Variety (November 1954)

Wednesday, N ovember 3, 1954 . P%B&fli?Ff’ RAMO-TEUKVISIOX 25 CBS-TV takes undisputed billings championship for the first nine months of the ypar, according to the Publishers Information Bureau reports for September: Columbia’s gross to billings for the nine months are up at .$102,928,404, compared, with NBC's $88,208,365. At the end of the first nine months of last year, they were practically, neck-and-neck, with $67,946,521 for CBS and $66,674,488 for NBC! Biggest percentage increase has been won by ABC-TV, with a 64:5% hike to $22,693,361 from last year’s $13,796,753. ABC’s September increase was . also tops, 93% more billings than last September. In radio, picture continues gloomy, with all but ABC suffering' ine-month drops and drops for September. ABC’s nine-month increase is a minute 0.9%, but its September increase, is 5.1%. NBC is Worst hit, down 18.9% for September and 26.8% for the first nine months. The detailed breakdown follows: ‘One For All, Or Rose in Bloom A Leading ‘Studio One’ Playwright’s Works Draw Institutional Attention Live teleshows are one-shots; to be but some scripts survive their network life. Case before the,house is that of Reginald Rose, wh utput has first refusal by CBS-TV’s “Studio One’’ dramatics. Rose, producer Felix Jackson and editor Florence. Britton have been kept busy of late counting mail, from institutions arid colleges around the country who are in- terested in perpetuating some of Rose’s scripts. One of them, “The Death and. Life of Larry Benson,” given back in May, brought a let- ter the other day from Douglas Burke, of the drama club of Gal- la ndet College, Washington, D. C.— the only college for the deaf in the world. Burke said his members want to put pn “Benson” for the collegt aUdience, “The entire, cast,” Burke wrote, “will be com- posed of deaf actors, which means that the play will' be presented in sign language. All the plays performed for this small audience, (Continued on page 38) Television continues to expand n blurb treatment virtually copyrighted by Hollywood’s rhas- terminders of advertising copy. Let any musical or straight play-click or flop—be turned into a film and the word goes Out immediately a found the country, “based on the Broadway success” or “smash” or “hit or etcetera”) of (whatever the , year). TV has been doing a ditto, regardless of hoW the vehicle fared, the Broadway route. Some, ashes” exploited by the net- works have run maybe a month,, but thoy wouldn’t know that in Broken Promise, Ark. . Chrysler’s CBS-TV “Climax,” oh the other hand, is pulling a switch With, A Id ous Huxley’s story, “The Gioconda Smile,” slated for Nov. 11 : as ; a Dorothy McGuire-Franchot Tone starrer. The first and only bulletins so far make no mention of the fact that “Gioconda” had- a I’Ufi on Broadway a couple of sea- sons back. Since the run was brief that’s playing it safe, at least, J No Time for ‘Space’ Frank ^Shakespeare Jr., sales chief of WCBS-TV, N. Y., last week hung out. the SRO sign on “Space FUnnies” for the first time, with the Nestle Co. (for Quik) picking up the fourth and final one-minute participation in the Sunday kid series. One of those rarely dreamed of things—a video program produced in part by Russia* the U. S. and many other , countries—is shaping as . a strong probability. The idea is being nudged by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, With mat- ters slated tentatively for a Jan- uary start, pending sufficient in- ternational authorization and ad- ditions to the UNESCO, staff. Henry^Cassirer, a UNESCO: mass communicati exec, has already discussed the idea of a; half-hour “magazine” program with Britain, the Netherlands,. France and. Can- ada, with these nations giving their okay. Italy and Germany are ex- pected, by Cassirer to. support the stanza, and “tentative talks” have been held with' Russia, with an (Continued oh page 38) $3,500,000 Motorola Billings Up For Grabs Chicago, Nov. 2, Motorola is expected to decide this week or next on a new ad. agency after suddenly ending its five-year association with Ruthrauff & Ryan. Set manufacturer’s an- nual billings are running close to $3,500,000. Motorola has had no major stake in radio-tv since it checked off last April from its. hour-long dra- matic, series alternating with U. S. Steel Tuesday night on ABC-TV. Tlii networks’ chessmen were moving in the shadows this week in the quest to improve their status in the owned-and-operated . tele- vision sweepstakes in . what has be- come the most fascinating “game to watch’’ in recent years. As' was expected, CBS’ move into Milwau- kee for the first of its two U acqui- sions and the blueprint to invade Pittsburgh with the Steubenville V was only the beginning in an inter- network chess game that will be- come intensified,in coming weeks. . The newest “plot” .reportedly concerns RCA (NBC) and Westing- house; with all kinds of rumors cir- culating in the industry. Nobody, of course, is doing any confirming, but the talk most widespread is that Cleveland, Philadelphia and Boston would be involved in an exchange of V ownerships, with RCA-NBC at the same time resolv- ing its “plus,two” U acquisitions in either, San Francisco, Detroit or Baltimore. The talk is that Westinghouse would make a trade with NBCi' turning over WPTZ in. Philadel- phia in exchange for NBC’s o&o Cleveland setup, in return, NBC would "sit tight” as far as com-, mitting itself to a Pittsburgh af- filiation until such time that West- inghouse jockeys itself into: a sta- tion ownership,, thus establishing, the NBC-Weslinghouse alliance in that city,. Too, goes the. word, it would solidify r Westinghouse’s WBZ-TV Boston alliance with the. network, despite any attempts made at opposition encroachments. As far as the Philly situation is concerned, this, it’s said, marks a retaliatory gesture in the wake, of reported overtures made by the I Anrienberg interests, owners of WFlL-TV, to engineer a switch, in affiliation. Annenberg station, with its. present ABC affiliation, ranks as the No. 3 .operation: in the city. Should NBC. settle for a U in Baltimore, it would naturally end the WBAL-TV Hearst tie. In the event of the FCC going high-power right down the line, a U in Balti-. more would satisfy NBC’s needs in view of the fact., that the high- power signal up from Washington and down from Philly would pretty^ much do the rest in blanketing that entire area, At any rate, everybody’s- watch- ing to see where the chessmen move next. Cassini’s WRCA Studio Originations Because Of Union Complications Igor Cassini’s “celebrity inter- view” teleshow from the Ambassa- dor Hotel, N. Y„, was caught be- tween a NABET and IATSE jurisdictional tiff, hence it now originates late Sunday night from the WRCA-TV.studios in New York at least for a while. The new “background” is. a recreated ver- sion of the Harwyn. Club, “chiefly' because it lends itself, to a more economic Studio Counterpart,” says he. The Harwyn nitery contrib- uted to the production cost of the scene; • The Embassy Club of the Ai - bassador is a more: lavish decor, and this may be. the next “recre-. ated” studio set, although Cassini (he’s “Cholly Knickerbocker” of the N. Y. journal-Atfierican) hopes to be back, in person, at his friend, Col. Serge Obolensky’s hotel, in time. Cassini had in mind to “visit all the glamorous night spots of New York, such as El Morroco and the Colony,’’ until on two days’ notice lie had to switch back into a studio because of the jurisdictional hassle between the two stagehand and electricians’ unions, Sherman Billingsley anticipated this, of course, by first having made his deal for his “Stork Club” 1 show ‘ (ABC-TV), in advance. Inside Stuff Phoenix, Nov. 2. It’s radio. vs. television as Arizonans go to the polls to- day (Tues.) to elect a governor. Howard Pyle, present chief executive who is running for reelection, is k stockholder and former program director of KTAR here. His opponent, Ernest W. McFarland, is principal stock- holder (40%) of KTVK, local Channel 3 outlet which bows in next month. UAW on Spot In Detroit, Nov. 2. The FCC has ruled that a Re- publican Congressional candidate must be given free time over WJBK-TV because the UAW (CIO), which purchased time oh that sta- tion, invited Democratic candidates to appear on its program. The rul- ing may . also affect WWJ-TV which also carries a UAW (CIO) program. The ruling may result ih a Viiy tual monopoly of the airwaves— both radio and tv—for compensa- tory political time up to the min- ute the polls close. This is so be- cause more than ; a dozen Demor cratic nominees for state and na- tional offices have appeared on the | UAW (CIO) radio and tv programs. If their Republican opponents de- mand equal time, as most have in- dicated they Would, the airwaves will be jammed. The FCC’s decision was handed down in a specific case involving Gregory M. Pilloti who is vying for the Congressional seat Of Demo- cratic incumbent, John f D. Dingell. WJBK-TV, as a result, offered Pil- lon 10 minutes Sunday (31) after- noon. Pillon said he would file a complaint against WWJ-Tv, which Has refused free time, because his opponent also appeared pn a UAW (CIO) show carried by that station. The FCC said opponents who claimed compensating time must demand it personally from the sta- tions and that each case must be considered on its merits. The com- mission did not rule whether mi- nority party candidates also were entitled to compensating time but if this were done, the log jam of political speeches would be. enor- mous. John Feikens, Republican State Chairman, said he believed the FCC decision would focus public attention on the fact that a labor organization has promoted candi- dates of one political party. He said the decision demonstrations that the UAW (CIO) has been (Continued on page 38) DON APPEL TO REIN IM0GENE COCA SHOW : Ernest D, Giupksman in from the Coast, brought in one NBC-TV Imogene Coca Show on Saturday (Oct,, 30), after relieving Marc Daniels in the- chbji’e, and starting with the next Saturday stanza the production will be in the hands Of Don Appel. It was understood right from the start that Gl.ucksman was to be. on a- temporary basis until a regular reiner could be set. HAGENAH TO RCA Gus Hagenah has ankled his post vice-prexy of Standard Radio Transcriptions Service to join RCA Recorded Program Serv- ice. He will represent the service out of the Chicago office. RCA Recorded Program Service distributes packaged shows for radio and video. It’s now postscript, but CBS ['was in, a sizzling, pre-election has- sle with the Democratic Party last week on alleged “favoritism” to the GOP. The stew was cooked, as far as. Demo national committee chairman Stephen A. Mitchell is concerned, when the webs, via CBS’ facilities, turned over a half- hour to President Eisenhower and Cabinet last Week with. Secretary of State Dulles. the principal actor next to the Chief Exec. CBS prexy Frank Stanton credited with the coup that brought Ike & Co.’s maderfdf-tv Cabinet session to the air, went to bat personally lengthy telegram to Mitchell deny- ing his. request for free time for Adlai Stevenson “to balance” 'tim given to the Administration. Stan- ton said the denial “is wholly con- sistent with the CBS tradition of public service, tradition which Election Expendables The elections—remember? —will be Officially, put on camphor by Dave Garroway tomorrow (Thurs.) with this post-ballot feature on his NBC-TV “Today” show: What the defeated candi- date does with his left-over buttons, banners and speeches. P.S.: If any defeated can- didates’ faces were red while the returns were coming in yesterday (Tues,) they would have shown .up on'. WRCA-TV* N, Y,, whose election cover- age was telecast, in color. Characteristicallyi the cover- age was sponsored by Bromo- Seltzer, the w.k. “morning after” headache scrammer. you (Mitchell) recognize your telegram.” Such a nix would have been unan- imous With the major webs (with ABC, Mutual and DuMont also "naying” the Demos), except for NBC. It’s understood that the first word that NBC’s upper echelon (beginning with board chairman David Sarnoff) had that the web had offered Jthe Demos free time for the past* Saturday niiht (30) was when they read a copy of th release or saw it in the Thursday papers. A couple of them-r—at least one of known Republican persua- tion—were said to have hit the ceil- ing. So pronto the press dept, was instructed to send out a ‘kill”, on a. publicity release cohering the ciiffo time. This was followed al- most immediately by instructions to reinstate the original release, with the NBC brass finally agree- ing that it would not be “cricket” to renege on an offer made by one of the web’s executvies acting (Continued on page 30) Larry Menkin. radio-tv prograi ming chief at WOR,: New York, is. parting company with the Mutual, flagship station at the end of .the week. Departure doesn’t come, any particular surprise in view of the film character of *the tv station which, : according to pres- ent schedule, will soon go all-film from 7 to midnight, thus practical- ly eliminating the need for a pro- gram chieftain. Gordon, Gray, gen- eral manager of the station, doesn’t plan to replace Menkin. Departure of Menkin is keyed to the present wholesale trimmings put into effect by Mutual prexy Tom O’Neil on the network and local WOR level, which has thus far resulted in about 40 axings. Last week a number of engineers departed, Menkin is currently in negotia- tion for a new affiliation and is mulling a syndication deal oh some of his own properties, in- cluding “High Tension” and “Harlem Cop,”