Variety (March 1956)

24 RABIO-TELEVISION USriett Wednesday, March 14, 1956 CBS-TV ‘Adventure to Unfold A New ‘Cine-Graphic Technique A "revolutionary” film process 4 for tv and bigsCreen, with savings up to $80,000, will have its pre¬ miere on the 30-minute CBS-TV Sunday afternoon "Adventure” this week (18). Offhand, to the un¬ trained observer as reflected in a "rough” demonstration last week at New York’s Museum of Natural History, the creative and technical headquarters of the educational show (with museum as participant out of the web’s public affairs de¬ partment), it looks to be in the ani¬ mation groove. Actually as defined by Jac Venza, producer of this particular segment for "Adven¬ ture,” it’s "cine-graphic” technique devoid of the usual "stop frame” gimmick. Process will make a strong bid to move in on the ani¬ mation processes in television, as perhaps in Hollywood as well in time to come. Venza, originally an artist and designer, looking for a “bringing to life” of certain areas of telescreen material (sciences, history, the arts, etc.) that essentially was in graphic form, made a survey of the leading animation" studios in the city. The costs were way out of reach since "with the need for good tv commercials and industrial films there was far more work available than topflight talent.” A one-minute blurb, he found, ran from $6,000 to as high as $12,000 and most of the animation com¬ panies were not interested in stop¬ ping to experiment with a low cost process. On his prowls, Venza came across Abe Liss, a top director and alumni of UPA, who agreed that an experiment with "live action camera movement” over graphic material, as opposed to stop-frame animation, had "great potentials.” Made to Order for ‘Hook’ Liss’ enthusiasm was made to order for CBS public affairs di¬ rector Irving Gitiin who, last No¬ vember, had asked for a report on the possibilities of "cine-graph¬ ic” that could be effectively pro¬ duced within the financial and time limitations of a tv format. Public affairs had for two years been "playing with” a short story by Walter .Van Tilburg, author of "The Ox-Bow Incident,” titled "Hook,” the story of a hawk. "It was a powerful poetic story which could not work with filmed live hawks' qyen if such rare foot¬ age could be found,” says Venza. (Story first appeared, incidentally, in 1940 in the Atlantic Monthly.) Out of that has come an lSla-min- DIGNIFIED BRA 'SELL' Peter Pan’s ‘Institutional’ On Grace-Prince Nuptials Peter Pan Foundations is going on a dignity & decorum kick inso¬ far as its ABC Badio sponsorship of the Grace Kelly-Prince Rainier nuptials is concerned. Bra-girdle manufacturer is going to confine itself to institutional mentions of Peter Pan, according to sales v.p. Herb Mayer. Mayer said that with three com¬ mercials on each broadcast (April 17-19), the company expects to get 54,000,000 commercial impressions (via an anticipated 6,000,000 lis¬ teners). "With this kind of impact, we can afford to confine ourseives to institutional mentions of Peter Pan. There’s no need to spell out to American women 54,000,000 times what our Hidden Treasure bra or Two-Hue girdle is used for.” Daa Seymour Gets Directorship Nod For JWT TV Dept. When Dan Seymour exited Young & Rubicam about a year ago to join J. Walter Thompson it was anticipated at that time that Seymour would ultimately move into the key tv berth at the agency. It happened this week when JWT, in a move toward coordina¬ tion of its principal domestic offices, designated.Seymour as di¬ rector of tv-radio over the New York, Hollywood, Chicago and De¬ troit offices. Previously these various branches had functioned more or less inde¬ pendently and even in New York there had never been an overall director per se, with each key tv- radio exec supervising his own account. As such the move is some¬ what historic in terms of JWT operation. . Cornwall Jackson continues as manager of the Hollywood setup. Don Thornburn is in charge of the Detroit office. Pete Cavallo has been manager of the Chi setup but he’s resigning to join McCann- Erickson. No replacement has been designated as yet. ute segment which already is be¬ ing primed for theatrical distribu¬ tion. As Venza explains it: He and Liss, with blessing of "Adventure” producer Charles Romine, in Jan¬ uary began to plan the storyboard for “Hook” that would include some elements of both tv and ani¬ mation but would evolve a "visual terminology” of its own. Though the wings of "Hook” will not move, the camera will “fly” for him. With a carefully planned sequence of camera pans, quick cuts, multiple exposures and effects, the screen will always have action. They cre¬ ated a "motion picture” with yet (Continued on page 48) Guild’s TV Teeoff "Ballet Ballads” the John-La- touche-Jerome Moross 1948 legiter. has been tapped as the season’s opener in the Theatre Guild’s string of six spectaculars next fall tor ABC-TV. Play, comprising three choreographic works, was presented on Broadway under sponsorship of the American Na¬ tional Theatre & Academy, with Nat Karson producing and direct¬ ing. Guild has just cleared the property and is now setting about casting and adapting it for televi¬ sion. Can FM Pay Its Own Way Divorced From AM? KNBC Findin’ Out San Francisco. March 13. KNBC is splitting off its FM out¬ let here from its regular radio programming and will broadcast 20 hours a week of longhair music starting tomorrow (14) night. The idea, according to William K. McDaniel, general manager of the NBC station, is to see if FM can start paying its own way. KNBC is the first NBC outlet try¬ ing this experiment. Four hours of music will be aired from 7 to 11 pm. five nights a week to start with, and half this time is already sold, McDaniel said. The first hour will be devoted to dinner music—-light classics, con¬ cert pops—and the next two will be spent of serious, longhair works. The final hour, -according to Mc¬ Daniel, is being tailored especially for hi-fi addicts, with very hi-fi music and sound platters. John Grover, who handled the Standard (Oil) Symphony Hour for 15 years, will program and an¬ nounce the 20 hours and McDaniel pointed out that if more time can be sold, the FM programming will be expanded. Heretofore, KNBC-FM simply du¬ plicated AM programming. Gracie Fields’ Teledrama Ballads” is the third prop* definitely set by the Guild for half-dozen for next season. "Tal Giant Step,” the Louis Peter legiter about a Negro adolesc and J, M. Synge’s "Playboy of Western World,” with Julie Ha as a possibility for the lead, the other two. Hollywood, March 13. Gracie Fields will star in "The Old Lady Shows Her Medals” on "U.S. Steel Hour” teleshow May 23. Entertainer, who tomorrow (Wed.) winds her current Statler Hotel stint locally, first will tour Canadian cities before reporting for tv appearance in N. Y. GF’s‘Mighty Mouse’ ' General Foods takes on the Sat¬ urday morning CBS-TV "Mighty Mouse Playhouse” for a skip-week formation on the celluloid series. Pact, through Benton & Bowles, becomes effective April 7. Alter¬ nate week will ride as a sustainer. "Winky, Dink and You,” cur¬ rently sustaining in the 10:30 slot, will shift to 11 o’clock. Pete Cavailo To McC-E in Wrapup Of Agency Shuffle McCann-Erickson has finalized its "Operation Total Overhaul” within the tv-radio dept., with the naming this week of Pete Cavallo as the third v.p. to operate under tv-radio chieftain Terry Clyne. Cavallo is resigning as radio-tv veepee of J. Walter Thompson in Chicago to join McCann-Erickson and completing the triumvirate of veepees that also include Ted Bergmann and Lance Lindquist. Clyne meanwhile is "reapprais¬ ing” the agency’s network spon¬ sorship picture with an eye toward next season. On April 1 agency officially takes over the Coca-Cola account, which it inherited from DIArcy, and this will come under immediate review. Coke sponsors Eddie Fisher and while McC-E‘ is high on Fisher, the question to be resolved is where best to slot him for the ’56-’57. .Thus there is a strong* likelihood of Fisher Joeing moved out of his current 15-minute early evening slotting on NBC-TV (a la Dinah Shore for Chevy) and into a new area of programming. McC-E is also looking for a half- hour property for Chesborough and favorable time segments for Swift shows. WALTER CRAIG EYES NBC-TV SUN. SLOT Walter Craig, of the Norman, Craig & Kummel ad house, is ne¬ gotiating with NBC-TV for the Sunday night 10:30 time. Slot will be vacated by Tareyton Cigs, car¬ rying the coin cn "Justice,” at the end of this month. Smith, Kline & French Labs will do a one-shot in the spot April 1 as part of its now and then "March of Medicine” series. It’s titled "The Lengthening Span,” about life expectancy. In another NBC-TV defection in fringe time, Whitehall Pharmacal is calling it quits on the Wednes¬ day 10:30 "Midwestern Hayride,” the Cincy - originating cornpone stanza on which it’s been rotating with Avco. Drug outfit will be joined ;on CBS-TV’s "Name That Tune” by Lanolin Plus, latter be¬ coming rotator for seven shows starting March 27, via Biow. Whitehall’s weekly . run will re¬ sume June 26. Pliilco’s Live Remotes As Plugs on ‘Today’ Philco is pulling live remotes on its Supermarket Refrigerator for seven of its eight participations on NBC-TV’s “Today” show. Fronted by “Today’s” Lee Ann Meriwether, the ex-Miss America, spots were launched last week at historic Wil¬ liamsburg, Va., and continues at points in New York and elsewhere, with three to be via a float outside the RCA Exhibition Hall. Final Philco plug (May 7) will be on film shot in Detroit. No One Left to Leave Chicago, March. 13. The exodus of Windy City network personnel is about ended for the simple reason there’s so few left in that cat¬ egory to make the shift to either Coast. Latent to grab a New York bid is NBC-TV’s Chi programming chief Alan Beau- ' mont who checks out April 20 to take over the director’s chair'on "Home.” Unless a replacement is in¬ stalled, and that’s considered unlikely, the network’s mid¬ west programming adjunct'will be down to two staffers—busi¬ ness manager Jim Troy and Harry Trigg, Beaumont’s cur¬ rent assistant. Hitchcock s ‘Haunted House’ Hurrah If by chance it were Alfred Hitchcock’s intention to call attention to his CBS-TV "Presents” thriller-dillers, he could hardly have improved upon the "haunted house” stunt held in an ancient brownstone on the snazzy upper eastside of New York last week. Everything about the jernt was made to match the "Hitchcock touch”—cobwebs, caskets, candles -and a menu featuring Corpse Croquettes and Ghoiilish Goulash. There was a turnout that, in addition to diversified press cov¬ erage, embraced a few notables from the tv-H’wood-legit fronts. There was even drop-in representation from NBC, perhaps as a bow to Joe Derby, ex-trade editor of that network who, out of the stunt-minded kennel of v.p. Harry Rauch of the Young & Rubicam forces, was entitled to take substantial credit for the ghostly hoopla, "brought in” at a low $2,500, including 500 bucks for the "for sale” house. There was a hot rumor that Y&R, operating for the sponsor, Bristol-Myers, wanted to rent the building next to Campbell’s Funeral Church, just around the corner and diagonally opposite the town house of Gov. Averell Harriman. It’s not true that the governor objected; what is true is that the adjacent spot was un¬ available because the former mansion has long since been cut up into apartments for the "upper poor” like a certain tradepaper reporter who occupies the top floor. That made it "too close to home” to begin with, aside from the other tenants. But Camp¬ bell’s supplied some of the “death” props. NBC’s radio flagship was also repped strictly in the interest of hot news, the Hitchcock "do” ‘being recorded for inclusion on WRCA’s morning "Pulse” show fronting Bill Cullen. P.S.: “Operation Wraith” was specifically to fix attention on the upcoming (18) "There Was an Old Woman” segment of the Hitch¬ cock show, starring Estelle Winwood as Miss Monica (no-relation- to-Charles) Laughton. TVs Censored Caesarean NBC Inviting Press to Lopped-QfiF Birth Sequence In Justifying Move -+ Arpege Hops on Nuptials Another perfume house is in on the broadcasting phase of the Grace Kelly-Prince Rainier nup¬ tials. Lanvin’s Arpege is taking two of the four half-hour shows set by CBS Radio for beaming out of Monaco. Perfumery is down for the April 18 and 19 12:45 to 1:15 p. m. slot. David Schoen- brun. - CBS Paris correspondent, will do the commentary. Already pacted by other net- wQrks are Bourjois on NBC and Peter Pan Bras on ABC. Nina Hits Road In Trendex Tour Bid To ‘Save Sponsor Those "Trendex Tours” with which NBC’s exploitation depart¬ ment under A1 Rylander has been experimenting may now be em¬ ployed as last-ditch "client sav¬ ers.” Indication that the 1 network is leaning heavily on the 15-city drumbeating, first to jack up a rating and subsequently to impress faltering sponsors, lies in the fact that the web is sending out Nina Foch to beat the drums on her ap¬ pearance a week from Tuesday (27) on "Playwrights ’56.” In the past, the "Trendex Tours” have spotlighted the web’s person¬ alities and series rather than in¬ dividual dramatic entries or one- shots. But with Pontiac giving every indication, that it’s axing "Playwrights,” Miss Foch’s tour takes on the appearance of a "save our sponsor” crusade, particularly in light of the fact that the web wouldn’t spend the exploitation money unless it had hopes that the show might continue next fall. Miss Foch, who will costar with Cyril Ritchard In "The Undiscov¬ ered Country,” left today (Wed,) for a three-city tour before plan¬ ing to the Coast for' rehearsals. She’s in Philadelphia today with a seven-appearance lineup on radio and tv scheduled for her. She then goes to Detroit for p.a.’s, thence to Chicago and from there flies to the Coast. Buzz Kulik to CBS-TV, To Helm ‘You Are There’ Hollywood, March 13. Buzz Kulik, former director of NBC-TV "Lux Video Theatre” series, has been inked to a pro¬ ducer-director contract by CBS- TV. According to A1 Scalpone, v.p. of CBS-TV proramming. Kulik’s initial assignment will be to direct the “You There” series, which switches from film to live telecasts on Apr. 15. NBC-TV is openly inviting the press to screenings of the "Medic” chapter due the past Monday (12) but given the heave because of the Caesarean birth sequence. The network also emphasized as "pure coincidence” the fact that its de¬ cision to cancel the show occurred at about the same time that a pro¬ test was received from the Rev. Timothy J. Flynn, radio-tv director of New York’s Roman Catholic Archdiocese, who called *the Caesarean section "unsuitable” for tv. "Medic” film arrived at NBC last. Friday (9) and was nixed by Stockton Helffrich, web’s contin¬ uity acceptance director, unless the 90 seconds of the "gory” birth sequence could be eliminated. Helffrich passed the ball to public relations v.p. Ken Bilby, who with press veep Syd Eiges and program publicity manager Milton Brown dittoed Helffrich’s kibosh. Even if there were time to delete.the 90 seconds, "Medic” producers Tony Miner and Frank LaTourette and scripter James Moser'Insisted that “it goes as is or not at all.” At one time NBC was considering filling the,Caesarean gap with stock sur¬ gical operation footage or have Richard Boone, in-permanent role of Dr Steiner, cover the deletion with talk. But this became aca¬ demic on the "all or nothing” ukase of the "Medic” masterminds. It’s claimed in this connection that "Medic” is aiming to capitalize on "sensationalism.” NBC is so certain of its stand that its invitation to press screen¬ ings followed as a natural conse¬ quence of both its own view of the birth segment and to obviate criti¬ cism of "Catholic pressure.” Can¬ celled show may be shown later on in the abridged form, provided there is agreement from the pro¬ ducers. Arthur Murray’s 24-Week TV Ride "Arthur Murray Party,” which probably holds the record for on- again-off-again tv attractions, is set for another network ride, this time for a 24-week period. It's been bought by Toni, and will be installed in the Thursday night at 10 period on CBS-TV, which Gen¬ eral Foods is vacating in two weeks following its cancellation of Johnny Carson. But the Murray show is only an interim slotting. It's got to vacate the time period around Sept. 15, when the 90-minute "Playhouse 90” dramatic series proems on the net¬ work in the 9:30 to 11 period. Irving Mansfield will produce the Murray stanza.