Variety (December 1955)

so RADIO REVIEWS Paxsiett Wednesday, December 28, 1955 CHRISTMAS 1955 „ With Tallulah Bankhead, Tyrone Power, Ronald Colman, Alan Young, Gregory Peck, Fibber McGee & Molly, Frank Sinatra, Helen Hayes, Roy Rogers & Dale Evans, Dylan Thomas, Ben Grauer, Edwin C. Hill, Irving R. Levine, Rev. Dr. Norman Vin¬ cent Peale, others Writer: Jack C. Wilson Producer-director: Robert Wogan 115 Mins.; Fri., 8 p.m. Participating NBC, from New York (transcribed) For “Christmas 1955 “ a two- hour special Yule show, NBC- Radio marshalled an imposing ar¬ ray of talent to participate in what it called a “transcribed magic car¬ pet around the world.” Along with holiday dissertations by such lumi¬ naries as Helen Hayes, Frank Sin¬ atra and Tyrone Power, the stanza also served up interviews 1 with English-speaking moppets in over¬ seas cities who spoke of their re¬ actions to Christmas. Although the program undeni¬ ably was an interesting and timely presentation, it’s a bit too optimis¬ tic to believe that the dialing audi¬ ence remained fixed before their radios for the entire 115 minutes. At least not in this era of tv and scores of other distractions which encroach upon an ind ividual's time. But for those listeners who may have heard all of it or even only part, it was a rewarding ex¬ perience. Then, too, NBC Moscow corre¬ spondent Irving R. Levine pro- vided an informative touch with the reflection that Christmas hasn’t been celebrated there since the Czars were overthrown. How¬ ever, he added, many of the for¬ mer Christmas traditions are now observed by Muscovites on New Year’s Day. Levine, who quizzed one Russian on his plans for the holiday, remarked that “it sounds much like our own Christmas but, of course, without religion.’’ Miss Hayes, who introed the overall show, cited the spirit of the Salvation Arm^ and told of the origin of its Yuletide copper ket¬ tle and jangling coins. “Of course, .Christmas mean -memories to most of us,” observed Miss Bankhead, who appropriately read a Heywood Broun piece-about Christmas writ¬ ten in 1929. Ronald Colman read a portion of the New Testament, Tyrone Power reminded listeners of the need to visit patients in Vet¬ erans Administration hospitals throughout the year, not only at Christmastide. Sinatra expressed his thoughts on the season by quoting lyrics of a Rodgers & Hammerstein tune, “Happy Christmas, Little Friend.” Gregory Peck, in noting that “each year we must discover Christmas anew,” read Charles Tazewell’s “Lullaby of Christmas,” effect of which was heightened by a special chorus and musical score. Welsh poet Dylan Thomas, who died two years ago, was heard in a recorded reading of “A Child’s Christmas in Wales.” Similar contributions were made by Fibber McGee & Molly, R&y Rogers & Dale Evans, Ben Grauer (a description of the Fifth Ave. holiday scene), Edwin C. Hill and the Rev. Dr. Norman Vincent Peale, among others. While all “this added up to fine Yuletide lis¬ tening, it was unfortunate that NBC chose to toss in the usual spot announcements at regular in¬ tervals. For example, a brash jin¬ gle extolling Piel’s Beer directly after a fine reading of Hans Chris¬ tian Andersen’s “The Little Match Girl," detracted from the spirit ot the program. Gilb. Radio Followup Biography In Sound As Dave Garroway, Leo Pear¬ son, Tex McCrary, playwright-hus¬ band Charles MacArthur, et al., unspooled “The Helen Hayes Story” over WRCA (N.Y.), it. was a thriller. A post-midnight (12:05 a.m.) Sunday (25) entry, this “Biog¬ raphy In Sound” is too., good to let fall on the late nocturnal ears. There should be some means of preserving or, more specifically, projecting to a Wider audience since obviously there are ETs always made. It’s good enough for a Record Collector’s Item and, were it not for the limited time intervening between now and the First Night Ball Friday (30) at the Waldorf-Astoria, N.Y., in honor of the first “queen” of these annual shindigs, it would be a ' worthy souvenir. More, it could be an ex¬ cellent money-raiser for the Ameri¬ can Theatre Wing which is the beneficiary of the event. In pungent, staccato, meaty, ever-compelling vignettes, a host of Helen Hayes intimates gave their impressions of the star. They ran the gamut from Beatrice Lillie to agent Mark Hanna, critics John Mason Brown and Walter Kerr to Mrs. Martin (Louise) Beck, who is so active in the Wing’s postwar work, which is that of furthering promising legit careers. Legit p.a. Richard Maney, producers Law¬ rence Langner and Gilbert Miller, columnist Leonard* Lyons, Gary Cooper, Ben Grauer, Bethel Leslie, Jimmy Durante, and others par¬ ticipated in this warm salute. It was actual and factual. It was an authoritative “biography in sound.” It was not sticky. Mac¬ Arthur spoke of ns their courtship at the old Club Durant; of their loyalties and tiffs. There was ref¬ erence to Mary MacArthur, their only child, a promising young actress and victim of polio at 18. It was a very worthy < record. of a brilliant career, very fittingly placed on the literal record for posterity. Abel. LUNCHEON AT THE DEWITT With Forrest Willis, others 15 Mins.; Mon.thru-Fri., (noon) WTRY, Troy Associated with, and highly ef¬ fective in using, radio for public service throughout the Albany area for more than 25 years, Forrest Willis continues that pattern with a program from new location— State Room of De Witt Clinton Hotel in the capital. It is pretty much the same show, even to in¬ troductory and signoff music, that he long did from the hotel studio, following the Arthur Godfrey CBS origination. Willis’ audience for such broad¬ casts is credited with being large and loyal: organizations and move¬ ments automatically' turn to him for aid. His approach is friendly and helpful; addresses many inter¬ viewees, and they him, by first name. However, some of the pick¬ ups—and public services on other Capital District stations, too—are drawn out and repetitious. The allotted time could often be halved, with no loss of message impact I and perhaps with an increase in the hold on dialers. Jaco. CHRISTMAS SING WITH BING With Bing Crosby, Paul Weston orch, Norman Luboff Choir, Ken Carpenter, others Producers: Bill Morrow, Sam Pierce Director: Murdo MacKenzie Writer: 60 Mins.; Sat. (24) 9 p.m. INSURANCE CO. OF NORTH AMERICA CBS and CBC (tape) (N. W. Ayer) • Insurance Co. of North America laid out some $30,000 for this Christmas Eve “Sing With Bing” hour, and that might be figured as cheap considering the promotion values. CBS toted up statistics claiming over 70,000 letters pulled in a “What Xmas Means to Me” contest for moppets, with none but on-the-air advertising and no premiums or prizes offered save to a single winner. What happens to the other 69,- 999 kids who made with their let¬ ters is something else again; per¬ haps they won’t be snared into ever writing again, or will com¬ pare the prize letter with their own and be “disturbed” about it. The winner was 11-year-old Del- ores Short, who’s spent her whole life in a Pine Ridge. Ky., chil¬ dren’s home. She read her letter, the Groaner promised her a bicy¬ cle, gifts for the other kids in the home, and there was quite a bit of hoopla re a B-29 crew out of a U.S. air base in AlaSka dropping the letter over the North Pole for Santa’s mailbag. The all-transcribed show itself rose to the Eve occasion,- with tape pickups of church choirs from the Notre Dame in Paris, Rome and the Vatican, Quebec, the Hague, St. Louis, New York, Los Angeles and other points around this country. If there was an im¬ portant Xmas carol left out, either by Der Bingle or the pickup points, it didn't come to mind. Crosby breezed along in his w.k. way, with talk and chirp, some of it carried on with Ken Carpenter, who gave a gentle ride, to the insurance com¬ mercials. Fitting background ema¬ nated from the Paul Weston orch and the Norman Luboff Choir. 0 Trau. CBS Radio Continued from page 26 Warren,” amounting to two and one-half days per week; Pharmaco, five co-sponsorships weekly of “Helen Trent”; Sunsweet Prunes, quarter-hour weekly of “House Party”; Ferry-Morse Seed, 11- week seasonal on “Garden Gate”; Campbell Soups, two co-sponsor¬ ships weekly of “Aunt Jenny.” Sponsors who are adding to their current skeds are: Lever Bros., taking “Aunt Jenny” in addition to Godfrey daytime and “House Party”.; Hazel Bishop, God¬ frey daytime quarter-hour annexed to “Godfrey Digest,” plus ‘Nora Drake” segments; Campana, quar¬ ter-hour of "House Party” to join its quarter of Godfrey; Milner cur¬ rently a Robert Q. Lewis backer, takes on Bing Crosby and “Amos ’n’ Andy Music Hall” once weekly each . under segmented selling; Sleep-Eze, adds five-minute shows, “Surprise Theatre” and Galen Drake commentary. Inside Stuff—Radio-TV ut m Closed-TV In Stix - Continued from page 27 -■ last week finalizing his network deals. Another key area of difference from the community antenna op¬ erations is the very fact that the new outfit has gone to the net¬ works and is paying for its pro¬ gramming sources. The community antenna setups merely pick the shows off the air and pipe them in to subscribers without any pay¬ ment of any kind for the pro¬ grams. Nobody has pressed the is¬ sue up to now. both because of the vagueness of their legal status and because for stations whose signal is picked up, it means additional cov¬ erage which they would not have been able to get were it not for the community antenna systems, ^nly parties who have griped , ibout the community antenna set¬ ups with any vehemence are the telefilm syndicators who feci that their properties are being aired without proper payment. Trans- Community, on the other hand, ap¬ pears ready to pay for all pro¬ grams used. Manie Sacks’ regimen,, as the “unofficial” executive veepee of NBC, with Bobby Sarnoff now prez and Pat Weaver ‘board 1- chairman, calls for 90% of his time on the 6th floor (executive) of’the? network. . Sacks is still technically a staff veepee of Radio Corp., and retains an office on the 53d floor of the parent company but, after 10:30 a.m., he is chiefly in the NBC ghq. As general manager and veep of RCA Victor, he makes the East 24th St. (N. Y.) meetings on Thursday; otherwise Larry W. Kanaga is operating head and veepee. Unique among the Christmas gifts that went out in the trade last week was that of Mike Levin, ex-radio-tv veep of the Erwin, Wasey agency who set up his own consultancy shop this fall. ’ Levin, an ex¬ musician and onetime editor of Downbeat mag, set up a pre-Christmas recording session of his own, cut a tape with a top instrumental and vocal combo on the English carol, “The Twelve Days of Christmas,” and sent acetates of the recording out to. all on his Christmas list. •Singers on the side were Sally Sweetland and Artie Melvin, with Jack Fulton on flute, Tony Mottola on guitar and Verlye Mills on harp. Reason for picking “Twelve Days,” Levin annoted, is that it “has never been properly recorded in this country.” Levin also added In his note: “In a sense, this is a Christmas gift to myself too. After some years of fitting the leopard with 18 and 59 second spots, it was sheer unalloyed pleasure to march into the studio and make a record just as it needed to be done, regardless of time or tide.” Initial substitute hosts have been logged in for ABC’s “Breakfast Club, under toastmaster Don McNeill’s newly-incepted program to showcase local radio personalities drawn from the web’s affiliation family. With McNeill set to sub for Garry Moore on CBS-TV’s “I’ve Got a Secret" Jan. 11, Don Stone, from KSCJ, Sioux City, will emcee the “Club” that morning, and Earl Thomas, WWSC, Glens Falls, N. Y. takes over the next day. | 4444»»444444»f » »4»»»+++»» i »4»4»4»444»44 .. From the Production Centres i: ♦+44 + 44+-4 4 4 4 4 4 4 + »+44 + + 4+444+++++++4-4-4 4 44 4 4 4 4 4 4 44:i IN NEW YORK CITY . . . • Arthur Godfrey last week donated the $100,000 fee received for his serialized story in Saturday Evening Post, to the Air Force Aid Society. Money will go to help families of needy Air Force personnel. Hal Simms, WCBS’ weatherman and Jack Paar’s daytime CBS-TV colleague, won diction award from Speech Institute in Boston . . . Bill Anderson, NBC trade ed, to Dallas over Xmas weekend to visit his family . . . Red Barber and John Derr Florida-bound for CBS sports assignments, with Derr producing Gator and Orange Bbwls’ coverage and Barber on the play-by-play . . . Gordon MacRae set for “Wool- worth Hour” guestarring Jan 8 . . . George Bryan, WCBS’ “11 O’clock News” reporter, has become a farmer in Stamford . . . Marilyn Rosen¬ berg of WRCA publicity office back from eight-day honeymoon cruise to Bermuda and Nassau . . . Oscar Hammerstein 2d, Helen Hayes and Irene Selznick on WCBS-Bill Leonard’s “This Is N. Y.” this* week . . . Lew Ayres to discuss his religoso film projects as guest on Edgar Ber¬ gen CBS’er Sunday (1) . . . Herman Hickman WCBS show renewed by Shell Oil . . . Mary Jane Higby and Arthur Hughes into CBS-“Back- stage Wife,”.. . .Tony Aless, Jack Sterling's -pianist on his early morn WCBS’er, and Al Cohn, Sterling’s arranger, open two-week stand of Birdland with their separate bands tonight (Wed.) . . . Cast of CBS’ Robert Q. Lewis Saturday timer will air from cold N. Y. this week (31) while Lewis joins them via direct wire hookup from Miami Beach where he’s spending holidays . . . WCBSinger Martha’ Wright gradu¬ ally getting her home into shape after recent floods, with a new piano and desk on the way. Alan Jay, WNYC announcer, turning parttime to off-BrOadway and Arena Players to do “Crime and Punishment” . . . Mari Lynn lately lead on “My True Story” . . . Alfredo Barea, who does the “Spanish Breakfast Club” and nighttime “La Voz Hispana Del Aire” for WWRL copped first honors in the annual Latino broadcast popularity poll done by Revista Teatral, weekly showbiz paper. Won it last year too ... Charles Antell Inc. switches to Cay ton agency. .. Harpist Carlos Salzedo played his own cleffings on the “WQXR Studio Series” Xmas Day . . . The prior midnight same station’s big boss, Arthur Hays Sulz¬ berger, Times publisher, offered a Yule airtime message. Madeleine Traube, daughter of the Leonard Traubes (.he’s Variety staffer), engaged to Alvan (Chick) Berman, “nonpro pro” (for two years assistant golf pro at Unicorn Country Club, Stoneham, Mass.) of Beverly, Mass., where bride-to-be will be graduated from Endicott Junior College in June, with wedding set for June 24 in N. Y. . . . John Thomas starts ’56 with role on ABC’s “Greatest Story Ever Told” (1). IN HOLLYWOOD ... Art Linkletter is grooming Ins son Jack as his successor when it comes the time to stop—look and listen . . . Jack Webb has^-cfigCreed a wisp of romance for “Dragnet” next year and signed Marjie Millar as the "continuing love interest . . . Nine years ago when J. Walter Thompson’s Cornwell Jackson sought to use “Blithe Spirit” as a star¬ ring vehicle for Helen Hayes on Lux Radio Theatre it was rejected by CBS continuity acceptance. Come Jan. 14 it will be done on Ford Jubilee on the same network. Network’s explanation: “things were different then” . . . CBS radio’s veepee in Hollywood, Guy della Cioppa, had an advance look at the billings for the first quarter of ’56 and beamed broadly . . . Mary Ellen Ryan, former time and talent buyer at the Raymond R. Morgan agency, joined Mottl Siteman as radio-tv director. Cliff Gill, operations v.p. of John Poole Broadcasting Co. (KBIG, Avalon, and KBIF, Fresno) to Washington Jan. 12 .for meeting of Radio Practices Standards Committee.of NARTB . . . Policy of spotless holidays has been established by KBIG and KLAC, Hollywood, KBIG preempted all commercial's on Christmas Day and KLAC like¬ wise on New Year’s Eve and Mom . . . KFWB, Hollywood, has insti¬ tuted new policy on late evening^Al Jarvis d.j. show;-only eight min¬ utes of commercials per hour, with rest of time strictly devoted to music and a minimum of chatter. IN CHICAGO ... MCA veep Jim Stirton new prexy of the Broadcast Advertising Club succeeding Pete Cavallo, J. Walter Thompson’s Chi radio-tv veepee . . . Joe Savage, heretofore publicitor for Mutual’s “Game of the Day” baseball airers, web’s new central division sales promotion-publicity staffer, vice Liz Troughton now with TV Guide . . . Florence Johnson retiring after 49 years of ad agency service, first with Lord & Thomas, where she was the late Albert Lasker’s secretary, and since with Foote, Cone & Belding as office supervisor. Her FC&B “going away” present is a trip to Hawaii . . . Chi CBS newsmen John Harrington and Frank Reynolds nipped by a- virus last week . . . Don McNeill to emcee CBS- TV’s “I’ve Got a Secret” Jan. 11 while Garry Moore vacations . . . Chi CBS veep Les Atlass and family spending the holidays cruising southern waters on the yacht “Sis.” . . . Local RCA distribbery bought Screencraft’s “Judge Roy’ Bean” telepixer for color beaming Monday nights on WNBQ. Deal was set by Jack Russell, Screencrafts midwest rep... . . WGN-TV sales manager Ted Weber and family on a three- week Coast junket . . . Curley Bradley hosting a Saturday 'afternoon hayloft jamboree on WBKB with the Prairie Ramblers for Crosstown Motors ., . . WGN-TV telecast the premiere hoopla of the “Oklahoma!” pic at the McVickers Monday night (26) with Jack Brickhouse describ¬ ing the affair. Steve Cannon, former W<MIN ace disk jockey, back on the air wit) several WLOL shows . . . Morrell Packing Co. in on WCCO-TV’ Charles MqCuen’s “News at Noon” show on participating basis KEYD-TV televising 11 of the Minnesota College Conference * toi basketball games with its sportscaster Jack Horner handling the pla 1 by play . . . With local pastor Dr. R. K. Youngdahl touring Europe fo six weeks, including a 12-day visit to Soviet Russia, his WCCO-Tl show, Pathways to Peace,” will have six guest miniisters of variou Protestant denominations during his absence . . . Dan Anderson am Sev Widman, WLOL and WTCN personalities, respectively, soum agam after recovery from auto accident injuries . . . Educational and Radio Center ganted U. of Minnesota radio station $4,768 fo the current school year to produce educational audio programs oi justice administration . . . KEYD-TV produced four special pre-Christ mas shows . * . Charmin Paper Products bankrolling “The Grea Gildersleeve on KSTP-TV here ... A local advertising agency pro motion man, Roland Minda, responsible for giant peanut gimmick tha got his company s Tvi(in Cities nut concern on Steve Allen’s “Tonight network show. WNAC-TV sold its original half-hour film on Christmas in Ne England, from Boston Common to the ski country, to Salada Tea Ct and worid preemed it Saturday (24) from 2 to 2:30 p.m. and again fro: 7:30 to 8 Titled, “Noel, New England,” and filmed by Channel 7 film director, Jim Piken, it includes a visit to Santa Claus, coastir m Winchendon, Mass., Xmas displays in lights, hustle and bustle < Boston’s shopping center and typical New England scenes , . . Rqj (Continued on page 40)