Variety (August 1950)

38 RADIO-TELEVISION Wednesday* August 9, 1950 Washington, Aug. 8. | Senator Edwin C. Johnson, D.,; Colo., chairman of the Interstate Commerce Commission, served no- j tice on the FCC today (Tues.l that there must be no temporizing “with a clearcut decision now” on the! color video question because of; the Korean Situation; The senator's letter to FCC Chairman Wayne Coy was inspired by two letters from RCA board chairman David SarnOff and CBS prexy Frank Stanton to Coy say- ing they are opposed to delaying a decision on color; \ In a strong missive, Johnson urged FCC commissioners not to be pressured by industry in- fluences trying to use the military, situation to stall the color decision. The FCC is trying to get the de- cision oiit by Labor Day. It’s understood Johnson’s letter is intended as a prop to Coy’s efforts to get a positive decision on color in the face of repeated vacillations on the part of some commissioners who want to avoid commitments through the device of the military emergency. He told Coy “the employment of the current Korean crisis as an alibi for delay by the detractors of color television shows how desperate they are for any excuse for procrastination, deferment or weasely-worded proposed findings Which wOuld have the deadly effect of delay itself. When delay is the objective, of course any expedient will serve the' purpose, but it is wholly unrealistic for these selfish interests to seize upon the war need as an excuse; it indicates an utter lack of appreciation of the important part played by elec- tronics in modern war.” 4 Johnson said that color TV could be of “vast aid” to the defense effort in testing jet engines’ flame colors, observing guided missies, and in secret processes. “Korea,” he said, “is not part of the testimony in the record, and even if it were honestly, believed that, a decision for immediate utilization of color could not be put into effect because of the war, the Commission has not duty Or responsibility, or even right to use such an anticipated development as a prop for ‘ho decision now/ or for anything other than a clearcut definitive decision based on the record before it . I am certain that you will agree that to do otherwise would subject the commissioners to the sharpest Criticism.” The senator said that he found it hard to believe that such ex- pedients will be resorted , to in view of the testimony before the FCC by Commissioners Edward Webster and George Sterling that they fayored a “quick and posi- tive decision” on color. Cincinnati — Charles Vaughan has rejoined WLW-T as a pro- ducer, a post he filled for the past 16 months on WLW-T, Dayton. WANTED TELEVISION SHORTS FEATURES MEXICO-Cl B A-BRAZIL ALL LATIN AND SOUTH AMERICAN TERRITORIES SUBJECTS SUITED TO LATIN TEMPERAMENT AND PSYCHOLOGY CONSIDERED ENGLISH LANGUAGE-NO BARRIER WILL ADVANCE DUBBING COSTS TO BE DUBBED AT R. K. 0. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CALL OR WRITE FRANK FOUCE PAN AMERICAN TELEVISION CORPORATION 127 S. Broadway Los Angeles 12, Calif. Tel, i MU* 5713-MI. 1776 TV At 1 A.M. Continued from page 31 of the new late*evenlng program means NBC will be operating eight hours a day for at least five days a week. This would be in addition to the local station programming, such as that now being done by WNBT, NBC’s key outlet in N. Y.< WNBT now has shows on from 9:30 a m. until 1:15 p.m, cross-the-board and plans to start soon in filling in the time available until the net- work takes over. The 6 to 7 p.m. hour is also local time under the present operational setup. NBC’s decision to expand into the post-midifight hours points up the progress made by television during the last several years, As recently as 1948, some of the nets, and many local stations were com- plaining that they could ript com- ply with art FCC ruling that they must ^program at least 28 hours per week. Scheduling of a mystery series after midnight also indicates the’ extent to which TV program- ming Will differ from that of radio. In AM, the late evening program- ming with few exceptions is de- voted to remote pickups of dance bands or disk jockey shows on both networks and local stations. Reason has been that neither radio execs nor advertisers have believed a dramatic or comedy show late, in the evening could attract and hold an audience. communication of ideas are most important; Wo. respectfully sug- gest that radio and television are vital media of mass communication in the same category as. newspa- pers and magazines and should be made as easily available to the public without imposition of a punitive excise tax.” The proposal to extend the present 10% tax on radios to TV sets had been turned down in the House. The excise is designed to bring in $42,000,000 in re venue. A similar letter to Chairman George front the Radio-TV Mfrs. Assn, Excise Tax Committee, head- ed by Dr. Allen B. Du Mont, also criticized Secretary Snyder’s posi- tion. Television, the committee said, “is not to be compared with such activities as ‘professional sporting events/ but with other means of communication which have traditionally been fostered by Congress. It is the most effective means of mass communications that has yet been devised.” Continued from page 28 Continued from page .31 grown and prospered faster than any other almost solely with live shows, For example, he noted, NBC’s Class A time is virtually sold out for the Upcoming fall sea- son and only one of the projected shows will be done on film. That’s to be the weekly Groucho Marx program which, according to Mc- Connell, will be similar to Marx’s “You Bet Your Life” radio show and so will need the advantages of pre-broadcast editing. Reasons for TV’s continued stress oh live programming are based on more than economic fac- tors, he said. Probably the ma- jor factor is the audience’s appar- ent desire for that intangible spon- taneity that only live shows can provide. Talent, too, he pointed out, has learned the advantages of live programming. “Think how exciting it will be,” he said, “for a performer to work before a stu- dio audience of 3,000 people in the Center theatre (former ice-show j house in N. Y.’s Rockefeller Cen- ter Which NBC has leased) and still be playing to millions of people in their homes.” cated the larger distribution would be made in “crucial periphery” countries which Barrett defined as countries “which are under direct threat of the Soviet Union . states from which we must pre- vent Soviet expansion if we are to win what has been called the cold war.” Department officials told the committee tlieir latest estimate on the number of receivers in Russia is 6,000,000, most of which are capable of receiving shortwave. Total radio sets in the World, out- side of the U. S., was given as 80, 928,000, of which 51,506,000 were estimated to be equipped for short- wave deception. Testimony on the extent of Rus- sian jamming brought out that there have been nearly 250 short-: wave, sky wave jamming installa- tions identified and art estimated overall total of 1,000 or more, in- cluding local jammers which can- not. be satisfactorily identified. ]\foscow, Kohler testified, “is ob- viously an area of great concentra- tion of jamming activities.” He said he saw antenna installations in Russia which appeared just about the time of the commence- ment of the all-out jamming pro- gram in April of last year. Tele Follow-Up Continued from page 33 s Continued from page 28 Hubbard -Continued from page 34 stalled a power box with a plug-in for the portable cable to be used in televising the baseball games. “The equipment Was used in 1948, 1949 and part of 1950 with no objection. Last week Streed and Anderson decided the equip- ment was unsafe. Stations through- out the nation use the same cable and equipment and engineers con- sider it safe . . . The inspectors were informed that the station would be unable to make any changes In the wiring because of the current strike of operators. The station told the city it planned to make a ‘test case’ of the issue and thought one arrest would be sufficient to test the law without further depriving hundreds of thousands of their televised base- ball . . . “Until we gef the cooperation of Mayor Hoyer (of Minneapolis) and the electrical and building inspect- ors, KSTP considers it impossible to further televise the baseball games.” interests aren’t being served by the attack on time charges, ANA prexy Paul B. West, com- menting on sending copies of the rate study to the four webs last week, backtracked to the extent of saying “There is not, and never was, any intention on ANA’s part to tell the networks what they should charge for their products. That Is the prerogative of the me- dium.” Object of sending out the report, West said, was to help the broad- casters “reach their individual arid competitive business decisions more intelligently.” He expressed regret at the lack of an opportu- nity for the industry and the ad- vertisers’ reps to talk over the rate problem face-to-face. West, although citing the statis- tics on declining audiences “trace- able: largely to the inroads of tele- vision,” added “this does not im- ply that radio is not still—*and will riot continue to be—a very effec- tiveadvertising medium and a good buy for many advertisers.” How- ever, he said the old pattern has changed and further changes should be made “by individual markets rather than general aver- ages.” the novelty tunes; Harry Salter’s orch, and the Variety Dancers Henderson and Miss Mayfair to- gether give the show the maximum in production mountings so that even without the jackpot, it could hold its own in the vaudeo or re- vue sweepstakes. Chief trouble with DuMont’s Cavalcade of Stars seems to be proper script material. The Jackie Gleason-emceed One-hour Saturday night stanza, sponsored by the Druggists of America, had an ex- cellent, guest lineup last Saturday (5), But the exchanges between Gleason and guest star Bert Wheeler and the one skit presented were the weak spots of an other- wise good vaudeo presentation Singer Billy Daniels is a natural for video. Aside from his unusual style, his rnovements and facial ex- pressions lend themselves to tele- vision presentation, and camera caught him in closeups and at a distance fluidly. Dance team of Cabot & Dresden likewise moved easily before the camera. Dorothy Claire had some good song mate- rial but lack of movement made her turn somewhat static. Aero turn of the Kanazawa Trio was well shot. With- as varied and Well-known a vaudeo lineup, as this, the poor scripting tended to slow things down a bit, Wheeler's delivery was fresh and comical, but the material was just too much for him. Glea- son also N was weighted, down, but nonetheless handled his emcee chores nicely. Following an eight-week sum- mer hiatus, Weatherbird Shoes resumed sponsorship Sunday (6) of the final half-hour of ABC-TV’s “Super Circus.” Taking over al- ternate sponsorship of the 30-min- ute period every other Week will be M. & M., Ltd, candy outfit, which is also returning after an eight-week vacation Sunday (13 V, Canada. Dry resumes sponsorship of the first half of the hour-long show Sept. 3, following a hiatus. Featured on the shoe company's 30-minute segment this past Sun- day were routine performances by a dog act and an aero turn. Also on hand to pad out the show were ringmaster Claude Kirchner, circus bandleader Mary Haftline and the usual turnout of clowns. A brief kiddie participation stint, which had two girls lathering up the same number of boys for shaves, ; made for okay juve fare, as did j the rest of program. Capt; Ferguson’s dogs provided ; the canine antics with such stand- ard tricks as Walking around on their hind legs and climbing up parallel bars. Holding down the aero spot were the Three Tumbling Tars. Boys, sporting clown faces, pulled off some comic antics via their various gyrations. Miss Hartline made a nice appearance in her drum majorette costume, besides fronting the band, through a lively bit. Kirchner conducted the program In nice fashion. Fort Worth — A new series, “Fashion Forecast,” will make its television debut here on WBAP- TV. The fashion show will be telecast for a quarter-hour each Thursday evening. Nona Lou Greene, WBAP-TV fashion editor will be seen and heard with three models. Continued from page 30 B’way Invasion iContinued from page 27; tremendous potential value of tele- vision for emergency instruction of the civilian population should be carefully weighed. Since televi- sion is highly developed in such vital areas as Detroit, Pittsburgh, Los Angeles, Washington, arid other major centers, its usefulness in times of emergency is easily ap- parent. “In these times, all media for the duction growth (save for a war- inspired TV bottleneck) threatens to create a studio snarl that could throw the webs into a financial tailspin in their acquisition of more and more theatres and in turn invite a crisis among legit impresarios. The latest acquisition of Broad- way properties transpired last Week, when DuMont acquired the Ambassador theatre on West 49th street, under terms of a five-year lease. Mgf Courtesy of M-G-M Now appearing with DONALD O'CONNOR In “THE MILKMAN” (Universal-International) .: LOU CLAYTON