Variety (December 1950)

We4ne8<lay, December 13, th'At his ra^io stock-company troupe can be as sock in video as in AM, is still in- volved in a snarl on format length, with his second TV entr5% scheduled for last Sunday (9). suddenly called off. . . Cantor, excited over the potentialities of the medium, wants to go to 30 minutes on an altemate-week basis. His ideas on how the TV industry can parlay the top shows for film theatre distribution to re- solve video’s economic stalemate are food foi’ thought for the behind-the-seenes TV ImpresarioSi who are finding it tough to match the financial credits with the debits. ' . . . , In exclusive inter\’iews With Variety, here’s how the A^B-CtD ‘‘primer boys’^ A ieW the TV horizons: V ^FRED AixEi^, Although he cheeks off his Sunday night Colgate show after the Dec. 17 perform- ance because of high blood-pressure, wUh medicos ordering him to take a rest, Allen pays he’s not through with television—but "i in through with this kind of televisioh.” By “this kind,’' he refers to one^hour shows (‘‘which are not for me”); to the present disorganized, setup where, in re- ality, you’re playing to three audiences-^ the one in front, the one at home and all the variegated elements that coinprise the production-technicai crews, and to a maker shift TV era where dialog, the essential component of an Allen show, counts for In radio, says Allen, once you mastered your script, you had your show licked. In TV, mastering your script is only the start. You’ve got to memorize it in five days; you’ve got to alert yourself to 16 other people waiting to be cued. You have to wnnY about synchronizing your cameramen and aU the other elements, so, that everything dovetails. And all your people have to be just right. And it’s hot easy, says Allen, for some- one who last appeared oh the stage 18 years ago. You win acclaim in radio as a great comic; it’$ probably natural that they expect great things ^rom you, re- gardless of the difficulties in making the transition. But Allen isn’t sorry for the weeks of experimentation. Only next time, he says, he wants a half-hour format (“about every other week would be just right”), but one that will provide a suitable frame- work for the AHe;nizations and for a satir- Ization of bur times. He foresees the day when the revue-type formula now in voguepass its peak and dialog will come back into its own. Allen said he initially suggested to NBC that he be permitted to do such a half- hour show; to erect a village street scene, through which he could wander aimlessly, encounter people and do a running com- mentary in his time-honored style. But NBC, he said, would have none of it; in- si.sted on hewing to the revue pattern. Allen says there are a lot of corrective measures video must take. He doesn’t have the answers. But he and his wife, Portland Hoffa, are going to Florida for a long rest. When he returns he’ll get a checkup from his medico in Boston. And if he gets ah okay, he’ll return to the TV scene—but in the type of show he feels will be a natural for him. JACK BENNY Benny is sold bn 'TV. And on the basis of his own appraisal Rafter dissecting a kine of his initial video show), plus a cross-section Of critical and lay opiniou, he feels that he’s got the answers that will sell hiin as R video personality to the millions of Benny followers. To the captious few among the critical frateniity who took a swipe at .Beuny for hewing to an old, established radio form- ula, Benny brushes them aside with the observation; “You can’t win with these people, anyhow. These are the same ones who did raving handsprings-—and jurti- fiably so^—over the Burns and Allen show, because B & A returned to their surefire routines of the old Palace vaude days. And now they turn around and censure me for doing the same thing,” . By and large, however, the general pub- lic acceptance of Benny’s initial TVer has convinced the comic that he’s got the formula for the sight-and-sound medium; that the re-adaptation of his standard ra- dio bits (the Kitzels, the inevitable play on the Benny stinginess, the violin bitSi the application of the same leisurely pace as applies to the AM stanza, but always with the accent on visual valuesi^these, in the Opinion of Benny, can fill a much- needed gap in the video spectimm that’s so surteited with extravaganzas that they tend to become monotonous. : Benny sounded off on TV after scan- ning the kine of his show. Far from be- ing nervous, he said, he went before the cameras With a self-confidence bom of an awareness that he's got a pre-tested, sure- fire formula, some of the best writers in the business, a stock company of per- formers who have already endeamd them- selves to millions, and the kind of show biz background that’s so generic to TV. Benny is all for keeping the 45-mmUte format, since he feels the whole pattern of his show is rooted in its leisure quality, the initial Benny warmup, the ability to play along for several pages in developing the characterizations and building up to the laugh payoff (“You don’t have to get ’em scfeaming every minute, not on my type of show”), plus, of course, the time for the necessary ad libbing. On the other hand, he thinks an hour is too long (“the first thing you know you’re winding up with a ballet. And who needs a ballet?”) Both GBS and Benny's sponsori Lucky Strike, think he can evolve the Benny TV pattern within the half-hour framework. Benny himself doesn’t feel that way. (The conflicting sentiment over a half- hour program, plus inability of CBS to clear sufficient stations to meet require- ments of Lucky Strike, resulted in the . comic “sitting out” his scheduled Dec. 9 Second show, in the 7:30 to 8 Sunday time usually occupied hy Lucky Strikes’ “This Is Show Business.”) Benny, for example, was shooting for a pace on his initial show that would have allowed time for the cameras to pan bn the audience (as he finaled with his fid- dling) until the last person had drifted ouL “Or maybe just one stays. After all, I’m, entitled to one fan.” That’s what he means by leisurely pacing. “But I’m go- ing to do that bit again. And the next time we’U go through with it. But how can you in a half-hour show?” EDDIE CANTOR Eddie Cantor is so sold on TV that he’s dropping all other show biz activity to concentrate on the medium. He recently wound up his swing of one-night concerts and “now it’s New York, the hub of TV activity, from here on.” Caiitor sees video as preempting all prior show phases^and that goes for ra- dio, vaudeviire. Broad way musicals or pic- tures. The impact on audience is tremen- dous, he feels, and even within the frame- work of his comedies he sees it as the medium that will have a tremendous so- cial force on the nation’s viewers. “Taike ‘Maxie the Taxi,’ for example,” says Cantor. (He’s making it a' perma- nent fixture on the program to alternate' with other real-life vignettes he’s now working on ) “That initial episode literally brought about a petition of prbtert from the taxi drivers of America, They all felt I was a jerk in creating the impression that all cabdrivers are tip-hungry! I know, because eyepi' cabdriver Fve hailed since has told me so. But in the second epi- sode, I apparently restored the cabdriver to onetime dlgriity. They feel now that I’vemade them warm and with ah ap- preciation of What America meafis. That’s important, especially when you can par- lay that with something that’s strictly television.’’ The fact that Cantor could get off a plane the next morning in Birmingham or Detroit or Minneapolis—as has hap- pened—and have the gateman literally throw his arms around him with a “H’ya, Maxie,” convinced the comic that the im- pact of video on the American mind transcends anything that has gone before in any sphere of show biz. Cantor, too, is reconciled to the long haul ahead, and how exhausting Is 'TV on the performer. Tackling the new medium approximates the same satisfactions, the same “first-night” anticipation and anxie- ^ ties as his onetime “Ziegfeld Folllies” openings. “But once we opened in the ‘Follies’ we had nothing to worry about for a year; Now we do a show and start right in worrj ing all over again about the next one. If that doesn’t take something out of you, nothing does.” Eventually Cantor , see a separation of the chaff from the wheat, the elimiiiatiori of the_ weaker complements that must of necessity creep into a new medium as part of its growing pains. But the competitive situation Will get so tough, he feels, that only the best will siin'ive. Eventually Cantor envisions for him- self a half-hour format on an every-other- Week basis* It’s Cantor’s conviction that the TV moguls haven’t begun to tap the medium’s resources on revenue. For example, he envisions a major film production for world-wide theatre distptb utlo i i Mi a sed on excerpts of the best of several top TV comedy shows. “And you bring it in for the price of filming the shows (with sub- sequent editing) while they’re being tele- cast.” It’s the warm, human equations that will pay off, in Cantor’s estimation. The “Maxie” business, the laundromat pin- pointing of human femme frailities— these are the bits, rather than digging into the trunks for old songs and dated ma- terial, that Cantor is shooting for. Give the show “heart,” he says, (and that’s why Durante is so boff in television, be- cause everybody wants to throw his arms around him) “and 3 bu’re in.” JIMMY DIJRANTE TO Jimmy Durante, “TV is a dilem- mia.” The Schnbz,' who scored the No. 1 resounding smash among the show biz vets to embrace the medium, is seriously concerned over not only the entertain- ment patterns that must eventually evolve, but the ecoriomic ones as well> since he and other top personalities hav® such a vital stake in it, Of one thing he’s convinced: “That box” (his refesrence to a tele set)“is the most amazing thing to hit show business; nobody call afford to stay but of it; its impact tops anything that has gone before it; it has an intimacy far beyond anything realized in pictures.” (When a porter the day after his prCepi walks Up to him and says how terrific he was, that, to Durante, is the ultimate in payoff.) But eVen in the face of the unprece- dented raves that accompanied his TV premiere, the Schnoz has a lot of doubts. “Where does everj^body go front here,’’ he asks. To cite his own case: he would like to do three shows, four at the most, and scram back to the Coast. Gne-a-month bn a continuing basis would be murder, he contends. Not only from the standpoint of TV’s drain on material (and the Schnoz concedes that if he had to start fresh each month his tj'pe of show would absorb his routines at too fast a clip), but the nerv- ous energies expended, the physical wear and tear, all attest to the fact that sOoner or later TV wiU have to formulate some programming pattern or modus operandi that will pei'mit the top comics to stay with it on a less-exhaustive basis. The Durafhte “dilem-mia” also encom- passes some financial angles. The neces- sity of hanging around New York, he es- timates, M ill cost him about $10,000 be- tween shows. He’d like to go into the CopaGabana nitery, N. Y., in December, but even that’s ruled put because of the time-consuming factors attending a major TV production, particularly during the concentrated week-before-show period. He blames this partially on the lack of a proper working arrangement within the network, among technicians and auxiliary crews in carrjdng through on a shbw*s blueprint. No set patterns in whipping together a show (as exist, for example, in films) have yet been forhiulated, he feels. Durante champions filmed shows from the Coast; from his standpoint he sees it as the niort practical approach. He’d like to do about two or three TV films a j'ear, which could circuit stations around the country on a distribution setup paral- leling pix. But he recognizes that it doesn’t solve the problem of the netw’orks; the need to program every night, seven nights a week. He admits he doesn’t have any of the answers. All he knows right now is that he can’t do a TV show every month of the year. The Schnoz is practically dazed over the economics attending TV. How many spon- sors, he reasons, will bb able to afford the rates, the production costs and the salaries performers will command in the days of coast-to-coast video now that the Television Authority has gotten around to establishing scales? WPIX Alerts Self To _ Y* Daily News’ WPIX will start its liaison work with the N! Y‘. City Board of Education as soon as the city’s educators decide how they , want to use the station, ac- oorcimg to station hiariager G. Bar- nett Larson. He revealed his offer to make a part of WBlX’s time and facilities available to the city gov- ernment daily for the first time last Friday (8) at the Television Broadcasters Assn.’s clinic in N. Y, Larson told Variety this Week tliat the station naturally does not plaii to charge the city for the time and also that it would be im- possible to sell to sponsors any educational show tied in with class- I'oorh work. But, he said, “we con- sider such a public service move an. obligation we must perform in the way of balanced programming.” fie noted, moreover, that the tie- ih “won’t keep us from making money” since the shows can build of an audience for the Sta- ton. WPIX benefited in that way, he said, from the mayor’s series, titled “At the Mayor's Desk.” Larson said he is now waiting (Continued on page 50) Gat’ Lucky TV Omen for Ford Dealers “Tales of the Black Cat,” series backed as a four-week special cam- paign for the Ford Dealers of met- ropolitari New York, has been ex- tended by the automotive bankroll- ers for a full i3-Week cycle on WCBS-TV, N.: Y.. Move points up the value of the in-and-out campaigns, which fre- quently turn up properties that prove worthy of longer-term spon- jsqrship. “Black Cat” features Jim- my Monks in supetnatural stories. Brown to Sponsor ‘Acting' As McConnell Alternate Chieago,>Dec. 12, Brown Shoe Go., which sponsors the “Smilin’ Ed McConnell” show on alternate Saturdays from 5:30 to 6 p.m. (GT)^ wll bankroll “Say It With Acting” in the same period every other week. Brown picks up the Maggi McNellis artd Bud Col- lier show Jan. 6. Deal, through Leo Burnett agen- cy, calls for 18 iriterconnected and fthree non-interconnected stations. Sunder 8 TV Wings Max Liebman, who spark- plugged NBC-TV’s recent ac- quisition of four new crane cameras, used one himself for the first time Saturday night (9) for his “Show of Shows.” Cameraman riding the crane can be w'afted through the air more than nine feet above the stage, and can travei in a com- plete. circle. ' After watching cameraman Jim Sunder, who Was riding the crane, during rehearsal Saturday afternoon, Liebman called a fiverminute break to m ake a foririal presentatiGn speech. Lining up the cast and crew, he declared: “On behalf of NBC and Your Show of Shows,’ Jim Sunder please step up and receive your wings.” He then pinned a pair of Army flyer’s, wings on the camera- man’s chest. El PasO“Roderick Broadcasting Co. has applied to the FGC for a new television outlet to be built here. Outlet would operate on channel 4. Estimated construc- lion cost is set at $278,561, and estimated yearly revenue said to be $96,000. SEALTEST BUYS CBS 3IGT(r^T^ National Dairy Products Corp; this week bought CBS-TV’s “Big Top” to plug its Sealtest products, with sponsorship scheduled to start Jan. 27. Show has been aired on a sustaining basis early Saturday evenings but will move Into the • noon to 1 p.m. Saturday spot when the barikrdller takes Over. N. W. Ayer is the agency. Program originates in a Camden, N. J. auditorium and is fed to the CBS video web by WCAU-TV, Philadelphia. Title is to be changed ' to the “Sealtest Big Top,’’ with j the sponsor setting it on 46 inter- ’ connected outlets. Sealtest will con- tinue its tWice-wepkly sponsorship of NBC-TV’s “Kukla, Fran and 011ie“ * NBC is checking out of the Nielsen television service and is staking its future TV claim in the American iResearch Bureau. This is the outfit mn by an ex-NBC man, James Seiler* Nielsen is currently in Europe, but prior to going overseas he ini- tiated overtures with the webs toward hiking his rates. NBC for one, couldn’t see the move as jus- tified and decided to call it quits, Chuck LeWin, producer for the Weintraub agency on NBC-TV’s “Broadway Open House,” ankled the agency last Friday (8) over policy differences with Weintraub execs. “Open House” is sponsored by Anchor-Hocking Glass, a Wein- Itraub account. Schenley has picked tip the tab for a five-minute Cross-the-board strip, 7-7:05 p.m., on the ABC-Ty Web, starting Monday (181 Show will be a Music Corp. of America package and has not yet been set, although Celeste Holm has been among the talent discussed. Two wine products. Cook’s cham- pagne and Dubonnet, will be I plugged. Agency is Blow.