Variety (Feb 1949)

»6 TEI.EVISIOIV REVIEWS Wednesday, Fcbruarir 16, 1949 CHILDREN'S HOUR 'VVitli Ed Ilerlihy, announcer; others ■ Producer: Alice Clements director: Ucsmond Marquette eo Mins.; Sun., 10:30 a.m. HORN & HARDART NBC-TV, from N. Y. (Clements Co..) Horn & Hardart's "Children's Hour," with 20 years on radio be- hind il, has been brouglit from Philadeliphia to N. Y. by NBC fori IDENTIFY With Bob Elson; guests 15 JVlin,; Men.. 9 p.m. PARIjS GARTERS ' ABC, from Chica8:o (Louis A. Smitti) "Identify" is a cut-and-dried quiz show about sports that makes only a half-hearted attempt to exploit video's visual angles. Format is based on quizmaster Bob Elson tossing the brainteasers at a panel simulcast purposes; In its TV ver-1 of sports experts with still pictures sion, the show is a welcome addi- tion to any family's early Sunday morning at home: and should-enjoy the same success on the newer me- dium that it has had in radio. TV, in fact, should enhance the talent showcasing aspects of the prograrti, which helped develop a number of top performers during its radio ■ stint. ■ ■ : Producer Alice Clements, who supervises the program for her husband's, ad agency, has always provided it with good visual: dressr Ing for the studio audience's bene- fit, so that it didn't require; much additional in the way of costuming the kids. Show could stand a little thrown in for the benefit of view- ers. As expected, the stills are totally static and add little of in- terest to the proceedings. Here's a spot where action newsreel clips about sports events and person- alities would add those extra show- manship values that would lift this offering out of the mediocre class. In,-any; case, however, this pro- gram could benefit from a snappier phrasing of the questions than was evident on its coaxial debut Monday (14). The questions were routine and the answers were hit-and-miss without any difference one way or another. In one case, Elson was tripped by wrong answer on his file card; ;< Elson hanfdled the single however, in ■; Henn. Oiich! more variety in camera shots, how ever. As transmitted the day I Paris Garter plug, cau.eht (13 ) , only two shots were okay punchy style. used—one of announcer Ed Herli-1 hy and the other of tlie moppet I PEE WEE KING SHOW performers in front of a blank I With Pee Wee King, Golden West curtain-^and those can get mo-1 Cowboys, Bob Kay announcer notonous- in a full-hour' presenta- ■ tiOUv ' ■ , Herlihy; following in the foot- steps ot such current stars as Ralph Edwards, demonstrated a.neat flair for the cifflcult task of emceeing such, a show. Playing around with the St. Valentine's Day smotitV he entered into the spirit of the thing ■with the kids and was never guilty of talking down to them. Talent, ranging from a five-year-old boy up to the teen-age brackets, "was good for the most part, and Miss Clem- , ents wisely routined the various -• acts to provide good pacing. Commercials, whether done straight by Herlihy or integrated into their performances by the kids, were easy to take. Stal. Producer-Director: Burt Blackwell 30 Mlns.; Mon., 7:15 p.m. Sustaining WAVE-TV, Louisville Doubling from WAVE-AM, this youthful Western group is proving an. ideal vehicle for "the video me- dium. Lads are a few steps above the usual so-called hillbilly stuff, certainly in appearance, and they 'mix the tunes sufficiently to please a variety of tastes. Announcer Bob Ka.y lends an assist with a few well-placed introes. Pee Wee King and bis Golden West Cowboys have gained quite a rep from their recordings^ and have a fast' moving - routine- of musical numbers. .They also blend well in the. vocal department; Com- edy numbers are right down: their alley, There's a tight production and direction job by Burt Blackwell. This is-ideal television fare for the Tele Chatter Continued from" page 34- FIFTH FREEDOM With Bee Davidson, Irv Stone & Kenny Miller, Joyce Norman, Carl; Bonner, Joe Ravel, Four , Tones Quarteti Connie Hill and local market, and judging by show the Odell Bakers ] causht. the Pee Wee King outfit Producer: Fred Mullen i look.s npe lor sponsorship. Hold. Director-Scriptcr: Gene Starbecker 30 Mill.; Mon., 8 p.m. Sustaining WAVE-TV, Louisville This one-shot of well-routined local acts was assembled in behalf of the March of Dimes, which.fell short of the goal ''.Filth Freedom," which it was ex- plained is the right of children to play and have fun. M 'h opened with Connie Hill (daugtiter of Don Hill. WAVE;. sports announeer) sinuitating an infantile paralysis victmi seated in a wheel chair, with announcer making the pitch for dimes. Bridge between special- ties was a pictorial segue, depicting a shower .of dimes, cleverly con- cocted -by the use of a fishbowl . filled- with water. Effect was a difficult one, but it registered. Quite a. number of the town's local talent lent their various abili- No one can louse up a sports event like a . sports an- nouncer^When he's not familiar with. his. subject. As Bill Stern murders a golf tourna- ment so can Mel Allen make, a bum of a track meet. Allen's latest adventure took place Saturday night (12> for CBS during the N, Y, Athletic Club meet ■ at > the Garden. Paired with a narrator who did the running account of the events, the fact that Allen was only"doing- the cigaret commer- cials didn't: stop him from get- ting in the way. ' From track- side they were making the of- ficial p.a. announcement of the result of the Buermeyer- 500 ; when Allen had to have his little: say. Everyone knew George Guida had. won but it had looked like a fast race and, as with all . track crowds, there was the expectant hush awaiting heralding of the time. But here Mr. Allen busted right into the announcement with his commercial and the camera director followed with some film about the product. By the time the cameras got back to the track everyone was ready for the next race. And it was not until this point that Al- len announced the Buermeyer -result and time, 56.9, which he - declared a track record, v It was. also a new world indoor mark. That Army's Hammack, doing 57.1 in finishing second, had also beaten the old figures simply marked Allen's second omission for the same race;: Video viewers had completely missed all the excitement over two men having bettered -the standard. Stanley Woodward, former sports editor of the N. Y^' Herald Tribune, has recently had published a book on sports reporting (I'Sports Page," Si- mon & Schuster, $2.95). Both radio and -Video men announ,*' cing athletic events, and cam- era directors of the TV mo- bile units, should take a look. . It would also be a pleasure if someone kicked Mr. Allen in the shins and told him that pole vaulters "vault" and maybe even "leap," but by all that's Warmei-dam . they do not "jump." Have you heard A1-: len announce. "Bob Richards just 'jumped' 14 feel." Ouch! ;: Tele Follow-up Comment il Ed Sullivan's "Toast of the Town," which Had perked consider- ably during the last several weeks, reverted, to weakness.Sunday night (13)'on the CBS-TV web. Even Rudy Valleci w ho was excellent in his two previous appearances on the show, seemed; hamstrung and none of the other acts was suffici- ently good to lift the program'out Of its mediocrity; Those top-line acts apparently are getting increas- ingly difficult to come by. Mayo Bros. (2) opened the show with their fast platform tapstering but then slowed.their act to a walk with a half-hearted attempt- at comedy. Wesson Bros. (2) fared slightly better with their imper- sonations, with Sullivan making a weak attempt to enter into their comedy. Low note was hit with the Three Ammon Sisters^ a trio of moppets from Switzerland. Little girls, with their accordions and yodeling, might have been okay on a kid show but were far out of: their.' class on this one. Dance satirists Glsa and Waldo brightened things slightly with their zanyisms and comic Roger Price dittoed with his pseudo- psychological lecture. Vallee opened his stint with the "Whiffien- poof; song, with the cameras fad- ing shots of the Yale campus in and out over him. What little the montage might have meant to any Yale alumni in the .audience was completely lost to other viewers, Vallee's closing medley : of oldie pops, in which he was backed by. i quartet from the Ben Yost Vikings and the June Taylor line (6), was spoiled by faulty camera work; its most delightful performances to date. "Zone of Quiet" was an adaptation of a Ring Lardner story and thanks principally to perforni- ances by John Sylvester and Eleanor Lynn, it provided one of the most pleasurable half-hours of weekend video viewing. If any- thing it suggested that the Lard- neriana library offers an abun- dance of i-iches for TV material. "Zone of Quiet" is the zany fable of the hospitalized guy who goes nuts trying to get a few hours of peace and quiet as his room be- comes a meeting place for; feud- ing nurses, a doc on the malce, etc. Camera and productional .tech- niques went out the window; there was just a bed and a one-set focus point, but director Alex Segal, the performers and all: concerned cap- tured all the delightful Lardner touches and played, them to the ■ hilt. ThBn-io «. 1,", I will be used for closed circuit audi- inenie was tne i jj^j,, gjjjj for viewing audience. ,: KTLA will double its transmitting power Apr, 1.. .Norma Young bows on KTSL with a 10-minute Tuesday and Thuirsday Show, starting to- rilght (19)- . . Bill Symes sports pro- gram has been upped from brie to five over KTSL.. ."Teen Talent Time" goes into weekly slot on KTSL starting this week - Paul Knig:ht has joined KFI-TV as direc- tor of remote programming.:. Boh Moon taking over "Richard Webb's Hobby Shop" over KTSL while Webb steps out to appear in "El- gie's Woman," an Alfred Aiken «es to the variety layout. Pro acts ^X^^^'X^'^'J^rn'^, \l ltnonnl'^%l7ay ttr"who ^V-ipute pix.based on .stories by handled his own piano •accompani- ment. Four Tones, three boys and a girl, were nicely grouped for best effect, and - harmonized well. The Odell Bakers, sepia : instru- mental quintet,; backgrounded the show, and gave professional style support Fred - Mullen, producer, and Gene Starbecker, writer-director, show improvement in this effort, and give ample evidence of iron- ing out the production wrinkles. This viewing proves the boys are on the right track. Hold. WAX WACKIES With Johnny Slagle, : Three Gay Deceivers Director: Don Hallman Producer: Peter Strand 30 Mins.; Fri., 7:30 p.m, WXYZ-TV, Detroit WXYZ-TV gave birth to a brand new type of disk^jockey show Fri- day (4), in spite of various eontro-' versial reports to the effect that; there was no place in television for, disk'jockeys. New show features; jock Johnny Slagle and the Three chi Ruthrauff & Ryan has added Gay Deceivers, well known Detroit virgil Reiter to TV sales. . .May 15 Bret Harte. "M'liss" and -"Luck of Roaring Camp" have been set as first two subjects.. ."Hollywood In Three Dimensions" bows on KFI- TV Sunday (20). Program which will have celebs' wives as guests, has been packaged by Mai Boyd and Bob Joseph. . : A m e r i c a n Broadcasting Co.'s Television outlet KECA-TV is now beaming a regu- larly scheduled test pattern. Sta- tion is sending its patter daily from one through four except Saturday and Sunday... Anthony. Mattess. ad chief of Standard Oil of California, shopping ; around for live studio shows.' ; Gail Page has been inked by Marshall Grant-Realm Produc- tions for lead in "A Confession on New Year's Eve."...KNBH drop- ped musical starring Lucille Nor-r man*: soprano, after several weeks of airing but no sponsor interest .;. Andy Potter will direct a situation comedy show starring Hank McCuc. Show is being packaged by Ed Cochrane for co-op sponsorship. HOT STOVE LEAGUE With Joe Finn, Russ Martin, John Bird, Matt Jans, Toin Walsh; Joe Wilson, quizmaster I Producer-Directors: Joe Wilson, I Richard Liesendahl . ; . I 15 Mins.; 6:30 p;m. Sustaining WBKB, Chicago Program is sports quiz, using jury of four athletes and officials who hurl teasers at one another under . guidance of sports an- nouncer Joe Wilson. Savings bonds are awarded night's winners and listeners who. send in correct an- swer to question of evening. This show had five golfers ask' ing such queries as diameter of putting greens, winners of national championship, longest shot record- ed, and greatest miitch winner of professional toumeys. Ties are run off-by hand-over-hand choose- I up with baseball bat. I This is clever show and should I ring bell with sportsminded listen- j ers. However, more leisurely pace I would help program. Too many I contestants answering at once, I with quizmaster apparently racing I against time, sometimes results in near bedlam. Jury box prop is unique. Camera lags behind activity. More detailed introductions would help audience tie-m. Mart. Cleve. Set Sales Contlnue<l from page 31 sis "Admiral Broadway Revue" hit a good all-around pace in its third edition but there were still some rough edges to be licked. It's in- evitable that in a 60-minute ses- sion there'll be some soft ■:. spots, but it's a production mistake ta wind up the show on a downbeat note. Friday night (11), the weak- est sector of the revue, a circus ballet, number, brought down the curtain on an . over-all good show on a so-so note. The featured regulars turned in some solid stints; the majority of which were in the comedy division. Sid Caesar spread-eagled the lay- out with four good turns which revealed his versatility- and his large reserve of comedy, material. Bobby Van's solo song-dance-com- edy takeoff on "It's a Great Day" was up to his usual standard. Imogene Coca and Mary Mc- Carty socked across several good comedy items, particularly as part of the show's regular feature, "The Passing Parade of Nonentities in the News." Miss McCarty also delivered; seriously, for a change in. pace, on "How Deep Is the Ocean," highlighted by an atmos- pheric production background. Miss Coca's impression of a torch singer was good, although slightly too long for maximum impact. Ed: Cashman's calling of the doseup camera shots on this number was firstrate. The. show sagged somewhat in the terping- department. Marge and Gower Champion were fea- tured in only a fair routine and the ballet also failed to make any special impression due to choreography poorly designed for the ike. The windup circus num- ber, in particular, had a lot of action going on at the edges of the screen beyond the viewers' focus. Single .long plug for Admiral once again was based on the zany lingual abilities of Roy: Atwell. How Atwell's routine will stand up week after week is problem- .atic. . . , "Ford Television Theatre" hit its peak performance to date Sunday night (13) on CBS-TV with an adult, thoroughly-gripping produc- tion of Sidney Howard's "Silver Cord;". The story of an inverted Oedipus complex,^which was first staged on Broadway in December, 1926, as a Theatre Guild produc- tion, was excellently mo'dernized'- and adapted for TV by Ted Mabe- ley and, with a standout cast top- ped by Mady Christians and Meg ! Mundy, the play was fine , in all . phases of production, direction- and acting. Despite the comparatively early air time (7^30 to 8:30 p.m.), little effort was made to tone down the hard-hitting drama. Some of the scenes between Miss Christians, as the mother; and her two -sons, in^ fact, were so: sharply-etched as- to be disconcerting. The result was well worth the effort,, however, proving that video, in the right hands, can do such a theme at least as well as any otlrer medium. Mabeley, along with producer Garth Montgomery and director Marc Daniels (wlio, incidentally, is Miss Mundy's husband), rate a bow for not toning the play down too. much. Miss Christians gave her best tele performance yet as the selfi.sh widow whose : unnatural love for her two sons almost wrecked their lives. Miss Mundy was excellent as the young wife who broke the spell over, one son, neatly played by Karl Webber. Lois Wheeler, as the fiancee of the other son. played by . WiU, . Hare,: was equally good. Danlelsl' camera :. direction, Ben Ludlow's mood scoring and Sam- uel Leve's sets all added up to some of the best in current video dramatic fare. Chicago pantomine artistS; Cast in excel- lent voice, and Slagle Is funny, although overdoing It. ' . Proprietor .Tohnny Slagle meets the gang from the record shop and estimated date for completion of WBKB's new transmitter. 700 ft, height will make antenna tallest, in Chicago;. .Columnist Nate Gross hosted Bex Allen, cowboy singer, . spins the platters, while the Tliree'over WGN-TV,. .WBKB to televisse Gay Deceivers, who portray two ; 100 year anni of Chicago Church of salesmen and a porter, take it upon - Disciples.. Footballer Johnny Lu- themselves to burlesque each' rec- jack and sports ed John Carmichacl ord played. AH the while Slagle i guested on debut of Bob Elson's Is looking around his new head-1 ABC-TV quizzer "Identify" Mon. quarters and comes up with an oh-' 1141 Dorsey Connors back on ject he knows nothing about. Try WGN-TV after long illness. His as he does, no one will come to his "Personality Profiles"- resumes to- aid and it is up to one of the Wax m o r r o w (16).. .WBKB's Loralnc tals from seven manufacturers whose January totals were not available. Philco distributor Homer Frank and a spokesman for Motorola also join the chorus of "boom sales" and anticipate a bullish market for months to come with a new spurt in sales coming when the baseball season opens. i As yet, Cleveland baseball presi- dent Bill Veeck has not pacted a ; contract , but he's said to be sold on telecasting the games. Distrib- utors indicate that the station get- ting the contract will unquestion- ably become the number: one . program outlet as far as local in- terest is concerned.i Last season, IWEWS carried the gdmcs with ; General Electric sponsoring. Wacky Club members be^Bg han4* • • ■ r to tend a .liarson on Florida.... two . t^eek vacation in Cleveland—.Tack Treacy named to head national spot sales for .NBC, pperating .oiU. of WT^- Philco Television Playhouse's production of "The Story of Mary Surratt" (13) with Dorothy Gish and Kent Smitii starring in a TV reprise of their ex - Broadway ] legiter, was more or less "filler" I material in terms of the enter- ] tainment standards that - usually i apply to the.se Fred Coe produc- I tion.s. While Coe tried to inject I some animation into the video I adaptation, and succeeded to a dc- I gree in giving it breadth, it was a I tough battle overcoming what re- mains essentially a stilted play. I Miss Gish as the long-suffering I boardinghou.se keeper , doomed to I die at the hands of a military tri- I bunal; as: a conspirator in the I assassination of Lincoln, went 1 through: all the studied movements ' of conveying the proper emotions, as, for that matter, did Smith and other . performers. But as video fare, as in the case of the Broad- way production, it was pretty un- inspired stuff. Actors Studio on ABC-TV came thrpugh .Sunday .(13) witlj ,<tne, of Milton Bcrle's continued absence from Texaco St?rr Theatre points up the. difference between vaude and vaudeo. Each, of course, car- ries entertainment values, but vaudeo is a development that fits the specialized - demandsf: of - the new medium. Last week's show was a case in point. Prof?ram lacked a dominant personality to give that added zing that projects so heavily on tlie small living-room screen. Although Jack Carter is one of the : new brighter luminaries who has made good on individual showings on Texaco tele, he's still to attain the knack of working with acts, bring- ing in sketches, and doing the un- expected, combination of which adds up to prime fodder for video. Texaco's- - talent collection of Tuesday (9) was good vaude. Play-; ing vald-es of the individual, acts, was good with a' standout spot con? tributed by the return visit- of Grade Fields. This British come,- dienne with a trio of tunes, indi- cate again she knows the video ap-' proach. Her warm personality and surefi)-e delivery registered strong- ly. Miss Fields even did a Cart- wheel during one of her numbers, [without mi.s.sing a note. Uni'ortu- ' nately, the time clock interrupted' I her stint. ,cutting her off while leading a community sing.- Comedy by Jack Durant also found its marlc. Durant mixed his "can Gable do this" routine with some good chatter and songs lor good results. The conversation b'-'j tween Sidney Grecusti-eet and Peter Lorre also came off well- The Mills Bros, provided a Strong song interlude. This quartet get full values with a set of tunes they've helped popularize on disks. The novelty sections of the bill were by La Brach and Bernice, a good unicycle act, and the Gaud-, smith Bros. (2» in their standard . canin;p^an(| ^cpjue/lj-,. tiirn.., ,