Variety (April 1950)

“Philco Tdevisidh Playhouse'* presentation of Ludwig Bemel- mans* /‘Dirty Eddte” last Sunday (9) on NBC-TV, had significant pix-video overtones that, over and above the show’s entertainment quotient*, were seen reflecting the “no holds barred’* two-way rivalry between Hollywood on the one hand and the network video brain- trusters on the other. • : ^'Dirty Eddie’V threw away the kid gloves. Seldom has the pix industry been held up to such out-and-out ridicule and scorn as in the Philco version of the Bemelmans saga. In effect, it was * ; TV responding to the pix moguls’ frequently reprised Vdoil’t- niehtion-video^in-my-presence’’ attitude of late. It took no cogniz- ance of the fM that inevitably the pix and video industries may , have tq lie in the same electronic pastures. It was as though TV was telling off the film industry “we’re the ones who are in the saddle, hoys”-^ . The caricature of the topflight Hollywood studio head, lacking any of the subtle sophisticated nuances 1)f the Bemelmans text, was reduced ; to the physical contours of a polo-playing Darryl Zantick. Uhfortunately for both this Philco version and TV in general, the Bemelmans adaptation was exaggerated beyond the point Of credulity, making everybody connected with the pik iji- 008117 a flock of morons. It Was the kind Of program that orily pro- vides Hollywood With fresh ammunition. Rose. Television unintentionally is be-' ginning to bit radio where it hurts the most. With a nioVe on in AM to stress daytime programming be- eause of TV’s inroads on the night- time audiehces, TV is swinging right into the daytime pattern at full speed. While afternoon Video has yet to prove that it can out- draw radio’s soap operas, disk jockeys, etc., trade observers are eyeing TV's daytime svdng as a major treiid which can react to the detriment of radio.. CBS press d e p a r t m en t knocked itself out to land the Faye Emerson pictorial layout in the current Issue of Life. But the web is how sorry it Went to all the trouble. Practically the same day that the mag hit the stands, CBS got official notice that Miss Emerson was switching to : NBC. ■: Latest of the key city video sta- tions to take the daytime plunge is the N. Y, Daily News’ WPl^f. Outlet is planning to launch a three-hour afternoon spread about May I, probably starting at 2 o’clock Monday through Saturday. Ted Steele has been tentatively set as emcee of the show and, although the title and exact format have not beeii finalized, it will probably com- prise spoi'ts results, fashion dem- onstrations, guest interviews, etc. NBC’s N. Y. flagship, WNBT, has already announced the start of its new daytime strip for May 2,' tee- ing off from 9:30 a.m. until about 1p.m. as a prelude to going straight through the afternoon next fall. DuMont has been feeding full day- (Contihued on page 37) * CBS to Accent I Hollywood, April 11. Outright purchase of KFI-TV by CBS is expected to be finalized be- fore the end of the week. Negotia- tions in progress for some months, as reported exclusively in Daily Variety, are being concluded with contracts drawn up for change of ownership. Frank Stanton, CBS proxy, slipped in quietly over the weekend. . He and Howard Meighan, net’s Hollywood veepee, huddled with Earle C. Anthony, owner of the tele station, on the final wrapup. Now that CBS-TV’s “Ed Wynn Show” has been moved out of Sat- urday night, the Web is planning to bring in a program as different as possible from NBC-TV’s •‘Satui’- day Night Revue." Replacement is an hour-long series of dramatic Shows with the accent on melo- drama, which will feature a dif- ferent cast add story each week. Titled “The Trap," the new house package is scheduled to take oyer ;the Saturday night 9 to 10 slot April 29. GBS reportedly thought one of the reasons the Wyiin show couldn’t hold up under tiie NBC (Continued on page 37)- Understood that the Los Angeles Times, which owiis 51% of KTTV in partnership with CBS, would buy the net’s interest for complete control of station. CBS is said to have been unhappy with KTTV ar- rangements since the Times moved in iti$ own crew to operate station. Newspaper’s action stemmed from Daily Variety report that CBS was trying to strike a deal for the takeover of KFI-TV. . Intimates say Bill Paley never (Continued on pajge 37) Pittsburgh, April 11. First contract for any live TV show Over WDTV here has just been signed by Wilkens Jewelry Co, Program is to be th e “ Wilkens A^nateur Hqur,’’ now in its 14th year on radio.:* Video Version is to begin in September and Will hold down present time slot on the air, 5 to 7 Sunday evenings; arid will be simulcast over WCAE, wdiich now carries the typro entertaih- ment.;- ■ ^ ■ “Amateur Hour’’ is to be tele- vised before an audience from hew WDTV studios in Chamber of Com- merce Bldg., expected to be com- Pleied in. few months. . 1' 1 fl.l ( I I . il> 1 Ui i )r Television is moving commer- cially into late: evening program- ming, where radio coiild never suc- ceed in treading. One. of the largest single time purchases in radio-TV annals was set this week when Anchor-Hock- ing Glass Co. bought the 11 p.ih. to midnight slot prt: NBC-TV Mph- day through Friday. : Outfit had ordered time on sonie 15 stations for a stafter, for whic:h it will spend aboiil $1,500,000 in tpe costs alone bn a firm 52-week ’Con- tract. figure may be boosted to $4,000,000; foiv the first year, de- pending oh how many stations afe signed. Weintraub agency handles the aecojirit, Deal is believed especially sig- nificant in that it underlines TV’s success in selling time after 11 n.m., something which radio could [., JACK-LEVY Washington, April II. , Eyidence that the FCC will de- cide affirmatively for color tele- visibn by summer, with the CBS system getting the greenlight, is snbwballmg as the current heal- ings enter their final phases. The Cbiiimissipri is driving hard tb break down, manufacturers’ re- sistance to anV' chaiiges in produc- tibn patterns which will upset, the status quo. Industry witnesses are being subjected to long and gruel- ling erbss-examination to smash Stubbofn insistence on the ; com- patible system of: RGA, which the agency is not disposed to buy be- cause of various problems I\mich have been -raised as to its readi-. ness, its performance and “cost. Questipning by Ghairmart Wayne Coy,, backed up by Corrimissioners. Robert, Jphes and Frieda Herinock, Washingtbh, Aprii 11. FCC Cpunsel Harry Plotkin today (Tues.) asked for either David Saimoff, RGA boaird chairman^ or Frank Folsom, RCA prexy, to appear at hear- ings Monday (17) to answer questions on RCA’s plans in ; the event of a decision favor- ing CBS color. RCA lawyers said one of the RCA toppers would appear without , the issuing of a subpoena. Demand for the brass’ ap- pearance followed day-long cross-examination of manu- facturing representatives on their plans if CBS’tint system gets the nod. Plotkin asked for Sarnbff’s of Folsom’s at- tendance after he failed to get the' info from Dr. Elmer W. Engstrom, v.p. In charge of RGA labs. Latter was asked whether RCA would put in :adapters at the factory to make sets compatible for CBS colbf if ' the system were • adopted effective June I. He asked for similar data if all transmissions are standardized for CBS color effective Jan. . : .1/’51. ■ .. ' ^ ^ of witnesses during the last few da 3 >:Sj is pointing more and more toSvard stopping any further pro- duction of black and white sets which will npt be compatible, for CBS color transmissions. The agency is almost begging manufac- turers to build in adaptors wliich have beein designed for this pur- pose so that the number of sets which will require adaptation or conversion can be held down to the 5-6.000,000 now in use. So far, all such pleas have fallenpn deaf ears, with the industry di’ea,ding the im- plication that the Commission is seriously ebnsidering CBS color. It’s obvious by now the manufac- turers will fight to the end for compatibility and will have no ’ (Continued on page 40) Credit Due? . Sefeen credit linking Sylvest ter L, (Pat) Weaver to the cre- atipn 6i the NBC Tuesday night TV show, “Mr. 0mm," Which preemed last week, has occasioned some balhement in video circles, . As the,. net- work’s; top TV admlrtistrator, it’s ’ felt, Weaver, in taking ; screen credit as- “executive. . pfo(iuGer," 1$ putting hiniself , in conapetition: with his own ^ staff of producers. Program was conceived by Weaver, and genefal critical corisehsus v\^s in favoiv None> theless, taking a production screen credit, it’s argued, Is ; analogous to prexy Joe McCon- nell or board chkirhian Niles Trammell giving themselves air credit for . something they’ye. ‘‘administrated.’^ NBC television this week is re- pofted slashing its prices to the core oh its expensive “Saturday Night Revue’’ in an effort to get off the ^sustaining hook as much as possible before the show’s summer hiatus stai’ts. Wieb .ks a result sold three more half-hours of the show and expects to be sold hut by this weekend. Former asking price of $13,()00 per half-hoiir for the program was pared to k reported $6,000 per half - hour segment of the Jack Carter show from Chicago and $7,500 for the same time period I for the “Sho’A s of Shows” originat- ing In N. Y, New bankrollers include Mag- navbx; which pacted for the 9 to 9:30 segment; Tide, picking Up the tab on the iO to 10:30 portion, and Speidel, which will sponsor the second half-hour only of the Gar- ter show for three weeks starting May 6 and then take tlie entire hour from Chi for an additional three weeks, That means tlie Gai '^ j ter program, aired from 8 to 9 p.m., will remain on the air three weeks i ► Forced cencellflition of Robert Montgom^’s “Lucky Strike Thc^ atre’’ Monday night (10) because of a squabble between NBC-TV and: its techniciaiis union, cost the web About $50,000, : ; The cast, since it rehearsed 'Yor the program through Moriday, af- ternoon, was paid in full and NBC was also forced to rebate h per- centage of the time; charges to the sponsor. Sqiiabble was settled late Monday night, but top late to permit the shoW tp go on. Formal anhpunceinent released by NBC fpllowing the .cancellation de- scribed the reason as being a “mis- uriclefstanding which inyolved the procedure for issuance of instriic- tiorts to technical personnel in the NBC video studios." Spokesmen for the National Assn, of Broadcast Engineers aiid Technicians, who claimed the situation had been hpiling for over a year, .declared the showdown .which caused the cancellation was Instituted be- cause of encrbachment by the pro^ dtiction siiperylsbrs on the engi- neers. •' ; " .-I'' Prpductiort technique, followed by most webs and local TV sla- tiohs, calls for the producer Pr di- rector on av show to transmit his ditectibns to a technical director, who in turn transmits them to the floor crew, including camerameh, mike men, lighte^^^^^ Acc(>rd- ing to NABET, NBC producers •were attempting to eliminate the. t.d.s. by calling instructions direct- ly to the floor, union, as a result, instituted the slowdown by taking the instructions literally. Thus, during rehearsals bn the Montgom- ery program, if a cameraman was ordered to dolly in for a clpseup,; he would continue the dolly. past the actors and through to. the back of the stage, unless the producer told him exactly where to stop. Uniprt and the network finally got together Monday night on a definition of tfie duties of the light- ing engineers, which was accepted by the crew members; That Rgre^ ment Was to have set a pattern for settlement of the entire dispute yesterday (Tues.), with the union anticipating nb fiirthef trouble. Dispute arose during negotiations (Continued bh page 35) after the scheduled hiatus date of May 30. While the slashed prices mean potential bankrollers will now be able to biiy a full half-hour for little more than the $6,020 origi- nally quoted for a one-minute spot bh the program. NBC will hold to those prices only for the duration bf the current season, Web plans to offer the shipw in the fall on either the half-libur basis or the system of rotating spots originally set up, (Continued bn page 40) Chicago. April II. '“Life With Luigi,” ciirrerttly CBS' Tuesday night kingpin, is slated for tele treatment, probably next fall, Cy Howard, Creator and pfodiicer of show, disclosed here last week.; In town on a stopover enroute to Milwaukee from whei’e “Luigi” was aired last night Mi), Howard huddled with H. Leslie At-; lass, CBS central division veepee, to discuss plans for video version. . Jv Carrol Naish, show's star here with producer, said he had no film contracts to prevent him from go- ing into TV ancl he has purposely kept freerance pie statUvS with tele version of show in mind. never accomplish on a regular basis. Weintraub, before setting the deal; undertook an extensive survey pf TV vie wer^ which showed a large numbei^ willihg to keep their sets tuned in late at night if there are gobd prbgfams to watch. Initial efforts in open- ing up the late evening hours have previously been made by NBC, CBS and local stations in all parts bf the; country, NBC, for exaniple, aired an ex- perimental series of four hour- long dramas last fall fromi II to. midnight, titled “City at • Mid- night.” CBS now. has the Faye Emerson Show at 11 p.m. Mondays and “Rendezvous" at the same hour on Thursdays and also airs its “Blues by Bargy" program after 11 p.m, on certain nights. N. Y. Daily News’ WPIX this week Initiated a three timpS' weekly seizes “f, late feature films, titled “Night Owl Feature,” in whicih it is sellihg par- ticipating spots. Show to be ; aired by Anchor- Hocking has not been selected but it will be packaged by NBC and is expected to be an intimate-type revue starting later this month: Glass firm is handUng the series in cooperation with local breweries in all parts, of the country in Jn ef- fort to prottiote its “one-wai^” beer bottles against the mounting com- petition of beer-can manufacturersv Outfit has Optioned the 11 to mid- night period on Saturdays and Sundays also on NBC, hoping to pick up that time once it gets the eross-the-board series rolling. : Anchor-Hocking, last represented Oil radio with the “Casey* Crime Photographer’’ show, .will be mak- ing, its first stab at video with the lat^ ^ Videa stint will be done in Ifol- iywood, probably on film. ancMike- iy for Wrii. Wriglej' Gb.; sponsor • of radio version. AM show will continue regardless of final tele- plans,- . Syiii^ oil TV i Minheapolis, April M . A regulai Minneapolis Sympho- ny (jrchestra eoncert, that at the Nbrirpp Auditorium next Sunday afterrtoori (1.6), will be; tele foi* the first time. . The TV,“Ver WTGN;will he a kickoff event for the anhual guaranty fund campaign, .seeking $195,000 for orchestra’s bperatibJis next sea^n. . . TV, will last 76 minutes; includ- ing the regular lO^minute inter- mission when the camera ; vtl tl range backstage and possibly through the audience. •