Variety (April 1953)

W«.Jnc«<lay» April 1) 19a9 BA9XO-TKLSVXSIOX 57 SHOW BIZ M-G’s ‘Kukla, Fran and Lili’ Tt , flllP nrp of -television *>n the Hollywood pix studios is bo pro- in the new Leslie .Caron fiimusical “Lili” that Burr S ro m creator of the “Kukla, Fran, and Ollie” show, and NBC- iv are reportedly in the process of. appraising the click pic’s ^nrmat” in terms of passible legal .redress. Metro carnival story draws heavily on the “Kukla” method J. flv J* ' j 'tileix An 4-1 ia oVn AtitV Blatz Cancellation May Cue AM’s TV Demise; Afive & Kicking in Radio “Sometimes you ^wieb legalities are of the opinion -that Metro trespassed too ^«niv into forbidden territory .and are mulling the possibility of doing something *bout it Film drew favorable reviews and is doing big busmess. insurance Firms Shy Away From -Errors & Omissions’ TV Policies Rapid mushrooming of the tele-4 vision industry and audience, to-1 nether with the advent of vidpix, has cued major insurance conv panics to reappraise the field- of “errors and omissions in- surance, covering libel, invasion of privacy and literary and title r ”*What they’ve seen has disturbed them to the extent .that *11 but one major company - has w^drawtt from the highly specialized field, and that company is in the process ©f raising its rates as much as 400% for certain types-of shows. Only .reassuring factors* in thed entire picture, according to Ber- nard W. Levmore, consultant and insurance specialist for some ef the top telepix firms, are the fact that there still remains one 'do- mestic underwriter, and -also that Lloyds of London is not yet known to have posted a rate increase, latter, through its considerable in- fluence in the American market and its availability to broadcasters and producers, is providing a cush- ion for the market. Reasons for the increased rates stem from a number of factors, ac- cording to Levmore. One is a re- cent rash of invasion of privacy and literary rights -suits that’s ex- pected to cost the underwriters mil- lions and has been responsible for driving one insurance outfit out -of the errors and omissions field. An- other is the advent of vidpix, with their second-runs and “future ex- ploitation” potentials. In the case . of the latter, the underwriters fear that replay of the pix in local areas at later dates may invalidate all protection afforded by the statutes of limitations in the States where the programs first originated. As an example of what's worry- 1 Continued on page 70) Evans Into 2-Hr. NBC-TV ‘Hamlet’ Maurice Evans will make his dra- matic television debut in a special two-hour “Hamlet/’ sponsored by Hallmark, on NBC-TV Sunday, April 26, from 3:30 to 5:30 p.m. The play, to be done in Victorian dress as was the City Center pro- duction of “Love’s Labour Lost,” will co-star Ruth Chatterton as the Queen, Sarah Churchill'as Ophelia and Barry Jones as Polonius. -Albert McCleery, director of Hallmark Hall of Fame dramatic series, will be executive producer and director. The Bard’s play, first ;™ e , on TV, will be adapted by Mildred Freed Alberg and Tola Hughes Sand. Dollar Trouble There’s a spare dollar float- ing around NBC radio offices. It was given by Peg and Wal- ter McGraw, documentors of “The Challenge of the Prisons” program, to Gov. Mennen (Soapy) Williams of Michigan for a release on some record- ings for the show. The gov- ernor thought the bill trouble to income-account, so he re- turned it to NBC. Jack Cleary, NBC radio pro- gram- manager, sent the dollar to Hollywood for use on a quiz show, but Harry Bubeck, Hol- lywood program director, re- turned it with thanks. The dollar now rests on Cleary’s desk, and he’s up a tree. It belongs to NBC, but the bookkeeping to return it will cost more than it’s worth. CBS-TV Facing 400G Nag Rap In Derby Deal No TV for Indpls. Race Indianapolis, March 31. ine 500-mile auto race, classic on May 30 the Indianapolis n °t fio on television, 8am \\ Hbur Shaw, .general man- ®Ker. However, all five Indianap- olis radio stations will carry a con- tinuous start-to-finish account of the event. ®Y ent he sponsored by, Hjthana Ford Dealers Assn. ®na all stations will carry identical Programs, and this also will be fed r>u a ^work of stations outside the ly ,A "Q sign up for the service. With only a few weeks remain- ing to the annual May running of he Kentucky Derby, CBS-TV is still without a sponsor for the turf classic. Last year the network suc- ceeded in snaring a Gillette spon- sorship. On that occasion the tab for* the half-hour TV (plus radio) ride was $250,000, which also in- cluded time charges. This season CBE> has upped the ante to $400,000, including time. Gillette has turned it down, feel- ing it’s too much of a rap for such quickie attraction. Instead the razor company has negotiated for a race series pickup on NBC-TV and ABC radio. It’s doubtful that Columbia will telecast the event on a sustaining basis. But it’s saddled with a long- term contract for the Derby event —one of the few major sports clas sics in the CBS camp, since NBC has the World Series, Army-Navy game, grabbed off the NCAA grid series last season, etc. By GEORGE ROSEN The erstwhile creative factotums in the agency picture who are now reduced to status of media and •business execs are apparently in revolt. Resignation this week of Adrian "Samish as radio-TV direc- tor of the' Dancer, Fitzgerald, Sample agency (see separate story), foHowing shortly after the bowout of Everard Meade as AM- TV topper at Young & Rubicam. highlights a growing unrest and disquietude among key agency executives who, by virtue of the business only” status to which most agencies are reduced today, find themselves- getting lost in the shuffle at a time when the whole TV production picture is mush- rooming into new approaches and techniques. Even at risk of gambling in finding their proper niche in the TV production sweepstakes, as in the case of Samish (who is pres- ently without portfolio), the agency boys who once played key roles in solidfying broadcasting’s, stature as a show biz medium but whose activities are now confined to buying outside packages (mostly from networks) and taking or- ders for station time, want to get back into the production swim rather than face a “What-ever- happened to ?” oblivion. As in the case of Samish and Meade (who exited Y -fit It to stake his future in- the more creative facets of TV writing)* it’s no se- cret that other key agency op erators who once enjoyed topdog status in molding the bigtime en- tries on the networks are unhappy over their lot in the agencies, now that the networks (and a few out side package operations) dominate the TV — and radio — program- ming field. Only a bare handful of' radio and TV shows come out of the. agencies today. The emergence of vidpix as a major commercial component in TV (in most cases the product of outside indie pro- ducers on the Coast), hasn’t ex-r actly contributed toward making the agency director’s life * hap- pier one. Samish was one of the initial proponents of TV programming via film. Today D-F-S has one of the major stakes in vidpix, repre- senting multi-million dollar bill- ings annually. But there are enough shows in the can to see the clients tlnough.until far in ’54. For 'guys playing the gin-rummy circuit, that’s okay. But for the hep showmen with a yen to get back into the production swim, regard- less o£ f income* it doesn’t make sense. Dead End The local public-service Sun- day shows featuring news- worthy prominent figures in New York City, such as “Let’s Find Out” on WCBS, “Be- tween the Lines” on WNBT and “Citizens Searchlight” on WNBC, are having trouble. The shows are competing for the same people, such as City Council president Ru- dolph Halley and Rep. Frank- lin D. Roosevelt, Jr. It’s strict- ly a limited cuffo guest mar- ket. Lux’s ‘No Soap’ To Ford on Yielding Time (or Jubilee UJS. Steel Eyes TV Bow in Fall ED BYRON BOYHOOD SERIES FOR NBC-TV Ed Byron, more recently missing from the radio-TV scene since the demise -of his “Mr. District Attor- ney” package, which was one of the longtime staples in AM, has kine auditioned a hew TV entry for NBC, .with Harry Holcombe in the lead role. Series is built around Byron’s early boyhood and the emigrating of an Irish family to America. As such it will be something, ip the | nature of an “I Remember Papa series. Minute Maid's TV Buy Minute Maid, through Ted Bates agency, buys into NBC-TV’s Gabby Hayes 5:15-5:30 strip, sponsoring Thursdays beginning June 11. Sale leaves Tuesday open, with Quaker Oats on Mondays and Fri- days and Wednesdays co-op. U.S. Steel may make its initial splurge in TV in the fall. Company execs and BBD&O, agency on the account, are currently sifting as- pects of the video bow and it’s anticipated that the steel company will embrace the medium under ambitious auspices. U.S. Steel’s long career in radio has been an impressive, expensive one, with accent on major league showmanship in the pop idom rath- er than public service program- ming, as witness its current “The- atre Guild.on the Air” NBC series. Expectations are that the company may latch on to a topflight drama vehicle as its TV counterpart. Ford, which had planned a mam- moth 50th anni radio-TV jubilee for Monday, June 15; has skidded on a cake of Lux soap. The motor company had in mind, for saturation effect, two hours <9 to 11 p.m.) on both NBC-TV and CBS-TV and on© hour <9 to 10 p.m.) on CBS Radio. The radio time belongs to “Lux Radio Thea- tre,” which is one of the rattng' leaders. Therein developed the engine trouble. Lux, for the first time (in almost two decades), is staying on the air for the summer. Lever Bros., reluctant to relinquish the time anyway, also fcR regular listeners might think the Lux show was off for the summer if the spe- cial Ford show interrupted the- schedule. So Lux has refused to give up its time. This, in addition to some trouble over, clearing peak number of tele stations, decided Ford to relinquish its Monday plan. Now it is shopping around fcr. another evening time period, probably Wednesday, June 17. The Ford anniversary show, with New York and Hollywood origina- tions, is a whopping-budget high- class affair. Frederick Lewis Allen, the historian and editor, is writing the script, and Leland Hayward is producing. Bing Crosby and Ethel Merman are slated to be the master and mistress of ceremonies. Projected two-hour show repre- sents one of the most ambitious tele undertakings in the brief his- tory of the industry. Used to de- ! scribe the event will be a visual i history of the country as it paral- leled the growth of the Ford and the automotive industry in general. Indications of the budget that’s being shelled out lies in the fact 1 that every major agency has sub- mitted its top talent and writers to Hayward. Plans have not been finalized as yet, although some ideas have been settled. Foremost among the novelties in the presentation will lie in the fact that there will be no commercials as such. The only time Ford will get a mention is as it relates to the growth and history of the U. S. 4 Unless CBS succeeds in latch- ing on to a new sponsor, the TV version of “Amos *n! Andy,” which Blatz Beer is dropping at the end of the current cycle, will fade off the video airlancs. Thus, after a two-season ride, TV will register one of its-alltime major casualties in the radio-to-video transition of stellar properties. As radio personalities, “Amos ‘n’ Andy” (Freeman Gosdcn and Charles Correll) have’- one of the most enviable and ^profitable rec- ords in broadcasting annals. One of the first network shows to hit the bigtime, A & A as a.radio com- ponent are going- strong, continu- ing to hit the Sunday night CBS rating jackpot {although Gosdcn and Correll have indicated that they may retire at season’s-close). It’s recalled that when CBS board chairman William S. Pale^ engineered his now-famous $2,000,- 000 capital gains coup to wooing AIcA over from NBC a few years back, one of the major subsidiary intents envisioned the transition to video* using different characters for the .A & A 4nd Kingfish portrayals. TV version as such hashad a $40,- 000 weekly talent-production tab, but hasn’t figured in - the bigtime rating payoff. Howard, CBS Calling Quits Hollywood, March 31. CBS and Cy Howard are parting after nine years when his contract runs but in August of next year. Negotiations for a new term deal collapsed when Howard held out for outside picture work. Network de- manded exclusivity and was will- ing to pay the creative producer more than $1,000,000 over a term of years. Howard Mas asked for his release so he can bargain with other net- works. He conferred with NBC’s program chief, Charles Barry, and was to meet with ABC prexy Rob- ert Kintner before his return east. Among shows created, developed and produced by Howard are “My Friend Irma,” “Life With Luigi” and the upcoming “That’s My Boy.” SAMISH RESIGNS AS D : F-S RADIO-TV HEAD Adrian Samish has resigned, as of today (Wed.), as radio-televi- sion director of Dancer-Fitzgerald- Sample agency, after six years in the post. He will be succeeded by A1 Kobaker, who headed up the Coast office for D-F-S. Samish’s resignation stems from differences of opinion on radio- tele policy of the agency, plus a desire to return to the “creative” aspect of broadcasting-telecasting. Emerson Foote Citation For his aid to the American Can- cer Society, Emerson Foote, execu- tive veepee of McCann-Erickson, Inc., last Sunday (29) received the 15 annual Clement Cleveland medaL It’s the highest honor to go to a lay person for “outstanding work in the campaign to control cancer.” DuM’s DUAL SALES POLICY ON DIXON DuMont is developing a scheme whereby it will sell the first half- hour of its daytime “Paul Dixon Show” on a co-op basis while re- serving the last half-hour for na- tional sponsorship.' Cross-the- boarder, sold currently in 10-min- ute segments, lias three national sponsors at present. When nationally-sponsored half- hour is sold out, network would retrieve co-op strips for network sponsors should there be any bid- ders. Move marks the first co-op for the net beyond its boxing, and wrestling shows. ABC Radio in Bid For Peggy Lee Stanza ABC has approached silver Peg- gy Lee to do a four-a-week lS-mln- ute musical stint on its radio net. Talks are currently being held with General Artists Corp., which repre- sents the singer. Program would tee off late this spring and would run through the summer.. If sold, it would be’ a per- manent airer on the web. ABC’s 141G ’52 Loss ABC .financial report, issued simultaneously last week with that of United Paramount Theatres, showed a loss of $141,725 for 1952. Report was the last ABC will ever issue, since future reports will come under AB-PT banner. Company showed an operating profit of $232,127, but interest and taxes turned net to a loss. Total billings amounted to $56^03,508, less discounts (not including agen- cies’) and rebates.