Variety (September 1958)

MtfSIC 4$ ’ Wt&nt* day, September 3, 1958 USaTEFf Pad Weston Returns to Cap Stable,* C0L S™J I^JEmbattled Music Trust Funds Hit Cd Gets Sylvia Syms; Other Signings After an eight-year absence, Paul- Weston, arranger-conductor, has re¬ turned to the Capitol Records roster. Weston had been with Co¬ lumbia Records for most of the intervening years as Coast record¬ ing chief. Weston’s wife, Jo Staf¬ ford, is still with the Columbia: label. Sylvia Syms has been added to the Columbia Records roster. Miss Syms had been with the Decca stable for the past several years, and big hits a couple of years ago in “I Could Have Danced All Night” and “English Muffins and Irish Stew.” Ernestine Anderson has signed with Mercury and has just cut her first album for the Chi diskery. She’s backed on the LF.by Pete Rugolo’s band. Negro songstress is current at the Colony, Seattle, and has October dates in Minne¬ apolis, the t Copa in Pittsburgh, Cleveland’s Modem Jazz Room, *and Boston’s Storyville. Sylvia Saynt, Philadelphia song; stress,'has joined the United Art¬ ists label. She has been working in niteries in the east recently. Trude Adams, songstress, has been inked by 20th Century Rec¬ ords. Her first release due this month will be “The Power of Love.” Shelby Flint, songstress and tunesmith from the Coast, has joined the Cadence roster. On her first release, she’s doing two of her own songs, “Oh, I Miss Him So” and “I Will Love You.” Eddie Sauter Quits German B’casts In Tiff Baden-Baden, Sept. 2. American orchestra leader Eddie Sauter, who signed a three-year contract with Suedwest Rundfunk, local outlet of the West" German radio and television net here, has left the station 21 months before the end of the pact. Disagreements between Sauter and the station managers have deep¬ ened within the past couple of months. Sauter has been urged to play more light music and not only jazz. Sauter has returned to the States, and his band, consisting of Amer¬ ican and German musicians, has broken up. Un the U. S., the Sauter-Finegan band was noted for its “advanced” rhythms.—Ed.] Brennan Exits Lombardo To Set Up Bows & Beaux Buddy Brennan, longtime pianist and arranger for Guy Lombardo’s orch, is setting up his own band. Brennan will head a 12-piece string group, including four femmes, which he Is calling Bows , and Beaux. It will combine musie with dance and pantomime with Bren¬ nan narrating the act. He’ll continue to divide the ar-j ranging chores for Lombardo with Larry Owens. SERVICE FOR STEREO Gearing for the swing to stereo on the broadcasting level, Colum¬ bia Records has prepared a pro¬ gram to service radio stations with stereo disks. The new program will be administered directly by Columbia for the remainder of the. year, in order to begin immediate supply of disks. It is expected that the stereo service will be offered on a basis, similar to the monaural subscrip¬ tion service in which a nominal fee is charged for the packages. All FM stations are being present¬ ed with the program as well as sta¬ tions presently subscribing to the monaural service. Play Anti-Negro Spot, Expelled From UJL Union London, Aug. 26. The British Musicans’ Union has expelled three bandleaders who have been playing at a ballroom which discriminates against Ne¬ groes. The ballroom is the Scala at Wolverhampton, which the union blacklisted in the early part of June when the ban was brought to its attention. An MU spokesman said that the bandleaders, Charles Wall, “Styx” Wilkinson and Jack Wilson, were warned not to appear at the spot. The expulsion was agreed to by a branch meeting of the union, and one of the leaders is reported to have said he had been too busy to attend, and was “just disgusted.” Another said he intended to honor his remaining engagement at the Scala. All have the right to appeal.. New Peak With $6,225,000 Allocation Bert Siegelson Joins Frank Loesser’s Firm Bert Siegelson, former disk pro¬ moter, "has joined Frank Music as exec assistant to veepee Stuart Os- trow. In addition to acting as liai¬ son for Frank and its affiliated firms, Siegelson will assist in planning advertising, promotion and exploitation activities. Siegelson’s initial pitch will be on Mitch Miller’s Columbia wax¬ ing of “It Seems Like Only Yester¬ day” and “Bluebell.” Van Cliburn Sells Out In Native Texas Dates Dallas, S^pt. 2. "The Dallas Symphony Orchestra has sold out its Nov. 29 concert by Van Cliburn to be held here in the 4,100 seat State Fair Music Halt. It was the first time since Liberace played with the orches¬ tra that the Symphony has had a sellout for a local concert. The Van Cliburn tickets were sold en¬ tirely by mail. Cliburn and the Dallas Symphony will appear together in two other concerts in Texas. One will be in Kilgore, the home town of the pianist, on Dec. 2. The second will be held at Fort Worth, on Nov. 30. BET AIL DISK BEST SELLEBS Variety' ; Survey of retail disk best sellers based on reports ob¬ tained from leading stores in 20 cities and showing com¬ parative sales rating for this and last week. National 5 Rating Z This Last §. wk, wk. Artist, Label, Title _ j DOMENICO MODUGNO (Decca) 1 1 Nel Blu Dipinto DI Bhl.. 1 ELEGANTS (Apt) 2 2 Little Star ...... EVERLY BROS. (Cadence) 3 4 - 'Bird Dbg. .... 3 RICKY NELSON (Imperial) 4 8 Poor Little FooL.. 4 JIMMY CLANTON (Ace) 3 5 Just a Dream.... . c < Q I J I I a I5-I.fi-I « o T £ o o 9 w R i I ? > | N 8 S l Q co S 14 11115 8 1 2 .. 1 .. 1 1 1 1 163 3 1 5 3.. 3 4 8 4 98 PEREZ PRADO (Victor) Patricia .—.. .. PEGGY LEE (Capitol) * Fever ..... 7 JACK SCOTT (Carlton) My True Love........ 5 DORIS DAY (Columbia) Everybody Loves a Lover....- 8 TOMMY EDWARDS (MGM) It’s All In the Game. IMPERIALS (End) Tears on My Pillow.. 2 PONYTAILS (ABC-Par) Born Too Late-«..... 9 OLYMPICS (Demon) Western Movies..... EVERLY BROS. (Cadence) Devoted to You-:.. .. DEAN MARTIN (Capitol) Volare .. .1.... •• COZY COLE (Love) Topsy No. 2. .. ELVIS PRESLEY (Victor) King Creole.. .. JIMMIE RODGERS (Roulette) Are Yon Really Mine... .. JOHNNY OTIS (Capitol) /•'. Willie A Hand Jive ....-...... . BOBBY DAY (Class) { Rocking Robin... . .. n CRICKETS (Mercury) Think It Over... DUANE EDDY (Jamie) Rebel Rooser....... .. BOBBY HENDRICKS (Sue) Itchy Twitchy...... CONNIE FRANCIS (MGM) Stupid Cupid.*.- 6 ROBIN LUKE (Dot) ~ Susie Darlin’.. 3 3 2 7 7 2 4 7 3 7 2 10 4 2 8 6 .. 9 8 4 8 9 .. 9 8 5 1.. 3 10 ... .. 6 9 .. .. 17 3 .. .. 5 ■+ The Music Performance Trust Funds, which have been the target of several legal actions and a con¬ troversial factor in the ranks of i musicians, are still building to new * revenue peaks. The Funds, repre- - senting royalties collected from the 3 disk manufacturers and the vidpix . makers, is due to allocate about $6,225,000 for the year ending June ‘ 30, 1959. I Year’s allocation for projects call- 1 ing for jobs for. live musicians 1 Compares with the $4,850,000 shelled out last year. Indicative of i how . the Funds have grown are - the following allocation figures • since 1950 when $900,000 was dis¬ tributed: 1951—$1,400,000; 1952— $1,700,000; 1953—$1,950,000; 1954— $2,200,000; 1955—$2,300,000; 1956— $2,800,000; 1957—$3,900,000; 1958 t —$4,485,000; 1959—$6,225,000. ■ Growth of the Fund’s gross re¬ flects the steady upbeat in the disk 1 biz over the same period. Accord- t ing to the Trust Funds* figures, 1 the disk industry racked up sales ' of $320,000,000 in'1957, a gain of J over $60,000,000 on the previous ' year. In 1948, when the disk biz l was starting to gain momentum, * the industry’s take was $150,600,- ’ 000, and has been climbing stead-* ily since. [ The amount of royalties collected by the Funds from the vidpix in- 1 dustry, however, has fallen off since ; the peak^of S7C9.500 in 1953. In 1 1956. the Funds only collected • $168,600 and in 1957 the total fell off to $39,100. Drop in the vidpix royalties is a focus of the debate within the ranks of the musicians which recently led to the forma¬ tion of the Musicians Guild as a rival to the American Federation of Musicians. The Musicians Guild supporters have attacked the AFM insistence on vidpix paying roya’ties to the Funds when union musicians are used on grounds that this has choked off job opportunities. It’s charged that the producers would rather use canned music or record overseas rather than pay royalties, amounting to 5Cc of the gross, to the Funds. More recently, Herman D. Kenin, who succeeded James C. Petrillo as the AFM chief, has been more flexible in dealing with the vidpix producers, cutting back the royalty bite in order to encour¬ age the use of live musicians. The Funds are also under attack in nine different law suits pending both in New York and California, Suits stem from claims of Coast musicians and also from a group of stockholders in the major disk companies who claim that the pay¬ ment of royalties to the Funds represent a viVation of the Taft Hartley act. DICK CLMK TROUPE PUUS 2 !> GInH’W00D Hollywood, Sept. 2. The Dick Clark Show, in which the ABC deejay lined up 15 record acts for s ; ngle performance at Hol¬ lywood Bowl Aug. 24, grossed a lush $29,000. Event brought out crowd of 15,- •000, mdstly juves. Bowl was scaled at $4 top. Folds In Mpls. Minneapolis, Sept. 2. Scheduled for three days at the Armory here, Dick Clark and-his network television “American Bandstand” show in person closed abruptly after slim attendance at the opening afternoon and night performances (27). Clark’s personal manager Charles Reeves stated that the reason for the closing was that the-emcee of the nationally televised teenager dance show out of Philadelphia had been taken ill and was suffering from a severe cold and sore throat. Blue Note, Chi Owners Hurt In Auto Bamming Chicago, Sept. 2. Frank Holzfeind, Blue Note jazz- ery owner, and his wife, Catherine, were seriously injured early last Wednesday (27) when their auto rammed the rear of a stalled milk truck near Libertyville, Ill. Couple was returning to Chi fronr a day of golfing at a Wisconsin resort They were transferred to Ravens- wood Hospital here.