Variety (March 1954)

$4 RADIO REVIEWS Wfflnesday, March 10, 1954 ANTHOLOGY With Fleetwood, other* producer: Steve White Director-Writer: Draper Lewis 30 MinS., Sun., 3 p.m. WNBC, New York WNBC’s attempt with “Anthol- ogy” seems, from segment heard, to bring snatches of “highbrow" to the general audience level along with popularized poetry. Since it is basically a public service show, however, it is expected there will fee more daring experimentation in the future. Two of the four literary pieces read, either as excerpts or in en- tirety, were, rarely presented on radio before. They were interest- ing and often exciting choices too, but it was the manner of presen- tation, not brace's textual material necessarily, that required improve-] ment. Fleetwood, the d.j. (he doesn't use a first name) who so pleasantly rendered the station’s late “Music Through the Night” classical music series, is “Anthol- ogy’s” chief personality. He opened the show with a reading from Thomas Wolfe’s "Of Time and the River,” which is the type prose that, because it’s musical, qualifies for the stanza’s Upbeat on poetry. He did it softly and pleasantly but without making the least last- ing impression. Actress Miriam Wolfe was called in to discourse on the merits of poetry read by thesps. She men- tioned that too few actors have had opportunities to recite poetry, when actually they’re ideal ones to do it. In reading Edna St. Vincent Millay’s “Ballad of the Harp Weaver,” she unintentionally showed reason for dearth. She NEW DIMENSIONS With Natalie Hlnderas, Joseph Gallicchio Orch, Don Herbert, Ken Nordihe . Executive Producer: George Helnemann Producer: Don Marcotte Director: Don Meier 30 Mins.; Sun., 9:30 pun. ILLINOIS BELL WMAQ-WNBQ, Chicago Billed as a radio-tv “3 : D” first, this WNBQ-WMAQ experiment in dual AM-FM stereophonic beaming came off as a strictly bigleague project in any dimension. While the economics of such a specially engineered bi-media venture with its lush showcasing of the 37-piece Chi NBC orch batoned by Joseph Gallicchio pose a big bankroller Hurdle, such was the class and quality of this ohetimer (7) that it would be a shame if it were tossed back on the shelf. “History mak- ing’’ stereophonic effects aside, it was a sock handling of one of tv’s toughest tasks—making a full-sized orchestra “look” as good as it sounds. And there was a definite plus in the “new sounds” treatment, with the radio and tv sets counterpoint- ing to give full-bodied impact to the music. It’s .'a variation on a theme first used by WNBQ-WMAQ program chief George Heinemann on WMAQ-AM and WMAQ-FM with different mikes each feeding pickups to their respective trans- caught the meaning in her inter-fritters. This time the FM portion p ret at ion, but she, as is case with i was supplied by tv station WNBQ. many who ply her trade, overem- (WMAQ-FM also participated for phasized the dramatic and forgot [ the non-tv homes). . > vere lyrics. iir„ipi The 30-minutes was as exciting Offbeat mclusion was. OeWolf visually on WMBQ and it was au- Hopper s disk of Casey. at the, rally on wmaQ and WNBQ, thanks Bat. Poem is still recited but | to some smoothly fluid lensing and Hoppers V ? 1C ® ^ as u . recen “, y ! superior lighting maneuvers that echoed^oiily in the archives. It s-brought particular sections of the one not heard m this quarter be-, band into focus as the score dic- fore, and his highly emotional aud 1 tated. The tele showmanship, only spirited delivery take on the tenor now then skirting the too- of a parody on the^ hammier hams.| tricky was especially, effective in Emcee brought stanza to finale j jj S pj a yj n g the fine pianistics of with My Love Is Like a Bed, Red * guest soloist Natalie Hlnderas who Rose, ’ then played new RCA wax-) knocked off a couple of Rachmani- ing of Robert Merrill singing work ; noff and Shostakovich tidbits in composed by Vivian Edwards,. Excellent style. Gallicchio and his based on Burns lines. Music vvas t staffers also were in great fettle shoddy pops with no excuse for be- j w itti such easy-to-take pop stuff as ing. That s DO indictmont Of snow i \fnHnn 44 Ampfiran TENNESSEE ERNIE SHOW With Helen O’Connell, CUffie Stone Orch; Jack Nzrz, an- nouncer Director: Milt Hoffman 15 Mina.; Mon.-thru-Fri., 7 p.m. MANHATTAN SOAP: TONI CBS, from Hollywood (transcribed) (Scheideler, Beck & Werner; Leo Burnett) Pairing of Tennessee Ernie and Helen O’Connell, offbeat as it may appear, turns out to be a good one. Ernie is one of the more sophisti- cated of the country singers; Miss CVConnell has travelled the pop circuit for most of her career. Yet together, they .make for a relaxed dinnertime song session. Proem segment (8) had them do- ing one single each and finishing in a zingy duet on “Heart of My heart,” Miss O’Connell did a re- laxed and tuneful job on “Young at Heart,” while Ernie's rendition of “Birth of the Blues”- had solid rhythmical values. Cliffie Stone unit’s backgrounding was soft and precise. Ernie handled the chatter in easygoing style, lending a folksy touch but not going overbpard with the hokum. His handling of the Toni commercial was low-key and relaxed. A pleasing stanza all the way. Chan. ing. though, since it is a little of the; experimentation program needs ] more of. •’Anthology” shadows a program’ prepared for BBC’s “Third Pro-; gramme” series called “New Soundings.” But there John Leh- mann intended “through spoken; broadcast word—a substitute for a literary magazine.” He had people read theses and poetry too. yet these had more profundity if less variety than “Anthology.” OUTDOORS DELIMITED With Dorian St. George H Mins.; Thors., 10:15 p.m. WABC, N. Y. Although the outdoor sports field may be unlimited, a program de- voted to the coverage of fresh air activities is restricted in appeal. Opening edition of this new WABC } series, Thursday <4), was targeted at those dialers with an interest in hunting or fishing. Outdoor sports enthusiasts will probably give show an attentive ear. Program dishes out some informative items. and travels at a comfortably fast pace. Narration is ably handled by Dorian St. George, who also pre- pares his own material. Gab on initialer included suggestions on how to make certain gadgets of. use to anglers. Tips on spots where fishing is permitted without a li- cense were also offered. In addi- tion there was some discussion about firearms and a rundown of the number of deer killed in New York State during the past season. Jess: Morton Gould’s “American Salute, a full-dressed “Ebb Tide” and “Es- pani Cani.” Don Herbert handled the insti- tutional tie-ins for Illinois Bell- skillful blurbs skillfuly done, Ken Nordine introed the music in his usual pro fashion. Heinemann and his- program- ming cohorts set themselves a high standard with this enterprise, It’ll be interesting to see if the sales boys can follow ..through. Even without the “3-D” engineering highjinks the, tele portion was too potent a package to be filed and forgotten. Dave. THIS IS PATTI With Patti Rhodes Director: Bob Pringle Writer: Ira Marion 30 Mins,: Fri., Sat., 12 p.m. WABC,. from New York Patti Rhodes is on the make for the weekend male dialer. Her bait is sentimental patter and mood music or as she puts it, “music and me in the proper proportion.” The blending of s.a. and platter v spin- ning got a big splash a couple of years back via “Lonesome Gal” and “This Is Patti” sticks to the pattern. The midnight slotting 7 Friday and Saturday) is an added effort to build the s.a. pitch. Although the time, the pace and the gal are all geared for romance, it's an obvious line that the guys won’t fall for. It’s sugar-coated and corny, creating nothing more than an ersatz romantic mood. Miss Rhodes lays it on pretty thick. Her husky-voiced senti- ments aimed at the lonesome lover are too banal to stir up any listener emotion. The music is soft and appealing but Miss Rhodes keeps getting in the way. Gros. Radio Followup DuM Stations Continued from page 30 Columbia’s ent-scouting PENTHOUSE With Frank Sentry* Gretchen Wit- beck 60 mins.; Mon.-thru-Fri., 9 a.m. WOKO, Albany Music and words are used to paint a picture of program origina- tion from a penthouse,, on hew show handled by Frank Sentry, with an assist from Gretchen Wit- heck, “the girl downstairs.” It is a place and mood format, reason- ably well projected. Night time might be considered better suited to the idea. Sentry introduces easy, listenable. music, while Miss Witbeck discusses news of the women’s world—styles and the like—after the midway point. Sev- eral spot commercials are included. A recent addition to the WOKO staff, Sentry is friendly, pleasant and philosophical. Miss Witbeck possesses a rather nice voice and manner. She carried off surely a bit of kidding,with Sentry on one program heard. Jaco. programs is Bishop Sheen’s “Life Is Worth Living” telecast, carried presently in 169 cities. The program, with the broadcast city coverage in tv, was refused only by two out- lets which some time back main- tained that it was of a singularly sectarian nature. However, crix attribute a more universal nature to the Sheen telecast. Incidentally, the Gertrude Berg stanza which was publicly reported as Sheen’s long-vacation replacement, has al- ready cleared 119 stations which now carry the latter broadcast. DuMont toppers look optimistical- ly toward getting “all but five or six” of the remainder. At the other end of the scales is the stanza, “What’s the Story?” which is sold only to two DuMont d&o’s—WTTG, Washington, and WABD, New York. Four, other out- lets carry the show, but only the original brace have show spon- sored (DuMont appliances). There are a few other shows on this genre. Another stanza with fairly few stations is “Pantomime «Quiz”^ with 16 stations. The situation it holds on the sked just follows the Bishop’s show. Around the middle of the station clearance list are: “Rocky King,” Sundays with 64; “Colonel Flack,” Saturdays with 51; “Chance of a Lifetime,7 Fridays with 22. The last two began in the fall, just as did “Dollar Second,” which started with 50 and leaped to 92 under de- mand from sponsor. Serutan-Geri- tol have willingly held their “Life Begins at 80” to 37 outlets for some time. Mitch Miller is tal- abroad so stand-in a&r toppers are doing his Sunday midday “Money Record” stint over WNEW, N. Y., the first of these being Victor’s Joe Carlton. Sound- ing a little more “prepared” than Miller, although obviously both must work from script, Carlton again projects that producing a click disk is no accident—that lots of skull practice goes into it. How- ever, in this instance, he did it in re- verse by accenting that sometimes his platters and hit wax material happen despite everything. Utilizing an all-RCA Victor catalog—unlike Miller who is not averse to -kudo- ing any of his, colleagues—Carlton wisely kept it within the family when pointing up that hits are un- predictable such as “O My Papa” (Eddie Fisher); Perry Como’s “Wanted”; Lou Monte’s pizzeria version of “Strutter’s Ball”; Eartha Kitt’s “Santa Baby” and June Val- li’s “Crying in the Chapel.” Only in Miss Kitt’s case was there delib- erate intent not to pot-shot at the Xmas trade but focus on one or two platters, coming up with the “naughty but nice” lyric that Henri Rene had Joan Javits and Phil Springer contrive. . Carlton was generous in his mentions of Rene and Hugo Winterhalter, and also in admitting that sometimes hit material has to be forced on the diskeries. This remains one of the more hep inside stuff AMers, and a nov- elty also in that it comes Sunday midday, as against the usually dee- jay stuff post-midnight. Incident- ally, both Art Ford (WNEW) and Bill Silbert. (WMGM), among the Gotham nocturnal platter-chatter- ers, both have been on a musical comedy kick excerpting yesteryear musicomedy great songs. Their word pictures of the Broadway scene sound like excerpts from Julius Mattfield’s excellent “Va- riety Musical Cavalcade,” which remains the best programming source for the trade for this sort of background material. Abel. From the Production Centres IN NEW YORK CITY... Lynn Thatcher starring in CBS’ “Let’s Pretend” version of E. B. White’s “Charlotte’s Web” March 13 and 20 . . , Robert L. Edens, formerly with Hicks 3c Greist, joined Warwick & Legler as a copy director . . . Monarch Buick signed for sponsorship of the 8 a.m. news and spelts hi the N.Y. Yankee games over WINS, via William Warren, Jackson & Delaney . . . Girl Scouts of the U.S.A. set intensive radio and tv spot and program schedule celebrating the organization’s 42d birthday this week . . Violinist Kenneth Gordon back witji Longines “Symphonette” on CBS after two years of Army service in Korea ... Goddard Lieberson, exec v.p. of Columbia Records, takes over Satur- day (13) as commentator on CBS’ Philly Symphony , . . John Karol, CBS veep over sales, returned after two weeks in Arizona . . . Luther Conant Jr., formerly product publicity chief of Lever Bros., now head- ing Conant & Co.,public relations. He’s been with Ed Bemays’ office, Time mag, Boston and N.Y. newspapers and Robert Montgomery radio- casts . . . Suzan Ball, film star amputee, guesting on the CBS “Second Mrs. Burton” today (Wed.) . . . Julie Stevens and Katherine Emmett have been added to the cast of “Lorenzo Jones” . . , In new “Front Page Farrell” sequence are Ethel Wilson, Treva Frazee, Peggy Allenby, Andy Donnelly and John Stanley. .The Mike Jablons (he’s the radio-tv publicist; she’s a reporter with the Herald Tribune) parents of a daughter, born last Friday (5) . T1IU Dieterle guesting on ABC’s “Dinner at the Green Room” Saturday (13) . . . Dick Jayson, WHLI announcer, a father; it’s a son. IN CHICAGO . . . John Hussey -and Charles Winston, Jr. presented veep stripes at Foote, Cone & Belding . . . WGN sportscaster Jack Brickhouse off on a month’s vacation to prep for the baseball season ..» Olian & Bronner handling Princess Pat Cosmetics’ radio-tv billings . . . Matt Bonebrake, proxy of KOCY, Oklahoma City, and Paul Fry, proxy of KBON, Omaha, checked in at Mutual’s Chi office last week . . . CBS veep H. Leslie Atlass and WBBM assistant g.m. Ernie Shomo back at their desks after a week’s cruise in Florida waters ... Bob Elston, eX-KIOA, Des Moines, sportscaster, joins WIND to assist Bert Wilson on the Cubs games . . . NBC farm commentator Everett Mitchell addressed a soil conservation meeting in O’Neill, Neb., yesterday (Tues.) . . . Keystone Broadcasting added six new affiliates, bringing the total to 700 . . . Plastic Co. of America has taken over a Tuesday and Thursday quarter-hour slice of WGN’s “Cliff Johnson Family” . . NBC’s "National Farm and Home Hour” hosted by Everett Mitchell handed the agricultural award from the National Assn, for Better Radio and TV . . . Beltone Hearing Aid Co. renewed Paul Harvey’s Sunday ABC news show for another 26 weeks ... WLS propping a big hoopla to celebrate the 30th anni of the “National Barn Dance” next month ... Frannie Clark , of the Chi NBC press department vacationing in Florida .. . Bob Elson cover- ing Chi White Sox exhibition schedule via WCFL ... Bob Brewster, McCann-Erickson’s Chi radio-tv director, upped to veepee status. IN SAN FRANCISCO . ..... Lucille Norman, Gordon MacRae and Art Linkletter promise to be on tap for the Golden Gate Exchange Club’s children’s charity show, “Fun For A Day,” April 3, at local Opera House . . ... Marie Wilson and Mary Shipp were guests (10) at local Ad Club luncheon . . . Vocal- ist-violinist Ardeen De Camp replaced chirper Ellen Connor on Bill Weaver’s KCBS show; Gene Merlino, formerly with Weaver’s gang, will tour with Frankie Carle’s band through Texas . . . Director Willard Davis taking a breather from KGO-TV’s “Success Story.” Russ Baker replaces . . . TV-nightclub entertainer Kenny Burt leaving local scenes to join Spike Jones’ City Slickers . . . Larry M, Reed appointed chief engineer of new educational station KQED . . . Jerry Bundsen, anchor man for S.F. Examiner columnist Herb Caen, extending his talents to deejaying on San Mateo’s KVSM. Manchester, N, H.—Norton Vir- gien, former account exec with Weed & Co., has joined WFEA, the 5,000-watt CBS outlet here, as station manager. Albert Auclair, account exec at the station, has been upped to sales manager. IN MINNEAPOLIS . . . Having relinquished its MBS affiliation, WLOL here has adopted a new program policy patterned after that which has been; so highly successful for WNEW, New York, and WIND, Chicago. The Ralph Atlas local station has announced its programs “are to be chosen in accordance with the Twin Cities listeners’ expressed desires” and will comprise approximately 24 daily five-minute newscasts on the hour and half-hour and that, except for these news programs and broad- casts of live events of particular interest in Minneapolis and St. Paul, “music will be the order of the day.” WLOL has new general man- ager in the person of Wayne "Red” Williams, a staffer for seven years, who succeeds Harold W. Cassill, resigned, and it’s moving to new and larger quarters. For the ensuing season it’ll retain MBS’ big league “Game of the Day” and also again will broadcast the Minne- apolis A. A. home and away baseball games play by play . . . Starting March 29, another lpcal radio station, WDGY, with which Wes Fesler, former U. of Minnesota football coach recently became associated, will be the MBS’ Twin Cities affiliate. It, too, Is moving to new and larger quarters. Fesler’s first show, originally scheduled to start Feb. 15, gets under way March 15 and a sponsor now is in the process of being signed up. In the meanwhile, the ex-coach has been a commen- tator on WDGY’s play by play broadcasts of the U. of Minnesota bas- ketball games . . . C. T. Hagman, WDGY general manager, on flying trip to New York to contact MBS heads. IN CLEVELAND ... When WJW’s Jane Stevens was called home because of illness in the family, WXEL’s Maggie Wulff and Alice Weston and WEWS’ Ethel Jacksop-took over the gabfest period . ; / WGAR’s Jim Martin covered naval training center inspection trip at Pensacola . ... WDOK’s juvenile disker Candy Lee is slated for NBC tv appearance ... Tom Arends leaves WNBK to become production director at WMTV . . . Joe Portaro has moved his haircutting tv stint to WXEL Monday-throughrFriday at 3:15 p.m. . . . Dorothy Laurance, ex-WNYC, doing woman’s pitch on half-hour cross the WTAM 9 a.m. board , . . WGAR’s Bill McColgin and WTAM’s Jimmy Dudley doing remotes from Cleveland Indians Tucson training camp . . . Jack Kelly, WJW veep, into New York for sales meeting. IN PITTSBURGH ... Dave Tyson, WCAE’s early morning waker-upper, and his wife cele- brated their 28th wedding anni . , . Barry Kaye, WJAS deejay, and model Eleanor Schano will be married end of next month and have already rented an apartment at the Carlton House . . . Pat Cortnelly, brother of Bob Connelly, WENS salesman, has joined the sales staff of WOHI in East Liverpool, O. . . r Louis Prima has been set as guest star for Duquesne Brewing Co.’s next Show Time teeveer, “A Salute to Italy,” on WDtV April 7 ... Andy Levitzke and his Polka Kings now doing a “Polka Party” on WKJF-TV Saturday evenings at 6 for an hour. Same program used to be on Channel 2 . . . Local actress Polly Rowles all over WENS Monday nights, on “Jamie” every other week at 8 and on “Who’s the Boss?” every week at 10:30 » . . .Chester (Continued on page 42)