Broadcasting Telecasting (Apr-Jun 1958)

Record Details:

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IN REVIEW SEE IT NOW British Prime Minister Harold MacMillan, a skilled diplomat of the "old school," is no Disraeli or Gladstone or Churchill. Quiet, short on witticism and a dispassionate conversationalist, Harold MacMillan as a personality is the Tory's answer to Labor's Clement Attlee. Thus, any lengthy interview with Mr. MacMillan is apt to be, for lack of any other description, colorless. On May 12, Edward R. Murrow joined his colleague, Charles Collingwood (since Howard K. Smith's reassignment stateside, CBS European bureau chief) at 10 Downing St., the traditional residence of British prime ministers. The half-hour discussion (no doubt culled from much more footage) touched on a goodly number of topics such as open v. secret diplomacy, summitry, recognition of communist China, the European common market, West German renaissance and the parallel decline of the British empire. Messrs. Murrow and Collingwood asked the right questions and Mr. MacMillan fielded them with a great deal of aplomb. There was little news to be had in this chat with the exception of Mr. MacMillan's revelation that had Britain not been facing the brunt of "Operation Sea-Lion" (which somehow never got out of Hitler's order of battle room), the A-bomb would have been developed at Harwood instead of in the squash court at the U. of Chicago. "We have a great moral claim to it," said the British Prime Minister, not without a trace of remorse. In one basic respect, however, the talk with Mr. MacMillan proved of great benefit. That was in his scorn for the word "problem" as applied to world conflicts. His comments are worth noting here: "When we were children ['problem'] meant something to which there was an answer— an algebraical problem . . . you either got it or else you got it off a friend of yours or you looked it up at the end of the book where it said 'with answers.' It was a thing capable of a precise solution. Now, we misuse this word 'problem' to mean one of the conditions [to which] there are no precise solutions . ... . there's the handling of a situation day-by-day and year-by-year and generation-by-generation until it — if it's kept in some reasonable control — doesn't burst into disaster ... I believe that one of our troubles in the whole of our journalism ... is the misuse of the word 'problem.' " It should be duly noted by tv's Cassandras . . . Production costs: $5,000. Sustaining on CBS-TV Fri. May 23, 7:30-8 p.m. Producers: Edward R. Murrow and Fred Friendly; cameraman: William McClure. FRANCE AT THE BRINK In David Schoenbrun CBS News (and for that matter, radio-tv journalism in general) has a brilliant, astute and profoundly observant reporter on French affairs. A former romance language teacher and OWI propagandist-turned-newsman, Mr. Schoenbrun Broadcasting has been pounding the Parisian beat since V-E Day, first as bureau chief of overseas news agency and since 1947, for CBS. In that time he has rubbed shoulders with many of those who make up that singularly confusing cast of characters that is now playing the denouement to the fourth French Republic. Thus it would seem rather mawkish that 43-year old Dave Schoenbrun a week ago Sunday night felt compelled to whip out his credentials in order to prove to the American viewer that he, indeed, knew what he was talking about. Certainly those who have read his award-winning As France Goes (Harper & Bros., 341 pp.) published last fall needed no reassurance as was offered by his frequent "I know Gen. Salan" or "I have talked to Pierre Pflimlin. . . ." Mr. Schoenbrun was flown in from Paris by CBS to report first-hand on the conspiracy that is tearing France asunder "in the shadow of a man on horseback." Though it would seem an awesome task within the short span of 25 minutes to analyze the events since May 13, Mr. Schoenbrun made it seem terribly simple. In his book, Mr. Schoenbrun last year contended that the French people— ultrasensitive to one-man rule as typified throughout their stormy history by the Bourbons, Richelieus, Robespierres and Bonapartes — "have become convinced that they have a vested interest in weak and unstable government." The special report on CBS indicated that the attitude is more of a vested disinterest and that, ironically, this public lethargy has created a vacuum into which an autocrat could easily step. Though Mr. Schoenbrun insisted Gen. DeGaulle is neither fascist nor dictator, the inference was clearly drawn. In detailing the stakes both factions have in the current imbroglio and running down the "dramatis personae" Mr. Schoenbrun may have wanted to be thoroughly impartial. It must have been terribly difficult for a man who professed stanch admiration for the crack professionals helmed by the insurgent Brig. Gen. lacques Massu. But to balance the scorecard, Mr. Schoenbrun voiced open dismay for the mystic from Colombey-les-Deux-Eglises whom he typified as "a Hamlet . . . who cannot seem to make up his mind." By exercising a crisp and authoritative command of the situation-at-hand, Mr. Schoenbrun once again underscored a famed Murrow maxim that there's more — much more — to tv journalism than trundling out a good looking announcer who reads well. Mr. Schoenbrun thinks well. Production costs: $9,000. Sustaining on CBS-TV Sun. May 25, 6-6:30 p.m. Producer: Leslie Midgeley; director: Verne Diamond. Participants: David Schoenbrun, Eric Sevareid. BOOKS THE STORY OF ADVERTISING by James Playsted Wood, The Ronald Press Co., 15 East 26th St., New York 10, N.Y. IN 6 MONTHS: NATIONALLY ! 8th (from 19th) among all CBC shows! Outrates "Have Gun Will Travel", "Dinah Shore", "Disneyland", etc. Network rating higher every rating period, now 41.0! 21% increase in homes reached ! 30% increase in viewers! Pre-tested as popular movie and through dozens of famous Saturday Evening Post stories, TUGBOAT ANNIE helps Lever Brothers Limited of Canada win friends and influence sales. Lever Brothers' success story gives proof of greater profit than ever for you in your own market. Of course, the American premiere market showing is swamping all competition too ! the adventures of TUGBOAT 4NN1E TELEVISION PROGRAMS OF AMERICA, INC. 488 MADISON ♦ N.Y. 22 • PLaza 5-2100 June 2, 1958 • Page 17