Variety (December 1954)

Wednesday* December 1,1954 TV-FILMS 43 POWER PLAY BY CANDLELIGHT -T-+ ABC-TV may be. the first net-- «work to telecast its soap operas v on film. Web is mulling a part- nership arrangement with its tele- film syndication Subsidiary, ABG Film Syndication, Wider which the web and subsid would share cost on production of the filmed soaps and the subsid would get syndica- tion rights in non-network markets and rerun sales. Arrangement would allow the network to offer the soaps to sponsors at a price competitive to live soapers on NBC and CBS. Web is researching the question right now, and as soon as it breaks down production; costs and feels out client'reaction to the syndica- tion phase, will , make a decision on Whether to go ahead with the project. • Program department has been looking over properties, for the past six months with an eye toward expanding the daytime net- work service'* with soaps which, would gJ into 'the 10 to 10:30 a.iri. time following “Breakfast Club." What with the cramped studio sit- uation at ABC, hdWever, the net- work felt that film would be pref- erable provided some means,could be worked out to keep the program price cdinpetitive. Syndication pro- vides the answer—-if the strips can be properly produced at moderate cost arid if sponsor reaction is positive, Series would have to be brought In at about $12,000 a week (for five quarter-hours), so that the Web could offer it nationally at , $8-9,000, a price which' compares to the current live strips on other webs. ABC Syndication prexy George Shupert Is currently talk- ing to several Coast producers on their estimates, and if'he can come to terms - bn cost, he vvpuld then Work out with network officials what part of the cost he would bear and, exactly what sales rights he would get. Meanwhile, network ^ program chief Bob Lewine is work- ing on possible properties for the two series. Series would be so constructed as to tell a complete story in one week (five quarter-hours), and the syndication outlet Would thereby be enabled to sell it in quarter- hour strip form, or in half-hour or full-hour dramatic;, form by com- bining the individual segments. It would thereby sell in non-network markets as a strip, arid sell re- runs in network markets in one of the other forms. Problem is whether a national bankroller would require exclusivity on -the property, in which case the syndi- cation subsid would be out of the picture and the entire film project would fold. Lewine believes that' $12,000-a- week budget can be attained be- cause of the one-story-a-week for- mat. Geo. George F. Foley , has joined the TeeVee Co.^as its New York repre- sentative, Foley,. whose original ABC-TV live production of “Tales of Tomorrow” is being syndicated in kinescoped form by TeeVee, will also operate on the production end, exploring and developing' new properties for the outfit. Firm is planning new properties for next year, but hasn’t signed any yet. Policy will be one of turning out properties without ex- cess “production values and ele- ments which, do not produce any tangible resuits,” according, to gem era! manager Marc Frederic. Tee- Vee, is exploring further use of syndication of kinescopes, but in new production will finance its own pictures. TeeVee has the “Tales” kinnies set in over 60 markets. Well Film ’Em Ourselves if We Hollywood, Nov. 30. “If we can’t buy better than We can. make we’ll .get into telefilm production on pur own for the projected expansion of the Mu- tual tv network; So declared. Thomas O’Neil, prexy of General Teleradio and the Mutual network, who passed the week here in rneet- ings with Wille.t Brown, prez of Dori Lee Broadcasting System, which operates KHJ-TV and KHJ, flagship of the 44 : station Don Lee skein, world’s.. largest regional. O’Neil isn’t . thinking in terms of an interconnected, film network of v stations across the country. “That’s not our field,” he declared, ‘but rather an assembly of tv sites to service advertisers arid stations with films.”. O’Neii believes the bottom of the barrel for old films has been scraped since the availability and sale of more than 3,000 feature pic tiires to tv. He isn’t very hopeful of any of the major studios dump- ing their backlog into the open rriarket despite his belief that the time factor is Working against them. “Color will -obsolete old films and if any of the studios are planning to unload their backlog they had better start right now. The defeatist attitude in some quarters of radio is not shared by either O’Neil or BroWn. They point to 1953 as Mutual’s best year and if some of the anticipated or- ders come through the year ahead will be a profitable one. Last year the Don Lee-Mutual network was the only web to show an increase in billings. O’Nen returned east over the weekend. Bobby Nicholson, who plays “Clarabell” on “Howdy Doody” and has been taking Bob Smith’s radio-tv chores on NBC since Smith pad. his heart attack, has formed Robin Productions, a vid- film outfit which will devote itself exclusively to production of quar ter-hour children’s Shows. He’s partnered in the venture with Jack Fatten, who produces the Smith shows on NBC. Nicholsori and Farren have com pleted a deal with Educational Comics Inc. for the use* of their his- torical comic book treatments for a series on characters and events in history. Series, as yet untitled, would be done with puppets arid live actors, and Nicholson would handle most of the puppets , and do the voices. In addition, he’s plan ning a series in which he’d, teach the juves to play piano, etc. (he’s an orchestra leader too). Series would go into production at The beginning of January at the Olm sted Sound Studios in N. Y. Most successful show in syndic cation history will be Withdrawn from local and regional, sale next fall. Guild Films is withdrawing ‘Liberace" from syndication to put it up for national sale for airing on the 60-station Vitapix filmed network- Series, once sold national- ly, would, then be reopened for local and regional sale or restored to riginal stations and sponsors in. non-Vitapix markets. Guild, is now preparing a sales push, on the property, With the. actual campaign likely to get un- derway as Soon as Vitapix has lined up the full skein of 60 outlets. There are 35 stations in the setup right now, With many more . on what’s described as a waiting list. Sale to a national bankroller would be for Sept. 1, 1955, airing. Guild also intends to offer up others of its currently-syndicated properties, SUch as “Florian Zabach Show,” “Frankie Lame” and possibly “Life With Elizabeth,” for national sale, but the decision’s impact comes With the “Liberace” move. Mechanics: of the changeover from local. sponsorship to national haven’t been worked out yet, hut • Whatever they are, they’re bound to create some hard feelings. Se- ries, Which by itself has attracted mere attention to the . Syndication business than any other factor, is currently in about 220 markets, more than Tfiiy other show, Al- though national sale is tenta- tively hinged a 60-market deal, a big bankroller would likely Want more markets than 6Q, which means that in 60-plus major-rrial’ket situations,. Guild will have to dis- place the present licensees of the. show, be they stations or sponsors. Some bankrollers will have. been riding with the show for as long as two years, and they’re not going to take the move lightly. More- over, the switch of the show to the Vitapix setup means that the series will be moving in many cases from one station in a major market to. a competitive outlet. All of these factors are likely to get Guild in hot water with spon- sor and station clients of long standing. But Guild has unques- tionably examined all df these com siderations, arid its decision points up the high stakes to which it’s committed itself. Firm’s thinking Is now national, from the. viewpoint Of sales, prografris and other oper- ations. fl’he Guild-Vitapix combine has passed th6 point ef the mere creation of riew properties for pos- sible national sale. Guild is appar- ently playing the national film game for keeps. Big Play for Cartoons New York,channels 13 and 2, On the top and bottom numbers of the tuner, have purchased car- toons from the Corist vaults in the amount of 335. WATV (Ch. 13 Newark, with Gotham transmitter), grabbed 156 of Columbia Pictures’ one-reelers, With . Hygo TV dis- tributing/ WCBS-TV, Ch. 2 flag- ship of CBS, has a two-year pact for 179 Walter Lantz cartoons out of Universal - International, for spreading On its various* kidvids and as inserts on general stanzas. Each deal is the biggest local turnover of its kind in both coin involved and number of properties. Hollywood, NoV, 30. Bank of America has taken a n increased interest in financing tele- films, and is currently looking for vidpix projects to bankroll, accord-: ing Thomas C. Deane, veepee, manager of the Los Angeles main office, in charge of all motion .pic- ture-tv loans, .. “W0 have this increased interest in television because of increased volume in the industry,” he said. “We are already doing much fi- nancing along these lines.” He wouldn’t divulge, .name^s Of the se- ries the bank is now financing but declared “when we approach such, a project we try to find ways of fi- nancing, Some are brought to us by people who have an established success with ..one series; We keep i mind potential value’'Of Series on rerun market.” It took some time for the bank’s pattern to evolve since "we had to Creep before we would walk,” but npw that the pattern is set "we are eager to finance in television.” SG’S SEVEN-PRONGED Ballantine Beer is ending its .three-year-old “Foreign Intrigue” identity come March.. Brewery will drop, the Sheldon Reynolds series, which it bankrolls in 25 major mar- kets, and will replace it with Ziv’s “Eddie Cantor Comedy Theatre” in those same markets. Cantor series has been set for a March 30 start in N. Y. on WABC-TV, the ABC * flagship, under a 52-week deal. Aside .from the big boost th deal gives to Ziv’s “high price! for high quality” philosophy on the Cantor show, the Ballantine switch Conies as a shocker for Reynolds. That Ballantine 25-statiori lineup has been the backbone of the show, from a production viewpoint; Coin; has enabled Reynolds to . produce the series without worrying about where the rest of his production coin is coming from. In fact, up to this year, the series was wholly financed by Ballantine, which had exclusive rights and got its coin back by sub-licensing it to other sponsors ‘ non-competing mar- kets.' This year, Reynolds got back the rights under a new deal, and has been selling, himself in non- Ballantine markets and^n all re- run situations. Decision for the switch came .out of the J. Walter Thompson agency, which has the Ballantine’s account. Meanwhile, the agency lias got- ten out of a thorny situation with “Intrigue” in New York, caused by the ousting of the. series from its longtime Thursday-.at-10:30 slot on WRCA-TV- by JtfBC-TV’s sched- uling of “Lux Video Theatre.” ‘‘In- trigue” will switch from its present Thursday-at-7 slot on WRCA-TV to a new Wednesdayrat-9:30 position on WABC-TV. Show moves over Dec. 29. Part of the reasoning be- hind the move is that "Intrigue” its new position stands to capture some holdover audience from the 7:30-8:30 “Disneyland” show. Can- tor show will follow in the same time slot after the “Intrigue”'-can- cellation becomes effective. ROLLS IN NASHVILLE Nashville, Nov. 30. Flamingo Films last Week started |*shootirig the first filnr in the new tinted “Grand, Ole Opry” series at Ryriian Auditorium; where the Opry airs its regular Saturday night radio series via WSM. Hoi-, lywood crew headed by producer A1 Gannaway moved in shortly after WSM’s .annual visitation of. riiore than 1,000 country and west- ern disk jockeys returned to their stations after a three-day junket to the station. Flamingo will begin selling the series as Soon as the first films are in the can. Firm has*b tenta- tive national deal with A’ major tobacco firm, but has also gotten regional offers from anumber of major breweries which In the ag- gregate, would coyer about half the country. Series has a Feb, l'air date tagged on it. m Others Winding Series Paris, Nov. 23. With the TMP “Captain Gallant” series arid Andre Hakim’s “Paris Precinct” winding production here, Sheldon Reynolds Productions is the only group still turning out vidpix here for the time being. The: idea that Paris is the happy hunt- ing ground for cheap film produc- tion has waned in the last few. years as expectant producers have left the field strewn with 1 unusable pilot films. It boils down to a mat- ter of overall production control, Reynolds, under the firm hand of exec producer Nicole Milinaire, has taken, over a complete ^tudio here at Epinay, comprising three sets, lab, editing room and" a regu- lar crew. With 35 “Sherlock Holmes” films in the can, the first three series will soori be ready; “Foreign Intrigues” will fill in until the next “Holriies” group is ready to roll. Proximity of English actors and exteriors is also a plus iri mak- ing the series here. Director Seve Previn, a new- comer to the directorial ranks, is credited with doing a fine job. Edi- tor is George Gale arid most of. tjfe writers are . also Aftnerican. Pix are brought in at an averagp $25,000 apiece. Following signing of additional Salesmen to bring its syndicated sales force up to a total of 16, Screen Gems has realigned its Syn- dication operation with a break- down of the country into seven sales areas and has upped several staffers to the posts of regional managers. New setup has Bob Brahm as eastern sales chief, operating out of Detroit; midwestern' division, out of Chicago, is headed by John Nilson; western division, headquar- tered in San Francisco, has Rich- ard Dinsmore in charge; south- western is managed by John Wil- son out of: Dallas; southeastern is headed by Henry Gillespie 1 in At- lanta, and Andrew P. Jaeger heads up the N. Y. area out of the home- office. Rapf to Produce ‘Sing’ Hollywood, Nov. 30; - Former Metro producer Matthew Rapf has been signed by NBC v.p. Fred Wile to produce the new sit- uation comedy series, “My Man Sing,” toplining Pat Crowley. Elsa Schreiber will direct series which roils Jan. 3 under the ban ner of Dynasty Productions. N. Y. telescripter Tod Lean has been set to pen the first three scripts. SCHRIELER TO INTERSTATE Latest addition to Interstate Televisioni’s sales setup is William Schrieler. Added a few days af- ter George Gilbert was made east- ern Sales manager, Schrieler will head up operations for the middle Atlantic states area, , Official Films this week set a largescale Canadian ddal for its Star and the Story” and is in the process of finalizing another large regional for the far west. Cana- dian deal is with Sweet Gaporal cigarets, which ' already sponsors Official’s “My Hero” there, for the full CBC web of 13 stations. Deal was set via Cockfield, Brown & Co. Meariwhile, an 11-market deal iri the West is all but set with Heidel- herg Brewery. Heidelberg would take 11 markets op the Coast not already picked up by Rheingold under its original deal with Don Sharpe, who packaged the show (Official has nothing to do with the Rheingold deal, but can’t sell those markets, of course). While Heidel- berg is a Coast brewery, deal is being wrapped- up in Chicago this week by Official sales; veep Herb Jaffe and the sudser's agency. While in Chi, incidentally, Jaffe is setting up a Mirineapolis office for Official. He’s moving Art Breecher, who together With Al Morey headed Official’s Chi office, into the Twin Cities as office man- ager. Following the wrapup of Chicago business, Jaffe heads for St. Louis, Detroit and then the Coast, during which trip he’ll add a total of eight more men to the ex v panding Official sales staff. MCA-UTP Deal Near Deal for MCA to take United Television Programs is in the final stages of negotiations on the Coast, with papers expected to be signed around mid-December. Sales execs of both UTP and MCA are en ropte to the Coast for discussions On staff realign- ment and product treatment.