Variety (November 1954)

IIADIO-TELE VISION Wedneaday, November 3, 1954 stituted no problem. But in tele- vision the matter is still to be studied. An arbitration will hot provide a hard and fast ruling. , Blackstone and Blue Cross are going to go through some hard hassles. before the situation is ironed out. Washington, Nov. 2. 4 Differences between members of the FCC as to monopoly questions involved in multiple ownership of tv Stations, particularly view of the. new "five plus two" ceiling; were brought into sharp focus last week by the agency’s 4-2 vote ap- proving, the $8,50Q,000-plus Storer Broadcasting Co. purchase of the Empire Coil broadcasting and man- ufacturing properties. The. Commission’s action, which makes Storer the first company' to own six tv stations, emphasized the contrast in thinking between Re- publicans and Democrats on the : agency as to public interest aspects of the, seven-station, rule. Three, Republicans ( Chairman; Qedrge C. McConnaughey, COmrs. Rosel Hyde and Robert E.. Lee) and Indepen- dent . Comr. Edward Webster voted to okay the Storer acquisition. The only two Democrats (Comrs. Rob-, ert Bartley and Frieda Hennock) dissented. The' seventh member, Comiv John C. Doerfer, a Repub- lican was nbt present but, on the basis of previous voting, woujkl have joined; the 'Republicans; 1 Bartley’s dissenting opinion, in which Miss Hennock largely joined; projected the Storer expansion fhr beyond its immediate en- virons. Pointing to switching of net- work affiliations following Storer acquisitions in various ..cities, Bartley said he had no doubt that "the effect of these transactions willi extend to network affiliation, national spot advertising and. local advertising in . some, if not all- of these areas:’’ If this happens, lie added, program service ini these areas will be altered,, with result- ant impact on the; viewing public and oh. advertising competition; A hearing, Bartley felt, should have been held to bring out' the facts. It was not so much because Storer got isix stations that' Bartley objected but the location of the markets which* now conje under one operator. "When it i$ realized,” said Bartley, "that if concentra- tions such as this are allowed others, then as few as 10 or 1.1 licensees of ‘tv stations: in the U.S. can reach every ty receiver . To.me, the:greatest weapon against: regimentation of thought ever in- vented’ lies iri diversified operation of tv and, contrariwise, the greatest tool for thought, control ever in- vented is; concentrated control of tv operation.” In Order to obtain approval of the Em ire deal and stay ithin the limit of five VHF stations, Storer sold RGBS and KGBS-TV in San Antonio to the Express ’ Pub- lishing Co. for $3,500,000. The lat- ter sold its radio station, KTSA, for $175,000 to G. R. Mitchell Motors, to comply with FCC duopoly rules rohibiting two AM outlets in the me community under one owner. Because of their interrelation- ship,, all three transactions, involv- ing a total consideration of $12,- 505,000. were approved simulta- neously by the Commission. With the Empire purchase, the Storer holdings now embrace radio, and tv stations in Atlanta (WAGA and WAGA-TV), Detroit (WJBK and WJBK-TV), Toledo (WSPD and WSPD-TV), and Birmingham (WBRC and. WBRC-TV); radio, sta, lions only in Miami, Fla. (WGBS) nd Wheeling, W. Va. (WWVA; and tv stations ..only in Cleveland (WXEL) and: Portland, Qre. (KPTV). All tv stations;are VHF except Portland; Storer also has an. application pending to purchase WJW in Cleve- land, which would give him the fullmpiement of seven radio stations and provide for an AM-TV operation in Cleveland. only temporarily and resume when she’s able. They hold that the law allows pregnancy to be a temporary physical disability and she’s 'willing to work after that. She. has a con- tract in which she’s to do 20 shows and be paid for 24. Her salary per sho\v ..is $1,500, Consequently, a sizable suih /.is involved. At? torneys admit that she. must be able to work in order; to be paid, and she would be able when the accouchement is, over. They want her to return and to get proper billing, which they claim is denied her. Wm: Morris ‘Null Sc Void'. Pact Another facet that, must be looked into lies in the contract is- sued, by the William Morris Agency, agent for Berie and show’s pack- ager. Morris contract stipulates that the pact is null and void in the. event of physical disfigurement. Undoubtedly, pregnancy involves disfigurement but the clause .was inserted originally as a protection against accidents. Whether preg- nancy can be described as an .■acci- dent is the debatable point. How- ever, it’s doubtful that the disfig- urement clause can apply here be- cause of ihe original: Intent of. that Verbiage. On the other hand, spokesman for the agency maintains that it’s difficult to foretell the path of the show, once Miss Gilbert’s part is written . out. At . the end of her leave of absence, the re-introduc- tion of the Max character, it’s air gued, may PUt the show out of kiiter; Other characters may spring into place. that may eliminate the necessity of Max. For example, Nancy Walker has been doing a part. Again, Smith & Dale are to be introduced on the program and may be regulars on the show. The more serious aspects of this case may lie in the precedent that might be established if, it . goes into court. The “Act of God’’ case involved Helen Hayes who wanted to get out of a road tour because :of impending birth. Case weht to court, which ruled that the condi- tion was an "Act of God:” In the case of screen players, pregnant girls are put on' suspension, but. the period of suspension is added onto th<Mr contract! In radio, an actress awaiting childbirth could work without being seen, and that' con- ‘Act of God’ Continued from page .1 lotherhood, despite the fact that he has a child: of his own by a form- er. marriage. Like the. villain in the “East, Lynne” type-dramas, it’s said that Berie is casting out this poor defenseless mother-to-be into the snow,, and at the same time foreclosing the Buick mortgage on ■heiv Miss Gilbert’s attorneys ai’e ask- ing that the issue go to arbitration. They ask that, she be written out • »f f ♦♦♦♦♦♦♦ >♦ 44 4 4444444 + 4 44444 4 4»4444444 4 444 ♦ » »»■ From the Production Centres A . t t44 4 4++4:4»4444-4444 4444444444444444444444444+4*4 4<- Continued from page 31 ah identity on its own; that meets with: quick public recognition. Average viewer caii recognize NBC or CBS right off: the bat and . can identify which shows are where on the tvvo webs, In the case of ABC, however, it’s been a blank stare. Web feels that “Disneyland” will become associated in the public mind with ABC, and. that this feel- ing will create an, identity With other ABC shows like “U;. S, Steel Hour," . “Elgin Hour,” "Danny Thomas," “Ray Bolger," "Ozzie & Harriet;" et al. As much as this lack of a public identity goes nationally, it goes in spades for New York: where Chan- nel .. 7 and WABCTV* ratings are traditionally among the lowest of all the web’s 0&6 cities. Yet, ac- cording to the Trendex survey, “Disneyland’' viewing in New York was higher than in the other eight cities; with Gotham racking up an average 29.9 for the hour as com- pared to the other: eight-city aver- age of 27.4. CBS pulled a 16:7. for the hour in N. Y. and a 13.3 in the other eight cities, while NBC got a 7.9 in N. Y, : and . a 17.6 in the other eight towns.. GM Closed-Circuit Continued from page. 2 cities without the necessary long lines tv connections. This is GM’s first entry into the closed-circuit field. Ford, .Chrysler and Dodge have employed the me- dium previously to outline their sales and promotion plans to staff- ers and dealers. Theatres and ho- tels, where theatres were unavail- able, were employed for these tele- casts, but this is the first large- scale closed-circuit telecast being beamed exclusively. to hotels. The TNT acquisition of 50 standby units puts hotels in a commanding po- sition to challenge theatres for the closed-circuit business meetings. They : also , have the advantage of being available at hours when the-: atres are reluctant to rent their facilities. Granting of a patent to Dr. Ernest O, Lawrence on his color tele- vision tube .last vyeek projects Chromatic Television Labs into the red-hot licensing battle. Dr, Lawrence assigned the .patent on the tube; which can be made as a one-gun tube, to Chromatic, which began licensihg of the tube immediately. f . e Lawrence tube employs either a single or three-gun system, does not use a shadow mask and isn't limited in size. Chromatic is presently working on a 21-inehi tube with a 210-sq.-inch picture area, V'hich is to be folloWed by a 22-inch tube with 260. sq. inches. Company, which won’t' go into manufacturing but will restrict itself to licensing, esti-. mates that 21-inch tubes can be mass-produced for less than $100 each. Lowest figure shown yet is RCA's estimate of $160 for its 21- incher, which matches CBS-Hytron’s $160 for its 19-inch tube. After President Eisenhower mis-billed RCA.prexy Frank M. Folsom as "Mr. Stanton”, (apparently he had CBS prez Frank Stanton In mind) during an official D.C. banquet last Monday night (26), the ad-broad- casting bunch started making up Variety headlines for the event. One suggested ."Ike Goofed” and another captioned it "Wrong Prez." Benjamin Cohen, assistant secretary general for public info at the United Nations, proposed to: educational broadcasters that they supply a qualified producer for a period of from three to six months to Work on programs suitable to longhair audiences. The pitch, made to the board of the National Assn, of Educational Broadcasters last week, included an offer by Cohen for UN funds to bankroll the setup, The New York Post moved fyllscale into the exploitation of, the. television business over the weekend . (31) by bringing out special 12-page tv insert in its weekend edition. Insert, containing byline pieces by network execs,- including a front-pager ; on the specs by Pat Weaver, was chock full o’ articles . and ads. It also carried the week’s radio listings.. ' . But by some Oversight, the television listings landed in the paper’s magazine section. Ed Sullivan will "Toast”-inaster the annual Awards Dinner of the Advertising Industry next Thursday. (11) -night on the Starlight Roof of the Waldorf-Astoria Htel, N. Y. Dinner chairman will be William B. Lewis, prexy of Kenyon & Eckhardt. Proceeds of the feed, sponsored by the Joint Defense Appeal, are for the. American Jewish Committee and the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai Bh-ith, Following a recent custom inaugurated by a rival pair of New York outlets, tele station WPIX and radio indie WMGM have decided to cross-plug each other’s programs and personalities. WABD .(.tv) and WINS started similar maneuverings just a few 'months back. The unique angle-^and the thing both agreements have in common—is that all the stations are separately owned, and are out to compete with the fairly commonplace cross-promotions of ABC, NBC and CBS network radio and tv o&o’s in N. Y, IN NEW YORK CITY Last night (Tues.) Art^ord, noted primarily as a deejay, did a special election night broadcast for WNEW via interviews with cast and backstagers of legit production, "By the Beautiful Sea" . . . John Jaeger, WNEW assistant general manager, headed the. outlet’s Daily News radio desk. In addition to gabbers John Dale, Lonny Starr, Henry. Walden; the News’ Lowell Limpus and J. Murray Davis of the World Telly'and.Sun, were, on hand . . William Blair and William Lawrence, of the Times Washington bureau, got into the newspaper-to-radio pic last night also, They did analysis via WQXR on election reports . . . Same for WMCA where the Trib’s August Heckifcher and 'the Post’s Jim Wechsler did analysis' Cantor Moishe Oysher, "American- Jewish Caravan of Stars,” launches concert tour this week. In his "preem" as the N.Y. Times’ byliner on the radio-tv weekday news roundu , Val Adams had a field day last week with an unin- terrupted succession of oversized columns. But daily publication of outsized news stints under his name will depend on' the available material! incidentally, Variety’s characterization of Adams as "No. 3 man" in that paper!s radio-tv echelon (with J4|ck Gould the critic arid Jack Shaniey recruited from, legit as editor of the department) was intended merely .“‘trade interest" sizeup as it was known , last week, rather than a gauge pinpointing authority on a "reporting to” basis . JWCBS program chief Sam Slate leaves for a European quickie tomorrow (Thiirs.) and station’s Joan Edwards is back on her Singing stint after a fortnight’s vacation in Nassau, with Bea Wain and Ted Straeter having pinchhit, Incidentally, Jack Sterling 1 ceie* brated the sixth anni of his . early ayCm show Monday (1)' with; a blow- out for ,his gang k . . . Florence Williams has joined the cast of "Helen; Trent” . Katherine Emmett into "Just Plain Bill" . Teresa Keane new to "Young Widder Brown”; . . "Stella Dallas" has just begu the 18th year of . broadcasting with Anne Elstner still playing the title role . . Ilka Chase and Joey Faye join Art Henley’s “Make Up Yoiur Mind.’’ on CBS week of Nov. 8, joe Bernstein joined Phil AJampl’s WRCA aggie staff . . Singer Russell Arms guesting on Jim Coy’s show today (Wed.K . . Helen Sioussat, CBS talks director, cited by ^American Medical Assn, for her work with org’s health education program . WRCA’s Sydney Smith to turn temporarily from femme-slahting; to a dramatic spQt on NBC’s "Anthology’’ . Lowell Thomas cocktailed at Waldorf (11 in connec.- tion with his new sponsorship, GM’s batteries ... . WRCA salesman Herman Maxwell’s of f i ce det or ate d last week (with salamis?) by staffers, for his peddling of station’s election coverage to Hebrew National Producer-director Lee Cooley of CBS’. Perry Como show tapped as ra- dio-tv chairman of N. Y. March of Dimes for ’55 . . , Isabel Firifiie, of WRCA’s traffic dept., under knife'at St. John’s hosp in Yonkers, IN CHICAGO NBC’ers John Keys, Frank Downes and Chet Campbell in New York this week attending the web’s ad-promotipn-publicity clinic. Larry Alexander checked off WLS to join the KHJ, Los Angeles, announcer roster . Don Ansel resigned. the WBBM promotion department 10 sign on WMAQ’s sales force . . James Cuca, ex-Atlas Films, is w general manager and radio-tv director of the Robert B. .Wesley & Assocs. ad agency r" Guild Wine purchased a package of 216 spot blurbs on WMAQ to be spread over the. next 18 weeks . . Gus Hag- enah, ex^Standard Radio, nbw with RCA’s syndication adjunct . Vet WLS National Bajrn dance singing duo, Lulii Belle &< Scotty, has arrived. Pair, made Who’s Who this year . , Toni Mercein, formerly with WTMJ, Milwaukee, newest addition to the Chi NBC announcery , , . Leo~Ann Meriwether, 1954 edition of Miss America, guests on ABC’s "Breakfast Club” next Wednesday (10) . . . Wieboldt Stores inked a renewal for its “Your Neighbor” show which will take the morning airer into, its‘20th year on the Chi NBC station . . CBS singer Mahalia Jackson and wnter-deejay Studs Terkel participated .in the Cleveland Newspaper Guild Ball show Friday night (29), emceed by George Jessel . John Fink takes over next week as! assistant to Chi Tribune radio-tv editor Larry Wolters, replacing Tony Remenih who exits the sheet Friday (5). to join Foladare, Greer & Bock’s^public relations, firm on. the Coast. IN SAN FRANCISCO Kenneth Gordon Fuller, formerly with tlic KJBS sales department and more recently with the U.S. Army in Europe, has joilied KFRC as an account executive , . KGO-TV engineers Fred Sirifield arid Jim Greene : are being tapped by the network for football game net- work tv. They’ve already taken their zoomer to Pittsburg, Iowa, and are later set for games at Texas and Ohio ; . KRON-TV has added a color test stripe to its monochrome video signal for adjusting color tv sets . . Joan Mena• has been made sales service manager ;foi* KGO. She was formerly in the auditing department . . . Marshall Plant, formerly sales service manager with KPIX in San Francisdo, has been, named to a similar post at KOVR, Stockton, which recently took up KPIX’s DuMont affiliation ..." KQED, Frisco educational tv station, has added a third day to its regular programming with a kiddie show, "The Finder;" now being broadcast on Wednesdays . . Morris Plan Co. of California has begun its third year of sponsoring "Masters of Melody" on KNBC . , John Thompson, KNBC director of special events and news, was lend-leased to NBC in Hollywood last weekend for election coverage aid. IN CLEVELAND /NBC’s assistant general manager Bill Davidson departing for Florida hiatus .. WGAR’s News Editor Charles Day will run two-hour work shop at News Editors Convention in Chicago .. . James C. Hanrahan, WEWS. general manager, going to Australia to serve as consultant to the newly-formed Australian television industry, and: will be home by Christmas Mrs. Lillian Kubelik named WJW music librarian . . . Bandwagon emcee Johnny. Andrews guesting at Maternal Health Assn, shindig . .... Dorothy Kilgallen commuting weekends for tv stanza and Sheppard case coverage for Journal-American . ... WGAR’s Con- tinuity Director Bob Smiley on three-week hiatus . . . Ann Wamock departs TV Guide for. regional post with mag; in Detroit NBC .flack Bob Horan into New York . . Ex-WJW promotion director Fib Roth, handling Ballet . Russe stanzas here. $qhio news editor Gene Martin home from Texas trip. IN BOSTON WEEI’s Priscilla, Hub's travelingest radio personality, flies to Bel- gium next Thursday (4) for a week’s'looksee . . . Backers of WGBH-TV r , Hub’s educational non-commercial outlet, announced last week that 76 r 'o of the $1,050,000 necessary to underwrite the station has been raised. Officials expect the station to hit the air shortly after the first of the year, and in this connection tv equipment is being installed in the Museum of Fine Arts in anticipation of weekly shows to emanate from there . . Harvey Struthers, WEEI general manager, and a former Minneapolis resident, is all smiles over the warm reaction the station’s recent 30th anni programs by "cold" Bostonians .. According to a survey conducted by WNAC-TV and WBZ-TV there are 1.220,000 tv sets installed in the Hub coverage area. This is an increase of 13,220 since last month’s survey