Variety (July 1950)

Wednf*day, July 26, 1950 Uariety RADIO-TELE VISTOX 99 Tele Reviews 9 Continued from P»f< 37 chatter lias been of a general na- ture (name, occupation, etc. of in- terviewee) which is of interest largely to person being inters viewed and his friends only. Per- haps a wider range could be de- veloped by discussing some specific topic, even if it's only “Do you think the City Hall pigeons should be fed p o p c o r n or shredded wheat?" Camera catches some good back- ground effects ranging from a shot of the Yale Art Museum to pass- ing busses. Program is participating in that Gillmor Motor Co. (Dodge) foots the bill Mondays, while Drazen Lumber Co. (Hotpoint Dealer) takes over on i Wednesdays. Com- mercials ring in best possible vis- ual angles on a Dodge car and a Hotpoint stove respectively: Bone. . SPELL IT PLEASE With. Dr, Harry Hagen, emcee Producer-directors: Lee Hall], Dave V Harris •. 30 Mins.; Mon.; 8:00 p.m, Sustaining WNIIC-TV, New Haven ~ j Dr. Harry Hagen, who has been j around the airwaves for some time rTrue or False"), has^come up with a new format that 'shows in- teresting possibilities. It’s a spell- ing bee setup, but instead of the standard routine of contestants spelling words back and forth in- dividually, a number of angles pointed definitely for video make it an off-the-beateh-path prbgrarti. Contests are between two three- member teams (on program caught, three femmes from a phys- ical culture college faced three males from the local pro baseball team), with one of each team ap- pearing simultaneously at black- boards. Camera first pans to a picture of a motorcycle cop, then contestants are given relative words (summons, precinct, etc.) to spell. First'one to scribble correct spelling gets five points for his team, thus introducing the time element* as well as accuracy. (Ses- sion ended in a tie at 35-all, with both teams getting prizes.) For change of pace, George Palmer at the organ comes in with various tunes, and selected words then shift to musical significance. Another visual angle is injected when emcee holds up for tele view- ers, but not for contestants, cards With words spelled backwards, then tells teams to go to it. Results here are usually good for laughs. Hagen, in professorial garb, swings through the stanza easily and keeps action moving steadily. Bone, a 100 BREWERY SEEKS MRS.’VIA KSD-TV SHOW St. Louis, July 25. The St. Lpuis Post-Dispatch’s tel- vision station, KSD-TV, Is being used for the first time to select a “Mrs. St. Louis" to represent this burg in a “Mrs. America" contest to be held in Asbury Park, N., J. The Hyde Park Breweries Assn,, through McCann-Erickson, Chicago, is bankrolling the local contest that runs for 13 weeks and the winner of the local contest will cop, among a flock of prizes donated by mer- chants, a 1950 model automobile. Four Contestants, who send their name, photo and thumbnail sketch of. themselves to the station, are in- vited for an interview before the Cameras .each Friday night. On the 12th Week the semi-finals will be held and th following week “Mrs. St. Louis'’ will be chosen. Entry blanks are printed in all the local dailies, in addition to being dis- tributed over the entire city. World Series Continued from page 1 Continued from page 31 and carries its games on time in the West Coast, beginning in the mornings, while Mutual delays all games over the Don Lee network to begin in the afternoon. Thus, said Liberty, “Mutual takes the air with a game about the time Liberty is finishing." Regarding the complaint of Roy Hofheinz, owner of KTHT, Hous- ton, that the incidental background noise and sound effects in the re- created games are not identified as recordings, Liberty contended that the FCC rules do not require that the use of mechanical repro- ductions be identified and that there is no violation^. Although there is no specific rule requiring a recreated sports event to be announced as such, said Liberty, it identifies all recreated games at the beginning and conclu- sion in the same way that Mutual identifies its transcribed baseball games. five Notre Dame Jiome football games which DuMo"nt will televise this fall. ND rights reportedly went for $180,000 to .$200,000, top- ping a bid of $150,000 entered by the NBC network, which was go- ing ahead with no sponsor in mind. Similar situation did not occur j last year. Gillette in 1949 paid 1 $225,000 for the video rights and, since Mutual has no TV network in operation, made the Series avail- able on a pool basis to all stations wanting to carry the games. Un- der that setup, the stations were j not paid time costs. This year, i however, DuMont is reported will- ing to pay the station charges as further ammunition in its bidding. Gillette also bankrolled TV cov- erage of the All-Star baseball game ! earlier this month, which was car- ried exclusively by NBC stations. NBC is reported willing to help share the cost for rights to the Series with tile razor outfit but is not expected to back any bid above the $510,000 now offered. DuMont, in addition,, is reported not averse i ! to letting Gillette come in on a co- j sponsorship basis with Chevvy, so long as it has the games on an ex- clusive deal for its network. Other networks and indie sta- tions, meanwhile, regard the bid- ding as out of all proportion to the true value of the Series at this stage of video’s development. They are' afraid the talent and labor guilds might use the figures as a bulkWark in seeking higher pay for their members and claim TV can- not yet afford this. DuMont network added hew improvements to its teletranscription (kinescope recording) process this week and also initiated three new developments in Us playback equipment designed to improve film and kinescope projection quality. For the kines, the web has adopted a process of printing magnetic sound optically on film prints, which it claims will achieve 16m sound quality comparable to the 35m sound of the top film theatres. For its projection equipment, which has been installed in WABD, its key N. Y. station, the web lias modified the video amplifier to correct gray scale deficiencies and has developed a' chain of film light.filters, said to sharpen ,the filftl image considerably. Web also has modified the inconoscope caih^ra equipment used for TV film projection to mini- mize flarfiig at the v edges of the picture tube. N. Y. Daily News* WPIX this week ordered $160,000 worth of new equipment for its new transmitter site atop the Empire State building, N. Y. Construction of the transmitter will start Sept, 1; with the station slated to begin operation from the new location early in December. Facilities and space for color TV are provided, in case the FCC decides in favor of color. /- . * WPIX plans to maintain intact its present transmitter atop the News building for auxiliary purposes, in case of a breakdown at any time^liF the new equipment. Station will be one of five in the metropolitan N.Y. area to broadcast from the Empire State; with only WATV arid WOR-TV continuing to transmit from their sites in New Jersey. United Artists Television will handle national syndication of Harry Wismer’s “Telesports Digest." Deal was concluded recently between Wallace Orr, president of Tel Ra productions, which produces the half- hour show, and UA video director John Mitchell. Show has been placed commercially in eight cities. UA also announced, sales of three more shows to various sponsors on a local level. The 15-minute weekly “Women in the News" has been placed in six markets. “Top Views in Sports," a 15-minute weekly sports stint, has been placed in five cities, and “John Kieran’s Kaleido- scope," another 15-minute spot, goes into four new spots. New York University’s Summer Workshop, now in its 15th year, is Strongly stressing television this year, having added instruction in TV studio practice, TV film editing, TV writing. Close tieup with Daily News’ WPIX has been of great utility to Washington Square authori- ties, Guest lecturers this summer were also assigned a television emphasis. They include William Ackerman of CBS; William Fine* shriber of Mutual; Walter Craig of Benton & Bowles; Dr. Ernest Dichter, the advertising psychologist; Leon Goldstein of WMCA and Charles Seipmann, former BBC official, now an NYU prof. Robert J j Landry continues as Director of the Workshop, his eighth year. Beer Barons Continued from page 31 NBC-TV’s “Ford Star Revue," although lining up a better talent array than is generally being offer- ed in these high-temperature low- budget days on tele, still fails to hit the bigtime. On Thursday (20) emcee-star Jack Haley was abetted by Mary Healy and Peter Lind Hayes. The trio did a fairly ap- pealing "Irish burlesque of the Goldbergs and combined for a take- off on a vaudeville threesome, but never really reached the coriiedie heights. As a duo, Hayes and his partner-wife did a disk jockey blues routine, in which they got off soriie hep imitations of Ethel Merman, Ray Mid lleton. Jack Smith and Lena Horne. They also did a harassed picnickers sketch, with the usual poison ivy, etc. Hal LeRoy scored neatly with his polished tapping, also doing his slick softshofe and'seated tap num- bers. Los Gatos trio pleased with acrobatics set to a swing iriusi- cal background in which their trick mounts and jitterbug movements demonstrated skill rather than masochistic contortions. The Ted Adolphus dancers were handi- capped by choregraphic cliches in “Waltz of Springtime," which was incompletely realized and showed evidence of cramped quarters, Mello-Larks group, (three men and a gal) were pleasant in the vocals. Commercial by Dr. Roy K. Mar- shall/in which the astronomer (who incidentally has his own airer on NBC-TV) gave the gab a scientific angling, was topflight. position for, on the one hand, he needs the local beer baron’s busi- ness, but he also can’t afford to brush off the bigtime network shows. That’s one reason why the sta- tions are more and more amenable to co-op sponsorship deals, it’s one way to keep faith with the local, sponsor and tag along on ambitious network programming. As an il- lustration, no sooner had DuMont revealed to its affiliates that it had grabbed off the Saturday night Madison Square Garden, N. Y., events than the beer boys around the country moved to tie in on a local sponsorship basis. (However, DuMont is undecided as yet what sales policy it will pursue on the Garden events). Continued from page 34 TeleJRex Musical Pix Having reached an agreement with the American Federation of Musicians, Tele-Rex Cd. has final- ized plans for a series of short mu- sical pix to be lensed in Gotham and Hollywood. Outfit will distrib- ute 3V2 to Ave-niinute Vidpix. Elliott Daxe is exes veepee of the firm. panel of judges selecting the win- ners. These then appear in a full- length TV play. Name actor or actress is to appear opposite the semi-finalists in the 15-minute skits and then double into the play for the finale. It’s the final play which Barrington thinks can be taken on the road as a touring unit, with another actor replacing the star, if the latter has pridr commitments. Winners in addition are to receive film or legit con- tracts. For the advertiser tieins, the talent, must obtain entry blanks from the retailers, and audiences attending the semi-final auditions must obtain admission tickets the same way. TV audience, in addi- tion, must get voting blanks from a local dealer or retailer to vote for the best supporting perform- ance in the semi-finals. Barring- ton has a production crew all set to go with the series. As another new idea, the pack- ager plans to have the finalists give two audition performances of the full-length play before a live audi- ence prior to the broadcast. In that way/they can get their roles down pat and io minimize the number of camera rehearsal hours necessary/ Continued from page 1 web bosses have overnight condi- tioned themselves to the new turn of events—on the eve of “radio’s second chance" for survival. They know now—and the word’s been passed around in well-placed quarters in Washington—that TV is the price that will be exacted from broadcasters in the Communi- cations picture in the step-up of military needs. Korea and the Communist threat, they’ve been Warned, are not something of im- mediate months, but probably years in range. They’ve been tipped off to the approaching tight controls facing the TV industry, which will put circulation and audiences at a static figure for a long time to come. And they’re practically reconciled to the fact that, as video is thrown for a succession of losses,, the al- most incredible situation of major TV networks being sold out will be of short duration. Without the circulation the advertisers won’t stick. And they’re equally cogni- zant of the fact that radio will be the beneficiary. Radio broadcasters are no longer alarmed over those long sustain- ing stretches.. They're beginning to change their tune about under- cutting on sale of program and time. Although they’ve already made some concessions on rates in the face of pressures from advertisers (such as NBC and CBS slashing Sunday afternoon rates, as detailed in this week’s Radio Section), they’ve alerted'’themselves to the upcoming military-inspired shifts. It accounts for the fact that the networks have thrown down the gauntlet to the Association of National Advertisers (representing $75,000,000 in network radio bill- ings) by refusing to accede to their demands for reduction in night- time rates. They know, now, that the advertisers will need them in coming months/ The broadcasters readily con- cede that the playing of two horses (AM and TV) in the spectrum midstream at the same time has done incalculable harm to radio: They concede, too, that they’ve learned their lesson. That’s why they’re not too particularly alarmed over the reports circulating from the Pentagon that the whole TV allocations picture may be ar- rested by the military taking over the ultra high frequencies, or that the color television will be put in abeyance for. the duration, despite the probability of the Federal Com- munication Commission giving the okay On tint video before the sum- mer is out. It’s practically a cer- tainty that mariufacturers won’t be turning out color sets when the Government’s electronic boys start handing down cease-and-desist orders. Growing importance of television in the spot broadcasting picture If pointed up by the expansion of Edward Petry Co.’s video division. I Thomas H. Dawson, eastern sales manager of CBS’ Radio Sales, hag been appointed director of the station rep’s TV division arid Keit) fi Kiggins, who assumed that post last August, has been upped to assist ant to the president to work on both AM and TV. Tele personnel was also expanded with the naming of Robert 1 Hutton, Jr>, for 15 years with NBC and ABC sales promotion, as vision promotion manager. Scripter Doug Johnson, of Chicago, is believed to have hit some kind of a record for television network writing and idea credits. Freelancei is currently getting credit lines on four hours of NBC programming originating in Chicago. He’s writing the full script for the hour-long Saturday night “Hawkins Falls” stanza and drafts the sketch ideas for the unscripted Thursday night “Studs Place" and the cross-the^boari 1 half-hour “Ransom Sheririan" show. Cedric Adams is handling his two WCCO, Minneapolis, daily pro- grams and his CBS-TV “Prize Performance" chores with an assist from Northwest Airlines. Gabber flies from Minneapolis on Monday morn- ings, arriving in Gotham in time to do the WCCO 2:30 p.m. (EDT) show, tackle his network tele airer and wind up the day with his midnight (EDT) WCCO newscast. Tuesday morning he flies back, arriving 15 j minutes before airtime to do the afternoon ne\vs show from a mobile unit in the airport lounge. David M. Holtzmann, attorney for dancer-choreographer Anton Dolin, has served notice on Ballet Theatre not to credit Dolin for chore- i ography in its video version of “Giselle." Ballet Theatre had Dolin’s ! name on the screen for the NBC-TV version of the dance-drama Sunday ■ (16). | When Dolin, who has been dancing in England with Alici/i Markova ’since the first of the year, left Ballet Theatre in 1946, it was agreed that the group could use his “Giselle" provided the credit was given*,. However, his attorney feels the choreography on the tele version was 1 ® not Dolin’s, was inferior and therefore hurt his client's rcputslifML. Substitution of the First Piano Quartet for the Ilona Massey adven- ture series, “Top Secret," in NBC’s 10:30 p.m. slot Monday (24) re- sulted in the cancellation of “Diagnosis Homicide," mystery show re- volving around the experiences of a pathologist in solving murder cases. Plans originally called for “Homicide" to replace “Cloak and/Dag- ger" Sundays at 4 p.m. Latter was to have moved into “Top Secret’s" Monday night spot, but now remains unchanged. “Secret" recently was switched into the 9:30 p.m. Sunday segment following withdrawal of the Coast-originated “My Mother’s Husband.” For the time being, at least, “Homicide’.’ will be dropped. Based on Laurence Blochman’s Collier’s mag stories, the script was adapted by Ernest Kinoy. Wade Arnold arid Jack Kuney were to have shared producer and director credit, respectively. Street & Smith has launched a special spot rhdio campaign for the August arid September issues of Charm, Mademoiselle and Living for Young Homemakers, via the Peck agency. Unusual angle is that the ^ publisher is buying newspaper display space on radio pages to plug its* minute transcriptions, * Twenty-six stations in seven key market areas are being used, ; with the commercials in the form of a weather forecast jingle with live fill-ins. < ... . —r . j WNBC, N. Y., is propping a group of courtesy announcements using the voices of New Yorkers with unusual names. Doing the plugs are ! individuals with monikers such as: Gilbert arid Sullivan; Stanley arid Livingston; Morning, Noonan, Knight; Hook, Line arid Sinker; Plato; Cicero and Solomon; Romeo and Juliet; Barnum and Bailey; Hatfield and McCoy, etc. It’s part of the station’s “integrate into the community" pitch. New regional sponsors for the Frederic W. Ziv: transcriber, “The Cisco Kid," include Farm Crest Bakeries of Detroit arid Ballentine Packing Co. Farm Crest has K ght the stanza for one yAar in Toledo, Columbus, Lima, Kalamazoo, Lansing, Flint and Saginaw. Ballentine Packing will use the series in Columbia, Florence and Greenville, S. C*