Variety (March 1957)

Vedneflday^ March 27» 1957 HflJSlC ASCAfs New Open-Ditor A new era in jJuJjlic relation? Ijas. begun ii^ ASCAP. Under prexy Paul Cunningham, who before he took over the prez post last year was the Society's spokesman in Washington, the Society has opened up to the public’s o.b. like none of his predecessors. For Instance, at the New York annual membership meeting to¬ morrow-Cihurs.) at the WaldorfrAstoria Hotel, Cunningham has Invited the press to attend. It’s a precedent in ASCAP which once not only barred the press, from its meetings, but also asked its members not to'leak any info to inquiring reporters. That nevey worked, of course, dnd it only led to irritations against the Society. A dispute between E. H. Morris 4- Music and Lenora Fisher, widow' of composer Mark Fisher, over re¬ newal assignments of her hus¬ band’s songs was decided in favor of the publishing firm ip N. Y. Federal Coqrt by Judge Archie O. Dawson. Case revolved around the .^con¬ tention of Mrs. Fisher that the re-' ncwal assignments were pot valid because ' she did not understand the meaning ’of' the agreement. The court held that she did and, since other provisions of the con¬ tract were valid, the agreement Miim. OK’s Spiph Aid Minneapolis, March 26. After pleas to put some skids under, jazz and bop by encourag¬ ing better music, th^ lower house of the Minnesota legislature final¬ ly passed a measure principally de¬ signed to permit this county’s board to • appropriate money to help support the 51-year-old Min¬ neapolis Symphony. , Action followed a push for fa¬ vorable votes by Rep. George was binding. Mrs. Fisher wanted Murk, Minneapolis musicians’ un¬ to assign the renewals to Mills Ion president, and Rep. Peter Pop- Music, which already has the ovich,^ St. Paul. The measure now rights from Fisher’s cdllabprators senate, on such songs as “Take Me Back to the Garden of Roses,’’ “I Was Only .Pooling’’ and “When You’re Smiling.’’ Although Mrs. Fisher assigned the renewals to the' Morris firm in 1945 while her husband was still alive, the issue of whether a wife has the right to make such assign¬ ments when the composer is still living was not an issue in '•this case. Mrs. Fisher contended that It was not a valid contract (1) be- c^mse she did not know what she was signing; (2) she was given no consideration and (3) that the agreement was “uncertain, incom¬ plete, illusory, and unfair,’’ accord¬ ing to her complaint. The court held against Mrs. Fisher on all counts. The judge held that whether or not she knew the meaning of the contract, she is bound by if* “in the absence of fraud and no proof of . fraud has been introduced before me.” He also ruled that since the contract called for the payment of royal¬ ties, it contained sufficient consid¬ eration. Although children are part of the Mark Fisher estate, the ques¬ tion of whether Mrs. Fisher had the right to assign rights for her¬ self and the-children was also not raised. The judge said that “it would be improper' for me to at¬ tempt to define the rights, of the children or' the rights of a party who may derive rights from the children. The only issue raised in this case, as it was presented to me, related to the validity of the agreement of Feb. 7, 1945.” Lee V. Eastman was legal rep for the Morris firm. Guy’s ‘Show Boat’ Waxings Between l-ITiter Date Guy Lombardo orch started a two-week break from- its annual 'Spring tour Saturday (23) for split- week one-nitefs in New York and Pennsylvania. Sandwiched between the dates- will be recording ses¬ sions for Capitol, of his upcoming production of “Show Boat.” Lombardo is producing the Jerome Kern-Oscar Hammerstein 2 d tuner>f6r the summer season at Jones Beach, N.Y, Only mishap during the first leg of the spring tour was the hospi¬ talization of Carmen Lombardo for a kidney stone ailment. Illness brought former Ted Weems orch vocalist. Ken Armor to sub. Armor, now a salesman with a chemical company, continued to hold down his job' by day and worked with the Lombardo crew at night. Coral’s Bet Branch Coral Records, Decca’s subsid la¬ bel, set ‘ up its own distribution branch in Detroit, . thus bring¬ ing the. number of factory-owned branches to three. Coral has simi¬ lar setups in New. York and Chi¬ cago. Don Bhanan has been named branch mahager in Detroit Under the overall direction df Coral sales chief Norm Weinstroer. At the same time. Coral has tied up with a new distrib in the Pitts¬ burgh area. Record Distributors, IJLeslie, Pa. Hi Society Orchs Making Disk Hay With Bourgeoisie and Peasants Sammy Kaye $7,200 in 2 Sammy Kaye pulled in a hot $7,200 . in two one-nighters in Pennsylvania over the weekend. Orch played to 1,860 at $2 each, Saturday (23) at the, Sunhybrook Ballroom, Pottstown. Following night, he drew 1,740 at $2 a head. Rumors Still Rife In Brit, on EMI Changes London, March 26. The records division of EMI is launching an all-cut staff reorgani¬ zation drive. Already offers have been made .to leading personalities in the music publishing and disk fields in London, but among them Fred Jackson,, general. manager of Mills Music, but no appointments have been made as yet. • The EMI reshuffle ties in with strong rumors in Tin Pan Alley of a new record label which, if it came into being, could greatly in¬ fluence the disk market. The ru¬ mors have persisted for several weeks, but still await .official con¬ firmation. VictorShelyes Deejay Twofers’ With the rest of the major com¬ panies not coming along, RCA Vic¬ tor has’dropped its “twofer” plat¬ ters for disk Jockey distribution. The twofers, introduced by Victor last year,- contained two numbers by one artist on each side of the platter. It was designed to cut pro¬ duction, handling and mailing costs on the ouflq d.j. disks. The Jocks, however, were, never, happy with the twofers . and . the other majors were, reluctant to .fol¬ low suit. A few years,.ago,, when Victor put the dee jay disks oa 45 rpm speeds, the dee jays also piit up strong resistance, but that was broken down When the other com¬ panies followed Victor’s pattern. Without general industry support on the twoferjj, Victor decided not to carry the ball' alone, Jqc Loco to Merc^ry J 3 Loco has moved over to the Mercury .label frqra Columbia Rec¬ ords. . The. latino maestro’i first stint for Merc will be an album of calypsos. Tunes In the set will be originals published by Ivan. Mogull’a vard Music, Scoreboard OF TOP TALENT AND TUNES CompiledJrom Statistical Reports of Distribution Encompassing the Three Major Outlets Coin Machines Retaii 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 enur merated above. These findings are correlated with data from wider sources’ which are exclusive with Vahiety. 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 ifiachines, retail disks) and three ways in the case of tunes (coin machines, retail disks and retail sheet music). POSITIONS This Last Week Week TALENT ARTIST AND LABEL TUNE fThe Banana Boat Song 1 1 HARRY BELAFONTE (Victor) .. -(Mama, Look At Bubu (Jamaica Farewell . fl’m Walking ‘ 2 6 FATS DOMINO (Imperial).4 Blue Monday [Blueberry Hill 3 9 ^ PERRY COMO (Victor) .Round and Round 4 3 TAB HUNTER (Dot).• (Ninety-Nine Ways 5 2 TOMMY SANDS' (Capitol) .Teen-Age Crush 6 8 ANDY WILLIAMS (Cadence).' Butterfly 7 7 BUDDY KNOX (Roulette) ..... Party Doll [Don’t Forbid Me PAT BOONE (Dot) .... t Why, Baby, Why [I’m Waiting Just For You CHARLIE GRACIE (Cameo) .Butterfly TERRY GILKYSON (Columbia) .Marianne TUNES (•*ASCAP, tBMI) TUNE PUBLISHER 1 3 tBUTTERFLY .......Hill & Range 2 2 tMARIANNE ..... ....Montclare 3 .1 tYOUNG LOVE . Lowery 4 4 tTHE banana BOAT SONG . Marks-Bryden 5 . 8 GROUND AND ROUND. Rush 6 5 tTEENAGE CRUSH .. Central Songs - 7 I fPABTYDOLL .. Jackie 8 10 tl’M WALKIN’ . Reeve 0 9 tDpN’T FORBID ME...... Roosevelt 10.6., tXOO MUCH. ...Southern Belle-Presley 8 10 9 10 5 POSITIONS This Last Week Week • The society dance beat is get¬ ting less exclusive. It’s creeping out of the confines of Newport and debutante balls for a mass exposure on the wax market. The diskery swing to hi-fi so¬ ciety Is pegged on the upbeat of packaged goods sales as well as the easy-to-dance-to lilt of the Blue Book maestros. The diskers figure that home entertainment is. booming and that the society dance orchs on wax fit right into the. scheme of things. . The recording companies also claim that the society band? are good recording risks. They esti¬ mate that there’s a hard core of 20,000 readymade buyers from the uppercrust who. are familiar with the orchs and help put- the pack¬ ages in the black. Disk jockey exposure also has been instru¬ mental in getting the beat to rub off on the lower aud levels. Epic Records, Columbia’s sub¬ sid, started the society beat rolling a fow months ago with a Lester Laiiin album. The set established the pattern of recorded continuous dance music a la a “livel’ ball. The package was so. successful for the label that it is now propping a fol¬ lowup Lanin LP. Other labels are now hopping on the Epic, lead. ABC-Para¬ mount .has tagged Meyer Davis, and the indie Monarch label is out with a dance package cut by Emil Coleman. Chauncey Gray, maestro at New York’s posh Ambassador, has been grooved by Riverside Records and Charles Holden, who batons the AFM’ers at New York’s El Morocco, Is out on the RKO— Unique label with a package tagged “Dancing at El Morocco.”. One recording exec credited the tv ea^iosur.e. .of such, pop orchs as Lawrence Welk and Vincent Lopez fox. paving the way for the society orchs on wax. “They’re condition¬ ing a mass audience to the simple dance beat,” he said, “and the so¬ ciety, bands are picking it up from there.” Satbenly’s C&W 1(81110 Only’ Label Hollywood, March 26. “Uncle Art” Satherely, for 38 years a top country & western exec , with Columbia Records and discov¬ erer of Gene Autry and others in the oatune field, has launched his own diskery. Hometown Records, which is making its initial LP avail¬ able only to radio listeners around the country. Label eventually will * branch out into normal distribution channels and go into the country singles field as well. For the moment, however, Home¬ town is peddling its first disk through C&W deejays only. Thus far, 35 stations have picked up the scheme on a pre-inquiry basis— the deals having been set within the first 10 days after the initial' sampling of 350 letters and copies of the LP, a 16-side disk .which fea¬ tures six newcomers to the c&w field. New talent is the basis of the hometown operation since Sathere¬ ly hopes to develop a flock of new names in the ranks of pasture plat- terers. Heard on the initial Home¬ town offering are Dick Miller,. Lu¬ cille & Bobby Regan, Tex Holland, Bobby Charles, Roy' Counts, Gene McGowan and Foreman Slim. Plat¬ ter offers eight current c&w hits plus eight standards in the field. They will be sold at $2.98. During his years with Columbia, Satherely .produced roughly 28,000 c&w records and has long been rec¬ ognized as one of the top c&w pro¬ ducers. Black Watch on RCA Band music by The Black-Watch, noted British. regiment, will be heard on wax via an 'upcoming RCA Victor package. The band is slated • to tour the U.S. next fall under Sol Hiirok's banner. Several foreign military bands have been hitting the U.S, market recently, both in personal appear¬ ances and on disks. Both ther Scots Guards and the Carabinieri Band of Rome toured the U.S. last year and were represented by albums release'd on the Angel label.