Broadcasting Telecasting (Oct-Dec 1957)

FILM LOEWS SEES BIG FUTURE IN TV • Vogel group retains control of MGM, MGM-TV parent firm • Victor in power showdown points to progress in television With the fight for control of Loew's Inc. over — at least for the present — the company is ready to "move vigorously" toward becoming a major factor in the television industry. That's the word from incumbent President Joseph R. Vogel, who Tuesday won a solid victory over insurgent investors headed by multi-millionaire roadbuilder (Consolidated Truck Lines Ltd.) " Joseph Tomlinson and independent tv producer (Dragnet) Stanley Meyer. Hovering in the background: ousted, 72-year-old former MGM chief Louis B. Mayer, who reportedly seeks to return to the studio as "consultant." Though declining to issue any "victory statement," Mr. Vogel predicts a bright future for the studio's ever-expanding tv operations. He points to the fact that MGMTV, its subsidiary, is solidly in the black at a time when the parent corporation, sapped by months of "harrassment" and "villification," is fighting for survival in the financial jungle. Last Tuesday's special stockholders meeting was called to determine proper ownership of the giant corporation. Loew's owns not only the movie-producing MGM studio, but also WMGM New York and has part interest in KTTV (TV) Los Angeles, KMGM-TV Minneapolis and KTVR (TV) Denver. Mr. Vogel does not presently envision expansion along lines of station ownership. But where Loew's will burgeon is in tv production. Through its subsidiary, MGM-TV, it produces commercials and tv film series, leases out its lot to independent tv producers and distributes its pre1948 film library to tv stations. In a post-meeting "progress report," Mr. Vogel noted that to date the library had been placed in 71 of the top U. S. tv markets and last week was contracted to place the films in "the last top three markets," Pittsburgh, Cleveland and San Francisco. It also has sold its first tv feature series, Dashiell Hammett's The Thin Man (now on NBCTV under Colgate-Palmolive sponsorship) to the BBC, and is ready to screen to agencies the pilot films of its new tv series, Min & Bill with Peggy Wood and Chill Wills. Presently being "piloted" are two other potential network series, Northwest Passage and Jeopardy. Using the MGM lot are California National Productions, an NBC subsidiary, for its new Union Pacific tv series, and Robert Enders Inc., Washington, now filming The Best From the Saturday Evening Post. Television figured strongly in the day-long proxy battle that culminated toward evening with an 8-to-l victory by the Vogel forces. The principal issue at stake was Mr. Vogel's call for an enlarged board of directors — from 14 to 19 — to dilute the opposition forces of Mr. Tomlinson and associates, who together held six seats, as opposed to the four-director Vogel faction. The 1,100 stockholders in attendance — by voting 3,449, 446 to 519,435 shares — rebuffed the Tomlinson group's attempt to wrest control from Mr. Vogel and associates. The newly-enlarged board gives Mr. Vogel the 13-to-6 working majority he sought to pull Loew's out of its depression and frees him "to run the company the way I had been hoping to" since he took over a year ago. Mr. Vogel and his colleagues maintained that the "incessant" sniping and "hamstringing" by the Tomlinson faction had made running Loew's "impossible." Among those elected to the board were BBDO Vice President Francis W. Hatch; former ABC and AB-PT executive Robert H. O'Brien (recently-elected Loew's financial vice president), Random House Publisher Bennett Cerf; Gen. Omar N. Bradley (USAret.), and former U. S. Attorney General J. Howard McGrath. One of Mr. Vogel's proposed directors, long-time MGM administration head Benjamin Thau, was defeated, and a Tomlinson backer, former Paramount Pictures Corp. executive Sam Briskin, was elected as the 10th new director. The latter reportedly was slated to take over the company had the insurgents won. In defending his year-old record as Loew's chief, Mr. Vogel cited among other accomplishments the "going tv department" in Hollywood which now serves "some 50 advertisers"; the $50 million accrued from lease-back to television of old MGM theatrical features ("quite an accomplishment when you stop to realize that we were once offered $38 million for outright sale of these film properties"), and its station interests in Hollywood, Denver, Minneapolis and New York. During the meeting, Mr. Tomlinson denied a charge by Loew's that Stanley Meyer's sole intention was to become the head of MGM-TV. He claimed that earnings from tv rentals had "been dissipated" by "mismanagement" and that the KMGMTV investment by Loew's was "so bad" that the "other 75% went for $650,000." Mr. Tomlinson referred to the recent acquisition of KMGM-TV by NTA Film Network. Mr. Vogel in turn noted that Loew's 25% interest in KMGM did not come about through a cash purchase but through an exchange of the MGM film library. Queen Film Shuttled to Britain CBS Newsfilm coverage of Queen Elizabeth II's North American tour is being flown to Britain so that the Queen's own subjects can see what is happening in America on the full network of the Independent Television Authority in London and on five other interconnected stations throughout Great Britain. The film is flown in two or three'hops daily to keep coverage up-to-theminute. CBS film also is being furnished to subscribers in Australia and Canada. Channel 12 Jacksonville, Florida Page 100 • October 21, 1957 Broadcasting