Variety (March 1957)

22 RAmO.VEl^Vl$ION WMiieffdayy MareV 13, 1957 Going After Teenage AttGence The purpose, apcording to execu-4; tive producer Marshall Jamison, of ' “U.S. Steel Hour” going beyond the range of drama and comedy to do musicals is to broaden the audience of the dignified Wednes¬ day CBS-TV hour and catch the teenage viewer. It has occurred to some industryites that since this prototj'i>e of Institutional pro- ^’ammihg is no longer prinlarily interested in adults, the situation provides the best example of the seriously changing needs of indus¬ trial corporations. , Recently, a change was noted in the attitude of advertisers on tele¬ vision to the kind of pitch to be made and to whom it should be niade. A dearth of post-high- school talent is hitting the indus¬ trials hard, and some of them are finding it as important to attract new employees as it is to build general goodwill or sell products. An adaptation tonight (Wed.) of Rdgar Allen Poe’s “The Bottle Imp” is set in Jamaica, BWI., Jamison has lined up dancer Geoffrey Holder and actor Farley Granger to participate in the,show, which will feature quantities of calypso hiusic. A spokesman for the producer said, what with the new popularity of calypso,' it should attract many teenagers. Same holds true for the May 8 U.S. Steel spec starring batoner Duke Ellington, who, without bene¬ fit of the. stanza’s usual storyline, vill narrate and play for a jazzy session called “A Drum Is a Woman.” According to the spokes¬ man, these won’t be the only times Jamison “varies” the format in be¬ half of highschool children so that they may glimpse the professional advantages of joining U.S. Steel. That institutionals occasionally take time out to direct appeals at college specialists is old hat, but the shortage of non-professional labor seems to be more pressing at the moment. Small, Small World “Wide Wide World” may be the name of the NBC-TV show, but three of Its production staffers stiR insist It’$ a small world. The three are unit man¬ ager. Ed Faught, location pro¬ ducer-,director Ed Pierce and producer’s * assistant Danny Webb. • That small world feeling stems from the fact that the trio, all of them former vaude performers, recently ' discov¬ ered they worked the same bill together at the Metropolitan in Boston 15 years ago, Faught as a member of a dance team, Pierce as half of a ballroom act and W6bb as emcee and Prudential Coin For‘20th Century “The Twentieth^ Century,” CBS- TV’s new public affairs airer, is set to roll for a fall start under Pru¬ dential Insurance sponsorship. Series, which will comprise 22 half-hour films and four one-hour shows, along with up to six half- hour “standby” news specials,-, will replace “You Are There” Sundays •at erJfi- and will probably be fol¬ lowed by repeats of “Air Power,” which is currently holding down the “You Are There” time through May. The new series, dealing with great events and great people of the 20th century, will be produced by Burton (Bud) Benjamin, with Isaac Kleinerman as associate pro¬ ducer.- In addition, there will be three other production units on the show, one to be headed by A1 Wasserman, who did the “Out of Darkness” show last year and who will handle the one-hoUr “Twenti¬ eth Century” shows. Actual topics haven’t been selected, but under consideration are some 70 subjects. The four hour shows will deal with trends of significance to the fu¬ ture, rather than historical data as the others will. The News seg¬ ments, which will comprise up to six shows above and beyond the 26 committed, will be produced by CBS News on a when-and-if basis. Current “Air Power” segment winds May 5, after which Pruden¬ tial will return to'repeats of “You Are There” films until the fall. Then after the run of “Century,” which will probably go 32 weeks. Prudential will sponsor repeats of either “Air Power” or the half- hour “Century” films. ‘N.Y. Conlidentiid’ CBS-TV Sat. Entry At least the tail-end of the CBS=- TV Saturday night lineup for next fall was firmed up this week .with the setting of “New York Confi¬ dential” as the 10:30 to 11 entry and the decision to retain “Gun- smoke” at 10 to 10:30. “New York Confidential,” a film series out of the Television Programs of America stable, will be sponsored on alternate weeks by Wildroot. Deal was set between TPA and BBD&O, with the agency then se¬ curing the time period on CBS. Other week is still o^en, with both TPA and Columbia pitching the show along the agency route. Series, which is based on the book by Lee Mortimer and the late Jack Lait, stars Lee Tracy. Pilot was filmed on location in N. Y. last year by Walter McGraw for TPA. With “Confidential” ruling out the possibility of ap hour show at 10 to 11, CBS decided to pin down “Gunsmoke’’ as definite for 10 o’clock in the fall. SAMMY KAYE has coined ' a potential hit In ■“MONEY” his newly-released Co¬ lumbia disc. It’s already ringing up sales the counti’y over. Backed with Kaye’s excitingly diffierent “TBCE SHIP THAT NEVER SAILED,” With a poetic reading by the maestro. Albums “MY-FAIR LADY” “BELLS ARE RINGING” ■ Currently ROSELANb DANCE CITY New York WABC Radio’s Riz Hike WABC Radio is running hot these days, with the best take the network flag has had in some years. The New York radio station reports that its net profit is . up approxi¬ mately one-third in the last quar¬ ter of 1956 and the first Week of the current quarter over the same period during 1955-56, NBCs Radio TiD SwoUedbylliOG NBC Radio this week wrapped up $760J)00 net in new business, signing Kent cigarets, Carter Prod¬ ucts and Simoniz to. major deals. Carter and Simoniz deals in par¬ ticular are regarded as coups, since it’s Simoniz’ first buy ever on NBC Radio and Garter has pulled all its business. away from the other webs and pouyed it all into NBC, upping its weekly outlay from $4,000 to around $12,000. Kent deal. Involving Some $110,- 000 net, is for 20 participations per weekend in sport segments on “Monitor” for 13 weeks starting March 23. Carter, in„ a 26-week biiy, ^ takes on participations in “Monitor,” “Bandstand,” three-a- week segments of “News of the World” and four daytime soaps starting April 1. Simoniz buys a total of 252 participations in “Mon¬ itor” Fridays and Saturdays over 21 weeks starting March 29. Also new are Kiplinger for 13 weeks of its “Changing Times” and Qlin Mathieson for six weeks of “Moni¬ tor” starting in October. Sosnik Batoning Int’I Harvester’s 50th Anni International Harvester Go. is celebrating its golden jubilee April 4 with an hour’s musical pro¬ gram over NBC-Radio, batoned by Harry Sosnik and a large orchestra. Show will be taped and per- foi’med that night over the entire network CBS, ABC Now Have ‘Class D’ Time In a followup action to publication of its new Rate Card #13 last week, CBS-TV has made- additional changes in its rate struc¬ ture. Web has created a brand-new time classification. Class D time, pegged at 37.5% of the Class A rate, which, will cover signon to 9 a.m., and has changed the classification of the Sunday 5 to 6 hour frpm “A” to Class B time. Both changes were under consideration at the time the rest of the new rate card was completed, but the web didn’t want to delay publication of the -card in the event of a hitch and therefore published It without the two new classifications. Stations and ad¬ vertisers subsequently were advised of the new changes. Both changes take effect April 1, as contrasted to the rest of -the new card which became effective Sunday (10). The Cjlass 'D period, .though in theory running from signon till 9 a.m., will actually cover the 7 to 9 period and makes its bow simultaneously with the debut of the new “Coi^ntry Style’^ hillbilly music entry at 7 to 7:45. It will also cover the two Richard Hotelett newscasts jit 7:45 and 8:45 and the 8-8:45 “Captain Kan¬ garoo” show. Until now, cheapest time ’ available was Class C, pegged at 50% of the “A” rate as contrasted with the new 37.5% ratio. As for the Sunday switch, CBS has been encountering diffculty In selling the “Boing-Boing” and “Mama” shows, which fill the 5 to 6 period three weeks out of four (“See It Now/’ on the fourth week, is sold, to Pan American Airways). Difficulty exists despite critical raves for the show, and the web apparently figures that the Sunday afternoon circulation simply doesn’t justify a Class A rate in the time. The “B” rate is pegged at 75% of the “A” time. AfiC-TV Reveals a ‘D Rate’ ABC-TV is baring a new rate card. Network has put Into effect a new Class D rate at the 33.3% of the nighttime scale, which was tipped by the network in mid-February. It covers daytime before 5 p.m. on weekdays, and replaces the “C” i;ate, traditionally pegged at 50% of nighttime, in the daytime period. Annual rebate for daylight bankrollers has been extended for a half-hour, from before 5 p.m. on present rate card No. 6 to before 5:30, local time, Monday through,Friday. Rebate is for a mini¬ mum of 26 weeks firm, with the exception of participating stanzas. New card, No. 7, offers a new 5% discount for firm 52 week advertisers. A minimum of $5,200,000 of gross billing during the 52 weeks of the bankroller’s established discount year will qualify him for the maximum 32V6% discount, which is 7V^% higher than that offered by either NBC or CBS. One-shot stanzas can be counted toward the $5,200,000. ‘ • ' , Scottsdale^ Arllt., March 12. Thanks to the cooperation of the Walter Wlnchells, KP.OK yes¬ terday (11) became the first radio station you can phone simply by dialing its call letters. Dick Gilbert and Saxie Dowell, disk jockey-owners of JCPOK, thought it would be a great idea if listeners could phone in merely by remembering WH 5 (the prefix for Scottsdale) and K-P-O-K. The only catch was that K-P-O-K on the phone dial equalled 5-7:6:5 and in Scottsdale that was, the non-published private line of the Winchells. Latter phoned to say they would' gladly surren<^er their private line in the interest of listener convenience! Steve s Boys Are Pro-Allen Green, Courtney Propound Theories Why Sullivan^s TV Landslide Is Over Sweet Smell of Success CBS finds itself in the unique position of having one of its employees also acting as one of its customers. A CBS-TV audio technician has bought time on the web’s flag¬ ship radio station, WCBS, to advertise a new product which he’s developed in his spare time. The technician is James A. Huff Jr., an electrical engi¬ neering graduate of the U. of Cincinnati who’s been on the CBS-TV staff for the past seven years. Huff’s hobby is chemistry, which he practices in his garage at his home in Wantagh, L.I. In the course of his dabbling, he found a way to combine after-shave lotion with cologne, and decided to package his discovery under the name ASC: After Shave Cologne. Working by himself, he got bottles, labels and packages designed and started building lip an inventory which now runs to 10,000 bot¬ tles. Then he purchased a series of, spots on the. Jack Sterling waker-upper show on WCBS. Product is starting to move, and Huff is now faced with"^ the problem of expansion of his Terri Products Inc. (named after his child) from garage to larger commercial quarters. CBS-TV Revamps Daytime Staff With NBC-TV' now making a, fight of it in daytime television, CBS-TV this week shook up its daytime program setup under v.p. Oscai> Katz. Bert Berman, until now director of daytime programs, will step into the new spot of, di¬ rector of daytime program devel¬ opment, while Ed Friendly moves over from network sales to take over the daytime program director slot. Under the new setup, with Katz riding herd and reporting to Hub- bell Robinson Jr,, Berman will de¬ vote his full time'to creating new daytime packages, while Friendly takes over the day.-to-day operation of the progi’am setup.- Berman has been in his spot just under a year, having come over from Procter & Gamble when Lester Gottlieb ex¬ ited the daytime post to become a general programming exec. Friendly, former ABC-TV national sales manager and ex-partner in the Barry & Enright packaging house, has been with Columbia fpr a year supervising the web's par¬ ticipating sales operation for “Good Morning” and “Captain Kangaroo.” BOLGERGOESNIGHniME FORROYAL TYPEWRITER Ray Bolger switches to nighttime exposure from Sunday afternoons for the final four “Washington Square” shows of the season, with Royal Typewriter buying half of three of the shows. Royal, via Young & Rubicam, kicks off the nighttime pattern May 9 with a Thursday night 9-10 special, then sponsors the show Monday, May 20, at 9:30, to, 10:30 and a^ain June 4, a Tues¬ day, at 8-9. Helene Curtis is co= sponsor. For the final show on Thursday, June 13, Helene Curtis solos as the sponsor. This is Royal’s second major shortterm buy. It just wound sponsorship of three alternate- week half-hours on “Playhouse 90.” Number One poser in the trade last week was the poor showing made by Ed Sullivan, who despite the natural buildup and curiosity attachiifg to his first anniversary salute to “My Fair Lady,” man¬ aged to squeak by Steve Allen by j the narrow margin of three-tenths of a Trendex point. ' The AUen camp, represented by exec producer Jules Green and NBC supervisor Alan Courtney, put forward a pair of theories. The show Is steadily building; much of the show has shaken down, via the use of a number of features like “wild shots,” “man in the street” and “report to the nation.” Allen has proven himself “many things to many people” and has drawn a following which can expect “in¬ telligence, freshness and good t taste” every week, “plus, we think, a good show.” That’s what the men said. Second theory is that Allen’s guestars “perform,” while the au¬ dience has grown leery of Sulli¬ van’s guests because they don’t know whether they’ll appear “on a film clip, or dp a quick walk-on to accept an award, or take a bow from the audience.” Allen show stresses the idea and material, not “the booking for the booking’s sake,” say Green and Courtney, “and we won’t book a star unless we feel we can use him properly.” As for some of these bookings, ip the offbeat category is evangel¬ ist Billy Graham, who’ll appear on May 12. Groucho Marx is, set for the March 24 show, which with the March 31 stan 2 a will originate from the Coast. Second Coast date will feature Dinah Shore accepting the Mother of the Year award of the City of Hope. Also in the area of bookings is the unusual aspect of Xavier Cugat, who will have done two Allen shows In the same general. period of two Sullivan shots. Cugle does the last of his four Allen-Sullivan stints on May 19 on the Allen show, about .six weeks following his second Sulli¬ van sho,t. ^ Green and Courtney insist their mission in life isn’t’to beat Sulli¬ van, though admitting they’re not unhappy when they manage it. “The beauty of a Sunday night show is that everybody wins. All we have to do Is to maintain a 40% share of audience so we can give the advertiser a decent cost- per-thousand buy and we’re in. fine shape. Our first thought is doing a good .show, then we worry about the ratings.” Year Renewal On TeD the Truth’ “To Tell the Truth,” the Good- son-Todman panel show which got off to a shaky start but has since righted itself in its CBS-TV Tues¬ day at 9 slot, has'beep renewe.d by Fharmaceuticals Inc. for 52 weeks, effective April 2, the end of hke show’s first 13-week cycle. Re¬ newal carries the show through the end of next March. Renewal firms up much of CBS’ Tuesday night lineup. 'Whitehall Pharmacal has renewed its alter¬ nate week sponsorship on the 7:30-8 “Name That Tune” for 62 weeks, so that’s set, as is Phil Sil¬ vers at 8. Lever is firm into the fall for 8:30, though show isn’t set, while Red Skelton and “$64,000 Question” continue at 9:30 and 10. Spike Jones is iffy at 10:30 for the fall. All this, of course, can be changed if CBS decides on a whole¬ sale reshuffle of the Tuesday line¬ up, as has been hinted. ''