Broadcasting Telecasting (Oct-Dec 1953)

• Tv film has joined the Hollywood elite. Page 88. • Kling counts on diversification to keep its sales up. Page 94. fil m maker Frank Wisbar FORMER Prussian officer Frank Wisbar is now snapping to the rigorous discipline of tv filming as producer-director of NBC-TV Fireside Theater. He has completed the 44th film in this pioneer Procter & Gamble series. Born in Lithuania Dec. 9, 1902, he ultimately centered on the technical production of motion pictures in Germany. Up through the ranks from cutter to director, he became the triple-threat combination of producer-director-writer. As such, he turned out many notable films, several of which are today in the Museum of Modern Art. In 1936 Mr. Wisbar came under strict surveillance of the Nazis, because he was engaged in the "suspect" activity of producing films on an international, rather than a national, basis. On Nov. 9, 1938, with only the clothes on his back and carrying the film medals bestowed by various countries, he headed for Holland. While exchanging medals for money, he discovered a "gold" one, presented by Mussolini, was pure brass. Arriving at Ellis Island with 60 cents and no knowledge of English, he was eventually identified by M-G-M's European sales department and bailed out the day before Thanksgiving. His film background led him logically to Hollywood, where the spy-conscious movie capital viewed him with suspicion. The War Dept., though, found a place for him and his advanced knowledge of gliders, his forte when a military man. From the end of World War II to 1948, he again made films. But, instead of "art" he turned out horror pictures for Republic and Monogram. He credits this period of "Strangler of the Swamp," "Devil Bat's Daughter" and others currently playing the tv circuit, as a most important contribution to his training. He learned a "shoe-string" budget discipline. The main topic of discussion by the end of 1948 was tv. Mr. Wisbar mortgaged his home to make a pilot film. The result, "Time Bomb," was inserted in Procter & Gamble's then live weekly half-hour Fireside Theatre. He was signed to film the program in 1949. Business-like, he pushed the button for writers. After telling the few who showed up that he could only pay $45 for a complete script, he ended up writing the first 26 himself. When no agent would let his actors demean themselves in such a lowly medium, the undaunted Mr. Wisbar sent his crew to comb the streets for unknown talent, hungry enough to ignore the accompanying stigma. Four years later he now derives no little pleasure from the knowledge that this shaky start has evolved into an industry which annually pours millions into Hollywood and which can command the services of top talent. "For people who are mentally alive, tv film is the greatest challenge," he says. "You are forced into clear thinking with no time to dilly-dally. The challenge of having to come up with a different half-hour film every Tuesday night — one with a little meaning and a great deal of entertainment — is rewarding. While a top motion picture might be seen by 10 million people, we create for an audience of between 25 and 30 million each week." A tireless worker, he is a perfectionist with a seemingly unhurried manner, who lives on Cokes during shooting and puts in an 18-hour work day. With only the cutting, editing, dubbing, etc. to be completed on the current season's series before doing the writing and paper work for next season's schedule of 44 films which goes before the cameras in March, he was recently contracted by Bing Crosby Enterprises to produce and direct six halfhour films for inclusion in General Electric's CBS-TV GE Theatre. He and his wife, Dolores, whom he terms his "right-hand," can be found raising cattle, hogs and sheep on their ranch in northern California, when not in Los Angeles. Daughters, Maria, 19, and Anna, 17, attend Mills College in Oakland, Calif. Broadcasting Telecasting December 14, 1953 • Page 83