Variety (March 1959)

52 RADIO-TELEVISION y&RIETY Wednesday, March 25, 1959 Incepting TV 7 ! • - Continued f Hagerty (an icinating the end of his tenure as Press Secretary to President Eisenhower) might make an ideal choice. sincS he has come to k.iow the problems be¬ setting tv cn a Visile House level and also in view of his ready acces¬ sibility to the people in high places. Others think someone of the stature and prestige of an Adlai Stevenson, regardless of cost, could serve the industry as it needs serving. But it's generally agreed that to think in terms of just another public relations job off . the workaday p.r. beltline could invite disaster or at best the ineffectual treatment accorded public relations by the NAB it¬ self. Since the information campaign aims at utilizing the tv medium itself to help do the job of “re¬ educating” the American public, it’s interesting to note a letter sent to the heads of all the tv networks last week by G. J. LaRoche, the ad¬ vertising executive (C. J. LaRoche & Co.), in which he sets forth what he believes “would not only be a needed public service but the kind of public relations showmanship the critics would have to admit is worthy.” LaRoche told Variety, *‘I held some such ideas as this when Hubbell Robinson and I were WBZ-TV BOSTON The POPEYE tidal wave has hit Boston and swamped the competi¬ tion. “POPEYE’S an absolute knockout/’ writes WBZ-TV Sales Manager, Jim Allen. “Wherever we place him, POPEYE carries off fop rating honors and builds strong audience following. We run POPEYE daily at 5 PM, Sun¬ day evening at 6 PM, and six days per week on our Big Brother show. His ratings are more than 50% higher than • even such network standouts . as American Bandstand ” WBZ-TV proves there’s no such thing as “over-exposure” for POPEYE. Many stations have been running him for years with complete sponsor sell-outs. Why not cut your station a big slice of top-ratings and sponsor backing with reliable, irresistible POPEYE? u.a.a. UNITED ARTISTS ASSOCIATED, m. NEW YORK, 345 Madison Ave., MUrray Hill 6-2323 CHICAGO, 75 E. Wacker Dr., DEarborn 2-2030 DALLAS. 1511 Bryan St, Riverside 7-8553 LOS ANGELES.9110 Sunset Blv(L,CRestview 6-5886 ; True Image’ om page 29 —— running the American Broadcast¬ ing Co. and I found a warm recep¬ tion for them on the part of many station operators . . . They are more than willing to follow any intelligent, worthwhile public serv¬ ice effort. I know they would sup¬ port this one.” LaRoche’s lei ter to the ns work heads follows: “It is encouraging to know that you think there is some merit in the idea of the networks collective¬ ly meeting the more or less collec¬ tive attacks which charge they are not using the airways ‘fully’ in the public interest. “I realize there are many ‘differ¬ ent’ ways of answering the critics, but in my opinion you haven’t de¬ veloped any one big, important, dramatic answer that is symholic. The attack is against ‘the net¬ works.’ Yet, you split your forces in answering. “What I am proposing could do what business often fails to do— get out ahead of the inevitable. It is better to give up something and make an asset out of the ‘gift’ rather than have it taken away from you. “You. ask, ‘Do I feel that the networks should put on the same program, simultaneously?’ No— absolutely not. I think there should be the same competitive vying with one another for excellence as in commercial programming. Each would put on its own program. The impact. of all networks com¬ peting and offering at one time in the evening, a choice of the people and events which ‘make’ the na¬ tion, should loom far bigger than the excellent fare already offered —but tucked away Sunday after¬ noons when the worker is out dr busy—as the audience size proves. “This kind of competition, I*m convinced, would lead to skills that would demonstrate that some pub¬ lic service program properly con¬ ceived and produced can get as high, if not higher ratings, than the average of the entertainment programs. -I know that from my own experience in programming ‘The March of Time’ and some of the public service events we put on at ABC. “For instance, we took on the Herald Tribune Forum, but we programmed it like an air show, had all talks rewritten for the air, had John Kennedy ‘locate’ the talks, etc. We doubled ratings, as I recall, of the commercial programs whose times we preempted. “Of course, the question will come up whether or not for a pe¬ riod of 39 weeks—there are 117 news events, editorial features or simultaneous happenings that are worthy of broadcast. As long as this world keeps going around there is never going to be a lack of vitality exciting subjects that touch deeply an American’s life. “I think there is plenty of mate¬ rial for each of the. networks to show subject matter that has a broad common denominator or ap¬ peal—of interest to millions. “The whole idea is so simple. “To be sure there are many rea¬ sons and ways to easily kill it. But your public relations department could put every critic on the defen¬ sive with this kind of action. They could make the American public -feel that the networks recognize the responsibility that is theirs.” Members of the information committee comprise: C. Wrede Petersmeyer, of Corinthian Broad¬ casting, chairman; Robert D. Swe- zey, WDSU, New Orleans; Ward Quaal, WGN, Chicago; Jack Harris, KPRC, Houston; Roger Clipp, Tri¬ angle Stations; Donald H. McGan- non, Westinghouse Stations; Ken Bilby, NBC; Mike Foster, ABC; Charles Steinberg,-CBS. Ampex Gears Up in Brit London, March 24. Some Ampex equipment is to be manufactured in Britain. A deal is now being finalized by Ampex Electronics Ltd., subsidiary of Ampex Corp. of California, to take over the lease of a factory in Read¬ ing for the purpose, and first pro¬ duction results are expected to emerge by early summer. Dr. Peter Axon, topper of* the British company, said that output would not cover the whole range of Ampex gear “by any means.” Inside Stuff—Radio-TV CBS Foundation News and Pubaffairs Fellowships at Columbia Univ. were awarded this week to eight radio-tv newsmen from six states and from England. They’ll form the third annual group of CBS Fellows to undertake years of study at Columbia Univ. Fellowships average about $8,000 apiece and cover tuition and other costs at the university and transportation and living costs for each Fellow and family dependents for 36 weeks. , Winners for 1959-60 are Marvin L. Kalb, reporter-contact, CBS News, K.Y.; John Merriman, news editor, CBS. News, N.Y.; Barry R. Nemcoff, tv news editor, WCAU-TV, Philadelphia; Charles V. North, tv news director, KCGM-TV, Albuquerque; Charles R. Reeves, news director, WWVA, Wheeling; Jack D. Summerfield, assistant general manager. WGBH-FM-TV, Cambridge, Mass.; James. L. Wood, radio-tv news s’aff, WSBT Ra'dio-TV, South Bend, and John A. G. Tiffin, CBS News, London. ; - Don McNeill, host of “Breakfast Club” on ABC,pis helping to ar¬ range and promote an American and European personal appearance tour for Virginia (Ginny) Tiu, five-year-old Chinese piano prodigy who is so small she has to play standing up. Child was d scovered in Hong Kong two weeks ago by artist Ben Stahl, who had painted “Break¬ fast Club’s Moment of Silent Prayer” several months ago, and who called lier to the attention of McNeill. Moppet has been brought to the U.S., her parents accompanying, for a guest shot on McNeill’s show this week. McNeill’s offices will then begin trying to line up her tour. The money she makes in the U.S. will go towards an education fund for herself and the six other children in the Tiu family. A six-man delegation of American efectronics specialists will leave soon for a three-week inspection tour of Russia under U.S.-Soviet Ex¬ change Agreement. The trip follows a similar visit by a team of Soviet electronics ex¬ perts to the U.S. last November and is the outgrowth of two years of negotiations. U.S. delegation will be headed by Ray C. Ellis, v.p. of Raytheon Mfg. Co. and Chairman of the International Dept, of Electronic Industries Assn. Chi chapter of American Women in Radio and Television is auspi- cing an experimental course at Northwestern U. titled “The Role of Women In American Broadcasting” for the coming spring quarter. Course will be open to senior women selected by the university faculty. Betty Ross West, supervisor of pubaffairs and education for the NBC stations in Chicago, will serve as instructor and coordinater with 25 other AWRT members assisting as guest lecturers. Producers of CBS-TV’s “Conquest,” presented in' full-hour form last season, are prepping 20 “half-live” half-hour stanzas for this fall. “Conquest" offerings will be video-taped in the labs, universities and research centers throughout the country. Michael Sklar, producer, has started working on four of the 20 “Conquests” to be seen. Last year all the shows were filmed. Eric Sevareid will return as host and nar¬ rator. Monsanto Chemical Co. will sponsor on an alternate-week basis. When Lowell Thomas’ crews officially log the last mile for their upcoming Arabian episode on CBS-TV’s “High Adventure” series Fri¬ day (27) they will have chalked up a total of 1,060.000 mile£ for their four filmed.programs during the past tv season. Added to the 1,235.- 000 miles covered by the globe-trotting .Odyssey Productions outfit last year (seven programs) the two-season total of 2,295,000 film miles may well be an alltime record for a tv production outfit. Two of Jack Paaris midnight telestaffers have broken out in print as authors, and the comedian has given Jack Douglas and Cliff Ar¬ quette equal time by doing the introductions for both books. Both, as to be expected, are frothy, light reading tomes. Also, as to be expect¬ ed, Douglas’ “My Brother Was An Only Child” (Dutton; $2.50) is more hip. Arquette’s “Charley Weaver’s Letters From Mamma” (Winston; $1.95) tells it all in the. title—boqjc is a reprise of the nonsense “let¬ ters” which, under the veteran Arquette’s reading and Paar’s foiling, assume greater values than they deserve. In printer’s ink the off-the- cob wheezes, passed off in letter form, libel both Joe Miller and “mamma.” 60-Minute TV Entries Continued from page 31 Theatre” from 10, a slot which has not been especially helpful, to 7:30. This still may happen, it’s reported. Tuesdays: ABC is providing the alternate-week combination of ‘ Bronco” and “Sugarfoot,” CBS-TV will definitely go with a competing hour, the Par-produced space show, while NBC-TV sees-no blocks in its drive to make room for a live 60- minute show at 7:30.. Wednesdays: ABC; is seeking a replacement for Laurence Welk from 7i30 to 8:30, an&.although it has talked publicly inputting two half-hour shows in that time, network admitted l#|ljiore proba¬ bly will end up 60-minute telefilm series. 4 ‘Wagpj|,T i rain” will be back on NBC, and~CBS, having expressly set the night and the time aside for a 60-minute program, could put in any of several entries. Among them an expanded “Line¬ up.” Thursdays: NBC is looking for a western (maybe “Jeopardy”) for 7:30-8:30. Other two webs are al¬ most definitely locked out at this point, much to their dismay, with half-hour commitments for those time slots. Fridays: ABC moves “Walt Dis¬ ney Presents” from 8 back to 7:30 to compete with CBS’ “Rawhide” skein. NBC is going to kick out “Ellery Queen” at 8 and find itself a 7:30-8:30 show. Saturdays: ABC is set with “Pub¬ lic Enemy” at 7:30; NBC is certain to program at 7:30 with an hour and almost certain to make the program “Riverboat.” CBS’ “Perry Mason” stays at 7:30. After 8:30 here are some of the other hourlong shows with which each of the networks hope to drub the competition. CBS-TV has just set John Houseman’s hourlong _“Lavv Breakers” series. Again night by night, it’s ABC on Sundays with the “Alaskans” at 9:30, and NBC with Dinah Shore at 9. ABC is set with “Adventures in Paradise” at 8:30 Mondays, and (depending on whether Firestone decides not to take the 10 p.m. half-hour for “Voice of Firestone”) “Fat. Man” at 10-11. Steve Allen goes Mon¬ day night 10 to .11 on NBC. Tuesdays, after 8:30, the only show set so far by anybody is Garry Moore at 10 by CBS. The Wednesday post-8:30 lineup is topped by Perry Como at 9-10 on NBC. CBS has alternating U. S. Steel-Armstrong hour dramatics at 10.. ABC is going to put “Fat Man” at 9 Wednesadys. “Playhouse 90” will back an¬ other season for CBS-TV Thurs¬ days between 9:30 and 11 p.m., al¬ ternating with Equitable Life’s “Biography” series. Fridays, ABC is sure to continue “77 Sunset Strip” at 9:30-10:30, and CBS hopes to be going with “Fabulous 40” at 9, even though Ford deal is cold. Lastly, Saturday, NBC hopes to replace “Cimarron City” with “Laramie,” Welk is a certainty on AEC and, on this particular night, there is a chance one or two other house may move in. Coca-Cola’s Mex Hex On Spot Radio Bays; Withdraws Ad Budget Mexico City, March 24. Jose Horacio Castro, sales man¬ ager for Coca-Cola in Monterey, in this city to discuss new adver¬ tising plans, stated that the soft drink firm has pulled out of spot advertising in this city and other urban centers of the country be¬ cause surveys have shown that “radio spot advertising has lost its force in Mexico because of the tre¬ mendous amount of commercials interspersed between melodies.” As a matter of fact, situation is so bad in some cases that commer¬ cials break into a song several times. This has been noted not only in this city but in provincial radio programs where commercials seem to account for far too much broadcast time. .And listeners have been steadily complaining about the constant assailing of their ears with singing, spoken, acted and re¬ cited commercials. Radio spot advertising has lost its effectiveness for some years now, Castro said, and it is the chief obstacle why many stations are un¬ able to build up their listeners. There are exceptions, he said, where a station does not go “spot announcement crazy,” limiting these to sane numbers._ Available far all motion picture and tele* Vision uses—the combined stock shot libraries of NBC TELEVISION FILMS and THE MARCH OF TIME-more than 30 million feet of film, minutely indexed for instant^vaffSlbiiity!^"Na'm*..your sub* Ject;wgtftiaveit! Call Peggy Moran at.„