Variety (Nov 1948)

Wednesday, November 3, 1948 Tele Followup ; Gdntlttued: f rom pae« 30 ; USriety RADIO 31 one, the Appletons (3), an Apache team, gave viewei-s as much sex, via the two shapely femmes in the • act, as has been seen yet on video. Secondly, emcee Milton Berle in- freed a moppet who couldn't have been more than five but who ban- died quips with Betle with all the timing and aplomb of a seasoned show biz performer. Two acts gave Viewers' something to talk about after the show. ■ ■ Otherwise, the stanza was only up to the usual Texaco level—and that's still plen- ty high, Berle got the show off to a .slow start with ,an uncalled-for , flag- ■ waving routine, featuring, ;a tune titled "Stay Away fvom the USA." It might have helped set the stage for George M. Cohan, Jr., who closed the stanza, but it looked like 80 much corn on the kinescope. Appletons promptly lifted the . show with a fast, actionful stint, ; In which : a neat painted backdrop was as good to look at as the gals. Director Ed Cashman wisely t&- frained from any closeups of the abbreviated costumes. Sid Caesar, : doing a repeat on the show^ worked his film trailer act well and then, joined Berle in a bur- lesque blackout, good for plenty of laughs. Actress Hope. Milr ler, an attractive brunet, got her TV break-in on this one and neat- ly foiled for the two gagsters. She's hitherto done legit, pictures and radio. Three Maestros did their stand- ard routine with the fake musical Instruments. Act was slow until Berle stepped in to hypo the pace. Dick, and Dot Remy," latter a throwback to. Billy Hose's. famous -"beef trusti". impressed with a neat ■■ acro-terp routine,:-marked mainly by the girl's ability to do acro- batics despite her weight. Moppet, named Vema A. Vema, took over next, and actually had Berle on the defensive.: Her song-and-dance routine were limited by the usual small range of any child, but the Avay she fed her gag lines to Berle,: without a single fluff, is still being talked about in the tiade. Cohan, In a road company of his late fa- ther, wound up the show with a . medley of songs penned and made famous by Cohan, Sr. Sid Stone's pitchman routine, in the middle commercial spot, was better than, it's been the last couple of weeks. It clocked in, though, at seven minutes—and thafs too long even for o plug as entertaining as; this one, original bid with the FCC. CBS would then pay to finish construc- tion and get the station on the air. CBS would operate the station as an owned'-and-operated Outlet, and would control it completely. Station would be bought outright from Baytheon and not on the 49% investment deal which the web re- cently made for KTTV, Hollywood. In its petition, which requested a six-month extension to complete construction of the outlet, Ray- theon advised the FCC it would file a transfer application within the next 10 days. Company gave as its reasons for selling the fact that it had already invested the $250,000 in construction and: has not been able to raise the necesr; sary additional capital to get the station into operation. Raytheon told the Commission, however, it would proceed promptly with plans to Gomplete:the project and operate it on an interim basis regardless of whether the FCC approves the .sale to CBS. If the FCC okays the sale, Ray- theon added in its petition, CBS is prepared to withdraw its pending application for a Boston outlet, which if now frozen. versus silent films was the $64 question. He. plumped for sound at that time, he said, even though many of . his buijincss associates : were convinced that his judgment- was bad. Plans to radiate a microwave re- lay network from WBKB have been shelved, he said, adding that development of sales in the Chi- cago area was uppermost at this , time. The relay net was started two years ago by Capt. Bill Eddy, I who resigned last August as WBKB director. Giveaway, Inc. Continued from pace 21 j Prep Coast TV S Continued from page 25 i WBKB Continued from page 3S\ ' installed by Xmas in (he Chicago I theatre, B&K flagship, will add an- I other $30,000 to the bill. I Balaban described .himself as sold on the • future of video, but ' predicted it would, not absorb or i kill off the film industry. In sup- : port of his. prediction he harked ' back to the days when sound ready in three or. four months, de- pending on reception of the plan by producers, directors, writers, actors and others interested in pooling their talents and making them available for tele.. In outlin- ing his plan^ Glett, former veepee and general manager for David O; Selznick in charge:-of production and studio operations,, "told- :Va.' RIETY: ■ ■ ;. :^'- "Television producers, as we know them today, and the tele* vision industry itself cannot at this time afford to pay for the services of those : in production administra- tion, planning and supervision who would make themselves available as part of this project, and for which there would be no charge to. the production unit.. Also< there / are many top i people: in the in- i dustry with whom we have worked 'through the years who have ad- ' vised us that the workshop idea ; appeals to them. They would not I be otherwise available.'' . 90-minute powwow, that the give-, away boys are pretty much of a mind on one point. They think their . shows are being picked on- unfairly; they think a lot of mali- cious falsities . are thus spread about; and they wish something could be done about it. Todman said he called the meet- ing simply to say, ."Look, guys we're being pushed downhill," and ask if others agreed with liim that some , "positive appwach" ought /to be made to 'counteract the bad notices the giveaways are , catching. He noted that audience participation shows (as. the give- away producers prefer to tab them) are a "widely accepted form of radio entertainment" which •currently rates second only to I variety programs . in the Hooper ' averages. I Maybe some of these quiz shows are guilty of bad taste, Todman ' went on, but most of them are I "just good, clean - entertainment" i: which appeals to-people's sense ' of : sportsmanship;. There's even "drama, intrigue, thrill and cnter- , tainment" in description of the I jackpots. I What bothered Todman, though, he said, was talk that the give? ] away producers are "runninf. ini- ' quitous dens" and that their shows j represent "a cancerous growth" j on the industry. People come up to him and express tears that the quiz shows may be yanked off i the air. It's possible to visualize, said the producer of. "Winner Take AH" (daytime, evening and TV) and "Time's A-wastin'", that Uie day could come when people will be "slipping down to' their basements to listen to bootleg giveavk-ay shows." ■"We've got a public relations job to do," Todman summed up. ■'We owe :it to ourselves. Not: to knock other types of shows or: just to be on the defensive, but to see that our side of the story is told. Right now the attacks are pretty one-sided." Framer, producer of "Strike It : Rich," said he thought it was a job to : be done "on an industry level" and indicated the producers might , pitch in to retain PR .coun- sel or put a publicity agency on the job. Whole subject then got a general fcicking-around. But the upshot . seemed toi' be a - general feeling that the producers could get after their network and agency Hackeries to sec that the giveaways' brighter sides are ex- posed. Atleast there ■ was no ^'surge toward reaching for pocket* books. Soap operas and whodunitii have survived bitter attacks, sev- eral noted, in'dicating they . felt giveaways would, too—if listeners kept on tuning them in. Boston—Annual fall conference of the N. E. Committee on Radio in Education set for Nov. 18 at WCOP, Bowles outlet in the Hub. "Toast of the Town" bill last. Sunday (31) offered a :nice, variety of grade A fare, with the Betty and Jane Kean sister comedy- dance-song act scoring well in the closing spot. The . girls' routine needs tightening; they could have axed Jane's song opener and intro patter with Ed Sullivan. They've a comedic format that is clicky, with song-dance talent to spare. Very fetching femmes, too. Bunny BWggs, sepia singeivtapper, also could stow his vocallng tacceptable as an extra draw) to concentrate on his strong toe-and-heel rhythmic talents. (He also could shear the long hair and dispense; with the zoot suit, which are inclined to: prejudice his audience.) There's plenty of art in. his feet. Jay Marshall's magician - ventriloquist act, using his fisi for a singing-fast cracking dummy's head, was sure- fire—the camera effectively playing closeup on the talking fist. Marshall knows how to make his patter pay . off, almost line for line; George Prentiss brought his Punch & Judy act from the Blue Angel; here again the cameras gave :viewers a closeup such as they'd never get : ln a theatre, enabling telelookers to catch even minute actions of the ■puppets. P&J routine, unchanging .«s it, is, is perennially enjoyable. :Honey Bros., in the opening numr ber, bounced through their tap- acrobatic -comedy routine with a coordination that satisfied the cus- tomers. Camera work was Cbpe- cially notable during Bunny Briggs' tapping, when closeups of his feet were strikingly super- imposed on a medium shot ot him. This technique shouldn't be over- done, but is very efTcctivc as on occasional novollv. Raytheon SB Continued from page 25 ss niit to Waltham, neighboring city to Boston, is now under construcr tion. CBS, if the deal goes through, will pay approximately $250,000 for the physical assets of the station, as well as all out^^of- pocket money that Raytheon has SO far spent toprosecute its already the Cbampian and it's oniy mid'Seasen Exclusive broadcasts of the red hot games of the football Cardinals, regular Saturday airing of the Notre Dame grid gambols, and the upcoming broadcasts of Blackhawk hockey warfare make WCFL the acknowledged sports- casting champion in the Chicago radio arena.