Motion Picture Daily (Jan-Mar 1939)

MOTION PICTURE DAILY Friday, January 20, 1939 ■ ' ' i ■ i ■ ■ i ► Radio Personals < FRED WEBER, general manager of Mutual, back from Chicago today. . . . Dorothy Gordon of the Kellogg children's program to Washington today to address the "°jieral Federation of Women's Clubs * 2 radio and the child. . . . Announcer Harry Von Zell sick with grippe and unable to appear on his programs. . . . William Robson, director of the CBS "Workshop" series, has accepted a BBC invitation to go to England to direct several radio plays, and will leave next month. . . . John Kane, page boy at CBS Playhouse, No. 4, has been promoted to manage the house. . . . Benay Venuta back on Mutual this Sunday after a week away from the mike. . . . Hyla Kiczales, general manager of WOVWBIL has been appointed to the World's Fair Advisory Committee. + Lou Ruppel, Columbia's new publicity director, leaves for Chicago today to straighten out personal matters and bring his family to New York. Formerly he was managing editor of tlie Chicago Tribune . . . Jack Stapp, assistant program director at CBS, to Nashville for a week's vacation, starting Feb. 4. + Jackson Teagarden, trombonist in Whiteman's band, will form his own unit. . . Bunny Berrigan will disband his own orchestra to replace Harry James in Benny Goodman's crew. James is leaving to form his own orchestra. . . . Max Jordan, NBC Central European representative, has returned to the Continent. + Pick and Pat are going on vacation, with Pick to Florida on a fishing trip and Pat to Memphis to golf and visit friends. . . . H. V. Kaltenborn, Ed Murrow and Maurice Hundus, CBS "Big Three" during the Czech crisis, will broadcast on "What's Next in Europe" today. . . . Frank Capra will direct the first all-dramatic Screen Actors' Guild program on Jan. 22, "Can We Forget," in which will appear Bette Davis, Bob Montgomery and Basil Rathbone. . . . Howard Chinn, engineer in charge of the audio division of CBS general engineering department, is on leave to act as technical consultant to the American Record Corp., the new CBS affiliate. Sign First Feminine Television Director Television's first woman program director, Thelma A. Prescott, has been added to the staff of NBC. Miss Prescott will produce fashion shows and other programs with appeal to women. NBC will be on the air next spring with television programs. Miss Prescott recently arrived here from Paris, where she worked on the Paris Tribune. North Carolina Bill Would Tax Stations Raleigh, N. C, Jan. 19.— Representative Taylor has introduced a bill in the North Carolina legislature to place a franchise tax on all radio broadcasting stations. Calls Television Ready for Public (Continued from page 1) was being suppressed, the witness explained there is no suppression except to the extent that when television is adopted it will "freeze" the art and care must be exercised not to bring it out too quickly and before it is properly organized. Personally, he added, he is of the belief that the care was carried too far. Answering the Senator's questions as to the development of home receivers, Farnsworth said they now have been so standardized that they will pick up any of several types of transmissions, while broadcasting has been so far perfected that both studio and outdoor scenes can be sent without flicker and with the clarity of motion picture. So far as patents are concerned, however, while it is necessary to use the patents of at least three companies in the production of television equipment, no difficulty has been encountered in obtaining licenses and no effort has been made either to control the industry or fix prices. Without the present patent system, he declared, there would be little hope of starting enterprises of the character of television "because it takes too much money and you must have some protection." Asked about compulsory licensing of patents, he said the value of patents would be so decreased that inventors might as well not have them. Finch Is Guest of Crosley at Dinner Cincinnati, Jan. 19. — W. G. H. Finch, who developed the facsimile radio broadcasting method which bears his name ; Frank R. Brick, of Finch Telecommunications Laboratories, New York; engineers and staff members of WLW, and representatives of stations licensed to use the Finch equipment, were guests of Powel Crosley, Jr., president of the Crosley Corp., at a dinner at the Hotel Gibson. Station representatives attending were : Leonard Kapner, WCAE, Pittsburgh; P. A Loyet, WHO, Des Moines; Hector Skifter, KSTP, St. Paul ; H. H Buttner, I. T. & T., New York ; Harry Stone and J. H. DeWitt, Jr., WSM, Nashville; C. H. Wesser, WWJ; Detroit; E. L. Gove, WHK, Cleveland; C. J. Meyers, E. M. Antrim and Keith Masters, WGN-Mutual, Chicago; Theodore Streibert, WOR-Mutual, New York, and Fred Weber, NBC. Sign 3 email for New WOR Sidewalk Show Jimmy Jemail, Daily News Inquiring Reporter has been signed for a new series of sidewalk interview programs to be broadcast Wednesday and Thursday from 7:15 to 7:30 P. M. over WOR. Wilbert Products Co. will sponsor. The contract is for one year. Two new programs which will appear on WOR are transcribed shows — for Chappell Bros., Sundays at 10:45 A. M. and for the Borden Milk Co., Tuesdays and Wednesdays, the latter through Batten, Barton, Durstine & Osborn. Additionally, Bulova Watch Co. has just placed an extensive time signal schedule, through the Biow agency. Anthem on WNYC WNYC, Municipal broadcasting station, will open and close its broadcasting day from now on with a recorded vocal chorus of "The Star Spangled Banner" so that New Yorkers may become more familiar with the words of the national anthem. Parent Group Cites 12 Child Air Shows United Parents Association has selected a dozen children's programs for merit citation, of which five are on WOR-Mutual, three on CBS, and four on NBC, two each over the Red and Blue networks. The selected programs for Mutual are "Answer Man;" "What's My Name?," Dorothy Gordon children's hour, "Johnson Family," and Stan Lomax's series. The others are "Uncle Jim's Question Bee," NBC; Ireene Wicker, NBC ; Malcolm Claire, NBC ; Paul Leyssac's fairy tales, NBC; "Let's Pretend," CBS; Philharmonic broadcasts for children, CBS, and "March of Games," CBS. 8 Short-Wave Units Available for CBS Eight short-wave stations located in sites covering the coast-to-coast area will be available for experimental use by CBS following the inauguration on Feb. 1 of W6XDA, new CBS international station. The short-wave and ultra shortwave stations now owned, operated or affiliated with CBS include W2XE, New York; W3XAU, Philadelphia; W2XDV, New York; W9XHW. Minneapolis ; W6XDA, Los Angeles ; television station W2XAX, New York; W1XAL and W1XX, Boston. Drops Injunction in 'Perfect Crime' Suit Monroe B. LeVoy, plaintiff in a suit for an injunction, accounting and $25,000 damages against National Broadcasting Co., Philip Morris & Co., Ltd. ; Biow Co., Inc. ; Milton H. Biow and Jack Johnstone, has withdrawn his application in the N. Y. Supreme Court to restrain the defendants from broadcasting a series, "The Perfect Crime," over WEAF. LeV oy claimed plagiarism of the series from one allegedly conceived by him in August, 1938. WFIL Suit to Referee Federal Judge Murray Hulbert has referred the application of WFIL Broadcasting Corp. to dismiss a $50,000 damage suit of Donald Withycomb, its former manager, to a referee to determine the question of jurisdiction. Withycomb claimed that he was "wrongfully discharged" as manager, after entering a contract in May, 1937. Playing Radio Film Omaha, Jan. 19. — "Radio Goes to the Fair," a film by WOW's special events department, has been booked in 200 midwest picture houses. The films were taken at the Iowa and Nebraska state fairs. RADIO N.Y. AFRA Local Votes for Strike; Others to Act Later (Continued from page 1) out of the studios, it will be the signal that the strike is on. Two paramount problems which may be obstacles to a complete tieup of programs — those of contract obligations and support by the American Federation of Musicians were discussed by George Heller, assistant executive secretary. As to contractual obligations, he said these would have to be handled individually in the same manner as by the Actors Equity in its famous strike and by the Screen Actors' Guild, which surmounted this problem. Negotiations with the musicians are still under way, he explained. Messages of support were delivered by the leaders of most of the branches of talent unions, including Frank Gilmore, A.A.A.A. ; Ralph Whitehead, A.F.A. ; Paul Dulzell, Actors' Equity ; Ruth Richmond, Chorus Equity ; Mrs. Florence Marston, S.A.G. ; and Leo Fisher, American Guild of Musical Artists. Wires from Hollywood names were received encouraging the local to action and promising support. Among such were messages from Ralph Morgan, Eddie Cantor, Jack Benny, Bob Burns, Dorothy Lamour, Tyrone Power, George Arliss, Edwin Arnold, Robert Young, Warren Hull, Gene Raymond and Jean Hersholt. FCC Calendar Washington, Jan. 19. — The Federal Communications Commission has announced broadcasting hearings, as follows : Jan. 20: Applications of WRR, Dallas, for increase of power from 500 to 1,000 watts ; and KAND, Corsicana, Tex., for extension of time from day to unlimited with 100 watts night, 250 watts day. The commission has ordered hearings on the application of the Don Lee Broadcasting Co. for a new television station in San Francisco. Hearings were also ordered on the applications of Lawrence J. Heller for a new synchronous station to operate on 1,310 kilocycles with a power of 10 to 100 watts if his application for a new 1,310-kilocycle station in Washington is granted, and KSCJ, Sioux City, la., for increase of night power from 1,000 to 5,000 watts.^ Hearing on the application of YubaSutter Broadcasters for a new 1,320kilocycle, 250-watt station at Marysville, Cal., has been set for Jan. 27. The commission also announced that on Feb. 27 a hearing will be held on the application of WHLS, Port Huron, Mich., for extension of time from day to unlimited with 100 watts power night, 250 watts day, and that a hearing would be held April 18 on the application of WJBW, New Orleans, for extension of time from sharing to unlimited. Form N. C. Radio Firm Raleigh, N. C, Jan. 19.— North Carolina Radio Corp., with an authorized capitalization of $500,000, has been chartered to broadcast by radio or television.