Broadcasting (Apr - Jun 1949)

GLENN WALLICHS, president of Capitol Records, told Broadcasting before leaving on five-week TV survey of East and Midwest, that firm expects to start film production within six months after study of program needs. No budget has been set, but firm will "appropriate money as need presents itself." Capitol plans to limit its activities to film production and will not venture into kinescope programming, Mr. Wallichs said. . . . Dynamic Films Inc., New York, has released for video and general distribution, first of series of dance motion pictures in 16mm color. . . . National Society for Crippled Children and Adults, Chicago, is accepting bids from film companies coast-to-coast for production of 20-minute case history movie for theatres and video. . . . CampbellCahill, Chicago, has just complated 60-second spot for the First Federal Savings and Loan Assn., using live action with dissolves and montages. Agency: U. S. Savings and Loan League. . . . Old Gold Cigarettes reportedly interested in 26 week film series being prepared by Paul Parry Productions, Hollywood. Films entitled "Adventures on Cocos Island" run 13 minutes and are semi-documentary. Same firm is readying audition films. Aimed at national advertisers each is 13 minutes in length. Two of the films are "A Day in Photography" a fashion film, and "Plantation Days," a musical .... Five Star Productions, Hollywood film firm, is in threeway competition with itself. Commercials which it has made for Magicomb, Ford and Acme Breweries are spotted at same time on three Hollywood stations, opposite each other. . . . Gil Paltridge, head of sales and promotion for Hayes-Parnell Inc., Hollywood, is in East for ten days contacting stations and agencies. . . . Joseph G. Frankel, managing director of Michael H. Goodman Film Productions Ltd., London, England, currently in Los Angeles (Ambassador Hotel) arranging for showing of firm's film of 15-round MillsWoodcock heavyweight championship bout, to be held June 2 in London. Toni Hamilton Inc., New York, is firm's western hemisphere representative. Henry W. Anderson has joined the visual education staff of VogueWright Studios, Chicago, as a TV salesman. . . . Sarra Inc., same city, is producing a series of 13 15minute TV programs starring Burton Holmes for the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway through Leo Burnett agency. Footage from Mr. Holmes' regular travelogues will be correlated with sequences featuring him and his assistant, Thayer Soule. Production begins June 1, with release scheduled for fall. Series will emphasize points of travel interest along the railway route. Tressel Television Productions is preparing to move into a new film studio at 2214 E. 75 St., Chicago, where puppet serials and commercials will be made. Test shooting has been completed on a 16mm series of entertainmentcommercial films which combine a new production gimmick and novel presentation. Firm will guarantee to national advertisers a return of 35 viewers for every one penny spent. . . . Filmed weather forecast jingles by Harry S. Goodman Radio & Television Productions, New York, placed in the following markets: PANEL of Hollywood television executives at Los Angeles Advertising Women "Advertising in Industry" session included (I to r) seated: Harry Witt, general manager, KTTV(TV); Klaus Landsberg, West Coast director of Paramount television and KTLA(TV) general manager; Martha Gaston (moderator), account executive, KFOX Long Beach; Harry Lubcke, technical director of KTSL and president. Academy of Television Arts & Sciences; Don Forbes, manager of studio programs; standing: Haan J. Tyler, manager, KFI-TV; Hal Bock, NBC manager of western network television. Boston, National Shawmut Bank, through Doremus & Co.; Pittsburgh, Duquesne Brewing Co., through Walter & Downing; St. Louis, Independent Packing Co., through Gardner Advertising; Columbus, WBNS-TV direct; Baltimore, Joseph Katz Agency; Washington, Lewis Edwin Ryan Agency. . . . Spots use marionettes with invisible strings. Negotiations currently under way for addition of 14 markets in next few days. Films, video versions of AM fore cast jingles that received first award at National Radio Conference, were produced in Kodachrome with eye to future color video. . . . Speaker at the May 26 dinner meeting of National Television Film Council, to be held at New York's Brass Rail Restaurant, will be Norman Livingston, director of commercial program operations WOR and WOR-TV New York. His subject will be "What a TV Station Looks for and Can't Find in Television Film." THEATRE TV Skouras Outlines 20th Century Plans 108 Sponsors TOTAL of 108 sponsors the first week in May was recorded by WPTZ (TV) Philadelphia. Station reports that in April it had 91 sponsors and as of first week in May, 17 new accounts were added. BROADCASTING • Telecasting PLANS of Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corp. to start theatre television in 30 moving picture houses in the Los Angeles area were revealed to stockholders Tuesday at the company's annual meeting in New York. President Spyros P. Skouras made the announcement. In talking of the plans, Mr. Skouras predicted that moving pictures will reach their zenith through television. He foresaw home and theatre television existing side by side and complementing each other. He told shareholders that Twentieth Century visualized production of four-hour shows in the Hollywood theatres — combining first-run moving pictures and top television features on a single bill. Such features as "South Pacific," show stoppers as Bob Hope and musical artists as Arturo Toscanini would be sought for the television sections of the programs, said Mr. Skouras. Admission would be on a reserved seat basis, with performances scheduled afternoons and evenings. Terms It Experiment The Hollywood television tryouts would be a big laboratory experiment, upon the success of which would depend Twentieth Century's television policy, Mr. Skouras indicated. He said his company and RCA have been conducting cooperative experiments in theatre television for some time. These experiments have reached a point where Twentieth Century now is undertaking negotiations with RCA for the necessary equipment and, at the same time, is seeking an FCC license for a channel for theatre use. If the channel application comes through and the negotiations with RCA are favorably concluded, he said, theatre television will then be on its way to a big-scale test. He said, however, it would take 18 months after receipt of the license to complete the final tests. During the meeting, a stockholder questioned Mr. Skouras about intentions of the company to release old feature pictures for use of television stations. The company president assured the stockholder the company would scrutinize most carefully any picture so released. Mr. Skouras emphasized that unless great care were taken about releasing pictures for telecasting, valuable properties could be dissipated quickly. "We value our inventory too highly for that," he promised. Then he went on to predict that theatre television and home television will go along different paths, neither in conflict with the other. It was his own belief that motion picture patronage will reach its zenith through theatre television, he said. Shareholders were shown a largescreen television demonstration with RCA equipment in which Mr. Skouras and Twentieth Century artists performed for the stockholders. Mr. Skouras predicted that 1949 revenue would equal the record year of 1948. First quarter earnings were $1.04 per share, compared with $1.00 per share last year, Mr. Skouras revealed. Film rentals and theatre receipts were $43,490,969 compared with $40,316,174 last year and net earnings were $3,017,736 compared with $2,926,842 the year before. The meeting itself produced a hot debate between one stockholder, James P. Fuller, Hartford, Conn., and management. Mr. Fuller objected to Mr. Skouras' high salary ($252,385), high pension provision ($25,000 annually), and to a deal in which Mr. Skouras' brother Charles, participated in a transaction by which the brother and three others sold shares in a subsidiary back to the parent company at e profit to them of over $6^ million a deal which is now in process oi being compromised. After a ful discussion of all the points, Mr Fuller complimented the company on running "a good meeting." The board of directors was reelected except for one post, a va cancy caused by the death of Johi R. Dillon on Sept. 29, 1948. Forme: Postmaster General Robert E. Han negan was elected to fill the va cancy. May 23, 1949 • Page 3.