Variety (November 1957)

so RADIO-TELEVISION -Wednesday, November 6, 1957 By LES BROWN Chicago, Nov. 51 With the emergence of a three network system this year and the resultant keener-than-eVCr compe¬ tition for audiences, there’s grow¬ ing emphasis now on merchandis¬ ing-in-depth as a means to help the advertiser get the most for his broadcast dollar. It involves an outlay of additional sponsor money to be used strategically in giving his show a buildup toward lower¬ ing his own cost-per-thousand. ABC-TV vice prez Qllie Treyz said it himself, and eloquently, in a recent closed circuit telecast to Seven Up bottlers, “Today you have to advertise your advertis¬ ing,” The day appears to be passing when a sponsor could rely wholly on routine servicing by the net¬ work promotion department to stack an audience for a show. It’s becoming increasingly necessary for the sponsor to do it himself, or have it done for him at a price, and in recent instances where depth exploitation has been used it has paid off lavishly in ratings. Two of the most notable exam¬ ples are the “Zorro” and “Maver¬ ick” campaigns, although it was not the sponsor (Kaiser), but the ABC- TV net that instrumented the lat¬ ter. The “Maverick” campaign, to be sure, is a rare all-out job by a network, and understandably the same thing can’t be done for every show, but it does illustrate the value of thorough-going merchan¬ dising. Both shows were brilliant¬ ly pre-sold with hefty tie-ins, and when they preemed there was not only an awareness to them but evidently a lot of anticipation as well. It’s well known by now that each has made sharp inroads into shows that have long been among the most formidable com¬ petition on tv, “Zorro” cutting into Groucho Marx’s NBC rating and “Maverick” into both Ed Sullivan and Steve Allen. JWT’s Special Unit Chicago office of the J. Walter Thompson agency, which handled the “Zoro” campaign for Seven Up, is making much of the mer¬ chandising-in-depth idea to the ex¬ tent it has created a special ad¬ junct to its public relations depart¬ ment known as Broadcast Exploi¬ tation Service. JWT (in Chi only, thus far) has developed the serv¬ ice over a two-year period and is offering it to clients for whatever expenses it incurs. Shop be¬ lieves so strongly in it that it’s recommending to all clients, when¬ ever there’s a broadcast buy, that •they allocate extra money for ex¬ ploitation. So far JWT is doing It for Kraft, Seven Up and Weca and has Pharma Craft tapped for the service in an upcoming'radio spot Campaign. As analyzed for Variety by Al¬ ton D. Farber, asst, public rela¬ tions director of the Chi bureau who helped develop the program, the service can do all of the fol¬ lowing: tl) build up an impulse to see a show and in that way pre- (Continued on page 46) Coast TV Shaves Technical Staffs Hollywood. Nov. 5. Belt-tightening process in Hol¬ lywood tv seems to be trend, es¬ pecially in technical staffs. Im¬ pending is layoff of 25 people at KTTV, including nine engineers. Recently KHJ-TV axed two engin¬ eers, and reports persist that a i umber of engineers in NBC-TV Burbank operation will be pink- ji’pped before year’s end. Check of unions involved dis¬ closes a stable situation at CBS-TV, t neeially with “Studio One” Jed to shift to Coast in January, e; stable is situation at KCOP, b ; “between-owners” setup there i • .'ported to involve a “bare i.ii . num” operation. (..a other hand, KTLA has added a couple of engineer personnel to staff on a fulltime basis, drawn from vacation relief ranks. Real Pie in the Sky WOR, N. Y„ is glad the elec¬ tions are over, despite the in¬ flux of paid political biz. There was quite a hubbub one day last week when the annouheer came across a spot reserved for “Mrs. Wagner.” On the station’s log, there was no indication that the spot was for a political pitch, which would require the usual dis¬ claimer. After some hectic, phonecalls to program top¬ per Bob Smith, it was ascer¬ tained the spot was bought for “Mrs. Wagner’s Pies,’ not the wife of the Demo candi¬ date, Mayor Robert F. Wag¬ ner. AskBanonWGA Hollywood, Nov. 5. Contending producer - writers who have the power to hire and fire and story editors who hire writers cannot properly hold office in Writers Guild of America West, telescripter Clark Reynolds has asked WGAW council to consider eliminating such hyphenated of¬ ficers from holding elective office. Writer claims such a policy as now exists is detrimental to the members, because they cannot truly be repped by an officer also In a position to hire and fire, and who is in reality an employer. Any such hydra-headed officer should resign his guild office if he has the producer-writer job for more than f>0 days, he contends. WGAW council debated the Rey¬ nolds letter at length, and feel¬ ing of some was it would be unfair to ask present producer-writer of¬ ficers to resign since the member¬ ship had (voted them in. Conse¬ quently, $t was decided to take the matter up with .(members at the next membership meeting. At present there are three such officers in WGAyV; Prexy Edmund Hartmann, and- veepees Dan Tara- dash and David' Dortort. Reynolds asked the council to convey his sentiments to the na¬ tional council. Any action along the lines recommended by Rey¬ nolds would have to be via adop¬ tion of a constitutional amendment, i BOB HOPE’S 50% STAKE IN ROCKFORD TV’ER Washington, Nov. 5. Bob hope acquired another tv station interest last week when the FCC approved the sale of WREX-TVV in Rockford, Ill., for $2,850,000 to Continental Televi¬ sion Corp., in which the actor is 509c stockholder. Hope also has a substantial interest in KOA-TV in Denver tNBC affiliate). WREX is the only VHF station in Rockford and 'holds the CBS and ABC affiliations. Greater Rock¬ ford Television Inc., which sold the station, had as its principal stockholder theatre owner Bruce R. Gran. NBC affiliate in Rockford is WTVO (tv), an ultra-high out¬ let. PBstlffrr Brodkin-Hirschman Team Herbert Hirschman, associate producer on the old NBC-TV “Alcoa Hour” and director on sev¬ eral of its shows, has joined “Stu¬ dio One” as associate producer on the Herb Brodkin productions. When “Studio One" shifts to the Coast, Hirschman will stay on with Brodkin. to work on his new hour- dramatic project. When Brodkin was “Alcoa Hour” producer two seasons ago, Hirsch¬ man. was script editor and occa¬ sional director. lie moved- up to the associate producer slot last sea¬ son, after Brodkin switched to CBS and Philip Barry Jr. took over as "Alcoa” producer! NBC Blueprints II For Next Fall, ‘AT PilotMing .Hollywood, Nov. 5. NBC is in high gear on blueprint¬ ing next season’s properties, with 11 of 13 new projects set for de¬ velopment here under Coast pro¬ gram veepee Alan. Livingston. Ros¬ ter includes two new westerns, two situation comedy series, a half-hour mystery-adventure show, a live music variety program, and devel¬ opment of a comedian for live video. At top echelon huddles in N. Y. t | Livingston was given the okay to : proceed with a pilot of “You Know Me Al” based on the Ring Lardner stories. Abe Burrows scripted and Arthur Lewis is producing for the web. Dick York, formerly Under contract to Columbia Pictures, will star. ' ' NBC also plans to reactivate the situation comedy, “June,” "to he produced by Jess Oppenheimer. Series was skedded last season, but ran into casting difficulties. FIRM HP BING FO R DEC. 11 ON CBS-TV The Bing Crosby hour show; over CBS-TV Dec. 11 is on again. Order for the time was received by the web and preemptions of regular weekly shows were or¬ dered. Last Tuesday (29) Crosby balked at doing the show because the deal was* negotiated by his brother, Everett, in N. Y. .without consulting hinr. Following the season’s highest- rated Edsel show, both William S. Paley, CBS board chairman, and Hubbell Robinson, program vee¬ pee, prevailed on Crosby to do another spec this year. He is said to have agreed but “didn’t like .the looks of the New York promotion-, al setup” for the Dec. 11 outing. What changed his mind was not as¬ certained. Understood the sponsors ori¬ ginally set for the Crosby show will split up the tab. Shulton (for Old -Spice) bought the hour and then sold off half to Timex, which bowed out as Bjjb Hope’s sponsor. Coast AFTRA Seeks .‘Unfair’ Rap Vs. Firm Hollywood, Nov. 5. Hassle over alleged underscale payments has resulted in request by local board of American Feder¬ ation of TV & Radio Artists' to national body, to declare Bud Testa and William Gerdes-Testa & Associates ad agency “unfair.” Beef involves approximately $381 allegedly owed thesp Kathy Marlowe for series of live tele- I blurbs over local stations. As things haver turned out this season, the only thing wrong with the Westerns On tv are the so-called satires they’ve inspired on the part of the comics. A few months hack the Coast comedians and their writers banded together and, in protest against the inundating, of the airlanes with the oaters, decided to “kid them off the medium” as a means of restoring the funnymen to their onetime eminence. Thus far here’s the scorecard: Three weeks hack Dean Martin had a fling at it on his hour NBC-TV show. It died. Two weeks ago Red Skelton took up the cudgels.-It died. Last Thursday night Jack Benny toyed with it on "Shower of Stars.” It died. On the same night Tennessee Ernie Ford did a “saddle satire.” It, “too, died. JWT s Merchandising-In-Depth Accents TV Clients Yen To ‘Advertise Your Advertising 4- M » M »»t♦♦♦♦♦»♦ ♦♦♦♦»»♦ ♦ ij TV-Radio Production Centres i! -+♦♦♦♦♦♦♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦♦♦4 + + 44»»*»* »* *»»4»* M 4*»*»»»4 + 0 4 44 • IN NEW YORK CITY ... Arthur Hailey in from Toronto to put the finishing touches on “No Deadly Medicine,” the two-part script on pathology Which he’s doing for “Studio One” production by Herb Brodkin on Dec. 9 and 16 .. . . Hugh Graham, upped to the newly created post of manager of unit man¬ agement and control services for CBS-TV’s production operations dept. . . . Charles M. McAbee Jr. moves out of CBS-TV’s N.Y. Spot Sales of¬ fice to become general sales manager of KMOX-TV, the web’s new St. i_,ouis o&o . . . Herm Dinkin set for “True Story” on NBC Radio Nov. 11 . . . WCBS g.m. Sam Slate receives a citation Nov. 12 from Richard E, Booth, exec director of the Greater New York Fund, for the station’* community services in behalf of the current campaign ... A. Burke Cfotty, vet tv producer-direqtor (going back to 1939), named v.p. in charge of radio-tv for the Ellington 'agency ... James Elward, whr won the hour-length comedy writing Reward from the Writers Guil<! of Amer¬ ica for his “Paper Foxhole*- (reprinted in the WGA-Random House “Best Plays of. ’56”>, addressed a Queens College adult educaf .on group on “The New Writer in Television” last night .(Tues.) . . . A ;ademy of Television Arts & Sciences’ NoV. 12 luncheon meeting v ill feature three agency,veeps—Kenyon & Eckhardt’s James, S. Bealle, Norman, Craig & Kummel’s Walter Craig and Grey’s Hal'Davis—discussing tl e‘ role of the agency in tv . . . Jack Sterling to act as emcee at the 10 ,b annual communmn breakfast' of the Catholic Apostolate of Radio-TV- Advertisihg Nov." 17 at the Waldorf-Astoria , ,. . Art. Hannes subs ior Bob Hall op WCBS’ “Music Till Dawn” while Hall vacations this week and next . . . Composer Jacques Belasco dickering with scripter John J. Morrin to convert latter’s “Sextuplets” script, recently produced on “Kraft Theatre,” into a musical. . . Stephen F. Temmer, prexy of Tel • don Productions, commuting to Chicago weekly to. originate broadcasts of tbe Chicago Symphony for use on WBAI here . . . Bob Warner, as¬ sociate producer and film director on CBS-TV’s “The Last Word” (due to return in January), is putting together the CBS film segments for the “Wide Wide World” show oh tbe history of television . . . Howard B. Phillips, former writer-producer at NBC-TV, currently finishing his third novel,* “The Sad Side of Happiness” . . ; Helen Walpole, radio¬ tv, scripter, returned yesterday (Tues). after three months in England and Scotland o.o.’ing the Edinburgh Festival and the Breamer Gather-; ing. , ' . . . Irving Giflin, CBS public affairs topper, spoke last week at the Mu¬ seum of ‘Modem Art on “Propaganda and Journalism” . , . Allan Swift, WPIX’s “Popeye” emcee, set for a stint in Bamberger’s Thanksgiving Day Parade with the show -is his peg . . . Erie^Sevareid in town to dis¬ cuss upcoming “Conquest” series which he will narrate , . . Rita Mor- ley, the original Coty Girl, joined the cast of CBS-TV’s “Brighter Day” soaper .. . Bill Lnndigan, host of CBSTV’s “Climax,” due in New York Nov. 11 . . . Lou Carter set for a brace of tv shots on ‘Tonight” start¬ ing tonight (Wed.) . . . Gretchen Wyler, star of the incoming Broadway musical, “Rumple” stars on “Woolworth Hour” on CBS Radio Sunday (10) . , . Daniel Petrie, wh6*directed last week’s “Prince and the Pau¬ per;” set to direct “A Shadow of’My Enemy” on Broadway, with Ed Begley, and Gene.Raymond starring. E. James Hogdgett, formerly with CBS-TV Spot Sales’ research dept., has joined WPIX as an account exec . . . Arnold Weiner, director of publicity and promotion for WLIB, has taken over the merchandising dept, as well . . Oklahoma City Symphony will begin its ninth year with Mutual on Sunday (10) evening . . . Fred Hertz, formerly with the radio-tv dept, of Willard Alexander, has joined Gotham Recording Corp. as director of programming and production. He is slated to divide his time between the production of the transcribed radio series “Guest Star” and “Stars jfor Defense” and the development of new radio-tv properties. • Gerald J. Kelly Jr., has been, transferred from the N.Y. to the Chi¬ cago offices of Devney, radio-tv reps, tp- assume duties as midwest manager. Gene Accas, ABC-TV veep, becomes first president Of the World Wide Alumni Assn, of Fletcher School of Law & Diplomacy at Tufts U.; Accas graduated with honors from Fletcher in *46 . . . Alfred Drake being interviewed ; on WABD’s “Entertainment Press Conference” to¬ morrow (Thurs.) . . . Announcer Don Morrow to Hollywood yesterday (Tues.) for confabs with his sponsor boss Max Factor. Phil Silvers has picked up the options of director Aaron Rnben and head writer Billy Friedberg for another go-round on his CBS- TV-er; following completion of shooting at the end of the month, he’s planning a big blowout for cast and crew . . . Arthur Peck, CBS Radio manager of network operations and a sports car authority, judged a Galen Drake show contest on “Why I Drive a Sports Car” . . . Theodore A. Smith, exec v.p. pf. RCA Industrial Electronic Products, elected to the board of RCA Communications Inc. . . . Mary Jan$ Highby won out out over a field of 88 auditionefs for the title role in CBS Radio’s “Nora Drake”; she’ll replace Joan Tompkins, who’s moving to the Coast Id join hubby Karl Swenson . . . Dick Jennings, roving reporter for NBC’s “Monitor,” returned from a trip to the South Pole where he did three series of tapes on “Operation Deep Freeze” . . . Everett (Bud) Gammon appointed tv account exec on the Libby-Owens-Ford account at Fuller & Smith’ & Ross . . . Murray Burnett, producer on NBC’s “Monitor,” writing the current “Hotel Cosmopolitan” soap series on CBS-TV . . . Dr. Jaye S. Niefeld, former director of adver¬ tising research, at McCann-Erickson, joined Keyes,. Madden & Jones as-v.p. in charge of research, while Charles Chappel has joined the agency as v.p., art director of the N.Y. office and a member of the plans board . N. Y. tv and film actress Dina Merrill planed to the Coast last week to costar in tomorrow’s (Thurs.) “Matfnee Theatre” on NBC-TV . .-. Clancy Worden, WCBS-TV director of public affairs, heading the radio-tv division of the USO Fund of N.Y. . . . Marlon Brash will be commuting from the “Search for Tomorrow” CBS-TV cast to Philly and New Haven during the tryout of the incoming Broadway entry, “One Foot in the Door,” in which she has a featured role . . , Ron Cochran started his fourth year as commentator on WCBS-TV’s “Late News” t|iis week ... AFL-CIO prez George Meany. will be the first guest on'; “Viewpoint” Saturday (9) over Mutual. Program is being produced by the radio-tv .division of-the Episcopal Church’s National Council. IN HOLLYWOOD ... NBC veep Tom Sarnoff wandered on to the stage where the Eddie Fisher show was rehearsing and was politely told the set is closed. So he went back to his office to ponder the tight security that makes no class distinction . . . KTLA’s news chief Gil Martyn packed off with his fam¬ ily for Denver, where he’ll be .a patient of Mercy hospital for treatment of a throat ailment . . . Joe Rines back.at his N.W. Ayer desk after sur¬ gery . . . William Winter, news analyst for ABC, back from two-month trek of Europe’s trouble spots with plenty of background material for any news break from the other side . .. Ozrie Nelson hasn’t forgotten he came from radio and that some of his fellow workers on the sound medium need help. So whenever an outside part needs casting he in¬ sists on radio actors ... . Young & Rubicam landed the Eastside (beer) account, worth a million a year in billings . . . Roger Pryor in from N.Y. to set sponsorship of Clairol of four Curt Massey-Martha Tilton musicals on KRCA . . , Frank Quinn, co-owner of an Aussie station, (Continued on page 50)