Motion Picture Daily (Oct-Dec 1938)

MOTION PICTURE DAILY RADIO ► Radio Personals < JIMMY DORSEY'S band will substitute for Buddy Rogers' band on the Mutual "Show of the Week" show on Sunday. Rogers is in the hospital as a result of an auto smashup in Ohio . . . Jane Bryan of the "Brother Rat" cast will be interviewed by Radie Harris over Mutual tomorrow . . . Tom Fizdale is back in New York following a stay in Chicago and Hollywood . . . H. V. Kaltenbom will make a guest appearance on Eddie Cantor's show next week . . . Edith Dick, formerly "Hit Parade" vocalist, will join Buddy Clark's show on CBS Sunday. Two Local Outlets For Benchley Show Bob Benchley's show for Old Gold, like the Kay Kyser and the M-G-M shows, will have two outlets in New York, a New York key station for a network, and WHN. P. Lorillard Co., which will sponsor the Benchley program over the CBS network starting Sunday from 10 to 10 :30 P. M., has entered into a contract with WHN to broadcast the show simultaneously with the network. Lennen & Mitchell placed the account. With the beginning of the Benchley broadcasts, WHN will be carrying programs of the both major networks, CBS and NBC. Another new contract just placed with WHN is by the Museback Show Co. for the broadcasting of three fiveminute periods weekly. The contract, for 13 weeks, was placed by Leighton & Nelson, Inc. Two Added to Group Making French Discs Two foreign language experts have been added to the group now making a series of on-the-spot recordings of American life for the French Government. They are Arthur S. Deter and John Alfred Barrett of NBC's international division. They will make recordings in Portuguese and Spanish, for short-waving to Latin America on the foreign broadcasts over W3XAL, W2XAD and W8XK, NBC international stations. Deter and Barrett are now en route to join Henri Diamant Berger of France and Jack Hartley, assistant manager of NBC's special events division, who are making the recordings. Ross to "Hit Parade" Lanny Ross and Raymond Scott's Quintette have been signed by the American Tobacco Co. for the Lucky Strike "Hit Parade" on CBS. They will start next Saturday, at which time W. C. Fields will leave the program. Lord & Thomas is the agency. Slater Joins KVOO Kansas City, Nov. 15. — Norvell Slater, production manager, program director and announcer for WHB, has gone with KVOO, Tulsa, as production manager and program director. Starr Sues Lamour While Paramount was entertaining yesterday for Dorothy Lamour, at the Waldorf, with the actress present, a process server who posed as an autograph seeker served the player with a summons in a New York breach of contract suit. Martin Starr, WMCA commentator, is plaintiff in the suit. Starr, it is understood, claims to have discovered Miss Lamour and that, after she hit the road to fame, supposedly forgot all about him or his efforts. Welles Talks Film Deals But Studio Trek Unlikely Now Orson Welles has had numerous talks with representatives of studios, but there doesn't seem to be any likelihood that the young actor and producer is going to Hollywood at this time. There doesn't seem to be any definite transaction under way which calls for him to go to the coast in the next few weeks. He has had a very casual discussion regarding the possibility of RKO making "Passenger to Bali," which Welles broadcast the other night. At the moment the immediate task of Welles and his associates at the Mercury Theatre, of which he is an important principal and founder, concerns the production of "The Five Kings," in which proposed project Mercury is associated with the Theatre Guild. Preparation of the play is well under way and the intention has been to present it in New York this winter. Mercury had a program of three plays under consideration for this season, one of which, "Danton's Death," is now on display at the Mercury Theatre and doing in the neighborhood of $4,000 a week, enough to keep it going for the time being. It doesn't seem likely that the play will close for a week or two, if it does shut down soon. The third play which Mercury seems to have pretty well in hand is "Too Much Johnson." Welles' radio program for Campbell Soup begins Dec. 9, and presumably his radio work is just another function of his various Mercury Theatre activities, although his arrangement with the Campbell Soup people is a personal one. Clothier Sues WNEW On Program Contract Suit to recover $32,983 damages against WBO Broadcasting Corp., owner of WNEW, was filed yesterday in the N. Y. Supreme Court by Jonas Schainuck & Son, Inc., retail clothiers. The plaintiff has brought suit on an alleged contract made on Feb. 14, 1934, which provided for half -hour broadcasts over WNEW from Monday through Saturday for $400 weekly. The complaint charges the defendant with having cut down the number and length of broadcasts in violation of the contract for the period from February, 1934 to April, 1937. NBC's Talent Sales in 1937 $6,032,274 (Continued from pane 1) Commission. F.C.C. Counsel William J. Dempsey examined Tuthill. He questioned Tuthill at length on how talent sales were fixed and prices determined upon. Tuthill asserted that in its work the booking office considered only the best interests of artists, without going into Dempsey's apparent purpose to prove that the NBC Artists Service sought to buy talent as cheaply as possible, while selling it otherwise. Dempsey tried to point out that the average commission on talent was more than eight per cent and argued that the artists bureau showed a profit of $286,000 on overhead expenses of $388,000, or 74 per cent. Tuthill insisted that the profit should be compared with gross commissions, which would bring it under 50 per cent. Tuthill also declared that no other medium brings the obscure artist into prominence as does broadcasting. He cited the cases of Russ Morgan, whose earnings jumped from $75 to more than $3,000 a week in three years ; and Fibber McGee, whose income rose from $150 to over $3,000 a week. At the close of today's session only four of the 16 scheduled NBC witnesses had been heard. Presumably the lengthiest testimony and crossexamination are yet to come when the inquiry gets into the question of network operations, local stations, sales and finances. FCC Calendar Washington, Nov. 15. — The Federal Communications Commission has scheduled hearings on broadcasting applications as follows : Dec. 19 : Application of YubaSutter Broadcasters for a 1,320-kilocycle, 250-watt station at Marysville, Cal. Dec. 20 : Application of Laredo Broadcasting Co., for a 630-kilocycle, 500-watt station at Laredo, Tex. Jan. 11: Applications of Sweetwater Radio, Inc., for a 1 ,210-kilocycle, 250-watt daytime station at Sweetwater, Tex. ; KTEM, Temple, Tex., for extension of time from day to unlimited with 100 watts night, 250 watts day, and WJAC, Johnstown, Pa., for change of frequency from 1,310 to 1,370 kilocycles and extension of time from sharing to unlimited. Jan. 17: Application of KGEK, Denver, for change of time from specified hours to day. The commission also has received an application from WTAR, Norfolk, Va., for increase of day power from 1,000 to 5,000 watts, and an amended application from the Niagara Falls Gazette Publishing Co., seeking a construction permit for 1,260-kilocycles, day only, asking that a power of 1,000 watts be authorized instead of 250 as originally sought. Wednesday, November 16, 1938 anner LINES WHN is planning a really worthwhile radio show— a program to give refugee entertainers a chance to be heard on the air. The program, it is understood, will J^e titled "Refugee Theatre of the J(** and the station has enlisted the cooperation of the American Committee of German Christian Refugees, the Catholic Committee for German Refugees and the National Coordinating Committee for Jews and Christians. Time and starting date yet remain to be set, although the plan being formulated calls for a one-hour program each week. Station and its cooperating agencies are now compiling a list of refugee actors, actresses, song writers, directors, producers, vocalists and musicians. T Franchot Tone seeks to do radio this winter. Elaine Sterne Carrington, writer of nehvork serials, just returned here from Hollywood is now working on scripts. Tone will spend the winter in New York. T A suicide has been caught by the television lens, and now a fire. Both were televised quite accidently. NBC's mobile television unit was out near Ward's Island televising experimentally, when word was received that a fire had broken out nearby. The unit was rushed to the scene of the fire and the cameras trained upon it. T There's a little Jewish lad, son of a rabbi, now en route to Kansas to join the Boys Town unit. He's Herman Shulman, son of the assistant rabbi at a Hackensack, N. J., institution. Singing on Major Bowes' Amateur Hour last Thursday, he was heard by Father Flangan who wired asking that the lad be allowed to join the Boys Town troupe. Poppa Shulman agreed to send his lad along only after he obtained the promise of Father Flanagan that the Jewish dietary laws would be observed at meal times for his boy. — Jack Banner See Canadian Radio Boom in Royal Visit The coming Canadian visit of King George and Queen Elizabeth undoubtedly will bring about a broadcasting boom in the Dominion, according to Joseph J. Weed, president of Weed & Co., station representatives, who has just returned from Canada visiting clients represented by the company. Radio receiver manufacturers in Canada are basing their estimate of the broadcasting boom on the recordbreaking sales of receiving sets in England just prior to the Coronation. Another reason for the optimism is that the set manufacturers anticipate that the occasion of the royal visit to Canada will make the Dominion the point of origin for a large number of news and special events programs to be relayed to other nations for rebroadcasting.