Variety (March 1959)

72 RABIO-IEUiTISIOS Wednesday, March 18, 1959 Louisville’s Near-Miss Tornado Cues WHAS-TVer Hat Cues Conelrad Louisville, March 17. A WHAS-TV documentary on the preparedness of Louisville offi¬ cials for a tornado such as the one that missed the city by only 53 miles in late January, has blown up a storm resulting in Louisville and Jefferson County getting an effective disaster program before being hit directly by tragedy. The documentary, “53 Miles From Death,” was aired on WHAS two weeks after a twister struck Caneyville, Ky. Film of the tor¬ nado wreckage was followed by interviews with Louisville and Jef¬ ferson County school superintend¬ ents and other officials, presenting a pattern of leaders saying it was “their understanding” that others were to handle a warning system. When the tornado warning was issued, effecting .part of Jefferson County, school officials were un¬ able to contact their schools be¬ cause of distressed parents tying up switchboards. Although four tornado drills a year are required, many schools never had even one, and some principals didn’t even know what or where their tornado instructions were. No one knew who was to give them warning of an impending twister. Jerry Austin, sidekick of •'Cannonball'' Mike Malone — rugged men entrusted to maintain the nation's com* mercial lifeline. MIEimSEK siHipnfs CMN0IU11 New Markets Sold Each Day- Wire No w For Your Choice Of Availabiiities! Many Individuals and groups bombarded the newspapers and the tv station, resulting in WHAS sug¬ gesting, in counseling the school systems, that they take advantage of the Conelrad warning system, already in effect. Conelrad receiv¬ ers, said Victor A. Sholis, v.p. and director of WHAS Inc., should be put in all Louisville, Jefferson County and parochial schools. Various civic groups acted im¬ mediately, with the result that bids were received on Conelrad receiv¬ ers, and equally important. Safety Council members took back to their organizations proposals for the installation of Conelrad receiv¬ ers in all places housing large numbers of people. With an effec¬ tive warning system set up; tor¬ nado instructions reviewed for the schools and fresh drills held; and the extension of interest, and pro¬ tective measures to the rest of the public, the documentary took on new importance. Louisville, in a tornado zone, acted before disaster struck. BRAND-NEW by Robt. Maxwell. creator of LASSIE! ) INDEPENDENT TELEVISION ) CORPORATION 488 Madison Av«.*II.Y. 22«PUza 5-2100 'Outer Space’ - Continued from page 31 such markets. Here’s what they heard: __ ABC-TV has 14 shows now de¬ livering more than 10,000,000 homes w T ith each telecast; that the competing networks get their highest ratings with the over-55 age group while ABC rates highest with the “all important” under-40 set; that the latest Nielsen compe¬ titive market info gives ABC 17 half-hour firsts, CBS 16 and NBC 9 at night; that ABC has five of the Top Ten Nielsen shows; that it has the best nighttime cost effi¬ ciency; and that its affiliates have made the greatest gains, on a local basis, in the past year. For the first eight weeks of 1959, ABC-TV has shown a 21% gain over last year in the prime evening hours—again according to the Nielsen Multi-Network area ratings—and it calculates that the three networks are now in a virtual three-way tie in average ratings from 7:30 to 10:30 p.m. The net¬ work's weakest night is Monday, without which, it claims, it would lead all three Webs in rating aver¬ age. * ‘The Quiet Man' CBS stated its case more tran¬ quilly. befitting a network that has led for a number of years. Chiefly, it told its affiliates, it has held onto the lead (per Nielsen nation¬ wide surveys) with class program¬ ming while the competition was banking' on the western trend. From its Nielsen data, CBS-TV finds that in the 52 sponsored nighttime half hours it leads with 28, while NBC and ABC trail with 12 each. CBS also claimed to have the all round lowest cost per thou¬ sand. A highlight of the Cdlumbia presentation was the disclosure by sales administration veep Bill Hy- lan of a corporate image study made by Audits & Surveys Co., an independent research firm. In¬ volved in the study were 104 key execs working for 30 large ad agencies and 35 top executives working for national advertisers. The findings were as follows: Percentage Story CBS received a 76% vote for having the best all-around pro¬ gramming, NBC got 14% and ABC got none. The remaining 10% named NBC and CBS together. For the greatest amount of pres¬ tige programming, CBS drew 49% and again ABC none. The remaind¬ er was divided between NBC and the dual choice. For the greatest sense of public interest and taste, the breakdown was CBS 73%, NBC 23%, and ABC 8%. Columbia drew 91% of the votes for having the most stable and consistent pro¬ gram policy. CBS led also by a wide margin in such categories as best in deliv¬ ering daytime audiences, ditto in nighttime audiences, and most ca¬ pable in overall operation. It was also preferred 64% as the network to do business with. The upshot, as Hylan expressed it to the affiliates, is that CBS commands the most confidence from key advertising execs and that they see the company as alert and businesslike. No Pill-aver Honolulu, March 17. Rex Ravelle, onetime fea¬ tured film player and now owner of a prosperous chain of health studios here, stepped before the KONA-TV cameras during one of his tri-weekly programs and gulped down a fistful of pills, products of one of his sponsors. An awkard silence ensued when the potent pills puck¬ ered up his mouth, causing a temporary loss of speech. Automation Act Continued from page 31 « be programmed as the individual station sees fit. Collins is vying for the attention of floorwalking conventioneers with an automatically timed pro¬ gram device of its own plus its more general line of electronic broadcasting equipment. RCA, running the most extensive ex¬ hibit here, has some tantalizing projects on view. To the layman they might pass unnoticed, but they still convey that the tv station can find it almost as easy as any radio sister to automate. It’s a technical package which can de¬ liver several hours of automated telefilm or tape programming. For any casual passers-by who’ve heard of NBC’s Buffalo operation, a di¬ rect question to the RCA doormen will bring a tempered tide of an¬ swers about automation. Lavaliers & Such There are some items on display, not necessarily of an automated nature, but nonetheless of marked interest to the amassed station and network men in Chicago for the conclave. Century Lighting of New York City is present with the pro¬ totype of a $1,500 wireless micro¬ phone. Built like the wired neck¬ laces which have become so familiar among personalities on the rash of tv talk shows, this Cen¬ tury gem delivers its amplified sounds over free air to a 10-ounce, eight or nine-ihch-long transistor¬ ized unit. Century calls it the “com¬ plete station” more mobile and less obstructed, than the wired mike on which it is based; Also ranking among the more unusual exhibits present is that of Kahn Research Laboratories of Freeport, Long Island. Kahn has developed a technical layout capable of transmitting what it con- -fidently describes as stereophonic sound, delivered up to audiences who don’t possess anything more than two radio sets. Traditional stereo requires the use of an AM and an FM receiver for listeners. By means of some legitimate technical hocus-pocus, Kahn ex¬ plains it can transmit stereo via I one AM station transmitter. The j two home AM radio sets then do j the rest. And a lone AM radio set will pick up nothing less than the ordinary AM sound. Electronic applications Inc. of Stamford. Conn., has an $800. 20- pound audio tape unit from Switzerland—a portable job with 30 transistors in operation to de¬ liver what the company says is fidelity as fine as that of much larger and irrevocably stationery sound consoles. Be Conscientious & Buy The exhibit floor, as always, has the multi-variety of technical in¬ novations that no conscientious station operator can afford to be without. If the broadcaster wants color tape, he can turn to either Ampex or RCA, which appears this year with a working model of its tape machinery (see separate story). And judging by the back- and-forth flow between the nearly adjacent RCA and Ampex func¬ tional displays, many station men are having a tough job making up their minds which one they want, or if they want one at all. Klieg and Century (of the wire* less mike) are on hand with light¬ ing equipment. Stations needing new clocks can turn to Favag Studio Time, or a broadcaster with a phobia about radarless airplanes can turn to Hughey & Phillips Inc. and its complete line of beacon flashes and tower lighting, junction boxes and photo-electric controls. Stations with a yen for live tv pro¬ duction of their own can again turn to the TelePrompter Corp. ex¬ hibit. Somebody with telefilm to handle can insure it against scratches, dirt and sundry afflic¬ tions by speaking to the Harwald Co. Inc., of Evanston, Ill. Foreign TV Reviews ; Continued from page 60 ; by the use of giant blowups , be¬ hind the various speakers. - But disappointment almost made a third standout factor, for the program didn’t, for a start, offer much more than already known about the mainsprings of Hitler’s character and, at the end, dwelt overlong on those last hours in the Berlin bunker when the time could have been better spent on other aspects of Nazism. All the same, the survey did give answers to questions such as how an ex-house painter could come to control 80,000,000 Ger¬ mans and what might happeh to¬ day if Hitler miraculously re¬ turned. Maybe it could usefully have explained, how some promi¬ nent figures of . Hitler’s day are now back in high places and in particular how Schaub, the Fueh¬ rer’s adjutant, who was with his master to the death, came to be seen on the program with every appearance of wellbeing. In general, though, the verbal and pictorial impact was strong: the massed rallies, the corpses and near-corpses of victims, the parades of strength and, all the while, that comical but hypnotic figure couldn’t fail to impress. Interviews with a well-chosen lineup including, incidentally, Hitler’s sister Paula Wolf, were expertly conducted by Kenneth Harris. Production, with an espe¬ cial nod to the editing, was tops. Erni. LEIHHAUSLEGENDE (Pawnshop Legend) With Martin Berliner, Brigitte Grothum, Rolf Henniger, Kurt Heintel, Emil Stankowski, A1 Hoosman, S. Ledinek, R. Kollde- hoff, others Producer: SFB (Berlin) Director: Werner Voelger Writer: A. B. Shiffrin Music: Olaf Bienert 90 Mins.; Thurs.; 9 p.m. W-German TV, from Berlin With regard to vidpix, Berlin’s SFB doesn’t exactly belong to this country’s best producers. In fact, most of its productions can’t stand comparison with those turned out by Stuttgart or Hamburg’s tv sta¬ tion. “Pawnshop Legend,” adapted from A. B. Shiffrin’s same-titled legit play and efficiently translated into German by - the late stage di¬ rector and scriptwriter Leo Mittler, is a positive exception. That’s, in the main, a merit of director Wer¬ ner Voelger who proved to have the right sense for romantic at¬ mosphere which this piece re¬ quires. This pawnhouse legend has the flavor of a lovable fairy-tale ar.d will be remembered as such by most televiewers. To make it more fastidious, it rolls up with a number of nice original comera shots. Martin Berliner enacts the old pawnbroker with very good results. Brigitte Grothum, lovely to look at, portrays the young girl to whom the old man feels so attracted. Rolf Henninger contributes a young writer who pawns his type¬ writer. One of the most positive points about this offering is its cast. There are good performances all the way. In all, the tv version of Shiffrin’s “Pawnshop Legend” was more impressive than that seen on nically, it deseryed a very good a local stage some years ago. Tech- label as well. Hans. Sunday Night at London Palladium With utter assurance, Cdnnie Francis took the limelight in the March 8 edition of Associated Television’s show and probably gained fans in the process. Her confident singing of tunes such as “Rock-a-bye Baby,” “My Happi¬ ness” and “Got the Whole World In His Hands” contrasted well with her apparent shyness in in¬ terim moments. Program as a whole once again emphasized the family-a p p e a I trend, not so much in its assort¬ ment of acts as in Bruce Forsyth’s emceeing. He’s playing it well. On this occasion he trod the Moth¬ er’s Day pedal, crowed delightedly over fan mail, inserted his “I’m in charge” gag—and so on, to the live audience’s warm approval. Tosca de Lac, aerialist, went through some stately and tricky convolutions, Billy Dainty did some energetic but not too hilari¬ ous gagging and the Marino Ma¬ rini Quartet played in the manner that their “Volare” disk made famous. The “Beat The Clock” spot had to be tolerated, of course, but this time there wasn’t even the kick of having a single competitor win a single prize. Teamwork of the Tiller Girls was tops, and Cyril Ornadel and the London Pallad- gave ste Production ' ard. " Erni. ' Saturday Spectacular Associated Television’s “The Jane Morgan Show,” networked on Saturday (7), came up as a bright item thanks largely to the personality and prowess of its top name. Superbly groomed and gowned—with a different dress for each number—the thrush scored with well varied pops that took in, inevitably. “The Day The Rains Came.” She had a sexy manner that was deceptively artless. Program was well balanced. Toni Dalli was the male Morgan counterpart and gave out lustily with “Io Sono Vento” and “The World Keeps Turning” with virile, unsmiling earnestness. Ventro Dennis Spicer made his “moon girl” doll patter divertingly. Mor¬ ton Fraser’s Harmonica Gang went through their stock act efficiently, and Mike & Bernie Winters did the emceeing. Latter two weren’t worldbeaters in the comedy stakes but worked hard in their routines and took an amusing swipe at that institution from the “Sunday Night At The London Palladium” show, “Beat The Clock.” Laff merchant Dave King did a bit part to help round off one of the boys’ gags. Tiller Girls offered some smart precision dancing and Jack Par¬ nell orch provided the backing. Design was tasteful, production practiced. Erni. JOHNNY JOtNSXmt (Z&vmxil Luncheon served Noon to 3 P.M. Monday thru Friday COCKTAILS—DINNER—SUPPER 848 Second Avenue at 45th Street Member all charge clubs MU 4*7250—Open 7 day* ON EVERY CHANNEL 1 BROOKS COSTUMES aW»tl 64.1 SI., N.Y.C.-Ttl. PL 7-5*00 ATLANTIC’S 11th Year in Television—thanks to you! So we say to ail our station^friends—thank you for your continuing friendship. We will continue to offer fine first run features, together with outstanding service, an Atlantic tradition. Currently In release—CHAMPION PACKAGE of 40 Features, and our MILLION DOLLAR PACKAGE OF 60 l Combined they make one of the finest RERUN PACKAGES available. Keep In touch with:— ATLANTIC TELEVISION CORP. 130 West 46Hi Street New York 36. N. Y. Dave Bader, our Vice President, Is staying at the Congress Hotel, Chicago, during the Convention.