Variety (Nov 1948)

30 TELEVISIOX KKVIEWS WetliiegJay, Jli»v0mber 3, 1948 DENNIS JAMES CARNIVAL .With Deiinig. James, Victoria Rane, , Leonardo & Zola, Rlsko, OSiS' mar Director: Ralph Levy Writer: Jay Burton Music: Lew Wliite 30 Mins.; Sun., 8:30 p.m. GENERAL ELECTRIC CBS-TV, from N. Y. (B.B.D,&0.) This "Dennis James Carnival," vliich preemed on the CBS-TV web Sunday (31) night, is nothing more than vaudeo dressed up with a new baelcground. Spotted di- rectly -in front of Ed Sullivan's hour-long "Toast of the Town" vaudeo presentation, it's extremely likely that satiated viewers might start juggling their channel-selec- tors. What Emerson Radio,' which sponsors "Toast," has to say about th's hasn't yet been determined. In itself, "Carnival" teed off none too well. . Little, attention was. given to imparting the requisite carney flavor, except to dress up James in a pitchman's costume. Tliat only served to make liim a poor, dupliqate of'the "Texaco Star -Theatre's" Sid Stone. Four acts spotliglited during the show were recruited from carnivals but, work- ing as they did on a regulation btage, they only furthered the vaudeo aspects. James, who's won TV renown as a sportscaster, showed a glib personality a n d demonstrated enough talent to be built into a .good tele show of any format. Too many of his gags, though, were off .tlie -eob.. He valso: followed Milton: 3erle's lead, in injecting himself, into all the acts, and with fair success. Other performers, includ- ing knife-thrower Victoria Rane, Afro-Cuban dancers Leonardo and Zola,, magician. Dagmar: and plater spinner Risko were good in their Individual routines. None of them, though, projected as well as the vaude^and nitery acts usually slot- .ted on, other vaudeo shows, so that they suffered by comparison'. Ralph Levy's camera /direction took full ^advantage of their stints. First of the General Electric commercials, which was evidently supposed to tie in with the show's carney format, was corny to the point of embarrassment. . Second one. wasn't too bad. Stal. ROAR OF THE RAILS With Miml Strongin, Rusty Slocuni • Writer; Robert Bogardus j Producer: Raymond E. Nelson 15 Mins.; Tues., 7 p.m. ' A. C. GILBERT CO. CBS-TV, from New York iaiarles W. Boyt) Running on parallel tracks alongside WJZ-TV's "Tales of the Red Caboose," this show is also trying to cash in on the universal appeal i which miniature railroads have for juves from six to 60. "Roar of the Rails," however, doesn't stoke up enough Steam to carry a payload. While the WJZ show at least aimed for range and variety by putting the train sequences on film, this show only had a single toy-locomotive running round and round a small circle of track for, 15 minutes, That can get tiresome pretty quickly. Why doesn't the sponsor, which manufactures this equipment, set up an elaborate cnss-crossing network of tracks and trains to give some more eye appeal to their TV investment? Another" element in the show: which can be strengthened is the background narration of famous railroad yarns. On the preem (26), the good story of how Death Val- ley Scoltie made record-breaking trip from Los Angeles to Chicago on the Sante Fe in 1905 was relat- ed in lack-lustre fashion. .In building the narration, more cut- ins of . motion pictures or still photos could have been used as il- lustrations. Instead there was al- most complete reliance on the studio setup which went exactly no- where. Her?n. CHILD'S WORLD With Helen Patkhurst, children's ■ panel Director: Bob Doyle Producer: Robert Saudek 13 Mins.; Mon., 8 p.m. Sustaining ^ ABC-TV, from New York This is the widely discussed, con- siderably kudosed (and justly so) moppet discussion session which has had a half-hour weekly spot on ABC's radio lanes for th« past; year. Tliey've simply turned the cameras on it. It preemed on TV this week (1). Tlie stanza, gains something, na- turally, with the visual aspect ; added, since it's possible to watch {the children's expressions as they {respond to Miss Helen Parkhurst's .pointed questioning. For the TV debut, it must be said that Miss .Parkhurst picked juves (9 to 12) I not only articulate but of interest- ing visage. It would seem, however, as i though so much more could be done than simply to have the 1 group stand stilTly around a rail- ling as thoy take a topic apart (in- Itialer was "Lying"). There arc , canieia problems in • covering a I group of seven at close range; yet, isurely the kids could have relaxed : positioning (perhaps in a living I room setting). The setting of the getaway sequence was extremely I clinical. Why, too, couldn't some {visual gimmicks be worked in? I ABC . certainly deserves a bow for keeping this unique series on the ether, though, and the TV edi- tion has potentialities, with some imagination :inj,ected into the pro- duction. Doan, Buffalo—WBEN-TV, Buffalo, is now on the air seven nights weekly plus afternoon periods Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Dealer demands for more test pat- tern time together with World Series and football telecast has spurred local set .sales. Immediate openings for girl musicians on radio network show. BOX 7201. VARIETY 1S4 W. 4ith St. New York 19 SO THIS IS HOLLYWOOD ; With Stu Wilson, guests ! Director: Peter Ulrich ' 43 Mins.; Tues., 8:30 p.m. , ADMIRAL RADIO CORP. I KTLA, Los Angeles I Combination vaudeville, . audi- ence participation , telecast from the stage of the Pantages theatre. Hollywood, underwent the usual opening night remote jitters but iS; In line as a, video viewer getter. Rccheck of stage lighting and bouncier scripting will bring the West Coast another 45 minutes. of TV entertainment. . Atkins and Gilbert Productions, responsible for the telensing from the Pantages house, could help the I program greatly with stronger eon- I centration on tighter pacing. Radio I holdover finds Stu Wilson goading i the audience into applauding; a i triek which doesn't register well on the tele-screen. Otherwise Wilson handles his emcee spot with deft? ness. Program format is a mixture of audience participation .and vaude- ville witii Admiral Radio commer- cials interspersed; Two theatre- goers were picked from the audi- ence early in the program, given their assignments and brought back at show's finale for a mild ''Truth or Consequences"; treatment be- fore being presented with prizes, Show also boasts a harmonica player, femme vocalist, jitterbug team and piano duet. Individual ! chores were well handled. Dance . contestants were dropped into the I middle of the telecast with viewing I audience asked to pick the winners \ for th6 evening in what appears to [ be more of a survey gimmick than ' entertainment getter. : ' Peter Ulrich's camera direction • suffered from slow camera opera- tors. Operators lost their subjects I many times throughout the 45- I minute shoti . Admiral commercials were stock lilm, narration type. ■ Free: ; PANTRY PARTY With Lee Jordan, Bill Packhaw, ■■ emcees :■ 30 Mins., Than!!. Sustaining WSB-TV, Atlanta I WSB-TV has come up with a 1 winner: in its every Thursday I "Pantry Party,'' staged in various I food emporiums throughout the I city with shoppers as participants in show. , ': Lee Jordan-and Bill Packham are emcees and they go to the limit with gags that get the laughs. Kids are not overlooked with pie'eating contests and similar stunts. In: addition, women take part in vari- ous contests, such as making fancy hats/ With vegetables and dicing onions for a prize. The prizes for winners are supplied by stores. . Spontaneity of unrehearsed pro- gram adds to Its- entertainment value. :: Another WSB-TV program that is meeting with popular favor is the "Meet the Boss" programs, pro- duced by Elmo Ellis in which out- standing civic, social, religious and educational leaders are presented i each Tuesday night. { Last week's personality was Clif- i ford B. McManus,, president of Georgia Power Co. Informality is I keynote of program. Frank Gair : ther, commercial manager of sta- . tion, plays host on these programs. Irong Way liot It doesn't make sense that Win Elliot should be doing a straight radio broadcast of a hockey game while flanked by a couple of. cameras. But that's how he opened his season for WPIX last week Bs the Rangers launched their home schedule at the Garden. To verbally follow that puck from man to man on each and every pass throughout an entire game, is a prime example of a video narrator giving himself th« worst of it If 'Elliot presumes be can smother the cameras he's wrong, of course. That he shoid^ virtually ignore them is beyond understanding for he's no novice in the TV field. He did the Ranger games for CBS last winter. Elliot's version of a hockey telecast is particularly disappointing becau'se he talks well and, a former player himself, knows what he's talking about. He should be able to stay on top of the action with- out this incessant bombardment of words. To detail the play as Elliot is now doing means he must .talk with machine-gua rapidity. This has, will and can make him a pest to many. Through the camera the speed of the game is hard on the eye, Elliot is making it tough on the ear too. The visual difficulty stems from the mid-rink position of the cameras. The play is so fast up and down the ice that it makes for endless back and forth panning. This is Qiandatory under the present setup but there's - no law that says the cameras have to ba opposite the face-off circle. If viewers are to be held for a com- plete game it seems some effort to ease the visual strain should be made. One solution might be to move the cameras to both ends of the Garden, behind the goal Cages, and up a flight to balcony level. The resultant angle irould reduce panning to a minimum (becoming a matter of camera switching as the play approached either goal) and it could even turn out that the puck is easier to fol- low from the new location. If something isn^t done indications are that hockey can become the opticians' delight or viewers will watch awhile, rest awhile, and there may be few steady watchers over the full season. Plenty of complaints about television eye strain are heard without hockey^ Meanwhile, if the cameras were moved; Elliot could be leitt at mid-rink for his narration, although the closest cooperation between him and the tripod men would then become a "must." Elliot is a good pick for thi* spot. He knows and he's a glib guy^ Yet the way he is working , he- might as well be Bert Lee over at - WMGM, Both are doing these games for the same beer sponsor. What it amounts to is that Elliot is trying to outtalk the camera, tie can't, but he is outtalklng Bill Stern and Mel Allen (and in that Drder)-rruntil now always thought an improbable achievement. Tele Follow-up Comment t AMAZING SATURDAYS 8:30-9:00 PM est ON ABC NETWORK CRAIG RICE, lop mystery writer, brings her most famous character before the microphone. John J: Malone, . crime-cracking young lawyer; is the central figure in a . series that's taut with suspense, fast-paced as a runaway racehorse.. From Hollywood, Frank Lovejoy plays the : title role in this exciting mystery-drama: that has aiready built a big, steady, following. Ask.your,ABC represen- tative for details, or contact LIFE WITH HARRY With Harry Howard, others Director: Phil Booth 115 Mins., Thurs., 7:45 p.m. I California Diamond Reproductions IKTLA^ Los Angeles - I . Breezy ISrminute-situation com- ,edy rolled forlh from KTLA with I Harry Howard handhng tlie slap- i stick skit in fine fashion. Program I was well paced throughout. Howr I ard was perfectly at ease in the ; initialer which was also his video: ; debut. Skit was by no means hilari-: rous but good for light chuckles all 1 the way. j Show was h i g h lighted by a I carefully planned and well woven 1 commercial which was fitted com- pactly into script. Producers Carryl and Goodman brought the sponsor, California Diamond Re- productions, directly into • the paj^-- . off line of the skit which made it I completely harmless as a plug and I surefire as an attention getter. ; Phil Bootii directed-the cameras for KTLA in faultless fashion, Lens was ; well trained and cameras worked in for fnll advantage on the single set show-,; . Free. Bob Burns, making his video^ debut on Admiral Radio's NBC- TV's "Welcome Aboard" variety show Sunday nightOO), was a vic- tim of poor production and even worse scripting, His attempts at humor dropped with: such a thud that even the studio audience (notoriously easy to p 1 e a s e ) j couldn't be moved into an audible I giggle.: - 'Burns' folksy; pitch about I "I desperately need, to make good on television," although meant as a gag, was so grimly serious, it was I embarassing. There was no reason,. ! moreover, why Burns, who devel-. oped quite a radio rep as a lower case Will Rogers, should have been garbedl- in Broadway mufti. This was a spot for his hillbilly costume, but even this couldn't have sal- vaged his act. : The supporting items registered much better, Shirley Ross, in a repeat appearance on this show, nicely -warbled a couple of tunes, neatly accompanying herself on the piano. The Deep River Boys also rendered a couple of tunes in okay fashion, although their bit was a carbon copy of the one they did on the "Toast of the Town" show a couple of weeks ago. In the opener, the Graham Sisters deliv- ered a fancy combo of dancing and fiddling; well-designed for the video frame. , gram host, in keeping with the tenor of the play, after his gag rou- tine last week in the "Angel in th« Wings" production. He and Bob Stanton followed through on th«: dignified theme with the two be- tween-acts Phtfco plugs. "Texaco Star Theatre^' marked up two. separate points of impact in its presentation on the NBC-TV web last Tuesday (26) night. For (Continued on page 31) M-G-M— "On an Island with You" THE C.\MKr, HHOW Kvery Flrilay >'ltc, »:80 K.8.T. Mgt.t LOU CLAYTON ABC PROGRAM DKP.'VRT.MIi.NT 30 Roc-kcfellcr Plaza-Ofrcle V-^JUO I Hub Bank s Tele Show ! Boston, Nov. 2. Fir.sl National Bank ot Boston, which dropped iis "Sunday After- ;noon at 4:30'' show on WBZ this season when it found that a simi- i lar half hour of recorded music by . Arthur Fiedler and the Boston Pops orchestra was being aired lo- cally at a small fraction of its own cost for a live show, picked up the tab this week on a thre('-iii«IU a week video show over WBZ-TV. Show is a 10-minute weather prognostication , featuring Dr. James Austin, professor of meteo- rology at M.I.T.. with membcr.s of ,the staff of live Boston and Wash- lington offices of the V. S. Weather I Bureau. "Philco Television Playhouse" went bigtime again Sunday (31) night with a fine dramatization Of Elmer Rice's Pulitzer prize-Winning "Street Scene." The actors, the excellent set and lighting and, most of all, Fred Coe's direction, all captured the grim tragedy of the leglter. Teleshows with the overall excellence of this one can compete on even terms with the best, of any other show biz medium. Cast, from top to bottom, was good. Betty Field did a standout job in the ingenue role, shading , neatly the characterization, Efrem Zimbalisti Jr., as th* introverted j student, was equally good. Erin I O'Brien-Moore, who played the in- genue part in the original Broad- way production, gave a good read- ing to the mother's role but also committed one of the few thesplng errors with a too-studied gesture In her death scene. Minute as the error was, it only pointed up anfew how legit actors must consider the ; way the cameras magnify any bit of busmess out of all proportion to its ; appearance on the stage. ' The single set of the street in front of the tenement building al- i though apparently designed with the cameras in mind, was the best of any yet designed for this ser- ies, providing a fine three-dimen- sional background to the action. Coe's production equalled the qual- ity of his direction. Use of walk- on extras to lend authenticity to the street scene was especiallv good. Bert Lytell, who handles the pro- duction end for Actor.'*' Equity, was I back to his dignified role as pro- DENVER POST: "A very titillating show." ''WHAT MAKES YOU TICK?" MC Monday Thru Friday 11:45 to 12:00 for PROCTER and GAMBLE with-- JO»H K. M. McCAFFERY . WriHan and Olr^faJ by ADDISON SMITH Television Location On EUCLID AVE. In CICVELAND S-ttorr bulldinc fuUy evulpped ilim- re now accupl«(Ir--tlie entliro buUdlnir «an be miiil« avalUbla tor occupnncy on nix montliii' noticer--.»rlll LEASE OR SELL An I4««r SiMt lit Ttlivliltn Station M. ■. HOKWITZ. «01 Film lldq. PtiMI Pt-MMtt S7M RADIO WANTED—String bass man. Must read, Kav* r«f*r*ne«*. Writ* or wire Don McLoan, KFYR, Bismarck, N. Dakota.