Variety (March 1954)

Wednesday, Marcli 10, 1954 Beer, Blades & Boxing Bums Continued from pace 31 could just as arbitrarily have sus- pended the fight promoter instead. Pep Sans Pep Then there’s the Willy Pep-Lulu Perez Gillette go of two Fridays ago. Ostensibly these ate both good names, but in practice it’s an extension of the mismatching. Pep was one of the most colorful champs of modern boxing history a few years back. He still had some of his once-brilliant speed in the last fight, but he was no match for the 20-year-old Perez to whom he gave an i 1-year spread in age. Pep was belted punchy by the end of the second round. Only people who ever thought the ex-champ had a chance were the nostalgic few. Perhaps the next Nielsen on this show won’t read too badly since many must have tuned in to see the swan song of a great* but worn boxer. However, watchers didn't get much of a chance to find out how good Blue Blades were. This leads to another point, for j which advertisers have made vari- j ous arrangements with the net- j works. What guarantee do the j sponsors have that the product will get extensive pitching. In- stead of getting a rakeoff on over- all time costs or a xebate, or some other guarantee, sponsors would rather have at least a half-hour in which to pitch their wares. If box- ing were boffo. five minutes might do. but boxing isn’t. It’s conceded that shortly spons- ors will admit openly that they’re displeased with this purchasing the packages of present day Mike Ja- BOB CARROLL Currently Fred Allen Show NBC-TV, Tooedays. 10 P.M. • DERBY RECORDS Management: VAL IRVING Direction: WILUAM MORRIS AGENCY cobites, which in the main aren’t just meat for the big nut paid, and too frequently have championship puns blacked out tv-wise. Regard- less of whether the promoters arc justified in closing the doors or not, shouldn’t detract from the sponsors consideration that breaks like this make fighting unworth the effort. One of the few excep- tions was the crown match between jimmy Carter and Paddy DeMarctf for Gillette on Friday (5)', but then the promoters have to do some- thing to keep sponsors guessing; Occasional good matches bring ratings up to occasional exhilarat- ing heights. It's understood that when ABC started its Saturday fight sked last year, the first two bouts it carried were disrupted and never televised. However, that web reportedly is a little more satisfied today with the way the sked is going. This scheme by promoters of spreading the good ones thin to keep tv and b.o. -customers happy is going to wear out its welcome too, it’s felt. And here’s the roughest part for sponsors to take. Boxing’s essayists auger the end of the marriage between the game and commercial tv, because the day that there are good fighters to offer in greater quantities the pro- moters will drop sponsors and webs cold. Speaking of. the Bratton com- edy of errors, spbrtswriter Caswell Adams wrote the following day that fans had seen almost “their last free televised important fight in their living room. It has gotten too big for the business. From now on it’ll be on the box or else for the fight nuts, it will be in the theatre. Too many people went to bed last night without beer.” McCune said he would ask the same privilege. Denying he had misrepresented the bill, Finch said he thought the station would give supporters of the bill as much time on tv as he had used. WATL Continued'from page 2* —as WAOK and would be operated by ap outfit to be known as WAOK Broadcasting Co. <• A change in station policy was indicated when it was revealed that WAOK, would bill itself “as the South’s most powerful (5k\v) fulltime Negro program station.” Station will operate with same broadcasting ■ facilities used by WATL, which started out in life as WJTL, when it was owned and operated by Oglethorpe Studios, for many years in downtown Henry Grade Building, are now located at 70 Houston street. Ted Collins Continued from page 31 TV Alcohol Row Continued from pace 27 OSTERVILLI CAPE COD WATERFRONT ESTATE—Urw main reil- d entt. heated 4-ear garag* with 2 bedreama. storage, wiuash court, horse-or eow barn. 6-- roam caretaker's, thick, tool, briek tea a»d greenhouses. Unusually beautiful •ardrtts. All in excellent' eoodition. Near Wianno. Oyster Harbors and Craigville Beach Clubs. Shown by appointment. Box 627,' Ostervillo, Mass. Garden 3-2120. [the good tastes of the publishers j and the good sense of the adver- | Users.” Rep. Walter T. McMahon . (D.- Hazel Park) 'said FCC officials in Washington told him by telephone the bill would conflict with Federal regulations and probably cause confusion over contracts of Michi- gan stations with networks. J Television and radio stations all ; over the State have warned they ; will fight the measure. Howard j Finch, WJIM-Lansiog veepee and news commentator, urged his lis- • teners during a telecast to protest j the bill to the legislators. A deluge ! of letters followed, i The first House reaction was that i Finch had misrepresented the bill. It asked for a transcript. Finch said he had devoted minutes to protest the bill. He said a .Methodist group already had ! asked for equal time to reply. Summerfield, Secretary of the Treasury George M. Humphrey and Secretary of Agriculture Ezra Taft Benson. There’s an equal balance maintained between Republicans and Democrats, though, and NBC, despite the ever-present possibili- ties of libel suits, doesn’t attempt to rein Collins because of the pub- lic service aspects of the show.. Collins admits that the daytime slotting of the segment “wastes” it to a large extent,, and agrees it ought to be on at night. But a condition of any nighttime deal is that it be continued on Miss Smith’s show too. That condition fouled one deal for a nighttime ex- posure about a year ago, but Col- lins is content to let it ride day- time to fulfill the condition. It’s doing a job, Collins §ays, and it’s v a less expensive avocation than some of his previous ventures, such as his fling at pro football as own- er of the N^ Y. Yankees. Thkt was the subject for one of his debates on the merits of boxing, with N, Y. State Boxing Comr. Robert Chris- tenberry. When Christenberry, irked by Collins’ references to deaths in the ring, pointed to deaths from pro football, Collins replied, ‘‘The only person ever killed in pro football was me.” From The Production Centers Continued from .pace 34 Jakoski just chalked up 21 years of broadcasting Polish language pro- grams here. He’s now on WHOD daily from 11 o'clock tintil noon, the shows emanating from his own studio on Carson Street, Southside the heart of city’s Polish district . . . Abble Neal and her all-girl hill- billy band on WENS have put together a stage revue, “The Sagebrush Follies,” and are playing a number of naborhood and suburban theatres. IN PHILADELPHIA . . . Murray men, featured daily on Allen Prescott show (WFIL-TV) appear on Godfrey Talent Scout program; March 15 . . . Edward R. Murrow will come here March 24 to address the Press for Freedom dinner of the Fellowship Commission, at Bellevue Stratford Hotel . . . Stanley Uollier, pianist-composer on Curtis Institute faculty, will present musical preview of his new work, an opera based on Anderson’s “Story of a Mother,” over WFIL (14) . . . William (Billy) Banks, president of WHAT, is in hospital for checkup .. . Pat Monroe, director of women’s programs at WPEN, has been elected correspondent secretary of the Philadelphia Chapter of American Women in Radio and TV IN WASHINGTON . ... Jacque (“Mr. Fortune”) Wells, Baltimore d.j. and radio personality, has joined announcing staff of WWDC-MBS . . Arnold Forte has switched from sales staff of WMAL-ABC to WGMS . . . Suburban station WGAY is sending scripts of its “Fire Alarm Progress” show all over U.S. and some foreign countries to be used as basis for similar Fire Department programs . . . WMAL-TV (ABC) expanding its daily schedule by adding Don McNeil’s “Breakfast Club” and two new fea- ture film showcases to its ayem programming and extending nighttime telecasts to 12:45 a.m. . ... Two WTOP-CBS tv personalities, cowboy singer Pick Temple and juve cartoonist Billy Johnson, both strictly local, appear on new Pulse first 10 ratings, elbowing out net shows. Canada’s Jackpot Hassle Continued from pare 28 to increase sales proUtaMy,.. economtcatfy reach Channel 8-land Big 10 Grid SS Continued from page 28 ^ the NCAA nationally controlled tv programs, sat in on the Big 10 video discussions. j It’s clear that the Big 10 would like to be able to put together | their o\vn grid tv package for i sponsorship sale. Under its pro- posal all games would be televised { only on a regional basis during the major nine-week section of the football season, with only those games played before the last Sat- urday in September and after the Saturday following Thanksgiving elegible for tv on a-national scope. Each Big 10 school could make its own tv deal for telecasts within its territory for one home and one road game, subject to the approval of its opponent. This means that a conference could work out-its own tv schedule with its member teams and the stations in thp • territory and present a regional package to a prospective bankrolled Steinman Station Clair McCollough President Represented by MEEKER TV, Inc. NEW YORK LOS ANGELES CHICAGO SAN FRANCISCO Anyone fox TV? Continued from page 28 of Musicians and the American Federation of Television-Radio Art- ists over which union reps the mu- sicians who also sing. AFM says its card provides adequate cover- age and its members are not to join anpther union. AFTRA says its contract with the stations give it jurisdiction over performers who sing and talk. This complication plus the fact the sponsor was unhappy with, the station’s technical handling of the telecasts resulted in a cancellation notice at the end of five weeks. The station then made a big pitch for one of its own packages but was turned down. But such is the lure of tv that despite the eye-opening experi- ences, for the agency and its neo : phyte client, they’re back on the merry-go-round, shopping for a new time slot on a different sta- tion. Harvey Hickey of the Toronto Globe and Mail's top press gallery man. The Globe and Mail generally support the opposition Progressive Conservative Party. Queries like “Does your husband wear a wig? ... a hearing aid? .. . false teeth? ... Has he a gold mine? . . . a million dollars? , . . Does he like sauerkraut? . . . Pret- zels?” are samples of the ones that flooded her. Station officials just laughed, she told Hickey, when she asked them to halt the program. “These broadcasters are a race apart,” she said. “You just can’t make sense with them.” One night the acting Htfcme minister got home from a wearying parliamentary session and was about to retire when, after 11 p.m., he was called to the phone several times by clue-chasers. Since he and Mrs. Howe now re- fuse to vouchsafe any informa- tion, the sleuths have been hound- ing his office, staff and through de- liverymen, his wife’s cooks and maids. On the phone, they've told Mrs. Howe their husbands were out of work, their children starv- ing. their rent in arrears, and that the jackpot meant life or death to them. “They make it sound like a soap opera,” she said. “Bad soap opera, if there are degrees in the quality qf such moronic pro- grams.” Hickey, veteran press gallery re- porter, predicts possible “trouble on the highest level of the Liberal Party” if CKOY doesn’t halt the show somehow, soon. And he points out that w'hile CBC officials deny that Hon. and Mrs. Howe’s annoyance has anything to do with the threatened crackdown on Jack* pots and commercials, the an- nouncement was not made till after the current fiasco started. 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