Variety (Jul 1948)

86 TBUBVISION . RADIO Wednesday, July 28, 1948 U. S. Dept of Agriculture Plans Use of Tele as MkI Medium Washington, July 27. ♦ The Dept. o£ Agriculture plan.s an exploratory study ol the use of television as a means of bringing to farm and city people the benefits of agricultural and home economics research. The study will be made under the Research and Marketing Act, with the Radio Service in charge. Television may be very eflfective in encouriaging the'use and greater 'consumption of agricultural prod* ucts, the department said. One phase of the study will seek to de- termine what kinds of information and types of programs will be feasible, and the adaptability of films, still pictures, demonstrations and other educational techniques to television. A listener survey on reaction to difCerent types of programs and presentations is contemplated. In- vestigations, at first, will be on programs designed for the general tele audience, but with the exten- sion of tele service and receivers into rural areas, investigations will be conducted on programs of direct service to farm people, shippers, p r o c e s s o r s, merchandisers and others.' The department will seek the cooperation of tele networks and stations. State extension services, and other public and private agen- cies in this project Tele in'49 To Hit Chi Maturity Chicago, July 27. ■ Promotional parlay, here this, fall will, if properly spaced, boom the sale of sets and see Chicago video off to a mature year in 1949. Hypos will come via the bows of two net affiliates, ABG's WENR- TV and NBC's WNAQ,. plus the Electrical Living Show, Sept. 18-26. WENR-TV is set for a late August or early September teeoff, with WNAQ fanfaring shortly afterv Electrical Living Show, with the accent on tele, expects to draw 250,000. More- than 75% of booth space already has been sold. Final impetus for the year will arrive with completion of the Chi- New York co-ax cable in Decem- ber. Possibility of a black mar- ket developing in tele sets al- ready is seen in some quarterst TV STILL GRID POSER FOR CHI CARDINALS Chicago, July 27. To be or not to be televised is the poser'still facing Ray Bennig- sen, chief of the Chi Cardinals pro grid team, and George Halas, prexy of the Bears. Both empha- size that their main concern is not with immediate income from tele rights but with the larger problem of whether video will bring long-range benefits to their clubs. Halas and Bennigsen will hud- dle tomorrow (28) to work out their final answer. If they okay tele, they will insist on acceptance as a combined package of 12 games, six by the Bears and six by the Cards. Ultimate decision is eagerly awaited by local telecasters, American Tobacco's lOG Grid Sked in E Chicago, July 27. Univei'sity of Illinois trustees last week (22) okayed American Tobacco's bid through N. W. Ayer for exclusive tele rights to five home games of Illini gridmen. Contract calls for $2,000 per game and does not include film rights. Games will be microVvaved be- tween Memorial Stadium, Cham- paign, 111., and Danville, 111., where co-ax will feed to St. Louis and Chicago. Kickoff is Sept. 25, with Kansas State as foe. Vogel, X)es Moines Arthur member of the football team . of Drake University, from 1943 through 1946, has joined KRNT , as a staff announcer and color njan of - the play-by-play sports team wtth Al Coupp^e, Dick Goggin to Coast On ABC's TV Programs Dick Goggin checked out of ABC's N. Y. headquarters Friday- afternoon (23) on his way to the Coast to set up office as TV pro- gram, manager for the web in Hollywood and begin assembling a staff for a fall programming teeoff. Expectations are that by the end of the year the Coast end of ABC's TV operations will have annexed a staff of 50 in programming and 70 for engineering. (KECA-TV, Los Angeles, is due to hit the air by November and KGO-TV, San Fran- cisco, the following month.) Goggin will report to Don Searle, the web's Coast topper, and work closely with J. Donald Wilson, AM ^ program manager in Hollywood. Until there's a coast- to-coast co-ax or relay; blueprints call for filming of most of ABC's N. Y. TV originations for air ship- ment to Coast affiliates. Programs, of course, also will be built and produced at that end and filmed for eastern outlets. ABC is taking over the old Don Lee plant originally built for NBC. Under lease to RKO, plant when vacated by Don Lee was to have been taken over by studio for ex- ecutive offices, but Howard Hughes ' decided to let it go because of the added overhead. Understood that ABC will use Melrose Avenue studio for its tele- vision operation departments now sheltered at NBC. GENE AUTRY INTO TV FOR WRIGLEY RIVAL Chicago, July 27. Gene Autry, whose CBS airer is bankrolled by Wrigley gum, will be viewed on local tele receivers under the aegis of a rival chicler, Leaf Gum. Latter will sponsor 12 episodes of an old Autry film serial, "The Phantom Empire," on WBKB. Serial will hit national tele for Leaf, if it pulls an audience on WBKB showings. Turner Adv., Chicago, is the agency. Barbara DeMott's TV Program Prod. Agency New television package agency has been started by Barbara De- Mott in association with the Max Richards talent office. Agency is currently working on a variety of shows, including dramatic serials, variety programs, how-to^do-it shows, one on contract bridge, etc. Miss DeMott's husband, John DeMott, incidentally, is production designer for WCBS-TV, N. Y. RheingddBeer b Tele Splurge Hheingold Beer is turning to television for the first time to plug its annual "Miss Rheingold" con- test. Brewery has pacted with four New York stations to run a pair of five-minute films for a total of 13 times on each, with-the films presenting the six conttistants for the "Miss Rheingold 1949" title. Despite the fact that its strictly an eastern outfit, the brewery firm has allocated a total ad budget for the jjoming year of over $2,000,000, which equals that spent by many national advertisers. Greater part of this will reportedly go into TV and radio spots, in a switch from Rheingold's n s u al reliance on newspaper. and magazine copy to carry its message. Brewery will spend over $10,000 for time charges on the four sta- tions, including WABD (DuMont), WCBStT V (CBS), WJZ-TV ( ABC) and WPIX (Daily News). Total budget for the show,. including production costs on the film, was not released by either the sponsor or the Foote, Cone & Belding ad agency. " Possibility that the TV audience might tire of seeing the two films, which will .be run an average of six-and-a-half times each on the four stations, starting Aug. 9, was scotched by FC&B tele veepee Ralph B. Austrian. Pulchi'itudin- ous appearance of the contestants, who will be introduced to the pub- lic by emcee Tom Shirley, he said, will make them welcome in TV homes. Inside Stuff-Radio Bangup Campaign to raise coin for the Central Polio hospital being built in Greensboro, N. C, is being waged by the WBIG, Greensboro, staff Via Bob Jones' show on the station. Given added impetus by the Current polio outbreak in the state, the CBS affiliate's fund appeal was kicked off with a $25,000 goal, but has already passed $31,000 and is now aiming at $40,000. . WBIG's "Everything," a weekly published by the staff, is devoting its entire issues to listing thousands of names of donors. This week's edition Jhas eight pages of names. Contributions have been received from tourists passing through Greensboro and from dialers as far away as Portland, Me., and Dallas. Several groups of workers have donated a day's pay. Contributions of food, clothing, jewelry, etc.—even live rabbits and a cocker spaniel pup—are beini auctioned off. In Raleigh, WNAO and WNAO-FM last week went all out to enter- tain children being kept at home because of the polio epidemic. For "the duration" the stations are block programming the three-hour pe- riod from 2 to 5 p.m. with juve entertainment, including a telephone <luiz, variety show, story session and disk jockey stanza complete with "mystery melody" contest. Group of Raleigh's civic leaders is serving a$ an advisory committee to help Dudley Tichenor, WNAO-manager, program the period. , WOR, N. Y., is readying a set of albums for use by university classes studying how radio programs are conceived and put together. Two Mutual shows originjited at WOR, "Juvenile Jury" and "Twent^r Ques- tions," probably will be used as examples. i t , The disks, which Will run ^at least two half-hours in length and be available to college^ and universities for the asking, will incorporate simulated conference^ aiid rehearsals as well as narrated explanations of the problems met ih building air shows. G. L. (Jerry) Taylor, veepee in charge of tele at KMBC, Kansas City, has been blanketing industry circles with a brochure ballyhooing his St. Mary's Glacier Lodge in the Colorado Rockies as an ideal retreat for "tired radio men." The spot is described as highly inviting—for certain people. Some of the "tired fellow broadcasters" to whom the literature has been addressed have noted with more than a little cha- grin that while Taylor's accompanying letter underlines, "You, too, are invited," the enclosed rate card plainly states: "Restricted Clientele." Paul A. Porter, former chairman of the Federal Communications 'Commission, and Judge Samuel Rosenman, counsel for CBS during the recent hearings on Frisco video channels, have been aiding President .Truman prepare his proposed price control and rationing program. In addition both have helped with Pres. Truman's speeches. Rosenman was a guest on the Presidential yacht past weekend while Pres. Truman" worked on hi.s message to Congress. Rosenman for- merly helped to "ghost" speeches of FDR and Porter is a former pub- licity director for the Democratic National Committee. Three-way tieup between N. Y. indie WOV, the French Broadcasting system (Radiodiffusion Francaise) and Italian radio for spreading of down-to-earth better understanding between U.S.A. and western Eu- ropean countries is in the works. ^^Xi^^.^™"^** Hartley and RDP's Pierre Cr«nesse and Ed Gruskin T'*'. arrangements for swapping transcriptions. WOV has a large foteiga-lan«;iiage audience. Television Reviews TELEVISION FASHIONS ON PA- RADE With Adelaide Hawley, commenta- tor ,, ■ ■ Director: Kay Nelson 30 Mins.; Fri., 8 P.m. PROCTER & GAMBLE WMSO, New York (Benton & Boioles) Procter & Gamble has a prop- erty here that should do a crack merchandising job for it, when and if the program adopts a, continuity- frame which would not only tie the show into a coherent and cohesive pattern but give it snap, fluidity and specific Character. The account is also faced with the problem of int(!grating its commercials but that's something which will require far less strain and ingenuity than the other task. "Parade" is P & G's first dip into television. The program, basically, is solid fare for the medium; the feminine pulchritude that goes with the fashion display is invari- ably topnotch, the settings reflect good taste and Adelaide Hawley's descriptive commentary is adroitly documented and engagingly deliv- ered, the late Florenz Ziegfeld's fame largely rested on the fact that he proved that clothes-horsing could bj} made an important facet of show business if properly inte- grated with entertainment. In television the fashion show, if it is to have staying power, will likely have to abide by some variation of this principle. In the six months "Parade" has been on as a sustaincr the pro- ducers have had to wrestle with two elusive elements; One is a continuity idea that would not only bo appropriate to the program but smartly ,tie the ingredients to- gether. The other involves the choice and apt inclusion of enter- tainment bits, so as to break up the inescapable monotony of pa- rading mannequins and collaterally inject a change of pace. Neither angle showed signs of a solution on P & G's initial consort with the program last Friday night (23) hut it's pretty much of a safe bet that before the 13-week cycle is passed the account and the agency con- cerned will, out of their combined fund of radio know-how, come up with satisfactory solutions. The two P&G products currently, assigned to the show are Ivory Snow and Prell. The commercials have eye and sales appeal but the integration is way off base. For instance, the soapsuds pitch, though cleverly contrived as a unit by it- self, fades in without a word, or sign of introduction. The viewer IS ^ treated to th^ incongruity of falling snow immediately following a scene of bright sunshine and summer attire. The Prell commer- cial fares much more effectively from the integration viewpoint, and on top of that is attractively projected. odcc. QUIZZING THE NEWS With Allen Prescott, emcee; panel of experts Producer: Robert Brenner 30 Mins., Thurs. 9 P. M. ABC-TV, from New York Almost since its inception, tele- vision has proved n happy hunting ground for the artist, cartoonist, sketcher, illustrator and anybody facile enough with pencil and char- coal to make a reco7nizable pic- ture. "Quizzing the News," which made its debut over the ABC-TV last Thursday (22) evening, proved a sort of combination "Information, Please" and the graphic arts. Opening show (22) offered an attractive panel of experts and, lor competition's sake, teamed them. Thus Grover Whalen and author Merle Miller were pitted against Eleanor Pollock, editor of Cue, and Robert Lawrence, conduc- tor and musical authority. In .some ways, the charade angle pi the illustrated quiz made it even ll?'^?^^, ^'^^ ''I'al posers of Into. For instance, the opener- teaser was a sketch of a man tied up, As an added clue a gun was^ put on him. This was said to be related to a news event. To give you a rough idea of what it takes to be an expert—the answer was John L. Lewis and his coal miners hamstrung by the Judge Golds- borough decisions." Just how far the pictures can lead one astray was evidenced by another query which stumped the panel. The experts were shown three pictures of doors each bear- ing the initials "D.D.S." This was supposed to be clue No. 1 and you had to identify the man who was the hero of the All-Star game this year. The experts didn't know it but the three dentists' doors were intended to mean ''Yankee." . For the second clue they were shown the position the fellow played on the field, with the red hen-ing advice tiiat "lie didn't win it this way." Third clue was a pic- ture of a bat. The answer was Yan- kee Rookie Pitcher Raschi, who came through with a double in the baseball classic. The experts were scored, getting three points for guessing the ans- wer on, the first clue, two for the second and one for the third and last clue. The Whalen^Miller team won by 12 points to 10 on the open- ing telecast. Although in fairness . to Miss' Pollock, it should be stated she. was exceptionally quicks Show has an audience participa' tion gimmick. There is a picture of a notable completely disguised with false hair, mustachios, eye- glasses, etc. There were two dues given. If viewers can identify the personality, they are asked to write in. Along with that to compete the viewer must supply three draw- ings, or an idea for three drawings for the next quiz show, and also take a picture of someone in the news and completely disguise it, Best offerings submitted, win a room-to-room Motorola* TV seti . Gagh. Tele FoDow-Up Television came up with a couple more potential stars in CBS' "Toast of the Town" Sunday (25) night in the persons of Jane Kean and Jan Murray. Both are already estab- lished vaude and nitery names-but they demonstrated that their top peak may yet be found in the TV medium. As such, they'll join per- sonalities like Kyle MacDonnell, a featured singer in the current Broadway revue, "Make Mine Man- hattan," but a star in her own right on her NBC-TV show. Miss. Kean, former lead in "Call Me Mister," was standout in her group of impersonations and comedy songs. A blonde looker, her expressive face is especially well-suited to TV closeups and she socked across that requisite rap- port with home viewers. Murray was on for a full 15 minutes of the hour-long show with some very funny bits which had the studio audience yocking as'much as the home audience must have laughed. As with most nitery emcees, the strain to avoid blueish patter was easily apparent but Mureay carried it oft" okay. With the rival "Texaco Star Theatre" on NBC-TV on the prowl for suitable emcees, Mur- ray's a cinch to get a bid—and for more pay, too. Other acts, including double- talker Al Kelley, terpers Son and Sonny, Golden Gate Quartet, and Duval the Magician were good. Production, plus columnist Ed Sul- livan's emcee work, still left plenty to be desired. Way the six-girl June Taylor line often danced out of camera range indicated either more rehearsal is required, or else the line should be dispensed with. Di- rector Roland Gillett also evi- denced, indecision in his shot-call- ing, utilizing an almost worthless long shot too often and switching from a medium to a closeup Witli little apparent reason. ' . ■ "Texaco Star Theatre's" surefire vaudeo formula is a simple gim- mick—just load the show with per- formers who can provide a steady stream of laughs plus some fast acts in-Detween to give the listen- ers' diaphragms a rest. Last Tuesday's (20) layout pro- vided a prime example of the sue^ cess of - this formula. A comedy emcee who knows how to pace a show, plus two other zanies, along with the opening act of the Whirl- winds, the skating act; the Chandra Kaly dancers for an artistic touch, and Sharkey the Seal resulted in a smooth and fast session. It's a dif- flc'uU pace to maintain inasmuch as there may not be as many top com- edy acts around at all times. Henny Youngman's fast chatter cued a smart pace for the layout. He punched across good lines at a last clip to keep audience atten- tion occupied. The same speed was continued by Jack Carter, a brash and hkable zany, who excited ab- dominal glee both in the gag-line or impressions. Jean Carroll com- pleted the buffoon triumvirate with a similarly top display of japeries. Ihe Whirlwinds in the opening spot provided a fine warmer-upper and Sharkey the Seal's antics are as effective in this medium as theyve always been In theatres. 1 he sole retard of this session was the mability of the cameras to ef- fectively pick up the wide sweep of motion needed to capttire the full value of dance acts. The Chandra Kaly dancers, consfr- quently. were not as effective as they might have been.