Variety (Dec 1946)

We<lncsc!ay, Decemlicr 4, 194<» P^niETY RADIO 37 Oler Urges School Broadcasts If Coal Strike Shutters Classes 'Washington, Dec. 3. . ■ NAB Pi'exy Justin/Miller has iirKt'd broadcasters in are.is wliere schools are shut down as a result "of the coal strike to help fill the gap by presenting interim instruc- tion via ra^io. In a letter to station managers throughout the country. Miller urged them : to set aside oni)U(;-li quarterrhours and half-hour periods each day in. which educaUoniil au- tlioritie.s could continue general in- struction. His suggestion, he said has been warmly endorsed by John Studebakcr, U. S. Commissioner of Education, ''.-OfaiiO''Ready. ■ ■ Columbus, Dec. 3. Officials ot the Ohio Education Dept. disclosed that they were con- sidering broadcasting school lessons to any children,whose classes might be lull led by the coal emergency . THou.Eih details have not been Tele Review j~ Continued Trom paKc 31 out during last year's game, every- thing went smoothly tlii.s year. Cheers and yells from the crowd in the NBC viewing room were prob- ably as vociferous as any at the stadium. Play-by-I*lay was handled in fine fashion by Bob Stanton (who,, inci- dentally, was unjustly accused in this space last week of messing up a pro game on Nov. 24. when he wasn't even there). Stanton's usual easy-gomg wit paced the game nicc- Jy. Ben Grauer, doing the colpr Commentary, followed through in top .style. Something -.should . be done about the Gillette commercials. Instead of the interesting films that Goodyear has fed tele viewers this year on other Army games, Gillette con- tinues to use Its nondescript slid^'i, which lack any semblance of mo- tion Plugs were'thrown in indis- criminately during the first half of the. game, often disrupting complete- ly the viewers' interest in the con- test. Sponsor knew enough, how- ever, to withhold the commercials during that spectacular last quarter, permitting the cameras to stay glued to the playing field. Stoli worked out,, station WOStJ, at Ohio State triiiyersity, has agreed to make time available, possibly for an hour's program: dj^yided. into . 15-minute segments to cover such basic studies as arithmetic, English, and history. The complete program will be ar- ranged if the coal: shortage becomes sufficiently acute to force wide- spread school closings, officials said. HALI.ORAN HOLIDAY With Jimmy Kane, Lisa Kirk, Max- inc Sullivan, Mimi Walters, Jackie Kay, Alix 'lournelle,. Pvt. Robert Moss, Sid Shiller, 3Zlst AGF Band Producer-Director: Bob Bendick SO Mins.; Thurs. (28), 9 p.m. Sostaining WCBS-TV-CBS, N. T. CBS television took its two Image Orthicon cameras out to Halloran General Hospital (Staten Island, N. Y.) last Thursday (28) night to bring viewers a Thanksgiving bene- fit show staged there for the hos- pitalized Army vets. Most interest- ing feature of the program was the ■fact that live musicians were seen on tele for the first time since the American Federation of Musicians' ban was clamped down on the me- dium. Local 802 (N. Y.) permitted CBS to use an Army orch for the show, since it was a benefit. Despite statements of tele execs that they can get along without live musicians, the orch aided consider- ably in hypoing interest in the show, making the talent look and sound much, better than when it has onl,y recorded music for.backing. Way the camera picked up the keyboard as (Pyt. Robert Moss played ''Bhap- ■ sody in Blue" presaged the time when tele cameras will go into a concert hall to bring viewers both the sight and music of famou.s con- cert artists. Since the proceedings were staged like any benefit, all that remained for. producer^director Bob Bendick to do was train his lenses on the stage. Bendick went beyond this, however, to swing his cameras around to the vets in the audience from time to time to pick up their reactions. Way he handled the lenses often made it seem as though there were three cameras at work, instead of two. Particularly out- standing job was done in the piano sequence, when the camera com- pleted a 290-degree turn to focus finally on the keyboard. Talent, consisting of some of the top names in show biz,, was fine, Maxine Sullivan scored with her Loch Lomond" and Alix Tournelle, a little French gal^ with her Rtissian ballad. Mimi Walters, of "Follow the Girls'^ fame, and tyro Jackie Kay, handled their terping chores com- petently. Lisa Kirk, sultry song- ;■ stress who made her nitery bow, recently at the Huban Bleu. N. Y., was outstanding with a brace of bal- lads and displayed a nice personality in leading the group-singing of "Old MacDonald" for the signoU. Jimmy Kane emceed adequately. Stol. Denver Turns to Radio Denver, Dec. 3. With schools shut because of the coal shortage, board of education is u.sing press and radio tp get the: daily le.s.sons acro.ss to the .school kids here. . Newspapers: are still "pi'epaving''::to : run, sclipol. class : as- signments, however, while the local radio stations carried 28 educational shows last week and have skedded 78 for this week. . ' • ' Among the . subjects broadcast to pupils are current events, arith-" metic, history and English. Kids who don't have radios at home or , want to, get the feel of a classroom on the air are .urged to get together with other. Students for mass listening." . Air- shows also ^iye .the :pupiis their assignments;' send them on field trips, etc. Washington — Don Bell, foreign cori'espondent for the past 18 years and most recently night news editor for Mutual in New York City, has been vnamed News ■ and Special Events Director of WGAY, the hew DC-Maryland station due to go on the air in Silver- Spring around Dec. 7. Pre-Trial Exam This Wk. In Goddard Suit Vs. NBC NBC goes to court this week for first crack at pre-trial exams in the suit against them by announcer Don Goddard for $78,000 damages. God- dard was fired last Feb'. 19 after a broadcast in •\n«hich h^ allegedly made derogatory remarks about Rep. John Rankin. ' "Goddard claims, that he was: under contract to the network at a guaran- tee of four sponsors at $180 a week each .'until 1947, and that the dam- ages ari.se out of the money owed him on that contract. Japs Seen Needing Much Watching, Training Before Nip Radio s Free James, Kogan Break Out With Rash of Packages New production firm of Hal James and Ed-ward Kogan has several halt- hour shows ,'making agency rounds that have excited ihteresf because of | their unusual twists. One, is an insti- tutional "program, "Men At "Work," a- dramatization of the current Sat- evepost series about average U. S. breadwinners by Richard. Thruelson.- Scripters are Max Wilk (son of War- ner Bros, exec Jake Wilk) and Ted. Marklund. : Another is a quiz show, "Let's Go," based on the idea of Everyman's de- sire for travel, with emcee quizzing contestants on w^here they, warit to go and why and winners to certain questions getting their desired trip. A. E. Geto is the writer. Another is a crime show, "Was This Justice?" with a panel setup of jurist, psychia- trist, officer and layman. Writer is Alonso Dean Cole',~ scripter on "Crime Photographer." James, who produced the Dick Tracy show, is producer with Elling- ton Co. Koean is former radio actor. Importanee of a long term 'super- vision of radio in Japan and the need of longtime training of a people who still think of democracy in terms of a fast jeep and a cigaret, was stressed last we€k by a young ex^officer just returned frorri Nip- pon., Freedom of speech and a.ssem- bly,,- the right to voice protests In print or on the air, are still some- what inexplicable to the average Jap.. And although the Japs are using their radio to help condition themselves tOf .rejoining the, family of nations (closely supervised by the Allies), the educational period will be a long one. ■Radio will be the important me- dium in this education, according to Larry Schwartz, ex-Army lieuten- ant, who served as Jap language officer in the Allied Press Control Bureau- for a year, Formerly con- nected with ''American Town Meet- ing" in N. Y., Schwartz worked at Gen. MaqArthur's headquarters in Tokyo five months, then was in charge of censorship on Shikoku Island five months. Japan had one network, NHK, be- fore the war. It was governmer^- controUed, with no advertising. NtiK corp. still handles the: net under strictest supervision, from MacArthur's CIE division. Central broadcasting station is Radio Tokyo (JOAK). Japan has over 100 sta- tions, many in bad shape from bombings. Most take programs from I JOAK,With about three hours daily lor own-originating airers. JOAK ia ■ on the air from 5:15 a. m. to 10:15 'p., m. What They Hear Program.s include news fabout an hour a day in five or 15-minute seg- ments), a women's hour, farmer's, hour, citizen's hour, children's hour* symphonic and folk music hours. These are. full 6Q-minute sessions. Dramas and comedies are featureiij ow the femme and kid showsV Base- ball games are broadcast Saturday afternoons, in season. A Jap "Town, Meeting" is on once a week. tran- , scribed Thursdays , (for cen.sor.ship purposes) and: broadcast Saturdays.; I The,i:e aren't many soaps, Japs pre- ferring' their folk music. ' . j Most programs have such folk I music, although- the Allies have ^ I checked carefully^ to omit the mili^ taristic music, feats of old warlords, Samurai, etc. Japs hear western ■ mu.sic, but prefer the longhair to : the jazz, very little of the latter being broadcast, i ^apan being an agricultural c 0 u n t r y essentially rural districts don't care for west- ern music, preferring their own folk music. Japs have favorite film actresses but no special radio faves. In addi-^ tion to folk music, they like the Jap version of. soaps, with love interest usually subordinated to adventure, mystery, etc. , On Shikoku isle, 20% of the peo- ple had access to radios, according to Schwartz. There's a monthly tax on sets, recently raised from five to 12 yen (about 80c). why would you buy time on WOR? or: even if the witness is prejudiced... Woman commentator Martha Dcane; "More than 167,000 people listen to my show every weekday afternoon, lb me that looks like reason enough for ad- vertising on WOR." Disc jockey George Monaghan; "I'd say because WOR is fre- quently the station tuned to longest in the most homes during thedaytime." Veteran artist John Gambling; "WOR pokes its way pretty powerfully into' 16 cities with 100,00.0 people each in 7 states. That's getting around some." News Analyst Fulton Lewis, Jr.; "It's the Scot in me, I guess - but when I hear that WOR recently reached 198,000 homes for SI cents per thousand, it looked good to me." Spbrtscaster Stan Lomax; "WOR tecently lielped me send 11,985 listeiiiers into a manufacturer's dealers' stores. That's certainly one reason for picking the station!" Radio hostess Bessie Beatty; "My sponsors include such people' as Procter & Gamble, General Foods, Pilot Radio, and. many other smttrt timebuyers. Let them tell why they use WOR!" WOR— power-full station at 1440 Broadtmy Mutudt