Canadian Film Weekly (Jun 22, 1966)

TELEVISION SHA iia aa TV BRIEFS Paris and capitals behind the * Tron Curtain will be added to Pierre Berton’s list of location sites for the fifth season of his TV talk show to start this fall, it was announced by Bruce Ledger, general manager of Screen Gems (Canada), which again will syndicate the program. Ledger said some subscribing stations would air the Berton show at 6.30 p.m. instead of in the latenight slots at 11.30 or 11.40. One station — Hamilton’s CHCH-TV —planned telecasting it in both 6.30 and 11.30 p.m. spots for maximum viewing * * * Syd Banks (S. Banks In-Television Ltd.) has to be the country’s busiest independent TV producer, having added a gospel-blues show to his renewed Country Music Hall and Let’s Sing Out series on CTV. “And I’ve got a fourth one cooking,” he says * * * Pearl Bailey, a.co-star with Al Hirt in Toronto’s O’Keefe Centre recently, went to Chicago for the pilot of a syndicated series which she’ll headline * x It says here that deadpan comic Jackie Vernon was signed for six Ed Sullivan shows next season only after a pledge to shed 20 pounds. “I’ve gained so much weight this past year,” he’ says, “I’ve had to have my shower curtain let out.” Ww Ww Ww TvB Canada announced that the top 100 Canadian advertisers invested 50.5 per cent of their net media budgets in TV during 1965, with the total budget at $67,766,000 — an increase of 16.7 per cent over 1964 * * * Colm O’Shea, gm for United Artists Television (Canada), says the full CBC-TV network will have only one brand new series in its fall lineup and it'll be a UA show— Hey, Landlord, starring Will Hutchins in comedy situations arising from his inheritance of a rundown brownstone apartment house in New York * * %* Busiest guys on the Warner Bros. press junket to Houston for A Big Hand for the Little Lady were the CHCT-TV Calgary team of Ron Chase (as director-interviewer) and cameraman Vern Kent. They not only shot miles of footage for their own use but provided a pool arrangement for Tim Ryan of Toronto’s CFTO-TV and Dave Wright of CFCF-TV, Montreal »** * x I Spy’s Bill Cosby now a next-door neighbor of the Robert Goulet’s in Hollywood Coldwater Canyon * * *% Remember a CBC radio show called Juke Box Jury? The BBC now has a TV show of the same name * * The Big Valley series’ two-parter — The Hidalgo Legend—has now been scheduled for release as a theatrical feature overseas. a June 22, 1966 Commercial Comment By ANNA LISZT NE cannot but regret the cam paigns which begin brilliantly but which peter out into the second rate. Craven Menthol, for instance. Perhaps it is too much to hope for a series of ads as freshly original and kooky as the first one which, we notice, earned for Hayhurst a well deserved award. But, even if the original sparkle was impossible to retain in ad after ad — was it really necessary to descend with such a thump into the so very mundane? The dancer in the flowing Greek draperies in slow floating motion through woodland and meadow is simply no match for the hip miss in the sweater and sims pelting in mock flight across a plain straight line. And we're heart-broken at the loss of the jabberwocky beasts after her. One of the new commercials makes a token gesture by showing them spying from behind some trees and starting a very faint-hearted pursuit. We wonder what piece of plodding client Bell Telephone Sets Up Election Network sanity put a damper on this one. We like the Polaroid land camera commerial. It has something of the quality of the original Craven Menthol ad, produced principally by the music. The tune and the singer plus the orchestration are straight 1966. How different, this, from the awful soaring anthem used by Kem. And yet the Kem music did sell us because of its very flavor of holiness. Still and all! It is quite true that people may be sold by something which irritates them. It is one possible way but not the only way. In the nineteen twenties and thirties Lifebuoy soap soared to the pinnacle of sales success by dinning the BO story into America’s ears. The genius who dreamed it up was Francis T. Countway who wasn’t an adman at all. And columnists and editors deplored the vulgarity of it all. And the public also; no one—but no one—would ever admit to using Lifebuoy or of leaving it in view in the bathroom. Sophisticated video equipment brought viewers the pictures, sound and excitement of the recent Quebec elections but the heart of network coverage, in the opinion of veteran broadcasters, consisted of 23 Call Director telephones installed by Bell Telephone in the CBC’s Montreal headquarters and fed by direct phonelines from each of Quebec’s 104 counties. With this almost instantaneous information from the _ hustings, instant punditry became the rule. Example of the live communication is represented above with CBC commentators Pierre Nadeau (left), Jean-Paul Nolet and Richard Garneau conducting interviews with outgoing Premier Jean Lesage on video, incoming, Daniel Johnson on audio and interspersing the interviews with analyses by political experts. The telephone-video marriage enabled the CBC to wrap up the coverage by 10 p.m., less than two hours after the polls closed. PANORAMA (Continued from Page 6) tally, seems to have a couple of potential actors in the family, with sons Michael and Peter drawing solid reviews for their lead performances in a De La Salle Oaklands College production of the musical Bye, Bye, Birdie * * ** Recent luncheon meeting of Canadian Broadcast Executives drank a special toast to Bob Simpson, broadcast director for Foote, Cone & Belding. The reason: he’d become a Canadian citizen that day. oe ae | i Ww Ww w MAYBE YOU MISSED George Jessel’s classic showbusiness story on the Johnny Carson TV show. About the female hopeful somebody introduced him to who measured 56-46-86? “What was her act?” asked Carson. Replied Jessel: “She crawled on stage and tried to get up.” & CANADIAN FILM-TV BI-WEEKLY But they bought it, and used it by the billions of bars. Oddly enough, there were two little pockets of resistance in North America where the BO campaign never worked and where it was finally dropped and replaced by a much older-fashioned appeal. One was French Quebec and the other was Newfoundland. Perhaps the anthropologists could explain that one. We have also seen some automotive advertisements which pleased us. One for the Volvo with its principal copy appeal that they are driven for an average of 11 years in Sweden. Also like their claim “A car that won’t bug you.” And the Austin commercials that make so much of what they call Hydro Lastic suspension. We haven’t a clue what this means really, except that it has something to do with springs and shocks. But the visual of the Austin riding on the railroad ties and holding an even, smooth course is quite dramatic. We were less impressed by the general overall slogan at the end “No-one puts more into cars than B.M.C.” In fact we think that these company signature slogans are doomed to extinction. If they are going to be all embracing, as they must be, then they must also be vague. And we really believe that the public gets smarter all the time. They will no longer be sold by the vague and woolly. They want facts, facts, and more facts about products, especially high-priced ones. So when someone says “Progress is our most important product” to Mrs. Grunsky, her answer is “I dunneed no progress today. I got some already. I want a washer. Whaddya got in a good washer and howmuchisit?” And this gal thinks this is a good thing. Paramount's ‘Warning Shot’ Steve Allen has been signed for a starring role in Paramount Pictures’ suspense-drama, Warning Shot, currently before the cameras in Hollywood. Cast In ‘Funeral In Berlin’ Michael Caine stars in Paramount’s Funeral in Berlin. Pioneer Golf Tournament Set For August 25, 1966 Thursday, August 25, 1966, has been set as the date for the annual Golf Tournament of the Canadian Picture Pioneers and the scene will again be the Aurora Highlands Golf Club, just south of Aurora on Yonge St. Co-chairmen are Martin Simpson of Twinex and Robert Gardner of Odeon, with Zeke Scheine of Odeon heading ticket sales. Tee-off time is 7 a.m. and the dinner is scheduled for 7.30 p.m. As usual, booty bags, prizes and lucky draws will feature the outing. : Page 11 a