Television digest with electronic reports (Jan-Dec 1959)

VOL. 15: No. 31 15 i Film & Tape fRCA’s TAPE SHOWCASE: RCA made its first major move in the TV tape recorder field since its demonstration of production-model recorders last Mai'ch (Vol. 15:12) I in a joint announcement with New York’s Reeves Sound Studios that the two firms were going to set up an 8recorder independent TV recording studio, involving $1 million worth of recorders, cameras and associated equipment. Two of the recorders will be color-equipped. The new rental studio, designed to provide a TV service comparable to Reeves’ long-established recording facilities for movie & record firms, is due to be opened “early in the fall,” reported RSS pres. Hazai’d Reeves. RCA is “shooting for an August start on deliveries.” The Reeves tape studio can, presumably, furnish the same kind of working showcase for RCA recorders that Ampex has through its part-ownership link with Videotape Productions of N.Y. Chief selling point in the Reeves-RCA setup will be the simplified editing made possible by the multi-recorder installation. Splicing, with its attendant problems of rollover and necessity for great exactness, will be virtually eliminated, executives of both companies stated at a July 30 press conference. Instead, by using cued-up, pre-recorded tapes and a monitor system, a TV director can “electronically edit desired sequences into a master monitor and recorder” with the aid of RCA-designed synchronized and transistorized switching facilities “capable of a onemillionth of a second changeover.” The resulting tapes, of course, are actually “second t generation” rather than spliced originals, but RCA execJ utives stated that there would be no drop-off in picture sharpness and stability. Reeves will also be able to handle studio tape production, with RCA due to deliver color and b&w cameras, film chains, film and slide projectors, and master control equipment to the New York site. More Features from NT A: One of the last packages of major pre-’48 pictures will go into TV distribution early this fall from NT A. Under its long-range distribution agreement with 20th Century-Fox, NTA will shortly receive a 160-picture group for syndication. Ultimate TV gross earnings by 20th-Fox on the deal are expected to top $11 million, plus a participation in NTA profits on the sale of the features to TV stations. The features represent approximately half (and the best half at that) of the 300-odd pre-’48 pictures in the 20th-Fox vaults still uncommitted to video distribution. Titles include: “The Razor’s Edge,” “Seventh Heaven” (The James Stewart-Simone Simone remake), “Grapes of Wrath,” “Wilson,” “Blood & Sand,” “Jesse James,” “A Tree Grows in Brooklyn,” “Mark of Zorro,” “Stormy Weather,” “Give My Regards to Broadway.” Charging AFTRA rerun fees on taped shows are “unfair,” KTLA Los Angeles is removing 2 taped series from its station. In taking Youth Court and Municipal Court off the Paramount-owned channel, station v.p.-gen.-mgr. Jim Schulke says KTLA may produce fewer tape series than originally planned due to what he considers “exorbitant” AFTRA residuals. He says rerun fees on the 2 series run as high as 50% of the original budget of each show, and claims he can’t telecast telefilm programming for less than the cost of the tape repeat. Even the Yacht Goes: When the U.S. Internal Revenue Bureau slapped a tax lien on the Hal Roach studios in Hollywood last week it was the last straw for the onceprosperous lot which is now in bankruptcy. (Among items attached by the receivers was the 120-foot yacht of Hal Roach Jr., former pres, of the studio) . When we visited the 23-acre Culver City studio last week, it was to find the once busy 6-stage studio had only 1 show shooting on its 6 stages (The Dennis O’Keefe Show). A skeleton staff is operating the lot to serve the O’Keefe show and any other rentals which may move in. When the studio, sold by Roach to Alexander Guterma’s Scranton Corp., went into bankruptcy last April 3, the receivers fired the studio fire dept, and cut the number of security guards in half — to 4. Ironically, there are 2 receiver-appointed guax’ds patrolling young Roach’s yacht. The modest office once occupied by young Roach is empty today. The ornate office once the headquarters of his father, Hal Roach Sr., who founded the studio, is occupied by an attorney for receivers J. Julius Levy and John F. Murphy of Scranton, Pa. Roach Sr. has his lavish home up for sale, asking $225,000. When we asked a spokesman for the attorneys representing the receivers the present status of the studio, he replied: “Our auditors are now going over the books. This is a complex job since [Alexander] Guterma had a number of companies, and there were inter-company guarantees so involved none of them knows just how much each owes. In many cases, documents which would help us are missing. I don’t know when the auditing will be completed. I have never seen such a mess.” When we asked if the trustees were considering selling the Roach studio, he replied. “The trustees are not in a position to do anything with it. They probably wouldn’t allow a sale until they know where they stand, and this depends on the audit we’re now making.” Asked if young Roach has anything to do with the studio now, he answered emphatically, “No.” As for young Roach, whose deal with Guterma cost him the studio, we checked him and he told us he’s working on “something,” that he would soon have some news of his project. When Roach sold his studio to Guterma’s Scranton Corp., he was so confident this would give him the needed financial shot in the arm that he turned away rentals even though the lot had empty stages. And although he announced at a press conference there would be $20 million in production as a result of the Guterma link, there was no money forthcoming from the Eastern financier, and the auditors today are busy trying to find where the Roach assets went after Guterma bought the studio. Film over tape: Only 20% of stations buying ITC’s syndicated version of Ding Dong School (14 out of a total of 70) want the show on tape, although tape is used as its basic production medium, ITC officials in N.Y. tell us. The remaining stations have indicated a preference for a film copy (actually, a high-grade kinescope). The problem, explains pres. Walter Kingsley, is that many outlets equipped with only one video tape recorder use it almost constantly during the day for the production of commercials, news shows and delayed broadcasts, and can’t spare the playback facilities to air the show. ABC Films has sold 545 half-hours to 6 foreign counries during July, 1959. Properties include Wyatt Earp, The 3 Musketeers, Ozzie & Harriet, The People’s Choice, and 26 Men. Countries are United Kingdom, Switzerland, Finland, Australia, Japan, Mexico — plus Puerto Rico.