Variety (Oct 1947)

26 RADIO Wednesday, October 1, 1947 AFRA's Anti-Artists Committee Group to Organize Tonight (Wed.) Formation of a new semi-perma-- nent party in the American Fed- eration of Radio Artists, in opposi- tion to the Artists Committee, is to take place tonight (Wed.) in New York. A number of independents of various political shades, except right-and-left-wing, have scheduled tho organization meeting, at which a statement of policy will be drafted. About 50 AFRA members are ex- pected to attend. It's emphasized that the new group is to be a completely open organizaion, wifh all policies, com- mittee members and officers Uf-anyJ_ elected in open meetings and a mat- ter of public record. Just what the initial policy statement will con- tain is uncertain, as the text will ,be worked out at the open session tonight and will have to be ac- ceptable to everyone present. Thereafter, any candidate for membership in the as-yet-untitled organization" will have to sign the statement, the terms and signatures of which will then be publicly an- nounced. It's expected that the pol- icy statement will condemn secret organizations and undercover politi- cal activity in the union. It's also virtually certain to in- clude a communist disclaimer. These two clauses, it's believed, will keep Artists Committee members or com- munist sympathizers from infiltrat- ing the organization. It has been proposed that the next step in the formation of the new group will be a'large meeting, if possible on a Sunday night at one of the Broadway legit houses, to present the policy statement, for- mally, recruit members and open the anti-Artists Committee campaign for the November election of of- ficers and board members of the New Yosk local. All that is purely tentative, however, depending on the action of tonight's preliminary ' meeting. If a large meeting is held, it will probably be open to the public, in- cluding, of course, any Artists Com- mittee members who may .wish to attend, .as well as the public and "press. However, probably only those who have signed the state- ment of policy will be eligible to vote at that or subsequent sessions. The new organization admittedly stems* from the disclosure, at the re- cent AFRA national convention, of the existence of the Artists Com- mittee as a formal, permanent politi- cal party, with closed meetings, non- announced policies and slates of candidates, and written voting and tactical instructions to its members. When, at the subsequent New York local membership meeting, an anti-Artists Committee resolution was defeated, various independents in the union decided that, as the conservative faction was continuing to function on a permanent basis, the only practical course was to form an organized opposition. Although no committees, even temporary, have been formed in ad- vance of tonight's meeting, various prominent, independent AFRA mem- bers have held preliminary discus- sions. It's understood the partici- pants have included Nelson Case, Dan Seymour, Nancy Douglas, Ted Osborn, Carl Swenspn, Ben Grauer, Lucille Wall, Myron McCormick, Mary Jane Higbe, Guy Sorrel, Helene Dumas and others. It's considered significant that sev- eral of the group have never before been associated with any faction in the union. Also, it's noted that sev- eral have said they will not become offic ers or otherwise act as " leaders" irthe organization, but "intend to participate in the coming local elec- tion campaign. Whether the group will continue after the election and, if so, on what basis, depends on de- velopments. Meanwhile, Elliott Nugent, who at the recent New York local AFRA membership meeting defended the Artists Committee and expressed the intention of forming a similar fac- tion in Actors Equity, issued a for- mal statement revising his attitude. Saying that he had subsequently dis- cussed the matter with various lib- eral friends, he indirectly con- demned the "semi-secret" status of the Artists Committee and withdrew his previously announced plan to lead or work with a "Militant Mid- dle" in Equity. He also appealed for "leftists or rightists" to "withdraw and dissolve whatever loose organ- izations they may now have or may propose to form." As a more legitimate channel for Pack Switching From WOR Publicity to WNEW Dick Pack is checking out as pub- licity director of WOR, N. Y., next Monday (6) and switching over to the Bulova-owned WNEW indie. Publicity post a{ latter station has been vacant for the better part of a year since Will Yolen exited. Pack takes with him Bert Briller, also of WOR, but latter doesn't move over until a few weeks hence. Rhea Diamond, who has been asst. pub- licity director at WNEW during the interval, has resigned. AFRA Comes Up With New Show; 2 Now on Market With the apparent fold of the pro- posed "Show of the Year" radio series, another program involving an American Federation of Radio Art- ists waiver is being offered for spon- sorship. It would provide for gratis guest appearances by stars, but not rebroadcasts of whole programs. The proposed new series, the title of which is unrevealed, would be owned by AFRA, as would "Show of the Year" if a sale of that tran- spired. "Show of the Year" was originally offered as an Amus. Enter- prises package, but the latter firm, of which Jack Benny is said to hold a major interest, has relinquished the title to AFRA. Music Corp. of America is peddling both shows, with AFRA slated to re- ceive, a large weekly royalty from whichever one is sold. Return to the union from "Show of the Year" would be $2,500, to use for a welfare fund for the membership. Amount of", the proposed royalty from the new series isn't known. Since the tentative deal for Pall Mall sponsorship of "Show 'of the Year" fell through, AFRA has re- ceived propositions for programs with charity angles, involving a waiver of the union's Rule 15 (which forbids stars from taking deals for less than their regular fee). How- ever, it temporarily has tabled all but "Show of the Year" and the new one, and will grab whichever MCA can sell. 'Pig Squeal' Weak Washington, Sept. 30. Intimates of former Asst. Sec- retary of State William Benton are urging him to revive his old subscription or "pig squeal" radio idea, but Benton says only that he hasn't decided whether or not to plug the non-commer- cial radio company at this time. However, the commercial broadcasters are not losing any sleep over the nickel'a-day brand of non-commercial radio proposed by Benton to supple- ment the regular radio diet, since FCC has not held out any frequencies for this service, and is less likely to go for the idea now than it did in 1944, when Benton first plugged it. At that time FCC engineers complained that Muzak men had made haste too slowly in ironing out the technical difficulties of' keeping pig squeal radio only for subscribers. And in a pro- posed decision in '45, the Com- . mission indicated it would never divvy out the three channels Benton was seeking for a non- ', commercial subscription service. FCC said even if the service proved feasible, which it hadn't up to that time, no more than one channel would be provided for use by competing companies throughout the country. BILL CLINE'S QUICKIE AS WCAR MANAGER Chicago, Sept. 30. Bill Cline's resignation as man ager of WCAR, 1,000 watter in Pon- tiac, Mich., has been set down as one of the fastest hello and good- byes on record. Cline, former as- sistant to Glenn Snyder, manager of WLS, Chicago, took over at WCAR on Sept. 8 and walked out a week later. Quick exit came about when H. Y. Levinson, WCAR's prexy and chief owner, refused Cline's demands for a contract and a written statement on the scope of his job. Cline previ- ously had been told his duties didn't extend to national sale's or corre- spondence with any national reps. Mike Jordan, Cline's predecessor, resigned four months ago when his contract expired. At that time he -was pnt "on ^slr^ghrmdhfhly sal-' ary and deprived of arjy commish on time sales. Bickel in Lead For Benton Post? Washington, Sept. 30. Names of at least two candidates to succeed William Benton as Asst. Secretary of State for Public Affairs are already in the news here. They are former United Press head Carl Bickel and Adlai Stevenson, mem- ber of the U. S. delegation to the United Nations. An unconfirmed rumor said that Benton • had submitted the names also of William S. Paley, CBS board chairman; Henry R. Luce, publisher of Time and Life, and Palmer Hoyt, publisher of the Denver Post, as likely candidates. Official sources, while declining to affirm the report, did not specifically deny it. Benton handed in his resignation to the White House last week with the warning that America must build a strong shortwave program to counteract the propaganda current- ly being aired over Russian trans- mitters. He will leave the depart- ment effective Oct. 1, but will con- tinue as a consultant to the UNESCO and head the U. S. delegation to the UNESCO conference in Mexico City in November. Until a new Asst. Secretary is named, Benton's deputy, Howland Sergeant, will direct the "Voice of America" program and State's overseas information activi- ties. Benton will resume his former posts as head of Encylopedia Britan- nica and Encyclopedia Britannica Films and may also take over his old job as chairman of the board of Muzak Corp. Benton's handling of overseas in- formation activities came in for a heavy shellacking in the last Con- gress and it is reported that Secre- tary of State Marshall won an ad- ditional shortwave appropriation with the definite understanding that a new man would head the "Voice of America" setup this year. Bickel's appointment to succeed Benton is being urged by many of the same Congressmen who were gunning for Benton, according to reports here. The former UP exec is retired and living in Sarasota, Fla. Chi Looks to the Future Chicago, Sept.. 30. Chicago chapter of the Radio Writers Guild will launch its third 10-week lecture course for budding scripters Oct. 6, with Lou Scofield analyzing dramatic structure and script markets. Expressed purpose of the course is to train writers against the day when Chi returns as a prime pro- duction center. political activity, Nugent announced plans for the formation of a formal, permanent, public organization, leg- ally incorporated and open to actors, butchers, bakers and candlestick makers. Lawyer for the group will be John Wharton, of Paul, Weiss, Wharton & Garrison. ♦ ♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦t»f» ♦♦ ! ♦♦♦♦♦♦»♦ . ♦ » ,» » ♦♦ ♦ ♦ ♦♦♦ From the Production Centres ^♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦4♦♦♦♦♦♦»♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦»«♦♦«« IN NEW YORK CITY . . . David White, radio exec producer-director of BBD&O, moves to agency's Hollywood office next week Jean Dalrymple reported interested in radio freelancer Norman Burnside's new play about international cartels Philo Higley, radio writer, also has a play, ""The Desert Sands," to be produced by the American Co. after Christmas... .Ira Marion, ABC scrip- ter, to teach radio writing at Temple Univ Rod Erickson checks out of WOR's programming hot-seat this week without a successor to welcome. It's said quite a number of people have turned down offer of the job.... American Home Foods has bought the 7:45-8 a.m. (PST) strip on ABC's Coast hookup starting Jan. 5, but no show has been selected. Agency is Dancer-Fitzgerald-Sample... .Edward Arnold got acquainted with ABC's sales crew at a Stork Club luncheon last Friday (26)... .Judy Canova, via the Dave Green flackery, made sure radio eds throughout the country were aware of the comedienne's NBC time switch, so she sent them all leather-encased clocks.... Phil Weltman, of the William Morris agency radio dept. in New York, is slated to transfer to the Coast Tuesday (7) to take the place of Maurice Morton who resigned that agency last week ■ to be business manager and producer on the Parkyakarkus co-op show. No successor has yet been named for Weltman... .Morris and Mrs. Novik go to the Coast this week to observe the American Federation of Labor convention, starting Monday (6) in San Francisco. They'll get in a little vacation by taking the trip in easy stages. Bud' Barry, ABC program veepee, enjoying the H'wood climate so much he extended his stay couple of weeks longer... .Mutual producer Walter Lurie on his umpteenth hop to the Coast this year....Tom Filas, Chi musician, who pocketed a $1,000 personal check from Paul Whiteman for his winning composition in Whiteman's ABC "Concerto for Reed Doubles" contest, to guest on P. W.'s stanza next Tuesday (7) when the prize num- ber: will be preemed Orrin Dunlap of RCA, Bill Brooks and Syd Eiges of NBC to address the American; Press Institute at Columbia Univ. to- morrow (Thurs.)... Times radio ed Jack Gould's expected to give the Radio Execs club a spanking sendoff at its first fall powwow tomorrow (Thurs.). His topic: "Has Radio the Guts to Be Good?"... .Robert Saudek, ABC director of public affairs, skipped to Ohio last Thursday (25) to speak to Greater Cleveland's radio listeners' council.Charlotte Adams, leav- ing AP to become Look mag's food editor, did her final "Run of the House" airer on WQXR last Friday (26) Elmo "Bud" Wilson, CBS research chief, takes off Friday (3) for a fortnight's vacation in his ole hometown, Minneapolis Gerry Bartlett, ex-announcer-producer for CBS short- wave, now freelancing in the radio recording and slide-film fields... .ABC prexy Mark Woods elected to the board of Brand Names Foundation Jacquelin Waite into the cast of "David Harum." Spencer Bentley and Rene Gekiere new to "Lora Lawton." Stefan Schnabel added to "Back- stage Wife." Andy Donnelly into the "Young Widder Brown" cast ABC's spot sales dept. appointed national rep of WMAL-TV, the Washing- ton (.D.C.) Star's tele station. Lonnie Starr, of WBAL, Baltimore, and Alun Williams, former WMCA chief announcer, have joined announcing staff of WNEW... Estelle M. Sternberger, James A. Farley and Rep. Emanuel Celler, to do special broadcast Oct. 2 on WLIB in honor of ex-Sec. of State Cordell Hull's 76th birthday... .N. Y. State Dept. of Civil Service seeking a radio publicity representative for the Dept. of Commerce as well as an associate. Both jobs pay from $4,620 to $5,720... .Mortimer Frankel, associate script editor at CBS, has gone to Jamaica, B.W.I., for three-week vacation... .Earle Larimore teaching a once-weekly class in advanced acting at N. Y. Univ IN HOLLYWOOD . . . Edgar Bergen is still moving his show around in quest of new audiences. Last Sunday he pitched at Santa Monica after being most of last season at Pasadena Ward Wheelock and Sherman Gregory of Campbell soup around for a look-in on their 11 Hollywood shows and to make a few product changes.... .Glenn Wheaton checked off the Tony Martin script payroll and was succeeded by Bill Manhoff and Norman Paul....Dick Fishell's "Famous Celebrities of Hollywood" will be booked in L. A.; New York and Chicago by Royal Drugs for a six-a-week strip. Fishell uses tape recorder for interviewing stars in their homes, on studio sets, etc., and then transcribes to waxed disk Sandra Gould drew an "expres- sion of appreciation" from Radio Writers Guild for crediting the writers who wrote her material on "Duffy's Tavern" in a page ad in Daily Vahiktv. Don Quinn and Phil Leslie moved for recognition of the ex-Miss Duffy's gracious gesture Jean Watson and Gerda Bruhn transferred from J. Walter Thompson staff in New York to Hollywood "Fibber and Molly" are all for shorter seasons and this dne runs out in 35 weeks John U. Reber, radio head of the Thompson agency, passed his 30th year with the company and has been with no other since his graduation from*Amherst ....Bob Forshew, Coast copy director for N. W. Ayer, is laying out only "line copy" for the Jimmy Durante series. Nothing to sell only Rexall Jack Sayers kicked off for Princeton, N. J., to get briefed 1 by Dr. George Gallup on the new radio rating service being inaugurated by Audience Research Dee Engelbach will be producer of the Pulitzer Prize series if Tom McAvity can land a sponsor NBC is putting together a promo- tion campaign for its powerhouse Saturday night lineup Robert Light east to chat with agency men on his suspense program, "Half Hour To Kill," which aired on KFWB's Preview Theatre of the Air.. .It marked the 20th anni for Amos 'n' Andy when Freeman Gosden and Charles Correll took the ways on another season last Tuesday Joe Bigelow hustled back to N. Y. after a quickie call on friends and some sub rosa conferences... .For the 15 years he has been coming out to the Coast, Don Stauffer has never as much as taken a side trip to Malibu. So on this call he broke the spell and put in three days at Las Vegas, where, if you can get as hot as the weather at the gaming tables your worries are over. P&G in Trouble Finding 'Mystery' Substitution Procter & Gamble is still having plenty of trouble trying to find a suitable 15-minute cross-the-board show as replacement for its "Mys- tery of the Week" on CBS. P & G is currently kicking around two. possibilities, one a 15-minute version of "Beulah" and the other a series tabbed "Road to Gold," drama- tizing treasure stories. Bankroller is reported none too enthusiastic about either and may string along with "Mystery" until something more promising comes along. Boston—Lynn Morrow upped to assistant s,ales manager of WBZ- WBZA, Boston and Springfield, this week. Formerly sales promotion and publicity manager, Morrow will su- pervise local sales forces and sales promotions. IN CHICAGO David Wilder, formerly of WSUI, Iowa City , has been named a ssistant to-Bill Fisher, radio aTrectoF 6F~Swift & Co....John S. Wiggins bowed out as CBS central division research consultant to take over New York post as net's manager of presentations. Chi successor will be chosen by Wiggins School Broadcast conference meets at Hotel Sheraton Oct. 27, ?.d' j« •• Janice Cart er leaves NBC to join Mutual's flack department.... Red Grange doing the color and background descriptions on WJJD broadcasts of Illinois Univ. grid games... .Radio department of Leo Bur- nett Co., Inc., damaged by fire of unknown origin... .Julian Bentley, former WLS news chief, will newscast via WBBM... .Under new Chicago fcun-Times setup, Sun radio ed Ulmer Turner will do his WJJD a.m. newscasts directly from his desk... .NBC's "Farm and Home Hour" marks 19th anni Oct. 2 .. .WIND began airing from its partly completed new studios in the Wngley building Sept. 29. Studios will be formally opened later in the fall... .Garry Moore, in town with "Take It or Leave It," met the press at Jacques Restaurant luncheon Sept. 25... .Hallicrafters un- r I ^ u.. n T ele Set at press part y Se Pt- 29 Cast .of ABC's "Break- ™A KtV .iL stages a .Personal appearance in Springfield, 111.. Oct. 4. .. WGNs Your R.ght To Say It." public service discussion series, returns for its th.rd season Oct. 14... .Harry D. Wilson has been upped from client service exec to y.p. of the A. C. Nielsen Co.... .Northern Illinois Broad- wll 8 , f S ^ plled J 0 the FCC for Permission to operate FM station at wooa.iock._lll . Bert Kavanaugh, who resigned last spring as time buyer for Roche, Williams & .Cleary, has resumed his old post with that Midnight WCFL platter session of Rosemary Wayne, femme disk iockey, has been expanded from one to two a.m. Show is originating at the Steak Hou.se....Joe Ainlcy left for Hollywood to direct "The First Nighter".