Variety (November 1954)

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Wednesday, November 17, 1954 RADIO-TELE VISION 83 ‘TOO MANY & TOO LONG’ PLUGS Automobile, advertising and tv bigwigs are seen missing a good bet in not scheduling auto “announcement Shows" for network tv. These are the. .productions which have been shown exclusively the past few years to dealers and the press to officially "present" the new. cars. Shows have good-sized budgets With Oldsmobile shelling out $200,000 for its 1054 extravaganza which was presented 19 times in various parts of the nation. Chrysler’s $100,000 show announc- ing cats in all its. divisions was a One-shot deal. Dodge spent $300,000 and other makers were in similar bracket#, Figures in- clude talent, production and wining and dining of guests after > the show. ' Featured or supporting performers usually are used rather than stars, but this, along with the original book, music, lyrics and choreography Which make up these productions^ may be a plus factor because of the -freshness generated. Show'# have received rave notices by show biz crix. As a one-shot tv presentation just prior to unveiling of new models in dealers’ showrooms across the nation, shows could be- come a powerful sales stimulant, as well an even bigger revenue producer in many branches of show biz. GM’s 50,000,000th tar Hoopla Live tv Will be introduced to seven cities never before reached by direct AT&T facilities for the General Motors closed-circuit telecast on Nov. 23. Telecast, celebrating GM’s celebration of the 50,000,000th car manufactured by the company, will be beamed to hotels in 52 cities, with 15 other cities receiving the program by audio only. There is a possibility that the Video outlets will be stepped up if additional line clearances can. be obtained. In addition -to reaching seven “new’’ tv areas,, the telecast,' cording to Theatre Network Television, the closed-circuit pro- ducer, involves special AT&T line construction in 13 cities. TNT prexy Nate Halpern said the new tv cities included Bedford, Ind.; Bristol, Conn.; and Bay City, Flint, and Pontiac, Mich. NBC, as with CBS, has written 4 off any possibility of the network moving into Detroit with a UHF operation under the new FCC reg- ulations which permit: the net- works to own two U’s along With five V’s. Nor is the writeoff sur- prising, despite the fact that NBC had had such. a move under con- sideration ever since the "plus two” ukase was adopted. It all stems from the fact that Detroit is the home of the .auto- motive industry and the automo- tive industry today Is the hottest industrial sponsor segment in the whole tv programming picture, plus the fact that, once color takes hold, the annual automotive budg- et will be multiplied by many mil- lions more. (Already Ford, Chrys- ler and Oldsmobile have a major stake in the tint spectrum), Naturally trie networks are in no position to sluff off Detroit, the nar tion’s No. 6 market, by going UHF at expense of scrapping a V affil- iation. It’ll take at least three or four years to do an effective con- version job and no client playing around with top-budgeted tv coin can afford to hold Still for a U cov- erage in Detroit.. Only ABC among the webs owns a tv station in Detroit (WYZ-TV). it’s a cinch that the present NBC and CBS affiliations with their V’s will remain unmolested. Hotel Sore Because TV Station Takes Up Milwaukee, Nov. 10. The Dolero Hotel Co.^owner-op- erator of the Towne Hotel, which houses WCAN-TV, has filed peti- tions for injunctloni against the station, alleging the station with usurping hotel lobby arid stairway space* facilities. WCAN-TV oper- ates from the second, floor of hotel. . In the affidavit, Mrs. Eleanor j. Ries, Towne Hotel manager, state^l the station jammed hotel space with 200 teeners, police were called at the time to quell trouble. Other overcrowding instances were alluded to. By ART WOObSTONE Increased . laxity in radio in re- specting the good, broadcasting practices of the National Associa- tion of RadiOrTelevisiOn Broadcast- ers (chiefly among the Indie op- erators) is Causing fresh concern, with the growing lament that com- mercials are “too many and too long." In new, or perhaps sustained, era of “one long commercial,” the few broadcasters who manage to stay Within, reasonable limits of good taste, (and there seems only to be just that few) or those anx- ious to impress with their high moral purposes (while they blandly continue building their own com- mercial spots to grating excesses) have brought the matter to the.at- tention of the trade press. Armed with transcriptions Or strong hear- say evidence, they roll before on- lookers the long skein of the com- petition’s. malpractices. And while many “indignant" tradesters are merely trying to draw attention away from themselves, there’s am- ple proof of real malpractice. New chairman of the FCC, Frank C. McConnaughey, was; prompted to note the situation in an address a Couple of weeks ago: “Many peo- ple feel, and rightly so, that some commercial blurbs are overdone-— that “Now a word from our spon- sors" has become the longest word in the English language.” There’s no law for either the network or local radio programmer that forces him to remain within certain bounds for airing commer- cials, but NARTB provided an ethi- cal code allowing a maximum of three commercial minutes per 15 or seven per hour. That’s during the day or after 11 p.m. It’s less during prime time:. However, these by - broadcasters - for - broadcasters precepts are treated lightly. The excesses , have, been noted to range from something like a minute extra on the. hour to as high as 11 min- utes out of 15. Webs Not Absolved While the malpractices are moat evident among indie raidio oper- ators, networkers are not absolved. It was brought out jtfst recently that a network stanza was running well above NARTB limits in its commercial segments. It was a new (Continued on page 42) Who’* Laughin'? Colgate “Comedy Hour” on Sunday (14) hit the bottom of the Trendex barrel, coming up with a 10.7 10-city rating (with a 17.0 share of audience). On the other, hand, Ed Sul-, livan’s “Toast of the Town” hit a 48.8, with a 77.4 share of audience. Unless the J)ept. of Justice Can get its anti-trust suit against the International Boxing Club Into the courts, hope is held out by tradesters in breaking the almost exclusive hold CBS add NBC have On the bigger named fights by vir- tue of contracts with IBC. Last week, the Government pushed for allowing its case into the lower courts. The suit by the Government was dismissed earlier this year aft£r Supreme Court cited a 1922 ruling on baseball that removed . that sport from Federal purview, since it was of a local nature. Govern- ment lawyers have argued for ad- mission of the suit on the grounds that IBC prompted all but two championship fights since ( 1949, and that with the advent of tv and radio, the 1922 sports ruling doesn’t hold sway any longer, par- ticularly since the electronic, media supplied over 25% of the fight re- ceipts since 1949, contends the Government. Charges against IBC declared that- the promoting group re- strained and monopolized inter- state commerce in the promotion, exhibition, broadcasting and tele- casting and filming of champion- ship bouts. The renewed effort on the part of the Justice Dept, is only one of the legalistic maneuverings going on this week In fighting. In New York, a newly organized group of fight managers, the Metropolitan (Continued on page~42) The Horn Blows at Something unusual in relation- ships, a leading advertising agency retaining a leading public, relations counsel, stirred much buzz buzz in the boites along Ad Row late last week. Foote, Cone & Beldirig is the ad shop. Carl Byoir & Asso- ciates the PR operation. Byoir will undertake to enhance the repute of this agency. Anything of this nature is quick- ly identified by presidents of all j other agencies as having bearing on the eternal quest Of new busi- ness. Hence the wondering as to the possible account - switching angles involved. Arrangement may be fairly straightfaced inasmuch as Byoir has been the public relations serv- ice of some four accounts whose advertising is with FCB. Close col- laboration sparked the idea that the agency could use some of the same buildup for itself. By LEONARD TRAUBE One way to get a fast and cushy booking on the tv circuit is to be- come president of a network—and you can be sure if it's NBC be- cause Pat Weaver knows his way around the biz than which there is none like arid can chitterchatter with the most informed of the breed. He may not put on the supercharged palaver as well as when he’s doing a “think piece” on papier or in ex tempore stance before his staffers as they're all working up a draft of thisa or thata or perhaps latching : onto some new electronic wunderbar like David. Sarhoff’s seering into “a screen for every wall and a tuning box for every chair"; but his Vend of the dialog was pretty good at that when he was not reasoning subjectively, that a tv show is a good spct wherein to pursue the trade-talk route. There was too much of the in- tramural stuff on last Tuesday's (9) post-midnight segment of “To- night.” overalled by Steve Allen arid with the latter—natch—of- ficiating as the boswelL. Weaver got ah intimate, eye witness close- up, not once but several times, of the irritant factor occasioned by the cutting in Of plugs in spots where they were either mandatory or deliberately delayed. This was overaccented in that the Weaver vis-a-vis was a back-and-forther encompassing some 30 mins, of elapsed time, so there was bound to be those interruptions although Allen managed to cover the sit- uation by alerting the looker-inners as well as the prexy to the incom- ing plugolas. It was undoubtedly the kind of guillitine operation that must have seemed academic before it “happened to Weaver,” but with the saving grace of candor by the alert ringmaster of “To- Long Live the Specs NBC is already projecting the spectaculars into its '55- '56 season’s plans arid the word has gone out to all key enter- ment components; (film stu- dios, William Moms, MCA, legit talent, etc.) to “think of joining the spec parade next season.” There will be no diminution ‘ size, ambitions or multiple slottings, with likelihood that Saturdaynight will be devoted to musicom- edies; Sunday night to revues- variety and Monday nights to dramas. When Mike Dann was desig- nated last week as director of program sales (taking Over previous functions of Bud' Barry) and to coordinate op- eration of the spectaculars in various areas it was the signal to “get. rolling on bigger arid better specs” for next season. Slotting of Dann, in his new role, incidentally, makes the ex-press dept, aide One of the key functionaries in tne over- all program division. He's 33, night.” A couple of f’rinstarices via Allen: “I tell you, Mr, Weaver, we’re going to take one of those one-minute commercial breaks again to help you pay the cost of Karl’s tip while he puts the brandy on here and burns the whole place up.” (The reference was to the nian-in-waitering at the Blue . Rib- bon eatery in N. Y., next door to the Hudson -Theatre where show originates, With the wit remark ing elsewhere that the name re- minds him of a beer (Pabst) that isn’t in his book because his long- time local sponsor is Ruppert’s Knickerbocker). “Here we. are again and now you're sort of up against a thing, a very oldfashioned sort of interruption called a sta tion break. The \Vord lriterrup- tion sort of sends, a cold waVe down your spine.” Out of the Pro Book It wasn’t all Alien, although the gags fell better from him and quite natural,, too, since it was from the pro book, When he asked the boss to sound off on tv of the future and Weaver took off on Gen- eral Sarnoff’s “screen on the walls’’ prognostication, Allen supplied the final punctuation mark with, “And when it’s cold you knock on the wall for the janitor to send up the picture, is that it?” Weaver’s re- tort to that was to play the joke straight with a ’'precisely.” But he segued into air checks with, “You I (Continued on page 46) Television originations from' Mi- ami for all networks may bepome a reality this season via completion of originating equipment installa- tions at Copa City, the nitery op- erated by Murray Weinger and Lou Chesler. Nitery, which for the past two years has Suffered a talent dearth because of lack of tv facili- ties for entertainers regularly oil television, has set'Jimmy Durante for two weeks, starting Jtm. 22, with at least one of Durante’s Sat- urday night NBC’ers for Texaco set to originate from the spot, Weinger, in N. Y. at present, is dickering for Perry Como to play the room and originate four of his telecasts there, and is talking to Other on-tv talent for Miarni origi- nations, among them George Gobel and Dick Shawn. Fact that the nitery can originate shows from its oWn stage steins from the installa- tion Of a second outgoing cable i Miami plus the completion of reno- vations in the nite spot itself which can now house largescale shows. Copa City, rebuilt in 1949 by Norman Bel Geddes at a cost of $1,400,000, was designed for the potentialities of tv. Building is now valued at $2,000,000, arid Weinger arid Chesler have bought up addi- tional land in the rear on which, they’ll erect two buildings housing an additional three studios and re- hearsal spape at a cost of $250,000. At present, they feel they can originate shows from three points at the City, the large room where the name, talent performs, the ex- hibition area and the smaller room. Installations already made are sliding rariips on which cameras can be slid under the main robrit stage after the telecast, lighting facilities which can be hoisted out of sight, an audio; booth offstage and a direct wire to the telephone company for: video which Would eliminate the need for a mobile City of Miami is kicking in With $25,000 this year for promot- ing the project, with $100,000 ear- marked by the city for next year. Room has been done over by Frank- lin Hughes with an eye toward col- or tv originations. Way in which the setup would operate is this: performers would play their regular dates at the room, rehearsing their show in an- other room or area at the city. On the night of the telecast, the large stage would be set and guests Would be invited. Teleoast would take place on the stage, then cam- eras, lights, sets, etc., would be moved out and the regular floor- show started, with the room’s op- eration back to normal. Although its consolidated state- ment fails to break down earnings by divisions (radio, tv, records, set manufacturing, etc.), the nine. montli 64 financial picture for Inc,, shows the. company never had it so good.. Net earnings per share for the nine months were $3.12 as compared with $2.74 for the comparable period of ’53, with a special cash dividend of 30c per share declared by the Board of Di- rectors at its meeting last week, in addition to regular dividend of 40c. Record gross sales for the nine- month period totalled $263,746,543, an 18% hike over the '53 sales of $223,109,649, the previous record high. Net earnings were $7,299,- 130, .an increase of 14% over ’53. Hollenbeck’s Posthumous Slotting on ’Search’ Don Hollenbeck, the late news- man of CBS, will appear as th narrator on “The Search,” tho web’s Sunday aftennoon filmed se- ries dorie in co-op with Colleges. It’s slated for Dec. 5 on child- birth theme researched by Vale U.