Television digest with electronics reports (Jan-Dec 1959)

12 SEPTEMBER 28, 1959 Film & Tape THREE BIG JOBS: Vacancy signs came down last week from 3 top-level telefilm jobs as 20th Century-Fox TV Productions, CBS Films and Screen Gems coincided with executive appointments: Peter Levathes, ex-Y&R: One of the few agencymen in a TV-radio v,p. post with an extensive background in the motion picture industry, Levathes will move to the job of pres, of 20th Century-Fox TV Productions, replacing ex-TV producer Martin Manulis who is concentrating on feature production. In a sense, it’s a homecoming for Levathes — before joining Y&R in 1953, he had been in charge of sales for 20th-Fox’s short subjects and in other 20th executive posts in the 1937-52 period. Well-liked on Madison Ave., Levathes is indicative of another telefilm industry trend: The hiring of executives who can double easily between film program planning sessions in Hollywood & sales conferences in N.Y. with TV clients & agencies. This season, 20th-Fox is represented with a film series on each of the networks: Five Fingers (NBC-TV), Adventures in Paradise (ABC-TV), and Dobie Gillis (CBS-TV), and is now grooming other properties for the mid-season replacement race. Robert Lewine, ex-NBC-TV: As replacement for the top production supervision post vacated by Leslie Harris (who has joined Independent TV Corp., and will shuttle between London & N.Y. as head of film production for ITC), CBS Films has hired Robert F. Lewine, NBC-TV v.p. for TV network programs and an executive of NBC since 1956. Lewine will join the network’s thriving film offshoot next month and will soon thereafter be a frequent jet commuter between N.Y. & Hollywood inasmuch as CBS Films is holding off on completion of 1960 production plans until he arrives. Lewine’s name has popped up frequently in TV industry rumors in the past few months, following the arrival of ex-Y&R TV v.p. David Levy to head all of NBC-TV’s network program activities and to report to exec. v.p. Walter Scott. Lewine’s brother, Richard Lewine, also works for CBS— as dir. of special TV programs. William Dozier, ex-CBS-TV: The second of the week’s network-to-telefilm switches was the move of William Dozier, Hollywood TV program v.p. of CBS, to Screen Gems, with 5-yr. firm contract as v.p. for West Coast activities. Dozier, whose appointment is effective Nov. 1 and was announced late last week by Columbia Pictures pres. Abe Schneider, will work with Irving Briskin, recently elevated to v.p. status at the parent movie concern. Harry Ackerman, v.p. & exec, producer, and Robert Sparks, exec, pi’oducer for SG’s syndication production, will both continue in present posts. In the same executive shuffle, William Sackheim, exec, producer of the Alcoa-Goodyear Theater, has been named a production v.p. Dozier, at one time production v.p. of RKO, is being replaced by Guy della Cioppa, who has ranked closely under Dozier as CBSTV v.p. and program dir., Hollywood. Although only one of the 3 executives (all are taking short vacations before starting their new jobs) could be reached to confirm, film industry sources believed it likely that the new appointees had been offered film participation deals as part of the inducement to join the film firms. This trio of executive switches won’t be the last of this variety you’re likely to see this season, we were told last week. Reportedly on the prowl for top executives with Madison Ave. status are Paramount Pictures, which has yet to sell a network TV film show, and MGM-TV, which has no network show this season and 7 pilots on the shelf. Taking Stock of Stock Film: Major studios in TV use as a selling point the fact that they have immense libraries of film from which they can draw stock footage for TV. This, they contend, allows them to make telefilms at a better price than the independents can. We checked some of the leading independent producers in Hollywood about this point, and found a different viewpoint. They say that little stock footage is used on TV these days, that the price to rent such footage is cheap, and that TV has reached the point of progress where it goes on location to shoot virtually all of its own footage rather than relying on hard-to-match stock footage of inferior quality. Producer Jules Levy told us that only about $2,000 was spent on stock film in all of last season on The Rifleman. Levy, who with his partners Arthur Gardner & Arnold Laven, is in a co-production deal with Four Star, said that on the few occasions when stock film is needed they can rent it for $4 a foot from Republic — considerably less than the $7 to $7.50 usually asked around Hollywood. He said that most stock footage available is not of good quality, and that it’s hard to match stock film with fresh film. “If we find we need a stock film sunrise or sunset, we can get it for $75,” he said — but he much prefers filming whatever is needed on location. He compared the use of stock film to the use of canned music, pointing out that he & his partners use live music on their series. Producer Jack Chertok made the point that many independents have links with major studios or networks — and free access to their film libraries. Another viewpoint was expressed by Bert Granet, exec, producer of Desilu Playhouse, who thought that “TV at the moment still uses a minescule amount of stock footage because the screen is so small. Once it gets larger, sweep & scope will mean much more.” Granet said Desilu used little stock film last season. Some appeared in a science-fiction film, Man in Orbit — and was obtained from the Govt, at cost. Summing up, Granet said: “Stock film doesn’t figure as an important economic advantage.” Interestingly, the majors don’t rely on stock film for their own more important series. For example, 20th-Fox TV has built a costly, impressive backlot set for its Adventures in Paradise, and Warner Bros has constructed an expensive set for The Alaskans. Producer-Agency Tape Pact: Video-taped commercials took another step toward maturity last week with the signing of the first “basic standard practices agreement” between a tape production firm & a leading ad agency — in this case NTA Telestudios (see chart Vol. 15:38) and Leo Burnett Co., agency for Kellogg Co., Hoover Appliances, Allstate Insurance, Motorola, Marlboro Cigarets,etc. The new agreement, which runs to 14 single-spaced pages, may have far-reaching effects. In essence, it covers the complete range of agency-producer relationships in the tape-commercial field, and spells out in detail just who is responsible for what. It does away almost entirely with the previous operating system in which tape producers were hired on the basis of estimates of hours of shooting. Now, Telestudios will furnish firm bids to Burnett on the basis of storyboards & scripts in the same manner as TV film commercial producers. The agency-producer tape pact is the result of 4 months of negotiation between telestudios and Leo Burnett, says Alfred Markim, Telestudios operations v.p. Burnett expects to use it as a model in signing similar agreements with other tape production houses in N.Y., Chicago and Hollywood.