Sponsor (July-Dec 1950)

strange melodies aid immeasurably in chilling audience spines. Mysteries which aren't of the supernatural variety chill 'em. too. Man Against Crime is muscular and realistic in approach, lays heavy stress on detection and deductive reasoning. Martin Kane is another two-fisted whodunit. / Cover Times Square accents character of the central personality, a hard-boiled columnist with a heart of gold. Hands of Mystery is a "whydunnit," with stories told in terms of emotional conflict. Famous Jury Trials reenacts actual court cases in American jurisprudence. Adventures of Ellery Queen is urbane, sophisticated melo drama with emphasis on suavity rather than violence. There is a ceiling on grisliness in TV, just as there is in radio. The viewer is spared seeing such things as actual wounds on a body, or a knife stabbing into flesh; he is shown these things indirectly (e.g., the expression on the someone's face who is doing die stabbing or being stabbed). Perhaps the reasoning is that if a viewer gets too near the edge of his seat, he may fall off. What about commercials on mysten programs? As on any dramatic show, they must be spotted judiciously and be well done or run the risk of audi You hear it Sales power in central Ohio means WBNS plus WELD-FM with 187,980 radio families. These are the folks who have the money to buy your product and their buying guide is WBNS. Quick results at lower cost... that has been the record of WBNS for year after year. ASK JOHN BLAIR POWER 5000 • WELD 53,000 • CBS • COLUMBUS, OHIO ence resentment. Some sponsors find it easy to integrate the commercials into the action of the show, especially tobacco sponsors. Martin Kane uses a tobacco shop as his hangout, and a display of U. S. Tobacco products is in clear view. The Plainclothesman and his sergeant keep lighting up and puffing at Harvesters throughout the show. Ralph Bellamy as the Man Against Crime does the same with Camels and gives one of the commercials himself. Camels also features a film showing a T-Zone test, with endorsements by sports personalities. Film commercials generally open and close most shows, with a live commercial in the middle or at a good breaking point. Timing is of the essence. On Famous July Trials, Chevrolet is plugged right after the jury is charged to make its decision. / Cover Times Square uses the cliffhanger technique for Air-Wick, with live commermercial playlets. But this method must be used skillfully. One reviewer complained that on the first performance of Treasury Men in Action, Chrysler commercials were disconcerting when they broke in on tense moments. Electric Auto-Lite gets a natural feel by dressing the announcer as an Auto-Lite dealer for the commercial pitch on Suspense. Kaiser-Frazer makes use of interesting scenery for its live commercial on Adventures of Ellery Queen — to hypo possibly-lagging audience attention to the pitch. Dick Stark, the announcer on Danger, uses a low-pressure style and carefully reasoned approach to sell Amm-ident, talks as if he were in family living room. His commercials come as a pleasant contrast to the intensity of the Danger plays. A very corny playlet (both Stark and the audience know this) is used in the middle commercial, brings a laugh and relaxes the mood macabre of the show for a time. Unfortunately, exact sales results that TV mysteries have brought their sponsors so far are not readily available. But SPONSOR has learned that for at least one sponsor, Electric Auto-Lite, sales are definitely better in TV areas than in non-TV areas. The company's Suspense went on TV 1 March 1949; sales increases were evident by the time it took its summer hiatus that year. Similar stories could no doubt be found concerning other mystery sponsors. What about syndicated mystery 60 SPONSOR