Variety (January 1961)

126 RADIO-TELEVISION Fifty-fifth P^BStETf Anniversary January 4, 1961 Coming: Debut Of A ‘New' TV Personality — Will Rogers By DONALD B. HYATT ( Director , Special Projects, NBC-TV) There is not one of us in the ' Goldwyn star, Will as a Hal Roach programming end of the television i comedian, Will as a concert lecturC , . „„n,. er, Will as a radio personality, Will bU«ne,3 who isnt continually ag a Journalist, philanthropist, and searching for that dream enter humorist— Will is still all there tainer with a totally irresistible waiting to be tapped for the tv personality, wliO is able to host a. screen. variety show, :o narrate a docu : As a performer. W'ill was flexible merrt j to be a name actor. stand:: comedian and a topical hti.s: >: i>: — al; in one. Surely such a • would be the most sought af» ” 1 *v tjeri inner of all time. v*>: 1 v. -1 ’-ave found him — Will R : ■ v O: course Will has been deu : ; : e e jear*,. but the beauty ot V.V 1 i ?•; jf he never really died. He I ,* ft behimt a living lode of g. ,*._r . ■ m* mabwrd both vocal and vi v e.hivh vh idly recalls his pm*.-: r and personality, almost a* i:’ i:e h.i-i never left us. His m !*•*' : :! ::: •■•* of it. remains as f: v ?■»:'!. ! today as it ever Vi f * A* Ih )}■. : T eap.” we’ve taken or. m il-ti a* fantastically far ap «■ : a Ab: i’r rr. Lincoln and A 5 A . b-.i' a whole program on t . • I:. an i time-* of a show h ** ‘.ha:: is new to us. vN*- :r: doing “Tlie Will E . *;:•>:■' ” v .o don’t regard our seh ..•* r«v. bvginners in the fieM P: no comparable se r; •*» it: ; pvevi'ior: has drawn upon the t:v •j*i\’v-irnve of native Ameri ; cm ’: }■:•' a* frequently as we have O ■ scrip: **. fur instance, have : U* ‘ ’ ? ’:■■:• comments of : F:*.’ Pe* ■: I):::’.::e’s great Mr. 1 D ••ih“* "Ti.t* Innocent Y'aers’b. \ Un ie* the hi*e Pete Salomon, we 1 em:*led Fred Alien as our wry ar. : s; Ft’ commentator on “The J7> Y ae ” In “Life in the Thirties” Ruber Benchlew was on screen as a hili ruir- analyst of the Great ‘ Dense* Bob Hope both nar: rded and armeared in. our “Not \ Si L A:ro” And in “Mark’ T ‘ am’ Aw.-.-riea” we birlt 57 min «:*•' o f \meric:«.m and nostalgia around tire grea»e**t American hu n o: of P err. a1: F.-r . V I! ’sn’t rw-w to u*. His V* ” ’-•; fwA ourvgent and pene'rat i:m c a. k* V i a v av of getting 1m ■> » S'. r.v.>. for show * devoted tl V!' :’ «:*••:— a way of ge*:ir:g Pro iXt Twenty" for V. .’ ' •■ -. '• j. n i meon a* n ! , : m t,::e f I r* as p and endlessly talented. Think of what he could do <and now will do) on television. There is film of him doing rope tricks that will amaze today's television cowboys, and warm and intimate scenes of him playing polo, cavorting with poli¬ ticians. and flying on plane trips than what he did, was the impor¬ tant thing; and there are over 50 hour*; of recordings of Will talking Ills humor first hit them: marriage, acting, human relations, traffic, ad¬ vertising, and the ugly American. He was a natural for television, the real thing. But unfortunately he died just as the new medium was born. He was then only 55. Once he said: “A comedian can ' only last until he takes himself se¬ rious or his audience takes him serious, and I don’t want either one of them to happen to me until I’m dead ... if then.” Well, we don’t intend to take Will too serious. We hope to let him be himself. If we can just i bring that off. the audience — those who remember him and those to whom he is only a name — Is going ‘Operation Alphabet’ As Major WFIL-TV Project To Combat Illiteracy Philadelphia. “Operation Alphabet,” a fullscale assault on. Illiteracy in the Philadelphia area will be launched Jan. 30 by WFIL-TV. Alex Shevlin, a city school teacher will conduct 20 weeks of classes five mornings a week between 6:30 and 7 a.m. 1 Project designed to teach illit! erate men and women to read and J write is geared to reach an audi. ence of some 200,000 persons living ■ within a 70-mile radius of Phila¬ delphia who can at the most read or write only their names. ; Broadcasts have the backing of ? the Board of Education, the Junior Chamber of Commerce, the Philadciphla Foundation and other civic agencies. Robert H. Coates, direc¬ tor of the Philadelphia division of . school extension, estimated there I were' 800,000 illiterates in Penn¬ sylvania and Jersey and the : program is expected to reach about 25 c'c of them. 'METRO TV EYEING | O’SEAS MARKET ANEW i Metro, whose foreign division ; met with success in marketing a ! feature version of “Northwest 'Passage,” is prepplng similar fea¬ tures for the overseas theatrical . market. j First “Northwest Passage” was ■ composed of three half-haur epii sodes of the series, with bridges | added for the feature run. There's ' a second “Passage” project now ready for the foreign market, with a third planned. I960: 'Moment of Truth’ Continued from page 96 ; Radio-Heyday To Renaissance clals the public demands Into one hour. They’ve found that more than 2:10 Is too long between com¬ mercials. Wall-To-Wall Commercials These dmk jockeys, too, are to he congratulated on their resource¬ fulness. Even when their station hasn’t sold enough time to run a t:-an.**cribed commercial every two minutes and 10 seconds, the D. J.s come up with commercials of their own. They write books, run dances, have favorite charities, jazz con¬ certs and other gimmick* that the\ keep selling to their listeners. In this w..y they ate able to compete e ec*h. the same con miner d i”.<r C. .p t ho pa:.} c-imt’e tvi.ils ; Continued from page 89 ; out r up with the right tlme-and-weather mix will win easy. By tying-in with industries that have the largest number of em¬ ployees, radio stations can virtually command, as a listening audience, everyone on the payroll of the companies that they contract to cooperate with In getting people up and to work on time. Every social Invitation you re¬ ceive will tell you when to arrive and supply you with the call letters of the radio station to listen to in order to get there on time. And as for weather, wen. if you want to get out of going to a party you just phone and .say that on the station you’re li-tening to there** a raving blizzard and > our car’s stuck in a' drift. If the' party r ♦he other end ltd’s y-nt the r :d-n station they have on '■.r.-s i;\ sea-opa! and sirnrv . . . well plus di k hi t .11 v:: • and ♦ don't Mivrdual exv’.u i\e R IV pee: i to: : .m F *' s' • sen join >\ . ;i * x cow bo; . a a <;n.u* v C; v;ok< Kid . a*. a bur. I : -» Prince ot Futert:«::.ers, the ••n!e*-*:nu*r of the “Kii'-v" . The o K ever, a picture, of Will'.*. Gram:.! a Schiimsher to show he v. a*nT kidding when he said he u a*, part Indian. ‘“My folks didn’t come tr. er on the Mayflower, but th«»\ weie there to meet the boat when it came in.’b Will with the Ziegteld Follies, Will as a Su Y > aoout a d if'.' to p!:iv wan* to hear rainv day. S’> yon ♦ ;u:e in the station that promi-e you a bright, sunshiny d > v. Who w e.ts to listen to a sta¬ tion th.at t e I ■ -* him it’s time to set up ard go ‘a work when, with the flip of a dial, he can listen to a station that tells him there’s time to sleep a couple of hours more. See what a potent force weather and time can be in attracting an audience? The station that comes nv.teh the markon Si it's dear that whim radio : *: ! :t * he\uay and it de vue. a : ! :.’*' )!!<>* is in <•';!.* ur.I tolevi-lor start* cde.ir.irg house. get¬ ting rid of all the junk that’s ■meding it down to a mere eighf or 10 minutes of commercial time pec houi. and embraces the radio concept of entertainment known as continuous commercials. This must happen for the truth has been made abundantly clear again that the airways belong to the people and no matter what the stations think, the people will demand and ultimately get exactly what they want. bers, Wiswell, Shattuck, Clifford & McMillan. September — Compton prexy Barton A. Cummings was the month’s spokesman, for answering the critics. He took the podium at the National Business Publica¬ tions conference in New York to say it was time the folks in ad¬ vertising started thinking about getting tough with the critics of the industry. He said that several of the things said about advertis¬ ing were not only unfair but un¬ true, The political critics, he said, seem intent on turning the n a m e Madison Ave. not only into a term of abuse but also an epithet. George Abrams joined J. B. Williams Co. as a veepee. David C. Stewart became . prexy and chief exec officer of Kenyon & Eckhardt. Sylvan Taplinger, tv topper at Doner agency, left in a huff over planning on the Timex account. Timex announced it was considering a shift of its S3, 500,000 billings to another agency. October — Clients, seemingly spurred by the end of the dog days, were on the move in accel¬ erated fashion. Renault switched its radio-tv billings back to Need¬ ham, Louis & Brorby after assign¬ ing that phase of the biz to Kudner a year earlier. Reasons put forth: a dip in sales for the French car firm and new management in the American company. Parker Pen took off from Tatiiam-Laird and was seeking. Ruppert was re¬ ported about to move to Warwick Sc Legler after a split with Norman. Craig Sc Kummel. Permatex sifted to deGarmo from Basford. McCann-Erickson grabbed Goodyear’s overseas biz from Young Sc Rubicam and Kudner. Signal Oil named Honig-Cooper (effective Jan. 1, 1961) in termination of Heintz & Co. association. Western. Pine list¬ ened to five agency pitches in a long day and selected McCannErickson. Outgoing agenev was N. W. Ayer. FTC Goes Under Water November — FTC one more time — filing its fourth complaint against a shave cream’s advertis¬ ing. Complaint charged that Mennen’s Soft Stroke shave cream blurbs featuring an underwater shaving demonstration were rigged via use of toothpaste in :the shaving soap. It was the first FTC complaint of the crackdown . to not name the agency involved •Grey). Month’s speaker on truth was Charles II. Kellstadt. board chair¬ man of Sears. Roebuck & Co., who told annual gathering .of the Chicago Better Business Bureau that it was up to media to bar questionable advertising. "The denial of the use of media may he a severe pemdty,” lie said. ”a:.d jet it is the or.Iy one avail¬ able if ve are convinced that the he**; solution is self policing.” Blurb spokesman Betty Furness and \\ estiiuhouse split after IF:> ye-.iis. Pet Milk split Wit!’ the Red So ’’on tele series. Marchant di • ,-mu of Smith-Corona split with V >'e. Cone & Bolding in favor «»: Cunningham & Walsh. Ogilvy, Benson & Mather tnp : Datid Ogiivy stole fue show a: the annual Hot Springs, Ya.. ■ .invention of the As-ocialion of \ itior.ai Advertisers. He anr.ounu-d that tiie newly-acquired ^ ‘.’Oil 'Shell Oil biz would he handled on a straight lee basis ad of the 15'Y media com: ion. It had been done before, r : * i.e\ with so large an acr • mm and ne\er with such a irume-’.iug. >ume OR ivy shook them ■ •p a (ouple of d later with the •muoum ••■merit that the entire Shell ’u. duo v. .mid go tn newspapers. It a blow to maea/imm and broadca-ting. and lei: Madison Ave.’s pubke nci-o counter* wondering iio.v the market would be tapped by a single media 'in California, lor instance, only 45“ • of the driv¬ er?. are newspaper readers, as an agency exec pointed out . Ogilvy later announced that there .would he some use of outdoor also. December — Hendrick Booream Jr., was keynoter on “the problem” for the month. He told the RadioTelevision Executives Society of agency men’s growing concern over the violence and mediocrity of tv programming, and suggested an in¬ dustry group made up of all fac¬ tions as a means of doing some¬ thing about it. Individual groups, such as the agencies or the net¬ works, were hand-tied by compe¬ tition, he said, but perhaps every body together could make the long haul to good taste. Cunningham & Walsh enter¬ tained a group from a prep school at the agency, and execs were ; amazed at the crossfire of downjbeat questions the kids ask. They were sent away with a “better . picture” of the advertising busi\ ness, said topper John Cunning¬ ham, and he hoped other agencies ‘would launch a program of first¬ hand enlightenment. | AFA’s Bureau of Education ar^l 'Research sent out its Educational Programs' Guide to 135 ad clubs, “to increase the tempo of adver; tising educational efforts in schools and colleges.” 2-Prong Dilemma Continued from page 91 dience is not a hair-line; it’s an area. And work at the top of th® area can move it up. Tiie real problem — that of giv¬ ing the majority shows it will watch and that will be at the same time on a high qualitative level — is never faced by the boys with ban¬ ners. It's much more fun, of course, to take on just the easy ones. But tile problem can he faced; and it can lie licked. So long as a show has a broad mass audience base, so long as it has wide identification : and interest, it can— and shouldbo built in quality to the highest level that the abilities of its buildera can achieve. The one attribute ; does not preclude the other. : .More than that, the mass audi¬ ence will actively respond to quali¬ ty, so long as it is hooked by basic concept. If show A and show . B are both based on mass-audience concepts, but if A is better than B by whatever rigid cultural concepts . you care to impose — more and more members of the mass audi¬ ence will move to A. They won’t know why they like A better than B; but they will. . : Tills, it’s to be noted, is not a . theory inspired by a recent re¬ reading of “Pol’.j anna.” It’s a fact .that this reporter has been lucky , enough to prove out in at least three specific instances in th« ; course of his more or less profes• sior.al career. The mass audience . will respond to quality, if quality is brought to a show that lias a . solid basic mass appeal. 1 To carry this out, concept-wise ami production-wise, is admittedly not easy. That, probably, is whv ; the lads In white armor habitually ‘■choose to ignore it. But it can be done. And. if we’re honestly inter¬ ested in the future of television, it must be done It’s the only wav to improve the standard* of the field — not by g:\mg the customers shows, approved by the pur.di:., j will watch— but by giving them j shows that they will watch, and making thoseshows ri the highest ! quality, of which v..* re capable. In that way — ami that way on*v ■ — the Russ standards will imp: we. ; N, t quickly, perhaps; but ' solidly . — surely. WNEff-TV In Mex Swap on Musicals Mexici. In a mutual. exchange agreement Emilio Azcarraga's Telesistema Mexicano and New York’s Channel 5 will swap videotaped musical shows beginning in January. Idea is to show American in¬ fluences in Mexican music and Latin influences in the U. S. While Channel 5 has completed programs which show Latin As¬ pects in American musical pro¬ grams, Telesistema will Initi¬ ate production of a series. First half-hour show* has already gon# into production under supervision of producer Arturo Vega. Initial Mexican program Is de¬ voted to invasion of Mexico by rock-and-roll rhythms, with top groups Interpreting the frenzied music appearing in the segment. English narration by Nonu Arsu.