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11 chapter Billboard and Cash Box: Stars and Bullets Cast of Characters Jerry Wexler, Billboard reporter Seymour Stein, Billboard staff Marty Ostrow, Cash Box editor Irv Lichtman, Cash Box editor Ira Howard, Cash Box country music editor also featuring Paul Ackerman, Billboard editor Billboard and Cash Box were integral pillars of the independent record era. These trade papers were, effectively, the support force of rock ’n’ roll by supplying chart data and record reviews, feeding news stories, and providing vital advertising platforms. In a fast-moving music industry, the weekly arrival of these journals was awaited eagerly throughout the country by the music establishment and indie hustlers alike. Essentially, Billboard was the elitist organ patronized by the major labels, whereas Cash Box was the young upstart endorsed by the independent labels. Billboard survives to this day. Billboard Billboard Advertising was founded in 1894 by William Donaldson and James Hennegan out of Cincinnati, Ohio. Originally a monthly publication, it was targeted at the outdoor advertisers, but, under Donaldson , coverage was steered toward the theatrical groups, carnivals, and fairs that were being promoted by the billposters. Hence the early title change to The Billboard (but commonly referred to as Billboard).1 i-xvi_1-592_Brov.indd 187 11/19/09 10:44:27 AM 188 the hustle is on In time, the magazine became a weekly, covering emerging forms of entertainment such as films, coin machines, radio, television, and, of course, records. Jerry Wexler’s freshman working years encompassed a spell as a journalist with Billboard at the turn of the 1950s. With typical eloquence and élan, he recalled his apprenticeship: Joe Carlton hired me; he was more of a music biz wheeler-dealer. He was a good editor , but his tenure was so short after I came there. Paul Ackerman seemed to come on almost immediately. Joe Carlton was, like, gone; he went to another big job. One of the perks [of] being the head of RCA or Mercury was getting small tokens of appreciation from the music publishers [laughs]. Later on, he formed his own Carlton Records, where he had a brief little flurry of success, but it didn’t last long. What happened [was], I was working at BMI, and I was a “hey you” in one of the backrooms. Nobody knew I was there. One of the old-timers at BMI, [Meyer] Shapiro (Shap we used to call him, an old Broadway hand, publicity guy) said to me, “There’s an opening at Billboard; let me send you over there.” So he sent me over to see Joe Carlton, who interviews me. The interview went well enough, except I didn’t pass one test. He said, “What label does Nat Cole record for?” I didn’t know.2 But he hired me anyhow. I would say he was probably very happy because I was a very good writer. Nobody else on the staff wrote as well as I did at the time. I did a lot of rewrites; I was highly involved. I knew how to use semicolons. Wexler was full of admiration for Paul Ackerman, who joined Billboard in 1934 as a reporter and became its respected music editor almost continuously from 1949 until 1973: “He was very educated. He had his master’s degree in English literature, and his specialty was the Lake Poets. He was just a very compassionate, wonderful human being. Also, I turned him on to country music when I gave him some Jimmie Rodgers records, the Singing Brakeman. Paul then became very knowledgeable; he really dug into it. Later on, he became very friendly with Sam Phillips. In my [1978] eulogy to Paul in Billboard, I end with a quotation from Tennyson [the poem “Crossing the Bar”]. Paul Ackerman with Jerry Wexler featured prominently in an important event for the record industry. In June 1949, Billboard updated the designations of its minority charts: hence the terms “folk” and “hillbilly” became “country and western,” and “race” and “sepia” became “rhythm and blues.” It was the coming of the new. Ackerman coined the country (C&W) notation, while Wexler is acknowledged as the creator of the R&B term, even if he seemed reluctant to take full credit. “Paul called us all together and we discussed,” Wexler recalled. I don’t know who originally brought it up, Paul or one of the staff, the fact that “race records” seemed a little retro as the proper nomenclature. “Let’s change that!” It was just the way they changed “hillbilly” to...

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