Variety (December 1954)

Wednesday, December 22, 1954 RAMO-TKIJB VISION 25 ‘NO TALENT RAIDING’-SARNOFF Tuesday 8 to 9—The Magic Hour Apparently it doesn't matter any more who NBC slots in the Tuesday night 8 to 9 tv hour; It can’t miss in registering among the Top 10 Nielsen entries, so habit-forming has it become. Tra- ditionally, of course, it’s Milton Berle time—always has been since Berle initially projected tv into the bigtime. But whether it’s a Bob Hope or a Martha Raye (who obviously are Top 10 timber in their own right) or no-matter-who, Tuesday 8 to 9 still For^xainple, a few weeks back, NBC-TV was practically forced to ad lib a filler show when Hope suddenly cancelled out on his General Foods one-a-month stint to go to Europe. It was a varia- tion of the Steve Allen ’’Tonight" show that went in. Yet the new ratings off the Nielsen presses last week showed Allen wind- ing up in the No. 7 spot. Whether or not Berle again goes into the hour next season is still problematical,- in view of his own desire to go film (half-hour) and his sponsor’s (Bulck) overture to Jackie Gleason. But NBC is convinced that there’s no greater bait in all of television as a come-on for any client than Tuesday 8 to 9. In its current efforts to peddle ‘‘Original Amateur Hour" as a full-hour weekly Sunday afternoon show, NBC is throwing in an added inducement which, it feels, is bound to clinch a bank- roller. Anybody who buys the show can slot it Tuesday 8 to 9 during the summer months. Milton Berle: Desk Man Flabbergasts Top NBC Echelon With Wide Knowledge of TV Industry Around NBC the top brass is still talking about the "administra- tive performance” put on by Milton Berle last week. Network veter- ans say that, not in their long ca- reer spanning a number of NBC regimes and top-level bull-sessions, have they ever witnessed its likes. It happened on Wed. (15), just about the time word got around that Buick was exiting the Berle sponsorship in favor of a Jackie Gleason deal on CBS. Along with Berle. NBC prexy Pat Weaver, exec veepee Bob Sarnoff, program chieftain Tom McAvity, program manager Sam Fuller and press veepee Syd Eiges sat around the conference table with six of the William Morris Agency braintrust, topped by its chief factotum, Abe Lastfogel. The subject, naturally, drifted to Berle’s future status as a major tv comic; of his desire to go film next season, and of his place in the overall scheme of things at NBC. It was the first time that Berle, since assuming the role of exec- utive producer and consultant for the network under his longterm (20-year) contract, exercised his privilege to speak out—not so much in relation to Berle and how he’ll fit into the program picture next season, but mainly with the larger issue of "Whither NBC.” They say that Berle went to town, divesting himself of practi- cally everything he’s learned about the business. Program structures, personalities, formats, the tv stu- dios of the future (as seen through the eyes of a comic facing the cam- eras and the audience)—all these and more came under his scrutiny (Continued on page 40) Revlon’s TV Dicker Revlon is behind dickered by CBS-TV to take over the alternat- ing spot on “Danger" that’s been shelved by Block Drugs. “Danger” goes back into the 10 p.m. Tuesday time (from 9:30) vacated by “Life With Father.” Rotating sponsor on “Danger" is Nash-Kelvinator. [ $4,000,000 Avco Biz Exiting B&B For Ohio Agency Victor Emmanuel’s Avco Corp.. representing agency billings esti- mated at about $4,000,000 annually is reported ankling Benton & Bowles, with a newly-acquired Co- lumbus agency, Mumm, Mallay 8c Nichols, taking over. Represented in the billings are all the radio-tv- Crosley holdings of Avco, along with Bendix and other subsid facets. Columbus agency recently changed hands, with Mike Sloman, (Continued on page 40) By QEORGE ROSEN NBC-RCA board chairman David Sarnoff, it’s reported, has passed along the W'ord to his television network associates that there is to be no recurrence of the recent jack-up-the-price-and-get - him - at - any-cost incident which resulted in Ed Sullivan practically tripling his income from CBS. As such, the industry will unquestionably laud Sarnoff’s efforts to once and for all end the periodic talent raiding that has brought about such sky- high prices and thrown tv into an economic tailspin. Sarnoff, it’s understood, was op- posed to the Sullivan overtures from the start, taking the position “what makes you think that CBS can’t and won’t offer even a fancier price to keep him!" As it turned out, that’s precisely what 'CBS board chairman William S. Paley did to insure the continuance of “Toast of the Town” and prevent the competition from moving in. with Sullivan coming out of it in the process with a lifetime coin guarantee that exceeded his fond est expectations. However, the alarming overtones stemmed from the growing fear that if it happened with Sullivan, the inter-network jockeying could be duplicated among other major tv personalities unless the net- works themselves called a halt. Thus the reported Sarnoff cease- and-desist becomes all the more significant since, in effect, it could well sound the death knell for what has long been conceded to be one of the major industry blights —the spiraling of talent costs be- yond all reason. Thus far Paley has made no move in the direction he took a decade ago when, in the now- storied “Paley’s Comet" he unbur- dened himself of several million dollars to woo over Jack Bendy, Amos ’n’ Andy, Bing Crosby and a flock of other topflight personali- (Continued on page 40) Cancer Scare Throws Network Ciggie Billings for Loss; Food, Auto Biz Moving Far Out in Front Oliver Twist Some students of English at a couple of New Jersey High Schools must be great fans of Wayne Oli-) ver, radio-tv columnist for the Associated Press. The classes were assigned to watch NBC-TV’s pro- duction of “Macbeth" last month and turn in reviews for their school newspapers. It appears that some of the re- views were hardly changed from the one written by Oliver for the Asbury Park Press, one of his out- lets. Natural Booking Bristol-Myers is taking two par- ticipations for a one-shot on a familiar product for plugging on NBC-TV’s “Tonight" on Dec. 31. It’s figured to put the first plug on the air precisely at midnight to usher in the New Year. Product is Bufferin, the head- ache remedy. Comedy Hour’ To Get Out of Town As a TV Buildup Flock of out-of-town originations (to get off the N.Y.-L.A. hook) and in a bid to bring new innovations into tv programming, has been scheduled by "Colgate Comedy Hour.” Next Sunday (26) Colgate Sun- day night hour show does an orig- ination from Chicago for the ice show starring Barbara Ann Scott. On Jan. 9 program' will emanate from Greenland (via film), the oc- casion being Bob Hope’s visitation to entertain troops. (Jlope did the same thing for his sponsor, Gen- eral Foods, when he originated an hour film show from London a couple weeks back, but in this in- stance there’s no product conflict involved). ^ On Jan. 23, Colgate show has been tentatively booked for an hour show out of Miami, and on Feb. 20 “Comedy Hour” will do a Mardi Gras program out of New Orleans, utilizing an NBC-TV mo- bile unit. Louis Armstrong has al- ready been booked for the show. Sometime in March Colgate will originate an hour show out of Mex- ico City, via film. In-between. Colgate has a Jan. 16 show booked out of Hollywood for a pickup of Ciro’s nitery and on Feb. 6 Martin 8c Lewis are down for their second engagement of the season. Biz Perking On NBC Daytime TV Things were looking up at NBC- TV last week on wrapping up day- time commercial sponsors. The morning “Ding Dong School” latched on to a juicy slice of coin " ith Manhattan Soap pacting for 35-minute sponsorship starting Jan. 20. The afternoon "World of Mr. Sweeney," starring Charles Ruggles. drew Its first client with R- T. French Co., food and bird seed outfit, contracting for Wed- nesday sponsorship. Meanwhile Sweets Co., already having a participating stake in the | inky Lee late afternoon program, bought 64 additional participa- tions. six for the balance of ’54 •nd 58 during 1955. NBC-TV’s pickup of the New 'ears Day Cotton Bowl grid rh’ssic grabbed off its second sponsor when Chesebrough Mfg. to. bought a fourth of the game. leviously Swanson purchased onequarter. OUT SOON! The 49th Anniversary Number Of Forms closing shortly Usual Advertising rates prevail Special exploitation advantages • m Copy and space reservations may be sent to any Variety office NEW YORK j* 1S4 W. 44tfc St. HOLLYWOOD 28 *311 Yucca St. CHICAGO 11 412 N. Michigan Ava. LONDON. W. C. 2 • St. Martin’s Place Trafalgar Sqi Tobogganing of cigaret billings on tv network programming is at- tributed directly to the cancer scare and the diminishing number of cigaret units consumed this past year. In sharp contrast to only two and three seasons ago, when tobacco billings practically domi- nated the tv picture, today they’re running far behind food and auto accounts. Faced with the toughest public relations setback in their history, the ciggie companies, now feeling the smokirrg cutbacks throughout the nation, figure that the decrease in cigaret consump- tion no longer justifies the vast expenditures in tv advertising. The fact that only in the past couple of weeks R. J. Reynolds (Camel) notified NBC-TV to find a Friday night client for the "Camel Newsreel," to permit the ciggie company to whittle down expenditures on the costly ($8,000,- 000 per year) cross-the-board news show, is but one of a continuing number of cutbacks that’s been in evidence all adding up to mil- lions of dollars a year in savings. On top of that, rumors are cur- rent that Lucky Strike may pull out of its alternate-week “Robert Montgomery Presents" Monday night dramatic series at the end of the season. Luckies had previ- ously gotten off the hook on its every-week sponsorship of “Hit Parade," with Warner Hudnut now sharing in the tab on an alternate- week basis. Pall Mall, which, like Lucky Strike, is parented by American Tobacco Co., also pulled in the reins when it decided to share sponsorship of its “Big Story" show with Simoniz. Perhaps the major ciggie casu- alty of all was in the Philip Morris decision to divest itself of half of “I Love Lucy." long the best cost-per-thousand buy in television since it’s seen by about a third of the nation. Even long before “Medic” started to build and cut in on the “Lucy” audience, Philip Morris decided to allow Procter 8c Gamble to come in on a half-spon- sorship deal. Bing TV Series On ’55 Agenda With the assurance from Bing Crosby that he’ll “get active" in tv next year, Harry Ackerman, CBS-TV program veepee in Holly- wood, conferred in N. Y. last week with William S. Paley, net’s board chairman, and Hubbell Robinson, program veepee. on a possible se- ries to be submitted to agencies. Understood the Groaner is agree- able to a weekly half-hour show if the format and material are to his liking. CBS is prepared to assign top writers and production crew to the Crosby show' and several sponsors are said to be interested. While east Ackerman also discussed new program concepts with Paley and Robinson. MENDES-FRANCE STORY FOR CBS-TV ‘CLIMAX’ Hollywood, Dec. 21. "Escape," true story of French Premier Pierre Mendes-France’* flight from Vichy prison during the war, has been purchased by CBS veepee Harry S. Ackerman for presentation on “Climax." Ackerman negotiated directly with Mendes-France for the tv rights to the story in the Dec. 24 issue of Collier's, although no date has been set for the telecast. Ne- gotiations are under way to use special film clips, with narrations by the premier to add document- ary flavor to the show.