Variety (November 1954)

Wednesday, Noveipber 10, 1954 TV-FDLMS 47 DISTRIBS NIXING GUARANTEES Syndication being the tough, not-so-sweetness-and-light business it is, some distribs would be wise to stop issuing those glowing statements that include puffed-up grosses, in the opinion of some tradesters who are concerned about the field’s future.. Those “look- at-us, we’re rich’’ announcements are only going to bring grief to the industry as a whole, it’s feared. Reasons they hurt are (1) stars get the wrong notions of how much moniey can be made and ask impossible deals; (2) syndi- cators will be a* a distinct disadvantage when new Screen Actors, Directors and Writers Guild negotiations come up, with no chance to plead poverty that actually may exist; (3) station managers, impressed by the big figures, will tty to cut price on the basis that the syndicators are making more dough than they know what to do with; and (4) sooner Or later, a new price pattern will have to be evolved around a higher per-market base, and it’s going to take a lot of convincing that it’s really needed if the syndicators persist in inflating their gross billings figures. But It All Hinges on 'Conqueror if his new feature film, “The Conqueror,” pays off, producer-di- rector-actor Dick Powell is step- ping out of vidpix. The move isn’t motivated by a lack of financial success in telefilm, since “Four Star Playhouse,” the corporation in which he owns a quarter share with Don Sharpe and actors David Niven and Charles Boyer, is running well in the black; but by an exhausting search for new tv material. Powell alone does 10 hilf-hour vidpix a year for the Singer Sew- ing Machine-Parker Pen sponsored “Four Star.” In addition, he, like his partners, is responsible for okaying nearly, all casings made under their production banner. That includes 39 “Star and Story” Vidpix, some of which are being lensed with Henry Fonda as host. After losing $160,000 in its first year (1952), FSP is running com- fortably ahead now. Substantial profits are being made from,.the outfit’s outside production duties, including an hour-long tint pic of Dicken’s “Christmas Carol” for CBS-TV with Basil Rathbone and Fredric March. The firm maintains its own staff, With two directors and a complete backlot setup. The “Star-Story” deal calls for Fonda to host a Reinghold 14-mai 4 - ket regional deal in N. Y. and Cali- fornia. Don Sharpe, the fourth partner (who shares a small part of his fourth with the incorporat- ing lawyer) says, the show is sold in near 59 markets all told; Of- ficial is distribbing what Will total 39 pix, With Budweiser having an- other 14-market deal. . The “Playhouse” skein, judged of fairly high calibre; Will have 90 stanzas in the kitty by the season’s end, and they have a strdng resi- dual potential once the national sponsorship pact ends. This should increase FSP coin immeasurably. Sharpe has still to firm a distrib deal on the reruns, but it looks as though Official has the inside track. Sharpe said that th company is pitching another series now. It’s a dramatic layout with ex-Notre Dame coach, Frank Leahy, as host. There are two already made, one of which got airing last ight (Tues.) via DuPont’s “Cavalcade of America.” ABC Syndication this week sold its “Passport to Danger” Cesar Romero starrer to Canadian Ad- miral for airing over the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. network. It marks the first time a syndicated show will be aired over the net itself, rather than being placed in each of the web’s markets a spot basis.. Series, which starts on CBC-TV Nov. 18 on seven stations with others picking it up later, ' the iourtir ! major ABC Canadian sale this year. Others were “Racket Squad,” also sold to Admiral, and ‘.The Playhouse,” to Jacoby- Bender, Gruen and McCormack. AH the Canadian Sales were set by Nat Donato out of the N. Y. of- fice.- ‘turn V Abner Abroad’ as .Hollywood, Nov. 9. Norris Goff and Chester Lauck have returned from Europe where they have been vidfilmlng a new comedy-adventure series for the past two months. “Luni ’n’ Abner Abroad” is tag for the series. James Kern produced and di- rected, With Carl Herzinger script- ing. Series was filmed in conjunc- tion with the Nassour studios here. Vidfilms were lensed in Monte Carlo, Venice and Zagreb. Jill Morse, British ballet star, is in one of the episodes, nd will come here to appear in some of the films to be Roger Clipp; topper at WFIL-TV in Philadelphia, still believes a: re- adjustment in teiepi price pat-r terning must be made in spite of the rebuff his plan for prices based on a proportion of the Class A hour rate met recently from vid- pix distributors. Clipp, in New York last week for the Television Bureau of Advertising kickoff meeting, said that the distribs must come up. with a standardized pric- ing plan to get rid of inequities and to give the business economic sense. As. an example of such inequi- ties, Clipp pointed out that feature films cost him around $1,500 each. His Class A hour rate i6 $2,000. Yet, in another smaller Pennsylvania city where a particular station’s Class A hour rate is $900, the fea- ture film distribs charge that outlet only $200 for a feature. Since rate cards are based oh circulation, the disproportion. between the two film prices is Way out of line, Clipp feels: Same thing holds for. syn- dicated half-hours, he says.. Clipp, who did a lot of telepix purchasing ..this year, say’s he’s going to ease up in the cbming year. “We can’t go selling $1,500 programs when our half-hour rate is $1,000 and, in some cases as low as $700,” Clipp said. Cass Daley, Gordon Jones Into ‘Going Hollywood’ Hollywood, Nov. 9. Cass Daley and Gordon Jones signed for two of the top roles in “Going Hollywood,” new vidfilm series beginning Jan,' 1 on NBC. Producer-writer Edmund Beloin is testing for other leads in the show sponsored by Toni. Richard Bare is director-associate producer, and series rolls Nov. 26 at the Hal Roach lot. Day of the distributor’s guaran- tee in the telepix field appears to be on its way out. In. a situation where the producer is making de- mands for higher guarantees over a shorter period and the distrib is finding it tougher to meet those guarantees because of increased competition and consequent lower grosses, new devices are coming into play to keep both parties happy. General demands for guarantees by established producers these days call for from 50% to 100%, re- coupment of the first year’s nega- tive cost within 15 months to two years. With toughened competi- ti , many distribs are finding it impossible to meet their guarantees, and while they’re paying off the old ones, on new deals they’re avoiding the guarantees and com- ing up with alternative payment methods. A canvass of top distribs finds only a few of them making deals with straight guarantees. One method is to go into actual financing-of the films. It’s pointed out that financing is in actuality a pre-payment of the guarantee. That being the case, distribs find it worth while to pay out'the coin in advance and get a share of the profits over and above their dis- tribution fee and have to come up With the coi later on anyway Without sharing in the profits. What it amounts to is floating a bank loan with existing station-sponsor contracts as collateral, and financ- ing the vidpix out pf that loan. Loan is paid off over an 18-month or two-year period in the same manner as if the distribs were pay- ing off their guarantees. They have to. pay interest, but that’s compen- sated for by their having a piece of the property. There are other variations on this theme, such as partial financ- ing to take the place of the guaran- tee, or installment payments under a schedule which would simulate a guarantee. Main reason for guar- antees from the producers’ stand- point is that he’s got to pay off his production loans and backers within the specified period of the guarantee. Distribs don’t like them because it puts them on the hook if the property isn’t a hot one,. But in cases where they feel fairly certain of a show’s quality, they’re now willing to finance di- rectly so as to get a share in it rather than; take it on a straight distribution basis. Key to the en- tire situation, of course, is the eas- ing of financing; which enables the distribs to borrow enough coin to finance instead of having to pay the producer off out of the show’s revenues. Bernard L. Schubert threw a stumbling block in the path of Guild Films’ deal to film Paul Coates’ “Confidential File” and sell it nationally to its Vitapix station lineup by filing suit against Coates, Confidential File Inc., agent Ted Ashley and Guild last week. Schu- bert seeks order enjoining Coates, Ashley and Confidential File Inc. from making any deal to film the show other than orte which Schubert claims he’s been negotiat- ing for more than three, months. Schubert claims he entered into negotiations to finance, film and sell “File,” a local live-and-film documentary on. KTTV in Los An- geles, in mid-July. He claims he spent a good deal of money and time in the negotiations, and went out and got firm commitments from tw sponsors who would bankroll the filmed version. Fully expect- ing his deal to be consummated, he charges that the deal with Guild has. cost him money, time and embarrassment, and seeks to have the court prevent the Guild dec'll and any other but one with him. On Lou Walters’ Roster Lou Walters, operator of the Latin Quarter, N. Y., is reportedly planning to produce a telepix series based on the hitery and using its talent. 1 Series is in the plans.stage now, with Walters slated to pro- duce and own the package outright. Understood he’s planning to put it in syndication. Guild Films took its first signifi- cant step toward the. Creation of the filmed network concept stem- ming from, its agreement with Vita- pix by signing Dave Savage, di- rector of film procurement at NBC, as director of station relations and announcing that former NARTB vip. Robert K. Richards has been signed by Vitapix as a “consult- ant to help coordinate details of the. national setup.” Both Richards and Savage will have two immediate tasks, the signing of more stations to the now 37-Outlet lineup of Vitapix mem- bers and the clearing of specific time periods on thdse stations for national spot deals on Guild shows. Richards, who resigned from the NARTB this spring to set up a con- sultancy operation, will operate from the Vitapix end, while Savage will work out of the Guild office as a staffer. Savage additionally will work:on program planning for Guild. Savage, who was brought into his film procurement post at NBC by the then Film Division v!p, and now exec v.p. Robert W. Sarnoff, organized the film department of WCBS-TV, the CBS-TV N Y. flag- ship. He developed the feature film programming concept there as embraced in “The Late Show” and th ‘.‘Early Show,” and before mow ing over to NBC was in charge of 'filmbuying for all the CBS-TV o&o stations. IVAN TORS’ ZIV DEAL ON SCIENCE FICTION Hollywood, Nov. 9. Theatrical film producer Ivan Tors, making his initial plunge into tv, has signed , a deal to pro- duce a scientifiqtion vidfilm series for Ziv TV. Tors exited the Hal Roach stu- dios to check in at California stu- dios, production home of Ziv. He will immediately begin prepara- tions for anthology series of 39 He lensed the first film in the se- ries at the Roach lot, with William Lundigan and Ellen Drew starring. Bud Austin to NTA Bud Austi longtime national sales chief of Official Films and for the past six months v.p.-general manager of Charles Wick’s Telefilm Enterprises, last week joined Na- tional Telefilm Associates as head of a newly-created national sales department... . He’ll operate inde- pendent of NTA's syndication op- erations, but Will report to sales v.p. Harold Goldman, with his first assignment the peddling of Desilu’s Charles Coburn - starring pilot, “Country Doctor,” which NTA is repping .on a shortterm deal. Meanwhile, Goldman set one of the firm’s biggest regionals to date, a 10-market deal on “The Passer- by” .with “Charles Furniture Co. Deal, set through the Manson-Gold- Miller agency of Minneapolis, is for the midwest and runs 26 weeks. Wildcat expansion' of the* tele- film industry is pointed up In the current negotiations b.v Music Corp. of America to buy out United Television Programs -and absorb its catalog. Such a -pur- chase, if consummated, would project MCA-TV into a topdog status in the syndicated; field, with more product than any other distrib including Ziv, NEC Film Division and CBS Television Film Sales, That there’s a good chance that the. negotiations will succeed and that this deal is more than one of a dozen rumors of mergers and consolidations is evident in the remark by a Gross-Krasne spokes- man on the Coast that the only thing holding up the sale is price. Apparently, Jack Gross and Phil Krasne, who bought out other partners in UTP at the beginning of the" year, want to move out of distribution and concentrate solely on production, This in spite of the fact that UTP over the past several months has emerged as one of the hottest contenders in the telefilm sweepstakes and has been operat- ing in the black for the first time. On the. MCA side, the octopoid outfit has been building its film activities strongly over the past year, via syndication of Revue Producti reruns plus acquisi- tion of outside packages. It’s significant too that MCA this week made MCA-TV veep Dave Sutton a member of the board of the syndication operation, and also that form e r , ABC’ers Sandy Stronach and ,Jim Stirton, who ostensibly had joined the agency on the live television side, were named v.p.’s of MCA-TV, whose only function is to syndicate film. UTP properties which would be absorbed under the deal would include: “Lone Wolf,” “Mayor of the Town,” “Where W.ere You?” “Waterfront,” “Rocky Jones,” “The Ruggles,” “Counterpoint,” “Heart of the City” (“Big Town” reruns); “Royal Playhouse” (“Fireside” reruns) and a load of assorted . other product. MCA-TV’s latest acquisitions are “Man Behind the Badge,” “Long John Silver,” “Guy Lombardo Show,” and an Xavier Cugat color series. In addition; it’s got “Abbott & Costello,” “Kit Carson,” “Follow Tljat Man” ( ‘Man Against Crime” * reruns), “Biff Baker,” “I’m the Law,” “City Detective” and.more than 200 half- hour dramatic anthology films under the “Famous Playhouse” title. A valuation of the produc- tion cost of all the properties held by both, firms homes to near $2d,- 000 , 000 . Flamingo Films, which last week tied up tv-rights to the Nash- ville-based “Grand Ole Opry,” has. set a surefire promotion scheme with the Opry members and WSM, which the show. Scheme will enable; every sponsor to have an “Opry” Unit headed by one of the stars make a personal appearance in every city in ivhich the tv series opens at the time of opening. With some 125 members, in the “Opry” cast, Flamingo fig- ures it won’t be difficult to sched- ule such appearances. Firm is also planning record promotion patterned after Guild Films’ “Liberaee” p r o ni o t i o n. “Opry” members, led by such country singers as Roy Acuff and Hank Snow, have piled up record royalties of nearly $40,000,000 ‘ their aggregate disking careers, so that Flamingo topper Sy Wein- Iraub sees a. near-unlimited field for such a promotion. Weinlraub planes down to Nashville Nov. 18 lor WSM’s three-day country mu- sic promotion, at which some 1,400 disk jockeys.will be in attendance. He figures that these deejays will return to their stations as virtual “salesmen” for the filnled-in-cnlor series.