Motion Picture Daily (Jan-Mar 1952)

6 Motion Picture daily Wednesday, January 23, 1952 MPAA Is Lining up Witnesses for Industry's TV Bid Another round of discussions on the industry's T\' bid to the Federal Communications Commission were held here yesterday by the programming and full TV committees of the Motion Picture Association of America. A line-up of possible witnesses and the area of programming were highlighted in a morning session at MPA headquarters. In the afternoon, the full MPA TV committee held further discussions on the technical and commercial aspects of the industry's request for frequencies. Another meeting of the joint TV technical committee will be held in Washington on Jan. 29. Among those attending yesterday's meetings were: James L. Fly, MPA TV attorney, who was chairman; Vincent Welch. MPA attorney; William Baltin, Columbia; Leopold Friedman. Loew's; Louis Novins, Paramount; Theodore Black. Republic; E. J. Smith. Jr., RKO Pictures; Norman .Steinberg, 20th CenturyFox; Frank Cahill, Jr., Harry Goldberg and Stanleigh Friedman, Warner Brothers; Lester Isaac. Loew's; Richard Hodgson, Paramount. Skiatron Complaint To Justice Dept. Washington, Jan. 22. — The Justice Departments' anti-trust division has taken under consideration a protest from Arthur Levey, Skiatron's president, that most major studios will not make films available for the company's subscriber-vision TV tests. Only Paramount and RKO Pictures said they will make product available for the tests, under certain conditions. While Department officials refused to comment, it was learned the protest has reached Justice, and that government attorneys are studying it. There was no indication how soon action might be .expected. Anti-trust division prodding was said to be largely responsible for the decision of major studios to make films available for Zenith Radio's Phonevision test last year. NPA Color TV (Continued from page 1 ) and National Exhibitors Theatre Television Committee argued that the order was never meant to cover large.screen equipment but only home sets, and asked for an "interpretation" to this effect. "The wording in the order is very clear," an NPA spokesman said today. "It prohibits the manufacture of all television equipment designed to show color and does not say just home television equipment. It could not be interpreted to mean anything else. It would take an amendment to the order, not just an interpretation, to rule otherwise." Alw«yt Oviekl t«tl CHICAGO,l377S.Waba>h NEW YORK. 630 Ninlh Ay Television-Radio Comment and Opinion THE American Broadcasting Company now announces that it too has signed a sponsor — the Admiral Radio and Television Corp. — for its coverage of the political conventions in Chicago next July. Admiral will spend more than $2,000,000 on bringing the nominating conclaves into American living rooms. Last week, the membership of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York voted down a committee resolution to ban radio and television coverage of public hearings held by Congressional committees. At the same time, radio and TV were barred from a hearing of the Senate District sub-committee investigating crime in the District of Columbia. The radio correspondents association followed up by labeling the committee's action "discrimination" and said radio and TV afforded a witness better protection than the conventional type of news coverage. These developments hang together for they touch on the all-important question of television's responsibility to the public. There is no doubt that television constitutes a vital and important medium of information and as such may give the viewer visual access to affairs that concern him and the welfare of the country. But somewhere the line will have to be drawn. Television in the past year has figured importantly in Congressional hearings. Many felt that it served to turn the hearing room into a court-room through its natural tendency to dramatize. Come July, the wisdom of "sponsored" politics will undergo serious scrutiny. While TV will provide invaluable insight into politics at Chicago, it will also induce a touch of drama and showmanship. The danger is that where no drama exists, TV will have to create it. The sponsors can reasonably expect "a good show" in the conventional meaning of the word. Conscious of the huge viewing audience, both the networks and the delegates will do their best to "produce" one, possibly at the expense of the serious business at hand. i:^ "Mr. I. Magination" staged its long overdue return to television on CBS-TV Sunday and in the very first show immediately endeared itself once again as one of the medium's outstanding and most entertaining children's shows. With Paul Tripp once again at the helm, director Fred Rickey took his company through a half-hour of the Indian Wars in a dramatization of "The Last of the Mohicans," starring little Butch Cavell as Unca. There are fevi^ children's shows on the air that have caught so completely the needs of the juvenile viewer. "Mr. I. Magination," thanks to Tripp, is a bright spot on the Sunday evening TV schedule. -t^ -ik ik The frailties of television were underscored with embarrassing emphasis Sunday on Edward R. Murrow's Alcoa-sponsored "See It Now" TV show, ordinarily one of the best programs of its kind on the air. Murrow attempted to go through with a much-publicized TV pickup from a submerged submarine. It didn't come off. Everytime CBS switched to the sub, the picture "broke up." Instead of giving up, Murrow continued to try "to do it the old-fashioned radio way." Had he followed this thought through to the end, he might have had some substitute material ready. He might even have prefilmed the entire sequence. It's been done before. ik -h ik Now that television has adopted a Code of Ethics, a Code to which the radio broadcasters also subscribe, it may be time to start worrying about enforcing it properly. Lately, there have been two serious lapses. One occurred on Arthur Godfrey's early morning radio show when he gave out with long minutes of "off color" chatter. The other concerned the Celanese Theatre's "Reunion in Vienna" presentation. The Sherwood play was tastelessly executed and rightfully drew protests. Unless TV watches its step the FCC may step in to remind it of its responsibilities to the vast home audience. ^ ik Exhibitors who worried about the effects of the Roy Rogers television show on their business can rest assured — there's never been a better example to demonstrate the superiority of the large screen in the presentation of film entertainment. Rogers' show is so confined in scope and so handicapped by lack of good material, that today's youngsters can not take it very seriously. Within a scant half-hour, Rogers and Dale Evans go through the motions, using very simple sets and performing with notable lack of enthusiasm. Rogers deserves a better break than this. Fred Hift Denies Offer {Continued from page 1) statements which conflicted with testimony given previously in the hearing by Dr. Allan B. DuMont, president of the DuMont company. The current hearings, dealing with the question of Paramount's control of DuMont, will later go into the question of whether Paramount and any of its subsidiaries should own television stations in the light of the company's anti-trust history. They will also take up the proposed merger between United Paramount Theatres and American Broadcasting Co. "I was not aware," Raibourn told FCC hearing examiner Leo Resnick, "that we had ever received a cash offer definitive enough to reject." This statement was at variance with DuMont's, who claimed that his company had made firmly-financed offers for Paramount's stock ranging form 16,000,000 to $12,000,000. Raibourn also described an agreement written up in April, 1950, under the terms of which Paramount would convert its B stock holdings in the DuMont company into A stock. The A stock would then be sold in small holdings. Both he and DuMont discussed the proposal over a period of four or five months, he said, and had come to a final understanding on all terms. On the night when it was to be signed, he continued, DuMont appeared and refused to sign it on the grounds that "his banking friends" thought the Paramount-DuMont relationship had been "fortunate and successful," and that DuMont "should not throw it overboard." In previous testimony, DuMont had stated that both he and Raibourn were in complete accord on the agreement and it was about ready to be signed when Paramount Pictures president Barney Balaban then inserted provisions in the agreement which DuMont found untenable and the agreement was scrapped. Raibourn referred several times today to DuMont's reluctance to put up cash for the purpose of buying Paramount's stock. Industry Men to Defense Dept. Fete Washington, Jan. 22. — Support of the industry in the Defense Department's campaign for the procurement of women in the defense effort will be formally enlisted at a luncheon to be given tomorrow by Defense Secretary Robert Lovett. Among industry officials who will be present are Eric Johnston, Ned Depinet, David Selznick, Abram F. Myers, Spyros Skouras, George Skouras, Arthur Mayer and Robert Coyne. Harry Peck Dies Boston, Jan. 22.— Harry Peck, 70, Boston advertising executive, well known in musical circles and nationally known as a publisher of theatre programs for the past 35 years, died at Quincy Hospital, Quincy, Mass. Surviving are the widow. Mrs. Anne Peck, and a son, Clifford. Funeral services will be held tomorrow. Charles Donald Fox Dies Jacksonville, Jan. 22. — Charles Donald Fox, author of a number of books about Hollywood and an editor of "Who's Who on the Screen," died here late last week after a brief illness.