Variety (December 1953)

22 miLMS WcJimJay, December 23, 1953 Syndicated vidpix are. showing* up strongly , against network compe- tition in key cities surveyed by Variety in the first of a series of reports designed to give some of .the popularity of vidfilms in vari- ous parts of the country. Initial survey finds no one single show nil: top iii all Cities, nor does it show one particular syndicator with a program lineup that-shows repeated^strength in many cities. It does point up, however, that if properly exploited on the local level, syndicated vidfilms can bul- wark local programming to the point where it can compete with quality network shows. City-by- city results, listing the top six vid- filmsin the initially suiweyed mar- } ket, follow: Columbus — “Marathon Holly- wood Theatre’* i Ethel Barrymore package); (WBNS-TV) 28.5; “ScbifFs Playhouse” (WBNS-TV) 24 0; “I Led Three Lives” (WBNS- TV) 22 8; “Wild Bill HickOck” (WBNS-TV) 22.0; “Dangerous As- ' signment” (WTVN) 19.5; “Cowboy G-Men” (WBNS-TV) 18 5. < Ail Piilse ratings. ** . NBC-fV Director James Sheldon makes « pitch for Live Music> Maestro , - Please ■. * ■ • another editorial feature In the <48th Anniversary 7Vi <mher of PfatlE'TY DUE SOON Trench feature films which never Detroit — ‘'Foreign Intrigue”,. ... . . . .......,. u . (WJBK-TV) 20.5; “Boston Blackie” • before have been shown in the (WXYZ-TV) 19i5; “Cisco Kid” • American market will be dis- (BTXYZ-TV) 17.5; “Favorite Story” ] tribiited for TV by Gaston Hakim (WJBK-TV) 16.5; “I Led Three J Productions, Inc., as part of a novel Lives” (WJBK-TV) 16.0; "Danger--! plan to tap new sources of reve- ous Assignment” (WWJ-TV) 15,5; , nue for these pictures. Dubbed “Biff Baker” (WXYZ-TV) and j into English, they’ll first be re- “City Detective” fWJBK-TV) both | leased theatrically and later, will with 15,0. (All with Piilse ratings.) j be seld to TV as a 13-part half- Minneapolis—“Life of Riley,” Liberace and “Hopalong Cassidy” are running almost neCk and neck hour series tagged “Invitation to Crime.” • r ■ . Hakim, who planes to Paris the for first place among locally spon-; en d ©f the Week for huddles with sored syndicated TV shows and , independent producers there, said their ratings are high enough to ? his company will assume the entire put them in the same class with t dubbing costs which he estimates most of the network live shows,; will run around $10,000 for a 75- comparing favorably; for example. m j n ute feature. In return for this with such of the latter’s leaders as ■ advance, he added, he will retain “Toast or the Town” (30 4) and the theatrical distribution rights ‘What's My Name?” *29.8). on each picture dubbed so that the Liberace (WCCOrTV) 30; “Life initial expense may be recouped, of Riley” »KSTP-TV) 25.5; “Hop-( A 12-month clearance will be mafn- along Cassidy” iWCCO-TY) 25;! tained before they're sold to tele- “Wild Bill Hickock” t WCCO-TV); vision. 21.5; “Favorite Story” (WCCO-TV) j TV earnings,. however, will be Se^wave Yidpic Outfit .Set By Huber, Parks Cincinnati, Dec. 22. Bob Huber and Daryl Parks of WKRC-TV here have formed a new vidpix outfit, Seawave Productions, for the filming of a dramatic series* for network sale. Firm has sev- eral scripts by Rod Serling, ; who’s Contributed to most of the top net shows. , • Firm will start shooting the dra- matic series early next month at the recently completed studios of Film Associates. Huber find Parks are looking for top N, Y. and Coast actors to handle the leads while local thesps fill secondary roles. ■•V>7. 19.5, and “Chevron Theatre' < KSTP-TV) and “Cisco Kid” 1 WCCO-TV) 17.5. 'All Pulse rat- ings.) split 50-50 between Hakim and the respective producers. Practically all of the films, Hakim disclosed, ari based upon actual crimes com- New York—Gotha ih situation, in . mitted in Paris oyer the past aec- which network o&o’s virtually l ade. Reason why the pix weren’t monopolize the ratings and in j released in the U. S. before was which they must cany all network; that it was felt the dialog was too option hours, leaves little room for ; rapid to be captured by English vidpix to make much of a dent. , titles. Dubbing is expected, to As is noted, five of . the. top six overcome this. film shows, are on WNBT, the NBC key. and those are in fringe time. While other Gotham stations carry syndicated pix in prime time, they've got to break down the tContinued on page 28) Indie French producers, Hakim revealed, were previously sounded out on the plan and have shown much interest. Before returning to; New York around Jan. 10 he ■tr, expects to finalize negotiations j with a number of Gallic filra- ' makers. Meantime, Hakim has also acquired U. S. theatrical distribu- tion rights to “Crimes of Paris,” produced by Raoul Levy as well as an Alida Valli starrer, “The Lovers of Toledo.” Both have been dubbed . into English. Hollywood. Dec." 22. Present half-hour telepic will ul- timately have to ;be expanded to a. full hour, chiefly because of an in- creasing scarcity, of story mate- rial for the 30-min, segment. That’s the view of Irving Starr, producer of Screen Gems’ leading anthology series, thO “Ford Theatre.” Starr ; readily acknowledged that such expression, while preferable from a standpoint of quality, poses many financial migraines, particu- larly with respect to residuals. He pointed out that a top telepix se- ries in the half-hour bracket finds a market for reruns without too much trouble, but that it would be ah entirely different and more dif- ficult matter, finding sponsors to pick up the tab for time plus pro- gram of an hour-long show. “If the time rate charges keep going up, then it would be best to have an hour-long showwith alter- nate producers to go into entirely new story fields, such as novels, plays, and so on. “Many interesting, dramatic sub- ject matters < are too difficult to con- dense into a half-hour: The hour length would give us more latitude on subject matter, and more time to establish characters, whereas in the half-hour length yon are limit- ed on your source of material, and .too much is. sacrificed .in the 26 minutes running time. “While the hour show would tend toward hotter programming, the residual values will be diminished for the obvious fact that you won’t find as many advertisers who can | pay for reruns on such a time seg- ment. So today the producer is faced with the fact that while he could do a better job on hour-long shows, he will fare better financial- ly at the half-hour length,” Starr ! opined. The producer averred that some form of subscription-TV such as Telemeter may hasten the day of the hour-long telepix. At present, there are no vidpix produced at that length, with the vast majority of telefilmed product being at the 30-min. segment. Chicago, Dec. 22. By the end of January Pure Oil will have completed its live-to-film aboutface, representing some choice plums for the vidpix boys at the expense of NBC-TV’s co-oped (‘Who S^id That?” Pure Oil, through the Leo Biirnett. agency, has ..already, lined up 40 stations for film spot bookings, and is seeking a few more select openings. Celluloid spread reflects an upped budget with ma- jor emphasis upon TV. With the remainder of the “Who Said That” co-op contracts wind- ing up next month, client will '.ave ended its association with the live show that dates back to 1950 and embraced 27 stations. Bulk of Pure Oil’s film purchases have been with the ABC and NBC syndicators. NBC!s Film Division’s “Badge 714” has received a big play, as has ABC’s “Racket Squad.” And last week, the advertiser, picked up ABC’s “The Playhouse,” formerly the Schlitz “Playhouse of Stars,” for placement in the Mon- day night “Who” period on WNBQ when the live Show’s contract ex- pires Jan. 25. The ABC sales were wrapped up by John Burns, the FD’s midwest chief. ’t Infringement, Benny Says in ’Gaslight’ Suit Los Angeles, Dec. 22_ Attorneys for Jack Benny and CBS filed a brief in Federal Court contending that a burlesque of a film does not constitute an in- fringement of copyright. Brief was an answer to a suit by Metro and Patrick Hamilton seeking to pre- vent the showing of Benny's tele- film spoofing “Gaslight.” Lampoon is currently impounded, awaiting disposal of the suit. Among other thin gs; 1 the- brief wants to know how a telefilm pro- duced six years after the release of the feature film can affect its profits, It admits that the telefilm is a burlesque but is similar to “Gaslight” in only two incidents and is aimed at bellylaughs. Burlesque, the brief asserts, is a distinctive form of art and has been used by such comedians as Fred Allen, Jackie Gleason, Henry Morgan; Sid Caesar and Imogene Coca. Rosenblum, Ruth Cade Arthur Rosenblum and Ruth Cade have formed Mayro Tele- vision Co. to produce syndicated and national package shows and to handle TV fi lm editing for other firms. New outfit; which will head- jflbarter in New_York, has-acquired rights to several magazine prop- erties-for possible vidpix produc- tion. London Impretorip Harry Alan Towers wants to know How International Television Be? an Interesting editorial featura in the 48th Anniversary Number of PfiRIETY OUT SOON Hollywood, Dec. 22 . New First National Studios Will set a precedent in yidpix produc- tion by making “A” and “B” telepic product when it starts pro- ducton early next year. Policies of the new coinpany, which bought the Eagle-Lion Studios for $1,100,000, will be patterned after those of the major .film studios. Chester Erskine, who’s currently producing the “Readers Digest” series, will act as exec producer, supervising “A” product; while Bernard Prockter, president of the new outfit, will supervise as production chief the overall program planned by the First National syndicate. ’■ Eddie Corine; exec v.p. of the firm, explaining the new policy said the financiers Who formed First National entered television because they feel that within two years the current 40 vidpix companies will be weeded down to eight or 10, and because they feel that most of the dramatic shows now being done live in New York will come to the Coast to be filmed. Conne compared the current situation to the,early days of the transcription business when everyone was going broke because f Key were trying to buy “names.” Too many people today, Conne said, don’t realize that tele is different from theatrical films. Telepro- ducer?, he said, deal directly with, advertising agencies and adver- tisers. “If you haven’t made good telepix within the budget you Jiave, you’re dead. Residuals becomes a Word picked out of the Sponsors are no longer going to let product be released for their show is still on firstrun. Ultimately, instead abuting companies we now have, there will be two or tnreev$™^^^^^The so-called producer-distributor is on the “Television tures. Too many prod always tell them pictures are good. when important factor the producer should consider regarding 9 ‘will it move goods for the advertiser? ’ ” Conne believes more dramatic shows will move to the Coast and to film because the advertiser how has more coverage with additional stations oh the air. Advertiser is now thinkiftsLJ^terms of covering as much of the country as possible, and h somQHH^| to go film and recoup some of his costs in a few years tMroQ) residuals. ‘Television is going to be a business, not a racketas it is today, Shoestringers are done,” Conne concludes. I Asks 100G Because Has the Los Angeles, Dec. 22. Rudolf BeisCr,- a Federal em- ployee, filed a $100,000 damage sujt in Superior Court against Don- levy Development Co., charging in- vasion of his privacy through the re-run of a “Dangerous Assign- ment” telefilm, first run on March 13, 1953. In the film, the plaintiff declares, is a character named Rudolf Beiser described as a “criminal possessed of evil character and guilty of criminal conduct.” In addition, he says, the character is similar in age and appearance to himself. He declares the re-run of the film was “malicious and deliberate” and ex- posed him to public contempt and ridicule.” King’s Knight Productions has wrapped up the TV rights to Les- lie Charteris’ whodunit, “The Saint,” for whipping into a 26-part vidpixer to be filmed in N. Y. Rob- ert Nathe, prexy of KKP, negoti- ated the deal directly in Florida with the author, whose sleuth, has been around for a quarter century via novels, feature films, radio, mags and a comic strip. Charteris' output bridges 39 novels. Radio se- ries has been done by Vincent Price and screen versions starred George Sanders. Short versions have appeared in the Saint Maga- zine and the strip is syndicated in some 300 newspapers. Out of the same telepix stable is “Bulletin From Bertie,” situa- tion comedy series starring Arthur Treacher and Arnold Stang, with a pilot just completed for sponsor dangling. Film was made at Dy- namic Studios in Gotham with lor Cation shots in and around the city. Pathe is producing with Ash mead Scott, arid Peter Packer scripting and Charles Powers directing. OF Sets 26-Week Chi Dealtm ‘Scotland Yard’ Official Films, which has its Boris Karloff British-made starrer, “Colonel March of Scotland Yard,” in some 40 markets, sold the series in Chicago to Atlantic Brewing Co. on a 26-week deal. Official will also shoot integrated commercials for Atlantic with Karloff staffing. No station has been picked yet. Deal was set by Bud Austin, Offi- cial’s national sales chief, via the W. B. Doner agency. Hollywood, Dec. 22. Demand for upped quality in telepix will;result in' a continued weeding out of vidpix producers next year, it’s predicted by Frank Ferrin, vet vidfilm producer in his fourth year on the “Smilin’ Ed's Gang” series, bankrolled by Brown Shoe.. Co. Ferrin observes, “pro- ducers who can make top quality product will stay in business; but the others will fall by the way- side, because agencies and . spon- sors are demanding better quality continually.” Ferrin, probably the only pro- ducer in town content with one series ( he definitely . doesn’t want to do anymore), is also the only one who doesn’t think anymore liVe shows will convert to film. He contends the current live shows from N. Y. are done much cheaper than if they were on film, and opines residual values are vastly overrated. “There is too much new and old product around, and this lessens the value of telefilm on the re- run market. Today a station buyer can. get new film for little more than the re-runs, so he sees little need to go after the re-runs. And the more your film is re-run the more you diminish its value/’ he warned. * Ferrin avers his stuff, being made particularly for juves, falls in a different category; that kids like to see the same shows over and over again, and there’s a new crop of moppets around each' year to ogle the film. That’s why 36 out of 52 telepix in the series to be shown next; year will be re-runs, he as-, serts. . Ferrin, who has been telefilming in color since he began operations in 1949, believes the spring of 1955 will see commercial TV here on a-big scale. But, he cautions, “the fact that we haVe colpr TV doesn’t mean everything should be filmed in color. Black-and-white is best for whodunits; tell me of one motion picture whpdunit made in color and I’ll eat the film; The Itbry should dictate whether it will ei in color.” ^ — Unger's New Ziv Status Maurice (Babe) Unger, manager of Coast operations for Ziv Tele- vision, this week was lipped to a v.p. of the firm. He’ll fly to Chi- cago next week to meet with prexy John Sinn in a three-clay session to outline his new respon- sibilities; Unger has been in charge of op- erations on all Ziv vidpix proper- ties.