Variety (January 1953)

104 WAHIO-TEL1E VISION Forty-seventh P^SjRIEfY Anniversary Wednesday, January 7, 1953 Let’s Free TV From Man-Made Restraints’ By HERBERT SWOPE, JR. {NBC-TV Producer-Director) In this short article, I’d like to discuss the function of television and how that function is being im- paired by artificial, man-made iv- liantly pointed out in a recent speech, TV and radio have done more than all other media to pro- mote public service. Great chari- table benefits from telethons are a straints. TV is unquestionably the greatest discovery of our lifetime and its uses should be unlimited: universal entertainment by the greatest entertainers of our time; part of TV's public service. The country is more aware of the work l of the Heart Association, Cancer ! F’und, Mental Health, Cerebral ! Palsy and other great charities, i due to the coverage given them by universal education by the most brilliant minds of our era; imme- diate coverage and dissemination of news as it happens, where it happens. But tele, in its infant span, is finding itself restrained, much as the feet of Oriental women were kept bound and prevented from growing. TV is finding itself pointed to as a potential menace. And by whom, pray, is TV thus considered? By the millions upon millions cf people, old and young, whose lives r.re made brighter and fuller by what they see on their TV screen? Oh, no! By the pro- moters who feel their gates dwin- dle once the TV camera gets past the • turnstile—even if it pays its way on a grand scale. During the last two years, TV coverage has been either curtailed or dropped by numerous sports promoters, while endlessly being blamed for the ills of various en- tertainments. Baseball gates are said to suffer due to TV; boxing is alleged to be in dire straits be- cause of TV coverage; football is covered on a limited basis to keep interest going in the local college teams. But, aren’t all these efforts sim- ply the tail wagging a giant dog? Isn’t the answer the fact that it is indeed the function of TV to allow millions o? propie to see a cham- pionship fight, a major baseball game, as well as the opening of Congress or an important hearing? How can one be impressed by an attendance of 80,000 people at a championship fight when, through the magic of TV, forty million peo- ple are privileged to watch? Which is to be served? No, television must live up to its duty, its responsibility to the audience it commands. Certainly it can and should pay its way in, but never be banned altogether. There is where the stand must be taken. | Other Tangents j s I am not here going to enter the fight on free TV vs. pay-as-you-go TV vs. Theatre TV. The latter two are merely different methods of supplying—to a much more limited audience—that which TV must sup- ply, coverage of the great events of the world today. Sports coverage is merely one— a very popular one—of the many roads on which television travels in bringing its vast audience the best, the most complete program service. As Harold Fellow’s bril- TV. The dramatization of the fight against infantile paralysis, done on the Robert Montgomery show last season; the great work of the Eye Bank for Sight Restoration, dram- atized on “Lights Out” last season (and which did more for the Eye Bank in interest and contributions, both of corneas and dollars, than anything ever done in its previous history); and the other instances in w hich the “Frontal Lobe” principle of Pat Weaver was put into effect, all prove that education can also be entertaining and dramatic. These are but some of the ways in which television must strive to achieve its fullest meaning. As Joseph H. McConnell said in a speech to the North Carolina Bar Assn., television should be allowed wherever newspapers are allowed. Whether at the Inauguration or in the Operating room of a hospital, whether in a prize ring or at the Met, TV must take its place as the eyes of millions of people who want to—and who have the right to—see. BARRY GRAY WOED CUT RADIO FOR WRITING, TV Dee jay Barry Gray is seeking to cut down on his radio w r ork in order to devote more time to writ- ing and video. Gray, who broad- casts three hours nightly from Chandler’s Restaurant, N. Y., over WMCA, wants to do tw T o hours, from Monday to Thursday, and three hours Friday and Saturday. Sunday’s show would be in charge of a guest to be approved by Gray and his manager, Buddy Allen. Gray recently contracted to do five columns weekly for the N. Y. Post starting Jan. 5. He has been doing a one-a-week for the Post. In addition, he’s dickering with Crown Publishers for an autobiographi- cal tome on his eight years of broadcasting from cafes and res- taurants. His DuMont tele show, sponsored by Michael Bros,, and Seely Mattresses, will not be af- f jted in the present reshuffling. Gray’s contract with WMCA and Lou Rubin. Chandler’s oper- ator, runs through June 10. WMCA, according to Allen, is willing to revamp the present pact, but Rubin is holding on for continuation of the same amount of broadcast time. JIM BACKUS As “JUDGE BRADLEY” In “I MARRIED JOAN” NBC-TV Television Reviews ERNIE KOVACS SHOW With Edith Adams, Andy McKay, Trygve Lund, Eddie Hatrak orch, others Producer-writer: Kovacs Director: Ned Cramer 60 Mins.; Tues., 8 p.m. Sustaining CBS-TV, from N. Y. Chalk up an “E” for effort but little more for Ernie Kovacs in this newest attempt by CBS-TV to come up with a show that can hold its own in that hotly-contested Tues- day night at 8 slot. Kovacs’ exag- gerated informality, uniquely fresh type of humor and new use of special effects, while to be com- mended, just weren’t good enough to meet network nighttime stand- ards. Kovacs won his spurs as a day- time personality, first on Phila- delphia’s WPTZ and currently on WCBS-TV, the CBS video web’s N. Y. flagship, where he’s doing an full-hour show cross-the-board. That he’s a local daytime success is attested to by the near-SRO bill- ings record he achieved on the latter outing. In a bit of kidding-omthe-square, Kovacs made excuses for a show which was obiously tossed together at the last moment by pointing out how CBS hadn’t tapped him for the Tuesday night spot until the last minute and how the long Christmas weekend necessarily stalled his planning. Program’s format, if it can be called that, comprised sketches and musical numbers, with the latter showing the most promise. Kovacs impressed as a personable guy with a facile mug, and handled himself well in the skits. Best of these was a German disk jockey, complete with commercials plugging a new detergent labeled “Raus Mit.” But attempts to take off on such w.k. video shows as “What’s my Line” fell flat. Edith Adams scored with her vocalistics (show could have used more of lief) and Eddie Hat- rak, fronting a strange conglomera- tion of musicians rounded up by Kovacs, registered solidly. StaL MUrray Hill 8-6600 JACKSON BECK Actor-Announcer- Narrator Radio—TV—Films CLUB EMBASSY With Mindy Carson,' Florian Za- bach; Earl Sheldon, music con- ductor; Bob Wright, announcer Producer-Director: Fred Eeider Camera Director: Grey Lockwood 15 Mins.; Tues., 10:30 p.m. P. LORILLARD CO. NBC-TV, from N. Y. {Lennen & Newell ) Replacing the Bob & Ray team in this stanza, Mindy Carson is turning “Club Embassy” into a neat quarter-hour musical session. Miss Carson shapes up as an attrac- tive TV performer via a winsome personality, her firstrate warbling and her general savvy before the cameras. She carries this show but gets excellent production and camera support. On the kickoff (30), Miss Carson opened brightly with “Rise and Shine” with backing from a male quartet. She registered solidly on a melancholy workover of “Wish You Were Here,” and closed with a flashy southland production med- ley of “Way Down Yonder in New Orleans” and “Sleepy Time South.” Florian Zabach, a holdover from the Bob & Ray series, also con- tributed a tricky violin solo on “The Gypsy Fiddler.” Earl Shel- don’s musical backgrounding was topnotch throughout. Plugs for Embassy cigs were shared by Miss Carson and an- nouncer Bob Wright with the lat- ter handling the “scientific” pitch, as attested to by a “leading inde- pendent research agency.” Herm. NBC: Circa '26-’30 1 — Continued from page 98 ~ — 1 days—George Washington Hill and his staff would come to the board room, a phone call to the studio on the fourth floor would start Rolfe in motion and the Lucky Strike orchestra would begin its rehearsal Hill would crank the volume rheostat on the board room speaker to its* peak and you could hear the music for blocks around. After two Saturdays of this performance, Deac Aylesworth found a solution to his personal comfort while Lucky Strike rehearsals were in progress He ordered sound-proof doors installed in my office—one door led directly into the board room—and in the office of his female secre- taries, a particularly heavy one on the door leading directly into his office. “Let G. W. H. have his fun,” said the Deac. “He’s paying for it,” he added, “even for the sound-proof doors.” | II ow Floy d Gibbons Got Into Radio Does anyone know how the late Floyd Gibbons got into radio and carved a reputation for his rapid-fire delivery? It happened in the late ’20s when he was working on a series for Liberty Magazine, then owned and published by the Chicago Tribune. This series revolved around new scientific instruments and how they would be put into use in' the event of “war.” Naturally, radio broad- casting fell into this category and Gibbons arranged to interview Deac Aylesworth on “the part radio would play in the next war.” Gibbons so enthralled the Deac with his interview technique that the Deac called me into his office and instructed me that, beginning imme- diately, Gibbons was to go on the NBC payroll, that I was to arrange with the program people for Floyd to have a weekly nighttime 15 minute series. And Floyd was to get $150 per program, as I recall it— big money in those days for radio performers! “Headline Adventures” was the title Floyd Gibbons selected for this weekly story-telling 15-minuter, and I soon found out why he was so willing to do it for such a short fee. He reached into his files, took out a previous series he had written for the Chicago Tribune Syndicate and rewrote them into 15-minute radio broadcasts. Imagine my surprise and Gibbons’ delight, not at his success on the air, for he was a “natural,” but, half way through the first 13 weeks, Liberty Magazine liked his broadcast stories so well that it ordered him to rewrite his broadcasts into a series of 13 articles for the maga- zine—at $1,000 per article! Anyone associated as closely as I was with early personalities in NBC could write a book, particularly concerning such outstanding pioneers in broadcasting as Graham McNamee and Floyd Gibbons. I’ll save the McNamee stories for a book which I probably will never write and close these anecdotes with another story of Floyd Gibbons. Gibbons, Skeets Miller and myself comprised a three-man special events team which went to Lakehurst, N. J., to cover the first arrival of the German dirigible Graf Zeppelin in the United States. Skeets had been roaming around the engineering department’s devel- opment lab at NBC, then housed at 711 Fifth Avenue, and reported to me that one of the engineers had completed the first portable short- wave transmitter for broadcast use. It consisted of a “pack set,” pow- ered by dry batteries, was worn by the broadcaster on the chest and back but required two assistants, each carrying two long bamboo poles between which were strung antenna wires. Perhaps some of you have seen the ancient picture taken of Floyd, Skeets and myself at Lake- hurst—in 1929, I think it was. Anyway, this hot special events trio motored off to Lakehurst with the equipment aboard, all set to scoop our rivals. With this portable equipment we could go right out onto the field, whereas the opposition were limited to the hangar because wirelines terminated there, no wires being allowed on the field. - The Graf Zeppelin came into sight. Floyd, between Skeets and yours truly, walked off from the hangar to meet it at its mooring post. As the cabin of the huge ship descended to earth, Gibbons got into posi- tion and was right on the spot to stick an NBC microphone—“live,” too —into the face of Capt. Hugo Von Eckner, the Graf’s skipper. The Captain and Gibbons carried on one of the finest conversations I ever heard. Gibbons was a crackerjack interviewer. Skeets and I could hear every word audibly from our antenna positions. But when we got back to the hangar we got the surprise of our lives Not one word of our scoop broadcast had been intelligible on the air! Static, caused, we believe, from the electrons off the big ship after having been deposited there from its long ocean voyage, sought a “ground” and took haven in our portable antenna, drowning out the complete interview! Incidentally, I have always thought that the ill-fated Hindenburg caught fire as a result of static electricity, gathered on the big bag of the ship during its transatlantic passage, in seeking a “ground” on a landing at Lakehurst, caused a spark in the vicinity of a leaky-hydrogen cell, thereby causing the catastrophic fire and resultant terrible loss of lives. MEREDITH WILLSON “EV’RY DAY”— “MEREDITH WILLSON'S MUSIC ROOM” “ENCORE” — “THE NAME'S THE SAME,'' “TALLULAH- VISION A Happy *53 Far You