Variety (March 1959)

70* RADIO-TELEVISION Wednesday, March 18, 1959 P^RIETTJ Gotham s Herb Moss: ‘All This And A Leopard Covered Chair Too’ Aaron & Zousmer Quit ? to P’ —j ss Continued from page 33 —— Herb M. Moss, an incorrigible believer in diversification, realized another of his reveries recently when he added a handsome and highly functional wing to his Goth¬ am . Recording setup—the con¬ struction of Studio G-3, a snazzy $100,000 job capable of turning out the most polished in monaural and stereophonic recording. Studio G-3 was fanfared into full-bloom production some weeks ago with considerable cookie-push¬ ing ceremonies in the same struc¬ ture at 2 West 46th St., which houses Gotham's multitudinous de¬ vices for the recording, editing and mastering of radio-tv pfo- grams. It also marked Moss’ 10th anni in the recording biz. It is evident that Moss can fash¬ ion more corporate structures and divisions and engage in more free¬ lance endeavors with the same dis¬ patch and dexterity of, say, Max Wesseley, who once juggled 16 balls and whistled “Dixie" at the same time. In some 20 years of gravitating toward mikes and per¬ formers he scored a number of firsts including circling the globe in behalf of “Vox Pop" and intro¬ ducing tape recordings of this pro¬ gram to network radio. With “M other Knows Best,” Moss chalked up another first—a CBS Radio series produced and record¬ ed on Ampex Tape. For Ampex & Country It was Ampex tape that got Moss into the commercial recording biz. Since then he has opened his facil¬ ities to the nation’s top agencies,! sponsors, networks, public service organizations and such branches of the government as the Office of Civil Defense Mobilization, the Marine Corps and the Treasury Dept. Uncle Sam has been doing business with the Gotham outfit for a considerable period. It was some eight years ago that Moss convinced U. S. Treasury officials that his organization could do a more successful job selling sav¬ ings bonds via the airlanes. As a consequence Gotham fashioned “Guest Star,” a weekly program now serviced to more than 2,000 AM outlets in the land. Similarly, Gotham also has been producing and distributing “Take Five,” a musical feature with Betty Johnson and Jerp' Coleman on behalf of the Marine Corps. Itor the Office of Civil and Defense Mobilization it is creating “Entertainment, USA,” a half-hour weekly musical feature. * Not content merely running the recording business, Moss has kept his hand in tv programming as a producer of “Songs for Sale,” “Chance of a Lifetime” • and the more recent short-lived “Brains and Brawn.” As if this wasn’t enough to ha¬ rass a perplexed exec. Moss and Gotham’s music director, Lou Gar- isto created a jazz group titled The Metropolitan Jazz Quartet. Five MGM albums, which Moss co-pro¬ duced, were released ^imultane- ously. Still another corporation created by Moss is lie de France' Produc¬ tions which imports popular music from France and records in Francp for American accounts. Moss also serves as agent for Vega Records, a French outfit. Then, too, he has legal papers in his safe attesting to his ownership of Galaxy Produc¬ tions, an enterprising organization that provides prizes for giveaway show's such as “Tic Tac Dough,” “County Fair” : and “Treasure Hunt.” Moss recently bought the rights to 136 French secret service novels by Antoine Dominique with an eye toward, turning them into a tv series. In his spare (?) time Moss writes songs (he was recently ad¬ mitted to ASCAP) and is earn¬ estly thinking of turning Broad¬ way producer the moment he lands the right kind of serious drama. , While most of the activities, in the Gotham office intrigue .Moss, the biggest glint in his eye at the moment appears to be the green and blue colored Studio G-3 oper¬ ation with a leopard covered chair designed for directors. It’s the ulti¬ mate dream of what a producer- director needs to make the grade. Stanton s— Continued from page 31 — be use of a broadcasting station within the meaning of this subsec¬ tion.” Lar—Loser & Winner The FCC decision to which the CBS prexy was alluding was the Commission’s 4-3 vote on Feb. 19 of this' year to uphold “America First” candidate Lar Daly's pecu¬ liar construction of the equal time rule, which granted the tireless election loser the right to equiva¬ lent time on a number of Windy City newscasts that had been de¬ voted to normally routine news- film of—Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley. Lar Daly was running against the incumbent Jjfi the Chi mayoralty. prim'ary last 'month. -If upheld,” Stanton 'said, “the (FCC) decision will have two in¬ evitable results. One will be an immediate practical effect on news broadcasting that can abridge radically both the usefulness of radio and television to our society ■ and their total freedom as media The second will be to set loose a thoughtless slide rule theory gov¬ erning the role of journalism in a democracy.” This, he said, would be a wholesale negation of prip- ciples*that have been safeguards and supports of American democ¬ racy from its. beginnings. . The People—Yes “It seems to me,” he went on, “that the ruling spawns a mon¬ strous idea in a democratic society —the idea that quantitative mechanics are more important than the qualitative considerations of the degree to which the people are informed during the critically important period of election cam¬ paigns. We are now witnessing the introduction of the revolutionary idea that informing the people is a secondary matter.” By way of pointing up the urg¬ ency of the fight against the FCC- ruling, Stanton noted that once the idea is established that the content of new programs can be tampered with or regulated by Governmental agencies there arises the danger that the restrictions and harass- ments might spread to. other areas. The broadcasting media, he said, would find itself drifting into a state of paralysis. On the Jefferson premise that thb people can be better trusted than the magistrate in judging the press, CBS will present its case to the public, Stanton said. “Obviously any unfair political use of newscasts would unleash a fury of protests-on any station or net¬ work that tried it,” he declared. “The Daly decision not only dis¬ trusts the broadcasters as journal¬ ists, it distrusts them as business¬ men, implying that they would not have the sense to see the fatal danger of playing politics with the medium,” Stanton said. Ampex-RCA — Continued from page 29 —, its color units, Instead of getting them from the parent RCA. Latter explained that the network was using the equipment for Daylight Saving delays this summer, need¬ ing them sooner than RCA could produce them. RCA countered with the revelation that Ampex was using the latest model ItCA color camera in its demonstration. . One obvious difference between the two machines is in design, Ampex retaining its compact desk¬ like. shape, while RCA’s installa¬ tion is a flat upright, “like most studio equipment.” Virtues of RCA’s vertical cabinets, as extolled on the exhibition floor, are that they use less floor space and are more easily accessible than the competitor’s product from front or rear. While RCA was promoting its corrective system for incompatible tapes as a godsend to tape syndica¬ tors, Ampex was demonstrating the syndicated product itself, having on hand three tape properties of Guild and NTA. among those of some smaller distribs. And there—-by the grace of Ampex—went some of NAB’s third-class citizens, the tele¬ film distributors, who were all but left out of this year’s conclave. NTA’s ‘New Look’ Continued from page 39 ——; vision of the large theatre circuit. The merger is expected initially to effect economies in the areas of accounting services and advertis¬ ing and promotion departments. On the telefilm production agenda, NTA has its most ambitious schedule, with $9,750,000 ear¬ marked for the potential slate. NTA, as in previous years, will work with established producers, foregoing any production of its own. It has four co-productions inked with Desilu, “You’re Only Young Twice,” “The Man Nobody Knows,” “Grand Jury ” “This Is Alice,” with 20th-Fox, “On the Threshold of Space,” “How to Marry a Million¬ aire,” and “Man Without a Gun.” Also “High Noon,” “Fate,” Gross- Krasne, “Third Man,” British Broadcasting Corp. co-production; and “Mantovani,” Harry Alan-Tow- ers. He had come back in the position of a controversial Page 1 news¬ maker. The burden of Godfrey’s remarks were carried in Newsweek magazine; Godfrey denied most of what he had been quoted as saying, and in its next issue Newsweek, winding up, “gave it” to Godfrey. (What received little or no atten¬ tion was the fact that Godfrey was a “Person to Person” guest early in the show’s career; this was with¬ in days after his famous “firing” of Julius LaRosa, done on the air, while the latter was doing his chore on Godfrey’s own show. If Godfrey had needed a last trump to grandslam his “P to P” appearance, he got it in spades, doubled and redoubled.) Half-Hour Formats The Aaron-Zousmer partnership is completing negotiations with the Music Corp. of America for han¬ dling of the team’s-packages. They have at least two half-hour televi- | sion formats worked up plus some one-shots, of which a 60-minute show is in the forefront of their blueprints. ; They created “Person to Per¬ son” and in partnership with Mur- row had it put on the air by CBS- TV in the fall of 1953. They were the packagers for four seasons, and then sold their interest to CBS Inp. For the last two semesters, includ¬ ing the current one, they have been retained as co-producers. There has never been any inter¬ ference or “suggestions” from the CBS high brass as to the kind or calibre of ’ guests used or to be used. It was and still is also one of the few shows in tv wherein the producers are permitted to func¬ tion under a different type of cycle arrangement than normally applies. Since negotiations with guests re¬ late to appearances that are some¬ times pencilled in for several ' months ahead, the producers are necessarily “secured” against abrupt cancellation, preemption, i etc. The pattern of longevity was set in the very beginning on another front. William Paley, CBS corpo¬ rate board chairman, saw the first show and thought it had quite a few “bugs.” But he liked it so much as a unique idea that he gave the Murrow-Aaron-Zousmer trio their head. Friday: Bum to Hero “Person to Person” went into the “worst tv night of the week”—Fri¬ day—and into what ordinarily had been station t i m e—10:30—and it was not long before they made it a landmark slot for ratings and a natural for exploitability. The show has figured prominently in the Top 10 for virtually all of its six seasons, and has remoted nu¬ merous personalities who had not previously been on tv or had shunned it. Murrow-in-the-chair and Murrow-with-cigaret became among the most imitiated and cari¬ catured. On the prospective sponsor side, no one has yet come forth to bridge the Revlon gap, nor reacted to the probability of a vacancy by Kent next season. The P. Loril- lard cigaret’s chieftains, among other reasons, are understood dis¬ inclined to continue on “P to P” next fall because, according to one unpublished report at the time, they were given “notice” of the Godfrey entry next season only a few hours before the announce¬ ment, which was issued by the network. Godfrey’s ’Last Try’? The production end apparently will present no problem for God¬ frey, since he will in all likelihood do the normal thing—bring In his own staff, assuming that the net¬ work would not Interfere with him on that score, or has‘no producer eligibles of its own to present to him. After heading many shows and bringing in millions of dollars to CBS at his peak, Godfrey is not being discounted qualitatively as the “P to P” interviewer, though it is no particular secret in the higher echelons that this may well be Godfrey’s “last stand” as a major personality—that is, if he doesn’t “make it” on a six-year show long since in success column, his destiny with the network will have to be studied more closely than ever before. Godfrey will probably not walk away from others on the produc¬ tion staff, plus the horde of tech¬ nicians—regarded as among the best in all television considering their six-year battle with storms, odd terrain and landscape encum¬ brances and other hazards, natural and man-made. The show’s office staff of about eight is another story. The program’s summer time will be filled by “Amateur Hour” with money from Pharmaceuticals. Lat¬ ter house, with Qeritol in the fore¬ front, may be warming up to con¬ tinue the underwriting of the Fri¬ day night slot when “P to P” re¬ turns next autumn. Murrow is committed to stay with the program until Hhe first two weeks in July, but it’s under¬ stood that he would like 'to leave as of end of June, and the show will probably be permitted to take its hiatus then. Aaron and Zousmer have been “handshake” partners for about 14 years, and have worked as a team at CBS, with Murrow and others, including Murrow’s radio newscasts.. Basically they’re news¬ men—and “news” is what hatched “Person to Person.” Its secret weapon is extension of news to an says Mai Kasanoff, Promotion Director KGBT-TV HARLINGEN, TEXAS “The way sponsors flocked to our Popeye Theatre was absolutely fantastic/’ says KGBT-TV's Pro* motion Director. He writes: “We started out with just one. sponsor . To sell him on* the value of the program we suggested a contest requiring the audience to send in labels. Result: we received over 2 million labels, and the sponsors sales went up 70%/ At the end of 2 weeks five more sponsors jumped on the Popeye bandwagon.” And that’s not all! KGBT-TV rolled up daily ratings of 22 to 25 against competition's 4’s and 5’s. Popeye’s cumulative ARB rating hit 40.2—the highest of any show in the market! Now, KGBT-TV is adding the Warner Bros, cartoons to keep audience interest at its height. KGBT-TV is the latest in a long line of stations to cash in on U.A.A's two great cartoon pack* ages. Make your station’ next! u.a.a. UNITED AOT1STS ASSOCIATED, Hta NEW YORK, 345 Madiwn Ave., MUrray Hill 6-2323; CHICAGO, 75 E. Wacfcer 0r„ DEarbom 2-2030 DALLAS, 1511 Bryan St, Riverside 7-8553 LOS ANGELES, 9110 Sunset Bivd., CRestview 6-5881