Variety (Apr 1946)

40 Wtdaeaday, April 3, 1946 Labor Fights Petrillo Gangup : Continiica from jute 31 ; putting the matter into the hands jf dcpenrtent stations, who enjoy fian- ils counsel, Sidney Flcisehci-. cliiscs and licenses from the people Another fiioup, headed bv Nor- of the United States, shall be de- man Corwin, was expected lo rci ! privcd of the privilege and benefit into the fifiht against the bill. Coi -' ol such licenses in all ca.ses where win i.>: back in New York todoy ! they are found guilty of violation iWcd.l and may be asked to lead | of the National Labor Relations Act the deletration to President Truman or any other legislation protecting with a request for a veto. Corwin j the rights of their employees." is chairman of a committee forme<l i the two AFRA execs say the Lea se\'cral months ago to light against . Bill was "passed in ignorance of the Wood (Rankin) Committee on! flagrant disregard of the rights of un-American Activities, which at | tens of thousands of working peopl?." tliat time had started a campaign i jn an attached mcmoraiuluni, they against radio commentators. The various unions and writers' organizations feel that the Lea Bill jeapardizes their activties. as well as that of organized musicians. Par- ticularly under fire is the provision i!> the bill forbidding payment be- yond first broadcast rights. That clau.se would, of course, affect writ- ers aiid aclors as well as musicians. say the bill leaves the field open to amateur performers, affects tran- scription rights, "Icgitiniizes piracy" in radio, and would cut the earn- ings of radio artists by one-tliird. Mr.s. Holt and Heller insist that the legislation would allow broad- casters to cut their staffs from five soundmen to two, and from 30 staff announcers to 10. They complain AFRA has prepared a long brief , j^^j j^pj,A had never been given on the Lea Bill, analyzing it point ; ^ ^y^^^^ g^pj^,. ^^ ^ p„,,,jc ^^3,.. by point. The legal analy.sis was g^^, ^jjj^^^jj ^^^^ legislation with made by the firm of Be.lcnson, j Congress. Jfaffc. Jaffe and Bergcr. In addition. : " a letter to Senator Burton K.-i Wheeler, chairman of the Senale In-; HoUSC. SeiUte ToUgh; Icrstate and Foreign Commerce; r» ¥t * fn_ Cpmmitlee, was sent by Emily Holt. 1 May BC Up 10 iTUman national executive secretary of AFRA, and George Heller, asso- ciate national secretary. In that let- ter, they make this threat: •'If any part of this bill is en- acted. . . . we shall demand a re- ciprocal provision, providing that operators of radio networks or in- A>e top/ Washington. April 2. Senate action on the anti-Pctrillo bill conference report was expected within a day or two, with White House action as the final step. House okayed" the report by an overwhelming 186-16 vote la.«t Fri- day (29), and the Senate was ex- pected to follow suit. Margin of the House vote indicated more than enough votes to override a Presi- dential veto if one should be slapped on the stiff bill.. Question here was how much the Senate vote would be, also in connection with overrid- ing a veto. Conference report of last Tues- day (26) was in effect the House bill, which would prevent the AFM from forcing broadcasters to em- ploy standby musicians: prevent the AFM from stopping the broadcast of foreign-originated music pro- grams; and prevent any move to broadcasters pay royalties to the Tluion on transcriptions made for broadcast or re'broadcast. gainst the bill was led by Rep. Vito\Marcantonio, (ALP, N. Y.). who claimed it would deprive the musicians ol. their right to strike. CHrS BRICKHOUSE TO WMCA'S GIANTS GAMES Jack Brickhousc, one of Chi's top emcee-nnnouncers, heads New Yorkward next week to begin a full season of play-by-plays of New York Giants baseball games. Con- tract with the ball club, unique in itself, was sicned last , week af- ter conferences with Horace Stone- ham. Giants' owner, and station WMCA. Ai^eemcnt calls for co-op spon- sorship of the games, with the ball chib and Pabst Brewing Co. splitting the tab. Pact was unusual in that heretofore cither tbe sponsor or the outlet has picked the candidate for aiiiriiuncing of the games; But this time it was left, to the Giants man- agement, and the contract was signed directly with them. Brick- house's a.ssistant will be Steve Ellis, w.k. New York sports annoiutcer. In leaving Chi, Brickbouse re- linqui.<<hes a number of shows, chief among them the "Answer Man" for Van Dyke cigars. According to the sporfscastcr, the move will be per- manent, with pro football commit- ment<: to be sought in the fall. Brickhotise will pick the team up in Jack.'JonviUe, Fla., traveling with it to the Carolinas from where he will leave for. N. Y. to set up house- keeping. • • in radio time sell- ing means exceeding quotas. Weed's policy of conlihixHis selling wiiu the blue riblKm for outstanding performance when it comes to delivering signed contracts. You can rely on Weed and Com- pany's lime-wise reprcsenia- lives to render consistently topiiotch service. IDEA?! Hnvr ctc<^llent Men for radU atiaiv. Xotliinc utmllur m alt twiajr. Ttrtttrt for .M.C or <-umedian, tiomi nut^Hiwr. Will urn. Illii«« pi«T«Bti ro.T Halai. Wrilfi Box S«I3, v/a VarlHv im W«H 4MI< Himl K«w Tarfc 1», N. ¥. IBEW Pickets KTBC In Texas Wransk Austin, Tex.. April 2. Picketing by members of the In- ternational Brotherhood of Electrical Workers is currently in progress in front of KTBC, after members of the union, quit their jobs at the station and on construction work on a new tower being installed here. The picketing was the result of al- leged discharge'o( an engineer and because of the station's failure to enter into a contract with the IBEW. Par's Clear-image Tele Contlnned from pace 1 Fletcher Wiley CoBtinued from pace 29' — and Cops Snag Daiicfe —— CMitinacl from pace law been hiding?" Lenny Adelman, owner of the nitery, asked them sarcastically. "Miss Parker has l>een doing the same dance here for the last 13 months. If the chief thinks it's out of bounds, why didn't he do something about it 15 months ago?" Unable to answer, that $C4 ques- tion, the vice squad boys were fur- ther taken over the coals by Miss Parker and the newspapers that lam- pooned the would-be Comstockian censors. "I never did an indecent dance in my life," declared the marathon-run drfnccr who is actually taking a pre- medical course—no fooling!—at a local college during the day. "My devil number follows a form. In fact, I can prove it is an interpretation of 'Faijsl.' which everybody has seen on the operatic stage." Miss Parker will be given a chaiice to prove her point in court next week. She didn't say whether she would bring her stage costume along to demonstrate it, but reporters are still hopeful. - Loma Linda, a breakfast food, Wilco, an insecticide. Kievin Sweeney, recently out of the service and back with Wiley as busi- ness manager, said last week that, in addition to the New England plans for the string of .ABC stations there, the Wiley office contemplates ex- panding this year in a number of other markets, including Pittsburgli, Detroit, Minneapolis, and San Fran- Wsot^.'/Although he madc.jQo estimate, it was "'■TrtdiBjJ^.A by other Wiley execs that the pfoiduction office ex- pects to nearly double its take by the end of 1946 to a total of about $2,225,000. Sportsorii' costs for Wiley participa- tion are steep, hi New York, the costs are $600 a week; in Chi. $500; St. Louis. $300; and Los Angeles, $282. For that money, the sponsor gets six plugs a week, split between the morning and afternoon shows. The selling is done in each in.stance by the station which ."^hares- the in- come with the Wiley office, the latter paying all the talent and other ex- penses. An additional expense to would- be Wiley participationcns. however, is the testing bureau which Wiley cla.ssical I'^ns. No matter how well endorsed a product may be by other outfits (for instance. Good Hou.sekecjMiig seal ) it must have the approval of Wiley's own testing bureau before it's adver- tised on his shows. This service, how- ever, is^charged at cost rates which, Sweeney said, are about $.').50 for each 50 women testing a product. Some of the products have been tested by panels of up to 5,000 w-omen. Wiley won't accept cosmetics; l)roprictary drugs, loan companies, credit and installnient house!, un- dertakers, any . alcoholic bcviirage. or tobacco accounts. "We have no objection ourselves to any of these products," said Swee- ney, "but we feel that some we caji't test adequately, and others simply don't belong on programs aimed at the kind of intimate listening which we try to build." Wiley's "assembly line" production of his shows has one other inter- esting angle, not strictly related to the business angle but noted by i>co- ple in the trade who have heard recordings of his shows in various cities. Every one of his -gabbers sounds-.Very much like Wiley him-, self, having the same timbre voice aiid the same kind of delivery. "When he trains theni, he trains them all the way^" commented Swfee-* ney when asked about that point. preview in the Par, without any ad- mission fee. Par execs are .reported thoroughly sold on the feasibility of the inter- mediate film method from many angles. The company has reduced the time lag to 90 seconds, although two minutes is average, and the ex- cellent reproduction obtained is con- sidered a NTtst improvement over the pre-war German systems and the British experiments concluded just before the war started. Latter were okay on timing but e.\tremcly fuzzy on reproduction. Valyes Aside from the possibilities of ex- elusive pickup via this intermediate system. Paramount and other theatre executives rate the convenience angle as vital. It makes possible pickup of a news event or complete program and then holding it for screening in the theatre. For ex- ample, the. intermediate method could handle a vital news or sports event, later to break in on'the regu- lar theatre program at the conclusion of a feature. In other words, it would provide patrons a "scoop" on seeing an event without marring the regular screen program. And, of course, this is not possible with regular telecasting. While company officials have fond hopes of the intermediate film method for theatre televising, they realize that certain "bugs" may crop out when it's actually employed for the first time in a theatre, no matter how flawlei-s the same setup may have been found in lab tests. Inci- dentally, these lab te.<<ts are going forward daily in the Paramount building with a special corps of engineers attached to the company's television department. Paul Rai- bourn, Paramount director in charge of planning and a graduate engineer himself, keeps check on these activities. Because there always is a chance of flaws developing in any preview, it's been suggested that the actual unveiling of Par's theatre telcvi.sion l>e before a select audience rather than paying customers, who might expect too much of the initial ertort- Actual handling of televised events 'ill be in the hands of Paramount News veterans. The newsrecl cam- erameri, editors, cutters and direc'- tors have beeii working oh tele- vision technique for about six years --) it is no novelty to them. It's expected that the'Paramount theatre television preem will employ - closed circuit, using matched pairs I telephone lines with frequency adaptors. This . arrangement has been used by NBC in obtaining video coverage in the Greater New York area. ContinuM from pace ZS 3 DORRANCE CHECKS OUT OF CBS TO FREELANCE Dick Dorrancc is checking out of CBS, where he has. been director of promotion for the network's oSiO stations for. 4he past three years. Dorrance /is setting up his own freelance business to handle direct mail booklets. His direct mail pieces- for CBS in collaboration with Harry O'Brien, art director, won him many industry kudocs during his network regime. O'Brien is joining him in the new venture. No CBS decision as yet on a succesiior. Mean\v4iile, the web brass is still looking around for a top promotion man to succeed Paur Hollistcr, who left recently to join RKO. a total of eight and a half hours in the first three dajHs, carrying every word. WMCA car*^d lOli hours, which included a Icouplc of hours of gabbing but included all 1>ut about five minutes orthe voices orig- inating over the Council chamber mikes. WLIB gave up 52 minute"; on Monday. 361 minutes on Tiiesday, and TO minutes, on Wednesday, WQXR carried everything on Monday. 113 minutes Tuesday, and 50 miiuitcK on Wednesday (much of that being a gabber, but much t-io coming from the Council table in the ori.uinal voices 1. WHN. which sh.Tied a booth with WNKW (latter also .shared the line expenses for that booth) carried everything Moiiciay. 1(1 minutes Tuesday, and l.T niinutcs Wednes- day. WNEW carried 40 minutes the (list day, four minutes the second, and 46 minutes tlie third. The loj! for the lirst three days was deemed by U.\0 officials as a fair indication of what radio would do in the future. The fourth day, Thursday, was a clo.scd session day. The Council adjourned Friday tintil today (Wed.>. On Friday " there seemed to be a pick-up in the radio ctiveragc. but it was not large. Part of the lift, however, was thought to be due to the fact that the radio stations and nets knew their logs were being checlicci on UNO cov- crage. All indication of how an out-of- town outU't was. di.ssatisfied with network coverage v>'a.s seen in the experience of WSM, Ni3C affiliate in Nashville. By the second day of the conference, when Jack Stapp, ■WSM program director, saw he was not getting adequr.te network cov- : c-aj'c—he sent his own man to New Yorl--. WSM's coverage after that was Inhen care of via direct class A line by Dr. D. F. Flemming, Vander- bilt Univ. professor of economics. No official complaint against American radio, particularly the nets, came from the UNO. But it was known that Benjamin Cohen, of Chile, assistant secretary-gepcral in charge of information, had been ad- vised by UNO aides that the record of network coverage would help him in his plans for establishment of a UNO-J)«:o slution.'" lor WILDROOT CREAM OIL Thh is th* 112tli wMk and tonight will b* «h« 446th breadcost of "Semis for Yoh" by Shirky SadiM- ever WKY. From 10:30 to 10:45 p.ni. •vary Monday, Wodnos- day, Tbursday and Saturday this program is ontortaining listoaors and stiiing Wii^- root Croam Oil. •UILOS SHOWS WITH ^ THE SENSE OF S£LL