Variety (September 1957)

Wednesday, September 25, 1957 INTERNATIONAL TV RADIO Nielsen's tai Brita (Week Ending Sept. 8) Sunday Night at Blackpool (ATV) ....cccsssceccvaccvess Emergency Ward 10—Fri. (ATV) ....c.cccccceccscvcceces Criss Cross Quiz—Fri. (Granada) 66%. ed 85% eeoevoeeaennevev sees eeoeenee Play of the Week—“The Wooden Dish” (Granada) weaves, 64% Television Playhouse—“Poison Unsuspect” (AR) ...cseceses "63% Hit the Limit (Granada) weonane ecoeveves ecvccrveceeseseses +0250 Criss Crass Quiz—Wed. (Granada Val Parnell’s Sat. Spectacular (ATY) ..cccccccvecsseneens Criss Cross Quiz—Mon. (Granada) Emergency Ward 10—Tues. (ATV) ,.......0-cece eveenenes eoeeeneenseope dean ege see oonen ooneeenaeeeeanagrernn (Figures reveal the audience in the London, Birmingham, onde ern and Scottish television homes capable of receiving hoth BBC _ and ITV programs.) Big Industry Gets Behind Move For Fullscale Italo Com’ TY By ART WOODSTONE Intense pressure, from .the country’s heavy indus tries, is building to give Italy full-. scale commercial _ television. Sources in the United States are particularly interested in the outcome, since Italy is shaping as the most important nation for video on the continent and since several key. American -companies have large distribution outlets there. Basing his belief on direct in-. formation from Italian officials, an executive for one of the U.S. tv networks said that a grant to: commercial video ‘operators in Italy is “inevitable.” Pershaps as. a result of the indignation of Italy’s big industry, the Italian government sent Professor Angelo D’Alessandro of Centro Cinematografia, the government sponsored motion picture centre, to this country to once-over U.S. commercial opetations, it was learned. D’Alessandro is now-on his way back home to make a re-. -port to. members of the Chamber of Deputies, the Italian cdngress. Principal efforts are being directed at getting commercial stations in Rome and Naples. At present, Italy only has Radio “Audizione . Italian, which, with 738 tv stations, is almost entirely non commercial. ° The 23: primary sta tions, 30-some-odd secandary (smaller market) stations and some 25 satellite stations only allow 10 ‘minutes of time a day to commer cial advertisers in the form’ of program at 8:50 p.m. called “Carosello” (Carousel”). There fs only room for four participating sponsors a day. There is a $5,000,000 gross as the annual potential for the show, according to insiders. RAI charges $3,750 for talent and time (and taxes) for each participation. The take for this 10-minute show, which is hardly considered entertainment, is taken as an. indication of thé great. wealth available to -commercial ty in Italy. Colgate-Palmolive and Shell Oil, . (Continued on page 48) . Th? : London ITP’s Budget Of $5,000,000 For Vidvix Co-Production Hollywood, Sept. 24. Incorporated Television Program. Co. Ltd. of London board of directors has allocated $5,000,000 far co-production deals with American distributors for new telepix series. the next two years. | Move was disclosed here by Mike Nidorf, exec v.p. of ITP in this country. He said firm wants from eight to 10 new vidfilm series, and that he’s now conferring with ageéencies and distribs regarding new properties. In return for its partial financing of the made-in-England -product, ITP receives eastern hemisphere rights and participation of global profits. Company owns Naticnal studio in London, and is now involved in a $1,000,000 expansion program, adding two stages. British firm begins production’ on a new series, “William Tell,” after the first of the year put hasn't yet set a co-production deal. Is has ‘such deals .with Official | Films, TPA, Falmingo and Bernard Schuhert, . (830° 5 creas 4much of it: musicians, ‘sitions in the Nielsen ratings. ‘Gen. Motors Theatre’ Gets Canada Revival Ottawa, Sept, 24. General Motors of Canada revives its one-hour “General Motors | Theatre” this fall, and continues its “Porte Ouverte” half-hour. variety show on Canadian Broadcasting Corp.’s French network. Besides' these: all Canadian shows, GM will sponsor U. S. weekly “Chevy Show,” “The Big Record” ‘and “Patrice. Munsel Show.’ Also several specs, first two being “Jubilee of Music” Nov. 17 and “Annie Get Your. Gun” Nov. 27, both two houts. GM will have a show on every Monday, Tuesday, Wedttesday and Friday, plus the specs. Basie's TV Date | May Break British Ban on U.S. Talent: London, Sept. 24. There’s a chafice that the vision barrier set up by. the unions. representing British and American which precludes the performing appearances of foreign muSicians on television, may. be broken. The Count Basie orch, skedded to make its second concert.tour here within the space of a few months (the bands’ second tour opens with a: late-hight gala premiere at the Royal Festival Hall on Oct. 24), may be the first full Yank -outhit: to play on British. tv, if the Musicians Union here okays overtures made on ‘behalf of the band, On the other end of the Anglo-U. S. band swap, is the Ted. Heath outfit, which ‘has tentatively |. been’ promised American tv air}. time as a reciprocal gesture. Harry Francis, assistant secretary of the British MU, said ‘that a complete change in policy was | very unlikely, as tv time here was a precious thing to British musicians, whereas in the states with all the networks. and amount of work going it was not such a sacrifice. “He would not make an official comment about the chancés of a favorable decision by the com|. mittee for a Basie ty date, but said that “everything would be taken inte consideration.” SCOT COM’L TV COPS ALL 10 ON NIELSENS London, Sept. 24. . In its first full week on the air the new Scottish commercial ty station collared all the 10 top poThe Fatings are based on homes capable of receiving both BBC and commercial programs, but the state. web was completely unplaced. , First place went to “Sunday Night at Blackpool” followed by. Val, Parnell’s “Saturday Spectacular.” The new “OSS” series got ‘the yod. in Joth position. BRAZIL MAK MAKING | MOST PROGRESS South American television con jtinues to expand rapidly, with oc easional stumbling blocks in some areas but a steady growth in set!. circulation and more and more countries due to go on the air in the coming months. That’s the travel-eye view of Richard Berman, manager of facilities for NBC in ternational operations, who's back: from a swing through S.A. during which he scouted eight countries with an eye to investment, management service arrangements, film | and kinescope sales. The country-by-country situation, as seert by Berman, looks this way: Panama-—Currently has television, via a U. S. Army installation, with English-only shows for Yank | personnel, but there are some 4.000 |sets throughout. the country that pick up the Army service. Currently two. commercial grants in the works, and if one of the two start service and do any English programming, the Army will probably drop its station. Two key cities. Panama’ City and Colon, would then vrobably. be linked as the country’s network. Colombia—Lotsa sets, and a Government network out of Bogota, but “it’s a mess.’? Advertisers are currently boycotting the network, which though government-run is a commercial enterpr‘se, simply ou the hasis that they favor commertially-overated tv. Veneézuela—One of the most advanced of the S.A. countries, with ‘over 70,000 sets. three stations in Caracas, a satellite in Maracaibo, and a new one going up in Mara {caibo. The new station in. the oil Yesion will trade programming with one of the Caracas stations. Peru--Three construction per mits out for Lima, with hopes of the first gding on fhe air by the middle of next year and the other two following. Already some sets in the market. -Chile—No tv yet, with the gov ernment not entirely. sure how to} set. up televis'on, but it's believed ; that a CP will be issued for Santi-; ago to the Radio Minerale group, in which U. S.’s Kennicott Copper figures largely. Santiago and Val paraiso are the only major mari | kets that figure to be covered initially, and they’re only a microwave skip away from each other, so that as soon as one ‘station foes: up, the major portion of Chilean population will be covered. Argentina—Still a mess from the | Peronista days, with the govern ° (Continued on page 48) Canada’s Top Soaper Axed After 10 Years, Incepted Many Careers . Ottawa, Sept. 24. Canada’s most popular soap opera, “Laura Limited,” has been dropped by Canadian Broadcasting Corp., after 19 years and 2,600 chapters. Official reason: “Change of emphasis in programming.” It was a network show from Montreal, directed by Rupert Caplan. . (First |] ence in voices” and “excess in the 13 episodes were supervised by US | director Stanley Quinn). Star, Eileen Clifford, never missed a performance, despite illnesses and family deaths. ‘Christopher Pluinmer and Robert Goodier, now appearing in Shakespeare Festivals at Stratford, Ont., and Conn., , respectively, played in “Taura.” So did Silvio Narrizzano, now an ace ty producer in England, and Alan Mills the ballad singer. Jimmy Tapp, now host of CBC’s weekly tv “Tapp Room,” played “the other man” for the first six years, also doubling for a while as the hero. Tapp recently appeared on Kraft Theatre in N. Y. In “Laura” he went there and became a Broadway producer, then returned “a reformed man” to marry lovel Laura. revival some day, though, the marriage was only mentioned, notjernment is increasing the tax on performed. } Holland was put under attack by Just in case there’s Y | completely fill the bill, Soviet Continues TV Expansion, 25th Station Goes on the Air By IRVING R. LEVINE Moscow, Sept. 24. Russia’s television stations are growing in number and improving in equipment. It’s an indication of the importance the Soviet leadership places on tv that resources are being diverted from the Communist nation’s economy to open new television outlets at a time ‘when great demands are being | made for Soviet steel and such by | Russia’s allies, by Syria and other Middle East countries, and by military programs including development of the USSR’s intercontinental guided. missile. The Soviet Union’s 25th tv transmitter has just begun operations on an experimental basis in the mid-Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk. Like the tv stations in Mos| cow, Leningrad, Kiev, Kharxov, Omsk, Tomsk, Vladivostok and Mexico’s ‘TV Theatres’ Mexico City, Sept. 24. Pop price tv theatres are soon to be installed here by: .Emilio Azcarraga, pic studioradio-tv tycoon who heads ‘Televicentro, home :f Mexico’s major vidéo stations, The first such theatre will bow pronto in a. populous local neighborhood. Pix and musicals will mostly constitute programs of these theatres. This plan is worrying cinemamen here who see it as stiff competition. But serener exhibitors are not so much concerned, for the immediate future, because they point out. these tv theatres would only effect _ fect secondary runs. Slap New Bans On TV in Cuba: Aimed at Mestre Havana, Sept. 24. A strict new radio-ty code has been slapped on Cuban broadcasters by Communications Minister Ramon Vasconcelos. The new Iaw bars “any form of monopoly.” This was seen directed at the anti-government CMQ radio and tv: empire, run by the: Mestre brothers. The law. limits. the broadcasting of editorials to one per day. No newscast can last more than one hour (CMQ's Radio. Reloj broadcasts news throughout the day and night). No news items can be broadcast more than once in an hour, nor more than four times in a single day. Total of 5% of broadcast time must be given to “culture in general,” and during this time stations must broadcast any material supplied by the government's Ministry of Education. ‘Political programs can only -be broadcast fer organizations approved by the governmeni’s Electoral’ Tribunal. Nothing i“accusatory or mortifying” can be. said against “any authority of: the nation. ve The new law also bans “phrases with ‘double meanings, ” “obseene | expressions,” “unnecessary strid | cleowhere the Krasnoyarsk station will begin by transmitting only /several hours a. week. Now the Moscow station, biggest and oldest of the government-owned Soviet chain, is on the air every day— about four hours weekdays, and eight hours on Sunday which is the working man’s only day off in this proletariat dictatorship. There still is no Soviet tv network. The stations are not linked, j and show mostly films sent by air jor train from the Moscow “big brother” station. It’s not unusual for the season to have changed by the time a feature film sent from Moscow completes its appointed rounds of stations, There are plans for eventually tieing -the stations into a network. The Krasnoyarsk station, like many of the others in USSR, was equipped by the Leningrad radio and tv equipment plant, which is the nation’s biggest producer of tv station equipment. By American standards Soviet tv stations are far behind the times. There are no kinescope facilities except for some experimental . apparatus at the Kiev station. However, in recent weeks Moscow ty has acquired ‘“zoomar” lenses. This has greatly improved the flexibility of coverage of “live” events. One of the first events at which the ‘zoomar” lens was used was the big Communist-sponsored Moscow Youth Festival in July and August which was attended by 166 American young people (42 of whom later went to Communist China) against the advice of the State Department. The Youth Festival provided a good example of how ty facilities ‘in Russia are mobilized in con (Continued on page 48) U.S. Is Willing But Is Soviet?’ Asks Wilson On TY Program Exchange London, Sept. 24. The free system of television in the U.S. is ready to meet “more than half-way” the bid made by Soviet leaders for an exchange of television programs, Charles FE. Wilson, president of People-to-People, Inc., declared in an address before the World Television Conference, held last Wed. (18) at the Hotel Claridge. Wilson, calling for a freer exchange of programming throughout the west and the use of television as .a medium to establish under-: standing in the world, challenged “if Khrushchev is sincere about the use of crude language.” Stations cannot show films not approved by the: government’s Film Review Commission, The Cuban press is also straitjacketed. All material must be submitted to censors before being published: Incoming English-lan-. guage U. S.-publications are no longer censored (via scissors), as previously, but outgoing press cables are censored. Dutch tv Attacked” Amsterdam Sept. 24, The lack of progress of tv in. J. W. Rengelink, program commissioner of the National Television Stichting. He said the. slow development of tv in the hands of the five broadcasting companies in the country was in marked contrast: to the growth of tv set sales. * He said the ty sections within | exchange of television programs, let him open the Communist gates to our cameras. Our gates are always open,” | Calling television a window to the world, Wilson envisioned the medium spanning the Atlantic and jand masses, heretofore blocked out, bringing people closer together. A step in that direction has been pioneered by Eurovision, the network set up in Europe for an exchange of programming. In (Continued on page 48) the five organizations should be} greatly enlarged and that there should be improvements in the nightly news feature and news programs... The news programs will get a shot in the arm from Eurovision which is to undertake greater European coyerage. Rengelink though feels that Eurovision won’t In the meantime, the Dutch govtv sets in the new budget.