July 1944

A great star of silent films, shrunken operas, an obscure new announcer who became famous, and F.D.R. may have been the highlights of television in July 1944.

Gloria Swanson was interviewed in studio at WBKB in Chicago, to the awe of one columnist. At NBC’s WNBT in New York, two operas were performed in studio, but were edited for time. And a number of stations aired portions of the Democratic National Convention that nominated Franklin Roosevelt for a fourth term as president. NBC fed stations in Philadelphia and Schenectady—but the convention was not aired live. Technology hadn’t quite reached that point, so it was filmed in Chicago and the film was flown to Radio City.

The big gun announcers at NBC weren’t touching television yet, so you won’t find Ben Grauer conducting interviews on WNBT. That task fell to one of the company’s brand-new hires, whose later TV programmes included “The Price is Right” with Bill Cullen, “Jeopardy” with Art Fleming and a long-time venture where he shouted the names of the Not Ready for Prime Time Players on “Saturday Night Live.” This is the month televiewers got their first look at Don Pardo.

Below you’ll find reviews of some of the programming. Critics continued to be unkind to Bob Emery, hosting the WOR-run night of programming on the DuMont station. There’s praise for Ev Holles’ animated maps on his news roundup on CBS’ WCBW. There was something for fans of Monogram films and Van Beuren cartoons. And in St. Louis, KSD radio applied for a TV license. After the war, it would be the first new station to go on the air.

And to show you critics don’t know everything, one pointed out a young actor-singer named Yul Brynner—and suggested he get a toupee.

Saturday, July 1
WNBT Channel 1
8:00 Film: “Rebellious Daughters,” with Marjorie Reynolds, Verna Hillie, Dennis Moore (Progressive, 1938).
9:12 Film: “Men of the U. S. Navy.”
9:42 Film “On the Trail.”
9:52 Film: Republican National Convention.

Sunday, July 2
WABD Channel 4
8:15 p.m. Video Vistas.
8:45 Film.
9:00 Play: “The Woman Who Was Acquitted.”
"THE WOMAN WHO WAS ACQUITTED"
With Steve Roberts, Mason Andrews [Adams], Josephine Van Vliet, Jack Bittner, Ronald Alexander and Donald Kuyes
Producer: Irwin Shayne [sic]
Staged by Sanford Meisner and Toni Ferraira
30 Mins., Sunday (2). 9-9:30 p.m.
Sustaining
WABD-DuMont, New York
Psychological exploration into the guilt of an acquitted murderess provided a satisfactory vehicle for one of the best live shows televised via DuMont. Session produced by Television Workshop presented a professional cast under skilled direction and demonstrated what such a combination means to the video medium. Camera work, although still far behind film techniques, was head and shoulders above anything previously shown by the studio's technicians. Resolves were practically instantaneous and closeups were dollied with finesse as compared with earlier attempts where a certain amount of jerkiness could always be depended upon.
Only weakness in the whole stanza was the script itself and a few minor difficulties with lighting and focussing The story of an acquitted murderess who confesses her crime while in a cataleptic trance is scientifically unsound but the cast made it appear believable and that's what pays off from an entertainment viewpoint. Script also provided little opportunity for action and motion but this may have been helpful rather than harmful since viewer's attention was riveted to a limited area, thereby heightening the psychological reaction to such a coldblooded deed as the strangling of a baby. Latter theme and its enactment would undoubtedly cause regular AM broadcasters many a grey hair with their tabus on realistic effects. Tele with its widened opportunity for gruesomeness will probably prove a headache for the blue-pencil boys.
All in all, the session last Sunday night (2) was a step in the right direction. Turo. (Variety, July 5)

Monday, July 3
WNBT Channel 1
7:30 P. M. Test Pattern.
8:00 Film Feature: “Rubber Racketeers,” Rochelle Hudson, Bill Henry and Ricardo Cortez (Associated Artists, 1942).
9:05 Films: “Farmers at War,” “Holland Mosaics,” “Golden Goose” (Van Beuren, 1931).
9:35 Film: The War As It Happens.

Tuesday, July 4
WABD Channel 4
8:15-9:15 P. M. WOR Varieties.
Chicago. July 4.
All-Navy-personnel War Bond Television show to be aired here today (4) over WBKB will mark the first time that a video show has been exclusively produced, written, and acted in by members or the armed forces.
Included in the show will be Alvino Rey, now a Navy radio trainee at Wright Junior College, Lt. Orrin Tucker and his Navy orchestra. Wave Lt. Frances Rich, daughter of Irena Rich, and Commander Bill Eddy, former head of WBKB.
Sailors have built special sets for the show, including one that's a dead ringer for the bridge of a destroyer—wheel, pelorus, engine telegraph and all. (Variety, July 5)

Wednesday, July 5
WABD Channel 4
8:15 P. M. Televisual Specialties.
8:45 Film.
9:00 Words on the Wing.
DuMont Television
Reviewed Wednesday (5), 8:15-10:00 p.m. Style—Variety. Sustaining on WABD (New York).
Tele University, first of educational series by Charles M. Storm Agency, was interesting and informative. Professor L. Fox made his own intro and gave a short, comprehensive resume of points to be discussed in the half-hour.
In his Fox's Nature Stories for the Armchair Explorer, he covered limestone formations, sponges, coral, starfish, sea shells, crabs, oysters, spiders, scorpions, flies, wasps, beetles, sea horses, frogs, toads and birds.
The prof's friendly, almost casual manner made the talk agreeable. Had he approached his subjects esoterically, half the watchers might have turned their sets off. He created the feeling that a friend had dropped in with some highly interesting revelations up his sleeve.
If he used a script it was not in evidence, but his talk indicated that he'd gone over it at length and worked the details out with the technical staff. Two cameras were on the job and their smooth functioning lent mobility. Well lighted slides illustrated the talk. In play from long shots of the prof exhibiting a specimen and close-ups of an object in his hand and back again to the slides, camera worked evenly and with purpose.
Pix scanned included Colonel Stoopnagle, a Chesterfield commercial and two short, short Spur films.
In Lever Bros.' show, Ruthrauff & Ryan soft peddled commercials. Emsee Pat Murray made no direct plugs. Instead, Roberta Hollywood handed her a gift from a gal who'd landed a good job because she'd taken Miss Murray's B. O. tips on tele.
Story was told by a skit. As applicant sat at a prospective employer's desk trying to sell herself, the words "B. O." and "She Should Learn About Lifebuoy" appear above her head. Implication was that she lost the position but had later looked into Lever Bros.' show and learned the awful truth about herself. A switch to Lifebuoy worked the trick.
Miss Hollywood's intimate songs continue to be just right for the program. Miss Murray has developed into a capable actress as well as femsee. Sam Cuff was brought on by the device of Hollywood telling Murray that the newscaster had been giving her some exciting information on Normandy. He came in to elaborate and as he pointed to the map, camera moved in to be filled by map and Cuff slipped easily into his regular Face of the War talk.
Both programs showed the results of preparation in which some past segs have been blaringly deficient. It proves that a willingness to continue experimentation and learn by trial and error will eventually pay off in sound program technique. Wanda Marvin. (Billboard, July 15)

“The Boys From Boise," original operetta two hours long, skedded for tele presentation over WABD-DuMont, N. Y, this month, has been postponed until September because of delay in completing new studios under construction at DuMont's Madison avenue headquarters. Planned to have the Ray Nelson musical production as feature of the studio launching in the fall. Show in the meantime has lined up Esquire mag as sponsor and Alfred R. Pastel, publication's advertising director, is planning special promotion in connection with the tele preem. Rehearsals will continue throughout summer. "Boys" will use a 13-piece orch under baton of Sam Madoff, studio pianist and composer of operetta score. (Variety, July 5)

Thursday, July 6
WCBW Channel 2
8:00 P. M. News.
8:15 Balleretta.
8:30 New Map of the World, Dr. Irving Fisher.
9:15 Visual Quiz.
9:45 Will You Remember, Song.
CBS Television
Reviewed Thursday (6), 8-10 p.m. Style—Variety. Sustaining on WCBW (New York).
There seems to be no earthly reason why CBS, with brains, imagination, talent and money to back it up, should tolerate anything like the abortive production they call a Television Quiz. The Sad Sack of the net's video agenda, Quiz is the best anesthetic on the air. It is a tribute only to CBS's perserverance [sic] that it stays on the air at all in its present form.
A television quiz should have as its basis a visual, not an audible, presentation. And a television quiz should be more stimulating, more interesting and more unusual than a radio quiz. Instead of taking advantage of the medium's possibilities, CBS presents "for your pleasure" the worst possible questions, silly innovations, completely unexciting personnel and a quizmaster who is not an emcee. Ben Feiner is not a wit, and the contestants were half that.
Questions should have visual interest and not ask, for example, for the names of U. S. territorial acquisitions, the size of New York State, or the difference between George, Tom and John Dewey. At the same time, fumbling attempts to get a visual question like one in which objects, completely invisible to the viewer, are put on a table and the contestants told to link them up with songs, would be better filed in the waste-basket.

The camera work was fair, the lights variable, and volume, at least, decent. But production, talent clearance and direction, to stay within the bounds of editorial propriety, were childish. Major George Fielding Eliot, at best a radio personality, was put on the air with a monthly military review that ran 15 minutes. About eight of the minutes were good television. The rest of the time, the time that the camera was not trained on the very well-made maps, was wasted. Major Eliot, looking as tho he had smelled something bad, seemed to be afraid of either the camera or the lights. It might have helped if he had looked at the audience once in awhile. His analysis, aided by animated maps that did everything but talk themselves, was informative.
The maps, animated with lights, spotted the subjects of the major's commentary, had projected airplanes illustrating a battle, and battleships and aircraft carriers floating around a pen-and-ink sea to describe naval engagements. (Description of the animation will be found elsewhere in this section).
If you can ignore a set that was strictly from the corn belt, the Balleretta, pocketsized pop ballet, is good fun. With fluid direction integrating Singer Ronnie Gibson, Ballet Dancers Bobbie Howell and Lalla Zalipskaya, and Adele Wehman, Jeanne Berge and Blanche Krell at the harps, it shapes up as pleasant 18 musical minutes. The same old problem of adjusting today's limited camera range to dancing was again in evidence. On several occasions, one or another of the dancers moved out of the screen while still doing her turn. And CBS should never again try to focus on two dancers and a singer, all three doing their stuff at the same time. Everyone seemed to be confused.
Vera Massey was on hand again with her regularly skedded (for 13 weeks at least) Will You Remember? It was and still is a good show, but there's little sense in standing pat on anything in video. The pianolog format remains, with Miss Massey giving her usual intelligent performance, but the lights were not nearly as good as before, glaring in close ups and quite inadequate from a distance. At no time was advantage taken of the gal's glamor, and the spot-lighting that distinguished her first shot seemed to be missing. Angling in a spot adds immeasurably to the appearance of any individual performer. The singer was far enough away from the set at all times to eliminate distracting background details from intruding themselves on the focal point—Miss Massey's face. Despite critical raves for Will You Remember?, the formula could be improved, possibly thru the introduction of another character.
Two films, one British and one Canadian, were on the bill and it is significant to note that American pix, probably because of the reluctance of movie makers, are losing out to the foreign product video-wise. Marty Schrader. (Billboard, July 15)

CBS television's new animated maps, cause of much comment here, work on a principle so simple that it took years for someone to think them up. Here's how they work:
Regular maps, painted on heavy cardboard, are cut out along the points which coincide with the commentary. Behind them is attached a revolving cardboard disk, large enough so that its radius covers the cut out area. Along one edge of the disk, lines, war planes, battleships or point-marking dots are cut out and the open spaces covered with thin white paper.
As the newscaster talks, the disk is revolved, and at the same time a strong light shines from behind the map. As the disk moves, the cut out portions come into view, moving along the surface of the map almost like an animated cartoon. The light behind provides the contrast. (Billboard, July 15)

B&K Television, Chicago
Reviewed Thursday, July 6, 7:30 to 8:30 p.m. News, Public Service and Drama. Sustaining on WBKB, Chicago.
The present heat wave in Chicago must have taken all the life out of the cast on tonight's television show at B. & K. There wasn't a sparkle of above average performing in the entire offering. Everyone seemed to be filled with lethargy, thinking only of getting the show over as soon as possible in order to go downstairs for a bit of cooling liquid refreshment.
June Merrill and Karen Van Derzee put on what was intended to be a public service bit showing the tele audience the tricks of making summertime pastry requiring no baking. All of which was very dull and not appreciated by the people at home looking for entertainment and relaxation. This idea might have interest in post-war television if it is presented in the daytime for the housewives and if June and Karen break themselves of the habit of confessing their audience by constantly breaking into each other’s lines.
Linn Burton pinchhit for Jim Campbell, regular WBKB news commentator, and struck out. Someone should have told Barton that there is nothing less exciting in television than a news commentator who reads his stuff from wire service teletype reports.
High spot of program was the singing of Ella Steele. Miss Steele, one of Chicago's better-known singers of the heavier type of music, has a voice that is a pleasure. What counted here, too, was the expert direction of Helen Carson, who handled her lights and cameras perfectly. Miss Carson called for close-ups when the mood of the music seemed to demand more intimacy. Distant shots and angle shots at the right time all blended smoothly and co-ordinated with well-modulated lighting.
Ending the program was a dramatic bit that was as amateur as a grade school play. Idea behind it was novel, at least in these parts, Marjorie Marlowe, Hitous Gray and Eric Lord—ruined it. While they were offstage a plot that they had never seen before was read to them and to the tele audience. With impromptu acting and ad-lib lines they were supposed to portray their conception of what would fit the plot. They didn't. They wasted an excellent setting and competent lighting with inanities that were ludicrous but not humorous. Cy Wagner. (Billboard, July 15)

William E. (Bill) Barry, vet legit actor and playwright, has penned a teleplay, "Matinee Daily," which will be aired by WRGB Thursday (6). "Daily" is a backstage story in one act and five scenes and will be given by an all-GE cast directed by Barry and Hal Stanton.
Barry is now engaged in war work at GE's Schenectady plant. (Variety, July 5)

Friday, July 7
WCBW Channel 2
8:00 p.m. News Reports, Everett Holles.
8:15 Opinion on Trial.
9:00 Film Short.
9:15 They Were There, interviews.
9:30 Variety Show.

Saturday, July 8
WNBT Channel 1
8:00 Film: “I'll Sell My Life,” With Rose Hobart, Michael Whalen (Select Attractions, 1941).
9:14 Film Cartoon: “How’s Crops,” (Van Beuren, 1934)
9:22 Film: “Zoo's Who,” (AIP, 1943).
9:32 Film: “The War for Men's Minds,” (United Artists ‘World in Action,’ 1943).

Sunday, July 9
WABD Channel 4
8:15 p.m. Video Vistas.
8:45 Film.
9:00 “Design for Tomorrow.”
9:30 Film.
9:45 Bureau of Missing Persons and “Thrills and Chills” with Doug Allan.

Monday, July 10
WNBT Channel No. 1
7:30 Test Pattern.
8:02 Feature Film: “Keep 'Em Laughing,” With Jack Benny, Gene Raymond and Nancy Carroll (Originally “Transatlantic Merry-Go-Round,” Astor, 1934).
9:15 Film: “Fabulous Marseilles.”
9:25 Film Shorts: “A Swiss Trick,” (Van Beuren, 1931);
“Living Jewels,” (Van Beuren, 1936).
9:43 Film: “The War as It Happens.”

RKO Television
Reviewed Monday [10], 8:30-8:45. Style—Music. Sustaining on W6XAO (Hollywood).
Second offering in RKO's television experiment in conjunction with the Don Lee station meant little to the visual audience, as it was set up primarily to study lighting. Subject was Joan Barton, who delivered three ballads to piano accompaniment. Miss Barton's voice registered well, and her features came over the receiver with better-than-average clarity. Even tho the lighting left much to be desired, she had a natural poise before the camera and should be a good bet when RKO gets down to the business of televising musicals.
Lighting experts from RKO were on hand two hours before the telecast in order to set up their spots. Equipment was trucked up the mountain from the studio and put into place. Charles Smith, television head for RKO here, supervised the lighting, trying to use the same technique as is used for motion pictures. On the tests, Smith produced the best television picture that has been seen there yet. Even the detailed work on a clip Miss Barton was wearing showed up remarkably well.
Before the telecast went on the air, engineers stated that a hum in the light cable was interfering with the transmission of pictures. On orders of the engineers, lights were yanked out, only to find that the trouble was not in the cable but elsewhere. Old-style lighting, in vogue for some time at Don Lee, had to be used instead of the studio spots. Rest of the show consisted of newsreels and army short subjects. Dean Owen. (Billboard, July 22).

Tuesday, July 11
WABD Channel 4
8:15 to 9:45 p.m. WOR Video Varieties
WOR-DuMont
Reviewed Tuesday (11), 8:15-9:30. Style—Variety, drama. Sustaining on WABD (New York).
'WOR's "Gala First Anniversary Program" was extremely turgid hot-weather entertainment. It would have been depressing in spring, fall or winter, as well.
Despite the all-to[o]-well known limitations of today's experimental equipment and programing, factors that have been used to explain away a multitude of sins, there is no reason, mortal or otherwise, for what went on at DuMont Tuesday night. The show got off to a rousing thud with the appearance of siren-voiced Bob Emery, an emsee whose equal and superior have been seen in Fallsburg, Ellenville, Liberty and other well-known borsht spots. Emery, as untelegenic a performer as this reviewer has ever had the bad fortune to se3, seems to work on the general concept that being loud, rather than good, is all that's needed. This saving grace has been used with telling effect in Madison Square Garden, but it has no place before a video camera. His wardrobe was excellent. After giving silent applause to the emsee's well-cut dinner jacket, we were privileged to witness a parade of acts called "the best who appeared on WOR shows in the past year." We would hate to see the worst. The less said about the talent the better, but there is a lot that will be said about the camera and the mike boom.
Camera handling was dull, dispirited, lethargic and unimaginative. A sluggish procession of long-shot, close-up, long-shot, and back again keynoted the generally blurred, out of focus, frighteningly repetitious scanning. With lights that glared on performers' faces and deepened into gloom the rest of the picture, and a mike boom that popped in and out of the screen like a fishing float, it added up to a sorry mess.
Emery and his cohorts should be very careful in the future to instruct their actors, while stumbling off the stage after doing their turns, not to fall over the camera, as happened with one girl. Still another error they should try to eliminate is the pauses between introduction of an act and its appearance. At times, according to the watch, the screen was blank as long as 45 seconds. And still another fault that can be eliminated by decent direction is the grouping that had half, quarter and one-fourth of single individuals on the screen.
The only bright spot (by comparison) on the bill was Harvey Marlow's adaptation of The Valiant. Outside of a few slices of raw ham, the tear-jerking old chestnut was well handled, with lights consistent, the camera decent and set effective. The Valiant, of course, can't miss, no matter how it's put on, but Marlowe's job was definitely good video.
News to the legion of Bob Emery fans is the announcement made during the show, that WOR-DuMont will have a new emsee shortly. That is this reviewer's idea of the ideal solution to the above. Marty Schrader. (Billboard, July 22)

B&K Television, Chicago
Reviewed Tuesday (11), 7:30 to 8:30 p.m. News, variety. Sustaining on WBKB (Chicago).
One of the principal things wrong with the operation of WBKB is the management's policy of paying its talent nothing for getting in front of the tele cameras. Sorely we know that television stations are not receiving any revenue; we know that these stations cost a great deal to operate, even when talent is not paid. But we wonder if it would be a good thing for this station (or any other video station) to pay its talent, nevertheless. The paying of talent now would give production staff an opportunity to work under telecasting conditions which will be common in the future. If paid talent were used, a production staff would be more responsible than now for a show's final outcome. Now there is always the possible excuse, "We didn't pay them. How could we be too exacting in our demands?" In the future, tele production staffs will be responsible for the success or failure of a show. It would be better if they got into the habit of assuming that responsibility now.
Tonight's program at WBKB presented a case in point. Allen Silber, magician, was scheduled to appear at about 8 o'clock. He phoned at 7:45 and said he would be late. He was—about 15 minutes late. The station, still not staffed with stand-bys, therefore showed a "Buy War Bonds" slide for about 10 minutes, and Bill Vance ruined the end of his usually excellent murder discussion trying to stall for time. This disruption of the schedule just about killed appreciation of the entire show. If Silber had been paid, he possibly wouldn't have been late. He would have been there on time, or else. And the close similarity between WBKB's operation tonight and a station's in the infancy of radio would not have been so evident.
Because Ester Rojewsky and Gladys Dalstron kept their cameras focused right on Silbar's bands during the act, his magic work was entertaining television. Silber proved he knew at least the fundamentals of tele by using only tricks requiring hand work, that did not force his manipulations out of the comers' ranges.
Marye Leone, who is becoming the chief video delight of Chicago's male television receiver owners, did her usual work of selling songs with a deep voice, dramatic facial expressions and a body that is an answer to any man's prayers. Helen Carson directed the cameras very competently during Marye's singing. She used double dissolve trick angle shots that brought out Marye's curves to their best advantages, and made sure the singer's best points (from the waist up) were most often in focus. Marye has a good voice, too.
Bill Campbell's news commentary was competent. But that was about all. It would be very refreshing to see him use maps, chalk talks, something to be appreciated by the video sense. When will radio commentators, like Bill, begin to realize they are appearing before a camera? Is it too hard to understand that television is an art more stimulating to the optic than to the auditory nerves? Cy Wagner. (Billboard, July 22)

Wednesday, July 12
WABD Channel 4
8:15 P. M. Televisual Specialties.
8:45 Film.
9:00 “Words on the Wing.”
9:30 Film.
10:00 “People in the News.”

Thursday, July 13
WABD Channel 4
8:30 to 10:30 “Television Follies of 1944.”
WCBW Channel 2
8:00 p.m. News, Everett Holles.
8:15 Gypsy Group.
8:30 Play: “The Favor.”
8:45 Film.
9:15 “Visual Quiz.”
9:45 “Will You Remember,” songs.
CBS Television
Reviewed Thursday (13) 8:30-45 p.m. Style—Drama. Sustaining on WCBW (New York).
CBS returned to the air Thursday with its first dramatic show, The Favor, originally presented June 30. Announcement, which preceded the revival, said that the seg was being put on for the second time "because of the reception it had received." As far as this reviewer was concerned, it was received the first time very badly. We liked it better Thursday.
The outstanding improvements as of the second scanning were more spirited direction, a trimmed script, intelligent camera work and a greater air of intensity on the performers' part. The lighting seemed to be more evenly distributed, with the background easily seen and the foreground glare reduced.
Very sensitive dolly handling produced a camera that was in motion without blurring. Actors seemed to be able to move freely, without walking out of the screen. And yet, despite the obvious improvement, it was still not good entertainment. Adapter-director-producer Tony Miner tried hard, but little can be done with a trite script. And The Favor is trite. Perhaps the initial difficulty in video drama can be overcome by using time tried playlets like WOR-DuMont's adaptation of The Valiant. Marty Schrader. (Billboard, July 22)

First of an annual tele series, “The Television Follies of 1944" bows in tomorrow (13) night via WABD-DuMont. Two-hour live variety-musical is in full costume and requires 10 scenes. Session will be produced by Raymond E. Nelson, veepee and radio and tele head of the Charles M. Storm agency. Show features a large cast plus nine Conover Cover Girls. Included in the cast are Nord Cornell, Dolores Wilson, Gwen Davies, Robert Tower, Audrey Sperling, Ray Martell, Betty Carroll, George Gilbert, Rita Blake, Bobbie Jean Bernhardt, Fred Flesher, Steven Morrow, Jules Racine and George Foster. Musical score combines music from "Follies" shows of ihe past with original melodies by Sara Medoff, with special lyrics by Raymond Nelson. (Variety, July 12)

Friday, July 14
WCBW Channel 2
8:00 News Reports.
8:15 “Opinion on Trial.”
9:00 Film Short.
9:15 “They Were There,” interviews.
9:30 Variety Show.

Saturday, July 15
WNBT Channel 1
8:00 Film: “That Uncertain Feeling” with Merle Oberon, Melvin Douglas, Burgess Meredith (United Artists, 1941).
9:27 Film: “A Capital Idea.”
9:38 Film: “My Friend, the Harti.”

Sunday, July 16
WABD Channel 4
8:15 p.m. Video Vistas.
8:45 Film.
9:00 “Designs for Tomorrow.”
9:30 Film.
9:45 “The Sketchbook.”

Monday, July 17
WNBT Channel 1
7:30 Test Pattern.
8:00 Feature Film: “Zis Boom Bah” with Grace Hayes, Peter Lind Hayes, Mary Healy and Benny Rubin (Monogram, 1941).
9:05 Televues: Faust.
9:15 Film Shorts: “College Capers” (Van Beuren, 1931), “Beach Masters” (Van Beuren, 1935) and “The War As It Happens.”

Tuesday, July 18
WABD Channel 4
8:15 to 9:45 p.m. WOR Video Varieties.
B&K Television, Chicago
Reviewed Tuesday (18), 7 to 8:45 p.m. Style—News, variety. Sustaining on WBKB.
Tonight’s program at WBKB hit a new high. Program content was varied and entertaining. Cast and production staff worked with close co-operation and efficiency. Everything went smoothly and with well co-ordinated timing. True, for a very short while the station had technical trouble when a generator went on the fritz, and the picture became blurred and flicker. But that can be attributed only to the inferiority of present tele equipment and not to station neglect.
Gloria Swanson was the headliner of the evening. Altho her contribution consisted of only an interview, it was good television entertainment. She is more than telegenic. She is beautiful—potential material. Her life has been exciting enough to provide interesting subject matter for an interview. One thing apparent during this portion of the show is worthy of special comment, however. Miss Swanson, in spite of her many years in the movies, was a little less poised than Fran Harris, the gal who interviewed her during this, Miss Swanson’s first video appearance. Which only goes to prove that name stars are not always best equipped to do a tele job if they have no experience before the medium’s cameras. To be good in television, you have to be experienced in television.
Running second to Miss Swanson in the race for top-ranking honors was Eugene Gernstein [sic], “lawyer by trade, hypnotist by avocation.” Bernstein was the first hypnotist ever to appear on WBKB, and judging by his work, he ought not to be the last. His hypnotizing of subjects whom he made act like children and split personality patients was errie [sic] and interest-holding. The audience was sitting on the edge of their chairs, biting their fingernails before he had finished. A special bouqet should be given to the production staff for their part in Bernstein’s offering. Evidenty because of many hours of patient rehearsal of because of accurate judgment and co-ordination during the show they saw to it that close-ups were used when necessary, subjects were always properly lighted and no important action lost because of insufficient planning.
Ties for third place were June Merrill’s Food for Thought and Ann-Marie Gayer. June had Frank Westmore, one of the famed Westmore Hollywood make-up artists, do one of his expert jobs on the face of a Spar who herself ought to be in Hollywood. Even tho the television camera was not able to show much difference before or after make-up, it was a pleasure to see such a face smack in from of the camera for 15 minutes. Miss Gayer provided a good change of pace following Miss Swanson’s interview, but in the future she should remember that long piano concertos, perfect for radio, are boring for television.
In last place, just about where they belonged, were Jo Wilson and Jim Campbell, news commentators. It’s becoming monotonous to say this over and over again, but maybe if it’s said often enough that video newsmen ought to use maps and chalk talks, the truth will begin to sink in. Cy Wagner. (Billboard, July 29).

Washington, July 18.
Warner Bros. has filed with FCC for a construction permit to build a television station in Hollywood.
Station would operate in the 66,00 to 72,000 kilo band. (Variety, July 19)

St. Louis, July 18.
KSD, local NBC outlet owned by the Pulitzer Publishing Co. (Post-Dispatch, is the first owner of a standard broadcasting, station in St. Louis to file an application with FCC for a television license. The application is for a commercial television station on Channel 1, 50-56,000 kilocycles. Station would use a four-kilowatt transmitter accompanied by a three-watt sound transmitter using F.M.
The intended territory embraces 50 miles from downtown St. Louis and application proposes two or three periods of television broadcasting each day, with a minimum weekly broadcast period of 19 hours at the start. (Variety, July 19)

Wednesday, July 19
WNBT Channel 1
8:30 p.m. Film: “Democratic Party on Parade.”
WABD Channel 4
8:15 p.m. “Televisual Specialities.”
8:45 Film.
9:00 “Face of the War.”
DuMont Television
Reviewed Wednesday (19), 8:15-9:45 p.m. Style—Variety and films, Sustaining on WABD (New York).
DuMont’s recent shows in general and tonight’s offering in particular brings up the question of whether or not anything is being gained in this experiment period of tele. The same old mechanical production mistakes, the identical technical errors and the selfsame performers’ blunders of 15 months ago are repeated week after week at 515 Madison Avenue.
Both the agencies and DuMont staffers have what appear to be convincing alibis—lack of adequate studio space, absence of replacements for vital equipment and no dough. There’s a real scarcity of all these things. Imagination should be added to the list.
For example, the Charles M. Storm Agency is still using a “comic” professor as emsee. Tonight the hackneyed role was played by Jules Racine in Cornegie Hall. He brought entertainers to the screen with the regularity of a cuckoo clock. There was a hazy kind of idea behind his capers, based, as near as could be gathered, on the battle between long-hair and swing music. The prof tried unsuccessfully to control his students’ yen for bounce.
With the exception of Robert Tower, Follow the Girls baritone, cast began its performances of classic numbers and, egged on by Sam Medoff’s piano, went into swing and other modern versions. Thrush Eleanor Bauers, radio actress Amy Sedell, comic singer Anita Anton and dancer Bobbie Jean Bernhardt came on in quick succession. Of the group Miss Bernhardt made the best appearance. Her ballet that changed to an excellent toe shuffle would have been wholly entertaining had the camera matched her agility.
Camera work on close-ups of the others was better than average. Tower enjoyed a combination of light and camera that made for a clear, well-balanced pic. In his appearance, both his face and the background were kept in focus, a feat rarely duplicated in these studios.
Tintex commercials were dragged in by Virginia Smith as a frumpy gal who wanted to sing but to whom the prof wouldn’t even listen. Tho her best friends hadn’t told her, Racine did. Her clothes just weren’t right. He followed thru with the suggestion that a 15-cent box of the dye would solve all her troubles. During their intimate little talk, the Tintex label was superimposed over the duo. That’s commercial?
Pianist Sam Medoff managed to somewhat lighten this white man’s burden with his brilliant keyboard work. He’s a genius and cleverly covers performer ineptness and heightens talent when it exists. Twenty-five painful minutes were devoted to a bewhiskered Andy Clyde pic. Unless films of some entertainment value are available, it might be advisable to drop them altogether. Bad pix don’t improve with age.
Puppets have been used successfully on other shows, but Ruthrauff & Ryan in presenting the talented Frank Paris and his string manipulated dolls didn’t hit that mark. In its show for Lever Bros. the agency had Paris at a disadvantage. When he appears in vaude his hands and the puppets are spotlighted. On the tele screen only he legs were in the frame with dancing dolls. The entire point was missed and the net result wasn’t a show.
To a casual observer the performance was inexcusably bad. The agency’s tele director, Lee Cooley, explained it was impossible to use two cameras since one was set for Sam Cuff’s map talk. The one was training on the puppets and its movement was limited by the studio space. One camera then went from long shots to close-ups, panned over to Pat Murray and back to the puppets. Considering the difficulties, it’s easier to understand why the show was bad. Phil Thompson’s continuity was pretty ragged and the commercial, with Pat Murray at an enormous Rinso box pulling out white clothes while explaining to one of the puppets just what the soap would do, dragged.
Cuff was introed by device of Paris and Miss Murray in interview. The newscaster walked into the frame, met Paris, who asked him about the war and moved into his map talk from the three-way conversation.
Everybody concerned is looking forward to moving to DuMont’s enlarged studios. It’s agreed that if the shows don’t improve a brand-new set of excuses will be in order. Wanda Marvin. (Billboard, July 29)

Thursday, July 20
WNBT Channel 1
8:00 Excerpts from La Boheme and the Barber of Seville.
8:30 Aunt Daisy Basham.
9:00 Film: “Democratic National Convention.”
WCBW Channel 2
8:00 p.m. News, Everett Holles.
8:15 Balleretta.
8:45 Film.
9:55 Visual Quiz.
9:45 “Will You Remember,” songs.
NBC Television
Reviewed Thursday (20) 8-8:30 p.m., 9-9:30 p.m. Style—Opera Newscasting. Sustaining on WNBT (New York).
The place of music in the video world has been a question mark for some time. Two opera buts (the first live music in some time from NBC) presented case of long-hair music for the visual air this evening, and it left music’s case where it was before the NBC airing. The reasons are very simple. Only consummate opera singers will be able to get by before the video camera, and none of the three “stars” of the evening would even pretend to have arrived at the stature of great yet. Both John Hamil and Lois Eastman, are nice youngsters with potential opera voices, but Hamil, as Rudolph, gave a typically stiff Met performance which was made stiffer by the tele camera, and Miss Eastman was an all-too-healthy Mimi (the first excerpt was from La Boheme). When the Eastman Mimi swooned it was the nicest fem pass seen before the cameras in a long time. It just went to prove that a new set of acting and make-up standards will have to be solved before the looker-in starts to believe that’s what he’s seeing.
Production wise, the camera work was adequate. Adequare is darned good for today’s televised. The setting of the scene thru a commentator’s reading the story of La Boheme from a book that was legible to the video audience was very effective, and the garret setting into which the cameras panned, after a still shot of the snow-covered roofs of Paris, had nothing of a tele set about it. It’s disturbing to have the scene in which Mimi and Rudolph’s candles both blow out just as light as when both candles are supposed to be okay, but it was better than way than to have the scene played in a dim half-light. Dim half-light is bad on the eyes of the looker-in today.
The credits on what appeared to be a miniature stage, the credits being on curtains that were pulled up one after another, were professional. If they heightened the artificiality of the entire proceedings that was not the fault of the idea, which can be used time and time again to introduce live plays for operas.
There’s one universal fault of New York television scanning and that is the apparent lack of control men with reflexes fast enough to avoid blank end tubes. Looks see nix for anywhere from five seconds to a half minute. It’s bad business to permit the audience’s attention to wander in the midst of any show and there’s nothing as uninteresting as a blank tube, even tho a voice may be doing its selling right thru the blankness.
The sets were good, the costumes not so good. The reason for the latter is that apparently the producer, Herbert Graff, doesn’t know yet that a light-colored dress or blouse attracts the light in such a way that you have to look thru the reflected dress light to get to the face of the performer. Rudolph was dressed in dark clothes and he came thru the iconoscope okay.
The lighting was better than most video lighting, altho a baby spot on Miss Eastman’s face and crosslighting to avoid her fading into the background would have contributed plenty.
Between La Boheme and the second operatic bit there was a pause during which some music was played and the miniature curtain came down with the word “intermission” on it. An intermission is a swell way to lose a video audience.
Figaro’s acts from The Barber of Seville, the second opera offering, was better than either Miss Eastman’s Mimi or Hamil’s Rudolph. If the Barber didn’t quit come off it was because there weren’t enough close-ups during the barber shop scene. There’s something very impersonal about bewigged brocaded characters that can only be overcome by making them real, and with the exception of the barber himself, the looker-in never got close enough to see what the other three characters, two men and a girl, really looked like. Even the kids at the end of the scene were dancing dolls, because they were seen from the distance.
Credit NBC with no production stinting. With NBC and CBS both doing live shows, it’s going to be fun to watch the competition. Of course, it’s not understandable why NBC couldn’t have picked Monday night when they normally transmit pix to do live shows instead of Thursday when CBS is scanning a two-hour show. It’s cheating the small video audience.
Following the opera presentation, NBC brought before the cameras an interview bit with Don Pardo doing the interview and the interviewee being the New Zealand Mary Margaret McBride, Daisy Basham, Aunt Daisy Down Under. Aunt Daisy was okay on the interview, but Pardo seemed ill at ease, an uneasiness that was heightened by his being out of focus most of the time. NBC followed the interview with its second set of pictures from the Democratic convention. Since nothing happened the first day of the convention, nothing worthwhile showed up in the Pix. It was a shame, too. Joseph Koehler. (Billboard, July 29)

CBS Television
Reviewed Thursday (20) 8-10 p.m. Style—Variety and films. Sustaining on WCBW (New York).
It is with great joy that report is made that CBS’s tele quiz, for the first time within the memory of the oldest inhabitant of video row (not to be confused with Allen’s Alley) entertained its audience. Credit for this amazing phenomenon goes to Quizmaster Ben Feiner, who acted as tho he was actually taking an interest in the goings-on; Producer-Writer-Director Frances Buss and a group of lively contestants.
To Mr. Finer: A deep bow for getting out of his usual doldrums and keeping a rapid-fire stream of, it not funny, then amusing remarks moving. To Miss Buss: A mitt for several new questions with real visual interest. And to several members of the Simon & Schuster publishing staff: Thanks for being more than a set of store-window dummies.
Major cause of the improvement, aside from better talent clearance, were questions that showed Miss Buss’s realization that she is working in a visual medium. One of them, really nothing more than a parlor game in which contestants knelt around a table and tried to blow a ball off into the others’ faces, has lively movement and real interest for the viewer. Another, an adaptation of an idea tried several weeks ago, had the contestants pinning arrows on a map to try to locate the island of Yap. That, too, was fun to see.
On the debit side, it must be said that the problem of how to eliminate the entrance of participants from in front of the camera, with its consequent blurred focus, has still to be solved.
A new seg, Show Case, in which experimental programs will get an airing, started with this scanning. The first was Letter to Margaret Arlen, a rather talky bit that tried to solve women’s problem thru the method of guest experts. It’s a good idea, but for no longer than 15 minutes.
Vera Massey was on hand again with Will You Remember? Her usual songs and talk show that she maintains an evenly entertaining keel. The Gal was particularly good in a bit of real dramatic work on a phone that called for more than the usual mush that’s handed her. CBS had better before, tho, that they don’t ruin a potentially valuable property thru type casting. The formula is a good one, but even Shakespeare can get tiresome.
Ballereta is still another than won’t bear too much repetition. So little can actually be done in the way of varying its harp, songs, terp pattern, that is starts to wear. One suggestion that can be made about this show is to ask that the camera stop trying for shots through the harp. They aren’t good. The instrument’s strings produce a funny effect and destroy pic values. Newscaster Ev Holles, his maps and the cameramen were in their usual fine news fettle, altho Holles, as pointed out last week, persists in reading his script as tho he were invisible. Two British pix rounded out the two hours. Marty Schrader. (Billboard, July 29)



Friday, July 21
WNBT Channel 1
8:30-9:00 Film: “Democratic National Convention.”
WCBW Channel 2
8:00 News Reports.
8:15 “Opinion on Trial.”
9:00 Film Short.
9:15 “They Were There,” interviews.
9:25 Variety Show.

Saturday, July 22
WNBT Channel 1
8:00 Film: “Lone Star Law Man” with Tom Keene (Monogram, 1941).
9:00 Film: “Democratic National Convention.”
9:20 Film: Short Subjects.

HOLLYWOOD, July 22.—Telecasting in this area will assume greater proportions than ever before when projected new program ideas are given the green light on fall skeds. Leaders in the field here are Don Lee, RKO and Paramount, with web activity practically at a standstill.
Charles B. Smith, new tele head for RKO, said that experimentation with video at Don Lee W6XAO would be carried on a large scale during the fall. So far, RKO has made two telecasts over the Don Lee station with a third coming up August 7. Smith said “By fall we hope to be into commercial television.” He went on to say that RKO is experimenting with new devices which will facilitate the delivery of commercial plugs. ...
One of the most extensive video programs for Hollywood is planned by Klaus Landsberg, director of television for Paramount Studios. Operating over W6XYZ, Landsburg plans two full productions each week utilizing Paramount stock players and top names. He telecasts a half-hour variety show every Wednesday, featuring such performers as Cass Daley, Susan Hayward and Allan Ladd. Renny McEvoy, who was recently seen in The Sto[r]y of Doctor Wassell, will be the new emsee for the weekly video feature. On the same night, Landsberg also has what he calls a Domestic Class, title is Keep Slim With Jim, and features Jim Davies, Paramount studio physical director. This is a 15-minute show, with appeal to fems. Another feature is Tele-Toons, a cartoon serial, which has been on the air for some time. Cartoon is drawn in front of the cameras and narration is handled on off-stage mike. On Fridays there is a general information program where the video audience is invited to Meet Unusual People. The program also takes in world events. Landsberg said, “For instance, if Saipan is in the news for the week, we will pick up museum pieces dealing with that locality, with narrator to handle explanations. (Billboard, July 29)

Sunday, July 23
WABD Channel 4
8:15 p.m. Video Vistas.
8:45 Film. The Pickens Sisters in “Good Luck, Best Wishes” (Educational, 1934).
9:00 “Designs for Tomorrow” with Joy Hodges.
9:30 Film Documentary: “Road to Tokyo” (NFB Canada, 1942) narrated by Alan McPhee.
9:45 Bureau of Missing Persons and “Thrills and Chills” with Doug Allan.

Monday, July 24
WNBT Channel 1
7:30 p.m. Test Pattern.
8:00 Feature Film: “The Black Room” with Boris Karloff, Marian Marsh and Robert Allen (Columbia, 1935).
9:10 Televue Film: “From Ocean to Ocean.”
9:20 Films: “Country Fair,” “Children of the Nile” (Perfection, 1933), “The War as It Happens.”

Tuesday, July 25
WABD Channel 4
8:15 to 9:15 p.m. “WOR Video Varieties” with Bob Emery.
9:15 Film: “Target Berlin” (NFB Canada, 1944).
DuMont Television
Reviewed Tuesday (25), 8:15-9:00 p.m. Style—Variety. Sustaining on WABD (New York).
Newell-Emmet had announced a half-hour show, but a casting casualty nixed the agency's production. WOR's hardy perennial, Video Varieties, however, was on as usual for 45 minutes, leaving the audience Emery-bored.
Viewers for the most part sit down before a tele screen today with a certain amount of charity and hopefulness—and get to the place where they want to scream at these WOR programs. Tonight it seemed that Bob Emery, producer and director, was deliberately trying to drive his watchers to madness.
He brought on an emsee, Don McCullough, but he still bounced in and out of camera range, gushing and grinning like an over-solicitous mother at her offspring's first birthday party. McCullough's script had him reciting the poorest excuses for humor heard anywhere. He, Emery and Maurice Dreicer, who had part of the show on his hands, push performers off and on with the grace of a hippopotomus.
There was a good idea vaguely discernable in the portion of the show when three AWVS members discussed salvage plans and exhibited items made from various waste products. The bungling of the three little bears, Emery, McCullough and Dreícer however, muffed the women's appearance.
Arrangements hadn't been made for cameras to pick up the objects in point. The women were interrupted by Dreícer when they attempted to fulfill their un-scripted roles and instead of being put at ease they were prodded and ruffed.
The singing DeCastro [DeMarco] Sisters made three appearances, changing costumes for each entrance but they hadn't been told what to do with the bodies or faces. Close-ups distorted their features and their gestures and grimaces spoiled their warbling.
A silly spelling game with words flashed on the screen and Emery making with the cute remarks lasted too long. The fun and frolic feature tonight was a watermelon eating contest. Pies youngsters managed to soil their faces and clothes in an unfairly judged competition—all to the accompaniment of Emery's cheerful banter. Even the kids were embarrassed.
It is almost impossible to put a finger on the exact reason of the WOR failure to entertain at these sessions. It may be the Emery personality or his choice of participants. It certainly is their inability to tele project.
Undoubtedly intelligent scripting would help as would rehearsal—after a clever show had been written. The fault may lie partially with the technicians, but they are probably more helpless when Emery takes over than his audience ... the audience can turn to sound broadcasting and forget Emery and his brand of video. Wanda Marvin. (Billboard, Aug. 5)

Wednesday, July 26
WABD Channel 4
8:15 p.m. “Televisual Specialities.”
8:45 Film.
9:00 “Wednesday at 9.”
9:30 Film: “Cinema Clues.”
DuMont Television
Reviewed Wednesday (26) 8-10 p.m. Style—Documentary and Variety. Sustaining on WABD (New York).
The evening's video opened with a documentary titled This Is London, which proved that a theme goes a long way toward making an air visual show. It was more than just the theme, however, that made this good. It shifted from film to studio live production with a minimum of fuss and at no time did the life stuff suffer from the comparison with the reel news shots . . . and that is an accomplishment in the present DuMont studio. Even the lighting was adequate, something it seldom is at DuMont due to the usual "restrictions beyond our control in wartime."
After establishing the time and the place, i.e. London during a blitz, the camera brought the viewers to a shelter during a raid. After making the audience and the men and women in the shelter at home, the entertainment got under way . . . and gave an accurate idea of what pick-up talent in an air-raid shelter during an alert would sound like. It was all very amateur, with which there can be no complaint. However, had it been more professional, it would have been more sock in the home. Flora McDonald of the Gay Nineties show sang Loch Lomond and Coming Thru the Rye very well for the ears. There was, however, a natural awkwardness about her that seems not to belong to the character she was playing—an opera singer. Robert Tower, of Follow the Girls, sang two numbers Smiling Thru and Perfidia. The voice was a little stilted to sell these numbers and Tower had little or no tele-presence—altho the face will sell and when he adds character to his vocal chords, he's going to be okay. In every London shelter, of course, there must be (or must there be?) a cockney. Evelyn Juster played the part okay and didn't do too badly with the song Mrs. Astor's Horse. Add Bobby Jean Bernhardt to the shelter varieties and you have the entire works. Bobby Jean is usually okay with her feet but this time she was out of the picture and only when she was on camera did the group in the air-raid shelter seem out of focus. She tried to get the gang up in a conga line that lasted a minute. She did a few moments of adagio with two of the boys. Everything seemed truncated, in other words, she just wasn't permitted to do anything long enough to catch a mood and hold it.
However, the fact that all the performers were in an air-raid shelter, the fact that the warden handled his morale-emsee duties realistically and the added fact that the settings seem as real (to repeat) as the newsreel shots all added up to good video.
Those was just one sour note—a sour note that must be watched in tele shows. This was the commercial which was done by a London bobby (cop to you bud). It was okay to have him tell about the Dunhill store being blitzed and then have him go into a bit of nostalgic tobacco selling—but what was in bad taste was the switch to a frame in which a girl held up each product trio bobby was talking about. It just threw London right out the window. All that was missing was a price tag on the blitz. It's about time that someone in the video field told his sponsor that entertainment and product selling can mix but it hoe to be done intelligently. Up to now there has been a maximum of bad taste and a minimum of inventiveness.
Mark This Is London, its pix and its entertainment as the sort of stuff air vision should bring into the home. Credit Fred Widlieka and Frank McCadden for their believable scenery and Ray Nelson for his direction and production. Handling the cameras, slides and moving pictures together with a live show is no sinecure . . . and Ray Nelson did it . . . but good.
This is London was followed by a couple of pix about which the less said the better. The same goes for Ruthrauff & Ryan's Lever Bros.' Time. No rehearsal time is said to have been the reason why a parlor game sequence with John Reed King was as bad as any air game show that has been aired. Little things like shooting the routine of seeing who burns the last hole in a piece of paper on the top of a glass—so that a penny drops into the glass was done on a long shot. Alibi here was that one camera conked out, Answer to alibi: Doesn't the other camera move?
R. & R. is a top agency and it does top air shows. If it can't get the co-operation of DuMont so that it can rehearse shows it had better wait until it can. It does Lever Bros. itself and its producer, Lee Cooley, no good with shows like this ... and it doesn't help video experimentation one iota . .. and the pic Boots and Saddles, an army re-mount center film wasn't tele fare either. Some motion picture shorts belong on the small screen and some are a waste of time. Mark this army film as time wastage.
The final show was RKO Television's initial effort (according to announcements). It was called Cinema Cues. The script writer should have stayed in bed. Jean Casto the femsee should never have come before the tele cameras with the make-up she had on—and since she's a known quality as a performer, someone should have given her direction. The idea of showing bits of motion pix and asking the video audience to identify pix and actors isn't bad. But it takes good script and a personality that has been selling this sort of thing for some time to put it across. Miss Casto for instance should have studied Dotty Wooten who does the general announcing for DuMont to discover just how make-up can help and how to obtain ease before the mike and camera combination. Dotty on this show was as good as she ever has been—the gal has what it (camera) takes—but then she's serious about this thing called television.
This series of programs was an ideal example of what can be and what can't be done with trio DuMont facilities. It proves the old adage about a man and his tools . . . hell man, you don't need tools you need intelligence. Joseph Koehler (Billboard, Aug. 5).

RKO-Radio sponsored a recent unscheduled and unannounced television contest over WABD, the DuMont station in New York, recently that drew the biggest audience response on record, according to Thomas H. Hutchinson, RKO Tele production manager. The contest, titled “Cinema Clues,” offered RKO theatre tickets to viewers who could identify screen stars show in scenes from previous hits. (The Exhibitor, Aug. 9).

Thursday, July 27
WCBW Channel 2
8:00 News, Everett Holles.
8:15 Una Mae Carlisle, Southern Sons Quartet, Ray Sneed Jr.
8:30 “Showcase.”
8:45 Motion Picture.
9:15 “Visual Quiz.”
9:45 Vera Massey, songs.

Friday, July 28
WCBW Channel 2
8:00 News Reports.
8:15 “Opinion on Trial.”
9:00 Film Short.
9:15 “They Were There,” interviews with George Biddle and others.
9:30 Variety Show.
CBS Television
Reviewed Friday (28) 8-10 p.m. Style Variety. Sustaining on WCBW (New York).
Following a suggestion made several times by The Billboard, CBS has taken its Backstage pattern and reverted it to its original state of informality. Now titled At Home, the Tony Miner directed show is just about one of the best examples of video variety programing this department has ever seen. If the camera hadn't fallen for an old and obvious trick which usually flops (and did Friday), At Home would have been well-nigh perfect.
Credit for the piece should go equally to Miner for his direction and to the performers for their poise, fast chatter and definite talents. A pert little thing named Pequita Anderson does things with a piano and a pair of sexy eye-brows that make fine looking and listening.

A sort of a Gypsy Frank Sinatra who beam the Christmasy tag of Youle Bryner [sic] is a comer ... if he gets hold of a tele-toupee. Ann Anderson does a standard but funny satire routine and Barbara Prince dances well. The exciting part of the show, however, is the informal atmosphere, the ad-libbing and the general air of ease. Ray Morgan actually sounds like a host, the others sprawl around relaxed. The overall picture is that of a good house party.
The only faults (considering today's limitations) was the camera's persistance in trying to get a three-quarter shot of the dancer, and a definite lack of contrast along the gray scale. Altho the three-quarter (upper three-quarters of a dancer's body) idea sounds good in theory, its application almost invariably filops [sic] in video. The net result is a screen filled by a jogging body (rather nice one in this case) and a grimacing face. The feet and legs (also rather nice) are the center of attraction in a terp number, and the tricky stuff doesn't work out in video.
The entire set was made up of un-contrasting gray tones that become monotonous to the viewer. Morgan's apartment would be much more attractive if CBS spotted in it several nice light-absorbing black objects.
Gilbert Seldes, author, critic, historian and video producer acted as interviewer on They Were There, but even Seldes's undoubted talent for slowing down an interview couldn't spoil the story that Artist George Biddle had to tell. Seldes's almost heroic attempt to cut Mr. Biddle short, kept the conversation at snail's pace and the discourse on his own artistic theories, failed to ruin a perfectly swell tale, good direction and fine paintings.
Once, several weeks ago, this reviewer had occasion to say that it takes a newspaperman to conduct an interview. Seldes is an ex-newspaperman, so, obviously, more is needed. A trained voice and a more telegenic face and personality might help.
Ev Helles's newscast, Opinions On Trial and two British pix rounded out the evening. Marty Schrader. (Billboard, Aug. 5).

Saturday, July 29
WNBT Channel 1
8:00 p.m. Film: “Welcome to Britain” with Burgess Meredith (British-OWI, 1943).
9:00 Film: Short Subjects.

Sunday, July 30
WABD Channel 4
8:15 p.m. Video Vistas.
8:45 Film: “Grooms in Gloom” (Educational, 1935).
9:00 “Designs for Tomorrow.”
9:30 Documentary Film: “It’s Your Pigeon” (NFB of Canada, 1944).
9:45 “The Sketch Book.”
DuMont Television
Reviewed Sunday (July 30) 8-10 p.m. Style—Ballet, Pic and Documentary. Sustaining on WABD (New York).
There were three features on this Sunday evening session but only one is worthy of extended comment. Cecil & Presbrey opened the video evening with a pic called Arizona Nights. There's only one 35mm. camera at DuMont so they had to cut a full-length feature to 33 minutes. The cutting was fantastic but the pic could be followed if no one disturbed the viewer. In order to make it a tele presentation, the pic was preceded by a shot of an office boy in a theatrical office. The office boy was the usual Danny from Brooklyn and so he left the office to see Arizona Nights. All the way thru the pic he interpolated his ideas of the pic which was confusing as hell, unless you kept in mind that he was supposed to be in a movie theater seeing the same pic that you were viewing.
Eleanor Smith who is handling the summer series for Thomas G. Sabin ad-agency exec explained that she knew that they should have broken the pic to bring the audience back to the fact that the office boy was viewing the pic and that they had done something like that before. . . . But they weren't doing it this night. Television producers will someday get the idea that they either do a thing—or they don't. Half-way measures stink. . . . And, by the way, the pic was a horse opera that was dated and as sour as the reference to smuggling "Reds" across the Mexican border indicated.
The final (13th show) of the series sponsored by Durez Plastics, was a typical sign-off. It was almost a half-hour commercial. Despite that fact, it was interesting and the product presentation and explanation (how plastics are made), held the interest. It was not entertainment and adding a singer from Billy Rose's Diamond Horseshoe only made the continuous commercial pitch more pointed. They should also learn to do something for singers without chins.
One more point about this plastic show. Last-minute thoughts don't help. They decided just before they took the air to have a girl hold up the plastic products. Naturally else wasn't properly made up or dressed for the show, i.e. she looked like something the producer had forgotten, just as she really was.
Irwin Shane producer knew this but—the only legitimate buts and excuses are frequent failures which in wartime can't be helped.
The third and the really worthwhile air pic presentation as Bud Gamble's Sketchbook presentation of an underwater ballet called Treasure for Two. Gamble proved that with a little imagination you can do things with the video medium. His ballet dancers danced in a set that kept them at all times within the scanning of the iconoscope. Only one girl danced out of the frame and she only did it once. Then he had his second camera focused on a fish tank in such a way that by keeping both cameras wide open at the same time he had the girls dancing under water. The engineers explained the fish swimming in front of the girls while they were dancing, by stating that the camera on the fish tank being closer to the photographed object produced trio illusion of it being in front of the girl who danced some distance hack from the camera that was scanning her. It was a beautiful effect and proved that process shots are going to keep down the cost of television. Even the credits were projected with the fish swimming behind the names of the cast, directors, etc. This was done by simply pasting white letters on a sheet of clear plastic and having it pulled up thru a slot in front of the tank. The tank was edged with some wood bark to give a picture-frame effect. The lights went right thru the plastic and the tank but naturally the letters were opaque and they stood out in nice relief.
Just one more technical detail. It's difficult to set the stages at DuMont while the cameras are working and the boom mike in the studio is on. Many a production has been spoiled by hearing the stage manager or production amen on one set talk while the cameras and mike were on another. Bud Gamble knew that, so he simply had all the dialogue and music recorded, just as is done so often in Hollywood, i.e. pic and sound produced at different times. Result: a professional show.
The dancing itself, however, was a little on the static side—i.e. they all seemed to be dancing (except in an Octopus number) the same terps. The prologue and epilogue also were out of the mood of the ballet. Two youngsters fishing and the boy selling the girl on the wonders of what's beneath the water (because he wants to continue fishing and she wants to go home) is okay, but the viewers who enjoy ballet are bored by "cute" openings.
Television's greatest need, at the present, is set a mood and hold it. Just as sound broadcasting has discovered that the ear can't jump around too quickly, just so will its visual brother discover that the eye is far slower than the ear, . . . and visual moods will have to be built up to and then held.
The plea for mail by a youngster (girl) after the underwater ballet—wasn't in the ballet mood—and it took as much time to orient yourself to what she was talking about as it did to realize what she was requesting. However, Bud Gamble must be credited with being the first producer of a television show that we have caught that indicated that he was really cooking with gas. It's grand to see a show produced by somebody with visual brains. Joseph Koehler. (Billboard, Aug. 12)

Monday, July 31
WNBT Channel 1
7:30 p.m. Test Pattern.
8:00 Feature Film: “Thunder in the City” with Edward G. Robinson and Luli Deste (Columbia, 1937).
9:20 Televues: “Waltz, A Flat Major.”
9:30 “The War as It Happens.”

WITH Hollywood Local 40 IBEW officials lodging complaint on use of IATSE technicians by RKO Radio Pictures Inc., in conjunction with experimental television operations on W6XAO, film studio has cancelled its scheduled tests. Tieup with Don Lee Broadcasting System's television station had provided for weekly telecasts utilizing W6XAO engineers, technicians, talent, directors and writers. Union officials pointed out that while television station comes under IBEW jurisdiction, film studio had planned to supplement technical staff with studio IATSE technicians. RKO has abandoned further experimental telecasting, it was said, until union jurisdiction has been settled. (Broadcasting, July 31)