Variety (April 1950)

BADltf^TELEVISiaiV 'Wedfi^sday, April 5, 1950 New York Robert Montgomery has signed Rlla Baines to repeat the starring role she had in the Universal him, ‘‘Phantom Lady/' ^‘Lucky Strike Theatre'' April 24. Buraess. Meredith and Jean pie have the leads in ‘'Our ToAvn, slated as the next show in th^se- rieS next Monday (10) • . •, . sports chief Red Barber guests on “Arthur Godfrey & Friends .next Wednesday night (12) to traile^ze the ;new baseball seaSpn Leirby, Maurice Roccp ^nu the Jack Cole Dancers have been added to Bob Hope's Easter Sunday show (9), being sponsored by Frigidaire on NBC. Dinah Shore and Beatrice Lillie had previously been setjpr the holiday one-shot ... Harry Mil- boHand named technical operations engineer for DuMont’s WABDi re- placing Henry Fraser, who’s taken a leave of absence because of ill- ness. Milholland will continue to supervise the teletranscriptloh eii- gineeri^ department . . , Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis scheduled to launch a series of guest shots on various NBC-TV shows via the •‘Jack Carter Show” from Chicago April 15 ... Three CBS-TV strip shows have been given new time slots. “Life with Snarky Parker” is now aired from 6:15 to 6:30 p. m.; “Chuck Wagon/' from 5:15 to 6:15, and the;. “Ted Steele Show” from 5 to 5:15 . . . Kyle MacDonneli set for four successive giiest shots on DuMont’s Saturday night ‘‘Gaval- cade of Stars,” starting this week (8) . . . Ethel Gilchrist, until now advertising-sales promotion chief for KNBC, NBC’s San Francisco station, named a writer in the web’s homeoffice TV ad-prOmotion de- partment. ^ ^ “ Charles Singer and N, F. Smith, of WOR's engineering staff, to speak April 25 at American In- stitute of Electrical Engineers in • N-.Y. . Dennis James pacted to play himself as a wrestling announcer in the hew Jack Carson film, “Mr. Universe,” now being, shot in N.Y. by Laurel Films .... Baritone Johnny Thompson prepping a show for WOR-TV. NBC-TV p r o du c e r Caroline Burke and Jerry Danzig, associate CBS-TV prograni director, speak- ing before the “Woman * Pays” club next Tuesday (11). ... Three radio soap opera mothers appear- ing oh Sydney Smith's afternoon DuMont shqw Friday (7), includ- ing Florence Freeinan (Young Widder Brown), Katherine Raht (Henry Aldrich’s mother) and Marion Barney (Pepper Young’s mother). * . . Life magazine plan- ning a picture layout on TV’s con^ trovefsial plunging neckline prob- lem, To be included are Maggl McNeills, Pegeeh Fitzgerald, Rob- erta Quinlan and others. . Bill Warwick assigned to direct the up- coming WNBT daytime .participa^ tion show from the Tavern on the Green in Manhattan’s Central Park, which is being produced by Martin Stone. Associates/ . . . Ed Evans, WPIX film programs chief, resigned to rejoin RKO Pathe. Hollywood Hal Hudson, manager of CBS television department in Holly- wood, has made several staff changes to meet the needs of in- creased programming. Ralph Nor man moves up as associate direc- tor of the Alan Young show“,Leo Pepin gets the new post of show manager; Kenneth MacClelland will supervise all set construction and design the scenes for the Young and Ed Wynn shows, and Leonard Auerbach is stage mana- ger for both lietwork productions ... WendeH Niles, long time an- nouncer for Bob Hope, will be back with. the comedian in that capacity bii the Frigidaire Easter TV special . . . “The Adventures of Otis Beagle”: will be kinnied at KNBH April 19. Bill Williams and Fred Clark will handle lead roles Wiillaitf F. Sheehan will produce the program . . . Hoot Gibson has been set to do a three times weekly show over KLACrTV. Gib $on will be encased in a 30rminute program each Tuesday, Wednesday arid Thursday. Cowpoke Will handle first 10 minutes of ;shbw W’itb I’emaining 20 miriUtes being devoted to a serialized version of . his old cha^e westerns .;. . KLAf- TV has picked up the options bn Jim Hawthpriie and Joe Graydbn.. Hawthorne show is sold out. is being written by Ben Aronin ., , Phil Shukeit, producer of “Pardon My Pinky,” Coast video show, in town . last week i « . Frank “Bud” Paliiier^ up front WGN-Ty facili- ties staff, is new iele director at same station . > , Harry Alter, chairman of Third Annual Nation- al Television and Electrica Show tb be held here Sept,' 30 thru Oct. 8, repbrts space sales to exhibitors has already passed last yea’r’s total * . . Scott Keck, Henri, Hurst & McDbnald, Chi radio arid TV director, in New York this Week Winding up details of Weath- erbird Shoes’ entry into ABC’s “Super Circus” April 23 . . > “Miss Tavern Pale Beauty Contest,’'' W. B; Doner ad agency 'production, expands from quarter-hoUr to Mf- hoiir on WGN-TV April 6 ... Hob Zelens, radio. and teevee director of John W. Shaw Adv. Inc,, is su- pervising production of WBKB’s “Five Star Final” . . .Norman Ross is being tested for teeyee on a Week-to-Week 15-minUte stint on WNBQ . . . Lois Fischer bows with a new show, on WENR-TV April 15 . . . Jules Herbuveaux, Chi NBC TV chief, is vacationing in Phoe- nix . . / Jim Ameche will emcee ‘Follbw the Show/’ half-hour va^ rlety show debuting on WBKB April 12/ London Grade ’ Fields will launch the new “Lucky Dip” series - which features Duggie Wakefield and the Nat. Allen orch. She Will be guest star on the initial program April 12 and subsequently the show will be on the air fortnightly * . Ronnie Waldman, Who introduced “Puzzle Corner” to video from radio, is producing a hew “Kalei- doscope” series beginning April 14, with MacDonald Hobley again eniceeing . . . John Masefield’s 'verse play, “Good Friday,” wdll be shown April 7. It was first aired over TV two years back, arid producer Douglas Allen has reas- sembled most of the original cast, including Margaretta ScOtt and Clement McCallin /.. Jack Hulbert and Bobbie Howes will be in the ex-West End hiusicak “Here Come the Boys,” April 8 and 11, . . Last night (4) Gordon Harker starred in “The Poltergeist” . . . Terry Thomas begins a new “How Do You View” series tonight (5). Baltimore, April 4. RUthrauff & Ryart arranged a trial ballbon sport last Week which may provide TV a new craze» It was a scavenger hunt which had results a bit iriore than astonishing. During the Gunter (brewery) Sports Show at . WAAM-’TVt et which gabber Nick Campoffeda does a Ted Husing, prizes were of- fered fbr anybody who could turn up the next itmriiing with ri 1921 silver dollar, a 1940 Maryland li- cense plate, the froiit page of a local ttewspaper more than a year old and a suds bottle with the orig- iriai label ;of the brewery. Instead of half a dozen scavenged hunters turning up next day, which was cold and rainy, there came a mob which had to. be housed in the lobby of the plant, which is in suburban Baltimote. All the things asked for turned up, There Were ■20 guys with 1921 silver cartwheels, about 40 front pages from old news- papers, a dozen license plates.: Obj ect of the Buthrauff & Ryan stunt was to test the pull of day? light TV. Now the public response has. diverted the experimenters’ atteritioh to the potential appeal of scavenger hunts., They haye news arid picture possibilities, and bring all kinds of characters to the TV studios. Agency was very surprised at the bulk of reaction. Odds in tbe R&R office were that less than 20 people would respond. Abont 82 showed up, < arid . everybody grit prizes, which mearit the; WAAM boysTiad to go out and dig up the extra radio sets, clothing arid other items offered. WFII>TV Continued from page 35 Continued from page 35 Chi<^ag6 E. Jonny Graffs newly appointed Veepee in charge of radio and TV at Kaufman & Associates, will su- pervise telecast of “Festival of Freedom,” story of Passover, on WBNQ April 5/ Script for show Mayer, Robert Tallman, Charles Robinson, Thomas Sugrue and Maurice Valency as among the le- git or film writers wko have done work for CBS recently. . ^ Coheessto^ Webs are doing whatever possi- ble to attract more writers into TV. . CBS, of course, is currently coriducting a Criritejst in association with World Video/ indie package agency, for the best original scripts subriiitted by college stu- dents. NBC story editor Maeve Southgate polrited out that, as far as scripts for the NBC house-pro- duced dramatic shows go, the au- thor regains full rights eight weeks after the show is produced live. Eight-week period was established to provide for the time lag on sta- tions carrying the show via kine- scope. Question pf rights is im- portant to the author, Miss South- gate priinted put, since many video shows can be restaged after, sev- eral months. ^ toss Southgate also stressed the importance of acquainting authors with the medium, declaring NBC how grants permission for writers to attend, rehearsals and, wherever possible, to follow a script through the various stages of production to its final airing. She recently in- stituted the practice of .gathering a group of ^Writers together once a month to haye them read a script frQjtri a current “Chevrolet Tele- Theatre” show and then watch its ■production from the studio control room. Then Garry Simpson, one of the directors for the, show, meets with them to answer quris- .tioris. Iff addition, NBC gives out sample scripts for writers to study TV formats/. Both Heineman and Miss South- gate declared they’re interested in helping writers whenever possible and will huddle with anyone who has a story^not an idea—to sub- mit. serving WFIL-T'V, ABC and Du- Mont, to consider adopting the code for all #eb programs. Owners of nets and all stations were UTged to set up srime self-imposed regula- tion to obviate threat of Fedefa censorship. “As a piublisher I am firmly opposed^ to any frirm of censorship that might be ,imposedv on a me- dium of information,” said Annen- berg. “It is obvious, however, that unless the television industry exer- cises self-epritrol theye will soon be a demand for; censorship by the Federal government; Self-imposed control as: practiced by the riiotion picture industry, is preferable to government censorship/ “Since television employs the same basic principles as the filfns —sight and sound—and since*'the motion , picture code has proved successful during the past 20 years, it is reasonable that the same code should apply to both mediums.” Continued from page 35 of CBS to carry all night games be- cause of network contracual com- mitments, this week named Ralph Giffen to supervise its baseball pickups. Giffen worked the Boston Braves and Red Sox games last year via WBZ-TV, Boston, and plans to' survey Ebbets Field thor- oughly before deciding on his cam- era positions. Jack Murphy, WPlX remote di- rector, also wants to case the Polo Grounds more thoroughly before changing any' of the camera Sites he iisCd last year. .Murphy, recent- ly returned from the Giarits’ train- ing camp at Phoenix, Ariz.> said he would endeavor to jockey his cam- era positions to provide for more color in the criverage. He’ll use two cameras behind the plate, another on the first base line and probably a fourth for commercials exclusive- ly. WPIX also plans to repeat with Its extensive use of the Zoomar lens. •' Yankee games are to be spon- sored by Ballantine’^, with Dizzy Dean, Mel Allen arid Curt Gowdy handling the narratiori:. Dean will also do a 10-mlnute pre-gairie and post-game iriterview show with players; and guest celebs, which will be bankrolled, by Philip Mor- ris. Schaefer's Beer sponsors the Dodgers, with Red Barber, Connie Desmorid and Vince Scully calling the plays. Ernie Harwell and Russ Hodges , will double ori the Giant games, to be bankrolled by Ches- terfields. September* At that time, defehse witnesses will be called. Final FCC witness Jol^n Dehner, a foriner news editor and news- caster, occupied the chair all day Saturday to wind up the current phase of the hearings, , which lasted 16 days. ^ ^ Dehner, now a Iqng-sideburned screen and radio thesp, calmly identified a score pf articles from the Lris Angeles Examiner, the local Hearst morriing paper, which he said Richards had instructed him to read over the air at various times. Dehner worked at KMPG from April, 1042^ to November, 1943. ■ Robert Fulton, Richards* at- torney, attempted to develop the idea that, at the time Dehne,r was ab the station, KMPC had rinly the wire facilities of AP and UP, and since most Examiner matefial was INS, it was natural that the station k up news material frjom v an- other service to aiisment its own sources. ■ ■■'■ Dehner opined that the pickups, and Richards* frequent injunctions to “slant'! copy against Hem^y Wal- lace, Helen Qahagari Douglas/ the administrations arid Jews, wPfe simply to “further his pwn attitude and that In my opinion is incom- patible with the principles of journalism.” Dehner also testified that Rich- ards frequently; called him on the telephone to deliver orders on how newcasts should be handled, some of the telephoue conversations run- ning as long aS 100 minutes. ‘For Good of Industry* ’ Preceding Dehner to the stand, as the hearing heared its final phase for the . time being, Eddie Lyon; another former KMPC news director and arinpunceF,. provided fireworks when, he iriterrupted Fulton’s scorching cross-examina- tion to exclaim: *T want to ma^e oiie thing clear. I am not here to hurt ariyone. am not here out of friendship for anybody. KMPC is but one tiny segment of a vast industry to Which I have devoted 21 years. I am here for the good of that iridustry.” There were frequent clashes be- tweeh Fulton and Ford, with Ford charging attempted intimidation of witriesj^s. At one point, Fulton pressed Lyon to specify KMPG scripts which were “false and deceitful.” Lyon snapped: ;• “There are none that were false. But when you go bn the air and say, ‘Here is the latest news,* and then read an item from the Read er’s Digest or from a newspaper that is two or three days old, when you call that the latest news, I would say it was deceitful.** George Lewin, another In the parade of former newstneh on the stand, testified for a surprisingiy short time. He had been expected to be second only to Clete Roberts in the Government’s heavy artiilery section. Roberts spent eight days on the stand during the early part of the hearing. Lewin, however, merely told of orders from Rich- ards coricerning treatment of news. After being queried about accu- sations of “editorial policy” on the part of Richards, Lewin interrupted the cross-examination to declare his belief that “riewspapers have a perfect right to editorialize any way they see fit But, radio sta- tions and radio networks do not .have that right; they’re supposed to play it right down the middle.” Arena Sendoff Milwaukee, April 4. Milwaukee brewing companies are bringing in a bevy of radio stars for a serief of shows April 9-15 for the opening week of the receiitly completed Arena. The shows will be telecast oh WTMJ- TV, including a simulcast April 14 of Pabst’s NBC “Life of Riley/' featuring William Bendix, which will , be his first appearance on video: ^ ■/ ,./ A “Salute to Milwaukee” pro. seiited by Schlitz Brewing Go. April 10 Will include such headlin- ere as Dick Haymes, Georgia Gibbs, Tony and Sally DeMarco, Don Graig Glee Club, Paul Whiteman arid 42-piece, orch, and: Art Link^ letter as emcee. / ; bn April 12 the “High Life Re- vue” with Lriwrehce Welk and band, sponsored by Miller Brewiiig Co. bn arc, will be aired from the Arena and siihulcast ori WMTJ-TV. Organist Ethel Smith is scheduled to appear at the Afreha the. entire opening week. Continued from page 38 the Sherman Anti- ages under Trust_ ActL; Sindlinger’s company is licensed by Electronic Radox to use Radox, an electronic device attached to ra- dio and TV sets in a group of sam- ple homes, connected by special telephone lines to a local exchange and thence to a central monitorr ing agency^' According tb the bill bf corii-^ plaint,; Sihdlinger ran into inter- ference from the paterit office, when .he attempted to increase the financial structure of his firm. One of the defendants, Heniy A. Rah- mel, v.p/ of the A; C; Nielsen Co., was said to have filed 10 applica- tions for patents covering much the same grbund aS Radox, the pat- ent application for which had been filed by Reiss. Sindliriger charged the patent litigation was a deliberate attempt to force him and Radox out of bust- ness. Neilsen and Hooper, the complaint states, handle 75% of money spent on radio research sur- veys. Ai C. Nielsen, another of the defendants and president of. the Nielsen Cb., after agreeing to permit the Sindliriger Co. to con- tinue operations, regardless of pending litigation, revoked that de- cision In a letter; two weeks later. As result of the Nielsen letter, Sindlinger said his company has discontinued its services to custo- mers and is operating on a stand- by basis only. i The plaintiffs also contend th« defendants circulated false and damaging rumors about them and their business was adversely af- fected. They asked the court to enjoin the defendants froin con- tinuing such actions and to declare invalid contracts between the de- fendant firms and their eustomers since January, 1946. Continued froni page 31 the “your name has been suggested to Us” device, organization’s litera- ture .asks entrants to tell in 50 words or less why they would like to appear on show, with the stipu- lation they serfd along $2 as entry fee. ". .. Postal inspectors: are said to. be trying to locate the 0uiz show and its sponsor.; : The situation was brought to the attention of the post office department by Chi radio Sta- tions who,..1iaving no kribwledge of the agency, began feceiving letters from listeners asking about; the “contest.” The outfit, using a Loop addrbss, has no telephone listing. Bbstoh — Joseph F. Dlnneen, author of “Purple Shamrock,” has joined WBMS as news commeh tator. The Boston Globe coluriinist will be sporisored six days weekly by a Hub brokerage firm. MBS Study continued fjroni page, si phone survey will be used to de- termine ratings, share of audienct arid sets-in-use figures for all pro- grams arid time periods,, Reports will be issued weekly, for the four- week stretch. In addition to the national study, Grossley field work- ers will also prepare local repbrlt arialyzing audience habits. Break-, down of the ratings will be; by two- hour periods, Monday througii Friday, plus afternoon and evening ratirigs fpr Saturday and Sunday. MBS hopes to get valuable am- munition from the study to back up its claim as the “grass rooti web,’* Iti addition, the report ii expected to prove helpful in pro- viding affiliated stations with evi- dence to use in gernerlng local and national spot business. Indications are, MBS researchers feel, that Hooper ratings failed to give the chain the full measure of its pull- ing power/ particularly where it was the Only station in town. Grossley data may also be used as an: answer to Broadcast Measure- ment Bureau, whose Study No. 2 Mutual failed to back, because BMB tended, in tbo MBS view, to overemphasize •webs With popular programs and high-priced stars.