Variety (Sep 1946)

40 TBLBVISION P^niEfY Wednesday, Sepleml»er 11, 1946 Big Leagoe Baseball Tekvision Pushed for Possible '47 B'casts Decision on whetlier ielevisionf ■bi-baacaslers^ will be permitted to air big league baseball games ou a cQmmercial basis is slated to be ihanijed do*n at the league owners' ine:et'«e?it winter. iBotli SFord Frlck, National League prexv, and WiU S, Havridge, Ameri- can League topper, have refused to permit sponsorsliip oE baseball tele- casts- herotolore,: presumably ,be^ cause they were still atraid-that vi- deo would cut■ inlb, theii.' .turnstile receipts; Baseball 'execs had allowed .the .broadcasters: to :televise games on an experimental basis, however, apd both NBC and CBS have talcen advantage of the perniit in N. Y. Although the outcome of the base- ball magnates" buddies is still in dpubt, it's believed likely that they'll ,fall into line along with the college and pro football, blg.gies, who've, welcomed., television into : the fold;. Tele broadcasters are oft'ering the usual argument that the new medi- um will hypo interest in the game and build Up gate receipts,;.just as ;radio has: done. More optim istic among ■ the. video ■ execs, in fact, have even promised ■ the baseball chiefs that, once full- screen sized television becomes a reality, the ball parks need never worry about lack of Seating room for important g'ames. Anytime it looks as though a,sellout was in the works, such as for the World'Series, all the baseball chief has to do is throw up another video. screen in .some large arena and charge admis-^ sion for that. System, it's argued, would greatly increase the .seating capacity of any ball park. Success the tele broadcasters have had with fight telecasts—especially NBC's handling of the recent Conn- Louis set-to—is also expected to be used as a talking point in favor of sponsored baseball telecasts^ Promo- ter Mike Jacobs, who's reportedly . not a person to take chances where his boxoffic'e grosses are concerned, has evidenced complete satisfaction with the fight telecasts. Weather on Video. Reid's Ice Cream has signed to Sponsor the weather reports over CBS television. One-minUte fore- casts will be spotted on WGBW three times weekly — Thursdays, Satur- days,' Sundays — starting .hcxj 5"",- day US'i'. Doherty, CliffoSfd ..and Shenfield is the agency;':. ^ : :, . ' . Weather reports will be given via aim, with more than 60 different possibilities already filmed and ready for vse. Reports and the .conimer-: qials at^. in . the fprnv bf: animated cartooiis^ \ ■ v' Live Pickups To PlugCBSTeletint'i CBS will fire the opening guns in , its new campaign to have television j move immediately . to: the higher frequencies: on Friday ■ (.13), when the web's technicians demonstrate live color pickups to the trade press. Transtnission will emanate from the CBS labs and will follow the I same circuit as the images trans- j mitted in the color film demonstra- tions last May. Dr. Peter Goldmark is slated to run the show, with John Tillman, who emcees "Matinee at MeadowbrOok" for CBS radio every Saturday; announcing the acts as the live models go through their paces. . Demonstration will be the first | by CBS oE live color transmission since before the war, when the i mechanical syslem employed by Dr. Goldmark was in its experimental stages. Web execs are confident now, i however, that the system is .-far [ enough' advanced to afford a good i talking point in their pitch to the '. FCC to have tele move to the ultra- high frequencies; : It Happens in Tele, Too Proof that television is hitting tha big tihiB was seen in an NBC story conf«rence last week, which had all the* earmarks of tlie overly-exaggerated reports of coiifereuces in the film ih- diistry.' Seems that WNBT produc- tion chief Warren Wado, pro- ducer Fred Coe, story depart-^ ment head Owen Davis, Jr., and a couple of other/ execs .were discus.sniif? old-tim^t .yaude 'stars as po.-!sible leads for a forthcom- ing rtiusical comedy show. Wade had his- heart..,set on: one old- . timer, whov-shall remain name- less here. Others, however, were ,a,i>ainst the idea, claiming tlje . v'auder was a has-been, a. sot, and what-not. Argument pro- gressed, witii both sides getting, .progressively niore vehement.. Finally, Coe remembered something. In a non-committal : way, ho poiiited otit that they'd : been arguing: for' nothirtgi since: the guy in question had been dead several years. Others mere- ly iiodded and went on with the squabbling, Coe included- After another, couple of rounds of bickering, Coe got tired enough to yell: "But the guy's dead." Then they all did a double-take, followed through with surprised stares, glanced sheepishly at one another, and adjourned further huddles until the following day. FORD SIGNS PIGSKIN SCHEDULE OVER WARD Foixi Motors has completed its .sports coverage package via tele- vision ill New "Srork by signing up the telecast of the Ail-American Conference football games ot the New York Yankees. Deal, Including .leven Yankee home games and one in Brooklyn, was niade through J. ■Waller Thonipson,agency. . Telecasts will start Saturday, night VWl, when tlie Yanks meet Buffalo in New York. Broadcasts will be over WABD (DuMont). Ford also has the Cohimbia TJnlv, football games, over WCBW tCBS, N. Y.), and the Madison Square Garden sport.t (except boxing) over the san\e slalioii. Don Lee s Color Test Gets Okay Mot.: LOU CLAYTON UMTi;U REXALL DKUO CO. Frlila.v—CBS—10 p.m. WST Lip's Tele Comeuppance Tied to Dodger Crisis Leo Durocher, manager of th^ Brooklyn Dodgers, is slated to make his television bow tomorrow (Thurs- day) night on "In Town Today" over: WNBT (NBC, N.Y.). Durocher, along with other Dodger and Card play- ers, will be interviewed on the show from Ebbets Field by Radcliffe Hall, filling in as emcee for Ben Grauer while the latter is in Kurope. Crucial games between the Cards and Dodgers tomorrow and Satur- day (14), which may decide, the Na- tional League pennant winner, will be televised by both WNBT and •WCBW (CBS, N. Y.). Drum Up MORE SALES with CLEVELAND'S Washington, Sept. 10. FCC, acting with record speed, last Thursday (5) okayed bid of Don Lee to experiment with an all electronic system of color video on a new tele- vision transmitter in Hollywood. Concurrently, the CommislF also gave godspeed to three other com- panies anxious to test out color tele and experiment with higher defini- tion monochrome pictures. Con- struction permits went to the Bendlx I Aviation Corp. for an experimental I tele station in Towson, Md.; to Conestoga Television Assn. of Lan- caster, Pa., and Continental Tele- vision Co. of Boston, an old-timer : in the video field. Most attention centered on Don Lee's bid to go CBS one. better in color video by developing an elec- tronic rather than mechanical sys- tem for pressing the rainbow images. Net will also play around with sin- , gle video carrier for both sound and pictures under the new system. Conestoga Television Assn. is unique in television field, since it i proposes-to, test out intercepting sig- i nals from Philco station WPTZ in 'Philadelphia and rebroadcasting I tliem in Lancaster. Association is 1 composed of local businessmen and a 1 few radio engineers who hope even- j tually to provide Lancaster with j video service—from Philly.; i Meanwhile, J. W. Birdwell of the Nashville department store interests pulled out his bid for a commercial operation in Ka.shville. Birdwell gave no reason for withdrawing from tele. ABC inks Dept. Store For 10-Week Series In Change of Tele Policy , Marking a departure from its usual short-term commercial tele- castfi, ABC tolevisidh has signed to produce 10 consecutive weekly shows for the Alexander Stores. New series. "Play the Game," to be aired over WABD (DuMont, N. Y.),: teed off last (Tuesday) night. Wil- liam Warren is the agency. ABC had herotofore confined lis programming schedule to four weeks for each sponsor, workiuj, under the assumption that a sponsor could lear/i in that length of time whether he could benefit from video advcr- i tising. After the first montli. a spon- j sor could sign on for an additional series. New show is a striiamlitied version | of charades, with both audience and home viewers participating. Harvey Zorbaugh, educational sociology professor at New York University, will emcee. Shows will be produced by Harvey Marlowe, ABC tele's pror duction chief. Live Music Ban Tests Mettle Of Tele s Ingenuity Gradual increase in cntertainmeiU value ot musical shows produced over television i.s proof positive, ac- cording to several tele broadca.steis, that they're learning to got aloiij* without live musicians. Latter are banned from video.allows, umier an edict of James C. PetriUo,-Ameri- can Federation of Miusicians' prexy; who's gone on record a.^i .s"ayiiig that he wants' to> study all;, the possiblft;. nuances of television bcl'ore nego- tiating with the broadcasters for wage scales. In the nieautimo, he refuses even to discuss'the question. Broadcasters, consequently, are forced to rely on recordliigii fOr ali their music. Uu.sual procedure is tO: obtain a recording ot the singer, who then merely ■ moves his lips in . .synchronization: with the platter much tlie same as is done in re- cording a sound track lor motion : pictures. As one broadcast* put it, this system is almost sure-fire, since the record is known to be perfect and a fluff would be virtually im- possible; Only thing that could go wriing would be; for the performer to mess up the lip, work and, .since he's gone thrpugli .so much rehear- sal before, waxing the original disk, such errors occur very rarely.; ... Through use of .such a system,... NBC has been able to present on its Standard Brands-sponsored "Hour (Continued on page 42) - WJW, Cleveland's Chief Station, beats the tom- tom that calls in more dialers per dollor, signals that reach a larger daytime audience in Clevci land than any other regional station. Allen to Announce For CRS Football Tele Mel Allen, radio sports announcer and occasional commentator for Fox Movietone News, has signed to an- nounce all CBS television broadcasts of Columbia University's home foot- ball games this fall, starting with the Rutgers game from Baker Field on Sept. 28. Games will be spon- sored by Ford, under a deal ar- ranged through the J. Walter Thompson agency. Allen was under contract to CBS until his entry into the Army in 194'2. While m the service, he broad- cast sports events to troops in Eu- rope for the Armed Forces Radio Service. Since his discharge, he's broadcast all N. Y. Yankee baseball games over WINS, N. Y. indie. CHI EXECS JOIN IN TELE RALLY EFFORT . \ Chicago, Sept. 10. ; Interest in recent campaign, ot tlie Electric Assn. to promote television in Ghi was evidenced ia.st week when top local radio and -video execs formed a committee to work with a similar group of television set manufacturers. William C. Eddy, director oC tele- vision for B&K, owners of video station WBKB here, was elected prexy of the broadcasters' commit- tee. Others present included Chick Showerman, local NBC head; James Stirtoii, a.ssistant to F.d BorrOlT,..ABC central division V.P.; and Frank Schreiber, WGN station manager. Cedar Bapids—Charles (Chuck) Worcester of CBS, Washington, will become farm service director for WMT, starting Sept. 16. Worcester, who has been Director of Agricul- tural Programs for CBS since 1942 will succeed A. G. Woolfries,' re- signed. National Tele Week National Television Week, marking what the Television Broadcasters hope will be the start of commercial video operatiohs on a national basis, is slated for observance Oct. 7-12. Purpo.se, according to the TBA, is to advertise to the public that com- mercial video is a reality, that long- promised receiving sets are slated for early delivery and that a na- tional television service is in the offing. TBA's two-day conference and ex- hibition: skedded for the Hotel Wal- dorf-Astoria, N.Y., on Oct. 10-11, will highlight the week's events. PRODUCTION MAN 7 Years New York Networks - Agencies WANTS RACK IN-GET HARRIS KIRK «■/» Tarlrty, 151 Wi-Nt 4(llli SIroift. New Yntk N. V. WRITER NEEDS PLACE TO WORK Office, Studio, Room Fust Side—141 li to riTlli SIH. Wox »3», Vnricty. IKI W. *Mh Stioi-t. New York H», N. V. ROBERT ALDA HARRY BABBin DAVE BARBOUR VIVIAN BLAINE JOE BUSHKIN CHARLES BELAUNAY ROY ELDRIDGE BENNY GOODMAN JOHN HARDEE PEGGY LEE JIMMY LUNCEFORO DIANA LYNN JIMMY RUSHING JERRY WAYNE appeared "IN PERSON" last month on and Do you know that... the same voice heard on the networks selling FRESH, IPANA, MOLLE, PABST, VITALIS IS now avgilabh to do an effective soiling job for your products. Inquire about avaitabilities todayl Ralph N. Weil, Geo. Mgr. Jokit E. P«or»i)n.C«., Nat'l Rep. Hew tort 1 .'^MMJV IMAM ABC Network Mf hI WW 5000 Wat»s SEPRESENTSD NKilONAll.'r'.By H!4'DlET.Bt!0 COMPANY