Variety (April 1953)

BAMO-TELEVISIOX ABC-TV Now in Race for Baseball Network activity in securing^ ag- itational telecasting on Saturdays I Hoskins NL&B Copy Chief la on the-upbeat again, with ABC- Chicago, April 28. TV now in the Picture. Network Needham> Louis & Brorby agency has had sponsor interest in such a Jast week named Winfield Hoskins project, and is actively trying to its newly-created post of tele- line UP the major league clubs for vision copy supervisor/He’ll super- auch a project. . .. . . vise all copy for the agency’s TV v In £ r , e f a e fr co whtch commercials for network shows l» Falstaff Brewing Co. whi^h Uke .. Robert Montgomery Pre- sponsors Game of the Day on , „ «*jj a r«e’s the Same’* and Mutual radio and has local spon- f.c^ s V in e •* sorship of major league clubs in SKy A,n «* the midwest. It was Falstaff which bankrolled the ABC-TV pickup of the opening game between the N. Y. Yankees and the Washington Senators in Washington, and it’s currently believed to he willing to meet the bill on a network telecast ©f a selected game on Saturday. Number of stumbling blocks exist which ABC-TV is trying to overcome. - Chief among these is reluctance on the part of the major league clubowners to sanction net- work pickups. They have all pri- Jumping the gun oft its competi- vately admitted in the past-that tion, NBC radio is offering its af Simmer Radio such a scheme was “inevitable,” but none has made the first step. Another factor is price—-some club- owners have been demanding more coin that the network is willing to band out. filiates and advertisers a cutrate Summer Tandem Plan. Move was dictated by worry that the net’s opposition was readying to slash rates. Letter by Harry Bannister, net veepee, two weeks Another problem, is agreements ago confided to affiliates, “We with local stations and sponsors, have every reason to believe that some of which call for exclusive our competition is getting ready coverage rights. While a “Game to spring a series of. special sumi- ©f the Week” might be set up be- mer offers, sewing up advertisers fore tjio season, it’s a difficult pros- first 'and; announcing, the plan pect during the season, after rights have been assigned. Last; but hot least, of the questions fac Ing ABC-TV is sponsorship. For Falstaff sponsorship would be re- gional, sine'e the brewery has few distributor, outlets in the east. Pre later.’’ 7 Rather than get caught without its own plah, the network disclosed a participation lineup, “at greater economy than ever before,” of six evening shows during June, July and August, in which an advertiser sumably, network would either co- may buy a single participation (at op the' games in the rest of the $3,856, or one-sixth of the hour country, as is done on Mutual with rate). •’Game of the Day” and was done ‘ The programs,. as revealed this with the Yanks-Senators battle, or week: would get a sponsor for the east. “Barrie Craig,” mystery starring Up to now, DuMont network has William Gargan, Sundays at 10 to been the only teevee net publicly seeking such a “Game of the W k eek” telecast. DuMont, which for the past two years has been trying*to line up the clubowners, met' with another rebuff this year, with none of. the baseball execs Willing to sign with the net until “some other, clubowner took the first step.” 10:30 p.m.; Robert Armbuster and his orchestra from Hollywood Mon- days at 10:15 to 10:30 p.m.; “First Nighter,” Tuehdays, 8:30 to 9 p.m.; “The Scarlet Pimpernel,” Wednes- days, 9:30 to 10 p.m.; “Judy Ca- nova,” Thursdays, 10 to 10:30 p.m.; “Bob and Ray,” Fridays, .9:30 to 10 p.m. . . Before the plan was formally out, it already had been attacked. Reg Rollinson, director of adver 'riser relations for the Station Rep- resentatives Associations,. claimed ihat on a spot sales basis (!) NBC stations could, get 50- to 300% greater revenue for the time period involved and that (2) advertisers could have greater freedom in choosing the best possible avail- Status of “Your Show of Shows,” abilities. Rollinson said that fill’ In deep discussion for the last few station# revenues from the plan weeks between producer Max were predicated on the basis that Liebman and Charles C. (Bud) the programs would be sold out Barry, NBC-TV programming vee- Repact ‘Shows’ JIMMY NELSON DANNY O’DAY AND HUMPHREY HIGSBYE Featured—Texaco Star Theatre NBC-TV with Milton Berle PERSONAL MANAGEMENT LOUIS W. COHAN 1776 Broadway, N. Y. Breaking of Release, Program Snafu, Snarl 1953 Wednesday, April 29 T 1953 ‘General Video’ Surveys the Future ' Los Angeles, April 28. The following are highlights of the keynote address by RCA board chairman David Sarnoff at the annual NARTB convention llfilTG* (1) A thousand television stations will be in operation within a few years. Television networks will reach into all parts of the country, providing a national program service that will make present schedules seem primitive. . . (2) There is no doubt that operations in UHF (ultra high frequen- cies) will fill a place of growing significance ini television. (3) Hopes the day is not far off when compatible color television will be authorized for commercial broadcasting. This will make television more exciting, more dramatic and more enjoyable. (4) Television can solve its economic problems without a “cash box” in the home. , , . A (5) Television can learn much from the motion picture world, hut there is also a good deal it must learn to forget. (6) Radio broadcasting, far from being “doomed” within three years, as forecast by prophets of 1949, still renders a vital national service after four years have passed; overall time sales have in- creased and fundamental changes are under way. (7) New scientific advances in radio, television and electronics are in the offing. These include: Transistors, which promise to become the master key to new progress in radio and television as a device making pos- sible instruments of smaller size, greater versatility and longer life. • Electronic tape recorders for television program storage, with greater advantage of economy and convenience. Closed-circuit TV techniques and devices Wnich will provide visual intercommunications systems for industry, science and education. An electronic “voting system” using Jiome television re- ceivers with a button which when pushed will register “yes” or “no” at the TV station. This may lead to a national push- button poll of public opinion automatically tabulated by elec- tronic computers. A general breaking of release date preceded the announcement 7 ] of the George Foster Peabody Awards last Friday (24) at a Hotel Roosevelt luncheon of the Radio and Television Executives Society in New York. Time mag, dated April 27, was on the stands Thursday (23), which prompted others, including the New_ Yoi*k Times, to release the Peabody winners before the formal luncheon announcement. Inci- dentally, the Times’ radio-TV edi- tor,* Jack Gould, gave Peabody se- lections a critical going-over last Sunday (26). Presentation itself* telecast over NBC-TV from 1:30 to 2 p. m. Fri- day, was rushed for time, with Mar- tha Rountree (co-producer with Lawrence Spivak of winner “Meet the Press” in the television news division) hurrying through her speech, and presentation of-awards to Dr. Frances Horwich (for NBC- TV’s “Ding Dong School” in chil- dren’s division) and to veepee T. L Lenzen of Standard Oil Co. of-Cali- fornia (for NBC’s “The Standard Symphony”) were cut off the air. Latter program was a Co-winner with CBS’ Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra in the radio-music divi- sion. ' . Deepest impressions were, made (Continued on page 3Q) WABC-TV’s WABC-TV, ABC’s N. Y. flagship, is planning a. 15-minUte cross-the- board news strip at 7:15 p. m., and has pacted Levy Bread to sponsor three days. Levy will pick up the Monday, Wednesday and Friday segments, with the other two days carried sustaining. Previously in the spot were ad- venture films. Announcer for the news strip, which bows May 11* hasn’t been set yet. pee, has been decided this week. Show, which goes off for the summer May 30, returns in the fall* with Sid Caesar and-Imogene Coca, who reportedly get the extra coin they’ve been asking. They also may have fewer exposures on the program. Format and time will be the same, but it’s expected that sav- ings—to equalize the stars’ boost— will be effected through the lopoff of *inany' of the secondary big names, among whom are Mar- guerite Piazza, Judy Johnson, the Hamilton Trio, Mata & Hari, and the : Billy Williams Quartet. Splash of Stars Los Angeles, April 28. With NBC-RCA contributing its own Gen. David Sarnoff as “Star Bait” for the NARTB convention, CBS (whose board chairman and president, Bill Paley and Frank Stanton, respectively, are sitting out this one), is throwing in its top talent ammunition as a counter- thrust. As the '‘official welcoming .com- mittee” on behalf of California, Lu- cille Ball and Desi Arnez, stars of the CBS-TV toprated “I Love Lucy” team, will be on < hand to- morrow (Wed.) to officially open the convention. . In fact, with vidpix now bringing more and 1 more Hollywood person- alities into the broadcaster ken, the . networks and TV,-film' .pro-' ducers are..corralling every, .star itt sight -to put in an, appearance dur- ing the .convenfiq«»#uV-A-'*'<'».-^^:t National Anthem M$s. Put On Display In L A. As NARTB Meet Highlight Los Angeles, April 28. Carl Haverlin, prexy of the in- dustry-sponsored"* Broadcast Music, Inc., brought to L. A, its major excitment of convention week, but strictly as one of the extra-curricu- lar activities. Under special guard, Haverlin brought with him the original manuscript of Francis Scott Key’s “Star Spangled Ban- tier” for exhibition -at the L. A. Public Library (which manuscript Haverlin himself “borrowed” from the Library of Congress). To insure its safety, the L. A. civic fathers gave Haverlin an es- cort. through the city streets of (1) a battalion of National Guards- men; .(2) a crew of eight manning a tank, (3) a kingsized police escort on foot; (4) two, armed -jeeps.. And a 10-man patrol squad is on steady duty outside the Public Library while the kids parade in for a gander of the manuscript. Cadillac Audition CBS Radio, at the request of Cadillac, auditioned la^t week a new musical show, hosted by Allyn Edwards, with Mimi Benzell, Earl Wrlghtson and Alfredo Antonini’s orchestra. Program, a 25-minute session, may be ft Juiie replacement for the Sunday at 5:30 .p, m. “Cadillac Choral Symphomtf *m < n i t © rro : - SCENIC ARTISTS SLUFF NBC-TV ON WEEKENDS NBC-TV is doing without the work of scenic artists on Saturdays and Sundays. United Scenic Artists (AFL) Local 829 has instructed its members not to work on those days. Issue, says Rudy Karnolt, lo- cal business manager, is one * of time and a half for Saturday and Sunday work. Other nets, Karnolt says', are paying for premium time, but not NBC-TV. Meanwhile, Local>JB29’s contract renewal with the nets, which ex- pired March 31, is still up in the air. Agreement, almost reached last' Friday (24), fell through this week. Affected are scenic artists, set de- signers and costume designers. ‘Life in Washington’ Rolls on D. C. Screens Washington, April 28. As one of three “City Series” being presented by NBC stations in cooperation with Life mag, WNBW (TV) here will report on “Life in Washington” weekly be- ginning tomorrow (Wed.) at 7 p.m. The premiere telecast of the half- hour documentary will be the oc- casion for a reception at the Ward- man Park Hotel, to be attended by Life publisher Andrew Heiskell. Series will concentrate on the “big change” that has taken place in the Capital in the last 20 years. | Opening program will focus on the “double life” of thfc city, with pickups from the Pentagon and other key locations. NBC and' Life is also presenting /‘Life in Cleveland” and “Life in Detroit,” : and 'plans “similar pro- grams - for New York; Chicago, Los Angeles and other cities, .u t L » With its Saturday night fall schedule solidified behind the Jackie Gleason Show and a sponsored lineup including Herb Shriner’s “Two for the Money,” “My Favorite Husband,” and the new Tony Miner half-hour dra- matic show, CBS-TV has turned its attention to other nights. “See It Now,” backed by Alcoa, will shift from Sundays at 6:30 p.m. to Tuesdays at 10:30 p.m. in the fall. Move was long rumored, with the aluminum firm unhappy about the Sunday rating and feeling that the show would be better off in a late-night exposure. In programming the 10:30 p.m. Tuesday spot, CBS-TV is reclaming time it now has on release to local stations. The web is also planning to program the Friday 10:30 p.m, time, now in local hands. The web also has picked up an- other. sponsor for its “You Are. There,” now backed on alternate weeks by the Electric Cos. of America. In the fall; the Prudential Co. will pick up the other half of the tab, and program will move from its 6 p.m. spot to 6;30, filling the “See It Now” vacancy. The “.You Are There” shift also in- volves moving “Omnibus” to the later 5 to 8:30 p.m. time. ♦ . Despite claims by educators that commercial stations can’t offer enough time and knowhow for edu- cational telecasting, one New York station has more time available to educators than they can use. Sta*. tion is WPIX, Daily News outlet, Which currently has three hours per week of- straight educational programming; has made available more time without takers, and plans still more such programming in the fall. Latest innovation of the station is the enrolled course, “Today’s English,” produced in cooperation with New York U. Course bowed last weekt and total enrollment up to date is over the 1,200 mark. Audience gets' textbook, assign- merit sheets and final exam for a small fee. Show is slotted op- posite Red Buttons on CBS-TV and Robert Montgomery on NBC-TV, but nonetheless has created much local interest. Preceding the NYU course is “NeWs-O-Rama,” a news show prepared and presented by stu- dents at the Columbia U. Graduate School of Journalism. Despite the fact, that it’s on at the same time as “I Love Lucy” on CBS-TV, pro- gram has attracted sponsor inter- est, according to. WPIX v.p.-gen- eral manager J. Bennett Larson. Another of the educational shows is “The Living Blackboard,” on three mornings per week, produced and presented by the N. Y.. City Board of Education. Program is designed primarily for school-age shutins. Saturday afternoon, there’s another NYU-produced show, “Animals Are Fun.” And throughout the schedule are educa- tional films, along with quasi- edu- cational commerciar programs on decorating, cooking, sewing, carv- ing, painting; etc.' More Time Offered Station has offered more of its time to educators, but without any takers. In ca§e of “Blackboard,” the Board of Ed was offered the (Continued on page 47) In ‘Studio One’ Original Jackie Gleason will' make his dramatic dehut in A. J. Russell’s original ' tele play, “The Laugh Maker,” on CBS-TV’s “Studio One,” Monday, May 18. . The try as a tele thesp is the second for the comedian. A year ago, he was slated, for a* “Suspense show< but ducked • out" at the*last minute* < „Los Angeles, April 28. Paul Motency, • prez of WTIC, Hartford, and one of the radio in- dustry kingpins, was elected presi- dent of the Radio Pioneers Club at its annual election here yester- day (Mon.), In orie of the auxil- iary NARTB convention meets. He succeeds Jack Poppele. ‘Other new officers include Arthur B. Church, first veepee; Raymond F. Guy. and Victor Diehm, veepees; John Patt, secretary, and Charles A. Wall, treasurer./ «* - Pioneers Club membership .is comprised of 20-year broadcasting vets. -* . iy.xi.1: :