Variety (February 1959)

Wednesday, February 4, 1959 RADIO-TELEVISION 27 P'SstiE^rr Its Danny Against the Field (All Others Have A Horse In ’Em) With the exception of Danny Thomas, the whole new Nielsen Top 10 (first January report) is monopolized by, natch, westerns (or variations on a horse). There is, however, one “daytime in¬ trusion,” this being NBC-TV’s Rose Bowl special on New Year’s, ' which copped a whopping 33.7. Here's Nielsen’s AA (average audi¬ ence) Top 10: Gunsmoke (CBS) . 41.2 Have Gun, Will Travel (CBS) .....38.0 Rifleman (ABC) ..:.... 35.0 Wagon Train (NBC) . ... 34.2 Danny Thomas (CBS) ... .32.8 Real McCoys (ABC) . ...31.9 Wells Fargo (NBC) .. ... 31.7 Maverick (ABC) . 31.6 Wyatt Earp (ABC) . 31.4 Zane Grey (CBS) . 29.4 Ruth Lloyds Taped Castros Gives WNEWa Shot in the News Ann Radio tape recordings of Fidel 4- Castro’s voice have proved to be * a form of currency in southern parts of the western hemisphere as well as a means by which WNEW, the N.Y. radio indie, has gained fast-spreading recognition of its new 12-man internal news de¬ partment. Martin Weldon, who formed the staff during the Dec.-early Jan. newspaper strike in N.Y. hired a nicely fashioned, veteran femme correspondent, Ruth Lloyd, to round out the department. By Jan. 3 he had her in Cuba to follow Castro’s Cuban takeover. Not only did the first tape she made with the symbol of the July 26 move¬ ment get her through Cuban road¬ blocks on many occasions but it got her past Customs in Miami and subsequent tapes have been ex¬ changed^. .as real currency might have been, by WNEW for tapes on other topics from other news sources. BBC “exchanged a Mount- batten • for one of Miss Lloyd’s Castro’s”, said department head Weldon, as though he were describ¬ ing negotiations among moppets for baseball player cards. Radio Press, a new radio service Jo sta-: tions, “offered one Flynn tape for one Lloyd tape.” Perhaps in furtherance of a much-disputed journalistic state¬ ment, that “girl reporters can often get places and get stories where men can’t,” Miss Lloyd, armed with I a six-pound tape recorder, became j a close companion of Castro from the day she shouldered her (Continued on page 54) Ed$els 270G For Circus on ABC-TV „ Edsel has bought the entire 60 minutes of an ABC-TV circus spe¬ cial scheduled for Monday, March 9, in the 7:30-8:30 slot. ABC has lined up “highlights” from the Ringling Bros., Barnum & Bailey circus, to be telecast from the large arena in Charlotte, N. C. Time and talent cost to the car manufacturer for the one-shot will be in the vicinity of $270,000, with slightly over $100,000 of the sum going for program rights. The network has had the pack¬ age on the market for several weeks, and one' of the agencies which showed early interest was Leo Burnett, for its part of the Procter & Gamble account. But Burnett withdrew and Kenyon & Eckhardt bought the whole deal for Edsel. WBAL (AM & TV) Split Baltimore, Feb. 3. Thomas S. Carr and Brent O, Gunts have been named managers of WBAL Radio and WBAL-TV, respectively. They begin officially on Feb. 16 at the Hearst-owned outlets and report to. D. L.-Pro¬ vost, general manager of Hearst’s radio-tv division. Leslie H. Peard Jr., who has not announced his plans, was boss of both stations here. TV Cap & Gowners * Chicago, Feb. 3. Payoff of educational tv here is reflected in the fact that seven cap-and-gowners in the current Chi Junior College graduating class got virtually all their credits- and tutelage electronically. Seventeen oth¬ ers had taken from one to as many as 16 courses on WTTW’s (Chi’s ed station) tv credit, program. The tv college program be¬ gan on the station in the fall of 1956. At close of the first term, tv teachers said the tele¬ students were earning higher grades on their exams than their campus classmates. ABC-TVAwaits GF Decision On Daytime Shows General Foods, backbone of ABC-TV’s relatively new daytime programming, is slated today (Wed.) at its headquarters in White Plains, N. Y.; to review whether to quit or stick with “Operation Day¬ break.” Sponsor, which owns about 20 of the 65 spots sold on the ABC lineup, has called in Young & Rubi- cam for thl big decision. It was Y&R which originally gave -impetus to the entire ABC daytime plan, which kicked off Oct. 13. As a matter of fact, it is widely held responsible for initiat- I ing the “Operation Daybreak” idea. Meantime*.other sponsors In the ABC-TV “Daybreak” lineup are mulling their continued sponsor¬ ship—principally, it is reported, General Mills and Bristol-Myers, latter another big bankrolled BM is expected to move out, but it is not anticipated that formal notice one way or the other will be forth¬ coming before sponsors actually have to. ' That’s at option time, toward the end of February. BM has at least 12 spots in “Daybreak.” While there is still a question as to what decision GF &' BM will do about renewing “Operation Day¬ break,” a spokesman for General Mills stated the food firm had no intention of cancelling their par¬ ticipations in the ABC daytime plan. 'Business is handled out of Dancer-Fitzgerald-Sample shop. Competition has made much of the fact that ABC has failed so far to get 25% of sets-in-use for “Daybreak,” which v it reportedly promised General «FoodS and others. Last Trendex week was over 18% sets-in-use for ABC, and if network can hike the audience tally in the next two-and L a-half [ weeks, when option renewals are [due, it figures it has a chance of 1 holding on to most of the present¬ ly unsure bankrollers. + By GEORGE ROSEN When Danny Seymour, the tv factotum of J. Walter Thompson, maneuvered the major coup of the season in wooing over Perry Como for a full hour “Kraft Music Hall” showcase Wednesday nights 9 to 10 on NBC-TV next season, the vibra¬ tions could be felt up and down Madison Ave., affecting more than half a dozen sponsors, and setting ip motion NBC-RCA chain-reaction of events that may be felt for months to come. Como* in one of the unique deals in tv annals which, from all ac¬ counts, will make him the “dairy man of the century” with a consid¬ erable stock interest in National Dairies (it’s all set but the actual signaturing) will' take over the two half-hours currently occupied by Milton Berle (for.'Kraft) and “Bat Masterson” (for Sealtest)—both National Dairies subsids. As far as Como’s concerned, it suits him fine. Being essentially a family man, he can now stay home weekends, free of the strenuous weekend rehearsal and Saturday night performance chores. It also puts him smack in the middle of NBC’s hottest night of the week, with its “Wagon Train,” “Price Is Right” round-robin of attractions (and frees him from the now for¬ midable competition of CBS’ “Perry Mason” show). But conversely, NBC needs Como Wednesday like it needs a hole in the head, or like CBS needs a re¬ placement show for “Gunsmoke” or “Have Gun.” Where it needs Como is precisely where he’s al¬ ways been—8 to 9 Saturday night, as the network’s Gibraltar of week¬ end programming, as RCA's bright and shiny tint showcase and as the lure for something like $12,000,000 jn time-and-program billings from no less than six participating spon¬ sors. (And it’s the kind of business where the advertisers don't even earn a discount.) ■ ' But with Como romanced away from a good going thing, it knocks the props from under NBC’s Satur¬ day prosperity. RCA alone among Como’s multiple sponsors can be figured as “safe” to remain “in the house.” Bereft of Como, such cli¬ ents as Kimberly Clark, Noxzema, Sunbeam, Polaroid and Dairy Insti¬ tute of America are now shopping. Sunbeam has already shifted alle- giance to CBS for “What’s . My Line” and Kimberly Clark has bought CBS-TV’s “Peck’s Bad Girl” for next season. Knocked out of the Como box, the others may go the Sunbeam and Kimberly Clark way and identify themselves else¬ where. It’s for this reason, among others, that NBC prexy Bob Kintner tried to stave off the Como shift to Kraft. In fact, the opposition was such that it finally was taken to the 53d- floor high command at RCA—for the parent company’s stake in Como (RCA Victor disks, weekend tint personality, etc.) is measured in terms of big business. But Como’s—and Kraft’s—deci- (Continued on page 52) HUNTLEY EDITORIAL INVITES A FORUM “Chet Huntley Reporting” pro¬ gram on Sunday (8) over NBC-TV will be preempted for a special feature designed to clarify Hunt- ! ley’s editorial remarks anent the National Assn, for Advancement of I Colored People made on the NBC News special, “Second Agony of j Atlanta” last Sunday (1). Rebuttal I Show will be seen at 6:30 p.m. J Huntley at conclusion of last ; Sunday’s program dealing with the school crisis in Atlanta suggested that NAACP present leaders step down in order to ease tensions over school segregation issues. Huntley win read the editorial. This will be followed by comment < from NAACP officials as well as statements from Southern moder¬ ates and segregationists. Tor Whom The Bell Tolls Biggest Move-Around Since Normandy Beach Here We Go Again St. Paul, Feb. 3. Lee Kuluvar, Minnesota conservation department fire¬ arms safety coordinator, charges that a 700% increase in the state’s handgun acci¬ dents between 1953 and 1958 is due to television western’s influence. The rise in such accidents coincides with video’s whole- scale plunge into the horse operas, according to his re¬ port. Last year’s victims include ll “quick draw 5 ’ practicers, the report reveals. And 10 of 1,947 1958 firearms acci¬ dents were mainly due to tar¬ get and home shooting. NBC-TVs Sunday Switches; Steve Moves Bp to 7:30 ♦ Yellow cab stock will undoubt¬ edly zoom to new heights when cast and crew start taxi-hopping between CBS-TV studios during the heavy rehearsal schedule and taping session, of “For Whom the Bell Tolls,” the Ernest Hemingway saga of the Spanish Civil War scheduled for airing on “Play¬ house 90” Thursdays, March 12 and 19. . yhe first of tv’s three-hour, two- pact productions, with Fred Coe as producer and John Frankenheimer as director, calls for five weeks of rehearsal and eight to 10 days of taping with all concerned working out of Studio 61 at First Avenue and.75th St. and Studio 58 at 9th Avenue and 54th Street. Produc¬ tion schedule, in many respects,- will resemble the logistics em¬ ployed during the storming of the Normandy beaches. Virtually all “Playhouse 90” pro¬ ductions, in the past, originated from the Coast, but in this instance Coe and Frankenheimer moved baggage to the east taking along with them Walter Scott Herndon, their Coast set designer. One of the chief reasons for originating the drama from Gotham was Jason Robards Jr., currently appearing on Broadway in “The Disen¬ chanted.” NBC-TV is doing some Sunday night program overhauling in a bid] to bolster its ratings. Steve Allen, j longtime 8 to 9 tenant, moves up to 7:30, the change going into effect 1 the second week in March. At that time RCA is also moving into the sponsorship picture, underwriting alternate weeks of the show. Shift to 7:30 gives Allen a half-hour march on CBS’ Ed Sullivan and permits him to go to the 7:30 post with ABQ’s “Maverick.” Going into the Sunday night 8:32 to 9 period will be the “Arthur Murray Show,” which moves over from its present Monday night 10 o’clock berth on behalf of P. Loril- lard and Pharmaceuticals. And getting the Monday at 10 slot will be the Ralph Edwards show “It Could Be You,” dropped from the Thursday night program lineup. What happens next fall will, of course, depend on how Allen and Murray, fare in the revised lineup during the balance of the season. Sees British Advertisers In Demand for Lower Rates on Commercial TV Hollywood, Feb. 3. British advertisers and agencies will band together in an attempt to force the commercial networks there to revise their rates down¬ ward, it w r as predicted here last week. Peter Lome, chairman of McCann - Erickson International’s European marketing committee, said the Independent Television Authority racked up a “fabulous profit” and that “this won’t be allowed to continue, obviously.” Lome was here to participate in an Academy of Television Arts & Sciences global tv forum. He said that McCann’s current television billings in England run about $4,- 250,000 and comprise 50% of the agency’s total billings there. He said McCann allocated 20% of its billings to television right at the start of commercial tv, this repre¬ senting one account,^ Standard Oil, which wanted to be in television there at the start. Since then, tv billings have been doubling them¬ selves every year, and overall bill¬ ings have gone up at the same time. Lome said he expected the ratio of tv-to-total billings to continue to rise. < Yancy’ Get* Renewal S, C. Johnson renewed the “Yaney Derringer” series on CBS- TV Thursday evenings. Series is headed up by Jock Ma¬ honey and written by Richard and Mary Sale. Renewal order was placed through Needham Louis & Brorby. Frankenheimer said this week that Robards, in his opinion, was the only actor who could play the part of Robert Jordon in “For Whom the Bell Tolls.” The young director said that Hemingway char¬ acters are usually difficult to cast r and that the movies as a rule choose Gary Cooper. “I don’t think Cooper is a Hemingway leading man,” Frankenheimer said. “I think he bas as much passion as a block of granite. And Rock Hudson is perfectly ridiculous. Robards, on the other hand, is so’whoppingly alive, a damned fine actor, and I had to have him in this role.” Maria Schell, due in N.Y. this week to begin rehearsals in the part of Maria, was picked by Frankenheimer firstly because she’s a brilliant actress and, sec¬ ondly, because she’s European. Frankenheimer opined that no American womarf could play Maria. “I’d have to put an Amer¬ ican actress through a 10-month psychoanalysis to play this part and then she’d most likely louse up the role,” the director said.- Hemingway’s Okay Hemingway, now in the states, is said to have approved the casting of “For Whom the Bell Tolls” and A. E. Hotchner’s. adaptation of the novel also got an immediate nod from the author. Hemingway re¬ portedly was far mOre pleased with Hotchner’s tv adaptation than the film version under the Paramount (Continued on pa«e 55) ‘Pete Kelly Blues’ L&M’s Fall Entry NBC-TV is in the final stages of shaping up its fall Tuesday 8 to 9 period with Liggett & Myers pres¬ ently negotiating to keep the pe¬ riods. L & M currently has an affair going with the Jack Webb Mark VII Ltd. shop. The ciggie company will chalk off Eddie Fisher and his martial difficulties in favor of the Webb produced “Pete Kelly’s Blues” in the 8 to 8:30 time period. The Chesterfield brand will pick up the cheek on this skejn. The 8:30 to 9 period is still up in the air with Hie decision nar¬ rowed down to either George Gobel (who alternated with Fisher this year) in half-hour format or the recently purchased NBC “Black Cat,” series. Network last week concluded a deal with Webb for “Cat,” which has a mysterioso- adventure format. On the 8:30 pro¬ gram, L & M and RCA will bank¬ roll whichever program Is selected.