Variety (March 1959)

64 RADIO-TELEVISION P'K'ttlETi Wednesday, March 18, 1959 "Kaleidoscope’ as an Incubator For Other NBC-TV Babies; 3 Shows Emerge Three major fall prcgrr.rn series a»'e figured to result from the NBC-TV Sunday “Kaleidoscope” undertaking sparked by Herb Sus- san. director of special piograms f( r the web. RapirRy breaking out of blue¬ print stage is a series slugged “Story Behind the Concept.” a weekly 60-minute production; “The Commandments,” a wyekly 9 T minute, and “Great American Families.” a working title for a weekly 60-minutfe series. “Story Behind the Concept” was inspired by such “Kaleidoscope" features as the “Show' Place of the Nation—Radio City” program and tiie April 5 produc'ion of Dore Srhsry’s “Blueprint for B i o- graphy,” which will trace the genesis, growth and culmination of his hit legiter, “Sunrise at Compa- beiio.” In the proposed fall series, there would D9 complete “bio¬ graphies” of such works as “Ana¬ tomy cf Murder;” the s.ory behind Gwen Verdon and “Redhead,” a deep look at the creation of a tv series; the tracing of a motion pic¬ ture from its inception to say, final shooting overseas, as well as other varied program ideas each cap luring the story behind the concept. An outgrowth of the recent Ben Hecht scripting of “The Third Commandment” for NBC-TV's “Kaleidoscope” will be a night¬ time series called “The Command¬ ments.” Already on hand are script treatments from J. P. Mar- quand and Thomas B. Costain. Sussan is dickering for additional “Commandment” scripts from such writers as Ben Ames Wil¬ liams, Edna Ferber, Herman Wouk, Jim Bishop, Gerald Green and MacKinlay Kantor. In all probability, the “Commandment” output will wind up as a book. Third series stemming from “Kalei” will be “Great American Families,” inspired from upcom¬ ing story of “The Great Crist- ioni';,” large circus family, to be seen on the “K” show M'.y 3. The Crisimni show, entitled “Roll Out the Sky” from Sarasota, is said to. be the first location tape shew' in \idco, produced and directed by John Coetz and writ'en by Gene Wyekoff. Format of “Great American Families” would make use cf old films, stills, tape sequences and live pickups. Gamut cf personal¬ ities would range from medical .figures like the Mcnningers to show biz personalities like the Dc-Milles and familial relation¬ ships like the Kcnnedys of Boston. Hsxi Step En Ksd) - Coat nued from page 33 to the fact that the winning appli¬ cant and at least one losing appli¬ cant had seen various Government and Congressional leaders, and had lunches with then-FCC Chairman George C. McConnaughey. Latter testified they had not discussed the merits of the case, beyond at¬ tempting to “put on their best face and convince me ’ they were sub¬ stantial citizens.” The lack of such sensations as the “loans” of resigned (since in¬ dicted) Commissioner Richard A.” Mack in the Miami case appears to put before special heading ex¬ aminer Horace Stern a simple question—whether any off-the-rec¬ ord contacts with commissioners during the pendency of a contested case automatically voids the license granted. If Stern’s decision is that Mc¬ Connaughey disqualified himself from voting by talking to represen¬ tatives of the applicants, and if that decision is upheld on appeal, then there is little doubt that liter¬ ally dozens of important tv station licenses are in jeopardy. Always Tell the Truth Washington, March 17. It’s a savvy mother who can explain the .difference between the two Shirley Temples on video to her children. Congratulations go to the mother in Boston who told her youngster that the Shirley Temple (Heidi age) seen on tv w’as the child of the Shirley Temple (23ish) who is seen on “Shirley Temple Storybook.” This satisfied the youngster perplexed at the tw’o ages. Miss Temple recounted the story in a recent appearance in Washington and said she had written her fan: “I would never have thought of that ex¬ planation, but w'e’ll stick to the story,” Nielsen’s Instantaneous Ratings for Gt. Britain As James Assumes. Nil Helm London, March 17. With the arrival last week of E. P. H. James, the Nielsen organiza¬ tion in Britain is finalizing plans to launch an ultra-rapid television audience research service. James, Britisher by birth arid training, has come home to direct the Niel¬ sen Television Index, having been appointed topper here after being a veepee of A; C. Nielsen Co. in Chicago for some years past. The new research plan is to use the Nielsen Instantaneous Audi- meter, electrical device designed and developed in the outfit’s la¬ boratories at Oxford. The audi- meter links each sample home- set by line to a single central mechanism which scans electrical¬ ly the entire sample every minute. The information gained on which program, if any, each home-set is tuned to is automatically sorted and teleprinter to the Nielsen Ox¬ ford hq., then immediately trans¬ ferred to punched cards. The com¬ puters can then assess the size of the audience in a matter of min¬ utes, instead of the 10 days or so it now takes to produce a rating by meter research. The Doyen of Dixie WSB Celebrates 37th Anniversary—Oldest Radio Station Below the Line (Mason & Dixon) Atlanta, March 17. WSB-AM, oldest radio station below the Mason & Dixon Line, this month is celebrating its 37th birthday. They are making a month-long affair and listeners have been made cognizant of the arini since March 1 via tape re¬ ceivings from celebrities and per¬ sonalities. Climax came Sunday (15) on actual 37th birth date W’hen mill went all out with music, paeans of praise from all sources* and a 90- minute Birthday Party session. Throughout Sunday morning, staffers Hal Durham and Maurice O'Dell took listeners on a musical' journey with tunes of the last 37 years. From 1:05 to 3 p.m, regular Festival segment presented a spe- ; cial birthday serenade. At 1:30 p.m, a new program, “Just Sup¬ pose,” was premiered, based on. “historical” events that might : have happened but didn’t, dis¬ cussed by four panelists. Special greetings went out over the air from 3 to 6 p.m., spotlight¬ ing among others NBC net’s Miss Monitor, Bob & Ray, Ben Grauer, Frank Blair, et al. Birthday Party occupied 6:30 to 8 p.m. segment when, through ar¬ rangements with RCA Victor, Columbia, Capitol and other ma¬ jor recording companies, personal salutations were heard from Car¬ men Dragon, Raymond Paige and the Radio Music Hall Trio, Robert Shaw Chorale, Paul West, Hugo Winterhalter, Chet Huntley. Gor¬ don MacRae, Roger Williams, [Eddie Cantor, Lester Lanin, Guy Lombardo and others. This show was taped in advance, of course. Day of celebration was climaxed from 10:30 to 11 p.m. when Bob van Camp reviewed top tunes of past 37 years on Cavalcade of Song. WSB, which debuted under ownership of Atlanta p.m. Journal, barely beat WGST, started by a.m. Constitution, on the air, the mar¬ gin being less than 24 hours. In fact, oldtimers at WGST (which was given to Georgia Institute of Technology by Constitution) con¬ tend they were on first, but have not been able to substantiate claim. A longtime affiliate of NBC, WSB now is ow’ned-operated by Atlanta Newspapers Inc., formed to publish Journal and Consti after merger of properties in 1950. WSB-TV, spawned by WSB-AM 10 years ago, likewise is oldest tele¬ vision station in Dixie. Daly’s Shillelagh Continued from page 29 a ing the televising of the parade Is none other than the undersigned... “You are hereby granted permis¬ sion to have your St. Patrick’s Day Parade televised, without fear of any possible repercussion from me in demanding equal time from any of the four commercial stations . . . This waiver of my statutory rights applies only for the one day, March 17. “Being an American of Iri9h ra¬ cial descent . . . naturally, I hold in high honor the patron saint of the ‘Island of Saints and Schol¬ ars.’J* P.S.: By return mail, Daly re¬ ceived an invitation to march in the parade. He declined, saying he was busy preparing a legal action for the U. S. Supreme Court dating back to the 1956 Presidential pri¬ maries, when, as a Republican nominee in three states, he ran against President Eisenhower and was denied “free and equal” time by the networks. A CALL FOR ... all my friends in show business... 15 years ago this month, Milton Biow walked into the New Yorker Hotel and asked me to page a cer¬ tain Philip Morris. I didn't find Philip Morris that day, but Philip Morris Inc. found me, and for 2.5 years IVe been the happiest employee they have. At one time or another I have had the privilege of working or appearing with almost everyone in show business. You people have been so very nice to me. And from the bottom of my heart, I thank you. This thanks is something I have felt every minute of these 2.5 years, and this anniversary gives me the opportunity to say it publicly. \ \ K&Thursday evening, March 19th at 8:05 (E.S.T.) on NBC % sa&^we’re going to pick up a few of the high spots in my SZyfzts, on radio ... hope you'll listen.