A couple of prominent directors appeared briefly on the television scene at the start of 1946.
The esteemed John Houseman and Nicholas Ray did some slumming at CBS, assisting in a production of “Sorry, Wrong Number” on January 30th. It starred a last-minute replacement who should have been the first choice. It was that fine actress Mildred Natwick. (None of them are in the random photo at the right).
The night was a pretty good one for TV. Over at NBC, the musical drama “Children of Ol’ Man River” was broadcast, and critics seemed to like it.
If you changed the channel to DuMont that night, you might have seen a test pattern. WABD was still absent of programming, as it had yet to move into its new studios and tweak its transmitter now broadcasting on Channel 5.
WCBW and WNBT were going head-to-head some nights with the exact same programming. Both stations had rights to carry basketball games until one of them found a sponsor.
At the start of the year, W6XYZ in Los Angeles and WPTZ in Philadelphia were off the air to adjust their frequencies. Other stations would have to do the same by March 1st.
Someone who also wasn’t on the air was the president of the United States. There had been plans to televise Harry S. Truman’s address to Congress via the new coaxial cable connecting Washington D.C. and New York. But it would seem Truman decided not to show up in Congress, so the history-making broadcast was cancelled.
Below, you’ll find reviews and news for January 1946 from various trade papers, and the New York schedule from the Times and the Herald Tribune. Sorry but, at the time, newspapers elsewhere weren’t printing listings of local stations. Bill Still’s experimental station on Long Island, New York didn’t have regular programming but Still’s latest venture, a closed-circuit broadcast in a Jamaica department store is revealed. There were more than the usual once-a-week sum-ups of nightly programming coming out of Chicago. One reviewer criticised the performance of a 12-year-old girl.
Tuesday, January 1
WCBW Channel 2
7:45 News Reports.
8:00 “The Missus Goes A-Shopping” with John Reed King.
8:30-11:15 Basketball at Madison Square Garden. N.Y.U vs. Colorado; C.C.N.Y vs. Drake.
After several false starts, WCBW (CBS, N.Y.) finally engineered its first television remote pickup last night (Tuesday) [1] with coverage of double-header basketball games from Madison Sq. Garden. Limited to the use of prewar mobile cameras and transmitting equipment because of the dearth of any new material on the market, the station had originally planned its first remote broadcast several weeks ago, but CBS engineers nixed the idea at the last moment by announcing that the equipment was not yet up to par.
The basketball pickup spotlights one of WCBW's most ambitious programming weeks to date. John Reed King and his "Missus Goes A-Shopping" preceded the Garden broadcast, while Bob Edge, director of sports and special events, is slated to inaugurate "Play-by-Play." a new audience participation show, at 9 p.m. tonight (Wed.). Station will also present Hildegarde Halliday, former star of the "Blithe Spirit" road company and now featured at Spivy's Roof, New York nitery, in a 15-minute show tonight,
Another session of "Draw Me Another," featuring cartoonists Sidney Hoff and Barney Tobey, is skedded for 8:15 p.m. Friday (4), to be followed by "You Be the Judge," new audience participationer, that will re-enact famous lawsuits of the past. Program will feature N.Y. attorneys, but three judges will be drawn from the studio audience, with the judge who renders a verdict most similar to the original receiving a $25 War Bond.(Variety, Jan. 2)
WNBT Channel 1
8:00-9:31 Feature Film: “The Bells Go Down” with James Mason (Ealing, 1943)
8:00 News.
8:15 Film.
9:00-9:30 Sports Round-Up.
CBS
Reviewed Wednesday (2), 8:15-9:30 p.m. Style-Comedy, audience participation. Sustaining over WCBW (CBS), New York.
In Play-By-Play, a sport audience participation show, CBS has the seed of a good idea, but in the form demonstrated Wednesday night it has as much chance of success as a Republican in Georgia.
If it weren't for the easy going and highly competent emseeing of Bob Edge, Play-By-Play would have been enough to drive away even the hardiest television addict, but even as it was the program won no friends for CBS.
Its faults were legion and all of them resulted from an obvious lack of prep ration. Format of the program is to have participants take a whirl at miniature games which are variations of familiar sports like football, baseball, etc. As noted before, this is an idea which has possibilities, but it requires much faster action than Wednesday's, a better set, slicker production and more intelligent placing of the contestants.
The set, a poor imitation of a locker room, looked more like something that had been thrown together by the prop department on 10 minutes notice. Contestants were strung out in a long line, requiring a great deal of panning (not of the critical variety) to show them all, and Ringmaster Edge wandered around with great informality, more often than not forcing the cameraman to swing away from a subject in order to follow him. The contestants were introduced individually at the beginning of the show, which slowed things up, and the gadgets used in the games had to be set up as the show progressed, if it can be said to have progressed. Any quizmaster who has been thru the mill knows that it's smarter and faster to interview contestants as they come up and almost any guy who has ever been around a theater knows that a lot of shirtsleeved stage-hands are not the best visual material available, particularly when the emsee has to fill up the time with long-winded explanations of what is to take place. The props should be in piece on different sets before the show goes on the air, and the stooges should be told what to do at the same time.
The evening's second show was a 15-minute monolog by Hildegarde Halliday, night club and stage comedienne. Miss Halliday's material, in television, seemed a bit funnier than the comics' who have preceded her on CBS, but the whole performance was nothing to rave about. Director Franny Buss used a sort of advance plug before the station break, in which an artist did a sketch of Miss Halliday while an announcer pitched her many virtues. In itself, the plug was a good thought but took far too long. Within the body of the show the comedienne did three routines, the gum-chewing telephone operator, the lady with hay fever and the infuriating nurse. Among other things, Miss Halliday should have been instructed not to stand behind the furniture (it makes long shots too long) and not to have worn a diagonally striped dress which added pounds and pounds to her hips, my dear. Marty Schrader. (Billboard, Jan. 12)
WNBT Channel 1
7:00 “Teletruth,” children’s quiz.
7:30 Yale University Press American Historical Series: “Peter Stuyvesant.”>
7:53 Film: “Border Roundup” with George Houston, Fuzzy St. John and Dennis “Smoky” Moore, (PRC, 1942).
WCBW Channel 2
8:00-11:00 Basketball at Madison Square Garden. St. Francis vs. Westminster; L.I.U. vs. Wyoming.
Friday, January 4
8:00 “In Town Today” with Kathryn Cravens.
8:15 “The World in Your Home.”
8:30-10:30 Boxing at Madison Square Garden. Beau Jack vs. Morris Relf.
WCBW Channel 2
8:00 News with Tom O’Connor.
8:15 “Draw Me Another,” cartoonists with William Chessman.
8:30 Film.
8:40-9:00 “You Be the Judge.”
You Be the Judge
Reviewed Friday (4), 8:40-9 p.m. Style—Drama. Sustaining over WCBW (CBS), New York.
The boys really have something here. You Be the Judge, if its first showing is any criterion, is a program headed for a long, sucessful [sic] and honorable life on television. Like any new show in any medium, there are bugs to shake out and spots which can stand improvement, but even in its present form You Be the Judge would be ready for commercial sponsorship.
In brief, the program is a courtroom re-enactment of well-known trials using professional attorneys to plead the cases and amateur judges to hand down the decisions, The "judge" whose findings come nearest to the original verdict wins the prize. Friday's chapter, a case involving the ownership of a pearl found in a restaurant order of oysters, was well-written, well-paced, certainly held the viewer's interest and provided several chuckles. Of course, the flexibility of the format leaves room for a wide variety of cases, ranging from the comic to the intensely dramatic, certainly not a disadvantage.
You Be the Judge could come even closer to the meaning of its title if the audience at home were let in on the act. Instead of having three judges in the studio, it might be wise to phone viewers at home for their decisions. Their names, chosen at random from a list of set owners, would increase the audience's sense of participation and certainly engender a more personal interest.
The program could be speeded up if emsee Ed Stasheff were not given the chore of labeling the pleas of each lawyer, but instead, had the attorneys themselves tell for whom they were pleading. Director John Southwell, whose production job was excellent, could add a bit to the technical level by making sure that the witnesses do not walk into the camera as they leave the stand. A more professional title plaque would help and, of course, better shading up in the control room might make the viewers happier. One or two shots were slightly out of focus and there was too much head room in some of the close-ups. Aside from that, the cameramen did their job as they should. In case you are interested, if you ever find a pearl in a restaurant, it belongs to the restaurant owner, not to you, under the laws of Connecticut. Marty Schrader. (Billboard, Jan. 12)
Saturday, January 5
WNBT Channel 1
8:00 Basketball at Madison Square Garden. Pre-game ceremonies.
8:15 N.Y.U vs. Connecticut
9:50 St. John’s vs. St. Joseph’s.
CHICAGO, Jan. 5.—P. K. Wrigley, owner of the Chi Cubs and long known as a pioneer in radio sports broadcasting, intends to have Wrigley Field games televised by next summer if equipment is available by then, and the webs are pushing video as well as radio.
Baseball magnate doesn't think tele in the home will diminish gate takes in the least. In fact, he leans to the opposite view—the same point he took when radio wanted to broadcast baseball against the swishes of practically everybody in the baseball industry.
Wrigley's thesis for video is simply this: That the tele camera will never capture the glamour and excitement of attending a baseball game in the flesh, and that tele, like radio, should prove a stimulant instead of a deterrent, as the old fogey sports boys predict.
Don't Fight It
"When anything new in the entertainment field appears," Wrigley declared to The Billboard, "it's foolish to try to fight it. It's coming anyway and you might as well play along with it and develop ideas which prove to mutual advantage."
Way back when Wrigley first told the National League the Cubs were allowing broadcasts of games, the league nearly blew up with indignation since it figured the gate would take a tumble. Even now, tho radio has increased the gate beyond a shadow of a doubt, Wrigley still has to fight the die-hards, and expects a worse fight on his hands when viedo [sic] comes in.
It may be the Cubs will pull their biggest trump card as they did in the famed radio fight—threaten to secede from the National League. And the Cubs pull too much b. o. for the league bigwigs to allow that to happen. (Billboard, Jan. 12)
Sunday, January 6
WNBT Channel 1
8:00 Newsreel.
8:10 Play: “Dark Hammock” by Mary Orr and Reginald Denham.
9:00 Hockey at Madison Square Garden. Rangers vs. Boston.
Dark Hammock
Reviewed Sunday (6) 8-9:40 (EST). Style-Drama. Sustaining WNBT (NBC), New York.
NBC this evening presented another in its studies of husband-killing wives. Apparently nobody, from Niles Trammell and John Royal down, gives a continental damn that youngsters love video and look in at every opportunity. Maybe the tendency towards doing this type of thing is a natural reflex from the fact that it can't be done on normal broadcasting, but if someone doesn't teach NBC brass some of the video facts of life, the FCC will find it necessary to step in and devise a code of program decency for the air-pic medium. Don't misunderstand this reviewer, he's not fighting for a namby-pamby scanning. He knows that children—young children—look and look and look, and the "Dark Hammock" type of play doesn't belong on the air at 8 p.m.
Dark Hammock closed last year after two performances on Broadway. As entertainment, it was many times more interesting on the tele-air, but still remained a talky, static script that lost interest after the first half hour. Fred Coe, its video producer, did a grand job with what he had. Some of his camera work was really superb. One shot of a scene, thru a door as the wife tried to make the foreman of the ranch, was handled better than we've ever seen a long shot handled. If one quick pan from one door to another seemed amateurish and if the camera caught a man who wasn't supposed to be around at another moment, these were but slips in the dark. Coe's all-round camera handling was really a lesson to video producers. Whatever he's done in the past (and he's smelled plenty) he proved technically that he knows his medium with this presentation.
Mary Orr (co-author with Reginald Denham of the play) did an excellent acting job. She never for a moment stepped out of character and her Carol Platt (the wife) wasn't exactly a placid individual to portray for television. Robert Lynn, as Marvin, the husband; Maurice Manson, as Dr. Bunnell; Walter Munroe, as the sheriff, and James Gannon, as Carlos, the foreman, all built their characters completely for the mike. On the other hand, Mary Patton, as Dr. Florence McDavid, and Dorothy Elder, as Amelia Coop, her assistant, overdid their parts so that they were burlesques of a pair of botanical researchers who play detectives. From the moment they came on camera, the play began to disintegrate. True, the script itself helped them kill interest—but they didn't have to be quite so unbelievable.
The play itself, a study of a chorus girl who decides to kill a flacid husband because of boredom and because of a sweetheart who will still love her if she has some green stuff, is as mentioned before, old hat. And, as underlined before, something is wrong with NBC when it presents a play that was so kicked around by Main Stem crix that it closed after two performances on Broadway. The budget can't be that low.
Bob Wade's scenery was just what the authors must have ordered—and a final tribute to the camera men (as usual at NBC sans credit), who even followed a man in a wheel chair, as tough a lens job as might be found in a play. With all the loving care that went into this production, the audience and the NBC staff deserved a better vehicle. This would have been stupid on any wave length. Joe Koehler. (Billboard, Jan. 12)
WNBT Channel 1
8:00 Feature Film: “The North Star” with Anne Baxter and Dana Andrews (RKO, 1943).
9:46 Boxing from Madison Square Garden. Lee Savold vs. Al Hoosman.
Don Lee
Reviewed Monday (7), 8:30 to 10 p.m. Style—Comedy skit, interview, films. Sustaining on W6XAO, Hollywood.
Picture quality on W6XAO, which in recent months has been on the upgrade, took an unfortunate nosedive with this show. Altho old equipment is to be blamed, better lighting and make-up would help matters. All lighting now is on an overhead angle, which causes bad shadows. Make-up should have more light kickback and build for even textures.
On production end, show fared better. Use of film inserts in a live skit was tried out with favorable results. Twenty- minute comedy playlet, Mother Be Good, used three 30-second 18mm. film strips. If tonight's show is any indication, film inserts can really boost a live show. It offers greater freedom in plot development by allowing a variety of scenes.
Skit was written and enacted by students in video production at University of California. Story was old and simple, but pulled a couple of laughs. It deals with a book-workish little gal, who is afraid that her butterfly-brained mother will chill her chances of landing a husband, especially since guy she's after is a firm believer in heredity. It turns out that the lad thinks the mother is okay, and everybody is happy.
Inserts were used for street scenes and were worked in with a relative degree of smoothness. To be effective, technique should be developed to a point where there is no noticeable break in continuity. Remaining time on the 30-minute live portion of the show was devoted to an informal baseball discussion between Joe Cronin, manager of the Boston Red Sox; Burt Dunne, author of Play Ball, Son, and Joe Devine. It was carried on in a warm, easy-going manner and packed a lot of interest. Trouble was with the lensers. Camera angle and distance was the same thruout, making it tiresome on the eyes. However, it proved that bull sessions make good telefare. In something of this sort, close-ups should be used generously, with a few angle shots to kill the monotony.
Four 16mm. films were used to complete the show. (Billboard, Jan. 26)
Tuesday, January 8
WCBW Channel 2
8:00 News Reports.
8:15 “Tales to Remember” tales of Americana with Milton Bacon.
8:30 Motion Picture.
9:00 “The Missus Goes A-Shopping” with John Reed King.
Balaban & Katz
Reviewed Tuesday (8), 7:30 to 8:45 p.m. Style—News, variety, forum. Sustaining on WBKB, Chicago.
For those who want their video programing well rounded, varied and action–packed, WBKB tonight had the answer. Their show had news, a forum, variety revue, well-known fem singer and a top card manipulator—something to satisfy any taste.
Surprisingly good was the forum on "Should There Be Compulsory Military Training?" It was good, because normally it wouldn't be expected that something so predominantly oral in content would have the visual appeal necessary for tele. But this did. Monte Randall led Judge Charles S. Dougherty, of Chi's Municipal Court, and lawyers Samuel A. Hoffman and Reuben Friedman in a discussion that had plenty of intellectual guts as well as visual excitement when the boys got hot and seemed just about ready to take a few swings at each other. The only fault we could find was that limitation of two cameras at which made it impossible to have sufficient close-ups and resultant dramatic impact of changing facial expressions was lost.
Two other highlights on the show were the card manipulations of Mel Cardo, now appearing at Helsing's Vodvil Lounge here and the singing of Barbera Long, featured at Chi's Brown Derby. Cardo's triple Chinese shuffles, palming and other tricks showed up well in video and indicated good magic has a place in tele. Miss Long, full of pep and energy, put plenty of action into her vocal work. She danced around; she made with the gestures and the facial expressions. yet all the time she stayed within camera limits. This made her just the type of vocalist video needs.
The variety revue was staged by Fran Scanlon, who runs the Scanlon dance studios here; his daughter, Peggy, and various students of the school. It consisted of a dance routine by Scanlon and his daughter, an imitation of Jimmy Savo by Scanlon, a couple of dance numbers featuring a line of gals: a vocal duet by a couple of kids, Lynn and Buddy Sullivan, and an imitation of Carmen Miranda by a small girl, Patsy Sroka. All of this was above average. It was especially good in view of the fact that there was no rehearsal before the cameras for this portion of the program. This lack of rehearsal, however, accounted for the mistakes evident in the Scanlon revue: Poor camera work at times, rather corny continuity that didn't fit the work of the acts and an overbalance of sound which made the piano accompaniment too predominant. Special mention for the background of the Scanlon revue should go to Marilyn Rosenberg, Who designed and painted it. She painted, on brown wrapping paper, an arrangement in perspective of a diamond design and stone pillars. This was then placed in back of the performers, and because of its perspective arrangement gave the impression that they were working in a room with a diamond -shaped floor design and pillars in the far background. Cy Wagner. (Billboard, Jan. 12)
Wednesday, January 9
WNBT Channel 1
8:00 Pre-game activities.
8:15-9:30 Basketball from Madison Square Garden. St. John’s vs. CCNY; LIU vs. West Virginia.
WCBW Channel 2
7:45 News.
8:00 Basketball from Madison Square Garden.
TWO NEW ABC television programs start this week on General Electric Co.'s WRGB Schenectady. "Play the Game" starts Jan. 9 presenting Willard Mullin, sports cartoonist of New York World-Telegram, who will sketch cartoons for experts to identify. Program will be presented each Wednesday for a month. Second program is "Topsy-Turvy," comedy show starting Jan. 11, as weekly Friday broadcast. (Broadcasting, Jan. 7)
Thursday, January 10
7:00 Children’s Program. Teletruth quiz.
7:30 Yale University Press American Historical Series: “Gateway to the West.”
7:55 Film: “Billy the Kid in Law and Order” with Buster Crabbe, Fuzzy St. John, Dave O’Brien, (PRC, 1942).
Balaban & Katz
Reviewed Thursday (10), 7:30 to 8:30 p.m. Style—Sports, variety, lecture. Sustaining and commercial on WBKB, Chicago.
Show presented wide variety of entertainment and for most part was well produced. The history of basketball, a singer of pop songs, a dance program by talented pupils from the Senn High School (sponsored by Admiral Radio), and a travel lecture by Julien Bryan, famous travel-lecturer, made for a well-balanced hour of tele-witnessing.
There was a neat little commercial time signal for the Elgin Watch Company at the beginning of the show. An actor (Eric Lord) was sitting in a night club alone, waiting for his date (Angel Casey). He was impatient. Finally she arrived, apolegetically [sic]. He told her this wouldn't have happened if she had an Elgin watch, etc. All of this was an example of an intelligent video spot commercial.
An interesting development of basketball was narrated by Joe Wilson, local sports announcer. The dissolves, showing kids playing an early version, were effective and entertaining even to those not particularly interested in the game.
Pat Powell, pop singer has good voice capable of further development, but she appeared a bit ill at ease before the video camera. With her looks, plus a little more tele savvy, she could probably make the grade. The moppets from the high schools provided good entertainment—as much be could be expected from kids. They recapitulated some old vaudevillian entertainers, in a well-produced melange of thesping, terping and chirping. One of the numbers was faded in behind a copy of The Billboard logo, thereby giving a real showbiz flavor to the proceedings.
Julien Bryan had a talk with Lucille Carewe in which he gave forthcoming previews of the lectures he will deliver in Chi. Travel expert, who has done weekly video performances (NBC-WNBT) during the past four years, knows how to hold an audience without straining. Herb Bailey. (Billboard, Jan. 12)
Washington, Jan. 10 (U.P.)—The federal communications commission today approved construction of the Dallas-Los Angeles link in the new coast-to-coast cable being built by the Bell system for multiple telephone calls and television.
The new 1500-mile stretch will cost $24,500,000. The application was the largest from the standpoint of cost ever considered by the commission, the announcement said.
When the link is finished, the only missing portion of the transcontinental cable will be between Charlotte, N. C, and Atlanta. This may be built in 1947, it was said.
Friday, January 11
WNBT Channel 1
8:00 Specialty Features
8:15 “The World in Your Home.”
8:30 Boxing at Madison Square Garden. Jake LaMotta and Tommy Bell.
WCBW Channel 2
8:00 News with Tom O’Connor.
8:15 “Draw Me Another,” cartoonists with host Gurney Williams.
8:30 Film.
8:45-9:00 Pauline Koner, Modern Dance.
Saturday, January 12
1:45 82nd Airborne Division Victory Parade.
8:00 Film: “Painted Boats” (Ealing, 1945).
CHICAGO, Jan. 12.–WBKB, B & K video station, next week will make another addition to its growing list of commercial programs when Lee Phillips, magician, who has been doing sustaining shows on the station for months, starts a sponsored series bank- rolled by the Schwartz Radio & Television Company, local retail dealer.
Phillips's series will be titled Magic From Aladdin's Lamp and will be primarily a presentation of tricks best suited for video, tricks using large props that can be followed by the cameras—and very little chatter. The series will be telecast Tuesday night at 7:45 p.m. and will start January 15. (Billboard, Jan. 19)
Sunday, January 13
WNBT Channel 1
8:00 Newsreel.
8:10 Play: “The First Year” comedy by Frank Craven, with Ralph Biggs, Suzanne Jackson and others.
9:00 Hockey at Madison Square Garden. Rangers vs. Chicago.
“THE FIRST YEAR”
With Ralph Riggs, Suzanne Jackson, Fay Ball, W. O. McWatters, John Harvey, Michael Road, Ruby Dee, Lyster Chambers, Virginia Smith
Producer: Edward Sobol
Tech. Director: Reid Davis
Sets: Bob Wade
80 Mins.; Sun. (13), 8:30 p.m.
Sustaining
WNBT NBC, N. Y.
Spotlighting top stage and television stars in the leading roles, WNBT presented another good full-length play Sunday (13) with an adaptation of "The First Year," Broadway comedy success of the 1920-21 season. Original was penned and starred in by the late Frank Craven.
Play, an amusing little niece depicting the trials and adventures of a young couple during their first year of marriage, was overshadowed by some of the best acting, ably abetted by producer-director Edward Sobol, yet seen on a television screen. Stymied by the comparatively short rehearsal time allotted to the show, actors several times missed a cue or fluffed a line but covered up well in all instances through some line ad libbing. Michael Road, star of the show and currently playing the lead in the Broadway production of "Dear Ruth," forgot he wasn't on a legit stage in two spots and gave out with a few mild cuss words, which will undoubtedly, get some bad repercussions from the family audiences.
Despite his misdemeanors, however, Road walked off with acting honors, stealing every scene he was in. He evidently suffered under the bright video lights, though, several closeups catching him perspiring freely. Grace Livingston as the bride and W. O. McWatters as her understanding uncle who patched up the first fight between the couple topped, a uniformly good supporting cast.
Sobol, evidently still experimenting with the best way to bridge the gaps between the-acts in these full-length plays, came up with a new system. Second act shifted the locale from one city to another in Missouri, so Sobol rang in a few stock shots of Missouri landscape at intermission time to denote the fact. However, former system of flashing just the word "intermission” on the screen, with the setting for the next act, is still the best. (Variety, Jan. 16)
Monday, January 14
8:00 Feature Film: “Inside the Law” with Luana Wallers and Wallace Ford (RKO, 1943).
9:45 Boxing from St. Nicholas Arena. Cleo Shans vs. Pat Foley.
WCBW Channel 2
8:00-11:00 Silver Skates Finals from Madison Square Garden.
PLANS to dedicate the new Washington-New York coaxial cable line for television by televising President Truman delivering his State-of-the-Union address to Congress this week, were all but abandoned late last week as the White House indicated the President would send his message to Capitol Hill on Thursday.
President Truman originally planned to deliver his message in person and CBS, NBC and DuMont Labs. arranged to broadcast the occasion over their respective New York video stations, at the same time dedicating the new coaxial cable. Engineers last week made preliminary installations at the Capitol, but just before BROADCASTING went to press Charles G. Ross, White House secretary, said it was not expected that Mr. Truman would deliver his message to Congress in person. The President's annual budget message goes to Congress next Monday. (Broadcasting, Jan. 14)
Tuesday, January 15
WCBW Channel 2
8:00 News and Analysis.
8:15 “Variations on a Nursery Tune,” interpretation of music by Dohnanyi.
8:25 Motion Picture.
9:00 “The Missus Goes A-Shopping” with John Reed King.
Balaban & Katz
Reviewed Tuesday (15), 7:30 to 8:30 p.m. Style-News, magic, variety, Sustaining and commercial on WBKB, Chicago.
Just fair is the rating WBKB gets for its complete show tonight. Some parts deserved a better rating than that; others were not even fair. But the over-all average was just about fair-with plenty room for improvement noticeable often.
It was during the new WBKB sponsored program, Lee Phillips's Magic From Aladdin's Lamp, that the most need for improvement was seen. This first stanza of the new Phillips series proved that there is a place in video for magic, but not the way, it was presented tonight. Greatest mistake of all was having program open with a shot of Phillips's sponsor, owner of the Schwartz Radio & Television Company, telling the video audience about the new series, how happy he was to bank-roll it and even getting in a not-too-subtle plug for his company. After the sponsor had his say, Phillips appeared and went thru a routine of "summoning" his jinni, his femme assistant. For the "summoning" the station production staff figured out a video gimmick that was one of the best bits in the magic show. They took a shot of a lamp, similar to the one Aladdin is purported to have had a lot of fun with, put a piece of asbestos behind it, poured some rubber cement on the asbestos and lit the cement. This gave the impression the flames were coming out of the lamp. By a double dissolve they then super imposed a shot of the gal over the lamp, and it looked as tho she were coming out of the lamp. We believe, however, that it might have been better if Phillips himself would have appeared in this manner for the first shot of the act, instead of walking on cold after an introduction by the sponsor. Latter method would have more showmanship in it.
After the video special effects, Phillips Went thru a routine of tricks, most of which he did without comment—the only sound being that of recorded Oriental music. If Phillips is going to continue his practice he will have to use tricks even more simple than those he did tonight. Often what he was trying to do was not clear. If he wants to do complicated tricks he will have to explain them vocally.
Bob Ward, tonight's newscaster, did his usual good work with his ad lib discussion of current affairs. Some of Bob's discussion tonight was woven around the subject of economic inflation. During it, WBKB used a couple of video effects worthy of description. At one point, when the rising costs of products was being discussed, one of Bob's points was driven home by the use of an illustration on which piles of coins grew and grew in height. The rising of the coin piles effect was created by painting the coins on slips of cardboard of the same material as that on which the rest of the illustration was painted. The slips were then pulled up thru slits in the bottom and top of the illustration and the rising coin pile effect was created. Second effect was that used to illustrate the increase of bank and other savings in this country as a potential purchasing power. Pre-war savings were represented as a certain temperature on a thermometer. To show the increase of savings the temperature went up. This effect was created by painting a section of black on a white ribbon. This ribbon represented the glass tube section of the thermometer and passed thru the bottom and top of the thermometer base. Then as the ribbon was pulled down from the back its black section came up and it appeared as if the temperature was rising.
Final part of tonight's show was a philosophical chat by Bob Carter, "the friendly philosopher." Bob's work was good enough, but the station made one production mistake that was very apparent. Accompanying recorded music was not timed in advance with what Bob had to say. Thus, one record ended right in the middle of a letter Bob was reading and had to be started over again to provide background music until the end of the letter had been read. (Billboard, Jan. 26)
Chicago, Jan. 15.—Addition of five hours per week to sked of WBKB, Balaban & Katz Chi video outlet, rates that station top spot among the nation's video outlets for total hour live talent output. The move, which went into effect last week, was designed to aid video equipment manufacturers in the Chi area who are developing more efficient receivers and who will now have a daily program for engineering tests, it was announced by Capt. William C. Eddy. In the past, the outlet has made a station signal available for testing purposes to those companies which request it.
Under the 1945 schedule, WBKB aired shows Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday evenings from 7:15 until 8:30 p. in., with a Wednesday matinee from 2:45 until 4 p.m. This setup will remain unchanged under the new format. The additional five hours will be totalled on hour-long, five-a-week shots. Monday through Friday. With the added time an unprecedented figure of 11 hours a week of exclusively live-talent shows will be reached. No films are used as program supplements, largely because of cost and necessity of hiring union operators to handle projectors for what are still experimental purposes.
The majority of the new shows will be tryouts, both commercial and sustaining, with particular emphasis on new ideas for spot plugs. (Variety, Jan. 16)
FIRST FORUM program on Chicago television begins Jan. 15 over WBKB when Monte Randall, whose Chicago Speaks forum is heard Saturdays 2:30-3 p.m. over WJJD Chicago, will introduce Teletopics Forum.
Program was offered two weeks ago as an experimental test over WBKB with the debating society of the U. of Chicago discussing "Should We Reveal the Secret of the Atomic Bomb?" Results were so successful, it was explained, that WBKB officials included the program when the station on Jan.1 increased its television schedule to 11 hours. Mr. Randall will write and moderate the show, which is being considered for commercial sponsorship. (Broadcasting, Jan. 7)
Wednesday, January 16
WNBT Channel 1
8:00-9:30 Basketball from Madison Square Garden. NYU vs. Cornell; St. John’s vs. Syracuse.
WCBW Channel 2
7:45 News and analysis
8:00 Basketball from Madison Square Garden.
ELGIN WATCH Co., Elgin, Ill., on Jan. 16 starts video time signals on WCBW New York, CBS television station for thirteen week series. Twenty second time signals will be broadcast at 9 and 9:30 p.m. Wednesdays, placed through J. Walter Thompson Co., Chicago. (Broadcasting, Jan. 14)
Four shows from Washington will include, a "Know Your Government" forum, in which members of Congress and officials of Government bureaus will appear on video screens For the first tune to explain governmental procedures to the public. Two 15-minute news shows and a "one world" type program, in which reps of the various foreign governments in Washington will present problems and views of their countries to American viewing audiences, will round out the Washington pickups.
Among the N. Y.-originated shows for WABD will be a daily noontime program being handled by Anderson, Davis & Platte ad agency, backed by various sponsors. Saturday's edition of the series will feature Irene Wicker in a program designed especially for children. John Reed King will have two shows—his "King's Corner'" and "Thanks for Looking," latter an audience participation program in which King will interview various receiving set owners.
Other scheduled shows include "Magic Carpet," a travelogue sponsored, by the Alexander Smith Carpet Co.; "Lever Bros. Time," variety, being handled by Ruthrauff & Ryan; "Here's How," variety, sponsored by Supersuds and starring William Esty; "Fashions Coming and Becoming," handled by Y&R for Sanforized Products; “Magazine of the Air,” sponsored by U. S. Rubber through Campbell-Ewald; and "Thrills and Chills," a sustainer with Doug Allen, and probably the oldest video show in the country.
In addition, WABD will brordcast the "New York University Show," in which professors of the various schools of N. Y. U. will participate in an educational program, and also a religious service stanza in co-operation with the Federal Council of Churches. Latter two will be sustainers.
Cuff declared WABD would be broadcasting 28 hours of live shows per week by the middle of the summer, the minimum requirement for commercial video stations under FCC regulations. (Variety, Jan. 16)
Thursday, January 17
7:00 Children’s Program. Teletruth quiz.
7:20 Yale University Press American Historical Series: “Wolfe and Montcalm.”
7:42 Film: “Jeep Herders” with June Carlson, John Day (Planet, 1945).
8:30 Hockey at Madison Square Garden. Rangers vs. Boston.
WCBW Channel 2
8:00 Film.
8:20 Hockey at Madison Square Garden.
Friday, January 18
WNBT Channel 1
8:00 “In Town Today.”
8:15 “The World in Your Home.”
8:30 “Cavalcade of Sports” from Madison Square Garden.
10:30 Boxing at Madison Square Garden. Rocky Graziano vs. George “Sonny” Horne.
WCBW Channel 2
8:00 News with Tom O’Connor.
8:15 “Tales by Hoff,” modern picture version of “Hansel and Gretel” by cartoonist Sidney Hoff.
8:30 Film.
8:45-9:00 Iva Kitchell, modern dance program.
WNBT Channel 1
8:00 Film: “Raiders of the West” with Bill Boyd, Lee Powell (PRC, 1942).
Sunday, January 20
WNBT Channel 1
8:00 Newsreel.
8:15 Drama: “Angel Street,” with Judith Evelyn, Henry Daniell, Cecil Humphries.
"ANGEL STREET"
With Judith Evelyn, Henry Daniell, Cecil Humphreys, Florence Edney, Jetti Preminger
Adapted from play by Patrick Hamilton
Producer: Ernest Collins
Scenery: Bob Wade
Tech. Director: Al Protzman
90 Mins.; Sun. (20), 8:15 p.m.
Sustaining
WNBT-NBC, N. Y.
Disappointing acting of Judith Evelyn, the star, coupled with an overlong script, transformed what should have been one of the best full-length plays produced by WNBT into a ho-hum affair that bored most of the audience. Miss Evelyn, who portrayed the same lead role of Mrs. Manningham in the 1941-'42 Broadway production, was reportedly ill during the show, which might have caused her seeming ineptitude. Star rushed through her lines so rapidly her voice was inaudible at times, resulting in a caricature of the part, rather than a characterization. Rest of cast was good, with Cecil Humphreys, currently appearing on Broadway in "Pygmalion," outstanding as Detective Rough. Henry Daniell, member of the Broadway cast of "Winter's Tale," lent his role of Mr. Manningham some of the heavy acting that has made him a leading stage and screen villain. Florence Edney as the cook was sometimes too enthusiastic in her lines. Jetti Preminger was competent and decorative as the cockney maid.
Next to Miss Evelyn's indisposition, longevity of the show was its chief stumbling block. Lacking any action, the metier could have been just as effective as a radio presentation, without the added sight provided by television. And former radio versions have been excellent in their 30 minutes to one-hour format.
Some interesting camera shots, such as the one of Daniell reflected from a mirror, attested to the experienced hand of producer Ernie Colling. With such a small cast, however. Colling should have used more closeups. Bob Wade's excellent set added to the show's rich production mountings. (Variety, Jan. 23)
Angel Street
Reviewed Sunday (20), 8:15 to 9:45 p.m. Style—Drama. Sustaining over WNBT (NBC), New York.
This evening NBC continued on its course of producing Sunday night entertainment guaranteed to give the little kiddies nightmares. Let us, however, in reviewing it, forget the little kiddies and conclude that they have all been sent to bed (try to do it sometime when the television receiver is on).
Shepard Traube’s production of Patrick Hamilton’s play of suspense makes top air-pic material and Ernest Colling did another of his almost ideal scannings. Camera work was Hollywood or better and the set and costumes were what any director might order. Here was a stage success cut to an hour and a half, without the loss of a single effect. The play still has a number of holes in it as The Billboard commented on its opening night, December 5, 1941, but the acting of Judith Evelyn and Henry Daniels (in the part originated by Vincent Price which he also played on Broadway) did a job that had all the pacing of the original Shep Traube direction. Evelyn has not the most telegenic face in the world but she made you forget that with her performance, Cecil Humphrey’s Detective Rough was finely etched and even on those telling close-ups he never once made you forget that he was anything but the man Rough.
This was a faithful camera reporting job embellished by some imaginative mirror shots and close-ups brought all the horror of the play right into the home.
Credit the entire cast with top drawer performances. That goes for the leads already mentioned as well as Florence Edney and Jetti Preminger, the two maids. Ernest Colling, also as credited before, caught the spirit of the play and held it on camera. Bob Wade did a top paint brush job and Al Protzman, technical assist, was beyond reproach.
The video version of Angel Street was just as sock as the footlight presentation and it mustn’t be forgotten that the latter ran for many years. It was all okay—with just that reminder to NBC that if it continues to scare the younger generation out of a year’s growth on Sunday nights we’ll have a nation of dwarfs looking in shortly. (Billboard, Jan. 26)
Monday, January 21
WNBT Channel 18:00 Film: “The Dawn Express” with Michael Whalen and Anne Nagel (PRC, 1942).
9:04 Televues.
9:15 Boxing at St. Nicholas Arena. Coley Welsh vs. Jerry Fiorello.
Don Lee
Reviewed Monday (21), 8:30 p.m. Style—Interview, dance, film. Sustaining on W6XAO, Hollywood.
Home viewers found little that was eye-worthy in this offering. Show consisted of 60-minute pic Jeep Herders, G.I. interview boosting army enlistments, and ballroom dance sequence.
Jeep Herders deserves mention only because it is first full-length flicker to be produced on 18mm. Corny plot and players okay for roadshow circuits, but definitely is not video fare. Fact film was in color didn't prove too much of a handicap, altho image was on contrasty side. Sixteen mm. sound isn’t too hot, and in this case below par.
G.I. interview intended to show why re-enlistments are needed for occupation forces. Cause is good, but presentation dull.
In dance portion, ballroom instructors gave G.I.'s tips on latest Latin American steps. Fem terp teachers sparked with much needed eye-appeal, but sequence fizzled when lensers faller to center subjects close-ups of feet in action. Good idea, if only camera could be rid of fuzzy linage.
On the whole, tonight's show lacked professional touch and wouldn't make the average guy want to run down and buy a video receiver. Best on the bill was emcee Johnnie Courtier, who can pitch pleasing patter.(Billboard, Feb. 2)
Tuesday, January 22
WCBW Channel 2
8:00 News and Analysis.
8:15 “Tales to Remember” tales of Americana with Milton Bacon.
8:30 Motion Picture.
9:00 “The Missus Goes A-Shopping” with John Reed King.
Balaban & Katz
Reviewed Tuesday (22), 7:30 to 8:45 p.m. Style—News, drama, variety, interview. Sustaining and commercial on WBKB, Chicago.
The fact that there is a place in video for the fens interview on the man on the street show that has enjoyed a certain popularity In radio was proved on WBKB's program tonight. Proof was presented by Tommy Bartlett, veteran conductor of radio chatter and interview shows, who was making his first appearance on television. As he does in his radio program, Tommy got some fat and fortyish matrons and asked them leading, bordering on the risque, questions about their married lives, when said how they met their husbands, etc. Altho the questions and answers were of a low intelligence level, the antics of Bartlett and the fems made for many laughs. Net result was that, for sheer entertainment, Bartlett's routine was better than the singing, magic and drama on the rest of the show, and more attention -holding than the newscast that kicked off the night's offering.
Tommy had a natural assistant in the person of Gil Lamb, movie comedian, for the climax of his show, titled Meet the Stars. Lamb provided just the needed amount of glamour to make the gals shy and giggly, and thus added additional laughs. One good thing about this type of program for video is that it requires little production and special effects. As long as the cameras are focused on the interviewer and interviewees most of the time, and on the audience of gals in the studio once in a while, and as long as the conductor makes his questions the type that provoke laugh-giving answers, a good video show will result.
In direct contrast to Bartlett's program as an entertaining routine was the singing of Betty O'Neal. Miss O'Neal had a voice of little quality and no camera presence. The production staff didn't help, either, by putting her in front of a dark-spotted background that blended with her dark hair. Mark this portion of the program as a total failure.
Not much better was the amateur theatrical efforts of Chi's Jack and Jill Players who presented a one-act play titled The Bracelet. The story was built on a series of circumstances in which a schoolgirl is suspected, and then cleared, of having taken another gal's diamond bracelet. The story was inane, and the acting so amateurish that it made the members of the audience feel uncomfortable.
While we're talking about objectionable parts of tonight's show, we ought to mention a slide WBKB used between two segments of the show. The station uses these slides between scene changes separating various programs. This is necessary because the station has only one studio, does not use film, and thus between scene changes can do little else. Some of the slides such as "Intermission" and "One Moment, Please" do the job and are not too corny. But one used tonight we find pointless—and corny. This to the one which reads "We're Stalling, and You Know It." The station staff is not stalling during these intermission periods. An important function, necessitated by unavoidable circumstances, is being performed, and we see no reason why the station should give its audience the impression staff members are all out for a smoke.
Lee Phillips's Magic From Aladdin's Lamp was a little better than its initial program last week (The Billboard, January 26), but there still is plenty of room for improvement. Most of Lee's tricks were easier to follow. Many a viewer must have wondered, however, if he were not being hoaxed during one portion of the show. What looked like a hoax was that portion in which Phillips attempted to visualize a design on a piece of paper in a sealed envelope. The design was sent in by an audience member to the store of Phillips's sponsor. Tonight was the first time this idea was used and requests that other viewers send in designs in the future was plugged heavily, because the idea is a natural merchandising stunt. Bad part of the whole idea was the way in which it was handled. While Lee was holding the sealed envelope up to his head, purportedly to visualize its contents, the camera was on his assistant and on a blackboard on which she was drawing the design as Phillips called it out. But the fact that the camera was not on Phillips most of the time gave one the suspicion that he could have opened the envelope and looked at its contents while the camera was focused elsewhere. If magic is to go over in television, production staffs will have to be careful they do nothing that looks as phoney as this did. (Variety, Feb. 2)
WNBT Channel 1
8:00 Feature Film: “Prisoner of Japan” with Gertrude Michael and Alan Baxter (PRC, 1942).
WCBW Channel 2
8:00 News and analysis
8:15 “You Be the Judge,” famous lawsuits re-enacted.
8:35 Film: “Love From a Stranger” with Ann Harding and Basil Rathbone (1937).
John Reed King's "Missus Goes A-Shopping," sustaining feature for the last two years on the Tuesday night 8 to 8:30 p.m. slot WCBW (CBS. N. Y.), gives way next Tuesday (29) to a new King show titled "It's a Gift." Program, set for 13 weeks, has been moved up to the 8:30 to 9 p.m. spot, and it's understood that several sponsors are interested.
Show will have a different formal from the original King feature, including a new mascot King is now auditioning cats to find a replacement for the duck that waddled around after him on the "Misses" show. Involving a new audience participation twist, the program will take place in a gift shop.
WCBW has also scheduled "Sorry, Wrong Number" for airing next Wednesday (30). Half-hour sketch, penned by Lucille Fletcher, won unusual kudus as one of the best mystery scripts of the year, was revived several times on the air and was featured in a Life mag spread several weeks ago.
Judith Evelyn, former star of the Broadway production of "Angel Street," who performed the same role in the video version of the play Sunday night (20) over WNET (NBC. N. Y.), was originally skedded for the lead in the "Wrong Number" sketch. Illness caused the star to cancel out, however, and WCBW execs are currently looking for a suitable replacement.
John Houseman, currently directing "Lute Song," legit production due into N. Y. in the near future, will do the preliminary direction on the video piece, turning it over then to a WCBW producer for the ultimate airing. (Variety, Jan. 23)
Thursday, January 24
7:00 Children’s Program. Teletruth quiz.
7:30 Yale University Press American Historical Series: “Eve of the Revolution.”
7:42 Film: “The Lone Rider and the Bandit” with George Houston, Fuzzy St. John, Dennis (Smoky) Moore (PRC, 1942).
Walk With Me
Reviewed Thursday (24), 8:30 to 9p.m. Style—Drama. Sustaining over WBKB, Chicago.
The local Stage for Action group brought its production of Walk With Me to the video medium with effective results. Written by Playwright Arthur Laurents, originally as a radio drama and then done by the group as a stage playlet, the adaptation of Walk lent itself well to video. Skit was produced and directed by WBKB's Beulah Zachary, who got most of the good out of station's limited facilities. Cast was headed by personable young Mark Perkins, who turned in a creditable acting job. Remainder of talent was cast well to type and worked hard in a medium not yet mastered.
Show deals with the problems of are turning crippled veteran's psychological reactions to a civilian World. Andy (played by Perkins) resents being pitied by his friends and goes into seclusion out of which his sweetheart (Madelle Krathley) tries in vain to draw hint. However, first step toward re-establishing the vet is taken by his former employer (Dick Shankland), who convinces him of the necessity of returning to his factory job, which he could handle despite his infirmity, Andy returns, the love situation is straightened out with the gal friend, and the play ends on a promising note for the future.
WBKB seems to have definitely entered a new phase of dramatic production with this play. Even tho spotty in places, due probably to having only two rehearsals prior to the telecasting, the play is probably one of the best to emerge from the local tele station. At least, it is very pro and seems to indicate that B. K. is getting ready for bigger and better things.
Dramatic intensity was considerably heightened above that of the stage production in that video techniques were used to good advantage. Effect of one, two and three stars shown on combat ribbons was particularly neat tele, use of an effective, mellow-voiced narrator also helped. Not much fault can be found with technical end of the production. Lighting, dissolves, etc., worked along smoothly.
Play as whole, makes for fine understanding of the returning wounded vets, particularly those with inferiority complexes caused by their ailments, and should be seen by more American wives, sweethearts and mothers. Whether or not it would alter their attitudes toward the boys is debatable, but at least it wouldn't do the slightest bit of harm. Of such stuff is good propaganda fashioned. (Billboard, Feb. 2)
Friday, January 25
WNBT Channel 1
8:00 “In Town Today.”
8:15 “The World in Your Home.”
8:30 “Cavalcade of Sports.”
9:30 Boxing at St. Nicholas Arena. Chalky White vs. Pedro Firpo.
WCBW Channel 2
8:00 News with Tom O’Connor.
8:15 “Choreotones” modern dance series.
8:30 Film.
8:45 “Draw Me Another” with Gurney Williams and cartoonists.
"TOPSY-TURVY QUIZ"With Frances Scott, emcee
Producer-director: Harvey Marlowe
Asst. director: Robbie Henry
Tech. director: Edith Kelly
30 Mins.; Fri. (25), 7:30 p.m.
Sustaining
WRGB—ABC, Schenectady
Judging by the ultra standards embodied in "Topsy-Turvy Quiz," New York television audiences are in for some fine treats when and if the FCC assigns the ABC (Blue) network a commercial video channel in N. Y. Lacking its own studio facilities, the web's television department has been staging shows at other studios for the last year under the overall supervision of Paul Mowrey and seems to have learned the secret of what makes for a good show.
An audience participation program utilizing the already-proved radio gimmick of offering expensive gifts to the participants, "Quiz" was entertaining from start to finish. As its name implies, everything on the show was done backwards, from the opening shot of an announcer signing off to the final fadeout with the words, "the beginning," painted on the posterior of two of the performers. Giving full rein to her imagination, Frances Scott, emcee and writer, used such novel stunts to further the show's theme as running in film upside down, paving the participants in cash first and then taking the coin back if they couldn't answer the $64 questions, etc.
An experienced radio emcee, Miss Scott was equally adept with the video medium, handling the audience with finesse, getting off some good ad libs and keeping the entire works moving fast. Producer-director Harvey Marlowe used his cameras to full advantage, catching all the zany antics of Miss Scott and the participants and then switching over to pick up the ooh's and ah's of the studio audience as the participant returned to his seat to show off his gift.
Throughout the show, two characters ran through the audience searching for a "rosnops" (sponsor)—and this is one television show for which any sponsor could be assured of a wide viewing audience. It was good noisivelet. (Variety, Jan. 30)
Two major radio networks, National Broadcasting Company and Columbia Broadcasting System, announced yesterday [25] that their television studios will be closed during March for technical alterations.
This will leave the city without television broadcasts for March unless Du Mont’s Station WABD, which has been off the air since Sept. 15, completes its new $400,000 “television city” in the John Wanamaker store, Broadway at Ninth Street, during that period.
WABD May Be Ready
This was considered a good possibility yesterday by Leonard F. Cramer, executive vice-president of Allen B. Du Mont Laboratories, owners of Station WABD. “With good luck the studios should be ready in March,” he said.
The N. B. C. television station, WNBT, and the C. B. S. station, WCBW, will shut down to make changes in channel frequencies, assigned by the Federal Communications Commission and to make plans for bringing their television broadcasts up to the twenty-eight-hour weekly minimum recently set by the F. C. C.
Station WNBT has been broadcasting an average of eighteen hours weekly and Station WCBW about half that time, spokesmen for the stations said yesterday. Both stations, it was learned, are planning to use remote pick-up equipment to broadcast special events, such as boxing matches and basketball games, to bring their broadcasting time up to the required minimum.
To Begin With 24-Hour Schedule
Mr. Cramer said the Du Mont studios in the Wanamaker store will begin operation on the twenty-eight hour schedule and gradually build up to a forty-two hour week.
The converted Wanamaker auditorium will be the world’s largest television studio, he said, measuring 50 by 50 feet, with a 50-foot ceiling. Two smaller studios will flank the main studio and all will have glass-paneled control rooms. A balcony around the perimeter of the main studio will provide space for 700 spectators. The huge Wanamaker concert organ will be used, said Mr. Cramer, since the console is mobile. (Herald Tribune, Jan. 26)
Radio station KFI has begun work on its television station on Mt Wilson, the company announced today.
Twelve other stations have obtained sites on the mountain which, it is believed, will become one of the great television centers at the world.
The KFI Installation win be known as Earle C. Anthony, Inc. (radio division) Frequency Modulation and Television Transmitter station. Its offices are at 141 N. Vermont Ave and William B. Ryan is the manager.
Kemper Nomland, 2246 Navarro Ave., Altadena, was the architect. (Hollywood Citizen-News, Jan. 25)
WNBT Channel 1
8:00 Film: “Men of San Quentin” with J. Anthony Hughes, Eleanor Stewart (PRC, 1942).
HOLLYWOOD, Jan. 26.—Television Production's W6XYZ (Paramount), off the air since mid-December during construction of station's Mount Wilson transmitter, resumes operations February 1 and will start programing around February 15. First couple of weeks in February will be used mostly in testing new equipment.
Klaus Landsberg, director, told The Billboard that he hopes to step up his former two-a-week schedule to three shows per week, and that W6XYZ will be on a five or six-night-a-week schedule by midsummer.
Landsberg has installed a 4-k.w. tele transmitter and will start air-pix operations on its new FCC frequency, 76 to 82 megacycles. In the meantime, Don Lee's W6XAO will go off the air February 18 to adjust equipment for its new frequency assignment of 54 to 60 megacycles. Ou[t]let will resume shows March 4. (Billboard, Feb. 2)
Sunday, January 27
WNBT Channel 1
8:00 Newsreel.
8:15 Music and Dance Miniature—feature studio presentation.
9:00 Hockey at Madison Square Garden. Rangers vs. Detroit.
Monday, January 28
8:00 Film: “Today I Hang” with Mona Barrie, Walter Woolf King (PRC, 1942).
9:15 Boxing at St. Nicholas Arena. Tony Pellone vs. Maxie Shapiro.
NBC LAST WEEK announced it would undertake a permanent series of educational telecasts, the first in television's history, beginning the week of April 7. John F. Royal, NBC vice president in charge of television, said the series, to be called Your World Tomorrow, would be produced with the cooperation of the NBC University of the Air and would deal with the fields of physical sciences. To test the effectiveness of the series upon youthful audiences the New York City Board of Education will conduct student groups to see the weekly telecasts in NBC's reviewing room. NBC reported the educational telecasts would probably be set for 2:30-3:30 p.m. Thursdays each week, but the day is still tentative. Mr. Royal said that among sub-jects to be shown in the early tele-casts would be "The Mighty Atom," "Jet Propulsion," and "Huff-Duff, the Radio Detective," the latter a high-frequency direction finder used by the U. S. Navy to hunt subs. (Broadcasting, Jan. 28)
Still has designed a complete but compact studio using two video cameras and a complete audio system for both live and transcribed sound. Sales programs will be scanned at half-hour intervals (as they were at Gimbel's in Philadelphia) and sked calls for three general entertainment shows daily, four 10-minute merchandising pitches and three three-minute spot commercials.
Still will also throw in public service scannings at the rate of one a day as well as the other presentations. Miriam Tulin, one of Ed Cole's Yale drama students, will be responsible for the programing and among the promised stars are Pearl Primus, Bambi Linn (Carousel) and Ray Harrison (On the Town).
Deal here is to prove that video can work in a store and town of medium-size. (Billboard, Feb. 2)
Tuesday, January 29
WCBW Channel 2
8:00 News and Analysis.
8:15 Motion Picture.
8:30 Premiere: “It’s a Gift,” comedy-audience participation show with John Reed King
9:00 Motion Picture.
Hollywood, Jan. 29.—Operation of Paramount's television station W6XYZ resumes on Feb. 1 from atop Mt. Wilson after a two-month layoff. Station was non-operative since Dec. 6, when transfer to peak was begun. Installation of new transmitter, tower, building, etc., is complete now and only minor details remain to be ironed out before four-kilowatt video venture preems.
Assignment of new frequency for broadcasting on 76 to 82 megacycles is expected this week from the Federal Communications Commission. Station will operate two to three days of the week at first. This will be increased until full-week schedule is realized in the Spring. With increased power and elevation of antennae, outlet anticipates greatly expanded coverage of southern California.
Shows will originate at Paramount studios and be relayed to station. Also a receiver will be installed in Hollywood Paramount theatre to showcase operation and ballyhoo. When and if application for commercial operation is received from FCC, call letters will be changed to KTLA. (Variety, Jan. 30)
Wednesday, January 30
8:00 Musical Drama: “Children of Old Man River” with Buddy Pepper, Lillian Cornell.
9:30 Film: “The River,” narrated by Thomas Chalmers (US Govt. 1938).
WCBW Channel 2
8:00 News and analysis
8:15 Film.
8:30-9:00 “Sorry, Wrong Number,” drama with Mildred Natwick.
"CHILDREN OF OL' MAN RIVER"
With Lillian Cornell, Buddy Pepper, Mary Scott, Tony Blair, Eda Heineman, W. O. MacWatters, Tom Fletcher's Quartet, Alan Hall Trio, Walter's Octet
Adapted from Walter Richards radio script by Charles Kaufman, Warren Wade
Producer-director: Warren Wade
Tech. director: Reid Davis
Scenery: Bob Wade
50 Mins.; Wed. (30), 4 p.m.
Sustaining
WNBT-NBC, N. Y.
Based on the autobiography of Billy Bryant, old-time Mississippi showboat man. "Children" was an elaborate, but highly amusing satire of the showboat era. Running slightly less than one hour, the show presented several vaudeville acts, a minstrel show, scenes from "Uncle Tom's Cabin" and "Ten Nights in a Barroom," all closely knit around the story of Bryant's rise to fame from his Mississippi showboat to Broadway. Directorial hand of Warren Wade, himself a former legit stock actor and now WNBT program director, was clearly discernible in the wonderfully nostalgic way the actors went through their paces in the old mellers, with the broad gestures, exaggerated dialog, etc., all played for full effects.
Bryant himself, appearing on a television screen for the first time as a special feature of the Wednesday afternoon (30) show for the press, attested to the fine dancing and acting of Buddy Pepper, who played Bryant in the show, with "I couldn't have done better myself." Lillian Cornell, as Josephine, made all the love scenes with Pepper look authentic and pleased the audience with a beautiful rendition of "Lover Come Back to Me." Supporting cast, topped by Mary Scott as Flo Bryant, was excellent.
Adding to the show's quality were Bob Wade's four sets, superior to even his usual top-drawer par. Warren Wade worked in some old filmed stock shots for good effects, presaging the part the integration of motion pictures with live talent will some day play. Camera work, on the whole, was good. (Variety, Feb. 6)
Children of Ol' Man River
Review Wednesday (30), 8-8:50 p.m. Style—Drama with old-time vaudeville. Sustaining over WNBT (NBC), New York. Credit NBC with producing its most elaborate video seg for a preview of a Cavalcade of America broadcast based upon Billy Bryant's story of showboat life. The camera work and the performances of a large cast were indicative of hours and hours of productive work. Buddy Pepper as Billy Bryant and Lillian Cornell as Josephine were just what they were supposed to be—Billy, a fresh, not too talented song-and-dance man of a river showboat, and Josephine, a small-town gal, with curves in the right places and a desire to be part of the show world. You should have heard the wolves as the camera caught a shot of Josephine with a low-cut dress and, and and .. .
Mary Scott as Billy Bryant's younger sister was in the spirit of the showboat saga, as was Tony Blair as Pa Bryant and Eda Heineman as Ma Bryant. You were there—Main Stem.
If there were any negatives (and there were, of course) they might have been found in the fact that the scanning tried to crowd in too much in a short 50 minutes and instead of telling the human story of the Valley Belle showboat family, leaned too heavily on so-called show boat attractions, Ten Nights in a Barroom, Bryant's Old-Time Minstrels and "polite" vaudeville between the acts. It also scanned the film shots of the showboat on the river too often and at too much length, altho there were plenty of reasons why, in the number of scene changes that had to be made in NBC's vest-pocket video studio.
Production-wise there were no negatives on this presentation. As usual, however, the scripting was less well conceived that it could have been. If as much attention had been spent on the lines of Billy and Josephine, as was spent on the camera work, this would have been a milestone in television history. As it was, it indicated what NBC can do camera wise. Once again the first network in video proved why it's first.
Some of the cross and back lighting did such a terrific job that there was at times a feeling of depth on the screen that's seldom hoped for at the present development of the "art."
Naturally The Billboard felt a personal interest in a story of Billy Bryant, who spent many a day around BB's home office. Billy was as much a part of the Queen City's showlife as The Billboard and he found his wife thru an ad in its pages. Naturally, also, it had its fingers crossed about viewing the scanning. But all was well. The production was top drawer. The camera handling was tight and the lighting was nothing short of a miracle when it's realized what the boys have to work with.
Check DuPont; Batten, Barton, Durstine & Osborn, and NBC video for a swell experiment well done—everything but the wordage. Three deep bows to Warren Wade, director. Double that for the technical job of Reid Davis. On the side of the settings give Bob Wade credit for doing an almost superhuman job of designing settings in a thimble. The boys didn't play while the cat (John Royal, NBC video v.-p.) was away on the Coast—they did him proud with Children of Ol' Man River. (Billboard, Feb. 9)
NEW YORK, Feb. 9.—DuPont's video promotion, the scanning of the air pic version of Billy Bryant's book, The Children of Ol’ Man River, cost the sponsor just one cocktail party at the Stork Club. All the other costs, actual show, newspaper advertising, throwaways and flacking were all paid for by National Broadcasting Company—and the cost was plenty.
Deal cooked for a considerable length of time and grew, say Batten, Barton, Durstine & Osborn, ad-agency execs, out of desire of Mary Wright, flack handling DuPont's Cavalcade of America sound airings, to find a different excuse for a press drinking session. With others in BBD&O org, she "dis- covered" the plans to do the Bryant story and intrigued NBC's television department with the idea of scanning the same script that would be broadcast. Idea was okayed and grew until it became one of the "big things" on the NBC video eked with one closed circuit scanning and two airings. Idea of throw-aways in typical showboat fashion was conceived by Charlotte Stern, who does the video promotion for Charles Hammong, NBC ad-promotion boss. Stern sold the idea and then ran into snags on getting them printed on time and BBD&O had them printed, at NBC's expense.
Time, Production on Cuff
Program was handled as a straight commercial but the time as well as the production was cuffed. Plenty of kudos went to both agency and web for the pitch altho crix who saw the air pic and heard the sound airing noted that the scripts were not the same, with the pic Bryant being a guy who was conscious of his limitations and the broadcast Bryant a braggard. Agency explanation of this was that the pic was "starless" and airing had to be "tailored to the 'names' on the program."
A number of other NBC sponsors observing the space that DuPont snagged with the deal are dishing up their own pitch for a like cuffs set-up. Several of these will be ready to present to NBC's v.-p. in charge of television when he returns from the coast.(Billboard, Feb. 16)
"SORRY, WRONG NUMBER"
With Mildred Natwick, G. Swayne Gordon, Esther Sommers, Ruth Gilbert, Gilbert Mack, Dulcie Cooper, Maxine Stuart, Dayton Lummis, Leonard Barry, Ruth Ford
Writer: Lucille Fletcher
Directors: John Houseman, Nick Ray, Frances Buss, Lucille Hudiburg
Cameras: Martin Steinberg, Ralph Warren
30 Mins., Wed (30), 8:30 p.m.
Sustaining
CBS' video presentation last Wednesday (30) of the oft-repeated thriller "Sorry, Wrong Number" may or may not have been, as claimed, the first time television had brought highly skilled Hollywood directorial talent into its studios. But it was certainly the most successful instance of the blending of top-drawer film artistry with a live video performance. And it paid off handsomely.
Lucille Fletcher's "Wrong Number" is an exciting little psychological drama that builds powerfully toward its climax, with each peak of suspense topped by another emotional cliff-hanger in quick succession. On the air, the Lava Soap "Suspense" show did the Fletcher number three times. It was a challenge, therefore, to see what television could do with this play. CBS, with full confidence in its own production people, nevertheless went out to experiment. It brought John Houseman, Paramount director-producer, into the studio to tackle "Wrong Number." Houseman and his assistant, Nick Ray, rehearsed the cast, stepping into the background to let the regular staff directors, Frances Buss, assisted by Lucille Hudiburg, put the actors and technicians through their paces for the actual airing.
Artistically, the results were very satisfactory. The video end of the show enjoyed the kind of cutting and, as a result, pacing and speed, that not only suited the drama on hand, but also showed an amount of film skill not ordinarily seen on the television screen. Considering, as one always must, the short reheasal period and the condition of the equipment, the show was tops. Of course, one Houseman doesn't make a Summer. Television could use much, much more Hollywood talent. And Houseman himself would, undoubtedly, insist that just as he and his kind have something to contribute to television—so have they much to learn about its mastery. But CBS did start something new production-wise with this stanza, and the fact is worth noting.
It's also worth remembering that this experiment could not have gone through successfully without skilful cooperation from the regular directors and cameramen on the CBS staff. Finally, directors are worthless and cameramen nil without a cast that knows its business. Fortunately, Mildred Natwick was a sock selection for the star role of the neurotic dame in the play. And the rest of the cast supported her with everything they had, which was adequate enough. Cars. (Variety, Feb. 6)
“PLAY THE GAME”
With Harvey Zourbaugh, Ireen [sic] Wicker, Vic Hammer, Willard Mullen, Charlotte Adams, Alan Chedzey, others
Producer-Director: Harvey Marlowe
40 Mins.; Wed., [30] 7:20 p.m.
Sustaining
WRGB-ABC, Schenectady
Paul Mowrey, ABC's tele manager, and Harvey Marlowe, director, have been responsible for some original and extremely diverting video contributions with a series of audience participation shows over the GE station in Schenectady. Newest of their contributions is "Play the Game," a video version of the parlor game, charades, with a group of intelligent and sober-minded citizens as participants. Perhaps that's where it's [sic] chief fault lies.
People like Harvey Zourbaugh, an NYU professor; Charlotte Adams, the food expert; Ireen Wicker, the singing lady and others in that economic bracket, aren't essentially the type that will completely let their hair down publicly and go in for the zany contortions that would comprise boff tele.
All act as good sports about the whole thing but there's that polite party manner that isn't sufficient for video needs in the present stage of development.
Show would also have done better with running time cut to the usual 30 minutes. As it is there was time for around 20 charades along with song interludes by Miss Wicker and Vic Hammer, owner of the Hammer Art Galleries, whose avocation is Russian songs with his own guitar accompaniment.
Modus operandi of layout has listeners sending in charades to be acted out for which they get a small sum, and a fin if the panel doesn't catch on. Studio audience is also allowed to act out several charades and in several outside viewers are permitted to phone in the answer for prizes.
On the production end, Marlowe has endowed the show with a nice party setting and created the setup to give the show pace. However, usually careful GE technical work wasn't up to usual par. and many ideas were snafued with participants running in front of the lenses and switches to other camera while in the midst of panning across the set. Jose. (Variety, Feb. 6)
Thursday, January 31
7:00 “Teletruth,” children’s quiz.
7:30 Yale University Press American Historical Series: “Declaration of Independence.”
7:45 Feature film: “Along the Sundown Trail” with Bill Boyd, Lee Powell.
Balaban & Katz
Reviewed Thursday (31), 7:30 to 8:45 p.m. Style—News, interview, variety. Sustaining on WBKB, Chicago.
Just about fair was the over-all program rating earned by results of WBKB production staffers tonight. At only a few points were there improvements over previous shows. Very little of the program could be called good. Plenty of it could be called bad.
The night's offering consisted of news by Don Ward; singing by Carole Dillon; interview of famed Chi restaurateur, Ricardo, by Carl Guldager, Chicago Daily News columnist; dance routine of Louise Vlasak and Russ Ledger; golf lessons by Packy Walsh, Chicago Park Board pro, and an Elgin Watch Company spot announcement. In very little of this was there anything indicating that television will satisfy the millions who are purported to be waiting anxiously for the chance to buy video sets.
The only mitigating statement that could be said about the entertainment-lacking singing of Carole Dillon would be that she is only 12 years old. She demonstrated, also, that she could sing in a very high voice and a low register usually used by fem adult singers. But neither of her voices was much good.
The interview of Ricardo was one of the better parts of tonight's program. Ricardo, one of the city's most colorful personalities and a nationally known artist and friend of the esoteric, is either entertaining, philosophical, comical or instructive whenever he speaks. Tonight, at various times, he demonstrated all of these qualities. Interest was added to his discussion of his art collection by the telecasting some of the object d'art he owns.
Before the Ricardo interview, the station used one of its improvements over preceeding [sic] programs. In the past, as has been noted by reviews in these columns many times, the station merely played music and telecast an intermission slide between program divisions. They have left to chance possibility of getting back to the video receivers members of their audience who went out for a short beer during intermission music. Tonight, however, during early part of intermission, an announcer outlined what was to come after the intermission, and near the end of the break he let the audience know that the program was to resume, thus, undoubtedly, getting back to their receivers many members of the audience who otherwise would have missed some of the show when it began again.
In the rest of the show Vlasak and Ledger did a routine built around the dances of the South American continent. Packy Walsh tried to teach Angel Casey a few rudimentary points about the game of golf. These segments of the program were hardly worth comment—especially in these days of continued paper shortage. (Billboard, Feb. 9)
Actor/author Mary Orr, star of the production on the 6th, also wrote the short story that became the basis for ALL ABOUT EVE.
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