Television digest with electronic reports (Jan-Dec 1954)

Telecasting Holes: “The Robert Montgomery influence,” is simplest explanation of new easy-mannered and relaxed attitude President Eisenhower manifested in his April 6 talk on combined networks. Informal pose he struck, standing or leaning against desk, and use of cue-cards which he ignored more often than not, was exactly in the manner of the noted actor, who for some months has been unofficial and unpaid White House advisor on TV-radio. Fact is, Montgomery was in the room with the President and several dozen other visitors, though it was same night (Mon.) as his regular Robert Montgomery Presents (Lucky Strike) on NBC-TV. His own show used film strips for his narration . . . Said UP, in describing the White House TV pickup ; “President Eisenhower set a new standard for TV speakers last night. Although dealing with such tension-loaded subjects as the H-Bomb, Communism and depression, he was as relaxed as a neighbor leaning on his lawnmower, informal almost to the point of being chatty. [He] used no script and spoke with a sort of effortless sincerity and calm. Just as one of his predecessors, the late Franklin D. Roosevelt, was the first President to master the radio microphone, Mr. Eisenhower has progressed from his own early days of knuckle-cracking uneasiness on TV to the smooth job he did last night . . .” . . . Mannie Sacks, RCA v.p. and RCA-NBC chairman Sarnoff’s special troubleshooter, who heads RCA Record Div., has been called into action to help build up NBC’s lagging radio business, reports Variety, with both Wm. Fineshriber and Ted Cott reporting to him . . . Amos ’n’ Andy and Range Rider film series have been purchased from CBS-TV film div. by BBC, thru its TV rep in N. Y., Slalion Accomils: Pittsburgh Pirates games will be televised on regular schedule for first season, with Atlantic Refining Co. buying 24 weekend away games on uhf WENS, thru N. W. Ayer; WENS pres. Thomas P. Johnson is also chief owner of Pirates . . . Heavy schedules of baseball sponsorships, as reported in Vol. 10:11, are augmented by Borden Co. (Pioneer Ice Cream div.) purchase of half of 15-min. Happy Felton’s Talk to the Stars after Brooklyn Dodgers’ games on WOR-TV, thru Doherty, Clifford, Steers & Shenfield; 20-sec. adjacencies to Dodgers’ games were also sold to Hoffman Beverage Co., thru Warwick & Legler; Shell Oil Co., thru J. Walter Thompson; Household Finance Corp., thru Needham, Louis & Brorby; Colgate-Palmolive Co. (Rapid shave cream), thru Wm. Esty Co. . . . Esskay Meat Products, Schmidt Bakery & Sherwood Bros. (Betholine-Sinclair dealers) Bobo Newsom’s Knothole Gang and Talk to the Stars before and after Baltimore Orioles’ games on WAAM, thru Van Sant, Dugdale . . . Jay Broiler Co. (Roto-Broil broilers) buy 16-min. segment across-the-board, for estimated $130,000 for year, as first sponsor of new Ernie Kovacs Show on WABD starting April 12, Mon.-thru-Fri. 11:15 p.m.-12:15 a.m., thru Product Services Inc. . . . N. Y.-N. J. women’s clubs, telling about their charities, provide basis for audience partic. show on WATV, Newark, titled Half Hour Holiday, Mon.-Wed.-Fri., 3:30-4 p.m.; sponsors already signed are Linda Foods Inc., Newark (Rice Cream); Visking Corp. (Miracloth), thru C. Wendell Muench, Chicago; Louis L. Libby Inc. (frozen foods), thru Hicks & Greist, N. Y. . . . Among other advertisers reported using or preparing to use TV: International Metal Products Corp., Phoenix, Ariz. (Arctic Cooler air conditioner), direct; Eskimo Pie Corp., Bloomfield, N. J. (ice cream), thru Buchanan & Co., N. Y.; R. T. Collier Corp., Los Angeles (Tap Sprite carbonated water filters), thru West-Marquis Inc., L. A.; Indian River Medicine Co., La Follette, Tenn. (Scalf’s Indian River Medicine, herb tonic), thru Claude Harrison & Co., Roanoke, Va.; Griesedieck Bros. Brewery Corp., St. Louis (GB beer), thru Krupnick & Assoc., St. 8 Aubrey Singer; BBC immediately got protest from National Assn, for the Advancement of Colored People branding show as “gross caricature” of the Negro which has done harm in U. S. and may do even more in England — a protest CBS long ago rejected . . . Delbert Mann, who directed Paddy Chayevsky’s hit play Marty on Philco Playhouse, signed as one of first TV directors to be hired to direct a feature movie; he’ll do film version of Marty for Hecht-Lancaster . . . About 100 Hal Roach Our Gang shorts, owned by Clinton Pictures Corp. (Joseph Auerbach) to be released to TV thru Allied Artists’ Interstate Television Inc. . . . Enlarging TV studios on Wilmington Pike, WHIO-TV, Dayton, is adding 50x64-ft. studio, 3 large radio studios for WHIG, consolidating all TV-radio operations in one building, designed and constructed by Austin Co. and due for completion early next year . . . South Bend Tribune plans new ultra-modem downtown TV-radio building for its expanding WSBT-TV & WSBT, with one studio 60x80-ft. ; architects are Pereira & Luckman . . . Crosley’s WLW and 4 TV stations soon to be represented by NBC Spot Sales in Detroit and on West Coast; Crosley will retain own N. Y. & Chicago branches, will represent NBC in its station cities: Cincinnati, Dayton, Columbus, Atlanta . . . More new reps: KCRI-TV, Cedar Rapids, la., to newly-organized Venard, Rintoul & McConnell; WOKY-TV, Madison, Wis., to Gill-Perna; WJMRTV, New Orleans, to McGillvra . . . WCSH-TV, Portland, Me., which began last Dec. 1 with $250 base rate, will increase to $300 June 1 . . . WCAU-TV, Philadelphia, sets new Class AA rate at $2400 an hour, increasing all other periods about 20%. Louis; McKesson & Robbins Inc., Bridgeport, Conn. (Tartan suntan lotion), thru Ellington & Co., N. Y.; Safeway Stores Inc., Oakland, Cal. (Sunnybank margarine), thru Erwin, Wasey, L. A.; Wm. Schwartz & Co. Inc., Philadelphia (Chips and Twigs apparel for boys), thru Feigenbaum & Wermen Adv. Agency, Philadelphia; Sales Affiliates Inc., New York City (Zotos shampoo, Inecto hair bleach), thru Picard, Marvin & Redfield, N. Y.; Devoe & Raynolds Co,, New York City (paints, lacquers, enamels), thru J. Walter Thompson, N. Y.; Dr. Pepper Co., thru Ruthrauff & Ryan, N. Y.; Ad-Lab Products Inc., Columbus, 0. (“Ex Static” fabric rinse), thru Munn, Mullay & Nichols Inc., Columbus; General Concrete Products Inc., Van Nuys, Cal. (“Flagcrete,” “Slumstone,” “Romancrete”) thru Tilds & Cantz, Hollywood. ■ New $80,000 TV-radio set census gets under way May 3 under auspices of Advertising Research Foundation, 11 West 42nd St., N. Y., designed primarily for civil defense information, to be financed by networks and BAB, with field sampling by Alfred Politz Research Inc. On extremely modest basis and with emphasis on radio, survey calls for only 10,000 interviews nation-wide, with questions asking number of TV & radio sets in home, kind of sets (i.e,, uhf-equipped, AM-only, etc.), rooms in which they’re located, number of autos with radios, etc. Only one overall national figure will be published for TVs (possibly in July) but it’s planned to break down radio ownership by 5 geographic regions. Federal Civil Defense Administration has been urging project, headed within ARF by CBS radio research director Harper Carraine, others on committee being BAB pres. Kevin Sweeney, Biow research v.p. E. L. Deckinger & General Foods research director G. S. Brady. George Polk awards for distinguished journalism, presented annually in memory of late CBS correspondent, went to NBC and exec, producer Merrill Mueller for its Weekend — Sunday Newspaper of the Air and TV columnist John Crosby, N. Y. Herald Tribune Syndicate.