Radio was still king in mid-1946, but things were shifting very slowly. The FCC was approving licenses for new television stations. A small company named Viewtone was out with post-war TV sets, others kept promising to follow soon. Transmission equipment was being made once again.
A few ad agencies were putting money into television. Just like radio, they bore the entire cost of a programme. And because of Cesar Petrillo’s foolish ban on unionised musicians having anything to do with television—even on film soundtracks—stations were turning to mobile broadcasts of sports and ditching B-studio movies.
In July 1946, there were still no real networks. ABC had no station of its own, so it bought airtime on up to five stations. There was still a coaxial cable able to link a few stations back East for special occasions. And DuMont developed what amounted to a kinescope system where it could record a picture from a TV screen.
Both CBS and NBC now had sponsored newscasts. WCBW’s Milo Boulton used charts and graphs. WNBT’s Paul Alley was off-camera, editing film together and narrating over it just like a movie-house newsreel.
News and reviews are below. No newspapers outside the New York area published TV listings. We’ve also included a chart of commercial stations approved by the FCC. It’s missing experimental licenses, so you won’t see anything for Los Angeles. For reasons I haven’t comprehended, war-time approvals for W6XAO and W6XYZ to go commercial were negated and they reapplied. Game show hosts include Dennis James, John Reed King, Warren Hull and Gil Fates, with Bob Stanton as the voice of on-location sports.
Monday, July 1
WNBT Channel 4
7:50 Television Reporter, newsreel narrated by Paul Alley, sponsored by Esso.
8:00 Televues.
8:15 Short subjects.
8:45 Baseball at the Polo Grounds, Yankees vs. Giants.
Tuesday, July 2
WNBT Channel 4
8:00 Short subjects.
8:30 Midget Auto Races, Freeport Municipal Stadium.
WABD Channel 5
8:00 Let’s Dance.
8:30 Film short.
9:00 Film: “Serving Through Science,” sponsored by U.S. Rubber.
"LET'S DANCE"
With Flower Dance Co., Velma Smith, Jerry Farr; Walter Herlihy, announcer
Producer-director: Harvey Marlowe
30 Mins.; Tuesday (2); 8 p.m.
CHEVROLET
WABD-ABC, N. Y.
(Campbell-Ewald)
“Let's Dance," fourth and last in the current series of show sponsored by Chevrolet, wasn't up to the usual ABC television standards. Despite the fact that it offered a fresh and interesting idea in the way of audience participation programs, the show dragged too much and presented too many technical errors for it to be classified as anything but fair.
Basic idea was a good one. Participants guessed the name of a popular dance step while, watching it demonstrated by a team from the Arthur Murray school. Winner, besides being presented with a free course of instruction at the Murray emporium, also had to demonstrate the dance with the professional. During this demonstration, the cameras dissolved to another set in which the Flower company rounded out the sequence by doing the dance in a big production number.
Same pattern was followed for each of the three steps used, which might have made it easier for emcee Walter Herlihy to follow the script but only made it monotonous for the viewer. Production routines on the rhumba and waltz were okay but the use of prizefighters to demonstrate a polka was a little too ludicrous. Producer-director Harvey Marlowe must have been reading too many of the stories describing the recent Conn-Louis fiasco as a "ballet."
Marlowe also had trouble keeping his dancers centered in the lenses and the pictures were often fuzzy and out of focus. Blame for the latter, as well as for the camera that went on the blink during the show, can probably be laid on the DuMont equipment, which still hasn't been brought up to par.
Jim Ameche was originally supposed to have emceed the show but pulled out at the last moment, without giving the staff a chance to change the credit cards. 
His replacement, Herlihy, seemed frightened by his audience and missed the light quality necessary for the job. Dancers, both from the Flower company and Arthur Murray, were okay. Bob Bright’s sets were the brightest feature of the program.
Chevvy [sic] commercials, integrated into the dialog describing each of the dance steps, were too close to the cob and came too often for top effectiveness. Stal. (Variety, July 10)
Wednesday, July 3
WABD Channel 5
8:00 “Musical Map.”
8:30 Film short.
9:00 “The Red Benson Show,” variety.
Musical Map
Reviewed Wednesday (3), 8-8:30 p.m. Style—Folk music. Sponsor—John Wanamaker's. Sustaining on WABD (DuMont), New York.
There comes a time when it's necessary to stop being kind. This is it. Week after week, John Wanamaker's, aided and abetted by DuMont, has produced video miscarriages, all of which "had a good idea."
To give some idea of how bad this was, there were two pipers (girls) who tooted away with Italian, German and Swedish native tunes, and all that Lou Sposa, the director, did was to use a two-shot, the same two-shot for each of the three tunes—and let the girls toot. If there's anything more uninteresting than two girls blowing their brains out before the ike, it hasn't been seen yet.
There was the usual "good idea" in this scanning. Dorothea Lawrence had designed a map of the U. S. A. that had all the musical folk lore on it, local to each area. Then for a scanning, she brought together a few folk music singers and non-802 musicians and had them bring her map to life. . . But with the idea, the program stopped dead. Ev- erything was static. When Sposa used a double exposure, there wasn't the slightest excuse for it and viewers just thought that the camera man had made a mistake.
It had all the finesse of Wednesday's church tea. This was even too bad for a closed circuit viewing. (Billboard, July 13)
Ft. Worth—Granted an application for a television station by the FCC, Carter Publications has begun seriously to plan on building Texas’ first television station as soon as possible.
“Optimistically, we hope to have it in operation in nine months.” This statement was made by Harold Hough, general manager of radio operations for the Carter Publications which also own and operate KGKO and WBAP here.
He said that the station, of 30 kilowatt power, would be located in the Fort Worth Meadowbrook area. The engineers do not claim that the station will cover Dallas “satisfactorily,” but it will “cover Dallas fully,” Mr. Hough stated.
To obtain a high priority for materials, the Carter Publications placed an order for RCA tele equipment. (Radio Daily, July 3)
NEW YORK, July 6.—Viewers of the John Wanamaker's Musical Map WABD scanning Wednesday (3) were surprised to find that the Arnold Ussen Trio had become suddenly the Arnold Ussen Pipe Group, with only Ma and Sis Ussen appearing before the camera. Reason for the quick change?
Son Ussen holds an 802 card. (Billboard, July 13)
Balaban & Katz
Reviewed Wednesday (3), 3 to 3:45 p.m. Style—Variety. Sustaining on WBKB, Chicago.
With this new Wednesday afternoon series (The Billboard, June 29) WBKB is trying an idea new in tele- vision here-having one emsee integrate what is intended to be a full hour's program. Today's program was only 45 minutes long, because Harriet Hester, who was scheduled to have an interview, had to leave town at the last minute. But even tho it was not a full hour in length, it was long enough to show what was right and wrong with the series. The idea has plenty to offer, but it also has many mistakes that have to be corrected.
Best part of the program was Jerry Walker, program emsee and producer. Walker has the right kind of camera technique and presence for television. He is informal, sincere and intelligent in his ad-lib. Altho his personal appearances were good in the main, the way in which he programmed the period was not so hot.
His idea is to integrate each program with some knitting thread of transition or continuity. Today Walker picked on the subject of America's independence (a Fourth of July natural) as this thread. But many times he broke it; many times subject matter of the show was incongruous and out of place. Principal example was the time he finished talking about American independence, had Paul Battenfield, Chicago Times cartoonist, draw a cartoon on the same subject matter, and then proceeded to ruin what could have been a good idea by having a dance team try to teach the rumba and samba. Connection here was supposed to be that these were dances of our South American neighbors, who also had won their independence. But the point was not one of logical progression; it missed fire completely, and only seemed completely out of place. At other times when he had Georgia Anatnost, semi-classical singer, do songs expressing the spirit of independence of other nations, he picked up the thread. Still other times he got around (why, we don't know) to having Battenfield do a cartoon about the OPA. Again, no connection.
Walker has a good idea here. His theory that he can maintain audience interest by integrating a full hour of tele time is sound. But, if to- day's program is an example, he will have to adhere closer to that theory in the future and not bring in so much material that seems to be completely out of place. (Billboard, July 13)
Thursday, July 4
WCBW Channel 2
8:15 “CBS Television News” with Milo Boulton, sponsored by Gulf.
8:30 “Draw Me Another,” cartoon drawing show.
8:45 “Operation Crossroads,” the Bikini Atoll nuclear test.
9:00 “Prudence Indeed.”
WNBT Channel 4
7:50 Television Reporter, sponsored by Esso.
8:00 “Hour Glass,” variety show sponsored by Chase and Sanborn Coffee.
9:00 “American Business on Parade,” sponsored industrial film.
9:20 Famous Fight film.
WABD Channel 5
8:00 “Tell Me, Doctor.”
8:15 “Here’s Morgan” with Henry Morgan, sponsored by Adler Shoes.
8:30 Film short.
9:00 “Cash and Carry,” game show with Dennis James.
Prudence Indeed
Reviewed Thursday (4), 9-9:15 p.m. Style—Comedy. Sustaining over WCBW (CBS), New York.
Comedy of manners hangs upon the turning of a phrase, the raising of an eyebrow and the emphasis of a single syllable. When anyone on or off the video screen tries to produce a comedy of manners with an improvisation group, he's nuts ... unless the director were to bring back from the dead Alexander Wollcott and Minnie Maddern Fiske, and, from the living, Franklin P. Adams, John Kieran and Dorothy Parker and then let them improvise. Sans the stars and the dead, the only out is to write the play and have the performers stick to the lines.
CBS tried to present the Lee Wallace group in a play that could have been good only if the lines were smart and there were an O. Henry twist. Neither was found in this scanning. The performers weren't bad, the camera handling was good, and the lighting more than adequate. All for naught. There wasn't any play. True, there was an interesting assortment of characters all out of well-known cubbyholes and all doing good enough jobs, so that the strings that made them move weren't too visible. But cubbyhole people lead the most uninteresting lives. Improvisation-bah! (Billboard, July 13)
Tell Me, Doctor!
Reviewed Thursday (4), 8-8:15 p.m. Style—Service. Producer—American Broadcasting System. Sustaining over WABD (DuMont), New York.
Paul Mowrey, director of television for ABC, gave his staff a vacation over the Fourth week-end and handled all the shot-calling himself. The first one of his "one man weekend" shows was this presentation of Doctor Weldon, who endeavored, with considerable success, to present what to do if something untoward happens to you at the beach, on the road or just any place. There was nothing fancy about the scanning, but the 15 minutes passed quickly and, except for a couple of corny gags that shouldn't happen to a doctor, or a viewer, Tell Me, Doctor! proved that sight helps the audience find the medical answer.
Using a lipstick to draw on a young male Conover model's body the placement of the stomach and the heart added something new for the girls, and if receivers were in more homes, we're afraid that it would have given a number of ferns ideas on what to do with their make-up.
And Weldon, M. D., was telegenic. (Billboard, July 13)
Here's Morgan (WABD, Thursday (4), 8-8:15 p.m.) on second sight is still good Henry Morgan, but he indicated what plenty of viewers felt upon seeing the zany for the first time—can he keep it up? There was plenty of the Morgan charm but little of the Morgan inventiveness, and some of the stunts just didn't come off, such as Morgan running out of camera range. A video Morgan sans the visual Morgan just isn't fun. Morgan has to work harder to make the home viewer have as good time as he gives their ears on WJZ (New York). (Billboard, July 13)
Friday, July 5
WCBW Channel 2
8:15-9:30 Film: “The High Command” with Lionel Atwill, James Mason (Associated British, 1937).
WNBT Channel 4
8:00 “For You and Yours,” variety show.
8:40 “The World in Your Home,” sponsored by RCA.
9:00 “Gillette Cavalcade of Sports,” Boxing at Madison Square Garden. Chuck Taylor vs. Billy Graham, welterweight.
Saturday, July 6
WCBW Channel 2
8:15 “Saturday Evening Spotlight,” people in the news.
8:30 “It’s a Gift,” comedy show with John Reed King.
NEW YORK, July 6.—The Elks parade skedded for Fifth Avenue Thursday (11), will be photographed for scanning on four stations used by American Broadcasting Company. Parade report will hit the air in Philadelphia (WPPZ) Friday (12); New York (WABD) and Washington (WTTG) on the following Tuesday (16) and Schenectady (WRGB) Wednesday (17).
The presentation will be commercial, the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks no less, paying the bills themselves. This is another Paul Mowrey first. (Billboard, July 13)
Sunday, July 7
WCBW Channel 2
8:15 News and analysis.
8:30 “You Be The Judge.”
9:45 Dance program: Valerie Bettis.
WNBT Channel 4
2:00 Baseball at the Polo Grounds. Giants vs. Phillies.
8:00 “Face to Face,” with cartoonist Bob Dunn, sponsored by Tender Leaf Tea.
8:15 “Geographically Speaking,” film, sponsored by Bristol-Myers.
8:30 Play: “Seven Keys to Baldpate” with Vinton Hayworth, hymn, coming attractions film.
"SEVEN KEYS TO BALDPATE."
With Vinton Hayworth, John Robb, Eva Condon, Vaughn Taylor, Neal O'Malley, Patricia Shay, Helen Jerome, Sydna Scott, W. O. McWatters, George Mathews, Dick Midgley, Dave Herman, Larry Kerr, Paul Keyes, David Andrews
Producer: Ernie Colling
Tech. Director: H. Gromberg
Set: Bob Wade
90 Mins.; Sun. (7), 8:45 p. m.
Sustaining
WNBT-NBC, N. Y.
"Seven Keys to Baldpate," when first produced on Broadway in 1913, had enough of both comedy and suspenseful melodrama to assure it of a long run. WNBT's televised version however, lacked both qualities, and emerged as an overlong, ho-hum at affair that smacked more of the amateur than anything the station has done in many a month.
Producer Ernie Colling, who adapted the show from the George M. Cohan play, which in turn was adapted from a novel by Earl Derr Biggers, did little to bring it up to date, retaining most of the original dialog, which sounded antiquated as it came over the set's speaker. Costumes were modern, but that failed to compensate for the dated quality of the affair.
Show also evidenced a lack of sufficient rehearsal, which is surprising for an NBC presentation. Screams of the femme players came several times after their cues, the lights in a room came on before the switch was pulled, etc., all of which served to slow up the action and confuse the audience. Colling also used too few closeups of the actors, which negated the intimate relationship supposed to be established bet ween the actors and the audience.
Performance of most of the cast was on the credit side. Vinton Hay worth, already one of the few established stars in the video firmament, did a nice job as the author of romantic novels, who is harassed by supposedly real-life melodrama when trying to write a book in 24 hours at the isolated Baldpate inn. Vaughn Taylor lent the right zany touches to his role of the lunatic hermit. Rest of the cast was equally acceptable.
Colling did manage to pull off the switch ending in good fashion, leaving the audience with the same surprised reaction noted by critics who reviewed the original stage play. Show broke for intermission at an unexpected point in the proceedings, probably to give the actors a chance to cool off a little and get their throats sprayed.
Difficult set for the show, consisting of a two-level room, was well designed by Bob Wade. Stal. (Variety, July 10)
Monday, July 8
WNBT Channel 4
1:30 National Professional Tennis Championships, Forest Hills. Bob Stanton, announcer. Sponsored by Chase and Sanborn Iced Coffee.
7:50 Television Reporter, newsreel narrated by Paul Alley, sponsored by Esso.
8:00 Televues, sponsored by Firestone.
8:15 Film:
“Prairie Pals” with Bill “Cowboy Rambler” Boyd (PRC, 1942).
PRO TENNIS MATCHES
With Bob Stanton, announcer
Producer: Gary Simpson
Tech. Director: Jack Burrell
180 Mins.; Mon. (8), 1:30 p.m.
STANDARD BRANDS
WNBT-NBC, N. Y.
(J. Walter Thompson)
NBC television added another laurel to its long list of special events telecasts with the national professional tennis championship matches from Forest Hills, L, I. WNBT is carrying the matches several afternoons each week until the tournament winds up, with Standard Brands tagging along in the sponsor's post to get the necessary know-how of plugging its products in sports events.
Using two Image Orthicon cameras with the new turret lenses, producer Gary Simpson was able to lick the basic problem of scanning a tennis court without making his viewers seasick by panning a camera, from one end of the court to the other. Cameras were set up behind the baseline at an angle, furnishing an excellent picture of the overall scene. Simpson also used the closeup lens on his cameras to follow the players during the service, then cut immediately over to a medium closeup to follow the volley action.
Since the Forest Hills courts encompass a much smaller area than Yankee Stadium, N. Y., scene of the recent Conn-Louis fight, the voices of the audience came in clearly over the mikes, adding greatly to the color of the affair. Voices of Bill Tilden and Bob Murray, opponents at the match caught, also, came in clearly as they kidded each other and argued with the umpire, giving viewers as good an overall picture as if they were sitting in the umpire's chair.
Commercials, plugging Chase and Sanborn's iced coffee, were confined to ultra-short spot announcements, with none of the animation, films, etc., used by other advertisers. This was probably the result of a lack of sufficient preparation time, however.
Bob Stanton did a fine job on the announcing, duplicating his past efforts by confining his remarks to keeping score and explaining the game's finer points. Stanton demonstrated nice versatility by using a subdued, polished voice to narrate the gentlemanly tennis matches, as opposed to his bantering commentary on the Conn-Louis fight. Stal. (Variety, July 10)
Gander Sauce
Reviewed Monday (8), 9-9:30 p.m. Style—Drama. Sustaining on W6XAO (Don Lee), Hollywood.
For its tele tidbit Don Lee air-pic'ed a light, farcical one-act written some years back by Betty (A Tree Grows in Brooklyn) Smith. As drama Gander Sauce is laborious and overwritten. As tele fare, however, the play emerges as an interesting and entertaining half-hour show, being compact and easy to follow.
Most important was camera set-up employed for the first time by Jack Stewart, W6XAO producer. Telecasters mounted camera on a stationary tripod elevated approximately six feet and focused on actors thru-out the seg. Other camera was given double duty, serving both for panning at medium range and close-ups. Result was same as adding a third camera to two now employed by outlet. Introduction of relatively new (to video) "looking down" perspective proved highly effective and served to break monotony of ordinary close-ups or standard pan shots. Techniqure is similar to overhead camera boom employed in films.
Don Lee technicians also introduced changes in set lighting, including use of new bank of direct overhead lighting. Unfortunately, results of this experiment could not be judged, since receiver on which show was caught went out of whack in midst of telecast. All in all, however, this show was definitely a step in the right direction.
Gander Sauce was presented by Penthouse Theater Guild of Hollywood. Direction of the play was by Charles Wilhelm and the cast included Helen Carlson, Emily Heath and Kay Mikel. (Variety, July 20)
A Nice Place To Visit
Reviewed Monday (8), 8:15-10:20 p.m. Style—Musical comedy. Sustaining over WRGB (GE), Schenectady, N.Y.
A swell way to kill a staff is to tele-cast a full-length musical comedy without adequate rehearsals. However, dead or alive, the WRGB staff proved that an off-the-cuff scanning of a book musical sans a chorus line can be done and Is good entertainment when it hits the home screens A Nice Place To Visit, as presented by the Bolton Landing Summer Players, took over two hours to tele-cast.
Credit Marc Spinelli's loss of at least two pounds in the shot–calling as worth while considering the results, but also credit Dotty Martin, the t. d., for making it possible,
and the three cameramen (with special bows to Ash Dawes and Bob Stone) for making the shots that went out on the air okay.
The musical comedy was no great shucks, and with the exception of two tunes, The Merry Daisy Chain and Bucket of Wheat, no one will hum anything from the show 10 minutes after the final curtain. However, those two tunes are fun, and since Philip Kadison wrote the entire score he deserves a bow, small tho it is, for not being a memory scorer.
Also underline Esther Solar, the buxom widow, as slightly terrific, and if anyone's inclined to want to drop the "slightly," that's okay too. She made The Merry Daisy Chain sound even better than it was, and that's something extra when it's recalled that she didn't depend upon a streamlined chassis to sell.
But the play's not the thing, as far as this report is concerned. What's important is the scanning. There was just the right amount of close-ups, and despite the eight scenes and 10 changes the show ran without more than two black levels, and they were both errors in judgment for which Spinelli can be excused.
Actually the show was more entertaining than it could have been on the stage because when a patter song was being sold the viewer was right up close to the song seller. The scenes, except for an apartment room, were typical musical comedy set pieces, quickly placed and easy to handle. By having at least three of them ready at all times the shifts were handled without breaks, and the scanning moved faster than the plot. There was no ork, but by employing two pianos, which the Bolton Landing straw-hatter used in its regular stage production, no one missed the ork. It would have seemed out of place in this unpretentious scanning anyhow.
This was a good camera-reporting job, and it underlined the fact that camera reporting can be entertainment, even tho it isn't television. After all, the viewer isn't interested in what's television. All he wants is entertainment in his home. (Variety, July 20)
Tuesday, July 9
WNBT Channel 4
1:30 National Professional Tennis Championships, Forest Hills. Bob Stanton, announcer. Sponsored by Tender Leaf Tea.
WABD Channel 58:00 “The Fitzgeralds” with Ed and Pegeen Fitzgerald, sponsored by Gertz department store, Jamaica.
8:30 Film short.
9:00 “Serving Through Science,” sponsored by U.S. Rubber.
The Fitzgeralds
Reviewed Tuesday (9), 8-8:30 p.m. Style—Service and chatter. Sponsor—Gertz Department Store. Producer—American Broadcasting Company. Station WABD (DuMont), New York.
Pegeen and Ed Fitzgerald, who can be "credited" with starting the Breakfast program vogue, have come to video (at least in this telecast) with a Dinner program. They do everything but eat at the table.
A half-hour of small talk in front of the cameras might be stinko with anyone but the Fitzgeralds. They make it amusing and ideal for anyone who wants a seg during which he doesn't have to look too intently at the kinescope.
Ed showed how to make a salad dressing, and altho he did it practically straight, it was excellent burlesque of the masculine cooking segs which are being scanned by WNBT. Of course, the dressing and the salad turned out non-eatable.
The commercial for the Gertz Department Store was handled by Pegeen having a lot of packages sent to her. She and Ed opened them and then she went into a sales pitch on each product from wired bras to percale sheets. She sold them all so well that it was a delight to see and hear her, even when she apparently didn't have the slightest idea of what the stuff cost.
The Fitzgeralds proved what Henry Morgan has proved before them, that if you're a personality, and at ease before the camera, a television program can be built around you. That's okay for a one-shot, but it's another matter to be fresh and interesting week after week. Morgan slipped last week and only the future will reveal just how the Fitzes continue to come thru on the screen.
Harvey Marlowe was the producer of this scanning, but from the receiving end, his contribution was negligible. (Variety, July 20)
Wednesday, July 10
WABD Channel 5
8:00 “The Magic Carpet.”
8:15 Musicale.
8:45 Film short.
9:00 “The Red Benson Show,” variety.
9:30 Boxing at Ebetts Field. Artie Levine vs. Vic Dellicurti, middleweight.
"PRO WRESTLING MATCHES"
With Don Ward, announcer
Producer: Reinald Werrenrath, Jr.
180 Mins.; Wed. (10), 8:15 p.m.
WBKB, Chi (ABC)
With ABC network sponsoring the last hour of this three-hour program, WBKB launched its remote pickup series, for which Chi has been waiting a long time. After weeks of experimenting, WBKB took the plunge, holding its breath, and surfaced with flying colors. Success of the wrestling matches has encouraged the station to go ahead with its extensive plans to telecast boxing, baseball, tennis and other sporting events in the Chi area.
Despite the fact that most of the equipment used was homemade or of ancient vintage, technical difficulties were few and the image was clear throughout the three-hour show. Lone camera used was housed in a specially built booth at the arena, 15 feet from the ring. Harry Birch and Art Kambs took turns working the camera, and they did an excellent job Of keeping track of the fast-moving contestants. Mikes placed over and around the ring caught the grunts and groans of the wrestlers and comments of the spectators, adding color to the event.
ABC sportscaster Don Ward did a nifty job of announcing from the ringside. Aided by wrestling promoter Fred Kohler, who interpreted the rather vague wrestling rules, Ward kept the aud posted as to the, different types of holds being used, making it much easier for the video aud to understand what they were looking at.
Fifteen mniutes [sic] before the arena pickup and between bouts. Jack Gibney presented background information from WBKB's studios. Stills of the featured wrestlers, stories of their success in the ring, and a brief history of the game itself, helped in the general understanding and enjoyment of the evening's program.
ABC's commercials were kept to a minimum and cleverly worked in the program by Ward, main pitch being (act that ABC is the first network to sponsor video in Chi. Foos. (Variety, July 17)
As the first outside interest to go into Chicago television, ABC hopes to start establishing an audience in Chi for the time when it will have its own station there. Application for the Chi permit is pending with the FCC. Boxing and wrestling matches will be carried from 8-10 p.m. each Wednesday night, according to Paul B. Mowrey, chief of the web's tele activities, with a good possibility that the shows will be sponsored in the near future. Bud Pearse, ABC tele's director of special events, will handle tonight's show, which will be carried by WBKB's remote equipment.
Web also added two more sponsors to its growing list of advertisers this week. Gertz department store of Jamaica, N. Y., has taken over the "Fitzgeralds," broadcast each Tuesday starting last night from 8-8:30 p.m. over WABD. Show features Ed and Pegeen Fitzgerald, husband and wife chatter team whose radio program is aired as an across the board ayemer by WJZ (ABC, N. Y).
Other new sponsor is the Elks Brotherhood, which is backing the special motion pictures that ABC will take of the Elks' parade in New York tomorrow (Thursday). Films will be transmitted over tele stations in New York, Philly and. Washington next Tuesday (16) and in Schenectady the following day (17). (Variety, July 10)
Wheel of Fortune
Reviewed, Monday (10), 7:30-8 p.m.Style—Audience participation. Sustaining over WRGB (GE), Schenectady, N. Y.
This is a straight gambling scanning, with only one element of "illegal lottery" missing, "consideration." Even that might be construed by an overzealous department of justice attorney as being present, since the winners have either to be in the studio or (in the case of the jackpot, $10 in cash) get to the studio before the program leaves the air to get the dough.
"Red" Levy is the barker and he tries to give it all a midway setting by giving with some of the usual side-show spiel. He loses his carnival accent after the first few moments. Aside from the wheel spinning, which indicates a letter of the alphabet for a viewer at home and a number for a studio visitor, there's practically no action. If the wheel stops at letter "A" then any listener whose name starts with "A" and who gets to the phone quickly can catch the dough if after calling the studio and identifying himself he reaches the studio in time, i,e., before the program's off the air. If viewers with their names starting with the correct letter aren't looking in, frequently anyone living on a street or avenue starting with that letter is eligible.
There's no camera action aside from the studio audience (numbers are given to them as they enter the studio) whose numbers are called on the wheel, selecting their gifts, hidden in numbered boxes. No games, no questions. However, there's one gimmick. Somone [sic] selected from the audience has the opportunity of getting into a clown suit and hoping that the home viewer who is trying to reach the studio in time doesn't get there. If the home viewer misses out, the studio clown gets the dough and is usually given some little gimmick to do during the scanning. This time it was eating a hamburger.
Remove the element of gambling and it's all very dull. Leave the gambling in and WRGB is starting something in video which ought to be left where it is generally—off the air.
Why entertain if you can get a big audience simply by spinning a wheel and giving away small sums of money and a few presents which the station snares "for free" in return for a little air credit? Take it off. (Variety, July 20)
Thursday, July 11
WCBW Channel 2
8:15 “CBS Television News” with Milo Boulton, sponsored by Gulf.
8:30 “Draw Me Another,” cartoon drawing show.
8:45 “Operation Crossroads,” film of the Bikini Atoll nuclear test.
9:00 “See What You Know,” game show hosted by Bennett Cerf, with Bugs Baer, Bess Myerson, Lew Parker.
WNBT Channel 4
1:30 National Professional Tennis Championships, Forest Hills. Bob Stanton, announcer. Sponsored by Chase and Sanborn Iced Coffee.
7:50 Television Reporter, sponsored by Esso.
8:00 “Hour Glass,” variety show sponsored by Chase and Sanborn Coffee.
9:00 “American Business on Parade,” sponsored industrial film.
9:20 Famous Fight film.
WABD Channel 5
8:00 “Fare Enough” with Warren Hull.
8:30 Film shorts.
9:00 “Cash and Carry,” game show with Dennis James.
Following the major newsbeat scored by WNBT (NBC, N. Y.) in being the first outlet in the country to present motion pictures of the atomic bomb tests, tele broadcasters are continuing to make full use of the film shot at Bikini by Leroy G. Phelps, their pool cameraman, and the Army Signal Corps flint made available to them.
WNBT gave the first public showing of the films on the actual explosion of the bomb on July 5, beating the commercial newsreels to the punch by six full days. Last Friday (12), the station transmitted all footage used thus far over the coaxial cable to Washington, where the censorship panel of Joint Task Force One viewed the pix on receivers specially installed in the studios of WRC, the web's D. C. radio outlet.
WCBW (CBS, N. Y.), following its special live show on the afternoon of the test, ran its first explosion pictures on July 6. The station instituted a 10-week series on the A-bomb last Thursday (11). WCBW also plans another live show for the next test, in which guest interviews, films and animation will be combined to give viewers as graphic a picture as possible of the event as it happens.
(Variety, July 16)
Bennett Cerf's See What You Know (WCBW-CBS, 9-9:30 p.m.) still suffers from Cerfdom, and that's neither telegenic nor amusing. On Thursday (11) he had as guests Bess Myerson (Miss America), comedian Lew Parker and radio announcer-producer Andre Baruch. It all proceeded on its usual flubdubberyway, with an impact rating of zero.
However, this much must be said: The answers are for the most part sight stuff and that's all to the good. Cerf asked his guests to become sound men and give with effects as he read part of the story of OrsonWelles's Round the World legiter. The trouble here was that they all made practically the same noises, and after the sound-effects man and each of the participants had rung bells and handled the coconut shells to create hoof beats, nobody wanted to see a sound-effects table again.
The parlor game of drawing something to illustrate the title of a book and then asking the other contestants to guess the name of the book is okay, but it needs a new twist. Plenty of them are just around the corner of any—well, practically any—producer's mind.
They weren't, it seems, in the fore-brain of Frances Buss, who called the shots on this. (Billboard, July 20
With the number of sponsored television shows steadily increasing, ad agency producers and copywriters are discovering more and more of the problems unique to the new medium. Latest example of the bugs that will have to be ironed out through experimentation is that the actors and actresses who handle a dramatized commercial will have to be specially-trained for their work. Producers have learned that regular dramatic thespers are seldom suited to give out with the plugs.
Problem was pointed up on the "Hour Glass" show over WNBT (NBC, N. Y.) last Thursday (11) night. Two femmes were discussing the merits of Tenderleaf Tea. product of Standard Brands, the sponsor, when the younger girl ad libbed away from, her lines. This immediately threw the other actress, an older lady, off the beam, mixing her up to the extent that she began plugging Lipton's Tea. Quite an argument ensued between the two until the actresses got it straight that Lipton's had nothing to do with the show.
Incident emphasises the fact, according to J. Walter Thompson producers who handle the show, that just as a regular radio actor is seldom capable of handling a commercial, the same "different quality" is required to an even greater extent in video, where the actors are seen. Lady who muffed the lines, they said, was a competent actress but her opponent's ad lib gave her a temporary case of mike fright, so that all she could think of was Lipton's, which was probably more familiar to her personally.
Regular actor, they pointed out, often rewrites lines in his own words, which is why the younger girl ad libbed. Since the effectiveness of commercials lie in certain key words, which must be read casually," it's impossible to ad lib. Consequently, they deduced, the actors who handle the commercials will have to be competent thespers who can memorize the exact script and still give the plug the certain touch required. (Variety, July 17)
"FARE ENOUGH"
With Warren Hull, emcee; Emory Richardson
Producer-director: Dick Goggin
30 Mins., Thursday [11], 8 p.m.
Sustaining
WABD-ABC N. Y.
In the rash of zany aud participation shows on video, since that format has seemingly been hit upon as the nearest thing to sure-fire for the medium, "Fare Enough" stands out as fairly adult quiz-show entertainment. Sparked by the relaxed emcee job turned in by Warren Hull, ex-Vox Popper, and given a few comedy moments by Emory Richardson, top Negro thesper, program carries off smoothly, and with good pace.
As always on this type of show, contestants chosen can make break entertainment values. All okay when caught. Conducted off the cuff by Hull, program awards each winner a railway trip to wherever he wants to go. Quizzee states his preference and is then given a series of questions to answer, moving one station closer to his destination to reach correct reply. Progress is followed on a large-scale map of rail lines.
Following his stint, each participant is escorted to the desk of a New York Central ticket agent and there presented with his prize.
Hull handles contestants in an easy, level manner rather than playing down to them or over-gagging. Tomm. (Variety, July 19)
Carr and Stark's Cash and Carry (WABD-DuMont, 9-9:30 p.m. Thursday), has corrected most of its errors and it's now (11) as good a visual audience participation seg as is being scanned on any of the metropolitan New York stations. Dennis James, the country grocer, doesn't punch any more and the home audience has been brought into the act thru the what's-in-the-?-barrel routine, as suggested by The Billboard when the show was first caught.
Tom Carr, who directed this scanning, had the visual audience answer their questions in front of the counter, and it all looked like a country store, which is swell. For a closing, the outside of the store with soaped windows is seen, and a moving, but unseen, finger writes "the end" on the window as the pie is faded out, thus ending the program—as it should be—visually.
That's progress, man! (Variety, July 20)
Friday, July 12
WCBW Channel 2
8:15-9:30 Feature Film:
“In Old Santa Fe” with Gene Autry, Ken Maynard (Mascot, 1934).
WNBT Channel 4
8:00 Variety show.
8:40 “The World in Your Home,” sponsored by RCA.
9:00 “Gillette Cavalcade of Sports,” Boxing at Madison Square Garden. Sugar Ray Robinson vs. Joe Curcio.
Robinson-Curcio Prizefight
Reviewed Friday (12) 10-10:15p.m. Style—Sportcasting. Sponsor—Gillette Safety Razor Company. Agency—Maxon, Inc. Station WNBT (NBC), New York.
NBC cameras not only caught this brief one-round battle with clear scansion and good camera work, but they also caught plenty of color, turning the lenses on brawling ringsiders angered by the quick knockout of Curcio by Robinson, who clipped him on the jaw just as the bell for round one clanged. So clear were the pix of the fisticuffs outside the ring that viewers believed they were present at Madison Square Garden. Cameras followed the spieler's running account of the bonus brawls until the four separate fights were broken up. These frames added excitement missing from the fight itself. It was both good tele and good news coverage.
Only error in fight pix was the sudden switch to a commercial frame while Curcio was still prone on the canvas and the problem of whether he could make round two was in doubt. The switch was made while the spieler's voice was still telling the story from the ring. This let-down spoiled the drama of the fight, which otherwise was clear and vivid. (Variety, July 20)
NEW YORK—Instead of worn-out film and test patterns, WABD is telecasting for a week, starting Friday (12) the Bikini atoll atom bomb test motion pictures taken by Roy Phelps, the video poll cameraman on the operation. Sked calls for the film to be run continuously from noon to 2 p.m. so that receiver dealers will have something hot with which to demonstrate.
While every dealer with a set to demonstrate will no doubt tune in the pic, WABD is scanning especially for some 12 DuMont dealers. This is along the lines of the co-operation in vogue during the early days of broad-casting when special programs for demonstration purposes were always skedded by stations. (Billboard, July 20
TOTAL commercial television grants by FCC upped to 23 Friday [12] with announcement of CPs for The Pulitzer Publishing Co. (KSD), St. Louis; King-Trendle Bcstg. Corp. (WXYZ), Detroit; The Evening News Assn. (WWJ), Detroit.
Pulitzer grant for 76-82 mc (channel No. 5); effective peak power radiated visual) 18.15 kw; antenna height, 524 ft.
King-Trendle grant for 76-82 mc (channel No. 5); effective peak power radiated (visual) 16 kw, (aural) 14 kw; antenna height, 379 ft.
Evening News grant for 66-72 mc (channel No. 4); effective peak power radiated (visual) 17.1 kw, (aural) 7.7 kw; antenna height, 588 ft. (Broadcasting, July 15)
Saturday, July 13
WCBW Channel 2
8:15 “Saturday Evening Spotlight,” people in the news.
8:30 “King’s Party Line” with John Reed King.
WNBT Channel 4
1:30 National Professional Tennis Semi-Finals, Forest Hills. Bob Stanton, announcer. Sponsored by Tender Leaf Tea.
King's Party Line
Reviewed Saturday (13), 8:45-9:15p.m. Style—Quiz. Sustaining over WCBW (CBS), New York.
Here's John Reed King again with another variation of King's Record Shop (WABD, DuMont, New York) which he spun for the American Broadcasting Company. King is his usual affable self, inviting himself into video set owners' homes—but worried as hell when the first viewer didn't call hint on the phone. There's that empty feeling that comes to every performer on the pic air when he feels that he may be smiling into a vacuum.
King spins records and asks the home folks names of songs, singers, composers, etc. This time he asks the studio audience to confirm the home audience's answers, and if the confirmer is right he also collects dough. Yeah, he plays musical chairs, and has one of the girls dunk a donut at the end of a fishing line into coffee and then feed it at the end of same line to her husband. He got five and she two bucks for the act—which had to be done before someone at home got the musical answer to the current disk-spinning question.
King is good enough to turn up anywhere, but why he has to scan on the same note all the time, in an "experimental" medium, is one of those video never-answered questions.
Frances Buss kept this in focus with plenty of good close-ups.
Some new King, please! (Variety, July 20)
PHILADELPHIA, July 13.—Ben Butler, national prexy of the Society of Amateur Chefs, gave a cooking demonstration on WPTZ, Philco's local tele station. With him were two other members of the society—Edgar Scott, former prez of the local stock exchange, and Russell Patterson, the famous illustrator. Among the dishes were scrambled eggs, and Scott, who ate some, described them as delicious for the tele audience. However, he never found out until after the program that the eggs were prepared in motor oil used to lubricate the television cameras. Butler used it for the demonstration when the supply of oleomargarine ran out. (Billboard, July 20
HOLLYWOOD, July 13.—To give the local populace a look-see at tele, W6XYZ (Television Productions, Inc.) will stay on the air nightly thruout next week (15-20) when Farnsworth unveils its post-war set at Pan-Pacific's Home-Show. Receiver will bring outlet's regular Tuesday and Thursday night programs plus boxing tourneys especially staged for this week on remaining nights.
Promotional circulars giving station's regular program schedule will be distributed to onlookers. Idea: To boost TPI outlet with future tele audience, encourage set sales. (Billboard, July 20
Sunday, July 14
WCBW Channel 2
8:15 News and analysis.
8:30 “Stop, Look and Listen,” quiz with Gil Fates.
9:45 Dance program: “Frankie and Johnny.”
WNBT Channel 4
1:30 National Professional Tennis Championships, Forest Hills. Bob Stanton, announcer. Sponsored by Chase and Sanborn Iced Coffee.
8:00 “Face to Face,” with cartoonist Bob Dunn, sponsored by Tender Leaf Tea.
8:15 “Geographically Speaking,” film, sponsored by Bristol-Myers.
8:30 Song and dance.
8:45 Film: Musical miniatures.
8:50 Dramatic miniatures.
Television station W6XYZ, operated by Television Productions, Inc., will go from three-day to a five-day schedule this week. Klaus Landsberg, director, announced yesterday [14]. The telecasts will all be received at the Home Show at the Pan Pacific Auditorium. (Hollywood Reporter, July 15)
Monday, July 15
WNBT Channel 4
7:50 Television Reporter, newsreel narrated by Paul Alley, sponsored by Esso.
8:00 Televues, sponsored by Firestone.
8:30 Baseball at Yankee Stadium. Yankees vs. Detroit.
Baseball Game
Reviewed Monday (15), 1:15 to 3:15 p.m. Remote baseball pick-up, telecast sustaining on WBKB, Chicago.
The value of sports as video programing was again proven with this show, the first of WBKB's new series. The station will telecast at least four games per week of the Chicago Cubs when the team is playing at home.
Because of excellent work on the part of Reinald Werrenrath, WBKB's director of special events, who directed the telecast of the game between the Cubs and the New York Giants; Harry Birch, cameraman; and Jack Gibney, announcer for the game as well as park supervisor of the telecase, the program had plenty of interest. It had interest because, for one reason, Birch, a former Hearst newsreel cameraman, manipulated the camera so that action of the whole game was always kept in view. Of course, because the station used a long-shot 14-inch lens thru-out the game, figures on the screen were small. The players appeared about 1 1/2 inches tall on a 9 by 12-inch screen. Of course, it would have been better if the station had been able to use a turret lens on its camera and thereby had been able to use a series of long-shot, mid-distant and close-up lens. But with the iconoscope used for the program (the station still does not have the image orthicon it ordered months ago) it was not possible to use a lens turret, and thus only one lens could be placed on the camera. The station has experimented with using 17 and 23 -inch lenses on the ike, but these enabled them to pick up pix of only a small portion of the field at one time—the batter, catcher and umpire at one time, for example, The only thing that could be done while using this type of lens when the ball was hit, was pan the camera. And even a cameraman as good as Birch was not able to pan smoothly and quickly enough to get all the necessary action with these lens. As a technical note, it might be pointed out that the reason a turret lens can't be used on an icon is that the image plate of the tube is so big it requires a large, heavy lens to encompass the field of the plate. With orthicons, and their smaller image plates, lighter, smaller lens can be used, and thus the weight of a turret with numerous lens attached is not prohibitive. (Billboard, July 27)
Tuesday, July 16
WABD Channel 58:00 “The Fitzgeralds” with Ed and Pegeen Fitzgerald, sponsored by Gertz department store, Jamaica.
8:30 Film short.
9:00 “Serving Through Science,” sponsored by U.S. Rubber.
[Listings are incorrect. See review below].
The Elks' Parade
Reviewed Tuesday (16) 8:40-9:07 p.m. Style—Special events. Sponsor—BPOE. Producer—American Broadcasting System. Station WABD (DuMont), New York.
When video thinks more of its sponsor than it thinks of its audience, it smells. The covering of the Elks' parade, which took over New York's Fifth Avenue July 12, was 80 per cent with an eye to the bank roll and 20 per cent to the viewers.
Attempt of film was to get as many Elks in the footage as possible. Only about five minutes was actual parade scanning. The rest was wasted on introing the potentates. Dr. L. Carson Spier, Elk topper, handled the audio end of the presentation and he was easy, human and real. However, most of the time he was ahead or behind the pic, which isn't good, to say the least.
Only really worthwhile shot was the opening, with Elk officials coming down the steps of the mother lodge. From then on it was just a small town film personal, not even good amateur 8mm. stuff. (Billboard, July 27)
Movie-Town Backstage
Reviewed Tuesday (16), 9-9:30 p.m. Style—Interview, style show, film strips. Sustaining over W6XYZ (Paramount), Hollywood.
First in Paramount's pix plug series (The Billboard July 20) packed plenty of eye-appeal, with drum-beating centered on studio's soon-to-be-released Blue Skies. Designed by Edith Head, interviewed by Dick Lane, the show told of problems of picking wardrobe for flapper-era flicker. Double-dose of sweet stud was added to a sugar-coated commercial, with a personal appearance of Olga San Juan (one of pie's principals) modeling a couple of gowns she wears in the film.
In addition, film strips of production stills were cut in, showing how glamour gal will look on the screen in garb. Skit ended with Lane asking filmstress for date to attend premiere, thereby allowing a chance to plug pic's local showing.
While tele here hasn't reached stage where its plugs can mean much to movie b. o.'s, outlet is wise in using trial-and-error days to develop pix-plugging program formats. For a first plunge, tonight's scanning was very well handled. Glib gab by Miss Head and Lane made entertaining ear material, while lush-looker Olga San Juan fed the eye.
Film strip flash-ons in seg such as this are a good gimmick, but could be used to better advantage. Rather than use them in a single series, they would be more interesting if cut in individually thruout the program at appropriate spots. This would make for a more closely knit over-all effect.
Lensers did well for themselves. Best shot was camera moving in for a close-up of dress designer's sketch held by Miss Head. Drawing came thru with clarity. (Billboard, July 27)
Return of Dick Lane and well-balanced fare to Hits and Bits (W6XYZ, Paramount, Hollywood) made this scanning (Tuesday, 16, 9:30-10 p.m.) the best seen hereabouts for a long, long time. Lane's sure-fire style lifts even a ho-hum bill, but when coupled with good acts, the show comes up a tele topper.
Jack Shafton's puppets, in kick-off slot, ran smoothly, giving home-viewers close-up peek at dancing dolls. Eleven-year-old Frankie Day, singing Tampico, was sure bait for the "ain't she cute" crowd.
Phil Arnold's panto routines kept pace high and must have pulled yocks from set owners. Graceful terp team, Byron and Margo, made for easy eying.
Acro workout by Berryl Cuff came last. Competent but did not deserve final slot honors.
Klaus Landsberg, W6XYZ director, used dissolves for little girl singer and dance duo scanning. In latter, device was particularly useful. With one camera giving full view and the other shooting at toe-work close-ups, lookers got an interesting montage effect. (Billboard, July 27)
Handicapped during the war years by the lack of equipment and the use of most of its studio space as a Navy electronics school, the station is just getting to the point where it can see clear sailing ahead. Present plans, as announced by William C. Eddy, director of television for B&K, call for the construction of an additional studio at its present location, erection of a large theatre-studio on the edge of the Loop, and the installation of new transmitting equipment.
Hypoed by the sponsorship of the wrestling and boxing remotes by ABC, WBKB plans extensive coverage of many of the important sporting events in the Chi area with ABC skedded to take an increasingly active part in any future remote program.
Installation of a 16m projector "has enabled the station to extend its daily program with a series of motion picture short subjects. A nightly film telecast is now being aired. Live-talent shows, which have been the backbone of WBKB's programming will be increased as studio space becomes available. (Variety, July 16)
Hollywood, July 16.—Paramount will plug its films via its television outlet [W6XYZ] here. Starting tonight with "Blue Skies" as guinea pig picture. Paramount players, props, materials and production effects will be worked into a special program tentatively titled "Movie-own Backstage."
Current releases will be plugged through use of props and dialog. Olga San Juan, assisted by Edith Head, will be televised demonstrating costumes and other film dressing. Second film to get video treatment, will be "Monsieur Beaucaire" with Marjorie Reynolds in tele spot. Behind the scenes phases of film production is expected to pull audiences to plugged pictures. (Variety, July 16)
Wednesday, July 17
WABD Channel 5
8:00 Variety.
8:30 Film short.
9:00 “The Red Benson Show,” variety.
9:30 Boxing at Ebbets Field. Pat Scanlon vs Ruby Kessler, lightweight; Narva Esparza vs. Vince La Salvia, welterweight.
The Red Benson Show (WABD, DuMont, New York) gets worse instead of better with each scanning. The program caught (Wednesday, 17, 9:05-9:35 p.m.) had more of Benson on the preem and less entertainment. Benson opened singing Old Man River, which, since Dave Lewis, of Caples Agency, writes the show, must be Lewis's idea of how to bring a comic to the screen. Benson murdered it straight—without an attempt to be funny. Bessie Bubbles the kid on skates who is supposed to be a stooge to top Benson, didn't have a funny line or situation. Rosemary White, the program's bid for the title "Benson Girl," did nothing or was nothing as far as video was concerned.
Experimentation is okay, but playboying around with a medium is good for nothing. (Billboard, July 27)
"ALL EYES ON GIMBEL'S"
With Wayne Cody (Uncle WIP), May Coppola, Joan Kovalauskas, Bucky Clark, Dorothy Lee, Doreen Lane, Jackie Williams
Producer: Ethel May
Announcer: Jane King
Wed.; 8 p.m.
GIMBEL BROS.
WPTZ, Philadelphia
WPTZ, the Philco station, has found at least one type of show which can be televised without expensive settings, or extensive rehearsal which is pleasing to the eye as well as the ear—the kiddie program. For it's still the same old story, as far as moppets are concerned, that if a kid fluffs his line, it's still cute.
Running the show is Wayne Cody, who has been in charge of kid programs at WIP for almost a decade. Theme of the video show is a different vacation trip each week, with the kids singing numbers appropriate to the spot, "visited." Kids are vets of Cody's Uncle WIP show, with Bucky Clark, Jackie Williams and Doreen Lane showing especial talent. Musical accompaniment was a bit rough, due to fact that WPTZ has yet to get okay from Musicians Union for bona fide union musicians. Sole accompaniment is pianist (non-union).
Commercials are well-handled, showing vacation equipment as setup in a camp site, with the voice of Jane King describing use of various items as demonstrated by husky "camper." Shal. (Variety, July 24)
Thursday, July 18
WCBW Channel 2
8:15 “CBS Television News” with Milo Boulton, sponsored by Gulf.
8:30 “Draw Me Another,” cartoon drawing show with Gurney Williams, Frank Owen and Carl Rose.
8:45 “Operation Crossroads,” the Bikini Atoll nuclear test film.
9:00 “Stop, Look and Listen,” quiz with Gil Fates.
WNBT Channel 4
7:50 Television Reporter, sponsored by Esso.
8:00 “Hour Glass,” variety show sponsored by Chase and Sanborn Coffee.
9:00 “American Business on Parade,” sponsored industrial film.
9:20 Famous Fight film.
WABD Channel 5
8:00 “Fare Enough” with Warren Hull.
8:30 Film shorts.
9:00 “Cash and Carry,” game show with Dennis James.
Stop! Look! Listen!
Reviewed Thursday (18), 8:48-9:17 p.m. Style—Quiz. Sustaining over WCBW (CBS), New York.
This is a tele version of the movie boner routine, with a solid negative. There were too many boners without enough show. Gil Fates, emsee, promised not only a boner-quiz but a load of hilarity—a load that wasn't there. The performers weren't given time to develop characterization and there was hardly a scene that was played out without being "frozen" by a contestant (or the hex voice), which chimed in when a fluff was missed by the studio observers.
The winner, Fred Hurdman Jr., Thornton Model Agency flack, caught 16 errors, which gives some idea of the overload of boners. In fact, there were so many stoppages that it seems unfair to call attention to the fact that the performers created only shells of characters. Never for a moment were they real. Practically the only real person scanned by the cameras was the scorekeeper, Marie Raymond. She seemed alive in a cast of puppets.
Fates worked too hard. When an emsee isn't easy, an entire quiz snaps like the strings of a violin drawn too tight.
Tony Miner, CBS video production boss, directed this and should have known better. A great number of shot-callers in television have had no theater experience and can't be expected to have showbiz sense. Miner has been part and parcel of the theater for years and shouldn't fall into a production trap that delivers minus entertainment. Also, it was a surprise to see him call camera shots before they were in focus. When the boss slips-.(Billboard, July 27)
CONSTRUCTION permits for three new commercial television stations were awarded by the FCC last week [July 18] to three metropolitan newspaper interests—Philadelphia Inquirer, Scripps-Howard Radio Inc., and The Chronicle Publishing Co., San Francisco. Philadelphia Inquirer, division of Triangle Publications Inc., is parent corporation of WFIL Philadelphia and WFIL-FM. Scripps-Howard, grantee for Cleveland, is affiliated with ownership of the Cleveland Press and other newspapers. Chronicle Publishing Co. publishes the San Francisco Chronicle and has a pending FM application before the FCC.
Philadelphia Inquirer station was granted use of channel 6, 82-66 mc; power 18.1 kw visual, 9.3 kw aural, with antenna height 500 feet. Grant is contingent upon (1) CAA approval and (2) that Inquirer install frequency monitor having accuracy of .001% or better as soon as available. ...
Cleveland grant to Scripps-Howard Radio Inc., subsidiary of Scrips-Howard Newspapers, was for channel 5, 76-82 mc; power 40kw visual, 37.4 kw aural; and antenna height of 540 feet. Scripps-Howard grant is also subject to CAA approval and installation of frequency monitor. (Broadcasting, July 22)
Friday, July 19
WCBW Channel 2
8:15-9:30 Feature Film:
“Anything For a Thrill” with Frankie Darro and Kane Richmond (Conn Pictures, 1937).
WNBT Channel 4
8:00 “For You and Yours,” variety show.
8:40 “The World in Your Home,” sponsored by RCA.
9:00 “Gillette Cavalcade of Sports,” Boxing at Madison Square Garden. Chuck Taylor vs. Tony Pellone.
NEW YORK, July 20.—The Ford Motor Company reached a tentative agreement with the Madison Square Garden Corporation Wednesday (19), for an option on all events handled by that corporation with the exception of boxing. While there are a number of details to work out, it's understood that Ford will present the star attractions of the Garden over WNBT (NBC) this fall.
Wednesday meeting was attended by Ford Motor Company officials, J. Walter Thompson and Garden officials. Included in the latter were General Kilpatrick and Ned Irish. Garden is said also to have agreed to use its efforts to arrange for the scanning of Garden events not controlled by the corporation, in addition to the events which they "own." (Billboard, July 27)
Los Angeles—Edgar Bergen and Patrick Michael Cunning launched their joint television production enterprise Saturday when work was started on “Bergen’s Barnyard,” in which the radio star will introduce three new television characters. The Bergen dummies are “Effie” and “Sarah,” the tele-chickens and “Willie the Worm.” Bergen is recording their voices.
Cunning is directing the production, which is being made on Telecine (film). A new teleminicature technique is being used and also a new type of television camera. (Radio Daily, July 19)
Saturday, July 20
WCBW Channel 2
8:15 “Saturday Evening Spotlight,” feature edition of “CBS Television News.”
8:30 “King’s Party Line” with John Reed King.
WNBT Channel 4
1:30 Baseball at Yankee Stadium. Yankees vs. White Sox (Times).
1:30 Tennis, Jackson Heights Eastern Clay Court Championships (Herald Trib).
Sunday, July 21
WCBW Channel 2
8:15 News with Tom O’Connor.
8:30 “You Be The Judge.”
9:45 Art Mahoney dance show.
WNBT Channel 4
1:30 Tennis, Jackson Heights Eastern Clay Court Championships.
8:00 “Face to Face,” with cartoonist Bob Dunn, sponsored by Tender Leaf Tea.
8:15 “Geographically Speaking,” film, sponsored by Bristol-Myers.
8:30 Song and dance.
8:40 Play: “Home Life of a Buffalo” with Mickey Carroll and Percy Helton.
Some of the swellest close-ups seen in months were viewed on You Be the Judge (WCBW-CBS, New York), July 21, 8:30-9 p.m. The modeling lights and the cameras getting in there really close brought the performers right into the home. There was almost a third dimensional quality about the scanning.
The program, however, still has some of the faults which it had on its preem. The audience in the home is brought in only casually, by being asked to match their wits with the three judges in the studio. Ed Stasheff, the clerk of the court has too much to say. However, it's still a sock show, with real mental action and plenty of suspense altho the viewer knows that it's not a current court case.
Ed Stasheff as a scripter, is okay. He writes a tight legal case and the cast was superb and that goes for Bruce Evans, defense attorney; Alan Handley, prosecuting attorney; Eleanor Wilson, the plaintiff; Paul Ford, the railroad platform guard, and the man responsible for the accident involved in the case, Arthur Holland. Credit Phil Booth with a tight directing job.
The viewer was there in the court-room, sans corn. (Billboard, July 27)
Only negative was that the camera didn't get close enough in on the Erecto model, but even that couldn't kill the delightful notion.
Opening is still a bit ragged, and both of the Dunns reach way out in right field for many of the gags. (Billboard, July 27)
"HOME LIFE OF A BUFFALO"
With John McQuade, Virginia Smith, Mickey Carroll, Enid Markey, Percy Helton
Producer: Fred Coe
Writer: Richard Harrity
Tech. Director: Bill States
Set: Bob Wade
35 Mins.; Sun. (21), 8:50 p.m.
Sustaining
WNBT-NBC, N. Y.
"Home Life of a Buffalo" could be regarded as the first major step in NBC television's plans to revive vaudeville via video. Story of an old-time vaude family, the show was a good way of building up audience sympathy for the oldtimers that NBC hopes to spot before its tele cameras. Now, regardless of what kind of performances the former vaudevillians turn in, the audience will at least know what they go through in hanging on to the last straw of an almost extinct art.
Show, marked by excellent acting and direction, made fine television fare but it's doubtful whether the legit producers, who reportedly were watching it with an idea of expanding it into, a three-act play for Broadway next season, found much in it to meet their demands. While it was very easy to take in its present short form, the idea has been done several times before on both stage and screen and it's unlikely that an audience would go for two-and-a-half hours of it on the stage.
Regardless of that, author Dick Harrity merits a nice bow for turning out a good video script. His characters were imbued with the right touches of comedy, poignancy and hamminess, and the dialog, though not all that could be hoped for in several instances, was bright enough to hold audience interest. Thesping ability of the small cast put across in fine form the comparison of the vaude family to the buffalo, both of which are gradually becoming extinct and from which idea the unique title was derived.
John McQuade did a good reading as the song and dance man. Already established as both a fine tragedian and comedian for his roles in such former tele shows as "Winterset" and "Petticoat Fever," he showed remarkable versatility with his terping and songs. Virginia Smith looked and acted very prettily as his wife, and Mickey Carroll, as the son, demonstrated the kind of acting and dancing that should merit him a bid from Hollywood. Enid Markey and Percy Helton, as the couple who sold the goats from their act and took mundane jobs in order to pay the rent, were equally good.
Handling of Fred Coe's production-direction efforts was tops all the way He got the most out of Bob Wade's well-designed set by panning his cameras continually around the room, thereby getting the illusion of much more space than the small NBC studio has. System of moving in and out of the window frame to open and close the show was also well done. Stal. (Variety, July 24)
Monday, July 22
WNBT Channel 4
7:50 Television Reporter, newsreel narrated by Paul Alley, sponsored by Esso.
8:00 Televues, sponsored by Firestone.
8:30 Feature film.
[Herald Trib has only WCBW 8:15 Feature edition of CBS Television News].
Speeding Allowed
Reviewed Monday (22), 9:15-10 p.m. Style—Interview. Sustaining on W6XAO (Don Lee), Hollywood.
Net result of tonight's airer was a king-size pawn rating. While seg might have packed a punch for sports fans, the entire effect was ruined by sloppy technical work. Put the blame on the boys in the control room.
Show was built around an interview with Ralph Hepburn, racing-car pilot, and Sam Henks midget-auto racer. Hepburn's tales of early-day motorcycle racing and the Indianapolis Speedway annual classic were interesting. Man-to-man chat, however, was much too long and tiresome not only to set owners but to Hepburn himself, who was forced to stand awkwardly during entire gab session. Interviewer Brad Atwood, on the other hand, was seated during act, thus making interview seem stilted and clumsy.
Racing talk was tied in with safety plugs, delivered by a member of the Los Angeles police department and illustrated with charts showing the right and wrong way to drive. As in the racing interview poor imagery killed positive effects. Picture was either too bright, blurring all facial characteristics, or so dark that it telecast as a grayish black smudge. Even beginners can do better, and Don Lee is certainly no video neophyte. (Billboard, July 27)
Tuesday, July 23
WABD Channel 58:00 “The Fitzgeralds” with Ed and Pegeen Fitzgerald, sponsored by Gertz department store, Jamaica.
8:30 Film short.
9:00 “Serving Through Science,” sponsored by U.S. Rubber.
[Herald Trib has WNBT 8:00 Midget Auto Races, WCBW 8:15 Feature Edition of News].
Wednesday, July 24
WABD Channel 5
8:00 “The Magic Carpet.”
8:15 Variety.
8:45 Film short.
9:00 “The Red Benson Show,” variety.
9:30 Boxing from New Jersey.
The Magic Carpet (WABD, DuMont, New York, Wednesday, July 24), is still an interesting travelogue, with Bud Gamble coming up now and again with effects that are swell. Two of his, a dissolve accomplished thru a cloud effect and a transition from real life to make-believe thru revolving, multiple-toothed wheels, were sock this time.
However, the kid continuity was monotonous and without any sparkle. The animal motion picture clips were good, without giving a zoo feeling at all, altho the kids were supposedly flying over a zoo.
The advertising also was out of key. The opening, which used an Alexander Smith singing radio commercial was in no way made visual and the end, with "Clara Dudley," the Smith home furnishing adviser, used a home furnishing hint that went out with the ark. She looked like a million dollars personally and it's a shame that her advice wasn't as good as she looked.
(Billboard, July 27)
"DIAMOND GLOVES"
With Dennis James, commentator
Producer-Director: Jack Murphy
80 Mins.; Wed. (24), 9:40 p.m.
Sustaining.
WABD, DuMont, N. Y.
First video remote ever to be piped from the state of New Jersey gave the DuMont staff some anxious moments, but finally came off in satisfactory style; abetted by the fast, amusing and economical gab of commentator Dennis James. Coming so soon after the Louis-Conn telecast, which made up in picture quality for what it lacked in entertainment, the Diamond Gloves show cut itself a tough pattern to follow. That it didn't measure all the way up to the original standard is no disgrace, considering the difficulties overcome.
With only one camera, an image Orthicon 20-inch telephoto lens, the crew of eight was unable to bring the entire ring into focus at one time. Cramped quarters of Hinchliffe Stadium, Paterson, where the fights were held, hindered mobility, and a single glaring ring light made framing of any portion of the stadium, other than ringside impossible.
In spite of these obstacles, plus a transmitter breakdown which made the program 10 minutes late and almost threatened its cancellation, fair picture finally came through.
Once fuzz was dispelled, the fights provided good video entertainment, with contestants easily distinguishable in the usual fast action of amateur bouts. Battles were interrupted for some adlib by visiting William Bendix, who tossed off a couple of gags that were questionable video material. Fights were sponsored by Paterson Evening News for police benefit.
High spot, from station production angle, was the smooth commentary of James, who underplayed his job to near-perfection. He also pulled some cute off-the-cuff gags that could easily have become annoying had they not been well-minimized. Tomm. (Variety, Aug. 7)
Ford Motor Co., in a deal with CBS television and the Madison Sq. Garden Corp., N. Y., has signed to sponsor telecasts of all major sports events originating in the Garden during the coming fall and winter with the exception of Mike Jacobs' boxing matches, which have already been sewed up by Gillette Safety Razor. J. Walter Thompson is the agency.
Deal marks the entry of Ford into the television field, following the example of other top-coin advertisers who have decided to take advantage of the present comparatively low cost of video by taking over both the cream time and cream events. Agency is currently working out a schedule, with the sponsor slated to take a minimum of 20 events. These will include hockey and basketball games and track meets, with the possibility that the deal may also give Ford prior rights on the Barnum & Bailey circus, which hit the Garden annually in March or April.
Decision of CBS to go in on the deal has caused some surprise in the industry. Entrance of Ford into television at this, time is considered a tremendous boost to black and white video, and industry chiefs are finding it difficult to tie this factor up with the CBS fight to get color television established on a commercial basis. Consensus is that CBS did not want to pass up such a major plum as the Ford account. As the initiator of Ford-sponsored shows, CBS will reap the profits from the account now and also have a good background established for the time when color video appears.
Decision of Ford to take over the Garden events, it's believed, is another indication of the progressive policy of Henry Ford II in attempting to point his advertising to the younger, sports-minded audience. Break-away from the customary long-hair diet offered radio listeners has already been indicated with the announcement that Ford would sponsor Dinah Shore on the air this fall, and it's expected the company will go into sponsorship of sports events to an ever greater extent in television. Thompson agency, it's understood, is presently lining up a series of college and pro football games this fall for possible backing by Ford.
New deal puts the Thompson agency in television into a comparatively better position than it now has in radio. In addition to the Ford show, the agency also handles the two shows currently being sponsored over NBC television by Standard Brands, these include "Hour Glass," broadcast on Thursday nights, and "Face to Face," 13-minute Sunday night program. (Variety, July 24)
WCBW (CBS, N.Y.), which got itself nipped earlier in the season when it had to cancel, plans to broadcast baseball because its remote equipment had gone, haywire, is ready now for sportcasting. Preem effort for CBS' baseball pickup will be done Friday (26) from Ebbets Field, Brooklyn, where the Dodgers meet the Pittsburgh Pirates.
Bob Edge will call the plays on the baseball game. (Variety, July 24)
Thursday, July 25
WCBW Channel 2
8:15 “CBS Television News” with Milo Boulton, sponsored by Gulf.
8:30 “Personality, Inc.” with Marion Kolis.
8:45 “Operation Crossroads,” the Bikini Atoll nuclear test film.
8:50-9:15 “The Thornton Show,” modeling techniques.
WNBT Channel 4
7:50 Television Reporter, sponsored by Esso.
8:00 “Hour Glass,” variety show sponsored by Chase and Sanborn Coffee.
9:00 Famous Fight film.
WABD Channel 5
8:00 “Fare Enough” with Warren Hull.
8:30 Film shorts.
9:00 “Cash and Carry,” game show with Dennis James.
Walter Thornton Show
Reviewed Thursday (25), 8:50-9:15 p.m. Style—Service. Sustaining over WCBW (CBS), New York.
This is strictly for the barrooms and the fern who yens to be a professional model and who thinks that she has a chassis. The camera work is really tough on this type of show. Every pro photog will tell you that in trying for a camera angle he hits more unacceptable than come-hither shots.
Guest photog on this scanning was Hal Reiff, who in arranging the girls hit as many ugly poses as he did good ones, and on two shots had foreshortened limbs that made two of the girls look crippled.
Cameramen Howard Hayes and Martin Stuart handled the close-ups okay most of the time, but no one could do it 100 per cent, and Hayes and Stuart were no exception.
Yvonne Lewis was the best, telegenically, of the four girls, but all of them, Sylvia McNeill, Pat Vanover and Vicki Hazel, hit at least one pose that was pin-uppable, and how the boys in the barrooms whooped it up on this seg. CBS also used its revolving wheel to achieve a pin- up montage which was sock.
Judy Thornton, the model agent's wife, did most of the emseeing, and while she Billie Burked the opening she eased up towards the end and was real. Thornton himself was just a stage wait.
Ralph Warren directed this—there wasn't much to do but keep the cameras in where the girls looked best. There were at least five telephone attempts at dating before the scanning was off the air. . . . So "they" liked it.
(Billboard, July 27)
The Hour Glass sponsored by Standard Brands (WNBT), Thursday (25), 8:05-8:50 p.m.), indicated in this scanning that someone at J. Walter Thompson has read the book. Instead of an unrelated group of performers, a theme and story pitch was used and the actors were all part of a tour of a carnival. Thus there was mood and cohesion, something that has been missing from most previous camera handlings of the Glass. Helen Parrish, the young lady who acted as hostess and who was shown around the lot, was just charming and real enough to make you want to dial in next week. It took sometime to get this seg started, hut it's on its way now. (Billboard, July 27)
When Standard Brands took over the “Hour Glass” tele show, aired over WNBT (NBC, N. Y.) on Thursday nights, it was with the avowed intention of learning as much as possible about video programming. Its series of trials and tribulations certainly proves it's learning the hard way.
Latest problem arose last week [27]. Producers of the J. Walter Thompson agency, which handles the show, had lined tip a trained bear act and, as one of them put it, the bear might have been trained but he was never housebroken. Animal translated each order of his trainer during rehearsal into a suggestion to give way to its natural functions. After figuring out the overtime they'd have to pay the cleaning women, the producers finally gave up, conceding this was one problem they couldn't lick.
Only solution possible was to cancel out the act at the last minute and replace it with one without animals. (Variety, July 31)
Boxing Matches
Reviewed Thursday (25), 9 to 9:30 p.m. Style—Boxing. Sustaining over W6XYZ (Paramount), Hollywood.
Continuing program experimentation outlet came up with a welcome improvement in its slugger seg. Instead of the typical punch-calling gabber, Director Klaus Landsberg had spieler play the part of just another ringsider kibitizing the bout. Role was very well handled by Michael Roy, who was successful in dodging the usual left-to-the-jaw, right-to-the-body cliches. Instead he smoothly wove into his patter background info about the leather-pushers.
For once, the tele fight announcer has found his niche; to supplement instead of duplicate what is seen. Lensers held up well under strain of following fast-moving boys. (Billboard, July 27)
The Federal Communications Commission okayed a fourth television station for Chicago, last Thursday (25), handing out a permit to ABC network. The Windy City already receives service from Balaban & Katz station, WKBW [sic], and NBC. Zenith Radio Corp. recently won construction permits.
ABC was authorized to use tele channel No. 7 but must obtain approval of the Civil Aeronautics Administration on location of its tower and antenna site. The net, through control of the King-Trendle Broadcasting Co. already has a television permit for Detroit. (Variety, July 31)
Friday, July 26
WCBW Channel 2
8:15-9:30 Feature Film:
“Men of Action” with Frankie Darro (Conn Pictures, 1935).
WNBT Channel 4
8:00 “For You and Yours,” variety show.
8:40 “The World in Your Home,” sponsored by RCA.
Saturday, July 27
WCBW Channel 2
8:15 “Saturday Evening Spotlight,” feature edition of “CBS Television News.”
8:30 “King’s Party Line” with John Reed King.
WNBT Channel 4
1:30 Baseball at Yankee Stadium. Yankees vs. Chicago.
"KING'S PARTY LINE"
With John Reed King, Jim Brown; Win Elliott, guest
Producer: Frances Buss
Set: James McNaughton
30 Mins.; Sat. (27), 8:45 p.m.
Sustaining
WCBW-CBS, N. Y.
Here’s another example of a good idea gone bad through sloppy handling. Following the usual format of shows emceed by John Reed King, the program gives the home viewing audience, as well as the studio audience, a chance to participate for the awards. Despite King's efforts to bolster interest via the fine way in which he handles his participants, the show drags interminably. In its present form, a reduction of about 10 minutes would seem to be the best way to improve if.
Show's unique format, on which the title is based, involves the use of telephone communications between King and the home viewers. After introducing the studio participants, King asks a question about them, such as whether the audience can guess from what part of the country they're from merely by listening to them speak. Home viewers then phone in their answers and, if the right guess is not forthcoming within five calls, the guest wins the prize money.
As the phone connection is presently set up, viewers near only the end of the conversation emanating from the studio. Some system whereby the home caller could also be heard would do much to aid the show and also dispel the constant doubt that many of the calls are "ringers." Despite optimistic claims of the number of sets in operation today, it's difficult to believe that King could average so many outside-originated calls in one program.
King had Win Elliott, emcee of the "County Fair" radio show, as special guest last Saturday (27) night and the latter displayed one of the most distasteful routines yet seen on a video screen, going through the motions of ripping open his stomach, pulling out his ribs and then playing a tune on them. Perhaps video will yet need some kind of a censorship body to rule out such examples of poor taste.
Technical end of the program was handled in good, fashion. Direction by Frances Buss was okay and James McNaughton's single set was equally good. Stal. (Variety, July 31)
Tam O'Shanter Tournament
Reviewed Saturday afternoon (27). All-American Golf Tournaments. Sponsored by the American Broadcasting Company and U. S. Rubber Company. Telecast by WBKB, Chicago. Balaban & Katz.
Just about the best remote television program ever presented in Chicago was the job done by WBKB and the American Broadcasting Company on the full afternoon telecast of the All-American Golf Tournaments at the Tam O'Shanter Club, north of Chicago. Working under far from the best video remote conditions, WBKB and ABC joined together to give the video audience here four and a half hours of teleprograming that got the color, the action and the spirit of this, one of America's most important golf tournaments. Considering that this was the first major golf tournament ever telecast and that production was handicapped by lack of equipment, the job done was superb.
Executive producer for the telecast was Havey [sic] Marlowe, ABC teleproducer. In charge of direction was Reinald Werrenrath, director of special events for WBKB. On the scene supervisor of the program and chief announcer was Jack Gibney. Johnny Neblett, well-known Chi radio commentator, handled color and personal interviews. Harry Birsch did his usual top job on the camera.
WBKB and ABC set up its camera at a remarkably good vantage point-on top of the Tam O'Shanter Club House. From this spot the camera was able to pick up the first tee and fairway, and the eighth and 18th greens, as well as a complete view of the crowds following the game at these important holes.
Using an eight-inch lens for close-ups, a 15-inch lens for medium shots and a 90-mm. telescopic lens for distant shots that followed the players far down the fairway and kept the ball constantly in the camera focus, the WBKB and ABC staff presented a complete, picture of the event.
The picture at the Club House, which was picked up on receivers connected to the camera by coaxial cable, gave an indication, with its perfect clarity and complete gradation between shadows and highlights, of what can be expected in the future when video transmission is operating under the best possible conditions. The picture, as picked up in Chicago, was not as good, but that was because the signal was relayed from the course to the Rainbo Ballroom on the North Side of Chicago, where WBKB has permanent installations, and from there to WBKB studios in the Loop, from which the signal was sent out to the public.
Just about the top job done by any member of the production crew was that done by Jack Gibney. Gibney, working without a monitor, stood next to the camera and gave instructions to the cameraman relayed by radio from the WBKB studios. He also gave instructions to the engineers on the scene and gave the running account and co-ordinated the color shots and interview by Neblett. How he managed to keep everything straight while performing these multiple duties was an example of the ingenuity necessary for handling of ambitious telecasts during this period when video equipment is still not at its best.
Only thing wrong with the program was that once in a while the picture was jumpy or faded out as different lenses were put on the camera. This happened because the image orthicon used was not equipped with a turret lens. In the future, when they are golf tournaments, or any other sporting event, out to be television meat. U. S. Rubber commercials were handled from the studio. Slides and local announcements were used during station breaks and during some lens changes.
Judging by today's program, it will never be troublesome to sell a video receiver. All the potential set buy- er will have to see will be a video sporting remote. That ought to sell him.
(Billboard, July 27)
Sunday, July 28
WCBW Channel 2
8:15 News with Tom O’Connor.
8:30 “There Ought to Be a Law,” discussions with high school students.
9:45 Dance show: “Black, Brown and Beige.”
WNBT Channel 4
2:00 Baseball at the Polo Grounds: Giants vs. Cincinnati.
8:00 “Face to Face,” with cartoonist Bob Dunn, sponsored by Tender Leaf Tea.
8:15 “Geographically Speaking,” film, sponsored by Bristol-Myers.
8:30 “Memories With Music,” song and dance with Mae Murray.
8:40 Television Theater.
“MEMORIES WITH MUSIC”
With Mae Murray, Larry Brooks, Lillian Cornell, Blair & Dean, Jay Gessen, John Robb, Frederick de Wilde, Sid Cassell, Dorothy Emery, Fairfax Burgher
Producer-Director: Ernie Colling
Tech. Dir.: Al Protzman
Set: Bob Wade
35 Mins.; Sun. (28), 8:35 p.m.
Sustaining
WNBT-NBC, N. Y.
As the latest step in its project to bring back, oldtime entertainers, NBC television featured Mae Murray, star of silent pix, in "Memories with Music." If Miss Murray can be taken as an example, the oldtimers are going to require plenty of coaching in the art of video acting before they can successfully revive their thesping careers.
Star might have been acceptable to the oldtimers in the audience, to whom she could bring back nostalgic memories, but her over-emphatic gestures, eye-rolling, etc., appeared far too hammy to be compared favorably with modern actors. Show's dialog was reminiscent of the silent screen's subtitles, but it otherwise proved entertaining.
After introducing Miss Murray, it segued into a scene at the St. Regis hotel, N. Y., in 1925, where the song and dance acts were integrated well into the story. Latter, a minor affair involving an engaged couple blowing their hard-earned coin in one fling at cafe society, merely served as the backdrop for the acts, which was probably just as well. It's difficult to believe that $5 could buy a dinner for two at the St. Regis even in 1925. And Ernie Colling, the producer-director, who also wrote the script, pulled a boner by having the principals ordering cocktails—during the middle of the prohibition era.
Cast was uniformly good. Larry Brooks, currently appearing on Broadway in "Song of Norway," and Lillian Cornell, NBC tele discovery, doubled on several songs of the era for good results, although Miss Cornell's voice was drowned out several times by Brooks' robust baritone. Ballroom dance team of Blair and Dean demonstrated nice technique in two numbers. Speaking cast handled their lines competently.
Colling teamed well with Al Protzman handling the camera shots. Bob Wade's two sets were excellent, per usual. Stal. (Variety, July 31)
ALL-AMERICAN GOLF TOURNAMENT
With Johnnie Neblett and Jack Gibney, announcers
Exec. Producer: Harvey Marlowe
Director: Reinald Werrenrath, Jr.
Thur. (25) to Sun. (28); 12 to 3 p.m. Thur.; 3 to 6 p.m. Fri.; 1 to 6 p.m.
Sat.; and 1 to 6 p.m. Sun.
U. S. RUBBER CO.
WBKB-ABC, Chicago
Finally getting hold of some decent video equipment, WBKB did a nifty job of telecasting the $50,000 All-American golf tournament from the Tam O'Shanter course. Image orthicon camera, borrowed from RCA for the occasion, gave Chi television enthusiasts their first taste of what to expect when new equipment, on order, arrives two weeks hence for permanent WBKB use.
Show was produced by ABC television, which bought air time over WBKB for the occasion. It was the first time a golf tournament had been televised.
Orthicon's image, detail and general overall picture, far outdistanced anything that has been, seen here in the past. Use of the one camera limited WBKB coverage to the first, second and 18th holes, but that was overcome by the fact that plenty was always happening at the three spots.
Approach shots to the second green and final all-important play on the 18th kept camera busy most of the time. Tense moment, when Herman Barron, tourney winner, approached the 18th green one stroke to the good and came up with a weird shot, was as exciting and as clear to the video aud as to the thousands of spectators at the course. Harry Birch and Art Kambs did outstanding job of handling camera work during the four-day show.
Telephoto lens was used to good advantage when camera made frequent roving trips around part of the course in view, to pick up players on the fairways. Sighting of contestants making approach shots to the second and 18th greens, from distances of 200 to 250 yards, was surprisingly clear.
Technical trouble, pegged "thermal agitation," encountered during pre-telecast tryouts, made it necessary for RCA and WBKB engineers to devise a double-relay system from the course. Original signal from the course was relayed to WBKB installation at the Rainbow Arena, where it was re-transmitted to the main studios and finally beamed to home receivers. Actual telecast went off without a hitch, with engineering staff under supervision of Bill Kusack doing swell job of a difficult technical assignment.
Johnnie Neblett and Jack Gibney announced it all neatly, with Neblett handling play on the course and Gibney giving background information from the camera booth atop the clubhouse. Neblett interviewed many of the players, and his commentary was especially well adapted for the videocast. Commercials were worked into the show with slides from WBKB's studios and by Neblett and Gibney at the scene. Foos. (Variety, July 31)
Monday, July 29
WNBT Channel 4
7:50 Television Reporter, newsreel narrated by Paul Alley, sponsored by Esso.
8:00 Televues, sponsored by Firestone.
8:30 Baseball at the Polo Grounds, Giants vs. Chicago.
Once again demonstrating television's speed as a communications medium, NBC television last night (Tuesday) transmitted motion pictures of the opening day of the Paris Peace Conference, less than 36 hours after the conference got under way at the French capital Monday (29).
Films were taken under the direct supervision of John F. Royal, NBC exec veepee over television, who flew from N. Y. to Paris last Saturday (27). Films arrived in N. Y. by plane yesterday, were immediately processed, and edited, and were put on the air last night for their first public showing in this country.
Royal, who was accompanied on his trip by William F. Brooks, NBC veepee over news and international relations, expects to visit all countries on the Continent, exploring video and film facilities there. (Variety, Aug. 7)
NBC television station WNBT New York claimed new record of 34 hours of broadcast time in one week. Total number of hours, according to NBC, more than any other television station carried in one week before. Telecasts included National Professional Tennis Championships from West Side Tennis Club; boxing matches sponsored by Gillette Safety Razor Co.; Esso Television Reporter; For You and Yours, Face to Face, sponsored by Standard Brands; Voice of Firestone Televues; RCA World in Your Home, and Bristol-Myers Geographically Speaking. (Broadcasting, July 29)
Tuesday, July 30
WABD Channel 58:00 “The Fitzgeralds” with Ed and Pegeen Fitzgerald, sponsored by Gertz department store, Jamaica.
8:30 Film short.
9:00 “Serving Through Science,” sponsored by U.S. Rubber.
ED & PEGEEN FITZGERALD
Producer-Director: Harvey Marlowe
30 Mins.; Tuesday, 8 p.m.
GERTZ DEPT. STORE
WABD-Dumont, N. Y.
Ed and Pegeen Fitzgerald are considered affable personalities on the air, and their radio show consistently manages to amuse with its easy charm. But for television, it takes more than a fast adlib to make a program. The endless parade of impromptu shows on video, with few of them hitting it off, clinches the truism that what's needed is an imaginative idea with program planning and integration. Otherwise, it's a clambake.
Best thing on the windup of the three-time FitzG series last Tuesday (30) was the handling of the Gertz plugs. Mrs. Fitzgerald informally brought out several articles of merchandise on sale at the dept. store, mannikinned some of them, and spieled persuasively in behalf of the others. Pulling power of the show was apparently being tested in the offering of scarce items like nylons and white shirts to viewers who mentioned the show's title at the sales counter. Compelling nature of the visual plugs on this show was only an inkling of the commercial possibilities inherent in video once it becomes a mass medium.
Idea for this program (no definite format had been established for the series) was based on "an evening at home with the Fitzgeralds." Friends of the couple sauntered onto the set, sat around, gabbed, played parlor games; and convivially harmonized on "Daisy, Daisy, Give Me Your Answer True." During the first part of the session the cartoonist Zito pencilled some high-speed caricatures of w.k. figures in a "guess-who?" contest. This part was a first cousin to video; the rest wasn't even remotely related. (Variety, Aug. 7)
Animals in Movies
Reviewed Tuesday (30), 8:45-9:10 p.m. Style—Animal show, interviews. Sustaining over W6XYZ (Paramount), Hollywood.
Animals steal the show, even on tele. Part of outlet's Movietown Backstage series, seg was a video natural. Trainer Henry East, interviewed by Dick Lane, told how dogs are put thru their paces in movie making. Two hounds were brought on the set to show how they can register emotions (fear, shame, happiness) and take cues promptly.
Two cockatoos and a long-plumed macaw were shown by trainer Coulson Glick. Birds, trying to out-ham one another, tickled viewers. Both Glick and East told of pix their pets played in and anecdotes about their appearances. By casually mentioning forthcoming films, scanner integrated plugs of soon-to-be-released Paramount pix, which is purpose of show.
Interviews were smoothly handled by Dick Lane, whose informal line of patter puts his subject at ease from the start and keeps the ball rolling at high pace thruout. Relatively simple lensing was in top form. Best shot: Macaw nibbling at Lane's feet to draw viewers' attention from the other birds.
(Billboard, Aug. 10)
Wednesday, July 31
WABD Channel 5
8:00 Modern Dance Program, Josephine Booth.
8:30 Film.
[Herald Trib has 8:00 Red Benson Show; 8:30 Film: Three is a Family].
“It becomes tiresome after one sees the same old films week in and week out.”
Among the stars who assisted at last night’s demonstration were Sir Guy Standing and Edith Barrett of “Mrs. Moonlight;” Sylvia Field, Gladys Hanson and Louis Calhern of “Give Me Yesterday;” Richard B. Harrison and Tutt Whitney of “The Green Pastures;” Jacob Ben Ami of the Civic Repertory Theater, and Ludwiz Satz of the Yiddish Art Theater.
At 5:45 it was a case of house full and standing room only. They were perched on the edges of the chairs, on tables, on windowsills and they were standing in thick lines around the walls. An official, whose chief characteristics were a tuxedo and an elliptical sort of smile, announced that the pictures would begin in about ten minutes and that we were to oblige by refraining from smoking. Cigarettes were immediately discarded and chairs were drawn closer to the platform. The flashlight man began to get busy. Six young men in tuxedos artistically draped themselves around the three platform cabinets and Little Billy was hoisted over our heads to take his place in the group. At five to 6 the photographer, having done his stuff, folded his apparatus and went silently away. We were all looking steadily at the three cabinets on the platform.
As I sat back in one of the chairs and watched the crowd filing past the machines I found that you must stand directly in front of the lens in order to see anything at all. One person, and perhaps two, can see the image conveniently. Three is a crowd and four is an unruly mob. The lens itself is something less than a foot in diameter and visualization from an angle is at present impossible, so that the element of space is a factor to be considered both at the transmitting and at the receiving end. It struck me that if the images could be thrown on a large screen instead of being presented in a small lens a great future exists for the radio talkies. In a talk with one of the officials I was assured that this is actually being achieved by the engineers. Even making allowances for the difficulty created by the mass interest of Sunday evening last, only two people can look into the lens without discomfort at present.
The other evening from W2XBS while looking in I could see the gentleman very clearly talking on the French type telephone. Later on a stuffed dog on a revolving table was seen, clear and distinct, the dog having a jacket over its body and on its two front feet. This was also a direct pickup [live broadcast]. After this the usual announcements on placards were in order, namely, W2XBS, New York, U. S. A., and N. B. C. Also occasionally the symbol of N. B. C. is shown, a microphone with radio flashes.
W2XCR (Jenkins Television Corporation, New York City)
Friday’s wedding was either the highlight or the gimmick of the week. Two Jenkins employees were wed by the president of the Greater New York Federation of Churches. The vice-president of Jenkins Television, engineer Delbert E. Replogle, was the best man, actress Hope Hampton was the maid of honour, and Mortimer Stewart was the announcer. Associated Press Radio editor Charles E. Butterfield watched the ceremony on his set 14 miles away from the studio and admitted the signal faded at times. Mr. and Mrs. Du Vall remained married until Grace died at age 49 in December 1960.
