Variety (December 1950)

24 TEUSnSlON ^ Washington, Dec. 19. With a decision imminent by the Chicago federal court on the validity of the FCC color tele- vision action, CBS has been play- ing it very coy bn what it thinks of RCA’s improved system. CBS brought down some of its top brass for a special demonstration here Friday (15). RCA sent down a larger delegation, including four legalites, just in Case CBS said something. But CBS prexy Frank Stanton Issued one of those statements which provided ho occasion for re- ply. He said: “In view of the pend^ ing litigation, we do not believe that it is appropriate to comment bn the RCA demohstration we have just attended. “The FCC report explicitly pro- vides for consideration of hew or improved systems. If RCA be- lieves that its system has been sufficiently improved . to warrant adoption, it can ask formally for further consideration. If in fact the RCA proves by this procedure that it is so improved as to qualify for further consideration, the vari- ous claims arid observations which have thus far been reported can be dealt with in an orderly manner and through witnesses under oath and subject to cross-examination.” However, the court decision did hot prevent the questions arising from the RCA demonstrations from being discussed here Sunday night (17) in a round-table on WWDC. Chairman Edwin C. John- Bon of the Senate Comiaerce Com- mittee; Stuart Bailey, a Washing- ton consulting engineer who was a meniber of a Senate advisory committee on color, and Henry Fisher, Washington lawyer, par- ticipated. From Here, Where? When asked “where do we go from here?” in view of RCA’s im- provements, Johnson replied: “The question isn’t where to go from here, but where does RCA go from here. RCA hasn’t made an appli- cation for an opportunity to be heard on an improved system of color.” Johnson was asked whether he had seen the improved system. “Yes,” he said, “and I was very much impressed with it , . , They’ve really made great progress. But I think they’ve made this progress because they’ve been Under the whip of CBS.. They (Continued on page 33) ‘Man About Town’Format For Paul Lukas TV Show Paul Lukas, featured in the cur- rent Broadway musical, “Call Me ! Madam,” has been pacted by indie talent and production agent John , Gibbs to star in 'a weekly, 15-min- ute television packagel To be^titled : “Maq About Town,” the show will ■have Lukas dispensing chitchat _ about Show business and interview- i ing guest personalities. , I Gibbs this week also signed Nina : Foch and Wendy Barrie for exclu- ; sive handling on radio and TV, DON HOLLENBECK TELE NEWSCAST FOR NORWICH Norwich Pharmacal Co. this Veek pacted with CBS to bankroll a Sunday night “News in Review” roundup, featuring newscaster Don Hollenbeck. It’s to be aired in the 11 to 11:15 period, starting Jan. 14. Time segnient is currently oc- cupied by the “Robert (3. Lewis Show,” which is bankrolled by Arnold Bakers. When the bread firm decided to bow but, Benton & Bowles, agency on the account, re- tained the slot and pitched it to Norwich, another of its clients. Hollywood, Dec. 19. All Los Angeles television sta- tions are expected to get behind KTTV’s demand for an investiga- tibn of rating services in the area. Station has asked the Advertising Agency Asspciation of America, Southern California Advertising Agency . Association and the South- ern California Broadcasters Asso- ciation to. set up a committee to study the books and procedures of C. E. Hooper, Tele-Que and Video- dex. .Stations, all of whom are known to be dissatisfied with the sur- vey systems, would contribute the funds for the investigation. Committee would check the au- thenticity of each survey and if it determines none is satisfactory the stations will try to work out a new system. ROBERT Q. VICTIH OF CLIENT CRAK CBS-TV, with several bankroll- ers interested in buying participa- tions In its daytime Robert Q. Lewis strip, is having trouble wrapping up the deal because other sponsors are encroaching on his time* Lewis show originally was aired from 2:30 to 3:30 p.m. efoss-the- board. Procter & Gamble then picked up the 2:30 to 2:45 p.m. segment five days a week to air Its “First 100 Years.’* This week, CBS sold the 3 to 3:15 p.m. slot Thurs- days to Hudson Paper Napkins, which will sponsor a TV version of “Bride and Groom” starting Jan. 25. Hudson may also put the pro- gram into the same slot on Tues- days. With all the outside activity, CBS is finding it difficult to tie down the Lewis show to a steady Opera- tion. Sales department, as a re- sult, is havihg trouble lining up cross-the-board strips to pitch to sponsors. GPL Displays New Kine DuMont Woos Kupcinet For Chi Variety Emcee Chicago, Dec. 19. DuMont is negotiating with- Irv Kupcinet, Sun-Times columnist, to emcee a half-hour variety show. Scribe’s web venture will originate from .WGN*-.TV, Chi DuMont out- let, and will be patterned after the local vaudeo series he’s been em- ceeing on the station for William A. Lewis stores. Latter show, “Re- quest Performances,” was dropped by the sponsor last week. DuMont show, slated to teeoff the latter part of January, would go into either the 5:30 or 6:30 Sunday p.m, slot. "Show is a W. B. Doner agency package. .®t ‘Texaco Star Theatre” on NBC has dipped into the CBS roster of comics to sub for Milton Berle, when comic takes a vacation for two weeks. Ken Murray has' been pacted to work the Jan. 2 pro- gram. Replacement for the Jan. 9 show Is still to be set. RANSOM SHERMAN CHI SHOW DUE FOR JAN. AXE Chicago, Dec. 19. Unless NBC comes up with a sponsor beforehand. Ransom Sher- man’s afternoon, tele show is due for the axe Jan. 12 at the end of the current cycle. Cast of the Chi- ofiginated, half-hour efoss-the- board was notified of the pending cancellation Friday (15). Now that the web is off the hook on the Kate Smith day timer, hope here is that the N. Y. salesmen will put more effort on the Sherman strip, to salvage *■ it before the cutoff date. Sherman show had an eight- week sustaining ride in the 6^ to 6:30 p.m. slot during the summer and moved to the 2 to 2:30 period in October as the opening segment of NBC)’s afternoon programming, Durochers, Price Set For Video Guesters by ATC Vincent Price, Laraine Day and her husband Leo Durocher, Dick Foran and Barbara Britton are among the latest batch of names pacted by Agents Television Corp. for video guesters, A’i'C is a com- bine of 50-odd agents and personal management outfits which is plac- ing Coast personalities mainly on eastern tele shows. The Durochers, repped by Marty Martin, will be booked on several CBS-TV stanzas as part of that web’s block booking plan. They’re due Jan. 5. Barbara Britton, agented by Tom Somlyo, was sighed for the Robert Montgomery show and “Leave It to the. Girls.” Foran, handled by Lou Rantz, arrived Thursday (14) and Price, handled by Edingtbn Cloutman, arrived yesterday (Tues.). New kinescope recording process, in which an electronic control is said to provide the best picture quality yet devised for TV tran- scriptions* was unveiled last week by General Precision Labs. New recorder basically is just a TV re- ceiver combined with a 16m film camera, but the electronic design is claimed to eliminate much of the fuzziness, garbled sound and Washed-out lighting which have plagued most kinescoped shows unr til now. GPL engineers at the same time displayed what’s believed to be the first video film projector designed for use with an image orthicon camera, instead of the old-type iconoscopes employed for most TV film transmission. Also unveiled was a new image orth camera chain with a motor driven iris, which ad- justs light apertures instantly to changing light conditions and so is said to eliminate the need for the cameraman to reach around to the front of the unit for manual ad- justment of the iris. While, present kinescope record- ers also team a film camera with a video receiver, they synchronize the TV image running at 30 frames per second with film’s 24 frames via a mechanical process. Accord- ing to GPL engineers, this resulted in much of the fuzziness usually seen on kinescopes. In the GPL recorder, the video tube is shut- tered electronically during the frac- tion of a second the film moves from one frame to another. As a result, each frame of film consti- tutes a separate photograph in it- self and gets a full exposure. GPL’s electronic counter was described as being so sensitive that it has an accuracy down to one- half of one line. Since each TV frame has 525 lines, thei3 are 15,- 750 lines which flash across a re- ceiving tube in a second. GPL recorder adds sound simultaneously with the picture, printing both on a single film strip* Another new piece of equipment revealed by GPL is a remote con- trol unit* which will reportedly permit placement of cameras in hitherto dangerous and inaccessible locations. Cameras tied iii with the system are controlled Via an electrical connection with the con- trol panel, which can be placed at any distance convenient to the di- rector.: ’ ABC-TV’s “Hollywood Screen Test” has switched from a policy of original scripts to dramatizations of short stories. The Lester Lewis package, which Ironrite reeently expanded by 17 outlets, will air an adaptation of James Thurber’s “Many Moons” on Christmas Day, with John Carradine starred, and on New Year’s Day will do a Her- man Sudermann classic, “Confes- sion.” Stanza is buying adaptations of yarns by D. H. Lawrence and other top writers. LEDERER PACTED FOR MIDNIGHT HYSTERIOSOS Actor Francis Lederer has been signed by NBC to narrate the pro- jected “Midnight Mystery” series, which is to occupy the 12:05 to 12:30 p.m. slot cross-the-board. i Web is currently pitching an audi- tion film On the show to agencies and potential sponsors, but will not put the series on the air until it is sold. Present plans are to utilize fea- ture film oMies with a mystery mo- tif. These are to be broken down into three segments, with one to be aired each night on three suc- ceeding nights. As a result, the show will be soniething in the form of a serial. I I Wednesday^ De^semlier 20, 1950 Miody Carson Regular For Haley Ford Airer When the Ford-sponsored Jack Haley TV show preems on NBC Jan. 4, as successor to the Kay Kyser program, Mindy Carsoii will go in as a regular. Show will be tabbed “Ford Star Revue,” same title as applied last summer when Haley was subbing for Kyser. Miss Carson is currently in the Perry Como show, but checks off. Carl Hoff will conduct the oreh. Hollywood, Dec. 19. Negotiations will be resumed to- day (Tues.) for a television thesp contract on the Coast following Television Authority’s, rejection of a proposal that an hourly pay scale be established, plan had been ad- vanced by five local telestations as an alternative to the TVA plan for a pay scale based on program structure. Hourly proposal, which stations said was worked out so that a per- former working a short bit on an hour-long show wouldn’t receive more than another performer work- ing an entire 15 minute show as a single, was rejected following a meeting of both local and national TVA boards. GEN. MILLS BUY TIME, BUT STIU LACKS SHOW General Mills takes over a cream evening time segment Friday night (22) oh CBS-TV but has not yet found a program for the slot. "Client for the first week, conse- quently, will-reprise one of the “Lone Ranger” vidpix, which it bankrolls Thursday nights on ABC video. Time slot is the 9:30 to 10 pe- riod on alternate Fridays, half of the full hour vacated two weeks ago by Magnavox. Other half-hour every second week is to be “Char- lie Wild, Private Eye.” Two shows are to alternate with “Ford The- atre,” which retains the full 9 to 10 p.m. slot. Agency for GM is Knox-Reeves. NLRB Clears SDG Of Unfair Charge Rap Hollywood, Dec. 19. Regional NLRB director Howard Lebaron has dismissed, for lack of evidence. Radio Television Direc- tors Guild charges that the Screen Directors Guild is guilty of unfair labor practices during hearings on television directors at jKECA-TV. Decision was reported to meet- ing of the SDG television members, who also heard that 70 vidfilm pro- grams have signed Guild’s 100% guild shop contracts. KPRQ-TV’s Atom Show Pulls 125,000 Viewers Houston, Dec. 19. Houston televiewers were given a forecast of what coiiid happen to the south’s largest city in an atom bombing, in a dramatic pro- gram presented by KPRC-TV and the city government. Mayor Oscar Holcombe, whO had asked all set-owners to iiivite their friends to see the program and re- quested all TV retailers to remain open late, estimated the airer had an audience qf 125,000. Key de- fense officials portrayed the roles they would actually play in event of an atom blast. According to the Houston Post the results were frightening.” _ ^ Louisville, Dec. li With 27 out of 30 distributors porting, a certified public accoi ant tabulation shows there w 65,700 television .sets in the Lo ville area as of Nov. 30* That’s an- increase of 5,508 the month of November. " Washington, Dec. 19, While FCC television allocation hearings are going forward as per schedule, there’s little expectation, here, in view of the national emer- gency, that the freeze will be lifted by summer, as earlier anticipated. Rather, it’s taken for granted, it will be a long time before the lid’s off on new station construction. However, the Commission will resume its allocation hearings Jan. 15 to receive more testimony on the petition of the educators to set aside channels in both the VHP and UHF bands for hon-commer- cial stations. Soon afterwards, the agency will get down to the busi- ness of considering specific chan- nel allocations for various cities, and proposals for minimizing the intermingling of VHP and UHP stations in particular areas. FCC, it’s pointed out^ has no power to continue the freeze after it has worked out the allocation and interference problems. That’s the • responsibility of other agen- cies concerned with use of mate- rials and manpower. But should the defense agencies ban the use of steel and electronic equipment for new TV stations, FCC would probably issue an order, as it did in World War II, giving effect to such restrictions. Drain On Materials Depending on military require- ments aiid their effect oh receiver production. It’s possible some ef- fort will be made to allow a lim- ited number of stations to be con- structed, particularly In areas not yet served by television. Whether this could be worked out without too many squawks, is a question. But it is not considered likely at present that the Government would allow hundreds of applica- tions accumulated since the freeze to be translated into stations, with consequent drain or essential ma- terials. Regardless of whether station 9 (Continued on page 33) INTI SILVER BUYS BEm FURNESS SHOW Personalities in show biz and other fields will detail how they first got their starts in a new tele- vision show packaged by Lester Lewis Productions. Titled “Success Story,” the 15-minute daytime pro- gram is to be aired Tuesdays a.nd Thursdays starting in Janujiry under sponsorship of International Silver. Betty Furness will be femcee and conduct the interviews, with three guests a week to be spotted. Web has not been set, but it’s expected the show will preem via ABC. For the bankroller, it’s the first TV show since last year’s “Silver Thc- tre” series, aired via CBS-TV. Young & Rubicam is the agency, Mady Christians Show In CBS Teeoff Jan. 20 With its Initial television soap opera, “First lOQ Years,V success- fully launched, CBS will tee off a new series Jan. 20 with the same general format. Titled “The' Laura Gibson Show,” it will star legit actress Mady Christians in the title role, as a charitable woman con- tinually trying to help others, Show will be aired Saturday nights from 7:30 to 7:45 p.m.. Where it will buck NBC video’i “One Man’s Family.” Gibson Re- frigerators is the sponsor. Color Conies to Philly Philadelphia, Dec. 19* CBS began public demonstrations of color TV (14) in a Chestnut St. store.. The demonstrations started with a special public preview, at which no tickets were required. The color "demonstrations, which are to 'continue for an Indefinite period, are held four times daily. Admission is by ticket, which may be obtained by applying in writing to the demonstration head- quarters or at the nearby Land ’Title Bank. The color demonstra- tions are “line” showings confined to the display room. The color shows do not interfere with the regularly scheduled programing of WCAU-TV, CBS-TV local affiliate, and televiewers cannot pick them up on their receivers.