Variety (Jul 1946)

Wednesday, July 3, 1946 TELEVISION 81 Tele Passes Bikini Test; Brings Officials to Front Door of Explosion Television lived up to the most-f optimistic expectations held for it at the atom bomb tests at Bikini Atoll Sunday (30), furnishing hun- dreds of Army and Navy officials and correspondents a front seat to »the A-bomb's spectacular explosion. Occasion, demonstrating the poten- tially valuable role video will play in scientific work, followed close on the heels of the Conn-Louis fight telecast, which , set television up as one of the top media for sports and special events. , For the Bikini tests, two tele transmitters were set up on the op- posite end of the atoll from the jagoon which floated the target ships, with receiving screens in- stalled aboard the USS Mount Mc- Kinlcy, Admiral Blandy's flagship, and the USS Appalachian, official press ship. Cameras, similar to the BCO block and ring tele apparatus used during the war, were operated by remote control. • Both newspaper and radio corre- spondents based their observations of the damage done by the A-bomb on what they'd seen on the tele screens. Pool radio broadcaster aboard the Appalachian announced immediately after the explosion that he could see via the tele screen that ■ the atoll's palm trees were still stand- , ing and that the USS Nevada, chief '" ' target ship, didn't seem to have suf- fered too much damage. All wire (Continued on page 32) Television Reviews "LIGHTS OUT" With Carl Frank, Mary Wilsey, Eva Condon, Russell Morrison, Bob Lleb, Gene O'Oonnell, Vaufbn Taylor, W. O. McWaiters, Thomas Healphy, Paul Keyes, Bob Davis, Harold Groo; Bill Woodson, narra- tor Producer: Fred Coe Tech. Director: BUI Stales Writer: Wyllfi Cooper Sets: Bob Wade 25 Mlns.; Sun. (34), 8:45 p.m. ' Sustaining WNBT-NBC, N. T. It's usually considered in bad taste for a reviewer to use superlatives in describing a show. Sometimes, how- ever, such a course of action cannot be helped, as in this first televised version of the w.k. "Lights Out" radio spine-tingler. Utilizing a new device in which the camera itself is the murderer, the program was tops from start to finish and undoubtedly one of the best dramatic shows yet seen on a television screen. Credit for the show's all-around excellence belongs jointly to scripter Wyllis Cooper and producer Fred Coe. Cooper was the last writer of the radio version with an eight-week series on the NBC net last summer. (Continued on page 32) Tele Tops Radio for Car Ads, Mowrey Tells AMA Detroit, July 2. Paul Mowrey, television director for ABC painted a bright picture in describing the advantage of tele- vision advertising to the Automobile Manufacturers. Assn. at the group's annual board of directors meeting. Mowrey, the first outsider to. at- tend an AMA meeting in 45 years, was- highly complimented, by the AMA for the ABC television activi- ties in connection with the Auto Golden Jubilee recently when ABA was selected to put the jubilee pic- lures on the air. Mowrey told the highest men in the automobile manufacturing field that television was particularly adaptable to advertising automobiles and will permit visual selling points far superior to audio selling points. At the same time, Mowrey pre- dicted the day of international video hookups is not too distant. He said that television would make its grand entrance into the larger midwestern cities within a year. FCC Gives Television a Breather on 28-Hr. Per Week Sked fill Oct 31 Fori Worth—The FCC has granted an application for a television sta- tion here to Carter 'Publications which has begun seriously to plan building Texas' first tel. station as soon as possible. Washington, July 2. The FCC last Friday (28) acceded to a request of the Television Broad- casters Assn. that television licenses be. given a stay until Oct. 31, on the FCC rule requiring them to program a regular 28-hour-a-week schedule. The FCC rule would have called on the six commercial tele stations to start broadcasting no less than two . hours a day and 28 hours a week by July 1. At the same time/ the Commis- sion nixed another TBA proposal which would have permitted new television licensees to operate in- itially only four hours a week, with the proviso they step up their sched- ules and have a 28-hour weekly format after they had been on the air a - year. Meanwhile, in view of withdrawals from the video field, the FCC can- celled a scheduled hearing on bids for television stations in San Fran- cisco. Only six bidders—Hughes Tool Co., Don Lee Network, Asso- ciated Broadcasters, Inc., American Broadcasting Co., Dorothy Thackrey and the Chronicle Publishing Co.— are how in the running for Frisco's six available channels. Concurrently, FCC set up a spe- cial hearing for July 24 in Los An- geles to hear testimony of Howard Hughes and Tommy Lee, owner of Don Lee Network, in behalf of their bids for Los Angeles video stations. Both Hughes and Lee failed to show at two earlier hearings in Los An- geles and Washington, D. C, on their applications. WNBT Case in Point Illustrative of the hardship that' would have been wreaked on tele broadcasters had the 28-hour weekly schedule gone into effect Monday (1) as originally planned is the case of WNBT (NBC, N. Y.K Station has been programming a more extensive schedule than prob- ably any other tele broadcaster in the country. It will telecast its heaviest schedule to date, with the exception of V-E and V-J Days, next. Monday (8) to Sunday (14), when it's slated to devote 15 hours of day- time broadcasting to the National Professional Tennis Championships, plus its customary nine hours of studio shows. Total is only 24 hours, still four hours short of the 28 hours that would have been called for had the I FCC edict gone into effect. ABC's Survey Tests Tele Show In a move to test its belief that top-coin advertisers' entering tele- vision now will benefit from the re- sultant publicity, if not from in- . creased product sales, ABC television is conducting o survey among tele set owners to determine their reac- tions to the Chevrolet-sponsored shows, which wound up on WABD (DuMont, N. Y.) last (Tuesday) night. Survey will be conducted.by Rich- ard Manville & Associates. Other networks, such as NBC and CBS, have had similar surveys taken by their own research staffs, but this is the first in N. Y. television to be con- ducted by an outside agency, accord- ing to Paul B. Mowrey, chief of ABC tele. Results of the questionnaires will be given to Chevrolet execs, to be used by them for future television programming. Manville will canvass the set own- ers in the N. Y. and Philadelphia areas and will report the results of personal interviews by his staff members with the studio audience at last night's show; People will be asked to judge the commercial, what parts of the show they particularly liked or disliked and, if they dis liked it, their reasons for doing so. With many receiving sets both in the N. Y. and Philly areas still not converted to the new channel fre- quencies, the survey should also, fur- nish an estimate of how many sets are actually in operation, Manville said. ft DR. CHRISTIAN" originates at KNX so does American Theatre Wing's Tele Course for Vets American Theatre Wing has added courses in television to its "univer- sity" courses for veterans, open to all ex-GIs under the GI bill who were in the entertainment world be- fore joining the armed forces. Reg- istration for the radio-tele division opened Monday (1) for the first of its eight-week sessions, scheduled to begin next Monday (8). Courses are tailor-made to suit the vets' needs, as outlined by them in personal interviews arid question- naires circulated through the vari- ous show biz unions. All radio and television will be taught in studios, with tele courses being handled like field work as the students move from one studio to another. ' CBS, NBC, DuMont and ABC arc coop- erating to make their facilities avail- able. Tele courses are under the direc- tion of Worthington Miner, manager °f CBS television. Winston O'Kecfc >s exec director of the Wing's vets Program. Vets committee, from the Wing directorate which set up the Program, is headed by George Hel- ler, AFRA prexy. "Holly wood Barn Dance For nine years radio listeners have been writing letters to a country doctor who doesn't exist. Some ask for advice. Many offer to aid the doctor in his work. All of them receive answers from Jean Hersholt, whose convincing perform- ances as Dr. Christian so often turn make-be- lieve into belief... and always provide superb entertainment for millions on Wednesday night. Dr. Christian originates at KNX - .CBS in Hollywood — where the same prime technical proficiency that insures flawless coast-to-coast delivery serves to beam another great show. The Hollywood Barn Dance, to Southern Cali- fornia alone. Hollywood Barn Dance is Western entertain- ment at its rollicking best. For 30 minutes it rocks to the rhythm of fiddle-paced hoe downs, rolls with gales of laughter. It's jam-packed with talent, too. There's Cottonseed Clark as emcee; music by Foy Willing and his Riders of the Purple Sage; Johnny Bond, famed Western funny man; Cliffie Stone, the hilarious heckler; Colleen Summers and the Southerners, as pretty as their songs; Ken Card, and his banjo; Tex Atchison, champion fiddler; and others. No wonder thousands upon thousands of Southern California's adopted and native-born Western- ers tune to The Hollywood Barn Dance every Saturday nightl The Hollywood Bam Dance is for sale. If you're trying to round up the rich Southern California market you can do it with this great Western show. So call us - or Radio Sales. Columbia Squire, Lot Ang«le» 28 Palace Hotel. Stn Francisco J Represented by Radio Sales, the SPOT Broadcasting Division of CBS LOS ANGELES 50,000 WATTS COLUMBIA OWNED COLUMBIA'S STATION FOR ALL SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA