Variety (March 1959)

46 RADIO-TELE VISION Wednesday, March 18, 1959 . . I TV-Radio Production Centres \ IN NEW YORK CITY ... Mary Martin chinfests with Arthur Godfrey on his CBS-TV daytime program Tuesday (24) . . . Hoyt Allen has joined Foote, Cone & Beld- ing as tv*commercial production supervisor. He was formerly exec, producer in charge of P & G tv production at Benton & Bowles . . . George R. Swearingen Jr. made account exec in N.Y. office of CBS Radio Spot "Sales . . . David Fuchs named manager of sales presenta¬ tions and Leonard Broom manager of program promotion *at CBS-TV . Eighth convention of American Women in Radio-TV will be held' at Waldorf-Astoria April 30 to May 3. Doris Corwith, supervisor of pubaffairs at NBC, is convention chairman . . . Paul Taubman orch will provide live music background for NBC-TV’s "Ellery Queen”. . . Don Morrow to Washington with CBS-TV "College Quiz Bowl”. . . Re¬ organization at WRCA radio and tv calls for Frederick E. Acker to manage biz affairs and operations for both stations. Alvin H. Perlmut- ter also has been upped to director of pubservice . . . Charles E. Cor¬ coran named manager of video tape, films and kine operations for NBC-TV, reporting to James A. Glenn, director of tv network film op¬ erations. WCBS Radio newscasters Gay Avery and Roger Forster have hit the vacation trail. Olin Tice, just off the sick list, and Hal Sims sub¬ stitute until their return . . . Special award for its weekly Army ser¬ ies, "The Big Picture,” was presented this week to WCBS-TV by the First U.S. Army. Clarence Worden, pubaffairs- director, accepted it from Maj. Gen. Philip D. Ginder, deputy commanding general . . . "WCBS Radio program manager Allen Ludden at home with strep in¬ fection . . . WCBS Radioes Walter Cheetam out of the hospital after major surgery . . . During Ron Cochran’s Easter vacation starting March 30 his WCBS-TV news stanza will be filled by Ned Calmer, Doug¬ las Edwards and Ormond J. Drake . . . Annual St. Pat’s Day item: CBS doorman-In-chief Mike Donovan on Jack Sterling’s and Jimmy Dean’s show yesterday. Eddy Manson signed by CBS-TV as musical director for "Wonder¬ ful World of Little Julius” telefilm skein . . . WMGM program chief Ray Katz co-c'hairing annual Friars Club dinner at the Waldorf Fri¬ day (20)* with Steve Allen guest of honor . . . Dieter Tasso wire act and the Angela Wilmow dog turn on Sunday (29) "Paul Winchell Show” over AEC-TV ... A Reginald Rose original, "The Final In¬ gredient,” to be special Passover drama Sunday. April 19, on ABC- TV, preempting the regular 3-3:30 p.m. "Open Hearing”. . . Joan Han- auer and Fob Stoerker added to WNEW news department by Martin Weldon . . . Bob McGonagle to head news-special events department at WBAB, Babylon. Ivan Black, Gotham publicist, spoke on “The Larcenous Art of Building Up Mediocrities” at New School for Social Research Mon¬ day (16). David Brown, former exec producer of NBC-TV*s "Haggis Baggis.” named producer of CBS-TV’s "Captain Kangaroo”. . . Teddi King to guest on NEC-TV’s “Today” Friday (20) . . . George Pitt joins sales staff of WRCA-TV as account exec. He was formerly with local sales dept, of the N.Y. Times . . . WRCA-TV’s cooking expert, Josephine McCarthy, a speaker at Home Economics Group Forum sponsored by Public Service Gas & Electric tomorrow (Thurs.) . . . This month marks beginning of ninth year for Bon Herbert’s "Watch Mr. Wizard” on NBC-TV . . . Florence Freeman, for years radio’s "Young Widder Brown,” making her debut on NBC-TV’s “From These Roots” in role of Dorothy Vail . . . Daisetz Taitaro Suzuki, exponent of Zen Buddhism (current rage of "beat” generation) subject of April. 19 “Wisdom” on NBC-TV . . . Jeanne Crain signed for lead in Howard Rodman’s "Wait Till Spring” which will be spring telecast on “Alcqa Theatre". . . Jose Iturbi, Joce Ferrer, Rosemary Clooney, Gisele MacKenzie, Andre Eglevsky and Maria Tallchief featured on April telecast of "Bell Telephone Hour”. . .“Today” sports editor Jack Lescoulie and reporter Cliff Evans - covering Florida and Arizona baseball spring training camps for series of closeup stories telecast as regular feature starting today (Wed.) and continuing through April 9. Bernard H. Pelzer, after six years in ABC sales, has joined Radio Press Inc. as administrative director of the radio news service . , . Shari Lewis, who on Friday (20) ends her regular WRCA-TV "Hi Mom” series, appears the night before on ABC-TV’s Pat Boone stanza as a guest; she’s also sl'ted to appear for CBC-TV, Canada, on April 5, with subsequent gu^st shots set for Garry Mocre and Dinah Shore- Chevy stanzas. . . Nick Adams to star in new Goodson-Todman west¬ ern "The Rebel.” with Irvin Kershner and Andrew Fenady producing . . . Air Force Reserve is preparing a new radio series. "Soundfli<rhts Into Jazz,” for d'stribution in April to radio stations. A total of 30 shows, five minutes each, feature jazz artists. Frank Langley, former WPIX publicist now in pubrelations for Macy’s, returned to the N.Y. indie last week to host a teenage fashion show- on “Spotl’ght On Youth.” Bert Wayne has mined WNEW as newscaster and emcee of several record shows . . . Burton Benjamin, producer of CBS-TV’s "Twentieth Century,” to Cape Canaveral this week . . . Jock Maxwell, sports- caster-director o c WNJR, marks 29 years on the air next week . . . Lou Steele assigned hosting chore on hour-long “Theatre 5” Fridays over WNEW-TV . . . Betty Ann Grove to the Ozarks for guest shot on "Ju¬ bilee, U.S.A.” Saturday (21) over ABC-TV . . . Bill Tabbcrt in New Orleans for "Evening With Richard Rodgers,” lined up for pair of N.O. teevee dates . . .“Omnibus” annexed another award, Freedom Foundation’s citation for two-part study of "American Trial by Jury,” specifically Part Two. This was program led by Joseph N. Welch . . . Alexander D. Richardson, assistant music supervisor of WNYC, to ap- ! IN HOLLYWOOD ... Lou Edelman and Bob Sisk have a historical series coming up for Wyatt Earp Enterprises, based on the Marquis James bio of Sam Hous¬ ton to be called "The Raven.” . . Dodge is staying with ABC-TV for the Saturday night Lawrence Welk show, apparently being unimpressed with what NBC and CBS had to offer in time availabilities . . . ABC- TV’s Dai*Me!nick finally ckayed a script for "The Fat Man” after junk¬ ing three . . . ABC radio will quit Hollywood after the lease on its Vine St. building runs out next year. Net’s operation will be run from the transmitter site. Also on the block is NBC’s square -block across the street, which can be had for $4,000,000. No takers yet. With both nets moving out it will give Hollywood that ghostly look . . . Bob Bark¬ er, emcee of tv’s "Truth or Consequences,” moves over to KNX with his radio show, for seven years sponsored on KHJ . . . Nate Tufts, who heads the Hollywood agency for Johnson & Lewis, prepping a sports series of champions in the belief that the upcoming Olympic games will whet the public appetite for athletics . . . More than 200 showed up for. the Nat Wolff memorial sendees, with the eulogy read by Corn- well Jackson . . . BBDO taped eight commercials in two days at NBC Burbank for a pair of Rexall specs, which is some kind of a record. IN CHICAGO ... Jess Barker exited WCFL, and Jack Karey has taken over his "Gold- enrod Hour”. . . WMAQ’s trade-in of deejays Wed Howard and Jim Mills for WIND jocks Howard Miller and John Doremus represents a slight departure by the NBC station from its anti-Top 40 stand . . . Bill Thompson, .ex NBC radio sales, signed on with WGN’s sales force Variety 1 . , . Marvin Lowe joined NTA in syndication sales under Art Spirt . . Jay Andres notches sixth year on American Airlines’ “Music Till Oawn” on WBBM next month . . . Syd Simon speaking on makeup and Iress at weekly workshop meeting next Wednesday (25) of Chi Televi- ion Academy J . . Ed Cooper added to announcing staff of WBBM . . . lerb Lyon’s- “Midnight Ticker” on WGN-TV expanded to 75 minutes . . Carolyn DeZurik of ABC-TV’s "Polka-Go-Round tapped for reg- ilar vocal chores Mondays on "Don McNeill’s Breakfast Club”. . . . lerschell G. Lewis, who sold out his interest in Lewis & Martin Films, ; lamed v.p. in charge of new Industry Program Division of Fred Niles .Productions. I W WASHINGTON .... Carleton Smith, NBC v.p. and general manager of WRC-AM-FM- TV, and RUth Newburn Sedam, New York ad agent, are altar-bound . n late April, the marriage ceremony to be in Swarthmore, Pa., where Smith’s brother is a college prexy . . . WGMS-sponsored annual "Tiny Tots Concert” by National Symphony. Orchestra on Easter Sunday afternoon has become so popular that there’ll be two of them this year . . . Alice Lon, Lawrence Welk's vocalist from guess-where, in town to ring for Texas Independence Day celebration . . . Ted Ayers has ar- ’anged for NATO Supreme Commander Lauris Norstad to “Face t^ie Nation” (CBS) April 5 . . . National Geographic Society is sponsoring alk and film-showing Friday (20) by WTOP’s Mark Evans on his fami¬ ly’s motor trip to the west last summer. IN LONDON ... Transmissions by Ulster Television from the new Northern Ireland station at Black Mountain are skedded to start Oct. 31, covering an area of 1,100,000 population or 280.000 homes in due course and using 15% local programs. Directors of Ulster-TV include Laurence Olivier ... Second, of BBC-TV’s "The Cinema Today” series on Thursday (19) focuses on _ Poland’s film industry . . . Michael Ingrams to Paris over weekend for material on horror pictures -for an Associated-Re-, diffusion "Look In” program, now aired *at 10:45 on Tuesdays instead of the hitherto 6:40 and beamed to London area only . . . Easter break gives singer Yana a chance to do a couple of tv shows—in a late-eve¬ ning BBC-TV program on Eriday (27), when there’s no performance of "Cinderella” at London Coliseum where she’s a principal at least until mid-May, and in ABC-TV’s "Top Numbers,” the Sunday subse¬ quent (29) . .-. Independent Television News’ “Roving Report” news- mag chalks up its second birthday with its 100th edition today (Wed.) . . . Scriptwriters for 11 years of BBC’s steam radio comedy skein "Take It From. Here.” Frank Muir and Dennis Norden did their last stint on the show (12). before moving over to BBC-TV next month as general assistants to light entertainment topper Eric Maschwitz . . . Final of ABC-TV’s $2,800 talent contest, core of its "Bid For Fame” new faces program, set for May 31, Pete Murray emceeing. IN BOSTON . . . WBZ previewed radio series on juve delinquency at Ritz Carlton yesterday (Tues.) with Paul G. O’Friel, gen, mgr., hosting tv eds . . Phyl Doherty, WNAC-TV ad-pub chief, and Rita Fucillo, Panorama ed., on 10-day holiday in San Juan . . . Rod MacLeish, WBC overseas news bureau head, in for press confab on plans for new coverage of European news ... John Harriman, WEEI,- economist commentator orig¬ inating program from meeting of Star Market employees ... Jerry Lan- day, WBZ news director, recuperating at home after surgery ... Duncan MacDonald, WNAC personality, to N.Y. for interviews with Richard Boone [ at Bijou Theatre and Jack MacGowran of “Juno”. . , Curt Gowdy and Bob Murphy to broadcast the Red Sox exhibition games on WHDH . . . Bob Richmond, gen. mgr. of WILD, to Washington* for confabs on acquisition of new station ... Ed Myers, WEEI, newsman, in Wash¬ ington on Naval Reserve training, sent taped report to Arthur C. King, news director for newscast . . . Marjorie Mills and Ken Gieringer joined WHDH-TV staff with “Marge Mills and Ken Gieringer Show” . . . Jay Kroll, disk jockey at WJAR-TV, Providence, on vacash in N.Y. and Hub . . . Betty Adams, WJAR-TV personality, made member of Overseas Press Club. IN MINNEAPOLIS . . . All Minnesota radio stations, except those in the Twin Cities, car¬ ried Citizens Committee for Standard Time spot announcements last week presenting arguments w'hy the state legislature now in session should not renew daylight saving time . . . Educational KTCA-TV out to raise $150.CC0 through public donations so that it can receive $100,- 000 left from the $1,100,000 funds granted for the Minnesota Centen¬ nial celebration . . . WCCO Radio and McKesson & Robbins Minneapo¬ lis division have launched a novel cooperative ad-merchandising pro¬ gram "North Star Drug Marketing.”. . . Under new NCAA ruling, U. of Minnesota next fall for first time will be able to televise all of its sold-out football games over Twin Cities' educational KTCA-TV of which it’s one of the operators . . . For first time WCCO-TV (CBS af¬ filiate) will be televising Minneapolis American Assn, baseball games, Saturday contests getting the video treatment. WCCO Radio will broad¬ cast all home and away contests . . . Stan Hubbard, KSTP head, re¬ turning from a Florida vacation', . » KSTP-TV news director Julius Hoshel named president of Minnesota professional chapter of Sigma Delta Chi. . . . WTCN-TV cut off half-hour from ABC's network hour- and-a-half "American Bandstand” for a new local kid show, "Casey Jones”. . . Sig Mickelson, CBS news and public affairs v.p., flew in from New York to speak at annual U.-bf Minnesota journalism school radio-tv short course . . . Speaking at Northwest Radio-Television News Assn.’s annual meeting here, Ralphs Renick, WTJV, Miami, news director and association president, urged more radio and tv stations’ editorializing over the air. IN PITTSBURGH ... Franklin C. Snyder, general manager of WTAE, elected v.p. of Tele¬ vision City, operators of the station . . Gladys/Ingles, WCAE recep¬ tionist, celebrating her 23d anni at that desk . . . Tom Bender, KDKA sportscaster, off for Fort Myers, Fla:, to spend two weeks at Pirates’ training camp . . . Jim Hensley, boss of WEEP, had an appendectomy . , . Faye Parker replaced 1 Kay Neumann on Ch. 2’s noon strip, with latter going to Ch. 11... Tommy Riggs and WCAE, where he’s been a deejay for. the last five years, have parted. Jim O’Neill, from Okla¬ homa City, is the new morning man there. Bill Nesbit switching back to night . . .. Hank Stohl signed~a contract with Westinghouse Broad¬ casting . . ."U.S. Steel Hour” has bought a first script, "Little Tin God,” by local author, Jim Palmer Jr. It’ll star Richard Boone April 22 . . . Hank Shepard, g.m. of WAMP, and his wife celebrated their 15th wedding anni . . . Ch. ll’s “Luncheon at the Ones” fades April 24 for the summer . . . A1 Primo promoted to Ch. 2 newsroom and will pitch Tuesday and Thursday mornings on "Pittsburgh. AM” program . . . Dick McCarthy, head of WCAE continuity, in cast of “Mary Stuart” at Playhouse. IN DETROIT .... Karl Haas, who has been supervising the planning and broadcasting of ’concert music programs on WJR, has been appointed the station’s Director of Fine Arts, effective May 1 . . . Nation’s first combined educational-commercial tv station begins operating this week. The commercial station is WILX-TV, East Lansing, while the ETWer is WMSB, at Michigan State U. in same city. Stations share Ch. 10 (Continued on page 50) Brit ‘Pay’ TV Bags A MW Feb. London, March 17. . A sum of around $12,880,000 was spent on British commercial tv ad¬ vertising in February, according to a report from Media Records, one of U.K.’s leading statistical bureau. Although February was a shorter month, the money involved is a big up on the January total of $10,- 712,276. Principal beneficiaries were Association-Rediffusion $12,- 798,925) and Associated Televi¬ sion ($2,781,363). Then • follow: Granada TV Network ($2,378,317); ABC-TV ($1,864,019); Scottish TV ($868,709); T. W. W. Ltd. ($840,213); Tyne Tess TV ($774,189); land Southern TV ($707,076). More than 26,000 advertising spots were transmitted from the 12 stations now in existence. ‘Biggest Musical Show On Air’ Still Finds Metopera In Quest of Better Sound Despite the 16 ultra-sensitive mikes in use on the Saturday Met Opera broadcasts over CBS Radio, the surface as far as the sound goes, has merely been scratched. This observation was made this week by Bill Marshall, technical director of the Met Opera origina¬ tions who is entering his 20th year at the job. "For me, Utopia will come when the technical director and engineer can be in on the scenic design of the stage and the placement of mikes in 'strategic places among the scenery.” Marshall said. “We hope this will come about in the new Lincoln Center Opera House. Nevertheless, sound is improving all the time. The opera is the big¬ gest musical show on’the air, but ; it is also the only show in which the technicians can’t change the preconceived staging. We have to take what they give us. This makes it also the rhost complex and dif¬ ficult musical program to broad¬ cast.” Opera singers are no longer fear¬ ful of mikes nor are mikes hidden as in the past, Marshall said. Since the public is so electronic-con¬ scious, there’s no need to disguise the mikes. Marshall oberved that standard music should never be amplified so that it sounds different from a real performance. "This is what is* done in rock and roll.” he said. “They distort the tones so that the guitar and bass are amplified out of all relation to the rest of the orchestra. The guitar sounds like a big instrument and I call this manhandling.” With hi-fi advances, mikes have so improved that Marshall and his co-workers no longer need worry about where a singer stands. “I used to enjoy watching certain artists trying to spot the mikes,’* he said. "They wanted to display their special mike technique close by, and by the time, their big aria came along, they’d be practically on their knees before the mike. Nobody thinks about this any¬ more.” Marshall, who works out of the studio on the Grand Tier of the opera house and calls the shots for the engineer, said the public was underselling present-day teenagers in taking for granted that kids sought out only rock-and-roll. "Rudolf Bing once got upset about the blue denim pants set and the gals in slacks and bobbie socks coming to the Saturday mat¬ inees,” Marshall said. "But which is healthier, having them come that way, and enjoying opera, or crowd¬ ing the aisles of the Paramount and cheering Elvis? The prima donna is now a teenage darling, in¬ stead of, as she used to be, the darling of 10 millionaires. We have ^tended to emphasize the dangers of rock-and-roll, which probably overshadows the real facts, namely that many kids care equally about operatic arias.” ^ While electronics and modern, science may have many pluses/ Marshall said they have discour¬ aged much good natural singing and healthy vocal development.” "Performers like Ethel Merman, Sophie Tucker and the late Nora Bayes and A1 Jolson had good healthy voices and made their repu¬ tations with them—but nowadays anyone can almost whisper into a mike and good engineers can make their voices huge,” Marshall sighed.