Variety (November 1957)

26 TV-FILMS Wednesday, November 6, 1957 Show Development, Pilots V All Kajar’s Costello Bit Kajar’s hands are getting more tv exposure than his face. The video-busy magician has just completed a few more "look, Ma, hands” telefilm blurbs for Scripto Pens. "Hollywood, Nov. 5. Over the weekend Hal Roach Jr. unveiled a projected show develop¬ ment program which could involve up to $1,200,000. Work is already underway on two properties, W’ith 12 in all planned for ’58-'59 season. Major feature of program is that besides pilot, each series will be accompanied by 12 other complet¬ ed scripts, for agency-sponsor scru¬ tiny. With scripts budgeted at approximately $4,000 each, and 156 scripts involved (including pilots) for 12-scries program. Roach has budgeted $624,000 for writing alone. While difficult to estimate per-pilot cost in advance, remain- j j n a p romo ticn stunt, WP1X, der of program budget is being j N Y ., and CBS Film Sales have allocated among 12 pilots on cost: teame( j t0 bring an authentic basis ranging between $35,000 Baltimore & Ohio Civil War train The Gray Ghost’s’ B&0 ‘Civil War in New York’ And an ARB Barb in Hub $42,000, Roach discloses. Projects already in the works are "Cindy.” starring Evelyn Rqdie, with Alex Gottlieb producing; and "Steve Canyon,” based on the Milt Caniff comic strip, with David Haft producing. Five more properties are currently in the negotiation stage. Roach disclosed. Pilots on "Cindy” and "Steve Canyon” will roll next month. Roach also disclosed that plan might encompass "two three” I pilots already made, but unsold] last season. If so, additional scripts j will be prepped to bring total of finished leleplays up to level of other projects. Among such repeat projects are the “Joe DiMaggio Show,” “Ben Blue's Brothers” and I "Jack and Jill” last costarring Anne Jeffreys and Robert Sterling). Roach studio tieup with Vitaplx lineup of stations, long dormant, might be revived by some of the new lineup, and "I’m certain a number of these will go into syn¬ dication,” Roach stated. Most coin for* new series pro¬ gram comes from some 10 Roach series already in syndication, he said. Stock issue of $1,000,000, currently in stages of Securities Exchange Commission clearance, will be used largely for longrange capital investment, he disclosed. Roach decried present tendency along Madison Ave. to eliminate the pilot and to sell a series on the basis of a "presentation.” “It’s part of the job of the producer, if he believes in his property, to' make a pilot. When you talk about a se¬ ries in tv today, you’re talking about a multi-million dollar deal Involving hoth sponsors’ and pro¬ ducers’ money. You’ve got to know where you’re going before you can commit so much money. That’s why I believe in this idea of having the scripts for 13 weeks all ready.” 5 Companies Shooting Hollywood, Nov. 5. Production on Hal Roach lot, which virtually shut down during summer months, is up to five com¬ panies currently shooting various telepix series and indie features. Both series, "Telephone. Time” and "Oh, Susanna!” are Roach properties. Indie features include Jack Wrather’s new "Lone Ranger” for UA release; "The Curse of Dracula.” being made by Jules Levey and Arthur Gardner, al§o for UA; and “Whipporwill,” DRM production starring Robert Mitchum. To Catch a Thief, Get Him ‘Mugged’ on Video into New York Friday (8), It’s in connection wth "The Gray Ghost” CBS Film skein now unreeling on the -N.Y. Daily News indie. The train, officially. called the “William Mason” hut retitled "Gray Ghost” for the occasion, will begin its journey from the B&O Historical Museum at Balti¬ more. It’s unable to exceed a speed of 15 miles per hour, and when it reaches N.Y., it will be moved to a siding on the West 26th pier, ; In addition to the train it¬ self, consisting of an engine, ten¬ der, baggage car and passenger car—there will be an exhibt of Civil War objects of interest. 'Ghost* 21.3; Steel 14.3 Boston, Nov. 5. A special tabulation by ARB on "The Gray Ghost,” new syndicated film series which world preemed in Hub Oct. 9 in the 10:30-11 p.m. slot on WBZ-TV, showed it out- rated the opposition U.S. Steel Hour’s "Who r s Earnest,” 21.3 to 14.3. The new series increased the station’s ratings in the slot 102% more than doublng its share of aud. September rating for this time was 10.5 Prior to show’s inro, WBZ-TV, CBS Film Sales, and Charles F. Hutchinson agency, representing the client, Habitant Soups, hosted a luncheon for Hub tv editors, agency personnel and dealers. San Antonio in Jr.. League Gets in on ‘TV for Kids’ San Antonio, Nov. 5. The Junior League of San An¬ tonio, in cooperation with KENS- TV, will sponsor a series of tele¬ vision adventures entitled "King’s Crossroads.” Series of 30-minute films will be seen each Saturday at 10:30 a.m; The series Is narrated by Carl King and will run for 26 weeks. TV Film Chatter Charles (Bud) Barry, Metro TV v.p., to the Coast . . . Matty Fox, C & C Super topper, has returned from a Coast trip . . . Sponsor Film Services of Toronto is handling the editing and scheduling of Na¬ tional Telefilm Associates’ 1 * "Pre¬ miere Performance” feature pro¬ gramming in Canada . . . Produc¬ tion on ABC Film Syndication’s “26 Men” has resumed at Phoenix, Airiz., following the press junket of newsmen from New York and Hollywood last week (31). J. J. Cohn, Metro studio exec, will supervise the 60-minute filmed series to be done for the American Petroleum Institute. Jack Denovc, who will produce, has arrived at the Metro studios to begin work ... Actress Ellen Carr left for the Coast for a tv film commercial as¬ signment » . . Metro TV studio execs played host yesterday (Tues.) to press reps brought to Hollywood by NBC for a weeklong junket. Direct-to-Sponsor Sales Up at Ziv; 'Sea Hunt’Scores Ziv TV, which of recent months has been introing a new. syndicated property every two months, reports a definite upswing in the number of such shows being bought direct¬ ly by agencies and advertisers. Walter Kingsley, general sales topper, says that last season, about 61% of the outfit's sales were made to advertisers and the balance to stations and agencies, as contrasted to 68% this year. Also hypoing Ziv sales is its "marriage bureau” department, locating alternate sponsors and matching the pro¬ gram buys of stations to regional client needs. Activity in that area also was described as growing. The latest sales report on -Ziv’s fresh entry "Sea Hunt,” is indica¬ tive of the growth in sponsor buys. G. Heileman Brewing of Wisconsin bought the show for nine midwest- ern markets, including Chicago, La Crosse, Milwaukee, Green Bay and Rockford, Ill. It will-have al-. ternate sponsorship of "Sea Hunt” in Madison, Wassau and Eau Claire, Wis., and in Cedar Rapids- Waterloo, la. The Kroger grocery chain inked for Grand Rapids and two other markets, while Safeway expanded its two-city purchase to Oklahoma City. . Additional purchases by stations include WHDH-TV, Boston, and KVII, Amarillo, Tex. Skein is now sold in most of the key markets in the country. Join ‘Martin Kano 1 & See the World; SCRIBES’ TESTIMONIAL TO‘BIG STORY’PRODS. A testimonial scroll, to be signed by many of the 600 “Big Story” winners, will be presented to Ev¬ erett Rosenthal and Leonard Loew- inthan, Pyramid Production top¬ pers who are now filming the series for syndication. The presentation will , be made shortly after the first of the year, according to Andrew Viglietta, Washington correspondent for the Newhouse newspaper chain, who is serving as national chairman of the “Big Story” winners committee. The committee.Includes Willard C. Haselbush, Denver Post; Henry Reno, Miami Herald; Harry Mc¬ Cormick, Dallas News; Girardin, Detroit Times; and Ruth Muggle- bee, Boston Record-American, Committee also is gathering me¬ mentos, exhibits and files relating to stories highlighted in the series, which had a long network live ride before going film. These donations may form a larger exhibit planned at eithfer Pyramid headquarters in New York or at university .schools of journalism. Scroll singles out Rosenthal and Loewinthan for bringing "greater understanding” about the press and added public ac¬ claim for members of the fourth estate during the past 10 years. Inside Stuff—TV films First annual “Industrial Audio-Visual Exhibition” is skedded for Nov. 13-15 at the New York Trade Show Bldg. Entire show is geared to industrial filming, with a member of the commerical video set, George Huntington, sales development chief at Television Bureau, of Advertising, delivering the keynote. Huntington, who has been one of the men responsible for the Cell-o-Matic tv sales presentations that expanded from TvB to ABC abd then NBC, will speak on “The Whys and Hows of Major Presen¬ tation.” Willis Pratt Jr., film manager of AT&T, will spiel on “The Industrial Film Sponsor and His Problems.” There will be several other speakers during the three-day sesh, held under , the auspices of the National Visual Presentation Assn. Boston, Nov. 5. Crime detection via tv assist, re¬ sulting in the capture of d robbery suspect, paid off in-a special fea¬ ture inaugurated on WBZ-TV. Each day during one of the news shows, a special slide introed viewers to persons who were wanted by the state’s gendarmes. Viewers were urged* to offer any information they might have that would lead to the arrest bf the thug appearing on the screen. Following a Medford holdup, in which one of the would-be bandits was shot to death by a police of¬ ficer, the Medford Police Dept, re¬ quested WBZ-TV to run a “want- ed” slide of one of the suspects. The station complied on “11th Hour. News.” Next morning, police reported the slide had produced resuits. A Rochester, N.H. viewer tipped po¬ lice on w hereabouts of the suspect. The latter, five months out of prison, was picked up and ad¬ mitted his part in the robbery. In an effort to resist the increasingly successful inroads of large teleblurb producers, a problem that has washed out many small pro¬ ducers, lately. Guild Films’ commercial division is offering agencies and advertisers a “unitized service plan.” What it means Is the tele- blurbery is promising a full crew-editor, director, producer and scenic designer—on an exclusive basis to each account. Guild will not permit any member of the four-man team to work on a second account until all the filming* is completed for the first. General procedure is to work crews on an overlapping-' basis, so that often before they've finished one job they’re into the next.- Guild maintains that this creates delays in completing a job, quite often making it impossible for several hours for any agency to get in touch with the producer or editor or director who began their project. New plan fits into Guild’s low overhead teleblurb operation. Crews will be hired by the production house for each new job, obviating the need for a continuing large 4 overhead. Last week, Coty cosmetics became the first to sign under the arrangement. The INS-Telenews half-hour year-end “News Review of 1957” and the 30-minute “Sports Review of 1957” have been pacted in 10 markets outside the U. S. Both the news and sports programs will be aired by the Midnight Su.n Broadcasting Co. stations in Alaska, XENI-TV (Anchorage), KFAR-TV (Fairbanks), KATV (Ketchikan); and by CMAB-TV, Cuba. Six CBC (Canada) stations will carry the sports year-ender, CBFT (Montreal), CBOFT (Ottawa), CHLT-TV (Sher¬ brooke) and CFCM-TV (Quebec City). Domestic"sales now^are being closed for the special film features set for telecasting after Christmas Dot- __ .... .. Landau’s Dollar Details Of NTA Acquisitions In N.Y.,MpIs.AM-TV Markets Details of the agreements under which National Telefilm Associates acquired KMGM-TV, Minneapolis, and WATV, WAAT, and WAAT- FM, in the New York-N. J. market, were contained in a letter to stock¬ holders sent out by )NTA hoard chairman Ely A. Landau. Under terms of the WATV deal,, which also encompassed radio sta¬ tions WAAT and WAAT-FM, all the capital stock of hoth Atlantic Television and. the Bremer Broad¬ casting Corp. was acquired. Pur¬ chase price was $2,550,000, of which $50,000 was paid on th'e signing of the agreement. Another $150,000 is- payable on the closing date, which will take place after receipt of FCC approval. The bal¬ ance, including accrued interest, will he payable over approximately eight years after the closing of the transaction. NTA also guarantees the payment of Atlantic Television and Bremer Broadcasting obliga¬ tions and liabilities in the aggre¬ gate amount of $950,006. Among the obligations of the two corporations to be acquired are agreements with certain sell¬ ing stockholders, who are to re¬ ceive compensation equal to 20% of the profits “of the t#o corpora¬ tions before income taxes until their share o'f such profits total $ 1 , 000 , 008 . ... NTA intends to seek authoriza¬ tion'to change the call letters of WATV to WNTA-TV and of the radio-stations to WNTA (AM) and WNTA-FM. -* - In the case of KMGM-TV, NTA will acquire -75% of the capital stock of United Television Inc., which-owns and operates the sta¬ tion.' The. other 25% of United Television is owned, by Loew’s Inc. Purchase price for the 75% stock interest is $630,000, of which $300,- 000 is payable on the closing date, when the FCC approves the ac¬ quisition. The remainder is pay¬ able in three installments over the subsequent ^three years! In addi¬ tion to the stock interest, NTA will acquire United Television debentures of $318,750 and United Television demand notes aggregat¬ ing $152,000. The selling stock- holdefs also .shall assign to NTA their Interest in an agreement with Loew’s Inc, under which Loew’s will then owe conditionally a bal¬ ance of $662,500, Loew’s, when the;Minneapolis station bought the Metro library, acquired a 25% in¬ terest in the station for $75Q,0()Q. • Landau stated in his letter that NTA will continue its program,of buying tv and radio stations in leading markets. He also advised stockholders that proceeds from the recent sale of notes and com¬ mon stock have been utilized to retire $4,931,228 in loans. '+ Telefilm series, now being shot on location throughout the world, offers a vicarious tour for the view¬ er who may never leave his own town. So states vet actor William Gargan who recently completed his assignment in Ziv’s “New Adven¬ tures of Martin Kane.” The location backdrops in the “Kane” episodes encompass Paris, Munich, the Bavarian Aips, Aus¬ tria, Holland, Finland, Sweden, Denmark and Spain, Gargan con¬ trasted the multiple European set¬ tings with the relatively confined studio operation betwen 1949 and 1953, when “Martin Kane” was telecast live. The location hunger is reflected in other Series, ranging from “O.S.S.” to “Dick and the Duch¬ ess.” The “Kane” project was headquartered in London, like so many of the other series being pro¬ duced in Europe, with “Kane” pro¬ ducer Harry Alan Towers operat¬ ing a virtual airlift Operation for location shooting on the Continent. Gargen, new to syndication—the “Kane” role is his first in that field—was amazed at the forfeign play that telefilm series are, getting. Ziv recently concluded a deal in Japan for the package “It’s a cinch,” he opined,” that an Irish¬ man like me Won’t do the dub¬ bing.” Gargan has a percentage deal with Ziv based on the gross of the 39-episode skein. He described his potential earnings In the series at between $350,000 and $400,000, pro¬ vided it gets maximum exposure and a rerun ride of four time* around. He said technicians and creative talent abroad are learning fast, picking up steadily, the saWy asso¬ ciated with Hollywood production. CBS Fifan Sales Works _ Up Discount Plan For Vid|Hx in Small Mkto. Stations In other than the top 65 markets in the country, or where the set count is about 200,000 or under, are being offered a volume discount plan by CBS Film Sales. The smaller market plan, in¬ augurated for the usual sales lull in the Noyember-December period, encompasses ten rerun properties, representing 528 half-hours. Dead¬ line for deals under the plan, said to offer discounts as high-as 50% to 80%, is Dec. 31. Shows bought under the plan, though, could be¬ gin unreeling in the Tall of 1958, ■ the requirement being that the starting date he before Nov. 1, 1958. Shows included, in the plan are “Amos ’n’ Andy,” “The Whistler,’* “Mama,” “Honeymooners,”! “Our Miss Brooks,” “Life With Father,” “Brave Eagle,” “Jeffrey Jones and Eddie Drake, 1 * “San Francisco Beat,” as well as Terrytooh car¬ toons and the newsfilm service. To earn discounts from the regu¬ lar rates, the station must buy a minimum of 104 half-hours, com¬ puted either bf the number of epi¬ sodes or a combination of episode add rerun numbers. That is, the minimum could be reached by th#„ purchase of 52 episodes and re¬ running them. NABET Fifan Unit Votes On Budqet-Pix Crews Hollywood, Nov. 5. Present policy of supplying film crews to low-budget features, tele¬ blurbs and industrial pix was coh- finned in vote of film craft unit. Na¬ tional Assn, of Broadcast Em¬ ployees & Technicians, at mem¬ bership meeting last week. How¬ ever, unit won’t seek to service major feature productions, in com¬ petition with IATSE, unit chair¬ man Bill Hines emphasized. Resolution doesn’t constitute a violation of AFL-CIO “no raid” agreement; nor an Infringement on IA territory, since NABET will ojnly supDly crews to outfits who haven’Jl s’*med up with IA, Hines insists. NABET -isnlt “cutrating,” but supplying film units “tailor- made” to reordrements of low^bud- n—no “excess” perdue!/ he., comments, - .