Variety (Jan 1945)

Wednesday, January 17, 1948 IT FCC GIVES TWO-WAY NOD TO TELE Reverse 'Grapes of Wrath' Brings Starving (?) Coast Thesps to N. Y. Reaffirming N. Y.'s position as the* gold coast for dramatic actors in radio is a recent influx :of players, who've moved east. from. Hollywood to get Ahelr share of the acting coin; available. Within the past few., months, according to agency and network casting directors, at' least two .dozen Hollywood radio actors have hit N.Y.- With, many of them, although in most cases unknown to the public, buf aided by a rep -within the trade, landing running parts in : . various soapers and sustainers, it's expected that even more will hit the t^til from Hollywood soon. - » 'Situation today,, according to some bf the ex-Californians. themselves, is that N, Y. is the only city in :which a radio actor, other than top per- formers,, can really look forward to a cut of sponsors' scratch. Holly- wood today, say these actors, has about 15 shows using dramatic talent —other than those using' AFRA ' members for dramatized plilgs. Most of these 15, however, are run on a virtual . "slock company" basis, meaning that few outsiders get a chance tO:crash' the gates. Among Coastites trekking to N. Y. are Paul Conrad, Eric Linden, Linda Watkin's, formerly of,' N. Y. legit; George Sorrell, Dick Hamilton, cur- rently, iii "Stella. Dallas"; Frank Richards, Grace Lenard, Bill Grif- fiths, ■ 'Lament..-' Johnston. Harold Huber, Don Morrison, Rod . Hen- drickson, Cameron Prudliomme.. Gregory Martin. Helen Parrish, Lewis Howard and .Charles Lang. Casting directors- say the Coast thesps have a better. chalice to get Work here than other door knockers who come in cold. In most cases, their work; is familiar, either to the caster, himself, or .10 the director since so '■'•many of Ihe • latter have handled Coast productions at one time or another. AFRA After James Hollywood, Jan. 16. American Federation of Radio Artists has sent Harry James «•■. membership blank, stating^ he does "too much talking" on* the Danny Kaye show. AFRA. \jjants scripts for first two Kaye pro- ■• grams in order to prove its point that musicians who have dialog beyond music cues should Join the .actors' union. James turned back the peti- tion and a showdown looms. Maes'tro's pact with the beer show calls for dialog as well as horn and baton chores. OVERHAUL DUE FOR FM SETUP I). S. Steel Seen Headed for Blue Buildup at Y&R Young & Rubicam is developing the central.pasting system idea, with the agency's expanded activity along these lines regarded as a far-reach- ing step toward evolving: an "open door" policy for new talent.. Head- ing up the'Y&R ^office as casting di- rector will be Eleanor .Kilgallen,' \vho mpyes- over to. the agency on Feb. .5 "from CBS. where vshe's' been; holding down a similar post! . .. Marge Morrow, ex-CBS. is return- ing to the network from Warner Bros, lb take over talent post Mon- day <22>. .While it's not unusual for the net- works: to operate, under a casting director setup.. nevertheless the move is still something of an in- novation in -agency; circles, with less than half a dozen all told head- ing up such activity." Previously, Y&R producers sing "supervisors-: oil' the individual..'shows handled the burden ' of" the casting chores, .but with Miss Kilgallen stepping into the picture ..there'll ;be more latitude toward'.'encouraging-, the finding of new talent, with the new casting, director; operating, in conjunction with the producers and -supervisors. . Miss Kilijallen is a sister of Dor- othy, the Broadway columnist, and a 'daughter '-of - Jim Kilgallen; war correspondent and veteran news- paperman. She was formerly a radio actress. . Possibilily. exists that the long eonlcmplaled Theatre Guild-United .Stales Steel tieup for. an hpiiv Dot- work scries recreating Guild stage successes will wind up on the Blue network in a Sunday niyht spot. Re- ports have it lha't a .reshuffle of Sun- day shows is in the ''offing which will enable the web to clear the lime, sought by the Guild aiid sponsor; Inlbed that "Big Steel" was or- ercd the 6 to 7 p.m. slot now occu- pied by Philco's "Hall of Fame" but ; n i* »• C' ■• Dl declined, prefcrrirfg a later slice .or? KCallSHC tlgglC I lUgS time.. With Philco reportedly .cutting' * ° ' "Hall's" /unning lime to 30 minutes (see separate story in Radio Sec- tion), Blue 'programmers will be Ible to revise the Sunday night slate and open up. a later GO-minutc seg- ment for. the projected -dr'amal series'. Now Being Used in Line With Request by OPA Realistic altitude concerning the current cigaret shortage has been introduced, into some ciggie com- Sked shift to make room for the j merc.ials as a result of a request by the OPA thai the smoke, mfrs. break down and tell the;public there just: areii'1 any around. "As a re- sult of the plea, sent to major Washington, Jan. 16. FCC flashed the go-ahead signal to commercial television for post- war expansion in its frequency al- location report issued yesterday (15). . Commercial, video remains in the same place in the spectrum and maintains its present 6 me. chan- nels, and .525-line definition. In addi- tion, a large chunk of the ultra-high frequencies are earmarked for tele- vision experimentation both for. im- proved monochrome and for color, • . Other highlights of the report: 1. Tele, won its battle with FM, the latter service being forced to move higher in the spectrum. FM goes from the 42-50 meg. band to the 84-102 meg. band. FM will maintain its 200 kc. channels. 2. Ninety channels will be pro vided for FM, of which 20 will be for educational services. Of the 70 commercial channels, 20 will be held back for release later on to newcomers in. the industry. 3. The civilians get... a "walkie talkie" service, essentially for local use. This would, be for the benefit of physicians to get calls from their offices, for pickup ' and delivery trucks^ to 'be V notified about calls from their offices, etc 4. Standard broadcasting, remains unchanged, with the FCC sidestep- ping the question of using the 520 530- and 540 bands for. AM. This, may be taken up at somclater date, if the .government relinquishes the services. 5. Theatre video . remains in Ihe '.'experimental stage and will get no permanent assignment of frequen- cies for the time/being. 6. Provision is made for special channels for motion picture studios for contact with crews-on location. 7. Facsimile is earmarked to share the. FM channels'on a simplex basis, for the time being. Experiments in multiplexing, will continue aiid eventually facsimile may become a multiplexed service sharing chan- nels in actual use by FM ■ broad- casters. . 8. Plenty of channels are provided for. radio hams. 9". The railroads get regularly- assigned channels for train-station and Irain-lo-lraih communication. 10. There is no specific allocation for, subscription (pig squeal).radio. However, if it proves commercially feasible, it can apply for some of the FM commercial channels. 11! Provision is made for all types of govcrnmcnlal services and ex- perimentar facilities will be provid- ed for various private services. .liint Ain't Enough Room , FCC pointed out that the demand for frequencies far outdistanced the available supply. 'The Stale Deptr ; will use the recommendations for ; use at .international conferences, i Pertinent portions of the report: STANDARD: "The record shows • that, both day and night, cOnsitl ' crabie areas of the U.S. do not re Elaine Carrington's 200G Income, With 4th Daytime Serial Coming Up Up. and Down Ladder Office boy in one of the top agencies in N. Y. recently was ■ made an assistant producer'and assigned :tp two shows. The kid, in his new-found affluence and prestige; took, to riding around in cabs on missions to NBC,..CBS, etc. Last week he walked into the agency off ice manager's sanctum to let the o.m. know how well he was. getting along and announce that; he '■ had so much time on his hands, he'd like to tackle a third show.;- " Office manager pulled out the kid's expense voucher, looked it over and retorted, "Since you got ; so much'"sptfre: time you better start taking buses hereafter." Blue's Program ' The Blue network has just set tip a Program Promotion DivisibiT~lo handle all the web's air promotion/ with. John C; Turner upped ! fi#m asst. script editor as-mgr. of the di- vision. He'll report to Hubbell Robr inson, who heads up 'programming at the. network. Eleanor O'Conhell is functioning, as assistant to Turner. Three writers have thus far been as- ; signed lo.\lhe-. division. Thoy are Juliet Glen, who has just returned after serving overseas with the Red •Cross and. was formerly with: the Compton agency; Marjorie Duhan. also ex-Cqmptoli. and. Palsy Cristy. who was brought up from Texas. ■ New division will not only provide material for network airing, but also, handle all promotion for local sta- tion use. It will lake its- leads from various aspects of Blue sales eairK paigns and adapt Ihctii . to radio techniques. It's likely; loo. that 'the web will'follow the lead of both-CBS ahd ; NBC in setting up its own weekly promotion aner. Meanwhile Turner and his aides, have inherited all the networkls activities on plugging'of OWI mes- sages aiid are doing a similar ,chore for WJZ, the web's N. Y. keystone station. ♦ Currently represented- on Ihe day- time programming sked with three serjals which 1 she scripts solo. "When A Girl Marries," "Pepper Young's Family," "Rosemary"■)■'■ Elaine Car- rington is taking on a fourth assign- ment,. "Martiage'for Two," which John E. Gibbs is packaging for po- tential 'sponsorship'. On the fourth : show, however; Miss Cnrrihgton will lake- on some scripting assistance, ■ inasmuch as her trio of soapers cur- rently on the networks adds, up to some 30,000 words a Week. With the General Foods—"Girl Marries" still snaring lop ratings for hangover-formula daylimers. the Procter & Gamble "Pepper -Young": saga this week marking its 10th- anni Under ihe P&G banner.'• iMon- day's <15> show reprised past years' stanzas), and "Rosemary." now firmly, entrenched on the NBC sked for P&G, : Miss.' Carrington's .11.000.000 claily audience-pull: (that's tops for rny one daytime scripler) has'trnns- - laied itself into an approximate $200,000 ' annual- income.; .. Which makes her one of the top scripters on coin intake in the business. But what, in Ihe opinion of Ihe trade; makes it all the more re- markable is the. high quality writing maintained-.throughout .the year by Miss Carringtqh, many agreeing that she stands, pretty , much" without co'mpetitibn in divorcing herself' from: boiler-plale-faciory-built stuff. Particularly since Sandra Michaels abandoned radio 'she how lives on her -western ranch r many see in Miss .Carringtoh a sort of ."final link"'' on the qualitative ^school..of daytime writing: which refuses to write down to audiences. And, in addition to those 30.000 words a week, Miss .'Ca.rrinjj.lpii nins a household and a family. Her hus- bai)d; Maj. Gen. George Carringlori, is currently in Africa and is skedded to return shortly. Philco's M To Half-Hour? ; '. Hoi lywood, Jaii. 16. Format and lime switch: on Phil-, co's "Ha'li of Fame" is- being talked up,, with, possibilily mentioned the c'lient will-buy the . $17,500 Jiidy Garland package for a half-hoiir.- program co-featurjng Paul While- man's orch aitd one guest oach week.. '-Hair* has been iii the fi to 7 p.m. niche on the Blue since early December, 1943. on a multiple lop bracket Ruestar policy. The Phi|co program, aired from here for the past few weeks. Is ' skedded - to return cast late next ' month or early in March but. if the .Gar.liind deal jells, a permanent Hollywood. Jan. 16. .Hollywood home tor. the program Deal to sell the Joan Davis show j would appear to bo in the cards. Campbell, United Drug jj In Bid for Davis-Haley Package; Upped to 25G Steel .show, it's understood, will af- fect ihe "Life of .Riley." among other shows, with the Bill Bciulix coniecly stanza reportedly slated to. be'shifted into an earlier slot than ihe 10-10:30 niche now occupied. The half-hour Immcdialelv . following il0:30-in has been ■.•■■usiaining since the shift, two weeks , ago. of "Keep ■ Up With 4he World" to 9 p.m. Wed. ; New tunc for 'Riley " therefore. ..would open up the 10-11 hour for away from Seal lest is on the verge j U.-e of several guests per show has of consummalion with, Campbell ! made for *high talent costs under coive standard-broadcast service. If Soup aiid United Drug bidding. • present conditions, hereabouts, feasible, from Ihe standpoint of Negotiations for the show, packaged | If. and when, "Hall" returns cast, liecds of other services; lhe ; alloca- : by , the William Morris office at a ■ prod uccr - Tom McKhlght will do a lion of addliional channels to the ! reputed selling price of $25,000. areI bowout, having taken on writing the Sled series which handled by BBD&O. is being Ruthiauff & Rvan To Give Holloway Buildup . 'Sterling [loHowa.v. Illm comedian. ?s being given, .a iadio : ''buildup'-via RiilhraiifT & Ryan, Asihc.v has taken' «n 0|).tion on him and.'...if' Uc clicks.- he ll be given a. prrhiimcnt sp'ot- on •h<! Aulolile . ••Evei ythi.)K : for.: the Boys ' NBC show. Cast is topped by Pick Haymcs. Holloway did his 'first,- Autolite Tuesday i9), agency nabbing 'he option immediately after. His next date on show is set for Jan. 20. ciggie adyeiiisOis by the OWI. most of the roiripanios have already in- I eluded such lext with their sales I plugs, or will do so soon; I During the p:ist week lir 10.days. I Luckies, Camels. Philip Morris and i RaleiKh have, heeded Ihe OPA's I pilch; Old Gold will shortly do so. probably op the basis of an ex.-, tended campaign which it, was plati- nii'.g at the-lime The iippioach was made. Ch.esl.orlicld. through its agency. Newell-RinmeM. slated, las' week Ibat il hiid hoi, been asked. OPA ii'ios^ific . strefsed three points. It asked lisleners lo share the available supply: to Observe price e'ejlings and report inf.ringe- i-siciils. iind not lo buy 'any more than dictated by. immediate needs. • On inoj-t ciggie; shows, despite the shoriaee. sales spiels .have" - been along the customary high pressure lines, except for Ihe OPA induced interlude; ' Got a Rariieses. bud? standard . band would tend to. -im- prove'this condition. "Below 550 kc. il has beeii; sug gested thai the following rrcquen cies be '.added to. (he standiird broad j licariiig a close. • Ward- Whcelnck ag.en.cy.. which ■ splits CahVpbeir Soup radio billing ■\ with F° ole ' Gone & Belding. said to ■be interested in (he Davis show as commitments at Universal pix which will keep him ofr I'nC Coast. Ernest Lovcmaiv, of the Hulchins agency which handles the Philco air ac- count, is here but John McMilliii has He's: due back ■cast band: 520. 530: and 540 kc All: a:.-replacement; for "Radio Readers",returned : lo ,N. Y flhr.ee of: the.se'.channels are now as- piscsl." FC&B is also said lo have a lale this month, igned to the U. S. Govt, radio scry- 1 linger in the proceedings and. if sue ; icqs. No'decision has been made al .cessful in laliding the show, would | MoiA» 1)h\V(>« ^pt Tft 1 this lime as to whether ;.ny or these . move it into the Jack'Caivpn. spot on ; w *«J«f' OKI -XV '. frequencies can be ■.made available CBS. At the .agency, however, it ; ' RetUfPi fOf GhrVSler for s4ahd;nrl broadiast service.' FM: "Public inlercsl roquii'es -thai ' renew ed . at option lime laic this was reported that Carsm, would: be. . Decii . joh lQ c0 , lUn |, c thP M:ljm : , Bowes amateur' program for Chrysler FM be■' established in- a peni.anent : m0llt h. . . , , ■ ■ Cor P : was reached al a confab Thurs place in the-spectrum'..before a con- ,: United Drug, through N. W. Aver. ,n). ',attended by Bowes.' Chrysler I siderablc invcslmciil is made by Ihe recently approached Groucho Marx ' i. C p.s ;) hd execs of Ruthriiuir &: Ryan; •: li.sliiii.njf public in receiving sets and \ oil a deal but it collapsed when the ihe ' account's agency. There had' j by Ihe; broadcasters in- tiansmilling . agency was unable to reserve time \fe cn somc question ( of-Bowes i retiun iquipnicnl. FM inusl he located -In.' nccopjable (o Ihe client. 'Beiicv'ed , i 0 Ihe air. in view or his recent hos- 1 a'.'region, free of skywavc; iiilerfcr- j Campbell Soup has ihe inside track I piiali/.atipn. ence if its full capabililie's are to be oil the Davis show because of the ' ulili/.cd." * ^ - .liime elcijjcnt. Jim McFadden. radio "Kriin) thef. evidence, we. believe director of McKee-Albright agency iliat such iiiier/erence iii the 40-50 : iSeallcsl >.. has bceii Iconferring with nic. region would be severe enough : Miss Davis but the:new asking.pricc to impair Ihe utility of this service ' j s ' fm- beyond his client's lop figure, to such an exltnl Ihiil . the full Ae* '-'Program: now:;sl»iMls Sealtcst around (Continued on page 35) j $12,500 weekly. Exact dale when the amateurs \7ill rekume will be determined bs' Bowes himself, Chrysler- giving him cprte blanche on that, point, Substitute programs have been lined up for Jan. 18 and 25, meaning that the earliest rrsumpti6n;date would be sometime in Feb. .