Motion Picture Daily (Jan-Mar 1941)

MOTION PICTURE DAILY Thursday, March 6, 194) Off the Antenna FOR the third year, WOR will broadcast the play-by-play description of the Brooklyn Dodger baseball games with Red Barber and Al Heifer at the microphone. General Mills and Lever Bros, will sponsor. Pre-season games have already been aired. Daily games will be cut off the air at 5 :30 P.M. if other programs interfere. Weekend games will go until 6 :30. Barber will start April 7 with a nightly talk, excepting Thursdays and Sundays, under the sponsorship of Christian Feigenspan Brewing Co. • • • Purely Personal: The engagement of Helen Harper, secretary to A. D. Willard, Jr., general manager of WJSV, Washington, to Ralph Shultz, WJSV engineer, was announced yesterday. They will be married March 17. . . . Robert Kornheiser, recently appointed JVHN traffic manager, will be inducted into the army tomorrow. . . . Wythe Williams, Mutual commentator, will have his book, "The Riddle of the Reich" published by Prentice-Hall tomorrow. • • • A news program of purely local interest will start Monday over WMCA and will be heard daily at 11:30-11:45 A.M. The station will use the Associated Press regional wire for the quarter hour. • • • Program News: Art Metal Works will sponsor "Paul Sullivan Reviews the News" oyer 23 CBS stations on Fridays, beginning April 11. Sullivan is sponsored Mondays through Thursdays by Brown & Williamson Tobacco Co. . . . Griffin Shoe Polish Co. has renewed "Who Knows" over four Mutual stations for 52 weeks, effective March 24. . . . Hecker Products has renewed "Lincoln Highway" over 61 NBC-Red stations for seven weeks, effective March 15. . . . John Gambling's "Musical Clock" celebrates its 16th birthday on the air over WOR Saturday. Gambling's program is one of the oldest continuous shows in radio. . . . WOR's Sunday schedule has been rearranged to provide 90 minutes of children's shows. "First Offender" will be heard 8:30-9 A.M., "Uncle Don Reads the Comics," 9-9:30 A.M., and "This Wonderful World," 9:30-10 A.M. . . . Ted Malone's "American Pilgrimage" will originate from Jack London's California ranch in a Warner Bros, tieup for "The Sea Wolf." . . . "Double or Nothing" will travel to Cincinnati March 30 to test the possibilities of a wider tour this spring. • • • Film Players on the Air: Constance Bennett and Bob Hope will be heard in "The Awful Truth" over CBS during the "Lux Radio Theatre" Monday. . . . Franchot Tone zvill have the leading role in "An American Crusader," zvritten by Robert E. Sherwood, playwright, for the "Free Company" scries over CBS Sunday. . . . Carole Lombard will be featured on the "Silver Theatre" Sunday over CBS. . . . Gary Cooper, Joan Bennett, Francis Langford and Edward Arnold will join Fibber McGee & Molly in an original comedy for the "Screen Guild Theatre" over CBS Sunday. Several Stations Are Authorized to Increase Power Washington, March 5. — The Federal Communications Commission has authorized Stations WFHR, Wisconsin Rapids, Wis., to increase night power from 100 to 250 watts ; WJOB, Hammond, Ind., to extend time of operation from sharing to unlimited ; KSO, Des Moines, to increase night power from 1,000 to 5,000 watts; WGES, Chicago, to increase power from 500 to 5,000 watts and increase hours of operation from sharing to unlimited, and WKZO, Kalamazoo, Mich., to increase day power from 1,000 to 5,000 watts. FM Permits Sought Applications were received for construction permits for two regular and one FM broadcasting stations. The FM permit was asked by the Columbia Broadcasting System for a 44,900kilocycle station in Hollywood, to cover 20,560 square miles with a population of 2,594,086. The other applications were filed by the Southern California Broadcasting Co. for a 1,400kilocycle, 1,000-watt day station at Pasadena, Cal., and Howard H. Wilson for a 1,490-kilocycle, 250watt station at Oshkosh, Wis. An application for change of frequency from 1,500 to 1,230 kilocycles was submitted by Station WOPI, Bristol, Tenn. Hearings Ordered Hearings were ordered on the applications of the Mid-American Broadcasting Corp. for a new 1,040-kilocycle station at Louisville, Ky., with 1,000 watts night, 5,000 watts day, and Stations WMAS, Springfield, Mass., for increase of power from 250 watts to 1,000 watts night, 5,000 watts day, and change of frequency from 1,420 to 880 kilocycles ; WBRE^ Wilkes-Barre, Pa., for a synchronous station at Scranton, Pa., with 100 watts, and WSNJ, Bridgeton, N. J., for a booster station in Camden, N. J., with 100 to 250 watts. Armstrong, 2 Others Get Permits f or FM Washington, March 5. — Three additional FM licenses were issued by the FCC today, making a total of 42 thus far. Edwin H. Armstrong, who developed noiseless FM, received one of the licenses. The station is to be constructed on the site of Armstrong's experimental station at Alpine, N. J. Other construction permits issued were to the Moody Bible Institute at Chicago, and Stromberg-Carlson Telephone Manufacturing Co., Rochester. Cal. Bill Provides Schools' Film Use Sacramento. Cal., March 5. — A bill which would authorize schools to show motion pictures of all sorts for educational purposes has been introduced in the legislature by Assemblyman Alfred Robertson of Santa Barbara. Philco Sets Dividend Philadelphia, March 5. — The directors of Philco Corp. have declared a dividend of 25 cents per share, payable March 26 to stockholders of record March 14. Malin Craig Named To CBS Directorate Gen. Malin Craig, who was Chief of Staff of the U. S. Army up to the time of his resignation about a year and a half ago, was elected yesterday as a member of the CBS board of directors. Gen. Craig was graduated from the U. S. Military Academy at West Point in 1898. In 1925 he was appointed Chief of Staff and as part of his duties reorganized the mobile troops of the Army and helped set up the Civilian Conservation Corps camps. Upon his resignation in the summer of 1939, his final report recommended the establishment of a peace time defense army of 1,000,000 men. Hearing on Nebraska Ascap Law in April Omaha, March 5. — Hearing of Nebraska's appeal on a Federal court decision holding its anti-Ascap law to be unconstitutional is scheduled for the week of April 3 before the U. S. Supreme Court. According to reports, the state has insufficient funds to finance the appeal, due largely to the heavy cost of printing the lengthy record of the case for the appeal. Indications are, however, that a further appropriation to cover the necessary costs will be forthcoming. Milwaukee Ascap Hearing March 13 Milwaukee, March 5. — The hearing on the Government's criminal information action against Ascap which was scheduled for today in Federal District court here was postponed to March 13 at the request of Victor O. Waters, special assistant to the U. S. Attorney General. When the case comes before Federal Judge F. Ryan Duffy on March 13 the Government is expected to ask for its dismissal on the levying of fines totaling $24,000 against Ascap officers and publishers who are represented on the music society's board. Pellegrin Is Head Of NAB Ad Bureau Omaha, March 5. — Frank Pellegrin, sales manager of Central States Broadcasting System (KOIL, Omaha, KFAB and KFOR, Lincoln) has accepted the position of director of the radio advertising bureau of the National Association of Broadcasters. Pellegrin will leave for Washington within 60 days, as soon as his successor here is selected. He has been with Central States since 1938. Dismiss Decca Suit N. Y. Supreme Court Justice Samuel I. Rosenman has dismissed the complaint of Ollie Shepard, band leader, against Decca Records, Inc., and subsidairy companies with leave to the plaintiff to amend his complaint. Wakefield Named Member of F.C.C. Washington, March 5. — President Roosevelt today sent to the Senate the nomination of Ray C. Wakefield of Fresno, CaL, to succeed the late Thad H. Brown as a member of the Federal Com [ munications Commission, for the term ending June 30, 1946. ', Wakefield is a member of the California Railroad Commission, which has jurisdiction over intrastate tele-^^ phone lines and other public"^ utilities, his term expiring in the near future. He is a Republican, as required to maintain the bi-partisan character of the Communications Commission. RCA Plans Largest Radio Laboratory RCA will build the largest radio research laboratories in the world at Princeton, N. J., David Sarnoff, president, said yesterday. The new laboratories will be headquarters for all research and original development work of the company and for its patent and licensing activities. Otto S. Schairer, vice-president in charge of the patent department, has been named vice-president in charge of the laboratories, which will include the patent department. Ralph R. Beal. research director, will be in charge of all research and original development. C. B. Jolliffe has been named chief engineer ; E. W. Engstrom will be director of the Princeton laboratories with V. K. Zworykin and B. J. Thompson as associates; Harold H. Beverage will be director of communications research in charge of the laboratories at Riverhead and Rocky Point, L. I.; and Arthur Van Dyck will be manager of the industry service section. A' research consulting board will be composed of the chief engineers of the RCA subsidiarv companies, including O. B. Hanson, NBC; E. W. Ritter, RCA Manufacturing; C. W. Latimer, RCA Communications and I. F. Byrnes, Radiomarine. General supervision of all research will be vested in an executive hoard consisting of Sarnoff as chairrnan, with Schairer, Beal and Jolliffe and the heads of subsidiary companies, G. K. Throckmorton, RCA Manufacturing; Niles Trammell. NBC; W. A. Winterbottom, RCA Communications, and Charles J. Pannill. Radiomarine. 10,352,000 Radio Sets Made in 1939 Washington, March 5. — More than 10,352,000 radio receiving sets, valued at $158,965,000, were produced in this country in 1939, an increase of about 2,500,000 in number but a reduction of $17,000,000 in value compared with 1937, according to the U. S. Census Bureau. Production was at an all-time peak in 1939, running more than double that of 1929, when 4,980,000 sets were made, but lower prices resulted in a drop of $94,000,000 in factorv value from the 1929 record of $252,787,000, the report showed.