Variety (November 1954)

38 RADIO-TELEVISION t^ARIETY Wednesday, November 3, 1954 Hazel’s ‘ Continued from page 31 shop Friday afternoon and decided then and there to call in the press for a chat” A representative mob showed up at the late hour, fixed (4:30) because they knew it had to be about the and that it wouldn’t be complimentary. Though some of the boys and .girls consulted their commuting schedules, Spector’s “hot copy” bei came too tempting to produce- an early exit march. Meanwhile NBC was acting nervously about the whole affair in advance of the fact. An agency staffer told the wCb about the. press conference but did not extend an invitation for anyone from 30. Rockefeller Plaza, to sit in. on the. deal. So as of the conclusion Of the week’s work last Friday, the network was still in the dark and Spector had th first word on “Satins and Spurs” (which in- augurated the biggies under Bishop and Sunbeam Appliance auspices in midSeptember) and the followup “Sunday in Town” (October), Spector had plenty of words. With the qualification that he was “not a showman but a huckster,” he nevertheless questioned the Showmanship values, particularly the idea of elaborate production numbers not appropriate to the in- timate tv screen. He also ques- tioned the draw of some of the stars, citing . of them (by name) as not even a big boxoffi.ee puller In the cinema. Since there are only “a few thousand” color sets in. circulation, and with NBC, as a subsidiary of RCA, being “used” to hypo the sale of. or make a noise about the tinted receivers, Spector reasoned that it was illogi- cal from a sponsor’s rate-bait view for the web to worry so much about transmitting color to the dis- advantage of black-and-white. He said the b&w end was “pretty bad.” He wants customers for his own color—red lipstick. Spector said he’d had a session with NBC prexy Pat Weaver, exec v.p. Robert W; Sarnoff and their staff the day before (Thursday) and they had reached an area of “agree- ment” on certain phases of the Sunday specs. The most important of. these was that beginning around the first of the year they would run. an hour, from 8 to 9, instead of starting at 7:30, declaring that 8 to 9 has been established as the key Sunday night time and therefore the specs must, kick off coincidental With, the rival “Toast of the Town” on CBS. (He figured NBC would reinstate “Mister Peepers” which is I preempted for the coloraculars every fourth Sunday at 7:30,) His second “major understand- ing” was that the shows would originate;from NBC’s Colonial The- atre in Manhattan instead of from its new studio in Brooklyn, charac- terizing the latter as “too big,” with too much. elbow room that tempts the staging of oversized numbers that, do not come off on the home screen, Also envisaged are “bigger and bigger names— much bigger than we’ve had in the past and there’ll be a few surprises in store.” But this revelation came after a statement that the budget would be reduced (aside from the saying of a half-hour’s time). To a question as to how a'lowei budget could be squared with “bigger, names,” he said that could be ac- complished by getting NBC stars to “exchange courtesies” for free—or as one of the scribes hinted, “play- ing. benefit performances.” Spec- tor’s answer was that the top names don't actually need the skyhigh bait they’re offered because of their tax situation. In other words, it’s not their money to keep. With the press gang assembled ' at. the 11th hour, Spector brought up th question of his Friday "alert”' by apologizing that there wasn’t sufficient time to prepare a formal statement for distribution. He. teed off with a written'“declara- tion of principles” and afterward responded freely, directly and without guile, tp all questions, even unto quipping frequently, “This is off the record—but I know you’re, going to use it,” drawing, laughs from the scribes. It was apparent that Spector; elected to take the last-minute route—gust before the Weekend-^-- to get in ahead of a possible paral- lei or counter-statement by .NBC or spec producer Max Liebman, or both. Spector, incidentally, praised Liebman during the conference _while observing, at the same time, that any producer would be ob- structed by the combination of the offish hour-and-a-half time slot, ex- . cessiye “big” production, weak. use. prtaient, over-budgeting and over-, emphasis on color. In common with other sin the industry, includ- ing Liebman, he, blasted use of the word spectacular, indicating, that the network.got off on the. wrong foot with that terminology. “The people expected a lot to happen and didn’t get it,” he said. Hits & Misses Eileen BARTON Currently MOCAMBO, Hollywood William Morris, Agency NALLE Piano • Organ * Celeste at the I MMEMBER MAMA t » Mb loglitry • 11 i Continued from page 23 max” 8:30 to 0:30 series of melo- dramas on CBS (as well as the same client’s ohe-a-month “Shower of Stars” tinted “baby specs”). Lit- tle else bn this night to induce viewing. Friday—Not much excitement on Fridays. Red Buttorrs has moved into the 8 o’clock NBC spot op- posite his ex : sponsor’s (General Foods) “Mama” show, which he bested the second time out, only for “Mama” to bounce back again. Slow starter* but he’s been im- proving .NBC appears to have a winner in Peter Lawford’s “Dear Phoebe.” Gillette (like CBS’ •Wednesday night Pabst bouts) gets a big audience for good fights; more often is unrewarding. Night otherwise is practically dominated by half-hour .film shows — Ray Bolger (which appears to be. pick- ing up momentum); Schlitz Play- house, Life of Riley, Topper, Line- up, The Vise, Ozzie & Harriet, etc. One Refreshing Note , Saturday—Thi is, the- night that boasts, the one refreshing note of the season—George Gobel, Whose 10 o’clock show on NBC is-a. week-. . to-week delight. But all else before it on' NBC has been generally dreary. That goes for the Imogene Coca show (which is being drasti- cally revamped; With Don Appel going; in as producer to suc- ceed. Marc Daniels), the. alternating Jimmy Durante-Donald O’Connor “Texaco Star Theatre’’ (a disap- pointing capsule edition of “Col- gate Comedy Hour”) and the in- credibly bad “Place, The Face” at 8:30. Along with Gobel, Jackie Gleason (8 to 9 CBS) makes Satur- day viewing pleasurable. June Havoc’s “Willy” on CBS already i appears headed for the scrap heap. (There’s, some talk that the Phil Silvers show may take over the : first of the year.) i Sunday—Big question mark here is how long Colgate will continue to shell out ‘ top coin (amounting to nearly $5,000,000 annually) for its 8 to 9 “Comedy Hour,” which has practically become a week-to- week ad lib job—and shows it. The competing; “Toast of the Town,” brought in for considerably less coin,, gets the audience, and de- servedly so. Philco-Goodyear “Tel- evision Playhouse” remains a qual- itative dramatic entry. CBS’ “Hon- estly Celeste,” with Celeste Holm, adds lip to a lowercase nothing. Same network’s '‘What's My Line” at 10:30 continues as the most satis- factory of all the panel shows. Continued from page 25 ranging from 150 to 250 students, are. presented in signs. “Studio. One” has sent a copy of the script to the school, waiving all royalties. Among others want- ing; “Benson’’ are the Coral Gables (Fla.) Highschqol and Teachers Playhouse of East Carolina Col- lege, Greenville, N; C. Following Rose’s “Twelve* An- gry Men” which launched the West- inghduse 1954-55 season /on Sept.; 20, there were numerous re- quests for; performance nods. Among them were froim. speech teachers of Princeton Theological Seminary and Weston (Mass.) Col- lege Seminary. At Princeton, a.for- mer actor, William Brower, now teaching speech, .wrote that “An- gry Men” would be “an ideal script for our purposes.” Another speech instructor, Paul V. Ryan, S.J. (of the Weston school V; wfote, “I thought your play would be an excellent vehicle for. interpreta- tion and mood expression.” There were kudos . from other teachers, and from lawyers, for ex- ample, the Lawyers Drama Group of the Wichita (Kan>) 'Bar Assn.; an attorneys’ group of Denver; a county government unit of Ches- ter, Pa., and highschool drama clubs. Clement F. Clark, of the Wichita Bar, wrote: “ ‘Twelve An- gry Men’ made a tremendous im- pression in this area and the Wich- ita Bar Assn, feels it would be highly worthwhile to produce it locally with a cast Of lawyers. The general public and- the legal pro- fession can both learn a lot from it.” And this from Cl - Stanley Ur- ban, chairman of social sciences, Park College, Parkville, Mo.: “I was especially interested because I teach a course called Methods of Analysis and this production rep- resented a beautiful job of metho- dological analysis, both from an empirical and national point of view. Is it possible for me to ob- tain a script for- use. in my clases, or. better still, is it possible to rent this film (kinescope) for class- room use?” Dr. Penelope P. Pollaczek, clini- cal psychologist of the Mount Ver- non (N. Y. 1 Public Schools, wrote: “I am conducting a class in Mental hygiene and would like to use this material as it points up so well much of what we have been study-, ing.” UNESCO SS Continued from page 25 — observer, seeing no reason why it won’t accept. Confidence that the half-hour film show ill become an actuality is gained from the fact that Cas-. sirer has already gotten a big bite from Sig Mickieson, CBS public affairs ; boss. However,.. UNESCO is in no position to turn: over U, S. airing to one of the webs alone without first tapping all of them— something-now being done. The pro- gram will also be shown, on the tele facilities of air the other coun- tries who share in making the series. The “mag” idea breaks down into six : five-minute vidpix segments per half-hour show, each nation in- volved delivering a segment con- cerning . Some native aspect. The plan has the support of educa- tional broadcasters in the U. S., but since they don’t have sufficient telecasting facilities Of their own, UNESCO will depend on the webs for coverage here. The half-hour international tele- film series is one facet of a UNESCO aim to “achieve the in- tegration of educational and cul- tural objectives into the practice of broadcasting.” Ex Libris Baxter Continued from page 23 Sam Cook Digges, debutting for the outlet as a handy toastmaster, who launched into a whammo nar- rative encompassing his views of the Baxter mentality and also in- troducing station and local uni- versity execs and talent tied up with the public service program phase such as directors, producers, writers, etc. Strategic among them was Clarence Worden, station’s public affairsman. Following the preliminaries, Dr. Baxter proceeded to panic all and especially sundry (the press). That was no particular surprise, how- ever^ since the prof almost stole the show from Jack Benny last sea- son On. a special “Omnibus” (JB was appearing in his career ve- hicle, “The Horn Blows at Mid- night”; FCB was blowing the horn for his me.aiticket, W. Shakespeare)! The Baxterean pration was a well balanced combo of ^strictly class, stuff and patois prose, including quips arid one-liners slanted to the tv trade and timed on the button for the laughs to roll and expire before he resumed his “and', then I wrote” pitch. In a postrluncheon aside, Dr. Baxter was asked when the cus- tomers might expect a tv lecture series on contemporary lights simi- lar to the job he does in 24-sheet- ing the classical crowd!. The prof said he’d, been thinking about that, but there are some obstacles such as copyright clearances (especially Where kinescopes are involved), He could possibly- do contemporary “book reviews” with extracts, up to the designated lim- its, but said he’s not a book critic, merely a “reader” and interpreter; WCBS-TV’s hew. educational series, “America' in the Making,” will start Nov. 13 in the Saturday 1:30 to 2 p.m. slot.. It will be a re- flective skein on America’s colonial origins and early days of the Re- public, to be presented jointly by the station and New York Univ. with the co-op- of the Met. Museum of Art and the Educational TV and Radio Center, latter established by the Ford Foundation. It will be conducted by Prof. Robert Igle- hart, chairman of Dept, of Educa- tion of NYU, assisted by Bayard Still, prof of American history; Al- bert, Christ-Janer, staff associate of edupcational-researcH planning staff of the U.’s 14 schools; pro- duced by Warren Kraetzer, of NYU’s Radio-TV Office, and di- rected by the flagship’s Lewis Freedman. Show will also be filmed for later displays through- out the U. S'. It’s the Gotham out- let’s 11th pubserv stanza. UAW Continued from page 25 using its funds to promote Demo- cratic candidates, not only in viola- tion of FCC regulations, “but also in violation of the Corrupt Prac- tices Act,” The act, he said, makes it unlawful for a labor Organiza- tion or a corporation to contribute to the campaign of any candidate. Prior to the FCC’s ruling, Pillon had filed suit in Federal Court here demanding that WJBK-TV give him free time. The UAW of- fered Pillon the chance to appear on the same program which'aired his opponent’s view. This offer Was withdrawn after UAW learned Pil- lon had filed suit against it in Fed- eral Court. Federal Judge Theo- dore Levin dismissed the suit, say- ing his court did not have juris- diction. BAB Continued from page 24' would not constitute personnel increase, informed sources dis- close, but would mean using ex- isting hands differently. No coin will be taken away from network promotion, but funds used in print to promote radio will be lifted to a greater, degree to. facilitate the upbeat in local and regional ac- tivities. BAB is at the height of station membership in its relatively short history — approximately 835 pay dues. In addition to nominations for next year’s 'board, BAB com- mitteemen. are believed to have tentatively okayed changing BAB’s monicker to Radio Advertising Bureau (RAB)< Incidentally, Tom Ellsworth, in- dustry. presentation writer, left BAB on Friday (29), His future plans arc not known. Chicago, Nov. 2. WBKB,. ABC-TV’s Chi o&o, has quietly set up experimental merchandise licensing adjunct tied in with the station's several mop-, pet shows. WBKB veep Sterling (Red) Quinian sees an eventual $100,000-annual harvest from thd operation .which is. getting a pre- Xmas,test. Main emphasis, so far is on toys and play kits with some $50,000 ip orders already booked in 217 ChL area stores, The personality-iden- tified merchandise is being routed through regular jobbers with the station getting 59b. of the gross. Handling the operation is Lou Livingston, fqrriier Chi Hearst pro- motion chief; Kid gadgets were selected so they fit the character of the var- ious shows on which they’re fea- tured, For example, Dick (Two Ton) Baker’s noontime “Happy Pirates” has long used a telescope as a prop. Now its a 'scope that’s available in stores for a buck; Five different articles are spread out over four WBKB day-timers. Talent involved gets a slice of fhe sta- tion’s take on the project. Aside from the toy package, there’s a licensing deal on a new record album cut by Win Stracke and featured on his afternoon strip; a cake decorating kit sold by direct mail on the co-oped “Creative Cookery,” and a Christmas book tied in with the daily “Santa Claus Revue,” sold by mail and over the counter. ~ Pact Helen Jacobs For Housewife-Slanted Sports Former tennis star Helen Jacobs has. been signed to host a new daily quarter-hour radio sports package, believed to be the first sports segment angled toward the housewife. IVIiss Jacobs recently Was discharged from the WAVES, in which she served as a com- mander. Program is being packaged and peddled by Warren Steibel. He’s assistant manager of advertising and promotion with the NBC Film Division. CALIFORNIA (Any TV Film Prod. Co.; Ad Agency or Network) I I Personable young man, 30, will be in Hollywood after Nov., 15 for interviews. May I- see you? . 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