Variety (March 1959)

HADIO-TELEVISION 52 Wednesday, March 11, 1959... Television Reviews — Continued from page 37 • ' ~ ~ slavia. In both' Wales and Lima, NBC International was providing overall managerment; in Yugo¬ slavia, mainly programming aid while in Germany it was rendering assistance of a technical nature. therapy. This particular edition of the Wallace interview program lacked focus. It had devolved merely into a conversation between an argumentative male and a de¬ fensive female. Visually, stanza was the - same over - the - shoulder, open - pore video that typified the Wallace interviews on both ABC-TV and WABD, the Gotham tv’er which now goes by the call letters WNEW-TV. Art. TEN-TWENTY With Whispering- Joe Wilson, Frank Oliva, Joe Diehl, Don Toxer, others Producer: Joe Wilson, Frank Oliva Director: Bob Gatlins SO Mins., Mon., 8:30 p.m. CHI BILLIARDS ASSN. WBKB, Chicago (Glassner & Associates) After seeing what televised bowl¬ ing has done for the kegler sport in less .than a decade, some 82 bil¬ liard parlors in the Chicago area, suffering of late from neglect, have chipped in to buy a prime time show of their own y/ith hopes that the cathode tube can perpetrate Available for all motion picture and tele¬ vision uses—the combined stock shot libraries of NBC TELEVISION FILMS and THE MARCH OF TIME-more then 30 million feet of film, minutely indexed for insia ntayotfSSi) ity! flams, jou r sub¬ ject; w|^ave it! Call Peggy Moran at... the same magic on the green felt tables that it has on the tenpin lanes. This pocket billiards show has probably more sponsors than any tv opus irf history. Splitting the tab with ttie 82 pool parlors are the Bowling & Billiard Institute of America and five local billiard supply distribs, Brunswicke-Balke-' Collender; Kieckhefer Mfg. Co.; Sydney Laner Co.; Marvel Billiard & Bowling Supply Co.; and Univer¬ sal Bowling & Golf Corp. The purpose of ^Ten-Twenty” is plainly to promotfNthe game of pocket billiards, and since the televised two-man matches do just that, im¬ plicitly, there’s no need to break away for commercials. This—need it be said?—is an appealing aspect of the show. For the kind of show it is, it is excellent. The cameras succeed in bringing the game up close, the pros who play it on tv (Don Tozer and Joe Diehl on the initialer) satisfy even the uninitiated with dazzling shots, and veteran sports- caster Joe Wilson dramatizes it suspensefully from the sotto voce crouch. That pocket billiards can be a spectator sport is how proven, but whether it can seduce televiewers, or, more important, catch on as a participating sport, is for time to telL Conjecture from the gallery is that the exercise and apparel factors are missing to tempt distaff participants, and it is noted that the femmes have been highly in¬ strumental in making a craze of howling. “Ten-Twenty” involves a game known colloquially as “Call Pool,” in which the player calls his shot and then attempts to make it. World champions at the game are matched in the live telecasts, each played in eight innings for a win¬ ner’s purse of $300 and a variety of bonuses,, including one of $5,000. for perfect game. The show, as it is produced on WBKB, is worthy of a network trial in odd timeslots, such as those assigned the keglers. Les. Barnes —^ Continued from paje 38's= placement in 'the nightly 7:45 news spot on the web., with Eric Severeid as a possible- candidate. Barnes also is tinkering -with the notion*' of bringing back the old “CBS Views the Press” as a once- a-week feature. Barnes is to appear on a panel with four other broadcasters at radio session of NAB Monday (16) to powwow trends in AM program¬ ming. Besides Barnes, there’ll be Bob Enoch, WKLW, Indianapolis; Frank Gaither, WSB, Atlanta; Dun¬ can Mounsey, WPTR, Albany, and Robert E. Thomas, WJAG, Norfolk, Neb. Stern . Continued from page 30 tions at that time. At present, he said, there were no American co¬ production deals in Japan but -Americans, however, were active in distribution of vidpix product to Nippon, tv operators. NBC International was doing a thriving biz in management serv¬ ices for foreign tv systems, accord¬ ing to Stern. He cited such deals with tv outlets in Wales, Hamburg, Lima and the government of Yugo- , Super Universal ZOOMAR 2 %» 40 ' _ AT TH - fcTOSsi Video DISPLAY wl'Crt 'i it. N. A B. CONVENTION Stern dodged questions regard¬ ing NBC International’s invest¬ ment projects in foreign broadcast¬ ing properties saying only that it had a 109o interest in QTQ, tv out¬ let In Brisbane, Australia, ready to go on the air this year. He did say, however, there was the pos¬ sibility of additional investment in other tv properties in Australia. As now set up, NBC Interna¬ tional has an office in London with reps looking after both Europe and Africa; an office in Mexico over¬ seeing all of Latin America and the likelihood of an office being opened In Australia to cover the Far East. He said Manila was an ideal tv area but unfortunately a serious dollar balance problem there made trade difficult. Manila now pos¬ sesses 15,000 receivers but could use many more to tune in the two present day tv transmitters. Press & TV Must Work Together Or Face Gov’t Controls, Warns Seltzer Cleveland, March 10. Newspaper publishers must co^ operate and work with the broad¬ casting industry to avoid inevi¬ table Government control over the communications industry, Louis B. Seltzer, editor of the Cleveland Press told KYW’s “Program PM.” 1 Calling present day newspaper opposition to television “a childish conflict,” Seltzer said “the elec- trohic miracle is here not only to stay, but ultimately will displace the method by which the dail^ newspapers publish. The day Is going to come when the newspaper will be delivered into the living room, and a button will be pressed, and a full-sized newspaper page In complete color will drop before the viewers’ eyes at his conven¬ ience.” Seltzer, in reply to questions posed by KYW News Director San¬ ford Markey, predicted that within 20 years, “as television increases as the basic medium of communi¬ cations in some form or another, and it is essential that the news¬ papers make use of electronic fa¬ cilities to displace those they al¬ ready rely upon, then does it hot logically follow that communica¬ tions will be found to be licensed by the United States government and will that not inhibit, hurt, frustrate and dangerously impair the right of people of America to know freely and fully about events in their country? “And therefore, it seems to me that logic and mutual self-interest, and more important than that, the interest of communications to the country which sustains all forms of media communications, calls for a mutual understanding between the press and television rather than a conflict, so that ultimately when and as the new form of com¬ munications gradually extends and expands and becomes a far more integral part of our life than it is today; then we will not have gov¬ ernment control in communica¬ tions, and we’re in some real dan¬ ger that might happen if the pub¬ lic pf^ss of America doesn’t join hands with tv to make that im¬ possible.” NBC Board Okays V.P. Status for Dave Levy David Levy, who resigned Young & Rubicam for the top pro¬ gramming berth at NBC-TV, was elected a veep of NBC at a meet¬ ing of the board of directors last Friday (6). Levy (who was veep and asso¬ ciate director of the radio-tv dept of the ad agency, will be in charge of programs and talent for NBC- TV, reporting to Walter Scott, exec veep of the video web. Godfrey’s Aloha Tapes Arthur Godfrey wal tape record two weeks of his CBS-TV and CBS Radio programs from Hawaii from March through April i0. All told, he will do six tv shows and 10 radio programs with Charles Andrews, producing for¬ mer and Fred Hendrickson doing the latter. About 25 Individuals would comprise the production team for the 16 hours of radio-tv programming. MCA mmmmmmim Continued from page 29 agency solely in its representation of Four Starts riding with about $16,000,000 worth of shows—eight in all. WM’s stake in agenting Four Star on the eight entries is $1,600,000, which ain’t exactly hay. But not to minimize Morris’ over¬ all stake in the vidfilm arena, the secret to the big payoff and that potential $50,000,000 lies in pro¬ ducing on your own and owning a bundle of residuals. New MCA-Revue hour shows going for NBC next season include “Mississippi River Boat,” “Bonan¬ za,” latter dealing with Virginia City, Nevada (both may wind up back-to-back Sunday 7 to 9); “Wagon Train” and a new 60-min- ute entry “Loramie,” to replace “Cimarron City,” being bumped. But even if “Cimarron” didn’t make it in its first time out as a network skein, there’s plenty of residual loot in the offing for MCA, along with the’ other entries, once they hit the off- network circuits. Same, for that matter, goes for the 20 dr so hour shows owned by MCA that went into last season’s “Suspicion” series. There’s no question as to the ul¬ timate value of the hour film en¬ tries in the changing structure and i sponsor patterns in syndication, j which, for example, has already been pre-tested in the conversion of NBC-TV’s ex“Matinee Theatre” into the syndicated “Cameo The¬ atre.” Even as a restricted 13- skein entry, NBC stands to benefit to the tune of a half-milion dollars on this one. Tele Followup __ -Continued from, page 37 I sion and give people back their ; sense of self-confidence. What mis¬ takes did her husband make? He madp a mistake in trying to do something about ' reforming the judicial system before the people were ready for reforms. • Former first lady of the land was asked if legislation was needed to provide for a situation when a President became clearly incapac¬ itated. Clarification of succession of office was important, she told Attwood, but final decision re in¬ capacitation would have to come .from a group joi doctors, free of political taint, who have the con¬ fidence of their profession and of the public. Mrs. Roosevelt was described, during course of program, as arche¬ type of the 20th Century Woman. The “Wisdom” program amply de¬ monstrated Mrs. Roosevelt’s reflec¬ tive thinking. Rdns. ’59 Challenges Zimmm Continued from page 33 a less dominant role in the syndica¬ tion biz. Stations are still riding heavily with feature showcases, playing off the inventory. But the fact of the matter is that compara¬ tively few. fresh feature groups now are coming into the, market on the distribution level. In the midst of these develop¬ ments, NTA is being acquired by National Theatres. Qross-Krasne- Sillerman was bought out by NTA. Screen Qems purchased Elliot, Un¬ ger & Elliot, Inc., one of the east’s larger commercial production houses, and Buckeye Corp., a mid- western chicken incubator maker, acquired Flamingo Films. All this is characteristic of the never-stand- stili telefilm biz. Fulbright Booster For TV Boosters Washington, March 10. Federal Communications Com¬ mission has found a Senate booster for its position on boosters. Sen. J. William Fulbright (D- Ark.) made a long Senate speech telling Congressional critics of FCC (in its anti-booster stand to study the facts before they did any more yapping. Fulbright said he, too, had received complaints about FCC’s one-time (since aelayed) crackdown on Western booster op¬ erations. But, the onetime Rhodes Scholar and university president added, he looked into the whys and why nots before he opened his mouth on the subject. “It is inconceivable to me,” Ful¬ bright said, after telling the Senate the long background-of the issue, “that anyone can- urge that the commission has not carefully and thoroughly considered this prob¬ lem. Those criticizing the commis¬ sion’s decision do not Seek to meet the issues raised by the commission with Respect to the boosters . . . I, for one, do pot believe the com¬ mission is deliberately trying to prohibit people in the rural areas from having television service. I am willing to rely upon the expert judgment of the commission that the translator service is an excel¬ lent low-cost method of providing television service, and that the VHF booster service is inherently dangerous to the present television allocation plan, to television recep¬ tion in congested areas and to other communications services which had been allotted channels in the VHF spectrum and which" are intended to be Used in the protection of life and property.” Fulbright said he was “sur- [ prised” FCC extended from 90 days to six months the time VHF booster operators will be required j to convert to UHF’ “This,” said the Senator, looks as if the commission may be bow¬ ing to pressures from the Congress ; and considers itself forced to aban¬ don its own convictions as to what is in the public interest.”_ Mgt. William Mams Aganc f JOHNMYJOmSMi Luncheon served Noon to 3 F.M. 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