Variety (October 1958)

Wednesday OctoLer' 1, 1958 UTSsnsff MUSIC 47 ASCAP Eyeing Change in Losing 0( Radio-TV to Pinpoint Payoffs The American Society of Com¬ posers, Authors & Publishers is now reportedly studying a general overhauling of its logging proce¬ dure. It’s understood that' some statistical experts have been ap¬ proached to undertake the job of coming up with a system for an ex¬ tensive and foolproof checking of actual performances played on the radio-tv lanes. ASCAP’? logging, which is now based on a 100% check of the net¬ works and a rotating spot check of several thousand indie stations, has been one of the chief targets of criticism by dissidents in the ranks. The recent Congressional probe in ASCAP’s setup by the House Sub¬ committee on Small Business, un¬ der the chairmanship of Rep. James Roosevelt (D., CaU, focussed in large part on ASCAP’* checking of performances. Since ASCAP collects the over¬ whelming bulk of its $24,000,000 annually from radio and tv, it now pays off exclusively on perform¬ ances JLn the broadcast media. Be¬ cause' there is no 100% logging of . the indie stations, due'to the large cost of collecting and analyzing such data, there have been recur¬ rent squawks from publishers and songwriters thst many songs that are plugged on Indie stations do not figure in the final tally. At the present time, Dr. John G. Peatman, of the City College of N. Y. Psychology Dept.,-is handling the logging of the indie stations for ASCAP. Under the current set¬ up, stations that are selected for logging are not known to any mem¬ ber of ASCAP, in order to avoid •pedal plugging drives by the pub¬ lishers. Urania's Own Off-Track Betting; Pick die Right (store ABe a Winner , While New York City politicos art toying with legalization of off¬ track betting, Urania has come up with a package that may bring paH-mutuel . windows'into the liv- ingrpom. The Urania LP, tagged “Henny Youngman’s Horse and Auto Race," simulate* an actual naming with different winners reaching the fin¬ ish line, depending on the groove where the disk has been started. Youngman narrates a horse race on one side and the auto rice on the other with appropriate background sounds. An intermingling of the five grooves makes a new winner possible each time the record is played. A regular edition at $3.98 has its-liner arranged so that chips may be placed on it. A deluxe pack¬ age at $4.98 is boxed and contains a felt pad for bets. Col's ‘Kiss He Kat e’ LP Gets Video Show Hypo Columbia Records is dusting off Its. original Cast albihn of "Hiss Me, Kate," (originally released in early 1949) for a tiein with the tv production of the Cole Porter mu¬ sical scheduled for Nov. 20 over NBC-TV. / The teleproduction will star Al¬ fred Drake and Patricia Morison who also appear on Col’s original Broadway east package. Diskery'is joining with the Hallmark Greet¬ ing Card Co., NBC-TV, the Carl Byoir public relations firm, and the Foote, Cone Sc Beldlng ad agency to promote the "Kate" spec and album. The telecaast tiein will he ac¬ cented by specially designed new album: jackets and provisions will be made for dealers to adapt exist¬ ing inventory to capitalize on the new packaging and display mate¬ rials. William St, C. Low, general man¬ ager Of the Composers, Authors and Publishers Assn, of Canada, bf ck from Europe yesterday (Tues.) on'the Caronia. Decca-Urania 4-City Tie Decca Records* distribution di¬ vision which began handling out¬ side labels earlier this year, is now taking the Urapla line in four territories, Boston, Albany, Hart¬ ford and Buffalo. Decca will handle both tapes and disks for Urania,* which is planning 45 stereo releases in the next three months. Decca’* distrlb company also handles the Warner Bros, label, Everest Records and London Rec¬ ords, also in some key area£ For Colpix Label; 'Nautilus’ Top LP The newest diskery to be pa- rented by a film company, Colpix Records, starts rolling this week with a program its execs call "controlled releases." According to diskery*#* general manager Jonie Tips and director of operations Paul J. Wexler, Colpix, the disk division of. Columbia Pictures, will hit the market with “spe¬ cialized" items pegged for special consumer targets without any specific release schedule com¬ mitments. The Colpix label is being in¬ troduced in the market today (Wed.) with four LPs and one single. According to the diskery execs, only 11 albums are planned for release in the remaining three months of the year. Spotlighting the kickoff release is sn on-the-spot recording made aboard the atomic submarine Nautilus on its cruise under ;the (Continued on page 54) Maxm’s Metro Gabs Arnold Maxin, MGM Records prexy; is on the Coast this, week for huddles with Metro execs and diskery’* veepee Jess* Kaye on soundtrack albums and pic-disk, ties. Maxin is out to build closer rela¬ tions between tiie studio and the recording firm-on single releases for promoting the pic product. ITS' MISTAKE OVER These gmlbnital days for most: of.the Newyork publishers. They are helplessly watching the music business slip out of their hands into the control of a vast horde of newcomers literally scattered all over the U.S. map. Many of the smaller publishers are worried over the disappear¬ ance of their last solid underpin¬ ning—performance money. • Since these firms have to depend chiefly on current hits, rather than sub¬ stantial catalogs, of standards, they are facing the prospect of getting very little coin both from the American Society of Compos¬ ers, Authors Sc. Publishers and Broadcast ‘ Music Inc. While ASCAP has never been an import¬ ant revenue - source for these smaller publishers, the probabil¬ ity that BMI is going to cut back drastically on its guarantees is the new,- and scarifying, factor in the current situation. Divvying -a Set Melon The economics of the new music biz is seen forcing the hand of BMI in its relations with the New York publishers, many of whom get substantial guarantees. With the hits now coming from the hin¬ terlands and controlled by pub¬ lishers who'-are mainly BMI affil¬ iates, BMX .njust pay these -firms according; ^ their performance ratings. S^ich payments must cut into the guarantees paid to the firms whi«r. are not producing, since the ^annual BMI distribution fund Js fixed. The handwriting has been on the wall for the small-publishers ever since the advent of rock *n* roll three or four years ago. That idiom broke the dikes for the so-called amateurs, both on the performing and publishing end. Since that time, the music biz has become strictly hit-or-miss; with no . control over the destiny of any particular song by either the pub¬ lisher or the disk company. The old ideas'of song exploitation and promotion have had to be scrap¬ ped. The New York publishers also frankly don’t know where to look for material. In the old days, a songwriter who produced a hit could reasonably be expected to write another good song. Nowa¬ days, the hit songsters are chiefly one-shotters, much like the per¬ forming talent. Few have shown the ability, to repeat with a hit, and hence their followup num¬ bers are just as much of a gamble as anyone ebe’s. Stereo Starring at N.Y. Hi-Fi Show In Mfrs.’Bid for $260,000,000 Pot Meyer Davis to Victor Meyer Davis, veteran society band maestro and contractor, has joined the RCA Victor talent stable. His first LP, due in October, will be titled "Dancing With The Smart Set" Victor inked Davis, who has cut some LP# for other labels, in line with the steady upbeat in society band LP sales In the past couple of years. Baker Exits Big 3 in Dec.; Plans Own Biz After 26 years'with Robbins Mu¬ sic Corp., Murray “Baker Is resign¬ ing by the end of this year to go into the music publishing business on his own. Robbins, along with Feist and Miller Music, constitute the Big 3 Music Corp., a Loew’s Inc. subsidiary, and in line with the general economies ^attendant to the Loew-Metro reorganization, certain, curtailments have taken place within the music publishing affiliations. Mickey Scopp, v.p. and g.m. of the three pubberies, will probably designate Hy Ross, No. 2 man to Baker, to assume the responsibili¬ ties of general professional man¬ ager. Norman Foley, prof. mgr. at Feist, likewise has Roy Kohn as No. 2 man, and Ted Black, head of Miller’s professional depart¬ ment, has Al Kohn the No. 2 man. Both Kohns, . incidentally are brothers. Oscar Robbins (no relation- to founder Jack Robbins of the firm bearing bis name) heads the stand¬ ard music exploitation of the Big 3. Herb Gottlieb, who was an ex- (Contfnued on page 54) Ganwr $6,700 in Conn. Erroll Garner racked up a $6,700 gross at the Oakdale Musical, The¬ atre in Wallingford, Conn., Satur¬ day (27) night, despite a driving rain. A capacity crowd of 1,700 turned out for the concert. RETAIL SHEET BEST SELLERS Riding with the prevailing winds in the disk industry, the New York High Fidelity Music Show opened yesterday (Tues.) at the N.Y. Trade Show Bldg, with stereo sound blasting from virtually every room. Sponsored by the Institute of High Fidelity Manufacturers, the show is expected to furnish a big hypo for hi-fi equipment sales which, it’s estimated, will hit the $260,000,000 mark for component manufacturers and about an equal gross for the packaged home music system makers. While stereo has been demon¬ strated at past audio shows in tape form, this is the first year that the equipment manufacturers have a ready supply of stereo disks with which to,showcase their product. Every brand name in the amplifier, speaker, cartridge and turntable field at the fair was accenting its stereo lines. The major disk com¬ panies are also on hand to push their stereo packages during the five-day fair. Over 50,000 are ex¬ pected to pay the 99c admission to get into the exhibit. Simultaneous with the hi-fi show, the Audio Engineering Society opened its 10th annual convention at the nearby Hotel New Yorker Monday (29). The engineers have scheduled a five-day meet to dis¬ cuss the latest advances In stereo and new applications of transistors. 52 Dates Lined Up For Williams 1st Tour Will Own Grom; Dayton Teeoff Roger Williams, Kapp’s keyboard disker, has been set for a 52-date tour beginning Oct. 10 hr Dayton, Ohio. It will be the first time that Williams will be travelling with his own accomp combo, two guitar# and a bass. v Most of the dates, which are be¬ ing booked by Music Corp of America, are being set-at a guar¬ antee against 60% of the gate. Some of the flat fee dates are go¬ ing at a straight $5,000. Williams, who has clocked more than 2,000,000 album sales in his 12 LP entries for Kapp, I# now mulling a foray«into the publish¬ ing field. The venture, which will be In the ASCAP fold in collabora¬ tion with his manager Stan Gree- son, will be primarily to hold hi* own material. Greeson currently is working on plans to take Williams to a tour of Latin America, South Africa and Europe. It will be William’s first in-person €ry in these areas. His US. tour is expected to get an added push via a "Person to Per¬ son" telecast over CBS-TV Oct. 24. The U.S. tour winds in Stoneham, Mass., Dec. 19. Cap Brass to London For Huddles With EMI Hollywood, Sept 30. Five executives of Capitol Rec¬ ords planed for London via N.Y. over the weekend for 10 days of business meetings with EMI (ZSec- tilc and Musical Industries) top¬ pers on upcoming classical prod¬ uct. The label bigwigs include Lloyd W, Dunn, veepee of sales and mer¬ chandising; Francis Scott 3d, di¬ rector of album repertoire; Gordon B. Frazer, director of merchandis¬ ing; John Coveney, merchandising manager, Capitol classics, and Leo Kepler, merchandising manager of Angel Records. Donna Hightower to Cap Hollywood, Sept 30. Bines singer Donna Hightower has been signed to a recording pact by Capitol. Chirp’s initial waxing*, not chosen as yet, will be produced by Dave Cavanaugh, who also put her under pact