In the Groove

Four klieg lights stabbing the sky over Hollywood and Vine one night last week signaled the opening of a new office building that is strange even for Hollywood: a 13-story smogscraper, round as a record. On the street below, Jane Russell, Connie Haines, Dick Haymes, Gordon MacRae and Tennessee Ernie Ford strolled over a red carpet into the $2,000,000 reinforced-concrete tower as the crowd cheered and loudspeakers blared.

As unusual as the circular office building, the first of its kind in the world, is its owner--Capitol Records. Fourteen years ago Capitol was a shellac-like gleam in the eyes of three founders (including Blues in the Night Composer Johnny Mercer), who put up a grand total of $10,000. Last year Britain's giant, conservative Electrical & Musical Industries liked the company so much that it paid $8,300,000 for 96.4% of Capitol's stock.

Two Capitol records--Les Baxter's Poor People of Paris and Nelson Riddle's Lisbon Antigua are the No. 1 and No. 2 jukebox favorites in the U.S. Its Sixteen Tons, by Tennessee Ernie, is the fastest selling record in history (1,000,000 in three weeks). Among Billboard's top ten albums, Capitol last week led all other companies with four. In 14 years Capitol has moved from nowhere to fourth place in the industry, just behind the patriarchs: RCA Victor, Columbia, Decca.

In the face of the industry's rock and roll frenzy, Capitol has remained calm; both Poor People and Antigua are noted for their melody. Capitol has also done a notable job with old-line performers, spinning them to new popularity. In 1954 Capitol went out after Frank Sinatra, then dying on the vine, talked him into coming over, and launched the Sinatra revival. Since then it has made other "cold" artists real cool: Judy Garland, Benny Goodman, Guy Lombardo, Harry James, Fred Waring. Capitol's reward: 1955 sales soared 25% over 1954 to a record $21,308,633, and profits spiraled 33%.

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