Radio annual and television yearbook (1951)

lUILLiniDdlOVIES? By IRVING SHAPIRO, President oj Standard Television Corp. MHH|HH^H| mHE so-called battle ^^^^^^^^^^H X between ^^MPMH^H and televi ^^Hl^ ^^H ^^^'^ ^^^ assumed a 11^^''^ ,«^^| scare importance far m T ^^B beyond reality, large ^4 ^m ly because the mo ^^K ^H tion picture indus ^^^k ^^m try, in attempting to ^^Rb^ ^_^^j^^| analyze the new giant ^^■^'W'^^^^^H form of entertainers ^^ ^^^^ ment, has allowed it^m ff Jl^l self to become unnecessarily intimiIrving Shapiro dated, and has given itself up to the exorcism of a supposed menace. The fear is unreasonable and the blindness is unnecessary. There is a relationship to television in which our picture industry can gain and grow, and the sooner we find it the better. Instances of business experience are showing us the way, and the following is an example — the occasion of the first televising of THEIRS IS THE GLORY. This film was highly praised by the press in England, but theatrical release in the United States was not worked out. It was shown over KECA-TV in Los Angeles. A direct result of this television showing was a number of inquiries from theatrical exhibitors requesting information on the availability of the picture for theatrical bookings. In addition to the direct result, an effect of international understanding was accomplished. The producers of the picture had felt naturally, that they were being denied a hearing in the United States market, and that the possibility of profitable theatrical releases was being unfairly withheld from them. Of course the result of all this, directly from television, is that we have a friend instead of a foe. Largely because of the motion picture industry's fears of television, the broad possibilities of the new medium as a sales avenue have been neglected, except in the smallest sense. Television has been dramatically successful in selling almo.st all other American products. An irrational dread, chimeras of impossible competition, have prevented the movies from using it. Plain common sense must be restored to the connection between pictures and television. The television producer will never have the budget for GONE WITH THE WIND, BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES, SAMSOM AND DELILAH. Is any observer ready to declare that such entertainment as these productions constitute is in jeopardy from television? Rather, why not take advantage of the television screen to bring home to the public the inescapable fact that it depends upon the motion picture industry for an art and entertainment of the greatest magnitude? What has television to offer? Let's find some good points in the presumed conflict of giants. The following is an attempt to sketch some of them: Television can find, or has found, in the movies: 1. A well-developed philosophy and practice of visual narration. Television needed it. Television business is mainly administered by radio people, used to telling their stories with nothing but words and sounds. 2. An equipment of technology and techniques which it would otherwise find impossible, in time and money. 3. A vast storehouse of completed entertainment. Accessible films eliminate all pre-production television expense, and it's terrific. 4. A series idea. Pictures invented it. Television perishes without it. 5. Star power— in the can. A Chicago automobile dealer offers his TV audience Stewart Granger, Yehudi Menuhin, Laurel and Hardy, Frederic March, Burgess Meredith, Constance Bennett, Adolph Menjou, Sir Cedric Hardwicke, Alan Ladd, Ralph Richardson. 6. Fresh cultural and entertainment resources. MAGIC BOW had played an art house in Chicago. When it was scheduled and announced for TV, one music teacher made it required viewing for 500 students; besides which it was an entertainment smash, with instant clamor for rerun. Television had it from the British studios, along with SILVER FLEET, TAWNY PIPIT, MR. PERRIN AND MR. TRAIL, THE BROTHERS, BLIND GODDESS, MY BROTHER'S KEEPER. * * 1055