Variety (March 1957)

VredneB3ay» 'March 27, 1957 ttABIO-TELEVISIOX 31 Interfesting postscript to the annual Emmjt-Awards confusion - comes in the ,form 4 )f a contest among tv editors throughout the country by the Kenyon & Eckhardt promotion department on “Who Will Win This Year’s Emmy Awards?” Editors, 193 of whom entered tl;^ contest, were asked who they thought would win in 12 categones, not their own personal preferences. Results were mildly astonishing. Nobody got a perfect score- in fact, the best reply had fgur incorrect categories; Moreover, . the majority counts for six of the 12 categories turned out to be off-base. While the editors figured correctly in six cases. Majority was wrong in the following catjegories: Best Continuing Performance of an Actor in a dramatic Series; they chose Hugh O’Brian and winner Robert Young .ran second. Best Continuing Performance of ji Comedian in a Series; they chose Phil Silvers, winner, Sid Caesar was second. Best Continuing' Performance of a Comedienne in a Series; editors picked Lucille Ball in a breeze.while winner Nanette Eabray ran fourth in their poll. Best Single Performance—Actress; they chose Grade Fields^ while winner Claire Trevor was fourth. Best Supporting Perfor¬ mance by an'Actor; editors picked Ed* Wynn while winner Carl Reiner was third. . Best Supporting Performance by an Actress; choice was Audrey Meadows, while winner Pat Carroll ran fifth and last. Winners in the contest with the best scores were David West- heimer ofithe Houston Post and Arnold K. Knapp of the Charleston (W. Va.) Daily Mail. They won personal tv sets, while 22 other edi- ' tors won RCA hi-fi shts. Poll was handled by K&E’s Stan Warren and Wauhillau La Hay for clients RCA Victor and Whirlpool -Seeger. Nanette s ‘No No' Miss Fabrety ‘Embarrassed’ by Emniy Award; Other Stan Chime in With Postscripts 4 -:-- Hollywood, March 26. "Johnny Mercer, prexy of the Hol¬ lywood branch of the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, brands as “untrue” claims by some Emmy nominees that they were informed beforehand of results of the March 16 presentatio'ns. Mercer said un¬ equivocally they were not telling the truth, and that he regarded their claims as an unfair reflection on both the Academy and Price- Waterhouse. Nanette Fabray, whose winning of an Emmy for best comedienne in a series aroused a storm of criti¬ cism here because she has not beeti on Sid Caesar’s show since last season, said “the whole situation is very embarrassing to me. I don’t even know why' I was nomi¬ nated, but I must admit I am de¬ lighted that, I won. I was on the show for six months in 1956—^the year of eligibility—and that’s two- thirds olthe season. Desi Arnaz entered the post- Emmy controversy by suggesting that in the future voting be lim¬ ited to creative artists, that nets and agencies should not vote— “such a change would take it out of politics.” And Dick Powell wrote the Academy suggesting a new method for, awards' presenta¬ tion, suggesting the awards be doled out in July' or August, so that they could be given for shows and personalities seen during one season. Thus, he said, it would prevent overlapping which saw Miss Fabray win although she hasn’t been on the Caesar show' since las£ season. “The way it's.being done now it’s very confiTsing. These Emmy’s were given for 1956, yet Miss Fabray (a fine talent) was only on the Caesar show a few months of that year, while' her successor, Janet Blair, was on beginning last September. I think awards should be based on the tv season, from September through May or June. They'hand them-oUt now in March because they think winning- an Emmy will help sell a show, but I don’t think that's so. Caesar won. all those Emmy’s, yet he’i! prac¬ tically off dv next season, “Our own ‘‘Four Star Playhouse’ went off tv almost a j^ear ago, yet we received nominations for the year 1956. Four Star Is not on this season, and it’s the current season which people , ren^ember. The tv Academy' seeks to emulate the movie Academy, and producers have always'—helped the' movie Academy; may be the tv Academy should seek the i help of tv pro¬ ducers,”, said JPowelL., Musical Version of*^*'Pinocchlo,” based on the Original characters created by Cblludi, Is being pre¬ pared as* a* tv spec- by Maurice AlOvy; who wrote the book and lyrics and also staged it in Dallas. Aa original musical score is be¬ ing writtea by Irwin Andrews. WUB’s lOlRate Hike 'WLIB, N. Y.. which gears its programming ^primarily for the 1,100,000 Negroes in the Metro¬ politan area, will boost its rates approximately 10 %, beginning April 1. Station maintains that it has more than doubled its listening audience since the current rate card went • into effect In 1952, basing its claim on a Negro Pulse survey which found WLIB’s aver¬ age quarter hour daytime audience higher by 110 % compared to four- and-a-half years ago. WLIB’s new basic rate for one hour will be $180 as compared to $165 presently being charged. WBCs Fulltime Capital Bureau Moving to “fill a void’* which exists in broadcasting news cover¬ age—the inability of networks or stations to cover national news with local angles — Westinghouse- ''Broadcasting Co. this week set up a fulltime Washington bureau under Rod McLeish, until now news di¬ rector of WBC’s WBZ-WRZA in Boston. MacLeish will feed Westing- house’s 10 radio and tv stations on a daily basis via direct broadcast line, beep phone reports and tape, and will initiate filmed reports pn Sn occasional basis for the tv out¬ lets. Officially, the bureau opens April 1-, but after a Monday (25) press conference in N.Y. MacLeish planed down to. Washington to cover the,.'Dave Beck’s appearance before the Senate, committee in¬ vestigating labor racketeering, with emphasis on Portland, Ore. (Beck’S bailiwick) and Boston (Sen. John Kennedy and committee counsel Bob Kennedy) angles. It’ll, be a direct line feed in this case^ New setup is aimed initially more at the company's radio, sta- “ (Continued t)n page 48) Staten Islaind Gets 1st Fnlltime Radio Station ^;irst comnaercial radio station to. be started in the New York metro¬ politan area in the past 14 years will go to Staten Island, a New York City borough which has never had a fulltime station of its own. Tele-Broadcasters Inc., o*wn- er Of stations in Pasadena, Kansas City, Hartford and Knoxville, has bodght WBBR, a Brooklyn (former Brooklyn-Staten Island) outlet. H, Scott Killgore, prexy of Tele- Broadcasters, Said that "the 5‘lew’s call letters' will be changed to WPOW once the FCC okays the purchase from Jehovah’s - Wit¬ nesses, a religious sect. Station will operate on .a pop ^music and hews folmat on 1330 kc. Closed-Circuit Closeups Western Union plans to deliver a new type of message. It is pre¬ paring to play a major role in the expanding field of closed-circuit television communication. The telegraph company's entry into closed-tv, particularly for business and industry communica¬ tion, stems from.^ its, substantial stock interest, in the. TelePrbmpter Corp., which recently added closed- circuit tv to its activities. ’ According to^ Irving B. Kahn, TelePrompter prexy, WU’s nation¬ wide reps will provide ort-the-spot liaison between TelePrompter, meeting sponsors, technical per-, sonnel and others in order to as^ sure proper-coordination Snd su¬ pervision of all closed circuit tele¬ casts. In addition, WU offices throughout the country will store TelePrompter’s large screen equip¬ ment. This ' arrangement, Kahn said, will enable the TelePrompter to set up at short notice an exten¬ sive network linking a large num¬ ber of cities by closed-tv. Telegraph company reps, it’s as¬ serted,' will coordinaate the vari¬ ous factors involved in staging and receiving closed , circuit telecasts. These include the hotel seating ar¬ rangements, installation and test¬ ing of equipment, the time sched¬ ule, setting up the podium and mi¬ crophones, and coordinating the program with the origination point. TelePrompter, according to Kahn, “will also have the added advantage of being able to call upon Western Union’s highly- skilled specialists for technical as¬ sistance and advice.” Johnsons Wax $4,500,0110 Deal For Steve Allen Johnson's Wax is nearing a deal to take over alternate-week spon¬ sorship of the full-hour Sunday night Steve Allen NBC-TV show in the fall. Execs of Needham, Louis & Brorby agency, which handles the Johnson’s business, are in New York working on-the final details, with a decision from the Chi-based agency due by tomorrow (Thurs.). 'Total time-talent nut pn the deal would come to around $4,500,000 for the year. Money for the stanza" would pre¬ sumably come out of the “Robert Montgomery Presents” show, which, has been ousted from its Monday time to make way for the new “Crisis”- series and for which no new time period has been assigned. The Allen stanza has been sold In one-third sponsorship segments this year; but would probably shift to either a fuU-Uour sale or -a co¬ sponsor setup OQ the alternate stanza. ‘Coffee Break’ Musical Insert for TV ‘Home’ In an attempt to boost the “Home” show’s average audience ratings and also to pitch to bev¬ erage sponsors, the NBC-TV stanza is injecting^ a new musical feature called-‘‘Coffee Break,” with top vo¬ calists and instrumentalists doing five-minute stints throughout the show during the week.- Guest ' lineup has, been set through the week Of May 20 , with Frankie Carle Trio ' and Snpoky Lanson featured the week of April 1, Bob .Eberle and the Carte unit the.week, of April 8 , the Stan Free¬ man • Trio and Andy, Williams set for the week of April 15, the Free¬ man Unit and Don Cornell the week of April 22 and the Three Suns set for the two weeks starting May 13. Small, Small World Hollywood, March 26. KNX, CBS Radio 50,000 wai¬ ter here, just got a complaint t from. New Zealand, 7,000 miles away, that Asiatic. sta- . tions on the same wavelength are interfering with reception of the station’s post-midnight progi*amming. Last year, KNX technical operations director Ted Den¬ ton received a similar com¬ plaint, but complainer was a Swede beefing about Soviet interference. Westinghouse, in Blast at Storer, Qiarges ‘Trafficking in licenses' In Bid to Prevent Shift to Boston Texas Coin for ‘Ozark’ With “Ozark Jubilee” on ABC- TV sponsored only alternate weeks this season, the network has final¬ ly had a breakthrough on skip- weeks. .Williamson-Dickie work clothes of Fort Worth has inked for one-minute in the available half-hour every second week. The network is on the prowl for two other participating* sponsors on the same basis. Buy is in the first half-hour of tfie show, since the I'emaining por¬ tion is co-opped weekly.. Show is from 10 to 11 p.m. Saturdays. CBS; $13,400,000 Peak’56 Earnii^s CBS Inc. reported record sales and earnings during 1956 this week in its annual stockholders report with net revenues and sales jump- in 12.1% over the 1955 totals to a new peak of $354,800,000 and earn¬ ings up 21.5% to‘ a high of $13, 400,000. Per-share profit increased from $1,83 in 1955 to $2.17 per share in 1956. Latter figure was attained despite a 41c. per share loss in¬ volved in the liquidation of, the CBS-Columbia radio-tv set manu¬ facturing division. All divisions except CBS-Hytron, the tube and semiconductor manufacturing arm, continued profitable. Though CBS- Hytron tripled its semiconductor business and increased its tube re¬ placement volume, original- equip¬ ment tube sales were down due to the decrease in the number of set manufacturers —22 went out ot business ..or merged in 1956, ac¬ cording to the report. Advertising revenue on CBS-TV climbed by 18.3% over 1955, while CBS Radio continued profitable and increased its daytime commer¬ cial business. Colupibia Records’ sales volume was up 50% and LP sales up 120%. The CBS-TV owned ■ stations, with the exception of WHCT in Hartford, increased their billings ^y 24% during 1956. CBS Television Film Sales, the web’s syndication arm, increased its bill¬ ing by 18% during the year as well. Wrong B31 for Wrong Audienco Capsules D. C. Correspondents’ Hoopla Washington, March 26. The 13th annual dinner of the Radio and Television Correspon¬ dents Associatipn, Saturday (23);, was the largest ever; but entertain¬ ment-wise provided one of the thin¬ nest bills ever offerecl here at the annual dinners of the various news correspondents’ associations. Danny Thomas, who emceed and supplied the comedy, went far be¬ yond the call of duty; he gave ife a gallant try but ^a? unable to carry the entire operation on his shoulders; As solid as he was at. this same organization’s dinner in IBSS, Thomas wowed ’em early and late with such cracks as “I’m prob¬ ably the only fellow who could walk on either- side of '.the Pales¬ tine partition in safety,” and-a gag monolog and song about his home town, Toledo. The Vagabonds were nicely re¬ ceived for their songs and play¬ ing, especially “Lazy River,” but thereafter Tt was. a case of the wrong bill before-the wrong au¬ dience. Hugh O'Brian, who would have been sensational before a kid au¬ dience, simply didn’t belong in^n auditoriunr fuR of broadcast's, newsmen, government officials, etc. He worked hard, especially in a duet with Jaye B. Morgan, who was substituted for the Andrews Sis¬ ters when this "trio—like Humpty Dumpty--couldn’t be put together again for the show. Miss Morgan, who varied her offering from song (Continued on page 48) Washington, March 26. Blunt accusation that the Storer Broadcasting Co. is “trafficking in licenses” was levelled this week by Westinghouse Broadcasting Co. In a comment before the FCC oppos¬ ing the change' in transmitter loca¬ tion end' power and sale to Storer of WMUR;TV, -Manchester. WBC comment, filed in reply to FCC questions in the case, de¬ manded that” both the application of WMUR-TV for a new transmit¬ ter location nearer Boston and a hike to maximum power, along with the application for conditional sale of the outlet, be dismissed, or as an alternative, set for hearing. Westinghouse accused WMUR- TV of trafficking as well, charging the station’s application for a con¬ struction permit is “not for the purpose of building and operating in the public interest, bilt only for purpose of sale.” ; Listing an extensive summary of Storer’s station transactions over the past few years, plus several currently In negotiation, WBC de¬ clared that Storer “has been or, upon completion of this chain of contingent transactions, will have been involved in at least 17 trans¬ actions, and possibly more, and will still continue to own seven television and seven radio sta¬ tions.” After stating that “Storer also promises more trafficking,” West¬ inghouse declared that “the fore¬ going record indicates that the present application to move WMUR-TV from Manchester and transfer ownership to Storer should be dismissed. Storer clearly has, and frankly states it will continue to traffic in licenses in utter disre¬ gard of the public interest and contrary to the Commission’s re¬ peatedly announced policy 'that licenses should not be gi'anted to persons whose primary intent is to sell them at a profit rather than to operate a station in the public in¬ terest.’ (The Atlanta-Manchester transaction being a wanton Illus¬ tration.)” Sale of Storer’s WAGA- TV, AM & FM is contingent on its being able to purchase WMUR-TV. Comment chids Storer for its own statement before the FCC that it is a “pygmy” in the television fifeld by citing from the company’s prospectuses for is_sue of stock in 1955 and 1956. Company grossed $19,688,830 in 1955 and $11,971,418 for the first half of .1956 in televi¬ sion alone, with “radio gross rev¬ enues approaching $5,000,000 in 1956. From a viewpoint of earn¬ ings before taxes, these statements indicate that these approximated $12,000,000 in 1956.” Westinghouse declared that “Storer is no naive or inconsider¬ able element in this vital indus¬ try,” pointing out that George B. Storer “personally holds 1,278,250 shares of Class B stock and 14,640 share of Common Stock which, ac¬ cording to a conservative price of $25 per share represents a fortune in excess of $30,000,000—some¬ thing achieved by no other individ¬ ual or limited group of individuals in the broadcasting business. Comment also disputed Storer and WMUR-TV on engineering, market and legal data, charging that the transmitter relocation would be tantamount to shifting the allocation to Boston in viola¬ tion of the FCC's own rules and would deprive Manchester of pri¬ mary coverage. Westinghouse de¬ nied a charge by Storer and WMUR-TV that in opposing the reAllocatlon its “only purpose is to prevent a fourth principal commu¬ nity grade signal over Boston.” WBC, which operates Boston^ WBZ-TV, stated that it reserves the “full right to voice an opinion as to what constitutes 'the good of the industry’ and the ‘service to the Industry,’”- and Insisted that “a situation that would Seek to pyramid VHF . facilities in major metropolitan areas at the expense of smaller communities and their ability to enjoy a local television service and the power of local ex¬ pression is considered to be harm¬ ful to the Industiy,” '