Variety (December 1950)

Wednesday,* Pcccmber 20," 1950 DETROIT VR TELEVISION 25 i KID Abo Lastfogel, g.m. of the Wil- liam Morris agency, Ayho flew hack to Ibe Coast Monday (18) midnight ahead of schedule, due to the death from a heart ailment of WM veepee Johnnv Hyde, is now concerned vith msuring the talent future of television on a sounder basis. Gon- sidering that the Morris office’s business is now 50% from TV-^ the agency services the dominant KBC video shows—-Lastfogel re^ ali/es that the trite; “guest shot” formula i's not the healthiest thing, either for the sturdiness of TV or the ads. He foresees a diminution of the fulMiour programs, even for the more socko Milton Berle, Eddie Cantor and Jimmy Durante (among Morris clients). He is certain* that Fred Allen in a half-hour show Will be surefire. Lastfogel recog- nizes that the paucity of talent is a major hurdle both for the Morris otTiee and the business^that medi- ocre acts Which wouldn’t rate opening or deuce spots in the in- termediary vaudeville circuits, find themselves given spottings on ma- jor variety programs. On the other hand, the impact of tv i.s something which leaves the most hardened stars wondering. Both permanent or guest talent on TV shows invariably are struck with the potency of their impact which, at first, leaves them won- dering because they know that they are no strangers to the pub- lic IMost of them are time-hon- ored vaude personalities, who have scjilecl the radio and Hollywood heights, yet for some reason their TV work— if only one or two (Continued on page 30) Chicago, Dec. 19. Negotiations between Chi Tele* vision Authority and local tele sta- tions for. a contract setting wage and working conditions for TV talent moved a step backward as the TV A board Monday (18) re- jected the station’s counteroffers. Tclecasters’ wage proposals pre- sented to the union last week w'ci’e characterized as “completely un- acceplable'’-by TVA bargainer Ray Jones. U was learned that the . station execs’ counter-proposals set talent Ice .schedules at roughly 50% of ^VAs demands. Union’s original demands, presented to the tele- casters several weeks ago, were pegged at 80% of the national fees establi.shed by the network co,des negotiated last month. _ Union . is asking $56 for per- lOrmors working a 15-minute show, roe includes five hours of re- Ken Murray diieuifM The Serious Side of Laughter * oil Ihttrcifing bylint ftoturt in tht forthcoming 45th Anniversary Number P^KiEfy Chicago, Dec. 19. Question of how to realize the educational potentialities of tele* vision left delegates in something of a dilemma after a three-day kickaround of the subject at the 14th annual School Broadcast con- ference, which ended here Thurs- day (14). • General consensus of the educa- tors was that video channels should be set aside for educational use, but the specific financial aspects ml adapting video to school use ob* viously tempered the enthusiasm of the delegates. “Television would be a wonderful teaching aid, but can our public school systems af- ford it?“ was the big question in (Continued on page 33) liearsals with extra rehearsals pegged at $4 per houv. Stations are pnering $23.50 for a 15-minute P.i’ogram, including an hour and a . |uIf . rehearsal time. Extra run- Jlu'oiigh lime would be $2.25 per hour. • - 1'or the hour rate, TVA is seek- iiyg $136 with 22 hours of cuffo pi’aetice time and the stations have j'oplicd with an offer of $50 and Ihree hours of rehearsals. Another snag is the union’s de- imind for the same rate for off- camera work as for on-cainera per-: iormances. Station negotiators Want to set up two scales for the calegorie.?, T-VA and station bargainers will loeei again Friday (22). Stations J;;'/oh'od are.- WNBQ (NBC), M RNR-TV (ABC), and indies WGN- TVandWBKB. Settlement Likely On AT&T 4-Web Dispute In Washington, Dec. 19. Settlement of the dispute among the four TV nets over American Telephone & Telegraph allocations of intercity video transmission fa- cilities appeared to be virtually certain, when the FCC again post- poned hearings on the case. Orig- inally scheduled for Dec. 11, the hearings have now been scheduled for Jan. 15. They had been previ- ously postponed a week. The nets have been meeting fre- ! quently in an effort to work out a compromise. Last week, they ad- vised the Commission they have reached an agreement “upon cer- tain principles and procedures to be followed by them in resolving tiieir ^conflicting requirements for I intercity video transmission serv- ; ice.” i Hearings were ordered by the ^ Commission following a complaint by DuMont that it received dis- criminatory treatment in current quarter quotas by AT&T, which it Charged with favoring NBC and CBS. DuMont has taken the posi- tion that the available channel fa- cilities should be allocated among the nets on an equal basis. Garlhi to Maxwell Vice MCA Boger Carlin, who wa^s one of U) 0 first percenters in the Music tori), of America television dept., resigned last week and will join nobcri iViaxwell Associates. Carlin has been with MCA for past four years. Houstort, Dec. 19. Program preferences w'ere made knowm by 1,500 local television set owners to a questionnaire made available by KPRC-TV- to more than 50,000 local viewers. Trends established by the first 500 answ^ers received were main* tained throughout the rest of the survey, according to Jack Harris, general manager of the outlet. Local TV fans desired straight dramatic programs; mystery drama; w'estern drama; full length feature films and educational films in that order. Detroit, Dec. 19. Thefe’s inore on video than should meet the eyes of children and teenagers, Detroit’s Common Council believes. Acting on “com- plaints by citizens and religious groups,” the Council unanimously approved appointment of a commit- tee to: 1. Receive and^creen complaints relative to TV proflrams. 2. Contact sponsors of TV pro- grams and advise them to cease production of objectionable fea- tures. 3. Apply to the FCC for “aid in controlling this evil” when spon- sors fail to cooperate. Some TV programs, the resolu- tion said, “include acts, perfojcm- ances and pictures of shady, sug- gestive and objectionable charac- ters.” Some programs, the resolu- tion continued, “glorify mUrders, robberies—and burlesque ’perform- ances.” Wrestling, it added, “formerly known as an act of skill and strength, now is a farcical producr tion of choking, eye-gouging, hair- pulling -and similar tactics of a roughhouse nature,” Conceding that enforcement pow- er over I'V is held by the FCC, the Council believes its committee can act as a powerful influence on that agency. The city clerk, aqting corporation counsel, police commissioner and the sujperintendent Of parks and recreation, were named to the com- mittee. Nine representatives of va- rious religious organizations will be appointed. Television is saving the lives of many Detroit Children, in the opin- ion of J’ames A. Hoye, traffic di- rector of the Detroit Police Dept. He believes that a decrease in the number, of children killed in traffic accidents may be due to the fact that so many are watching tele- vision after school is out. He pointed to a decrease in the number of Detroit children be- tween the ages of five and 14 who have been killed in traffic acci- dents this year. The decline oc- curred also despite the fact that 80,000 more autos travel Detroit streets than in 1949, he added. “Maybe TV can , mean ‘Traffic Victory’ to Detroit’s parents and | the police traffic division,” he said. Eddie Cantor detoili why Sorne of My Best Friends Are Guest an amusing bylint piect in tht 45th Anniversary Number P^KiEfr Due Soon $1000,1)00 Studio; Claimed to be the besUequipped and largest television studio in the country, NBC's studio 8*H, in Radio City, N. Y., was launched Monday night (18) with presentation of Robert Montgomery’s “Lucky Strike Theatre.” Once the domain of Arturo Toscanini and the NBC Symphony for their weekly radio broadcasts, the studio has been converted for video use in about three-and-a-half months at a cost to NBC of oyer $1,000,000. With overall measurements of 70xl4px30-feet, the studio is con- structed so that it can be used either for musical or variety shows with a stage, or stripped of the stage for dramatic presentations. Stage, when in use, will have a , Philadelphia, Dec. .19. To protect the public from, un- scrupulous mail-orde promoters, Hidden costs and inferior merchan- dise, WFIL-TV has set into effect new contract regulations which will place under close scrutiny all such business before it is accepted. Roger W. Glipp, general man- ager, announced that every prod- uct advertised on this basis over WFIXrTV must be backed by a recognized testing laboratory or by the reputation of an established firm. The regulation went into immediate effect. There was no attempt at cen- sorship in the regulation, Clipp said, but because TV has proved a highly effective medium for mail-, order selling, the station merely intended to protect this sales power by eliminating the damag- ing effects of irresponsible mer- chandisers. Another WFIL-TV precaution concerns acceptance of business from new firms Or merchandisers, only after a thorough investiga- tion of company resources, includ- ing the firm’s credit status. Likening television to the “pitch- man” and the oldtime traveling show’s “medicine man,” in its highly personalized approach, Glipp said: “If TV stations are to win and hold the continuing confi- dence of the home audience, they must vo“ntarily assume the re- sponsibility of supervising the quality of the merchandise sold through their facilities. This is the sole reason for the WFIL-TV mail-order business standards. “Viewers will thus be assured of the value of mail-order purchases advertised on WFIL-TV. They will be protected against inferior mer- chandise and ‘hidden co!5ts’ such as postage, or extra COD charges. We mean to establish a bond of confi- dence for the reputable mail-order advertiser; “Irresponsible selling tech- jniques have threatened the stature is to retain the power of its dy- namic sales effectiveness,” Clipp. stated. BEN BLUE CHECKING OUT OF SINATRA TELE SHOW Ben Blue has turned in his no- tice and is checking out of the Saturday night “Frank Sinatra Show” . on CBS-TV. Blue report- edly has been uphappy with the manner, in which he’s been inte- grated into the hour-long program, and according to those close to the scene the comic, and Sinatra have not been seeing eye to eye for some time. . Sinatra, it’s stated, had made some overtures to sign Jackie Glea- son as the show’s comic, but iat- tef’s drug clients on his DuMont “Cavalcade of Stars” have report- edly nixed the idea. 30-foot proscenium tut has no ele-j gj^^^^a^^'buses on'^television must L'“trael^un?es'tr1ctedIy''ae?o\T[hl' ^ .-‘bed.now if the new medium floor and not be confined to plat- forms, as in the standard studio theatres. For a legit prpduction, the stage can be stripped in an hour-and-a-half and all the space converted to studio usage. One of the big features in 8-H is the extensive lighting system. All lights are hung on pipes indi- vidually counter-weighted, and can be raised to a height of from five to 27 feet off the floor. Studio has over 300 separate lighting cir- cuits. Lighting engineer has a (Continued on pagd 33) Autry Rolls New TV Brown Shoes Buys NBC i i NBC television wrapped up a sponsor for a new show this week and. also had two options lifted. New show is “Say It with Acting,” aired alternate Saturdays^rom 6:30 to 7 p.m. It’s to be bankrolled, starting Jart. 6, by Brown Shoes, Which presently sponsors ‘‘Smilin’ Ed McConnell” on the alternate weeks. Renewals are “Kraft TV Thea-- tre,” believed to be the oldest hour- long dramatic series on video, which has been reoptioned by Kraft Foods, and Ovaltine for a 15-min- ute segment Fridays of the ‘‘Howdy Doody” show. Camel in Daytime Debut With Moore CBS has finally nabbed a sponsor for the Garry Moore daytime video show, after months of trying. Client is Camel eigarets, which is buying 15-minute segments of the 60-niinute (1:30 to 2:30) stanza on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Camel thus becomes the first ^ s 1 * * I cigaret- company to stake a. claim CBo 15u Askine rrice l^^e major daytime TV program. , , ® ming sweepstakes, and it’s con- Although hes been under con-1 ^idered a cinch that others will stant fire from film exhibitors for follow. Among the other year-in- the series of films in which he co- | year-out top bankrbllers in radio- stars on teleyisiori,.Gene Autry has TV, the food companies are repre- put a second series into work. New .sented by General Foods ( with its pix. produced by Autry’s “Flying A Bert Parks daytime show), and Enterprises,” will not star the cow-; soap' comnanics represented by boy actor, hovveve:*, Instead, they ,Procter & Gamble, with Kate Smith and the CBS “First Hundred Years”". TV daytime“erial, Hecbt. Ashley Packaging New Adveijture Series feature Jack Mahoney, former Hol- lywood stunt man, in the lead. Titled “Range Rider,” the films are being offered to agencies and sponsors by the CBS program, sales department at a gross cost per each half-hour stanza of $15,000. They are being produced by Lou Gray. „ tr ,. i m j -a n under, the supervision of. Armahd! . Ben Hecht and Ted Ashley asso- Schaefer. Other cast leads are Dick i mates are packaging a . dramatic Jones and Eve Miller. To date, eight scripts have been completed. ABC’s Dramatic Bra video series which the former will .script. Titled “Bl^ckie Gagiu,” airer will consist of original yarns deriling with an adventure charac- ter. Hecht has already completed two scripts. Ashley outfit is also cutting kine- scopes on the Coast of a soap Maidenform Brassieres is set to pick iip the tab for a dramatic pro- gram on AbC-TV, Saturday morn-' opera, “Miss Susan.” starring Sii- ings from 11-11:30 a.m. | san Peters. Carl Bixby, “Life Can Agency is Welntraub. Sale gives ‘ Be Beautiful” scripter, is writing the web three Weintraub shows in it. It's expected the' show, if a two-hour span on Saturdays.; signed, will eventually be done in Seeman Bro.s. and H. T. Babbitt, 1 the east, as will “Date With Judy,” other Weintraub clients, occupy j which has also been kined on the the 12 noon-1 p.m. slot. 1 Coast by Ashley.