Variety (Sep 1928)

Wednesday, September 12, 1928 MUSIC-RADIO VARIETY 57 FHH FIRMS HAl PimiSH MUSIC Sound picturcB are the basis of the desire by Paramount to go Into the music publishing business. Likelihood is that other sound pic- ture makers will do likewise. Whether or not E. C. Mills, as trustee for the music publishers, let the talker manufacturers get away with murder on the present terms of a five-year contract, there is no doubt in the film people's minds that at the expiration of that time they will have to pay considerably more for the same privileges. Music men are now making the best of what is deemed a poor bar- gain. Feeling is that music was bartered away too cheaply in the Mills' contract with the Electrical Research Products, Inc. It is known that Fox, M-G-M and Paramount have conferred on musical copy- right. Warner Brothers has been, acting Independently. This explains Par's desire to go Into music publishing business with Dreyfuss brothers,, of Harms, Inc., and its bid for Jack Robbins' pic- ture theme catalog. —- .—r—. KayBcr's Chicago Band Chicago, Sept. 11. Joe Kayser, formerly m. c. at Loew's Midland, Kansas Gity, opened at the Merrie Gardens ball- room here, Sept. 8. He has a 12-piece orchestra. {Shribman Ties Up N. L Dance Stands for Hallett Cfliarles Shribman, iniinagor for iial Hallett and his orchestra, has taken over Wilburs-on-the-Taunton,- the suburban ballroom one mile out- side of Fall River, Mass., for which Shribman-Hallett paid $30,000. Shribman also owns Gharleshurst, Salem Willows,' and controls the lease of Nutting'STon-the-Charles, another rlyersicle dance place at l^altham, Mass. This insures three weekly stands for Shribmari's ace band attriactlon in New England ballroom territory. Hallett comes into Arcadia ball- room. New York, Dec. 31, for the winter season. ROY SMECK Wizard of the Strings Vitaphone and Recording Artist Keith Theatre, Sept 9 Ist half, Columbus, O. Last half, Canton, O. USES B & D SILVER BELL BANJOS 48-Page Ills. Banjo Catalog Free THE BACdNBANJO CO. INCORPORATED GROTONjCONN. Leading Organists in New Yrok PAUL BRASS Solo Organist . Keith-Albee Theatres NEW YORK CITY W. J. GILROY FKATCRINO Organ Novelties PROCTOR'S 86th ST, NEW YORK 9:30 Radio Curfew Cleveland, Sept. 11. Radio fans who keep their loud speakers screechipg into the wee .hours will have to quiet down in Newton Falls, O. Orders have gone out from an inditrilant mayor that the static. pui-.voYors riiust be muf- fled or ■ turned off altogether after 9;30 p. m. If they're not the owners will be arrested for maintaining a public nuissince. Even player pianos have been ordered, spft-pcdalod or shut off at the same hour. RADIO RAMBLES Ellington's Local Hit Duke Ellington and his extremely torrid jazzists from the Harlem black-and-tan, the Cotton Club, can play for the Variety bunch any time until unconscious. The dirtier a.na •'rneanei'" and 'low-^downer those jazz-hounds get the better thiey are and even if they do break up the Variety mob at its typewriters of Monday midnights, in the words of the classics, it's plaaaazhure! With an-introductory mention of Variety, the WHN announcer cued Ellington's virtuosi of the "blues" into such indigo classics as '"Tisho- mingo Blues" and "San" and that rendition of the immortal Handy's I "St. Louis Blues" is ab.solutely the last gasp in rhythmic indigo modu- lations. What a bear of a; record it would make. Victor or Columbia; or Brunswick should get the Harlem Duke ot Jazz to "can" his arrange- ment of "St. Louis Blues" and not only release it as a race record but also on the general schedule and it will top anything preceding it in sales. It's a jazz rhapsody that in si5ires the jazz epicure to superlative Iravea. Lyman "Good News" Band Doubles Chi Ballroom Chicago, Sept. 11. Starting Sept. 29, Abe Lyman and his on-.hestra will double from "Good News" into the Aragon and Trianon ballrooms for Saturday night. Arrangement c^xlls for Lyman to play two hours at each place, alternating from one to the other every week. • Lyman had been tloubling at the Oriental room in the Davis hotel until recently, when he walked out after having .trouble with the man- agement. ' . Lyman Is not going on the road with the Chicago company of "Good News" after the show com- pletes its run at the Selwyn. He will probably go for a jaunt around the picture houses. START CONCERT UNITS BY HOUR ON AIR I FLOCKS FO RADIO USE Disk Reviews By Abel Vitaphone, Life Among Commercial Users on Columbia Network Reisman's Polite Stiiff In contrast to-the barbaric Afra I merican rhythms, Leo Reisman's po lite syncopation from the Waldorf- Astoria on WJZ proves the more that the native Negro is best quali- 1 fied to interpret the off-beat indigo rhythms of his own creation and evolution. Reisman's is a type of dansapa tion altogether satisfying for more conservative company such as con- gregates at the fashionable hostelry, featuring a wealth of melody but not at. the expense of satisfactory I rhythms. Another of Lew White's excellent I organ recitals on WEAF this time comprised an all Saint-Saens pro- I gram of compositions including the imniortal arias from "Samson and Delilah" and "The Swan." johnny Marvin . This comedian whips acrcss a couple of Tin Pan Alley home-runs in "Old Man Sunshine (Little Boy [Blue Bird)", coupled with a! power- ful fox-trot ballad, "If You Don't Love Me." Some trick jazzique ac- 1 compahiment is in evidence for the musical background on Victor No 121609. N. B. C. Concert Bureau Wili Have 100 Artists Making Personal Appearances National Broadcasting and Con- cert Buroiui is launching its. concert units by devoting special ether hours to the talent prior to. the comnioncement of their itineraries. On Sept. 14, the secoi]d unit; com- prising Gladys Rice, South Sea islanders, Ronnie Laddies (vocal trio), Christine . Phlllipson, Harry Haydeh and Kathleen Stewart gO on the air and take to the concert stages immediately thereafter. Last week Graham McNamee, Mathilde Harding, National Light Opera Quartet, Arcadie Rirkenholz, Kather.ine Tift-Jones and Georgia Price weuie on for an hour and go on t6ur as a distinct unit.; • George Engles, now in charge of NBC's concert bureau, plans to have 100 radio artists making porisonal appearance in the concert Held this season. Some of the Columbia Broadcast ing System's accounts are running wild in signing up the cream of entertainer talent for . its. commer- cial hours. La Pallna,,through the William Morris Agency, has George Jessel, Jay C. Flippen, Miller and Lyles, George Price, and others set. . The. kolster radio people will sA tei-nate Vincent Lope?' and his original orchestra with a Life funr fest. The humor weekly will have talent like Bob Benchley, its drsf matic critic, and Eddie Cantor among others tied up in this dual radio plug for Kolster and Life. A surprise radio feature Is . Al Jolson Monday, Sept. 17, on the first of a series of 26 Vitaphone hours on the Columbia chain. May McAvoy, Lionel Barrymore and other flicker and talker Vita stars will follow Jolson. ■ Vitaphone, as with the otlier network bookers on Columbia, pays the chain around $8,000 for Its facilities on the 30 station coast-to-coast hook-up.- Jolson is understood to hold a $30,000 contract for any four hours this season he cares to broadcast on behalf of a Chicago radio accesr- sory company. Leo Reisman Reisma'ri is the Paul Wlilteman of Boston, having been imported by the Waldorf-Astoria, management for the summer season in New York. He returns to Beantown next week. While here Reisman turned out a mess of. dahsapation, notable among which are "In 'a; Bamboo Garden" and ".'Cause I Feel Low- Down," both sprightly fox-trots with vocal refrain on Colunibia No.' 1467. Radioing "Show Girl" J. P: McEvoy*s"Show.. Girl," in tabloid dramatized form, goes on the a;ir as the Eveready Hour's ra- dio feature Sept. 25, over a-network of 20 stations. WEAP is the broad- cast central. The author will also make his radio debut. Radio adaptation pf a best .seller is a departure for commevcial ether accounts. Rolfe Back at D'Or B. A. Rolfe and his thoroughly satisfying dance purveyors from the Palais D'Or are back at the pop- ular' restaurant once iagain. Rolfe's midday dance recitals again feature the early afternoon programs daily In addition to the evening broad- casts. One knows Rolfe's voice so well on the air nowadays that an I announcement of his nanrie is almost needless. . . JOHNGART Thanks to C, C. M.. .Free practice airoiiKed .for Btudentf Phone Nevens OOlS ORGAN STUDIO 291 lilncoln Place, EtROOKT.TN, N. T. JACK SKELLY At the WurHtzer Keith.Albee WHITE PLAINS THEATRE WALTER WILD Feature Organist AT Jimmy Cirr's Stuff Jimmy Carr and his band make whoopee on the half hour just pre- ceding Ellington, also oh WHN. The Silver Slipper bandma-stet does his own announcing and also essays 1 a vocal number on occasion, the im- pressions thereof being spotty and depending on the choice of selec- 1 tiion. Monday night it could have been happier, the Insistent vigor of the [Songster nullifying his otherwi.se favorable impression. . Inspiring a Thought Albert , Von Tilzer.'and'Seymour Brown, WOR, disclosed a wealth of popular song hit material of yes- teryear, which they turned but be- tween them. It inspires the thought that many an old time hit song smith cannot seem to duplicate his royalty penchant in the present day rhythms, modulations and lyric con structlons. Von Tiller and Brown are typical of this anoma, Al's brother, Harry, one of the great pop songwriters extant, Who has a past catalog that reads like a who's who of song hits, is another. Ditto Charles K Harris or Fred Fisher, with the lat- ter breaking his dull streak with "Dance of the BJue Danube." Abel. Canned Radio Programs Linking of Bound films with radio is the enterprise of Radio Produc- tions, of New Yoxk, which will "can- musical programs on celluloid sound tracks so that these can be projected In a broadcasting studio and car- ried through -the microphone into the ether. At the same time, Radio Prodiic tions will photograph musical units for booking in theatres like any other short subject talker. Primarily, the company will con cern itself with canning the enter tainment of name artists and book- ing the electrical recording there of to the lesser radio stations, and thus make possible the creana of en tertainment for, hinterland broad casters. Adolph F. Linden, president of the American Broadciasting Co., a Pilcl.flc. Coast. chain, ^ and Chjlrjes A^ Coats, president of Radio Produc- tions, are allied in this venture. Linden's Pacific Coast network of stations, comprising K,TR, Seattle; KGA, Spokane; KEX, Portland, Ore.; KYA, San Francisco, and KMTR, Los Angeles, will b© the initial bookers of these, canhied radio programs. Keith's Hippodrome NEW YORK Howard Warren reiiture Orgnnist i>t U»e Albee Theatre, Brooklyn Chtcago, "Sept. 11^ Verne Buck, for several years m. c. at the Sheridan theatre, and recently signed by Balaban & Katz, will alternate with Bennie Krueger between the TivoH and Uptowji the atre«. A. A P. Gypsies This radio ensemble, conducted by Harry Horlick, plugs the, greatest chain grocery syndicate in -the world, hence the billing. As Bruns- wick artists, this semi-concert ag- grregation produces satisfiactory dance music with a couple of fetch Ing waltzes, "Chiquita" and "Ro sette." Lewis James and Fi'ank Munn, respectively, tenor the vocal refrains. ' It is curious to note how Tin Pan Alley history is being made and re- made in the "Chiquita" song In- stance. It's by L. Wolfe Gilbert and Mabely Wayne, and one of the rare exceptions where -a follow-up or sequel song is not only equal In merit to Its predecessor, but even superior. Such is the case also in "King for a Day," an Infinitely bet- ter song than the bftnal "Laugh, Clown, Laugh," and "In My Bou quet of. Memories," which, too, dis proved the theorjr that a follow-up isong cannot attain hitdom. "Memo- ries" is patently a paraphrase of "Among My Souvenirs." From L. A. to Watertown Watertown, N. Y., Sept. 11. Bill Green, organist at the Egyp-. tlan, Los Angelesr' has been en- gaged for the local Olympic suc- ceeding Harry F. Pearl; Peairl goes back to Buffalo to en-r gage in real estate. Paul Whiteman's Rhythm Boys With the jazz king transplanting himself to the Columbia, his Rhythm Boys are dittoing on the same label. They do their distinctive vocal syn- copation on No. 1455 with a couple of original ditties titled"We-Da-Da (Ev'rybody's Doln' It Now)" and "That's Grandma." Cafe's Dramatic Skits C. Norton Bellak, who operates the Villa Venice in the east Sixties, is increasing his capactiy, building a stage and contemplates putting on dramatic sketches in addition to a floor show. It's a Continental idea. Alterations have commenced for the coming night club night.-^. YOJNG CAEUSO AIEING VOICE Enrico CarusoT Jir^ ""win^^brbadcasr from WBKO Sept. 10. He is play- ing vaudeville. Enrico, Jr., was educated in Eng- land and upon coming here entr^rcd Culvf;r Military Acadeniy, He's a baritone. Frankie Mastert This western dance purveyor with his orchestra is producing some great dance stuff on the Victor. Relatively new as a Victor artist, his initial impression warrants the Immediate release of the other re- cordings, which were doubtless re- corded in a batch. This lime he has "Don't Cry; Baby (Cry Baby, Don't Cry)" tind"ls It Gonna Be Long?" .as his fox-trot assignments. • The former is a "No No Nora" type of song, and both are f-nergetic four- four dL nee tmtrg; • " - - " Masters seems to h.ave forsaken the idea of flo.ssy orchestration, go- mg in foi- simple rhythmic arrange- ments and producing real honost-to- gosh dance disks, Nick Lucas The crooning troubadour is just loo bad with a heW Brunswick qu.'irtet of sentimental ballads, "When You Said 'Good-Night' " and "You're a Real - Sweetheart" as one couplet and "Just Like a Melody" end "For Old Time'.s Sake" as an- other. Lucas' song interpretations are ever distinctive, made more so by intelligent selection of number.'*. Henry Therrein Th'iH tenor, currently at the Roxy, bas a ( orking recording voice. He will gf:t far, Impros.sing unmistak- ably on a minor disk label, thp Har- mony No. 712, with two. picture theme songs. Ono is "Angela Ml.a," from "Stroft Angel," and the other l.s "Revenge," the new Lewis-Young- Ak.'^t ballad, written around a forth- mona," which wa.s a bettf-r song a.s a song than the picture was a pic- turf-, "Revenge"—without any re- fif-clion on nn im.S'"^n and unknown film qiifilKy—is- m strong \v;iltz h^\- lad '.'ind a. viilujiltle iidv:ui<'<.' ii^'ril 1 alr"!id-. fi'i tlif- .fi-;.1 lire. A CHOP HOUSE OF EXCEPTIONAL MERIT 1B6.8 WEST 48TH STREET I , E««t •f Broadway « I Hits The Outstanding Song from the.^ New 1928 Earl Carroll's ^'Vanities" ''Bliie Shadows' i "Once in a Lifedme "Raquel" Sing Them—Play Them— Buy Them RpBBiNS Music CorforaxionI THE FOKMER HERB WIEDOEFT ORCHESTRA NOW KNOWN AS JESSE STAFFORD And His Orchestra ■■V COMELETIN^i^SMMMJiR .-EN- GAGEMENTS AT EGYPTIAN BALLROOM, OCEAN PARK, CAL. Brunswick Recording