Variety (March 1959)

40 RABIO-TELE VISION Wednesday, March 4, 1950 PfoumfY Epitaph For Lar Daly —- Continued from P 2 ge 18 - — and I’m entitled to time on televi¬ sion by law. ‘If They’d Only Listen To Me* “Sig Mickelson and the other network fellows are hurting them¬ selves seriously in their statements to the'FCC about the stupidity of Section 315. They are saying in effect that Congressmen are bump¬ kins for establishing the law in the first place. I could show these (tv) people how to protect themselves from the rule, if they would only listen to me. “Right now their best protection from the injustices of Section 315 is to lay off political coverage en¬ tirely. Put none of the politicians on the air. Otherwise, it is the established law, and the law is to be obeyed.” As for networks’ hue and cry about the inviolability of news, Daly says, “who is to say which Cunningham’s Bill Washington, March 3. Rep. Glenn Cunningham (R- Neb.) said Monday (2) he is drafting a bill to ease the equal time requirement as Federal Communications Commission applied it in the hotly disputed Lar Daly case. The Congressman said his measure would instruct FCC not to enforce the equal time rule in every news situation. Under his proposal, Cunning¬ ham explained, FCC would have “rules of guidance which would allow a station to report. the news as it happens.” “It does not take a Solomon to decide whether a station is giving slanted news coverage to one party or one candidate. Any radio or tv news editor has the good judgment to de¬ cide what is news and what is not,” Cunningham said in a House speech. candidate is newsworthy and which is not? The networks are trying to dodge the problem with the argu¬ ment that news is news and is not to be tampered with. I say that subjective determination is forbid¬ den in all law. It is an arbitrary decision that Mayor Richard J. Daley makes news when he gives a speech while token candidate Lar Daly does not make news. Frankly, a far more serious thing is that the newspapers do not give equal space to political candidates. But televi¬ sion has a law governing this mat¬ ter and the papers do not” That Daly’s “equal time” on Chi¬ cago tv helped him enormously is patent. As a self-admitted token candidate he drew 55,000 votes, or about 10% of the total turnout Because of his showing Daly has asked Republican candidate Timo¬ thy Sheehan to withdraw and let him take on the incumbent alone in the April mayoralty. It is hardly probable that Sheehan will agree so Daly undoubtedly will run for the 21st time as a write-in candi¬ date. L’Affaire Lar Daly is not yet quite over. Godfrey m Continued from pase' 19 — M so that it read “Thou shalt commit adultery.” “Oh, fine,” Godfrey lamented. While Godfrey is heir apparent to “Person to Person” there is no indication that he will inherit any bankrollers. One of the two sponsors, Rev¬ lon, has given CBS-TV notice that it will drop the program in the spring. Revlon, which has been carrying the program since the middle of November, said the de¬ cision to drop the program was made before it was learned that Murrow had planned to take, a year’s leave from CBS. An execu¬ tive from the company stated the program was not aiding in the sale of cosmetics. Lorillard, which sponsors the program on behalf of Kent cigar- ets, is committed to carry the pro¬ gram until the expiration of the contract in June. Execs of Lennen & Newell, agency for the ciggie company, stated that no decision had been made concerning fall sponsorship of the program. ‘Paradise’ j Continued from page 19 company top brass will buy the idea can only be ascertained when next the sponsor board of directors meets. Actually, Firestone wants to keep the 9 p.m. slot, or. if Ral¬ ston finally leaves, to return to its old 8:30 time, a step ABC Is ex¬ pected to oppose, because this would virtually kill any chance to insert the new 20th Fox hourlong package on Mondays, particularly since Philip Morris is already firmed up at 9:38 with “Trouble¬ shooters.” (PM tentative order was turned into a contract this week, it’s reported.) Still further in this syndrome is the network slant on the “Para¬ dise” announcement. It’s said by ABC that when last it negotiated a contract with Ralston, the net- w'ork made it clear that if Ralston came back in *59-’60 in the 8:30 Monday anchorage, it had to drop “Bold Journey.” To this Ralston agreed, hence the departure of “Journey” this summer. Further¬ more, if Ralston does stick it out, ABC reportedly has the right to ^ ft Dynamic n ew dimension in TV programming | CORPORATION | *TU AMPCX COUP. REDWOOD CITY. CALIFORNIA ‘Paradise’ Sale—-If P. Lorillard is eyeing a half- hour buy of ABC-TV’s “Adven¬ tures in Paradise” series which the. network has tentatively slotted for Mondays at 8:00- 9:30. Obviously, ABC cannot close a. deal with the cig (and it hasn't even been determined whether they^want an every- week or skipSveek half-hour) until the Ra^pn situation is cleared up at the end of this month. Evidently, Lorillard is only ’interested in the 8:30 half-hour of the hour show be¬ cause if Lorillard tocfe 9-9:30 ♦segment it would put it into direct .product conflict with Philip Morris, which has the segueing-“Troubleshooters” at approve (or disapprove) Ralston’s program choice. Meanwhile, Ralston has bought co-sponsorship (with Kimberly- Clark) of CBS-TV’s ‘TPeck’s Bad Girl.” Even if Ralston doesn’t go along, ABC figures the month headstart it’s getting on “Paradise” will help sales. Moreover, the announcement by ABC was reportedly made to hasten a decision by Ralston re¬ garding the Monday time period. Max Factor Continued from page 18 (were) unable to arrive at an agree¬ ment.” It’s understood, though, that the talks bogged down on the size of the liabilities of the web that the cosmetic firm would have to assume. Little cash reportedly figured in the negotiations.. Big lure to some interested parties, ■ oddly enough because of tax laws, !in the loss position of MBS,*which could be used as a loss carry-over for tax purposes. As of last fall, when the network filed a statement with the Securi¬ ties and Exchange Commission, Mutual’s total current liabilities were put at $1,221,64L There also was an item of $1,389,403 listed under current liabilities as being due to stockholders. The word of Mutual’s desire to be bought was leaked in financial circles soon after the scandal asso¬ ciated with F. L. Jacobs Co. and Alexander Guterma. Jacobs is the parent company of Scranton Corp., Mutual and Hal Roach Studios. Guterma, who has been prez of Jacobs and MBS, resigned all his posts and sold out his stock inter¬ est to Hal Roach Jr. Roach cur¬ rently is head of Jacobs. The web has been operated by exec v.p. Walliser, who remains in the post. Guterma’s troubles and that of Jacobs stemmed from alleged stock fraud charges made by the Securi¬ ties and Exchange Commission. Negotiations for the sale of Mu¬ tual continued despite a temporary order restraining Jacobs from dis¬ posing of any of the firm’s assets. Order was issued by a Wayne County Circuit Court. Ralph Laza¬ rus, Factor secretary, contended the Detroit court order didn’t seem to affect Scranton Corp., as Factor attorney saw it. The Detroit order :was issued on the application of a minority stockholders committee. Another stockholders group is seeking an examination of the com¬ pany books in an action in Scran¬ ton, Pa. • In another legal development, ’Federal Judge Sidney Sugarman issued an injunction ordering Ja¬ cobs to file by March 31 all reports required by the New York Stock Exchange and the SEC. Sugarman in another court action, had -his court assume jurisdiction over that of the Detroit state court SCREEN GEMS FEATURES DELIVER top AUDIENCE SHARES I NEW YORK (Canyon Passage) M mm . . . CHICAGO ■Jp gB^CLosf Horizon) . . . BIRMINGHAM (Kiss and Tell) 69.9 Source: ARB, I95B-5T SCREEN fcvGEMS, INC. TELEVISION SUBSIDIARY OF COLUMBIA PICTURES CORP. 711 Fifth Avmho, New York 22 PL L-4432 NEW YORK DETROIT CHICAGO HOLLYWOOD MIAMI HOUSTON TORONTO Inside Stuff—Radio-TV Phil Silvers will be the “judge” at the mock trial staged by Max Liebman for the Academy of TV Arts and Sciences N.Y. Chapter “Close-Up” on Saturday (7) at the Waldorf-Astoria. Academy prexy Robert F. Lewine has “subpoenaed” Milton Berle to stand trial for “alleged crimes against public during his 10-year reign as a tv comic.” Jan Murray will be the defense attorney; Jack E. Leonard, foreman of the jury. Witnesses include Steve Allen, Tallulah Bankhead, Martha Raye and Ed Sullivan. Book and sketches will be penned by Woody Allen; David Rogers, William Friedberg, Lou Salaman and others. 0 Musical numbers will be staged by Boris Rumanin. Clay Warnick is choral director; Charles Sanford, musical director; Frank Schneider, scenic designer; Robert Fletcher, costume supervisor, and Leon Gersten stage manager. David Tebet and Hank Sylvern are co-chairmen of the TV Academy's Activities Committee. x Dr. Mason W. Gross, who was a tv figure on Herb Shriner’s “Two For the Money” over CBS-TV, this week was upped to presidency of Rutgers Univ. He took over job created by resignation of Dr. Lewis Webster Jones who now becomes prexy of National Conference of Christians and Jews. Dr. Gross’ job on “Two For the Money” was to authenticate answers by contestants. On Tuesday (10) morning, ABC-TV will give what’s become kind of an annual affair, since Ollie Treyz took over as the web topper. Net¬ work will give to assembled ad agency execs, et al., the 1959 “here’s where we stand report,” based on programming for next season. As per usual, ABC-TV will use Cellomatic as a presentation tool. It’s set for 9:30 a m., in the Grand Ballroom of the Waldorf-Astoria in N.Y. Axe-Houghton Fund B Inc., a mutual fund, owns- 54,000 shares cf common stock in Metropolitan Broadcasting Corp. Value of the A-H controlled shares is listed at $2,194,500 by the mutual fund. Interesting part of this is that A-H, in a mailing on its investments as of the end of 1958, listed Met as its only holding under what it de¬ scribes as the “advertising” category. The Met shares comprise 2% of the holdings in the entire fund. National Assn, of Educational Broadcasters has awarded research grants-in-aid of $509 each to Dr. Keith Engar, manager of KUED, U. of Utah; Dean Warren L. Hickman of Ithaca (N.Y.) College; and Ray¬ mond T. Bedwell Jr., assistant in radio-tv at Ohio State U. First two are researching effectiveness of educational programs produced by their schools, the last photographing and cataloging materials re¬ lated to the history of radio broadcasting in the U.S. to 1934. Marguerite Piazza, Herb Shriner and Nichols & May will entertain at the once-a-year dinner of Radio and Television Correspondents’ As¬ sociation in Washington March 7, Julian Goodman, NBC Washington director of news and public affairs and president of the association, announced. _ More than 600 are expected for the VIP-studded affair, with Vice President Richard M. Nixon to be ranking guest. Scores of others at the height of the Governmental ladder will also be there, including Cabinet officers. Supreme Court justices. Senators, Congressmen, commissioners, etc. Statler Hotel’s Presidential Room will house it. TV Pulitzer Prizes Continued from pase 19 up with original Broadway drama. It was at this point that he sat down and wrote to Dean Edward W. Barrett of the Columbia Grad-| uate School of Journalism asking him to bring the matter to the at- tention of those in charge of Pulit¬ zer Prizes. Sarnoff thought tv’s ability draw the best creative writers “would be increased if it were pos¬ sible for a tv drama to win Amer¬ ica’s most universally respected mark of creative excellence, a Pulitzer Prize.” SarnofPs letter 'cited instances of modifications in the Pulitzer Prizes since the first I awards for journalism and letters! were made in 1917. Advisory Board meets April 24, at Columbia to consider annual awards. Sarnoffs communique will be on the agenda. Clyne Continued from pase 18 — first pilot is bought by us or some¬ body like us.” Clyne also has some views on “the ideal television programming, and that would really be three dif¬ ferent shows, (1) for the metropol¬ itan markets; O the west coast market; and (3) the smaller mar¬ kets.” He points to a 20 Trendex-rating in New York getting 30 nationally and there are instances for certain shows being “big” in New York, Los Angeles and Chicago and NSG in the lesser keys. “It’s impossible to appeal to all audiences.” ‘Bregman’s Mask Shop’ To Do When & If Duty Hollywood, March 3.. Although the “Buddy Bregman Music Shop” goes off the air after Sunday’s (8) show, NBC-TV Is tak¬ ing the unusual step of taping and paying for five additional segments, i which may never be telecast Web was committed to packager Maurice Duke for a full cycle of 13 shows, and rather than paying off the contract^ decided to go ahead with production of the re¬ maining five. Web will put the tape bn the shelf, keeping it on hand for pos¬ sible summer replacement or filler duty. Met. William Mams Ag««cy ALERT — AMBITIOUS GENTLEMAN Sasfcs cftallanelne po ilH on with toed future. 1 hays 10 years dfversHled ex¬ perience as cntlne dhreefer CTV com¬ mercials and ahowsV ani cWt pro¬ decar# Idea man# IV program develop¬ ment and public refefleu*. 3* years old# married# SJL decree. Good ap¬ pearance. Please call PL 7-4391 after 13 neon. WANTED PILOT FILMS OF ALL TYPES IF you own a pilot film or films, wo art Interested. IF you want to sell this film, or films, we are doiibly interested. Please give full particulars in 1st letter, PRIVATE BUYER—Bex V 3259, VARIETY, 154 W. 44tfc St.. Now York 34