Variety (October 1957)

Wednesday, October 2, 1957 MUSIC 61 New York Contrary to previous reports cleffer Larry Coleman is a free¬ lance BMI-affiliated writer and not exclusively pacted to Roose¬ velt Music , . . The Mello-Larka have been pacted to the Vile, label , . . Alan Levitt, president of San Francisco Records, has been grant¬ ed permission by the FCC to build a new radio station in S.F. , Walt Oatermeyer has joined Tri- State Distributors, Fort Wayne, Ind., as general manager. He’s the brother of Tri-State prexy Cliff Ayers Ostermeyer . . , John Burt, director of advertising and promo¬ tion at WPAT, Paterson, N. J., wrote the spoken verse for the Westminster disking' of Saint- Saens’ "Carnival of the Animils” . . . Melvin Balliet named general manager of Theodore Presser’s re¬ tail music store. Ted Bayly will present Dave Bruebeck Oct. 13 in the second of a Sunday afternoon jazz series at the ' 1,252-seat Music Hall, Troy, N. Y. Mrs. Theodora Zavin, assistant public relations veepee at BMI, named chairman of the constitu¬ tion and bylaws committee of American Women in Radio & Tele¬ vision . . . Enroll Garner set for two shots on CSS-TV’S "The Big ' Record" Oct 9 and Nov. 27 . . . Tribute dinner for W. C, Handy’s 85th birthday set for Nov. 17 . . . Betty Johnson, Bally thrush, set as featured singer on the Jack Paar NBC-TV show on alternate weeks beginning Oct 28 . *. Teddy Wilson and Jimmy McPartland moved into Jazz City yesterday (Tues.)... * Bob McGonagle, deejay at WWRL, Woodside (L.I.), will double as. night manager. The Sugar Hill, new jazz spot in Newark, N.J., set Cannonball Addlery for a stand beginning Fri¬ day (4). Art Blakely follows. Spot is run by Gil Blum . . . "The Jazz Makers,” edited by Nat Shapiro and Nat Hentoff, due in November via Reinhart . . . Mr. A Mrs. A1 ltadka celebrated their 15th wed¬ ding anni Sept. 19. He’s a disk jockey at KFRE, Fresno, Calif ... Audio * Devices has leased addi¬ tional factory space in Glenbrook, Conn. . . . Chris Connor-goes into Birdland tomorrow (Thurs.). Columbia Records promoting the "Simply Heavenly" tuber via dee- jay interviews with Claudia Mc¬ Neil. Col has the original cast set as well as a single by Miss McNeiL Thrush, incidentally, is now man¬ aged by John Levy . . . John Alli¬ son, composer of children’s songs and novelties, has signed with BMf . . . Allied Records^ acquired the Clayson Plastics Products re¬ cording plant London Paddy Crookahank, director of the Feldman Music Co., to Geneva for the music publishing confab on the international handling of pop music , . . Tossy Spivakovsky in for a BBC-TV concert date on Sun. (6> v* . Mel Tonne headed for the U.S. after winding his British vaude tour. .. Cyril Ornadel, Lon¬ don Palladium musical director who’s landed the baton job for the London production of “My Fair Lady,” planes to New York Sun. <61 for confabs on the score J . . Pollard Music Co, of New York completed a deal with Robbins Musi© in London whereby the en¬ tire Yank* catalog win be repre¬ sented by Robbins in Europe . . . Jack Teagarden band here for its 16-day concert tour. Chicago .Pat Moran Qnariet moves into Cloister Inn for indefinite stay Oct. 16 . . . Dnfcr Mliugt— returns to Blue Note Dec. 20-31 . .. . Jimmy Palmer orch opens Sunday ig) at Mel ody MW Ballroom-, for two frames to be followed by Emie Body Oct. 30 for four frames . . Jo Auu MUler and Ben Arden orch cutting, album for Audio Fidelity: this month ... Gene Pringle orch set for Kansas City Club, K.C„ Nov. 30 for four weeks .. ,-VirgiI Mason orch into Van Orman. Hotel Oct. 14. Pittsburgh Dave Brnbeck quartet giving concert at' Carnegie Music Hall Oct 18... Gabe-A-TOnes Trie has checked in at -Sportsmen’s -Mural Lounge with. Gabe D’Amice on sax, Clair McClIntock on drums and Eddie Andrews at the piano, . . Carl. Pettlea, former drummer with Tiny Wolfe and Deuces Wild, has joined Everett Neill orch at Vogue Terrace . . . Reid Jaynes, pianist, has formed a partnership with Jimmy Spaniel, whose band has be$n picked up again at the Jacktown Hotel . . . Teny Little, organist who singled at Carlton House’s Town Sc Country Lounge all summer, heading a threesome there now," with Dick Heller on flute and bass and George Tornero, guitarist . , . Steve Seventy orch into the .Chez Dee for an Indefinite stretch ... 5 Keys at the Rock ’n’ Roll Room downtown this week . . . Jimmy Riso, organist, being featured nightly at Dellas Rendez¬ vous. Philadelphia The Celbrity Room, threatened with having its show pulled (23), opened -as skedded with the two- week run of Blackburn Twins and Trudy Richards. The local AGVA office wanted the amodut Of the bond upped. Owner Sam Lerner straightened out the hassle after phoning the union’s N. Y. head¬ quarters . . » Miles Davis works Pep’s for a week (3G-Oct. 5) . . . October bookings for the Erie So¬ cial Club, uptown private spot, in¬ clude Four Aces (4-5), Johnny Mathis (12-13), and the Billy Wil¬ liams Quartet (19-20) , . . Buddy Williams orch into • Sunnybrook Ballroom, Pottstown, Pa (5) . . . Meyer Davis will baton his orch for the Phils Fashion Group at the Art Museum . . . Chuck Gordon playing the Brookline Oaks Ball¬ room , / . Publicist Joe Brooks named promotion director for Dec- ca Records in Philly area .. .North¬ east Catholic High School has inked Ray McKinley’s Glenn Mil¬ ler orch for winter dance at Broadwood Hotel. San Francisco Andre Philippe, French ballad singer, opened yesterday (Tues.) at Romanoffs Crown Room, replacing Hadda Brooks * . . Fred Waring show, booked into Berkeley Com¬ munity Theatre Nov. 8 . . . hungry i’s Enrico Banduccl and Gene Nor¬ man, of Los Angeles’ Interlude and Crescendo, have banded together in talent hunt— Shelly Berman was first signed and will go into, the hungry i early in November . . . Ray Gorum, late of Jazz Workshop and Jazz Showcase, opening his own Offbeat Room today (Wed.) with the Mastersounds . . Fate Domiqo, LaVern Baker, Clyde Me- Phatter and Eddie Cochran ' booked into Frisco Civic Auditorium Oct 19. Kansas City Deal for Dick Barlow orch has them in the Terrace Grill of Hotel Muehlebach for seven weeks, open¬ ing Sept. 27, following which the crew returns to The Club, Birming¬ ham, Nov. 18 . . . Henny Youngman will play the Park Lane, Denver, beginning Oct. 25 and has a round of club dates between that and his current Hotel Muehlebach stand . . . Larry Wiley orch opens the Elms Hotel, Excelsior Springs, Oct. 1. Wiley moves over from the U.S. Mile Motor Hotel where he has been this summer. And Carol Sc Connie moved In at the Motor Hotel lounge Monday (30) . . . Bea Vera and crew due back in the Kansas City Club, replacing Gary Marquis . . . George Rico (4) opened in the Picardy Cafe of Hotel Muehlebach Monday (30), replacing Carmen Le Faye who had held the room for many weeks. In 1st Round; Finish Label X Rewrap Levantine Cycle? Washington, Oct. 1. Possibly reflecting public interest in Middle East affairs, Washington radio audience is ' going strong for an album called “Port Said" with Mo- hkraed ' EI-Bakkar aud his Oriental Ensemble, selected last week at WWDC’s "Pick Al¬ bum.” It is drawing more listener response than any al¬ bum on the station in recent years . “ This Mohamed cat,” says WWDC disk jockey Jack Rowzie, “Is making-Elvis Pres¬ ley look like a square.” Album is. produced by Audio Fidelity Records and carries such titles as “Greena Chan- neelak,” "Bfnt II Geran” and "Banat Iskandaria” which iden¬ tify the Syrian folk music it contains. Sales of the album, priced at $«, are reported Cap-Col's Kaye Spots Hollywood, Oct. 1. Capitol Records,, which has I? 311 ” ny Kaye under contract, and Co¬ lumbia Records last week shared the tab for a series of radio spots transcribed last week by Danny Kaye, for upcoming fund-raising drive for UN Children’s Fund, Kaye holds rank as an unofficial U. S. ambassador to 'UNICEF. Jingles were composed and ar¬ ranged by Mitch -Miller, Col’s a&r chief. P^RI^TY Scoreboard OF 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 POSITIONS This Last Week Week NOTE: Thecurrent comparative sale# strength of the Artists and Tunes Rated hereunder Is arrived at Under a statistical system comprising each ©/ the three major sales outlets enu- . merated above . These findings are correlated with data from under sourc es, w hich are exclusive with Variety. The positions resulting from ihese findings denote the OVERALL IMPACT de¬ veloped from the ratio of points scored, two ways in the case of talent (coin machines, retail 1 disks) and three ways in the case of tunes (coin machines, retail disks and retail sheet music). TALENT ARTIST AND LABEL TUNS JIMMY RODGERS (Roulette) ...... Honeycomb* DEBBIE REYNOLDS (Coral)...Tarrfmy* PAUL ANKA (ABC-Par.) _....... Dianat JANE MORGAN (kapp) ... -Fascinationf. CRICKETS (Brunswick) ........_.... That’ll Be The Dayf JOHNNY MATHIS (Columbia).• > •" • jchances^e^ *°? Say * JERKY LEE LEWIS (Sun) ......Whet* Lot Of Shaking) EVENLY BROS. (Cadence)... Wake Up little Suzyf BUSS HAMILTON (Kapp)..,.. Rainbow* • TONY BENNETT (Columbia) ...._... Middle of The Island* TUNES *%. TUNE PUBLISHER ♦TAMMY—“Tanuny & Baclielor”-F ....................__. Northern fFASCINATION—“Love In The Afternoon”^ .............. ... Southern ♦HONEYCOMB ...... Joy fDIANA ......... Mellin ♦CHANCES.ARE ......... ..Korwin f THATTLBE THE DAY.... Southern ♦AROUND THE WORLD—“Around World In 80 Days”-F ........ Young . fMIDDLE OF THE ISLAND ^ .?. . Morris fWHOLE LOT OF SHAKING...!.. . Marlyn ♦RAINBOW .........Robbins (♦ASCAP fBMI F-Fttms) 1 2 3 4 5 6 '7 * 9 10 8 10 ' POSITIONS This Last Week Week 1 2 3 4 * 6 7 * 8 9 10 1 -4 2 3 *»■ 5 « 9 7 8 Vik Records’ "Sound Buy” fall program is running 125Co ahead of the diskery forecast. The drive Is on its first lap with only three weeks of a planned two-month run passed. Leading the Vik spree are the packages by Eddie Cantor, Helen O’Connell and Gisele MacKenzie. Label’s EP line is rolling along at a clip estimated by sales chief Ben Rosner as 100% ahead of anticipa¬ tion. Diskery also has completed the conversion and repackaging of 17 albums out of the now defunct Label 31 catalog. Most of the pack¬ ages we|re originally cut by Jimmy BilliardT. then a&r chief at X and now head of the indie Bally labeL In the repackaging process new liner notes have been written and new covers put on the albums. They'll be ready for this week. Irate at Satchmo Shutout, Granz Bids Dixie Station Ban All His Verve Artists Editor, Variety: I read in last week’ Variety that WBKH, Hattiesburg (Miss.), banned all Louis Armstrong rec¬ ords as well as Eariha Kitt’s and Lena Home’s because they voiced their opinions of President Eisen¬ hower's handling of the desegre¬ gation issue—opinions shared by many of the nation’s leading col¬ umnists, I am interested in tills not only because I feel Armstrong as a citizen of this country has as much right to his opinion as anyone else but also because he happens to he an important artist on my label. I think it is unfair that he, Lena Home and Eartha Kitt should bear the brunt of WBKH’s preju¬ dice, and so I suggest (hat WBKH ban my entire label from their so- called radio station. I recommend, instead that they play only Sam¬ my Davis Jr. records since, ac¬ cording to another Variety story, he apparently shares WBKH's point of view. Norman Grant (President Verve Records) Washington’s Cultural Subscriptions Promising Washington, Oct. 1. National Symphony teed off its annual subscription drive past week with an advance sale already well ahead of last year’s record sea¬ son. Following pattern initiated by manager Ralph Black when he took over in ’56, concerts are skedded in Identical pairs Tuesdays and Wednesday nights for 15 alternate weeks, rather than weekly non- identical concerts as in past. Two innovations this year are expected to hypo b.o. One is a $9 student season rate for the $13.50 seats. The other, a system of ex¬ change between subscription nights, is expected to lure custom¬ ers by offering flexibility In ticket exchanges. Line-up includes soprano Eliz¬ abeth Schwarzkopf, pianists Ru¬ dolph Serkin and Philippe En- tremont, and violinists Isaac Stem and Nathan Milstein. In ad¬ dition, two visiting orchs, the Bos¬ ton Symphony and the Philadel¬ phia, will appear. Probably greatest single attrac¬ tion is the New York City Ballet’s performance of entire "Nutcrack¬ er” ballet Jan. 21-22. This is sole evening attraction which will play Loew’s Capitol Theatre, rather than the 4,000 seat DAR-owned Constitution HatL Deceit Tap* Dick Williams Dick Williams, one of the Wil¬ liams Bros, who at one time worked with Kay Thompson, has been inked to a disk deal by Decca Records. Another of the Williams freres, Andy, has hit on wax via his Cadence deal. Dick Williams now has a featured role in the up¬ coming Broadway musical, "Copper and Brass,” to which Decca has the original cast rights. His first sides will be a couple of tunes-from the Broadway show score.