Variety (December 1954)

H wood Gets Public Relations Assist Hollywood, Dec. 21. Good public relations and good business obviously go hand in hand in the new packaging firm set up by publicist Aleon Bennett to meet the needs of organizations around the country which want Hollywood names for fund-raising purposes. As a direct result of the profitable and successful initial package, Bennett finds him- self with a salesman’s commission on a telefilm series. Initial package headlined Marie Wilson, who was breaking In her new nitery act in the junket to Minot, S. D., for the dedication of the new Civic Auditorium. Others in the cast were Penny Sin- gleton, Champ Butler, Hal Peary, Rodney Bell, Earl Barton, Joe Russeli and pianist-leader Phillip Della Penna. Bennett packaged and produced the layout, working on it for more than two months. Unit left Hollywood a day early in order to have plenty of time to make necessary production arrangements and supervise light- ing, etc. The result was a show that went off like clockwork—and one that made a decided impression on Minot residents, to the tune of editorial comment praising Hollywood and its personalities and plugs during the show, on the air and in the paper, for upcoming productions with which cast members are connected. “Usual stories about troupes of this kind,” Bennett declared, “are about the snobbish attitude on the part of townspeople. I went along to protect the troupe and act as a sort of buffer. I felt I owed it to both parties. But there was no difficulty of any kind here, nothing but mutual respect and admiration. They got a good show and Hollywood got some good public relations.” TV Inc. Sets 1st Station-Owned Filmbuying Org; Seek 100 Outlets First station-owned and oper-, ated filmbuying organization has been established and will go into operation in New York Jan. 2 un- der the corporate name of TV Inc. Firm, which will be headed ad- ministratively by telepix vet Herb Jacobs, has some 40 station mem- bers already participating, with an additional 10 outlets expected to sign by the starting date, and a total of 100 stations as the mem- bership goal. Only object of the company, which is headed by station oper- ator Gene O’Fallon (KEFL-TV, Denver) as president, is to act as liaison between its member sta- tions and distributors by acting as a central buying office for the out- lets. Idea is to get film at lower prices for the member stations via volume buying, and at the same time procure the cooperation of distribs because of reduced selling costs involved in central selling. Membership will be limited to all but the largest markets, following the principle of servicing distribs through centralized purchase for what otherwise would prove pro- hibitive sales expense in getting to the small markets. Another possible function of the organization as it affects its mem- ber stations is a push for stand- ard methods of film* pricing. Jacobs pointed up the fact that “the tv industry has grown to a point where it can no longer af- ford the hit-and-miss methods now (Continued on page 40) OF to Syndicate Denove’s ‘Music’ Official Films, W'hich has been expanding its distribution catalog rapidly over the past couple of months, has signed to syndicate Jack Denove’s “This Is Your Mu- sic,” the half-hour series which is airing in some 14 Coast markets for Pacific Tel & Tel. Official’s distribution begins as of now, and only a couple of days after it got the property last week, it set it in Lake City via Ben Larson’s KTVT. Series, which stars Byron Pj er and Joan Weldon, has been ing for Pacific Tel & Tel for yeeks and has just been rene for another 13. Denove himself the telephone company deal had been pitching the series large regional deals himself, without success. Result is handing it over to Official •indication, with 13 already in |' an :. °* ficial ®lso partici] in the financing of the upcon P>x. Halsey Barrett, who rep I enove on the series in the i , continue to act as his re tentative on other properties commercials and industrial out no longer will handle .“Mui Ziv TsU vision Programs Proxy John L. Sinn details why lie calls * Zivcolor: a Tint-Mint * * * as Interesting byline piece In tbe forthcoming 49th Anniversary Number ef USuiEfr OUT SOON Filmways’ Major Manhattan Studio Seen Boom to East New film studio, said to be the second largest in Manhattan and the first in the east to employ a Hansard rear-screen projection unit, will be opened in mid*Janu- ary by Ed Kasper and Martin Ran- sohoff, owners of Filmways Produc- tions. New setup, which will be lo- cated on E. 95th St. in a new build- ing, will have a 100x55 ft. sound- stage which will be able to house program production as well as commercial and industrial shoot- ing. Studio, W'hich will operate under the name of Cinema Soundstage Productions, will greatly enlarge program shooting facilities in the New York area. It brings to three the number of studios in Manhat- tan available for largescale produc- tion of programs, the others being Fox-Movietone and Biltmore, and to seven the number of studios in the metropolitan area, others be- ing Bedford Park and Vitagraph in the Bronx, the Warners lot in Brooklyn and Parsonnet Studios in Queens. Kasper and Ransohoflf will continue to use their present Film- ways site on W. 54th St. for com- mercials, while shooting programs or leasing the premises of Cinema Soundstage. Use of the Hansard rear-screen projection unit, the only one in the east, purchased outright from Robert Hansard, its owner and in- ventor, will effect great savings in commercial and program produc- tion costs, according to Ransohoff. Unit can eliminate location shoot- ing for commercials, since back- ground footage can be taken from stock libraries, set up on the unit and the entire scene with the com- mercial and background together can be shot in the studio. Unit is being used extensively on the i (Continued on page 40) NEXT YEAR VITAL IlflllH Finalization this week of the merger between the Music Corp. of America’s syndication subsidiary and the Coast-headquartered Unit- ed Television Programs, with all the ramifications it bears, has alert- ed the telefilm distribution field to the cold facts of life of the coming year. Key tradesters feel that 1955 will be a year of decision, one in which only the strongest- entrenched distribs will be able to i weather successfully. Feeling by : these distribs is that if they do come through next year unshaken, they’ll be in for keeps. Back of the MCA decision to ex- pand via the merger route, it’s said, is the fierce competitive situation that reigns in the field today, with all its outward manifestations of wild pricecutting. Belief at MCA is said to have been that such would not only make MCA the biggest distrib in the field with more than 25 separate series, but would elimi- nate a substantial chunk of top- flight competition. While UTP has one of the hottest sales runs of any firm recently, it’s also had that finger of accusation pointed at it on the pricecutting score. Elimi- nation of a major competitor, ab- sorption of a number of shows that are doing well ("Mayor of the Town,” “Lone Wplf,” et al.) and strengthening of its sales depart- ment were all key considerations. But the fact that MCA is now kingpin in terms of properties and manpower has flashed the danger- signal to other distribs. Prospect of having to compete with the in- dustry’s ^iew Goliath has resulted in two stave-off-the-wolf philoso- phies, one of expansion and one of belt-tightening. Official Films, for example, is taking on new prop- erties as fast as they can sign them and expanding their sales force rapidly, under the belief that if they’re to compete with MCA and stay in business,' they’ve got to achieve volume. On the other hand, other distribs, ABC Syndication for example, has set a policy of staff austerity, under the philosophy that a tight black-ink operation is the best manner of weathering the storm. What’s responsible for the price- cutting wave and what also may cause several distribs to go under this coming year is the stretch on their financial resources. In many cases where distribs are selling cheap, it’s because they’ve got to meet guarantees or loans now com- ing due. It’s a matter of raising cash as quickly as possible to meet their payments; and if pricecutting achieves the purpose that’s what they resort to. But at best, this is considered a precarious exist- ence, and the emergence of the telepix “giants” will make it far more so. WOR-TV to Also Give Italo Pix Multiple Ride A la Million $ Movie WOR-TV has inked with Jules Weill’s Fortune Films for use of several of the Italo feature films in the New York market. Aim of the station is to sell the dubbed pix in a fashion somewhat similar to the way “Million Dollar Movie” (General Teleradio’s Bank of America films) was handled, with each pic getting 14 showings over a two-week period. This multiple exposure on pix, including names like Gina Lollo- brigida, Jean Pierre Aumont, Anna Magnani and Alida Valli, will consist of seven showings the first week on the air at 9 to 10 p.m. (this being between evening show- ngs of “MDM”) weeknights and 3:30 to 4:30 p.m. weekends. Sec- ond week will have version from 11:30 p.m. to signoff for seven nights. Bankrollers are being of- fered a chance to buy first or sec- ond week or a combination of both. The Associated Artists pix, an- other recent WOR-TV buy, will not be integrated with the Italo show- ings. MCA Finalizes $1,000,000 Takeover Of UTP; Catalog Tops Industry | *—V Final papers were signed yester- NBC ixot Carl M. Stanton details Ills plan far How to Stop the Price War in Syndication * * * an Interesting editorial feafnre In the npcomlng 49th Anniversary Number ef J^SrIETy DUE SOON Anglo-Jamaican Telepix Venture; $1,000,000 on Tap Island of Jamaica is putting in its bid as a site for production of feature and television films. A joint Anglo-Jamaican venture to be known as Jamaica Film Centre was organized last week to build studios in Kingston, the island’s capital for the production of all types of motion pictures. Jamaica is the second Caribbean site to be devoted to filmmaking in the past six months, the first having been Bermuda, where a large studio site was set up on Darrell’s Island, the former airfield serving Hamilton. Jamaica Film Centre will be jointly owned by the Industrial De- velopment Corp., a statutory cor- poration comprising Jamaican in- dustrialists established under the island’s Industrial Development Law, and the American producing trio of Martin Jones, Henry Olmsted and Gordon Knox. Latter, head of the Princeton Film Centre in Princeton, N. J., will serve with the others as a member of the board and executive producer, while Olm- sted, president of Olmsted Sound Studios in N. Y., will handle all sound work. Studios are initially financed at nearly $1,000,000 and the first building to go up on the Hope Gar- dens Farm School site in Kingston will cost some $390,000. It will house two stages, one 90x80 ft. and the other 90x60. According to Jones, local labor savings can ef- fect overall cost reductions of 20% without sacrifice in quality, even with the projected use of Ameri- cans for the technical jobs. An- other advantage is availability of varied backgrounds for location shooting. Construction begins on the studio before the end of the year, and the first program to go before the cameras will be a series of 52 half-hour dramatic telepix, slated to start early next year. Unity’s $1,500,000 In ‘Len Firestone Drive’ Unity Television’s “Len Fire- stone Drive’' honoring Its sales manager is winding up its 12-week term with over $1,500,000 in con- tracts with two weeks still to go. Unity topper Archie Mayer, who set the drive, said to be the first of its kind in the telepix field, said he expects it to finish with more than $1,800,000 'In contracts. Contest angles to the drive have eastern division manager Noah Jacobs leading in largest single dollar contracts; north central di- vision manager Bill Young ahead with largest dollar volume; and Coast branch manager Jerry Weis- feldt leading with the largest num- i ber of contracts. day (Tues.) in the absorption of United Television Programs by the Music Corp. of America, thereby giving MCA-TV, the agency’s syn- dication arm, the largest program catalog and the biggest fulltime sales force in the industry. Take- over of UTP’s properties and staff, said to have cost MCA about $1,000,000, brings the MCA-TV’s program roster to 22 half-hour series comprising about 1,100 half- hours of film, with 10 series having been brought in from UTP. Addi- tionally, MCA’s national sales de- partment acquired representation rights on at least two series for- merly repped by UTP. Under the staff transfer, wherein all UTP sales personnel become MGA-TV staffers, former UTP sales veep Wynn Nathan becomes an MCA-TV v.p. and general sales manager. Aaron Beckwith, UTP Gotham veep, becomes v.p. and sales manager of the New York of- fice. John Rohrs, UTP’s midwest- em sales veep, becomes a v.p. and midvvestern sales chief, and Tom McManus, UTP eastern sales chief, becomes eastern sales manager of MCA-TV. MCA’s own Robert Greenberg becomes a v.p. and western sales chief, while UTP’s Ray Wilde has been named south- western sales manager. Additional- ly. staff expansion has resulted in setting up of a group of field su- pervisors, with UTP’s Frank Brill in charge of New York territory, MCA’s DeArv Barton in Cleveland, USP’s Karl Von Shallern in Chi- cago, MCA’s Layton Bailey in Dal- las and UTP’s Ed Simmel in New Orleans. Total number of MCA-TV branch offices will be 19, two of them inherited from UTP. Buyout of Jack Gross and Phil Krasne, who were sole owners of UTP, involves their return to a production-only status with Gross- Krasne Productions, but it’s un- derstood that G-K will have its properties distributed through MCA, and that the agency will help finance new properties. Lee Savin, UTP executive vicepresident, joins Gross-Krasne on the production end. All but two UTP-represented properties, “The Ruggles” and “The Chimps,” were involved in the transfer. Among the key shows moved over are “Lone Wolf,” “Waterfront,” “Mayor of the Tbwn,” “Rocky Jones,” “Where Were You,” “Heart of the City” ("Big Town” reruns), “Royal Play- house” and "Counterpoint.” MCA-TV will also establish two new departments, a station pro- gram sales division, to be headed (Continued on page 40) EdHaDNamed To Helm Vitapix Vitaplx Corp., which has been without an active administrative chief since Frank Mullen assumed the presidency of Vitaplx-Guild Programs, Inc., gets one this week in the person of veteran CBS exec Edward E. Hall, who becomes v.p. and general manager of the sta- tion-owned firm. Hall, until nowr business manager of the CBS Ra- dio sales department, will oper- ate as administrative head of the firm, working particularly in the area of station clearance for the Guild vidpix entries. With the alignment of Vitapix with Guild and subsequent elec- tion of Kenyon Brown of KWFT- TV, Wichita Falls, as president to succeed Mullen, who moved over to the .newly-formed Vitapix-Guild setup, Vitapix as a corporate en- tity had no administrative facto- tum to guide the operations from New York. Hall fills this niche, having in his several years at CBS operated in station relations in both the radio and tv networks. Before assuming his most recent post in the radio sales department, he was eastern station relations chief of the tv network.