Variety (Jul 1946)

Wednesday, July 3, 1946 RADIO 27 MILKING MIFFS BANKROLLERS Top 15—No Opposition Summer has crashed, through on the Hooper schedules u;ith a ven- geance, top-rating show dii the June 30 report ("Mr. District Attorneu") . netting "o better than a 15.8 tally. The closest any of the opposition shows came to an 8.0 rtftinp 'was Dunninger, whose 7;9 pave the opposi- tion "Inner Sanctum" show. some tough audience competition, and "Manhattan Merry Go Round," also with a 7.9. Two of the summer replacement shows made the First 15. These were the.Fred Waring Tuesday night sub for "Fibber & Molly" and "Man Called X," subbino /or Bob Hope. PROGRAM "Mr. District Attorney".... 15.8 Eddie Cantor 14.7 Fred Allen 14.3 Lux Radio Theatre .. •. 13.2 .Walter Winchell 12.6 Screen Guild Players ..... 11.7 Jack Haley 114 "Suspense" 10.8 "Aldrich Family" '.-.'.'. 10.6 ^ "Take It—Leave It" 10.6 \ Judy Canova 10.5 | Fred Waring 10.5 j "Truth or Consequences".. 10.3 Abbott fit Costello .... 1012 "Life of Riley" "Inner Sanctum" ......... 9.5 "People Are Funny" "Man Called X" ..... OPPOSITION Radio No Nostrum Rostrum, Say Execs, Denying Parran's Drug Ad Charges Charges last week by Dr. Thomas t Parran, surgeon general of the U. S. Public Health Service, that drug ads on. radio made "extravagant claims" and that the industry should follow newspaper example with cleaning-up programs, were an- swered by. network execs, who pointed out that Dr. Parran's ac- cusations were vague and general, and not directed at them. Dr. Parran had charged that the trend in extravagant drug ads had reached "disturbing proportions." "At almost any hour of the day," he said, "listeners may hear announce- ments offering relief for a wide va- riety of human ills. In many of these cases no factual information is supplied to limit the hopes that may be aroused by the appeals. Although the physician is referred to at times in glowing terms, there is too sel- dom any reference to the impor- tance of seeking competent medical diagnosis of treatment. The em- phasis is on self-medication." Dr. Parran then urged the radio Industry to follow the "excellent example" of the newspapers in ag- gressively setting up improved ad standards. Leaders in the radio industry, ac- cording to one NBC exec, have done what leaders in the newspaper in- dustry have done—and that's as far as they can go, he said. He con- demned Dr. Parran's charges as nol being specific. To condemn all radio for sorrte bad ads, he said, is like • condemning all medicine for the few <iuacks in it. Radio's record, he claimed, was good; if a few smalt stations have been guilty of Dr. Parran's charges, they are no worse than many small-town newspapers. Same exec pointed to a recent ad in so reputable a newspaper as the N- Y. Times, which advertised a pair «>f femme pants with detachable crotch. NBC, he said, would never V»kc that type ad for the air. NBC. (Continued on page 32) NBC Suspends $100 Fee Ruling on P,S. to Indies For Atom Bomb Coverage NBC suddenly reversed itself last week and rescinded, .for lhe : occasion of Sunday's (30> pooled alom bomb coverage, its rule levelling a ♦100 fee on.indie stations which arc fed jNBC public service programs. NBC thought it the better part of wisdom to drop the charge when it learned that CBS was feeding the Pooled broadcast to indies on a ctino basis. In the case of both net works, 'he serviced indies were only re- quired to pay line charges. NBC policy calls for the $100 tab •o all indies that are fed the web's Public service shows, except educa- tional stations, to whom they go for "■ee. Only exception applies to residential broadcasts, when the ts dropped all around. Dennis Day Tees Off New Show in Sept. Dennis Day's half-hour commer- cial show for Palmolive, "A Day in the Life of Dennis Day," is set to tee off in mid-September, with like- lihood that it will go into the 7:30 Thursday evening time held down this season by Bob Burns (Lever Bros.). Charles Cant's, orch will provide the musical background, with Sharon Douglas also skedded for feature billing. Ted Bates is the agency. Day is soloing with the Min- neapolis Symphony and Cleveland Symphony orchestras this week and next. DEMAND CHEAP 'HOUSE' ITEMS The swing next fall may be back to "house productions" among the top agencies, rather than package shows. It's already reflected in the summertime replacement sfiowcas- ings, such as BBD&O's 60-minute mystery show for. U; S. Steel, and J. Walter Thompson's Alec Temple- ton and Tommy Dorsey Sunday night programs, which bypass out- side packaging operations. It's all part of the swing toward low-budgeted snows, with sponsors apparently fed up with the multi- plicity of percentage's that come off program; costs because the talent agency and frequently additional "middle men" are getting a cut on the program. What. they'd like to see is a return of the old-fashioned flat 15% ad agency , commission, and sinking the rest of the coin into the production itself. Resentment against those three- four-way commission. splits on a single air package reached its peak recently when one sponsor, much to his chagrin, broke down the figures on his show only to find out that 50% of his investment in a $5,000 package was going out in commis- sions. He. burned plenty, served notice on the agency that when he comes back next season he wants a "house built" show and wasnt in- terested in forking out anything be- yond the 15% ad agency commis- sion. Rebellion against package shows took oh some impetus only last ,week when one of .the networks,-peddling to the agencies a show it has had on the air as a sustainer for several months, also cut itself in for a 20% slice on the overall show cost. Web thought that it was entitled to get back the coin it had put into the show during the time it was on sus- taining. Thus far there've been no takers. To begin with, the web bought the show from a package outfit, which would also get a healthy slice. Donohue Into ABC Trouble Spot Apparently there's more than meets the eye in ABC's appointment last week of John Donohue as asst. to Fred Thrower, veepee in charge of sales. ABC dept. handout summed it up as "recognition by the net- work of the re-emergence, with ci- vilian production, of many new net- work prospects among heavy, indus- tries located in the Pittsburgh Cleveland-Detroit area." Appointment of Donohue, who will supervise web sales.activities in the three-city area, comes on the heels of the network jitters in connection with the loss of the Ford Sunday night show, probably to NBC, and the doubtful status of U. S. Steel returning to the network again next season with its "Theatre Guild of the Air" Sunday night program. All of which adds up to a lough assignment for Donohue. As eastern sales manager before his new ap- pointment he was one of the sparks in the upsurge of ABC sales into the $40,000.000'■'billings class. George Fry. ABC's director of | business development, moves into Donohuc's old spot. ABC Dicker to Renew NBC Lease Cues Shove-Back to Own Building Plans CBS' Nine Up This is "Premiere Week" at CBS, with the Davidson Taylor- William S. Paley program mill running into high gear. Nine "openings"—- most of them "house-built" shows—represent. something of a record for a six- day period.. On Monday (1) the Milton Berle, Jack Kirkwood and Larry Carr shows got off; last night (Tuesday) was the preem of the Arthur Godfrey "Talent Scout" show; tonight (Wed.) marks the bow in of "The Whistler"; on Thursday, the Mark Warnow" "Let's Sound Off" show tees off. "Sweeney and March" comes in Friday and there's a brace of new ones on Saturday—"Okla- homa Roundup" and the St Louis Municipal Opera program. Y&R ELECTS'SENATOR' AS JOAN DAVIS SUB Young fit Riibicam has purchased' "State Senator" as summer replace- ment for the Joan Davis (Lever Bros.) show, which goes off CBS for eight weeks on July 29. Format of "Senator" is along lines of "Mr. District Attorney." Cast is currently being set. While show was sold to YfiiR through Lou Cowan Production auspices, it's not a package show, with Y&R to have production con- trol. Like all summer shows, it's modestly budgeted. CBS' New Bid To Hypo Coml Shows CBS is making another attempt to hypo its commercial program- ming, with the appointment of Her- schel Williams, Jr., as the network's, director of commercial program de- velopment. That's the job held down recently by Douglas Coulter, following latter's exit as CBS pro- gramming boss. Only difference is that Coulter held a veepee title, and Williams doesn't » As in the case of Coulter, who bowed out of the network a couple of months, back, Williams will be the liaison between Bill Gittinger's sales dept. and Dave Taylor's program- ming dept., as well as serving as program counsel to account execs and huddling with agencies in de- termining how CBS shows can achieve greater listening pull. On the basis of his background, it's conceded that Williams has more than an even chance. Recently dis- charged from the Army Air Force with the rank of Colonel after four years in uniform, he's been identi- fied, with the production reins of many of the top air shows for a num- ber of years, as well as a success- ful fling into legit as co-author of "Janie." His "Mary With Music" postwar comedy is now in produc- tion in Sweden. Williams was with J. Walter Thompson for four and a half years; a year with Benton & Bowles, and more than five years with Ruthrauff and Ryan, where he was a veepee before going into service. + Despite a clause in the original deal which called for ABC (then the Blue network) to vacate the NBC premises "a year after the cessation of the war," ABC web ex- ecs are about to sit down with NBC to arrange for a renewal of its.lease. ABC, it's reported, is anxious to negotiate a five-year lease (which would indicate that the network is far from ready to set up. house on its own), but report is that NBC will only go along on a one or two- year lease, with options. NBC rents its quarters in the RCA bldg., N. Y., from the. Rockefeller interests and in turn sub-leases its quarters and facilities to ABC. ABC, it would appear, has an but on. that "one year after the war" vacating clause, since the President hasn't as yet issued any official proclamation that the war's over. When Edward J. Noble recently floated his stock issue, prevailing impression was that it would spur activity toward the network build- ing Its own quarters, but apparently ABC .wants to stay put for a while. Jurist Thinks Book Shows Swell Believes They're Here to Stay A boost to book shows in general came out of last week's decision by Justice Bernard Botein in N. Y. supreme court, when he rendered verdict against ' Martin Stone, pro- ducer of "Author Meets the Critics." who claimed WHN's "Books on Trial'' program infringed on his own show. Not only declaring that the pro- grams were different, the . judge in his opinion slated "that both pro- grams serve ii highly useful and in- [ormalive public function," and in his private chambers afterwards said thai there ought to be more such programs. These literary air Wick Crider. in charge of BBDfitO's I sessions, he said later, could do program and talent development and I nlu(; h to enhance the culture of the Wick Crider's Coast Jaunt Burrows to Ride On Beer Wagon? There's a possibility that Abe Bur- rows will go in as the script writer, for Eddie Cantor next fall when the comedian moves into the Thursday night 10:30 period on NBC for his new sponsor, Pabst. Cantor is reported propping an . elaborate new setup for the new commercial auspices, including for- mat, talent, scripting-production, etc. Izzy Ellinson, Joe Quillen and Johnny Rapp, Cantor's writing crew for. his Bristol-Myers Wednesday night show which bowed off a couple weeks back, have already , exited from the Cantor fold, it's reported, with Cantor and Burrows talking, things over. Ben Gordon (The Mad Russian )aalso exits the Cantor show. Burrows formerly scripted the "Duffy's Tavern" show, later selling his "Holiday fit Co." comedy pro- gram to Biow for Philip Morris, but show only lasted initial cycle. Oddly enough, the Cantor moyeover into the Thursday time puts him back- to-back with the Abbott fit Costello show for Camel's. That, too, comes back next season with a complete overhaul, as detailed in last week's Variety. television, leaves for. the Coast Fri day <5> by Constellation to set the new Wilclroot "Sam Spade" show in operation and for a talent look-sec in connection with two upcoming commercial programs. Object of trip is also to set deal on commercial film facilities for agency. He'll be gone three weeks. American people: they should be encouraged instead of discouraged. Judge Botein. in denying Stone's attempt to obtain an injunction' re- straining WHN from broadcasting "Books on Trial.'' rendered his de- cision on two counts (a) that WHN's tliow was not an appropriation of the other, and (b) thai WHN wasn't trying to confuse the public when it put its new book program in the period formerly occupied by the Stone, show (which is now on WQXR). Judge's decision slated that "while there is some similarity in the basic ideas, the format of the two pro- grams differed so radically, and there were so many diverse fea- tures," as to make everyone aware this was a different program. "Au- thor" is essentially a round-table discussion, further he said, while "Books on Trial" is a dramatization. Judge Botein also declared the basic idea of Stone's program..was not novel, stating that a program, "Court of Literary Justice," pro- duced in 1934, contained a basic idea similar to both current programs. . The judge also found no palming off of one program for the other, as WHN had extensively advertised in newspapers and on the air that "Books on Trial" was a new pro- gram, put on in good-faith. NBC's Heady Problem Swltchov.er of the Pabst-Eddie Cantor show from CBS to NBC in the fall poses a problem for the latter network, just as. it did for CBS when the beer sponsor first went coast-to-coast with Dariny Kaye. NBC finds itself in the position of. trying to get clearance for the Cantor show from stations in states that prohibit beer commercials. Same situation cropped up last year when NBC carried the Ballantine- sponsored Barry Fitzgerald show, Krents' 'Broadcasts/ Latest in Dramat Show Reprises, Offered at 5G For the past couple of seasons there have been kicking around in the agencies package shows based on the general idea of reprising ra- dio's top dramatic programs. Thus far there haven't been any nibbles. Milton E. Krents Associates has just come out with the latest one, tabbed "The World's Best Broad- casts," making available scripts by Stephen Vincent Benet, Archibald MacLeish, Norman Corwin, Arch Oboler, Morton Wishengrad,. Nor- man . Roslen, Millard LampelL Arthur Miller, William . Robson, Arthur Laurenls, Orson Welles, etc. Roy Lock wood is. down as director. It's a $5,000 package.