Variety (February 1959)

Wednesday* February 23,1959 KAH^FT l » ■rui.'uo tUt? FOR m Global Count: 70,000,000 TV Sets EVEN BJJItLlTY The tv antenna has become a world trademark. The world set count at the end of ’58 stood at the phenomenal level of nearly 70,000,000 tv “boxes.” In the U.S., the home tv set -count is put at 44,000,000, by far the most saturated country in the world. Canada has an estimated 2,657,000 sets. The remainder of the world, according to figures supplied by the United States Information Agency, has about 23,000,000 sets. The overseas set count, watched so closely by telefilm compa¬ nies intent upon increasing foreign biz, rose by. 6,500,000 sets. Ac¬ cording to USIA estimates, the Free World has a little more than 19,500,000 sets, exclusive of the U.S. and Canada; and the Com¬ munist Bloc less than 3,500,000 sets. In '58, there was a gain of 5,500,000 over ’57 in the Free World and an increase of about a million in the Soviet bloc. * In the Free World, Western Europe had about 14,500,000 sets, Latin America and the Far East about 2,500,000 each, and the Near East, South Asia and Africa a few thousand. As usual, the United Kingdom with more than 9,000,000 sets, led the Western Euro¬ pean countries, while West Germany forged ahead on the Con¬ tinent with 2,000,000 sets. Japan, however, almost caught up with West Germany, doubling the number of sets in use within a year. In the Communist Bloc, the Soviet Union had slightly more than 2,500,000 sets by the end of the year; virtually all the rem ainin g sets were distributed among the European satellites, with Czecho¬ slovakia and East Germany far in the lead. HAS F/ILLEN OFF Status of Film Syndicators At NAB Meet Not Even 2d Class ITCs Batch of Fresh Pilots For Spring, Summer Selfing Season Independent Television Corp.< plans to come into the spring-sum- j mer selling season with a m inimum J of six pilots. 1 Already set for ITC distribution , is a roster of eight properties. The J six projects for fall airing willi come from among the nine, or still uncommitted sources. The web i projects will be fed to ITC from] the Jack Wrather Organization and Associated Television of U. K. ITC, too, under its own banner will be involved as producer of some shows. (ITC setup has Jack Wrather and Associated Television, = each owning a third of the organiz¬ ation, with another third held by a variety of shareholders). The nine properties already set for ITC distribution follows: “Emergency,” an ITC production,. with Arthur Lewis producing;; “Four Just Men,” Wrather Organ¬ ization property done in conjunc¬ tion with ATV and Sapphire Films of England; “Treasury Agent,” ITC; “Adventures ot Tom Swift,”, Wrather; “Command,” series deal¬ ing with a. cavalry unit in post- Civil War period, with James War¬ ner as writer, an ITC production. “Guns West,” Allen Sloan, writer, ITC; “Interpol,” Wrather deal with J. Arthur Rank Organiza¬ tion; and' “Whiplash,” an ATV property to be produced in Aus¬ tralia, previously titled “Cobb & Co.” In the “Four Just Men” series, the last featured lead has fallen to Richard Conte. Other principals in the series, based on the Edgar Wal¬ lace thriller, are Jack Hawkins, Vittorio I>e Sica, and Dan Dailey. Some of the above-mentioned properties may be pulled- out for syndication. ITC currently is out selling “Cannonball” on the mar¬ ket-by-market level. SG’s ‘David Hamm’ Series Screen Gems is going to do a half-hour vidfilm pilot* with Chill Wills as the titlist, of the old radio soaper “David Harum.” Agent Mitchell Ham 11 burg wrapped up the deal with the Col subsid over the weekend. Tied in with the SG production also will be Famous Artists and the Jaffe Agency. ITC s $2,000,080 ProSt In ABC-TV Gale Storm Buy ‘Enforcers As Wrather Entry Hollywood, Feb. 24. Producer Warner Tcub Jr. has sold a vidpix series, “The Enforr- evs,” to the Jack Wrather organiza¬ tion. Shooting by Tonb’s Vikings Pro¬ ductions has already begun, with backgrounds lensed in New Or¬ leans. Partnered with Toub in the televenture are 20th-Fox pactee A1 Austin and Bill Webb. Webb is director-writer of “You Asked for It.” Austin stars in the series with Steve Mario. Series deals with a pair of Dis¬ trict Attorneys -working with an attack dog. Billy May will do the background music. Minimum of 26 vidpix is planned. i Independent Television Corp. pulled a neat coup in its sale of the “Gale Storm Show” to ABC- TV, chalking up a profit of about $2,000,000 in a quick turnover of the property. Last October, ITC bought the property from Hal Roach Studios for about $2,000,000. Involved were 111 episodes, including the current series now being runoff on CBS- TV. Deal also included fresh pro¬ duction on the show, on which Roach would share at a certain percentage. Four months later, it took the property add sold it to ABC-TV for about $5,000,000. The ABC-TV deal involves from 99 to 111 rerun episodes, with the web given multi¬ ple run rights over a three-year period. Another important facet of the three-year ABC-TV deal is that the web contracted for a min¬ imum of 26 fresh “Gale Storm” episode's, slated to unreel in prime evening time next fall. Involved in the wheeling deal operation—the first for ITC under Walter Kingsley’s piloting—were negotiations with CBS-TV and Lever Bros, in dropping the Sat¬ urday night .show and Young & Rubicam and ABC-TV, on the-other hand, in picking it up. Big factor (Continued on page 43) What are the prospects of fresh features coming to tv in ’59? In a word, dim. Not that there won’t be packages coming from a few established thea- trical-to-tv distributors and some numbered groups coming from other outfits, but the total will be comparatively small. The quality, too, is ok considerably, compared to the heyday of the tv cinematic boom, when Metro, Warner Bros., et al. hit the airwaves for the first time just a few years back. This is the outlook for the year from the established distributors: National Telefilm Associates: A group of 50 is due to be opened up at the end of April. Thirty-nine in the group are British imports of recent vintage, all post-’48’s. Titles include "“Indiscretion of An Amer¬ ican Wife,” Jennifer Jones and Montgomery Clift; and “The Wild Heart,” Jennifer Jones, NTA’will distribute its next bloc of 78 20th- Fox pictures in September* for fall airing, (NTA only has another 78 20th-Fox group to distribute under its deal with the motion picture, company and that Will be dis¬ tributed In January, ’60). i Screen Gems: Columbia subsid, ] which also handles the Universal library, plans to continue its cur¬ rent releasing pattern, that is, a 1 group of around 52 pictures every four months. There might be some variations of this, with larger and | smaller packages, but it’ll add up. to about 156 pix per year for $G. Currently out with the “Power¬ house 78,” SG should have its next package for distribution in mid- March. (SG has about 200-250 Co- lumbias and about 350-400 Uni- versals still untapped, but some of the oldies for one reason or an¬ other are unsuitable for ■■tv. But in J numbers, it gives SG the biggest j backlog). | United Artists Television, should j be coming through with additional pix for the year. Then there are the “Tarzan” pix, the imports, the good as well as the marginal to poor, and the post-’48’s of the American indies which may dribble to tv. From the.established distrib¬ utors the total for the-year is about 375 pictures, with a possible 125 from a variety of sources, giving a grand total of a possible 500 for ’59. The possible 500 for *59 doesn’t count up to one healthy pre-’48 library of a major Hollywood stu¬ dio. The pix from all sources is smaller in numbers to the Para¬ mount library now being dis¬ tributed by MCA TV. (Incidentally, Para pix were not included in the rundown as fresh pix because they (Continued on page 42) In Co-operation With— CBS Films’ roster of proj¬ ects shapes up as a “who’s who” among governmental agencies and recognized na¬ tional organizations'. There’s “Diplomat,” done with the cooperation of the State Department; “Border Patrol,” Bureau of National¬ ization and Immigration coop¬ erating; “Heritage,” Depart¬ ment of Interior; “Bellevue” with the N.Y. City Hospital Department; “Attorney,” with official cooperation of the . American Bar Assn., and two series contemplated 1 with the assists of the Treasury Depart¬ ment and the Justice Depart¬ ment. ‘Instant Film’As Kodak’s Come-On To Combat Tape ■ The status of film syndicators at the National Assn, of Broadcasters has fallen from “second class” cit¬ izenship to ’’third class.” First the NAB barred film syn¬ dicators from exhibiting at annual confabs, contending that such ex¬ hibits turned the NAB meets into carnivals and detracted from the business atmosphere. There will he no such exhibits at the upcoming Chicago annual meet, March 16 through 18. Then, there is the matter of suite accomodations at the Conrad Hil¬ ton Hotel for the March meet. Syn¬ dicators complained that they were allotted suites on many floors, in different parts of the hotel this time. At previous conventions, the syndicators were grouped together. Syndicators, who have the status of associate members and who plan to attend, contend that this year’s suite allotment is “by design.” The topper is that the one major feature favored by film distribu¬ tors, the film forum, has been axed from this year’s NAB convention agenda. Telefilm companies fought and complained in order to get the film forum at the NAB meet and they succeeded in having the NAB •program such a forum the past few * years. But in *59, even that rug The producers of raw celluloid bas pulled from under them, stock are fighting back. Eastman- Instead of the film forum, the Kodak, one of principal suppliers NAB on the last day of the con- of celluloid to both tv and motion vention has scheduled a 30-minute picture film producers, is' re- presentation on film and video portedly (1) working on a plan for tape, to be delivered by Joe Floyd, “instant film,” negatives that can of KELO, Sioux Falls, South Da¬ te viewed almost immediately kota, chairman of NAB’s tv film after they are filmed, and (2) have committee. hired for the first time a publicity Many telefilmeries initially de- Son' 111 the ? erson 1 of cided to stay away from this year’s Stan Holmes, to promote exclu- convention, hut as soon as one gvely the professional use of up , renewing its associate ~r* .. membership in order to attend. Subject of instantaneous film most of the other leading syndi- came up briefly last week at a cators fell in line. ", de Sj!£; e „.™ n JS. th . e P.S. Telefilmeries will not hold Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. Wallace Ross, an execu- their annual co-op cocktail party uwcuvco. Troiiaut; dU CACUU- j • vin tive with the Film Producers wd tn Assn., raised .from the floor the s^^ator put it : Its hard to possibility of E-K going into in- P la >' host as a ‘ third class ’ citizen.” stant film. The Ampex-RCA tape- ~ oriented executives on the panel e shows no signs of knowing about IlfimT tciMAnmfl# the reported process. DdllV DlltUBl Mil There is understood to be a proc- * * ess, developed for war use, where- n n tt c|« by motion picture, as it comes orn \nf mav I lIHFdlllltff of the camera, can immediately |JC[ 1 ||| Oil ¥ wlMUH be run through a developer so that ** quick prints can be shown. Though NTA Film Network will unveil it supposedly still has kinks, this , f „ is something like ah animation of I f 3 Programming, sales and affiha- the Polaroid Land Camera prin- j tion plans at next month’s Chicago ciple, by which a still photo can be ; meeting of National Assn, of Broad- made seconds after the pic is ’ casters. snapped. • . ] Right now, the web, helmed by However, believed to be the lm- ! - mediate key to the film suppliers j Charles (Bud) Barry ' is , °? ermg * push to compete against video tape j series of Shirley Temple features, is the pacting of Holmes. E-K, it | starting in April. The Temple the- is believed has not in recent years : atricals have been the web’s most MM, i ««« •*» parently being that an aggressive j is currently represented with three publicity campaign by film is in j half-hours, “How To Marry A Mil- order to keep from being swamped: lionaire,” “This Is Alice” and Barry Blueprint Set For Unveiling NTA Film Network will unveil KAPLAN ROUNDS OUT SCHUBERT EXEC TEAM KELLOGG’S PAYOFF ON ‘HUCKLEBERRY’ High status of “Huckleberry Hound,” the nationally-spotted Kel¬ logg cartoon show sold by Screen Gems, is reflected (in the Pulse top 20 chart this week) and in the ARB tv rundown. Kellogg sponsors the stanza In slightly over 200 tv markets. Ip the 85 markets covered by ARB for the months of October, November and December, the SG show, the last report available in each mar¬ ket shows “HH” has copped first place over the competition 75 out 'of 65 times. Bernard L. Schubert has round¬ ed out his exec team for an ex¬ panded thrust in the syndication and national level, with the hiring of Cy Kaplan, as general sales manager. Kaplan moves over to Schubert, Inc., on Tuesday (3), the day the company moves into its new main offices at Park Ave. (It formerly had a suite on Madison Ave.) Kap¬ lan resigned as eastern director of national sales of National Telefilm! Assocates to assume his new post Kaplan will report tj> Charles (Chuck) King, v.p. in charge of syn¬ dicated sales, another recent Schu¬ bert appointment. Eugene C. Wyatt joined the exec lineup as v.p. in i charge of net sales. Dave Savage! now is administrative v.p. for the organization. As general sales manager, Kap¬ lan will coordinate the network, regional and syndicated film sales of the company. Schubert will have a minimum of three properties in syndication this year, as well as a feature package of 26 pix. Already in syndication Is '“Your Musical Jamboree.” Set for filming are ■“Counterspy,” and “New Adven¬ tures of Mr. and Mrs. North.” “This Is Alice” EYE JEAN HAGEN FOR ‘BRINGING UP KATY’ Hollywood, Feb. 24. “Man Without A Gun.” All except “Alice” is set for new production, with the NTA web as the probable vehicle.) But what of other programming next season? It’s known that Barry has presented a series of alterna¬ tive proposals, with the NTA board Jean Hagen is being sought by of directors weighing the costs and Revue Productions to star in a new potential sponsors. The web, which telepix series, “Bringing Up Katy.” may go in for taped specs, as well Series, created by Everett Free- as olmed. shows, has been an un¬ man, producer of “Bachelor k JL own Quantity” in the words of Father,” revolves around the ex- mA board chairman Ely Landau, ploits of a mag writer. the “unknown quantity” referring ... - - v j • to the webs future. Miss Hagen has appeared in one _ . . ..._. series, for several years serving as ! To wbat extent wiB gamete Danny Thomas’ tv “wife.” exiting on n f w programming depends on a that show for other assignments. n “”£er of factors, not the least of - _ which is the cooperation of clear- ___ ... , ing prime time with affiliates. An- CB5 Newsfilms Sales other is the forecast support along Five additional U. S. tv stations Madison Ave. Landau, at the recent have subscribed to CBS News- stockholders meeting, acknowl- films. They are WRVA-TV, Rich- edged that the web had been run- mond, Va.; KFBB-TV, Great Falls, ning in the red. The scope of new Mont.; WABI-TV, Bangor, Me.; programming plans to be unveiled WAGM-TV, Presque Isle, Me., and at the NAB confabs should tell to KETC, St. Louis educational sta- what extent NTA will he pushing tion. the non-coaxial cable web concept.