The television industry was hamstrung by the war in November 1944; no sets were being made, no new stations were signing on. But eight of the nine functioning TV stations had some kind of live coverage election night. The exception was Zenith’s experimental station in Chicago which was only running films.
WNBT (NBC’s only station) in New York connected with stations in Schenectady, New York and Philadelphia for live coverage from its famed Studio 8-H, with WABD (DuMont’s sole station) worked out an arrangement with the New York Daily News to broadcast returns. Experimental station W6XYZ in Los Angeles found a cheap way of providing results—it aimed a camera at a United Press ticker tape.
That month, WCBW (the CBS station) tried some elaborate programming. It broadcast a folk ballet called “Folksay” that included music by Woody Guthrie. A fashion show sponsored by the New York Times included black performers singing. Among them was actress Amanda Randolph. Victor Borge starred in one programme. And bandleader Archie Bleyer and singer Frank Parker were part of a Victory Loan show; they later found employment and then unemployment with Arthur Godfrey.
On the west coast, the comic team of Bob Sweeney and Hal March fronted a programme. Sweeney later directed television comedies while March hosted “The $64,000 Question.”
Newsman Ev Holles at WCBW continued to be praised for his CBS TV newscasts, 15 minutes twice a week. Like the man who held the same job in the ‘60s and ‘70s, Walter Cronkite, Holles had been a writer for United Press in the ‘30s. Among his assignments for the wire service was the Spanish Civil War. His WCBW career ended in 1945 when he became news director at WBBM Chicago, followed by a move to KHJ Los Angeles, then to the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission as its P.R. flack. He was 71 when he killed himself in 1971.
Wednesday, November 1
WABD Channel 4
8:15 p.m. Film.
8:30 “The Magic Carpet.”
9:00 “Treasury Series No. 2.”
Treasury Dept. will debut a television series tonight (Wed.) over WABD, N. Y., object being to train bond salesmen for the forthcoming Sixth War Bond Drive. Marks the first time tele has been put to such use. (Variety, Nov. 1)
What is believed to be the first cooperative deal ever made between a newspaper, radio station and television outlet has been made for next Tues. (7) for three-way coverage of election returns. Involved are WNEW, N. Y., indie station; WABD, Dumont telecaster, and the N. Y. Daily News. Another unusual phase of the cooperative plan is that the video end of the return coverage is being produced by an advertising agency but is not being sponsored by any of the agency’s accounts. Ad agency involved is Charles M. Storm Co., with Ray Nelson, outfit's radio head, handling all the tele production.
Daily News and WNEW have standing news tieup, but this has been extended by the tab to allow its returns to be fed additionally to WABD. Trade regards the transactions as execeptional [sic] in view of the highly competitive daily-television angle. In order to speed operations, a large staff of runners has been hired to lope from the daily to WNEW and WABD, this augmenting special phone lines installed between WNEW and the News. Elevators in the three office buildings involved are also being set aside to accommodate the runners only.
Television features Nelson is planning for Election Night include analysis by Cesar Searchinger [sic], WNEW staff analyst; a panel of politicos representing the major parties, who'll be quizzed by Searchinger as varying returns come in; recordings of speeches made by past presidents and vocalists to warble campaign songs. Video transmission will start at 8:15 and run indefinitely. In addition, WABD and WNEW will swap announcers and commentators, two stations being near each other, WNEW at Madison and 52nd St. and WABD at Madison and 53rd St.
Nelson and the Storm agency are handling the production because of experimental interest in coverage for the future. (Variety, Nov. 1)
Paramount
Reviewed Wednesday (1), 8:30-9:30 p.m. Style—Variety. Sustaining on W6XYZ, Hollywood.
This weekly variety show engineered by Klaus Landsberg, head of Paramount Studios' television activities, puts the emphasis on novelty. Landsberg's opening announcement, wherein he told the viewers that they were due for a surprise on their television screens, was actually substantiated later on in the show.
While endeavoring to give the audience a good show, Landsberg is always trying experiments with lighting and camera action, worrying little about the background. He is of the opinion that action and clear pictures are more important now than elaborate sets.
Show started off with amateur boxing bouts offered by Jim Davies, physical director for Paramount Studios. Davies came over the cameras well and managed to promote enough dialogue from the boxers to make the between-round spots interesting to the audience even tho the action lagged at this point. Camera work on the two bouts showed what can be done with sports.
Audrey Young, Paramount starlet, did two numbers, What a Difference a Day Makes and Getting Sentimental Over You. She had a nice voice and was very telegenic. A singer can be effectively presented on television if she is pretty enough. Young proved that. The audience is inclined to get restless no matter what the quality of the voice unless the subject has enough physical appeal. Lighting and camera work was good on this, sustaining the picture on close-up so that none of her features were washed out.
Next on the show was Samson McDonald, billed as the Old Ranger. Using a bull whip, he went thru the standard routine of tricks, such as cutting paper, etc. Thad Swift stepped out of his emsee role to act as his stooge and had cigarette cut from his mouth by the whip end. It was hard to get all the action into a small picture, but considering technical difficulties it came over well. McDonald and Swift kept up across fire that livened up the act, making the chatter appear ad libbed.
Following McDonald there was a cowboy with a guitar, Luck Pendleton, who sang some of his own original compositions without too much enthusiasm. However, Pendleton was at a disadvantage, for his blondness made him a poor subject on the tele screen.
By this variety line-up Landsberg has proved that he will stop at nothing if he feels it has any possible chance of being a tele subject. He gives the set owners plenty of excuse to stay home and watch the screen. Keynote of the entire evening was action, and even in the case of the singer, Audrey Young, Landsberg helped keep up the audience interest by close-up. Dean Owen. (Billboard, Nov. 11)
Thursday, November 2
WCBW Channel 2
8 p.m. News with Everett Holles.
8:15 “Fashions of the Times” with Grover Whelan, Virginia Pope and others.
8:45 Variety program.
9:00 Films: “The Navy”; “People’s Bank.”
9:30 “The Missus Goes A-Shopping.”
“FASHIONS OF THE TIMES”
With Ben Feiner, Grover Whelan, Omar Kiam, Virginia Pope, Vera Maxwell, Claire McCardell, Hope Skillman, Marjorie Holligan, models
Producer: Gilbert Seldes
Director: Tony Miner
30 Mins.; Thurs. (2), 8:15 p.m.
WCBW-CBS, N. Y.
Television shows, like high school graduation plays or Broadway productions, cannot be successful without adequate rehearsal time and this ambitious venture by the N.Y. Times fashion staff and CBS video viceroys proved that statement beyond a doubt.
The models were lovely and the gowns stunning—so were the bathing suits—but all involved seemed to have only a hazy idea of what to do. Last minute subbing of Ben Feiner for Milo Boulton, originally skedded as emcee, was another handicap. This is not meant as a reflection on Feiner who turned in a bangup job, all things considered.
But the chatter was confused and the models ditto. Not a good presentation by any standards. Domm. (Variety, Nov. 8)
CBS
Reviewed Thursday (2), 8-10 p.m. Style—News, variety, audience-participation and pix. Sustaining on WCBW, New York (CBS).
Not much new on this two-hour bill.
The most remarkable thing about most television presentations is the way mistakes are repeated time and time again. There is, of course, plenty of reason for technical mistakes. That's because many of them can't be corrected until new-equipment day. However, when production errors come thru week after week, someone or something is at fault and something ought to be done about it. There were plenty of both kinds of lack of intelligence on this telecast.
Technically there were bad camera shots in the variety portion of the show, the usual four-foot men and women (due to for-shortening) in the Missus Goes a Shopping, and materials in Fashions of the Times that washed out entirely before the ike.
Production-wise there were errors of judgment which turned the style show into a talkfest, that cut action to a minimum, that designed a swell work-room setting and then did nothing in it. And atmosphere weighed down the audience-participation seg.
No matter how video workers like to avoid it, what comes thru the receiving tube in the home must stand comparison with home motion pix. If it doesn't. . . .
Ev Holles opened the evening with his usual newscast. It was, as it has always been, swell. The recent tendency of shifting almost immediately to the maps is okay. The continued use of news pix is also a plus. However, when someone has a little more $$ to spend it might be wise to televise from negative film rather than from the photographs themselves. The reflection factor makes much of the pic detail a blur. This wouldn't happen if negatives were televised.
Second "attraction" was The New York Times fashion show. Ben Finer and a group of fashion authorities kicked the ball around plenty about fashions, and a considerable number of models did their stuff—but not enough. Not once did they permit the models to show what they were wearing underneath. Beach robes covered bathing suits, but no one saw those suits—they trotted out different girls for the bathing suit sequences, etc. In other words, altho movement must be the essence of video, movement was cut to a minimum. Finer looked quite a fashion plate himself in this sequence, which is a definite advance, as he has been televised frequently looking as tho he had slept in his suit. A white carnation helped his sartorial elegance. As a break, in the fashion presentation, they took the camera to a workroom, and then did nothing in the workroom but describe fabrics and how acetate cloth is woven. Apparently thes election of the cloth was not made by a television expert because much of the printed fabric came thru the iconoscope plain white.
This Fashion of the Times was a step forward for television. It indicated that stage fashion-show technique is not for the camera eye. It was a good show in the Times Hall but just filler on the home receiver.
Amanda and the Three Barons did a few songs which were not too hard on the ears but meant nothing to the eyes. It was obvious that neither of the four were at all certain what would come thru the ike. That came thru.
It must be possible to make game sessions enjoyable in the home and the studio. This video seg is not it—or else we've caught the bad ones. Camera work, both from a fore-shortening point of view and an unintelligent focusing on what the audience members are doing would not even be passable for a rank 8mm. fan let alone a professional cameraman. There is a million dollars worth of human interest in a show like The Missus Goes a Shopping, and it isn't video—worth a coin from the bowl from which contestants are given the opportunity of grabbing a handful. (All the coins are copper.) Everything is excusable on an air—pix presentation if only the producers show a willingness to experiment. It's only the routine that becomes bad looking. Joe Koehler. (Billboard, Nov. 11)
Balaban & Katz
Reviewed Thursday (2), 7:30-9 p.m.(CWT). Style—News interview, variety, drama. Sustaining on WBKB, Chicago.
If anyone, other than this reviewer and the production staff at WBKB, looked at the station's entire program tonight it must have been because he was tied to a chair in front of a video set while someone threatened him with a blackjack, There just wasn't enough in the program to make anyone want to stay around and watch it for an hour and a half. It was good in parts, but those parts came too far apart to retain attention thruout the program.
Ann Hunter, far from her usual standard of excellence, started the program by interviewing S/Sgt. Harold Sheehan, a Chicago boy, who described his life in a German prison camp. Subject matter, altho it would seem to be interesting, was dull because the interviewer didn't lead Sheehan down the right road. This portion of the program proved, however, that a blonde can wear light-colored clothes on a television program and the lack of contrast will not ruin the picture. Ann wore a light tan dress that televised almost white, and the similarity between its shade and the shade of her hair made for eye-straining harmony.
After Ann, and after the showing of the same patriotic slide for a five minutes that seemed like five hours, Commonwealth Edison presented another What's Cooking With the Scotts? opus. This series is on the right track, but it still could use a lot of improvement. For one thing, the writers still persist in making too many references to cooking with electricity. For another thing, it's getting mighty tiresome seeing the Scotts in their kitchen night after night. To increase necessary dramatic plausibility, writers of the series should put their cast into other rooms in the house once in a while. What if they do sacrifice the atmosphere of cooking and kitchen fixtures that is intended to help sell electricity? The primary objective in television, as in any other advertising medium, is to hold an audience.
Gloria Foster, featured vocalist with Chuck Foster's band, now playing at Chicago's Blackhawk Restaurant, followed the Scotts. Gloria's beauty plus her mood-expressing voice make her good video fare. But here, too, the station's production staff made foolish mistakes. Once they had a girl walk on stage to hand Miss Foster a pair of maraccas [sic]. This completely disrupted the mood created by Gloria's singing. It's in making little mistakes like this that WBKB excels.
Other offerings on the program were the magic of Lee Phillips and the comedy routine of Jay Laurrye. Phillips is getting better each week. The television audience sees just enough of his movements to arouse interest but not enough to give away his tricks until he is ready to explain them.
Laurrye did one of those routines made popular by the Imaginators. He pretended to sing a few songs that were being played by recordings. For television it just didn't go over. Most of the time when he jumped about he got himself out of focus. His antics were very hard for the television cameras to follow even when he moved about in the focal plane. Too often he was out of the picture. Cy Wagner. (Billboard, Nov. 11)
Friday, November 3
WNBT Channel 1
8:30 to 11:00 p.m. Boxing at Madison Square Garden, Rocky Graziano vs. Harold Green, Dann Bartfield vs. Monty Pignatore (lightweight), Richard (Sheik) Rangel vs. Eddie Walker (welterweight).
WCBW Channel 2
8:00 p.m. News reports.
8:15 “At Home,” variety show.
8:45 “They Were There,” interviews with service people.
9:00 Films.
9:30 Discussion: “Presidential Campaign Strategy.”
9:45 Vera Massey, songs.
An application for a commercial television station was filed with the FCC yesterday by the Los Angeles Times-Mirror. (Hollywood Reporter, Nov. 3)
Saturday, November 4
WNBT Channel 1
8:00 p.m. Film: “I See Ice” with George Formby (Associated Talking Pictures, 1938).
9:15 Short film subjects.
PHILADELPHIA, Nov. 4 (AP)—Radio station WIP applied today to the Federal Communications Commission in Washington for commercial television rights, Benedict Gimbel, president of the Pennsylvania Broadcasting Company, announced.
Sunday, November 5
WABD Channel 4
8:15 p.m. “Parisian Memories.” (postponed, see below)
8:30 WNEW Presents “British Buddies.”
9:00 An evening of ballet.
9:20 “The Miracle of the Danube,” play.
When Senator Robert F. Wagner goes on the air at 8:15 o’clock tonight over Station WABD, it will be the first time in the history of the nation that a candidate for major public office has used television as a means of appealing for votes on election day.
Appearing with the Senator on the program will be William Galvin, chairman of the Non-Parisan Labor Committee for Wagner, who will read a personal message from President Roosevelt to the Senator advocating his re-election. The program has been arranged by the Dumont Television Studio, 515 Madison Avenue, from which the program will be broadcast. (New York Times, Nov. 5)
“British Buddies,” second of series of DuMont’s WNEW, N. Y., last Sunday night (5) reportedly cost $1,000 production-wise, most expensively staged sustaining video half-hour to date.
Produced in cooperation with the British Information Service (Jack Rennie handling that chore for the BIS with Jack Grogan dittoing for WNEW), cutting of films of Aachen battle never before shown in this country, settings and talent costs for dramatic stanza on show put the stint in the top-money brackets. (Variety, Nov. 8)
Philco Radio and Television Corp. struck a definite snag yesterday in its plan to establish an experimental television broadcast station at Lexington Heights in Arlington County, when determined opposition blocked action by the Arlington County Board on Philco’s request for a permit.
A special meeting of the board to consider Philco’s application resulted only in decision to postpone action for another week, to allow Philco representatives time to confer with county Planning Engineer Frank Dieter on the feasibility of another site.
Opposition came from several citizens whose property adjoins the proposed Philco plant site. The board received a petition signed by 31 persons opposing issuance of a permit to Philco, and heard several county residents express their objection...
Principal objections voiced by the affected citizens were that the station might interfere with radio reception in homes in the area, that the station would be unsightly and not in keeping with residential plans; that issuance of a use permit to the television station might lead eventually to rezoning of the area. (Washington Post, Nov. 5)
Monday, November 6
WNBT Channel 1
8 p.m. Film: “The War as It Happens,” newsreel footage.
8:12 Feature Film: “Return to Yesterday” with Anna Lee, Dame May Whitty and Clive Brook (Associated British, 1940).
9:20 Televues: “Slavinka, Part 1.”
9:30 Boxing from St. Nicholas Arena.
W6XYZ, Paramount’s television station, will report election returns tomorrow night by keeping its camera close-up on a United Press ticker installed in the studio. Camera will stay on the tape, starting at 7 p.m. Meanwhile, recorded music will be played.
As a further innovation, the station, managed by Klaus Landsberg, is mounting a receiver in the mezzanine of the Hollywood Paramount. It is believed to be the first television reception of a national event in a theatre. (Hollywood Reporter, Nov. 6)
WNBT Channel 1
7:00 p.m. Election Returns.
WCBW Channel 2
9:00 p.m. Election Returns.
WABD Channel 4
8:15 p.m. Televisual Specialties presents “Election Night.”
Balaban & Katz
Reviewed Tuesday (7), 8 p.m. midnight. Special election show. Sustaining on WBKB, Chicago.
Without a doubt this was the most ambitious show ever undertaken by the staff of WBKB. It was a noble effort in that the station's staff spared itself no work and at least attempted to utilize the potentialities of television. But it was a noble effort that had in it many mistakes that a little more foresight and planning could have eliminated.
The program, however, did show the potentialities of television. It showed its program possibilities; and it showed its promotional potentialities. Herb Lyon, new publicity and promotion director of the station, saw the Presidential election as a chance to promote WBKB, and he did something about it. He made a tie-in with The Chicago Sun and arranged for the paper's staff members to appear on an election return program. The Sun gave the show two long stories preceding the telecast, and printed two pictures that ran in an eight-column-wide spread on its back page the morning following the show. In addition, Lyon arranged to have video receivers put up in the lobby of the B & K Chicago Theater, in The Sun's newsroom and in the headquarters of the local Republican and Democratic parties.
For the telecast the WBKB studio was turned into a simulated newspaper city room. A UP wire was set up in the studio and was surrounded by desks on which phones and all the props that go up to construct the atmosphere of a busy newspaper on election night. On one wall of the studio was one of the most clever props used: A huge map of the United States prepared by Marge Durnal and Pauline Babrov. As the commentators read returns they pointed to this map and a light came on in the State about which they were talking. As the show progressed and it became apparent that Roosevelt or Dewey had won a State, its light would remain on permanently, and the head of a donkey or elephant was pinned on its area.
For the four-hour show WBKB utilized staff of WJJD announcers (WJJD as well as The Chicago Sun is owned by Marshall Field) and its own talent, as well as The Sun's personnel. The Sun personnel consisted of sports editor Warren Brown (why a sports editor on a political program no one knew), columnist Dale Harrison, reporter Sylvia Crosby and cartoonists Charles Werner and Jack Lambert, who sculptured heads of political personages just as he makes the models for photographs that are run as Sun editorial cartoons.
WJJD used seven announcers and a commentator, Captain Michael Fielding. WBKB brought in its featured stars Ann Hunter, Jerry Walker, Bill Vance and Jim Campbell. In addition, many big-wig politicians were interviewed. The use of so many personages, on a program that had not been set up definitely before Monday afternoon, was responsible for confusion many times during the show. It was during these periods of confusion that it was most clearly seen that if greater preparation had been used and if the station had mapped out the show weeks ago and had then rehearsed it a few times, WBKB would have done one of the best public service shows in television's history.
As it was by luck, by the grace of God, or by the use of quick thinking on the part of the production staff under Helen Carson, the show in the main held interest, was informative and showed what could be done with video in the future.
The highlights of the evening were the cartooning of Charley Werner and Jack Lambert; commentaries of Ann Hunter, Jerry Walker and Captain Fielding, and the change-of-pace comedy routine of Bill Vance. Special mention should go to Vance, Walker and Miss Hunter. Vance did a Robert Benchley type of skit, attempting to trace the history of the party system from the time of the ancient Chinese and to show the proper way to vote. Of course he got himself all twisted up and ended his work by operating a voting machine that paid off with a jackpot. Miss Hunter plugged for hard work to bring about a lasting peace in the form of support for the winning candidate no matter who he was. Walker, who delivered the most literary oration of the evening, explained the value and significance of the service vote, as well as an explanation of the electoral college.
Woven around all these highlights was the interviewing of politicians and the reading of election returns. And how those election returns did become monotonous after a couple of hours had gone by!
Principal fault was that there was no apparent reason to bring all these diverse personalities into a newsroom. At one time Janette, WBKB staff pianist, did some excellent playing that was intended to be a change of pace. But she was presented in front of a newsroom background and thus attention was taken from her piano artistry.
In spite of these faults, however, the station deserves credit for at least making an attempt. At least its staff did not sit on their hands and do nothing about attempting to cover the election as only television can. Evidently it must have pleased the public. For at the WBKB studios and at the Chicago Theater there were often heard such remarks as, "Darn it, that's interesting. I keep thinking it's a movie." Cy Wagner. (Billboard, Nov. 18)
Chicago, Nov. 7—General inability of WBKB, Chicago's lone video station, to obtain latest type television cameras and top technicians plus the taking over of the major portion of their studio space by the Navy radar school has resulted in a general letdown in the station's programming in past months, in marked contrast to the progress being made by N. Y. video stations.
Majority of shows televised here every Tuesday-Friday are so amateurish that reviewing them week by week is a needless task. Gimmick is that mechanical quirks, such as blurring and distortion, are easily overlooked, in view of the vast amount of materials diverted to war production. On the other hand, hackneyed shows put on by the all femme staff are another story—and one that leaves the casual observer hanging on the ropes at the prospect of what would happen if the war were to end suddenly and civilian production were to resume as quickly as WPB officials have predicted.
Commercial telecasts current include fashion shows staged by Marshall Field, Mandel Bros., Chicago Mail Order, and Evans Fur Co., lit so poorly that sables are indistinguishable from mink-dyed muskrat, two stanzas on how to cook, sponsored by Commonwealth Edison; '"Shoe Revues" by Hannah Shoe Co. and quiz programs and newscasts. One Edison store, located in an outlying district, has a receiver where shows are viewed by prospective customers, and Field store is dickering for the same kind of deal.
Small Audience
Figuring on between 400 and 425 video receivers in the area, with an estimated aud of five for each, it's figured between 1,500 to 3,000 view each show. WBKB, like most tele stations, has graduated from individual acts—singers, dancers and 10-minute dramatic shows—to 45-minute programs. They also have fallen in line to the extent of using four or five scene sets instead of one. Calibre of newscasts, too, has improved somewhat, with top commentators from various local stations glad to prepare for T-Day by helping out. Entertainers, despite unflattering appearances caused by mechanical insurmountables, pitch in, only hitch being that sometimes a paying job turns up and they send regrets, in which event other talent has to be dug up in a hurry.
Ann ("Woman Views the News") Hunter, blonde looker from WAIT, and Jerry Walker, educational director for WLS, do all right with the news-views. For program interest, instead of spouting news for 15-minutes, Miss Hunter goes in for descriptions of scenery, customs and other info about the country discussed, while Walker, who works without notes, proves himself a walking Baedeker by drawing freehand maps. (Variety, Nov. 8)
Wednesday, November 8
WABD Channel 4
8:15 p.m. Film: “Torchy’s Kitty Coup” (Educational, 1933)
8:30 Wednesday Varieties.
9:00 “Treasury Series No. 2.”
Thursday, November 9
WCBW Channel 2
8:00 p.m. News with Everett Holles.
8:15 “Opinions on Trial.”
8:45 Musical variety with Josh White, others.
9:00 Films: “Lady Marines” (OWI, 1944) “Dangerous Comment” (British, 1940)
9:30 “The Missus Goes A-Shopping.”
“VICTOR BORGE”
Producer-Director: Tony Miner
15 Mins.: Thurs, (9), 8:15 p.m.
WCBW-CBS, N. Y.
Victor Borge is a class booking for the presentation theatres and cafes, and there's no reason to assume that he can’t be equally as socko for television. The pianist-comedian requires an intime atmosphere for best results, and video certainty gives him that.
Borge did not do hts best material on this show, but his casual manner, pianistic satires and the business he uses of having his punchlines trail off emphasizes his wham novelty turn all the way. He's telegenic, all right, and a tipoff on how far headline in-person singles can go in the "new" medium. Kahn (Variety, Nov. 15)
CBS
Reviewed Thursday (9), 8-10:15 p.m. Style—Variety. Sustaining on WCBW, New York.
Perhaps it was elation over the election returns or perhaps someone stuck a shot of pre-war adrenalin into its coffee, but the CBS staff came up Thursday night with one of the most technically perfect scannings since the web's return to the air. It was almost enough to restore one's faith in the future of video.
Outside of the fact that Raymond E. (Rambunctuous Ray) Nelson, v.-p. of the Storm Agency, did his bit to set tele production standards back 10 years with a raucus and gymnastic performance on Opinions On Trial, WCBW gave this viewer one of the most rewarding evenings ever spent before a CBS scanning.
The best part of the two-hour seg was the camera work and direction on the as-yet untitled variety show that features Amanda, the Three Barons and guest, Josh White. Instead of introing the Barons by having the camera take them in toto, the usual method, they appeared one at a time, one in the center from a curtain, one from the left wing of a very small stage and one from the right wing. As each one appeared, he picked up his music cue and went into the opening song. The intro added a great deal of variety to a usually stale entry. Lighting on the singers was well handled, with cross lighting highlighting well-angled shots.
Camera work on Josh White was the best yet. Two shots in particular, one a full-face take of the balladeer standing on a step against a grey wall and the other a low-angle profile with rather dramatic cross lighting were splendid.
If only Director Ben Feiner would add a dancer or a comic to the 15-minute seg he would have a sock show for tele audiences. As it stands, there is nothing but music in the format. It could stand some variety. Amanda and the Barons were good enough by almost any standards, and Josh White is a natural for tele. His easy informal approach, his guitar which seems to moan low or sing happily as he wants and his personable presence make him outstanding. White sang one of his standards, One Meat Ball, and a fairly new number, The House I Live In. If CBS plans to use him again he could be even more effective if he sang some of his chain-gang blues or straight blues tunes.
A spur-of-the-moment inspiration—and it was a good one—was the appearance of Victor Borge, pianist-comic. Borge put on a smooth-running show, depending on his old but still good piano satires and monolog. He is a poised, polished performer with terrific timing and he went well in tele. Borge is not yet camera-wise and on several occasions continued to look into one camera after the other had taken over. On one occasion, when he was using his elbows, head, derriere and practically every other part of his body except his fingers to gag Dimitri Shostakovich's music, the camera should have been trained at all times on the keyboard rather than on his face.
One shot was particularly well made. The No. 2 camera was shoved all the way around behind the camera for a profile take that added a great deal to the variety of the angles. Credit Director Tony Miner and Cameraman Al Kleband for that one.
The Missus Goes A-Shopping, with John Reed King back in the saddle, was better than it has been for several weeks. By that we mean that most of the gags went over. Corny—but commercial. Director Frances Buss did as well as anyone can in a practically unrehearsable show where everyone runs around like crazy.
About the same goes for Director Ben Feiner's job on Opinions On Trial, but the program idea (resolved: that blondes make better wives than brunettes) should have been hidden deep in the dark recesses of its creator's mind. Certainly the popular welfare would have been better served if it had never seen the light of day. And this reviewer is convinced that blonde defender Ray Nelson, who puts on his own shows on CBS's rival, DuMont, deliberately sabotaged the net.
Ev Holles's news, with the help of that animator, and Leo Hurwitz's highly competent direction, were fine. At one point, however, shadows of the animator's operator's hands appeared on the screen because of faulty lighting. It was corrected in a hurry. Marty Schrader. (Billboard, Nov. 18)
Washington.—Latest to join the picture applicants for commercial television licenses is Bob O’Donnell’s Interstate circuit, which applied this week for a channel assignment in Dallas.
Commercial television applications were received also from the Radio Sales Corp., Seattle, and the Cincinnati Broadcasting Co. (Hollywood Reporter, Nov. 9)
Friday, November 10
WNBT Channel 1
8:30 p.m. to 11 p.m. “Cavalcade of Sports,” boxing from Madison Square Garden. Sammy Angott vs. Jimmy McDaniels (welterweight), plus four six-round bouts and one four-round.
G. E. Anniversary Party
Reviewed Friday (10), 9-10 p.m. Style—News, documentary, drama, music and speeches, etc. Sustaining on WRGB, Schenectady (G.E.).
There has been considerable technical improvement in G.E.'s live programs if this telecast is any indication of what has been going on at WRGB since Hoyland Bettinger has taken over as program manager. However, the improvements are still not too show-business wise.
Take for instance the entire idea of a fifth birthday party. It could have been fun and still so integrated as to be just as informative as what was skedded.
The newscast, using the same type of reflector animator CBS employs so effectively, was a vast improvement of previous news shows seen at the station—but someone forgot that movement is still the essence of video. Simply putting on and taking off arrows and other indications of battle fronts, etc., misses the point. The arrows should have been moved instead of being placed down and left in one position. When advancing armies should have wiped out the enemy—WRGB just removed them. It was all static movement when it should have been flowing. Then again a commentator who is never seen—is an inanimate voice without personality. No visual medium can ever get along on voice alone—even if map stuff is used to illustrate what the speaker is explaining.
To give some idea of the advance of the air-pix medium, WRGB reproduced the first play broadcast, The Queen's Messenger, and then made no attempt of actually sending out on the air the pic as it was done originally. What a contrast it would have been to have televised the show and shown only what the first tele drama audience saw—and then have followed it (as the program did) with a good present-day dramatic visual air show.
Television cannot live by electronics alone . . . it needs show business.
The third feature, an episode in conquest over darkness, was an elaborate documentary projection of The Golden Ox. It was supposed to be an example of an institutional documentary drama that G. E. might sponsor at some time in the future on the video air. It wasn't badly done. There was at times some nice cross and back lighting and the fact that Larry Algeo had presented the show once before made for a smoothness that is all too often lacking, when you look in. It could have been compared to a good "Little Theater" production. Then the query would have arisen, "who and what was it supposed to sell?"
There were moments of drama and every once in a while the central character, Tom Davenport, builder of the first induction motor, came to life. Most of the time he was just a puppet in the hands of an electronic organization having something to sell the public. Prejudiced pleading that is really a commercial from beginning to end has a lot of recoil dynamite in it.
Only the future can tell where "documentaries" like this should start—and end.
The Golden Ox was a good job for what it was.
Final bit of entertainment on the program was Henry Scott, Kittens on the Keys pianist. Henry seems to feel that he's gotten to broaden his regular routine with touches of custard pie slap-stick to get across in television. He should have seen Victor Borge on CBS recently in New York to see just how little mugging is needed to be funny. Henry has everything—but someone should tell him to "take it easy."
Final routine was a series of talks, ad-lib and read by two G. I. execs and The Billboard's Joe Koehler. Three speeches in a row are too much. Even Bob Peare, G. I. ad head, realized that and called in the gang that make WRGB possible for bows before the birthday cake, instead of talking about them. The party might have been something to write down in the history of television programing. It's a shame it wasn't. R. G. (Billboard, Nov. 18)
Saturday, November 11
WNBT Channel 1
1:10 p.m. Football: Army vs. Notre Dame.
8:00 Feature Film: “The Long Shot” with Marsha Hunt, Gordon Jones (Fine Arts, 1939).
9:10 Film short subjects.
HOLLYWOOD, Nov. 11. –Coast video producers feel that two-hour segs devoted to specific types of programs are best bet for television at the present time, inasmuch as they will help get different groups of set owners sufficiently keyed up to stay on the beam during the various productions.
Such a pattern has been followed for some time over at Paramount. Klaus Landsberg has built his weekly telecasts into two distinct patterns, believing in this way that he can appeal to the greater mass of set owners. The Wednesday night seg is strictly variety and he will stop at no lengths to present what he terms novel entertainment. Usually opening with boxing or wrestling. The seg then goes toward any type of act that makes for good reproduction on the screen.
On Friday nights he devotes the seg to travelogs, current events and drama. This is the night when the serial, Embarrassing Moments, is aired each week. Landsberg pointed out that using the two nights for separate program types makes for a well-rounded week as far as viewer is concerned.
However, he feels that this set-up will not be so hot when television goes commercial, as the public then will demand their video patterned more after radio. As an example, he feels that the set owners, no matter how intellectual, will tire of the heavy stuff in straight doses unless it is offset by contrasting types of shows. He feels that no one will sit glued to a screen for longer than an hour for any one type of show. It is then up to the video producer to give the public a hypo in a good comedy or novelty show. (Billboard, Nov. 18)
Sunday, November 12
WABD Channel 4
8:15 p.m. Programs.
Monday, November 13
WNBT Channel 1
8:00 p.m. Film: “The War as It Happens.”
8:12 Film: “Frosty Frolics” (Lenauer International, 1938)
8:22 Feature Film: “Saloon Bar” with Elizabeth Allen and Cyril Raymond (Ealing, 1943).
9:20 Televues: “Slavinka, Part II.”
9:40 Boxing from St. Nicholas Arena, Billy Arnold vs. Bob Wade (welterweight, eight rounds).
“Disney’s will fight,” the studio declared Saturday in its first comment on the decision of a local WLB panel that the SCG’s demand for a share in reissue and television income is “a proper subject of collective bargaining.”
The SCG, as part of a proposed contract which is now a dispute case before the board, had asked for a 20 percent slice of gross income, the reissue money to go to members in uniform and the television cut to go in a union unemployment fund. (Hollywood Reporter, Nov. 13)
Tuesday, November 14
WABD Channel 4
8:15 WOR Variety Show.
Balaban & Katz
Reviewed Tuesday (14), 7:30 to 8:30 p.m. Style—News, variety. Sustaining on WBKB, Chicago.
WBKB never travels the middle path. Never are the programs it presents mediocre. Either they're good or they're bad, and when they're bad they're very bad. Last week's election show at the station was good. Tonight the program couldn't have been worse.
Out of a full hour of video programing only about 10 minutes was acceptable as television. That 10 minutes was the portion of the program devoted to a Joe Wilson newscast. Wilson did a good job of summarizing the news: the station's staff co-operated by presenting him with scenes that were well lighted end well composed. Wilson proved he knew the value of maps in a video new cast by using them extensively thruout his offering. He was never without a map of the news fronts at his elbows.
But the rest of the program can be passed as just experience for the camera gals and technicians.
Even Bill Vance, who ordinarily does some top-notch work with his X Marks the Spot murder tales, was not up to his usual standards. His account of a gruesome New York murder was much too long, too labored and showers a lack of preparation. Even his attempt to use a chalk talk to illustrate locale of the crime was not enough to rescue his lookers from boredom.
In the spirit of poor video was the singing and childish antics of the Murtah Sisters. These three girls, who are currently appearing at the Latin Quarter here, are all right for night clubs but they definitely are not tele material. At least, they certainly are not video material for the art with all its present inherent technical limitations. They did one number, for example, an Hawaiian war chant, that had them cavorting around the studio and had at least one of the trio out of the picture most of the time. Video today requires acts that can be presented with close-up that appear effective on the small receiver screen. The extrovert actions of such an act requires long-distance shots most of the time and, consequently, the figures pictured are too small and thus without impact on the video screen.
To round out the evening the program staff presented a bit that might have been good video five years ago, but certainly was not up to the standards of the art set here and in New York in the year 1944 A.D. This constituted two boxing bouts in which the battlers were kids from the Libertyville (Ill.) Boys' Club. The camera angles were bad; often there were long shots that should have been close-ups to show the fighting at its best. Even the mikes were placed wrong, so that the between-rounds instructions could be heard from one corner and not from the other. The silly idea of having boy spectators hold the ropes that should have been set up in the manner of a professional boxing ring did not add anything to the show either. Neither did the self-conscious attitude of the spectators who were so aware of camera that at times they had to be cued to look into the lens and talk it up during end in between rounds. One man, the trainer of the club, who had no radio or television presence whatsoever, often could be heard giving the kids stage instructions. We don't blame this on him, however. We blame the station's staff who didn't coach the participants sufficiently before the show. Whenever we see a dismal failure such as tonight's offering at WBKB we can't help wondering when the station's staff will realize it has on its hands a medium with some of the greatest potentialities in the history of man's communication with his fellow man. Cy Wagner. (Billboard, Nov. 25)
WASHINGTON, Nov. 14 (AP)—Scripps-Howard Radio, Inc., asked the Federal Communications Commission today for authority to build a new television station in Washington and a new FM station in Cincinnati. Scripps-Howard now operates Standard Station WCPO in Cincinnati.
Washington, Nov. 14.—It’s now reported in authoritative quarters that the FCC recommendations on the allocation of television frequencies won’t be released until after the first of the year. Previously it was anticipated that the FCC decision would be known on or shortly after Nov. 15. (Variety, Nov. 15)
Hollywood, Nov. 14.—Screen Cartoonists Guild won a partial victory in its fight for 20% of the boxoffice receipts from re-issues and television, when a 10th Regional Panel declared the demand a "proper subject of collective bargaining," and recommended to the National War Labor Board that the Guild and the Walt Disney Studio be ordered to negotiate. Outcome of the case may have a far-reaching effect on the film industry. Studio Cameramen are watching the proceedings closely and may make similar demands. Both parties have 10 days in which to file protests, after which the recommendation goes to the National Board in Washington. In case the negotiating parties fail to reach an agreement within a reasonable length of time the Board itself will make a decision. (Variety, Nov. 15)
Wednesday, November 15
WABD Channel 4
8:15 p.m. Film: “Torchy Turns Turtle” (Educational, 1933).
8:30 “Magic Carpet.”
9:00 Treasury Show
9:30 to 10:00 Play: “Write Me a Love Scene” with Tom Rutherford, Tom Grace, Louisa Horton.
Thursday, November 16WCBW Channel 2
8:00 p.m. News with Everett Holles.
8:15 “Women’s Wartime Roles” with F.W. McBryde, Col. Hobart Tood and others.
9:00 Films: “Wounded in Action” narrated by Lorne Greene (NFB of Canada, 1944); “Suggestion Box” (OWI, 1943)
9:30 “The Missus Goes A-Shopping.”
"DIRECTIVE NO. 23"
With Beth Blackwell, Ruth Unsell, Jacqueline Flynn, Stewart Hoover, Jean Jennings, Cliff Raynor, Natalie Reid, Fred Bechner, Helen Reicher, Dr. F. W. McBryde, Lt. Col. Hobart Todd, John Thomas, Others
Producer: Gilbert Seldes
Director: Worthington Miner
Writer: Fred Rickey
45 Mins.; Thurs., 8:15 p.m.
WCBW-CBS, N. Y.
This stanza comprises dramatizations of women's wartime roles based on stories in Mademoiselle mag. As such, the format is a good one, but there were many flaws in the presentation, both in the technical and talent end.
Introductory remarks by Beth Blackwell, editor of the mag, and her subsequent spieling and interviewing of guest, Dr. F. W. McBryde, were marked repeatedly by hesitations and a nervousness that spoiled much of the entertainment and effectiveness of the entire program, considering that she cued the whole show.
Initial drama presented several girls, preparing for a party in their apartment on Thanksgiving Day, illustrating the groceries they had cooked up for the festivities, and the dresses they were wearing—pretty despite wartime restrictions, etc. Stanza then segued into a tete-a-tete between Mrs. Blackwell and Dr. McBryde, who pointed out the importance of maps and cartography to the armed forces. Followed an enactment of how two soldiers are saved by a correct map in the war zone.
After two brief talks by a WAVE cartographer and a gal civilian mapmaker describing the intricacies and interesting sidelights of this occupation, program speeded up when several cartoons in the current issue of Mademoiselle were enacted by a pair of adagio terpers. A monolog by a young Czech girl telling how part of her family escaped from a European concentration camp, their flight to America, and the hopes they have of returning to their native land, continued the show enjoyably.
Followed then a drama, which took place in a hospital room, wherein a wife met her husband, back from the wars minus a leg, to demonstrate the proper psychological approach in such moments, of stress. Lt. Col. Hobart Todd, C. O. of the Pawling, N. Y., Air Force Rehabilitation Center, pointed up the importance of the proper attitude by civilians toward these irreparably wounded servicemen.
Sets were surprisingly good, entire production having the earmarks of receiving top-budget treatment from beginning to end. Acting, on the whole, was excellent, especially the enactment of the wife meeting her wounded husband. Scripting, too, added to the enjoyment. Sten. (Variety, Nov. 22)
CBS
Reviewed Thursday (16), 8-10:7 p.m. [sic] Style—Variety. Sustaining on WCBW, New York.
CBS's most elaborate venture, Directive No. 23, produced in co-operation with Mademoiselle mag, came a-cropper Thursday night, not because it wasn't rehearsed, not because a great deal of energy didn't go into it, and not because the material was poor. It flopped because amateur actors have no place in tele and because it bit off snore than it could digest.
What Directive No. 23 tried to do was to visualize an entire issue of Mademoiselle mag, devoted to the woman's place in the war. Such unrelated topics as map-making, Yugoslav refugees, how to act with a wounded serviceman and an apache dance were all lumped together in a furious hodgepodge that left confused viewers gasping. Director-Producer Tony Minor is to be congratulated for having the guts to try it, but video has reached a point where audiences have stopped saying "nice try, old man." They want to see a finished product.
The method used to integrate the unconnected lumps and pieces was narration and interview by Betsey Blackwell, editor of Mademoiselle. Mrs. Blackwell, if we may be so ungallant, should stick to her editor's chair. Her time was very bad, she constantly referred to a script (and even got that all fouled up) and mugged on any and all occasions. The idea of using narration was bad enough, but in Mrs. Blackwell's hands it was disastrous.
There were several well-done sequences. The scene showing a fox hole, for instance, was astoungingly [sic] realistic for tele. Two soldiers, in a sequence supposed to show the importance of maps, did a tense dramatic skit in a well built ruined house set. Lighting here was particularly good, with a fine nighttime effect put over by illuminating the scene with a single spot from stage right. Sound effects, acting and writing all rate an A on the report card.
An apache dance in a French cafe (see how complicated an issue of Mademoiselle can become !) was another cute one. In this seg live dancers alternated with cartoons of various poses in the dance. Act work dissolved in and out as the dancers froze. Perhaps it was just because the cartoons were funny as hell, but the scene sure tickled the audiences. A party sequence (used to show how to entertain servicemen and to parade Mademoiselle's fashions, we guess) was also a neat piece of production and direction.
But the majority of the ideas didn't hit home the way the above did. For instance, an Ensign Cox, of the WAVES, told how she makes maps and stressed the importance of geography in a long-winded sequence that was anything but visual. A girl from one of the war agencies also told how she makes maps.
A gal playing the part of a Yugoslav refugee told what democracy meant to her. An army psychiatrist, told how to treat wounded servicemen (he, by the way, simply came into the picture without a word about who and what he was). All these things were long, drawn out and tiresome.
Lengthy talks are the best audience chasers in video, and it's not wise to use them. If they are necessary they should be limited to one minute or less. Camera work and direction was generally good, but several times cues came slowly. In one spot the switch from camera 1 and 2 was slow and the audience saw an out-of-focus, wild pan that was sup- posed to be off the air.
There are two over-all suggestions we would like to make. The best way to pull off a show like Directive would be to pick out the one best story, visualize it and put into it all the energy that was spread out into lord knows how many attempts. And the second suggestion that comes to mind is to make certain that all performers are pro. The amateurs should go back to the Scarsdale Playhouse.
The Missus Goes A-Shopping was on hand again and about se good as it usually is, which is okay. Paul Mowrey, who usually assists John Reed King, is no longer on the show, and Jimmy Brown, who gags with King on the radio edition of the Missus, did the chores. Director Frances Buss should be more careful and make sure that there are no prop men running in front of the camera.
There is very little that can be added to what has already been said about Ev Holles' news show. It is still the best news program on the AM or video air. Marty Schrader. (Billboard, Nov. 25)
Friday, November 17
WNBT Channel 1
8:30 p.m. “Cavalcade of Sports,” boxing from Madison Square Garden. Bobby Ruffin vs. Johnny Greco (welterweight), Tony Janiro vs. Al Guido (lightweight).
WCBW Channel 2
8:00 p.m. News with Everett Holles.
8:15 “At Home,” variety show.
8:45 Film: “Partners in Production” (NFB of Canada, 1944)
9:15 “Opinions on Trial.”
9:45 to 10:00 Vera Massey, songs.
Saturday, November 18
WNBT Channel 1
1:10 to 5:30 p.m. Football: Army vs. Notre Dame at Yankee Stadium.
8:00 Film: “Long Shot” with Marsha Hunt, Gordon Jones.
9:10 Film short subjects.
NEW YORK, Nov. 18—Ruthrauff & Ryan Agency is planning a tele version of the daytime stripper, Aunt Jenny's Real Life Stories, a Thanksgiving show and an anniversary party to celebrate the first year of commercial shows for Lever Bros. over WABD, DuMont station here, November 22. Program will be the 53d to be presented for Lever. (Billboard, Nov. 25)
NEW YORK, Nov. 18.—Lever Bros., after about a year of experimentation on the DuMont station here, WCBW, is ready to expand its tele activities with a show on WBKB, the Balaban & Katz station in Chicago.
It is understood that Ruthrauff & Ryan, Lever's video agency, has been dickering with B&K for several weeks and contracts are about ready.
The soaper's show will proem after the first of the year with the same general format that has been used at Du Mont. (Billboard, Nov. 25)
Sunday, November 19
WABD Channel 4
8:15 p.m. “Parisian Memories.”
8:30 “Treasury Series No. 4.”
9:00 “Fashion Cavalcade.”
9:30 Play: “Love is Like That.”
Monday, November 20
WNBT Channel 1
8:00 p.m. Film: “The War as It Happens.”
8:12 Film: “Busy Spots in Florida” with narrator Norman Brokenshire (Hoffberg, 1937)
8:22 Feature Film: “Cipher Bureau” with Charlotte Wynters and Leon Ames (Grand National, 1938).
9:20 Televues: “Accordion Serenade.”
9:40 Boxing from St. Nicholas Arena, Phil Terranova vs. Harry Jeffra (ten rounds), Gunnar Larson vs. Pete Martin (six rounds).
Comics Robert Sweeney and Hal March, who will soon launch a TC show five days a week, will preview their talents for the Thomas S. Lee television station W6XAO on Monday. One the film side of the program, Marjorie Campbell, film director, offers five varies shorts. Test pattern gets underway at 7:30 p.m. (Hollywood Reporter, Nov. 16)
Tuesday, November 21
WNBT Channel 1
8:30 p.m. Wrestling from St. Nicholas Arena.
WABD Channel 4
8:15 p.m. “Melody Puzzles.”
8:45 “WOR Presents.”
9:15 “Success School.”
DuMont
Reviewed Tuesday (21), 8:15-10 p.m. Style—Beauty show, variety, film. Sustaining on WABD, New York.
Kenyon & Eckhardt's show for the DuBarry Success School was a splendid illustration of what a little rehearsal and a little timing will do for video. It was as well, one tip to the future of daytime programing. Strictly for the late afternon [sic] hausfrau trade and keyed to appeal to the most vunerable of all facets in a woman's personality, her vanity, the Success School show was actually nothing more than a 30-minute commercial.
Handled well and hung on a fairish format hook, a 30-minute commercial can tell. General theme here was along the "behind the scenes" lines, with a model of the DuBarry building cut away for use as a jump-off point. Cut-out figures of students dissolved into an instructress doing the exercises with a commentary by a Miss Delafield, head of the school. A before-pic of one graduate, weighing about four tons more than a horse, was scanned and then dissolved into the real gal, after she had had the flesh sweated off. Final sequence used a pair of identical twins, one looking like the wrath of God and the other worthy of a critic's long low whistle, to demonstrate how to camouflage the female face divine. In-between scannings of the commentator and a tight script all contributed to a smooth job.
Papa and little Murgatroyd won't go for this program, but they won't be around when Mama tunes it in—about 4:30. One of the initial shots, a pan from Miss Delafield to the model of the school, was a fluff on the director's part. Panning down and across the set on the present DuMont equipment is not the wisest thing in the world and the out-of-focus shot that came thru in this case was proof. On the other hand, a straight pan, this time up from a jar of cold cream to a gal's face, was neatly done with no fuzziness at all in the screen.
Bob Emery's WOR Video Varieties was about the usual—which means that the reviewer has to try hard to find a kind word. Feature of Emery's little frustration was one Josie Clark, who sings along with records. Miss Clark sports a low cut gown and little else. The most important thing in a disk act is to make the gestures mean something. To Miss Clark a gesture is good, even if it is made only to show people that she is alive. A number of her mannerisms, particularly implied bumps and grinds, arc vulgar and won't sit well with home audiences. Video is neither Leon and Eddie's nor Union City burlesque. Second gimmick was a lesson on how to carve a turkey provided you can get a turkey. A chef from the Brass Rail did a neat surgical job on a luscious looking bird, but the value of the sequence was lost thru lengthy commentary by an off-screen voice. The actual operation took much too long and inane chatter about whether the Brass Rail's customers prefer light or dark meat should have been inked out. What was important was the process of carving, a turkey, but it was touched upon only lightly. Off the scene commentaries are bad use of a visual medium and Emery should forget them.
Ray Nelson, for the Storm agency, put on a film show that was neither very good nor very bad. In this day of little tele opposish, viewers might stay tuned in. Director tried a slightly new, but hardly inspired gimmick in this pix seg. Idea was a musical sing game with viewers asked to guess the names of 12 songs in a film after a list of 25 had been given them. Winners will be given tix to School for Brides, which should serve them right. One of Harry Conover's little girls, a Betty Bugbee, did the commentary. Altho pretty, Miss Bugbee sounded like a tired Minnie Mouse on the air, which leads some to suspect that Nelson's affinity for Conover gals is nothing more than meets the eye. Marty Schrader. (Billboard, Dec. 2)
Don Lee
Reviewed Monday (21) 8:30-9 p.m. Style—Variety and flim [sic]. Sustaining over W6XAO, Los Angeles.
Semi-monthly offering at Don Lee station was a comedy bit written by Hal March and Bob Sweeney. It was from a radio show which they have been trying to peddle. Television treatment of the program idea was adequate but dialog, as has been the case in so many offerings here, was top heavy. Performance of cast, made up of Hal March, Bob Sweeney, Ned Chandler, Jan Korand, Lillian Buyaff and Bruce Buell, was good and indicated that the performers were not afraid of the camera.
Main fault with the air pic was the lighting and inability of the camera to follow action quickly enough, undoubtedly duo to the lack of view finders.
In opening shot, Bob Sweeney, in close-up, sat in an easy chair wearing a smoking jacket and surrounded by the usual fireside accoutrements. He began in leisurely fashion to tell of certain people that are encountered in everyday life, pointing out the comedy mix-ups which might result. First illustration was the theater pest.
Camera panned to foursome in movie theater seats—two gals and two guys. Narration was handled by Sweeney. Hal March, the pest, taking his cues from chatter, cracked peanut shells, talked about the picture and generally made himself a nuisance. Quartet was made up of smooth performers and showed up to advantage.
However, couple in the two rear seats were in shadow, due to inadequate lighting. Also, it would have been better if their pews had been put on blocks so as to get them above the couple in front. As it was, they were out of view much of the time.
Then Sweeney and March went thru the same routine with Announcer Bruce Buell. There was another bit about a sidewalk ticket hustler who peddles a pair of ducats to Oklahoma. Show, put together by Jack Stewart, was good for laughs but technical weakness at many points marred the presentation. Sets by Ted Driscoll were a contributing factor. Series of army films made up the rest of the program but they came over very dark. Dean Owen. (Billboard, Dec. 2)
Wednesday, November 22
WABD Channel 4
8:15 p.m. Film: “Torchy Turns Turtle.”
8:30 Varieties.
9:00 Program.
9:30 To be announced.
Balaban & Katz
Reviewed Wednesday (22), 7:30 to 8:30 p.m. Style—News, variety, drama. Sustaining on WBKB, Chicago.
A nice try but a rather dismal failure just about sums up the principal part of tonight's video show at WBKB. The entree of the program was an original drama, Now and Then, written by Gladys Dalstrom of the WBKB staff. Miss Dalstrom deserves credit for making at least an attempt. However, its plot, which concerned the efforts of a small-town schoolteacher to sell her plan for winning the war to the War Department was disconnected, its humor forced, and in general the entire writing was amateur.
Altho Miss Dalstrom missed on the writing, she didn't do badly on direction. She used change of scene fade-ins well, and she used pictorial dramatic tricks such as having a camera trained on a photograph when it became the topic of conversation. Her actresses, Lorraine Larson, Fran Harris, Jean Mitnetz and Loretta Pagels did the best they could with the material they were given. Fran Harris, in the role of the schoolteacher, did okay with her facial and vocal characterization of a typical old-maid school marm from a small town. The drama used only two scenes. It needed no more for its plot development. It would have been top-notch entertainment if it had been given the professional touch of an experienced writer. It proved once again, we believe, the theory held in some television circles that video drama need not be expensive, need not have elaborate, costly scenes, nor large casts. It proved that television can meet an advertiser's budget if a new school of writers, expert in the demands of the art, is developed in the skill of using simplicity of action, smallness of cast and complexity of psychological emotional and mental conflict or harmony to tell their tales.
Also on the program was Lee Phillips with another one of his magical mystery bits, using the assistance of Glenn Morgan. This team is becoming better each week because its members are getting more familiar with each other’s camera personalities, and thus Phillips's tricks are going off with more smoothness.
Newscaster tonight was Bob Chase of WJJD. This was Bob's first television news program and he did very well. Altho he is as yet not experienced enough in video to use a chalk talk or to comment on the news without reading most of the time, he has by instinct fulfilled the requirements of facial expression and intimacy of voice and body mannerisms. He smiled just enough. He punched each line with just enough facial expression. His entire performance instilled in his audience a feeling of confidence that he was giving it to them straight. Chase should go a long way in television if he follows thru and takes pains to become an extemporaneous commentator.Cy Wagner. (Billboard, Dec. 2)
WASHINGTON, Nov. 22 (AP)—The Yankee Network, Inc., operator of radio station WEAN, Providence, R. I., applied to the Federal Communications Commission today for a license for a commercial television station at Providence on channel No. 6 (96,000-102,000 kilocycles).
Thursday, November 23
WCBW Channel 2
8:00 p.m. News.
8:15 “Amanda and the Boys,” musical variety.
9:00 Films.
9:30 “The Missus Goes A-Shopping.”
Friday, November 24
WNBT Channel 1
8:30 p.m. “Cavalcade of Sports,” boxing from St. Nicholas Arena, Jimmy Doyle vs. Pete De Ruzza (ten rounds).
WCBW Channel 2
8:00 p.m. News.
8:15 “Folksay,” modern dance ballet.
8:45 Music boxes, exhibit of curios.
9:00 Films.
9:30 Maj. Gen. Fielding Eliot.
9:45 Vera Massey, songs.
CBS
Reviewed Friday (24), 8-10 p.m. Style—Variety and film. Sustaining on WCBW, New York.
Tele cut its eyeteeth tonight on a half hour of splendid entertainment called Folksay. Critics who thought the infant too delicate to survive will cease their head-shaking and plan to deal with a lusty adolescent.
Leo Hurwitz produced and directed Folksay, a modern dance ballet featuring Sophie Maslow and her group, including Jane Dudley, Pearl Pelmus and William Bales and the new dance group. Singing-guitarist Woody Guthrie and Tony Kraber spoke and sang excerpts from Carl Sandburg's The People, Yes, on which Folksay was based.
From its effective opening, with Guthrie strumming his guitar to accompany his singing-talk, to the closing, with camera regretfully drawing away from rolling countryside, the seg was a gem of first-rate tele. Guthrie’s drawl, as natural and friendly as sunshine, became a song as it told of the American way of life. As he mentioned people, camera panned slowly to form a blend of faces, fine, strong faces. When it reached the singer there was no feeling that the camera was leaping from pix to life. The photos were so perfectly lighted that it was difficult at first to believe they were static.
When Guthrie, still strumming and singing softly, stood up, turned his back to the camera and walked toward the realistic backdrop of hills, valleys and fields, the effect was surprisingly good. It established the locale and lent an atmosphere of reality to the entire production.
The Modern Dancers' movements were co-ordinated perfectly with the music of Guthrie and Kraber, who teamed up as the Dancers came on. In two numbers the Dancers performed without accompaniment. Their artistry held the audience in such rapt attention that it was some time before many realized they were hearing nothing.
These soundless fogs prove eloquently that it isn't necessary to use a blaring band to hold tele audiences. Give them entertainment of this caliber and they will watch it.
Every dancer turned in a letter-perfect performance. Choregraphy [sic] was magnificent, blending perfectly with the spirit of the Sandburg verse. Over-all production was by far the best this reviewer has ever seen on a tele screen. Lighting and camera work was on an especially high order. The complete absence of shadow, the clarity of every pic, the camera's agility in catching every movement and holding and then relinquishing the action in spilt-second rightness added up to terrific tele.
Balance of the two-hour show limped in comparison. Even Music Boxes, exhibit of musical curios spanning a century and a half, with good direction by Ben Feiner, failed to satisfy. Lights and cameras were only mildly kind to Mr. and Mrs. George Richard Brown who lovingly described and demonstrated the antique music boxes.
The Browns, to period dress, plus the tinkling gadgets of intricate design, many with numerous movable parts, were a natural for audio-video entertainment. More rehearsal and a better technical job would have made it really good tele.
Dwight Cook may substitute for Everett Holles, but he can't take his place. He lacks poise and personality. His material for news analysis may be adequate, but he hasn't acquired the elusive tele mentality.
Maj. George Fielding Eliot in talk, Strategy of the Month, used animated maps and a script. He should wipe the frown off and duck the written word. His commentary was authoritative and well delivered. An outline map of the Pacific could have been improved. Eliot used it to illustrate a point, but the complete absence of identification would be confusing to any but a geography student. Long shots of this map should be obviously eliminated.
Will You Remember?, with Vera Massey mooning thru a quarter hour of remote-control romancing with her overseas husband, stills fails to register, as it did in its first telecast. Seg suffered because of several unflattering shots of the girl. Lolling on a couch with head back and arms at desk are not the best positions for voice exploitation. These and other contortions attempted to create a feeling of intimacy and informality. They succeeded in making the singer appear spineless. She relaxes while the audience sleeps. Wanda Marvin. (Billboard, Dec. 2)
Saturday, November 25
WNBT Channel 1
8:00 p.m. Feature Film: “The Demon Barber of Fleet Street” with Todd Slaughter, Eve Lister (British-Select, 1936).
As a result of a picture layout in the Sunday News of October 15, portraying the music box collection of the George Richard Browns of Chatham, N. J., the CBS television station will telecast the rare assembly of antique instruments on Nov. 30. (Ben Gross, Daily News, Nov. 17)
Continued drift of film companies toward television was marked Sat. (25) when Loew's, Inc. filed for tele stations in N. Y., Washington and Los Angeles. Metro thereby follows television activities previously undertaken by Paramount, with its interest in DuMont and Scophony with Fox also interested in latter, and RKO with its own television subsidy.
N. Y. and Washington applications were filed by Marcus Loew Booking Agency, Loew subsidiary which is also the licensee of WHN, N. Y., and WHNF, WHNs FM outlet. Loew's has also filed, previously, an FM application for Chicago, but no television request is currently contemplated there. Coast tele application was made by Metro.
Metro, at present, has no television production setup, and plans none tor some time. Herb Pettey, head of WHN, tops the Loew tele picture from the station standpoint.
Other applications have been filed with the FCC by the New England Yankee Network for a commercial television outlet at Providence and the Times Publishing Co., Erie, Pa., for permission to erect a 250-watt standard AM station there. (Variety, Nov. 29)
WASHINGTON, Nov. 25 (AP)—Applications for new radio [sic] stations in Massachusetts and New York were filed with the Federal Communications Commission yesterday.
Raytheon Manufacturing Company, Waltham, Mass., commercial television station at Waltham on Channel No. 1 (50,000-56,000 kilocycles).
Sunday, November 26
WABD Channel 4
8:15 p.m. “Parisian Memories.”
8:30 “Stories and Songs”
9:00 “Looking Through Store Window.”
9:30 “Wifesaver” with Allen Prescott
DuMont
Reviewed Sunday (Nov. 26), 8:15-10:30 p.m. Style—Musical, department store point-of-sale experiment, pic and audience participation. Sustaining over WABD, New York.
Check the credit side of this evening of air pix from DuMont with healthy experimentation, some good Gilbert and Sullivan, and a perfect example of what won't sell via video in a department store. The demerits weren't on the side of the equipment this night (even tho a camera in Studio A did conk out) but for bad taste.
Sked opened, as it does so often on Sunday nights with Parisienne Memories. Sydell Robbins, the memory, was leaning against a shelf with a bottle of booze on it for atmosphere—she was, dear me, in a Paris night club. She moved from the club to a street on the boulevard singing a song here and there and narrating a little thing now and again about the French capital. At one point, as has been done several times before, a moom pic was cued in. This time the pic came in at the right moment and really meant something, for it flowed along with the talk that Sydell was spinning. It's tough to cue in film without a film monitor for the director, but Eleanor Balz did it. Give her a nice nod for a job well done and then let's all give her the works for the tops in bad taste that has yet to hit the air. Eleanor presented to the video viewers the first strip tease televised—and the last—it's hoped. While Miss Robbins sang Alouette, she shed her blouse, which wasn't made for stripping by the way, and gave her plenty of worries as to the possibilities of her tiny black bra coming off with the blouse. Then she stepped out of her skirt and appeared before the cameras in the black bra and tiny black pants. Tele cameras have a way of making shorts appear scanty, and it doesn't take a strip to give the appearance of nakedness. Strips have no place on the air, except after midnight, and even then they're a swell way to chase an audience away, unless it's stag. They say the boys in the back rooms in some of the bars really got a kick out of the strip, but it's questionable how much an advertiser is going to sell in the back rooms.
Following the Balz-Robbins strip in Paris scanning, the new school of social research did another "experimental" presentation. Of course, the experimental is just an excuse to get students by on a regular air-pic show. The skedding of this session, it was a piano-sitting, young pretty entertaining a group of servicemen with songs, was just a waste of scanning. The servicemen should have been in the studio where the strip was going on—they'd have had a better time. This gang ought to really experiment or get pushed right off the DuMont airwaves.
Third slot was the Television Workshop's presentation of an intra-store, or "jeep" pitch. The job was done for Gimbel Bros., of Philly, and had everything necessary to sell the man's suit that was being tele-screen advertised and did next to nothing with any of it. Not once were the buyer-prospects given a close-up of the suit. Members of the "cast" were so interested in getting onto the screen that they forgot that they were not selling themselves but the suit. Even when the buyer was talking about the details of the fabric, etc., and the fitter explaining the fine tailoring no set owner had the slightest idea of what was meant. The same fault was noticeable when the camera shifted to the different slides which were supposed to show the testing that a suit undergoes before Gimbel's puts it up for sale. The slides were so badly lit that no details came thru, and besides, as all the tests were action tests, and naturally slides are static, none of the testing came thru the mike into the home—nor would it have come thru on a Jeep set in a department store. A few hours' tour of the testing laboratory with a 16mm. camera would have paid off handsomely.
Somehow or other the entire proceedings had an atmosphere of "I can get it for you wholesale." There's no doubt but that intra-department store television will sell merchandise, but half–baked presentations by a television workshop, rather than by a trained advertising merchandising mind, won't do the job. It's a new brand of selling—this video point-of-sale job—and it had better be developed on a closed circuit rather than on the air or in the store. Just as the Workshop's jeep job was bad, so was the Workshop's presentation for Gimbel's of moments from Gilbert and Sullivan okay. The voices weren't too good and the acting wasn't from the Main Stem's top drawer, but it came thru the screen with real impact. It also proved that the better the performer, the better the video job. The director and his wife, Vivien and Lewis Dennison, in their Yeoman of the Guard, were twice as good (and that's putting it mildly) as their students. But let's not begrudge them a nod. It was good.
Came a short pic to enable the WNEW's two offerings to be set up. First of the station's shows was Allen Prescott, the Wifesaver. Prescott is telegenic and if he hasn't yet solved how to turn all its nonsence [sic] into visual stuff, that's going to come. The Wifesaver opus is bound to be the stuff from which day-time video will be made. If more close-ups of the cast were used (Prescott worked on camera most of the time, and that was as it should be) and if more scenic atmosphere had been employed the stint would have almost been ready for a sponsor right now.
Second half of WNEW's show, however, wasn't too hot. It was the regular stations's So You Want To Be an Announcer," and while the final announcer test was really video, it didn't come off. Amateur stuff just doesn't come thru the iconoscope. It's going to have to have as much rehearsing as Major Bowes gives his tyros and then some. The idea was to have each announcer describe what was happening in the first pic ever made, The Great Train Robbery. The pic didn't scan too well, and what's more important, to have been funny the two men and one girl trying out for an announcer slot should have been given something straight to do. They'd have been twice as amusing fumbling a good prize light or something like that.
Ted Cott was okay as an emsee, even tho some of his wheezes were as old as the pic they used. Camera, lighting and boom work on the Wifesaver opus was okay. Credit Jack program for this. Joan Dilon, who does WNEW's Red Robins Playhouse, wasn't as easy as the announcers' seg, which after all wasn't easy in itself.
One idea was 100 per cent. That was the use of a giant WNEW mike cutout, from which the station announcer, Bill Williams, stepped to introduce the announcer show. It'll more than likely be used by every video station in the country when that post-war 18 by 24-inch screen makes everyone want one.
Dotty Wootin, station identifier, was, as per usual, okay. She did a little experimenting, too, and proved that a good-looking girl announcing, at the present time, should work with the camera catching about one third of her, i. e., close in. It makes the looker feel that she is talking to him personally. Joe Koehler. (Billboard, Dec. 9)
"LOOKING THROUGH GIMBLE’S WINDOW"
With Dick Bradley, Tom Grace, Mike Mutiles, Al Cook, Charles Simon, Betty Templeton, Charles Kingsley, Vivian Dennison, Lewis Deunison, Nathalie Lauds
Producer: Television Workshop
Director: Irwin Shane
Writer: Marjorie Slotin
30 Mins.; Sun., 9 p.m.
GIMBEL BROS.
WABD, N. Y.
Advance on this show, with its sponsorship of the Philly Gimbel Bros. store, promised a great deal in this tele experiment, undertaken with an eye to intra-department store activities in the future. What appeared on the hot end of the cathode ray tube, however, was an unadulterated mess. Things like this will never advance the art of televisor.
Obviously the program, as tipped by its title, offered plenty of production possibilities, if even done on a small scale. But lacking any imagination, lacking any use of sight as an enhancement of the audible, and lacking any appreciation of the fact that television must entertain, as a basic premise, the program was a bore.
Affair was in two halves. First dealt with the values of a Botany "500 suit," retailed in Philly by the store. It went like this: An actor (Dick Bradley) meets another actor (Tom Grace), Bradley has new suit. It is a Botany suit. He bought it at Gimbels. Would Tom like to know why it's worth the money? Leave us "go visit Gimbels. Al Cook, Gimbel's buyer, tells Grace why it is a good suit. Mike Mutiles, Gimbel tailor, tells him why it is a good suit. Charles Simon, chemist, tells him why it is a good suit. For 15 minutes people told people why they're good suits, in other words, a 15-minute sales plug. Only variety given this stanza was occasional use of stills, illustrating various processes, and which, when reduced by the tele screen, were as graphic as a picket fence.
Second half presented singers of the Savoy Opera Guild in okay Gilbert and Sullivan, excerpts. Merr. (Variety, Nov. 29)
“THE WIFESAVER”
With Allen Prescott, Morton DaCosta, Dorothy Eaton
Producer and Director: Jack Grogan
Writers: Connie Green and Gene Horley
15 Mins.; Sun., 9:45 p.m.
WABD, N. Y.
Allen Prescott's "Wifesaver" interludes, now on WNEW, N. Y., and formerly on NBC, are worthwhile radio fare and, as converted into a television stanza, impress as though the transition, when feasible, will be made easily. Program lends itself naturally to adaptation for sight.
Stint caught used Dorothy Eaton and Morton DaCosta, as man and wife, to act out in pantomime, problems which beset an average couple struggling to keep the joint from looking like a shambles. Their actions were cued to Prescott's flip line of chatter, which was good for laughs on its own.
Actually, program fell down on its basic aim since the emphasis was on humor and not on wifesaving, result being a paucity of helpful tips. When the ratio is reversed, it'll be a novel and saleable tele spot. Merr. (Variety, Nov. 29)
WNBT Channel 1
8:00 p.m. Film: “The War as It Happens.”
8:12 Film: “Target—Japan.”
8:22 Film: “As the Twig in Bent.”
8:35 Feature Film: “Exile Express” with Anna Sten, Alan Marshall and Byron Foulger (Grand National, 1939).
9:45 Televues: “Concert at the Front.”
A television program to be broadcast tonight from the RCA Building in New York City over a multiple station network will bring to the Aetna Life Affiliated Companies of Hartford, the distinction of being the first insurance organization in this country to sponsor a television broadcast, it was announced Sunday by Stanley F. Withe, manager of the company’s advertising and publicity department.
Mr. Withe said that NBC officials estimate an audience of 30,000 persons is expected for the program which is to be telecast of Station WPTZ, Philadelphia, and Station WRGB, Schenectady, as well as in New York City.
The program will include a number of scenes enacted in Hartford, some of them in Aetna’s home office buildings and others in various locations in the city. The scenes were filmed by Aetna’s Motion Picture Bureau and the film especially prepared for television was taken to New York where it will be projected before the television cameras in the NBC Television Studios. The commercials to be used in the broadcast will constitute the first visual advertisement ever to be flashed through the ether, according to Mr. Withe.
The network is made possible by a wireless relay system which will beam the program from NBC’s transmitter on the Empire State Building to a high point north of New Yok for relay to Schenectady and southwest to Mount Rose, near Princeton, N. J. for relay to Philadelphia. (Hartford Courant, Nov. 27)
Tuesday, November 28
WNBT Channel 1
8:30 p.m. Wrestling from St. Nicholas Arena.
WABD Channel 4
8:15 p.m. “Thrills and Chills” with Doug Allan and Charles B. Elliott.
8:45 “WOR Presents.”
Washington, Nov. 28—Crosley Corp. of Cincinnati today filed an application with the FCC for a commercial television station in that city. (Variety, Nov. 29)
Wednesday, November 29
WABD Channel 4
8:15 p.m. Film: “The Big Squeal” with Andy Clyde (Educational, 1933).
8:30 “The Magic Carpet.”
9:00 “Wednesday at Nine.”
9:45 “So You Want To Be a Radio Announcer” with WNEW's Ted Cott.
Thursday, November 30
WCBW Channel 2
8:00 p.m. News, Everett Holles.
8:15 “VI for Victory War Bond Rally and Variety Show” with Paul Draper, Bea Wain, Hilda Sims, Frank Parker, others.
9:00 Films: “Silent War”; (Documentary Film Productions, 1943); “Man Wounded” (Australian, 1944)
9:30 “The Missus Goes A-Shopping.”
CBS television station, WCBW, will screen an all-star show on behalf of the Sixth War Loan drive tomorrow night (30) from 8:15 to 9 p.m.
Paul Draper, composer Richard Rodgers, Jay C. Flippen, Frank Parker, the Modernaires, Archie Bleyer and a 15-piece CBS orch, three topflight web commentators and a group of wounded servicemen from Halloran hospital, Staten Island, will appear.
Ben Feiner will produce for WCBW, with the William Morris agency setting talent. (Variety, Nov. 30)
Balaban & Katz
Reviewed Thursday (30), 8:30 to 9:45 p.m. Style—Variety, drama. Sustaining on WBKB, Chicago.
Tonight Ann Hunter did it again. She presented something new on her WBKB video show, something new for her, that is. Altho she had what was far from a perfect program, she used subject matter and a format that at least proved the great advantages of television. That, strange as it may seem, does not happen very often at WBKB.
Ann's experiment consisted of a combination interview and demonstration to tell the story of the activities of Chicago's Institute of Design. First, she interviewed institute officials, who explained that the school of design was not only teaching the rudiments and advanced techniques of design but also was conducting experiments to create new types of functional homes and useful furniture and appliances for easier living. Then, with the help of institute staff members, she presented demonstrations of articles designed at the institute. It was during the latter that she demonstrated the potentialities of television.
During one portion of this segment a hand loom was televised. It was here that the great educational possibilities of television were apparent. Even tho the cameras were focused on the loom for only a few minutes, the technique of band-weaving was made clear. It was apparent then that classes in craft and art work could be used with great effectiveness for educational purposes in war and post-war television.
At one time during the interview promotion of the program Martha King, promotional manager of The Chicago Sun, made the statement that the easiest way to sell the public the new accouterments, which will make for an easier and better living in the post-war era, was to demonstrate these new creations and inventions, When Miss Hunter demonstrated a few functional chairs designed by the institute she proved how effective television could be as a medium for creating public demand for the new products of the post-war period. It would have taken many words (and even then without great success) to create in potential customers' minds a desire strong enough to make them buy these chains. But when Miss Hunter and one of her assistants demonstrated the comfort and use fullness of the chairs their value immediately became apparent, became so apparent that some members of the audience were heard to remark that they were going to buy it the moment it hit the market.
It was a shame, however, that Miss Hunter's program did not run smoothly. Cameras did not always closely follow the demonstrations or movements of the cast. Scene of the cast seemed doubtful as to what they were to do next. All of this was no doubt due to the fact that there was only about a half hour spent in pre-show rehearsal.
The What's Cooking With the Scotts stanza on tonight's program was once again far from good video drama. Even members of the Commonwealth Edison's advertising department, who prepare the show, admitted that. Mr. and Mrs. Scott, however, got themselves out of their kitchen for a change, and, we must admit, there were not too many commercial plugs woven into the script. But the inanity of the plot, centered around Mr. Scott's bringing home a dummy that later came to life and did some prophetic talking to prove he would be an asset to the Scott home in that he would guide them in making future decisions, was hard to take, The dummy's remark, which closed this portion of the show, that he would enjoy living with the Scotts because they had an electric range, was especially hard to swallow.
For the rest of the show WBKB presented Lee Phillips and his magical mysteries and pianist, Janette. Phillips quite a few times had his hand motions outside the scope of the cameras. This made the audience suspicious and made its members wonder if he were not taking unfair advantage of them. They wondered what he was doing with his hands when they could not see them. Television magicians must remember that if they are not to build up antagonism in their audiences their hands must be in view at all times. Cy Wagner. (Billboard, Dec. 9)
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