Variety (July 1957)

Wednesday, July 24, 1957 fc&RiEfr RADIO-TELEVISION 39 TV’S WINNING OF THE WEST Haileys Comet Scripter Arthur Hailey, the Canadian public relations man who broke into television a year ago with such hot properties as “Flight Into Danger” and ‘Time Lock,” has another provocative entry listed for fall production by “Studio One.” Titled “Course for Collision,” script is concerned with the President of the United States on a peace mission to Moscow in 1962 with a life-or-death decision to make. “Course” is a suspense yam, and an interesting sidelight on the sale to “Studio One” lies in the fact that there was bidding for the show from NBC’s “Suspicion” as well. “Suspicion” is set to preem in the Monday 10-11 time' opposite “Studio One,” and the, latter apparently will use the fight-fire-with-fire strategy by scheduling suspense yams against “Suspicion.” ... Hailey’s original television entries have just been completed as motion pictures, with shooting just finished at Paramount on “Zero Hour” (the new title for “flight Into Danger”) and an Aug. 19 London preem set for “Time Lock,” which wai filmed in Eng¬ land. In addition, “U.S. Steel Hour” does his “The Change in Chester” next Wednesday (3D, into which he wrote a special part for ex-“$64,000 Question” contestant Barbara Hall. The “Studio One” and “U.S. Steel Hour” sales*, his first to those shows, were set by agent Maeve Southgate. British TV Writers Pose Strike Threat Unless They Get‘Fair Deal’ London, July 23. British tv writers are prepared to take strike action if their pleas for a “fair deal” from the com¬ mercial tv programmers are not heeded. Negotiations, for better payment and other terms which have been going on for two-and- half years between the .Television Writers’ Council and the program¬ mers, have finally broken down, with all claims submitted on be¬ half of the writers refused. At a news conference; held by the TWC, which was formed to act as a negotiating body with Inde¬ pendent Television programmers when the Commercial Television Act was passed, Francis Williams, who presided,, said they were go- ing to approach Members of Parlia¬ ment in a bid to get the matter raised in the House of Commons. Main issues which had been re¬ jected weje ■ a system of payment based on royalties; additional pay¬ ment for stage, film, foreign tv, publication and any other right*; and the revision of existing con¬ tracts. All- efforts to avoid a deadlock were. unsuccessful and the pro¬ grammers remained firm'in their refusal to grant any concessions on the claims. The view.held by the TWC was that the four originating programmers, Associated-RediffU- sion, Granada TV, ABC-TY, and Associated Television, were not acting as competitive bodies, which -contravened the Commercial Tele¬ vision Act. When a script was sold to one of them a fee was paid, but the programmers could all benefit from the one payment by haying the. program networked. In this case, the company which orig¬ inally bought the script, recouped most of their money out of fees from the other companies in the network. The writer got no addi¬ tional payment for a networked show. Newsweek s Got That Station Yen Los Angeles; July 23, Newsweek entered the radio-tv field last week with the acquisition of a substantial minority interest in KFSD-AM-FM-TV, San Diego. Stations have an NBC affiliation and are managed by William F. Goetze. Newsweek bought a part of the Interest of Fox, Wells Sc Co., which will retain its majority interest hi the San Diego operation. Another San Diego station, KSON, } was sold to ' Jack Gross, who formerly operated KFMB in that. city. In another ownership change in this area. Babel Enter¬ prises bought KXOC, Chico, CaL Meanwhile, FCC granted a con¬ struction permit to Pacific-South Broadcasting Co. for the first high- fidelity radio, station in the San Gabriel valley. Studios will he in West Covina. AFTRA Scans Pay-TV San Francisco, July 23. Major subject of discussion at AFTRA’s ,20th annual convention, opening here Thursday (25), wifi be pay-tv, over which AFTRA cur¬ rently has no jurisdiction. Some 150 delegates from 42 chapters are enroute for four-day meeting. Also on the agenda are discus¬ sions of the current contract’s “un¬ fair station” clause, educational tv and the AFL-CIO Code of Ethics, which it’s expected the delegates will reject because it isn’t strong enough. National president Frank Nelson! will preside and official hostess at the JSheraton-Palace meetings will be Wanda Ramey, president of the Frisco local. New officials will be elected next Saturday (27) night. ABC Radio To Trim Sails In Economy Move Hollywood, July 23. Curtailed personnel and opera-j tions to effect a more economical' balance is being studied by depart¬ ment heads of ABC Radio here and in N.Y. Study is expected to be completed in six weeks but John Hansen, manager of KABC and Dresser Dahlstead, program direc¬ tor for the web’s western division, denied that many employees have been pinkslipped. Net’s chief problem is piping shows to the network which are not accepted 'by affiliates. This phase wifi undoubtedly be cur-j tailed, with the web put on a stag- , gered schedule as originally pro- rposed by Robert Eastmen, prexy of ABC Radio, which is now autonomous. Also being studied is recent NBC decision to feed all network shows from N.Y. Local programs are taped and airmailed to N.Y. By BOB CHANDLER New York has virtually lost the battle for control of television pro¬ duction to the Coast A Variety tabulation of the three-network fall schedule, as set thus far, shows that New York will be responsible for production of only 24,8% of all nighttime shows, or only 26 of the 105 programs scheduled for the prime evening hours. On the other hand, the Coast will produce 71.4%, or 75 of the 105. Hand-in-hand with the West’s rise to dominance over the East is the fconstantly accelerating use of film by the networks. Percentage of shows on film next fafi will reach an alltime .high of 63.8% vs. 36.2% for live—in other words, 67 of the 105 total will he on film. Of this, the Coast will produce 61 shows or 58.1% of the total, while Europe accounts for four shows or 4.8% and New York only two shows or 1.9%. But the Coast is fast catching up to New York in live production as well. While the East will be re¬ sponsible for production of 24 live shows (less than one-fourth of total tv production in the prime hours), the Coast will be doing 14 live stanzas, or just 13.3%. The Coast output in numbers is more than half of the East’s, and in terms of hours the Coast will account for 10Ms hours a week while New York that four and a half of the 15Vfc will A further examination of the East vs. West live output shows that four and a half of the 15 will comprise quiz, panel or audience participation .shows, with this type almost exclusively accounting for the difference in the output. New York will originate seven and one half hours of musical and variety shows, while the Coast will do six and a half hours of music, variety and comedy (no comics from the east). New York , will originate three hours of live drama, the Coast two and a half. Each will do one hour of miscellaneous-type shows. (Three programs are excluded tyom the breakdown, the boxing bouts on NBC and ABC, because they originate from various points, and NBC’s “Suspicion,” because’ it will consist of 20 filmed segments • from the Coast and 22 live shows froraNew York. If the bouts were Included in the live vs. film break¬ down, total film programming would reduce to 62.?% and total ( Continued on page 47) NBC-TVs 750G In New Daytime Biz NBC-TV this week signed $750,000 in new gross daytime business -via pacts with Lanolin Plus~and Pharma-Craft, with both sponsor-deals tp start in the falL Lanolin bought two .weekly quar¬ ter-hours on three shows, while Pharma-Craft picked up two aiternate-week quarter-hours on a pair of daytimers. Lanolin deal, via Kastor, Farrell,. Chesley Sc Clifford, calls for an every-week quarter-hour of "Price Is Right” and alternate-week seg¬ ments on “Bride Sc Groom” and “Queen for a Day.” Pharma-Craft, through Doherty, Clifford, Steers Sc Shenfield, bought alternate-week segments on “Comedy Time” and “It Could Be You.” Saphier-Steve Allen Ruling Could Affect Future Agent-Talent Relations Then There Wa* One Departure of Mort Werner from NBC-TV (he joins Kaiser Industries) leaves but a single key “Weaver man” on an ac¬ tive duty at the network. He’s Mike Dann, veepee and star salesman on the tv “specials.” Since Pat Weaver exited as prexy, a total of 25 “Weaver people,” including 17 in key administrative-creative berths, have checked out. Only other remaining one except Dann is Tom McAvity, who, since the Bob Kintner ascendancy, has more or less been sitting on the sidelines. Kaisers Bigtime TV Status, Lures Werner From NBC Mort Werner, NBC v.p. in charge of daytime programs, is leaving the network in mid-August to become a staff vicepresident of' Kaiser Industries, the parent company embracing all of the Henry J. and Edgar F. Kaiser en¬ terprises in aluminum, steel, gyp¬ sum, cement, autos, etc. Werner will haye charge of all television activities for the company—not only television sponsorship, but. station administration (for Kais¬ er’s Honolulu radlortv outlets) and a reported television project In South America. Werner has been in the daytime slot (also in charge of “Today”- “Home”-“Tonlght' r since last spring, when the NBC-TV. pro¬ gramming department was over¬ hauled, Prior to that, he had been v.p. and national program direc¬ tor. He joined NBC in 1951, hav¬ ing been brought in by the then program chief, Pat Weaver, as a producer on “Today," and rose through the “Today”-“Home”-“To- night” setup to his program de¬ partment posts. . He was one of the few “Weaver men” to survive the revamp at the web last winter and : spring. Curiously enough. Weaver, his ex-boss, will now be reporting to Weiner, via Weaver’s new consult¬ ancy relationship with . Kaiser under which he’ll direct all tele¬ vision advertising for Kaiser In¬ dustries. Werner, incidentally, has been NBC’s key contact man with Henry J. Kaiser in all its spon¬ sorship relations, since he knows Kaiser intimately. NBC hasn’t yet set a replace¬ ment for Werner, who Won’t cheek in at Kaiser until Aug. 19, a week after he gets the new Arlene Francis show and “Dollar a Second” on the air as replace¬ ments for “Home.” Arbitrators decided against Steve Allen’s former agent James L. Saphier who had demanded that the video performer pay him a per¬ centage from two NBC-TV pro¬ grams, the old “Tonight” and the current 8 to 9 p.m. Sunday show¬ case. A corallary issue raised in the arbitration, one that only in part decided the outcome, can have wide effects in agent-tv per¬ former relations. Saphier wanted an agent’s share from the two programs, which be¬ gan on the network after the split of Saphier and Allen, who be¬ came associated with agent Jules Green. Saphier contended that his contractual arrangement entitled him to a share of the show take. He - also raised the point that regula¬ tion 12-B had no hearing on the arbitration. 12-B is the Code written in 1953 by the American Federation of Television & Radio Artists and the agents. It was generally thought until now that 12-B only applied to in¬ dividual performers and agents and, hence, could not serve as a de¬ fense for Allen. But AFTRA na¬ tional counsel Mortimer Becker, called in as an interested party, testified that the regulations also applied to “packagers”—corporate entities—such as the one built up around Allen. The arbitrators. Herb Jacoby, Jack Katz, John Shulman, wrote their decisions in favor of Becker’s testimony. But the actual issue of . payment to Green was primarily dwdded, it was reported, on the fact that there was a clear-cut time between the end of Green’s contract and tha beginning of the first of the two network shows. Saphier’s agree¬ ment ended in May, 1955, and “To¬ night” with Allen on network be¬ gan several months later, near tha end of the year. Decision was reached last week after several weeks of unpublicized arbitration. NBC-TV on Tmt * Sprint in Fall NBC-TV will upbeat its use of color telecasts in the fall, with at least six and a half hours of regu¬ larly scheduled nighttime pro¬ grams per week, two hours a day in the Monday-Friday daytime period and at least 24 specials to be tinted. Moreover, part of the World Series and some NCAA football will, be tintcast. Biggest color night will be Sun¬ day, with Steve Allen switching to tint and the Dinah Shore “Chevy Show” immediately following, so that the 8-10 p.m. period will be all tint. Rundown for the rest of the week has “My Friend Flicka,” ten¬ tatively set for 7:30-8, as the Mon¬ day entry; the George Gobel-Eddie Fisher 8-9 hour on Tuesday; “Kraft Theatre” continuing as the Wednesday tint representative; the half-hour Rosemary Clooney (Continued on page 50) Hayes to Europe Arthur Hull Hayes, prez ofj CBS Radio, and his family depart] for Europe tomorrow (Thttrs.); 1AP DTWEC TA A VUD aboard the S.S United States for a’ KlTiiliJ 1U AIM, tour of the Continent and visits to CBS. offices in London, Paris and Rome. They wifi also attend the graduation from Oxford of Arthur Hull Hayes Jr. Hayes is due back in New York Sept. 2. Fall Programming Breakdown: East vs West HELMS FAIRY TALES Hollywood, July 23. Joe Rines. agency exec and pack¬ ager, joins tiie program staff of N. W. Ayer agency this week as production supervisor of the Shir¬ ley Temple series of four fairy tales and legends for three Ayer clients—Hills Bros, (coffee), Breck (shampoo i and S e a 11 e s l (ice cream). Glenhall Taylor, veepee of the Ayer Hollywood office, in making the appointment, said Rines would also act in liaison for the agency with the sponsors and Coronet Productions, which will film the series at Screen Gems under executive produeership of William Phillipson. Rines has left for con¬ ferences in N.Y. at the Ayer agency.