Variety (May 1946)

RADIO 39 Wood-Rankin Group May Nose Into 'Fundamentalist'Demand for Time ! Wedneadaft May 22, 1946 Thornburgh Sets Clinical Conclave Hollywood, May 21. Don Thornburgh, v-p, has called a program "managers clinic for reps of 23 CBS-affiliated stations in Pa- cific region. Conclave opens June 3 for three days, with Hal Hudson, western program head, chairman- ning. It's unlikely that Thornburgh w iU attend due to expectancy that he will be in New York. Event marks second clinic to be called by CBS in this area. Edwin W. Buckalew, field manager of stations relations, prepared the agenda which will include study panels, legal aspects of talent buy- ing and program contracts, opera- tions, news, etc. Special stress will also be laid on programming for forthcoming summer seasom Net is especially eager to. devise and devel- op new ideas in line with CBS' gen- erally gloomy picture. 'Eileen'Package With Lucille Ball Wrapped Up; Star's 5-Yr. Korlan Pact "My Sister Eileen," which was a hit as a Max Gordon-produced play and later as a Columbia picture, is to be' perpetuated by radio. The Ruth McKenney stories, which orig- inally appeared in the New York- er mag, have been bought by Ar- thur Kurlan and are to be produced by a new production outfit formed by Kurlan in Hollywood. Title for the airer will be "Eileen and I." Kurlan is cutting an audition on Sunday at NBC in New York, with Lucille Ball playing the part of Rulh and a temporary actress play- ing the audition. Miss. Ball has been signed to an exclusive five-year contract by Kurlan. The audition will be before a live audience. The show has not yet been offered for sale. Kurlan paid the audition costs. Set so far for the show are John McClain, as dialog writer, and Da- vid Raksin as orchestral conductor, though Lehman Engel will conduct the audition show because of Rak- sin's current Coast commitments. No one has been set yet for the perma- nent part of Eileen, with Kurlan ex- pressing a desire for the character to be played by an "unknown." Asking price is $8,500. Kurlan, re- cently discharged from the Navy as a lieutenant commander, is editing, producing and directing. HUDEGARDE ON TILL JULY; SHELVE WHODUNIT Chicago, May 21, Plans for replacing Hildegarde on NBC during her summer hiatus with the Chi-originated mystery by Erie Stanley Gardner, "A Life in Your Hands," were dropped last week, singer remaining in the Wednesday night spot for Brown & Williamson through July 24, when her current 13-week cycle Is concluded. Then she will leave B&W and the Russel M. Seeds agency. Decision to continue Hildegarde until middle of summer, instead of beginning her hiatus June 1, would leave only six weeks of summer re- placement necessary, and Gardner balked at having his new show on the air for only that new period of time; hence an amicable settlement has been reached and the package is back on the market. When it's aired, it'll undoubtedly originate in Chi, despite exodus from this city of a number of net shows. KP0I, MANILA, STAFFERS SAIL Three N. Y. radioites will be among the staff members of KPOI, Manila, when the Philippine Broad- casting Co.'s new station goes on the air early in July. They are Joseph Ruffner, wbe's been on news and special, events with NBC; Elcanora pasey, former manager of the record department at Young & Rubicam agency; and Henry Miller, until this week with the State Dept.'s short- wave outfit and previously with N- Y. group leaves Friday 24) for kan Francisco, whence they'll sail with other staffers recruited on the '-oast by the station's head, Norman Pa 'ge. Latter was ABC Pacific cor- espondent during the war. 1 Tarty'Pitch for East Linkup Made by R&R Hollywood, May 21. Lee Cooley, Ruthrauff & Ryan director of daytime shows, headed back to N. Y. yesterday (Mon.) lugging three audition platters of "Surprise Party", new aud-partici- pating program which debuts for American- Home Foods over CBS' Pacific slope hookup on July 1. Pitch will be made in east to get sponsor to undertake coast-to-coast coverage, starting in winter. "Party", emceed by Stu Wilson and Bob Shannon, is rather involved af- fair employing numerous remote pickups and will use six engineers, record number for any Coast show. Although teeoff of program is more than month off, almost daily re- hearsals are being held at CBS here to smooth working details of mixers. BORDEN RENEWS GINNY Hollywood, May 21. Ginny Simms has been renewed by Borden and will return next season into her Friday night CBS niche on Sept. 6. Chirp's summer replacement show, topped by Tommy Riggs and Peggy Lee, started May 10. HOME PRODUCTS MULLS DELMAR-MONROE SHOW American Home Products, anxi- ous to expand its nighttime network programming, and take advantage of the choice' segments opening up, looks set to crash' through with a new half-hour show. Deal is cur- rently being negotiated for a 30- minute variety package built around Kenny Delmar and the Vaughn Monroe orch, It's a $10,000 weekly talent layout, which also provides for pacting of guestars. Sponsor has also been eyeing as a possible alter- native the Bob Burns show, which is going off the Lever Bros, roster, but from all indications the Delmar- Monroe package has priority on at- tention. Home Products is currently rep- resented in the nighttime web pic- ture by "Ellery Queen" (Anacin), "Mr. Keen" (Kolynos) and the ftve- times-a-week Mutual "Real Stories of Real Life" (Anacin). Buffalo—Van Keel, WBEN news- caster, who collapsed with a heart attack just before air time last week and is now in the General hospital, will be off the air indefinitely. Gor- don Redding and Ralph Knox, the latter formerly of WIRE, are sub- bing. Washington, May 21. Possibility of the House (Wobd- Rankin) Committee on Un-Ameri- can Activities probing radio station policies on sale of time to religious groups is the latest headache for the broadcasters. Several committee members have expressed interest in the matter following a heated ses- sion last week at which Fundamen- talist preachers called oh the group for legislation to compel stations to sell them time. The Fundamentalist reps, spokes- men for similar gospel sects through- out the country, blasted at increased trend by broadcasters to v shove all church commercials off the air and to divide up free time evenly among the different denominations. This move in radio has unofficial blessing of FCC and is backed up by a U. S. Court of Appeals ruling in Philadelphia last fall upholding WPEN's right to refuse paid time and to divvy up its free time among the churches in that area. Sound-off for the latest ruckus on the Hill was cancellation of a Bap- tist Fundamentalist program by WNOX, Knoxville, Scripps-Howard outlet. Three preachers, claiming to represent 6,000 Fundamentalist cler- gymen throughout the country, bom- barded the Un-American Committee with 54,000 protest letters from their followers. The ministers were Harvey H. Springer, pastor of the First Bap- tist Church of Englewood, Colo., and J. Harold Smith and T. Wesley Hill, preachers and religious editors in knoxville. Their appearance fol- lowed several days of torchlight processions by thousands of Funda- mentalist disciples picketing the Knoxville station. Fight Ahead However, according to best opin- ion here, if the Wood-Rankin Com- mittee decides to dig into the con- troversy H may face the fight of Ha life in Congress. Many House mem- bers on both sides of the aisle who have supported the Committee thus far, are also strongly committed to a policy of "more freedom of the (Continued on page 44) DON GODPARD has served New Yorkers his special edi- tion of the daily news with breakfast and lunch for nearly a decade. 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