TV Guide (November 6, 1953)

W ITH television assuming top position in the entertainment in¬ dustry, a TV show has become the biggest single theatrical enterprise in history. It’s Kraft TV Theater, now telecasting two hours of live dramatic shows over two networks on two nights every week in the year. The Kraft program is now in its seventh year on NBC Wednesday nights, and has never taken a sum¬ mer vacation. On Oct. 15, a com¬ pletely separate Kraft Theater was launched on ABC and is being tele¬ cast each Thursday night, making a total of 104 hours of plays a year. By comparison, the Theater Guild, the biggest production firm on Broadway, has never produced more than five or six legitimate shows a year. A top musical show on Broadway seldom costs more than $300,000 to Brother act: NBC's Ed Herlihy, left, and ABC's Walter Herlihy announce shows. stage. Even if the Theater Guild were to produce only high cost musicals— which is not the case, of course—it would spend at the most about $1,- 800,000 a year. The Kraft producers will be spending close to $8,000,000 each year for its two TV programs. In addition, viewers will be able to see on the two Kraft shows alone al¬ most two-thirds as many hours of drama each year as are staged by all producers on Broadway. Besides this windfall of good drama for viewers, the two Kraft productions each week can mean new prosperity to actors. Kraft Theater, since it first took the air on NBC in 1947, has em¬ ployed more than 1,500 actors and ac¬ tresses. Now that there are two pro¬ grams each week, the available work for actors will be doubled. In fact, the Kraft casting offices, lo¬ cated in the offices of the J. Walter Thompson Co., the advertising agency which produces the shows, during the last few weeks have resembled Grand Central Station during a peak holi¬ day travel season. Shortage Of Stories Looking at the crowded reception room, one producer declared that “the supply of acting talent is certainly go¬ ing to be plenty big enough.” He put the finger on another question of sup¬ ply, which is the chief anxiety of the Kraft men at this time. That is the potential shortage of stories. With the advent of U.S. Steel Hour and the new ABC Album this month, the new Kraft Theater will raise the total of full-hour TV dramatic shows to seven. Producers of these shows have scraped bottom in their search for plays, novels and short stories. Because of this, the key men in the expanded Kraft Theater operation are the script editor, Ed Rice, and his as¬ sociate, Arthur Heineman. During the six-and-a-half years that Kraft was on NBC alone, Rice and his staff of readers had to study carefully about 10 scripts each week before selecting the one to put on the air. With 104 shows to produce each year, that means they will now be reading an average of 1,040 scripts yearly. Original Plays Needed “We’ve already run through most of the available Broadway plays,” Rice said. “What we plan to do is find more short stories and novels we can adapt for TV. We’ll naturally be on the lookout also for original plays, and that may eventually become our chief source of story material.” Rice indi¬ cated that his agency may sign some writers to work exclusively for Kraft Theater, a move already made by such TV producers as Fred Coe and Robert Montgomery in order to insure a steady flow of good stories. He also conceded that Kraft may be forced from time to time to repeat the plays found most successful.