DuMont is back on the air!
It’s mid-April 1946, and WABD has moved into new studios in Wanamaker’s Department Store in Manhattan. New York’s other commercial stations, NBC’s WNBT and CBS’ WCBW, were still changing frequencies as ordered by the FCC, though “Paley-Vision” returned at the end of the month.
DuMont’s programming deal with WNEW radio seems to have expired, but WABD continued to air shows put together by ABC. That situation wouldn’t change until WJZ-TV signed on in 1948.
On this blog, we’ve avoided going into the constant dispute between CBS/Colour/UHF and NBC/Black-and-White/VHF. The two companies were taking out full-page trade ads boasting of the superiority of their system over the other. The battle carried on into the ‘50s when the FCC, after several years of hearings and appeals, made a decision on what was to be acceptable. It had an effect on sales and programming this month, so we’ve included a story about it.
You’ll also read below of applicants pulling out of the license process. One trade tries to cut through the colour propaganda about it.
The New York papers that gave TV listings didn’t publish what was in the test programming for the first half of April 1946. They resumed with the opening of DuMont’s new studios and have had daily schedules ever since.
We point out three names in the reviews below. Dennis James had returned from military duty and was on the air. In Chicago, a radio actor named Don Herbert appeared on camera, the same Don Herbert who became TV’s “Mr. Wizard.” And the trades reviewed the debut of a series of live plays by students at Northwestern University in Chicago. You show know one of the cast members. This was the first television appearance of a young war vet who later plugged Philip Morris cigarettes on the first season of “I Love Lucy,” but you know him for the words “Flintstone, you’re fired!” and “I would have gotten away with it if weren’t for those meddling kids and that dog!” Included in the cast in that debut show in 1946 was John Stephenson.
Monday, April 1
Don Lee
Don Lee set the television clock back at least five years with tonight's performance. Entire show was a hodgepodge thrown together with apparent abandon, and resulted in nothing more than a painful experience.
Time has come for W6XAO to take stock and determine once and for all its future place in the tele industry. If the Don Lee interests are serious about building a foundation in anticipation of commercial video, then it's high time the outlet presented shows worth the banner of commercial tele. To date, with rare exceptions (such as last broadcast when station did a first rate job) the offerings of W6XAO have ranged from poor to fair, rarely deviating from a path of mediocre tele production.
Tonight's airer was nothing more than a time filler, and a poor one indeed. It had all the unfortunate elements that go toward the making of poor video segs, including bad writing, poor production, little dramatic import and careless camera work. Same faults that have marked past video sessions plagued this one, which revealed no progress—technically or otherwise.
At present, outlet is only transmitting several hours on alternate Mondays. But one of these fine days, the station is going to have to put out 28 hours of tele weekly. From present indications, W6XAO isn't prepared in the least to regularly achieve anything approaching good air-pix. Choice is clear—a determined effort to improve technique, production and programing is needed—or Don Lee is going to be caught with its transmitters down—watching the tele world go by.
How long must Hollywood wait for tele? The East and Midwest are apparently way ahead of the West Coast . . . and time is marching on. (Variety, Apr. 13)
Thursday, April 4
The Far-Off Hills
Reviewed Thursday (4), 8 to 9:15 p.m. Drama presented by students of Northwestern University. Sustaining on WBKB, Chicago.
If the cynics who say that drama will never have a prominent place in future video programing because of its high cost could have seen this program, they would have seen a concrete refutation of their premise. They would have seen that drama to be entertaining does not have to be gigantic in its scope nor grandoise [sic] in its planning.
Tonight's program using students of Northwestern University was the first of six per year that WBKB will present. Vehicle was adapted for television after having been presented by members of Northwestern School of Speech on the university campus. Campus stage version was based on The Far-Off Hills, play written by Lennox Robinson and made famous by the Abbey Players of Dublin. Campus play took about two hours for its complete performance. WBKB adaptation, which was slightly rewritten by Edward Crowley, Northwestern director and Lorraine Larson, WBKB staff member who produced the video airing, took about one hour and fifteen minutes for its telecasting.
Plot never had more than five performers on one set, and that made it good for video too, because it allowed all the action to come into the scope of one camera, eliminating distracting camera changes and tricky pans or roll ins. Story concerned the lives of an Irish family composed of a father who has gone almost blind, his daughter who wants to enter the convent but can't because she has to take care of her two younger sisters following the death of their mother, the way in which the young girls get their father remarried to a life-long friend, and how the eldest daughter finally foresakes the convent to marry an up and coming young townsman. Thruout, character depiction by the spoken word was emphasized more than action, and this too helped to put over the vehicle as a video drama. Not once during the long show did the viewer become uninterested or his eyes strained. Attention was maintained thruout.
Scene changes were so arranged that they merely faded and dissolved into a new picture. To make the cast able to work with these changes and other video techniques only six hours of live and four hours of camera rehearsal were required, and this in spite of the fact that none of the cast had ever appeared on a video show before. Cast members were:
Role Played By
Marten Clancy ....................... Jane Lorenson
Pat Clancy .............................. Roger Hill
Pet Clancy .............................. Maursen Westerberg
Ducky Clancy ......................... Barbara Burstein
Oliver (Pat's Friend) ............. Emerson Harris
Dick (Second Friend) ............ William Jacobs
Sussie (Pat's Fiancee) ........... Marjorie Gans
Pierce (Susie’s Nephew) ...... John Stephenson
Harold (Friend of Marion) ... Edward Linch
Ellen (Maid)............................ Jeanne Boland
(Billboard, Apr. 20)
"THE FAR-OFF HILLS"
With Northwestern University Players
Adapted from the Lennox Robinson play by Lorraine Larson
Producer: Ted Fuchs
Director: Miss Larson
81 Mins.; Thursday (4): 8 p.m. Sustaining
WBKB, Chicago
Latest Balaban & Katz video experiment produced varied results, chief among them, as in the case of most first-time shots, lessons learned the hard way. Nearly an hour and a half on non-intermission amateur dramatics is a pretty stiff video dose to take.
Taken at face value, this feature length production could not be classed as anything more than average. However, considering the shortcomings of local television equipment and the tiny studio available, plus non-professional thespers, the verdict is at least A for effort.
Hardly apparent was any positive adaptation for television, as stage technique left much to be desired in screening. Sets were often overcrowded: performers pitched their voices for a theatre audience rather than for the video microphone, and the raucous result was hard on the ears of listeners. Skedded for only 55 minutes, "Hills" ran 26 minutes over, in spite of the fact that several sequences could have taken a healthy cut and one part, that of "Eileen" the maid, could have been dropped entirely without harming the story.
Thesping by the simon-pures was surprisingly good in some cases. Emerson Harris, Jane Lorenzen, Marjorie Gans, and John Stephenson were tops in this respect. Poor makeup hurt characterizations. Credits were very poorly presented, being almost unreadable at times.
Tighter production of future efforts in this proposed series will help aud acceptance. Tomm. (Variety, Apr. 10)
Monday, April 8
Aviation Show
Reviewed Monday (8), 8:50-9 p.m. Style—Industrial pic. Sustaining over WABD, New York.
Just as good as the past motion picture coverage of special events by the American Broadcasting Company's video crew has been, this one was bad. Thruout the picture, long shots were employed where there should have been close-ups. The commentator talked of the long sleek lines of an airplane on exhibit when the camera caught and held Miss America and a half-pint attendant. It couldn't have been passed off as a gag, it was that bad.
Every so often, the voice and the pic were out of synch and that threw think- viewing right out of kilter. Every so often the camera focused on the line of personalities behind the speaker, bringing a hazy spieler to the kinescope.
Neither the time nor effort were employed to cover this trade show, and a trade show is a tough baby to film interestingly even for a theater newsreel. Just as these reviews have cautioned NBC to relegate unsuccessful experiments to the closed circuits, so must ABC be warned that even after the pix have been taken scrap them if they're not good. (Billboard, Apr. 20)
Parlaying television and aviation into a solid demonstration of post-war wonders. ABC television Monday night (8) offered video set owners in the Manhattan area exclusive newsreel shots of the aviation show at Grand Central Palace. N. Y. Film, running 10 minutes, was transmitted from the new Wanamaker studios of WABD (DuMont, N. Y.).
All highly interesting stuff, the film demonstrated that motion picture coverage of such events in the future may be of more value than straight video coverage by remote pickup, despite the time lost in developing and printing the film. Through use of motion pictures, the video broadcasters will be able to edit their show, thereby eliminating long-winded speeches and similar dry material, while packing all the interesting facets into the most compact form.
With top-drawer commentary by Julian Anthony, the ABC video newsreel cameras covered the opening day of the show from start to finish. Film opened with some good shots of the palace's marquee and the exhibits being unloaded and brought into the arena, then went inside to show the leading Army and civilian dignitaries tee off with their dedication speeches.
Cameras then took a swing around the arena to show the latest in Army and civilian aircraft, various technical exhibits and heretofore top military secrets revealed for the first time at the show. Highlight of the film, as of the exhibit, were shots of the Nazi V-l and V-2 bombs. German rocket planes and Japanese suicide planes.
Film was produced and edited by Harvey Marlowe, exec producer-director of ABC television, in cooperation with the Emerson Yorke studios. Stal. (Variety, Apr. 10)
Tuesday, April 9
"TEA-TIME"
With Harriet Hester
Producer-director: Beulah Zachary
15 mins., Wed. (9); 3:30 p.m.
Sustaining
WBKB, Chicago
Interview programs are bad video medicine as a rule, but this particular shot was an outstanding effort. Guest for the program was Studs Terkel, who runs his own "Wax Museum" show on a local outlet, and he was pitching high and hard all the way, with Harriet Hester feeding" him lead-ins now and then.In the course of the conversation Terkel said that radio should look into the tastes and desires of listeners more than it does now, instead of hitting them over the head with a certain type of show. Concerning his own program, he said that people and music can't be separated, and that's why he uses the vernacular to explain his operas.
Terkel added that every artist should be interested in full employment since no art can be enjoyed without the peace of mind that arises from relative security. Plug was put in for Frank Sinatra and his stand on the racial question.
Entire shot was carried off with the informality that is too often missing from the average gab-shot. Tomm. (Variety, Apr. 17)
Chicago, April 9.—First known instance of a threatened suit for infringement of radio copyright by a video program was brought to light here last week when a squawk raised by Dave Elman, owner and emcee of "Hobby Lobby," forced WBKB, Chi Balaban & Katz outlet, to drop telecasting of show called “Don's Hobby Shop,” local sustainer. Latter program was aired Thursday (4) as first of a proposed series.
Format of the video layout called for Don Faust, WGN-Mutual staffer who has been doubling on television, to interview a different localite each show, quizzing him on his hobby or particular outside interest.
Shortly after the Thursday program a registered letter was received by Faust from Bernard Smith, lawyer representing Elman. demanding that WBKB cease and desist or suffer court action. Rather than undergo the expense of fighting such a suit. B&K people agreed to halt further airing of the show.
Now the station is readying a new program, to be called "Sidelites on Sidelines." in which Faust and various guests will discuss how they spend their leisure hours. The word "hobby" will be taboo, and indications are that any court action brought against this show will be fought. (Variety, Apr. 10)
Friday, April 12
Balaban & Katz
Reviewed Friday (12), 7:30-9 p.m Style—News, variety. Sustaining on WBKB, Chicago.
Tonight was just one of those run-of-the-mill nights at WBKB. Program merely constituted competent television programing (some not so competent, too), presented under above average technical engineering conditions that resulted in the telecasting of bright clearly defined, well-modulated pictures.
Bill Hamilton rang up the curtain with his Fair Store news commentary. We are still not satisfied with this program as a representation of what a department store as large and as important as the Fair could do in the video field. Hamilton, for one thing, continues to read much of his script. His commercials are woven into the program in a very inept manner. For example, at one point in the commentary Hamilton was about to start a discussion of news highlights of the past week. He was interrupted by loud noise in the studio. He said, "Hey. What's going on here, and another camera picked up a scene depicting a couple of men discussing gardening problems in a simulated outdoor backyard setting. The lack of planning here was very noticeable. The incongruity of having a news commentary interrupted by a commercial in such a crude manner hardly seemed worthy of the stage of development and improvement reached by WBKB in the past six months. The producer of this program ought to learn the value of integrated commercials that do their work. But in a subtle manner.
Easily top performer on the program was Ada Lynne, member of the cast of Polonaise. Miss Lynne, a robust, rough and ready comic vocalist, did impersonations of Martha Raye, Carmen Miranda and others. Her work was sheer entertainment. Lighting and camera handling, as well as WBKB's more powerful signal, resulted during Miss Lynne's work in the telecasting of a picture that easily had the quality of a home movie.
Commonwealth Edison's Company continues to go on its merry way presenting its telequizicalls program each Friday night. This quiz program, during which Bill Anson calls up various members of the home video audience who answer his questions and thus win prizes, continues to be a top merchandise idea. To make everyone happy, the program has not been changed so that just about everyone receives a gift. Questions are divided into three parts. Those answering one part receive a gift. Those answering two, a more valuable gift and those answering three, an even better prize. All prizes are from an electrical appliance company.
We couldn't see much reason for the presentation of the first installment of the Radio Stars on Parade series. It merely consisted of Jean Eldridge interviewing Olan Soule and Barbara Ludy [sic], principal members of radio's First Nighter program. As a radio interview, the idea might have merit but for the video medium it just didn't have enough action. It might have been okay if the actor and actress had done (without reading a script) a scene from one of their best radio programs, or anything to emphasize the action portraying potentials of television. As the program was presented, it merely constituted a promotional plug for radio, which some day in the near future will be one of television's competitors. And who wants to help give a competitor a buildup? (Billboard, Apr. 20)
"TELEQUIZZICALS"
With Bill Anson, Meg Haun
Director: Beulah Zachary
Producer: Ardien Rodner
20 mins., Friday (12); 7:45 p.m.
COMMONWEALTH EDISON CO.
WBKB, Chicago.
A quiz show pitched to the home audience for participation, this program has a cleverly integrated commercial riding the format. Sponsor is local public utility interested primarily in selling electricity, which it attempts to do by plugging appliances.
From a cleverly-designed office set, Bill Anson, local radio emcee-gabber, calls members of the audience from file cards. First requirement is that they remember a key sentence, in this case "Electric range cooking is fast." Following this, three questions are asked; if a sufficient number of answers are correct, participant is entitled to choose his prize from a display board of electric appliances.
People who are on file as owning video sets may invite guests whose names are also sent in. Questions are in the form of charades, acted out by Anson and Meg Haun. As a rule, the handling of the show is well paced under the smooth direction of Beulah Zachary.
Odd, however, that in the charades Anson is strictly the star while the attractive Miss Haun acts as horse, monkey or whatever else the stooge job calls for. Tomm. (Variety, Apr. 17)
Saturday, April 13
Test will be how much more can be done via the new Wanamaker studio's four cameras and ample floor room than could be done in the closet-size facilities available in the old 515 Madison Avenue location. (Billboard, Apr. 20)
PHILADELPHIA, April 13.—WPTZ, Philco television station, will start commercial programing May 1 with the opening of its new studios in the 24th floor of the Architects Building. In turning commercial, the outlet tees off with a waiting list of prospective sponsors.
Altho contracts will not be signed until this week, starting sponsors will include the Gimbel Brothers department store, The Inquirer and The Bulletin. Last two named own radio stations. Inquirer last month took over WFIL and The Bulletin operates WPEN. Unusual angle is that the newspapers, it is understood, will plug their own television departments on the Philco tele station, giving the viewers an idea of the kind of tele program they will produce when they get their own stations. FCC will hold hearings June 17 on all local applications for tele licenses. While WPEN's tele plans are nebulous, other than the fact that the newspaper has leased the top floor of the tallest building in town for studios, WFIL has hired a director for its television department, bringing him in from New York. N. W. Ayer Agency is working out The Bulletin's tele set-up on WPTZ. Commercial tele on WPTZ will be only in half-hour sags. For a starter, station will be on the air only two evening hours on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays because of lack of equipment .As new equipment on order arrives, schedule will be expanded. At present, the Philco exec claims, "there are more advertising agencies knocking on our doors than we have time to sell because of the lack of necessary equipment."
WPTZ rate card is also in the tentative stage at this writing. However, contracts will be for 13 weeks only, and rates will be subject to revision after that period. Starting programs will be largely commercial and live, with a minimum of motion pictures. Also included will be time breaks and weather reports.
Gimbel Brothers department store has already decided to split its 30 minutes into two quarter-hour periods. One will include display of store merchandise and second period will be a kiddies show, directed by Wayne Cody, who airs a radio kiddies' show for the store on WIP as Uncle WIP. In view of the AFM ban, programs will use both student musicians and canned music. (Billboard, Apr. 20) [Note: Cody's son became a long-time sportscaster on KIRO-TV in Seattle].
Monday, April 15
WABD Channel 5 (76-82 Megs)
8:00-10:00 p.m. Opening of New Studios in Wanamaker’s 9th St. and Broadway; Mayor O’Dwyer, Gov. Edge of New Jersey, Dr. Quo Tai-Chi, speakers; Drama—“Let’s Have Fun,” Walter Abel, Master of Ceremonies; Patricia Collinge, Kenneth McCormick and others.
Experience
Reviewed Monday (15), 8:50-9:10 p.m. Style—Fantasy. Sustaining over WABD, New York.
Describe those as famous last words.
The production was elaborate, the lighting so bad that most sequences were eye straining. Lou Spoza, who directed the George (Superman) Lowther scripting, had a number of scenes that must have seemed swell on paper but which came thru the kinescope like nothing human. A giant face came in and out of focus and seemed, in the latter stages, like a fetus.
A tent dropped down over the head of the dream man, but only the studio audience knew what had enveloped him. He tried to feed the baby hours with a bottle, but no viewer in the home saw the cute trick that wouldn't take milk.
The sets were good, the lighting flat. There wasn't a modeled face or body in the entire scanning. The actors struggled but were completely lost in the most pedestrian fantasy since that Texan oil millionaire backed The Ladder. (Anyone remember that far back.)
Only thing that compared with Experience was Grover Whalen's pronunciation of Dr. Quo Tai-Chi's name. Neither should have happened to a DuMont preem. (Billboard, Apr. 27)
Let's Have Fun.
Climax of a terrible evening on the air and in the studio, on the opening of the DuMont John Wanamaker studios, was an audience participation seg produced by Tom Hutchinson, who should have known better. A tyro might have been excused the errors that Hutchinson made, but for an old-timer like T. H.—ouch!
When the cameras were supposed to be on the audience they were so far away that not even a fire department could have brought them back in time. The lighting was pre-tin-type. The scripting just a case of the jitters. Talent? There were enough good performers around to have produced a masterpiece, enough shapely bodies (Goldwyn girls) to make NTG drool.
The actors did nothing.
The bodies couldn't be seen enough to yen.
... And top of it all, T. H. forgot to remember that no audience participation show is worth the powder to blow it to hell unless it has an emsee to carry it, and Walter Abel, an able actor (genius for understatement is noted here) just didn't know what to do. He had help, which out of pity shall be nameless, but they didn't know what to do to carry Abel. . . . And a box of Mueller's Macaroni for the correct answers, just wasn't funny.
The pity of it that Tom Hutchinson, who has at times produced good shows without trying, worked like the devil to do a good job on this.
It just goes to show you. (Billboard, Apr. 27)
Living Room Education
Reviewed Monday (15), 8:30-10 p.m. Style—Variety, film. Sustaining on W6XAO (KTSL), Hollywood.
Set owners could have saved their tubes on this one. Idea of tonight's telecast was to educate and entertain home viewers by showing them a typical day at a public high school. Scenes treating classroom discussions were to impart learning, those showing kids' extra curricular activities were to provide entertainment. Neither goal was achieved by a long shot.
Televiewers were subjected to such yawn-provoking stuff as names of geometric figures, the parts of a flower, etc. Scenes of kids doing dramatic readings, singing and dancing were labeled entertainment. Except for one act (Spanish dance), talent was even below good high-school standards.
This hour-long eye waster was one of the poorest samples of video production beamed by Don Lee in some time. Technical side was consistently bad. Lensers lost their subjects and played the field until they were found. The other camera should have been brought into action immediately. Close-up camera was fuzzy, lighting poor, resulting in contrasty image. (Billboard, Apr. 27)
Marking a series of "firsts" in the video field, DuMont television got its new Wanamaker studios off to a fair start Monday (15) night with a grand opening that rivaled a Hollywood premiere for glamor. Everybody was there, from New York City's perennial emcee, Grover Whalen, to newsreel cameramen and lush Goldwyn girls.
While pointing up the fact that video is sufficiently developed technically to merit all the accolades being tossed in its direction by its backers, the opening demonstrated, however, that much remains to be done as far as programming is concerned before tele can take its place along with the nation's other top forms of entertainment.
Chief among the firsts was the initial two-way intercity broadcast between Washington and New York, heralding the actual beginning of a nationwide television network. Show, originating in N. Y., was carried over the Bell System's coaxial cable to WPTZ (Philco, Philadelphia) and W3XWT, DuMont's experimental station in D. C. In the same way, part of the program originating in Washington was transmitted back to Philly and N. Y. Opening also marked the first time any show had been telecast with four cameras and the first time that a studio audience could watch both the stage and receiving sets simultaneously. Latter factor gave the audience the effect of a three-ring circus, with everybody trying to watch everything at once so as not to miss anything.
Wanamaker studios of WABD are certainly the largest and best-equipped to date but the opener demonstrated that DuMont engineers haven't yet solved the problem of excess heat, despite all the DuMont statements to the contrary, Studio audience was continually fanning the air to stir up a little breeze and the actors were almost unanimous in furtively wiping their brows at every chance.
Despite the array of studio lights, the fuzziness of the pictures at several instances showed that much is still to be done in light development. Studio A is equipped with five banks of lights that can be lowered from the celling, plus vertical stationary banks and mobile floor lights. Comedian Herb Shriner put the finger on the problem with the remark, while sweltering under the torrid heat generated, that it was the "electric light company that got the whole idea of television going."
Dr. Allen B. DuMont, prexy of the DuMont labs, pointed up the opening night's chief fault with his remark that the "technical aspects of television are well enough resolved so that from now on, the main emphasis must be in creating useful and entertaining programs in the public interest." Entire show demonstrated that WABD producers and directors were either suffering from opening night jitters or have much to learn about how to use the top equipment provided them.
After 49 minutes of long, dry-winded speeches by DuMont execs, statesmen and Washington legislators, WABD presented two half-hour programs, both of which were a melange of poor camera work, trite scripting and generally faulty production.
"Experience," termed a dramatic fantasy by writer George Lowther, offered well-designed sets and good acting, neither of which could overcome the fact that the show was a poor imitation of the motion pictures' currently-popular dream sequences. Four cameras gave the producers plenty of opportunity to switch easily from one set to another, but the preponderance of overhead shots from the camera with the boom dolly negated most of the good work.
Cameras also missed the boat on the ballet sequence in the show, cutting off the dancer at her thighs and completely forgetting that the most important part of any dance is the footwork. Show did demonstrate, however, that any actor with previous film experience is a natural for video. Walter Abel as emcee was one of the most natural actors yet seen in a television show and did much to keep the program moving at a comparatively rapid rate.
Participating in the opening ceremonies were sportcaster Bill Slater, announcer; Whalen, emcee; Mayor O'Dwyer, Gov. Walter E. Edge of New Jersey, Dr. Quo Tai-Chi, Senators Mead, McMahon, and Hawkes, FCC chairman Charles R. Denny, Dr. DuMont and Leonard F. Cramer, DuMont, veepee over television broadcasting. (Bob Stahl, Variety, Apr. 17)
FIRST television stations for Detroit were authorized by the FCC last Monday [15] with grants to the Evening News Assn. (WWJ) and King-Trendle Broadcasting Corp.(WXYZ). The grants were the first to be processed without hearing and brought to six the totalissued since the resumption of licensing last Fall....
Two ether applications are pending for television stations in Detroit—The Jam Handy Organization Inc. and United Detroit Thatres Corp. Action on these cases will be taken later. (Broadcasting, Apr. 22)
Tuesday, April 16
WABD Channel 5
8:15 “Here’s How,” skits.
8:45 Films.
9:40 “King’s Record Shop” with John Reed King.
Here's How
Reviewed Tuesday (16), 8:15-8:45. Style—Service. Sponsor—Super Suds. Agency—William Esty. Station—WABD, New York.
The essence of all blackouts is timing. There wasn't any.
And if all this weren't bad enough the bridges, which were no doubt supposed to be sudsy, looked like static. And then to top it all the especially made motion picture sequences (commercials) were just a waste of time.
Half the material, better acted and better scripted, better lighted and better directed would have made a program.
. . . And Al Foster, the producer, went way over the budget while 50 Esty-ites were there to see the fiasco. (Billboard, Apr. 27)
King's Record Shop
Reviewed Tuesday (16), 9:40-10 p.m. Style—Audience participation. Sustaining over WABD, New York.
With virtually no rehearsal the ABC network video gang transferred this piece of glorified platter jockeying from WRGB in Schenectady to the DuMont John Wanamaker Studio A in New York. And, believe it or not, the scanning pulled enough phone calls to tie-up the DuMont telephone board all thru the program.
There's nothing to this but corn, but John Reed King, when he's good, is very very good ... and he was good this evening. The director, Harvey Marlowe, threw in a number of audience participation stunts, just in case the phone calls didn't roll in, but they did.
This was the fourth production in this studio and the first that didn't appear two dimensional. It proved that video doesn't require a great deal of hoopla to entertain.... And savvy pays off. (Billboard, Apr. 27)
Balaban & Katz
Reviewed Tuesday (16), 7:30-9 p.m. Style—News, variety. Sustaining on WBKB, Chicago.
Only two portions of WBKB's program tonight were worth more than fleeting attention: (1) A comic television "newsreel" showing some of the inventions now on display at the World's Invention Exposition at the Chicago Arena, and (2) Lee Phillips' Magic From Aladdin's Lamp. And because it was far from the best television magic show we have seen, Phillips' work barely got him into this category.
To make the invention explanation more than just a dry and routine picturing of some of the more important exhibits at the exposition, Bill Vance wrote a script that packed plenty of humor. He also acted as narrator and came up with a show that strongly resembled a Lew Lehr newsreel. He wove in such things as a pseudo inventor, an actor who took the part of a screwball "mastermind," some of the inventors who actually had inventions on display at the exposition, and scenes—some of them plenty comical—in which their inventions were explained. Result was 20 minutes of entertaining television and good publicity for the inventors and the exposition.
Phillips' magic show was good in that it had a few well-produced tricks that could be seen easily because gimmicks used were of color contrast with the background. Phillips continues to use a trick in which he supposedly is able to describe a design written on a paper inside a sealed envelope. Designs are supposed to have been sent in by the television audience.
Phillips, it is said, has not had a chance to see the design before he does his describing, but all of this is hard to believe because the home audience at its receivers has no assurance that Phillips has not had a chance to open the letter, look at the design, reseal the envelope and then go thru his paces. Producers of this program ought to figure out some way to make this trick look authentic, because it is used each week and is intended to be a merchandising stunt, too, in that people who send in the designs are given a $10 merchandise certificate, redeemable at the store of Phillips' sponsor.
One of the worst planned and produced television news programs we have ever seen was the portion of the program featuring Bob Wright in his Human Interest in the News. To try to weave in an Easter motiff, Wright had a couple of rabbits and a chick (of the poultry variety) on his desk during some of his show. They played havoc with his attempt to deliver a commentary by running all over his desk. Then he had Richard Weixler, one of radio's Quiz Kids, talk about the animals and for no apparent reason presented a couple of circus clowns. Finally, as if with an after thought, he did get down to reading some news. All very confusing.
A dance instruction team from the Frank Morgan studio tried to teach a few rumba steps on another portion of tonight's program. Because of the difficulty of the steps and the speed with which they were presented, we doubt if any of the home viewers could duplicate one after the program was over. This definitely was not the way to teach dancing by television. Later, when the team did some finished rumba dancing themselves, the show at least had a modicum of entertainment.
Harriet Allyn's impressions of various female personalities hardly were worth comment. (Billboard, Apr. 27)
Wednesday, April 17
WABD Channel 5
8:00 “The Magic Carpet.”
8:20 Film. 9:00 Fashion show.
Thursday, April 18
WABD Channel 5
8:00 “Famous Jury Trials.”
8:30 Film.
9:00 “Thrills and Chills” with Doug Allan.
Famous Jury Trials
Reviewed Thursday (18), 8-8:30 p.m. Style—Mystery drama. Sustaining over WABD New York.
The American Broadcasting System's [sic] formula of taking sock air shows and turning them into air-pix received another shot in the arm with the video adaptation of the Trans-american Radio & Television Corporation's radio package, Famous Jury Trials. Harvey Marlowe's adaptation and direction of The State Versus Dolly Steele were smooth. If there wasn't a great deal of imagination shown, what was demonstrated was plenty of scanning drama that didn't idle a moment from the first showing of the scales of justice over which credits were superimposed until the denouement.
Flashbacks that use at least one of the characters telling the present-day story are tough, but Marlowe did them without anyone but the actors suffering heart failure. By using an out-of-focus fade (in and out) the actors were able to get from one sequence to another without the audience being aware of the production hurdle.
Definition was good, altho video's lack of depth of field was very noticeable in several of the scenes. The performances were better. Dennis James's prosecuting attorney was tight and real, and Sidney Blackmer's underplaying of the defense legal light was always believable. Elissa Landi's Dolly Steele, accused of murdering her husband, a crook, was well drawn and without scenery tearing. The rest of the cast might have been taken from any courtroom, even the jury. Only Carl Stern, the murderer, seemed incompletely drawn by Alan Baxter.
Sets were good except the judge's bench, which was so patently a painted flat that it fought with the believable production all the way thru. The camera can spot a false piece of scenery even quicker than a bad performance. (Billboard, Apr. 27)
"FAMOUS JURY TRIALS"
With Elissa Landi, Sidney Blackmer, Alan Baxter, Watson White, Al Patterson, Zachary B. Charles, Virginia Smith, Richard Goggin, Dennis James, Graham Velsey, Robert Straus
Producer-Director: Harvey Marlowe
Sets: Bob Bright
30 Mins.; Thurs. (18), 8 p.m.
Sustaining
WABD-ABC, N. Y.
Utilizing the facilities of DuMont's new Wanamaker studios, reputedly the largest and best-equipped in the world, producer-director Harvey Marlowe brought in the motion picture technique of telling the story via flashback with good results. System required several of the actors to sprint across the stage from one set to another, in order to appear in two successive scenes, but Marlowe held his dissolve shots just long enough to give the actors enough time and to keep the tempo at a consistently rapid pace.
Camera work on the whole was good, although in several instances Marlowe held a camera on one actor while another was talking, depriving home viewers of sequences that drew laughs from the studio audience. Consistent left-angle shots of the witness stand, due to the lack of space between the witness stand and the jury box, became monotonous at times, but much of the monotony was relieved through a diversification of long shots and closeups.
Script was tightly woven with several nice little touches added, to inject action into what was essentially a story for radio. Cast, topped by several screen and stage stars, was uniformly good. Elissa Landi, as the woman accused of having shot her husband, did a nice bit of restrained acting in her emotional scenes. Sidney Blackmer as the defense attorney and Alan Baxter as the star witness were outstanding. Dennis James shone as the prosecuting attorney and Virginia Smith turned in a very nice bit as one of the witnesses. Bob Bright's two sets were of top drawer quality.
In summation, the show was one of the first tele programs on record in which a studio audience gave out with applause at the finish. Stal. (Variety, Apr. 24)
There was plenty of evidence in the 90 minutes that WABD (DuMont, N. Y.) was on the air Wednesday (17) night that the station's programming department failed to profit from the mistakes made on the opening night (15) of DuMont's new Wanamaker tele studios. Monotony of programming, coupled with a glaring lack of imagination in making the most of what at hand, must have made any video set owner unfortunate enough to have tuned in on the show squirm in his seat. Entire evening's program consisted of film travelogs of one kind or another, only a small part of which was especially edited for television. If that's the most that a prospective sot owner can hope for in the way of an evening's entertainment, he'd be foolish to go out and lay a lot of dough on the line for an expensive television receiver.
It's true that the fault was not entirely DuMont's, since the cancellation by Wanamaker's of what was to have been a sponsored fashion show forced the station to substitute Doug Allan's "Thrills and Chills," originally scheduled for the following night (18). Certainly, however, the programming execs could have come up with something a little farther removed from the preponderance of travelogs in the "Magic Carpet," first show of the evening, and the 40 minutes of out-and-out journeys via film that followed.
Bud Gamble, producer-director of "Carpet," sponsored by the Alexander Smith Rug Co. through Anderson, Davis & Platte, deserves a slight nod for editing his film in such a way as to bring in mostly closeups, necessary for video. That doesn't compensate, however, for tieing a straight kids' program to a commercial slanted at adult audiences. Format of the show was good, with a moppet's two dolls coming to life to take her on a trip on their magic carpet to far away places—but again there's the travelog.
Allan's "Thrills and Chills' show follows the same format as the one he's used in the several years he's been doing the program, and it's still neither thrilling nor chilling. He interviews a noted world traveler—in this case, Charles Perry Weimer—and then lets the explorer take over to narrate his filmed travelog (that word again). Allan doesn't work from a prepared script, and the lengthy pauses in his speech as he tries to think of what questions to ask his guest are too often painful to the audience. Bob Jamieson produced and directed the show, a DuMont sustainer. Bob Bright's single set was good. Stal. (Variety, Apr. 24)
If ever a film actor regretted the fact that there are no retakes possible in television, that actor was Sidney Blackmer during the telecast of "Famous Jury Trials," ABC network show, over WABD (DuMont, N. Y.) Thursday (18) night.
In the role of the defense attorney, Blackmer was standing with one hand resting on the judge's bench. Came some noise from the jury and the judge began to pound his gavel, coming down with force on Blackmer's fingers. In films, the actor, depending on a retake, could have sworn his head off and saved his fingers. But Blackmer never even flinched, going on with his spiel to the jury as though nothing had happened. (Variety, Apr. 24)
Friday, April 19
WABD Channel 5
8:00 Variety show.
8:30 Film.
9:00 Good Friday services.
"VARIETY SHOW" With Nat Hale, emcee; Ilsa Mavenga, Eleanor Dennis, Trudy Goth, Henry Swartze, Jive-Five, Ming Chu; Dennis James; others
Writers-Producers-Directors: Bob Loewi, Bud Gamble
Cameras: Bill Wallace, Ed Benzares, William Lloyd
30 Mins.; Fri., 8 p.m.
BEN PULITZER CREATIONS
WABD, N. Y.
The DuMont people did themselves and television a decided disservice in putting on the Friday night (19) "Variety Show" on their New York outlet. WABD. Had the show been sired by a coffee-pot outfit, it would have been sad enough but it could have written off to lack of equipment, newness of the medium, experimentation or other real or imaginary excuses. But performed in DuMont's brand new Wanamaker studios, with three cameras at work—it was just embarrassing to anyone hopefully interested in the progress of television.
Nat Hale's emceeing was on an amateur, high-school performance level, and most of the large cast was not much better. The dancers didn't, the vocalisers couldn't, and the comedy wasn't. Three cameramen tried bravely to record the proceedings, but it would have been just as well if they hadn't. Only the commercial for Ben Pulitzer neckties was palatable. Cars. (Variety, Apr. 24)
Pulitzer Varieties
No matter how fine any collection of acts, in the television medium it'll lay big eggs if not linked by a theme and a personality. Bud Gamble, who produced this half hour, found himself an excuse—a rehearsal in a Hunter College auditorium for a UNO luncheon, with the college porter as emsee. Trouble was that he did the show virtually as an off-the-cuff presentation without sufficient rehearsal time or camera plotting. Result was a fair, well-lighted show, except the final commercial.
Nat Hale, the porter, could have been good if he had let himself go. As it was, he was just a camera wait except for his concluding impersonations. These were okay video stuff, but needed plenty of polishing. If Gamble uses him again, it'd be a good idea to let Hale see some rushes of himself before working before the mike. Trudy Goth and Henry Shwarze, first on, did a wooden shoe dance. Idea was cute, but the routine was for only about 30 seconds. The "Hollanders" were followed by the Jive Five, who did nothing telegenic, but the fem, Pat Bonus, was okay on the close-ups, altho a little on the "toughie" side. China slithered in next in the person of Ming Chu, whose arm and finger movements had a touch of the East Indies in them. Chu's certainly something on camera.
Eleanor Dennis, as the ex-Hunter student who wanted to see what went without profs around, sang a pop number. Edward Duncan did a passable soft-shoe dance, and Ilse Marvenga, who did a French maid stint, filled out the program.
Faults were: Too much talent (no one was really sold to the viewers), scriping [sic] that wasn't attention-holding, and the reaching for a theme. Lighting was good except, as noted, for the final Pulitzer Tie commercial. It was impossible to see the ties clearly. You can't sell what can't be seen. In direct contrast with the closing commercial was the opening tie scanning. They were clear, both in design and texture. Intro commercial was filmed in advance by Gamble. Closer was taken live in the studio. Lights are still not adequate for close-up product shots at the John Wanamaker studio.
Theme and emsee aren't enough for a variety show—altho both are essential. There must be that indefinable something that's showmanship. All the camera work in the world won't make a show, nor will an overabundance of talent, unless it's given time to sell itself.
Show was professional; most of the DuMont scannings at 515 Madison Avenue weren't. Count this a miss but a good try—for Pulitzer. (Billboard, Apr. 27)
NEW YORK, April 20.—DuMont's opening (April 15) of its John Wanamaker Studios came off in a blaze of floodlights and boiled shirts, but entertainment-wise it was a wash-out and that was the kind of a daily press it received. Program-wise (see reviews of the scannings in this issue), all, staffers and other, were so excited that they forgot that the show's the thing.
Cool lights were only partially installed and so the studios, especially the guest viewing sections of the balcony, were around 100 degrees. VIPs also wilted on the main floor thru the long session of tributes to Allen B. DuMont and the studios. From Mayor O'Dwyer thru congressional dignitaries the wilt continued.
Second night (16) saw production staff in less of a dither, but it wasn't until the shank of the evening when the ABC production of a John Reed King audience participation seg hit the ikes that anything resembling entertainment was aired. Wednesday (17) someone in the program department was off-base, according to the trade, since nothing but travelogues were scanned from Bud Gamble's Flying Carpet to Thrills and Chills. Thursday (18) more cool lights were installed and ABC produced Famous Jury Trials which was sock.
Second live show was canceled and hundreds of visiting firemen were disappointed with poor film. Friday's (19) variety show was professional and the John Wanamaker Musicale in the spirit of Good Friday was what the doctor ordered.
Where's Showmanship?
It has taken a week to get production details at the studio set, but program-wise, agencies and producers point out, the operation is back where it started from—everything's there but showbiz. At one point in the development of DuMont operation, it was indicated that agencies would be delivering everything that was required to entertain viewers. However, the sales staffs of both. DuMont and NBC are finding out that CBS's color selling made black-and-white contract signing manifold more difficult than it was before Columbia had George Moskovics, commercial manager, unselling monochrome air pix. Industry-wise execs claim that now both DuMont and NBC must program themselves so well that proof of viewing not the novelty of the medium, or the necessity of "learning how to advertise on it," will bring in the contracts.
DuMont, in a few weeks, will have three studios going, and will deliver a good signal, the one up north in Westchester and Connecticut is still a minus quality at this time. Then, say black -and -white enthusiasts, it will be up to Les Cramer, v.-p. in charge of broadcast operations, to deliver entertainment—or else. (Billboard, Apr. 27)
"THE SOUND AND THE FURY"
With Geraldine Kay, Dick Shankland, Don Herbert, Dorothy Jacobson
Writer: Jackson Wright
Director: Helen Carson
20 Mins.; Friday (19), 8:40 p.m.
Sustaining
WBKB, Chicago
This was good video fare, its quality emphasized by some of the low notes struck by the Balaban & Katz outlet in the past. Show was capably handled by its cast of four, all local radio thespers, who seem to have theatre background. Palpably a fluff, the w.k. story concerns a husband-wife thesper combo who seemingly are fighting but are actually rehearsing through a series of "this-is-it" farewell scenes.
Production was workmanlike throughout. Since the story mold had already been cast, only possible variance from what is considered as a norm for "right" theatre lay in acting. Far and away the topper was Geraldine Kay as the actress-wife. Dick Shankland, the husband, had his moments when he wisely underplayed, but toward the end it became difficult to tell whether he was playing a ham or just plain hamming. Don Herbert as the understudy and Dorothy Jacobson as the maid okay in the minor parts. Tomm. (Variety, Apr. 24)
Although no outsiders saw the color [film only] broadcasts carried over the 450-mile loop from N. Y. to Washington and back, CBS prexy Frank Stanton declared that the images suffered little by being limited to the confines of the cable. ...
Test was made Friday (19), prior to removal from service of the cable by American Telephone & Telegraph for technical revision. (Variety, April 24)
One point in the negotiations for a new contract between the motion-picture industry and the American Federation of Musicians was settled yesterday [19] when the producers agreed not to provide to television studios the use of any motion-picture films or sound tracks which A. F. M. musicians helped to make. No agreement has been reached on wages and hours, the thorniest of the problems, but negotiations will continue.
James C. Petrillo, president of the A. F. M., disclosed the agreement on television after leaving the negotiating session at 1600 Broadway, the office of Patrick Casey, labor representative of the motion-picture industry.
“The union will get exactly what it has asked for,” Mr. Petrillo said when questioned about the television agreement. “But the exact wording of this part of the agreement has not yet been decided upon.”
It is expected that in final form this agreement will bar producers from permitting television studios to use sound track or film containing picturs of A. F. M. members performing, or to sell or lease such sound tracks or films to television studios. (Herald Tribune, Apr. 20)
Saturday, April 20
No television scheduled in New York.
CHICAGO, April 20.—First attempt at the televising of a baseball game here, made today by WBKB, was unsuccessful. Failure of the attempt was due to electronic engineering difficulties.
Reason the attempted program was a failure was simply that the relay signal sent from Wrigley Field, where a major league game was being played between the Chicago Cubs and St. Louis Cardinals, was ruined by electrical interference at the building where it was to be received, the WBKB studio building. Plan was to have the signal from the ball park picked up at the WBKB building and from there retransmitted to the public.
Electrical interference that ruined the signal was created by the elevator mechanism in the WBKB building. It destroyed the signal from the park so completely the picture that resulted was so distorted figures were not even discernible.
Previously this week, when the WBKB engineering staff made its test telecasts from Wrigley Field to the WBKB studios, the signal was okay. But at this time the signal was being bounced off the Pure Oil Building, a tall downtown building in the line of transmission from the ball park. Last night (19) the engineers raised the receiving and antenna mast higher so that signal could be received over the oil structure. But in making the change at the WBKB building the receiving equipment was put into such a position that the electrical disturbance from the elevators was able to interfere.
Because the engineers made the change at night, when the elevators were not running, the interference was not noticed until this morning, at which time it was too late to change the equipment back to the positions they had earlier in the week. Result: Failure to make a pick-up from Wrigley Field.
For a while the station telecast a station identification picture while an announcer at the ball park gave an account of the play by play during innings. In between innings, J. W. Wilson, at the WBKB studios, was telecast as he summarized the game during the time between play.
Not discouraged by today's failure WBKB officials have already stated that either one day before Friday or next week or the next Saturday the Cubs play here (which will be May 4) they will try again. This time, they predict, they'll be successful. (Billboard, Apr. 27)
Sunday, April 21
No television scheduled.
Monday, April 22
WABD Channel 5
8:00 Programs.
Easter Parade
Reviewed Monday (22), 9:10-9:21p.m. Style—Special Event motion Pictures. Sponsor—Esmond Mills. Agency—Marschack & Pratt. Station—WABD, New York.
For the third time in a row the American Broadcasting Company job on synch was bad. The best gag in the world lays an egg if it's about a sequence that has already passed across the face of the kinescope.
There were plenty of these in this scanning. Maybe it was the fault of the commentator, Walter Kiernan, as it seemed to be, or maybe it was just that the voice on the disk and the 16mm, picture just didn't run in the same race.
The subjects photographed were too populated, instead of being of the close-up variety. There were plenty of interesting people in New York's Easter Parade and just oodles of them down in Atlantic City, but ABC's camera just didn't seem to be where they were.
And the working in of Bunny Esmond (Esmond's trade-mark is a bunny) had all the finesse of Man Mountain Dean, and the way Kiernan handled the continuity about Bunny made every viewer realize that he felt Bunny was being overdone, too.
Taking pix in New York and Atlantic City on Sunday and showing them Monday is okay on immediacy, but what pays off can't be speed, it can only be entertainment.
This time the latter wasn't there. (Billboard, May 4)
ABC television came up with another in its series of special film events Monday (22) night, with a broadcast over WABD (DuMont, N. Y.) of the Eastern Sunday fashion parade both on N. Y.'s Fifth avenue and on the boardwalk at Atlantic City. To get the film on the air Monday night, within 24 hours after the event, the Emerson Yorke studios, which filmed the programs for ABC, set some sort of a speed record.
Film was sponsored by the Esmond Mills, Inc., with the commercials being subtly woven into the shots and narration through constant reference to the "Esmond Bunny," which was given to the child king and queen of the Atlantic City parade. Although the recorded narration was out of synchronization with the film for the few minutes of the 13-minute program, the picture on the whole gave viewers some good sequences of the latest in l'emme fashions, as worn by the beautiful gals in the parade.
Working in cooperation with Harvey Marlowe, exec producer-director of ABC television, the Yorke studios sent a full camera crew to Atlantic City by air and flew them back. Yorke himself directed the filming in N. Y. Negatives were brought into the labs at 9 p. m. Sunday, and were pulled out at midnight to give way to the newsreel companies. Marlowe and his crew began to edit the more than 3,500 feet of film at 2 p. m„ Monday afternoon, and five hours later were all set to run it over for Walter Kiernan to record the narration. Film hit the air at 9 p. m.
As in the past, the speed with which the film was prepared for telecasting scooped the newsreel companies by three days, since the latter will not have their Easter parade shots on the screen until tomorrow (Thursday). (Variety, Apr. 24)
New York.—A demonstration of still newspaper comics in color on 16 mm. film fizzled here yesterday [22] at a so-called preview of the method to be used in televising syndicated strips simultaneously with Sunday publication by Telecomics, Inc., which was said to have been experimenting with “Television-on-Film” since 1944 with co-operation of American Film Center.
Presented primarily for delegates to the American Newspaper Publishers Association convention, a crude short, directed by Josef Bohmer, associate director of Encyclopedia Britannica Films, and narrated by Frank Luther of Decca, included clips from newspaper reproductions of “Red Ryder,” “Penny,” “Dick Tracy” and “The Little King,” with the only animation coming from insertion of dialogue balloons above cartoon characters. Unsuspecting spectators, who came to see a “television preview,” saw this silly film exhibiting a technique not good enough even in filmdom’s beginnings. Telecomics is a subsidiary of Stephen Slesinger, Inc. (Hollywood Reporter, Apr. 23)
Tuesday, April 23
WABD Channel 5
8:00 “Here’s How” skit.
8:30 Travel film.
9-9:30 “King’s Record Shop” with John Reed King.
[Herald Tribune has 8:00 Popular music, 8:30 Here’s How, 9:00 Film]
Washington, April 23.—Withdrawal of applicants for black and white tele stations continues, with some 33 bidders having pulled out to date. Latest, and probably the most important to announce his decision to wait for color video, is Walt Disney, who had applied for Channel 5 at Los Angeles. United Broadcasting, with applications for Columbus, Akron and Cleveland, also notified the FCC Thursday (18) that it was withdrawing in all three cities.
In petitioning for his withdrawal, Disney told the FCC that he had just completed a detailed investigation of the television art which showed that color video is just as essential for the "type of television programs it (Disney Productions) proposes to render" as color is to his animated motion pictures.
"Petitioner does not desire its action in seeking dismissal of its pending television application to be interpreted by the commission as a complete abandonment of television," Disney said in his petition. "On the contrary, it intends to continue to pursue its television programming plans and, when color television becomes established on a regular commercial basis, to seek a permit from the commission to build such a television station." (Variety, Apr. 24)
Wednesday, April 24
WABD Channel 5
8:00 Variety show.
8:30-9:00 “Thrills and Chills” with Doug Allan.
Thursday, April 25
WABD Channel 5
8:00 “Famous Jury Trials.”
8:30-9:30 Films.
The State Vs. Lucy Ricco
Reviewed Thursday (25), 8-8:30 p.m. Style—Whodunit. Sustaining over WABD, New York.
Discouraging to say the least, are the attempts of producers who one week develop an experimental formula and and make it work and the next week get careless and permit the formula to fall apart. That's just what Harvey Marlowe, executive television producer for American Broadcasting Company, did. Formula, developed hot week, permitting a scene to go slowly out of focus, then dissolve to the text scene out of focus which in turn is brought into focus was effectively done in the first video presentation of the radio series, Famous Jury Trials. This time, however, the out-of-focus fade jerked its way into gray and the feeling of smooth transition, which marked the device last week, was absent. Alibi on this is that the transition from sharp focus to gray is handled at the camera not at the shading desk in the control room and thus is in the laps of the cameramen involved—and this time one of the cameras was acting up and away went the production.
The judge's bench was repainted and real this week—but just to balance things the performances weren't and the direction was as jerky as the fades. When a meg handler has Mary Barthelmess and Ann Corte to work with, it's not unreasonable to believe that the scripting would be tailored to the talents of these young ladies. It wasn't. Instead, scene after scene was handed to other players who went up in their lines and hammed things, but good. In fact, all the characters were taken from well-worn pigeon holes and were played that way. Alibis for the shoddy performance were insufficient rehearsals and the fact that Marlowe was out of town two days.
And just to complete the inadequate scanning, there was a delicatessen scene as unreal as the judge's bench last week.
Several hundred television receivers were changed over to the new channels last week—maybe they should have waited a little while longer. Closed circuits are still the place for experimentation. The tele-air's the place for performances. (Billboard, May 4)
Balaban & KatzReviewed Thursday (25), 7:30 to 9:15 p.m. Style—Variety and drama. Sustaining on WBKB, Chicago.
If it hadn’t been rescued by a presentation of Bill Vance's best X Marks the Spot dramatic murder thrillers, tonight’s program would have been airing a complete bust. Except for the 32 minutes taken by X, and about five minutes of Betty Clark's singing, the entire program was a waste of time and effort.
Tonight's X Marks the Spot, written and narrated by Vance and produced and directed by Helen Carson, concerned itself with the tale of a French woman who murdered a female benefactor to guarantee a home and an income for her idiot brother and sister. It was gruesome and it had plenty of horror-filled scenes in which all but the actual murder and burning of the body were telecast. But it was interest-holding; it utilised all the tricks of video writing and production, with all of the action taking place in only two sets The story in itself is a well known one, a factual case history on which Ladies in Retirement and other stage plays and murder tales have been built. Vance and Carson, however, proved themselves to be top video writer and producer, respectively, by the way they utilized an old plot idea and made it something entirely new because of its video treatment. This treatment included plenty of closeups, trick dissolves and title work such as the opening shot in which they used replicas of two human bones to make the X of the title, with the words of the title made by stones, supposedly from the Garden which later became the focal point of the plot. The cast helped plenty, too. Most of them had stage experience, and this made them top for the video medium. It also made it possible to present the show after only three hours of rehearsal. Diehl Keegan had the part of Euphrasie, the murderess; Dorothy Day, that of Eludie, who was murdered; Mary Reynolds, that of Honarine, one of the idiot sisters; Edith Schouff, that of Sidonie, the other sister; Paul Scharf, that of Camille, the brother; St. John Terrell that of Chataueauf, Euphrasie's nephew, and Jack Gibney, that of a police inspector.
Worst point in the program was the presentation of Treasury Department silver awards to execs of the B&K staff. This must have brought that sinking feeling in the stomach sensation to staff members who must have realized that their boss, John Balaban, was being subjected to video presentation that had no planning, an emsee who couldn't get names right, very bad camera work, and all around production that couldn't have been worse. Not much better was an attempt to explain the historical development of the medical theory of basal metabolism, a narrative dramatic stanza presented with the cooperation of the American Medical association. (Billboard, May 4)
New York.—The Kentucky Derby will be filmed specially for television in 16 mm. and will be telecast May 5, day after the race, by CBS there for Bristol-Myers’ Vitalis, marking the video debut of that company, through Doherty, Clifford & Sherfield. Camera work will be farmed out to the Louisville Photography Society under supervision of the network's television department, with the film commercial by Cine-Television Studios spliced into the picture. A visual plug of 15-minute film, which will include mostly background scenes of race lasting little more than two minutes, will feature actors seen at the race.
CBS will return to the air on a new television frequency Saturday with about a five-hour minimum weekly schedule, not including two special events. NBC will complete its video changeover next month and aims to be back on the new channel May 3 with 18 to 20 hours a week. (Hollywood Reporter, Apr. 25)
Friday, April 26
WABD Channel 5
8:00-9:30 Programs.
Look Who's Here
Reviewed Friday (26) 8-8:30 p.m. Style—Interview, variety. Advertising agency, Caples. Sustaining over WABD, New York.
This was professional but inept. Interviews are tough to handle unless they have either mental or physical movement There was nothing about Geraldine Frazier's guests that contributed to either ... and to add it to all, one of Gerry's guests, a comic, was guilty of some of the worst taste seen on the air since NBC insisted on a wife killing her husband every other Sunday evening.
The comic, Burni Gould, did a pantomime G.I. medic routine with the doctor performing an abdominal operation, taking out a sad sacks' innards, calling the intestinal tract spaghetti and handling it accordingly. It was a good thing there wasn't a weak stomach in one of DuMont's client rooms or else when John Wanamaker opened up its record and music departments (they back up to the clients' rooms) it would have found the nice furniture messed up—but good.
Instead of the room in which Gerry received her guest seemingly like her living room, it appeared, to be Grand Central Station, with bells ringing, guests greeted, guests doing their routines, from a cancer pitch to a vet rehabilitation bit by one-legged golf pro, and then being ushered out again. Why the guest couldn't have stayed while the other guests were performing is one of those minor mysteries.
Norma Squires sang a song while straining to hear the disk which backed her voice; Ernest Jones, the golf pro, swung a stick; Dr. Frank E. Adair, medic topper of the cancer drive, talked about the campaign. At this moment something called show business somehow or another became part of the program. They cut in the Spencer Tracy pic short on the cancer drive and since it's a pro job and good, it gathered the viewer's interest right up in its arms and they were willing to shell out (if they had been in a theater they would have shelled).
Final guest was Mary Chase and her puppet, Mr. J. W. Diggs. Chase knows her puppets, but Diggs's routines weren't well integrated into the show and while his piano playing (imitating well known 88'ers) was fun, his having to tell sound man to cut each disk threw right out the window a pleasant illusion.
Gerry herself came thru the kinescope as a cold egg. She's got to "human-up" a bit to relax. A lesson from her guest, the golf prof, would have helped. The camera calling by Lou Sposa was uninspired, but the conking out of camera four explained this. The eye went bad just after the dress run-thru.
Once again it must be underlined that no emseed show is any better than the emsee, that integrating must be effortless and that sitting on a couch for interviews smells (NBC tried its couch a number of times before it relegated it to the warehouse). Look Who's Here has a tag that just cries for spine thrilling scripting. Maybe it'll get it—before the series is over. (Billboard, May 4)
"LOOK WHO'S HERE"
With Geraldine Frazier, emcee; Norma Squires, Ernest Jones, Berni Gould, Dr. Frank E. Adair, Mary Chase
Producer-Writer: David P. Lewis
Set: Bob Bright
30 Mins.; Friday (26), 8 p.m.
Sustaining
WABD-DuMont, N. Y.
DuMont came up with one of the first acceptable sustaining programs it's had since it opened its Wanamaker studios, with "Look Who's Here." Show was packaged by David P. Lewis of the Caples ad agency, as part of the agency's experimentation program in television. Technical direction, however, was handled by Louis A. Sposa, DuMont programming chief, giving DuMont its share of the credit. Format follows the usual interesting personalities type of show. Geraldine Frazier, as emcee, delivers a short spiel on each character prior to his entrance. Off-stage bell then rings, Miss Frazier looks up with a "look who's here" exclamation and the personality walks on to be interviewed before the cameras.
Lewis lined up a diversified and interesting group of guests for the preem performance, including Norma Squires, USO-Camp shows singer; Ernest Jones, one-legged golf pro; Berni Gould, comedian: Dr. Frank E. Adair, president of the American Cancer Society, and Mary Chase, puppeteer. Show ran smoothly most of the way, keeping audience interest via rapid pacing. Too much time was devoted to Miss Chase and her amateurish puppet performance in the final segment, however, making for a slow ending.
Camera work followed the general improvements found in other aspects of the show, although the DuMont t.d.s are still relying too much on the overhead shots with their boom dolly camera. Bob Bright's single set was up to his usual standard. Stal.(Variety, May 1)
Saturday, April 27
WCBW Channel 2
8:15 News.
8:45 “It’s a Gift,” audience-participation show with John Reed King (to 9:20).
NEW YORK, April 27.—Columbia's WCBW came back to the air tonight with John Reed King's It's a Gift, audience participation seg. The first week's sked runs the gamut of programs that have been tested on the CBS's black-and-white air before it went off the air March 1 to shift to its new channel.
Return was a rush affair as it was generally known that one camp at 485 Madison Avenue did not want the station to scan a monochrome picture, feeling that such a move was pegging the network's color pitch. Not generally known is the fact that the station had been airing, experimentally, a color signal for a number of days and had hoped to actually go on the air with it even on the "downstairs' frequency." Pitch was that available receivers would still receive the color signal as black-and-white, so that the FCC could not rule that the station wasn't fulfilling its obligations to set owners. However, it was pointed out that if the web were to do this, it would make available to the one color camp a selling point that CBS has thus far avoided. This point was that, "color isn't all important and that it is for the higher bracket income group." In other words even after color becomes routine on the air there will still be thousands (at the start) and perhaps millions later who will never have the more expensive sets capable of receiving pigmented pie. If this idea became generally accepted the agencies and sponsors who are at the present saying "no" to video experimentation would have no defense for their stand-and black-and-white air pix would get the "shot in the arm" which it so urgently requires at this time, an approach with which CBS takes violent exception at this time. (Billboard, May 4)
"SATURDAY EVENING SPOTLIGHTS"
With James C. McMullin, Bob Edge, newscasters; Ruth Woodner, Phoebe Merchant, Lura de Gez John Hall, David O. Woodbury Director; Leo Hurwitz
30 Mins.; Saturday (27), 8:15 p.m.
Sustaining
WCBW-CBS, N. Y.
WCBW returned to the air after its channel changeover Saturday (27) with a new idea in the way of televised news shows. Program, which is to be a Saturday night feature under the station's new schedule, follows the format of the usual magazine supplement of a Sunday newspaper, with features for the sports fan, women, scientists, etc. It's all designed to provide a highly-interesting half-hour for those viewers who'd rather slay at home on Saturday nights than buck the Broadway traffic.
Most interesting angle of the new program is the deftness with which Leo Hurwitz, director of CBS television's news staff, has integrated film and live segments into a tightly-knit show. Sound track of two of the film segments got mixed at the preem but were fixed almost immediately. Such minor wrinkles should be easy enough to iron out before the next performance.
Program also inaugurated the use of the three-minute series of filmed shorts which the CBS newsreel cameramen, under the direction of John Sewall, have been shooting around the city. Film used in the preem was a good summary of N.Y.'s firemen training school. Highlighting its interest was the integration of several shots from a spectacular tenement fire, which the cameramen filmed several weeks ago.
"Spotlights" began with a short, up-to-the-minute summary of the news, rounded out in good fashion by newscaster James C. McMullin via still pictures, maps and charts. Then followed sequences on women's hair styles, with two w.k.; beauty operators demonstrating their techniques on models in the studio; film shots of the Columbia-Harvard crew race, with a running commentary by Bob Edge; a scientific spot, with David C. Woodbury demonstrating a new lamp, and the other film features. Color on the sets in several of the live sequences was too light, offering inadequate contrast to the faces of the actors. Stal. (Variety, May 1)
NEW YORK, April 27.—NBC will return its WNBT to the air, as skedded, May 3, with a remote pick-up of regular fight scanning. Many technical "ifs" have made it impossible to schedule too much in detail but May 5 is expected to see Blithe Spirit before the air cameras. This play should be ideal air pie material, for only the camera can handle life unreally.
New segs in sked include Sunday in New York. NBC Almanac and the matinee set-up outlined in another story in this department. (Billboard, May 4)
NEW YORK, April 27.—Necessity of making everything that will, pay its own way is the mother of DuMont's latest "invention." Station plays disks during the half hour that its test pattern's on. Realizing that people turn on their receivers and listen while they await the program starting, WABD announcer names the platters, asks for requests on the part of listeners for their favorite disks (so that they may be spun) and then reminds all and sundry, that "All the records played may be purchased at John Wanamaker's in New York." It's just another way of paying off J. W. for the studio deal (WABD's studios occupy plenty of floor space in the John Wanamaker store). (Billboard, May 4)
NEW YORK, April 27.—American Broadcasting Company bid for day-time audiences will be directed at the juves, instead of, as in the case of the NBC pitch, at fems. Telecast will be for one hour, between 5 and 6 p.m., starting May 15.
Three segs—a quarter-hour Singing Lady, with Irene Wicker, a half-hour board of education scanning, under the direction of same group that presents There Ought To Be a Law on CBS; and a quarter-hour Aesop Fables, using old silent pix, with Walter Kiernan doing the narrating-will make up the hour. Taking no chances on off-synch, which has marred a number of Kiernan's voicings for pix, the voice will be sound-tracked instead of disked.
First and last units will be commercial, with the educational half hour being "public service." Network has done okay for itself with its radio kid stuff and expects to do likewise in the pic field. (Billboard, May 4)
Video hearings have indicated that it's going to cost stations hundreds of thousands to get into the air pic field and that there won't be any return on the investment for a number of years. Hearings have also indicated that web operation won't be along in the next few years and so the station will have to program itself.
Only 39 of the 43 stations have shown their withdrawal hands as tagged on this page. A number of these have indicated that they expected to make application eventually in the upstairs frequencies, but a number also have chosen to make no announcement about future re-applications. Fact that applicants, such as Allen B. DuMont, are included among the withdrawals is indicative that color may be an excuse—in some cases—but the real reason is $$$$$$$$$$. (Billboard, May 4)
Sunday, April 28
WCBW Channel 2
8:15 News.
8:30 “Tales by Hoff” with Sid Hoff, cartoonist. Tale: Tom Thumb.
8:45 “Choreotones,” modern dance series with Pauline Koner.
Monday, April 29
WABD Channel
8:30 Feature Film: “In Old Santa Fe” with Gene Autry, Ken Maynard (Mascot, 1934).
The Headmaster
Reviewed Monday (29), 8:30 p.m. Style—Drama. Sustaining over WABD, New York.
Jay Strong's first one-act play with DuMont's new facilities was adequate, professional and indicated what can be done at the John Wanemaker studios. Nevertheless, it didn't hold interest.
Essex Dane's script, being a character study, required far better actors than Strong had gathered together. Opening, in which each of the performers used a few speeches from out of the play's context to establish character, was so well done and the characters were so real that the viewers expected something sock. Excitement ended with the intro.
Face of the headmaster washed out too often, and the trick of bringing in the dead wife's voice, coining from a head many times the size of the living characters in the play, destroyed the illusion. Instead of making the production real, it lent a touch of the bizarre that was entirely out of place, especially since the wife eventually materialized in proper form.
Play was peopled with men who were unreal. Never for a moment, except in the introduction, did the viewer believe them. There was still very little modeling light, and while materialization is ideal stuff for video, it can't take the place of performers on the air.
If there had only been someone in the play the viewer believed, it might have come to life. It didn't. (Billboard, May 11)
Burbank on Parade
Reviewed Monday (29), 9:15-9:45 p.m. Style—Variety and films. Sustaining on W6XAO (KTSL), Hollywood.
Tonight's scanner was unfortunate all the way down the line, having been thrown together by W6XAO's televisers. Original plan to air pic a title boxing match fell thru at the last minute, forcing station to reach out and grab the first available attraction, Show was aired after only two hours of rehearsal, meeting with no success.
Coming civic promotional week,Burbank on Parade, was chosen as main live attraction, and consisted of a disorganized series of acts, loosely tied in with civic betterment, but mostly time-fillers. Bill included a ping-pong match, an interview with old-timers, a trick cyclist, a round of boxing, cartoonist chalk talk and an odd assortment of similar attractions.
Video-wise, program suffered from fuzzy close-ups and inadequate lighting, plus of course, the sketchiest excuse for production. (Billboard, May 11)
Tuesday, April 30
WABD Channel
8:00 “Here’s How,” variety.
8:30 Travel film.
9:00 “King’s Record Shop” with John Reed King.
Exclusive television rights to the Conn-Louis heavyweight championship fight, slated for June 19 at Yankee Stadium, N. Y., have been signed by NBC and the Gillette Safety Razor Co. In announcing conclusion of the deal yesterday (Tuesday) [30], John F. Royal, NBC exec veepee over television: promoter Mike Jacobs and J. P. Spang, Jr., Gillette prexy, disclosed also that a deal has been closed for Gillette to sponsor all fights staged by Jacobs' 20th Century Sporting Club from June 1, 1946. to June 1, 1947, over WNBT (NBC, N. Y.).
All three companies involved in the deal refused to discuss the costs, but it's believed that Jacobs is getting $100,000 for video rights to the Conn-Louis fight alone. NBC is reportedly carrying part of the freight, with Gillette as part of the web's plans to grab off the top sports events now in order to have the upper hand in future sports tele-casting. Deal for the rest of the year reportedly cost NBC and Gillette another $150,000.
Assignment of radio rights for the Conn-Louis bout have not yet been divulged but it's believed likely that Gillette will also sponsor the fight over the ether, with the ABC web carrying it under the same arrangements as the last heavyweight championship bout.
Jacobs was reportedly holding off conclusion of a tele deal with a view to selling video rights to a theatre circuit, figuring he could get more dough that way through a share of the b.o. receipts. He was dissatisfied with the demonstration of full-screen sized television, staged April 15 in Schenectady by General Electric and the Rauland Corp. of Chicago, however, and upon his return to N. Y. concluded the deal with NBC and Gillette.
Fight will probably be carried to Philadelphia and Washington via the Bell System's coaxial cable, under present plans. NBC will use five cameras, including three RCA super-sensitive image orthicons and two regular orthicons, to bring viewers the best possible pictures of the fight, according to O. B. Hanson, NBC veepee over engineering. Two of the cameras will be placed in the newsreel stand at the stadium, two more will be in NBC's regular box in the mezzanine along the first-base line, and the other one will be set up directly alongside the ring. (Variety, May 1)
HOLLYWOOD, May 4.-Don Lee plans to airpix its first outdoor night pick-up over tele outlet W6XAO fell thru at the last minute, forcing the station to pull both radio and tele-equipment from Los Angeles's Wrigley Field.
Event was the Ike Williams-Enrique Bolenos title fight April 30, but tie-up was canceled. Fight promoters feared air coverage would hurt receipts and pulled legal punches tostop the broadcast. When bickering ended, Don Leewas permitted to carry the fight locally over KHJ (Hollywood) and several key Don Lee outlets. Net agreed not to publicize the event in any way before 8 p.m. fight night.
W6XAO coverage was never an issue in the squabble, inasmuch as 200-odd video receivers in the area would obviously not affect the gate. Okay came too late for W6XAO to reinstall equipment in time for the fight. Outlet was forced to settle for film program. (Billboard, May 11)
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