Broadcasting (Jan - Mar 1949)

MOVIES Television Inroads Forecast By Press Group, de Rochemont NEWSPAPERS TELEVISION will pull advertising away from newspapers, it was reported at the New York State Publishers Assn. annual convention recently by the organization's modern developments committee. The Louis de Rochemont Assoc., both New York. The former company owns all film rights to Readers Digest stories, many of which the producer has adapted for screen. Mr. de Rochemont further predicted that the impetus of TV will make for a mass Hollywopd■ to-New York migration by movie making firms. "In the place of the Hollywood we have known," he said, "it is my opinion that the motion picture industry will be rebuilt on a healthier and sounder basis . . ." Urging the screen directors to turn to educational films for the mass market of television, he told them that "most of the people in this room will benefit greatly by the revolution being caused by television. The vast new market that is being opened for well-made, lowbudget films will bring many good pictures to the public that heretofore have had only limited distribution . . ." Mr. de Rochemont, co-founder of the "March of Time" and producer of such films as "The House on 92nd Street", "The Fighting Lady", an Academy Award winner, and "Boomerang", has just completed "TELEVISION will destroy the motion picture industry as we know it today," Louis de Rochemont predicted at the Screen Directors Guild Fourth Annual Convention banquet Jan. 15 at Longchamps Restaurant, New York. Mr. de Rochemont is executive producer of RD-DR {Readers committee is headed by Ernest L. Owen, editor and publisher of the Digest-de Rochemont) Corp., and ============== Syracuse Post-Standard. The entire report dealt with television. It summarized the nucASTiNG ^« Television stories on other pages in this issue: growth of set circulation, stating INDEX that the ownership graph lumped NEWs.^s^ 250^SJ^^^^^^^^ 3, ^^^^ ^^QQQ y^^^^ Solotone, Videograph Show Juke Box Video in Chicago. ...... . . 38 million today. Inaugural Gives TV Its Greatest Test 63 On the threat of television to Phiico Asks for New UHF Experimental TV Station 48 newsnanpr a rlvprti<5ino fVio T■or^f^l-f Rural TV Audience Valuable, Says Head of Pence Agency.... 48 "^^Wbpaper aavertismg, tlie report WRTB (TV) Plea Denied; Hearing Ordered to Start 50 Stated: Terry, Crosley VP, Cites Need for Vigorous TV Salesmanship ',.['. 60 "The one g-reat nrlvnntno-o +Vi?< + TBA Replies to Detroit Housing Commission Directive 61 greax aOVantage that AT&T Clarifies Intercity TV Policy 62 newspaper advertising has enjoyed ^^11°^°,tIX ^?y""^ ""t'Y "^'i^Z Conference 62 over radio is the newspaper's WBKB (TV) Chicago Introduces Television Robot 64 un-j x -n ± j ,i f ^ Foirbanks Plans Cartoon Film Series for TV 64 aOlilty tO illustrate the advertlS Vance to N. Y. to Head McCann-Erickson TV Production 64 ingproduct. Television eliminates Direct Wire TV to Be Used by Fox Film, Hollywood 64 +1, • j j. -.i .i WENR-TV 'Chicago Daily News' Plan Cooperative Arrangement 65 ''"^^ advantage With the exception KARO (TV) Asks STA; Has CP But No Channel 75 of Color printing which will nrob New Transmitter, Tower Planned by WFIL-TV-FM 76 oW-,, «^v,t-;,, ^ + \ i • 1.1. Ban on TV Sets in 3 Wilmington (Del) Projects Lifted 79 ^"'^ COntmue to be exclusive to the Video's Potential Viewed by CFAC 81 uewspapers and magazines for . some time. "Most advertising experts agree . , ' , . f oc A J! 4.1. ■ T 1 ^1 t^^t television will attract considan integrated series of 36 educa for the coming year: Jack Glenn, erable national advertising that tional films on world geography senior director of March of Ti^^^^^ has been going to both newspapers titled "The Earth and Its Peoples". president; Willard Van Dyke, Affil ^nd radio stations RD-DR Corp. has scheduled its i^ted Film Producers Inc., first "The famous Chinese proverbcontroversial "Lost Boundaries" vice president; Leslie Roush Leslie 'One picture equals 5000 words'— for early spring production on the wh R Kn ^PPli^able in gauging the rela „ president Lloyd Durant, R.K.O. +iVf> vaino +oiQ-.rioi/^n ,t^^c,,^ East Coast, using, with three excep ^^t^e, recording secretary; Leo radio advertisfn^ '" tions, eastern personnel exclu geltzer. World Today Inc., corre The report was interpreted as a sively. spending secretary; Herbert Ker refutation of a statement made At the guild's business meeting kow, Herbert Kerkow Inc., treas before the association Aug 30 the following olficers were elected urer. 1948, by Arthur Hays Sulzberger] publisher of the New York Times, who said: "Every new advertising medium creates additional advertising expenditures. In other words, it enlarges the advertising dollar." One part of the report, however, gave some reassurance to publishers. This was a dictum that television will not adversely alfect newspaper circulation but "will probably stimulate reader interest." The point was not elaborated. The report noted that television has passed its "early experimental stages" and programming is showing "remarkable improvement." Principal factor now retarding the medium's growth, it was said, was the lack of cable and relay stations for network connections. It also dealt with the financial side of telecasting and concluded on the score that there are "no profits yet in telecasting." "At the present time," the report stated, "it costs a pretty penny to pioneer in television. In the first place, it costs approximately $400,000 to build a telecasting station. But this is not the real bad news. You can very easily lose $50,000 and up per year on operations. However, in spite of the certainty of reasonably heavy losses, there is no case on record of an owner of a television station offering his plant and license for sale." The report ended with the statement: "Some time in the future, there will be profit in operating a television station." CAMEO CURTAINS tv up. soies By FLORENCE SMALL WHILE mythical curtains, iron and silken, were dominating the front pages last fall. Cameo Curtains, New York — manufacturers of the real thing — quietly made its bid for a line in the financial columns with the inauguration in Philadelphia of a test television campaign. Last week the results of that * campaign were revealed to Broadcasting. Cameo Curtains had increased its sales 5,000% ! Significant feature of the project, conducted by William Lawrence Sloan Adv., New York, Sept. 23Dec. 1, was that no other promotion or advertising of any kind was permitted. The results were achieved exclusively through television. Plans for the campaign were laid shortly in advance of the September date. Realizing that accessibility is an important consideration in sales, the firm abandoned its "exclusive franchise" policy and released its product to a select group of six major department stores in Philadelphia. Opening Spots With availability thus assured, the agency exploded a video barrage of spot announcements. The results are to be read in the statistics: Previously the market had registered a $400 yearly wholesale figure; the post-video total read $50,000, with sales still rising. Impact of the campaign extended for a 50-mile radius outside the city, where other stores were re porting increased sales attributed by purchasers to the television spots in Philadelphia. To accomplish these results, the company used a 48-second spot announcement seven times in November, 13 times in October, and four in September on WFIL-TV. The time costs for the entire schedule were approximately $1,000. Spots were placed at various hours around movie, news and fashion programs — shows believed most likely to draw a housewife's interest. The announcement featured a newly wed couple admiring their nev/ Cameo Shir-Back curtains. Then the camera dollied back to a long shot of the curtain being shirred by pulling tape, then a closeup of the shirring tape and a hand pulling the tape, which dissolved into the young couple admiring the curtains. The announcer, meanwhile, emphasized that the "Young bride didn't have to ask her husband to help hang their new Shir-Back curtains. She draped them herself in 20 seconds." The Shir-Back item demonstrated in the spot was a triple window curtain averaging $10 a pair. Idea of the promotion video test sprung from the fact that the ShirBack curtain sold very well in small towns, where personal demonstrations were used. It had never been particularly successful in large cities because its merits could not be demonstrated effectively in (Continued on page hS) WILLIAM LAWRENCE SLOAN President William Lawrence Sloan Adv., New York BROADCASTING • Telecasting January 24, 1949 • Page 37