Variety (August 1956)

52 MUSIC PfiklEfY Wednesday, August 15, 1956 U.S. Disk $ Goes Far in Far East P^RIETY Scoreboard OF Hollywood, Aug. 14. Latest competition for Ameri¬ can disk dollars comes from So Beska Records, Nipponese plattery founded by vet New York tune- mith and publish Dudley Manners. He’s back in the U.S. with the masters of a pair of 12-inch albums he recorded there featuring Johnny Watson and a 15-piece Japanese band known as the Kamapai Kings. Watson, onetime arranger for Vaughn Monroe and other top bands, has been in Tokyo for sev¬ eral years. He’s now in charge of jnusic at the Ernie Pyle Theatre there. His Kamapai Kings is an alls.tar outfit featuring the best sidemen in the islands. Recording in Japan is incredibly cheap, Manners reported before taking off for New York. Pair of aibums cost less than $750 to produce. Studio charges, including engi¬ neer, amounted to $135 for the session. Musicians, under Japanese union rules providing for the equivalent of $1.95 per side regard¬ less of how long it takes, received a total of $520 for the 24 sides. Total figure even includes tf '33.33 in taxi fares to take the sidemen to the session and send them home. MAX HERMAN HEADS LOCAL 47’S BIZ ACTS. Hollywood, Aug. 14. In the first major operational change resulting from the “rebel¬ lion” of Coast musicians, Local 47 business agents are now operating under the supervision of Max Herman, the local’s veepee. Board of directors named Herman chief business agent, a newly created post, and put him on salary to oversee all activities of the repre¬ sentatives. First item on the agenda is a study of the operation to determine whether other business agents are needed by the local, which covers all of Los Angeles County for the cities of Long Beach and Pomona. America’s New (folfrUend PERRY (0M0 RCA Victor JACK LEWIS Crest AMERICAN MUSIC, INC. 9109 SUNSET BlVO HOLLYWOOD CALIF 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 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 (coin machines, retail disks) and three ways in the case of tunes (coin machines, retail disks and retail sheet musicJ. POSITIONS This Last Week Week 1 1 2 2 3 3 4 4 5 5 6 8 7 6 8 7 9 10 10 POSITIONS This Last Week Week 1 2 2 1 3 3 4 5 5 4 6 8 7 9 8 6 9 7 10 10 TALENT ARTIST AND LABEL ELVIS PRESLEY (Victor) PLATTERS (Mercury) ... TUNE fHound Dog <J Don’t Be Cruel II Want You, I Need You (My Prayer ) Heaven On Earth DORIS DAY (Columbia) . Whatever Will Be, Will Be BUCHANAN & GOODMAN (Luniverse) ... Flying Saucers PATTI PAGE (Mercury) .. Allegheny Moon HUGO WINTERHALTER (Victor) .Canadian Sunset PAT BOONE (Dot) . . . I Almost Lost My Mind GOGI GRANT (Era) . Wayward Wind GENE VINCENT (Capitol). Be-Bop-A-Lula VIC DAMONE (Columbia) . On Street Where You Live TUNES (♦ASCAP. tBMI) TUNE PUBLISHER ^WHATEVER WILL BE, WILL BE .Artists *MY PRAYER .Shapiro-B * ALLEGHENY MOON.Oxford fHOUND DOG. Presley fWAYWARD WIND . Warman fCANADIAN SUNSET. Meridian fFLYING SAUCERS.’.. Luniverse *ON THE STREET WHERE YOU LIVE . Chappell fl ALMOST LOST MY MIND ...Hill & Range fl WANT YOU, I NEED YOU, I LOVE YOU.Presley Luniverse -. 1 Continued from page 49 ■— —- were repeated among the 19 al¬ legedly infringed upon usages) were involved, obviously a 34c roy¬ alty (per statutory provision) on a disk that sells for 89c retail would be prohibitive. Anyway, it’s trade custom that, where a pot pourri is involved, the copyright owner ac¬ cords a cutrate. And in this in¬ stance only a bar or two was in¬ volved but, nonetheless, the usage thereof is an infringement, iil was said that the enterprising young Messrs. Goodman and Bu¬ chanan were under the impression that the use of a bar or two was not a technical violation. Inci- j dentally, Goodman’s father is also I an attorney and visited Abeles’ of- ! fice, but the entire issue was han- died by A. Warren Troub for the prooosed defendants.) There are still two or three pub- lishers who technically have not agreed to the overall proposed set¬ tlement but it is likely that they will go along. Among the condi¬ tions of settlement also was a pro¬ vision that Abeles’ legal fee ba paid by Goodman and Buchanan, along with all other legal expenses. Still another proviso is that ac¬ counting be made this month and another accounting ' of sales be made in September. The publish¬ ers obviously don’t want to risk any delays or waits. “Flying Saucer” has been a quick flash hit, with sales said to reach around 500.000 platters to date. It should be stressed that Abeles w’as called in by Harry Fox as trus¬ tee of the music publishers in¬ volved, which differs from the Music Publishers Protective Assn, with whom he is traditionally as¬ sociated. However, MPPA is dom¬ inantly an ASCAP-publisher trade association and it so happens that the majority of the pubberies and diskeries involved In “The Flying Saucer” imbroglio are (1) BMI-af- filiated an.d (2) non-MPPA af¬ filiated. WSM, Nashville 'radio station, ha^set aside Nov. 9-10 for the fifth annual national disk jockey festi¬ val. Fest will be tied in with the 31st anni of station’s “Grand Ole Opry.” HELMUT ZACHARIAS —Deccci FLORIAN ZABACH -Mrrcuv LEROY HOLMES-MG'.* LAWRENCE WELK — Corel BILLY VAUGHN —Dot ' iT * STYNt * OAHU'S “Saturday Night is the loneliest night of the week” •sSr CAMN MUSIC COUP. Civil Liberties ; Continued from page 49 ; tempting to exercise some form of censorship over art. I’m not in terested in getting into a debate on the merits of the music. The fact remains that the ban under discussion is based on. nothing but the content of the music. It is : therefore, an attempt to restrict free expression, the product of the human mind and skill. And no agency has the right to exercise such control. 'If some law is being violated, Just Concluded Eminently Successful NINE MONTH EUROPEAN TOUR LIONEL HAMPTON AND HIS ORCHESTRA Currently—AIL THIS WEEK—N.B.C. BAND SHpW * Aug. 23 (Two Weeks) DUNES, Las Vegas Oct. 22, Starting Tour of ENGLAND ★ * * * ASSOCIATED BOOKING CORPORATION JOE GLASER, Pres. New York I Chicago I Hollywood 745 5th Ave, PL 9-4600 | 203 No. Wabash | 8619 Sunset Blvd. then under criminal statutes, the violators should be arrested and the issue tried before a judge and jury. No board can- act as a cen¬ sor in matters of this kind.” ACLU, it was learned, is also concerned because of a second and subtler nuance in the threatened boycott of rock ’n’ roll music in El Monte. There has been evidence that the objection to the music ex¬ tends to, and may be based upon, the fact that it is largely the prod¬ uct of Negro bands. “There has been,” Wirin ad¬ mitted, “some question of racial discrimination.” Latter subject is one which always prompts ACLU intervention in a case. There have been several bans on the rock ’n’ roll music around the country in the last few months, in¬ cluding a few in California. In El Monte, the preliminary hearing on the proposed ban dwelt heavily on the fact that the music appears to attract a rowdy alement. City At¬ torney James A. Nicklin even com¬ mented on the fact that “some of them even show up carrying tire chains.” ACLU position is that the city has no right to ban the music be¬ cause of these extraneous factors. The police, it was pointed out, have municipal ordinances under which they can operate to arrest persons who disturb the peace. But the organization feels that no gov¬ ernmental group has the right to deprive a segment of the popula¬ tion of the art It prefers simply be¬ cause that art also encourages some exhibitionists to excesses of various kinds. Ford's Frisco Appeal San Francisco, Aug. 14. When Bennie Ford, a Frisco box¬ ing and wrestling promoter, asked for a dancehall permit at his San Francisco Garden, police chief Frank Ahern protested. At a Board of Permit Appeals hearing last week Ahern's spokes¬ man Police Lt. Frank Harrington, commented: “The chief is afraid rock ’n’ roll bands would attract occurrences like those in San Jose and Santa Cruz” (rock 'n’ roll riots took place in both these smaller, nearby cities earlier in the summer). Another BMI Tin Up" Hit “THE FOOL ff /Recorded by SANFORD CLARK. THE GALLAHADS. Published by DEBRA MUSIC Jubile