Variety (September 1952)

(0 FILMS RADIO L VIDEO ^bUflhefi Wookly Qft 154 We^ 46th Street. New York 30. N. V., by Variety. Inc. Annual aabscrlpUon. $10. Single copies. 25 cent*. EHBterea oo cecomifl class matter December 22, 1003. at the Post Office at New York, W. Y.. under the act of March 3. 1870. COPYRIGHT. 1952. BY VARIETY. INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED VOIa. N®. 1 NEW YORK, WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 1952 PRICE 25 CENTS a— In ’53; See Conunl Tele in Two Years Disk Biz ^Hirts to One of l^nn^est FaD-Winter Seasons in Years Washington, Sept. 9.^ Voice of America will begin beaming daily views of life in the U. S. to European audiences early next year through use of new technological developments which presage commercial transatlantic television within the next two years. Framework for the daily telecasts to Europe now is being worked out by the State Depart- ment. The telecasts will be on a straight beaming ba^ls — without cable, relay or booster stations. They will operate on new television transmitters developed at the Gov- ernment’s request, by the Massa- chusetts Institute of Technology. Their tremendous range and power are expected to make commercial television on a global scale a real- ity perhaps by 1955. Details of the MIT transmitters are, of course, still being kept un- der wraps. It’s understood, how- ever, that the only present barrier to immediate operation of a trans- atlantic telecast is the necessity of worltkig out compensators so that the programs can be received on European video sets which op- erate on a different “iine-per-inch” basis than U. S. receivers. The problem of long-range televising has been overcome, however, and the State Department reportedly has been conducting experimental telecasts for several months from transmitters which easily cover many times the distances now achieved by the commercial sta- tions. Understood the State Depart- ment has quietly ordered a full- (Contlnued on page 63) IBalii-Swiuging DaoisSi Iwg Goes Show Biz Via Tape Job for U.S. Tour Copenhagen. Sept. 9. King Frederick XI of Denmark, Q trained musician who occasional- ly conducts rehearsals and private performances of the Danish State Orchestra, okayed the cutting of 3 tape Sunday (7) here of him- self and the orch playing the Over- ture to Wagner’s “Die ‘ Meister- singer.’’ Monarch is permitting the tape to be released in the U. S. on eve of arrival of the orch for Its first American tour, and it will h® broadcast shortly before tour’s opening date. King Frederick also recorded an alljum of music with the orch, as a ?ift for the Queen Mother, and lor the first time consented to have h*'' picture taken conducting the orch in his shirtsleeves. Orch, one of Europe’s leading ^vniphs, will give its jfirst U. S. jonccrt at Ddrien, Corin., Oct. 17. nnsisting of 93 playgrs, orch is t'Sularily batoned by Erik Tuxen, who will conduct it on this tour.' I^niorican tour is being managed j.v the Coppicus, Schang & Brown “‘Vision of Columbia Artists Mgt. ' 4 Seeley-Fields Pairing Again for Coast Date Blossom Seeley fit Benny Fields will resume their stage partnership. Duo, who have been married for over a quarter century, will play their first joint date in many years at the Cocoanut Grove of the Am- bassador Hotel, Los Angeles. There’s a possibility that the date, pencilled in for November, may be changed to permit the See- ley-Fields biopic, “Somebody Loves Me’’ (Par), achieve greater dis- tribution. Fields was once Miss Seeley’s piano accompanist. She’s been in retirement for years. Both recently made a Decca album based on the film. IDO New Stations To Be TV-ing By End of Next Year San Francisco, Sept. 9. The prospect of nearly 100 new TV stations on the air by the epd of 1953 was seen here last week by Harold E. Fellows, prexy of the National Assn, of Radio and TV Broadcasters. Fellows told a joint meeting of NARTB District 15 broadcasters and members of the Frisco Adver- tising Club that there will prob- ably be 250 video station construc- tion permits issued by mid-1953. But it will take time to translate these permits into operating sta- tions, he said, estimating six months for VHF and a year for UHF. “On this basis,” he said, “we (Continued on page 61) ^Uet Theatre No Boffoi, For Vegas' Frontier But New, Family Trade Heavy Las Vegas, Sept. 9. Results of fortnight Ballet The- atre booking at the Last JTrontier showed that general manager Jacob Kozloff took a long gambler’s chance, but emerged even. Price asked by Lucia Chase and Oliver Smith, directors of Ballet Theatre, for the two-frame nitery stand was in upper brackets forked over to such top names and acts as Marx Bros., Dennis Day, Dorothy Lamour and Hildegarde—near $10,0Q0 per week. Unit of Ballet Theatre making its first onslaught upon the new me- dium did not have the topmost (Continued on page 63) By GEORGE ROSEN The 1952-53 television season was officially launched last week, with return of the first major batch of top-budgeted network shows, but under circumstances Ij^dly calculated to invite handsprings. For the first time since TV at- tained a programming maturity, raising of the curtain on a new video semester has been attended by a lacklustre oldhat aura all too reminiscent of the ’51-’52 season, with hardly an innovation on the horizon to give the upcoming fall and winter programmmg rosters any distinguishable traits or in- dividuality. TV’s settling-down-in-a-groove be- lies the infancy of a medium which, in three or four seasons of major league network program- ming, appears to have come to terms with the status quo, where even radio, after a quarter-century, has been known to strive for fresh patterns and formulas. If there Is one specific “turning, point” or difference to character- ize ’52-’53 over previous years, it can be traced to the growing im- portance of Hollywood as a major TV production centre as more and more shows desert New York for Coast climes. Major factor, of course, is the growing importance of TV films, with a continuously expanding roster of sponsors ex- pressing a “preference for “going him,” rather than live, either be- cause (1) desirable time on the NBC-CBS networks are at a pre- mium; (2)’clients fail to see the economic feasibility of spending from $25,000 to $30,000 a week for a half-hour of network time (ex- (Contlnued on page 16) ASCAP Tribute Set for Toast’ A tribute to the American So- ciety of Composers, Authors and Publishers is being plotted for Ed Sullivan’s “Toast of the Town” on CBS-TV for Sept. 28 and Oct. 5. Two-part ’telecast will feature some top songsters, singers, band- leaders, etc. No talent has been signed as yet, although deal for ViT. C. Handy (“St. Louis Blues”) is in the works. “Toast” production unit shelled out an additional $10,000 fee to bring in last Sunday’s 27-minute “Top Banana” insert, with -Phil Silvers. As is usual with Broadway projHiction segments, such as “Wish You Were Here,” “GigC' “Venus Observed,” “Member of the Wedding,” etc., “Toast” pays a royalty to the show’s producers, as w€(ll as the guest talent fees. “Ba- nana,” it’s claimed, climbed $8,000 in receipts on the strength of the previous week’s trailerizing of the 1 “Toast” TV performance. Kaye Just Opens in S.F. To Square That SRO San Francisep, Sept. 9. Danny Kaye’s 21-performance (f6 days) run at the Curran The- atre here was SRO prior to the opening on Sunday (7). Boxoffice has already cashed in $111,000. House is scaled to $4.80. Kaye is booked to return to the Curran. Oct. 6 to 25 under auspices of the San Francisco Civic Light Opera. Comic is also pacted for Dallas State Fair Auditorium, a 4,200-seat- er, during Christmas week (Dec. 25 to Jan. 1) when the Cotton Bowl festivities go on. There’s possibility that he’ll gross $90,000 during that session. There’s also likelihood that he’ll appear in Los Angeles at opening of the Civic Light Opera there. A deal for the Palace, N. Y., is also under dis- cussion. Jock Asks Pubs For 25c Per Plug: t’sl^aT Plan whereby music publishers would contribute to the financing of a platter show by paying for each plug received is being sub- mitted to pubbery toppers by Wayne Howell, New York disk jockey. The disk show, which Howell is packaging, is currently being peddled to stations around the country. It’ll be tagged “House of Music.” Tab for the pubs will be 25c per plug multiplied by the number of stations picking up the airer. Cost, therefore, of a plug hitting 100 outlets will be $25. According to (Continued'bn page 61) 'Goona-Goona' Sex-Film Reprise Via Bali Bally As Dance Tronpe Hits N.Y. The Indonesian Reipublic, despite a shortage of U. S. currency, is underwriting, to reported tune of $85,000, the first U. S. tour of the Dancers of Bali, official troupe of 45 dancers and musicians, who’ll make their American debut next Tuesday night (16) at the Fulton Theatre.. N. Y. • Coin will mainly go for round- trip tran^ortation, as a goodwill gesture by the government’s Cul- tural Dept. The Columbia Artists Mgt., via itSd^Coppicus, Schang fie Brown division, is handling all other financial details, as bookers and managers of the tour. Troupe (Continued on page 63) After a relatively slow summer period, disk biz is winging away to one of its strongest fall-winter seasons in several years. Major disk companies are drfvipg to hit the market with even stronger im- pact in oriler to make the most of the next three months, the pre- Christmas period which accounts for some 43% of the total year’s revenue. RCA Victor, which teed off Ja.st month with its new extended-play 45 rpm disk, is working its fac- tories fulltime to meet the de- mand. Victor’s first listing on the EP releases contains 50 platters for the longhair market. Victor is also projecting early release of several pop albums on EP, selling for $1.40 for four tunes. The Red Seal EP’s go for $1.50. Victor is currently getting a par- ticularly strong ride on the juve line with its new six-in-one pack- age devised by Steve Carlin. Columbia, which was one of the few companies to buck the sum- mer slump with a series of clicks, is still hitting a powerful pace in pops, again leading the bestseller lists with sides by Jo Stafford, Rosemary ^Clooney, Guy Mitchell and Frankie Laine. In the long- hair field, Columbia’s strong posi- tion is indicated by the fact that it sold 122,000 long-play platters in one week recently. Decca is also surging forwjird with a series of clicks. During last week, five disks had re-order fig- ures of over 35,000, with the Mills Bros.’ “The Glow Worm” topping the list at 110,000. Other s’des are by Roberta Lee & Red Fpley, Webb Pierce, Louis Armstrong & Velma Middleton and Guy • Lom- bardo. Csurt Frowns on TV Reenactment of Real Miirder Prior to Trial St. Louis, Sept 9. The June term of the Circuit Court grand jury last week, in its final report to the court frowned on the recent telecasting over KSD-TV of the reenactment of the murder of Mrs. Irene Thompson by Jose B. Romero in a downtown hotel last June 22. After Romero w^s arrested and made a written confession the cops took him to the room in which the killing oc- curred and made motion pictures of how the slaying* was done. These films were lateit telecast over the station. The jury’s report, in part, said, “Such telecasts be- fore the case is tried can make it very difficult to secure aji un- prejudiced jury for the trial of the case. We do not believe that the administration of justice and public interest are best served by such an action. The Circuit Attor- ney and the St. Louis Police De- partment should take such steps as may be necessary to make impos- sible In the future telecasts before cases come to trial.”