Variety (March 1955)

28 radio ■ video - tv " films Washington, March 29. - Scope of the forthcoming h A flr- ings by the Senate Interstate Commerce Committee on network- UHF problems was spelled put by Chairman Warren Magpuson (D.* Wash.) last week with announce* ment the inquiry will survey “the entire field of broadcasting, tele- casting and communications.” This apparent broadening of the inquiry was disclosed by Magnu- son in naming ^Sidney Davis as chief counsel for the investigation. A minority counsel to represent the Republican membership of the Committee for the probe is to be selected this week. Indications that monopoly as- pects of television will play a major role in the inquiry were seen in the appointment of Davis, who has been acting as chief coun- sel for a Senate Judiciary -subcom- mittee which has been looking into possible monopoly in connection with the Dixon-Yates contract pro- viding for private power facilities to Supplement TVA, Davis; 37, is on. leave from the New York law firm of Phillips, Nizer, Benjamin & Krim, in which he is a partner. He is a former special assistant to the Attorney- General and was law secretary in 1944 to Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black. Davis- firm represents Para- mount Pictures Corp., among oth- ers in the motion picture industry. Simultaneous with Davis’ ap- pointment* the reactivated UHF Industry Coordinating Committee, under the chairmanship' of Harold H. Thoms of WISE-TV,. Asheville, N. C., warned that unless “prompt, remedial measures” are taken many small market VHF. stations as well as ultra highs will fold. ‘Critical Situation’ The recent proposal of the FCC to institute a comprehensive study of network operations, the UHF Committee declared, vindicates the position it has taken for more than a year. It is recognition “that a critical situation now exists as a re- sult of the present tv allocation plan and present network practices and arrangements.” It is also rec- ognition, Committee asserted, “chat dangerous monopolistic conditions exist Which are- leading to concen- tration of the control of all tv in this country in two powerful net- works and in a handful of large superpower, supercoyerage tv sta- tions in a few of the large markets of the country.” And if this happens, the Com- mittee predicted, the public, “will be restricted in the near future to (Continued on page 35) Kenton’s ‘Music ’55’ Kinnie Stan Kenton, the “progressive” maestro, is being pitched, by CBS- TV for a summer showcasing .with guestars. Web has made a half-houf Ken- ton kinnie under the “Music 1955” tag. Where Does Pabst Switch to ABC-TV Chicago, March 22. Switch of the Wednesday‘.night fight telecasts packaged by the In- ternational Boxing Club from CBS- TV to ABC-TV next June may have interesting ramifications so far as controversial commentator Tom Duggan, currently the No. 1 local coin producer, at ABC-TV’s WBKB here is concerned. Duggan long lias been an outspoken critic of IBC activities and rhis exit a cou- ple years back from NBC-TV’s' WNBQ where he first came info home prominence was a direct re- sult of the personal attacks he had leveled against IBC prexy James Norris and associates. When the gabber was given the gate at WNBQ he signed on with WBKB where his campaign against the boxing outfit has continued un- stintedly. At the same time, his comeback’ ’on the ABC-TV o&o after the NBC-TV ouster has pro- jected him into the top money brackets withd his 10 shows per week. netting the station close to $10,000 per frame. By a coincidence, Duggan this week is negotiating a new contract with WBKB and it’s exp*ected his stance in relation to the IBC, now that it’s to be associated with the parent network, will come up for discussion. Pabst, which has been bankroll- ing the Wednesday night bouts on CBS-TV for the past five years, cuts back to an alternate week sponsor- ship when the midweek card moves to ABC June 1. However, the . fights will be telecast weekly with the web on the prowl for an alternate client. Moveover re- portedly resulted from Columbia’s insistence that the pug schedule be limited next season to every- other-week showcasing. ABC RADIO SLOTTING ALL-NEGRO STANZA ABC Radio has slotted its first all-Negro network show, latching orito the current rhythm & blues craze with a .half-hour weekly seg- ment -titled “Rhythm & Blues oh Parade.” Show, Which will origi- nate from the Club Baby Grand in Harlem, features Willie Bryant, w,k, New York deejay, along with top Negro guest artists and acts at the club. CShow, which goes into the Thursday at 9:30 period start- ing April 7, will be hinged on the r & b fad, with live music and In- terviews taking that as their focal point. ABC, to • keep . the all-Negro character of the show intact, has even put a Negro engineer on the segment, taking him off a. tv cam- era and putting him on audio, just for the show. Club Baby Grand, on 125th l St., has been the origina- tion point for a number of local (N,Y.) late-hour radio shows, but this is the first time it’s being used as a network showcaser. Benoff’s Coca Scfiptiiig May Delay O’Seas Trek Mac Benoff has been called east’ to script the Imogene Coca show, Saturday nights over NBC-TV, and if he continues, it will set back Ills scheduled European sailing May 8. This is part of a comedy travel book assignment for Henry Holt & Qo„ dealing with a “Mr. and Mrs. America in Europe.” Benoff completed his Danny Thomas (ABC-TV) filmed comedy serieSi and is slated for. at least, a month With the Coca show, but may extend it. WFIL-TV Loves tie Guvs Philadelphia, March 29. Gov. George M. Leader, of Penn- sylvania, • Gov. Robert H. Meynet, of New Jersey, and Gov. J. Caleb Boggs, of Delaware, will inaugu- rate a new series of monthly tele- casts on WFIL-TV, Thursday, April 7, 8 to 8:30 p. m., originating from Independence Hall. The three Governors, whose* states comprise the Delaiware River Valley industrial area, will appear together on these televised meet- ings to review the factors and proj- ects that affect the mutual prosper- ity and well being of the region. PIAZZA'S TINIER Marguerite Piazza, the operatic oriole and nitery nightingale, will star in "High Pitch” on Chrysler’s CBS-TV “Shower of Stars” color show May 12. “Pitch”- can be taken two ways —music or sports. Miss Piazza is scripted as running a baseball team. i In Battle in Aft/ TV’s Newsroom of Tomorrow To insiders it looks as though WOR-TV (N. Y.) and Ted Steele . won out in the nine-month “bat- tle in the afternoon” over the com- bined forces of . Bob Kennedy and Allen Ludden in similar formats at rival WPIX. When WPIX top- per Fred Thrower announced -that the Kennedy-Ludden program se- quence was going out on April 8 because the baseball season would interfere, few recalled that in the five years that Steele held down the sanie spots he never, took a summer hiatus. Moreover, the Daily News-owned station isn’t tak- ing a firm stand about the return of the p.m. stanza combo in the fall after the diamond televising is gone for another year. Some Of the performers on the axed WPIX shows aren’t at all happy about autumn prospects, either. The battle was joined last July, the very week Steele started at WOR. WPIX put three personali- ties (including Shari Lewis—for the juves at 5:30) into the three .different type shows that Steele had handled alone. There was a variety-for-mom show that singer Bob Kennedy took over; a teenage show handled by Ludden, and Miss Lewis’ kiddie edition, which was killed not so much by Steele .competition but by- the arrival of the powerfully rated “Our Gang” film shorts which got the 5:30 nod. Incidentally, Steele himself didn’t fare too well among the youngest (Continued on,page. 42) ca *« Douglas Edwards, CBS-TV’s cross-the-board newsman, looked into his crystal ball last week and projected himselfslnto 1965 for an electronic peak-a-boo at the video future in terms of global events. “Ten years from now (maybe less, considering the speed-up processes of the electronic sciences), there will be transoceanic, round-the-world live tv,” said Edwards. “I can see the tv editor of the future sitting in his New York newsroom facing a bank of 30 to 40 giant-size monitors—many of them color receivers— reporting what newsfilm cameramen-eorrespondents are covering anywhere in the world at any given moment. It will be a 24- hour operation. “Tomorrow’s tv camera-transmitter will be small and extremely mobile, powerful enough to roam anywhere in the 'world, to shoot the news and beam it to more powerful transmitters for immedi- ate airing, or for super-speed recording which can be televised minutes later. On our own program, we’ve already begun to use tv recordings of news events with greater speed and quality than we would have thought possible a couple of years ago. “For example, when live transmission difficulties developed dur- ing the nuclear weapons tests in Nevada, our CBS television station in Los Angeles (KNXT) made a recording of the tv trans- mission and sent it to us in New York as soon as it could. We made a second recording and had it on the air within an hour and a half—with quite good quality. “Every hour on the hour*—or more often—the editor will be able to feed the network a fire in Rio de Janeiro, an elephant hunt in Africa, a flood along the Nile, a king’s coronation or a bikini bathing beauty contest on the Riviera.” Edwritds, 37, is no johnny-come-lately. * He switched from sound to sight about eight years ago, with a “network” of two or three stations. His 7:30 p.m.’er is NSR (no sponsor room). Last week, too impatient to stand by while the years roll on to fulfill or dent his predictions covering the next decade, he introduced a back- ground map 18 by 13 feet, fronted as the most accurate up-to-date of its. kind in the world. The global mural is the work of Richard Edes Harrison, a foremost cartographer (Time, Fortune; etc.) pro- duced jointly with Aaron Ehrlich, CBS News’ graphic arts director. It’s in values of gray and took several weeks to work out. Along- side the map is a blank board on which are pinpointed spots mentioned in the newscast Wednesday, March 30, 1955 IN NEW YORK CITY ... CBSpotSales promotion mgr. Sherrll Taylor back after.Dli C. brief ie. . . . The Red Barbers chalked 24th anni Monday (28) . . . Jerry Danzig takes over production of CBS’ “Gangbusters” . . . Richard Waring into running lead on “Second Husband” ,•. WCRSingers Bob Raymes and Lanny Ross to usher at Arthritis and Rheumatism Foundation’s circus preem at Garden tonight (Wed.) . . ./ Martin Weldori.f eatured speaker last week at luncheon of Nat’l Society for Prevention of Blindness . .; Verbatin tamsenpts of‘“Leading Question” arid “Capitol Cloakroom” (CBS) in Congressional Record . . , HermanHicfeman feated by Shell Oil and web execs on his first anni as WCBSportscaster , . . Burl Ives in first guest show (since opening in “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof ,,j legiter) was on Jim Coy’s WRCA stanza Monday (28) . . . Trombonist Will Bradley of Allyn Edwards show and son Bill are cuttirig records in “father and son” series. Don Lamond show’s drummer, appearing in jazz bash at Greenwich, Conn., with Bobby Hackett and Coleman Hawkins. Bill Elliot into nighttime deejay chores at WWRL . . . Bobbie Rogers, once femme dj. at WFMD,. Frederic, Md.-, at ABC-TV as gal Friday these days . . . Martin Block chairs ninth annual “Cavalcade of Stars” at Madison Square Garden on June 8 in behalf of The Shield of David Home for Orphaned Girls and its new home for retarded children . . , Harry' Novik to Coast and then Cleveland on United Auto. Workers broadcast matters . . . WINS will carry’Circus opener tonight (Wed.) ‘ . W. Ward Dorrell, Blair research chief, gets a vicepresidency . . . Dave Berman, Y&R director on European jaunt . . Fay Martin, WHLI copywriter, upped to continuity chief . . . Henry Levine, N.Y.C Dep’t of Welfare consultant, gives out on WMCA tonight (Wed.) on old age problems , , . Jacques Fray befean a new WQXRcast yesterday (Tues.) called “To France—With Music.” IN CHICAGO . . . Don McNeill and his ABC “Breakfast Club” gang are moving out of the Morrison Hotel’s Terrace Casino at week’s end with the cross- boarder to originate from the web’s Civic Theatre until a new hotel tieup is arranged . . . Eloise Rummer added a Saturday afternoon ■ show to her WBBM sked . . , WGN deejay Daddy-0 Daylie to emcee a jazz concert at the Maine Township high school Saturday (2) . . . Chi Tribune sports* editor Arch Ward’s airer sponsored by the DeVry Technical Institute switches from' WLS to a WMAQ Tuesday night berth . . . Judith Waller* Chi NBC. public affairs and education top- per, guest spoke before the Glencoe Parent-Teachers Assn. Monday (28) . . . Jay Andres has taken over as host of. WBBM’s Sunday after-, noon “Concert or Corn” record session . . . Len O’Connors WMAQ “News on the Spot” ordered four days weekly by the Temperature Equipment Corp. . . .- Cleo^Finder bankrolling Tony Weitzel’s late- night-interview show' via WBBM . . . Alan Radio checked in with a saturation bundle of 30-minute blurbs weekly on WNMP, Evanston indie. IN PHILADELPHIA . . . Earl Selby, Bulletin columnist, preemed a five-minute cross-the- * ‘ board session, “Earl Selby and Mr. Fixit” (28), on WCAU-TV, 5:55 p.m. . . . Fred E Walker, WP.TZ publicity director; reelected v.p. of the Trenton (N. J.) Community Concert Assn. . . . Warren Hull; of ‘Strike It Rich” and Phil Sheridan, “Mr. Rise and Shine” , of WFIL, will par* ticipate in the 7 a.m. outdoor Easter Sunrise Service, April 10 . .. Tom Keegan returns to WIP after four years with the Air Force . . . WIP 1 special events director Sam Serota addressed the- Adult Education Council of Philadelphia at their annual dinner . . . “Play Marko,” with Bob Russell, moved from the 8 to 9 p.m. hour segment on WFIL-TV , . “Star Sunday,” featuring WCAU personalities Ed Harvey, Gene and Joan-Crane, Ralph Collier, Jack Valentine, Ginny Stephens and "Big Top” clowns- were credited with drawing a crowd of 40,000 to the opening of a New Jersey real estate development . . . Restaurateur Lew Tendler, formr boxing champ, was flown to Hollywood to appear on “This Is* Your Life.” IN PITTSBURGH . . . Betsy McCoy has been added to the KQV staff as deejay Joe Deane’fl GirL Friday . . . Peter Barker, onetime WDTV director; is resigning^ as executive veep of Advertising Syndicate of America to accept an* overseas appointment with the' U. S. Information Service. He leaves here the end of' June . . . Joe Friedman, son of Arthur Friedman, Post-Gazette financial editor, is now working for Tex & Jinx iri New York . P . Bob Merrill’s Valyr Music Co. will publish “You Did, You Did,’ t a new song by Phil Davis, WCAE continuity chief, and Mrs, Ann Lescsak, wife of pianist Joe Lescsak with Ralph De Stefano orch ... Newscaster Ed Wood and his wife have a date with the stork in June and Lee Land, WCAE engineer, will be a pop again in July . . » Claude Morris, onetime biggie at KDKA, back in town looking for a connection . . , Gimbei Bros, doing an MCA-produced hour, show .on KDKA-TV Thursday given "over to the YMCA* building fund and featuring Kaye Ballard, Betty Jane Watson, Jenny Lou Law and dance team of Bud & Cece Robinson. ' IN CLEVELAND . . . Glenn Rowell, of WTAM-WNBK, joining staff of KOTA . . . Dottle Gay, featured in “Two Hits and a Miss” pacted for a six-a-day series' for Bi-Rite on WDOK .... George Gobel has been signed for Super Market Institute appearance here . . . Jimmy Dudley pacted for pre- Indian “Dugout Interviews” on . WERE and WBBW . . WEWS will stage series of Saturday boxing matches for POO suds . . . National City Bank purchased Charles Day 6 p.m. WGAR newscasts . . . Milo Townes and Bill Cannady exiting WSRS news . . . Ken Coleman doing nightly WHK sportscast . . . Frank Cover is WEWS’ new “Mister Weather-eye . . . Stan Barron, former WDOK announcer, now with WKBW in town , . ; Westgate Merchants purchased 15-minute daily 7:30 a.m. segment on WHF.’s Bill Gordon stanza . . , “Live Fast, Love Hard, Die Young” banned from WHF airways , . . Walt “Kousin” Kay celebrating fifth year on WXEL . . . Lbuis Winslow starting new teen- age stanza Saturday on WERE. IN WASHINGTON . . . Frank C. Baxter, whose CBS show, “Shakespeare on TVV” was a mul- tiple prize winner last year, and who is currently featured on web’s “Now and Then” teleshow, here past Monday (28) for a Library of Congress reading stint . * . WMAL-ABC’s Milton Q, Ford currently commuting to Manhattan where he has launched a new midnight- to-3 p.m, Sunday a.j. and interview show over WABC . . . Col. Edger- ton Merrill, U S. Air Force Reserves, has been named assistant to president Henry Rau at radio station WOL to handle sales promotion ,.. WRC-NBC currently conducting run-off of .local “Mrs. Washington” contest in preparation .of finals at which capital entry for national contest with be chosen , . .. Ruth Crane, WMAL femmecaster/ is fea- tured in the new cookbook, “Cooking with the Experts,” Random House publication which differs recipes culled from tv shows throughout the (Continued *on page 49) ' > , \ . ,,. .