm Weinstroer, Coral Records’ sales chief, trekking to the Coast this week to o.o. the distrib setups, RETAIL DISK AND ALBUM BEST SELLERS — -P'SrTety Survey of retail disk best sellers based on reports ob tained from leading stores in 21 cities and showing com¬ parative sales rating for this and last week , National Rating This Last wk. wk. Artist, Label, Title GOGI GRANT (Era) “Wayward Wind”... MORRIS STOLOFF (Decca) “Moonglow-Picnic Theme”. 2 2 145 2 10 9 88 FOUR LADS (Columbia) - “Standing on the Corner”. 3 3 9 83 VIC DAMONE (Columbia) “On the Street Where You Live”.. FATS DOMINO (Imperial) “I’m in Love Again”. PERRY COMO (Victor) “More” . . PAT BOONE (Dot) “I Almost My Mind”. GEORGE CATES (Coral) “Moonglow-Picnic Theme”. NERVOUS NORVUS (Dot) “Transfusion” ... ; . 1 9 10 3 42 25 22 TERESA BREWER (Corah “Sweet Old-Fashioned Girl”. 10