Television digest with electronics reports (Jan-Dec 1958)

6 which Williams said were “predicated upon maladministration, inefficiency and possibly even corniption.” He said they involved Boston millionaire Bernard Goldfine, “ex-parte pi'essures by high govt, officials,” such firms as East Boston Co., Boston Port Development Co., Noithfield Mills Inc., Strathmore Woolen Mills Corp. It was first time subcommittee had inteirupted its pursuit of FCC scandals long enough to dig publicly into other Federal agencies. Among names brought into SEC-FTC inquiry: Presidential Asst. Sherman Adams, who has been mentioned in connection with FCC cases, too. Williams said Adams and some Senators had occupied Boston hotel rooms paid for by Goldfine. Earlier in week Chairman Harris said in Washington —following one day of potpourri testimony about behindscenes contacts in TV cases — that subcommittee aims at winding up FCC phase of investigations in about a month, then will begin drafting bill. Harris wouldn’t indicate just what proposed corrective legislation would cover, but staff reports have assailed such alleged FCC practices as permitting “payoffs” and “trafficking” in station sales & transfers. Subcommittee itself has issued one interim report criticizing FCC (Vol. 14:14). Nobody cited in this week’s Washington proceedings was called to testify for himself. But subcommittee staffer Stephen J. Angland spread many names into record, assert . . . T>IG GAME HUNTERS in the industry who have enjoyed the rare privilege of going on African safari are relatively few — especially those who have had as their guide the legendary Harry Selby, of famed Kerr & Downey Co., Nairobi, Kenya Colony. We know only 4 of them, one being Larry Gubb, retired former Philco chairman, who went in 1956 but did most of his shooting with color camera. Some of his spectacular footage has been shown publicly and, for our money, would make a splendid TV film show. Most-publicized African safari, of course, was Arthur Godfrey’s a few years ago. Most modest hunter we know is Bill Balderston, also ex-Philco pres. & chairman, who has a ranch at Moose, Wyo., where he hunts moose and caribou and an occasional bear and where he says the rainbow trout fishing is incomparable. Edward T. Meredith, the Des Moines magazine publisher (Better Homes & Gardens, Successful Famning) , whose firm also has 4 TV & 4 AM stations, has hunted in Africa, as has Donald W. Reynolds, the Arkansas-Nevada newspaper publisher, also a group TV-radio station operator. Their enthusiasm for the sport knows no bounds. In fact, it was Ed Meredith who persuaded Don Reynolds to try the same adventure. Meredith took his young son with him to Kenya, East Africa, about 6 years ago for a 30-day hunt with Harry Selby. They shot lion, buffalo, leopard, elephant, rhinoceros, eland, impala, oryx, gazelle, gerenuk, water buck, dik-dik — -the whole gamut of cross-word puzzlers. They also shot some zebra and wildebeest (gnu) for lion and leopard bait. Ed’s fondest memories' of the hunt, as he related them to us: “Besides our white hunter, we had 13 native boys. They had prodigious appetites and we shot numerous plains animals for their food. We had no harrowing experiences and were attacked by no vicious animals, though we did have some exciting times . . . heard lions roaring fairly nearby at night, and a few times hyenas sniffed around our tents. The food was good, the weather both good and bad, and I assure you one gets to know his ing each either approached FCC members about pending cases or was aware that others were doing so. Among those named by Angland in professed effort by him to buttress evidence of “pattern” of backstage infiuehce on FCC: CBS Inc. chairman Wm. S. Paley, CBS Inc. pres. Frank Stanton, ex-NBC pres. Niles A. Trammell and Miami Herald publisher John S. Knight of Miami’s WCKT, Sen. Bricker (R-0.), ex-GOP Chairman Leonard W. Hall, TV-radio commentator Tex McCrary, ex-Senate investigating (McCarthy) subcommittee counsel Roy M. Cohn, Tampa lawyer Miles H. Draper. In all, Angland’s testimony (accompanied by batches of documents) touched on 9 TV cases. They ranged — in who-said-what-to-whom fashion — from Miami to St. Louis to Cheboygan, Mich. Subcommittee was scheduled — always subject to change — to be back at old stand in Washington week of June 9, resuming hearings on case of Springfield (111.) Ch. 2 and its deintermixture shift to St. Louis & KTVI (Vol. 14:22), leading into complex station situations there. Case had been listed for this week, but got sidetracked. First witness called for June 9: KTVI pres. Harry Tenenbaum. Angland told us at end of this week that he wasn’t sure, but thought 2 days would clean up pending St. Louis inquiry. Subcommittee had no firm plans for where it goes next. son real well after 30 days in the bush — and, perhaps unfortunately, the son gets to know his father too well.” Don Reynolds devotes 7 chapters of his book From Rhinos to Prime Ministers to his hunting experiences in Kenya & Tanganyika, and you gather from it that the adventure is all the movies crack it up to be. But it isn’t all easy and deluxe, as he relates it: “You kill your own dinner, wash in muddy river water, live in a tent and pay just about double the cost of a deluxe suite at the Waldorf for the privilege. “You miss your first 2 chances [shooting at game] . . . then all of a sudden you almost fall over a little Thompson gazelle! The antlers look as big as an old-time Texas longhorn. You bang away and, wonder of wonders, he drops in his tracks. The native bearers run up, pat you on the back, shake your hand and brag about the fresh meat we will all have for dinner, thanks to the prowess of the mighty bwana. Brother, you’re hooked . . . you are a sportsman!” Lot of small game, first, then a crack at rhino which the guide said Reynolds shot with his double-barreled .470 rifle. Sticking out in mind is the after-dark scariness of Africa, the jackals barking, the lions roaring their coughing roars. Also, fresh in Reynolds’ lively “Scotch memory” is the $140 license fee entitling one to 2 of each species of certain specified animals, the $70 fee for a rhino or leopard, $56 for a lion, $8.40 for a zebra, $210 for an elephant. And the luxury of an iron cot after 10 hours on the veldt in a jeep. Phil Lasky, v.p. and onetime part owner of Westinghouse’s KPIX, San Francisco, tells us he couldn’t get time enough away from his African cruise ship recently to do any shooting (he’s a crack marksman) but he’s now so hipped on the idea of an African hunt that he proposes to organize a group of congenial souls for a safari next year. But old-time broadcaster Herb Hollister, who still owns a small daytimer in Ft. Collins, Colo., along with a Chrysler agency in Boulder, Colo, and lots of valuable real estate, did get away for an African safari last year, recently regaled his fellow BMI board members with movies of his adventures.