Variety (March 1957)

Veaiie wi«r» 1957 _ . P^SRiSfY / Aussies Apathy Toward Com! TV; Envision Red Ink For Some time RABIO-TEIfVISlON 49 Day of iBe Indie Press Agent Over? Swiiis They Trqi OverEikcb Other New York. Edifon Vabitty: iVe been meaning to wnite and refute an article in Variety which stated that the day of the indepen¬ dent press agent in radio and teler- vision is over. But Tve been too busy as an independent press agent to get around to it until now. • As a matter, of fact, the indie in this field has reached a new pin-- nacle of prosperity. There are more publicity purveyors in televi¬ sion today tb^tt you can shake a fist at. Most pf them are tepeed in New Yotlrand Hollywood, with many maintaining offices in both places. Chicago has many of this ilk, too, but they handle it on the local level, since ^ew network shows originate in the Windy City. Some teevce shows have so many Independent press agents they sometimes trip over each other. Thus, in additibn to one offiide handling the show for the pack¬ ager, others' may represent the producer, director, the stars, the musical director or even the light¬ ing man. Everybody has a press agent these days. Some of the guys do a national job, others jhst stt&k to the local scene. Some stars, like Jackie Gleason, for example, have more than one press agent, in order to cover columns and magazines as well as general stuff. Among the independents in New York whO' depend oii radio and tee- vee for a good part of their income arc Lee Solters and Jim O’Rourke, Larry Gore, Bud Brandt, Joe Bine Allan Kalmus, Ursula Hallpran, Hairy Sobol, Paul Benson, Frank Goodnian, Marvin Drager, George Shreicr, Frances Kaye, ' Marvin Kohn, Virginia Wicks, Arthur Cantor, Nat Fields and yours truly. The H^lywood contingent in¬ cludes Rogers k Cowsn, Msrgaset Ettlnger, Ruttcll BlrdwcU, Sue Clark, Cleary, Strauss & Irwin, Maury Foladime, Frank Liberman, Mack Millar, Charles Fomerantz, Charlotte Regers, Los Smith, Bill Rlawtt^ Ted Loell* and Arthur Jacobs. In many cases;, these pareai agents ‘D.C.T0N.rAS WCBS-TVEM ‘'Capitol Hill to New York” will be launched as a weekly half-hour public affairs feed from Washing¬ ton to WCBS-TV, the CBS flagship' in New- York, starting April fi in the Saturday 2:30 period. Show mod¬ erated by Stuart Novins, will ques¬ tion the 41 Congressmen and four Senators from the station’s N. Y. and New Jersey Viewing areas on i local and national issues, based on [questions sent in by constituents. Series will be produced by CBS [News In Washington at WTOP-TV studios and piped Into N. Y. A taped version of the show' will ;be aired on WCBS Radio Saturday evenings at 10:30. Station threw a. luncheon yesterday (Tues.) in :the House Dining Boom for the legislators Involved, with general manager Sam Cook Bigges asking the lawmakers for their coopera¬ tion with the series. One other CBS-TV o&o has a similar show, KNXT in Hollywood, which does a once-a-month “Capi¬ tol Hill to Los Angeles” half-hour with Griffing Bancroft as mod¬ erator. / _ Gallu’s Navy Kudos Hollywood, March 26. Distinguished Public Service Award, Navy’s highest civilian award, has bwn presented to Sam GaUu, producer of ABC-TV “Navy Log,” he was notified last week by Navy Secretary Charles S. Thomas. ^ Gallu, who’s directing final five stanzas of thd series for this sea- ^son, left for San Diego over the weekend for three weeks location- ing. He’ll trek to Washington in mid-April, for both, jx-esentatton of award, and to^ confab with Navy on more story material. Series re¬ newal- isn’t up yet, but Gailn is prepping scripts for next season. handled personalities before they got into radio and television and grew Into the field with their clients, Busiaess: la fine, thank you, and : the lutmre leoka exceedingly bright. David O. Alher Britain’s ‘Meet the Stars’ Ts Spelt‘PaUadinm’mr London, March 26. Included in the new summer program plans, just released by Associated Television, weekday Midland, and London weekend commercial tv programmers, is the news that “Sunday Night at the LohdcHi Palladium** will be re¬ placed hy a show titled “Meet the Stars,” which will be beamed from Blackpool. The summer schedule ‘takes ef¬ fect from June 15. Another new series is the followup on the “64,- 006 Question” show called “The 64,000 Challenge.” Existing shows to be continued include “Val Par¬ nell’s Saturday.. Spectacular,” “I Love Lucy,” and “Wyatt Earp.” Annual State Basketball Hottest Viewing in Mpis. Minneapolis, March 26. Bitter competitors KSTP-TV and WCCO-TV, local NBC and CBS outlets, respectively, for a second successive year combined to tele¬ vise the 12 games of the state bas- [ ketball championship tournament which draws capacity crowds of 18,500 for three d^s, afternoons and evenings, at the tJ.' of Minne¬ sota field house here. [ They paid the state high school [association $12,506 for the privi- ■lege of televising the games, al- ' ternated in doing so, and had Spon¬ sors for each of the telecasts. The tournament is a major sports event in the state and at¬ tracts an enormous amount of newspaper and other attention. [With ' a $2 admission, thousands are turned away from the games. Eight regional winners c(»npete for the championship. At Brainerd, Miim., a town of 13,606 located 12B mUes from the Twin Cities, the telecasts were brought in to the high school audi¬ torium on a closed circuit over towers erected; there recently to make for better tv reception from Minneapolis; St. Paul and Duluth for paid subscribers. FRIGIDAIRE NOT COLD TO TV; MAY BE BACK Frigidaire division of General Motors, which, waltzed out of net¬ work television in January when it cancelled its half of the erst¬ while “Do You Trust Your Wife” CBS-TV stanza, may be back in May for a seasonal push with a pair of one-shots.’ Company is dickering with NBG on a possible “Project 20” rerun, probably “The Jazz Age,” and par¬ tial sponsorship of a couple of Steve Allen vshows. Anne Baxter’s^layhouse’ Stint Bette Davis Exits Hollywood, March' 26'.' Anne Baxter hai replace'd Bette Davis in the lead of CBS-TV Play¬ house 90’s “If You Know Eliza¬ beth,” which was to have, been. Miss Davis’ live videbut. Miss Davis’ .husband, Gaiy Merrill, re¬ mains with “Elizabeth,” which airs' April II. Miss Davis reported that she was “sick,” had been working too hard, was “too exhausted,” and that “Elizabeth” would be too much for her. Slie starred in a “Telephone Time” telepic last week. • S. F. AFTRA EXPItS RANDOM San Francisco, March 26. Membership of AFTRA’s Frisco local has expelled Michael Donn Random on charge he violated picket line of NABET during NABET strike of KEAR (now KOBYl last October. Random admitted strikebreaking, said he intended to continue to do so despite, AFTRA order. Last December and January he worked for.KSFO v^hen. that Independent was struck by AFTRA. Sydney, March 26. Insiders closely watching ihe local television scene aver that the commercial operators will be deeper in the red at the-end of this year than previously figured. Speculators buying tv' stock will have to wait a long time before they get a sight of their invested I coin, plus a profit margin, insiders say. Reasons given for current apathy of the public towards tv are the high cost of equipment, unsuitabili¬ ty of programs, outdated celluloid, and the lack of on-the-spot major sporting events. Aussie film exhibitors have got¬ ten over their early tv jitters and figure it will be at least two years before the look-listen opposition is felt at the box-office, and only then if sets come below the $400 mark, license fee is eased from the cur¬ rent $10 figure, and the entertain¬ ment ’ dff.ering is geared to the Aussie-,^taste, plus a major upbeat ir- top- sporting events. A1 Daff, prexy Universal-Inter¬ national, in a speech here to the MPI,’said that this country had nothing to. fear from tv. Daff ad¬ mitted that cinemas had closed down in the U.S, “But,” said Daff, “those houses deserved to shut because they were obselete and lacking in showmanship.” Prexy added that for every shutdown in the States, a new drive-in opened. He- went on to say that the only new menace facing American ex¬ hibitors would be a governmental greenlight for toll-tv. Daff pointed out that figures proved a good picture would always hold its own against any type of opposition, and that producers today were mak- > ing sure of giving the payees solid screen fare. Albany—Henry Walden, for 17 years affiliated with WNEW. has joined WPTR as program director. Walden, who. specialized in news and who also served in a super- ;visory capacity at the New York station, succeeded Dick Bradley here. Bradley, resigned. ^_ critics ai the ANIMATION for a (premiered March 2Q« CBS Television) was MAGNIFICENT! If .. remarkably clever cartoons • • especially vivid and entertaining'' JACK COULD New York Times . • cartoon characters were suherb," . « brilliantly graphic explanation'' JACK d’brun New York Journal-Amencan JACKIB SOUTHERLAND Chicago Tribune *‘Shamus Culhane drawings vividly and eh* tertainingly drive home point after point/* HARRY HARRIS Philndelphid Inquirer ♦. animated scenes well done and dramatically effective/* , HAL HUMPHREY Los Angeles Mirror^News Animation for ‘^HEMO THE MAGNIFICENT” by shAmus culhAne INC. NEV YORK, 207 E.. 37th St, MU. 2-8243 • HOLLYWOOD. «226 Yucc«St.,noHrwood 28, HORywood 4-1128