Variety (November 1957)

RADIO-TEUE VISION 21 Wednesday, November 6,1957 Z'JSiiEfirf TV Cards Seen Stacked In Favor First round in this season’s battle of the networks VS. the critics appears* to have been won by the fourth estaters. In the showdown argument of whether the critic reflects audience tastes in his elavuations, the first Nielsen’s of the new season appear to support the critics. In virtually every case where a show was unanimously panned, its showing on the Nielsen list is a poor one. Sole exception is “The Big Record,” whose ratings, at least as of the end of the first week of October, were holding fairly steadily. Some of the westerns, too, despite n.s.h. ratings, were doing comparatively well considering their competitive position. But by and large, the critical evahia&bns appear to have coin¬ cided with the audience reaction to the “dog” shows*, of the season. Borne examples: “Eve Arden Show,” a mere 15.3 Nielsen average audience rating; “Dick & the Duchess,” an 18.4; “Saber of London,” a 9.2; “Club Oasis” and the Polly Bergen show, 15.9 and 19,0; “M Squad,” 17.3, and "The Thin Man,” 19,2; “The Californians,” 20.2; George Gobel and Eddie Fisher, 15.6 and 18.9; “Harbor Master” (before- the ABC,“Zorro” preem) 20.0; “Alcoa-Goodyear Theatre” 22.5. In all cases; even where the ratings register above 20, the shows trail their competition by substantial margins: On some counts, the new Nielsens don’t cover the competitive situation because many shows preemed after the period covered; as for some others, they premiered in the second week covered by Nielsen, so that on the basis of one show the critical evaluation . vs. audience tune-in comparison IsA’t valid. But by and large, ' for the shows already on the air against their regular competition, the critics and public seemed to agree. NBC-TTs $1^00,000 ‘Tape Central’ For April-DST Bow mB£W,Tint Of Bigtime Swing Back to East Within Next 3 Years, Mebbe Less :--♦ Hollywood, Nov. 5. NBC-TV will “launch the era of the magnetic tape” next April, dropping all its kinescope and lenticul§u filin processing and sub¬ stituting both color and black Sc white video tape recording for re¬ peat broadcasts. NBC prexy Boh Sarnoff kicked off the web’s mas¬ sive : press junket here with the announcement that a new $1,500,- 000 “Tape Central” will he built in tile NBC Color City in Burbank and an equivalent unit in Radio City, N.Y., in time for the start of daylight saving time. Immediate effect gf the instal¬ lations, Sarnoff said, win he “to meet the perennial daylight sav¬ ing problem fey transmitting tape broadcasts to standard time sta¬ tions'throughout the country.”’ He added that the “west coast prob¬ lem” will be'met “by a tape repeat of the whole schedule throughout the year.” New ' Coast Installation will house a total of 11 video tape re¬ corders,'including the new. RCA color recorder as well as the Am- pex black Sc white machines. Sar¬ noff said that RCA will deliver six Color recorder prototypes in time j for the April DST start, but didn’t specify how many of the six will be used on the Coast Sarnoff indicated that above and beyond the costs of the equip¬ ment, NBC will have to lease an additional 2,000 miles of line from i the telephone company for a six- month period starting in April, (Continued on page 56) With about three weeks to go be¬ fore “notice” time, CBS-TV has* been holding meetings with Mogen David Wine and Helene Curtis and their respective agencies on the fate of “Dick Sc the Duchess.” There’s been no notice of cancella¬ tion filed yet with the network, hut prospects aren’t very bullish. The Sheldon Reynolds filmed en¬ try hasn’t been doing very well in its Saturday, at 0:30 spot, against the Perry Como competition. This despite, a good-sized lead-in from the 7:30-8^30 -“Perry Mason” stanza. There are 18 “Dick” films in the can, which w6uld take the show through January, but it doesn’t figure to run much beyond that point. Agencies-in pa the consul¬ tations are Edward H. Weiss and Gordon Best, and the talks at this point are ^concentrated oil how to get some Iast-m*rmte audience in¬ terest in the show before the boom is lowered. Radio Free Europe’s Role In Anti-Commie Warfare Cited by WBC’s McGannon Chicago, Nov. 5. Donald H. .McGannon, prez of Westinghouse Broadcasting Co. whp recently returned from a tour oTRadio Free Europe installations in Germany, cited radio’s increas¬ ing significance as an Implement in political warfare. “Radio,” he told a Kiwanis Club meeting here last week, “will be a major tool of the free nations of the world in offsetting the' iron and intellectual curtains which the Communist nations are attempting to put around the masses of people that they have doomed to slavery.” McGannon reported that RFE has been, heating the Communists regularly on their own stories be¬ hind the Iron Curtain, where “hon¬ est news is a scarce commodity.”’ He praised Radio Free Europe for “doing much to keep freedom alive in countries where officially it does not exist,” By* JAMES F. CONNORS . ' Schenectady, Nov. 5. Asserting the American radio and television industry's conviction that “profits are greatest when audiences are largest” and its as¬ sumption that “the best programs are those with the most 'Viewers” oppose” the concept that democ¬ racy depends on individuality,” Dr. Charles A, Siepmann, chair¬ man of the Dept, of Communica¬ tions in Education at New York U., told a. Freedom Forum at Mt. Pleasant High School last week, “Americans are being manipulated by the application of subtle psy- i chological devices to what is broad¬ cast and telecast.” Dr. Siepmann, at one time as¬ sociated with British Broadcasting Corp., declared, ^“Sueh manipula¬ tion of people by mass media is a blasphemy of democracy.” “We must get back to the fact that our society is dedicated to the j nurture of individuals,” Dr.. Siep¬ mann continued. He urged the public to exert pressure for “an improved mass media conscience,” and to support better education that can train “more discriminate ing future generations.” Can't ‘See’ Gov’t Entry Government operation of mass media of communications, rather than the present commercial sys¬ tem of operation, probably would not be successful i r the United j TWINS' By GEORGE ROSEN Weighing one thing with an¬ other, with a particular genuflect¬ ing to the first of the new sea¬ son’s Nielsen returns, this is the year in tv when “Sonny” Werblin took over the medium lock, stock Sc barrel and translated it Into a whopping success story—ratings, dollars, prestige or any which way. If, In. well-placed segments of j the business this week, they’re | calling the Music Corp, of Amer¬ ica’s television factotum “the hot¬ test piece of tv property in sight, on or off the screen,” it’s because Werblin, on the basis of the just- released Nielsens has single-han¬ dedly upset the pre-season “dope” and has made -the scoffers and the “askance” boys eat rating dirt— and like it. Long before the season’s start, they were calling the Werblin-Bob Kintner alliance (in which the MCA chieftain maneuvered approx¬ imately $20,000,000 in MCA pro¬ gram sales to NBC’s program-sales boss) one of the “unhealthy” prec¬ edents of tv, not only because of the all-eggs-in-one-basket overtones, but particularly since so many of the properties were in the Western category. But just as the initial Trendex ratings of the season cre¬ ated the Werblin-Kintner euphem¬ ism of the “Trendex Twins,” so, too, have the new Nielsens clinched beyond any doubt the Werblin- Kintner strategy as one of the more fascinating footnotes for ’57-’58. * Werblin’s Key Role The Werblin story goes beyond ratings or an MCA-to-NBC traf¬ ficking, for not generally known is the key role played by the MCA exec in delivering many of the shows to the Network with built-in sponsors, or yet again, when the client romancing was getting rough, it was the “Sonny disposish” and the Werblin flash plays On the agency front that converted a threatened sustainer into sponsor¬ ship. It's no secret that around the Madison Ave. agency marts it is being said that Werblin’s pres¬ ence and activity is more pro¬ nounced than any of the network mahouts. Kintner’s own reputation in the sales arena isn’t exactly “from left field” and this, coupled with the fact that it was Kintner States, Dr. Siepmann commented. Introduced by Merle Galusha, manager of the General Electric Co.’s pioneering WRGB-TV, Dr. Siepmann said that mass media have “tremendous power with which to manipulate society.” He believes that, the legitimate interests of minorities are being Reaction to ‘Boredom’ By JACK BERNSTEIN Madison Avenue was smarting last week over the .remarks of John Cunningham, prexy of Cun-; ningham & Walsh, who blew the whistle on the agency boys in a blast at television before the Assn, of National Advertisers, which met last week in Atlantic; City. . Agency brass had -their torpe-; does set for Cunningham’s slam; which in general dealt with “low j level” television programming, Cunningham feels that tv is get¬ ting strangled by the bqpedom fac¬ tor and imitation. Quiz shows and the “smother of sheriffs and the larynx” (singers) have down¬ graded television and have f aken commercials along with the shows,, according to Cunningham. William Dasheff, execr .ve v.p. (Continued on page 55) Pay-Ball of ‘No TV’ Hollywood, Nov. 5. Next season’s games of the new L. A. Dodgers will def¬ initely be missing from com¬ mercial tv airwaves, although “the jury Is still out on pay- tv,” according to Dodger prexy Walter O’Malley. As O’Malley put it: “If we don’t have pay-tv, there will be no tv of our games at all.” Jerome Doff, v.p. of Skia- tron, which is known to he dickering for the ’58 Dodgers season, commented, “We defer . to Mr. O’Malley’s eloquent statement, at present” E. K. Meade Jr. Set As CBS Inc. PR er; Posts Govt Slant CBS finally filled in its cor¬ porate public relations spot this week with the appointment of Everard Kidder Meade Jr. as v.p., information services, for CBS Inc. Meade is moving over from the Earl Newsom Sc Co. px.. outfit which has handled public relations occasionally for CBS in the past on a retainer basis. He’s a distant re¬ lation to the w.k.-in-broadcasting Ev Meade, the ex-Young Sc Rubi- cam veep. ' Meade was with Newsom for two years, prior to which he was a v.p. of Colonial Williamsburg, the op¬ erating company which runs the restored town for the Rockefeller Foundation, .and Prior to that had heavy Government experience via a stint on the first Hoover Com¬ mission and three years as special assistant to the Undersecretary of State. He’s had no broadcasting experience. CBS is known to have had a longstanding yen to set up a cor- “smothered” by the television- radio industry’s subscribing to. the theory that the biggest profits and the best programs are predicted on the .-largest audiences. Everything that is said on tele¬ vision assumes “a prestige that adds significance to what is being communicated,” Dr. Siepmann pointed out. Broadcasts are giv¬ ing the public what the industry calls “cultural democracy,” which is simply what the industry leaders “think the majority of the public wants.” Such a policy, the edu¬ cator contended, “denies the pos¬ sibility of cultural growth, keeps us where we. are, and prevents, us from rising to what we should he.” “And yet, in this golden age of communications, we have not ar-; rived at *thg golden stage of cul¬ ture," Dr. Siepmann added. Reviewing the dangers of the new subliminal (subsconscious) ad- vertising^ - he observed, “We are nearer to the Pavlovian dogs than we are ready to admit. Dr. Siep¬ mann challenged the “moral re¬ sponsibility” of the broadcasters who, he claimed, “exploit ,the frus¬ trations of housewives by pre¬ senting soap opefras.' Advertisers were urged to “cur¬ tail” the use of psychological de¬ vices to “influence the „ subcon- ; scious.” The public was invited to act,* as groups and as individuals, i tc exert pressure for a “better” i I radio-television industry. 1 Ample evidence appears to be available that the hysteria in New York over the removal of the great majority of network television pro¬ duction to the Coast may be short¬ lived. There Js no question that Hollywood is the present centre of activity, but there are neutral in¬ dustry sources who see a major suing back to New York by 1959 or sooner. At the very latest, they figure New York will be the pro¬ duction seat by 1960. A number of interrelated situa¬ tions, it has been held by certain network and talent union officials, will drive production back east: There is the advent of tape, due in late 1958; the current position op. making pilot films for tv; the pressures to make New York an acceptable point of production in the future; the entrenchment of advertising agencies in the east, and the production of telefilm in Europe. Agencies offer as a primary rea¬ son for moving their regular shows to Hollywood the difficulty in find¬ ing sufficient rehearsal and studio space for New York-based program¬ ming. When use of tape becomes widescale, as most networks be¬ lieve it shall, there will not be any great demand for rehearsal or stu¬ dio space. And, in relation to the fund of writing and acting talent in New York, not to say the geograph¬ ical location of agencies, this fac¬ tor should aid greatly in returning biz to its former haunts. Video tape will obviate the need to rehearse and, perform tv pro¬ grams at a given time. Shows can (Continued on page 52 j P&G Fluffo’s Dp 2-Net Day Pitch Procter & Gamble is Increasing its daytime stake on NBC-TV and CBS-TV blanketing both with a drive for its Fluffo and adding some longterm biz on NBC for its .new Big Top Peanut Butter. Eluffo business, out of Tatham- Laird, involves a total of seven alternate - week quarter - hours through November and December on NBC’s “Price Is Right,” and one and a half quarter-hours per week on CBS’ "Love of Life.” Big Top deal, through Compton, is for NBC’s “Comedy Time” and calls for sponsorship of four alternate quartei>hours per week for at least 13 and possibly 26 weeks. VAN HEUSEN CO. LOSING ITS SHIRT IN‘XMAS TV’ A special seven-week tv cam¬ paign for the Christmas holiday season Is being conducted by the Phillips-Van Heusen Corp., manu¬ facturers of Van Heusen Shirts and other men’s wear items. -* Added for the special holiday promotions in the firm’s tv sched¬ ule are participations in three Shir- * ley Temple features telecast by the* NTA Film Network; a participa¬ tion in “Premiere Performance,” the \najor NTA Film Network p J x program; and participations in NBC-TV's “Suspicion” show on Dec. 9 and 16. Van Heusen regularly sponsors* “West Point Story” on ABC-TV. ‘Tonight’ Nails $300,000 NBC-TV’s “Tonight” pulled in another $300,000 in gross new business this week and converted a spot-only advertiser into a first¬ time network client in the process. Show signed, Harrison Labs to 42 participations starting this week and running through Christmas for its 10 Day PressOn Nail Polish and it* Tuck Tape products. Deal was set through Product Services acenev. (Continued on page 46) (Continued on page 56) Mass Media?s ( Biasphemy of Democracy Strikes At Individuality of People