Variety (March 1959)

Wednesday, March 18, 1959 P'SutEfr TV-FILMS 39 MIXTURE AS BEFORE IN CHI New ARB-‘Variety’ Charts American Research Bureau, starting with this issue of Variety, is furnishing the rating data for network and syndicated programs on the local level. See pages 47 and 50. » The ARB-Variety Market-by-Market weekly chart will cover 10 cities each issue. Over the course of a year, different markets will be covered from the miMmum of 150 markets tabulated by ARB. Composition of the chart highlights the Top 10 network shows in a given market and a depth study of the Top 10 syndicat¬ ed shows in the same market. Within the next few weeks, the ARB data will be expanded in Variety to cover the top feature films in selected markets. The charts, a longtime feature of Variety, are designed as a service to the various branches of the tv industry, < ranging from the media buyer to the local station to the syndicator. Par Threatens Lair of the Lion; $52,COO,»00 Vs. MGM-TV $54,000,000 Title of championship grosser of 4; all Hollywood feature libraries is about to pass to the Paramount label, currently being distributed by MCA TV. Metro's Leo the Lion, which was the king grosser of the pre-’48 major studio vaults, is threatened by dethronement. It’s just a mat¬ ter of a short time, too. This is the-box score: MCA TV has sold the 700 Paramount pix—, virtually all library deals—in about 40 markets. Estimated gross for the 40 stations, which includes most of the major big-dough cities, is over $52,000,000. MGM-TV, which started to sell the 700-plus Metro oldies in ’56, has grossed, about $54,000,000 to date. Leo the Lion label now is represented in 141 U.S. markets, many smaller markets of which have bought less than full library deals. Na doubt about it, the grossing performance of the Paramount has made Leo the Lion roar madly. Key to the situation, of course, is the timing. MGM-TV came into the market in 1956 when the tv syndication of the oldies was hot and heavy, with. Warners, RKO, 20th-Fojc and others represented. MCA TV came in two years later with Paramount, as the last of the major studio libraries to be of¬ fered to tv. It’s been reaping a harvest of scarcity ever since. Clock Spearheads Norman Gluck i has been placed in charge of Screen Gems’ expan¬ sion plans, which include entry into -videotape production, tv sta¬ tion acquisition and entry into non-theatrical distribution of 8m and 16m film prints. Gluck, until a month ago* the head of Universal-International’s now virtually defunct tv depart¬ ment and a. v.pl and director of U-I’s 16m company United World Films Inc., will be SG director of corporate operations. . Gluck, who actually, joined the Columbia Pictures telefilm sub¬ sidiary two weeks ago, will also oversee SG’s blurbmaking opera¬ tion. .(SG bought Elliot, Unger & Elliot, commercial production company, a few weeks ago.) He ■will reportedly start immediately to hunt for stations and will set up the non-theatrical print de¬ partment as soon as possible. More Smokes for ‘SA 7’; Major sponsor deals have been wrapped up by MCA TV on “SA 7” and ABC Films on “People’s Choice.” Lucky Strike Cigarets has ex¬ panded its regional on “SA 7” from 34 markets to 44, Dual Filter Tareytons has taken the Lloyd Nolan starrer in 16 markets. “Peoples Choice,” the off-net- work entry handled by ABC Films, has been renewed by Best Foods in New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles. Reported 52-week deal was set via Guild, Bascom & Bonfigli. Desilu’s First 2-Parter Hollywood, March 17. Quinn Martin will produce Desi¬ lu’s “The Untouchables,” outfit’s first two-installment vidpic which “Westinghous£ Desilu Playhouse” will telecast on consecutive weeks over CBS-TV. . . Chicago’s prohibition era will be limned in two-hour drama, to be directed by Phil Karlson from tele- play by Paul Monash. A Hag, Bone, Hank Of Hair; Or Making ‘Odds’ With Pennies Hollywood, March 17. New trend in low-budget, non¬ fiction syndicated programming, based on or styled after magazine featurettes, may be kicked off if Official Films clicks with its new “What Are the Odds?” Half-hour series, filming here, is crammed with 11 separate segments per show comprising features on odds and oddities of fact. . Producers, Herts-Lion Produc¬ tions, have another similar show in the hopper tagged “My Most Frightening Moment,” based on a Coronet feature, which would com¬ prise two dramatizations per half- hour. If “Odds” clicks, they’ll probably place “Moment” into pn* duction as well. “Odds,” inciden¬ tally, was done as a radio show 11 years ago by its producer, Ken Herts. Heretofore, there have been five- minute and quarter-hour mag- feature type shows, but no half- hours, though radio of course was loaded with them. In vidpix, there’s been “Look Photo-Quiz,” “Hannibal Cobb” and the new Mark Stevens five-minuters, but “Odds” is the first half-hour of its type. As an untapped source of pro¬ gramming, there are dozens cf features like the Saturday Evening Post’s “The Perfect Squelch” and “You Be the Judge,” along with the Reader’s Digest features and numerous others of its type. Pro¬ duction costs in all case$ are low. In the 6ase of “Odds,” there's a host, Bob Warren, some interview footage, a little dramatization but mostly stock footage. Herts ex¬ pects to turn ’em out at the rate of three per shooting day, with the I entire series of 39 to be completed ‘People’s’ Best Foods' 1 " under three months - OF a Pard in Pair Hollywood, March 17. Official Films will finance the pilots of two new series out of the Ben Fox Productions hopper, “Anchorage” and “Criminal At¬ torney.” Deal calls for OF financ¬ ing and distribution, along with partnership on the properties. Fox, currently producing “The Veil” at Hal Roach Studios, will roll the two pilots within the next couple of weeks, probably at Para¬ mount. Official will put them up for network sale. ICEBOX BY NAB By ART WOQDSTONE Chicago, March 17. There are fewer girls, no high- jinks, little traffic and many com¬ plaints to mar the generally re- |iuctant appearance of telefilmers at the National Assn, of Broad¬ casters convention. Many of them came to Chicago this year for “nuisance” reasons. Even though nearly all of them felt that tv film was being treated as a “stepchild” i of the industry, their presence here was to keep the other guy from getting a possible jump on j some new business. It may have been a waste, since there is next to nothing in business signed here thus far. .■ Though they are expected to j continue complaining about the treatment the officials of the NAB conclave have shown them, few of the telepic executives, pre-; sent to be ignored, even remotely. suggest that they won’t be back again next year. Among most of the distributors there is a strong, if minority, opinion that NAB has deliberately given the film boys the hrush—and given it to them good. It was pointed out by at least half of the 15 or 16 distribs at¬ tending the convention as associ¬ ate members that the hospitality suite arrangements, made by NAB, lead no place but to frustra¬ tion. The suites of CBS Films, Screen Gems, Governor Televi- s i o n, International Television Corp., MGM-TV, MCA-TV, United Artists TV, Ziv Television and California National Productions, who are among those in Chicago this week, are spread inconven¬ iently . throughout the massive Conrad Hilton Hotel, and, in the case of CNP, the NBC subsidiary, it is not even in the main conven¬ tion hostelry but in the Sheraton- Blackstone across the street. Total Discouragement I Specific accusation against NAB ] is that “with malice aforethought” I it planned the inconvenience to j discourage station men from 1 spending too much time with the telefilmers. While^ NAB 13 months ago de¬ cided not to permit further con- j vention exhibits by the fihners,! it continues to encourage tech¬ nical displays. Forty-two elec¬ tronic firms own display space in the ample Hilton exhibit hall. “This is a convention for switch pullers, not programmers,” a dis¬ tributor cried, reminding the observer that TV film comprises between 70% and 80% of all video programming. However, such open anger has been rare. Speaking for NAB, one of its (Continued on page 741 DISNEY’S 1WARCH OF THE TYPEWRITERS’(19) Hollywood, March 17. As the result of expanded tv operations at Walt Disney Produc¬ tions, company now has under con¬ tract the largest contingent of tv writers in its history. Nineteen scribes are currently at work readying various teleshows for the 1959-60 season. Figure includes five scriptmen at work propping “Zorro” segments; three on. “Elfego Baca”; four on “Texas John Slaughter”; and seven work¬ ing on various special assignments for ABC-TV’s “Walt Disney Pre¬ sents” series. Srcipting “Elfego Baca” stanzas are Raphael Hayes, Maurice Tom- bragel and Arthur Orloff; “Texas John Slaughter,” Samuel Peeples, Fred Frieberger, David Lang and Cyril Hume; “Zorro,” Bob Wehl- ing, N. B. Stone Jr., Maury Hill, John Hawkins and Roy-Disney Jr.; and, on special assignment, Lewis Foster, Albert Aley, Joanne Court, Otto Englander, Dwight Hauser, Ellis Marcus and Rutherford Mont¬ gomery. H |NTA Speaks With Syndication Accent (Oldieltockseat) on Eve of NT Buy; Set Sights Also on Bagging Outlets 2 Ears of Cobb Cobb & Co. is likely to be¬ come as well known to Ameri¬ ca as Wells Fargo. Cobb & Co. is an Austra¬ lian stage coach Operation started by an American in Aus¬ tralia’s pioneer days. Right, his name was Cobb (Freeman Cobb). Both National Tele¬ film Associates and Associated Television of Britain are set to do a series in Australia, each selecting the same project. Initially both chose the title of “Cobb & Co.” But now ATV, which is partnered in the Inde¬ pendent Television Corp., has changed the title of its Aussie Cobb’iSeries to “Whiplash.” FeMO seas Chief On Guild Sales; Coles Dual in U.S. Irving Feld, Guild Films domes¬ tic sales chief, has moved over fulltime to head Guild’s overseas sales subsidiary, Inter-World TV Films. Guild proxy John Cole, meantime has taken direct charge of domestic sales, with Arthur Gross as his aide^ Feld, in moving to the new job, becomes president of Inter-World. Pat Aherne, who as v.p. in charge of I-W sales has run the operation since it was started last . June, keeps his present title and will be Feld’s No. 1 man. Shift of Feld, who has been in telefilm since MPTV, one of the earliest companies in tv distribu¬ tion, puts emphasis on the Guild foreign arm’s upbeat plans. LTntil the start of I-W, Guild was not in overseas telefilm distribution and since then I-W has deliberate¬ ly been moving rather slowly, having delayed its Latin-American dubbing operations after an abor¬ tive start. I-W, through Guild, recently ac¬ quired three Hal Roach Studios properties, 39 half-hour “Code 3” telefilms, 98 “Racket Squads,” and 39 “Passport to Danger” shows. Plus that there are 79 “Telephone Time” half-hours. All three Roach programs have been in foreign distribution for some time and all but 59 of the 93 “Squads” have long since been dubbed into Span¬ ish. “Telephone'’ is not yet dubbed in any tongue. 4- National Telefilm Associates* now in the process of being ac¬ quired by National Theatres via an offered buy-out of NTA holders, will assume a “new look” under Na¬ tional Theatres’ ownership. Same governing threesome of Ely Landau, Oliver Unger and Harold Goldman will stay at the helm of the NTA operation follow¬ ing the stock acquisition. But for one thing, the emphasis of NTA’s business will shift from features- to-tv distribution to syndication sales of tv programs, both tele¬ films and tape. The deemphasis of cinematic syndication is not due to the proj¬ ected merger of NTA and National Theatres, but to the diminishing supply of features for tv distribu- ion. NTA board chairman Unger forecasts that by next fall the com¬ pany’s gross from tv program sales will be about equal to that derived from cinematic sales. In the past, distribution of fi’m oldies account-r¬ ed for about 75% of company’s gross. In the last fiscal year, NTA grossed about $18,000,000. Sillerman’s Role NTA's heavy accent on telefilm syndication, which comes on 'the eve of National Theatres’ planned merger, puts the spotlight on the performance of Michael Sillerman, who moved over from Gross- Krasne-Sillerman to become prez of NTA's program sales division. • As to areas of expansion, NTA and National Theatres hope to ac¬ quire a full complement of ty sta¬ tions (combined outfit now has three tv outlets.) Of particular in¬ terest to NTA is acquisition* of a station in- the Los Angeles market National Theatres’ bid to NTA holders to acquire outstanding NTA stock alosed Monday (16). There’s little doubt that the public stock offering will not result in the sought-after majority. NT, prior to the stock offering, made a sepa¬ rate deal for principal NTA hold¬ ings owned by Landau, Unger and Goldman. Other NTA holders were offered the same deaL Composition of New Board In terms of corporate manage¬ ment, the projected merger will mean a changed board of direc¬ tors for NTA, with National The¬ atres representatives slated for NTA’s board. By September, ’59, NTA is expected to become a di- (Continued on page 70) Cooper’s Coban Baseball For Vidtape Syndication; Chi’s WBKB First Taker Chicago, March 17. Max Cooper, having made the rounds of the networks with his Cuban winter baseball idea, has decided to put the 26-week series into videotape syndication next fall and has already chalked up his first taker, WBKB in Chi. The ABC station plans to slot the show at 10 p.m. Saturday nights, commenc¬ ing shortly after the World Series of U.S. baseball. Cooper says he has warm pros¬ pects for the taped Cuban games of the week in Philly, New York, New Orleans and St. Louis. Pilot tape edited down the off¬ season game to a flat hour, but Cooper and his associates have de¬ cided to loosen it ’ to 90 minutes. Pilot is being shown in the Ampex exhibit at the NAB convention this week. By German Solons Frankfurt, March 17. Dr. Hans Joachim Lange, mem¬ ber of the newly-founded Film Commission for the German Tele¬ vision Network, said here that the German television stations have allotted a budget of about 70U,000 German marks ($175,000) to buy or produce films for their medium this year. Prices for the films will range between 15.000 and 50,000 marks ($3,750 and $12,500), he added. And aim will be to get films of bet¬ ter quality than those previously shown. The Commission is also seeking to get good films outside of Ger¬ many, with current work underway in Italy, England and France to locate good films at a fair price. Arrangements will be made, when good films are produced or purchased, to air them over the entire German tv network instead of showing them on just one or two stations. The stations themselves will thus show the films purchased through the central Commission in¬ stead of mak : ng private arrange¬ ments to buy films, as has former¬ ly been negotiated, he said.