Variety (July 1949)

S4 IIABIO Wednetdajr, July 20, 1949 Don’t Humiliate ’Em Continued from page 34 for that the other half dipped during the same period. In another major daytime show, interest in the personalities of the guests proved to be strong. Short interviews left the audience dissatisfied. so that the listeners were unconcerned with the fate of the guests in the conte.sts following the.se interviews. Schwerin’s p«escription was to reduce the nuniber of guests, in order to give more time for the interviews. Before this was done, only about a third of the Interviews lasted over two minutes, and the average liking score of all the interviews was only 63; after the change had been made, fourfifths of the interviews lasted over two minutes, and the average liking score was 69. (This last case, by the way. is an example of the principle of emphasis— giving the proper amount of weight to each element in the show. It should be stressed that thi.s does not mean the imposition of a purely mechanical rule on talent; Schwerin merely assures the emcee that he can safely devote the necessary time to bringing out the personal backgrounds of the guests, and that the audience will not dislike his ^oing so. The emcee still cuts off unresponsive guests or others w'ho In his judgment are not going over welt with the listeners*. In still a third instance, the prizes proved the key to the show's mood. Here the pyramid of prizes coincided with the theme of the program, a Cinderella concept. The mood of the audience was one of identification with the lucky woman who became the w'inning contestant. When the winner was the woman the listening audience thought was the right choice, the gift-giving portion at the end was the best liked part of the show. How Ciood Is the Emcee? A question frequently asked by those exposed for the first time to qualitative research is. “How does the emcee on this program rank in comparison to other emcees?’’ Schwerin holds that this is a mistaken approach. The system’s numerous tests have forcefully demonstrated that most leading emcees will be well liked under the proper conditions. The important thing is to match the right emcee to the right show. One successful emcee was first tested by Schwerin in a program that wasn’t well liked. The tests revealed, however, that the audience was very favorably disposed toward this emcee, and that one of the things they liked best about him was his ability to handle older guests. A show making use of this talent was built around him, and proved a quick success. The above is only one of many instances that have afforded convincing evidence that every emcee, just like every show, creates a certain mental image In the listener’s mind, and that these images must .synchronize if a truly successful Jleiie^.X,ewiiA6AiOciaiei, HOLLYWOOD SCREEN TEST with NEIL HAMILTON ' AlC-TV NETWORK. SATURDAY. 7:30-t:00 P.M. Starts Commercially SEPTEMBER 3-New York BEST FOODS (Benton and Bowles) SEPTEMBER 24-Six Cities DUFFY MOTT COMPANY. INC. (Young and Rubicam) Other ABC Cities Still Availoble for Spontorthip t Personal Representative ARTISTS BILL STERN PATRICIA BRIGHT BOB SCHEERER HARRIET VAN HORNE HANK FORT WRITERS ALTON ALEXANDER-Hollywood Screen Test PRISCILLA KENT— The Second Mrs. Burton MORT LEWIS— Truth and Consequences LARRY MARKES-Free Lance One Christopher St., New York 14, N. Y., W* 4-8582 participation show is to be achieved. Sight Cjags and Studio l.aug hter A mishap that overtakes participation shows more often than any ; other type is loss of audience lik | ing because of misuse of visual material. Sight gags that cause hearty studio audience laughter i which makes the home listener feel he's “being left out of things” will disrupt mood, and frequently have ' an adverse effect on liking for the rest of the show'. Even the late, great Tom Brene ! man. an emcee with a splendid sense of what the home listener wanted, got in the habit of assum j ing that his “trying on hats” routine was .so well known that it no longer required explanation. The Schwerin System found that when Breneman failed to explain what was happening, liking for that portion of the show was low. When | Breneman was careful to talk to I the hat's wearer about it and to describe the hat thoroughly, on the other hand, the liking score ro.se. j ('ontestants' Treatment Important .Audiences are particularly con.scious of an emcee’s attitude toward the contestants. Physical punishment or the threat of it as i the “consequence” of a stunt is often well received, but in contrast there are numerous cases in Schw'erin’s records where mental punishment, in the form of .sarcasm at a guest’s. expense, has cost an emcee lieavily. One of the commonest mistakes of this sort that is made by emcees is yielding to the temptation to make jokes at a contestant’s expense. The.se often backfire. In one case w'here the emcee joked about a guest’s name early in the show, the liking score dropped swiftly from 68 to 33, and it was not till four minutes later in the program that it recovered its normal level. Emcees can also err in the other direction, though, and they most often do this by helping contestants too much. Daytime listeners are most likely to resent such assistance if it is given to a woman guest who has been described as young and pretty. (You don’t have to conduct an elaborate research .study to know that the majority of women daytime listeners don’t fall into these categories them•selves.i Occasionally, a skillful emcee gets excellent results by helping a contestant, but the conditions have to be right. In one test of a daytime show, the emcee gained very high liking by going along with a contestant, all of whose answ'ers were so far off base that the efiect was delightful, and then told him at the end that he just couldn’t help giving him his prize. The Title and the Mood In conclusion, it is worthwhile to return to mood fur a moment and underline the great importance Schwerin places on a participation show’s mood being in keeping with its title. A top program like “People Are Funny” repays careful study from this point of view. The casual listener perhaps does not realize how carefully Art Linkletter keeps reminding the audience that the stunts, gags and gimmick^f are designed to find out how people will react to situations, what their motivations are, whet her they w'ill respond in expected or unexpected ways — and that it is their behavior in such circumstances that proves “people are funny.” As Schwerin remarks in the box accompanying this chapter. the movie industry has sometimes made a great mistake in assuming that a picture title is merely a hook to attract cu.stomers; and he explains clearly why it is especially important that a radio .show .should not make the same mistake. Defining the mood of the program. giving it an emcee who fits into that mood, and trying the combination together with the right title — these, in sum. .start a participation show off on the highioad to radio success. * lews M Bssl Radio Reviews : Continued from pa(o ducers come to the mike. Many of them have background and personalities which make good listening. even though interviews on occasion are slow, talky and diffuse. Mi.ss Drooz, intelligent, quickspoken. and neat -voiced, is improving as an interviewer. She also presents a Saturday night “On Stage” taped feature, in which she reviews strawhat performances. Java. P. M. PI.ATTER PARTY With Harvey Husen 60 Mins., Mon.-thru-Fri. Sustaining WABY, Albany Harvey Husen. new’ jock on W.ABY, runs off a moderately listenable late-evening program. Formerly doing Cornell U. sports via WHCU, Ithaca. Husen handles a supper-hour sports show here, in addition to the record stint. His knowledge of popular music seems .sound; his approach is more conversational and unspectacular than the run of platter-spinners hereabouts. He c’oesn’t register quite as strongly as he might. Husen comments knowingly about bands and instrumentalists, new and old. Records of the latter vintage are included. A mystery played several times durhour. theatre passes being to listeners identifying it. Jaco. CATHOLIC BXASTERS TO MEET AT NOTRE DAME South Bend, July 19, Second annual convention of the Catholic Broadcasters Assn, will be held at the U. of Notre Dame here July 29-31. Among speakers at the se.Hsions and forums will be Donald Attwater, who broadcastt for the BBC In London; Orville Foster, former Chicago station manager, now head of Notre Dame’s audio-visual department* Rev. Archibald MacDowell. director of Notre Dame’s campus station, WND; Rev. Richard Tormay, Roch^vster, N. Y., news broadcaster; Rev. Jo.seph E. Gedra. pioneer in Catholic broadcasting from Washington; and William Murphy, NBC script writer. Chicago. Television technique will be di.scussed in one of the special panels, and television equipment will be on display for members of the as.sociation attending the .session. Other subjects to be discussed will include news prograois, local programs, .script writing, dramatic techniques, promotion, personnel recruitment, musical backgrounds and other problems. tune is Ing the offered NABUG Continued from page 2.V t ^ Followup Cominent J Henr.v Morgan’s second show in his Bristol Myers series foundythe comic in the top echelon of radio satirists. There were .some clever bits of business including a lively lampoon of the processes involved in making a long-distance phone call. This was an especially laugh provoking situation inasmuch as the brand of humor dished out had sharpness as w'ell as subtlety, plus the important factor of projecting a_ situation easily imaginable to the listener. Morgan also had another high calibre bit with his satire of Gabriel Heatter, and enacted a piece with a panhandler that ladled out a healthy quota of laughs. The Arnold Stang bit, however, didn’t have the usual punch. Point was lost somewhere in the projection. Oboler C'onliniied from pace 35 check of $1.2.50 a week, which is high for the NBC course. But he left behind one indelible mark — that he’s still the old master of surprise and suspense. Give him a man he can work with and he’ll again have the .setsiders biting their nails and squirming on their I bottoms. Spier Back on ’Suspense’ William Spier will return as producer and editor of CBS’ “Suspen.se’” w'hen the Electric Auto liite Co.-spon.sored .series ends its summer hiatus and goes back on the air Sept. 1 in the Thursday. 9 p.m. time period. Anton M. Leader is checking out. Norman MacDonnell will direct. Spier was producer of the airer for five years, from 1943-’48. During the ’48-’49 .season he produced “Adventures of Sam Spade” and “Philip Morris Playhou.se.” . I Mutual C'ontinurd from pace 33 had been offered cuffo when backers took an entire geographical group, are now available with the purchase of specific stations. For example, a sponsor who buys WNF]X., Macon, w'ill get four bonus .stations in other Georgia towns. .Stations assigned bonus outlets, it’s reasoned, will be given a sales 92 Farmer* for WOW Tour ' Sjet their income by selling spots Omaha, July 19. around the network airers, ,, signed lor New setup also aids big spenders the WOW tarmers West Coast ! by liberalizing full netw'ork discounts. A $23,000 weeki.v gross nece.ssary against any agency which imposes and employs a blacklist.” Sweets, according to the directorial union’s resolution, “w'as forced to resign from the Philips H. Lord packaged ‘Gangbustei s’ and “Counterspy.” because of ’sponsor-agency pressures.” ” NABUG has set up a committee to meet witfi and cooperate w'ith the fact-finding committee of the RTDG. It also asked representatives of the Radio Writers Guild and Television Writers Guild to inquire of the Authors League of America, their parent body, whether the existence of the “blacklist” constitutes “cen.sorship of a man’s work without examining the man’s work.” On Monday (18i the RTDCJ committees, co-chairmaned by Lester O’Keefe and Ernest Ricca. national and New' York prexies. respectively, met to implement its resolutions of last week. First step taken was to send a letter to the Lord office reuqesling a meeting and a full explanation of the situation. Methods of combatting the “blacklist” w-ere also explored. Members of the NABUG committee w'hich will meet with the RTDG are: for the American Federation of Radio Actors. Clayton (’ollyer, Vinton Hayworth. Leon Janney, Ted Osborn; for RWG. Erik Barnouw'. Wcibourn Kelley. Roy S. Langham. James A. Stabile; for TWG. Lee Berg. Evelyn F. Burkey, Kay Wood, Ben Zavin; for National Assn, of Broadcast Engineers and Technicians. Clifford Gorsuch. Harry E. Hiller. D. C. Shultis and Edw'in Stolzenbecker; and Oliver W. Nicoll. NABUG national chairman. px-officlo. The A FRA group probing the situation consists of Hayw'orth and Janney, co-chaii'men. and Osborn, (’ollyer, Dan Seymour. Chuck Goldstein. Virginia Payne. Alan Bunce and Kenneth Banghart. with Roger de Koven empowered to interrogate. New York World-Telegram of^ Monday (18*. in an article by Fred-* erick T,. Woltman, included a counter-charge to the “blacklist” reports, alleging that leftist directors bypass anti-Communist a(*tor.s. These charges are met by some directois and actors who said that examination of casting lists would show that directors accused of sujh posed radical sympathies employed performers of “all shades of poUtical opinion, and lack of opinion. Ninety-two farmers JUST $150.*** nivs YOU farm study tour. More than 100 are expected before the tour begins in an all-Pullman air-cooled .special train Sept. 16. For 16 days trippers will visit points of special interest to farmers in nine we.stern states, parts of Canada and Mexico. evening hour purchase entitles a backer to a 35'’b discount. Advertisers making a 52 w'eek deal get an additional 12' *2% cut, bringing the total discount possible to 47'-.%. San Antonio — Eugene Nolasco has joined the sales staff of KCOR here. He'll handle Spanish language accounts. Chicago — WLS will celebrate 20year anniversary of airing from midwest state ,fairs when its cowIxiy stars headed by program director Harold Safford open the Illinois Fair Aug. 13. Awfinras Best TELEVISION FILM COMMERCIAL COMPlfTI PRODUCTION INCLUDfS Animated Effects • Tridcy Titles Offscreen Voice & Musk waiTt oa PHOHI FILMACK TRAILER CO. 1335 S Wabeth M Arrl^oN Chicago S, IN. 1-3S95 ■