Broadcasting (Jan - Mar 1950)

By JANE PINKERTON FIRST IN TELEVISION" is no idle claim of the Admiral Corp., Chicago, for it was one of the first major TV manufacturers to underwrite the struggling infant of the entertainment industry. Realizing TV couldn't grow either fast or healthfully without support, Admiral officials have plowed some $1,700,000 into quality TV fare since 1946. This definitely places it among the top television investors. In 1949 alone, Admiral spent about $500,000 on video shows— $350,000 on Stop the Music and $120,000 on Lights Out. Continued subsidy of TV has paid off handsomely, for the firm which few, even in television, had heard of before 1948. Admiral has reaped public and industry prestige, national good will and — consoling to stockholders — an impressive and astounding sales return. Admiral, which claims growth from 52d to first place in the electronics industry in 15 years, grossed $112 million last year, $2 million more than expected six months ago. Between 65 and 70% of this return will be from the sale of television sets. One receiver comes off its production line (reportedly the longest single one in the industry) every 10 seconds. President and Founder Ross D. Siragusa is no mere guiding spirit behind the firm which he started in 1934 with $3,400. He's an all-tooreal protagonist in a highly competitive field, and is known by reputation, if not personally, for his uncanny ability to sense production and consumer trends before straws in the wind are blown on his desk. Other manufacturers attribute his firm's phenomenal growth to the 43-year-old Mr. Page 6 • TELECASTING SELLS TELEVISION THROUGH TELEVISION Siragusa's seventh sense in calling the shots. His mass production theories on radio ("Build up a large volume by giving good quality at the lowest possible prices") were transferred to television. Although Admiral didn't start its production of TV sets until February 1948, it is now considered one of the nation's top three manufacturers. Its sudden and flamboyant entry was preluded by a cautious testing campaign which cost the firm $1 million for surveys and equipment. In this period, Mr. Siragusa found the know-how of applying his mass production and pricing policies to the manufacture of video receivers. Even earlier, his faith in the potentials of television and in the necessity of its subsidy by manufacturers encouraged co-sponsorship of an afternoon variety show on WBKB (TV) Chicago in 1946. Other Chicago set-makers picked up part of the tab in order to have programming available to retailers attempting to sell the "mystery medium" in their showrooms. MR. Siragusa's insistence on strictly family consumption for all TV shows has at times complicated programming. Sponsoring the Admiral Movie Theatre of the Air on WBKB, he ordered his spe cial representative to screen carefully all motion picture reissues for suggestiveness and sophistication. Reissues in those days, even bad ones, were hard to come by, and each was inevitably a cloak-anddagger epic laden with brute romanticism and at least one merry chase through a canyon. After about 20 hours of auditions, one film was usually found suitable to the video screen and Franklyn MacCormack's homespun commentary. Admiral concentrated its TV sponsorship in Chicago for more than a year, building prestige and establishing a brand name in its home territory. From 1948 into early 1949 it sponsored shows spasmodically on WBKB, with sporting events the most popular. Always aiming at "firsts," Admiral telecast for the first time Notre Dame home football games in the fall of 1948 via microwave relay from South Bend, Ind., as a feed to the Midwestern network. This is believed to be the first network sporting event, and the four-game series cost the company about $30,000. The first telecast of a world championship professional football game was sponsored by Admiral also, showing brilliant plays of the Chicago Cardinals and Philadelphia Eagles. This cost $10,000. CATCHY Admiral commercial is previewed before a Lights Out performance at NBC New York by (I to r) Norman Nash, copy coordinotor at the Kudner Agency; Sid Smith, announcer who takes the role of an Admiral dealer; Edwin J. Sherwood, Admiral's television promotion manager, and Peter Finney, Kudner account executive. And, because the Cardinals had a good season and were packing in loyal Chicagoans, Admiral went to Detroit for their game with the Lions, bringing it back to Cardinals home territory. Chicago area enthusiasm for these events and the resultant product sales convinced Admiral strategists that the East Coast should be penetrated. Buying an NBC four-station hookup (Washington, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore), the company put Henry Morgan on television for the first time. The show lasted four weeks, a;nd cost about $10,000. BY this time Admiral had discovered a TV axiom — Everyone likes a snappy variety show. With this in mind, plus an eternal goal of getting quality production to entertain all members of the family. Admiral developed a format for Welcome Aboard. Stressing a natural Admiral and boat theme, the NBC-TV show starred Orchestra Leader Russ Morgan with lively variety acts. Three of the six weekly shows on the eastern network were headlined by Comics Jerry Martin and Dean Lewis, making their television debut. The Welcojne Aboard format, still unjelled and incomplete in the minds of firm and Kudner Agency personnel, led to the popular Admiral Broadway Revue, which took the air in January 1949. Comedian Sid Caesar, who has drawn SRO crowds in movie, personal and TV appearances, starred in original musicals woven together with standard Broadway techniques. His humor was foiled and implemented by Mary McCarty and Imogene Coca of the regular cast in elaborate shows produced by Max Leibman. Broadumy Revue was the first regular television show to originate before an audience in a theatre (the International on New York's Columbus Circle) , and the first to maintain its own stock company with a crew of technicians and administrators. It was telecast on the 14-station East and Midwest cable network after the juncture in January, and in 15 cities by kinescope. Although it was a vastly expensive production (more than $25,000 weekly). Admiral hoped to keep the show on the air because of its popularity (second only to Milton BROADCASTING • Page 64