Variety (Oct 1946)

W«'«l»«'»*'«y» October 9, 1946 RAMO 49 Is There a Doctor in the House? T/ie fol!ot«i>ip, OS /teard on the Frank Sinaita-Old Cold show and ihe Red SkeltourRaleiah program, are samples of how the cifiaret eoinmer' , cifils «re bwrniiitf up the airlanes in the "Battle of the Ciggies." RALEIGH COMMERCIAt OLD GOLD COMMKRCIAL CIGGIE SPONSORS" S MOKE-SCREEN All, All Are Bacfc |be JQld^^^F^^ Faces; Radio Picks Up Where Left Oif; Only Bit-Boy Shows New But Unproved ANNOUNCER: ''Now medical science offers proof positive.'' 2nd ANNOUNCER: *'No Other leading cigaret gives you less nico- tine, less throat irritating tars, than the new^ smoother better tasting Raleigh." ANNOUNCER; "Yes proof posi- tive." 2nd ANNOUNCER: "No other leading cigaret gives you less nico- tine, less ■ throat irritating tars; than the new, smoother, better tasting Raleigh." ANNOUNCER: "Star of Bene- dict Gogeaus-picture, 'Diary of a Chambermaid;' Paulette Goddard, says, quote: WOMAN'S VOICE: "I saw the facts with my own eyes, and it's true. Medical science has proved no other leading cigaret gives you liess nicotine, le.<is throat irritating tars, than the new Raleigh. From now on, Raleigh is my choice." . ANNOUNCER; "Right, Paulette Goddard. Those tests wet'e based on the method used by the United States Government. So, friends, enjoy tlie new, smoother, better tasting Raleigh. And remember, medical science offers proof posi- tive." . 2nd ANNOUNCER: "No other leading cigaret gives you le.ss nico- tine, less throat irritating tarSi So no other is safer to smoke than the new, smoother, iDetter tasting Raleigh." ■ You know . .. . judging, from all you read about cigaret laboratory tests . . . and medical claims about smoking . . . and throat irritation . . . you'd thiiilt the.little test.tulpes arc given away with each pack of cigarets you buy. But honest, folks, yau won't find a siiiele test tube in a pack of Old Golds. You won't even find a prescription for a throat treatment. No . . . what you get. ill a pack of Old Golds are 20 smooth, mellow and most fra- grant cigarets. Believe ■ us . . . we don't want you to keep a fever chart every time you light an Old Gold. AH we ask is that you en- joy the' finest blend of the finest tobacco-money can buy. l.ook . . . Old Golds are made by folks who've been as.sociated with the best in quality tobaccos for nearly 200 ycai-.s . . . so we're not gonna start selling you throat care all of a sudden. We're in business to give you a wonderful smoke . , . aijd every advanced control known to science is concentrated towards that goal . . . yes, to give; you a cigaret that's absolutely fops in rich, mellow, deep smoking enjoy^ ment. Sure , . . take care of your- self . . . and your throat and every- thing else! But listen ... any time you want a treat in.stead of a treatment . . . treat yourself to a pack of Old Golds! FC&BBillingsUpto $15,000,000 Slotted for Radio Shows Foole, Cone & Belding billings-t have spiraled over the $43,000,000 'niark, with approximately $15,000,000 of that amount earmarked for radio accounts. That puts FC&B right up with the top league agency boys, • within shooting mark of the $50,000,- 000-$60,000,000 J. Walter Thompson- Young & Rubicam leaders. The trade in general, has been consciou.s of the comeuppatice of FC&B, particularly in the past year, with the recent switchover of two American Tobacco accounts (Jack Benny and Frank Morgan .shows representing $.3,000,000 in billings) from RuUirauff & Ryan, accenting the wrapup of new business into the FC&B fold. ■ ■ ■ Agency has two of the top comedy Hirers on the webs—Bob Hope and Jack Benny—although in,both in- (Gontinued on page 62) KMH HYPOES BUDGET, MULLS NEW OVERHAUL ■ In a move to recapture some of tile audience pull lost since Bing Crcsby exiled the show, Kraft Music Hall has given the program a budg- e^^'hypo lor slotting of top guest talent. New policy under the -$12,000-a-week budgeted stanza was '■■inaugurated last Thur.sday <3) when Fred Asia ire did a guest shot. Eddie ■Duch.in is still the ..show's top mainstay, but all contracts Are under, an until-Jan. 1 basis. After . that, program is expected to undergo ^'rastic oveiliaul, with J. Walter Thompson agency meanwhile scout- ing around for a lop personality to take over the Kraft session. Rooney Back to Pint Size .Full hour sbo,w built around Mickey Rooney, buttressed with suest stars like Frances Langford, which Walter Schwimmer, of Sichwimmer & Scott, Chicago, de- J^elopcd, and which the agency has open trying to sell cooperatively to Jiitferent department stores around country, has petered out. Rooney is now going back to of- «ring him.self as a half-hour show "1 t.ie Andy Hardy pattern. He's in |.Ncvv York Ihis week after a series Pwsoijal appearances on the road. CLEARS SQUAWK VS. DAYTIMERS Wa.-ihington, Oct. 8. The 16 bigtime broadcasters who form the Clear Channel Broadcast- ing Service have protested FCC's present policy of licensing large numbers of "daytime only" stations on existing clear channels without waiting for wind-up of,; i;he clear channel investigation. The petition, filed by Louis Cald- well, counsel for CCBS, claimed that spotting the part-time outlets all over the spectrum would, raise in- terference and other problems should any of the clears win their flght for power in excess of .Wkw. Since "superpower'' is one of issues the co'mmission is theoretically ex- ploriitg in the present inquiry, Cald- well claiiried that FCC Shoiild not shut off that avenue by overloading the spectrum with daytime .stations on the clear channels. PLyEFEST IS SLOGFEST By GEORGE ROSEN The "Battle of the Ciggies" ap- pears to have gotten under way in earnest, with Old Gold (P. Lorillard Co.) and Raleigh (Browii & Wil- liamson) in particular, slugging it out weekly via their network com- mercials. It's Raleigh's "medical science 'is proof positive" vs. OG's equally- emphatic "treat instead of a treat- ment" counter-irritant that in recent weeks has been bludgeoned into the ears of coast-to-coast listeners on the multiple Raleigh-Old Gold night- time network shpws. Both within the trade and among lay listeners there's been consider- able off-the-cnff •uneomplim.entary comment, with the question raised that such • triphammered plugfests must inevitably invite a boomerang to the sponsor. Both the Raleigh approach, that, in. effect, you're a sucker if yOu fool around \ with, anything, but tlie science-medico okayed weed, a.s well as the OG overtones that imply a direct "who-you-kiddin' " answer to Raleigh, are being viewed with alarm. For . some are asking the question: How. far can you carry the.se commercials, and at what point does the public become sati- ■ated. . Reductio Ad Absurdum Piling up such super-duper sell- ing points, to a point of absurdity, it's felt, may eventually bring a "plague on both your houses" reac- tion from the consumer public. general impression is that the ciggie sponsors on radio Jiave ven- tured far beyond the soap, food and other i-adio bankrollers in injecting the "only-we'rerright-you're wrong" element into the commercials. In; years past,- the late George Washington Hill's Lucky Strike commercial was singled out alone for; provoking the greatest listener sensitivity against the trip-ham- mered technique. Today, although there's been no' fessiening : of the. American Tobacco plug impact, the LS/ MFT auctioneers are considered to have a less inoffensive slant when contrasted with the RaleighrOld Gold brand of huckstering, Successful integration of the Lucky Strike plug with the comedy script- ing, particularly on the Jack Benny •show, is regarded as the chief factor in erasing the stigtna attached to; the Hill-inspired technique. Camel and Chesterfield, the other two. large brands, go in for modera- tion—comparatively speaking. . Mutual Billings Up 32.5^ Mutual's .billings for first nine months of 1946 are up 3'i.5% over same period last year, total billings f(ii- Jan.-Sept. '46 being $19,0;13,606, In 1945 the billings, January through September, . totalled $14,- 361,551. To the Sticks — - Hollywood, Oct. 8. NBC is so cramped for broad- cast space that shows are be- ing shooed out of. town. On Oct. 13—that's Parade of Stars day—Bob Burns and his bazooka are routed to Caiiloga Park, 15 miles from Hollywood. And to top it off he'll do his show from the high scliool audi- torium. Twilight Crime Worries Coast, Repeats Wanted Hollywood, Oct. 8. There's a campaign that's slowly gaining momentum on the Coast but, which has already reached: a point where it's becoming diisturbing both to the networks and the spon.sors of whodunit shows. The great to-do is over the fact that the ■ majority of these, shows emanating from New York, usually around 8 or 9 o'clock (EST) in the evening, do not carry Coa.st repeats, so that they reach Pacific area listeners around 5 i>r 6 o'clock. ■ There appears to :be a large seg- ment on the Coast that objects to the fact that the Pacific zone gets the. crime shows at a much earlier hour than other parts of the coun- try, and is agitating for Coast re- peals later in the night when the kids are already in bed. ■ In fact, one candidate for the prosecuting attorney of Los Angeles County is basing his campaign for election along such lines, hitting out at radio crime shows in general on the grounds that they aren't doing the kiddies any good. A-s-a result of the feeling, there's a report that "Mr. District Attorney" on NBC, which hits the Coast at 6:;i0, is mulling the possibility of do- ing a repeat. Sponsors of the whodunits in gen- eral oppose the repeats because of the coin hike involved. Bing Wraps Up 2 More Hollywood, Oct. 8. Bing Crosby did his fifth and sixth advance recording for Philco today (Tues.) with Ezio Pinza and Burl Ives in guest spot. Jimmy Durante is guester oh the seventh disk. Ives, on his own show for PhilCo, has already cut eight planters for .series getaway Oct. 18. It goes on Mutual and indies, They're all back on the air; the fall comraorcial broadcasting semes- ter's in full swing; the reshuffled .schedules have been woven into a new nighttime pattern with many personalities and programs working for new. bosses and, on other nct- vvoi'ks—but the reaction of trade ob- ' servers on the overall picture is that radio has t;aken up precisely vvhei'e,, it left off last season,""" , -Here's how the trade highlights thv. 1946-'47 entertainment picture, now that they've all left the post and are out in the clear:. The emergency of the "bit boy.s" on the sock comedy airers, partic- ularly Phil Harris, Dennis Day ;uld Me,l Blanc,, into •full-fledged comics with their own half-hour shbw.s, ac-, cents, .anew the all-important ques'^. tibh as to where radio's future funny . men are coming from. For the gen- eral impression is: It's one thing to. lend a bofl! capsule to a Jack Benny show with: its .highlyrgeared prbduc- . tion know-how. and its st;.ble of top-coin writers, anC quite anotliet to attempt to stretch the capsule! oontribs over a full 30 minutes un- der less favorable production aus- pices. .It's been evidenced in the past few weeks since Blanc graduated from his "bit taoffs"'into his new Tue-sday night CoLgate show on CBS. and again when Harris stepped out inta: his own bankrolled .show. The Har- ris premiere .show was greeted by the trade a.? suggesting a warmup;: for an inevitable Benny gag: "Come home, all is forgiven." IJennis Day's click as a comedian on hi.s ; own remains a moot point, since it was strictly an elaboration of the Benny-Day Sunday night routine, with Beimy as a guestar, that con-,, tributed chiefly towarj. the opening show's hypo. , . ... The same old favorites will be right back on top—the Bennys; the Hopes, the Fibbers, the AUeri.'S, the Cantors, etc. The same formats prevail.. The same high-priced ' writers are in the saddle, except ihat many of them have shifted around . and are making with the gags for another of the handful of top come.'rj dians. If there will be any innovar tions in programming, they've yet ' to make themselves discernible. Since it's the same boys who will move the sponsors' packages off the ■. shelves (when and if they become available), they're still in the posi™ tion of dictating their own coin term,s, despite the prevailing senli- ment a few months back that talent costs in general would toboggan. The "samenes.s" goes right down the line. The musical .show pattern remains essentially unchanged. That goes as well for the pix adaptation, cycle of programs and the multiple ■'rating stealer" whodunits that are as much in the vanguard as in the; past. \; ■ Has Your GagBeen Psychoanalyzed Lately? Aadience reaclion to t/ie /aH eoinedy .shoiy liite up—as reireflk'd. bi/ t?ic Ernest M. Walker electronic analysh svi:tem dfscribeii in last week's VAnihT'i—is Usiedhehur. ' Syslein records' studio reaction on coniedy shows, nie.asuring length and volume of lausjhs, Tivo types of shovs are listed, gag type and siluation type comedy. Requirement for gag type comedy is an index of 10 or better; for situation comedy, 3 to 10.... PROGRAM Judy C*nova.....6 Bob Mope, i. . w... . 3 Jack Bemiy ■ 2 Red Skellon 3 Amos 'n' Andy 1 Fred Allen 1 NO-OP PROGRAMS FALL CHECKED INDEX Joan Davi."! 1 Allen Yotmg 2. Etlgar Bergen ^4 Duffy's Tavern, 1 Burns iuld Allen.... .... .. , 3 Frank Mprgan. Bob Burn,?,, Life of Riley Fibber McGee Blondie w...- 5 20,1 .18:4 18.0 18,0 17.6 16.,5 15.7 15.1 14.7 14:3 ' . 12,1 10.1 10,1 lU.O 8.0 7.5 T.A.ST ■ SPRING NOTICE,\BI,E INDEX ' 12.4 18 15,5 11,2 12.4 7.6 15.1 14.7 11.7; 12.1 ■ . : ' ■ '5, 8.4 P.8 1,9 ph/s 2,6 plus 5.1 plus 5.1 : .pUlsl.6 minus 1.8 jplus S.C More gag lihes. More gag lines . ,.■■. ■■ ■ ■* ' ■ More gag lines .'. ., B<:ller volume • _ ' Le.s.s gag lines and better quality comedy WORLD BROADCASTINCT LOPS OFF 22 HEADS Jack Meycrson,, former Boston manager o£ Becca, has .stepped into World: Broadcasting with an axe.: He's reported to have fired one exec- utive and three salesmen the first day. .. Some 22 went out the fir.st fort- night. Muriel Deutsch (daughter of Percy Doulsch, World prexy). re- signed rather than cai-ry out in,^- sti'uctions to fire two of five staff writers. She'd been head of writers for World for some years. Meyer.son sjiys company is cur- rently going through reorganizatioft pains, with topheavy per.sonriel situ- ation resulting in layoffs. HASTINGS BUYS 'CRIME' Hollywood, Oct. 8. T Deal in Crime," starring Wil- jliam Gargan, has been bought by Hastings Piston Ring for Saturday night spread over ABC. It hits east at 8:30, \vlt\) coast repeat via wax at 7:30. The company recently bought More gag Tnes and better quality comedy "Michael Shavne" for Mnt'iai