Variety (January 12, 1955)

Uninfwlay, Janwary 12, 1955 TV-FILMS 47 Balaban Takes Hiatus’ on Princess Made-for-TV’ Pix, Eyes Theatres Patti Page Pilots princess Pictures, the Burt Bala- ban production unit which was first j„ the features-produced-for-tv field, has abandoned attempts to tur n out a second cycle of 13 films and instead has signed video rights ?„r 13 independently produced the- atrical features. Princess has turned the entire group of 13 orig- inals and 13 theatrical pix to Fla- mingo Films, which will distribute the films under a longterm con- tract. princess hasn’t abandoned the idea of features-for-tv. however and after it turns out three theat- rical pix to be produced in Britain in Cinemascope and color, it will again turn its attention to a new series of 13 “tailormade-for-tv” fea- tures, with the difference between this and its first attempt being the reservation of the right to put some of them into American theatrical distribution and to produce the cycle over a year’s time instead of six months. Balaban expects to start the tv features in about eight months, and will shoot them in Britain. Balaban had entered the feature production field under an arrange- ment with Vitapix, under which he agreed to turn out a group of 26 features within a year which Vita- pix would sell to stations as "made for tv" properties. Vitapix's sales efforts were successful to the point where nearly 70 stations bought the property, but many scheduled them as programs rather than fea- tures. and Balaban found that it was an impossible task to meet a weekly deadline. After winding production on the first 13 in Ger- many and Britain, he began nego- tiations for already-produced the- atrical features, and last week closed the deal for 13 of them then turning the entire group over to Flamingo for distribution. He had previously settled his commit- ment to Vitapix when the latter merged with Guild Films. Inci- dentally. Bob Wormhoudt, Vitapix’s (Continued on page 49) $ $Mo vie in D. C. Click Washington, Jan. 11. Latest champ in the local tv rat- ing sweepstakes appears to be Gen- eral Teleradio’s "Million Dollar Movie" series of Hollywood pix currently being shown on WTTG- DuMont. Booked by station man- ager Leslie Arries Jr. in an effort to boost station's lagging ratings, high budget series went over top in its initial stanza. Skedded on the basis of one film per week running four nights, first presentation, "Arch of Triumph," was seen by an audience of 830,- 000, according to both Telepulse and ARB estimates. Station jubi- lantly announced that this exceed- ed double SRO capacity of all five first runs in- town’s main stem. Patti Page has entered the tele- film field with a pair of pilot films which General Artists Corp. will peddle to a national bankrolled Films, w hich were shot Sunday (9 > at Fox-Movietone Studios in New York, are being coproduced by Jack Rael, her manager, and Lee Cooley, who produces Perry Corho's live CBS-TV stanza. Rael and Cooley used the Screen Gems crew’ to shoot the films, , w hich incidentally w ill employ the Perspecta sound process. ’55 to Find Upswing in Gotham Telefilm Production; Major Shows SCHUBERT’S 250G SUIT VS. LOVETON Hollywood. Jan. 11. Bernard L. Schubert has filed suit in Santa Mcliica Superior Court for $250,000 against John W. Loveton. producer of "Mr. and Mrs. North" program. Advertising Television Program Services, Inc., tv distrib and others charging loss ! of commissions. Complaint as- serted Schubert had a booking contract for the series from Octo- ber, 1952, to Jan. 1, 1954, but that Loveton on July 30, 1954. informed I him he wouldn’t be allowed by Loveton to exercise these rights in the future. Schubert estimated the pact can- cellation would damage him to the extent of $250,000. He further asked a court order to enjoin Ad- vertising Television from taking over his job repping the program. Cron’s NBC Exit In Policy Tiff John B. Cron, one of the NBC execs who pioneered the establish- ment of the NBC Film Division and was for the past several years its national sales manager, exited the syndication operation last week, reportedly in a tiff over pol- icy. Film Division has replaced |him with H. Weller (Jake) Keever, whom it moved in from Chicago, where he was central sales super- visor. Cron’s future plans aren’t known, although he’s said to be dickering several deals with other syndicators. That he had had sev- eral high-level policy disagree- ments about product and sales pol- icy was no secret, but the final exit came as a surprise. Keever, his successor, had been operating in New York for the past month, but as a replacement for eastern sales chief Leonard C. Warager, who has been ill. Keever’s first official act was to promote his three divisional su- pervisors to the posts of divisional sales managers. They are Wara- ger, operating out of N. Y., eastern sales manager; Dan Curtis, who suc- ceeds Keever in Chicago, central sales manager; and Clifford Ogden, western sales manager in Los An- geles. At the same time, advertising- promotion manager by Jay Smolin expanded his setup with the addi- tion of Curtiss G. James, formerly with the Murphy & Hang agency of 'Dayton as a presentation writer. McCrea’s ‘Vegas’ Vidpix Hollwood, Jan. 11. Joel McCrea is negotiating for Peter Graves to star in vidpix se- i ries, "Las Vegas Gentlemen.” which McCrea will produce. Mc- 'Crea won’t be on tv himself be- cause, he said, he sees no point in going into it; he prefers pix, and he feels tv is "too fast” a me- dium. However, when he finishes work in Allied Artists’ "Wichita," in which he’s currently starring, he will proceed with detailed plans for his services, to be based on ad- ventures on a Las Vegas resort hotel owner. Series will be dis- tributed on a syndication basis. PANDA SIGNS GREENE FOR ‘ROBIN HOOD’ Panda Productions, the British producing outfit headed by Hannah Weinstein, has signed Richard Greene to star in its upcoming "Robin Hood" telepix series and will put the films before the cam- eras Feb. 10, for April delivery to Official Films, which will syndi- cate the series here. Schedule calls for 39 half-hour films. Panda will base at the Nettleford Studios near London, with about 60^0 location shooting slated for Sherwood Forest and the town of Nottingham, where the Robin Hood legends took place. Entire series is being financed by British sources, with Official supplying American dollars to pay off American person- nel. Final details were set by Offi- cial prexy Hal Hackett on his trip to London a couple of weeks ago. "Robin Hood," which reflects a yen for costume dramas on the part of Official, is the second series to be produced by Official by Panda. First was the Boris Karloff starrer, "Colonel March of Scotland Yard," of which 39 have been completed. •4- New York’s status as a telefilm production centre appears in store for an upswing in 1955. Fact that the "let’s-go-to-film" swing among the major tv comics coincides with a reluctance by the comedians to leave New York is one factor^ Jackie Gleason’s "The Honey- mooners" is slated for Gotham- based lensing, for example. A second and more imposing reason 1 is the increase of program-filming facilities in Gotham. Aside from the Gleason films, "Norby," the David Wayne starrer which bowed last week for East- man Kodak, is shooting In Gotham at the Fox Movietone studios and on location in Westchester. Wil- liam Esty agency has been an avid user of the Bronx’s Bedford Park studios, with "Man Against Crime" and then some of the new "Tha Hunter” episodes. Marion Par- sonnet’s Long Island City lot has [ been kept fairly busy, first via his ! ow n "The Visitor” and "Top I Secret," and by leasing producing organizations like Cornwall Pro- ductions, which shot "Janet Dean" there. Hy Brown, who shot "Inner Sanctum” at Fox, is now in busi- j ness at the old Warner’s studio in | Brooklyn with his earmarked-for- , syndication "His Honor, Homer Bell." But Brown has a two-year lease on the property, and with no announced plans for another series, would surprise no one if he sublet the lot to another producing out- | fit. The newly-established Bilt- more Studios down near Greenw ich Village have of late housed the Guy Lombardo vidpixer for MCA- TV and "It’s Fun to Reduce" for Guild. Latter, incidentally, has some fancy production plans for New York, with the Norman Vincent Peale and "Bride and Groom" series also slated for Gotham berth- ing. Most important Guild entry for New York shooting, however, (Continued on page 49) Critics Acclaim Pathecolor as Tops for TV r> W BY _ -^a c/flike color in every scene ro cv The New York Times by JACK GOULD . . .“Norby" is sponsored by the East man Kodak Company, w hich made the color film used in shooting the series. The quality of color was very good. The picture on black-and- white TV sets also was gener- ally superior to that received when monochrome film is used. This situation is just the re- verse of that existing with live color TV, which often degrades the black-and-white picture. Color TV could be one more argument for “going film." New York Daily News by BEN GROSS First Weekly Color Film Series ...the first weekly dra- matic TV scries to be filmed entirely in color, “Norby," made its bow r on Channel 4 at 7 last evening... .The beauties of color do enhance the appeal of this small town situation comedy series. New York Journal-American by JACK O'BRIAN ... He is a young-man-on-his - way at the bank in Pearl River, N. Y., where parenthetically the TV action literally was filmed — in very attractive « color. Eastman picks Color by Eathe LAST WEDNESDAY NIGHT was the premiere NBC telecast for both Eastman Kodak and “Norby”. Pathe feels very honored that Eastman Kodak, the leader in film manufacturing, selected Pathecolor, the quality- leader in color film processing. CALL OR WRITE nme LABORATORIES, INC HOLLYWOOD 6823 Santa Monica Blvd. * HOIlywood 9-3961 NEW YORK 105 East 106th Street * TRafalgar 6-1120 GREAT MOTION PICTURES ARE PROCESSED BY Efi/Clf Laboratories,Inc. it o subsidiary of CHESAPEAKE INDUSTRIES, INC.