Variety (March 1957)

51 VediicB<^«yi .March 27» 1957 P^RtEiY KIVSIC TV Hears About Payola yictor-P4G Tie on 25c EP to Flood Music biz payola got a going over on tv last week. It was fic¬ tionalized on CBSrTV'sf “Climax’' show Thursday ( 24 ) and hatted around lightly oh. WABD’s “Entertainment Press Conference” last Tuesday (19) by Cbl’a pop artists A: repertoire chief Mitch Miller and panelists A1 Morgan^ Harriet Van Horne and Bil]l Stern, (Review of -'Climax” is in the ^ section,) Miller’s view was that only the untalented accept ^payola. A re^ cording bompany practice Which he abhors most is the ^copying of arrangements and ideas.” To back this up he cited the Tab Hunter (pot) copy, of the Sonny James (Capitol) version of. “Young Love.” s - Stern went 4 ifoul as a muckraker when he. tried to pin Miller down on recording five versions of ”Wd All Need Love.” Stern alleged that'Miller published the tune. “Love” is published by the Warner Bros, firms. Ownershipof‘12th SL Rag’ Versions Up for Heari^ in Court This Week The knotty legal <luestion of who owns the various versions of “ 12 th Street Rag” has come up for early determination in N.Y. Federal Court by Judge Edward Weinfeld with trial having started yester¬ day (Tues.). Parties in the case are Jerry Vogel .Music and ,Sha- piro-Bemstein Music, which have split ownership of at least one version ' of the song, originally written in 1914 as an instrumental by the late Euday Bowman. Legal action on the song be¬ tween Vo£el and Shapiro-Bern- stein has been kicking around the courts for the past 10 years in various trials and appeals. Con¬ troversy over the song stemmed from the fact that Jenkins Music, the original publishers of the song, commissioned a lytic Writer, James Sumner, to write the words to the original instrumental. f——------ Eck's Victor-to-Merc Billy Eckstine and RCA Victor came to the parting of the ways last week. * Crooner was imme¬ diately tapped to a two-year deal by .-Mercury Records. The Eckstine-Victor split came after close to a year’s tie;. Although the pact had two more years to run, it was mutually agreed to wind up the association. Before joining the Victor label, Eckstine recorded for MOM. ■ ■ - BAD Writeis In SPA Want Even though Bowman was not informed • that a- lyric was being added to his tune, the courts have held that the lyric version of “ 12 th Street Rag” is a joint and not a composite work. Vogel picked up the renewal • rights on the song from Sumner, white S-B bought the song from Jenkins Music.'The courts have, ruled that- Vogel is entitled to 50% of all performance coin on the- Bowman-Sumner ver¬ sion of the song. However, in the years since the tune was. originally written, some 22 different versions of the song have been written and copyrighted by Shapiro-Bernstein. Current (Continued-.on page 57) lotsa Verve For Tunny Face'Pic The Paramount pic, “Funny Face,” is being groomed for a hefty wax push by Norman Granz’s Verve label. In addition to the soundtrack package, which stars Fred Astaire, Audrey Hepburn and Kay Thompson, Verve has set a big band album workover by Buddy Bregman and a jazz combo version by the Barbara Carroll Trio. Three singles and three EPs from the, soundtracker also will be issued. Granz planed to Europe last week for huddles with Paramount and EMI (Electric. & Musical In¬ dustries) brass as well as with Verve’s key Continental distribs, to set up global distribution of, the packages. . Verve topper also' has assigned three special field reps for the cast, midwest and Coast territoriesf to work with his regular distribs on the “Funny Face” promotion. They’re sched¬ uling special screenings around the Country for dee jays, managers and personnel of disk outlets. The soundtrack Set, which has a cover by Richard Avedon, will retail at $4.98;' The Miss Carroll and Bregman packages will be tabbed at $3.98.’' 'Packages will feature a flock'-of oldieS by George & Ira Gershwin as well as some new items by Rogefr Ed.ens & Leonard Gefshe and Adolph Deutsch. / Pic opens at New York’s Radio City Music Hall tbmoiTOW (Thurs.) and in London around Easter,, 0.0. of Books The conimittee of Broadcast Music Inc. writers within the Song¬ writers Protective Assn., who have been squawking about the organi¬ zation’s. attacks on BMI, are asking for permission to 0 . 0 . SPA books. The request for inspection of the SPA books came after the BMI cleffers’ committee, which is named the SPA Committee for Fair Play, was asked by SPA execs to supply a list of the members in it. The committee says it speaks In the name of over 50 SPA members who license through BMI. The BMI writers claim that “the action of the officers and adminis¬ tration of SPA in using the organi¬ zation and its resources, to support tl^e position of certain ASCAP writers in-their dispute with BMI and the netw'orks, violates the pur¬ pose of the organization.” The BMI writers are protesting that SPA is using their dues to help finance the fight against BMI. They want an accounting of all SPA funds spent in this matter to date. The BMI writers, headed by Bernie Wayne and Marven Moore,’ have also made their views loiowh to the appropriate Congressional committees which have been in¬ vestigating the networks* While the SPA leadership says it is opposed to the BMI setup because writers are not given an equal role in the administration of performance money, the BMI- writers say that they like it that (Continued on page 57) Gol Issuing ‘You’ Mag _ For Dealer Relations Columbia Records is spreading into the mag field. Diskery.has launched a once-ei.yery-six weeks mag .tagged “You” to get its mes¬ sage /icross to disk dealers. It’ll be distributed cuffo. Mag, according to Col Prexy Goddard Lieberson, *ls part of the diskery’s campaign, for closer con¬ tact with dealers and ‘Tor the In¬ terchanging of information.” Edi¬ tor of “You” is Jack Puller, of J Col’s sales promotion stafi. Art di¬ rector is S. Neil.Fujita and con¬ tributors are Deborah Ishlon, Art Schwartz, Irving Townsend and Wilham Wilkins., i Stores in Disk-Dentrifrice 'Romance' By MIKE KAPLAN. Hollywood, March 26. The one world philosophy has' finally reached the' music business and neither disk classifications nor geographic boundaries no longer have any significance, Hits quickly cross chart lines to show up on pop lists despite their originations as rock ’n’ roll or couhtry music— and hit parade lists from other counti'ies, notably England, usually list the same songs, and often in the same order, as the U. S. sum¬ maries of top hits. Oedit for the elimination of lines of disk demarcation,, accord¬ ing to Imperial Records prexy Lew Chudd, belongs to such per¬ formers as Elvis Presley, Pat Boone and Imperial’s Fats Domino. All started with material usually restricted to .a particular field but sold so strongly that they are now considered pop artists. “There is no longer any point to arbitrary distinctions,” Chudd contends. “When an artist sells 1 , 000,000 or more records, he’s a pop artist, regardless of the type of material he’s using. Fats Domino, for. example, has three . 1 , 000 , 000 - sellers currently in release. As a ‘ result, our initial pressing order on his next record Is 750,OOT. That’s far better than most so-called pop artists do.” Chudd attributes th? ‘ consolida¬ tion to the buying impact of the younger generation. Teenagers, while^ favoring rock ’n’ roll, have definite tastes, and since they ac¬ count for better than 75% of the total sales, have changed the com¬ plexion of the industry. • Overseas, the same phenomenon has occurred, Chudd reported. (CJontinu^d on page 57) I Mary Martin-Dick Rodgers Teamup for Victor Album Mary Martin and Richard Rodg¬ ers are teaming up to Mcord an album of the latter’s songs-for RCA Victor early in April. Three of the songs have nevAr been on disks be¬ fore. Rodgers will conduct the orch with Robert Ryssell Bennett doing the arrangements. Miss Martin, meantime, is also doing ari educational LP disk for the book publishers Harcourt, Brace. She will read a selection of famous poems slanted fgr eighth grade students and to be nationally distributed to schools. Birdland's Band Binge Birdland, New York jazz nitery, is going on a big band binge. The spot has set seven orchs for dates running through mid-July. In the band barrage which starts tomorrow (Thurs.) with Oscar Pet- tiford’s orch are Maynard Fergu¬ son, Duke Ellington, Dizzy Gilles¬ pie, Herb PomeYoy, Woody Her¬ man and Count Basie... Pefrillo Faces Clear Sailing At AFM Convention Although the American Federa¬ tion of Musicians-is seething M'ith law suits, particularly on the Coast, the upcoming convention is due to be another walk-in for AFM prexy James C. Petrillo. According to present indications, there will be no significant opposition to Petrillo. or his policies from the floor of the ■ toOter conclave when it convenes in Denver early in June. Even Coast Local 47, where an insurgent movement has* been cookini^ for the past couple of years, is. not expected to conduct a fight against Petrillo’s leadership. No Other big local has shown any- tendency whatsoever to engage in a contest with the AFM adminis¬ tration. N.Y. Local 802, the big¬ gest in the Federation with some 30,000 members, is not even slated to make a bid for a seat on the executive board. At last year’s convention; Local 802’s prexy A1 Manuti was nominated for. the board, but lost out. Neither the Los Angeles nor the N.Y. locals, the two biggest in the AFM, have had reps on the international exec board for several years. , Opposition to Petrillo’s policies, particularly with respect to the Musicians Performance . Trust Funds, is, however, perking be¬ neath the surface. The regular working musicians both in N.Y. and L. A. are burning over the AFM’s policy of diverting pay¬ ments from the working musicians to . support make-work projects through the funds. RCA Victor, which has been ac¬ centing cooperative promotion campaigns with various non-show companies, has come lip with the disk industry’s biggest tie-in to date to push its 16-album April release* Tie-in is with Procter & Gamble for the latter’s Crest tooth¬ paste product and involves a spe- , cial coupon offering a 25c EP with each of 5,000,000 Crest packages, Victor will be riding with a pow¬ erful advertising campaign to be bankrolled by P&G in leading na¬ tional mags and Sunday newspaper supplements which will also have a coupon cut-out for the Victor EP. In addition, Crest is preparing 25,- "000 supermarket floorstands and 50,000 banners for use in retail stores to plug the toothpaste-disk combination offer. The 25c EP is a sampler from six of the 16 Victor sets with Tony Martin making a personal pitch on^ the disk for each of the artists fea-“ tured. Martin was selected as the personality spokesman for this campaign because it is being tar¬ geted at the young housewife and not the teenagers. Victor figures on a 10% return from the 5,000,- 000 coupon offer for a sampler sale of about 500,000. "Victor is tagging its April re¬ lease under the general title of “World of Romance,” which is also the- tag of the 25c EP. With this release, RCA-is kicking off its si¬ multaneous global merchandising campaign. -All of the associated RCA dlskeries throughout' the world are gearing to sell the sets at the same time. George R. Marek,^ chief of‘the Victor album division, disclosed (Continued on page 5T) Washington,Mai^ks On ASCAP Board Ned Washington and Johnny Marks have been elected members of ASCAP’s board of directors. Washington replaces the late Gene Buck in the pop writers field while Marks replaces Jack' Robbins in the pop publishers field. All other incumbents -were re¬ elected for another two-year term., •In the pop writers field they are (with votes in parenthesis): Stan¬ ley Adams (289,230), Paul Cunning¬ ham (274,258). L. Wolfe Gilbert (205,323), Oscar Hammerstein 2d (296,731), Otto A. Harbach (280,- 663), Alex C. Kramer- (171,913), George W. Meyer (186,209),. Jack Yellen (222,774). Washington re¬ ceived 163,364 votes. Representing the pop publishers are Louis Bernstein (15,481), Saul H. Bourne (14,729), Irving Caesar (14,610), Max Dreyfus (15,843>, Bernard Goodwin (14,264), Jack Mills (11,695), Herman Starr (14,- 853), Maurice Scopp (13,857) and Marks (10,317). Newcomers to the board in the standard writers’ field are Dr. Douglas Moore, replacing writer A. Walter Kramer, and Adolph Vogel, replacing Donald Gray, standard publishers. The standard writers on the board polled as follows: John Tasker Howard (124,799), Deems Taylor (202,870) and Dr. Moore (124,799). The standard pub¬ lishers polled: Frank H. Connor of Carl Fisher (15,751), Gustave Schirmer of G. Schirmer (14,680) and Vogel of Elkan-Vogel (12,071). Atlantic Renews Short Bobby Short has been repacted by Atlantic Records. Pianist-singer already has made three albums for the label, with the last of the trio to be released next month. Under the terms of the new pact. Short also will cut single sides. He’s also been renewed for an additional six weeks at the Red Carpet, eastside New York nitery. Short opened at the club last Oct, 31 on a four-woek pact. With Broadcast MusicoJnc. blanketing the hit lists like a tent these days, there’s admittedly plenty of concern and cogitation Within ASCAP ranks. In recent days, a cure for what ails the ^ ASCAP ranks has turned up in an eight-page mimeographed letter titled “Memo to A>..Very Sick Industry” and addressed to the “Major Music Publishers of the U.S.A.” Writer of‘'the letter, “for reasons of his own,” chooses to remain anonymous, but signs him¬ self “A Writer of Many of Your Standards.” ^ The letter pinpoints the start of ASCAP’s downgrading on the. bestseller lists with the change in the 'Peatman tabulations from a numerical to an alphabetical listing, At that time,-the letter states, all tunes began looking alike and “that’s when BMI was able to ‘move in’ like an invading army.” Solution: go back to the old Peatman listings in which songs were rated in order of their per¬ formances and audiences on radio and tv. Such a list, it’s con¬ tended, would restore ASCAP’s place in the sun and would de- emphasize the accent now being placed on bestselling records. The letter contends that the very reason the numerical listings were abolished in the first place, namely the avoid influencing the top shows from playing the top songs, now should be sufficient to restore the numerical listings. ^ The memo also states that the top artists on video, such as the “Comos, Sinatras, Fishers, Shores, Crosbys, etc.,” must be enlisted in the Cause because it is a “life-and-death struggle for them also as long as‘the rockbilly-corn-country & western trash dominate this market.” The memo points out that the top songs today are being cut by the rock ’n’ roll and country names and hence the tv names would be anxious to plug.the “good songs” again. One of the basic .contentions of the- memo is that record hits are made in the hinterlands where people can’t or don’t , listen to video. “Yheir ears,” the memo says.'-l'are attuned” to rockbilly music and henee they brush off “the beautiful, legitimate ballads they hear.” These country folk, it says, start the record going in a - small way and then it begins to snowball oyer the .country via the disk charts. Then the video shows start to program it because they are playing safe. Instead of video leading the way in the music biz, the memo says, the tail is wagging the dog, viz., a few people in the Ozarks are determining what the nation’s songs . shall be..