Television digest with electronic reports (Jan-Dec 1959)

Networks _ 7 -~ More about MUTUAL NETWORK SALE; Transfer of an option to buy the ailing Mutual Broadcasting System climaxed 3 weeks of frantic negotiations by the Hal Roach group which had controlled the network since Feb. 13. The quick sale was an obvious attempt to prevent a stampede of sponsor & affiliate defections keyed to headline revelations about Alexander L. Guterma’s shaky empire (Vol. 15:7-9). At press time there was little information about the new ownership group — except Mutual’s own word that it was well backed financially. The network itself announced only that the principal purchaser was Malcolm Smith, joined by his associates in the importing and phono-record business (see p. 2). The agreement was reached at about 8:30 p.m. Fri. March 6 after a session which began at 11 a.m. Mutual’s principal negotiator was v.p. Robert F. Hurleigh who had acquired an option from board chairman Hal Roach Jr. Hurleigh said he had “subjugated” his own desire to buy Mutual in order to bring in a group with “large capital resources.” Assisting Hurleigh in negotiations throughout the week were the other members of a 6-man executive committee, representing management, affiliates & talent. They were MBS exec. v.p. Blair A. Walliser, controller James Gladstone, commentator Fulton Lewis Jr., and Vic Diehm, owner of MBS affiliates WAZL, Hazleton, & WHOL, Allentown, Pa. At the time of the agreement, Lewis & Diehm weren’t present, having given their proxies to Hurleigh. The 4th radio network has been operating at a deficit for years and through 4 different ownerships. Its current liabilities are said to be more than $600,000. Originally an affiliate-owned network, MBS control was acquired in 1952 by Tom O’Neil’s General Teleradio (now RKO Teleradio) when he bought WOR-TV & WOR from Macy’s. Network was unprofitable, and Teleradio sold it in 1957 to a group backed by oilman Armand Hammer for a price reportedly between $500,000 & $800,000. After several management shakeups, MBS was sold last fall to Scranton Corp., which had previously bought Hal Roach Studios. At the time, the selling price was reported as $2,000,000 in cash & stock — but now this would appear to have been an exaggeration. When the Guterma scandals broke out, Hal Roach took over Guterma’s interests and positions in Jacobs Co. & MBS and set out to unload the network. Just last week he almost cinched sale to Hollywood cosmetics firm Max Factor & Co., but final agreement couldn’t be reached. Before the break-off. Factor chairman Davis Factor had indicated that his company intended to pay little or no cash after assuming network’s “very heavy” obligations. N. Y. Stock Exchange March 5 released an “insiders” report by Roach, listing his holdings of Jacobs stock as 130,000 shares. He said he owned 30,000 shares before he took over the holdings of Alexander Guterma Feb. 13. He told reporters he had a personal investment of more than $1,000,000 in the Jacobs firm. N. Y. federal Judge Sugarman this week moved up to Mon. March 9 the March 18 hearing on SEC’s application for the appointment of a receiver for the Jacobs Co. SEC charged that Roach “stands in the shoes” of Guterma and “has not demonstrated the business acumen or judgment” to deal with the company’s affairs. Programming Fearless Steve Allen: in an unusually intellectual performer-autobiography, currently running in Look, Steve Allen shows a surprising disregard of the public-relations shibboleth for the popular star that “Thou shalt not get too deep.” Some of his comments signal either personal courage and/or a real desire to shock readers. Excerpts: “I now subscribe to . . . The National Review, an extremely conservative publication, and The Worker, a Communist paper . . . My own studies have inclined me very little to reverence for man’s total antiquity . . . From my own experience I eventually came to the conclusion that much prayer is wasted breath ... It has always been a difficult thing to determine the true value of prayer anyway. [Allen indicated he favors prayer for thanksgiving not for heavenly assistance.] . . . Nature renders man able to mate & procreate at 13 or 14. Society, on the other hand, forces a wait of several years. So young people go through a decade of mingled desire, guilt, confusion and despair, with no happy solution . . . Most of the people whom I asked for food [when he was broke & hungry] turned me down. The only people who never said ‘no’ to me were the Mexicans of the Southwest . . . We [Christians] are far more accustomed to killing than to being killed . . . Am I worried about Maverick’s rating? Good God, no; I am worried about mankind’s rating.” Add Public Service TV: Activity sharpened this week in the field of educational & public service shows. Westinghouse Bcstg. Co. has booked Sen. Humphrey (D-Minn.) for Youth Wants to Know, and Sens. Morse (D-Ore.) & Goldwater (R-Ariz.) for American Forum of the Air kickoff shows this spring on TV & radio. Shows will be taped in Washington, aired on Westinghouse outlets in prime time, & syndicated to other outlets . . . CBS-TV has scheduled a special series of hour-long shows titled The Dollar Debates, dealing with such topics as inflation & taxes, and will air them on 3 successive Sundays starting Mar. 8 . . . The NBC-TV educational TV project series. Tactic, dealing with the fight to control cancer, has been made available via kines to NBC affiliates, with at least 71 expected to carry the 6-week series . . . The teacher awards committee of ABC-TV’s Bold Journey series met in N.Y. to pick 380 teachers from among 2,500 finalists to receive 80 educational travel grants & 300 subscriptions to National Geographic. The Legion of Decency has no TV jurisdiction of any sort, and avoids TV matters, explains Rev. Patrick J. Sullivan, S.J., asst. exec, secy.. National Legion of Decency, saying he was misquoted in reports of his Feb. 22 speech in Philadelphia (Vol. 15:9). There won’t be any organized effort by Roman Catholic bishops, he adds, to combat the “violence, horror & suggestiveness” in TV and films of which he had spoken. Rev. Sullivan said his original speech had touched on the subject “to pose the question before an adult audience of whether entertainment dealing with violence, such as TV Westerns, among other things, would deaden cultural sensibilities and inhibit creative talent.” Shooting the audition of a live show overseas is the latest wrinkle in video tape. Liberace, who’s finishing his daytime show on ABC-TV, intends, while making a series of appearances in Britain this June, to tape in London the pilot of a new show. The tape will be flown back and viewed by ABC-TV executives as a possibility for the fall program lineup.