Variety (Dec 1942)

Wednesday, December 16, 1942 RADIO 2S AD Nets to Air Ist Public Hearing Of Army 'Command' Show Xmas Eve The Army will l«t the American public listen In on its 'Command Performance' program for the first time Christmas Eve (24) through a broadcast that will be carried by all four national networks between 11 and 12 p.m. EWT. The series, now In its 44th week, had heretofore been provided exclusively for troops abroad by way of shortwave from a transcription. As the Christmas Eve event is being fed over the networks, it will be recorded and rebroadcast on Christmas Day by the customary shortwave. The domestic feed was suggested by the Office of War In- formation as an appropriate gesture of linking soldier and civilian morale, ■ ■iMhriiBSh*i8h»ffTi'>'it'Mi''*"^ftiftl I special. It has arranged to have the network show shortwaved In the direction of London, where a recording will be made for rebfoad- casting on Christmas Day to BBC domestic listeners and to the armed services in the Middle East, The talent lined up for the pro- gram comprises Bob Hope, Bing Crosby, Edgar Bergen, Red Skelton, Kay Kyser, Dinah Shore, Dorothy l.amour, Ethel Waters and Ginny Simms. Al Newman, musical direc- tor for 20th-century Fox, will baton the accompaniment and orchestral interludes, with the American Fed- eration of Musicians and the various talent guilds cooperating on the re- cruiting of the participants. DAVIS' RETURN TO AIR AGAIN LIKEY Elmer Davis, chief of the Office of War Information, may still arrange to make regular weekly appearances before the microphone to tell the people about the war and the war effort. It has long been widely sug- gested that the OWI chief, a former radio news commenator, take to the airwaves at regular Intervals to in- form the people about the progress of the war. Several weeks ago he announced that he had abandoned the Idea be- cause of the pressure of work. Now, however, Nicholas Roosevelt, former diplomat and N. Y. Herald Tribune writer, is going to handle the con- tacts of OWI with the Army and the Navy. Davis thinks that when Roosevelt takes over that part of the job he will have time enough to go back before the microphone. Kind of program Davis has In mind would be largely background and in- terpretation. He is not sure, if he returns to the air, whether he would do regular once-a-week broadcasts, or go before the microphone occasionally only. He Is inclined toward the weekly program idea. He is not worried about his broad- casts being regarded as 'official' ver- sions. In fact, he feels that such a broadcast would be official so far as OWI was concerned, but it wouldn't be official in any other sense. He would, of course, have the advantage of a certain amount of Information that could not be made public, but which might affect his interpreta- tion of the news. Davis feels that while this might give him a certain advantage over other commentators, he never had the idea of putting any spot news in such a broadcast. Nothing would be used in It that had not been pre- viously released to everybody else. If he went on the air, he said, the scripts would be made available Im- mediately after the broadcast to everybody for whatever use they cared to make of them. Donahue-Coe Quickie Bert Prager, director of radio, and Dick Dunkel, radio time buyer tor Donahue It Coe agency, pulled a fast one on Monday (14) morning, even be- fore boss Ed Churchill came into the office, and tied up every available radio spot on the metropolitan New York stations 10 that the Loew theatres. Radio City Music Hall, etc., would have radio announcements on the air periodically. This is In lieu of the ads, due to the newspaper deliverers' strike. The commitments ran only $4,900 a day. The D-C agency has the spots sewed up for three GRACIE FIELDS EXPANDINGTO 15MINS. Pall Mall sigarets has decided to change the time formula of the Grade Fields series, which currently is on a flve-minute five-times-a week basis on the Blue Network. The account wants to expand the pro- gram to IB minutes nightly. Miss Fields' present time is 9:59- 10 pjn. and the substitute on the Blue period that the sponsor has under oonsideration Is 10:19-10:3p p.m. Earl B. Salmon has joined the New York tales staff of Joseph Hershey McGillvra, Inc. he was formerly with the WOR Program Service De- partment. WALKOUT Hypos N.Y. STATIONS Theatres, Stores, Et AI., Rush Their Sales Talks to Radio — Outlets and Newspapers Augment News Schedules INCREASED AUDIENCES The N. Y. newspaper deliverers' strike, which broke Sunday evening (13), resulted in a deluge of business for the New York stations. Deprived of their regular newsprint adver- tising channels, theatre . operators, department stores, employment sales staffs of most of the local sta- tions all day Monday (14), seeking out time availabilities and placing orders for announcements or spon- sorship of established sustaining stanzas. Absence of newspapers also caused the various stations to aug- ment their news schedules, which situation undoubtedly accounted for a tremendous audience increase.' What made the strike particularly tough for the department stores was the fact that It came in the middle of the Christmas shopping season. The lion's share of the demand for immediate time went to WOR. Macy's department store took over the sponsorship of the 'Shoppers' Program,' with Pegeen Fitzgerald, bought 12 announcements on the station's matinee phonograph record half-hour and arranged for late eve- ning spot announcements. The Sat- urday Evening Post, which had half- pages scheduled for two of the local a.m. papers, turned the entire ap- propriation ($900) over to WOR. The Paramount theatre, Broadway big- seater, put In an order for all an- nouncement spots that WOR could clear. WMCA obtained a large order from (Continued on page 28) Benny Likely to Be 1st Top Radio Comic to Tour AEF Camps, Starting Jan. 1; Sponsors Problems Unsolved School for Comics Hollywood, Dec. 15. Blue network has its cap set for comics and will develop its own, if necessary, by putting them through a school. That's how Ed Kobak, executive v.p. of the chain, feels about it and he's going to do something about it Biggest reservoir of latent talent is in the army, Kobak al- lows, and a line will be had on them so that when it's over they'll be called in for the nec- essary polish job. LEVER DEAL FOR 'INFO' STILL UNCERTAIN Discussions between the B.B.D.&O. agency, acting for Lever Bros., and Dan Golenpaul over the future alignment of the 'Information Please' program with Vimms vitamins had up until late yesterday (Tuesday) failed to make any material progress. Quite a number of quirks have to be Ironed out. Lucky Strikes winds up its connection with 'Info' on Feb. 8, and since the cig account has yet to act on its option, any sale to Lever would be premature. If the Lever deal jells, the program will be spotted on CBS, Wednesday, 9:30-10 p.m., now occupied by 'Mayor of Our Town' (Lionel Barrymore). 'Town' will then move to NBC, Thure- day, 7:30-8 p.m. Jack Benny, it is now indicated, will be the first of the name radio comedians to make a tour of the American service camps in Great Britain with the start of the New Year. Benny has advised the chief of the special service division of the Army, Col. Marvin Young, that he will be free to make the trans- atlantic trip after Christmas and the only snag to the crossing is trans- portation. Benny was told that fa- cilities would be available to him at the time, but there was doubt whether space could be obtained for Plan that the Army has in mind for the Britain-touring comics in- volves a weekly broadcast over the domestic and shortwave channels of the British Broadcasting Co., in ad- dition to their making the rounds of the camps. The BBC has solved the question of scripts for these visit- ing comics by arranging to import, . on its own payroll, Hal Block, who has at some time or another written material for most of them. Lieut. Howard Nussb^um, who is stationed in England at General Eisenhower'! headquarters, would do the pro- ducing. As for. what the comics' regular sponsors will do for flll-in programs while the performers are abroad, the solutions under consideration are quite mixed. One plan suggested is that the comics who are at home ro- tate as guests in the absentee's regu- lar commercial niche, but some sponsors have indicated that they would rather have a substitute show, which they themselves would build and hold the franchise on for {he four or five weeks that their man is abroad. The Young & Rubicam agency, which handles the Benny stanza for General Foods, figures on arriving at a solution of the substi- tute situation by the end of thii week. "Show Business At War" THEME OF THE 37th ANNIVERSARY NUMBER of To Be Published Late In December USUAL ADVERTISING RATES PREVAIL Special Exploitation Advantages Reservations and Copy May Be Sent to Any Variety Office NEW YORK HOLLYWOOD CHICAGO LONDON 1S4 W. 48th St 1708 No. Vine St. 54 W. Randolph St. 8 St. Moitin'B PL OLD GOLD MAY GO BAND FOR 2D HALF-HR. Old Gold if scouting around, through the J. Walter Thompson agency, for a second half-hour pro- gram. Among the bands whose managers have been approached are Sammy Kaye and Alvino hey. The clg account's present network package is Nelson Eddy and Nadine Connor (CBS). Colwell Waxes Three Hollywood, Dec. IS. Bob Colwell returns to N. Y. over the weekend with recordings of three programs he auditioned for submission to Old Gold, one of which will supplement its current Nelson Eddy musical entry. Among the programs under con- sideration are a variety show 'with an idea,' a musical piece built around Gene Krupa, and a comedy show featuring Johnny Mercer, Arthur Q. Bryan and Freddie Slack's orches- tra with Ella Mae Morse. Colwell passes the week here to wrap up the Old Gold auditions. Auto Parts Manufacturer Buys Station Chainbreaks R. M. Hollinghead Corp., manu- facturer of auto prodticts, is buy- ing batches of station chainbreaks. James G. Lamb Co., of Philadel- phia, is the agency.