Variety (February 1959)

AFTRAaniSAG |tvs All-American Lineup: Mid-Season Mark NOW making 1 Jlt0 (Here are the thorn in the prime nighttime area (7:30 to H :00) that dominate their time periods on the three major tv networks 4WUt w - boxed on the second January Nielsen AA (average audience rating s. At the mid-season mark, it’x pretty indicative of time period lead* * ership for the'58-’59 semester.) Damon & Pythias A new era of "cooperation* be¬ tween the American Federation of Television A Radio Artistsand Screen Actors Guild, who are still seriously fighting out tape juris¬ diction (before the NLRB),appears to have cropped up, at least to the degree where both aides for the first time are manifesting a desire not to step openly on one another** toes. Change is due to the greater chance now than ever before that the two upions will merge—per¬ haps before'£960.. For a long period, up to the very recent past, both unions have taken turns publicly denouncing the aims of the other, but now neither, per¬ former union seems to be offering any public commentary without first apprising the other, and when the commentary is finally released It is now of a sweetness-and-light variety. This change in attitude (which some think is a hesitant change) was prompted by the evident will¬ ingness in. the past several, weeks of SAG to actually consider grounds for merger with AFTRA. AFTRA has taken, a let’s-give-'em- a-chance-to-proye-they-mean-it atti¬ tude. Clayton (Bud). Coilyer, AFTRA proxy, wrote SAG's board of direc¬ tors the other day expressing, der fight in learning -‘that the vote on the Guild referendum indicates the overwhelming wish of the Guild membership to seek a prac¬ tical, way to achieve a merger" of AFTRA and SAG- .He offered AFTBA's cooperation in "selection of an impsriial. research organiza¬ tion to prepare a. plan for the merger,*' London, Feb. 24.- Members bf advertising agencies interested in television took a look last Wednesday (18) at color tv demonstration* arranged at - the Dorchester Hotel by the Commer¬ cial TV .Circle. Closed circuit, employing Pye 828-line compatible picture equipment,* Was Used; " About 470 guests, consisting of * members of the Circle and their clients, attended the two- session!, each' of which tailed about 75 min- ■ vteeJ One item was a specUHy- Written version of AsxOdited-R*; diffusion's : i5-rafnutesdmag "Jim’s 1 Inn,* which lockout ovfcr me Lon^ don transmitter at' 10:45' pm, on- Fridays. ^ Dan logman, director of .Young A ingmam who ebairsthe Com-': merdal TV Circle* told Vanmry that the demonstrations "didn't mean a thing'* in terms of implying that color tv was jtist around the comm or whatever. ; He pointed out that engineers, have been ex¬ perimenting with color for about 15 years, ..and the feorich^ster get- togethers were arranged Simply,to Show members, what could > fee: achieved, and keep* interest alive. TV TOOTHPASTEADS ANNOY IHUnSH,T00 ■ . London. Feb. 24. Some makers of tv commercials and advertising agents are cur¬ rently. going into huddles to modify their toothpaste ads and revise the: scripts for others not yet shot This i follows a ruling last Wednesday (18>bythe Independent Television Authority that comnierclal tv webs must reject • toothpaste* plugs in the opinion of the Brit¬ ish Dental Assn.*-make misleading daims.!;- i.. •. .. .. . ; n*A*s advertising advisory com¬ mittee took, tip the matter follow- ing complaints from dentist* that pointed,specifically tocommercialx: smed +% persuading viewers it wee a day; A f^wntofttea back, ITA put an embargo on doctor scenes in patent mtoticine^ads ;whettn actors in Whit* mats and sometimes caBy*. ing stethosc<m^Hm:i|scd tha Ptpdr net.Concerned* 10:30-11:00 WHAT'S MY LINE (CBS) SCHEUER ‘SHOWDOWN’ SST FOR YNEW-TV TV Key columnist Steve Scbeuer Is breaking through as a video pro¬ ducer -Oft March 20, when WNEW- TV r N. Y., - launches his "Show¬ down" In the Friday, 1-1:30 p.jn. Slot. Stanza, which will become part of the five-day-a-week "Monty Hall By-Line” show at that hour, will go heavy for criticism of the show's hitive medium, tv. r ner will discuss land critl- "BUyhouse 9Q’s” two-part "For Whom the Bell -Tolls" up¬ coming vidcasL The following Fri¬ day (27), . "Showdown” will o.O. "Green Pastures” and “The Big Eye," e special one-hour video en¬ try. on wiretapping. DESILU PLAYHOUSE (CBS) DESILU PLAYHOUSE (CBS) I'VE GOT A SECRET (CBS) THIS IS YOUR LIFE (NBC) European TY Webs In Daily Fihn Exchange Rome, Feb. 24. Seven European television net¬ works br as many countries will exchange daily filmed news ma¬ terial on an .experimental basis from May 4 to 30. Rapid .diffusion of the material will be made pos¬ sible -by the Eurovision setup, which links most western contin¬ ental nations. Trial period will . see Italy, France, Great Britain, Belgium. Holland, and Switzerland linked for the entire period, while West Germany will tie in for its least epe week, thus making possible additional hookups with Denmark, Sweden, and Austria. WHAT CAKE FIRST, CHICKEN OR EGG? Gainesville, Ga., Feb. 24. Here’s an electronic twist to the man bites dog theme with news¬ paper ink overtones. Radio Station WDUN has an¬ nounced it will begin publishing a weekly , newspaper April 2. Sheet will be edited by Ted Oglesby, WDUN news director, who will continue his station chores. - Gainesville (pop. 25,000) is cen¬ tered in nation’s leading broiler (chicken) market and has three ra¬ dio stations, a. dally newspaper and a poultry trade weekly. • Harris 9 Sweeping Spectrum Probe; 6 Is There A Goldfine In The Sky? 9 By LES CARPENTER Washington, Feb. 24. v Is. there jlG oidflne in -the afy? Oren> Harris says he is going to lhvatttgatt the sphetrum. Arkansas’ U.S, Bep. Harris is also planning more probes of shady deals in U*S« regulatory agamies (toriuding.the Federal Communi¬ cations CommUsionbBut the two investigations will be handled sep¬ arately; under' Harris* supervision, with differeht bankrolls. a. H»ria will soon have $350,000 to finance his up there and down here activities. He is requesting from the House'(and wi|l soon'get) $200,000 to carry on the work of hilinflu- ence-probing subcommittee, offi¬ cially known as the Legislative Overnight Subcommittee, and $150,- 000 to launch a technical study by the Communications Subcommittee of Who should have which parts of the spectrum. The fact that * Congressional group, rather than a White House commission, win tackle the spec- brum issue it good news for the broadcasting industry generally. But the : revitalisation ot the tough probing of affluent Influence Is bad hews foraomebody. £ Harris*' announcement Thursday (10) : that his eight-member Com- iriunicatiOfix Buhoommittee (he’s Chairman) SriH hire a,"hiifldy com¬ petent technical staff" to uuder- dke a careful^ and complete study 0L the entire ra^ospeptrum, with tegislattoHTd follow, clearly meant n0 Wfitie House [commission or other executive group doing it Eisenhower Administration poli¬ cy was stated only * short time ago [when Leo A. Hoegb, director of the Office of Civil and Defense Ad¬ ministration, announced Congress will he salt a bill to authorize a five-member commission to be ap¬ pointed by President Eisenhower with the task of studying spectrum allocation. The hoi has not yet been introduced and probably won’t be. Harris moved first, and that’s that Broadcasting industry spokes¬ men here Lave feared that any ex¬ ecutive group would be more sym¬ pathetic with military hunger for more of the spectrum. They see Congress, close to televiewing voters, as leaning to demands for more and better commerical tv, and more Inclined to force the mil¬ itary to offer conclusive proof that it must have all the spectrum it has already or that it must have more. In a statement, Hurls said the upcoming spectrum study "will In¬ clude present and future uses by military and other Governmental agencies, radio and tv stations' and other private parties, of the radio spectrum, and legislation needed to establish proper governmental machinery and procedures to as¬ sure a fair distribution of available frequencies among all thesAusers." . Harris potentially could have <a problem making the military^.talk during.. the study. Answering an inquiry on this point, hesahLhe anticipates no difficulty; "t expect cooperation," he said. Pentagon YDPs have previously maintained that* use of the spec¬ trum (and the rod justification of . military; reqUiremOit* k in It) vegn?" stitute many *of*'tiie. ;%ibat- > *eriour military secrets the Government has. The Defense Dept, could com¬ pletely louse up the Harris .study by refusing to take the subcommit¬ tee and its staff into military con¬ fidence. But that would run a grave political risk for the pentagon. Harris said neither he nor other subcommittee members has the scientific and engineering know¬ how to conduct such a study and will have to rely on a .competent technical staff which be said will he hired "with utmost care." He hasn’t started the staff search yet Harris’ fellow Communications Subcommittee members are Reps. Walter Rogers (D-Tex.), John J. Flynt (D-Ga.), John E. Moss <D- Calif.), Don Rostenkowski (D-HL), John B. Bennett (R-Micb.), * J. Arthur Younger (P-Calif.) and Wil¬ liam H. Avery (R-KanJ. Membership of the Legislative Oversight Subcommittee was shift¬ ed some. Two Democratic members who formerly served on it. Reps. John Bell Williams (Miss.) and Morgan Moulder (Mo.), were not reappointed. Harris moved them to the Transportation Subcommittee Instead. Three of the four Repub¬ lican members are new because only one of the *58 GOP members returned to Congress this year. The '59 subcommittee, with Har¬ ris as chairman again, is composed of Beps. Peter F, Mack (DHL), Rogers, Flynt, Moss, Bennett, Wil¬ liam L- Springer "(R-HL), Steven B. Derdunian (R-N.YJ -tad Samuel Devinuft (R-Ohio). It'll probably be a month at least before Harris conducts the first in¬ vestigation by the Legislative Over¬ sight* Subcommittee; The subject it stiH Tmdfetermined, bdfc af fce puts it ,"We have somdinfdrnridficm CBS Spot Sales SellofftoMils Still a Hot Issue Washington, Feb. 24. Effort of a group of CBS affili¬ ates to buy the web’s Spot Sales is still warm and could heat up at the CBS-TV affiliates meeting in Chicago March 15, John S. Hayes, WTOP-TV, Washington, prexy and prime mover behind purchase, in¬ dicated this week. No rush is currently necessary. Federal Communications Commis¬ sion has postponed until April 27 the deadline for filing comments on the proposed rule outlawing network-owned spot sales for other than its own oAo properties. Hayes has interested 14 tv sta¬ tions in buying CBS Spot Sales. Seven of the 14 (including his own WTOP-TV "here and WJXT-TV, Jacksonville, Fla.) are. now served by CBS Spot Sales. Seven others are currently represented other¬ wise, and their identity has not been made public because of pos¬ sible embarrassment with their present spot sales ties. In addition, proposed new outfit would con¬ tinue handling spot sales for CBS oAo stations. The way. the deal is expected to work is that under the new own¬ ership, each station would buy one share of stock. When there are two stations (as in Washington- Jacksonville example), they would jointly own one share. CBS oAo stations would be allowed to pur¬ chase one share jointly. Dividends would be paid on the basis of the billing of the station or stations, rather than on stock ownership. ABC MULLS SPECIAL FOR THREE STOOGES ABC-TV is mulling a live one- hour special fronted by the Three Stooges. Deal is in its embryonic stages around the network program offices, but idea would be to pre¬ sent the stanza in early June. Network was prompted to do the show because of the hot comeback staged by the Stooges, resulting from the release to television of their old theatrical short subjects. WOK 469G SALE OKAYED . * Washington, Feb. 24. Federal C^mmmdcXticxis Com¬ mission has approved sale of radio WORL, Boston, for $48&,040. Purchaser is! WOOL Broadcast¬ ing Corp^ Of Which PJfci F. Har- ron h president. *