Motion Picture Daily (Jan-Mar 1959)

ji! ednesday, January 7, 1959 Motion Picture Daily ara. Meeting (Continued from page 1) psion executives will attend the eting, which Weltner described as e of the most important in the ory of Paramount." Will Stress Release Slate lanning and discussions will cenyj on the company's rapidly develJ ng 1959 release schedule. Addition . new merchandising techniques, outlines of a publicity program, Tns for advertising campaigns, and Tpr features of the company's pro tional operation for the new year j i be presented by Jerry Pickman, i -president in charge of advertisijj . publicity and exploitation; Martin i\is, assistant director, and Joseph edman, national exploitation man lugh Owen and Sidney Deneau, :-presidents of Paramount Film ~ tributing Corporation, will head a tingent of home office sales operais executives at the meeting. GorLightstone, Paramount's Canadian eral manager, will attend the seslj is and upon his return to Toronto fl[ call a Paramount all-Canada conTmce for discussion of the New York J iting's developments. Division Heads to Attend rcpivision managers who will come tji New York are John G. Moore, I tern, Philadelphia; W. Gordon ;..dley, Southeastern, Atlanta; J. H. " . ens. MidWestern, Chicago; Tom Bridge, Southwestern, Dallas, and Neal East, Western, Los Angeles, ron Sattler, New York branch manr, will attend all sessions. — -lome office executives participatwill include Robert J. Rubin, vice;ident of Paramount Film Disuting Corporation; Edward G. lmley, U. S. and Canadian sales lager for "The Ten Commandjijits"; Edmund C. DeBerry, execu1 assistant to Owen; Jack Perley, jjstant to Deneau; Ben Shectman, tjtracts manager; Arthur Dunne, ding manager; Fred LeRoy, sales irations; Ted Krassner, executive to Chumley. Follows Coast Confab "he three-day meeting follows the jamount conferences being held week in Hollywood by home ofand production executives. Parnants in the sessions at the studio z I Barney Balaban, president; Paul j jbourn, vice-president; Weltner; cman and Russell Holman, Eastproduction manager, all from New k, and Y. Frank Freeman, studio -president, and other production lutives. Balaban and Raibourn j. [ sit in on the New York meeting. >nt 35 Installation he annual general membership ting of New York Variety Club, t 35, will be held at Toots Shor's iturant, Jan. 16, at which time the officers and crew will be formally nlled. Members who have paid r 1959 dues will dine without "ge. The week of Jan. 12-18 is riety Week." Television Over 90% of U.S. Population Now Within Range of One TV Station From THE DAILY Bureau WASHINGTON, Jan. 6.-Over 90 per cent of the U.S. population is within range of at least one operating television station and 75 per cent is in the service areas of two or more stations, Chairman John C. Doerfer declared. In a year-end statement, he added that about 85 per cent of all U.S. homes now have one or more TV receivers. Doerfer said 470 VHF and nearly 200 UHF stations had been authorized, and 430 VHF and close to 80 UHF stations were actually on the air. In addition, he pointed out, the programs of some of these stations are picked up and retransmitted locally Federal Communications Commission by approximately 200 translator stations. In the educational TV field, 36 VHF and 23 UHF station grants have been made by the FCC, and 35 stations are actually operating— 28 VHF and seven UHF. Doerfer mentioned that the FCC has deferred any grants for toll TV tests until after the 1959 session of Congress. One Man's TViews By Pinky Herman THE trend to filmed programs could very well be halted with the debut early in October of Hubbell Robinson's new program concept, "Biographv," which will be CBSeen LIVE once a month and produced bv Arthur Penn, scripter of numerous "Playhouse 90" programs. Stories will profile people who achieved success in the face of great odds, will feature all-star casts and will originate in New York or Hollywood with Equitable Life Assurance Society of the United States picking up the tabs. . . . The advent of video tape hasn't deterred efforts on the part of Eastern Effects, Inc. to improve its optical film effects service to the Motion Picture and Television Industries but actually spurred les freres Maurice, Sam and Max to spend in the neighborhood of $90,000 in further experimentation with the result that this enterprising firm is now the first in the East with a newlv-developed facet called Aerial Image. This permits the development of superimposed film (live or animated) services to producers much faster due to the elimination of several process steps required heretofore with present equipment. . . . Anheuser-Busch and WRCA will honor John Bromfield at a press reception tomorrow afternoon at Toots Shor's. Bromfield is star of the telefilm series "U.S. Marshal," sponsored bv Budweiser Beer. \it ft it Dave Garroway and TV's most saleable program NBCommodity, "Today," embark on the eighth consecutive year next Wednesday. In 1952 the "experimental" program bowed in over a 27-station network with but a single sponsor. Today it is seen daily over 140 stations and has been sponsored by 365 different advertisers. . . . Our son, lerry, while on a visit to Dallas, Texas last week, got an unexpected thrill when he saw a copy of this pillar on the desk of Barbara Elam, drum beater for WFAA. "It was a touch of home," writes our heir, especially when deejay Johnny Allen of the same station told Jerry he "often picks up an item or two on TV and screen topics for his daily program." So quoting the great Geo. M. Cohan, (with a slight variation) our publisher thanks him, our son thanks him, Johnny AnDave Garroway drews thanks him and SQ does yQurs tmly Johnny Nash, who'll star in the forthcoming Hecht-Hill-Lancaster flicker, "Take A Giant Step," will wax the pix theme ditty for ABC-Paramount Platters. . . . Wm. Morris Agency has pacted the Ames Bros, and Don Cherry. . . . "The Donna Reed Show," with a continued rise in ratings (16.5-17.7-21.7 Nielsen last month) has been given an additional 26 week extension by ABCampbell Soup. Package is a Todon-Briskin Production in association with Screen Gems. . . . Who's Where Court McLeod has been named administrative manager, program department, ABC-TV Network, Western Division, it was announced by Sandy Cummings, vice-president and director of programming on the West Coast. McLeod's appointment is effective immediately. He will report directly to Cummings. Independent Television Corporation has appointed Abe Mandell as manager of international sales— Western Hemisphere, Walter Kingsley, president of the company, announced. Mandell, whose appointment is effective immediately, will be based in New York but still travel extensively throughout Latin America, South America, Canada, and the Western Hemisphere island groups. □ John A. Buning, formerly with International News Service, has joined the station relations department of the National Association of Broadcasters as field representative for the Northeast territory, William Carlisle, manager of station relations, announced in Washington. Howard Rye has been named promotion director at WNBC, West Hartford, Conn., NBC-TV owned-and-operated outlet, succeeding Frank Wooding, who becomes public relations director of the Connecticut Tuberculosis Society. Barbara Stanwyck Set For New Series on NBC Barbara Stanwyck will present a series of filmed dramatic shows over the NBC Television Network starting in early fall, Robert F. Lewine, vicepresident, television network programs, has announced. The half-hour weekly series will be titled "The Barbara Stanwyck Theatre" and will mark the star's entry into television for the first time on a regular basis, Lewine said. In the series, Miss Stanwyck will appear as hostess on all programs and star in most of them. Filming for the new NBC-TV attraction, an anthology series, starts in April. The TV series will be produced by Louis F. Edelman TV Productions, Inc., William H. Wright and Barwyck Corporation, in association with NBC-TV. ON EVERY CHANNEL BROOKS COSTUMES