Variety (May 1958)

El ADIO-TELE VISE OX USs&TETT Wednesday, May 14, 1958 Ik f Day’ in White House Policy 'Wa-hin^tbn, May 13. Presidt***! E^nhower’s reap¬ pointment of Kab'-rt T. Bartley to a second on the Federal Com¬ munications Commission gave Democrats on the Senate Inter¬ state Commerce. Committee some¬ thing to crir/ about last week. Since Bartley s the first Truman, appointee on the* agency to be con¬ tinued in ofhc.iv by the present Ad¬ ministration. the action was seen as indicating a change of policy brought about by disclosures of the House Subcommittee oh Legis¬ lative Oversight. Sen. . John O. Pastore" (D-R.I.l,- presiding at a hearing on the nom¬ ination. hailed the appointment as marking “a new. day” in White House policy. He noted that, as in the case of former Comr,-Richard A. Mack, tiie Administration had been picking its own brand of Democrats to ; replace :• Democrats on regulatory agencies when their terms expired. Informed that in a few other cases, the White House has re¬ tained minority menibers appoint¬ ed by Truman. Pastore said, “I'm glad to see that the Administra¬ tion has seen the light of day”. Sen. Ralph Yarborough ID-Tex.) called the appointment a tribute to Bartley ‘‘in view of the attacks on the FCC”. He. suggested the agency might, not have had such “trouble” if its members followed Bartley's decisions. The Commis-. sioner has been a dissenter In many cases and had voted against the. grant of channel 10 in Miami to National Airlines. Sen: A. S. Mike Monroney (D- Okla.) said the appointment de¬ serves a great deal of praise and is in “the true bipartisan spirit”. | Sen. : Charles E. Potter (R- | Mit‘h_>, only Renublican itiember to aopear at the hearing; also 1 commended the apppointment. Carnation, Gen. Mills Let BM Option lapse Hollywood, May 13. [ Carnation and General Mills ; have let their options lapse on the ■ Burns and Allen show, which next , season becomes: the George Burns ; Show upon retirement of Gracie ? Aren. When comedy series closes • put the season Sept. 22 it will J mark the esnd of eight years spon- • sorship by Carnation, two by Gen- ; eral Mills and four previously by Goodyear, .... B & A’s Monday night time on CBS-TV will be taken over by the web’s new hour western ‘‘Raw- hide.” Bob Redd, veepee of Erwin Wasey-RuthraUff & Ryan, is shop¬ ping around for a new comedy show for Carnation.. Freed’s WINS Return? There’s a chance Alan Freed will : be returning to WINS, N. Y. radio indie he broke with last week in a fit of pique over not being supported during a hassle, with the Boston judici¬ ary. Elroy Me Caw, station owner, said yesterday CTues.)" that the rock ’n’ roll deejay has made overtures yh returning to ; the station, biit that “more would be known about the sit- : uation” today. iVlcCaw said that since, the sparks have stopped. flying it has become clear that Freed's ankling was due mostly to a “misunderstanding.” M c C a w denied reports that; the station had fired Freed. ASTAIRE’S 90-MINUTE ; TV STINT—FOR $82 Hollywood, May 13. Network producers trying in vain to sign Fred Astaire for a guest shot must have been frus¬ trated . last Tuesday night (May 6) when .they watched Astaire per¬ form for 90 minutes on Oscar Le¬ vant’s KCOP show for AFTRA scale—$82.50. Only additional cost to the indie for Astaire’s services was: the 5% of his salary it paid AFTRA’s pension and welfare fund. Of course, it was ; done purely on a favor basis by Astaire, a friend of Levant^. Network pro¬ ducers have been trying to sign Astaire for guest shots for a long time, blit are always told by his agents, MCA, he’s not available. N.Y. Radio Shifts Gears ; Continued from page 23 , was time, for a general overhaul¬ ing. Ford’s “Make Believe Ball¬ room” stint was given to William B. Williams, and, simultaneously, A1 (Jazzbo) Collins was brought back from the. bushleagues.: and several other additions and changes in programming and per¬ sonnel occurred. . Grogan Back at WNEW Though happening some days jater, the return of Jack Grogan to the program chieftaincy of WNEW was also partly attributa¬ ble to the need. for change. Grogan was managing program¬ ming for WABD (tv>, owned by the same chain as WNEW.. Re¬ portedly, it was a combination of events cueing his radio return; Grogan’s internal WABD hassling in defense of live local tv pro¬ gramming and the growing need for a veteran program exec over WNEW. His return put Hal Moore In the WNEW program slot, and Is expected to eventuate in further program department changes Within the next day op two, At the same time, WMGM, an¬ other indie which had been inject¬ ing a little of the gimmicked WINS (compliments of odd Storz) sound in its own sked—but with “dignity,” according to WMGM—hired Herb Oscar. Anderson for a. key daytime : slot. Hours later It pacted Norm Tulin from Boston circles as the afternoon jock vice Ernie Stone, who served elsewhere in the line¬ up. Incidental changes: Ford, who had been in Brussels wheh he wa$. fired by WNEW, returned and, after many false starts (first with WNTA then with WRCA, the web key for NBC, and then with WNTA again) signed a contract with the Newark indie, WNTA signed others too, but this was basically part of the program overhaul brought on by the new management. There are .other instances of change,, in-and out of the situation brought, on by WINS, but;it will do to close, in brief, with Freed’s resignation. Freed, a WINS mainstay even be¬ fore the big audience push by the: station got underway, quit in a huff when he accused the station of failing to support him in a rock ’n’ roll controversy that began when a mob of teenagers mauled Beantowners right after leaving a Freed theatrical performance. The jock was later indicted for inciting a riot in the staid town and sev¬ eral apperances in other cities were subsequently cancelled. The station said it was remaining a “third party and a separate entity” in the embrogliq and announced that Freed's sub . Paul Sherman would, continue in the platter¬ spinning spot “until further no¬ tice”—interpreted to mean until such time as program director Mel Leeds (the man who started many Of the above occurrences by “intro¬ ducing Storz to New York”) finds a strong substitute for; Freed. Congratulations, Don on your 25th Anniversary of The Breakfast Club ... Sure happy to be “on board 1 T ■> -<s ■I 1 ' Currently ... 5 DAYS WEEKLY! DON McNEIL BREAKFAST CLUB ABN —RADIO Coast to Const Also Currently Howard Miller TV Show WNB9. Chicago f: yp Personal Management Under Direction of Heilman’s Two-Coast Agenting Consolidation Via Ziegler, Ross Merger Trend toward two-Coast consoli¬ dation of talent agencies operating primarily in television has found some new adherents. Jerry Hell- man, who exited . Ashley-Steiner-. some months ago to form his own Jerome Heilman Associates, has completed a merger with Coast agent Evart Ziegler and with ex- Famous Artists-Jaffe Co. percenter Hal Ross to form the new firm of Ziegler, Heilman & Ross. Ziegler and Heilman for the past few months have been operating under a reciprocal arrangement under which the former repped Heilman’s clients on the Coast and Heilman handled Ziegler’s stable In N, Y. Ross resigned Famous Artists^Jaffe to . become the third partner. Heilman becomes prez Of the new setup, and his associates prior to the merger continue to op¬ erate in the east—James Merrick as head of the talent dept, and Marian Searchinger as head of the literary dept. New agency’s client roster now numbers about 50 ac¬ tors, directors and writers. Meanwhile, Heilman has been gathering an impressive list of legit lumiiqiries for representation in television. He’s working on a tele- : version of "Major Barbara,” with" Robert Whitehead as exec producer and Robert L. Joseph as producer. He’s also repping Kermit Bloom- garden for tv and is dickering for Bloomgarden to piackage a series of spectaculars for NBC next fall. Also in the stable is Robert Fryer, who’ll do “Wonderful Town’’ on CBS in the fall. Retftig sss Continued from page £1 sssa consumption. He wanted a “U. S. tv flavor” for the series. He said it would be “short-sighted, even, foolhardy, to go into shooting un¬ less stories and scripts are written by experts with, full knowledge of what viewers like to see on this side of the ocean. “The : trip has strengthened my conviction ... the need for Amer¬ ican actors to fill leading roles. Supporting casts of British actors are fine, but pur audiAces still must fefel thoroughly at home with their stars—a lesson U. S. tv pro¬ ducers; as motion picture com¬ panies, have learned by now.” Rettig felt, that the greatest sav¬ ings by producing abroad can 'be “affected in the personnel areas.” Any lensing in England-. would be for next season’s syndicated sales, the CNP prexy Stated.