Variety (April 1953)

82 RADIO-TELEVISION Pffi&iWrf Wednesday, April 15, 1953 Execs Ponder Whether TV Economy IB Wipe Out Full-Hour Shows Blaze Levels WCMA Cornith, Miss., April 14. WCMA, Cornith indie, was liter- ally destroyed by fire of undeter- mined origin last week (10). Station manager John Bell and program director Larry Crenshaw said the studios, control rooms and equipment, including one of the largest record libraries in North Mississippi, were completely de- stroyed by the blaze, about two in the morning. The station had signed off at 11 p.m. Bell and Crenshaw immediately mapped plans for a makeshift oper- ational schedule. New studios are already under construction. The nighttime hour-long (or* longer) dramatic and variety pro- grams on television may, in sev- eral seasons, go the way of the dodo. On the basis of the ’53-’54 season’s planning, they still loom fairly prominent on the network schedules, with 10 hour-long-or- plus productions, excluding the Pabst-Gillette fight pickups. But there is not a single new entry on the roster, all 10 compris- ing the old standards, such as Mil- ton Berle who will be rotating two- out-of-three with Bob Hope (plus three additional dramatic entries by Robert E. Sherwood); the Rob- ert Montgomery show, “Studio One,” “Kraft ' Theatre,” ' “Arthur Godfrey and His Friends,” “Col- gate Comedy Hour,” “Jackie Glea- son Show,” Ed Sullivan’s “Toast of the Town,” “Your Show of Shows,” and the “Philco-Goodyear Playhouse.” Hour casualty this season is NBC-TV’s “All Star Revue,” with “My Hero” and Ted Mack’s “Orig- inal Amateur Hour” (now halved) as two half-hour fall replacements. “Revue” demise adds to a long*] list of dropped hours—the “Cela- nese Theatre,” the Pulitzer Prize Playhouse, “Broadway Open House,” the Paul Whiteman hour, the Kate Smith show, “Prudential Family Playhouse,” and the Schlitz and Ford Theatres (since capsuled into half-hour presentations). Reasons for the decline of the hour programs are many, but chief of them is the problem of soaring television prices. Of tfie 10 returning programs, only three have single sponsors— “Kraft Theatre,” “Colgate Comedy Hour” (with several products shoul- dering the financial burden) and “Toast of the Town.” All the others have alternate or participating sponsorships, which spell worry to the tele salesmen. Frankly, the'time salesmen are discouraging the hour productions. They’re tired of splicing sponsor- ships thin and keeping several bankrollers in line for one show. Moreover, half-hour rates are 60% of hourly rates, and two half-hours, in tele, equal a juicy 120%. Sta- tion clearances are also a head- ache, with half-hour shows easier to line up. Significantly, ABC-TV is planning half-hour shows for its block of stars who have had hour exposures in the past, among them Geprge Jessel, Paul Hartman, c Ray Bolger and Danny Thomas. If TV prices go higher, there will be a delaying action fought on cutting sponsors in even thin- ner, with as many as eight'adver- Risers sharing the tab for an hour l ron Curtain ‘Challenge’ show. But if sponsors remain re- _ ° Senes for NBC Radio 200G TV Center For KSTM, St. L St. Louis, April 14. Work on a new $200,000 building to house the second TV station in ] St. Louis is expected to be com- pleted by Sept. 1 when KSTM-TV, owned by the Broadcasting House, Inc., is skedded to tee off on UHF Channel 36. The building of, mod- ern design will be in the west end sector of the city and will operate with a 600-foot tower. William E. Ware, prez of the new company, said the new TV sta- tion basically will be an ABC af- filiate. CBS Radio Preps Major Summer Sun. News Show The CBS Radio news department is planning an elaborate Sunday- afternoon summer news show, from 4 to 4:30 p.m., beginning in early May.- The program, aimed to demon- strate once again that radio can jump around the world the way television can’t, will be combina- tion of a world news roundup, the web’s year-end show and the de- funct “Hear It Now,” with a large portion of Washington origination. Show will be put up for sale. Time is now sustaining. luctant on a share basis—half-hour sponsors are more numerous than those willing to take a small part of an hour—there will be no great industry fight to retain the hour shows as such, despite their great public popularity. Peg and Walter McGraw, who tape-documented the NBC radio series “The Challenge of the Pris- ons” (ending this Friday (17), are scheduled to go to Russia in the fall, reports Jack Cleary, the web’s program chief, to do a documentary series titled “The Challenge of the Iron Curtain.” Another documentary series planned for next season by the Me Graws is “The Challenge of Nar- cotics.” Each series will run three WABD’s Rash of Spots WABD, DuMont N. Y. flagship, last week registered some of the heaviest spot business in its his- tory, with General Mills pacting for 624 one-minute, 80-second and 20-second announcements and five other advertisers signing for ex- tensive campaigns. Standard Brands purchased 267 20-second spots for Instant Chase & Sanborn Coffee, while Fatima has signed for 40 20-second and eight-second announcements. Oth- er new sponsors are O’Dell Co., Henry Heide, Inc. and Frito. Canadian Entries i Gain Prominence In OSH Awards Columbus, April 14. Only two U. S. network shows managed to cop recognition in the radio section of 17th American Ex- hibition of Educational Radio and Television Programs, held in con- nection with Ohio State U.’s annual Institute for Education by Radio- TV, which opens at the Deshler- Wallick Hotel here Thursday (16). In significant contrast to this, the Canadian .Broadcasting Corp. car- ried off five first awards and five honorable mentions. In a spot check, it was observed that U. S. networks generally refrained from entering their New" York shows, but there were network show en- tries from Hollywood and Chicago. NBC got a first award for its “National Farm and Home Hour” out of Chicago, and CBS shared its honorable mention for “The Peo- ple Act” with the TV-Radio Work- shop of the Fund for Adult Educa- tion and the National Committee for the People Act. Television awards will be an- nounced the opening day of the four-day Institute. Number of TV programs submitted complicated the judging so that TV list, which was judged by a special group, here, had to be delayed. It was pointed out by a top In- stitute official that perhaps the strong showing of Canadian radio as against that of the U. S. reflects a deterioration of new program- ming in this country. It was also observed in a foreword to the awards that radio is still the prin cipal and unchallenged form of (Continued on page 44) Summer Defrosting For ‘People Are Funny’ Amana Refrigerator Inc. of Iowa, through Maury, Lee & Marshall agency, has bought a 13-week sum- mer period of CBS Radio's “Peo- ple Are Funny,” Mars candy now backs the show (Tuesdays at 8 to 8:30 p.m.), but will relinquish it for the summer. Summer bangroller begins the first week in June. TV Copywriter Tips Continued from page 27 WERE, WXEL BaUcast Windfall in Cleveland Cleveland, April 14, Opening of baseball season finds WERE and WXEL, handling radio j or four programs, and TV play-by-play of Indians games, chalking, up bonanza in sponsored time sales for both games and for-and-aft. Radio-wise, WERE will feed games to special 30-station hookup extending into New York and Pennsylvania, with Jimmy Dudley and Jack Graney back at the mike. Standard Brewing Co. has picked up the tab for only the local outlet for all 155 games. TV-wise, WXEL again carries all 77 home games for Pfeiffer Brew- ing, with Bob Neal and Red Jones gabbing. The station will feed opening game to Ohio network, in eluding WSPD, WHIO, WTVN, Kansas City—Mrs. Ann Sine is resigning from Station KCKN after nearly nine years of service there. She. has been office mana ger of the Capper outlet, but wil devote herself entirely to home- making. She began with station in 1944. Nix on Famous Players, Cooke In Canada TV Invites Political War Toronto, April 14. In what is promised as a politi- cal issue in the forthcoming Fed- eral election this fall, Famous Players-Canadian’s application for a television license has been turned down by the State-operated Cana- dian Broadcasting Corp.; ditto ap- WICU arid WKBN. Other 1 Pfeiffer plication of Jack Kent Cooke, own- feeds to outside stations will be er of radio station CKEY, Toronto. realized April 21, 25, 26 and 28. WXEL will use a four-camera "crew. Unable to obtain a Toronto chan- nel, as all three are held by the CBS, with one only in operation, Famous Players sought to estab- „ „ lish a station in nearby Kitchener, ■urrvfr 01 *? manager of Ontario, with Cooke seeking a sim- WOV, N. Y., arrived in New York Har go-ahead in Windsor, Ontario, over the weekend with his wife, across from Detroit, Prepared to gamble millions in setting up of TV stations in Tor- onto, Famous Players and Cooke are now further stymied In a CBC brushoff that prohibits their establishing TV stations in adja- ( Cuepo’s N.Y. Huddles Vera Fontanella, who produces the Station’s daily Italian-language “Your Home Town.” Pair will stay in N. Y. for 10 4ays, conferring with Ralph Weil, stations’ .prexy. cent Toronto areas on CBC policy that these would blanket proposed CBS-TV stations and that the State-operated system will set up its own network in key cities across Canada, confining private enterprise wishes' to the smaller cities where these will not conflict with the CBS-TV web. With'Canada still in the pioneer TV stage, and guided by a wait- and-see policy in observance o: TV difficulties and their solution in the United States and Britain— plus the problem of Federal fi- nancing, with taxpayers in un served areas squawking about pay- ing for TV services in more for- tunate centres—CBC is currently operating a station In Toronto and one in Montreal, but plans to have TV stations operating by June in Vancouver, Winnipeg, Ot- (Continued on page 47) location. However, to Intensify in- terest, and add variety to commer- cials, it is often desirable to stimu- late action and interior shots. By judicious editing and * selection of existing footage, results can be achieved that not only provide the illusion, but represent only a very small fraction of the cost of making* live shots. In many cases, even copy writers who have had the opportunity to become familiar with studio me- chanics are wise to rely on the advice of a film editor. Quite often, the sheer variety and inge- nuity of the special effects avail- able, becomes too hard to resist, and the result is usually a gimmick- happy commercial. Here the prob- lem becomes one of selection, and it tafces considerable experience, to be able to discriminate between effects that enhance the story line, and those that merely clutter up the action. Special effects can be costly, too, aria studies have shown hat excessive use cf even conven- ional devices can distract the at- tention of the viewer from the commercial “sell.” Trick Gimmicks Costly, Slow Particularly is-this true of trick opticals, superimpositions, split screens and the 'like. These can increase the cost of a commercial tremendously, and delay delivery. It is well to remember that the less laboratory work necessary, the less the commercial will cost—and the quicker it will be ready. These are among the things a good film man can be counted on to point out, and it is almost axiom- atic that for topquality commer- cials,- an * early working relation- ship be established between the copywriter and the film expert. Another vitally important factor that a goo’d copywriter working on television commercials should keep paramount in mind, is the old shib- boleth: “One picture is worth a thousand words.” For film or tele- vision is nothing more than the projection of thousands of single still pictures—it is the brain’s unique ability to retain the image momentarily that gives film its motion. Horace Schwerin, the commer- cial tester, pointed out that his studies consistently show that by far the major selling impact of a commercial film is in its visual as- pects. Both the Army, and, Navy research studies made during the war on training films are even more emphatic: one analysis cred- its as much as 90% of the film’s effect on viewers to the picture— only 10% to the audio track. Schwerin, of course, feels that by far the most effective type of film commercial is one where the message is expressed visually and audibly simultaneously. While there seems to be no question of the correctness of his finding, it is. exceedingly diicult to maintain continuity of action in a film throughout, and at the same time observe this recommendation. In view of this, it would seem advantageous for most copy writ- ers, to give considerably more thought than is now being given to the action and visual elements of the commercial. It would also seem.for future reference, that if the elements in a commercial do not offer any particularly advan- tage in visual treatment, some con- sideration should be given to either junking the commercial and start- ing from scratch, or going ahead and doing it live. Far to many commercials today are nothing more than a straight radio commercial pitch, with very little thought given to the visual aspects. If a straight selling com- mercial, with static production val- ues, has to be used, then it should definitely be done live—not on film. Previously, because of the dis- parity in performers fee’s covering live and filmed performances, it was usually cheaper to do the com- mercial on film. But today, with the new Screen Actors Guild min- imums'and repeat fee’s, doing a straight commercial on film will cost as much or more than live. There is also some small con- solation to be had from the fact that research studies on straight commercial pitches indicate that a live pitch carries a stronger im- pact than if the spiel is on film. But to get back to the copy writer’s obligation to provide a stronger visual sell than an atidi* J Me one. The U.S. Army’s .very in- teresting reports on trailing film reactions ‘strongly indicate that, in the initial conception of the com- mercial idea, the major thinking should be in terms of the picture, rather than trying to adapt action to dialogue later on. If this prem- ise is. accepted, the writer must then conceive, and provide for, such factors as movement, motiva- tion, and characterization in his original script treatment. Considering the fact that little real thought is being given to vis- ual interpretation in commercials today, and, generally speaking, the acting is somewhat reminiscent of the Keystone Kops, it would ap- pear the writer has his work cut out for him. If we are to aecept the comparable 'findings in the Army tests, by neglecting, this phase of commercial film produc- tion, both the recall and impact factors are reduced. On the other hand, by establishing characteriza- tions, utilizing facial expression, movement, arid good casting (which is discussed next) a much more ef- fective and acceptable commercial can be produced. In any event, the advertising copywriter is now in the process of becoming a screen writer. He has the responsibility of not only creating a solid sales story, but also sednes containing the elements of a good screen play—and char- acter’s who not only talk, but must move and portray a role. This is the second of a series of three articles by Mr. Harris on Television Programs and Commer- cial Film Techniques. The third will appear in subsequent issue of Variety. Pix-TV Mating Continued from page 2 sponsor will not only be under- writing ABC’s time facilities, but also payrolling the Hollywood ex- cerpts whose direct benefit Will be a cuffo commercial. Ed Sullivan’s CBS-TV vaudeo, “Toast of the Town,” has done con- siderable pioneering in breaking down studio-by-Studio resistance to freeing scenes and personalities for videocasting. Sullivan, obvious- ly, achieved this as direct result of his toprated TV’er serving as an automatic showcase for the proper- ly timed pic product. The Johnston office hookup, however, bespeaks the frankest and most direct mating of the two. media—films and TV—because it has the management end of the 1 picture business. in complete ac* cord with the idea of a perma- nent TV outlet. Kintner envisions a Saturday or Sunday evening half-hour, despite the fact that such a potent picture package might be considered mili- tating against “the film b.o. How- ever, weekend business is such .that TV’s inroads are relatively negligi- ble, as evidenced by TV least af- fecting the boxoffice on the two strongest fan nights, even at video’s most potent impact as “opposition.” This unusual capitulation by Hollywood to TV is a milestone in the mutuality of both giant mass entertainments. It augurs potentials of extraor- dinary scope. For instance, it may be regarded as a forward step, perhaps, in a new avenue of rev- enue for Hollywood — the oft- discussed “tollvision,” via a me- tered method of at-home payment. “A boxoffice in every TV home,” for which the most vociferous have been Cmdr. Eugene F. MoDonaW, Jr. (Zenith), Carl Leserman (Tele- meter), Paul Raibourn (Para- mount), David Loew and other showmen. " ' Perhaps more immediate, it crystallizes the continuing firmness of the picture boxoffice in relation to, TV; that video is no longer the bogeyman of old; that strong product will command even strong- er b.o. And, above all, that the two giants can thrive side by side, each one complementing the other. Perhaps this was best illustrated by the RCA Victor sponsorship of the Academy Awards, and .the manner in which the NBC-TV fa- cilities showcased the dignity, stature and scope of the film col- ony as it never had been before. More important still was the im- mediate b.o. reaction following the telecasting of the Academy sweep- stakes*