Variety (December 1954)

40 TV-FILMS Wednesday, December 22, 1954 Lush Foreip TV-Film Market Looks Wide Open for ‘Berlitzer Brisson The lush foreign market, long a{ bonanza for Hollywood studios using dubbed-in talk strips to ‘ ber- litz” the attractions, looms as a dis- tinct tv possibility for the new filmed “Carl Brisson Show” which bows in early next year under the North American Television Pro- ductions banner. Brisson, dubbed the “Dazzling Dane” on the swank supper club circuit in this country, occupies a position in his native Scandinavia somewhat akin to that of Bing Crosby over here. He’s been knighted by the Crown, etc., and his popularity extern^ to London, Paris, Brussels and other Conti- nental landmarks. What is more important—Brisson has command of several tongues, giving carbon copy performances in French, Ger- man, Danish, of course, and Eng- lish. The Brisson “United Nations package” filmwise will be done on an encore basis using identical sets, camera positions, lighting and other production techniques when- ever possible. In other words, as soon as the English version Is in the can there’ll be' another run through in French, German or Danish, as the case may be. Since the Brisson show is being tailored for local sponsorship there’ll be no commercials to be scissored out for the overseas editions. With NATP poised for the first of the half-hour programs right after the holidays (with H. Leo pold Spitalny wielding the baton) the first order of business, natu- rally, will be to iron out the to-be- expected production snarls, whip camera and technical crews into shape and “get the show on the road.” The next gleam in E. M. Glucks- man’s eye (he’s prez of NATP) is *io shoot pilot films of the Brisson stanza in Danish for peddling in Denmark, Sweden and Norway where, based on Brisson’s proven draw and popularity, sales pros- pects seem brightest and best geared to keep pace with the spread of television in those coun- tries. It’s planned to repeat musical numbers on the multi-lingual shows to get additional mileage out of Spltalny’s arrangements but there’ll be insertions from time to time of traditional German. French and Scandinavian songs not considered Hit Parade material qn these shores but surefire across the pond. In addition, special ma- terial will be filmed to fill un- avoidable gaps in the English pro- grams such as might occur when gue&ts are used who, unlike the star, do not “have” French, Danish or German. Tele Followep Continued from page 31 with Mason as narrator-producer, they were showcased in a preview of the British actor’s “Star of Bethlehem” as seen through the dream of Portland. Fifteen-minute recap of the Nativity was a charm- ing piece, acted out by the all-kid cast as if they were doing a grade school play, for a winning sort of recitative. Little Portland was particularly captivating and will be heard from again. The Masons should make sure of this to secure their old age. pect to go into fullscale production on the series at the new studio in 90 days. New site will be a fully-equipped studio. It's housed in a new build- ing on the former site of a lot, and was built with studio facilities in mind. Stage has a concrete floor and street entrance-ways that en- able autos, trucks and other heavy equipment to drive in and be housed there, and enough floor space to house seven standing sets, according to Ranshoff. MCA • UTP Continued from page 39 by MCA’s Lou .Friedland as v.p. in charge, and a* merchandising di- vision, to be headed by former “Lone Ranger” merchandising chief Frank Mincola, who'll also get veepee stripes. Friedland’s de- partment will handle library sales Sullivan had a good laugh at j and station packages. himself announcing an act pre- maturely. (It was Jane Russell, who came on later via film for a quickie Christmas greeting from an orphanage in England.) Entire syndication operation of MCA will continue to be headed by veep Dave Sutton, who recently was named a member of the board of MCA-TV. It’s understood, how- ever, that Sutton will operate Mata & Hari were on in a slick and click impression of clowns on I s t 7,ctly"in th7nationif'.nd'high- a tight wire — probably a slack 1 thread at that considering the flexi- TV Inc. Continued from pace 39 bility with which they carried out the terping antics. The Chordettes, femme quartet, pitched their wax winner, “Mr. Sandman,” for good results. Trau. Whether in color or in mono- chrome, a Fred Waring show has the same staple ingredients of good taste and good music. On his first colorcast for the “General Electric Theatre” stanza Sunday night <19> on CBS-TV, the tints were a definite plus but subordi- nated to the usual Waring program- ming formula. This show’, one of four that Waring is fronting in the GE spot, was pegged to a Christ- mas theme and few stanzas will be more Yuletidish than this one. The Waring chorus delivered a flock of the standard seasonal numbers from “Jingle Bells” to “Cantique Noel” in typical Xmas settings. Major production sequence was a colorful ballet framed around Tschaikovsky’s “Nutcracker Suite.” Robert Onigman and Ralph Linn handled the featured dance spots with grace while the musical selec- tions were rendered with Waring’s usual precision. Plug for GE was also in the Christmas groove with clips of the company’s massive lighting display In Nela Park, Cleveland. Hcrm. level regional sales sphere, with Nathan actually directing the syn- dicated sales effort. Program- wise, MCA prexv Lew Wasserman and v.p. Taft Schreiber will con- tinue to maintain control. Aside from the 22 shows currently in syn- dication, MCA-TV will get reruns on several MCA and Revue Produc- tions packages now on the net- works. Berle: Desk Man Continued from page 25 as the Morris brass listened with rapt attention to what, some say, was a definite primer and a college course on the overall subject of television. Berle told Weaver why he wants to go film. Weaver, no slouch him- self on the gab circuit, put up a persuasive argument in defense of staying live. Apparently Berle was impressed, but wouldn’t con- cede that he was changing his mind—yet. Berle said live tv, aside from being so arduous, has too many restrictions. Suppose, for example, said Berle, he wanted to do a show from Las Vegas, so he could utilize LV talent and cap- ture the atmosphere of the resort. What would his chances be as a live performer? Easy, answered Weaver. Go to Las Vegas or wher- ever you want—we’ll bring it in Coast, on the Hal Roach, General liv * k*.Vj Cr ‘ . . Service and Goldwyn lots. Han- Eerie's still torn between «lm sard himself is planing into New «" d J e « d " , 8 Weaver s plea to stay Filmways Continued from pare 39 York in January to conduct a one- week clinic for technicians on the use of the unit. To back up their claim that the studio can shoot programs, Kasper and Ransohoff are going ahead with one of their own, the first package they’ve tried. It’s a quar- ter-hour children’s series, titled "Flukey Luke,” which employs live actors in a manner to give them cartoon characteristics. Pilot has already been shot and is being of- EDDY ARNOLD TIME With Betty Johnson, The employed.” And O’Fallon, discuss- fered for sponsorship, and they ex- ing the evolution of the organiza- J tion at an initial regional meeting held last spring in Spokane, said that when the station operators there compared prices, “there was no rhyme or reason” to them. ; “They didn’t reflect our rates, j They didn’t reflect the tv receivers In th£* market. They didn’t reflect each market’s population.” Result of this comparison and the fact that small buying combines were getting the “best buys” was the establishment of the* organization. Directors Named Directors of the organization, besides O’Fallon, are Joe Floyd of KELO-TV, Sioux Falls; Tom Bos- tic of KIMA-TV. Yakima; Gene DeYoung of KERO-TV, Bakers- field; W. D. (Dub) Rogers of KDUBTV. Lubbock: and Ed Craney of KXLF-TV, Butte. Jacobs, formerly head of syndicated sales for DuMont and latterly with Atlas Television before forming Herb Jacobs Associates, is v.p. and gen- eral manager. Each station holds stock in the amount of its owm rate card highest hour rate. Stock is common. non-asses c able voting live.’ Holtz Joins Fathor Portland, Ore., Dec. 21. Merrlman H. Holtz Jr., former manager of co-op programs and film sales at DuMont in New York, has become associated with his father, Merrlman Sr., northwest rep for Guild Films and president of Pictures, Inc. Holtz ankled DuMont three months ago, and was abroad before returning to Portland. New Telepix Shows Hooper ——j Continual! from pug* 34 formers and programs in particu- lar, depending on how they fared on the Hooperatings, but as a per- sonality he was almost without peer in the Industry. A colorful, dynamic figure, he matched survey strategy with super salesmanship and an alertness as a speaker. He could have made a fortune as a network salesman, ad agency exec and “front man,” but preferred to operate on his own. Hoop sold his network rating service to the A. C. Nielsen Co., of Chicago, in 1950, agreeing to ex- clude national measurement from his domain and devoting himself to studies more limited in scope, such as city ratings. The five-year agreement between Hoop and Niel- sen expires in March of next year, when the Hooper coifipany would be permitted to reenter the nation- al sphere, if it wished, but Hooper was to have no personal connection with such a setup. Such an agree- ment naturally bespoke Nielsen’s own view of Hoop as a master drumbeater. Before joining the Starch com- pany, Hooper, son of a Kingsville, O., clergyman, was an appliance salesman and advertising executive (Harvard Business Review, Scrib- ner’s Magazine, among them). Hooper’s death resulted from being hit across the body by a plane-type propeller of a boat with an overhead motor. When the boat became lodged on a sandbar, Hooper climbed out to dislodge the craft and was knifed by the whirl- er, dying shortly after being ad- mitted to Latter Day Saints Hos- pital in Salt Lake City. He was on a fishing trip with an old friend Frank McClatchey, owner of sev- eral stations on the Coast and of KSL in Salt Lake. donaires (4), Hank Garland and Roy Wiggans Exec Producer: Joe Csida Producer-Director: Ben Park Writer: Park 26 half-hours Distrib: Walter Schwlmmer Co. This series has a lot of, things going for it in the admittedly rugged musical telepix sweep- stakes. It marks the telefilm debut of Eddy Arnold, whose name needs little pre-selling what with his RCA Victor recording sales now at the 30,000,000 level. And while Arnold, and rightly so, is the kingpin, it’s more than a singleton effort as he’s aided and abetted by a worthy supporting cast in the person oL Betty John- son. a pert, telegenic lass with pipes to match, the Gordonaires, a real pro vocal quartet, and Hank Garland and Roy Wiggins, guitar specialists. The basic ingredients are there. trimmings to give the necessary Gor-! spice and movement to the inher- ently rigid format of a musical package. After a standup opening ditty by Arnold, who comes through with lots of low-pressure warmth, this particular film seques into a period piece vignette built around a Western Ho wagon train. Campfire layout, featuring bits of neat (lighting and iensing, is the takeoff point for a string of fitting tunes by the entire company. Arnold supplies tasty treatments of “Jeannie With the Light Brown Hair” and “Across the Wide Mis- souri.” Miss Johnson sells prettily “I Know Were I’m Going” for the distaff pacechanger and the Gor- donaires deliver a zingy rouser with “Battle of Jerico.” Routine makes for pleasant watching and listening. Half-hour finales with an Arnold trademark, his closing hymn. With host Arnold projecting potently throughout, this project b5s a folksy appeal that escapes the strict country and western ’54 TV Profits Continued from page 34 New York City area, 28 of whose 31 stations did an aggregate gross business of $16,191,000. This does not include operations of three network ow’ned and operated outlets. Next largest concentration was in Chicago where 23 of 27 stations reporting grossed an aggregate of $9,750,000 and earned $1,441,000. Third was Los Angeles, where 23 of 25 stations reporting grossed a total of $8,820,000 and earned $1,437,000. The report confirms the network upswing in tv and the downturn in radio. It shows a 3.3% reduction in radio revenues in 1953 by the webs and their 22 o&o stations. Network radio profits last year were down 7% from 1952. Profits for the radio industry as a whole were off 8.4%. Time sales by radio networks fell 10.49& last year. Non-netwoi^c time sales to national spot adver- tisers Increased by 4.8% and sales to local advertisers rose 4.1%. Whether radio suffered last year because of tv cannot be deter- mined by the Commission’s report. However, the agency plans to break down its figures in forth- coming tabulations to show opera- tions of radio stations in tv and non-tv markets. Data will also be issued on profitable and losing stations. No Raidins—Sarnoff Continued from page 33 clock Firm w ill Hn no Hnnlr K„«r . cuiems air inert. , me SiriCl country ana Western ine and each station is aniono t,ie lnsta ^ men t viewed, ; idionj without alienating the c&w moil s h. . Vi no nniv JiVl ?Tt £ S . apparent that Producers Joe I fans. It could well be the first big bu\ing only what film, it Cs!da and Ben Park are dressing telepix winner bearing the Windy lianis - I the series w ith the production I City dateline. ~ Dave. ties from NBC and ABC to Co- lumbia radio. In fact, Paley is represented today as opposed to such talent raiding for tv, prefer- ring Instead to develop shows from scratch, just as Sullivan did op CBS. (Practically every major property on the network today comes within this CBS-built-and- developed concept and even though Jackie Gleason was wooed over from DuMont at fancy coin, his emergence into the big bigtime didn’t actually crystallize until he got rolling in his Saturday 8 to 9 Columbia slot.) The NBC nix on future talent raiding will certainly be embraced as one of the healthier gestures of the new year in tv, portending a “we’ll-start-from-scratch-too” bid to try to take the play away from Sullivan's Sunday 8 to 9 dominance by developing its own brand of showmanship in the competing time slot. WEILL TO DOUBLE ITALO PR SUPPLY Jules Weill, topper of Fen-tone Films, plans to nearly double his supply of Italo features for video by next spring. He just recently added 52 films to his original sup- ply of 30 dubbed pix, but new addi- tions will bring the total to 150, with 26 of the properties to be in tint. Weill and Italian Films Export’s Ralph Serpe are heading for Italy in February to decide on the new films. The color plans are Weill’s first step in that direction. Fortune’s first 30 pix were ac- quired last January, and so far Weill reports they’ve played 93 markets, with the next 52 films (picked up this fall) currently inked in 27 markets, including N. Y. To accommodate the in- crease in properties for distribu- tion, Weill will move to larger quarters after Jan. 1. And for the present he is adding two more to his office staff. Indies’ Stains — Continued from page 37 the FCC. The other non-special- ized radio station among N. Y.’s in- dies is WMCA which pushed sales up about 20% over ’53. National spot has increased also. Among specialized language in- dies, WWRL (dealing in Negro as well as Spanish) national spot, which accounts for 60% of the station biz. is slightly up over last year. WEVD (Yiddish) reports to have fallen off in national spot ad- vertising, but has picked up major advertisers to bankroll Yiddish stanzas in their entirety. WEVD had a 40% gross increase, but management feels much of it was due to upped rates. WLIB (slightly less than half foreign lingo programmed) saw a small in- crease in all billings, with na- tional spot (accounting for 80% of the biz) remaining steady. WHOM (Spanish) and WOV (Italian) would not comment on the year end picture. However, as far as WOV is concerned, informed sources say that the station, doing all national biz but for three local accounts, is quite well off, particu- larly since tv hasn’t yet made a dent in Italo programming. RCA Target Year . Continued from page 34 of national service and national defense. “The NBC adjustment to the changing circumstances of network radio is well on the way, and as a result of systematic, considered action, NBC is again leading all networks in nighttime radio and in actively seeking to bring about similar improvement in its day- time radio position. We are confi- dent that radio as a medium will continue to live, and we expect that NBC will maintain leadership not only in television, but in radio as well.” In summation, , Gen. Sarnoff pointed to the achievements in sci- ence, art and industry that marked the year in radio-tv and electron- ics as one of progress, stating that these advances “augur well for even great accomplishments in 1955.” The electron and the atom are “strengthening the bulwarks of freedom and democracy” on land, sea and in the air. “The new and promising developments of the Electronic-Atomic Age open the way for the creation of new businesses, new jobs, and higher standards of living. With the bless- ings of peace and the practice of good will, we can surely trans- form these promises Into realities.” Aveo Continued from page 35 who was advertising director for Monsanto Chemical Corp., along with John Kelly, advertising di- rector of All, a Monsanto product, resigning their respective jobs to head up the Columbus agency and pave the way for the acquisition of the Avco biz. Arnold Cohan, who recently shuttered his own advertising agency in New York, will run the N. Y. office foj; the Columbus setup, I as reported some weeks ago.