Variety (December 1960)

Wednesday, December 7, I960 P^SHEff TV-FDLMS 29 EVERYONE YENS 60 -MIN. SHOWS + 4- Getting Footage the Hard Way TV KEEPS TIME Court Favors U.S. (Or Does It?) . Hollywood, Dec. 0. . Not content with putting together someone else’s footage for it* ABC-TV series, “Expedition!,” Insight Inc. has moved into the field of co-sponsoring scientific exploration. On tap are expedition* to Guatemala and the Philippines, with Insight initially to co¬ sponsor a large-scale Mexican-U. S. probe of the fabled Maya “Well of Sacrifice” in Yucatan. “Well” expedition leaves this week for the two-month trek, with “Expedition!” co-owners V. Fae Thomas and P. T. Furst disclosing Insight has made a “substantial contribution” to the expedition in exchange for exclusive filming rights. Films of the Yucatan expedition will be distributed worldwide by ABC Films Inc., distributors of the “Expedition!” teleseries which is sponsored on the air by Ralston-Purina. Producer Thomas revealed the exploration will be headed by leading archaeologists of the Mexican Institution of Anthropology and History and by the Mexican Underwater Exploration Society, with active support of the National Geographic Society and Insight. Also taking part will be several U. S. underwater explorers from Washington, D. C., with special equipment to remove an estimated 14 feet of mud from the bottom of the sacred lake. Several U. S. scientific observers also will participate. Heading Insight’s photo¬ graphic team will be LaVerne Pederson, former Walt Disney camerman, with footage expected to be shown on the ABC show in the spring. Exploration of the “Well of Sacrifice” will be the first since 1905 when expedition from Harvard’s Peabody Museum discovered an estimated $500,000 worth of gold and jade objects at a depth of over 60 feet. WBBM-TV Into Motion Picture Biz In Big Way; Thrice Daily Grind Chicago, Dec. 6. . While other stations here are ap¬ parently disenchanted with feature films, and tentative about adding to their libraries. WBBM-TV is showing a hunger for post '48 titles and seems determined to grab the corner on cinematics in this mar¬ ket. It’s highly probable that in a year or two the CBS anchor will be the only Windy City channel that is seriously in the motion picture business. Like all the stations in the CBS o&o division, WBBM-TV is already armed to the teeth with the pre-’48 MGM and Paramount libraries and the newly-acquired post-’48 Colum¬ bia catalong of 275 features. But, in addition, the station has lately ! done some independent shopping, ! adding some recent vintage pix! from the current NTA bundle, the : Show Corp. package, and. a group; of Lopert imports from Britain. Chuck Hinds, WBBM-TV pro- ; gram manager, revealed that the station is buying blockbusters de¬ fensively as well as competitively, to. keep them out of the vaults of other stations here. Lopert pack¬ age, for instance, is tailor-made for a station equipped to beam color. In this market those would be WNBQ and WGN-TV, but not W’BBM-TV. The Columbia station grabbed them for black and white exhibition, at least partly to keep them from the competition. WBBM-TV grinds Cinematics (Continued on page 54) Lennon & Nowell's Sr. Veepee Nicholas E. Keesely discourse* on CPM (Cost Per Thousand) In his article Pm in Poor Condition another Interesting Feature in the upcoming 55 th Anniversary Number of PRriety ■ Court Ruling Seen As a Victory For Garner in WB Bolt Los Angeles, Dec. 5. James Garner, who starred as ‘‘Bret Maverick” under a $1,750- per-week term contract with Warner Bros., may have success¬ fully bolted from the studio stable Hanna-Barbera’s Billings Mounting That Hanna-Barbera, Screen Gems marriage continues on its prosperous course. Kellogg’s, via Leo Burnett, has inked for another season of “Huckleberry Hound” and “Quick Draw McGraw.” Season of ’61-’62 will find three Hanna-Barbera shows in national spot, with Kel¬ logg’s picking up the tab. The third is “Yogi Bear,” which makes its debut next month as separate series. SG also is looking for a renewal of Hanna-Barbera’s “Flintstones” next season on ABC-TV. Show, do¬ ing fine in the rating meter for the current season, has picked up another six episodes via exercising of options, with the web and spon¬ sors now‘committed to 32 episodes for the season, instead of 26. “Yogi Bear” national spot series prior to its January debut also had the number of episodes committed increased from 26 to 32. Counting Kellogg's half-sponsor¬ ship of “Dennis the Menace,” Kel¬ logg’s swells SG coffers to the tune of from $7,000,000 to $7,500,000 an¬ nually now. to join the freelancers, according to one interpretation of an L.A. Superior Court ruling made here last week. Judge Arnold Praeger, at the . conclusion of a three-day trial, I ruled that the studio had no legal right to suspend the actor on March 2 under the “force majeure” clause, thereby sustaining the ac¬ tor’s contention that the studio had breached its contract. The judge did not, however, specify whether the contract breach was sufficient to nullify it and studio attorneys observed that the judge may, in his final ruling, award damages to the actor but hold that the contract is still in j effect. Garner’s attorneys consider ; this unlikely. j Judge Praeger, commenting J briefly that he would take the matter of damages under submis¬ sion, stated that he had based his ruling primarily on testimony given by WB prexy Jack L. War¬ ner. Warner had declared that it was his personal decision to suspend Garner, Jack Kelly and Clint Walker on March 2 because of a lack of suitable scripts for their respective series, caused by the strike of Writers Guild of’ America. Kelly and Walker later accepted work at the studio but Garner held aloof, maintaining the (Continued on page 58) ’ In Features-to-TV Anti-Trust Suit By MURRAY HOROWITZ Preparation of new hourlong vld- film series for next season finds all the major companies with 60-min- uters pencilled in, a lineup being joined by indies, too. Added impetus to the “hour-hop” was given by the recent National Nielsens, the first significant coun¬ trywide ratings for the new season, which found the bulk of the cur¬ rent 60-minuters in the safe cor¬ ner. Of the 26 hourlong vidfilm net work nighttime shows, only six sank below a rating of 17, consid¬ ered the dividing line between danger and safety. The “hour hop” . also looks like it will be given a new twist next season, if present plans of ABC-TV materialize. For the first time, hour series will be given a re¬ run ride in any quantity. Web plans to open up the late night period with reruns of hourlong shows, pitting them against the features and NBC-TV’s “Jack Paar Show.”. ABC-TV currently is out trying to get affil clearances, for an Oct., '61 start. Vidfilm majors, Warner Bros., Screen Gems, Four Star Produc¬ tions and MCA TV, all are current¬ ly involved in hourlong projects for next season. Additionally, the roster includes Paramount, 20th- Fox and Metro TV, as well as in- ■ dies such as Edward Small, Good- | son-Todman, and Independent ! Television Corp. ; Pattern of the 60-minuter finds 'the interested web putting up the ■ dough for the pilot and obtaining a I partnership in the property. Vid- i film packagers won’t move into i pilot production without web ! financing, simply because of the 1 six figure risks involved. ! At this stage of the game, most : of the interested parties are keep¬ ing the exact nature of the proj¬ ects under wraps. But there’s some out in the open, sufficient to get the flavor of what’s upcoming. ABC-TV, which has 13 hourlong vidfilm series currently riding, re¬ mains very active in the 60-minute field. Web has made a deal with Hubbell Robinson Jr., for a series of filmed one hour dramas, to be titled “Stage 61,” prestige entry along the lines of “Playhouse 90,” Twentieth-Fox and ABC-TV ; are involved on two projects, “Tan¬ ganyika” and a series based on Wil¬ liam Inge’s “Bus Stop.” Paramount has three high budg¬ eted hour entries, “Caravan," a biblical series and historical and western subjects. Edward Small (Continued on page 50) ‘Children’s Classics' (WCBS Features) Aid In School Disscussion For all their irregularity of scheduling, selected feature films can be promoted heavily with the same or better effect than regular weekly programs. Proof of the pudding comes from WCBS-TV, N. Y. and the Webb Associates agency, w'hich have completed a strong educational campaign on their three “Children’s Classics” feature film specials. The three films, run Saturday afternoons on the station under th* sponsorship of General Toy Co. (repped by Wexton) are “Tom Sawyer,” “Huckleberry Finn” and “Alice in Wonderland,” all out of WCBS-TV’s Paramount library. “Sawyer” and “Huck” ran Nov. 19 and 26 respectively; “Alice” runs this Saturday (10). Station, under the signature of pub-ad-promotion director Len Traube, mailed out a total of 75,000 study guides to 2,500 elementary and junior high' schools in N. Y., New Jersey and Connecticut. Study guides, one on each of the pro¬ grams, were written by the agency and edited by the station. They contained suggestions for discus- i (Continued on page 58) From Hollywood Louis Derman has authored a serious observation on the TV medium What Price Mediocrity * * * another Special Byliner In the upcoming 55th Anniversary Number of _ PSriety WNBC-TV Plans Major Spread On Post-’48 Features WNBC-TV, the NBC flag in N.Y., may return to bigtime feature film useage. Station is in negotiation with Seven Arts, which handles 40 of the Warner Bros. post-’48 full- lengthers. If WNBC-TV ultimately pur¬ chases the films, It’ll be the first time in four years that the outlet has used American-made theatrical films. WNBC (then WRCA-TV) had . some old NTA-distributed product in 1957 and before that, in 1956, it had leased and used some United Artists pre- and post-’48 features, but neither former cata¬ log was as substantial as the War¬ ner material promises to be. Station would use the films in its late Saturday and Sunday feature slots, now held down by foreign theatrical films. It’s understood that when Seven Arts opened dickers several weeks ago the asking price per pic for the N.Y. market alone was close to $30,000, with the distrib giving in exchange extra-longterm leasing rights to the buyer. Reportedly the price has come down since. PROBING THE COMMIES; NTA VIDTAPE SERIES Experts on various phases of Communism will be commissioned by. WNTA-TV, Newark-N.Y. indie, to participate in a half-hour vid- taped series. Ted Cott, station v.p. of National Telefilm Associ¬ ates, hopes to syndicate the 12 episode series in other markets. Subjects to be covered may include such topics^ as the role of Communist Russia at the U.N., the real, as opposed to the con¬ stitutional rights of Soviet Re¬ publics in the Soviet Union, etc. The capper in the series would be the panel of experts on Communism answering questions In the public mind. Motif of the project w'ould have the experts address a studio gathering in a lecture situation. Colorama $2,000,000 Deal on 22 Post-’48s Colorama Features has acquired theatrical and tv distribution rights to 22 post-’48 pix i produced by Pine-Thomas for initial Paramount release. Price for the distribution rights was $2,000,000. The 22 pix, many in color, fea¬ ture such stars as Charlton Heston, Jane Wyman, James Cagney, Fred MacMurray and Dorothy Lamour. Titles include “El Paso,” ‘Man¬ handled,” “Captain China,” “The Eagle and the Hawk,” “The Law¬ less,” “Tripoli,” and “Hong 1 Kong.” ► In the wake of Judge Archie O. Dawson’s anti-“block-booking” de- ; cision, the query is being asked who really won the case? N. Y. Federal District Court Judge Dawson found features-to-tv distrib defendants guilty of “block¬ booking,” violating Section One of the Sfierman Anti-Trust Act. Judge Dawson, however, denied the Government’s request that con¬ tracts with tv stations be renego¬ tiated. According to defense at¬ torneys closely associated with the case. Judge Dawson also denied the use of Section Five of the anti¬ trust laws which allows the utiliza¬ tion of the court's decree as a pre¬ sumption of guilt in civil triple damages trust suits. The Justice Department in its complaint sought a court decree calling upon distribs to sell its features on a picture by picture and station by station basis. Judge Dawson, though, felt that such language was too broad. He said the yet to be drawn decree should prohibit . the conditioning of the sale of -one or more pix on the purchase of others. He did not rule out the sale of groups of pix to groups of stations, per se. accord¬ ing to attorneys. Under the projected decree, a distrib won’t be able to condition the sale of one or more pix on the sale of others. Judge Dawson’s rul¬ ing is seen as a reaffirmation of the law on that score. Practical aspects of the ruling, according to attorneys, run along these lines: If a station, offered a group of 70 pictures, for example, wants to buy only 35. distrib can’t walk away on the basis that only 70, or nothing, is up for sale. Pos¬ sible deal on the 35 would be su5>- ject to negotiations^ on price, on other terms and factors. One at¬ torney felt that no blanket re¬ marks could be made, but that each situation would have to he examined separately. It was pointed out that the court examined hundreds' of contracls and other evidence, before sub- jmitted its ruling. With the exeep- l tion of C & C Super, a defense attorney said there was less than a half-dozen situations where the court ruled block-booking was evi¬ dent. Most of the defense attorneys haven’t as yet had sufficient time to completely digest Judge Dawson’s 78-page opinion. Decision on whether defendants will appeal has not been finalized. But the likeli¬ hood is good at least for some de¬ fendants that no appeal will be filed. If the Justice Department is dissatisfied with the decision, as indicated in the opposing camp, it may elect to file an appeal. Ticking off the defendants, Judge Dawson found that: Loew’s, Inc. (Metro) in certain negotiations, apparently condi- (Continued on page 50) Fall Biz Upswing At ITC; Set McGee Independent Television Corp. reports a roster of sales, covering virtually its entire catalog, in a reported fall biz upswing. At the same time, William (Bill) McGee has been named 'western division 6ales manager. McGee, who had served posts as ITC dis¬ trict manager, replaces Wallace Hutchinson, who resigned to join Blair reppery. McGee will head¬ quarter in Los Angeles. For the month of November, 18 additional markets for “Best of the Post” were closed, bringing the “Post” countdown to 149 markets. “Ramar of the Jungle” and “Jeff’s Collie” were bought in another six markets. Other sales were regis¬ tered on “Hawkeye and the Last of the Mohicans,” “Stage 7,” “Inter¬ pol Calling,” “Four Just Men” and other ITC properties.