Variety (Mar 1949)

36 TELEVISION Wc<1ncsilay, March 30, 1949 State Depts UNESCO Nix on Geve. TV Pickup Brings Stonn of Protest Cleveland, March 29. >■ . UNESCO's upcoming three-day lession here, to give information on the organization's progranii al- most pulled a major cropper in a tiff with WEWS-TV over telecast- ing activities at the Public Hall. WEWS, which planned to cancel out commercial net shows for a three-hour pickup, suddenly re- ceived a State Department brush- eroo,' and was told it could not pick up broadcast from Public Hallw The reasons for the ban ran the gamut from' Hollywood coni- mitments on part of certain nar- rators, whose contract nixed video appearances, to the fact that Mrs.- Eleanor Roosevelt wouldn't - per- mit such goings on. When Jim Hanrahan, WEWS general manager, : threatened to take the issue to Dean Acheson, Secretary of State, department rep- resentatives began to hedge. The Issue finally burned through to Washington where, last Wednes- day, the State Department official denied it had refused to grant per- mission for the televising of the UNESCO stanzas. A Washington spokesman de- clared that "a misunderstanding had been cleared up." State Department fiasco brought dailies to the defense of station, the first time in city's history that dailies rallied to the side of radio in such strong manner. Commented Cleveland Press, Scripps - H o ward colleague of WEWS: !'WEWS, very commendably and at a considerable sacrifice, ar- ranged to televise the meeting on one night, as its contribution to- ward promoting international un- derstanding. Instead of hailing the effort ■. . . the State Department has acted to block it. ... No mat- ter what they are they can't justify the action taken. Th^ department has no more right to stop televis- ing the proceedings than it has to try to say what shaU or shall not be published about the meet- ing. The censorship must be fought to a finish." AIM-wise, stations here have ' been going all out with studio in- terviews, playhacks, auditorium piclnips, etc.) to promote the March 31-April 2 session. WTAM, among other sessions, plans Alka- Seltzer tie-in over NBC; WNBK will have several programs, includ- ing tie-in over NBC's TV newscast. -WGAH will have-a-host of - pro- grams;, WHK plans several live pickups and interviews, including "Press Club Presents'' session. WJ,W, WJMO, WERE and WiSRS also are' planning active participa- tion. SEATTLE'S BON PUTS RADIO COIN INTO TV Seattle, March 29. KRSC-TV will televise the home "games of" the Seattle 'Rainiers of the Pacific Coast Baseball League, beginning April 13, with the Bon Marche department store picking up the tab for the lensing. Store will sponsor videoing of four games weekly: Wednesday, Friday and Sunday doubleheader. It will be first televising of ball games here, and pact is also^ weighty because it marks the Bon Marche's abandonment of radio en- tirely with funds, formerly ear- marked for radio now tO' be used for the new medium. The Bon in gast years has been one of the eaviest users of radio of any Seattle business. Garroway's TV Show Chicago, March 29. WNBQ has set up dry runs on a new Dave Garroway variety show with "fair results," and is planning half^hour, once weekly deal for NBC screening if cable space east- bound can be found. Format will involve disker Gar- roway emceelng a cast tentatively lined' as singers Connie Russell; Betty Ghappel, and Art Van Damm or«h. Hoofer is needed to com- plete show. Buffalo — Fred Keller, former announcer and drama director at WBEN(AM) since 1942, is new ex- ecutive producer of WBEN - TV, BuiTalo, succeeding Joseph A. Jen- kins, now WNBK (Cleveland) pro- gram clire(itor. they Satisfy Hollywood, March 29. More than 150 film and ra- dio names kre making 30-sec- ond teovee spots ballying through Marty ■ Newell-Emmett soliciting en- is Chesterfield Barrett, of Agency, who dorsements. Only stars not being sought are those under rigid control of studios which usually pro- hibit video activity of contract players. Some of top names who have already made telepix: are Barbara Stanwyck, Bill Bendix, Claire Trevor, Pat O'Brien, Sonny Tufts, Dana Andrews, Hugh Herbert, Bob Crosby, Victor Moore, Alan Mowbray and Ruth Hussey. OldWsllf 'Stop Music' Buy Old Gold cigarcts this week signed to sponsor the second half of the forthcbming television pro- duction of "Stop the Music" on ABC-TV, tentatively scheduled to tee Off the first Thursday in May. New bankrolling: venture puts OG up with other top-spending ciggie advertisers," giving it half of "Music" on both the AM and TV shows, plus the complete spon- sorship of the "Original Amateur Hour*': on DuMont television and ABC radiO; OG . is also contemplating ■ the possibility of picking up the first half of the "Music" tele show as .well because of the comparatively low cost , of the program. Agency is Lennen & Mitchell. ■ Lack of TV Foresight Will Cost Don Lee 25G For Rebuilding Studio Hollywood, March 29. An estimated $25,000 Will be added on to the cost of Don Lee's $1,000,000 plant here as the result of a bad_ television ■ planning by web execs." "Dftn "Lee will~com^ pletely rebuild its studio "Three" for KTSL, its video outlet. : When blueprints were accepted for the erecting of the Don Lee building, it was believed by net- work/heads that television would work itself into: a strict simulta- neous schedule with all standard broadcasts. Studios were built on that premise. Now that Video has evolved as an entirely separate means of transmitting, Don Lee has been trapped by lack of teevee ^opfirating space^ -Net's vidwstation is presently operating 90% of the time from atop Mt/ kee, where the teevee transmitter is located. Stu- dio ''Three" is being used for about three shows weekly. No Tarade'Simulcast American Tobacco lias been forced to abandon plans to simul- cast "Hit Parade" Saturday nights on NBC, following sale of the tele- vision time to Crosley for sponsor- ship of "Who Said That?". Both advertisers had been bid- ding for the 9 to 9:30 p.m. slot, but Crosley got fhe nod, reportedly because a simulcast would have netted NBC-TV less revenue than a show produced originally for video. ZOthTVBrief To Cue Legal Pyrotechnics Washington, March 29. Petition filed two weeks ago by 20th-Fox for a declaratory ruling by ithe Federal Communications Commission on the eligibility ol picture company violators of the anti-trust act to enter the tele- vision field is giving the legal boys plenty to work on. Since Fox has applications :pend-~ ing for stations in five cities, it' won't be surprising if just about every lawyer representing a com- peting applicant doesn't put in his oar-to oppose the petition. Last week came more repercus-r sions to the 20th-Fox brief. The law firm of Haley, ■ McKenna & Wilkinson, showing considerable interest in Fox, filed four petitions, practically identical, representing stations in four cities in which the film company is a contestant. The attorneys .said the scope of the: Fox petition and the press of 6ther matters required an additional 30 days for reply. Haley, etc., filed in behalf of Ed Pauley's company, Television Cali- fornia, San , Francisco; KCMO. Broadcasting Co., Kansas City, Mo.; Boston Metropolitan Tele- vision Co., Boston^ and King Broadcasting Co., Seattle. Fox, itself, came back last week to answer an earlier challenge hurled by WCOP, Boston as to the authority of the FCC to issue a declaratory ruling. Fox denied WCOP's claim that a declaratory order would require a hearing and thus delay .aetion on the Boston cases. Only an oral ar- gument would be necessary, said Fox, and the resulting ruling would remove the antirtrust issue from all the cities in which it is com- -peting. Thus, it argued, a. declara- tory order would materially "ease the burden on the Commission's hearing staff and contribute to an early decision in each case." Arch Oboler and NBC Talk Television Deal Hollywood, March 29; NBC and Arch Oboler are talk- ing a television deal, which would tie him exclusively to the ne,twork as writer'producer. Bluepri^it will have him do double il^ty on dramatic shows to be kinescoped for the eastern chain. Oboler recently terminated his deal with Frederick Ziv after wire- recording a series of adventures in darkest Africa. Peter Barry's 'Friend' For 'Fireside' Opener Procter & Gamble's "Fireside Theatre," showcase for new video presentations which will preem on NBC-TV Tuesday, April 5, at 0 p.m., will offer "Friend of the Family'' on the series opener. Virginia Gilmore, Yul Renncr and Peter Barry will star in the situation comedy script which Barry has written. Second and thii-d telecasts will present a who- dunit and a revue. Compt^n is the agency. / DuMont Switching To Pro-Cable as vs. Pix with the question of set obsoles- cence apparently settled finally by FCC chairman Wayne Coy's statement last w€eb in Baltimore (seeSstory in this sectioaltriDuMont. prexy Dr. Allen B. DuMont be- lieves the most Vital problem now confronting the industry is the ex- tension of networks. That topic will form the chief basis of the DuMont chief's speech today (Wed.) before the radio-TV branch of the American Marketing Assn. In a pronounced switch on his earlier thinking. Dr. DuMont is ex- pected to deremphasize the impor- tance of filmed transcriptions in networking in favor of live city-to- city tran-smission, either via coaxial cable or radio relay. He will thus pitch for a speedup in the network extension program of American Telephone & Telegraph, despite AT&T's accomplishments to date in getting the cable in as fast as possible. As the first to devolp film tran- scriptions, Dr. DuMont has long favored them over live networking as a means of : opening up inter- city video as rapidly- as possible: He'll tell the AMA today, however, that the cable is actually less cost- ly than transcriptions, providing there are enough stations on the line to share the costs, and make it possible to obtain wider coverage for the advertisers' dollar. Bronson's WBNS-TV Post Columbus, March 29. Ed Bronson, manager of WJEF in Grand RapidS; has been ap- pointed program director of WBNS-TV, Columbus Dispatch sta- tion, which is set to debut Sept. I. Breakdown of 1,315,000 U.S. Sets Number of television sets in the U, S. as of March 1 numbered approximately 1,315,000, representing an increase of 135,000 over those installed as of Feb. 1, Included in the latest total are i,- 242,400 for the 33 cities which now boast 56 TV stations on tlie air (including Dallas, which has no station yet, but which receives a signal from nearby Fort \Vorth), Rest of them were in other cities which expect TV- in the near future. Metropolitan N. Y. continued far in the lead with 500,000 sets, a boost oif 50,000 over last month, according to the NBC research compilatjiotts. ■ Following is the city-by-city breakdown; - City New York Philadelphia Los Angeles Detroit Washington/, Cleveland ;.. St. Louis .. New Haven . Milwaukee . Schenectady Cincinnati , , Buft'alo .. ... Minn.-St. Pai Pittsburgh .. Toledo Richmond ... Atlanta Louisville .., Dayton Dallas New Orleans Memphis ... Salt Lake Cil Fort Worth . Houston L.. Syracuse ... .'Albuquerque. Erie Other Cities Providence . Wilmington . Miami ..... Indianapolis Others Total .... RCA Reported Joining in Gang-Up On Zenith for 'Obsolescence Attacks SPONSOR NIBBLES ON NIGHT TRACK ROUNDUP - Racetrack-fans unable to get out to the track during the afternoons or to watch NBC-TV's live pickups will be able to see a nightly film roundup of the races under plans now being worked out by KCR, Inc., indie television package outr fit. Several sponsors are now dick- Lid blown off the television in- dustry recently by Zenith's "obso- lescence" advertising'was back in place this week,, following assm> ances by FCC chairman Wayne Coy that receiving sets in use to- day will be serviceable for years to come. Only new stir in the in- dustry was caused by reports that RCA, kingpin of the TV manulac- turersj will offer behind-thc-.scenes legal aid and other assistance to the two companies which; filed damage suits totaling $1^000,000 against Zenith on libel charges. RCA is reportedly very pleased ering with the packagers; with the chiief holdup being the length of, with the fact that the suits, filed the show. KCR wants to produce ; by Sightmaster Corp. and the Em- a 15 or 20-minute production i P'l'e Coil Co., have been instituted, nightly, including three minutes of I Company, because of its po.silion commercial time for the. bank-1 as both a broadcaster (via NBC) roller. ■ j and manufacturer, felt if waf^'m Package would be similar to the projected show on baseball game highlights now being mulled by the J. Walter Thompson ad agency, except that KCR would film the races directly, whereas JWT plans to work out its baseball show via kinescope reccordings of the entire game. N. Y. Journal-American sports columnist Bill Corum will narrate the races, with the films also taking viewers backstage at the tracks to show them the train- ei-s and jockeys in action. Projected package has the full sanction of the N. Y. Racing Assn., Which considers it a good form of public relations. Joe Rol>erts, former David O. Selznick exec, will handle production reins on the films. no position itself to file legal ac- tion. Now that the other two firms have taken the initiative in .wliat they believe will put an end to the Industry-rWide scare started by Zenit}!, RCA plans to back them in prosecuting the suits as much as possible. Coy, speaking before tlie Balti- more Advertising Club last week, slapped hard at Zenith claims that a projected FCC move into the ultra-high frequencies would ren- - der obsolete every TV set on th« (Continued on page 34) .• WLW-C's Baseball Pact Columhus, March 29. Al Banister, president of the Columbus Red Birds, now in train- ing at Dayiona Bciich, Fla., says WLW-C will bt-Kiii televising team's games at the opening of the season, Aptil 19. Geojfge Henderson, sairs mana- ger of WLW-C, ■ AUTHORS LEAGUE GETS WRITERS GUILD PACT Constitution of the Television Writers Guild, drawn up by a spe- cial committee and passed by the television writers organizing, coni-; mittee, will be submitted today (Wed.) to the Authors League Council. The document follows the lines of other Authors League guilds, but includes special provisions tor regional operation. Draft calls lor setting up regional groups, «s needed, headed by regional execu- tive committees responsible to *! . is Htil) in Florida negotiating the pad. It is under-1 national council. Setup is expectr stood that the nochosler lUd ! ed to be less cumbersome than that Wings, sistei' <,hib of tl;.; Rod Bin' • | of the Radio Writers Guild, whose have made a lli.-ce-year ngreemen' national executive committee is to televise its games ,for $20,000 formed by the three regional com- * S®*''* ,r!+tr^g TTPting concurrently. .