Variety (March 1959)

Wednesday, March 25, 1959 MUSIC 63 A-La-Diskery; Staff to Suit Stuart Ostrow, veepee of Frank Music, is reshaping the publishing firm along . recording comoany lines. He’s reshuffled his staff so that activities in the album and pop field will be handled separate¬ ly, plus different setups for the sale and aquisition of material. In the new Frank formation. Milt Kramer has been set as exec in professional department and Bert Siegelson, formerly exec aide to Ostrow, has been upped to the newly created position of director of national exploitation. Kramer was formerly with Mike Todd and recently handled his own personal management firm. His duties at Frank, in addition to professional chores, will include the attracting and development of new. writing talent for Broadway, pix, tv and disks! Along with his promotional duties, Siegelson will represent firm’s album-catalog operations, re¬ porting to Kramer, and will act as liaison for the Coast recording firms. First on his agenda will be a three-week national tour begin¬ ning in San Francisco and cover¬ ing Los Angeles, Dallas, Chicago, St. Louis, Cleveland, Detroit arid Pittsburgh. Frank Music is the publishing operation of cleffer Frank-Loesser. Terpery Into Warehouse Waltham, Mass., March 29. The venerable dance hall, Nut- tmgs-on-the-Charles, where Paul Whiteman, Rudy Vallee and all the big bands of the ’30s tooted, came to the end of its run here last week when it was sold for $38,000 to become a warehouse. Louis Richmond sold the danc- ery to Parke Snow stores. The ! spot dates back to long before ! World War I, when it was a mecca 1 for canoeists. BIG ONES FROM MPHC AS TIME COES BY JOHNNY NASH. AEC-Por THE HANGING TREE* JWMT ROBBINS COLUMBIA _ RIO BRAVO ♦ram th* WB pic DEAN MARTIN, Capitol Brit. M & P Industries (Gala Label) Ups Profit London, March 17. Musical & Plastic Industries, group that started to market cut- price disks under the Gala label last October, made a record gross profit of $582,400 in 1958, com¬ paring with just under $344,000 in the previous year. In addition to platters, the outfit also deals in musical instruments and tape re¬ corders. No breakdown has yet been issued to show just how much the diskery contributed to the overall result. Perez Prado orch booked for a one nighter in San Antonio on April 10 by the Tri-college counciL Stan Pat Doesn’t Chicago, March 24. Stan Pat, midwest sales and promo chief for Roulette Records since the label was incepted two years ago, is pulling out at month’s end. He’ll stay In the biz, though, and is mulling several offers that will keep him based here. Peace Efforts Delay Auction Of Bourne Firm Attempts by attorneys to patch up managerial difficulties at Bourne Inc. have resulted in a two-week postponement of action towards the public auction of the publishing firm. Firm was original¬ ly scheduled to go on the block April 21. There’s also been a two-week postponement in bidding for the firm between Mrs. Bonnie Bourne (widow of founder Saul H. Bournel and her daughter, Beebee Bourne. The differences between the two, who are both exec veepees in the firm,* originally cued the public sale. Insiders say that the postpone¬ ment has been made for two rea¬ sons: 1) to allow for possibilities of a reconciliation and 2) to allow for time for prospective buyers to look into the Bourne books. It's understood that the firm is pulling in about $200,000 a year from the American Society of Composers, Authors & Publishers and that the “upset price,” or low¬ est bid to be considered, at the public auction would be around the $2,000,000 mark. 21 % Dio cn Disk Sales In Brit Vs. Jan. of ’58 London, March 24. At * $3,542,000, manufacturers’ sales of 6,785,000 disks in January totalled 21% less than in January, 1958, according to the Board of Trade. Export sales, at $750,400, showed a drop of 4%. The statistics are marked once again by a reduction in the number of 78 rpm platters—1,757,006 in the month as.against 5,762,000 in January of a year ago. Sharp up¬ swing in production of 45s is in¬ dicated by the percentage increase of 94. Actual figures: 3,683,000 in January, 1959, and 1,898,000 in January, 1958. Production of 3316 disks, at 1,346,000, compared with 1,426,000, a drop of 6%. Another OTTO HARBACH romantic hit I SAW YOU SMILE “SMOKE GETS IN YOUR EYES” WITH MUSIC BY HAROLD ORLOB Composer of “I Wonder Who’s Kissing Her Now” Gloriously Sung by MARVIN HAYUTIN In the Magic Tradition of McCormack, Caruso, Tucker and Pinza HARVEST LABEL, ALBUM No. 1001 PREXT LABEL, No. 402 Single , — Pablisltcd by — CHAU/ TllkltC I fcl f* 1270 SIXTH AVENUE 5HUff a U n INU NEW YORK 20, N. Y.