Weekly television digest (Jan-Dec 1960)

20 SEC vs. Skiatron: sec administrative hearings for Skiatron Electronics & TV, trading in whose stock has been suspended for alleged inaccurate & inadequate statements in a 1959 registration statement (Vol. 16:3 pl9), produced a mass of technical testimony — and little more — last week. A staff of SEC lawyers headed by Eugene Rotberg spent the 2nd week of the proceedings in tedious questioning of representatives of N.Y. factoring firms. All had been involved — in one way or another — with transactions in Skiatron Electronics stock held by or loaned to Matty Fox’s Skiatron of America, licensee of Skiatron’s pay TV. Following up first-week testimony by officers of the Colonial Trust Co. and Bache & Co., a succession of witnesses appeared on the stand in a drab little room in SEC’s Washington HQ to pile up records of deals challenged by the market-policing agency. They included Morton Carlin, Judson Commercial Co.; Harry Bermack, Stratford Factors; Benjamin Cohen, Mid-East Securities & Reldan Trading Co. Gerald Pressman of Silver Co. was called as a govt, witness but he was excused when company counsel questioned relevancy of his testimony. The testimony submitted for the factors was intended by SEC to show how Skiatron Electronics stock had been posted as collateral by Fox for loans to his privately-owned Skiatron of America — and then sold when the loans were defaulted. The Skiatron Electronics registration statement didn’t disclose these transactions, according to SEC. Next witnesses in the protracted proceedings, which were recessed until Feb. 19, are expected to include Skiatron Electronics Pres. Arthur Levey, Skiatron Electronics gen. counsel Kurt Widder and Fox, who is not involved directly in SEC’s charges that Skiatron Electronics’ stock registration statement was misleading. SEC attorneys said 2 more weeks of hearings probably will be necessary to wind up the case. If SEC’s complaint against Skiatron Electronics is sustained by hearing examiner Robert Hislob and by the Commission, SEC could issue a stop order suspending the statement for violations of registration requirements. Criminal prosecutions in such cases are rare unless “a concerted pattern of evasion” can be established, SEC secy. Orval L. DuBois told us. Reports & comments available: Motorola, booklet, L.F. Rothschild & Co., 120 Broadway, N.Y. 5 . . . Packard-Bell, report. White, Weld & Co., 20 Broad St., N.Y. 5 . . . Rad0-Lite Inc., prospectus, John G. Cravin Co., 56 Beaver St., N.Y. . . . Sonotone and Motorola, memos, Hayden, Stone & Co., 25 Broad St., N.Y. 4 . . . Ling-Altec Electronics, review, Alex Brown & Sons, 2 Wall St., N.Y. 5 . . . Stanley Warner, review, Schweickart & Co., 29 Broadway, N.Y. 6. Increasing stock ownership by Eversharp in Technicolor Inc. is indicated by the election of Eversharp Pres. Patrick J. Frawley Jr. to the Technicolor board. In addition to its color film-processing business. Technicolor is deep in research on TV bandwidth reduction (Vol. 15:4 p3). Polarad Electronics Corp. (microwave equipment) is now traded on American Stock Exchange. Symbol: POD. Common Stock Dividends Corporation Period Amt. Payable Stk. of Record Dresser Industries . . . — $0.40 Mar. 15 Mar. 1 Gross Telecasting . . . Q .40 Feb. 10 Jan. 25 Gross Telecasting “B” Q .07% Feb. 10 Jan. 25 Oak Mfg Q .25 Mar. 15 Mar. 1 Stanley Warner .30 Feb. 25 Feb. 8 TV-Electronics Fund . — .08 Feb. 29 Jan. 29 JANUARY 25, 1960 OfficerS-&-DirectorS stock transactions as reported to SEC for December 1959: Allied Artiste. Albert Zugsmith bought 11,100, held 122,900. American Bosch Arma. Sidney E. Miller exercised option to buy 100, held 1,260. AB-PT. A. H. Blank bought 600 for trusts, held 3,877 in trusts. 1,887 personally. Walter P. Marshall bought 100 as custodian, held 100 as custodian, 200 personally. Ampex. George I. Long Jr. sold 6,000, held 26,236. Henry A. McMickiug sold 4,900, held 26,470. Robert Ssckman sold 1,000, held 470. Thomas L. Taggert exercised option to buy 600, held 600. Amphenol-Borg Electronics. Matthew L. Devine sold 100, held 100. Avco. Arthur K. Kantrowitz sold 6,000, held 6,000. W. A. Mogensen sold 4,300, held 11,700. A. B. Newton tought 866, held 7,666. Curry W. Stoup sold 2,500, held 7,100. Cinerama. Sam Boverman bought 1,000, held 1,000. Nicholas Reisini bought 1,600 through Robin International Inc., held 2,600 in Robin International Inc., none personally. Coming Glass. Charles D. LaFollette exercised option to buy 1,606, held 12,614. Daystrom. Carlton S. Proctor bought 100, held 400. Emerson. Harold Goldberg sold 400, held 868. Filmways. William Cowan bought 1,000, held 1,516. Gabriel. Clarence M. Taylor sold 1,000, held none. General Dynamics. Lisle W. Adkins sold 100, held 400. Vernon W. Welsh sold 1,000, held 10,000. GE. William Rogers Herod exercised option to buy 292, held 11,836. George L. Irvine exercised option to buy 836, held 4,883. Clarence H. Linder sold 2,000, held 10,160. Jack S. Parker bought 6,278, held 7,100. Robert Paxton bought 6,450, held 24,727. Willard H. SahloS exercised option to buy 2,446, held 6,677. General Instrument. Monte Cohen sold 6,300, held 718. S. W. Gross sold 2,000, held 500. Alois Konecny Jr. sold 2,600, held 7,200. General Precision Equipment. Gaylor C. Whitaker sold 600 from trusts, held 14,855 in trusts, 6,026 personally. General Telephone & Electronics. George W. Griffin Jr. exercised option to buy 1,292, held 1,402. J. B. Taylor exercised option to buy 626, held 725. Leslie H. Warner exercised option to buy 2,000, held 8,000. Hazeltine. Bertrand J. Tiffany bought 100, held 110. Hoffman Electronics. H. L. Hoffman sold 60,000 in private transaction, held 160,684. C. E. Underwood sold 6,000 in private transaction, held 10,000. Indiana General. A. J. Astrologes used option to buy 2,000, held 4,067. IBM. Walker G. Buckner sold 100 through foundation, held 600 in foundation, 1,631 in trusts, 2,089 personally. Sherman M. Fairchild sold 100, held 98,866. International Resistance. Ambrose H. Hardwick sold 1,100, held 1,020. Edward S. Weyl bought 100, held 21,886. ITT. Edward D. Phinney exercised option to buy 1,320, held 1,786. Paul F. Swantee sold 800, held 5,134. Lear. Roy J. Benecchi sold 2,950, held 1,989. Harold J. Downee sold 626, held none. K. Robert Hahn sold 200, held 606. Richard M. Mock sold 6,630, held 11,033. Litton Industries. Roy L. Ash exercised option to buy 12,812, disposed of 306 through partnership in exercise of options by employes, held 62,611 personally, 6,274 in partnership, 1,450 as custodian. Myles L. Mace sold 4,000, held 12,560. Norman H. Moore sold 5,113, held 15,229 personally, 468 as trustee. Charles B. Thornton exercised option to buy 28,187, disposed of 2,000 in transfer of community property interest and 670 more through partnership in exercise of options by employes, held 148,550 personally, 11,599 in partnership. Loew’s Theatres. Eugene Picker bought 200, held 1,000 personally, 300 in Esia Holding Corp. Magnavox. George H. Fezell exercised option to buy 347, held 397. Donald N. McDonnell bought 100, held 100. James A. Robinson Jr. bought I, 102, held 1,102. P. R. Mallory. F. E. Head sold 200, held 600. Microwave Associates. Vessarios Chigas sold 1,000, held 25,600. Irving J. Helman sold 400, held 100. G. S. Kariotis sold 1,000, held 4,000. Motorola. Charles E. Green sold 1,000, held 1,760. National Telefilm Associates. Harold Goldman sold 9,000, held none. Oliver A. Unger sold 20,000, held none. National Theatres & TV. Willard W. Keith sold 1,500, held 1,000. Jack M. Ostrow sold 5,600 through corporation, held 79,500 in corporation, 7,500 personally. Paramount Pictures. Barney Balaban sold 300, held 11,300. RCA. Charles M. Odorizzi exercised option to buy 9,000. beld 10,527. Raytheon. George Ingram Jr. sold 876, held 1,881. N. B. Krim sold 1,000, held 2,450. Skiatron Electronics & TV. Arthur Levey sold 2,500 in private transactions, held 267,931. TelePrompTer. Irving B. Kahn bought 20,250, held 60.048 personally, 3,150 in partnership. Texas Instruments. Patrick E. Haggerty sold 600, held 122,031. C. J. Thomsen sold 400, held 12,613. Thompson Ramo Wooldridge. Harry D. Bubb sold 220, held 316. Burton F. Miller sold 300, held 3,767 personally, 9,000 in trust. M. E. Price sold 500, held 794. Tung-Sol. George E. Hallett bought 600, held 1,440. Paul Scharninghausen sold 200, held 610. 20th Century-Fox. Robert Lehman sold 6,700, held 10,700. Varian Associates. C. V. Heimbucher sold 2,000, held 34,734. Ralph W. Kane sold 100, held 4,499. Theodore Moreno sold 1,000, held 9,186. Westinghouse. L. B. McCully exercised option to buy 1,600, held 3,300. L. W. McLeod sold 125, held 1,260. Gwilym A. Price sold 6.500. held 500. Harry E. Seim exercised option to buy 2,366, held 4,333. W. W. Sproul Jr. sold 600, held 1,676. Zenith. Alexander Ellett sold 500, held 100. Leonard C. Truesdcll sold 160, held none. Television-Electronics Fund 2-for-l split in the common stock and a reduction in the par value from $1 to 50<* a share was approved by stockholders at the Jan. 21 annual meeting. Jan. 29 was set as the effective & record date of the split.