Variety (March 1956)

Wednesday! March 21, 195 6 P%£rie¥y TV-FILMS 27 APRIL SHOWER OR DELUGE? •+ +- 4-Star in Major Expansion, Plans Enteric live TV, Too Hollywood, March 20, 4- possible expansion into live video, perhaps with a quiz show', and into teleblurb and industrial film fields are among future plans of Four Star Films Inc., according to Walter Tibbals, v.p. and crea¬ tive exec. As for telepix, admitted¬ ly the main area of Four Star, Tibbals noted that approximately 10 series are currently on the drawing boards. Aside from the extant groups, in production and up for renewal— the CBS “Four Star Playhouse.” the ABC “DuPont Cavalcade The¬ atre” and “Stage 7-Hall of Stars” eeven other projects are in prep stages. Already in can is pilot of “Here's Jeannie,” starring Jeannie Carson and created by Charles Isaacs, and of “Roommates,” a col¬ legiate situation comedy, toplining Maureen O'Sullivan. Currently be¬ fore Four Star cameras are two western series pilots, "Man On the Dodge,” starring Scott Brady, and “Arizona Ames,” with newcomer Richard Anderson. • I Other , possibilities include a “Richard Diamond” series, based on character created by Four Star co-owner-producer Dick Powell in radio, but without Powell in the starring role; and Powell's “Willie Dante” character from his “Four Star Playhouse” stanzas, which re¬ quires certain clearances. Still an¬ other western series, possibly an anthology, is being readied. Half-hour telepio backlog of Four Star Productions, recently bought by Official Films, Is being organ¬ ized into four packages for re-run syndication. Three packages will consist of films starring Powell and other Four Star co-owner-produ¬ cers, Charles Boyer and David Niven, respectively.- Fourth will be anthology package of other guest stars on-“Four Star Playhouse.” Screen Gems In Revamp on Coast In still another expansion move, latest of many, Screen Gems has shaken up its west coast sales op¬ eration, moving its western head¬ quarters from San Francisco to Hollywood and adding two staffers. Under the new alignment, Dick Dinsmore is upped from west coast sales manager to western - sales manager and shifts into the Holly¬ wood office with supervision over 11 western states, plus Alaska and Hawaii. At the same time Haan Tyler is joining Screen Gems as station sales supervisor of the western division, having moved over from a sales managership post with Tom Corradine's telefilm sales operation. Before joining Corra- dine, Tyler was with Guild Films and previously general manager of KFI-TV, Los Angeles. Also new on Dinsmore's five-man staff is Starley Bush, formerly with KUTV in Salt Lake City. Deitch to Robt. Lawrence Gene Deltch, formerly with Storyboard and onetime N. Y. supervising director for UPA, has joined Robert Lawrence Produc¬ tions as creative supervisor in N. Y. Deitch was an Art Directors League winner for his “Busy Day” i 7 r> nei ^ F °ods commercials at JJPA and was animation director on the “Bert & Harry” blurbs for Piel s. Beer. Robert Lawrence, head of the Production firm, says he's trying a new approach to teleblurbs with Jbe appointment of Deitch. He's :? un( L Lawrence says, that anima¬ tion experts have been able to oome up with creative ideas that 12® be Projected into live action Pioductioii, and one* of Deitch’s ,duties will be to . project ♦^ ma f ion techniques into, live ac¬ tion shooting,. Stevens, Alan Young Set 'Professor'; Pilot to Roll Mark Stevens, who already has three new properties in the works for the fall, this week sigqed a deal with Alan Young for a new series about a psychology prof in a girl's college, ‘‘The Professor Is Young.” Shooting on the pilot starts April 11 at American Na¬ tional Studios, with Stevens as exec producer, Gary Stevens as producer and Frank Gill Jr. script¬ ing. Gary Stevens, who formerly headed the Warner Bros, telefilm ventures, conceived the seris. Series, being handled by the William Morris office, will get a post-pilot buildup via a national contest auditioning six femmes who will have running parts in the series. Stevens, who started in the telefilm production sweepstakes with his “Big Town” series, now has in the works pilot ventures on a Joan Davis starrer for ABC-TV; “The City,” in collaboration with Four Star Films and “Decision,” series based on Dr. Norman Vin¬ cent Peale’s Guideposts mag. Ste¬ vens was in N. Y. last week pitch¬ ing some of the packages at the iffetworks. OFs 500G KNXT Deal on ‘4 Star’ Official Films has made its first “station sale of its “Four Star” package, selling the 153 half-hours to KNXT, Los Angeles, for $500,- 000 under a library arrangement which will permit the outlet un¬ limited runs over a couple of years. In deciding to make the package, which comprises 129 “Four Star Playhouse” pix and the 24 original “Stage Seven” films, available to stations, Official is foregoing any chances of .a network summer re¬ placement deal on the series. Under the KNXT deal, the sta¬ tion is permitted to break down the group into a number of sepa¬ rate series. As a starter, for ex¬ ample, it is grouping all the David Niven pix under one overall series, and is taking 39 other films to make a separate anthology series. Same library-type terms would be ' available to other stations. I Sale followed by a day Official’s special stockholders meeting called to ratify the stock swap deal which saw all the properties of Four Star Productions turned over to Official in return for 695,000 shares of pfficial stock. About 75%'of the stockholders were present or repped by proxy, and ratification was unanimous. On the heels of the KNXT deal Official has given Four Star Films the greenlight to go into production^ on new “Four Star Playhouse” films which Offi¬ cial will attempt to sell for the fall on a national basis to network sponsors. Series was dislodged from its present CBS-TV berth by the web’s upcoming “Playhouse 90,” and its sponsors, Singer and Bristol-Myers, are switching to “90.” Guild Tobor’ Series Set for Goldwyn Lot Production" on Guild Films' new “Tobor” series, described as the story of a little boy with his own electronic robot, starts on the Goldwyn lot on the Coast March 29, coinciding, with the windup of production on Guild's “Liberace” series. Start of “Tobor” production will involve a shift of crews from the Liberace stages, with Duke Goldstone moving over to direct the new pix and Richard Goldstone- (no relation) stepping in as pro¬ ducer. , , Windup on the Liberace vidpix gives .Guild a total of 113'of the musical half-hours NEXT FEIN WEEKS KEY TD TELEFILMS The next four to eight weeks will in large measure determine the financial status for the rest of 1956 of at least half a dozen key telefilm distribution outfits. With an unprecedented concen¬ tration on national-network sales by the telefilmeries, the next two months will determine whether they end up in clover or face a long hard struggle in market-by¬ market sales. If a syndicator snares a net¬ work deal, he can ride high on it for the rest of the year, leaning on syndication merely as a sup¬ porting arm of his operation. If, however, he fails in making a network deal, he is forced into the far-tougher syndication mar¬ ket, both because he's got to keep his organization running and be¬ cause he is committed to finance properties he may be offering for national sale. The extent to which the syndi¬ cators are in the national sales picture this year is unprece¬ dented. Screen Gems, for -ex¬ ample, has no less than 13 prop¬ erties it's offering up; Television Programs of America has four and may add a couple within the next couple of weeks. ABC Film Syndication has four, CBS Tele¬ vision Film Sales three, Ziv at least three, Official three. Guild Films, NBC Television Films, Na¬ tional Television Associates and MCA-TV Syndication (as distinct from the parent company) at least one .each. And that’s far from all. Gone are the days when the distribs committed themselves for 26 half-hours, before feeling out the market. The pattern today, except where a distrib distinctly earmarks a particular series for syndication in order to keep a flow of product going out to his sales force, is to make a pilot film and stop there.' If the pilot is sold, well and good; if it’s not, the distrib can then go ahead with a decision whether to continue production or not, depending on the needs of his sales force, the condition of the syndication mar¬ ket, the presence of similar pro-^ (Continued on page 36) SAG, CBS Get Nowbere In Trying to Resolve Electronic Filming Hollywood, March 26. Meetings last week between CBS-TV and Screen Actors Guild, over acting jurisdiction in elec¬ tronics filming (i.e. Electronocam, video tape), broke up without agreement and with no further meets skedded. However, SAG is¬ sued notice in statement that it will “take all steps necessary to protect its rights” unless such filming, is done under SAG con-r tract. Talks with net execs was result of “clarification” agreement re¬ cently made in N. Y. between ma¬ jor nets and ad agencies, and American Federation of TV and Radio Artists, giving electronic filming jurisdiction to live video union. SAG contends this agree¬ ment is a “flagrant violation” of jurisdictional lines covering vid¬ pix actors, since previously AFTRA was limited to those pre¬ recorded programs filmed “in the manner of a live broadcast.” In return, AFTRA contends that “clarification” merely sets down what already exists in field, and is no extension of its jurisdiction. DAVE GORDON TO SG Dave Gordon, former publicist with Dancer-Fitzgerald-Sample, has joined the press department of Screen Gems under publicity di¬ rector Frank Young. Department is the largest in the business, with three fulltime flacka in N.Y. alone. Gordon’s appointment marks first time a telefilm outfit has signed a flack to handle trade press exclusively. Matty Fox, Eliot Hyman Merger Seen Near in 1 Big RKO, Warners Bundle N. Y. Animators Seek Share in Residuals Animators will be pushing for a share of the residuals from their work when contract negotiations get under way in May between New York producers and Screen Cartoonists Local 841. New York group is setting its sights on some of the goals won by the Coast ani¬ mators in their recent campaign to sign new contracts with cartoon producers there. Coast animators won an accept¬ ance of their rights to residuals in principle, but with the proviso that no residual payments will be given to the cartoonists until the entire industry, covering all craft unidns, is accorded the same rec¬ ognition. New York local will make a point of this. Similarly, the Coast producers won a new mini¬ mum of $185 weekly, while the N. Y. minimum remains at $133, though the Gothamites are on a 35-hour week. Although few car¬ toonists are working at minimum scales, they feel a minimum boost will help push their scales higher anyway. B&Eto Package Unused TV Pilots Project to put to use the thou¬ sands of pilot films that have never seen the light of a tv screen is being put into the works by Barry 3c Enright, the indie packaging outfit headed by Jack Barry and Dan Enright. B3cE are currently searching out pilots, particularly in the adventure vein, both to package groups of them into series and to select singles which could be fitted into the format of existing shows. B3cE want to group pilots into series of 39 films in a single cate¬ gory, namely adventure, and to shoot in a host in opening and closing sequences and voice-over narration in order to tie the films together. Effort here would be to sell the series to either national or regional sponsors out of N. Y. If they are thus enabled to land a regional bankroller, they would turn the series over to a syndi¬ cator to get other regional ac¬ counts. What could make such se¬ ries attractive to sponsors is the low cost involved, since many of the pilots have been around for years with no hopes of recouping any of the original production coin. As to the singles, B3cE would break them down into program¬ ming categories for possible sale to packagers and producers. For example, a pilot on medicine might, be' pitched for “Medic” showing, idea being that if there’s enough quality in the pic, the advantages of having to shoot one less film or balancing budget's might make it attractive. Here again, the low cost is a key factor. CHI'S TELEFILM PEEVE Protest Use of ’Outsider' For State-Financed Travelog Chicago, March 20. Windy City commercial film in¬ dustries and allied interests last week registered a strong protest with Gov. William Stratton over the use of an out-of-state film company to lense a state-financed travel promotion reel. Illinois Mississippi River Scenic Parkway Commission is shelling out $5,000 in state funds to Continental Travelog Pictures of Tulsa, Okla., for a 30-minute film to be dis¬ tributed by Sterling TV, Illinois Assn, of Film Produ¬ cers, local Screen Actors Guild office and Chicago Unlimited, in¬ dustry group- organized to pro¬ mote Chi radio-tvi-film activity, sent individual protests to the governor. Malty Fox and Eliot Hyman, who with their respective RKO and Warner Bros, feature film backlogs represent the largest sin¬ gle feature film distributors in television, are getting together. Pair are holding extensive discus¬ sions on a “merger” which would .stockpile the two libraries into one group for selling to U.S. tv markets. No deal has been signed yet, however, though Fox admitted there have been talks. One possibility is that the merger would consist of a “swap” deal plus other considerations un¬ der which all the RKO pictures would be turned over to Hyman's Associated Artists Productions for television distribution in the U.S.,. while Hyman in turn would hand over the Warner Bros, pix to Fox for foreign sales. Under such an arrangement, Hyman’s AAP would easily emerge as the biggest sin¬ gle sales unit in the television in¬ dustry, with a backlog of 1,500 films from Warners and RKO, plus short subjects and other features previously acquired by Hyman. On the other hand, Fox has been set¬ ting overseas theatrical distribu¬ tion deals with local distributors in each country on the RKO films, and he would merely continue the same practice with the Warners pix. But Fox said this was only one basis of discussion and there are several alternative plans under consideration. He said the dis¬ cussions have taken no final form. The agreement, once it's signed, leaves unanswered a lot of ques¬ tions. One such would be how the agreement affects the relation¬ ship of each ^of the principals to the companies they Represent; i.e., Fox and C&C Super Corp. and Hyman and PRM Inc. Another would be the matter of Fox's pres¬ ent sales pattern on the RKO pix, his “in perpetuity” offering of the entire backlog to, stations. Would this be abandoned under an ar¬ rangement with Hyman? " A final point is Fox's projected $10,006,000 deal with international Latex Corp. under which Latex would as¬ sume the heavy spot schedule amassed by Fox under his barter arrangement with- stations. Would this too be abandoned, or at least modified? New Col Batch Of 93 Goes on Block Columbia Pictures, which sev¬ eral weeks ago unlocked its vaults for the first time by releasing 104 of its features to Screen Gems, it’s telefilm subsld, has now put an¬ other 93 films on the block. The new group, it's understood, is be¬ ing offered for sale to the net¬ works, but whether it would be released even if a network sale doesn't come through isn’t de¬ cided. New package includes later re¬ leases, some of the pix being “711 Ocean Drive” (Edmund O’Brien), “The Petty Girl” (Robert Cum¬ mings), “Ten Tall Men,” and “Sir- roco” (Humphrey Bogart). Mean¬ while, the package of 104, which Screen Gems has dubbed the “Hol¬ lywood Movie Parade” package, is sold in 11 key markets with a gross of over $1,500,000 thus far. Freed’s 'Roommates’ Hollywood, March 20. “Roommates,” new Four Star Production vidseries, is being produced by songwriter-turned- producer Ralph Freed, who creat¬ ed the show which is about a couple of college femmes, one an exchange student from France. Sue George and Dianne DuBois are the stet leads, and Harry Kel¬ ler is directing the pilot. William. Morris agency packaged the deal.