Variety (February 1958)

Wednesday, February 19, 1958 PfijRIEff BAKIO-TEICTISIOS iqueTome All aspects nf magnetic recording are thoroughly explored in i \7ii Ch «3« es of Ma S“ etic Recording’* (Macmillan; $7.95) by Joel expert on tape recording* This is, without doubt, the definitive source book on one of the most" exciting and practical methods of capturing sound, light and motion. One of the coun¬ try s fotemost authorities, Tall edited the first Ed Murrow album,. ‘I Can Hear It Now*’ and. many other CBS. documentaries. He has taught taperecording and editing at NYU’s Summer Radio-TV -Workshop and written extensively on the subject for Audio, Satur¬ day Review and other publications. The important results of his . .years in the field are now clearly Visible in this major work. Tall traces the development of tape recording, manufacture of recording equipment, drive mechanisms, erasing, editing, re-record¬ ing and copying techniques, dictating machines, data recording, recording procedures in the medical and allied fields, recording in education, radio-tv recording at home as weli as a revealing chapter on legal uses of tape recording; and moral-ethical factors involved in surreptitous recording, falsified, recording,, present status of ' recorded court records and future Of voice-recorded contracts and agreements. Dr. Peter Kellogg of Cornel U, famed for his record¬ ings of nature sounds, contributes a significant chapter on special problems in capturing sounds in the insect, bird, and animal world. Tail's book closes with a first-rate bibliography, a carefully pre¬ pared index and a brief foreword by Murrow. The book should prove of value to radio-tv broadcasters, film makers, hi-fi addicts, educators, musicians, actors, crimihologists and others. The author dedicates his book "to the memory of Don Hollenbeck, friend, reporter and human being who taught that the seareh for truth.is its. own. reward.*’ Hollenbeck was a CBS cbmmentatqr who, among other- major news ■ assigments, did a series of provocative appraisals of the New York press, v Bans. McFadden Bumped as NBC 0&0 Boss, Reber Quits in Wake of Demy Shift Shift of NBC exec v.p. Charles-4——-— 7 —' • ■ ■ - ■ . —^ Denny to RCA u vip. in charge #£ CoateS-Putnam’S 103G product planning has cued a high iiuiii i . • • • _ echelon reshuffling in the Owned ETTV Telethon Take Stations and Spot Sales division at l<> s Angeles, Feb. 18. the web, with Tom McFadden out p^l Q oa t e s and George Putnam, of 'his post as v.p. in charge Of co^mceeing the 16-hour Arthritis, o&o’s and Spot Sales, and Jack Rheumatism Foundation, telethon Reber quitting as director of NBC pp KTTV here Sunday (16), re^ Spot Sales in protest. ceived pledges totaling $103,408. McFadden . has been offered Flock of Hollywood personalities Reber’s Spot Sales post, along with retention of his v.p. sWpes. bat made eppemances. hasn’t decided whether to accept. - - ---■—r He took off on agirevlously planned _ ^ _ •Vacation last Friday (14), during V 4f Mn lf \luilrA which he’ll mull the offer and j/lll H13V iMTlKf* make a decision. If he decides to If litJ yuutv remain with the network, he’ll be ^ back in time *.to testify. before the .. W—» 'DJiiiJft InnenfanikA Bartow Committee hi Washington J|| Jj|||f|) Wi pdSSft ^Though Demiy; as exee v.p., had Collectively bargaining talks be- charze of such Varied NBC opera- . ■■, .,, tfiMM the radio network, Call- tween Screen Actor* Guild and the fomia National Productions and advertising agencies and producers NBC International, as wellasp&o’s 0 f tvTfilm commercials were re- and _Spot Salesj he SP® 11 ^.^ 05 ^ “ cessed yesterday (Tues.) morning bis time4m the o&o operation. Net- . _.__ v work’s plan , now is to bring in until at least ne^t week because "fresh blood” to take over the o&o neither side could come anywhere division and possibly Spot Sales jiear close Jo an agreement on* a as weU, though the two Jobxmight Qew teleblurb contract ..Thmrnh meeting,. which hey. nys exec v.p. flomarn. been In New York since they Consequently, thenew . v*v*or started some weeks ago, are slated o&o’s wouldLtake the post previous- t6 move tQ Hollywood. SAG ly occupied by McFadden. Ironically tt £ eatens to v0t e a strike in the lh- (Continued on page 42) terim. A SAG board meeting has ’Easy as ABC’ Set For Via UNESCO Auspices* Forty-two top show biz per¬ sonalities from Sir. Laurence OIiv r ier to Victor Borge have lent their talents for a radio series designed to promote ifitprnational under¬ standing. The series, titled "Easy as ABC," was co-produced by Gerald Kean of United Nations Radio for the U.N. Educational, Scientific - and Cultural Organizations. The 25-jnin- ute segments'will be broadcast over the American Broadcast Net¬ work on Thursday evenings, -while ABN’s New York outlet WABC. will broadcast the series, on Sunday eyenings. First broadcast on ABN will be tomorrow (Thurs). Others in the talent lineup in¬ clude: Jack Benny, Ingrid Berg¬ man, Marlon Brando, Joe E. Brown, Cantinflas, Eddie Cantor, Hoagy Carmichael, Walt Disney, _Mel Ferrer, Henry .Fonda, Rita Hay- Worth, Judy Holliday, Frank Sina¬ tra and Bob Hope. In Blurb Impasse .. Collectively bargaining talks be-; tween Screen Actors Guild and the advertising agencies and producers of tvTfilm commercials were re¬ cessed yesterday (Tues.) morning until at leaxt~nekt week because neither side could come anywhere near close J:o an agreement pm a new teleblurb contract Though meetings, which have been In New . York since they started some weeks ago, are slated to^ move to Hollywood, SAG; threatens to vote a strike in the In¬ terim. A SAG board meeting has been called for Friday (21) to de¬ cide finally whether^ to strike, thereby stopping filmed teleblurb production, or whether to continue dickers. At present, both sides in¬ dicate they find little cause for agreement on a new pact govern¬ ing wages and working conditions for thesps. Israeli Actor Set For U.S. Steel’s’Mission’ Yosef Yadin, Israeli actor who has been active in ti. S. 'television, is slated for U. S. Steel Hour’s "Top Secret Mission” March 26 following which he returns to Tel Aviv to resume in Ibsen repertoire with the Chamber Theatre for sev¬ eral months. He then returns to New York for other video and pos¬ sible Hollywood film assignments. /His wife, Shoshana Yadin, went back to Israel last: week to resume also with the Chamber Theatre for which she is stage, designer. Ya- difi’s last - contemporaneous legit chore in Israel was the .Hebrew version of "Romanoff and Juliet," playing the Peter Ustinov role. THE LESSER ONE By BOB CHANDLER 'Network television’s sponsor¬ ship problem at this midseason point is by no means a. dearth of interested buyers as it is a mat¬ ter of the. complexity of fitting them into the increasing intricate jigsaw puzzle that the nighttime network schedules now resemble. Network execs report that the job Isn’t so much a matter of selling television as a matter of attempt¬ ing some fast and fancy juggling in order to sew up interested buy¬ ers for availabilities before 'those available spots become sustaining. One highly placed CBS-TV exec puts the situation this way: ’The business picture isn’t near- ly as black as it’s been painted, in fact-It’s an' optimistic' one. Fve, been in this business since Its birth, and I’ve never seen, as many real prospects at this time. of year before^ .And I mean real buyers, who’ve got their money allocated ahd waiting. . "A good part of these are peo¬ ple who’ve actually cancelled on. CBS already.. They've had. flops and they’ve walked out, hut- this doesn’t mean that they’re through with'television, or even CBS. First of all. they don’t Consider 'that their flops were total flops or that they’ve thrown away their money. One cancellation was based on a rating of 19, .which Is three points, below the average. Well, this was just a matter of not doing as,well, as they should have, - and they’re going to try again with something; else. , "The trouble right now Is that we’ve got to fit them into some¬ thing new, and with about a dozen such situations it’s a tough job. I think we can' do. it, but it involves some of those five-sided maneuvers "that: are awfulljr tricky, We’ve got shows on which one sponsor wants the • show . cancelled and another wants it to continue. We’ve got cases where a buyer wants a show we can’t give him because the adjacency Involves conipetitive sponsorship. We’Ve gbit another, buyer who’s afraid that he won’t; get enough ’sponsor identification’ on some multi-sponsored shows. What we’ve got to do is to try to juggle these several at a time into the. right availabilities as they open lip, so we don’t lose hillings in the interim. «■ "Part of the difficulty stems from the multiple sponsorship pat¬ tern in nighttime television. This accounts for many of the product conflicts, which prevent us from giving a potential buyer • the par¬ ticular program or time slot he wants. It also, accounts for some tug-of-war situations between two or more sponsors, with one. want-, ing to continue with a show and one wanting to cancel-it, but. both (Continued on page ; 40) MeANDREW SHUFFLES NBC NEWS STAFFERS With the election of NBC News boss Bill McAndrew to veepee status, flock of new appointments have been set within the depart-, ment. Key promotion; is that of Joseph O. Meyers to director of news, McAndrew’s old spot, with Meyers moving up from his long¬ time manager's spot. . Replacing him as manager is Rex Goad, who’s been news super¬ visor for the web. Leslie C. Vaughn becomes manager of ad¬ ministration, Stanley Rotkewicz be¬ comes manager of budgets and prices, Arthur Wakelee manager of special news projects, Chet Hagan will become a news program Su¬ pervisor, and Bill Ray will replace Hagan in Chicago as central, divi¬ sion manager. McAndrew himself, took off over the weekend on a two-week trip to Chicago, Los Angeles, San Fran¬ cisco and Washington to meet with his bureau heads in* those cities. He set the new appointments prior to his departure. Writers Guild in TV Web Dickers Demand Damages If Scrqrts Are. Doctored andPannedby Qfifics TV Breeds Dog Lovers Albany, Feb. 18. Suburban living and televi¬ sion are among the chief rear sons for a boom in New York State’s canine population, with a record total of 817,500 listed, according to the dog-licensing bureau of the State Agricu¬ lture Department. The bureau said that "romp¬ ing” space provided in outside¬ cityliving and television shows featuring dogs contributed to a continuing rise in the demand for dogs as pets. The latest count, the 1957 : dehsus, was 5.1% higher than the 1950 total,. Feb. 10 was thedeadline for licensing dogs. Vs. TV‘Giant Step A $500,000 damage suit .for al¬ leged appropriation of the idea for the "Giant Step". program telecast last season on CBS-TV was dis¬ closed.; N. Y. Supreme Court last week: Plaintiff is Jack. Green, and the defendants fire ,CBS, BBD&P, General Mills, Lou Cow¬ an, Harry Fleischman, Steve Car¬ lin and Entertainment Productions Inc. Fleischman and Cgrlin fire top officers of EPI; Cowan, now fi CBS v.p., was formerly head of EPI when it was known as Lou Cowan Productions prior to his joining the web. . Green charges he submitted a letter to CBS-TV on March 8,1956, setting forth the idea for a pro¬ gram. Subsequently, he claims, network’s v.p; ! Boh Weitman ac¬ knowledged receipt of the format and. an agreement was entered into to pay Green reasonable value for his idea. Later that year, CBS aired . “Giant Step,” which Green claims was . the format submitted by him. EPI produced the. pro¬ gram, and Green charges that Cowan’s'association with EPI was the basis of an unlawful appropri¬ ation of his Idea. Green charges CBS with failure to live up to its agreement to pay reasonable value, and against all other defendants except CBS, he charges malicious inducement of breach of contract. TV Acad Sets Up Balto h By ART WOODSTONE Freelance radio * and television scribblers fire making a near- precedental demand In the hew collective bargaining, dickers which began yesterday (Tues.) between the Writers Guild of America and^ the networks. Writers asked the webs to guarantee inviolability of script material, hut in the event that a script is doctored, and then panned by the critics, WGA wants additional monetary compensation for "damages.” Collective bargaining talks, the most extensive in the history of radio and tv writers began in New York With the networks, JttCA Thesaurus and WOR, the New York radio indie. Staff writers in ne^s and continuity at the.webs and the station axe .asking a fiat -hourly wage increase. Separate pacts for freelancers and staff help were being dis¬ cussed. . Freelance contract covers dramatic and comedic writers, and the various staff dickers, going on all at once, will cover hews, con¬ tinuity and desk assistants at CBS, ABC and NBC and also staff hews editors at CBS. " * WGA turned to- CBS oh news editors and asked for an additional week’s vacation foremen who work six consecutive months on the night desk, and a full two weeks extra for men who work exclu¬ sively nights for an entire year. Right now, the writers get a two- week vacation. From the very -start of planning the new demands on the network contracts, WGA officials and the more outspoken freelancers fig¬ ured that a key issue would have tp doctoring of scripts. Union admitted that where the free¬ lancers were concerned, particur larly freelance tv dramatists, money was going to be a distant second to achieving a guarantee of one kind or another, regard¬ ing the inviolability of accepted scripts. The demands were then expected to take the form of addi¬ tional coin (over and above Initial price paid) for any revising de? mended by producers or agencies. . At this juncture, however, it ap¬ pears ; as though WGA doesn’t want any changes at all allowed in purchased scripts. The "critic (Continued on page 41) To Beef to AFL-CIO Ob Baltimore, Feb. 18. The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences is now a. tri-city opera¬ tion with Baltimore now housing the third chapter of the organiza¬ tion, New York and Los Angeles were first. First President is Arnold Wilkes, Director of Public Affairs at WBALTV and new group met at Park Plaza to ratify proposed constitution and approve slate. of officers. In addition to Wilkes, other officers include:, Joel Chase- man, WJZ-TV program director, vice - president; Maggi Lynn; WBAL-TV, secretary and Charles Porter, WMAR-TV engineer, treas¬ urer. First item on agenda-of newly- formed chapter is forum set for March 19 with ratings as topic of discussion. Representatives from major rating services have been invited to attend and present stories before telecasters and ad¬ vertisers. 'Local chapter will likely not participate in this year’s .Emmy awards: since votipg was .underway 1 before chapter was formed. Recently, Associated Actor*. & Artistes of America got miffed at the American Federation of Tele¬ vision 8c Radio Artists, one of its member organizations, for bypass¬ ing the parent group and going I straight to AFL-CIO with a resolu¬ tion to ban foreign actors from U.S. employment. Since then, however, AFT11A has issued a letter rapping the knuckles Of the four A’s. In essence, AFTRA insisted that the four A’s has no right to ask AFL-CIO to kill an AFTRA resolu¬ tion, since it deprived tv-radio guild of the right of free speech. The AFTRA letter read: "The question raised by Angus Duncan, Actors’ Equity Assn., to Paul Dull- zell, president of the’ four A’s rela¬ tive to the procedure followed by AFTRA in presenting directly to the . national convention of AFL- CIO a resolution of- ‘Importation and Employment of Non-Resident Alien Artists/ introduces an ex¬ tremely, important principle which affects every branch of the four A’s, naihely, the right of any mem¬ ber branch tp petition the highest body of organized labor, regard¬ less of Whether the other member branches approve or disapprove of the petition’s content? The letter, undersigned by Don¬ ald* Conaway, AFTRA national ex- (Continued on page 38)