Variety (February 1958)

22 HABIO-TEUVISIOX What’s at End of the ‘Rainbow? Good Old Reliable ‘Amateur Hr.’ There was anything hut a pot of 4' gold at the end of the Saturday' night “Rainbow” as far asPhanna- Wednesday, Febrnaryl9, 1958 American theatre will get a thorough looksee on the March 16 edition of “Wide Wide World-t “American Theatre—1958,” Work¬ ing in conjunction with ANTA, Alan Neuman* producer of “Wide Wide World ” will provide viewers with first-hand scenes of what’s " happening in the truly off-Broadway theatrical beehives, of this land. , . Working on fhe premise there is considerably, more to the thea¬ tre than what’s visible in New York, the show will have pickups from the San Diego Community Theatre where "Shakespeare is pro¬ duced with professional skill; the famed Children’s Theatre in Evanston, Ill * oldest in the country; the professional theatre at .Pittsburgh’s Carnegie Tech; the Arena Theatre in Washington, and the Alley Theatre in Houston. Neuman also plans pickups from an off-Broadway house in New York as well as candid talks, with New York drama pundits and representatives of actors’ organizations regarding state of profes¬ sional acting from coast: to coast Martin Block, Other* Shifted as N. Y. Flagship Reshuffles Schedule ceuticals sponsorship is concerned. Clobbered unmercifully the premiere* and since then going no¬ where* the Ralph Edwards-pack¬ aged “End of the Rainbow” entry on NBC-TV came to an early de¬ mise after six weeks, leaving the Matty Rosenhaus-helmed Pharma¬ ceuticals right back where it start- € d—with a yen to pick up sponsor- ghip of Ted Mack and his “Original Amateur Hour.” The yen becomes a reality next Saturday (22) when Mack moves in with a 167-station lineup, “Rainbow” having faded last week. The fact that Pharmaceuticals wanted “Ainate.ur Hour” in the first place, but was talked otit of it by NBC, created something of a minor cause celebre. in tv circles; raising anew the issue: Does network David & Goliath “Original Amateur Hour's” track record for competing with the giants in tv is perhaps unmatched in the: medium. Three years ago, when Jackie Gleason was top man on the Nielsen-Trendex polls, the Ted Mack-helmed tyro showcase Was the competition. Last sea¬ son, in the pre-’-Maverick” days when Ed Sullivan and Steve Allen were slugging it out for top honors, “Amateur Hour” was the ABC competi¬ tion. Starting this week (22) Mack & Co. takes over Satur¬ day night at 10 on NBC-TV, as Pharmaceuticals* replacement for “End of the Rainbow*” The competition? The No. 1 Niel- sen-T ren d e x show: “Gun- smoke.” havea right to dedicate to a spon¬ sor what it shall or shall not buy? It all started when Hazel Bishop* .because of - money problems, de¬ cided to drop its Sunday at 7 spon¬ sorship of “Amateur Hour.” Phar¬ maceuticals, which has had a prer vious tv track record with the tyro showcase, then opened negotiations to put “Amateur Hour” into the ■ Tuesday 7:30 period on NBC. The network balked; said it. had other plans for the Tuesday slot and proceeded to install Jan Murray’s “Treasure Hunt” in the period. NBC, having rejected' the Pharmaceuticals bid for “Amateur Hour,” , then talked Rosenhaus into -purchasing the Edwards package for Saturday, night at 10. As far as Pharmaceuticals was concerned* it was “second choice” and, as it* turned out, a wrong guess for everybody concerned. Now, With the end of the “Rainbow,” Pharma¬ ceuticals insisted that the amateurs be put back in action. (They’ve been off the air since the first of the year.) Taabman’s Post-Midnight 90-Min. Chitchat for WINS WINS, , fiddling around with late evening time in an effort to find a winner, is launching a post-mid- night chitchat stanza the third week in March, according to pres¬ ent plans. Paul Taubman, musical director for several NBC-TV stan¬ zas and owner of the Penthouse Club On Manhattan’s Central Park South* will emcee the nightly (Mon.-through-Sat) hour - and - a - half. Show on which Taubman will in¬ terview guests and spin disks for the New York radio indie will be heard from the Penthouse Club. Called “Penthouse Serenade;” Taubman’s .radio offering was ini¬ tially muHed by WRCA* the Gotham key for NBC, as a 1 to 2 p.m. strip, hut lines got fouled when the show proved in conflict] with Taubman’s “Tic Tac Dough” and “Bride and Groom” afternoon tv chores. Recently, WINS began a mid¬ night weekend horror story show, also in an attempt to boost late- night ratings to the level of its earlier sked. Station of late has made rapid rating strides in the earlier times. , NBC Radio’s Huh Mil After a year and a half of part- time affiliation in Boston, NBC Radio has found itself a fulltime; affiliate to replace Westirighouse’s WBZ-WBZA, which ankled the web in the mass Westinghouse-NBC breakup of the summer of 1956.] New outlet is WEZE (which re^ cently changed, its call letters from WVDA), until now the ABC Radio outlet in Beantown. j WBC ’Sponsoring’ BG Concerts at Brussels Fair; Broadcasts Set American representation at the Brussels Fair will get a booster shot with the appearance of the Benny Goodman Band under the auspices, of the Westlnghouse Broadcasting do. The jazzman, his orchestra, trio and sextet will head¬ line at the Brussels World’s Fair during the week of May 25-31; Concerts will be staged at the American Theatre in Brussels with WBC planning to bring its U. S. radio and tv audiences special pro¬ grams from the World’s Fair. The WBC stations will broadcast 10 full- hour Goodman programs. Also; WBC plans a 30-minute documen¬ tary film based on the Goodman programs for telecasting over its tv outlets. Announcement of the Goodman jazz concerts was made by Donald H. McGannon, prexy of WBC, and Howard S. Cullman, U. S. Commisr sioner General to the Fair. They said that the sponsorship of the Goodman performances would add a dimension to the exposition in which the Soviet Union cannot com¬ pete. “Popular music is one of pur greatest cultural exports, arid its popularity in the free countries of Western Europe can be judged by the vitality of Europe’s own jazz movement,” McGannon said. In addition to Goodman’s own unit, European jazz artists will sit in with the band. BOB FELLER JOINS f MBS SPORTS GABBERS Mutual has signed Bob, Feller as both a sportscastar and. “Game of the Day” broadcaster. With Feller in the MBS fold, net now has. broadcasting arrange¬ ments with , baseball Hall of Famer Frankie Frisch and ex-New York Yankee star Tommy Henrich. Lat¬ ter is on leave for the baseball sea¬ son, having signed coach, contract [with Detroit Tigers for this year. He plans to resume his MBS sportscasts in October. Other sportcaster talent fPr the web now includes Don Dumphy, Bill Stern and John MacLean, with Chicago sportscaster Gene. Elston joining the Web this season for the “Game of the Day;” MacLean, former Baltimore broadcaster, will be in his. third 'season for the /‘Game” and is to be the anchor man In the east. Elston will per¬ form' similarly in the west, with j FeRer traveling extensively to maintain the “Game of the Day” schedule. WCAU’s New Rate Card Philadelphia, Feb. 18. A new simplified rate card, con¬ tained in a single page, to be ef¬ fective March 1, has been estab¬ lished by WCAU. Ease of refers erice is an outstanding character¬ istic, according to Joseph T. Con¬ nolly, veepee. in charge of radio. “We are aware of the many* serv¬ ices we- can render the advertiser and making buying easier is one of them” he declared. Time classifications are reduced to only three categories (A,B,C) arid all quotations are in whole dollars. Net cost per unit dollar rates are' published for every pbs-j sible purchase so that the buyer merely multiplies by the number of broadcasts to arrive at total billing. Ottawa—John Dunn, television network coordination officer fOr the Canadian Broadeasting Corp., to New York as CBC rep at the United Nations, replaced by. Stan¬ ley Westlake. - Fort Worth—Stuart H. Baroridess has been named manager here for KCLU, according to an announce¬ ment made by Kurt A. Meer, prez of the outlet and the Dalworth Broadcasting Co. Barondess was former sales mariager of the Dal¬ worth Broadcasting Co. Snow Bumps Show Dorothy Collins and Ray¬ mond .Scott missed their own premiere on . CBS Radio’s “The . Best in Music” Sunday (16). Singer-conductor hus¬ band & wife. team, Which was set to take over as permanent hosts tm ..the show; were snowed in at. their Manhasset, L. I., home. So was producer Bruno Zi- rato Jr., in Stamford, Conn. Emcee Robert Alda and guest- star. Don Cherry made it, and Hank Sylvera and a- handful of musicians got to the studio before airtime to fill in. Web threw in some recordings 'and transcriptions to make up. for those of the live musical seg¬ ments that had been slated for the Scotts., CM Firing Squad Chicago, Feb. 18: . Director of press relations for CBS Chicago again has proved it¬ self the most temporary title in town as the local Columbia shop last Friday (14) administered the pink slip, to that office for * the eighth time in eight years. Herb Grayson was discharged “by sur¬ prise” after 16 months in the post and a total of two years in the press department. Grayson is succeeded by George Condon, who camfe in from the West Coast where he had been a publicist for 20th-Fox. Previous press chieftains for the CBS sta¬ tions here since 1950 have been Don Kelley, Dave Moore, Stuart Riordan,’ Chuck Wiley, Andy Mur¬ phy, and Howard Mendelsohn. Hjldegarde TV Show Being Released First As a Theatrical Pic Projected “International Show,” starring Hildegarde, initially de¬ signed as a tv original, will first be made a$ a theatrical film, with shooting on the New York se¬ quences scheduled to roll in June. Other sequences Will be filmed in Madrid, Istanbul* Rio de Janeiro, Bangkok, Tokyo and elsewhere. Film will later be reedited and cut down for tv as a network show¬ case with an automotive sponsor reportedly on tap. Meanwhile, the George Marion Jr .-Paul Lavalle-produced "Pack¬ aged in Paris” musical legiter for Hildegarde is scheduled for. a Washington, D. C., out-of-town try- ffuf about June 1 with its N. Y. premiere scheduled three weeks later. . Representing Hildegarde in the .deal was Joseph Steiner. INTERCONTINENTAL SETUP FOR HUDES Intercontinental Artists has beeri. formed by Ted Hudes’ office to han¬ dler overseas accounts here and American properties overseas. El¬ liot Sauriders will be in charge of ifroduction and adaptation. First foreign account is Herman Herry Productions. Hudes’ outfit will make available to West German tv Joe Julian’s “The Gimmick” and “Presento,” the latter first seen here on U. S. Steel Hour.. Hudes leaves Sun: (23) for Lon¬ don, Paris and Berlin where he will dispose of rights to such prop¬ erties as "Tom Corbett, Space Ca¬ det,” “Jet Fighter,” “Mark Trail,” “Share the Wealth” and Julian Funt’s “City Hospital.” In Italy, Hudes will see tv officials regarding disposal of scripts by Dale Wasser- riian, Howard Hodman, Ely Jaffe and Allan Sloane. BBC-TV Paying ’Overhead* For Gene Austin 1-Shot London, Feb. 18. Singer Gene Austin will be flown in from the States by BBC- TV to make an appearance. in its “Off the Record” disk show next Thursday (27). •This is reported to be the first time that the state web has paid the transatlantic air fare for a Yank singer. Austin will sing and be interviewed by resident emcee Jack Payne; WABC Radio it about to shift its deejay stanzas around and put more ‘ emphasis on Its own varia¬ tion of the “top record” formula. As of Monday (24), Martin Block will be dropping 3-4 p.m. across- the-board stanza and shifting all his labors for the New York radio station into the 11 a.m. to 1 p m. time. Block will give up a quarter- hour a day of his present setup to make the. shift He’s currently on from to 11 to noon as well as from 3. to 4. When he moves, station in¬ tends keeping a quarter-hour noon¬ time pews strip fronted by Char¬ les F. McCarthy, thereby breaking his 105-minute stint into two parts. To make room for Block, the American Broadcasting Network’s key dropping Arthur Van Horne’s package “Noonday Com¬ posite,” and Ed Jordan, who has filled in for Block in the past, will assume the 3-to4 pan. chores week¬ days. Since Feb. 1, the flag has been running a, poll on disk tastes in the met area. Station, working through Teenage Survey, the re* search Outfit,, says it’s querying 60,000 New Yorkers a week (15,- 000 by questionnaires arid the rest face-to-face, in groups and individ¬ ually) for their record faves. As a result* WABC disclosed, it’s going to pursue a pop record scheme on both the Block arid Jor¬ dan strips, but it will not be limited to just the “top 40,” since the station says the range of re¬ plies So far has indicated that tastes incorporate as many as 200 favorite records. Details were not provided for the final pattern. Recently, WABC shed oil but one of its morning five-minute' news capsules in favor of quarter- hour news strips at 6:15, 7:15 and 8:15. It was.part of. a general overhaul in the local programming portions on WABC. From 9 to 11 and 1 to 3 daily; WABC carries ABN stanzas. WRCA Steps Up News; Additional Hour Daily Intensive stepup of news pro¬ gramming, embracing nearly ail ( hour of additional newscasts daily* is slated for WRCA, the NBC Radio flagship In N. Y. Program¬ ing, all of it for local use, only will be handled out *of the NBC News shop and will include one segment originated in Washington for local consumption. Latter is a new 6:30 to 6:45 a.m. strip, with Peter Hackes handling the news from Washington and Howard Reig. filling in with about five minutes of local news from N.Y. The quarter-hour strip will be preceded by 6 a.m. by a seven- to-eight minute news segment handled by Reig as part of the station’s "Pulse” show. Other segments are all five-minute shows, and involve Pauline Frederick at 12:30 and 1:30 p.m., Ken Bang- hart at 4:30, Morgan Beatty at 5:30, Merrill Mueller at 6:30 and Wilson Hall at 10:30 and 11:30. That’s all apart from the net¬ work’s news-on-the-hour lineup, which the: station carries.