Radio daily (Oct-Dec 1949)

Section of RADIO DAILY. Wednesday. October 19. 1949 — TELEVISION DAILY is fully protected by register and copyright FCC TO TEST COLOR RECEIVERS TELE TOPICS 'TIS DIFFICULT, indeed, for a mere ' male to review a fashion show because the subject matter is of absolutely no interest to him. Therefore, let us grant that DuMont's "And Everything Nice" appeals to some persons and proceed to discuss the manner in which the show is conducted. . . . The production this week was rather handsomely mounted. Opening and closing showed femcee Maxine Barratt — attired in evening gown and fur wrap throughout the half-hour — dancing not too skillfully around the set while a montage of sponsors' labels was superimposed on the scene. Guesting was Delora Bueno, an excellent singer and charming personality, whose presentation was marred in a couple of spots by extreme closeups — one so close that it showed only half of her face — to which producerdirector Bob Loewi seems addicted. Clothes were shown on models, with descriptions handled by Miss Barratt in conversation with two store window mannequins. This gimmick was just too, too cute. Most interesting spot, to us, was an informative demonstration on how to pack a man's traveling bag. . . . Program is sponsored by Ameritex Fabrics and A. S. Beck, through Dorland Agency. Barnaby Smith is assistant to Loewi. • SPEAKING AT the N. Y. Advertising Women's luncheon yesterday, Bob Kintner, ABC exec, veepee, said that the web has thus far spent seven and a half million bucks on TV. . . . Word from Michigan Blvd. has it that Bill Eddy will soon head for Brownsville, Texas, where he purchased land about a year ago. He'll do some TV work for a few Lone Star oil millionaires now in or casting covetous eyes at the medium. . . . The Four Horsemen of Notre Dame — Don Miller, Jim Crowley, Elmer Layden and Harry Stuhldreher — will be reunited on "We The People" next week to mark the 25th anniversary of their appearance as a grid unit. . . . Richard Dorso and Ben Benjamin, of Century Artists, arrived in town from H'wood yesterday with a print of the new Phil Nasser-John Darrow mystery series, "Out of the Shadows," starring Leif Ericson and Virginia Brissac. • MAY KYSER probably will start on CBS for Ford Dealers Nov. 15. Time slot probably will be 9-10 p.m. Tuesdays, with "Suspense," now in the 9:30 period, moving to another nite. . . . After sitting in on an Ed Wynn rehearsal on the Coast, Groucho Marx (who with his brothers could put on the greatest show ever) expressed amazement at the amount of work that goes into TV. "Why, in the old days," he said, "we used to put a stage show together every two years and I doubt if we rehearsed as diligently as he does for each of his weekly stints on television." TM A Urges Rejection Of Color System Now In a telegram to Chairman Wayne Coy, the Television Manufacturers Association has urged the FCC "to take no action in designating any specific color system now before you." Signed by Michael L. Kaplan, president of TMA and of Sightmaster Corp., the wire said, "At this early stage of the art of color, development and experimentation have not gone far enough to warrant the adoption of any one color system. "As manufacturers serving the television public, we are interested in an efficient, practical color system suitable for all size television receivers that could be made available to the consumer at a minimum cost and require minimum adjustments to existing sets. "In the public interest, we believe no such system has yet been presented and demonstrated to meet these requirements. "Until a completely compatible system is devised that can meet the necessary requirements, no decision should be made now that might stifle and retard the development of such a system. "Any decisions reached should permit and encourage color systems to be developed that are still in the drawing board stage or other developmental stages by working toward the above ends." Ike On "Crusade" General Dwight D. Eisenhower will be guest speaker on the final chapter of "Crusade In Europe" over ABC Oct. 27, 9 p.m., EST. Levey Skiatron Corp. In Color Sweepstakes Another starter in the color sweepstakes was entered yesterday by Arthur Levey, president of Skiatron Corp., who charged that the "additive" systems of RCA and CBS "have been proven obsolete" in principle "by the extensive experience of both the motion picture industry and color photography." Charges were contained in a letter to the FCC which said also that it is "inevitable" that subtractive color will become standard in TV. The Skiatron system, Levey continued, "constitutes the only method of subtractive, simultaneous color TV which may properly be compared in quality with Technicolor and Kodachrome, the most successful color photographic and moving picture methods." Levey pointed out that the Skiatron patents "have only recently emerged, under a consent decree, from the first TV anti-trust suit," which resulted in a stock divestiture in Scophony Corp. of America (now Skiatron Corp.) by Paramount Pictures, General Precision Equipment Corp. (interrelated with 20th Century Fox) and Scophony Ltd. "Our Supersonic TV projectors, now being prepared for black and white TV demonstration, are inherently better suited to color than the cathode ray tube," Levey said. "While they can easily be adapted to project very large color TV pictures with any color system, including the additive methods, we believe it to be our duty to direct the attention of the FCC to the much greater merit of subtractive color TV." WU, DuMont Hit FCC Report On AT&T Video Relay Lines Washington Bureau of RADIO DAILY Washington— The FCC's proposed report on the interconnection aspects of the AT&T television relay lines was hit sharply yesterday by Western Union and DuMont, while the Bell System itself (AT&T) filed exceptions stressing the importance and the size of its investment in TV relay. The Bell System was especially pleased by the FCC's declaration that "intercity television relaying should ultimately be handled by common carriers." DuMont scored the Commission report for failing to find that "the Bell system optimum program for many years in the future would be inadequate to provide any intercity TV network connection to many cities to which VHF frequencies are presently allocated and to more communities for which UHF channels are proposed; and further, that the optimum proposals of the Bell system are deficient with respect to the number of channels to be made available for full-time use by existing television networks other than between principal metropolitan centers over routes paralleling intercity telephone developments." Bids Mfrs. Submit Polychrome Sets By Next Mon. Washington Bureau of RADIO DAILY Washington— The FCC will do its own testing of the color TV receivers of the various companies offering polychrome systems for consideration in the current hearings, Chairman Wayne Coy said yesterday. He called upon RCA. CBS and Color Television, Inc., to submit receiving units by next Monday for testing by FCC staff people at its Laurel, Md., laboratory. Chairman Coy asked that the companies submit receivers of all types — or explain to the Commission why they cannot be made available. In making the request, Coy said: "You people have been talking about what you have. All we have to go on is what you say. We'd like the opportunity to test these receivers in our own laboratories." Heard yesterday during the hearing was George E. Sleeper, technical director of Color Television, Inc. He spent the day in highly technical discussion of the CTI system, going into intricate detail in terms intelligible to most engineers on hand but far over the heads of most Commission members and others in the hearing audience. Jaeger, Of WABD, Elected NTFC Board Chairman Andrew Jaeger, film director of WABD, DuMont flagship, yesterday was elected chairman of the board of directors of the National Television Film Council at the first meeting of the newly-elected board at the Hotel Bristol. Melvin L. Gold. NTFC prexy, presided at the session. Gold designated Jaeger, Jack Glenn, of the March of Time, and Irwin Shane, of Televiser, as a temporary committee assigned to investigate the desirability of setting up a TV film job information service. Next general meeting of the council was set for Oct. 27. Goodyear Buys On ABC Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co. has signed with ABC for sponsorship of "The Goodyear Paul Whiteman Review." weekly half-hour musical to be aired Sundays. 7 p.m.. beginning Nov. 6. Account was placed through Young & Rubicam. Featuring Whiteman, show will include a full orchestra choral group, dance ensembles and famous alumni of Whiteman band. About 40 stations will carry the series. ■