Variety (April 1953)

PjSziety 39 Wednesday, April 22, 1953 MAIL ORDER HOUSES GET SON. TV REPRIEVE ■Local mail order houses who are extensive users of television breathed a sigh of relief this week- following N. Y. Gov. Thomas E. Tiewev’s veto of a state bill which would have outlawed taking of phone orders for retail goods on Sundays. Gotf. t>ewey vetoed the bill over the weekend on the basis that it might produce “unintended re-1 suits ” Mail houses estimated that^ 50*85^ of their business came on Sundays via spiels during feature film shows on ibcal stations. Sta- tions figured about 20% of their Sunday billings came from the mail order houses. Effect of the hill would have been to prevent such Sunday sales, thus putting the houses off the air on Sundays, and perhaps during the week,too. Mutual-Lever .. —r Continued from page 25 - - going through an agency, pacted for two spots per night, at a. net time-and-talent Charge of $15,0*00 per week. Net cost for the 26 weeks: $390,000. Advantage the Mutual plan has over the rotating spot plans of the other nets is its low cost, made possible via an Arrangement with the web’s stations under which they, in lieu of charging for the first nationally-sponsored: half- hour, ge 4 t a free second half-hour nightly which they can sell locally. Web doesn’t put any talent charge on the locally-sold half. Thus, for example, WNOE, New Orleans, managed to sell its half-hour to a single local sponsor, making more out of the deal than- it would have had it gotten a share of two na- tionally-sponsored half-hours. On this basis, Mutual is able to , undersell all the other webs, whose prices for the same one-minute spot range from- $3,700 to. $5,000 per night. As is, Multi-Message is completely sold except • for two minutes, one on Tuesday, the other Thursday, in the Camel-backed seg- ment. * Fair Play Code Continued from page 25 vision camera must be able to go where other reporters go.” Confusion in the public mind which makes trials out of the hear- ings is not television’s fault, Stan- ley §aid, but it is a confusion which Congress or its committees must clear up. “In my opinion,” he said, “it would be highly improper for television to undertake on its own to establish rules for legislative inquiries. Our function is to re- port, and we ask that the right be unrestricted.” * Cites ‘Injustices’ Miss Kenyon was disturbed by the injustices done witnesses and individuals mentioned in the hear- ings, injustices which she believes must be eliminated before tele- vision is allowed on the scene. “Until a code (of fair play) is adopted,” she said, “we (the ACLU) do not want extended to these meetings the coverage of TV.” The telecasts are so bril- liantly successful, she observed, that the abuse to civil liberties in the hearings themselves are mag- nified. She also said that TV cov- erage intensifies “the desire of a Congressman, looking for publici- ty, to make a spectacle of the hear- ings” and the meetings turn “into a shambles.” Novik insisted that it is foolish to wait until there is a code of rules for the hearings before put- ting them on television, and hinted we might wait a long time before Congress acted. In opposition to Stanley, he said that some rules should be used by broadcasters in setting up coverage. He offered some suggestions made by the radio committee of the ACLU* of which he is a mem- ber. They included advance plan- ning by the broadcaster and the legislative committee so that a fair and impartial hearing can be ar- ranged in the time allotted for the telecast; broadcast of the full pro- gram or the series by stations; op- portunity for persons unfavorably mentioned to defend themselves or have a statement read before the same audience; continued an- nouncements that the proceedings liADIO-TEUSYISION Senate Group to Mull OK of NARBA Treaty Re Continent’s AM Bands % To*cy Coming Back Arturo Toscanini will return for the 1953-5*4 /season, his 16th, on NBC radio, Frank White, the web’s' prexy, an- nounced yesterday (Tues.). The maestro will conduct the NBC Symphony Orchestra in 14 concerts, with his pro- tege Guido Cantelli handling eight, * First Toscy date is Sat- urday, Nov. 7. little League Baseball School’ as WCBS-TV Sat. Series; Henrich to Host Tommy Henrich, the* “Old Re- liable” of the New York Yankees, will be host and instructor at “The Little League Baseball School,” new program to make, its debut on WCBS-TV, N. Y., Saturday, May 2. Show, scheduled for 10:45 to 11 a.m., will necessitate an earlier opening for the station, which now starts at 11 on Saturdays. Begin- ning that date, WCBS-TV will open at 10:30 a.m. with a public-service film to J?e followed by the base- ball-school show. . Guest on the first program will be Preacher Roe of the Brooklyn Dodgers, and the show will be a salute to the Norwalk, Conn., team, 1952 Little League champions who will-be present. Following programs will have famous-players as Henrich’s guests to teach the Little League kids, age eight to 13, the major-league refinements of the game. The league, which has 15,000 teams and 3,576 leagues in the U. S., Canada and Puerto Rico, was founded in 1939. Pete McGovern is president, with headquarters at Williamsport, Pa. There are 152 leagues in the metropolitan N. Y. viewing areas. are hearings, not trials; presence of an announcer to explain unexpect- ed happenings; fair treatment in the matter of camera angles and broadcast not only of -sensational investigations hut Important ses- sions as well. Washington, April 21. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee is finally getting around to considering the North American Regional Broadcasting Agreement (NARBA) which was negotiated in Havana and Wash- ington in 1950. A subcommittee, headed by Sen. Charles W. Tobey (R-N.H.), will begin hearings early next month. Ratification by the Senate is required before the treaty can become effective. Agreement, allocating AM fre- quencies among the nations of North America, has been before the Senate since February, 1951. It was submitted by former Presi- dent Truman with a recommenda- tion for ratification. Because the Agreement does not guarantee full “border” protection to six of the 25 Class I-A clear channel stations in the United States, opposition to NARBA will surely be registered by the Clear Channel Broadcasting Service which claims that rural radio serv- ice in certain areas will suffer if the treaty is ratified. However, the majority of these six stations are presently suffering extensive interference due to oper- ation by foreign stations in viola- tion of the previous NARBA and this interference would either be eliminated or minimized by terms of the new Agreement. Although the Department of State and the FCC conceded that the new pact contains provisions less favorable to the U:S. than the previous NARBA, which expired in 1946, they advised the Senate that the position of broadcasting in this country would be far more favorable than in the absence of a treaty. “Within the framework of the new NARBA,” the State Depart- ment advised, “the people of the U.S. can continue to receive; • in general, the same level of broad- casting service received by them heretofore and there is consider- able room within that framework for improvement of broadcasting service within the U.S. by domes- tic action.” One of the results of ratification of the Agreement would be to en- able FCC to expedite disposition of the long-pending clear channels proceedings. Ratification would also enable the U.S. government to work out a satisfactory bilateral agreement with Mexico which is not a signatory to the new NARBA. Lubbock’s Second TVer (KCBD-TV) Preems Sun. , Lubbock, April 21. Lubbock will have two television stations on the air by the end of the week If plans by KCBD-TV to start broadcasting on Sunday (26) go according to schedule. Launch- ing of the" new TV counterpart to KCBD will start a full-fledged lis- tenership and sponsorship battle— KCBD is „an NBC-ABC affiliate, while WDUB, which has been in operation since last November, car- ries CBS and DuMont shows. New outlet has tentatively sched- uled nine hours of network pro- gramming, with number of film shows* including the CBS Syndica- tion package and packages from Ziv and "United Television Pro- grams. It’s also set local shows, including a musifcal program from Texas Tech College. WPIX Sets Realty Show Subject of real estate is coming into greater vogue in the New York area. WPIX, N. Y. Daily Nev{s station, Has set “Househunt- ing with Bergton” for a Saturday night showcasing, starting next week. Program features New Jer- sey realtor B. J. Bergton giving tips on- real estate. Another house- hunting series, “House Detective,” •has been making the rounds of the N. Y. stations for the past year, and is currently on WABC-TV. By JACK O’BBIAN do can April 15. 1953 Annual Showmanagement Awards IT. Woman of the Year Running unopposed on a platform of a Westinghouse in every home and a frost-free America, an amateur politician by the name of Betty Furness romped* in by a landslide at the Chicago conventions. The Furness gal, opening and closing refrigerator doors, was as familiar a sight on the TV screens of the nation dur- ing both conventions as any u of the candidates, and she’* probably won more friends and influenced more people than some of ’em. It was more, though, than Just a virtuoso endurance per- formance. It was also one of the best video sales jobs of the year. Miss B, not only dis- played her staying powers, but also proved again that one of the best ways to sell on TV is by demonstrating the prod- uct, with an appealing and convincing demonstrator doing the pitch. Miss TV: Betty Furness Betty Furness is “Miss Tele- vision” this fine '52-53 season. She consistently has managed a miracle: Kept ■ herself a glamorous and important per- sonality while opening and slamming refrigerator doors. Her refreshing, young-matron appearance—calm and intelli- gent demeanor and everything that’s “nice,” in the most tru- est connotation of that some- times • apologetic word—makes her almost the single excep- tion, the Switzerland in the war of words and carnival pitching, a lady with a spon- sored message we’re glad to see. In the convention madhouse last year she was so popular with viewers she might have got on either ticket. In her electrified regular- role or her Qccasjonal excursions into the encroachments of entertain- ment, she’s always a lady, a young lady, a beautiful young lady, and our “Miss TV” this year.