Variety (September 1953)

100,000 WATTS WGAL WedneMlay, Septemlier 16, 19.>3 RAMO-TELEVIKIO!Y ' chapter of the Order of the Eastern Star. Outlines of the function of both orgs vkere given by respective reps. However, the explanations had to be rushed because of lack of lime. Jess. like this sort of thing. Oh. yes four femmes who vied for .Mi America laurels gave the ftnal fi minutes a alight lift, Gtl‘» O’Day» and Sir Cedric Hardwicke, provides a cheerful atmosphere. Collyer is very much at home as the conferencier. Questions are good ones that tax the intelligence and memory, and film clips, specially prepared, are of good quality and showcase the clues subtlely but fairly. Game moves fast and makes entertain- ing viewing all the way through. Chari. AMERICAN INVENTORY With Dr. Sigmund Spaeth. Rfttv Johnson. Ken Roberts Producer: William Hodapp Director: Grey Lockwood 30 Mins.: Sun., 2 p.m. Sustaining NBC-TV, from N. Y. “American Inventory," wiiich originated in July. 195i. retutri-i to NBC-TV Sunday <13' aft**r * summer recess. Formal of ’!e show, which is produced under 4 grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, calls for educational programming geared for adult on- sumption. Opener met format\ r^*- quirement, Preem show traced the hi«,tot\ of the U. S. from the colonial pro lod to the present via an assemblage of songs popular during vantius periods of the nation's gro'.^tii Background of the different tun* s and their reflection on a particul.u- period was explained by songsU*utli Dr. Sigmund Spaeth, Abetting Spaeth’s commentary was Betty Johnson, who provided vocaling on some of the numbers brought into play, Spaeth also handled keyboard accompaniment for the singer. K^n Roberts did an okay job of llo^l. ing the session. “The Star Spangled Banner.’ “Yankee Doodle," "Believe .Me. if All Those Endearing Young Charms," “Oh. Su.sanna." “Di-Ki.*. ’ “The Battle Hymn of the Repub- lic." “A Hot Time in the Old Town Tonight." “Over There." “Alexander’s Ragtime Band," ‘ .Ml The Things You Are” and “Butloin I and Bows” were all given the an.i- I lytical treatment by Spaeth. mick in a “Citizens Panel that .s fronted by Spivak. who is never one to throw namby-pamby ques- tmns ^as witness his firing line stuff on “Meet the Press”). Among the "Citizens" at preem outing were several clergymen, laymen and a newspaperman, and none of them was bashful about shooting crisp lines at the debaters. Matthews stuck to his guns on subversion in the church, though disdaiming any personal knowl- edge of C’ommies therein, nor could he name any card-holding Protestant members. He declar;*d intimate knowledge of Commie tinnounc^T, riolri oi A horn were scheduled to be on the ! nitialer, did not appear. Monet, Loming on in the closing produc- tion number, impressed as havin^^ a pleasant and resonant voice and a good deal of poise and camera presenci*. High spot of the pro- duction numtiers was the dancing, with .lames Staihuck’s boys and girts continuing to he television's lop chor«*ographic group. And Jleiner and Morris, hatk from last year’s cast, proved anew that they are a couple of the best supporting comiis in the business. (ine souri'e of annoyance and a delriment to good pacing was the commercials NBC is selling most of the show on 10-minute seg- ments, and the necessity to get that one spot in every 10 minutes has resulted in a commercial be- tween each act If it can possibly be winked out. I.iebman might try placirig a couple of announcements (they’re all on film anyway) back to back Overall production staff con- tinues to be one of the fiest in tele- vision. Cfiarles Sanford’s musical showbacking was razor-sharp; Fred Fox’s sets (especially those in Miss Toumanova’s number and in Monet’s closing production) were topflight; Bill Hohin’s camera di- rection was fluid and sharp; Paul <lu Pout’s costumes were the best that could be provided, and Clay QUIZ KIDS With Joe Kelly. Sally Ann Wll-1 helm, Janet Ahem, Richard All-1 man. Pat Conlon, Harvey Dytch Producer: Rachel Stevenson Director: Scott Younr 30 .Mins., Sun., 6 p.m. .Sustaininf CB.S-TV, from Chicaeo CBS-TV’s precocious panel of moppets l.s back for another season of Sunday afternoon qAa sessions, apparently none the worse for a vacationless summer. Under vet Joe Kelly’s friendly tutelage, the kids continue to amaze with their adult knowledge of most any sub- ject. Format is pretty much the same as in the past, the chief appeal re- maining the whimsical answers the mentally alert youngsters come up with and the facial expressions the I camera can capture. Real charmer I of the distafT side of the panel is eight-year-old Janet Ahern, who finds most of her competition for scene stealing coming from Rich- , ard Allman, with an IQ that belies 1 his six years. ' Questions asked on show caught ranged from the scientific to geog- raphy to baseball. Only one that j threw the panel was a quotation i from an obscure Chinese philos- i opher that was confused with a very similar passage from a poem by Edgar Allen Poe. This stickler, I by the way, was posed by screen I star Albert Dekker, who assumed i the role of guest inquisitor for a i few moments. Show has very few gimmicks and ON YOUR WAY With Bud Collyer. guests Producer. Collyer Director: Martin Magner 30 Mins., Wed., 9:30 p.m. WELCH’S WINE Du.Mont, from N. Y. i Monroe Greenthalf Of all the quiz shows that have been flooding the networks in re- cent months, “On Your Way" stacks up as one of the dullest and least inspired. Why Welch’s Wine, which had a program full of possi- bilities in the “Dotty Mack Show." chose to let it go in favor of the quizzer. is one of those agency- client mysteries that can never be fathomed (although Lawrence White, who’s exec producer of the program and had a hand in de- veloping it, is acting in a con.sulta- live capacity for the sponsor, it’s understood). i But there’s virtually no attrac- tion about this quizer. Every ) panel show and quiz on the ait ' these days has some kind of gim- ■ mick that ostensibly is a rai.son I d’etre. “On Your Way" has one. each correct answer advancing them a quarter of the way to their destination. | The questions are easy and un- , interesting; the contestants’ stories . are commonplace (two of them had to get back to school after work- ing in N. Y., the other wanted to' get married', and the whole idea ! is insipid. Collyer. aside from losing count on the number of an- .swers with one contestant, didn’t | even have the right answer to one : of his own questions—he thought j the second president of the U. S. 1 was Jefferson. 1 Aside from these obvious slips. ' Collyer makes a pleasant enough emcee. He’s the type of per- former who can be amiable even when there’s nothing to be amiable about, and he managed to appear as if he was enjoying himself. Con- rad Nagel was impressively digni- fied in a guest appearance, and the contestants - w ere nice young- sters. But the program ignites no spark ; of interest. And to make matters , worse, Collyer devoted a good part | of the time to w’hat seemed like , exce.ssive plugging of the products promoted for prizes. Chan. LADIES DATE With Bruce Mayer Producer: Sandy Howard * 11 Director: Jim Saunders 30 Mins.; Mon.-thru-Fri., 1:30 p.m. Sustaining WABD, N. Y. “Ladies Date’’ may be a gala event for the femmes appearing I on the program, but for 'TViewers it’s no event at all. Program, which returned Monday (14) to a cross- the-board status at WABD follow- ing a summer vacation failed, on opener, in its attempt to project an aura of gaiety via the utilization of various games and stunts. Par- ticipation of elderly women in childlike funstering and patter added up to an inane half-hour’s viewing. Different women’.s organizations guest on the program each day. Emc(‘c Bruce Mayer gabs with in- dividual org members and utilizes others in such parlor games as .stacking cups and saucers on a moving toy tank and taking swats at floating balloons while blind- folded. Mayer had little trouble getting his guests into the proper mood, but some of his chatter was delivered as though he were talk- ing to moppets instead of grown women. ■ Preem show spotlighted three tots doing a song-and-dance bit Ssss Continued from pase Z? or whether the amounts expended were reasonable. “Reimbursement agreements like the one before us here are un- wholesome. especially when, as is the case here, they make payment of the ‘expenses’ contingent on the C ) - nission’s granting a permit to the )' lyor. The probability of be- ing able to negotiate for ‘reim- bursement of expenses’ tends to encourage the filing of frivolous or ‘strike’ applications." Switching to the matter of the NBC interest, which was security on its loan of $1,250,000 to Hope PToductions, Inc., Miss Hennock declared that Metropolitan sub- mitted two propositions to the Commission. The first included the note outstanding and the sec- ond provided for a quick liquida- tion of the note, in case the Com- mission objected to it. She wrote “It is clear that acceptance and I consideration of such altcrnatue proposals would be disruptive of orderly hearing procedure” She said the switch, buying off NBC, meant that the status of Metro- politan underwent a change during the course of the hearing ‘and without even following the pro- cedure required for such amend- ments.” JOHNNY OLSEN RUMPUS ROOM With Johnny Olsen. Penny Olsen; Bob Maurer, announcer; Bill Wirges, organist Producer: Johnny Olsen Director: Lee Polk 30 Mins.; Mon.-thru-Fri., 12:30 p.m. Participating WABD. New York QUICK AS A FLASH W'Ph Bud Collyer; emcee; Faye Emerson, Kitty Carlisle, Jimmy Nelson, Sir Cedric Hardwicke | Producers: Charles B. Moss, Dick ; Lewis Director: Harold Loeb 30 Mins., Thurs. 8 p.ni. THOR CORP. -r ABC-TV, from N. Y. (Henri, Hurst & McDonald) With ABC-TV scheduling the Ray Bolger show' for 8;3()| Thurs- day nights, Thor has picKcd up i the tab for “Quick As a Flash" on an every week basis and moved the sliow from its former late-hour slot to the segment preceding Bol- ger. And with ABC’s Thursday night lineup now’ including Bolger and the new “Kraft TV Theatre.” plus Dotty Mack pencilled in for the 9 p.m, time, “Quick As a Flash" shapes as an entertaining appetizer to the web’s big night. With Bud Collyer as emcee, pro- gram has a panel consisting of two men and two women competing as teams to gue.ss the phrase, per- .sonality or event depicted in I specially-made film clips which ; contain clues to the answer, j Program’s theme is a sound one —the guessing game maintains in- terest, and in some of the prob- ! lems the audience is allowed to I gue.ss the answer too. It’s a good j parlor game. And the makeup of I the panel, in this case Faye Kmer- , son and Kitty Carlisle vs. .Hmmy ' Nelson (and his dummy THE BKi I.S.SUE I With Martha Rountree. Lawrence' E. Spivak. J. R. Matthews, Dr. A. Powell Davies, others i Producer: Spivak Director: Vic Guidice 30 Mins.; Mon., 8:30 p.m. Sustaining DUMONT, from Washington “The Big Issue" is just that. The Lawrence E. Spivak package and production, with erstwhile partner Martha Rountree moderating, lias returned from a summer hiatus and is bound to arouse national attention via its latching on to the iiottest current topics and letting the pros and conners square off in the debating arena. Subject tackled on Monday (14) was “Communism and the Church." and a natural selection for this hot potato wasr J. B. Matthews. He’s the formeif staff director of Sen. McCarthy’s perma- nent subcommittee on investiga- tion who worked up a global con- tro\ersN when he was quoted in the ,\merican Mercury that “the largest single group supporting the Communist apparatus in the United States today is composed of Prot- estant clergymen.” As a result of that and other statements, he wa.s forced to resign from the commit- tee. Opposing him on Monday was Dr A Powell Davies, minister of All Souls (Unitarian) Church. Washington. “Big Issue" (originally called *‘Keep Posted") has a meaty gim- same giveaways, the same vacuous expressions on the studio audience of housewives and the same non- sensical remarks of Olsen Sc Co. are again to.ssed at viewers in the guise of entertainment. Show’s “innovation," as a Du- Mont press release puts it, lies in using a variety of daily features rather than beaming identical rou- tines throughout the week. For example, Monday is “contest" day, Tuesday is “hard luck story" day, Wednesday Is “stumpers day," etc. For the preem session contestants vied in a quiz match with Olsen throwing the queries. Typical query: “What kind of mammal was Herman Melville’s Moby Dick?" Correct answer won the hausfrau guest anything from a pop-up toaster to six pairs of hose. In handling the proceedings. Olsen was his good-natured, affable ; self. Penny (Mrs.l Olsen mingled gregariously with the audience and ! announcer “Bachelor Bob” Maurer as.sisted when the occasion re- I quired it. Withal, some viewers Moorhead, Minn. —Vic Dii*l)''b president of Vic Diehm Asson.ii which bperates five radio st;itiiini along the eastern seaboard, will 1)0 principal speaker at the MooiIumJ Chamber of Commerce annual ciin- net* this week. Danny growi NBC • CBS • ABC • DuMont Lancaster, Pa. market prosperity . . . loyal viewing audience. Write for information TELEVISION PRODUCERS AND DISTRIBUTORS! 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