Variety (October 1958)

YTedneaday, October 8, 1958 . TV-FILHS 27 P^RiEfr BBC’S ‘TOO MUCH YANK FILM’ WGA’s 817G in ’58 Reran Coin Smooth-Running Syndication Biz Hollywood, Oct. 7. Writers Guild of America West collected a record figure of $162,000 in vidpix residual coin for its members during September, guild has revealed. Sum reps a big hike in collections since payments on vidpix re¬ runs began in 1955, indicating there are more and more telefilms being rerun these days. * So far this year guild has collected $817,000 in rerun coin, as compared to $343,000 for the entire year of 1957. Telescripters have received a total of $1,600,000 since 1955. Current high rate -of collections is obviously due to the spur in summer repeat runs. Guild predicts collections will average about $1,000,000 from now on. Wratber Putting ITC-TPA House In Order; Set New Organization Chart ITC-TPA, the Jack W r a t h e r-4 sparked telefilm outfit, moved 1 rapidly on two fronts—integrating and expanding its sales organiza¬ tion and lining up product. Within a week after the closing of the $11,350,000 deal, ITC-TPA prez Walter Kingsley had a table of organization adopted. All TPA personnel have been retained. New organization, combining the talents of Television Programs of America and the acquiring company Inde¬ pendent Television Corp., has not granted veepee stripes to any exec at this time. First major property formally inked for ITC-TPA is Sapphire Films’ “Four Just Men,” to be pro¬ duced in the U.S. and Britain. Stars will be toplined by Jack Hawkins, Vittorio de Sica, Dan Dailey and a fourth star, an Ameri¬ can, yet to be selected. The series of 39 Edgar Wallace thrillers will be produced under the supervision of Hanna Weinstein, who lensed “Robin Hood” and “Sir Lancelot.” Regarding ITC-TPA’s table of organization, this is how the divi¬ sion of responsibilities shapes up: Director of national sales is Hal James, who joined ITC-TPA Mon¬ day (6): James formerly was radio¬ tv head for Ellington Sc Co. Charles Goit of the TPA staff, who is re¬ covering from • surgery, will work closely with James upon his re¬ turn. General manager of syndicated sales is William Dubois, who held this position at ITC. Hardi Frie- berg has been promoted from east¬ ern sales head of TPA to assistant syndicated sales manager. Alvin E. Unger, who recently resigned from Ziv, has joined ITC-TPA in a gen¬ eral sales exec capacity. Unger had been v.p. of Ziv’s Chicago office. Eastern division manager is Walt Plant, formerly western sales head of TPA. Central division manager, is Art Spirit, who retained the post he held under TRA, with the added responsibility of being manager of the Chicago office. Western divi¬ sion manager, is William Andrews, (Continued on page 46) Chicago. Oct. 7. Fred A. Niles, Chi blurb maker who opened his owh film shop less than three years ago on an invest¬ ment of $5,000 yesterday (Mon.) purchased outright the Windy City film division of Kling Enterprises for a sum believed to be around $500,000. Purchase is effective Oct. 13 and involves all equipment, facilities and actiye accounts. Kling has withdrawn from the motion picture biz in this area, al¬ though its coast plant continues to operate along with the art-photo enterprise here. Niles had estab¬ lished -the Kling film division in 1947, when he was exec veepee and partnered in the company. He left in 1955 to hang out his own shingle. Kling staff will be absorbed by Niles in the takeover, including Mike Stehney, as veep in charge of tv-film _ commercials, and Ed Rinker, veep in sales. Niles is now negotiating for a larger studio i» Hollywood to augment his present facilities there. CBS Newsfilm Bays Six more stations have signed for the CBS Newsfilm service, put¬ ting the roster of stations in the CBS Newsfilm coral to over 110. New subscribers are WWL-TV, New Orleans, WEHT-TV, Evans¬ ville, Ind.; KRCA-TV,. Sacramento; WLAS-TV, Asheville, N.C.; KPI- TV, San Francisco; and YVKA-TV, Caracas, Venezuela. Newsfilm operation under How¬ ard L. Kany is five years old. It started with two stations, KNXT, Los Angeles, and WBBM-TV Chi¬ cago. Now the service extends to over 110 stations and networks in the U. S. and 20 foreign countries. $1,500,000 Amoco 59-Market Spread On‘Border Patrol’ CBS Films Inc. reportedly copped one of'the largest regional deals in signing up the American Oil Co. (Amoco) for a 59-market spread on “U. S. Border Patrol,” new documentary adventure series based on the law enforcement arm of the Bureau of Immigration and Naturalization' Deal, understood to cover the entire Atlantic Coast and an ex¬ tensive area in the east and south¬ east, will mark Amoco’s entrance into the syndication field. Outfit, prior to the “Border” buy had been in spot participations and on net¬ work. Telecasting is slated for spring. “Border” will be produced by Sam Gallu, who did “Navy. Log.” Star¬ ring Richard Webb, fne series will get into production in another month, with location shooting be¬ ing done along the U. S. border and set shooting in Hollywood. Amoco contract rrortedly calls for an investment of about $1,500,- 000 for program and time charges. Joseph Katz is the agency. Major markets included in the deal are understood to be New York, Phila¬ delphia, Boston, Washington, Balti¬ more, Atlanta, Cleveland, ‘Pitts¬ burgh, Providence, New Orleans and Houston. ZIV’S ECONOMEE IN 27% SALES SPURT Ziv’s rerun Economee division, helmed by Pierre' Weis, has en¬ joyed, a sales spurt, registering a 27% sales boost for the August- September period, as compared to last year. Economee now also is handling “Men of Annapolis” and “West Point.” Sales activity is heaviest on’such shows as “I Led Three Lives,“ “Dr. Christian,” and “Science Fiction Theatre.” Among stations signing for one or more shows are WABC-TV, N.Y., WGN-TV, Chicago; KABC-TV, Los Angeles; WMAR-TV, Baltimore; WCCO-TV, Minneapolis; WRCV- TV, Philadelphia; WAGA-TV, At¬ lanta, and KSTF-TV, Minneapolis. Can Now Rely on 49 New 1st Run s Properties a Year; Ziv Pacesetter ; - : -1 Syndication biz in its relative London, Oct. 7. The BBC is irked because it has to depend on America for its fea¬ ture films and vidpix series. It re¬ gards the position as unsatisfactory and states that it is doing ail that it can to stimulate production of British films for tv. In its latest annual report, it is pointed put that during the year, 10% of its. pro¬ gramming consisted of material of American origin. The report notes that oyer many years the BBC has tried unsuccess- J fully to buy British films, but none was available at reasonable prices.: The web now stocked up with Yank features for some years to come, but is now in the difficult position of not being able to maintain the I right proportion of films of British origin. This difficulty, it points out, has become acute with vidpix series, and the BBC, along with other tv organizations, has to look to Amer¬ ica for them because British-made series of this type were “virtually non-existent.” The report adds: “It is hoped that during the coming; year substantial advances will be made which will increase the flow j of British material not only, to I television screens in this country but also overseas in the form of exports.” Meanwhile; the BBC’s audience research department says that viewing continues to be a major evening preoccupation of those who have tv sets. In winter, on the average, it points out, they each view between the hours of 6 p.m.! to 11 p.m. for 12Vfc hours a week, whether their sets can receive both BBC and commercial, tv or Only BBC. At the end of the year the number of persons, excluding chil¬ dren who would normally be view¬ ing the BBG channel at any mo¬ ment during the evening was ap¬ proximately 5,200,000 while the number watching commercial tv was 8,100,000. The reports says' that in general the size of BBC- TV’s audience during 1957-58 was about the same as in the previous year because the losses to indie tv were just about offset by increases due to the rise in the number of receivers. Its top programs during the period January to March this year were “Panorama,” a weekly news magazine with an audience claimed to be 10,000,000; “What’s My Line” —9,000,000; “Sportsview”—8,000,- 000; and "Press Conference” — 4,000,060. But although television is cap¬ turing large audiences, sound radio too has an audience which remains “very substantial,” and it is esti¬ mated, that an average of 22,000,000 people listen to one or more radio programs each day, and there is no indication of the usage of sound radio diminishing. There has how¬ ever been a decline in the number of listeners to individual programs, but research shows that the amount of listening put in by those without tv has increased over the past year. The popular radio shows still pull in very sizeable audi¬ ences. Top program is "Family .Favorites,” a deejay offering which attracts 13,000,000 followed by "an¬ other disk program, “Housewives Choice,” and a five, night a week family series, “The Archers,” both of which have over 6,500,000 lis¬ teners. Mort Abrahams to Coast Mprt Abrahams, director of crea¬ tive programming for National Telefilm Associates, left for the Coast for production confabs. NTA • plans two series “High Noon” and “The Third Man,” foi which leads are being sought Plans to star James Mason in “Third Man” collapsed. Trevor Howard is now being sought for that series. More TV Film News On Page 45 ‘Variety’-Pulse Chart The VARiETY-Pulse Feature Chart, beginning with this is¬ sue, will tab the first-run and rerun pix making the Top 10 listing in each market. The chart has a “Run”column, under which each pic making the Top 10 is tabbed either “lst-run”' or “Repeat.” As an expanded service. Variety and Pulse in subsequent weeks will list the “run” information on competitive pictures which failed to win the rating race against the Top 10. This in¬ formation will be listed with the “Top Competition” section of the page. Variety is introducing this added service at a time when the well of pre- J 48’s is running dry, when distributors, sta¬ tions, and advertisers want to be apprised of * the rerun strength of pix. It may well be, time and again, that a strong repeat will outrate a first-run weaker pic of more recent vin¬ tage. Conversely, overexpo¬ sure of a pic is bound to show its rating' toll.- The chart will tell the story. NTA Film Network Snares Six Clients For Virtual SRO Six national advertisers fell in line with the NTA Film Network, which had its debut this week (6). The net offering six-and-a-half- hours a week of programming is virtually sold out. Only remain¬ ing spot is about a minute-and-a- half of commercial time on “Man Without a Gun,” one of the three new net series. Topping the sponsor list is the American Tobacco Co., which I signed for full sponsorship of | “How to Marry a Millionaire” on 1 the web’s lineup of 115 stations. 1 Agency is SSC&B. Sponsor will advertise its Pall Mall cig brand on the half-hour show. - The participating sponsors in- j elude A&P, Perma Starch, Philco Corp., Vick Chemical and White King Soap. The third half-hour series for the net is “This Is Alice.” In addition, the net is strip programming five days a week, its “TV Hour of Stars,” con-' sistlng of reruns of telefilms pro¬ duced by 20th-Fox ‘ and Warner j Bros. I The participation breakdown follows: “This Is Alice,” A&P, Perma, Vick, White King; “Man Without a Gun,” A&P, Perma, Vick; “Stars,” A&P, Perma, Philco, Vick, White King. “Millionaire” and “Gun” were produced by NTA by TCF-TV, -telefilm division of 20th-Fox, while “Alice” was produced by Desilu. A contracted lineup of stations will be utilized for the reruns of the Shirley Temple pix for the holidays. The pix, to be telecast from October through December, will be * sponsored ’ by Ideal Toy, Necchi-Elna Sales, Phillips-Van Heusen, Samsonite Luggage and Westinghouse Electric. All the advertiser are clients of Gray Ad¬ vertising. SG Preps Traabel Series Hollywood, Oct. 7. Screen Gems is prepping a new teleseries, “Mother’s The Governor of Texas” as an upcoming vehicle for Helen Traubel. Doug Morrow will be producer- director. short history has matured so that for the first time most syndicators have a planned yearly production schedule—with some 40 fresh first- run properties assured yearly to feed the market. The figure of 40 properties yearly may fluctuate somewhat year-by-year, according to the times and according to the fortunes of individual companies. But the outlook is good that the sizeable 40 mark will be maintained, if not surpassed in years to come. The greater portion of the first- run product output will come from the relative handful of majors. Ziv the bellwether in the biz, set an annual schedule last year of six first-run releases, one first-runner every two months. Since then, ether companies have joined the six-a-year bandwagon? including California National Productions and CBS Films. * It remains to be seen whether the other companies are equipped to maintain the Ziv pace. An un¬ known quantity at this point Is the new ITC-TPA outfit. Television Programs of America, which was acquired by Jack Wrather’s Inde¬ pendent Television Corp., had a first-run output prior to the buyout of about four skeins yearly. In wake of the buyout, the ITC-TPA yearly first-run release output, could double to eight, but it surely should be at least six. Screen Gems has created its own syndication production unit, under the aegis of Tom Gries and Wallace MacDonald, with a yearly produc¬ tion schedule of three first-runners. The rejuvenated Flamingo outfit also* plans three first - runners yearly. National Telefilm Associ¬ ates should account for at least three first-runners, above and be¬ yond that fed to the NTA Film Net¬ work. Guild Films, which is heavily committed to tape, reportedly plans at least three taped shows yearly as a starter. Gross-Krasne can be put down for two, if not more, first- runners. Telestar Films and ABC Film Syndication could be listed for one to three first-runners yearly. The tally doesn’t take into ac¬ count the off-network properties, first-run in the syndication field. If these were taken into account, the count, would swell heavily. But sticking to the 40 figure, represent¬ ing freshly made properties for the syndication mart, the biz has made some steady strides to reach and maintain that mark. N.Y. Still Makes AIT the Decisions New York, as opposed to Holly¬ wood, remains in the command position on telefilms. Execs frequently making the N. Y. to L.A. trip report that the telefilm “plant” in Hollywood is bursting at the seams. But virtually all the orders to the film factory come from N. Y.—the decision on what projects to gamble on for pilots, the greenlight for produc¬ tion of a series, etc. Despite 'the fact that major agencies and all three network are represented on the Coast, the final say-so on clinching a national deal usually is arrived at in N. Y. Even the indie packagers such as Don Sharpe who headquarter on the Coast recognize this and make fre¬ quent trips to N.Y. to sound out the market and make deals. On the syndication level, the go- ahead signal on a project usually is given after the N. Y. office sounds out its sales force through¬ out‘the country on the project’s commercial chances. N. Y., in short, remains the nerve center.