Variety (Dec 1929)

Wednesday, December 18, 192» MUSIC VARIETY 57 Picture Songs Pushing Trade Into Heavy Overproduction; Tdlers" Serious over-jproductlon In the music trade I»-being felt by both the publishers, and the mechanicals as a result of the recent habit, which has developed Into an epi- demic, of printing seven and eight numbers from one picture. Actually but one or two, or at the outside threej> numbers, are intitled to pub- lication, rest being, properly classi- fiable as "spiecial material" or **pro- duction fillers." Mechahicalis have seldom been so over-produced as at present, re- leases tumbling over each other in the crowd weekly sent out. Most of these recordings have very light sales and the total volume handi- caps the hot numbers in. getting the big load they might otherwise. Film conipahies in fitting songs to the requirements of a given picture or sequence In a picture are vio- lating some of the traditional max- ims of music publishing. Princi- pally the one that requires a chorus to have 32 bars. As a result, publishers have- re- peatiedly discovered that the isbngs thiby picked from manuscript as the hot ones in a picture are negligible In the finished picture through being badly spotted or completely sub- merged, insufllciently rieprised or cut off at 16 or 24 bars. In. several Instances publishers advised by wire from Hollywood that such and such a tune was ■ the number one plug, and arrang- ing with the. mechanicals for ad- vance cutting, have often been sur- prised to learn that the song was entirely eliminated from ^the pic- ture when released. Fox Red Star Co. With Complete Dept lineup Departmental heads as the nucleus of Fox's Red Star Music Co. are. Mike Hill, business man- ager; Oscar Roye, assistant; Helney Kresa, manager of • the arranging department; Jack McCoy, profes- sional: manager; Julius Voii Tilzer, assistant to McCoy; Bill Jacobs, sales manager, and Lion Mooney, of Forster's, as band arid orchestra manager. Opening of Red Star in its Quar- ters at 729 Seventh avenue will be about Jan. 3. Pat Flaherty, gen- eral manager, is already encamped in the Red Star offices. Various ihdepeiident film compa- nies are hegotiating for working agreements with Flaherty to secure services Of Red Star songwriters when not b.usy on Fox productions. Foremost a.mong these is Tiffany, noVV publishing songs in this coun- try through various publishers. Tiffany has entered into an agree- ment with Campbell ard Connelly, whereby the latter firm holds ex- clusive publishing rights in Great Britain. LIBERAL CONTRACT Kern and Harbach's Agreement .With FWm Company rSKlLLEDALIEN BILL UP AGAIN Mrs. Youmns Starts Suit for Separation Mrs. Anna Toumans charges . abandonment and non-support in her suit for separation from Vin- cent Toumans, filed in New York Supreme Court Monday. Mrs. Toumans applied for $500 weekly temporary alimony and suitable counsel fees from the pro- ducer. The Toumans have , two children, twins, two and a half years old. St Louis Normal St. liouis, Dec. 17. With settlement of the musicians' •trike, all local Skouras houses and lioew's State have an orchestra in the pit this week. Ed Lowry, Ambassador's m. c, Who walked with the musicians several months ago, is back at that house, heading a Publix stage show with augmented band. Al Eldridge, pianist at the Mls- pouri (Skouras), is leading Its or- chestra there, Milton Slosser is back at the organ. In Hoosick Falls Hoosick Palls, N. T., Dec. 17. Earl J. Wilcox, musician, has been appointed probation officer in the children's court of Rensselaer county. Hollywood Dec. 17. . Most" concessionary musical con- tracts yet given by a studio go to Jerome Kern and Ottj. Harbach, who will be on the First Na.tional payroll for the next two years as composers and producers. Full say-so is giVen the boys, without any studio but-ins as to what shall or shall not go Into the picture Musically. The director of the musicals,, according to the con tracts, will be subordinate to the two. Music And Need for Along the Coast By Bill Swigart Los Angples, Dec. 17, With such composers as Jerome Kern, Otto Harbach, Oscar Ham- merstehi, 2nd, Herbert Stothnrt and Vincent Youmans, already aligned with vai'ious picture producers, a new trend in screen musicals is an- ticipated. Day of the theme song, insofar as injecting one for no other purpose, is doomed with the line-up of com- posers who not only know how to write music, but can interlock th< compositions with a logical story. sing their first theme song, in Tif- fany's "Troopers Three." Tune title is "As Long as You Love Me." Words arid music by Abner Sllvev I and George Waggner,.. Jackie Archer, of tli6 Witmark office, ar- ranges her work so she can appear on five daily broadcast programs sent out from different parts of the city. This is in addition to being featured with the. Packard dance orchestra broadcasting nightly over , , ^ *?°V V*'^ • KHJ, arid she doesn't always sing >yrrte music, but can interlock their | Witmark numbers , . Val Valenti. of the Roof Garden Gafe, S&n Fran- cisco, was in town to see what L. A. is doing. Reports for the week include that Rex Lease and Dorothy Gulliver PU6UC DANCE HALLS MUST PAY MUSIC TAX DSOP pBOAinSTS' DEPT. Due to eliminations already made Keith's organists' department, in New York, has been abandoned. Pit orchestra leaders have been . given. supervision of brganists where they still remain. Witmarks in Hollywood BIdg. Witmarks, one of the Warner tnuslc subsidiaries. Is moving Into the new Warner Hollywood Theatre building at 61st street and Broad Way about Jan. 1. Company will have most of the third floor. Washington, Dec. 17. Congressman Free's bill to admit aliens skiUed "in a particular art,' craft, technique, business or science, that are needed by bona fide em- ployers" has agaiii been introduced. Last session the bill came up dur- ing the agitation to devise retalia- tory legislation to meet the barring of American musicians abroad. Bill would make It possible to im- port foreign orchestras and musi- cians, with the Only technicality to block their coming stipulated if equally as good talent Is available here. To prove, that, should an em- ployer Insist such could not be found, would caUse plenty of com- plications. Congressman Free expects hear- ings, shortly on his proposal. $1,000 for Piano Player Hollywood, Dec. 17. Arthur Johrison Is the highest salaried piano player In show busi- I ness. Al Jolson will pay him $1,000 I a week and his living expenses dur- ing the latter's concert tour. ' Jolson first Intended to take Dave I Dryer on the tour. Jolson will only I play nine dates on the tour so that he can get back to the Coast to be- gin preparation for another picture. Ager-Yellen East Soon Milton Ager and Jack Yellen, I writing special music for the Paul I Whlteman picture, "King of Jazz" (U), will probably return east In a l-few weeks. Their contract with U, under weekly salary, was for seven weeks with an ojptio.n for five additional weeks. Option has been taken up to permit team to complete songs for the picture. Five have already been done, with two or three yet to come. LAITOEY'S VAUDE TOUE Art Landry's bartd has been booked for tour of RKO. Opens In Cincinnati, Dec. 28 Bargain Xmas Qift niETY For Two (2) Years, $15, Sent Anywhere Nothing beats "Variety" for a steady present to show folks, friends or relatives interested in the show business at home or abroad One Year's Subscription (Regular Price), $10 Two Years (Special Price), $15 HOLDS GOOD UNTIL NEW YEAR'S ' With two proposed copyright bills soon to be presented to Congress, muisic inen are looking forward to some aniiendmerits of present copy- right statutes; to meet more ade- quately the changed conditions in the music business. Among the problems which will come before Congress for considera- tion are: 1—The Inteimatlonal Copyright Union, kriown usually as the Berne Convention. There wiU be an en- deavor to ari[iend the United States Copyright Act so as to do away witli the present formalities pre- requisite to copyright now required by the act. In this way the U. S. law will be put In harmony In gen- eral with the copyright statutes, of European countries, ,and Its appli- cation to . become a member of the Berne Convention will be unques- tionably, accepted. Should the government eventu- ally decide it's to thel advantage of composers and writers to become members of the International Copy- right Union, it has been felt by those who have studied the eritire foreign copyright situation that it Is more advantageous to do so at pres- ent thart being a member of the Union as revised at Rome last year, With the U. S. desiring to adhere to the International Union-as pres- ently constituted, it must do so prior to 1931, as subsequent to that date It will be necessary for its adherence to be to the Convention as modified at Rome. Usual Opposition It is figured there will be the usual opposition to any attempt to have the United States modify Its copyright laws by doing away with present prerequisite formalities to copyright, on the ground that to do so creates an undisclosed mo- nopoly; and that this Is repugnant to American principles of copy right. In light of changed condl tions in : publishing biz brought about by recent merge-how sub stantial this opposition will be Is difficult to forecast. Nevertheless, some opposition may bo anticipated. 2. —The musical copyright pro visions will' be attacked, and it's anticipated there will be little dlf ficulty in modifying and amending the law BO as to do away with pres- ent provisional fixed prices paid by talking machine companies for use of copyrighted musical works. Tb's amendment may go so far as to en- deavor to eliminate enttirely the so-called compulsory license provi- sion ■ the present statute, which today requires a copyright pro prietbr, if he uses a work himself for recording pttrposes or permits someone else to use the work, to grant licenses to everybody «lse. 3. —Divisibility of Copyright. Ef fort will be made to amend the present act so as to permit com- plete and absolute assignments of the various portions of the monop oly which go to make up the entire copyright. Asjthe .law now stahds, it is possible to assign the copy right only as an entirety, and any rights less than the whole are con strued to be licenses. Also/ no pro visin Is made In the present law for registration of these licenses, theugh^in^nrany^Instances-appllca-- tlon is made, and the register re- cords both application and instru- ment accompanying it. Formerly the copyright monop- oly was thought of as an entity, but the uses to which a copyright might be prit have enlarged, it Is contended by those who would di- vide it into parts. Author or pro- prietor of the whole copyright should be In a position to dlstrib- Publlc dance halls must pay roy- alties on copyrighted music em- ployed by their orchestras, whether the Infringement is known or un- known. That was the decisiori Check on numbers getting the : biggest play over radio and by night I club bands the past week shows "Tune In On My Heart," "Love Me," I "You're Always In My Arms," and ^Sweetheart, We Need Each Other," I I^o Feist: "Taint No Sin to Take Off Your Clothes and Dance In Your Skin," "THrough" and "Can't You I Understand,'' Donaldson, Douglas land Gumble; "Web of Love," "I'm in Love With You" and "Every iNow and Then," ShermanrClay; "What Do I Care," "1 Still Go on I Wanting You" and "He's So Un- handed down by U. S. Circuit Court usual,'' Shapiro-Bernstein; "Gypsy of Appeals in Chicago in the matter pream Rose,'^"ril.Cloae My Eyes" of the Dreamland Ball Room. Evansvllle, Ind., and the music pub- lishing firms of Shapiro-Bernstein, Leo Felst and Ager, Yellen & Born- stein. While the music copyright qujes- tlori h.as been thrashed out In the courts before as pertaining to other places-of amusement, this Is said to he the first time a precedent has be'eli set on dance halls. In and "By the Way," Remick; "Lone- ly Troubador." "My Fate Is in Your Hands" and "On the Road to Rain- bow Bay," Santly Bros.; "i; Don't Want , Your Kisses," "UnUl the End" and "Chant of the Jungle/' Bobbins; "Pretty Little . You," Singing in the Bathtub" and "Wouldn't It Be Wonderful," Wit- mark. With the passing of big time .hi» case O., «r.«p o. P«b..eh.rs | J^-g.«:.>J^lP^^^^^^ enjoined the dance place from pub llcly performing their songs arid were^ awarded $260 damages and suit Is that a numbelr have culti- I vated good radio voices. The boyo who sing over the air $100 attorney's fees In the District I most: frequently are Bobby Grosi of Indiana on the original Shanley (Remick), Artie Mehllnger (Plan- decision. Dance hall appealed to tedosl), SIg Bosley (RobW^ the hWer court «d was not sus^ Schjgjtz <W«»«k). ^bby Gajm tamed. ^ * ^ ^ and Engle) aiid Benny Berman (De Chas. Pelz, proprietor, contended gyiva-Browri and Henderson), he had no voice or control over what selections his orchestra play , „ , „ ^ ,. ^ , ed. He denied knowledge of the I Earl Burnett believes his band ....,.v».« ^r.n-,,w\a^toA nv that bas nothlpg more to learn instru- numbers being copyrighted or tl^^^^ ,g putUng each the orchestra did or did not have member through a routine of vocal the consent of the publishers, lessons. Featured trio Is already Principally the ball room disputed established, and more will be heard liability on the ground that the | from his new quintet, contract with the orchestra made that organization an Independent j Brunswick's contract With Harrjr contractor. This and other con- Richman enablied that company t<>^ tentlond were rejected by the court make four recordings of numbejra which held that the owner of a I used In the actor's first United Ar* dance hall, at whose place copy-1 tjats^ Picture, Instead of Waiting. righted music was played In ylo- ■ . recordlnes thev were latlon of the publisher's rights Is JSar^fJ^eserec^^^^^ liable at all times, if hes operating danger In Your Eyes Cherle," "Put- his place for profit Nathan Burkan represented publishers in the matter. the Poblix Equipping Eacb House with Music Library ting on the Rltz," vwith You" and "Singing a Vagabond Song." New numbers to get the final okay for pictures are "W'anfier Away" and "Cossack Love Song,'* by George Gershwin and Herbert Stothart, "Liberty,'^ "l^etrograd" and "Farewell," all by Grant Clarke and Harry Akst, for FN's "Sorig of the Flame"; Wolfe Gilbert andi Abel Baer's number for Zelma O'Neal and Jack Oakle in "Para« With a view to building up a local muslo library In each of Its | mount on Parade." theatres, Publlx.ls supplying spe- cial arrangements of song arid .mu- sical numbers, running those off on the mimeograph^ where not pre- vented from doing so by copyrights. Songs are also available for all stage bands, and include •picture numbers from not only Par.^ but talkers of other companies, with Will Jason and Val Burton are to Write the. complete score for "Laska,"v western musical, and "Sorig of the Island," Hawaiian operetta, to be piroduced by Tiffany. Team just completed a total of- 20 numbers for "Resurrection" and "Happy Daze," now in production at the same studio. These wer« no" one especially favored as long written within the past month. as the isongs are In demand. Stand- ard, musical numbers, such as "St. Louis Blues," "Rhapsody in Blue," and even opera stuff, are provided. Where the average theatre would I ^ ^ ■ - , nnt hp in a nonition to snend the ^tors are facing one of the dullest not be in a position to spena i'^® | ^ history, avaw establishing some kind of a record for songwriters now working ott plctiures. Because local night club oper- money in building up a local musi' cal library, Publix, through Its new scheme, will be able to do this at comparatively low cost. ^ every i effort and trick Is now being em- ployed to draw. Cocoanut Grovd staged a First National-Warner songwriters' night, a success as far as giving the diners a show Is con- cerned,, but no sensational draw, lite th« individual narta bv direct On^-'o"''*!^ **' attendance was ooi« tloV^ ?rJfm Uade jip of songwriters from every sale or assignment, they claim. .,1'^* -vnected Reason for this Is that a licensee r^"^***' .^ under a copyright has no right to Roosevelt Hotel's Blossom Room sue in his own name; only, an asr has selected D. W. Griffith as its sigriee hais that right. So, also, in patron guest for the usual Monday the matter of books: if the author night sessions. Many of the pic- has granted a serial right to a mag- I ture colony big shots turned out azine, latter, under present status, cannot bring suit against an In- for what was ballyhooed as a testi- monial dinner to the vet screen , , . , I director. Billy Gibson, the New frlnser;only--the-author-Is-granted- -j^j^^ that privilege. | soon to display his wares. Advent of talking plctUries into the field of copyright users has fur- ther complicated the sltua'ilon. A decided division of opinion exists as to whether the tone film or syn- To those who 'can't understand why songwriters are paid two sal-, aries, one from the film studio and a drawing account from' the pub- chronlzation right is a new right li;;hcr. U -^^^^^^ or a combination of rights already .j.^yjearsinff numbers and assisting - granted by the copyright. Thls L^,^ etories,'which makes It logical point, It is, felt, will be of chief Im- that some compcn.satlon should , be portarice in the general argument. I made.