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TV S HOLLYWOOD DESTINY
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jthe various problems — including that of many crafts and labor demands — so that it can spew forth the thousands of hours of programming to be required yearly. Right now, notwithstanding considerable obstacles, some 15 to 18 programs produced locally of varying quality are syndicated to stations elsewhere in the nation, by film and kinescope. Amongst television film producers, led by Hal Roach, Jerry Fairbanks, and Bing Crosby Enterprises, it is believed that by 1952 there will be a shortage of space in Hollywood for producing these low-budget pictures, so shifting is the trend from New York. A couple of years back high budget for television films was the $12,000 expended by Lucky Strike for its "Your Showtime" series; now, the Amos 'n Andy half-hour films are earmarked at $40,000 each.
Understandably, the most intriguing speculation concerns the majors and their first ventures into television, other than outright release of their past films. One manner of entrance would simply be the interstitial production of low-budget television films fitted into the theatrical picture schedules. The sponsor of the Hope $140,000 live show could, for example, allocate a million dollars for SIX to eight films to be made by a major studio ; these could be integrated into the production scheme so as to lower overhead costs while affording the sponsor a good buy. If the studio
gained foreign and residential rights to the films it could step up its budget, benefitting the sponsor as well.
FITTING into this overall Hollywood picture are the networks, pressed by the manifold problems of current operation during a transitionary stage from radio to television, as well as by the need of charting their futures on the unpredictabilities of the latter. Columbia Broadcasting System last year announced the erection of "Television City," a ten-acre site in mid-Los Angeles at a publicized cost of $35,000,000. These composite facilities, the network declared, would include those for film-making. Veteran motion picture executives do not regard this venture as being particularly sound, in view of costs, technical hazards, and other by-products of film production. After some study, though, it appears the network is committed to a made-in-Hollywood policy for its television programming, and that policy does seem alert to the factors mentioned earlier in this analysis.
Contrarily, NBC has frequently stated its positive belief that New York and live-programming are to retain preference over Hollywood production. Only lately did the network disclose that some of its programming would emanate from the West this autumn, due supposedly to the clamor of such of its artists as Eddie Cantor and Jimmy Durante. It must be recognized that television programming is a tremendous risk to the very existence of the networks; after all, the basic reason for a networ\ is