Who was the first person to star on a TV show put on by ABC?
The answer is future game show announcer Johnny Olson, in February 1945.
Actually, it depends on how you want to look at the answer. ABC didn’t have a TV station then. It used time on other stations. And it was still known as the Blue network. But Olson’s radio show “Ladies, Be Seated” was put on television that month.
TV loved these kinds of “Look at how we’re embarrassing someone!” shows. DuMont had one, John Reed King’s “The Missus Goes a-Shopping.” NBC radio broadcast “Truth or Consequences” while CBS radio aired “People Are Funny.” Both made it to TV.
The war had stopped production of TV sets and construction of stations. In February 1945, the TV industry had a new problem. Petrillo. Cesar Petrillo was the head of the American Federation of Musicians and he was constantly fomenting labour unrest until he was eventually kicked out of his job. He was involved in three disputes this particular month but the one that affected television was he banned all union members from appearing on it. This resulted in some show cancellations and firings.
An unusual firing was one on WBKB in Chicago. The entire cast of a show was given their notice, along with the show itself. It had been put on by amateur talent. The station decided to beef up its content with paid actors, so the unpaid ones were let go and the Scott family was suddenly and inexplicably replaced with another one.
Here’s a look at TV programming—listings are for New York—in February 1945. There are reviews, too. Some shows were stinkers. One reviewer continued to hate Bob Emery on DuMont. Making a notable appearance on the tube this month in Los Angeles was Dick Lane, later the voice of wrestling and roller derby on southern California TV. And the story doesn’t say if the camera caught her, but appearing in one show’s audience was a future legend of television—Lucille Ball.
Thursday, February 1
WCBW Channel 2
8:00 News, Everett Holles.
8:15 “February in New York,” Ted Husing, Ethel Colby and Howard Bay, “Dogs and Defense” and Other Features.
8:45 Ned Calmer, Sports.
9:00 Films: “Sing Song,” “Invasion of Europe” narrated by Lorne Greene (NFB of Canada, 1943).
9:30-10:00 “The Missus Goes A-Shopping” with John Reed King.
Balaban & Katz
Reviewed Thursday (1), 7:30 to 8:30 p.m. Style—Variety. Sustaining on WBKB, Chicago.
Seldom has less professional, lean acceptable video been presented on WBKB than that portion of tonight's program devoted to the magic of Ruth Whiles, dressed to resemble Peter Pan. During one part of her routine, Miss Whiles said that her tricks were from the "Never-Never Land." She should have added, "and my show should never, never have been telecast."
Miss Whiles is one of the girls employed by the Derby Food Company to demonstrate and sell its Peter Pan Peanut Butter to school children and other juves. Miss While's magic routine and insipid dialog might be okay for the kindergarten, but it certainly has no place on a television show intended for an audience of all ages.
Even her voice was pitched at the high level used in telling fairy tales to tots. Presented with the ultra clarity of the FM transmission used in television. It was sickening. After being introduced by June Merrill, who had her on her Food for Thought program, Miss Whiles tried to tie all her tricks together with continuity based on a Peter Pan fairy tale. She made three pieces of cloth disappear and reappear as story book child characters. That's when she began to make her mistakes, mistakes about which the station's production staff should have warned her. The pieces of cloth were of a fine texture and the video camera was able to peer right thru them. This made it impossible for the audience to see the characters painted on them. She made an egg disappear in a bag that was the same color as her blouse. When she held the bag in front of her blouse, the outlines of the bag also disappeared.
At one point, she dragged in a commercial by its feet when she used some Peter Pan Peanut Butter in a cake batter that ultimately produced a live duck. It was crude and could only sell a product to children, if to anyone at all. Thruout all this was woven the fairy tale that had no point, no transition, and which served to distract from the few good tricks Miss Whiles did. If the WBKB production staff thinks it will ever sell television to the public with such a show, it too must be in "Never-Never Land."
The rest of the program was not bad. Lee Phillips showed how magic can be done in a professional manner for television. But, in spite of the fact that Phillips was competent, the station made a mistake when it presented two magic routines on the same program.
Janette's concert again proved that she is a pianist of great ability. Camera work here was good, because it included close-ups of Janette's hands as seen in a mirror. The singing of Thelma Lockner, which rounded out the program, was above average. Cy Wagner. (Billboard, Feb. 10)
Friday, February 2
WNBT Channel 1
8:15 “World in Your Home.”
8:30-11:00 Boxing at Madison Square Garden, Johnny Greco vs. Bobby Ruffin.
8:00 Everett Holles, News.
8:15 Wesson Brothers, impersonators.
8:30 Films: “V-1” and “Young Uruguay” (OWI, 1943).
9:00 “Opinions on Trial.”
9:15 Willie Hoppe, billiard exhibition.
CBS
Reviewed Friday (2),8-10 p.m. Style—Sports, variety, forum, films. Sustaining on WCBW, New York.
CBS put on 15 minutes of billiards with World's Champion Willie Hoppe Friday night, and they rank among the most pleasant 15 minutes we have spent watching CBS shows in past months. There was nothing extraordinary about the production and there was nothing extraordinary about the direction. But there is something extraordinary about Hoppe's ability to make billiard balls sit up and say papa. Ben Feiner, looking unusually dapper, played straight man Friday, and did rather well at it. Hoppe's stunts and straight shots were explained competently and the game and part of its history was outlined in the course of the show. At times, the cameramen had trouble following the balls as they caromed around, but that can be cured in the future by moving the dollies back so that the entire table is in the picture.
The Wesson Brothers, who opened at the Cotillion Room of Hotel Pierre Thursday (1) and will probably close before the cold wave breaks, did an awfully sad act that didn't crack this reviewer's face once. Several months ago, when they opened at the New York Paramount, The Billboard music reviewer handed them a solid-gold, hand-engraved egg. And in the night club department of The Billboard this week the club editor lets go with his load of razzberries. May we make it unanimous? Not only is the act strictly from hunger, but the framework CBS handed them reeked as well. General idea was to have the boys talk over what they would do if they went on video. That's an idea worthy of Bob Emery, maestro of the WOR Folly on DuMont. The Wesson' gags didn't click, their impersonations simply did not register, and the Mr. and Mrs. Roosevelt bit was in very bad taste.
Opinions on Trial, debeating the subject "Should the Anti-Closed Shop Amendment Be Included in the Proposed National Service Act?" added a stimulating and highly entertaining half hour to the evening.
Ev Holles's news show, as good as usual, and a couple of films rounded out the two hours. Marty Schrader. (Billboard, Feb. 10)
Saturday, February 3
WNBT Channel 1
8:00 Film: “Billy the Kid Outlawed” with Bob Steele (PRC, 1940).
9:00 Film: “Pictures Speak.”
NEW YORK, Feb. 3.—CBS tele, which has avoided sports shows as much as possible since it returned to the air last spring, is now on the athletic bandwagon along with NBC, but Columbia's decish, unlike NBC's, was forced upon the web. Reason for the muscle madness down at16 Vanderbilt Avenue these days is the fact that the American Federation of Musicians has ended all music shows on the station until doubling between regular broadcasting and video is ended.
WCBW had Ernie Waxman, pianist from the web's radio studios, doing all its stuff until the AFM cracked down. Union said three weeks ago that either Waxman would have to stop doubling or the net would have to hire a new guy to work in video alone. As a result, two CBS war-horses, At Home, variety seg, and Will You Remember?, song and piano show, were axed.
Last week WCBW used a fencing session this week it had billiard expert, Willie Hoppe, and next week will have a team of gymnasts from New York University. A boxing show will be scanned in the studio the following week and ping-pong, too, is on the station's agenda.
It's felt in the trade that CBS is settling down to a long fight with APM Prexy James C. Petrillo and figures that sports will tide it over the lean months. (Billboard, Feb. 10)
NEW YORK, Feb. 3.—Movie man Samuel Goldwyn is in New York this week to investigate video situation at the three stations, WNBT-NBC, WCBW-CBS and WABD-DuMont with an eye to a venture into tele in the near future, according to informed trade sources. A visit to the DuMont station is definitely skedded within the next two weeks and out of it may come the tele premiere of Goldwyn's pic, The Princess and the Pirate, which has not yet been released on the Stem.
Goldwyn, it is said, may put Princess or the DuMont air the night before it opens at the Astor Theater. Trade also says that Goldwyn is interested in either starting his own station in Hollywood or in setting up a producing org as RKO and Paramount have done.
It is understood that the film man will talk with equipment manufacturers as well as with stations while he is in New York. (Billboard, Feb. 10)
Sunday, February 4
WNBT Channel 1
8:00 “La Boheme” and “Stephen Foster,” music appreciation features.
WABD Channel 4
8:00 Motion pictures.
8:30 “Thrills and Chills” with Doug Allan.
9:00 Television Workshop. “Saturday Supplement.”
NBC
Reviewed Sunday (4) 8-9:15 p.m. Style—Operatic excerpts, films, lecture and musical drama. Sustaining over WNBT, New York.
Five features filled this 75-minute presentation. There were two film shorts edited down so they didn't drag, a tele repeat of part of La Boheme, Mme. Olga Samaroff-Stokowski's music appreciation course, and a dramatized version of the writing of Swanee River.
Proving that even production-wise video can make progress, the excerpt from La Boheme, first reviewed in The Billboard (July 29, 1944), was a vast visual improvement over its first air-pix showing. The lighting actually was good enough to have been behind foot-lights, and when the candle blew out the tube really went almost black and you saw just the hands reaching for the key that was supposedly lost on the floor. Mimi (Lois Eastman) this time was dressed completely in dark clothes instead of partly in white and as a result didn't flare in the eyes of the viewer. Another advance was a minimum use of full-length shots. They were scanned only to carry the story, most of the presentation being close-ups. When Rudolph (John Hamill) sang to Mimi in one scene you obtained your reaction by having the camera on Mimi not Rudolph. Hamill was stuffy during the first few minutes but got hold of himself after that and did a smooth job. Make-up and camera work was really okay. In fact, if La Boheme was good (and it was) in the first showing, it was a great deal better than that this time. A special bow should be made to Lois Eastman for her diction and the fine boom mike work that was done so that all of her singing and spoken work came thru clear as a bell. It's important to hear in television.
Following a film, NBC televised Mme. Stokowski’s music discourse (reviewed on its first visual air showing over WRGB, Schenectady, N. Y., in The Billboard, September 23). Mme. S. in still not telegenic but by this time she should know her subject and not have to refer quite so often to the notes she holds in her hand. However, here, too, the progress of television production was self-evident. In Schenectady, she used slides which were a mess on the air. Over NBC, she used the same material blown up and scanned from large black and white pix. Also, she was always in the picture, just as was her audience, so that you had a constant feeling of motion, Mme. S. to pic to audience to Mme. S., etc. If you didn't believe that what she said could convince a tired businessman that long-hair music was his dish, it wasn't the fault of television, it was her's.
Following another pic, the viewers were treated to the song drama, Swanee River.Well staged for the camera, with short film shots interspersed perfectly, it was prime visual stuff, altho, unfortunately, the scripting was for 10-year-olds. Annamary Dickey didn't have the make-up care that was given to Lois Eastman and, therefore, looked far from the delightful.
She was supposed to be Jeanie with-the-light-brown-hair (Stephen Foster's wife). That hair problem should be looked after also—Anna's isn't light brown by far. Only one place did the show fail tele-wise. That was when Christy's Minstrels were before the camera. On close-ups, their black make-up gave ample proof that Darwin was right. Never before have we seen anything that came thru the kinescope tube that looked so much like apes in men's clothing. Minstrels are going to have to find something besides burnt cork. Their faces and kinky wigs were as one. "On camera" they were close-ups to end close-ups.
In spite of the slight errors, Dr. Herbert Graf rates a huge bow for learning his television lessons quickly. There were only a few negatives. The latter included NBC's tendency of doing a swell build-up of what is to come and then not even signing it off when it ends. You can't jump an audience from opera to a documentary film on Switzerland without disconcerting viewers. Not once in the four changes did the announcer bridge any of the productions, even from Stephen Foster to the closing Star-Spangled Banner. Extended periods of black level (blank tube) continue during the programing. Even if there is a point to resting eyes and ears during a telecast, you don't rest by straining your eyes to see if the pic went off the air or is just marking time.
Before the skedded program, NBC flashed on the tube the news that MacArthur's troops had entered Manila. While the announcer spread the news, pix of MacArthur and Admiral Halsey were scanned. Even that gave you a feeling of the coming immediacy of vision on the airwaves. It's a shame that they couldn't also have scanned a bit of a map. The audience would have been on Luzon then. Joe Koehler (Billboard, Feb. 10)
Monday, February 5
WNBT Channel 1
8:00 Film: “The War as It Happens,” newsreel footage.
8:12 Feature film: “Break the News” with Maurice Chevalier, Jack Buchanan, June Knight (UK-General Film, 1938).
9:21 Film: “Treasure in the Forest.”
9:30 Boxing from St. Nicholas Arena.
PAN AMERICAN AIRWAYS System, New York, about March 12 will sponsor for the first time a series of weekly half-hour video film shows on the NBC television station, WNBT New York, through J. Walter Thompson Co., New York. Travelogue series, to run 52 weeks, will promote travel in Latin America via Clippers. A few live shows also will be presented. Although a time schedule has not been completed, show will probably be telecast Mondays at 8 p.m. (Broadcasting, Feb. 5)
Tuesday, February 6
WNBT Channel 1
8:30 Wrestling from St. Nicholas Arena.
WABD Channel 4
8:00 “This Wonderful World.”
8:30 “Contrasts in Drama.”
9:15 Motion pictures.
DuMont
Reviewed Tuesday (6), 8-9:30 p.m. Style—Variety, drama and pix. Sustaining on WABD, New York.
If Bob Emery purposely chose his show's participants as foils for his own manly beauty, he did a first-rate job. Two groups of gawky, self-conscious adolescent boys vied for mental honors in a half-hour quiz that dragged sadly. Emery held the center of the screen at sit times, pulling one boy on from the left while literally shoving another off to the right. His ceaseless patter droned heavily over the entire proceedings. Result, a dull seg that no amount of good technical work on cameras and lights could salvage.
The New School's presentation of two plays came as a most welcome contrast. Both, Surrender and The Boor were well chosen, carefully directed and splendidly acted. Tho neither one-acter had much camera rehearsal, technical work on both was first-rate due, undoubtedly, to scripts with specific shooting instructions for the studio crew.
Ruth Froma adapted and directed Surrender, originally written by Arch Oboler for a Fifth War Loan radio show. The elimination of time breaks pared the piece from 30 to 25 minutes. Crockett Dickson, Bob Caricart and Jonas Jauna turned in first-rate performances. Jauna's dark hair belied the long white whiskers of an old man. The make-up department slipped up here, but only this once. Other characters were altogether convincing.
The drama of Chekov's Boor was heightened by cross and back lighting. Many shots had a three-dimensional quality, and thruout no shadow was visible. Morton Schoenfeld and Sheya Newman shared direction honors, and Ruth Manning, Delmar Nuetzman and Louis Guss did justice to the classic. Miss Manning's pendant earrings were a nice touch, They trembled as her anger rose and swayed gently as her mood softened.
Opening and closing the school's hour with Edward Stasheff spinning a globe and talking of the benefits of study at the institution is an effective means of getting plug over and soliciting new students. Stasheff, in charge of television activities of the board of education, speaks quietly and with authority. His appearances are brief, well paced and do a selling job. Cartoons, Bubbles and Troubles [Van Beuren, 1933, artwork to right] and Barking Dog [Van Beuren, 1933], and sports film, Poise, were wisely shown after the live portion of the show. Bubbles and Troubles was a prophetic title, the light in back of the movie projector went out for about 30 seconds during its run. But the sound track rolled on during the period of dead sight. Somebody had kicked the plug out. Wanda Marvin. (Billboard, Feb. 17)
Wednesday, February 7
WABD Channel 4
8:00 “Fashions, Coming and Becoming.” Sponsored by Sanforized.
8:15 “The Magic Carpet.”
8:45 Motion pictures.
9:00 “Wednesdays at Nine.”
9:30 Teleshopping program.
Thursday, February 8
WCBW Channel 2
8:00 News, Everett Holles.
8:15 “Opinions on Trial:” Veterans Preference in the Civil Service.
9:00 Films: “In the Wake of Armies,” “South Chile” (OWI, 1945)
9:30-10:00 “The Missus Goes A-Shopping” with John Reed King.
Balaban & Katz
Reviewed Thursday (8), 7:30 to 8:45 p.m. Style—News, drama, variety. Sustaining on WBKB, Chicago.
Tonight's stanza of WBKB's What's Cooking With the Scotts? was one of the best of this series that the station has presented to date, and it was good simply because an excellent job was done by Ardien Rodner, who writes the scripts for the series' sponsor, the Commonwealth Edison Company. Rodner did an above-average job of writing stage directions that resulted in smooth action caught by cameras in the right angles. But more noticeable than the stage directions Rodner used was his use of vocal humor and true-to-life character-depicting dialog. Lesson here is that writers of ramatic television shows will have to remember that even tho video depends to a great extent upon action it still demands that characters receive good lines-just as good patter as they receive in top radio shows.
Tonight's episode of What's Cooking? was woven around a simple plot concerned with the mass husbands can get themselves into when they help their wives knit. The simplicity of the plot appealed to the members of the audience, who remembered comparable situations in which they were involved, and the humor utilized by the characters added flavor, resulting in a good combination of audio and vocal entertainment.
The cast, Everett Westman, Kay Neumann and Norma Jean Ross, sensed it had a better-than-average script with which to work and did better than usual acting. It took Rodner 48 hours to write this script for a 20-minute television show, including conferences with the cast, figuring out of camera action with drawing on paper, detailed plans of camera and cast movement, and actual writing of dialog and stage directions. But it was worth the effort. It was good: good enough to prove that a video dramatic show, even if it uses amateurs, as Rodner used in three of his parts, will be solid entertainment when dialog consists of excellent creative writing.
In direct contrast to the excellence of the What's Cooking? was the quality of the musical portion of tonight's program, A Visit to South America. A local amateur theater group, called the Showmakers, comprised the cast. Quality of the Latin-American dancing and singing of this group during what was intended to be an imaginary trip to our neighbors to the south was bad, strictly amateur.
The basic idea of the show was not bad and the commentary used to tie the cast together was okay, but to have each act do its stuff in front of the same background was very poor production. At least there should have been an effort to have the performances done in front of Latin American set. There also might have been an attempt to have most of the acts done in simulated cafe and night club backgrounds, with extras sitting at surrounding tables. If a Latin American atmosphere had been crested, the bad performing would not have been so noticeable. True, the people in the arts were in Latin and South American costumes, but that's not enough.
Rest of program consisted of Lee Phillips doing his magical mysteries, and Jim Grey reading the news. Phillips’s work was competent television, as usual, but he still makes the mistake of using black props in front of a dark background. Reading of news, done by Grey or anyone else, is still n. s. h. video. Cy Wagner. (Billboard, Feb. 17)
Friday, February 9
WNBT Channel 1
8:15 “World in Your Home.”
8:30-11:00 Boxing at Madison Square Garden, Harold Green vs. Morris Relf.
WCBW Channel 2
8:00 Everett Holles, News.
8:15 “Here’s Halloran”
8:45 Films: “Hill Towns of Guatamala.”
9:15 “The Face of Lincoln,” character study.
9:30 Weather Forecasting.
CBS
Reviewed Friday (9), 8-10 p.m. Style—Variety, film, educational, picture essay. Sustaining on WCBW, New York.
Rudy Bretz, Lela Swift, Paul Belanger and Columbia Broadcasting System all deserve deep bows for a splendid, courageous experiment in their production of The Face of Lincoln, a photo essay on the life and spirit of America's greatest president. The Face of Lincoln used the technique of the best picture magazines and added the best of radio to a program that was as simple, as dignified, as human as—the face of Lincoln.
To merely call it an experiment is to give it little credit. A success is a much better description. The highest compliment we can pay to producer-director Bretz and to his assistants, Miss Swift and Belanger, is to say that it was as good, in its own way, as Leo Hurwitz's first showing of Folksay and NBC's dramatization of Men in White. It is difficult to explain The Face of Lincoln from the viewpoint of an ordinary video program. The cameras remained stationary, there were no difficulties with the lights. The elements of plot, of acting deficiencies, of live music or of settings were absent. All that was required was imagination, sensitive eye for picture values, intensive research, intelligent writing, dramatic narration and precise direction of the operators of the photo slide, All those things were present. Rudy Bretz has pointed a new direction for educational video.
It is unfortunate that the imagination that went into The Face of Lincoln was not applied to Ben Feiner’s Here’s Halloran, a potentially fine production that fell down for three reasons: Failure to exploit the possibilities of the material, attempt to crowd too much into too short a time and non-integration of sequences.
Here's Halloran is also hard to explain with conventional names. It was presented by CBS and the staff of the army's Halloran General Hospital on Staten Island, N. Y. It was intended to be a salute to our wounded men. In a sense it accomplished that because nothing can prevent viewers from appreciating the high courage of our army and the splendid care the medical corps gives it. But producer-director Feiner attempted too much. He used a singer and a pianist, a dancer, a description of occupational therapy, and explanation of military strategy and the story of a bombing mission all in one half-hour. None of the subjects were thoroly explored, and the result was over-all disjointedness.
If CBS had taken one or perhaps two of the elements, gone into them deeply and produced them lavishly. Here's Halloran would have clicked. The sequence which discussed occupational therapy, for instance, could have been the basis of the whole show, patients being brought into the studio and put to building, weaving, painting and carving the things they make. Feiner's direction was competent thruout. Weather was an interestingly presented bit of interviewing which explained how the weatherman can predict what's going to happen and what causes it. Frances Buss's direction and production rate a nod. Now we know everything about the weather except, as Mark Twain said, what to do about it.
On the basis of Friday's two hours and the evenings that have preceded it, CBS is standing up well under the music ban. Of course, the servicemen played and sang, but even. Mr. Petrillo doesn't want to tamper with the army. He took on the marine corps a few weeks ago, but it seems he stops somewhere. Marty Schrader. (Billboard, Feb. 17)
Saturday, February 10
WNBT Channel 1
8:00 Bill Stern’s Sports Show, “The Hot Stove League,” with all-star baseball cast.
8:37 Film feature: “Billy the Kid in Texas” with Bob Steele (PRC, 1940).
CHICAGO, Feb. 10.—In a move that is considered to be significant because it might help to establish eventual wage scales for television actors, WBKB, local Balaban & Katz video outlet, in two weeks will start using a cast of paid actors for a "commercial" video series. Up to now one of the biggest questions in the industry has centered around the possible payment of video actors in the future.
For the planned weekly series of dramatic shows which the Commonwealth Edison Company will present as a replacement for its present What's Cooking With the Scotts series, the utility company will pay a cast of four AFRA members the union's Class A radio station commercial rate of $9.90 for a quarter-hour show, with $6.60 additional for each hour of rehearsal. Altho the series will be considered commercial because it advertises Commonwealth products, WBKB, following its present policy, will receive no money for time or production costs.
Scale Once in a While
Up to now, WBKB has paid union scale to the AFM musicians it has used once in a while. A few months ago, when it presented a version of Don McNeill's Breakfast Club, the station paid singers and announcing and acting talent AFRA scale. But this is said to be the first regular video series here using AFRA members and paying AFRA scale.
In the series, which will be centered around typical happenings of two married couples, the cast will be Norma Jean Ross, Art Seltzer. George Cisar and Frances Allen, all experienced radio professionals and AFRA members. Up to now Edison's shows have used amateurs but the company's officials and WBKB's execs feel that the new quality that the professional will impart to the video series will be worth the AFRA scale. (Billboard, Feb. 17)
NEW YORK Feb. 10.—CBS video is changing its program days from Thursday and Friday nights to Wednesdays and Thursday, effective February 28, which will put the first Columbia Wednesday show in direct competition with the Blue's entry into video over the DuMont outlet, WABD. CBS's time remains the same, 8-10 p.m.
The WEB, as reported in The Billboard for February 10, begins amateur boxing shows over its station, WCBW, March 1, with the fighters working in the studio. The net's boxing will be under the direction of Arthur T. Gore, former athlete, who has been putting on amateur exhibitions in New York for the past few months. (Billboard, Feb. 17)
HOLLYWOOD. Feb. 10.—New three-reel short is being put together by Patrick Michael Cunning at his Stage 8 tele headquarters here.
Idea of the film is to acquaint ad agencies and radio stations with his style of video production. Charles Morton, screen actor, is directing the short under Cunning's supervision.
Both live action and "telecine" production will be demonstrated in the film. (Billboard, Feb. 17)
Sunday, February 11
WNBT Channel 1
8:00 “Black Angel: Dr. Death,” mystery drama.
WABD Channel 4
8:00 Inner Sanctum play “The Thirteenth Chair.”
8:30 WNEW newscast, Dick Bradley.
9:00 Television Workshop, “Party Night.”
James C. Petrillo has notified all locals of the American Federation of Musicians, who in turn have notified, their members, that they are banned from appearing on television programs until further notice. Reason not given, and Local 802 execs in N. Y., when queried, revealed they were in the dark as to reason for the edict.
Understood in the trade, however, that Petrillo has not set up a wage scale for musicians on television, and refuses to okay appearances by his union members until he probes the situation thoroughly.
Newest instance of ban look place late last week when Local 802 officials notified Merle Pitt, staff orch leader at WNEW, N. Y., that Frank Froeba and a small musical combo, known as "The Boys in the Back Room" would not be permitted to appear on a television show the station planned for DuMont’s WABD last Sunday night (11).
Prior to that, CBS, about three weeks ago was forced to cancel a scheduled program, using staff musicians, on its video outlet, WCBW, because of the ban by Petrillo. As result WCBW is using recorded music on its video stanzas.
WNEW subbed a news program, featuring Dick Bradley, last Sunday when okay for use of musicians failed to come through. (Variety, Feb. 14).
Monday, February 12
WNBT Channel 1
8:00 Film: “The War as It Happens,” newsreel footage.
8:12 Feature film: “Abraham Lincoln” with Walter Huston (UA, 1930).
9:27 Film: “Graveyard of Ships” (Van Beuren, 1936) narrated by Alois Havrilla.
9:37 Cavalcade of Sports: Boxing from St. Nicholas Arena.
WCBW, CBS television station, New York, will move its program schedule up a day some time next week, presenting sight-and-sound programs each Wednesday and Thursday in place of the present Thursday-Friday schedule. (Broadcasting, Feb. 12)
WASHINGTON, Feb. 12 (AP)—The Debs Memorial Radio Fund Inc., of New York, asked the Federal Communications Commission today for permission to build a new commercial television broadcasting station. The organization, which now operates standard broadcast station WEVD, would operate the television station on 282,999 to 288,000 kilocycles.
Tuesday, February 13
WNBT Channel 1
8:30 Wrestling from St. Nicholas Arena.
WABD Channel 4
8:00 Motion picture program.
8:30 Revue: “In Old New York.”
9:00 WOR variety show, Valentine Party.
DuMont
Reviewed Tuesday (13), 8:30-9:30 p.m. Style—Picture essay, variety, films. Sustaining over WABD, New York.
Ray Nelson threw a show together on short notice to replace his originally skedded variety seg and didn't do too badly considering the time he had to research and produce-write the thing. It wasn't the liveliest show on record and it ran too long, but it's not the worst that will be thrown in front of the cameras as long as the music ban continues.
To be perfectly fair, the show, In Old New York, a collection of historical photos and films about the city wasn't as appalling as some shows, but if Nelson had had music and time we would have been forced to say that it was a good way to unsell Park & Tilford's candy. The thing was much too long for a show of its type (strictly a 15-minute fill-in or special educational feature) and its subject matter was hackneyed. The pis were far from the best available on the history of New York (the Museum of the City of New York has some swell ones, Mr. Nelson) and the script was not arresting.
However, we can say that the direction, a comparatively easy job in such a program, was competent and some of the old silent films were funny. The only real fluff we can report occurred at the end of the show when a pic that had appeared on the screen a minute before popped back in place of the closing slide. We understand that the fault lay with the engineers in the upstairs control room and not with the director.
Bob Emery, the Elsa Maxwell of video, put on another of his "parties" Tuesday night. Last October Emery scanned a Halloween party that was fun in a ragged sort of way, but his valentine party was one of the finest hypnotics we've ever seen. It's hard to describe it. It was not a radio show. It was not a party. And it certainly was not a video show. Several young people sang some songs on the thing. Perhaps they had better wait until they grow up before they present themselves to the public. In between songs some child read the poems that are printed on valentines and you know what they're like.
Credit Emery, tho, for a fair direction job and some well-made sets. If the material had been any good at all the large cut-out lace-trimmed hearts which framed some of the singers would have made easy looking. Someone should tell Producer-Director Emery that finales in which all the cast stand stiffly in front of the camera went out with Lillian Russell and the hansom cab.
The show had one distinction that sets it far above today's video. That distinction was a live pianist who, Emery says, was approved by the union a few hours before the show went on the air. For that special dispensation we must extend our sincerest thanks to 802. If the musician had been nixed, Emery would have presented a spelling bee. Thanks again, fellows. Marty Schrader. (Billboard, Feb. 24)
New York.—James C. Petrillo, president of AFM, has forbidden the appearance of union members on television programs at the three stations here until further notice. It is understood that the ban is nationwide, affecting the nine video outlets now operating across the country.
Petrillo and other AFM officials were unavailable for comment. The union ban is slated to remain, it is believed, until a policy is formulated for television programs.
Immediate effect was seen Sunday night in the cancellation of the video jam session by radio station WNEW over WABD, Dumont Telev. outlet in New York. Merle Pitt, musical director of WNEW, had been informed by the union that the musicians were not to go on.
WNBT (NBC) the only other television station on the air here Sunday night, played only canned music. Live accompaniment has been off WCBW (CBS) for about three weeks because of a dispute about the union’s demand for a pianist on a single-engagement basis at $36 an hour instead of splitting the duties of a regular CBS house piano player between radio and television. (Hollywood Reporter, Feb. 13)
Wednesday, February 14
WABD Channel 4
8:00 Motion picture: “Code of the Mounted” with Kermit Maynard (Ambassador, 1935).
9:00 “Wednesdays at Nine.”
9:30 Teleshopping program with Margaret Manning.
Television Products, Inc.
Reviewed Wednesday (14), 8:30-9:30 p.m. Style—Boxing, variety. Sustaining on W6XAO, Hollywood.
Boxing matches tonight were best viewed so far, with careful selection of pugilists a very obvious factor. Couple of clever flyweights, Ted Barrios and Rudy Piedra, furnished most of the entertainment, each going a three-round limit with the pro, Mike Delia. Crowd noises also were better tonight, with filmdom's Lucille Ball, who was in the audience, adding her voice to the chorus. Operator on mike boom was slow in picking up between-round conversation between fighters and Paramount's physical culture instructor, Jim Davies. Outside of that the bouts went off without a hitch and provided viewers with half hour of lively action.
Tonight's variety show was well paced by Richard Lane, who took over the mike to intro the acts. One thing tele proves is that a variety show with top acts can be so-so unless there is a capable emsee. Lane has an easy, living-room style, that comes over well. He also injects enough humor between the acts to keep the viewer's eyes on his screen.
First act was hoofer John Mattison, who delivered a good brand of terping and also gave Director Klaus Landsberg an opportunity to superimpose some good shots. Mattison was attired in white coat and dark trousers, which helped make nice effect when Landsberg superimposed screen-high dancing legs alongside the hoofer. Black and white contrast made good camera study.
Gerald Kosky proved a good tele subject with a magic routine that clicked well. He opened with the standard trick, cut and restored rope. Payoff was pulling yards of silk hankies from supposedly empty cylinders. He kept up chatter during tricks so that act never bored.
Dance team of Maurine and Norva did well with Latin routines, with male half of duo announcing between numbers. Lack of musical accompaniment, due to Petrillo ban, hampered the act somewhat but it came off well enough. Dorothy Began did a fancy acro turn that was entertaining. Working in a confined space, she showed what can be done with this type of act where full stage is not available.
Pitch for WAC recruits was made by Sgt. Betty Boyers and Corp. Chalmer Miller. who demonstrated an exercise wheel now used in army hospitals. Landsberg has enlarged his control room so that now he is better equipped to handle a bigger production. Dean Owen. (Billboard, Feb. 24)
Lois Fisher, who does the cartoons for “Fresh from the Hills,” by Marge of Sunrise Mountain farm, appearing in The Sunday Tribune, is turning her talents to television. Every Friday at 7:30 p. m. she shows how she does her comic drawings over WBKB. Next Friday she will talk about Marguerite Lyon (who is Marge) and her Ozark friends. Miss Fisher weaves in anecdotes about her experience as an illustrator. (Larry Wolters, Chicago Tribune, Feb. 14)
Thursday, February 15
WNBT Channel 1
8:30 Wrestling from St. Nicholas Arena.
WCBW Channel 2
8:00 News, Everett Holles.
8:15 “Make-Up Time:” Eddie Senz with Ethel Colby.
8:35 Sue Hastings’ Marionettes with Jerry, Puppet Announcer.
9:00 Films: “Child Welfare in Sweden” (Nu-Art, 1942), “Target Berlin” (NFB Canada, 1944)
9:30-10:00 “The Missus Goes A-Shopping” with John Reed King.
CBS
Reviewed Thursday (15) 8-10 p.m. Style—Interviews, news, marionettes, pic and audience participation. Sustaining over WCBW, New York.
As usual the news session over this CBS air-pic station was tops. They made further progress with their use of movement on maps, using effective dissolves and the program held all the way thru.
Ethel Colby brought her husband, Julius, along for an interview session with Eddie Senz, movie make-up man, who demonstrated his "art" with a line of chatter that made him an ace video performer. Moreover, he proved that good make-up can make a tele performer. He took a couple of dames, one a beauty end one NSH, and turned them into telegenic performers. He even took Julius Colby and tried to make him look, not too successfully, like Ronald Colman. However, he did make him look like two other people which is something. This session proved again that with a little action and a few folks with colorful personalities you can build a television session off-the-cuff and make it take.
The Sue Hastings Marionettes followed in a piece about a lion that ate up a different variety of forest denizen every day and how a pair of rabbits outwitted him and escaped his stomach. Marionettes have to be a great deal better articulated for the iconoscope than those used for most simple stageshows. The lion's mouth should have permitted Mr. Leo's tongue to lick his chops in anticipation of the meal to come. It didn't. Because the figures weren't designed, they used no close-ups, which killed about 50 per cent of the possible effects. Also some thought should be given to backdrops on television. You can't have a "busy" backdrop and have the action in front of it in the same grey scale. It's too tough on the eyes. There's also a question about putting an obvious kid pitch on at night. True, some children's fables are grown-up fun—this one, however, was gauged at about an age level of three to four—and that's too low for 9 p.m.
Final contribution to television program progress was John Reed King and his daytime women's shopping session. It, too, was well planned for the day-time, when it usually hits the mike.
A little adult entertainment would be enjoyed each evening that the video set is turned on—the good CBS news isn't enough to balance an all-daytime pitch. Joe Koehler. (Billboard, Feb. 24)
"MAKE-UP TIME"
With Eddie Senz, Ethel and Julius Colby, Models Director: Paul Balanger
20 Mins.; Thurs. (15), 8:15 p.m.
Sustaining
WCBW-CBS, N. Y.
If CBS tried deliberately to stage a video sequence pointing up impossibility of attempting certain things until natural color television arrives it couldn't have done better than on "Make-Up Time." Make up expert Eddie Senz knows his stuff and is an acknowledged camouflage expert but, in the present-day black and white images, "before" and "after" looked almost identical.
Stint trotted out a couple of models as subjects of the Senz magic, he chatting with them while touching up lips, hair, and other facial features. Also present were Ethel and Julius Colby for ad lib chatter with Senz and models which got completely out of hand so it was difficult to hear what was being said or to distinguish who was talking. Too many interruptions spoiled the continuity. Wow finish was application of a toupe to the male Colby rep and makeup tricks to youthfulize him. That proved fairly amusing but that's about all. Donn. (Variety, Feb. 21)
Friday, February 16
WNBT Channel 1
8:15 “World in Your Home.”
8:30-11:00 Cavalcade of Sports: Boxing at Madison Square Garden, Humberto Zavala vs. Danny Bartfield.
8:00 Everett Holles, News.
8:15 “Design for Living,”dramatization on housing.
8:45WAC Recruitment with Margaret Arlen
9:00 Films: “Know Your Ally: Britain” (OWI, 1944) “The Battle For Oil” (NFB Canada, 1942) narrated by Lorne Greene.
General Electric
Reviewed Friday (16) 8-10 p.m. Style—News, Western music and drama. Sustaining over WRGB, Schenectady, N. Y.
WRGB's draft-depleted staff hit a new high in technical effectiveness tonight with an almost flawless offering of the Yale School of Drama's domestic farce Pin the Blame.
In fact, the only serious flaw in the entire production resulted from its excellence. There was a sizable audience on the studio floor and their not-too-silent chuckles were mystifying and distracting to those viewing the television screen. This carries the obvious warning, of course, that for technical perfection only the staff should be allowed in the studio proper during telecasts in which the illusion of reality is essential.
Exceptional was the illusion of breadth obtained in the set. It gave a distinct feeling of spaciousness. Credit for this must be split between Charles McGarrahen, scene designer, and Paul Andanti, technical director. The plot called for space—domestic help doesn't present much of a problem in cramped quarters. To secure it—or the illusion—three camera areas were used. The excellence of manipulations gave the effect that the action was taking place in one large room.
To the technical excellence must be added a fine production job by Helen Rhodes and the directing of Miriam Tulin. The author, George Latshaw, seized on a natural for a plot—the securing of domestic help in the present war emergency—and utilized it effectively. If he hadn't utilized the situation as effectively as he did the audience on the studio floor wouldn't have created the disturbance on the screen.
Gaynelle Nixon, Ruth Miller and Carol Slaughter handled the acting assignments with an ease that many experienced actors lack when they face a television camera for the first time.
Technically, Pin the Blame is the best production WRGB has offered. The Yale School had plenty to do with this technical perfection. In preparing their production, members of the school staff kept in mind that it was for television presentation. This advance preparation, plus the care obviously given by the WRGB staff, led to the new high.
Telenews and a musical bit by the Sage Brush Four rounded out the Friday night program.
Telenews still deserves special mention even tho it has had it before. It's the baby of Pat Kidder of the WRGB staff. Pat gives a pat, easy news report while an animated map traces war developments. Only the map is televised, with non-essential points blanked out. The result gives a clearer picture of the war situation on the various fronts than can be obtained in the newspapers.
The Sage Brush Four were a fair edition of just what the name suggests—a cowboy quartet. The group is fairly good but from its work it can be seen that television program managers must keep an eye open in the future to avoid an influx of inferior talent. It has happened before—on radio.
Disapproval must be registered with WRGB's woman spieler. The young woman had a pleasing voice but the audience was aware that she was reading. She must find time to do a little memorizing or else acquire the glibness of an ad libbing emcee. Duane Featherstonhaugh. (Billboard, Feb. 24)
Saturday, February 17
WNBT Channel 1
8:02 Film: “Annie Laurie” with Will Fyffe (UK-Butcher, 1936).
8:25 Film: “Florida Cowboy” (Van Beuren, 1937).
NEW YORK, Feb. 17.—Philco, operator of video Station WPTZ in Philadelphia, now has an outlet in experimental operation in Washington, putting a test pattern on the air several hours a day in preparation for film and remote shows from the Capital. It is understood that the station, which has an experimental license, has been scanning its test pattern for about three weeks.
The construction permit for the outlet was applied for an May of 1944 and tele men expected that no work will be done on the transmitter before the end of the war. However, it is said that Philco was able to obtain high enough priorities to put the thing on the air.
Philco also has permits for three experimental mobile stations in Philadelphia, a relay station for the portables, and a relay station linking it with WNBT, NBC station in New York. (Billboard, Feb. 24)
SCHENECTADY, N. Y., Feb. 17.—Republic Pictures’ fight with video has landed plop in the lap of WRGB production manager, Bob Stone.
The General Electric television station had been running Republic's Spy Smasher in weekly episodes. When Republic clamped down with its no-more -dealing-with-television ban, WRGB was forced to terminate the serial with the hero in dire trouble.
Dozens of protests were received from younger listeners who demanded to know the outcome. WRGB took the only possible step and Stone now closes each Friday night show by summarizing the missing episode. His presentation, while not as popular with the youngsters as the movie, is effective.
On the brighter side—WRGB officials are pleased at the effectiveness of televised motion pictures in building a younger audience. (Billboard, Feb. 24)
HOLLYWOOD, Feb. 17.—First public building here to have television will be the new Los Angeles County Courthouse. When Presiding Judge Samuel R. Blake, of Superior Court, asked for suggestions on the new structure, Attorney Gertrude Austin, of Compton, proposed that video be installed so that actual locations of crimes and accidents could be brought right into the courtroom. (Billboard, Feb. 24)
St. Louis, Feb. 15—The Red Goose Division of the International Shoe Co. will present a television broadcast over DuMont television station WADD [sic], Sunday night [18] at 8:30 o’clock.
The program features a circus story, with both child and adult appeal. It centers around the history of the Barnum & Bailey Ringling Bros. Circus.
In keeping with previous television broadcasts presented by International Shoe Co., the commercials on the program are designed from the standpoint of both oral and visual presentation, and tie up directly with the program itself.
In conjunction with the broadcast, stores in the metropolitan area selling Red Goose shoes are featured on the program.
The program is under the direction of A. L. Johnson, of International, and Louis E. Westheimer, Westheimer & Co., St. Louis. (Women’s Wear Daily, Feb. 16)
Sunday, February 18
WNBT Channel 1
8:00 “Black Angel: Dr. Death,” mystery drama.
WABD Channel 4
8:00 “Circus Folks,” film, history of circus.”
8:30 “Thrills and Chills,” Doug Allen interviewing Marshall Hill.
9:00 Film shorts.
Monday, February 19
WNBT Channel 1
8:00 Film: “The War as It Happens,” newsreel footage.
8:12 Feature film: “Misbehaving Husbands” with Harry Landon, Betty Blythe and Ralph Byrd (PRC, 1940).
9:19 Film: “Zoo in Manhattan” (Central, 1939).
9:30 Cavalcade of Sports: Boxing from Madison Square Garden. Willie Pep vs. Phil Terranova.
Tuesday, February 20
WNBT Channel 1
8:30 Film: “Big Three Crimean Conference.”
8:40-11:00 Wrestling from St. Nicholas Arena.
WABD Channel 4
8:00 Film feature: “Africa Speaks” narrated by Lowell Thomas (Mascot, 1930).
9:00 WOR presents “Power in the Pacific,” display of Navy combat photos.
Washington.—Newsreels and television are on an equal footing insofar as release dates for footage from War Department are concerned, it was learned here Friday [16]. Only reasons tele pool receives War Department footage later than newsreel pool is that the War Department, in order to speed handling, does not copy film itself and only one print is available.
The mechanics call for the release of film to newsreel pool, which turns it over to the tele pool after each of the newsreels has made its copy. There is nothing to prevent the tele pool from using film on air soon as it gets its copies, although there has generally been agreement that war footage not be broadcast before newsreels have been distributed.
Question arose in New York because of a reported protest by a newsreel company to the plan of NBC to televise film on the Crimea Conference. No protest was received at War Department. Reports W.D. had assured newsreels of seven-day clearance over television were termed “untrue” at War Department. Reason film goes first to newsreels, and then to the telecasters, is that newsreels are still the major medium for showing of war footage, it was said.
War Department made it plain there is no policy so far as Army is concerned. “This is not a major question now,” he added, “although after this war it will, of course, become increasingly important.” (Hollywood Reporter, Feb. 20)
Macy’s, New York City’s largest department store, has decided to continue its experimental television program for a further 19-week period. The RKO Television Corporation, which is producing the current show, which is seven weeks old, says the show will continue on Wednesday nights via DuMont’s station WABD. (Hollywood Reporter, Feb. 20)
Wednesday, February 21
WABD Channel 4
8:00 “Fashions, Coming and Becoming.”
8:15 “The Magic Carpet.”
8:45 Film shorts.
9:00 “Thanks for Looking.”
9:30 Teleshopping program with Margaret Manning.
DuMont
Reviewed Wednesday (21), 8-10 p.m. Style—Fashions, quiz, film, fantasy. Sustaining on WABD, New York.
The new twist works like this: Viewers are asked to send in cards listing their names and phone numbers. The cards are drawn at random and King or his stooge, Patricia Murray, phones the contestant. He is asked a general question with a visual twist (this week: How old is Miss Murray?) and a special question (solve a match trick, figure out an optical illusion). Then, if the contestant answers the second question correctly, he gets his choice of gifts. The prizes, luggage, dish sets, lamps and the like. are scanned and, on the phone, the contestant takes his choice. It's a pretty fair bet that the contestant will have his set on, since he wrote in the preceding week. On Wednesday's show, all but one who was called, was looking in. The contestant who guesses closest on the final question gets a cake, baked with Spry, of course.
There are a few details still to be worked out. It takes too long to get the out-of-town calls thru. King and Miss Murray look rather stiff sitting behind a table and the director has to be awfully careful that he doesn't have one performer showing the gifts while his camera is trained on the other. It happened Wednesday and the confusion was terrific. There is a certain desire on the part of the average viewer to see the contestant, but the show's other advantages compensate for it. King, or Miss Murray, if she is on the phone, will also have to be careful that they repeat the contestant's reply, right or wrong, because people want to hear what is said.
The only easily correctible fault we can find with the program is its talent. Miss Murray, an attractive enough wench in a Camp-Fire Girlish sort of way, is hardly a sparkler in the ad-lib comedy department. On the Wednesday stanza she wandered around in a semi-daze, at a loss for words and completely overpowered by King's personality. A foil for a bouncy emcee has to be quick on the trigger and have a personality as strong as King's. Miss Murray doesn't. If the format is changed and the stooge not put on an equal plane with King, the gal will be okay. She can show gifts and put thru calls. Otherwise. no. King, by the way, turned in a splendid job Wednesday.
Bud Gamble's Magic Carpet, with Paul Rosa, Night Club Editor of The Billboard scripting, has taken a turn away from the straight travelog format and now goes in for sports, this time winter sports. We aren't prepared, however, to say whether the turn has been for the better or for worse. The idea is good, travelogs can't go on for ever, but the production was static Wednesday night and the script much too talky. The idea was to have a snow-man come to life and then tell a young girl, by means of film, about winter sports. It took far too long to get into the film, which is the basic part of the show. Three minutes to bring the snow-man alive, have a little by-play and introduce the plc would have been long enough. On the other hand, it would have been more effective if the snow-man had not come alive in the first 30 seconds. A minute more of monolog, perhaps with the girl wondering about skating, skiing, etc., would have added more punch. The narration during the film was written by someone from the agency. Anderson, Davie & Plattam. It was weary and flat.
Young & Rubicam's Fashions Coming and Becoming, was an improvement over the first show reviewed. The theme of this one was how to make a hat and it came thru rather well. There were some particularly fine pictures in the close-ups and the direction was competent.
DuMont's sound engineers seemed literally to be asleep at the switch two times Wednesday night. They cut out the sound too fast in the Y&R show and cut it in too late as the studio announcer came on. The station breaks between all shows ran close to a full minute this particular evening, which is much too long. Marty Schrader. (Billboard, March 3)
NBC will pull out all the stops on television starting immediately, it was decided last week: at a meeting, of network department heads. top executives and the entire video production and technical staff.
Ball starts rolling in the newly-formed sales dept., especially, with NBC figuring to be the first television organization in the country to draw up a rate card for advertisers. Unlike radio, however, where circulation is the important factor on which to base rates, the video rate card will have as its foundation facilities available, both in studios and coverage, to sponsors, at the present time.
Renold Kraft, recently-appointed sales mgr. for television, and John Dodge, salesman, are now making the rounds of ad agencies in an effort to interest new advertisers in the medium as it's currently set up, and laying the ground work for sale of all WNBT video time as soon as the rate card is drawn up.
Wants No Word War
NBC prexy-Niles Trammell, prior to his departure for Reno last week, told his executives that the network will issue no statements on its television operations, and is looking for no verbal battles with other networks on video programming and Sales procedure. "We will let our actions speak for themselves," he declared.
The web presently is surveying facilities in its RCA Building, N. Y., headquarters for expansion of office and studio space, in line with this overall "go ahead" plan. But actual expansion of the physical setup probably will have to wait until the war's over.
Sid Eiges, head of the web's press department, has assigned Allan Kalmus as full time publicity man for video operations. Kalmus formerly combined this work with his trade press news duties. Dick Connolly succeeds to the post of trade news editor. Charles Hammond, promotion dept. chief, will name a full-time-promotional staff to exploit NBC's all-out television operations in the near future.
Ernest Collings and Edward Sobol are senior producers of video shows for WNBT. Ronald Oxford is junior producer and Dr. Herbert Graf handles production for the outlet's longhair music programs. This staff, too, will be expanded shortly with the hiring of new video programming personnel. (Fred Stengel, Variety, Feb. 21)
Thursday, February 22
WCBW Channel 2
8:00 News, Everett Holles.
8:15 “Tips for Tomorrow” Lt. (j. g.) Kay Stuurman of the Spars, Mary Brooks Pickens, and others.
8:45 “I Helped them Escape!” Drew Tartlere.
9:00 Films: “Atacama Desert” (General Films, 1943), “Lift Your Head (British, 1943).”
9:30-10:00 “The Missus Goes A-Shopping” with John Reed King.
Balaban & Katz
Reviewed Thursday (22), 7:30 to 8:30 p.m. Style—News, drama, variety. Sustaining on WBKB, Chicago.
The professional radio actor will have an important role in the post-war field of television dramatics. His acting experience before the mike, even tho it involves no visual techniques, will give him a running head start over the nonprofessional. The theory that radio actors will first have to "unlearn" everything they have gathered in the way of experience in radio before they will be okay for video, does not stand up. All of these things were proved at WBKB tonight when the Commonwealth Edison Company used its first cast of professionals on a type of show which the company lass presented with amateurs heretofore.
Starting tonight the Edison Company changed the title and cast of its dramatic series, altho they left the plot, centered around the home life of two average couples. What used to be What's Cooking With the Scotts became Welcome to the Walkers, and a cast of amateurs was replaced by Norma Jean Ross, Art Seltzer, George Cisar and Frances Allen—all of whom have appeared on many radio programs here.
Tonight's cast, it was apparent. knew the value of properly timing a line, of giving it just the right intonation and interpretation. Its members knew how to control their voices, the why's and wherefores of how to create a dramatic situation by the proper use of the spoken word. And in spite of the fact that they were primarily experienced in a vocal medium, surprisingly they were able to project satisfactory composure, ease and effectiveness in their actions. Significant in this respect was the fact that George Cisar, who has had both stage and radio experience, gave the best performance. So the apparent moral here is that, altho experienced radio actors will be good for future television, the best actors will be the ones who have had experience on the stage as well as in radio.
The plot of the show centered around the trouble In which Mr. Walker and his neighbor, Mr. Murphy, got themselves when they tried to repair a kitchen chair. The story and dialog was adequate. Nothing sensational in the way of introducing new video camera or stage techniques was used.
On another portion of tonight's program, however, WBKB did use something that was sensational. Unbelievingly simple. but still very effective, it consisted of nothing but a background painted on (of all things) brown wrapping paper. The background was used for an excellent dance routine done by Loretto Pagels and Lee Lindsay during an interpretation of a modern styled "hot gavotte." On the paper was painted a simulated stone platform, with two benches on it and with billowing drapes hung at either side. The area in back of the platform was painted a heavy brown, the platform and steps, a deep gray, the curtains a dark maroon with gold ties. The effect created was one of great realism of texture and depth of area.
On Lee Phillips' Magical Mysteries portion of the program the station used its video head again. Lee had a girl appear from a hat merely by the use of an electronic double dissolve superimposition. It was graphically illustrated here that magicians who appear on a video show in the future will have to learn how to add to their bag of tricks a few video electronic effects that will give them new powers and make their routines more interesting.
News on tonight's program was read by Jim Gray. Cy Wagner (Billboard, March 3)
The Raytheon Manufacturing company applied yesterday to the Federal Communications Commission in Washington, D. C., for licenses to operate frequency modulation and commercial television stations in Chicago. The FM station would be operated on 44,900 kilocycles, and the television station on 44,000 to 50,000 kilocycles. (Chicago Tribune, Oct. 22)
Friday, February 23
8:15 “The World in Your Home.”
8:30-11:00 Cavalcade of Sports: Boxing at Madison Square Garden. Suger Ray Robinson vs. Jake La Motta.
WCBW Channel 2
8:00 Everett Holles, News.
8:15 “Opinions on Trial.”
8:45 Pocket Billiards Exhibition by Erwin Rudolph.
9:00 Films: “All-American Conference,” “Flight Six” narrated by Lorne Greene. (NFB Canada), 1944.
9:30 Joseph Dunninger, mentalist.
Saturday, February 24WNBT Channel 1
8:00 Feature Film: “Lure of the Wasteland” with Grant Withers, Leroy Mason and Marian Arnold (Monogram, 1939).
8:55 Film short subjects.
NEW YORK, Feb. 24.—The Quiz Kids will make their video debut on the DuMont station, WABD, March 8, on the Blue web's show. The Kids will use their regular format with a visual twist to the questions.
Show will plug One-a-Day vitamins for Miles Labs but the sponsor will not pay for the show. Harvey Marlowe, consultant producer to Paul Mowrey, the web's tele head, will handle the production and direction. (Billboard, March 3)
Sunday, February 25
WNBT Channel 1
8:00 “Black Angel: Dr. Death,” mystery drama, final episode; variety acts.
WABD Channel 4
8:00 “The Pacific Belies its Name.”
8:30 “Saturday Supplement.”
9:00 Film: “Terrors of the Amazon” (Beverly Hills, 1932).
9:25 Film cartoon.
General Electric
Reviewed Sunday (25) 7-8:15 p.m. Style—Quiz, audience-participating, film-sustaining, on WRGB, Schenectady, N. Y.
Paul Nowrey and the Blue web have a hot show. It's funny, it's commercial and it's inexpensively produced. If we were a sponsor and the home video audience were quadrupled we'd buy it fast. Usually, when reviewing audience-participating shows, we make certain reservations about their aesthetic values. No reservations are needed here, it was genuinely entertaining. The gags, two men dressing in ladies' clothes, a blindfolded woman undressing a statue that turns out to be her husband, a pair of women roving a boat while someone throws a pall of water at them, were in the best Mowrey tradition. They are the corny crackpot stunts that Mowrey used to make the Missus Goes a-Shopping the tele success it is. Larry Algeo's direction was as precise and neat as is possible to find with today's tele conditions. Under the virile supervision of Paul M. Wrey, the Blue tele chief, Ladies Be Seated became sock video. Every stunt was usual and every stunt hit home. Johnny Olsen, Blue staffer, who does the Rumpus Room, demonstrated that he has the stuff to conduct a whacky show in the style to which John Reed King has made us accustomed. The only suggestion we can make to improve the thing would be to ask Mowrey to eliminate the minstrel costumes that Olsen and his stooge wear. The top hat obscures Olsen's face and the rest of the outfit distracts the home audience. A business suit would be enough. Mowrey and his associates have set a mark to shoot at in future shows. We hope they can reach it. G.I.'s School Days quiz show, conducted by Ed Flynn, and using kids as contestants, moves along at a good clip and enjoys the usual G.E. direction, which is very good. However, the program could be improved if the questions were more visual. Of about 10 questions, only three were visual. The rest were straight audio stuff.
Great credit is due to the staff of WRGB directors. Cameraman, floor manager, sound men, lighting engineers and especially to the station's program manager, Hoyland Hettinger, for the splendid job they did. G.E.'s station has set a standard that others might well try to reach. Marty Schrader. (Billboard, Mar. 3)
"LADIES BE SEATED"
With Johnny Olsen and Penny, Helen Rhodes and guests.
Directors: Larry Algeo (for General Electric); George Weist (for the Blue).
Supervisor: Paul Mowrey
30 Mins.; Sun., 7:30 p.m.
Sustaining
WRGB-General Electric, Schenectady, N. Y. Blue's carefully planned, long-awaited inaugural of programming in television finally teed off last Sunday (25) on General Electric's WRGB in Schenestady, N. Y. From a visual point of view, it was a success: from a commercial point of view, all signs point to peak returns.
In the first place, the network execs and its video department know whither they are going. They haver formulated a program policy of using network radio shows which have the best chance of scoring strongly when televised. Such as the stanza which will be videod on GE's outlet for the next five Sunday nights, "Ladies Be Seated."
Blue neatly got around the Petrillo-AFM ban on live music for the debut. After a brief recorded theme interlude, Helen Rhodes, gal announcer for WRGB, introed Olsen, who in turn, brought on Penny. Latter duo were dressed minstrel-fashion, Olsen with top-hat, tails, et al., Penny with upturned hairdo, long striped dress. The m.c. immediately put the studio audience at its ease by having it sing a sprightly tune, then bringing up two service-men who took part in a contest which found them trying to eat donuts, leaving some of the cake around the hole. Followed two local housewives who were dressed in raincoats and placed in a canvas canoe, onstage. They were given brooms in place of oars, and saucers were placed on their heads. Suddenly from out of nowhere came a wave of water, drenching them. Olsen explained that a strong wind blew up, soaking the gals.
Cute gimmick, which drew laughs because of its spontaneity, was the introduction by Olsen of the guy who walked on with a broom to sweep up the water on the floor, after the previous situation. A Mrs. Ingmeyer of Schenectady, mother of four sons; in the armed forces, and a grandmother, was then interviewed by the m.c., but this particular sequence did not make for good, visualness because it was straight chatter, and Olsen read his questions to the woman from a paper.
However, things speeded up appreciably, when next contestant, young married woman, was blind-folded and asked to undrape a statue. It proved to be her husband, and when blindfold was taken off. She almost passed out. Final situation had two GE engineering department employees getting dressed to musical cues, a stunt which drew hearty laughter. Olsen then closed the program by having the audience sing, "You Are My Sunshine."
Blue and GE staffers certainly showed initiative in getting around the musician tabu. Musical bridges between situations were brief, and the platters used in the tune-suggesting question where the men got dressed were briefly played, with Olsen making chatter even while they were being aired. GE's technical crew nabs a good video picture. They have licked the problem of entertainers getting out of focus when stepping back or to the sides of the stage. They are well-trained, a tribute to a group of youngsters who are plenty hep about their jobs.
Blue look a group of trade and newspaper reps to the upstate N. Y. town lo view its tele setup teeoff. They were treated to a viewing of an efficiently-run video outlet that has possibly the most up-to-date-equipment in the nation. And it is being used solely for experimental purposes, to the advantage of the entire industry. Sten. (Variety, Feb. 28)
NEW YORK—Arthur Menken, former Paramount’s newsreel war correspondent, telecast several films showing war in the Pacific theatre of operations over station WABD, DuMont television outlet.
Menken showed pictures he took at the fall of Cooregidor and Bataan, and shots of the campaign in China. Program was called “The Pacific Belies Its Name.” (Boxoffice, March 3)
Monday, February 26
WNBT Channel 1
8:00 Film: “The War as It Happens,” newsreel footage.
8:12 Feature film: “Double Cross” with Pauline Moore, Kane Richmond, Wynn Gibson (PRC, 1941).
9:14 Televues: “Jose Iturbi, piano.”
9:24 “Ice Men.”
9:30 Cavalcade of Sports: Boxing from St. Nicholas Arena.
DuMONT Labs., Passaic, N. J., has just issued program ratings for DuMont television programs, based on listener program rating sheet results. With 10 as perfect score, Thrills and Chills placed first with 7.8 acceptance. Buchanan is agency. Second place went to Anderson, Davis & Platte agency show Magic Carpet with 7.7. Third place, 7.4, is tied by WOR's Night Stars Over Broadway and Ruthrauff & Ryan's Wednesday's at Nine. (Broadcasting, Feb. 26)
Tuesday, February 27
WNBT Channel 1
8:30 Wrestling from St. Nicholas Arena.
8:00 WOR presents Al Bernard’s Minstrels
8:30 Film: “Kingdom for a Horse” (Educational, 1938) 8:40 Film: “Songbirds of the North.” 8:50 Film: “The Wizard’s Apprentice” (UA, 1930).
9:00 Blue Network’s “On Stage Everybody,” variety show.
WOR-DuMont
Reviewed Tuesday (27) 8:15-8:45 p.m. Style—School days. Sustaining over WABD, New York.
Al Bernard's School Days was pure and unadulterated corn direct from Dixie by way of Gus Edwards, via Bob (WOR) Emery's Rainbow House. If there is any wonder how a completely delightful half hour come forth from under the wings of the Emery it respectfully explained that Bob had the sound idea of taking innumerable gags direct from Al Bernard's collections and stringing them together. Altho they all smelled from overuse, they came so fast and furious that the viewer was laughing at himself for laughing at what he knew were old, old minstrel routines in whiteface.
Al Bernard played the Negro porter who took over the teacher's desk while she was a-missing and played the role in a combination interlocutor -end man manner. In the school room were all the Gus Edwards characters—from the tough guy with a derby to the sweet and dumb young thing who never had the right answer in her life. There was plenty of movement—plenty of color, not a dull moment in a carload—and not a sophisticated one either. Thru the use of blackboard idea they were able to get across the WOR credit without pushing and the camera work was aces—only once or twice missing a person or a routine.
Credit Mrs. Bob Emery at the producer's console for this, and Bob, who acted as floor manager in the studio, keeping things moving—and the whiteface minstrel routine rolling along.
How often a school-days telecast could hold a regular audience is questionable. AI Bernard's act used to travel and he didn't have' to have new material every week. However, based on the evidence of this one show—and the hope that the corn will continue green, this rates the top Emery to date. Joe Koehler. (Billboard, March 10)
"ON STAGE, EVERYBODY"
(Blue Network)
With Jimmy McColl, Hildegarde Halliday, Cyril Smith, Pearl Primus and dancers, Danton Walker, Billy Rose and Walter Herlihy
Supervisor: Paul Mowrey
Director: Harvey Marlowe
Associates: Cyril Ambrister, Martin Andrews
Writer: Charles Speer
30 Mins.; Tues., 9 p.m.
WABD-DuMont, N. Y.
While the Blue network inaugural show on DuMont’s WABD, N. Y., last Tuesday (27) was one of the better productions to be videoed on that outlet in months, it lacked the entertainment values, clarity, direction and evenness of pace of the web's first try at television the previous Sunday on GE's WRGB in Schenectady.Fault apparently not only lay with the piloting of the stanza by Harvey Marlowe, but in the operation of the cameras, microphones, lights, etc., by the technicians at DuMont, as well as the fact that the newest, and largest, studio recently completed is poorly laid out, lacking proper room for placing of a decently-sized set, and hampering the movements of technicians.
Show opened with a cute gimmick—a theatre marquee, lights blinking on and off, with a placard moving along naming the cast. However, the names were printed in script, but block letters should have been used to give the billings greater clarity. Introduction by Blue announcer Walter Herlihy explained that "On Stage" is a Blue web radio show searching for talented youngsters. Danton Walker and Billy Rose gabbed briefly before bringing on the first act, Jimmy McColl, impressionist, recently discharged, from the Army where he appeared in both the stage and screen versions of "This Is the Army." McColl did a takeoff of an Italian radio station announcer imitating Herbert Marshall, Henry Stephenson and Charles Boyer doing a commercial. He has a nice act, but at start of his stint, lack of mike co-ordination with sound made him inaudible for several seconds. Not his fault.
Rose, in discussing television with Walker, stated that "video will put radio out of business, but will not hurt theatre attendance." Hildegarde Halliday's chore anent a gal selling hair curlers in a 10-cent store fell flat on its face. Didn't draw a laugh throughout, the entire five or six minutes. But Cyril Smith pepped things up with his mugging and comical discourse about the parents of the small boy who was swallowed by a lion.
Walker and Rose, while the acts were being televised, sat with the studio audience, who were picked up by the cameras after each act. This was a clever move, since live music could not be used between times due to AFM ban. Show could have used that musical shot-in-the-arm through-out. Pearl Primus and her dancers paced their chore oh the rhythmic beat of tom-toms. This part of the program was its highlight. Miss Primus and her crew were on television before, but never without musical background. However, they didn't suffer by lack of music, but rather by shortcomings of the DuMont video crew in televising their dances.
Setting was the same throughout, backdrop of palms being substantial for all acts, but especially appropriate for chore by Miss Primus. According to many video directors, DuMont toppers do not permit them to speak directly to technical crews when piloting a show. They give their orders to a DuMont technical director, who in turn passes them on to technicians. Entire procedure takes time and results in many poor shots being passed over. Sten. (Variety, March 7)
Blue-DuMont
Reviewed Tuesday (27), 9-9:30 p.m. Style—Variety. Sustaining over WABD, New York.
The place to make mistakes in any entertainment medium is during rehearsals. Just to be different, video seems to make a habit of making most of its mistakes on the air-right in the faces of the ether spectators.
Living up to the “Show-your-slips-in-public” tradition, the Blue web did its second air-pic telecast (the first was aired over WRGB, Schenectady, and reviewed last week in The Billboard with a tyro presentation of On Stage, Everybody. The boom mike got on the air, somebody walked before one of the lights and no time was permitted the studio audience to applaud Pearl Primus, the only visual act on the bill, or for Primus to take a bow. The director played with one or two dissolves that had real sock appeal—but dropped them like a hot cake before they could register. If they only bad a walk-thru camera rehearsal, tele life could have been oh, so different.
The effect of a lighted marquee with the bulbs flashing Blue Network and On Stage, Everybody, was swell. Between these two lines there was supposed to be a moving sign with the names of the guests, etc. The moving sign (a piece of cardboard pushed thru a slot) got stuck while the first part of it was three-quarters thru, and the camera was so far away from the sign that it was literally Illegible. It would have been good video to have moved in for a close-up of the moving credits—but someone was captivated by the theater effect—and didn't stop to realize that he who looks should be able to read without losing his eyesight.
Because radio frequently uses both regular announcer and an emsee, the Blue followed the radio tradition and had a good time-wasting formula of Fred Cole, the spieler introducing Danton Walker, the emsee. Between them they added up to a pic without the slightest appeal—altho debonair Walker has an edge on Cole; that moustache helped.
The guest of honor, who was picked up in the studio audience, was half-pint Billy Rose. Rose worked without script or rehearsal and sounded like a friend of the family sitting in on an amateur production.
The contestants who were bidding for fame and fortune and a spot in the Universal's to-be-produced-pic, On Stage, Everybody, was three monologists, James McColl, Hildegarde Halliday and Cyril Smith and the dancer, Pearl Primus. Why the latter needed the On Stage pitch toward fame and fortune is something nobody in the studio seemed to get. However, Primus and company were the only really worth-while thing on the bill. She was a last-minute substitution due to the no -music ban, but the native music came thru the iconoscope effectively as did the belly undulations, altho the latter were hardly for the juveniles who might have been looking in.
The actual audience in the studio did give a touch to the presentation and if they'd only have permitted them to applaud Primus and then permitted her to take her bows—her contribution would have been worth the price of admission. As it was, the telecast turned out to be an abortive attempt by a network that should have known better. Joe Koehler. (Billboard, March 10)
Trail blazer in the field of Puppetoon production, George Pal yesterday became a “first” in his specialized line in the industry to enter television when he completed a special television version of his “And to Think that I Saw It on Mulberry Street.” (Hollywood Reporter, Feb. 28).
Wednesday, February 28
WCBW Channel 2
8:00 News, Everett Holles.
8:15 “The Missus Goes A-Shopping.”
8:45 Films: “Global Air Routes” (NFB Canada, 1944) and “The Price of Victory” (OWI-Paramount, 1943),
9:30 “March in New York.”
WABD Channel 4
8:00 Feature film: “Carmen” with Charlie Chaplin” (Essenay, 1915).
9:00 “Wednesdays at Nine.”
9:30 Teleshopping with Margaret Manning.
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