Weekly television digest (Jan-Dec 1960)

VOL. 16: No. 34 11 HOLLYWOOD ROUNDUP “Clandestine recordings” of work of TV & radio performers would be forbidden by a new international copyright agreement drafted at a 16-country UNESCO conference at the Hague. “The most important principle of the draft convention is the idea that performers have a right to protection, especially those who work in TV & the phonograph recording industry,” according to the U.S. National Commission for UNESCO. “The draft convention would prevent the use, without his consent or without payment of fees or royalties, of reproductions of a performer’s work.” The U.S. was represented at the Hague conference by Register of Copyrights Arthur Fischer & Deputy Asst. Labor Secy. Henry Wiens. The Hague convention will be sent to a 1961 conference of govts, for approval. Cal. National Productions is launching a new Western series “planned as a novel departure from standard Western fare,” called The Lawless West — the Legend & the Men. CNP is concentrating on authentic dramatic treatment in which the West’s most famous characters, such as Wyatt Earp, Wild Bill Hickok, Doc Holliday and Billy the Kid, are examined through their history-making deeds. “We aren’t trying to debunk fictionalized Westerns ... We hope our accent on authenticity will serve rather to add new dimensions to these themes that are entrenched entertainment classics,” said CNP. (For more on the new Western trend, see Vol. 16:32 pll.) SAG-AFTRA “positive cooperative plan,” alternative to proposed merger of the unions (rejected in a mail referendum by more than 82% of SAG members), got underway last week, via a series of joint committee meetings in N.Y., Chicago and Los Angeles. The meetings are going into AFTRA network negotiations and SAG TV-film-commercial contracts, as well as live & tape commercials and tape programs. The unions plan to meet again next month “in a mutually agreeable place.” NTA has realigned its sales operation into 2 main divisions, with hq in N.Y. & Beverly Hills. Heading up the Eastern div. will be vp E. Jonny Graff, and vp Berne Tabakin will take charge of the Western. Concurrent sales meetings in both cities were scheduled for last weekend. 20th Century-Fox shareholders will vote Oct. 17 on the proposed sale to Webb & Knapp, Inc. of the film concern’s 267-acre tract in Los Angeles. TCF directors have approved the proposal. Revue Studios began construction recently on 2 additional stages . . . Allied Artists has renamed its TV operation Informational Films Division, in place of Informational & Commercial Films Division, to eliminate the idea that it’s involved in the production of commercials. The div. produces educational & industrial films and TV specials . . . Walt Disney Studios has begun production on a 2-part show. Pop Warner Football, for the Walt Disney Presents series next season . . . MGM-TV is expanding the pilot of its 60-min. Asphalt Jungle for showing in theaters abroad. CBS Films Inc. program vp Robert Lewine is in Hollywood, seeking new TV properties . . . Max Factor has bought The Tab Hunter Show, which begins on NBC-TV in Sept., for viewing in Japan . . . Elbrook Productions has been formed by writer Peter R. Brooke and agent Hillard Elkins. It plans The Big Wheel as its first series. ACTORS DOMINATE FILM PRODUCTION: Actors, given little chance to do more than act in movies, have assumed a role of transcending importance in TV film production. Some own their series, others own telefilm production companies, and in general they compose an important segment of Hollywood’s production field. The pioneers in this trend are that most successful triumvirate of Dick Powell, David Niven and Charles Boyer (who in 1951 formed Four Star Productions, now Four Star Television) ; Lucille Ball & Desi Arnaz (who started Desilu Productions the same year); and Jack Webb (whose Mark VII firm, which while now is virtually dormant, was once one of the leading companies). Other current actor-producers: Danny Thomas owns Marterto Productions; James Arness, Arness & Co.; Ozzie Nelson, Stage 5 Productions; Robert Young & Eugene Rodney own the company which produced their successful Father Knows Best. Betty Hutton, too, owned her production company last season. An ex-actor, William T. Orr, is vp & exec, producer of Warner Bros. TV. An ex-actress, Gail Patrick Jackson, is exec, producer of Paisano Productions, which produces Perry Mason. Loretta Young owns Toreto Productions. Edmund O’Brien is partnered with producer Jack Chertok in Johnny Midnight. Unlike the movies, which trained executives for years before making them producers, TV film has drawn on a variety of fields for its executives, with actors dominant. Revue Studios, for example, is guided by an ex-agent, Alan Miller. MCA, which owns Revue, is headed by express agent Lew Wasserman. Desilu’s exec, vp Martin Leeds was a practicing attorney. Four Star’s production vp Tom McDermott is an ex-adman. And Pres. Peter Levathes of 20th-Fox Television is also from Madison Ave. Don Fedderson, who heads his own production company, was once a TV station manager. Screen Gems’ Coast operation is headed by an ex-CBS Coast vp, William Dozier, and another SG executive — vp Harry Ackerman — is also an ex-CBS-TV Coast vp. Writers who head their production companies include Rod Serling, Cayuga Productions; Blake Edwards, Spartan Productions; Ivan Tors, Ziv TV-United Artists TV producer who has his own unit; Joe Connelly & Bill Mosher. Among today’s producers are ex-actor Sheldon Leonard (Danny Thomas); ex-press agent Howie Horwitz (77 Sunset Strip); and a parade of writers — Nat Perrin (Death Valley Days), Sam Peckinpah (The Westerner), Aaron Spelling (Dick Powell’s Zane Grey Theater), Everett Freeman (Bachelor Father), Sam Rolfe (Hotel de Paree), Charles Warren (Rawhide), Seeleg Lester (Perry Mason), Stanley Niss (Hawaiian Eye) . BBC-TV will join with ABC-TV in the production of the Sun.-night (10:30-11 p.m.) series planned around Sir Winston Churchill’s memoirs. The series is budgeted at $1.5 million, and is due to start on NBC Nov. 27. In return for a production investment & research cooperation, BBC will have TV exhibition rights in Britain & a share of the show’s revenues. Actual producer of the series in the U.S. is Screen Gems. UAA has announced a new package of post-1948 features for TV distribution, called Boxoffice 26. Titles include “The Barefoot Contessa,” “King & Four Queens,” “Bandido,” “St. Joan,” and “The Monte Carlo Story.”