Variety (October 1954)

Wednesday, October 27, 1954 RADIO-TELEVISION 27 GOD BLESS OUR NIELSEN’ Two shows a night would have been duefc soup for Eisenhower, the military hero, but apparently the multiple-performance circuit is too rigorous a regimen for Eisenhower, the President. Ike & Co. marked a "first” on Monday (25) as the tv and radio networks brought-the Presidential Cabinet meeting direct to the American hearth for a half-hour at 7 p.m. Several hours later he delivered an address at the annual meeting of the National Security Indus- trial Assn, opening with the routine salutation that’s always par for the course—paying respects to the chairman, to the man making an award to the President, to the Chief Justice of the U.S. and “my fellow Americans.” But the President, apparently with the lemory of the earlier "preem telecast” still lingering on, slipped in . tire name of "Mr. Stanton” in the introductory portion. The” intention was to . name Frank M. Folsom, prexy of RCA, since it was Folsom, as chairman of the citation committee, who handed the President the James Forrestal Award, named after the first Secretary of Defense. Tripping off his tongue instead was "Mr. Stanton”—Frank Stanton, prexy of CBS, Inc, (Stanton was riot present at the ceremonies at. this point, having come in later.) ' ■/ The Cabinet telecast came about on a tip transmitted unilater- ally to CBS that the White.Hbuse would not be averse to such a coast-to-coast treatment. CBS news and pj^bliii. affairs vp. Sig Mickelson said in Washington that the tip was received by Stanton, along with the information that Presidential press secretary James C. Hagerty would be the pivotal man on clearance. Acting on this "pave the way”information, CBS stepped in. and Hagerty sealed the deal Monday morning. CBS supplied the facilities for the pooled telecast. ' Whether the "first on tv” Cabinet session was aimed at "bend- ing” next week’s elections in the Administration’s favor was being kicked around • by the political pundits. On the returns in so far, the idea of televising a Cabinet meeting in that manner met with criticism for the most part, but whether an actual "ad libbed” session-—-if that is possible—would receive similar reaction is a matter of speculation. i c Wouldn’t Be Averse to Some Prestige Billing In Spotlight Ads Gaining momentum: among the "production credits” partisans is a united front "movement” to persuade ty network advertisirig departments, ad agencies, etc., that a little printed credit regularly (when space permits)-,-. or at least on a "now and then” basis (when space is limited) would be wel- come. Listing of producer, direc- tor, writer, choreographer, et al., is rare in video ads except when a Robert E. Sherwood, a Ben Hecht, r a name book author or Holly- wood or legit producer is involved. Thus a Paddy Chayefsky, Robert Horton Foote, Robert Alan Aur- thur. Reginald Rose—to name only a few: writers who made their reputations in television—is sel- dom or never among the advertised ‘.'mentionables,” whereas the stars in the cast will invariably be 24- sheeted. Legit and Hollywood practice is to give full pre-preem play from the producer down, although some of this comes about through speci- fic clauses in contracts. There’s also been dissatisfaction expressed around the networks and .agencies as to the “aura” of ads, with some saying that the displays should take on more of a legit or feature film "look” instead of being re- plete with "cold” copy. One school of thought advocates more and better illustrations to, arrest attention, with the text as a coi - plement. Latter is akin to the Broadway and Hollywood pattern* particularly the latter, on the paid space. Kraft Foods, which has a major ttake in the nighttime tv program- hung sweepstakes with its brace of hour-long dramatic stanzas (NBC and ABC) representing time-and- talent billings of $8,000,000 annu- JJh’. is now in the market for a kid show. Pood company has a variety of products aimed at moppet, appeal, such as caramels, marshmellows, etc., and feels the time is ripe for a video campaign. Understood com- pany has been looking into net- work availabilities, although show hasn’t been blueprinted yet. • I - Walter Thompson is the agency. Buffalo, Oct. 26. Buffalo Mayor StevCn Pankow has designated Oct, 26-Nov. 1 as "NBCtWGR Week” in a proclama- tion that includes the oldest civic act in the world—turning over the keys to the city. Accepting the mythical metal in behalf of the web was exec v.p. Robert W. Sar- noff, who was guest of honor today (Tues.) of the Greater Buffalo Ad Club as latter kudosed the network and station. WGR got launched in tv two months ago as NBC’s new basic here although the radio end goes back three decades. Other local channel is WBEN on the CBS-TV side. It looks like the Madison Ave- nue-to-Jersey City commuting of the CBS high command is due for some hectic reprising in the near future—object, of course, being to convince Colgate prexy Joe Mc- Connell (ex-NBC prez) to stop ag- gravating himself over the Sunday night "COrnedy Hour” and shift allegiance to Columbia. The same moves were initiated some months back, when there was considerable doubt, as to whether Colgate would return for this sea- son’s ride on "Comedy Hour.” At that time CBS was pitching up the hour-long "Climax" Thursday bight series, which subsequently (Continued on page 32) As Time Goes By Grey Advertising Agency has just announced its appointment to handle the Gruen watch account, thus terminating—at least for the moment—the unprecedented shift- ing around of the timepiece bill- ings. Scorecard to date: Bulova biz ($5,000,000) from Blow to McCann- Erickson; Benrus account ($1,500,000) from Cecil & Presbrey to Biow; Gruen billings ($2,000,000) from McCann-Erickson to Grey, By GEORGE ROSEN Now that the initial Nielsen re- turns are in oh the major tv net- works’ ’54-’55 entries, the rating situation has hit a new high in confusion. Particularly they pertain to the spectaculars and the NBC-TV top-budgeted • Max Lieb- man productions, the early Niel- sens have the effect of lifting the pall of gloom that had descended over the network when the suc- cession of overnight 10-city Tren- dex returns registered a calami- tous "no look” for the first three Liebman specs. NBC was making no effort:, to cohceal its jubilation over the No. 4 Status in the Top 10 Nielsens en- joyed by the "Lady in the. Dark” spectacular, whose 39.1 rating (and audience of 11,347,000 homes) Was topped only by "Dragnet”, Milton Berle and Jackie Gleason, whereas the on-the-spot Trendex added up to a virtual repudiation of the spec in terms of audience pull. • Similarly, NBC proudly flaunted a 38.7 (11,000,000 homes) Nielsen for the "Satins and. Spurs" Betty Hutton spec, which the network had ordered on its own, and which would have commanded a Noi 5 status had it been incorporated in the Top 10. Yet here again it’s re- called all too vividly the miseries encountered by the network when the 10-city Trendex of overnight telephone checks practically Wrote off "Satins” as an audience puller in contrast to the rating registered by the competing “Toast of the Town.” (It was on the. basis of the Trendex that Hazel Bishop sped sponsor Raymond Spector yelled "let me out” on the premise that nobody was watching). Trendex a ‘Monster*? Thus today it’s the Trendex that has emerged as the monster in the eyes of the tv networks. Trendex has never made any bones as to its primary function, which is not to indicate how many U. S. homes a show has penetrated, as the Niel- sens reveal, but to serve simply as a guide to the program depart- ments in the relation of show to its competition. As a r ul$ it cuts little ice with the client and the agency, who rely on the more all-encompassing Nielsen for a true competitive evaluation. But tv being what it is, geared to a frantic "we-gotta-know-right- away”tempo, it’s the • networks themselves that have built up the Trendex beyond its true meaning and into its present "monster sta- tus.” Let a Trendex rating make even the slightest inroad on the competition, and the network is bn the phone the next morning to shout out the news to all and sun- dry, even though recognizing that it is my no means an accurate indi- ' (Continued on page 32) Coca Shuffle Convinced that With the right format aiad once it gets off the ground the ImogenC Coca display can spark the Saturday ni^ht 9 to 9:30 period ., as one of the qualitative tv entries, NBC-TV has already put in motion a sweeping re- alignment of the show’s staff. As result, Marc Daniels has exited as producer-director with other changes also on tap. Ernest D. Gluckrnan is being brought in from the Coast to helm the show, temporarily. Show* may also switch to a situation comedy format in- stead . of its present variegated components, with NBC itself taking hold at the come- dienne’s request. The taierit agencies, notably Music Corp. of America and Wil- liam Morris, are siphoning off a' big chunk of ex-network tv pro- gram builders in the current ex- pansion which today finds the per- Centaries practically dominating network programming. Alexander (Sandy) Stronach, who exited ABC as its tv chieftain a few weeks back in the general $l,000,000-a-yeaf cutback affected by the network, is going to MCA as one of its tv execs. Latter agency, it’s understood, has blueprinted a major personnel expansion pro- gram cued to its multiple activities in video. Another ABC-to-MCA maneuver was also engeered this week when Jim Stifton resigned as director of Chi operations for ABC-TV to join the talent agency as a widwest exec. Meanwhile, Charles R.. (Bud) Barry, who. recently settled his contract with NBC, is reported moving into the William Morris setup upon his return from Europe, where he’s visiting his daughter. It’s known that Morris factotum Abe Lastfogel has been anxious to bring Barry into the agency fold in an. exec status. * Strictly aiside from “Operations Experiment” on the spectaculars* it’s practically conceded by one and all that the new television semester of traditional program patterns thus far has added u^ to virtually big fat nothing. De- spite all the pre-season excitement, generated by the reshuffled pro- gram blueprints and "promises of new faces, actually, with perhaps one exception, the doldrums have, already set in, with many express- ing keen disappointment over the dullness, lethargy and “here-we-go- again” overtones attending ’54-’55 programming. Practically all the shows that brought on new personalities this season failed tb create the antic- ipated spark, with even the. net- work execs lamenting (though not out loud) what’s been happening. Lone exception appears to be George Gobel, who shapes up as the ° one new, refreshing note in. comedic talents (His click perfor- mance on Sunday night’s four-net- work Light Jubilee program prac- tically clinched his status.) NBC had . hoped . that Mickey Rooney (in the B to 8:30 Saturday night slot) would be the answer to stemming the Jackie Gleason sweep, but he’s failed to make it* with Gleason actually piling up even greater inroads. Celeste Holm’s new one and June Havoc’s "Willy” situation comedy filmer, both on CBS-TV, have taken the critical count on initial install- ments as major early-season dis- appointments. . Actually, the boys in the trade are taking keener delight in ap- praising the w ee kto-wbek intra- mural rivalry on the rating fluc- tuations than in the shows them- selves, ' As for the splitup of Imogens Coca and Sid Caesar, latter with his wn hour Monday night show and the former berthed in. a 30- minute format on Saturday nights, NBC argues "it’s too early to tell” even though audiences generally have pretty much resolved their own. pro and con thinking. Fact that Red Buttons, now selling Pon- tiacs Friday ights on NBC-TV, forged ahead of its "Mama” m- petition on the second Trendex, is translated by NBC as a definite) plus for the comic. NBC also takes heart from’ the response generally on the Peter Lawford "Dear Phoebe ’’series and the Tuesday night “It’s A Great Life” telefilm series. Year-long hassle between the Empire. State Bldg, and New York’s seven television stations over their antenna rentals was finally brought to an end this week when the outlets signed' a new 15-year agreement under which they’ll pay more than $11,- 000,000 for the use of the tower. It breaks down to about $733,000 a year for the seven outlets, ’ an average of. slightly over $100)000 a year for each. Settlement of the hassle came only a couple of weeks after Col. Henry Crown took over ownership of the world’s tallest building. It involved a rent increase of approximately $20,000 per station per year. Announcement of the settlement, incidentally, took on the nature of a hush-hush project, with the Benjamin S.ohnenberg office, handling the building’s account, saying there’ll be no com- riient bn the hassle until later in the week, although the new contracts Were signed Monday (25). Battle over terms of the new lease took on such proportions •that during the summer the stations took the management, to court, asking for a judgment putting them under the Emergency Busi- ness Space rent control laws, which would entitle the Empire to only a 15% increase. N.Y. Supreme Court ruled against the stations, but Col, Crown, apparently desirous of getting his man- agement of the building off to a clean starts negotiated the new deal, which involves increases of about 15%. Lease expired last April, and has been the subject of negotiation, arbitration and litigation since. - Under the new lease, WRCA-TV and WCBS-TV, the respective NBC and CBS flagships, will pay the most, about $2,000,000 each over the 15-year period. WOR-TV also will be among the heavier contributors, since it leases studio space besides housing its antenna along with the others atop the building’s 1,472-foot tower. CBS-TV, hard-pressed to. convert its “Life With Father” into, a winning entry since it initially preemed last season for Johnson’s. Wax as the, Sunday night at 7 at- traction, is dropping its live format and is going film. Program is now slotted Tuesday nights at 10 with Johnson’s Wax and Pet Mjlk shar- ing the tab. As an indication of its tough going, the latest Nielsen gave it an 8.4 in contrast to the 32.1 enjoyed by the NBC-TV competi- tion, "Truth Or Consequences.” Film series will begin the latter part of December, with the net- work hopeful that the celluloid ver- sion Will permit for greater flexi- bility ‘ story content. Show is produced on the Coast by Fletcher Markle. Mike fioscia Under Knife Mike Boscia, executive assistant to director George Crandall of CBS Radio press information, en- tered Memorial Hospital Monday (25). for exploratory diagnosis. The 40-year-old veteran of the web (about 15 years of service) ie skedded for major surgery, tomor- mow (Thurs.).