Variety (August 1950)

Wednesday, August 9, 1950 Behind the scenes moves indi- ducers; Louis Livingstone, Inde- pendent Motion Picture Producers gate that the Television Authority and the Screen Actors Guild may bury the hatchet in their current judisdictional war for representa- tion of video talent. A compromise may be effected which would keep TVA from inter- vening in the SAG’s parleys with the National : Labor Relations Board on the Coast while the film- ites refrain from intervening in TVA’s confabs with the NLRB in the east. On Friday (4) an informal hear- ing to clear the way for NLRB election among actors employed by picture producers was held in the federal agency’s L. A. offices. Al- though the NLRB says it notified TVA in advance of the meeting, no representative from the live talent unions appeared. It’s considered probable that TVA is waiting for word that SAG will accept a compromise agree- able to TVA before it decides not to intervene in the Coast proceed- ings. NLRB examiner Frank Yeager asked TVA attorney David Zisking to state that unions’s posi- tion immediately in writing. If TVA doesn’t intervene, elections could be held in a month or six weeks. If it does intervene, formal hearings would be held and NLRB will rule on what constitutes an appropriate bargaining unit for the picture actors and who is eligible to vote. It’s understood that TVA is will- ing to accept some of SAG’s terms on working conditions, but wants a higher scale of pay than SAG is asking. If SAG goes along with TVA in setting its scale compar- able to TVA’s, then the two groups might be able to avoid further jur- isdictional battles. Taking part in the informal hear- ing on the Coast last week were William Hinckle and Benjamin Batchelder, of Assn, of Motion Picture Producers; Marvin Faries, Society of Motion Picture Pro- Ass’n; Bonar Dyer, Walt Disney studio; John Dales, Jr., Kenneth Thomson, William Berger and Buck Harris, SAG; H. O’Neil Shanks and Robert Gilbert, Screen Extras Guild. SAG filed amended petitions ask- ing for three separate NLRB elec- tions. These would be held sep- arately for actors employed by (1) AMPP, (2) SIMPP and (3) IMPPA. | Chief difference between the I TVA and SAG proposals for video pay is that TVA wants pay von the basis of the length of the finished show, plus rehearsal time, while SAG wants pay on the length of time worked. Washington, Aug. 8. FCC Chairman Wayne Coy will lead off witnesses when the House Committee on Interstate and For- eign Commerce begins hearings to- morrow (Wed.) on the Senate-pass- ed McFarland bill to revamp cer- tain procedures of the Commission, restrict its powers in issuing li- censes to . anti-trust violators, and provide alternate sanctions against licensees in lieu of revocation. Following Coy, the committee, With Chairman Robert Grosser (D- Ohio) presiding, will hear a wit- ness from the anti-trust division of the Justice Department. Other witnesses slated to appear are Jo- seph Ream, veepee of CBS; Glen McDaniel, veepee of RCA; Lon Petty, general counsel of NAB, Gordon Gray, general manager of WSAY, Rochester, N. Y., and Arthur Scharfeld, v.p. of Federal Communications Bar Ass’n. A committee spokesman said he had no idea how long the hearings will last but that several days would be required at the least. WJZ on a Civic Binge As part of its work-with-the- Community slant, WJZ, N. Y., will have the mayor of a different town near N. Y. guest on the Patt Barnes show each week, starting Friday (18) at 4:45 p.m. The mayprs will all be called back at the end of the series for a big parley with New York’s Mayor William O'Dwyer. Idea of WJZ promotion topper Bill Berns is that the confab can result in a useful exchange of civic policies. Pentagon Nixes Plea Hollywood,: Aug. 8. The Pentagon has nixed a re- quest of local television for a Coast newsreel plant to handle footage directly from Korea on the grounds of security. The War Dept., however, has authorized a West Coast pool which will receive prints from the Department of De- fense lab on Long Island.. All footage must go from Korea to Washington for perusal and clearance prior to processing by the N. Y. plant. Footage cleared is planed to the Coast pool, but ar- rives a day late, for transmission by participating stations. These stations, at this time, are KTSL, KNBH, KFI-TV, KTTV, KLAC-TV, KECA-TV and KFMB, San Diego. It is understood KTLA has not joined the pool because it receives telenews from N. Y. Reel will carry most of the same foot- age. KTTV, too, has its own cameraman in Korea covering the war, but also has subscribed to the pool. From scanning pix from Koera front, it’s known Pentagon makes some tactical decisions. St. Louis—David La Verne Rus- sell, radio script writer and actor, copped the Democratic nomination for State Senator in the 12th Mis- souri District in last week’s pri- mary election. He bested Norman L. Kincheloe, a state sales tax in- spector and will oppose John D. Fels in the November election. ■lAPlO-TELEVlSIOa British TV Seekmg U.S. Vande Stars: Film, Legit Trailer Ties Moiled London, Aug. 1. Headliners for British TV are : becoming as much of a problem as j headliners for British vaudeville. The London Palladium has, to all intents and purposes, resolved the j issue by mass importations from Hollywood and Broadway. Now, unobtrusively, the British Broad- casting Corp. is following the same pattern for video. With a solitary exception, the BBC policy is not to make its own importations. Instead, it prefers to wait until Yank artists have been signed for London engagements and then offer them datesr Except for the biggest of the top- liners—the Sinatras, Bennys, Tony Martins, et al — the arrangement works very satisfactorily for. the BBC. The biggest names, as a rule, are precluded by their vaude en- gagements from doing TV per- sonals, but for others, it’s often a useful boost with a potential audi- ence well above 1,000,000. During the last 1 few weeks, vaudeo programs have had Yank artists as top of the* bill. Hilde- garde had her second TV date July 1 in London with the closing Spot on the popular “Cafe Continental” floor show. The following week, the Merry Macs headed the “Mu- sic Hall” program, and the next Saturday (15) Isabel Bigley, newly returned from a Hollywood screen- test, starred in the first of Henry Caldwell's “Saturday Night Re- vues.” BBC Woos West End i BBC producers, with an aware- ness of the demand for new names and faces, make immediate bids to collar visiting artists. In recent weeks, Julie Wilson, now conclud- ing a cabaret season . at the Em- bassy, emceed a 30-minute ?how and had the windup spot. Sylvie St. Claire had a solo program on a recent Sunday with further dates to follow in the fall. Meantime, important behind-the- scenes moves are taking place be- tween the BBC and theatre man- agers to ease relations between the two mediums. Normally, legit op- erators bar telecasting of their shows either from theatres or from the TV studios. In one or two cases where the ban has been over- looked, the telecast gave the box- office a much-needed hypo. One idea now being worked out is that selected,new West End pro- ductions should be given a 30-min- ute trailer on the London TV serv- ice. This would be a trailer ver- sion of the show, designed not to divulge the plot, but to indicate the theme, type of subject and other highlights. A tryout of this plan may soon be made with the current Jack Buchanan show, “Cas- tle in the Air,” how playing the Savoy theatre. A similar scheme has been put forward by film trade interests as part of the fall box- office campaign. They’ve sug- gested a weekly. 30-minute trailer comprising excerpts from current London releases and from new West End presentations. A special survey would be nec- essary to determine the number of American artists now playing Brit- ish theatres, Labor Minister George Isaacs told Wing Commander Geof- frey Cooper in the House of Com- mons recently. The questioner also asked to what extent British artists with similar qualifications were being displaced, and this brought an as- surance from the minister that ap- plicants for work permits had to give a guarantee that British sub- jects had not been displaced. Buffalo — Clint Buehlman, 20- year veteran of Buffalo radio, has just added another quarter-hour to his weekly platter stint. He now opens WBEN at 5:45 a.m. with 15 minutes of farm news sponsored by " Dunlop Tire and Rubber Co. Add- ed time gives him 60 quarter-hours weekly of solid sponsorship with a substantial waiting list. IF ITS NEWS YOU WANT -and your client wants - (and what client won% during the days to come?) remember to repeat and repeat and repeat this one walloping fact in every presentation you write, letter you write, and during any call you make: DURING THE MONTH OF JULY ALONE, W0R 21% MORE LISTENERS THAN THE AVERAGE t • BY OTHER MAJOR new York stations: ATTRACTED the station whom news does more, more often, for more advertisers, than on any other station