Radio daily (Oct-Dec 1949)

Section of RADIO DAILY, Wednesday. December 21. 1949 — TELEVISION DAILY is fully protected by register and copyright TV PROGRAMMING REFLECTS XMAS TELE TOPICS \A/E'RE GOING to do our Christmas ~ ™ issue today, the boss said, so make your column a kind of personal message to our readers. After spending all morning staring at a blank sheet of paper, we rejected the idea of filling this space with gay witticisms and instead will let our fingers run unguided over the keys. In other words, old-fashioned pot luck. Here goes: Would that it were only possible, we would fill TV's greatest need — scores of writers with fresh new ideas and the talent and ability to translate them into good shooting scripts. We would also provide bold, creative, imaginative producers and directors and give them the freedom to use these scripts in original manner, free from ratings, both quantitative and qualitative, and free from the hackneyed formulas of radio and movies. For not until such a happy situation exists will television come close to realizing its potentialities. • A ND AS Christmas draws near, we ** would like to say thanks: To Burr Tillstrom and Fran Allison, for the happiest show on earth and for being such swell folks. ... To Tony Miner, for Caesar, The Medium and other masterpieces on "Studio One." ... To Arthur Godfrey and Dorothy Doan, for being themselves and succeeding at it. . . . To Ward Byron, Jim McNaughton, Valerie Bettis and everyone else connected with the new Paul Whiteman show, not forgetting, of course. Pops himself. ... To Messrs. Scheck, Dahlman and Black for' "City At Midnight," a bold experiment in programming that should have succeeded, but didn't. ... To Paul Belanger, for "Through The Crystal Ball." ... To Marc Daniels and company for the consistently good "Ford Theater." ... To Roy Marshall, for being the kind of prof, whose classes we would like to attend. . . . And by no means last, to our co-workers and everyone at the nets, stations and agencies for their invaluable help throughout the year. AND NOW A FEW GIFTS: To Robert ** Q. Lewis, a fall-winter-spring job. ... To Lee Cooley, another Swift Show. ... To George Wolf, a four-star hit. . . . To Nat Rudich, an apartment. . . To Seymour Siegel and New York's eight million, a WNYC-TV. ... To Don McClure, a station that can superimpose slide on film To Gorgeous George, Mr. America, et al, movie contracts prohibiting TV appearances. ... To Frank Young, an autographed photograph of Grovcr Whalen. ... To all set-owners, a TV series featuring Groucho et freres. ... To the industry, an end to the freeze and gallons of black ink. . . . And to everyone, everywhere, we emulate Dave Garroway to raise our hand in benediction and say — Peace Legends, Tradition And Literature Of Nativity All-Pervading Theme For Holiday Week-End; Several Pickups Of Church Services Planned (Continued the Midnight Mass from St. Patrick's Cathedral. Francis Cardinal Spellman, Archbishop of New York, will be celebrant. Program will continue until 1:20 a.m. All regularly scheduled NBC shows will present holiday offerings, and a special two-hour program from St. Nicholas Arena will be aired by WNBT Sunday afternoon. Later that day the Armed Forces Hour will present "No Room At The Inn," dramatizing the work of armed forces chaplains. Appearance of Cardinal Spellman on "Morning Chapel" today will open a series of special Christmas shows on the DuMont network. On Dec. 23, a special holiday program will be presented by Bob Emery on his "Small Fry Club," with Emery telling the story of The Nativity from the Gospel According to St. Luke, Hans Christian Anderson's "The Poor Little Match Girl," and Clement Moore's "A Visit from St. Nicholas." Service From Grace Church Later that night DuM talent will satirize themselves in a special show staged by Bob Loewi. Participating will be Morey Amsterdam. Richard Coogan, Pat Meikle. Kathi Norris, Wilbur Stark, Chuck Tranum, Vincent Lopez, Margaret Johnson, Dennis James, and George F. Putnam. On Christmas Eve, the web will carry Candlelight Service from Grace Church and on Christmas Night an all-star party on behalf of from Page 5) the Sister Kenny Foundation will be aired. Highlighting the Christmas fare on CBS will be the first showings of a number of films featuring the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra. Films will be aired in a Christmas Eve concert featuring the overture to Rosamunde, Music of the Spheres, Eine Kleine Nachtmusik, and the first movement of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony. Pageant Based On "Messiah" A costume pageant of The Messiah will be presented Christmas Day on "Lamp Unto My Feet," which will be conducted by Dr. David N. Licorish, minister of the Abyssinian Baptist Church. In addition, all regular shows throughout the holiday week will feature special Christmas themes. Two traditional Christmas plays, "Scrooge" and "Alice In Wonderland," and an enactment of the Yuletide in merrie England will highlight the ABC programs. "Scrooge," a British film based on Dickins' "A Christmas Carol," will be aired on Christmas Eve and again on Christmas Day. Franklyn Pangborn will play the White Rabbit in the ABC version of "Alice" to be aired Christmas Eve on "Hollywood Screen Test." Jean Aubuchon will play Alice and John Hicks, an ABC floor manager, will come from behind the scenes to plav the Mad Hatter. TVA Seeks SAG Peace Parley, Scores Film Pact Negotiations In its first official act, the board of newly-organized Television Authority has invited Screen Actors Guild to join with it in a TV partnership and asked SAG to hold up negotiations with film companies until the two groups can meet, preferably on Jan. 6. to "examine any and all possible proposals for peace." The TVA proposals, contained in a wire signed by George Heller, national executive secretary, were made, the union said, in an effort "to arrive at a peaceful solution of the points at issue." "We point out," the wire said, "that no wages or working conditions for film television have been submitted to our many members now working in film television for their approval or consideration, nor have they been asked to approve Screen Actors Guild as their sole collective bargaining agent, notwithstanding that the performers under TVA constitute the vast majority of the performers working in television. "The negotiation of contracts without the consent of members is of course a futile act," TVA continued, "but it can also be harmful to all television performers no matter to which branch of the 4A's they belong. We therefore await your assurance that such negotiations will be held in abeyance pending our meetings with you and we cordially invite you to meet with our representatives at the earliest possible moment to examine any and all possible proposals for peace." 3rd NTFC Film Forum To Be Held Dec. 28 The third quarterly forum of the National Television Film Council will be held Wednesday, Dec. 28, at the Astor Hotel, it was announced yesterday by Melvin L. Gold, NTFC prexy. Forum will be comprised of three sessions. The first, a forum on distribution, will be held at 10 a.m. and will be headed by John Mitchell, sales manager for United Artists Television and W. W. Black, vice-pres. of Official Television. Production Forum In Afternoon At 1 p.m., the production forum, headed by Henry Morley, Dynamic Films and Jules Bricken, Screen Gems, Columbia TV subsidiary, will meet to consider a sizable agenda pertinent to the problems of producing television films. At 3 p.m.. the station forum will meet, headed by Robert Paskow, WATV, Newark and Helen Buck, WCAU-TV, Philadelphia. At 7 p.m., NTFC's dinner meeting at the Brass Rail at 521 Fifth Ave., will be highlighted by a Tween Holidays Party. Theater-Tele Hearing Seen Early Next Year (Continued from Page 5) large-screen video until summer or later, there have been unofficial assurances from responsible officers of the FCC that an attempt will be made to work out time for the hearing before the resumption of testimony on color television in midFebruary. WPIX, NBC Score TV Beat In O'Dwyer Wedding Pix Two New York TV operations. WPIX and NBC. scored a two-fold beat yesterday on the wedding of New York's Mayor William O'Dwyer. WPIX newsreel cameraman Frank Hurley boarded the New York News plane yesterday after the ceremony to deliver his films to the station where they were processed, edited and broadcast at 5:11 p.m. NBC films were flown from Stuart to Miami in a chartered plane and then placed aboard a non-stop airliner for the trip to New York. Web gave stills of its coverage to the wire services and broadcast its clips on the Camel News Caravan which is heard at 7:45.