At least, that’s what NBC claimed after broadcasting the Joe Louis-Billy Conn boxing match at Madison Square Garden in June 1946.
Even if the number wasn’t accurate, judging by newspapers, it certainly was the most-hyped broadcast to date. And they reported that NBC’s five cameras were there, and on the ad-hoc network hook-up.
The broadcast almost didn’t happen because of yet another silly power-play involving two unions, both members of the same national body.
And speaking of unions, ol’ Petrillo of the American Federation of Musicians, continued to crush television in its crib with yet another edict. His “TV will take jobs” attitude is in stark contrast to the 1950s when he demanded live music on all television shows.
There was another “big” TV event the same month, though cameras couldn’t catch it live. It was “Operation Crossroads,” an A-bomb test in the South Pacific.
Chevrolet was convinced to sponsor a TV show for the first time. It was a little premature for Dinah Shore to appear, belting out advice about seeing the U.S.A. in your you-know-what.
NBC brought back its daytime programming. Then it did away with its daytime programming. Major manufacturers were still not making new sets.
Lucille Ball, Dennis Day and Ed Sullivan all appeared on television in June 1946; Day mimed to a record because of the Petrillo ban. Art Linkletter made his TV debut this month in a one-shot show. He became a fixture on the tube not many years later. The month saw satirist/grump Henry Morgan make his television debut. We wrote in depth about it here. We note the appearance of announcer Bill Woodson, many years later a cartoon narrator and explainer of how Felix Unger was thrown out of his home on November 13th.
Due to length of the post, we’ve avoided duplicate reviews, and there were many written about the fight. John Crosby of the New York Herald Tribune had just begun his column and you can read his review here. We’ve also skipped the stream of news about companies pulling their TV license applications with the FCC. However, you will see a review of a time-check and a sign-off.
WCBW Channel 2
8:15 “Saturday Evening Spotlight.”
8:45 “It’s a Gift” with John Reed King.
WNBT Channel 4
8:00-9:30 Feature Film: “Scattergood Pulls the Strings” with Guy Kibbee (RKO, 1941).
Sunday, June 2
WCBW Channel 2
8:15 News and analysis.
8:30 “There Ought to be a Law,” high school students discussion.
8:45 “Legend,” Pearl Primus and Company in modern dance recital.
WNBT Channel 4
1:55 Baseball at Yankee Stadium: Yankees vs. St. Louis Browns.
8:00 Television newsreel; Television Theater: “Miniature of Drama, Music and Dance.”
"LEGEND"
With Pearl Primus and company; Yale Woll, narrator
Director: Paul Belanger
Sets: James McNaughton
20 Mins.; Sunday (2), 8:50 p.m.
Sustaining
WCBW-CBS, N. Y.
WCBW maintained its consistently high batting average for dance shows with this one. Despite all the intra-industry controversy over the CBS stand on the color question, it cannot be denied that the web's video production staff has one of the top entertainment shows current on television with its weekly Sunday night dance presentations. Lion's share of the credit, moreover, belongs in the capable hands of director Paul Belanger.
Like most other shows in the present stage of video's development, "Legend" also had its minor drawbacks. All these, however, were subdued under Belanger's expert camera manipulation. Superimpositions, lap dissolves and other effects this guy gets with only two cameras —all of which are deftly blended into the choreography to highlight the story—are really something to behold.
Fact that Pearl Primus and her company of 15 dancers and singers, mostly from the current Broadway production of "Showboat," did the dancing also explains the program's above-par quality. Miss Primus herself designed the choreography, telling the story via native dances of an African witch doctor's triumph over an evil witch. Primus company, down to the last bit dancer, was excellent. Drumbeats, sole musical accompaniment to the dancing, did much to heighten-the mood. Restrained off-scene narration by Yale Woll was also good. Belanger erred in several instances by allowing too much of a time lag while cutting from one set to another. Identification of the drummer before the final sequence and a little more narration also would have improved the show.
Jim McNaughton's sets, as usual, were fine, making the most of whatever illusion of depth it's possible to attain on a flat screen. Stal. (Variety, June 5)
Song and Dance
Reviewed Sunday (2), 8-8:10 p.m. Style—Drama. Sustaining over WNBT (NBC), New York.
If this Fred Coe effort had been intended to picture a five-day vaude team, it could have been swell. The singing disk jockey, Dick Edwards, who asks for advice from his control man on how to propose, and the girl, a dancer, Jean Foreman, finally clinched, of course. The boy sounded like a worn-out Dick Gilbert, Moreover, technically there were any number of things done before the camera that could never happen on an NBC radio station. If NBC can't be correct about its own studios, who can? And the continuity wouldn't have passed a first prelim at NBC continuity acceptance, so how did it get on the air? If this was devised to give an excuse for Dick Edwards to sing and Jane Foreman to dance, somebody ought to have given them a better opportunity. (Billboard, June 15)
The Flattering Word
Reviewed Sunday (2), 8:35-9:05 p.m. Style—Drama. Sustaining over WNBT (NBC), New York.
This George Kelly tale of an actor who comes to visit the wife of a theater-hating minister is old hat. Nothing that Director Ernest Colling did for it helped it for a second. The acting was so broad that the star hammed it almost as much as the 15-year-old Joyce Van Patten, who recited, mit gestures. Credit one performer, Louise Campbell, as the wife of the minister, for lending some reality to the half hour. The trouble was that no one was certain just how it should have been played, and that went for Enid Markey, Alan Handley and Ed Kreisler. Somebody should have told them what to do. (Billboard, June 8)
Face to Face
Reviewed Sunday (2), 9:15-9:25 p.m. Style—Audience participation. Sustaining over WNBT (NBC), New York.
The idea of having a cartoonist, Bob Dunn, sketch members of an audience located in a separate video viewing room, and then having the men and women sketched come down to see face to face their cartooned selves, might be okay if it weren't so obviously faked. Even a casual viewer caught on when the third member of the audience was sketched from emsee Eddie Dunn's description. If Ed Sobol, the director, had checked one of those stare sketching studios he would have discovered that the sidewalk supers don't stand looking very long. However, give Eddie Dunn some amusing continuity and Bob Dunn something to sketch between the audience-participation gags and maybe there'll be a show some day. (Billboard, June 8)
NBC television scored another major newsbeat by telecasting films of the Automotive Golden Jubilee in Detroit over WNBT, the web's N. Y. tele outlet. Sunday (2) night, only one day after the event.
Camera crew filmed the jubilee parade on Saturday. Film was then processed and put on a commercial plane, which was almost prevented from landing in N. Y. by bad weather. Picked up at the airport, the film was rushed to the NBC studios where it was edited and scored in time to be seen by viewers in N. Y. at 8:10 p.m. Sunday night. (Variety, June 5)
Monday, June 3
WNBT Channel 4
8:00 Film: “Televues”: Nursing.
8:10 Feature Film.
WABD Channel 5
8:00 Wanamaker Presents—
8:30-9:00 Feature Film.
ABC HAS made arrangements with its 205 affiliate stations to send to network headquarters in New York films of importance events in their communities, thus supplying the network’s video department with a nationwide news service for television release, via WABD New York, WRGB Schenectady or WPTZ Philadelphia, video stations with whom ABC has arrangements for televising programs created by the network. (Broadcasting, June 3)
Tuesday, June 4
WABD Channel 5
8:00 “King’s Record Shop.
8:30 Film Short.
9:00 “Thrills and Chills” with Doug Allan.
Hits and Bits
Reviewed Tuesday (4), 9-9:30 p.m. Style—Variety. Sustaining over W6XYZ (Paramount), Hollywood. Tonight's vaude seg was about the best beamed by this outlet in sometime. Thrush Ella Mae Morse made her video bow, showing she's topsfor tele. Her tobasco piping (Cow-Cow Boogie and Shoo-Fly Pie) plus looks rang the bell. Show teed-off with station's announcer Keith Hetherington and Joe Rollo vying for emsee chores. This was kept up thru-out, resulting in lively patter and livelier viewing material.
In the send-off slot, 11-year-old McQuaig Twins came on for a cute, self-accompanied (guitar) song session of Sioux City Sue. Betty Jo Houston went thru regular acro routines, good looks and smooth performance placing her on the plus side. Comic Ray Erlemborn [sic], using gaggy gab and slapstick to show how radio sound effects work, sold well. White and Stanley, dolly dance duo, were okay for filler, with gal's Joan Davis antics in act's favor.
Lensing was again straight from the top drawer. Plus panning and dallying gave home viewers an on-stage look-see. Dissolves, used in scanning Miss Morse, led to effect of lass chirping in her own ear. (Billboard, June 15)
Election Returns
Reviewed Tuesday (4), 9:30-11 p.m. Style—News. Sustaining over W6XYZ (Paramount), Hollywood.
This was primary election night in L. A., and the outlet stayed on for an additional hour and a half to air returns. Method employed was simple photographic stunt but proved highly effective. Camera, fitted with extension tube on lens, focused on a United Press teletype machine in action, giving the viewer a feeling be was getting news hot off the wire. Extended lens magnified the type so that it was easily legible at some distance from the set. Judging by tonight's demonstration, this type of scanning holds high promise.
Seg started with Keith Hetherington giving background of nominees as film-slide portraits of each were flashed on the screen. Sign -off shot was of Gov. Earl Warren, who at that time had received highest number of nominating votes on both Democratic and Republican tickets. Hetherington then recapped returns. (Billboard, June 15)
Wednesday, June 5
WNBT Channel 4
8:00 Newsreel, New York news events and features, narrated by Paul Alley, presented by Esso.
8:20 “Radio City Matinee.”
9:10 “American Business on Parade”: “Santa Fe Railroad—Loaded for War” (1945)
9:40 Baseball at Yankee Stadium: Yankees vs. White Sox.
WABD Channel 5
8:00 “Tie This,” variety show.
8:30 Film.
Consistently flashing the form and skill which made champions in any sports, Leroy Wiles, of 172 Folsom st., and Bertha Potance, of 1734 Mt. Vernon st., yesterday [5] were crowned the young King and Queen or the Philadelphia Marbles Tournament ...
The two champions appeared on a television broadcast at the Architects Building at 9 P.M. last night. (Pha. Inquirer, June 6)
Monkeys are getting to be the craziest people.
Seems that the J. Walter Thompson agency wanted to book Manuel Viera and his performing chimps for a spot on "Hour Glass," Standard Brands tele show over WNBT (NBC, N. Y.) on Thursday nights. Since one of the monkeys plays a drum in the act, however, the agency chiefs thought it woud [sic] be wise to first seek permission of the American Federation of Musicians.
Adhering strictly to the rules, AFM officials asked if the monkey was an American citizen. If so, they said, and if it could read the Constitution, then it would have to join Local 802. And if it belonged to the AFM, then it couldn't appear on television.
Result: JWT execs checked with Viera to learn if the monkey was a citizen, only to find that the act has been booked solidly for the next couple of weeks and couldn't fill the date anyway. (Variety, June 5)
Thursday, June 6
WCBW Channel 2
8:15 News with Bob McKee.
8:30 “Draw Me Another,” cartoons by Don Walling, Gurney Williams and Ernie Bushmiller.
8:45 “Right or Rewrite,” quiz with news angle.
WNBT Channel 4
8:00 “Hour Glass,” variety program sponsored by Standard Brands.
9:00 Famous Fights.
WABD Channel 5
8:00 “Chime Time” with Jean Tighe, songs, sponsored by A.E. Ritterhouse.
8:15 Henry Morgan, comedy sponsored by Adler Shoes.
8:30 Films.
9:00 “Science Looks Forward.”
Chime Time
Reviewed Thursday (6), 8-8:15 p.m. Style—Musical Commercial. Agency—Donovan & Thomas. Sponsor—A. C. Rittenhouse. Station WABD (DuMont), New York.
There was some magnificent camera work and some sloppy shot calling in this 15 minutes. The opening and the closing, especially the latter with groups of singers seen thru different venetian blinds, some of which had lettering on the slats, superb camera handling and good lighting, but the constant jumping in the body of the show front group shot to close-up, when dollying was the crying need, just didn’t make video sense. The continuity was vintage 1923 and some of the pseudo acting was even more ancient. Singing a song to mother is corn and it requires a performing mother, who knows how to take it, to make it anything but sticky. However, Susanne Foster bridged the gap as the mother, even if Jean Tighe didn't as daughter.
It took 15 minutes for Miss Tighe and the gang to choose a set of Rittenhouse chimes for mother—especially since each chime had a song sung to and cued by it. This is supposed to be the first of four commercial experimental shows produced by American Broadcasting Company for Rittenhouse. Credit Harvey Marlowe with playing with an idea that didn't come off-and check the first effort of Art Rivera, the agency director, as being much better than the usual break-in show. The girls and boys scanned okay, sounded okay and, as tagged before, the camera work was at times tops. All that was missing was an explanation why it was aired. (Billboard, June 15)
Henry Morgan
Reviewed Thursday (6), 8:30 p.m. Style—Morgan. Agency—Emil Mogul. Sponsor—Adler Shoes. Station WABD (DuMont), New York.
The Morgan, yclept Henry, is okay before the camera. He has taken his usual routine and in his first broadcast, started ribbing not only Old Man Adler, the you-can-be-taller-than-she shoe king, but DuMont's John Wanamaker Studio, the "air-cooled" lights, the camera, cameraman, video production routine and himself.
Is Morgan telegenic?
The hair on his chest is spotty, thru the kinescope, and there's nothing particularly matinee idolish about his puss, but half the audience-filled studio, young and old, hung around the studio doors for autographs and a close-up of their "idol."
What this scanning proved is that the Morgan rib routine, if he can hold the pace, is just as funny for video as it is for miking. It further proves that a personality is a personality—no matter what the mess he's thrown into.
All of which should give an idea that Henry Morgan didn't do anything particularly creative for an air-pic show, nevertheless sent the viewing audience and the studio audience away saying. "He's funnier on the telescreen than he is on radio." (Billboard, June 15)
New York.—Two more major radio sponsors yesterday disclosed their entries for television programs, indicating a growing trend toward sewing up desirable video time at little cost.
Bristol-Myers will underwrite a weekly film program, “Geographically Speaking,” with a “live” commentary by Mrs. Carveth Wells, beginning Sunday at 8:30 p.m., EDT, over WNBT-NBC. Gulf Oil Corp., will sponsor a quarter-hour consisting of newsreels, stills and animated charts, Thursdays at 8:15 p.m., EDT, beginning June 20 over WCBW-CBS. (Hollywood Reporter, June 7)
WCBW Channel 2
8:15 Film: “The High Command” with Lionel Atwill, James Mason (Associated British, 1937).
WNBT Channel 4
8:00 “In Town Today” with personalities in the news.
8:15 “The World in Your Home”—Film: “Toronto Symphony No. 11.”
8:30 “Radio City Matinee.”
9:30 Boxing from Madison Square Garden. Willie Pep vs. Sol Bartolo.
WABD Channel 5
8:00 “The Red Benson Show,” variety.
8:30 Film short.
9:00 Film: “Golden Jubilee.”
Telequizicalls
Reviewed Friday (7), 8 to 8:30 p.m. Style-Television Telephone Quiz. Commercial, presented by WBKB, Chicago.
Telequizicalls, WBKB's top commercial program, continues the successful format it has used for many months, but it now has a new emsee, Joe Wilson. Program, sponsored by the Commonwealth Edison Company, is based on the old radio-telephone quiz idea, but it realizes the potentialities of television by having all its questions based on visual action or on slides and pictures. Best part of the show, from the commercial video viewpoint, is that each time a home audience member answers a question correctly and thus becomes eligible for a prize, he is given his choice of prizes (electrical appliances) as the video camera is focused on them. This, together with the questions that are built around selling points of an electric range, general uses of electricity and important personages in the history of the development of electricity, accomplish the sponsor's purpose; selling the use of electricity.
Wilson, new emsee, is better in some ways than his predecessor, Bill Anson, and in others he's not as good. He does not possess the ease and poise Anson had and is still a bit worried, apparently, about doing a good job on his new assignment. But he's better than Anson in that he gives more planning to his work. To his charades, for example, he is much more humorous and intelligent in his conversations with the people with whom he is conversing via telephone. He has a fast mind, and is able to get off some ad-libs that prove he has intelligence as well as a sense of humor. With time he should become one of the top video emsees in town. (Billboard, June 22)
Saturday, June 8
WCBW Channel 4
3:00-3:30 Street Interviews with Gil Fates.
8:15 “Saturday Evening Spotlight.
8:45 “It’s a Gift” with John Reed King.
WNBT Channel 4
8:00-9:30 Feature film: “Three is a Family,” Marjorie Reynolds, Arthur Lake (US, 1944).
Around the Town
Reviewed Saturday (8), 3-3:30 p.m. Style—Man on the Street. Sustaining over WCBW (CBS), New York.
CBS proved that it's possible to take a camera out on a crowded street corner and scan a typical man-on-the-street session. If it'll work in New York, it'll work anywhere. There were plenty of production errors in the first photographing, but in spite of the fact that the quizee's face couldn't be seen most of the time, it didn't drag too much.
Gil Fates, WCBW's man on the street, didn't come thru the ike too engagingly and at least one of the girls who was brought on camera was a plant (the young lady with a chicken from CBS's County Fair-Borden program). There also were practically no close-ups of the question answers. In spite of it all, one viewer asked could this be interesting without the sight stuff. When the pic was tuned out, he was amazed to discover that it was a typical street corner air session. This will give the doubters plenty of pause when they argue sound vs. sight and sound. Give video a fair chance—and radio will be beyond the shadow of a doubt an also ran 10 years from now. (Billboard, June 15)
Television broadcasters were back in the good graces of the set manufacturers this week as WNBT (NBC, N.Y.) resumed its daytime programming after a several-week hiatus for transmitter returning, while WCBW (CBS, N.Y.) came out with its first daytime show since the end of the war on Saturday (8).
Those set manufacturers who'd been able to get some sets on the retailers' shelves had been hard hit .until now by the complete void in daytime telecasts. Customer was forced to buy a set as an almost complete blind article, since all the retailer had with which to demonstrate the set's reception qualities were the station's test patterns, which were not transmitted on any definite schedule.
WNBT is now on the air four afternoons a week, broadcasting its "Radio City Matinee" on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays 1-2 p.m. and the educational series for high school students on Tuesdays 2-2:30 p.m. WCBW will probably run its Saturday "Man in the Street" show as a weekly feature also. (Variety, June 12)
Sunday, June 9
WCBW Channel 2
8:15 News and analysis.
8:30 “You Be The Judge.”
9:00 “Fantasy in Space.”
WNBT Channel 4
2:00 Baseball at Yankee Stadium: Yankees vs. Indians.
8:00 Television newsreel.8:10 “Face to Face” with cartoonist Robert Dunn, sponsored by Tender Leaf Tea.
8:30 “Geographically Speaking,” sponsored by Bristol-Myers.
8:45 Television Theater: “Enter Madame.”
With a string of some of the best television shows on the air to his credit, CBS director Paul Belanger came a cropper Sunday (9) night with his "Fantasy in Space" ballet. Show was to have been his most ambitious effort to date, with film and live talent integrated and an array of his dissolves and superimpositions.
Despite the fine choreography of Valerie Bettis and the excellent dancing of Miss Bettis and the rest of the cast, the show didn't come off. Special camera effects distracted rather than added interest, and the integrated film didn't make any sense at all. Selected music was also n.s.g., with the cowboy number becoming monotonous and the second number, using a full symphony orchestra, putting viewers' attention on the music rather than the dance.
Show was to have been a dance, simulation of the old "pea in the shell" game, with two sets of pedestals set up for the dancers to stand on. Miss Betts would go for one dancer, only to have Belanger fade into the other set of pedestals, which were bare. However, set designer Jim McNaughton built the pedestals, with three sets of vertical spokes. When Belanger imposed one set over the other, the two sets of spokes were always visible, which defeated the purpose. (Variety, June 12)
Enter Madame
Reviewed Sunday (9), 8:35-9:40. Style-Drama. Sustaining over WNBT (NBC), New York.
Fred Coe did his best job to date with the show that started Brock Pemberton as a legit producer back in 1923, Gilda Varesi's Enter Madame. It was only a shame thatthe tale of the opera singer, Della Robbia, had to be done without a Della, as Carol Goodner didn't come thru the kinescope with any of the flair normally expected from an egocentric. With all the build-up that's given the great madame, her entrance fell flat on its face. Instead of an exciting, flamboyant, colorful Met-opera character, there walked upon the screen a woman with less eccentricity than a "normal" wife.
However, accepting the character as Miss Goodner played it, the rest of the scanning was top-drawer entertainment. There wasn't a bad performance in the lot, with the exception of Beverly Bain, who leaned a little on the burlesque side when she told off Gerald Fitzgerald (John Graham) for deciding that, after all, he did love his wife, and informed him that his wife could have him, but not without Gerald paying the price. Check Richard Moley's performance as the priggish son, John, as superb.
The credits were super cinema despite their simplicity, and the camera handling was in the best Ed Sobol dramatic tradition which, of course, is tops. The Bob Wade set was one of the most effective seen on NBC and, technically, Albert Protzman brought a feeling of period to the tale without anything being period but the story. Coe put on his video long pants with this program. (Billboard, June 15)
Monday, June 10
WNBT Channel 4
7:50 Television Reporter, narrated by Paul Alley, sponsored by Esso.
8:00 “Televues”: Brick and Stone Masons film.
8:10 Feature Film.
WABD Channel 5
8:00 Wanamaker Presents—
8:30-9:00 Feature Film.
Your World
Reviewed Monday (10), 2:30-3 p.m. Style—Educational. Sustaining over WNBT (NBC), New York.
With an assist from the New York Board of Education, NBC presented its first daytime scanning (except for baseball games) since it moved to channel four. It was The Story of Aviation, one of the Your World series. Using Will Geer as narrator, and utilizing the device of man and woman (Mr. and Mrs.) the air pic came down thru the years from Kitty Hawk. Credit Joseph Mindel with writing a literate, yet entertaining, educational tale. Then credit Edwin Mills, whose first video production this was, with lending color, life and movement to the story telling. Since there was plenty of technical work on the presentation, credit William States (ex-NBC engineer) for a better than good technical director job.
From an educational slant it made many basic facts about aviation understandable. Production-wise, it cut in just enough film of flying birds and planes from the Wrights' biplane on, to make the laboratory scenes make sense. The narrator, Will Geer, may have been just a little bit too coy, but he gave a grand performance in a tough assignment, God with a hillbilly accent. Man (Larry Dobkin) and woman (Viola Frayne) were simple and real. The doubter (Vaughn Taylor), who might have been a side-show talker, was a little on the corn side, but he made you believe his doubting—which is what he was supposed to do.
This was a grand knitting of truth and fiction—of fact and fiction. It didn't sfop at explaining but went beyond the classroom into the implications involved—implications that man has always been able to climb over every obstacle but himself. (Billboard, June 22)
Tuesday, June 11
WNBT Channel 4
2:30 Education series: Aviation.
8:00 “People Are Funny” with Art Linkletter.
WABD Channel 5
8:00 “Fit for a King,” sponsored by Chevrolet.
8:30 Film Short.
9:00 Film: “The Golden Jubilee.”
People Are Funny
Reviewed Tuesday (11), 8-8:30 p.m. Style—Audience participation. Sponsor—Raleigh Cigarettes. Agency—Russel M. Seeds, Chicago. Station—WNBT (NBC), New York.
People Are Funny, which does okay as radio fare, clicked an even more amusing video opus and Art Linkletter proved remarkably photogenic. This in addition to a ready flow of wit and a nonsensical series of audience participation stunts which underline the fact that People Are Funny was basically visual to start with.
Production-wise, the noisy, gay effect of a large studio audience was lacking. The audience Linkletter worked with seemed very small, projecting a "clubby" impression not in keeping with the undoubted hilarious quality of the program's antics. Several of these antics displayed plenty, but once again the producers had to spoil the generally good effect by the introduction of the old seltzer bottle. This seems to be standard equipment in video audience participation, but it's, time they stowed away some of the more elemental comedy routines. Stunt where boys and gals pass oranges back and forth, sans hands, hit a high comedy level.
People Are Funny was produced for air pic strictly as one-shot, under the direction of Ronald Oxford, with technical direction by Albert Protzman. Ed Herlihy announced. Giveaways included cash, Raleighs, a Gruen watch and Admiral radio. (Billboard, June 22)
Fit For a King
Reviewed Tuesday (11), 8-8:30 p.m. Style—Dramatized commercial. Agency—Campbell-Ewald. Sponsor—General Motors. Station WABD (DuMont), New York.
A half-hour commercial will always be hard to take—and the American Broadcasting Company's presentation of Fit for a King was castor oil—even if a few moments of the presentation were kicked off the air by the antenna being hit by lightning (DuMont official explanation).
Fantasy, especially commercial fantasy, is the toughest literary chore around, and unfortunately Dick Coggin, scripter for the half hour, was licked by the hurdle. Not for a moment did the viewer believe Old King Cole (William C. Tubbs) or his court . . . it was all a setting to establish time craftsmanship of Fisher Bodies. However, Giles (Jonathon Harris), the coach builder, was real, in the midst of a court nobody could accept as anything but fake. The ballet, by La Med, had nothing to do with the case, altho the cameras were handled in a manner, which up to now, was supposed to have been impossible. La Meri was caught by two different cameras and held clearly on the screen by both, with what appeared to be full clarity. Thru this, time and time again a third camera brought dancing girls. Technically, it was a real achievement. From an entertainment point of view it didn't mean a thing. Few viewers realized what was being done, and the triple exposure didn't lend anything to the viewing. It was nice to know it could be done, but it would have been nicer to have seen some reason for it. The narrator, the Chevrolet salesman, didn't have an engaging personality or voice. The entire abracadabra was wasted air time.
Credit Harvey Marlowe for a super-duper try. Rate him zero for entertainment on this scaning [sic]. (Billboard, June 22)
Paramount News
Outlet's news seg is closely patterned after Paramount Picture's newsreel. It opens with the exact trade-mark title used by the studio's newsreel and is backed by the same martial music theme. In typical movie manner, each news item treated is introed by white-on-black titles. Film slides (stills) are then flashed on, illustrating Keith Heatherington's voicing. Rapid change of pix and titles give seg a sense of high pace, yet allows the viewer, sufficient opportunity to absorb scenes—a virtue not often present in motion picture newsreels. Mood music for each item is dubbed in with Heatherington's gab, both geared with pic changes.
Flexibility of Klaus Landsberg's news technique was evidenced tonight in the scanning of two stories that came in (via UP wire) close to airtime. With access to its library of more than 75,000 prepared slides, station's news ed, Gordon Wright, was able to pull out necessary pix and fill in Heatherington's script in time for airing. Both items (Joe Louis's lighting condition and Gov. Earl Warren's gambling ship ban) were later given big play by local dailies, making it a tele scoop.
Newspaper comics (tagged Tele-funnies) get the same slide treatment. Balloons are removed and frames redrawn to fit dramatized voicing, dubbed in by live talent. An interesting experiment. Newspaper comics, can't compete with movie cartoons. Show as a whole moved smoothly, marred only once or twice by slide-slingers who missed centering. System should be worked out where this becomes foolproof. (Billboard, June 22)
St. Petersburg, Fla.,—June 11—Having already barred live musicians from appearing on television shows, James C Petrillo and his American Federation of Musicians, have just dealt video a new blow, probably the toughest one to date.
Petrillo has served notice on the film studios, it was learned at the AFM convention here, that they are forbidden to use product from their sound-tracks for television. The pix industry, having no other alternative, had to accede. In effect, it puts television in a position where it must yank out of the libraries pre-vitaphone films. ...
As pointed out by Petrillo to the delegates in his annual report, "the introduction and development of television presents the same threat to employment of musicians as did the change from silent to sound films. As television progresses from one stage to another, it is apparent the films will play a great part in its future, and that it is possible to produce the majority of television programs in "canned" form, thus eliminating all radio employment. You all know, through bitter experience, that when the vitaphone and movietone were installed in the theatres, we lost the employment of 18,000 musicians overnight.
"The AFM is determined to avoid a repetition of that tragic experience and until we find out exactly where we stand, we are not going to render services in the making of television." (Variety, June 12)
Wednesday, June 12
WNBT Channel 4
1:00-2:00 “Radio City Matinee,” women’s features, entertainment.
7:30 “Teletruth,” children’s quiz.
8:00 Western feature film.
9:00 “American Business on Parade”—A Word to the Wise.
9:40 Baseball at Yankee Stadium: Yankees vs. Detroit Tigers.
WABD Channel 5
8:00 “The Magic Carpet.”
8:15 Variety show.
8:45 Film.
9:00 “American Television Society Awards.”
Teletruth
The character of WNBT's Teletruth was different this week (12) than when last caught with a magician replacing the puppets, and Jay Marshall as emsee. Dick DuBois, the fast-talking fakir, wasn't too quick with his hands and on several of his tricks it was obvious just what he was doing.
Also why the camera didn't show the names of the kid contestants and the slots in front of their chairs which indicated the amount of dough they were winning has no answer. The viewers saw the kids taking something out of slots and unless they had viewed Teletruth before, it would have appeared they were trying to hide some tips on the answers.
The combination of parlor magic and visual questions is an ideal pure formula but the questions must still be within the kid scope and plenty of them weren't this evening.
—And the emsee must like half-pints and be liked by them. If the scanning caught is any example of what happens to a seg after it's been telecast for a few weeks—ouch! (Billboard, June 22)
New York.—The telecast of the American Television Society’s annual awards, scheduled for yesterday from DuMont’s John Wanamaker Studio, has been cancelled, it became known yesterday, because of the television station’s reported dissatisfaction with one of awards, which will be announced at that time. Officials could not be reached for comment.
The committee on ATS awards, publicized as “tantamount in television to Hollywood’s annual presentation of the Oscars,” includes this year radio executives of three major press associations: Robert Brown, INS; Philip Newsom, UP, and Tom O’Neil, AP affiliate. (Hollywood Reporter, June 12)
Other categories and recipients included: For technical excellence in production: CBS and NBC; super-sensitive image orthicon camera, RCA; development of effective commercials, Ruthrauft & Ryan and Lever Bros.; best sports programming, NBC for coverage of boxing and Army-Navy game, Philco for Philadelphia broadcasts sponsored by Atlantic Refining Co.; educational programming, Balaban & Katz, Chicago, and CBS; outstanding news programs, CBS; year's outstanding productions, NBC, whose dramatic directors, Edward Sobol and Emest Colling, were cited for the year's outstanding direction; experimental demonstration of color television, RCA and CBS.
George Shupert of Television Productions (Paramount) was inducted as president for a second year. (Hollywood Reporter, June 13)
Thursday, June 13
WCBW Channel 2
8:15 News with Bob McKee.
8:30 “Draw Me Another,” cartoon show.
8:45 “Consumers’ Quiz.” with Fred Uttal.
WNBT Channel 4
7:50 Television Reporter, narrated by Paul Alley, sponsored by Esso.
8:00 “Hour Glass,” variety program with Beatrice Kraft, Joe Julian, sponsored by Standard Brands.
9:00 Famous Fights Films—Conn vs. Bettina.
WABD Channel 5
8:00 “Chime Time” with Jean Tighe, songs, sponsored by A.E. Ritterhouse.
8:30 Films.
9:00 “The Red Benson Show,” variety.
'ELGIN—TIME FROM THE STARS'
With Kay Westfall, Helen Malone, Art Seltzer, Richard Shankland, Don Faust
Director-Producer: Pauline Bobrov
5 Mins.; Thursday [13], 7:55 p.m.
ELGIN WATCH CO.
WBKB, Chicago
This short cut well-knit video show went off without a hitch, to everyone's surprise and pleasure. High spot of the program is to finish the show on the stroke of 8 p.m. with the plug line, "correct time through the courtesy of the Elgin Watch Co.", etc. Producer-director Pauline Bobrov nursed the five minutes along and hit the jackpot.
Different angle used each week to sell the sponsor's wares, usually a novel skit building up to the tone-gong. Thursday's show featured skit, depicting watches worn by the bride of 1879 and the bride of today. While Don Faust read the commercial, the video aud saw portrayed 19th Century wedding with Helen Malone playing the bride and Art Seltzer acting the long-mustached groom. Richard Shankland was the dignified minister. Change of scene showed Kay Westfall as the bride of today and interlaced between the two were slides displaying the watches the sponsor would like the bride of today to wear.
Camera work was better than usual but still a lot to be desired, especially in maintaining a steady image. Mike work was good and credits were well presented and easily read. Foos (Variety, June 19)
Balaban & Katz
Reviewed Thursday (13), 8:05-9:45 p.m. Style—Variety. Sustaining on WBKB, Chicago.
It's sad, but it's true. WBKB had another one of those not-so-hot programing periods during the last 45 minutes of its telecast tonight. Except for a 10-minute philosophical chat by John Nicholls Booth, entitled Looking at Life, the rest of the 45 minutes proved a complete video strikeout.
Booth, we believe, is a video find, with an easy-going informal manner of speaking of the best tele commentators. His entire talk concerned important findings in the field of psychology and psychiatry, and despite the difficult subject matter, he never referred to notes, nor did he ever become ponderous. His discussion was well-produced and directed, too, with competent camera work and smooth panning shots sharply in focus at all times. Good direction resulted in the proper combination of close-ups and distant shots.
In direct contrast was the rest of the program—the Whiting High School jug band which made "music" by blowing into jugs filled with water. This might have gone as a short act in a video vaude bill, but about 15 minutes of it was too much. Final offering was even worse—an attempt by George Tressel and his wife, Mary Ann, to put on an original puppet drama involving the activities of a doctor who created an almost human robot. Tressel's figures were well-constructed, but the plot, lines read and video direction, were amateurish. All the puppet strings being visible, the screen was streaked with black lines and puppets lost their lifelike quality. This part of the program proved, however, that full-length original puppet dramas are a possibility for television. But their potentialities were not achieved tonight. (Billboard, June 22)
WCBW Channel 2
8:15 Film: “Mill on the Floss” with James Mason and Geraldine Fitzgerald (UK-National Provincial, 1936)
WNBT Channel 4
1:00-2:00 “Radio City Matinee.”
8:00 “In Town Today.” 8:15 “The World in Your Home.”
8:30 “Cavalcade of Sports”: Boxing from Madison Square Garden. Tony Janiero vs. Chuck Taylor.
WABD Channel 5
8:00 “The Red Benson Show,” variety.
8:30 Film.
9:00 Film: “Golden Jubilee.”
OBITUARY
John L. Baird, 58, founder of the television system bearing his name, died at his home in Bexhill, Sussex, June 14. Described by many in Europe as the father of television, Baird was rated an outstanding inventor of present day. He produced one of the first practical television apparatus for instant transmission of scenes for any distance by wire and also by the new media.
Baird gave his initial demonstration of television at the Royal Institution in London, January, 1926. British Broadcasting Corp. began its television service with the Baird system in September, 1929. He also invented an apparatus for seeing in the dark by invisible rays called the noctovisor. He had been consulting adviser to Cable & Wireless, Ltd., since 1941.
Director of his own company, Baird was engaged in research until he became ill last February.
The Baird Co. arranged for the V-Day victory parade to be shown on June 8 on the largest directly-viewed screen to date, 23 by 21 inches in size.
Baird is credited with a successful transatlantic television demonstration in 1928. A few people, gathered in the home of Robert M. Hart, Hartsdale, N. Y., were able to see images of a woman and woman, who sat in front of an electric eye in Baird's London lab. (Variety, June 19)
Saturday, June 15
WCBW Channel 4
8:15 “Saturday Evening Spotlight.
8:45 “It’s a Gift” with John Reed King.
WNBT Channel 4
8:00-9:30 Feature film and shorts.
NEW YORK, June 15.—Milo Boulton will handle the newscasting on the new Gulf Oil sponsored video news segs skedded to start over CBS Thursday (20). Bank-roller feels that with Boulton handling its We, the People sound airing, as well as its news air pix, it can use one to promote the other without excess verbiage.
Gulf Oil is the first commercial sponsor signed by CBS, altho it's said that a contract with Bristol-Myers is right around the corner. Both deals are thru Young & Rubicam, which hasn't to date been too active with tele. (Billboard, June 22)
Sunday, June 16
WCBW Channel 2
8:15 News and analysis.
8:30 “Tales to Remember,” Milton Bacon and the Wallace Improvisation Group
8:45 “An American in Paris”—dance interpretation of the Gershwin composition.
WNBT Channel 4
8:00 “Face to Face” studio cartoon quit with Bob and Eddie Dunn, sponsored by Tender Leaf Tea.
8:30 “Geographically Speaking,” sponsored by Bristol-Myers.
8:45 Variety program.
The Milton Bacon formula on Tales To Remember (WCBW (CBS) New York, Sunday (16), 8:35 to 8:50 p.m., is working out okay. This week he told the story of how a rajah happened to become a Kentucky colonel in India. Even tho the tale was slight, it was fun and nobody expected finesse in the playing. C. Gordon Swayne played the Kentucky colonel with a broad Southern sweep of tongue and gesture, and Scott Tennyson played the bank manager, who was worried about the colonel's $17,000 overdraft, with plenty of bank-like restraint. The idea of giving the cast a general idea of the parts they are to play and sketchy dialog, and then letting them do the play without word-for-word rehearsal, seems to be working out okay with this Lee Wallace acting group. If stories must be told on video, this is as good a way to tell them as any. However, a couple of tales in which there is both character and story-line development would be fun for a change. (Billboard, June 22)
An American in Paris
Reviewed Sunday (16), 8:55-9:15 p.m. Style—Dance, drama. Sustaining over WCBW (CBS), New York.
Paul Belanger, CBS director of dance scannings, bit off more than he could call shots on with this heel-and-toe version of George Gershwin's An American in Paris. He not only forgot the size of the screen but he also forgot a basic television fact, that the viewer must associate a dancing figure with the dancer. There were far too few close-ups and many of them came long after the dancer was introduced on camera.
His use of an abstract to indicate that the American boy's head was going around and around after he had been knocked out by the apache, didn't mean a thing. It took seeing it the second time for the average viewer to get what the broad undulating line was all about. Also seeing the apparently unconscious boy run off during the dissolve was just one of the many amateur shots of which Belanger was guilty. There were any number of times when he called shots when the picture in question had not been focused correctly. The focusing being done while the pictures were on the air.
Some of the dancing was beautiful. It indicated that the cast had really rehearsed the 60 hours claimed before it went to the WCBW studio. Even if the dancing had been as good as the score, the question still would have to be resigned as to whether it would have been commercial. The great mass of viewers look upon interpretive dancing as something on the queer side and not for ordinary mortals. Television is still for the normal radio fan. Or is it?
James McNaughton's sets are designed with plenty of imagination, and the perspective floors still give a feeling of great depth, not attained any other way.
John Kriza danced the American excellently. Beatrice Tompkins's handling of the flower girl was in character all the way. Frank Monicon toed the apache in Montmarte fashion. Credit Tommy Gomez and Walter Stone with plenty of color as two French sailors. Everybody tried. It's a shame it wasn't as good as it should have been. Half of the elaborateness would have made 10 times a better show. (Billboard, June 22)
Sign Off
Reviewed Sunday (16), 9:24-9:27 p.m. Style—Cartoon. Sustaining over WNBT (NBC), New York.
This special film cartoon (preceded by a simple thought for the day, seen as the cover of the "thought" book is opened and unostentatiously voiced by an announcer) is tops. Past sign-offs have been the American flag and a patriotic tune. This one, with its owls and the sleeping time sketches, which end with the closing eye in WNBT's "Good Night" title card, is so perfect that it even sends the bobby soxers. This is what video needs—imagination plus performance. (Billboard, June 22)
Face To Face (WNBT (NBC) New York; Sunday (16), 8-8:20 p.m.) is commercial. Tender Leaf Tea (Standard Brands) stow pays the bills for this cartoon and chatter routine, and it still comes thru the kinescope as phony as it did the debut night. The commercial is integrated with the brew pouring right thru a cartoon. The victims (the members of the audience who are cartoon-sketched from their telephoned descriptions) are given a package of Tender Leaf Tea from a tray. The first time they tried to do it, one of the giftees wanted' to take the tray too. "Sugar," the young lady handling the commercials, should be rehearsed; she's as self-conscious as a bride. (Billboard, June 22)
Monday, June 17WNBT Channel 4
7:50 Television Reporter, narrated by Paul Alley. Sponsored by Esso.
8:00 “Televues.”
8:10 Film: “Annie Laurie” with Will Fyffe (UK-Butcher, 1936).
WABD Channel 5
8:00 Wanamaker Presents—
8:30-9:00 Feature Film.
Tuesday, June 18
WABD Channel 5
8:00 Road to Romance.
8:30 Film short.
9:00 “Science Looks Forward.”
Roads to Romance
Reviewed Tuesday (18), 8-8:30 p.m. Style—Travelog, films. Sponsor—Chevrolet Division of General Motors. Agency—Campbell-Ewald. Station—WABD (DuMont), New York.
Program, one in a series of four plugging Chevrolet cars, had some good film sequences of natural scenery, including Zion National Park, the Grand Canyon and Monterey, but the attempt to tie in these film shots with a family's aspirations for new autos, travel and vacations was done in an artificial manner via stilted dialog. It just didn't jell.
Opening scenes, with a family group (mother, father, son and daughter) chattering about past motoring pleasures, tip off the theme—see your local Chevrolet dealer. This plug is stripped into the program some half dozen times, generally following the travel shots. Films plus the plugs were effective enough, but as soon as ABC's producer-director Harvey Marlowe attempted to depict the yearnings of the stay-at-home folks he ran into trouble. Live people just don't talk the way this Chevrolet show makes them.
Basically, Marlowe's idea is good, showing the family traveling to Grand Canyon in the good old days and indicating good times are coming again. But in view of the lack of good writing, Marlowe might have trimmed the family chatter to a minimum, letting only one or two shots of the family group suffice and permitting the films a bit of commentary and stripped-in plugs do the rest.
Actors were Fran Lee, as, the mother; Warren Hull, father; Joan Shepard and Peter Griffith, the children, and Scott Tennyson, the garage attendant who plugged the virtues of Chevrolet. Actors are rarely good when saddled with corny talk, and why should Roads to Romance be an exception? (Billboard, June 29
Shopping at Home
Reviewed Tuesday (18), 8:45-9 p.m. Style—Shopping guide. Sustaining over W6XYZ (Paramount), Hollywood.
Outlet's Gordon Wright, pinch-hitting for Klaus Landsberg, handled himself well considering it was the first time he held the driver's seat. Seg is devoted to scanning of new gadgets, with gabber Kieth [sic] Hetherington capably handling demonstrations and explanations as cameras move in for close-ups. This portion of the telecast is similar to the seg the station had formerly tagged Comforts and Luxuries.
Example of items treated: Insect-killing D.D.T. lamp, calibrated poker chip holder, elastic ironing cord and portable table and chairs. Products' prices were mentioned with a plug for the stores where the items are on sale. This type of program proves that the tele eye has sales punch. Interest, however, can be kept high only if commodities scanned are unusual. Everyday stuff wouldn't keep viewers looking.
Picture quality was at its usual high. Lensing was not up to the outlet's par when it came to composition. Wright's chief fault was in switching cameras too often. (Billboard, June 29)
Long-needed method of transcribing television shows, which might make it possible for a rural broadcaster to operate a video station with only two 16m film projectors, has been developed by DuMont Labs. System, which DuMont engineers have been working on for more than two years, consists of specially-built motion picture cameras that are used to film the images as they appear on the end of the viewing tube. ...
System, as presently set up, comprises two special monitoring tubes and two camera units, each including one camera for sight recording and one for sound recording. By using two units, the broadcaster can record indefinitely, switching from one camera to another whenever the film runs out. Two units will run independently of each other, so if one goes on the blink mechanically, the operators can immediately switch over to the other. (Variety, June 19)
Hollywood, June 18.—Television makeup, at least, is here to stay! Whatever the pros and cons of the medium, Max Factor graphically demonstrated the trademarked arrival of suitable puss pastes with demonstration of his new, specially created cosmetics over Don Lee video outlet, W6XAO, this week for trade and press—and impressed all viewers with the result of his 10 years of experimentation. And the dressing isn't nearly as revolutionary as the medium for which it was designed. ...
In essence, the new gilding was disclosed as simple street-type wear application to face-lips-eyelash and brows of a comfortable and un-restricting make-up that is said to be 10 times lighter than the lightest of film-type make-ups, and which requires no extra touching-up, highlighting or shadowing. (Variety, June 19)
Wednesday, June 19
7:30 “Teletruth,” children’s quiz.
8:00 “American Business on Parade”—Film: “Sand Painters.”
8:21 “Cavalcade of Sports”: Fight Night Personalities.
10:00 Feature Bout: Joe Louis vs. Billy Conn, announced by Ben Grauer and Bob Stanton.
WABD Channel 5
8:00 “Slip Cover Magic.”
8:30 Film: “Marked Men” with Warren Hull and Gray Shadow as “Wolf” (PRC, 1940).
Louis vs. Conn Heavyweight Match
"Television's big chance comes tonight (Wednesday) when WNBT (NBC, N. Y.) telecasts the Joe Louis-Billy Conn heavyweight championship fight from Yankee Stadium, N. Y. It may have historic significance.
With the telecast being transmitted to Washington and Philadelphia, as well as to set owners in the Greater New York area, at least twice as many fans are expected to watch the fight from a "ringside" television seat as those in the Stadium. If the telecast proves successful, it may well spell the doom of future million-dollar gates for similar top sports events.
Number of fans watching the fight via television may exceed 150,000, whereas the probable capacity for Yankee Stadium is about 75,000, And despite optimistic reports from promoter Mike Jacobs that the take might hit $2,500,000, reports from other sources indicate the ultimate figure may fall 20% below that. Chief factor in thr anticipated "slump" is the fact that there aren't enough people willing to spend the $100 top for an actual ringside seat that might not be as good as that afforded by the videocast.
Taking that factor into consideration, many tele execs have predicted that, when television's nationwide network is established and there are the expected hundreds of thousands of sets in the nation's homes, the day of the million-dollar gate will be a thing of the past. It's been pointed out that radio didn't hurt the turnstile turnover and that video would probably not affect gate receipts too much either, but television's visual aspects, especially when tickets are tabbed so high, cannot be discounted.
Another television factor that's figured to cut into gate receipts is Paramount's intermediate film method, which, when developed, should make telecasts available to millions of theatre-goers on their regular theatre screens. Of course, whether fight promoters .will be willing to license fights in the future to television, if the new medium offers so much competition, is another question.
Video execs predict the fight will mean as much to television's progress as the Dempsey-Carpentier fight meant lo radio in the early 1920's, when the late Maj. J. Andrew White broadcast a championship bout for the first time on the air.
Demand for television seats for the fight has been terrific and NBC execs believe that 30 or 40 people might crowd around each available set. With about 2,500 sets operating in N. Y., and another 2,500 in Washington and Philadelphia, it's believed the 150,000 figure is a conservative estimate. NBC has' invited top Governmental execs, including President Truman, to watch the fight in Washington over sets especially installed in the Hotel Statler for the occasion.
In N. Y., NBC has set up a regular press room in Radio City's largest studio so that newsmen can file their stories while watching the fight via Video. Typewriters, teletype machines, etc., have been installed and. many topflight sportswriters have indicated they expect to cover the fight that way, rather than at the Stadium.
NBC will also guest about 125 clients; sponsors and potential sponsors in the Radio City viewing room, with 16 pre-war sets pressed into service for the occasion. Demand for these invitations has been tremendous, with more than 350 rolling into the NBC publicity offices during the last few days. Space limitations, however, have forced NBC to keep the number down.
DuMont television has received special permission from NBC to pipe the fight in on a closed circuit to its Wanamaker studios, N. Y., where that company will also guest about 200 friends and potential clients. Viewtone Television, set manufacturers, has installed several of its new models at the Park Central Hotel, N. Y., which has received a similar demand from would-be spectators. Viewtone has also installed a set at the N. Y. Daily Mirror offices for the benefit of sportswriters.
Plans for the telecast have been completed by the WNBT staff. Five cameras, including three new Image Orthicons, will be located at the ringside. Two of the I.O.s will be equipped with the new RCA turret lenses, used for the first time last Friday (14) night at the Madison Sq. Garden fights. Each camera has four lenses on a rotating disk. When the cameraman turns, the disk, it automatically shorts the video circuit and the camera goes off the air, allowing another camera to take over until the new lens is in position.
Three cameras will be located 145 feet from the ringside and the other two at approximately 200 feet. Viewers are expected to get better closeups than they got at the Army-Navy football telecast last December. WNBT received an American Television Society award for that as the best sports telecast of the year.
Ben Grauer is slated to do the color stuff at the ringside, with Bob Stanton handling the actual fight announcing. Grauer will carry a "beer mug" trnnsmitter, with a built-in mike, which he'll lug around the ringside to interview the the name personalities; while a camera follows him. Grauer will also interview before the cameras some of the brass expected at Radio City, before taking off for the Stadium.
Telecast is being sponsored by the Gillette Safety Razor Co. through the Maxon agency. Video tab is $125,000 in which NBC shares. However, Gillette foots the entire $100,000 bill for the radio fightcast over the ABC network. (Variety, June 19)
Louis-Conn Fight
Reviewed Wednesday (19), 10:05-11 p.m. Style—Sports. Agency—Maxon, Inc. Sponsor—Gillette Safety Razor Company. Station WNBT (NBC), New York, and special network.
This was touted as a five-camera scanning job. It was a great handling of the actual fighting by one camera. The rest of the cameras might just as well have stood in bed. Crowd shots were wasted footage and the color shots of the entire ring made it look like a toy. But when the camera focused, as it did most of the time, on the actual battle (what little battle there was) you were there in a $100 seat. The cameras kept the battlers, in the prelims as well as in the feature event, centered all the way thru, and it was a perfect demonstration of just how good scanning of a sports event can be. That image-orthicon brought the fighters into sharp relief and nothing was lost.
The program brought the viewer right to the Yankee Stadium, but there it stopped. The commercials were as bad as they could have been. It was a million-dollar enterprise with a 10-cent commercial. Someone forgot that it was supposed to sell Gillette razors and blades. Most of the commercial pictures looked like nothing in the world but underexposed film . . . and still film at that. Why, in a medium that must depend upon movement, did Gillette decide upon still selling? And why did the cameras have to go to black level almost every time they switched to a selling pitch. It made the average home receiver owner feel that his set had gone bad. There were plenty of near heart failures before each commercial, and they weren't all in the Maxon Agency or Gillette brass department either.
Everything was done to promote the fight scanning, and the special Hooper survey made for The Billboard indicated that practically every viewing family had a mob at home. It's a shame that someone at the agency, sponsor or at NBC didn't spend time with the advertising. It did help to pay the bill. (Billboard, June 29)
NEW YORK, June 22.—In spite of all the build-up the Louis-Conn telecast almost didn't happen. The day before the fight a number of IATSE execs (said to be 30) walked in on NBC television and informed all and sundry that unless IA handled all the equipment at Yankee Stadium Mike Jacobs just wouldn't have any lights.
O. B. Hanson, engineering chief of NBC, was in Washington at the time but immediately flew back to New York and the huddles went on nearly all day Wednesday. Even as late as 4 p.m., John H. MacDonald, web trouble shooter, told a visitor: "If I were asked at this moment by the press if the fight would go on the air tonight I'd have to say I didn't know."
Fight did get scanned, and the deal that was set, altho nobody at NBC or IATSE would be quoted, is said to have been for 25 stand-bys, IATSE men who were feather-bedded for the job. This was IATSE's round! (Billboard, June 29)
Sidelights on NBC's telecast of Conn-Louis fiasco are still pouring in, with the fight itself practically erased from the dailies' sports pages . . . Enterprising innkeeper in Brooklyn rented a tele set for the night for $75 and then proceeded to clean up by charging his patrons $1 for each short beer. Business reported terrific.
Another tavern owner on Long Island rented a set for the night, installing an 8-foot concave mirror to magnify the images. Charging 50c admission, he attracted more than 200 lookers, plus their beer thirsts. Whether he had a theatre-owner's license is another matter . . . Only victim of the telecast revealed is Marilyn Eiges, moppett daughter of Sid Eiges, NBC publicity chief. NBC, sending 20 video sets to Washington for the occasion, had to requisition every available set in N. Y. for its Radio City guests, and Eiges' was one of the first to go. Moppet was reportedly plenty burned up that they "took my television set away."
Near-Sighted Reviewer
Only newspaper reviewer who panned the telecast was the N. Y. Times man. Revealing that Raymond McCaw, Times' night city editor, had sent him a congratulatory letter after witnessing the fight on a set in the Times Bldg., an RCA exec charged the reviewer with being near-sighted and claimed he'd evidently brought along the wrong pair of glasses that night. "Same as sending a deaf man to cover the opera," the RCA chief said. (Variety, June 26)
Slipcover Magic
Reviewed Wednesday (19), 8-8:30 p.m. Style—Service. Sustaining over WABD (DuMont), New York.
This is tabbed "sustaining" because nobody pays for it. But as far as the viewers are concerned, it's strictly a commercial telecast by John Wanamaker's and Woman's Home Companion and both should know better. It's badly produced (too much scanning of the WHC's home furnishing expert and not enough of the how-to-do-it picture). It was badly lighted and the entire half hour which was skedded to sell milady on making her own slipcovers made the job seem tremendous.
Again and again it must be said that scannings like this should die on closed circuits. Every time that one of these tune-it-out shows is aired it sets television back months in the minds of set owners. (Billboard, June 29)
Thursday, June 20
WCBW Channel 2
8:15 News with Milo Boulton, sponsored by Gulf Oil. Douglas Edwards, guest, written by Bob McKee.
8:30 “Draw Me Another,” cartoon show.
8:45 “See What You Know,” quiz with Lucille Ball, Ed Sullivan.
WNBT Channel 4
7:50 Television Reporter, narrated by Paul Alley, sponsored by Esso.
8:00 “Hour Glass,” variety program with Dennis Day, Benny Baker, sponsored by Standard Brands.
9:00 Famous Fights Films—Film.
WABD Channel 5
8:00 “Chime Time,” sponsored by A.E. Ritterhouse.
8:30 “Write Me a Love Scene,” sponsored by Sweetheart Soap.
9:00 “Cash and Carry,” audience participation with Dennis James.
Gulf Oil News
Reviewed Thursday (20), 8:15-8:35 p.m. Style—Newscast. Agency—Young & Rubicam. Sponsor—Gulf Oil. Station—WCBW (CBS), New York.
CBS staffers are still tops in handling a video news seg. They combine imagination, special motion pix, maps, diagrams and sock continuity and mold them all into a fast-moving commentary. They've spent plenty of time and money on developing each part of a newscast and the result is that even with a brand-new man as emsee, Milto [sic] Boulton, it comes up plenty sock.
Boulton was ragged. He must have felt part of a three-ring circus. However, his training on the We, the People sound seg ought to have conditioned him a bit for television news. He read too much and some of his timing was off. However, the tie-up between the air show and the tele program is a plus that'll pay off during this video development period.
A new way of handling two sides of a question was utilized for the atom bomb subject. An open book was shown with the U. S. (Bernard Baruch) side of the question shown by a series of cards on one side and the Russian (Andrei Gromyko) side by a series of cards on the other side. As each point was made, one card was pulled out. Which made for effective visual contrast, a forum in print.
The motion pix, Harlem's Joe Louis parade, etc., were all good. This was a television newseg at its best. (Billboard, June 29)
Chime Time (WABD, Thursday (20), 8-8:15 p. m.) has improved a great deal since its deb. It isn't a 15-minute commercial now, and while the plug is integrated, it isn't shoved down viewers's throats. What has come forth from the experimental series is a way to by-pass James C. Petrillo on the music ban. Just as the disking companies used choral groups to back their singing stars during the platter ban, just so does ABC, under Harvey Marlowe's direction, use a choral group to back Jean Tighe, to give musical fullness to her singing.
This seg used a boardwalk tintype photographer's studio, with its cut-out figures sans heads, to set the mood for a collection of tune oldies. The use of mid-Victorian melodies made the choral background sound even more in place than it would have otherwise.
Okay, the photographer with a big tam on his head, was corny, but then the late '90's were full of kernels. Camera handling was neat, with plenty of close-ups and not too gaudy shots. If there was anything wrong at all with the scanning, it was the times that the Tighe fem seemed to step out of character and hog the camera. However, that wasn't often enough to spoil an entertaining tele-tune seg. (Billboard, June 29)
Write Me a Love Scene
Reviewed Thursday (20), 8:30-9 p.m. Style—Drama. Agency—Duane Jones. Sponsor—American Soap Company. Producer—American Broadcasting Company. Station—WABD, (DuMont), New York.
By this time viewers should be accustomed to the Ryerson-Clements shelf of one-acters, since they're one-set plays and lend themselves to scanning. Write Me a Love Scene is typical of the R-C scrivening, frothy sophistication in dialog, Epworth League in actuality. Check the casting on this as okay. Wynne Gibson was the wife-secretary to perfection. Peter Von Zerneck was a little too-too as the husband writer and June Harven did the cockney maid out of cubbyhole that wasn't too dusty. Woody Parker as the "Marchbanks" of the tale was on the non-pro side, but that didn't hurt too much.
Production, however, wasn't as smooth as Director Harvey Marlowe's usually are. The record of the piano playing started once before the writer dropped his hands to the keys and later he was discovered by the camera in the doorway before his entrance was skedded.
But these weren't the worse faults. What was bad was the intermission break, which took the form of Fashions of '46 and which broke into the scanning without so much as take-your-leave. After a while the viewers got the point that this was the commercial, matching beautiful new clothes with the idea of a beautiful skin—a skin that Sweetheart Soap will bring yuh, and expected that after the spieling the drama would continue—and it did. An oolio can do the commercial job in video, but it's difficult to take when the viewer is slapped in the face with it. (Billboard, June 29)
Cash and Carry
Reviewed Thursday (20), 9-9:30 p.m. Style—Audience participation. Sustaining over WABD (DuMont), New York.
The second presentation of Carr and Stark, package program org, is at least several hundred per cent better than their first try, Beepstakes. All the questions were visual. Check. There was plenty of action in the answering of the questions. Check. However, less movement behind the store counter and more in full view of the audience would have helped.
All the audience participation was before the camera, which is a negative since the folks at home should be keyed into the show. Latter would have been a simple matter because there was a bonus question—"What's in the ? Barrel?" Which could just as well have been answered via the telephone route since there was a phone on the counter.
The members of the audiences were really great fun this trip. That's a bit dangerous, depending on the "suckers" to supply all the humor. Dennis James, the emsee-storekeeper, still doesn't know how to relax . . . and he's not a natural humorist. Still he had the show moving along at a rapid pace and there was no pause for empty reflection. Give him this vehicle week after week and in no time flat he'll be as good as the best of them. He's clean cut and when he eases up (that doesn't mean that anyone would want him to take it easy—there's a difference between punching and having a sense of timing) he'll be okay.
If it wasn't a bit in appearance like several of John Reed King's shop and giveaway segs, it would rate AA. Take away the shop resemblance—give it more of a country-store atmosphere (no cash register, etc.) and move it from behind that counter—and then ease up, James, and you have video. (Billboard, June 29)
WCBW Channel 2
8:15 Film: “I Married a Spy” with Neil Hamilton, Brigitte Horney (Grand National, 1937)
WNBT Channel 4
1:00-2:00 “Radio City Matinee.”
8:00 “In Town Today” with personalities in the news.
8:15 “The World in Your Home.”
8:34 “For You and Yours,” variety.
9:15 Boxing from Madison Square Garden. Tony Pellone vs. Billy Graham.
[News Herald has WNBT from 8:30 “Radio City Matinee,” 8:41 Boxing From Madison Square Garden, with no daytime programming].
Balaban & Katz
Reviewed Thursday (20), 8:05-9:45 p.m. Style—Variety. Sustaining on WBKB, Chicago.
Tonight's telecast included a program by the American Medical Association entitled Hygiene in the Home and a dramatic presentation in the X Marks the Spot series entitled A Corner on Corpses. The AMA skit had the studio audience yawning after the first few minutes, but the dramatic presentation was a definite sock.
Narrator for Hygiene in the Home was Dr. W. Bauer, of AMA. The doctor who spoke out against epidemics and how they can be avoided lost his audience quickly because he read practically all of his narration. Video effects that accompanied the doctor's talk came in the form of quarantine signs and were definitely lacking in their attempt to emphasize the dangers that he spoke of. Show then shifted to a home scene and for half an hour the audience was bored by the activities of a doctor, a mother and her child in the sick room. The dialog between the mother and the doctor was especially uninspired. One fact was driven home, however, and that is television's potentialities as an educational medium along these lines. The doctor's illustrations on how to wear your hair, clean thermometers and how to provide ingenious sputum receptacles were worth while as education but not as entertainment.
A Corner on Corpses was written, produced and narrated by Bill Vance. The story idea which centered around a 19th century Edinburgh (Scotland) murder ring was not exactly new, but the presentation was very good. Vance's narrative was well written and well produced. Cameras performed very well, and he made full use of the props.
Cast of this murder story consisted of Art Seltzer, Bill Perry, Ruth Schames, Ilka Diehl Keegan and Vance's young son, Dennis. All except the child have had radio experience. Make-up and costumes were very good. Vance's ending which found him as the assassinated culprit lying on a surgeon's table and about to be dissected had sock dramatic impact.
This over-all show indicated that straight dramatic material placed in the right hands is a natural for video, but educational material needs less doctors and teachers except as consultants and more people with writing, directing, acting and all. (Billboard, June 29)
WCBW Channel 4
8:15 “Saturday Evening Spotlight.”
8:45 “It’s a Gift” with John Reed King.
WNBT Channel 4
8:00-9:30 Feature film: “Tom Brown’s School Days” with Cedric Hardwicke, Freddie Bartholomew, Billy Halop (RKO, 1940).
Outdoor Aquatics
Reviewed Saturday (22), 2:30-3:15 p.m. Style—Swimming and diving and Style Show interview. Sustaining on W6XAO (Don Lee), Hollywood.
Viewers today got a look at what they can expect from daytime outdoor scanning and should be thoroly satisfied by the prospects. Tele-head Harry Lubcke for the first time used the swimming pool in front of Don Lee's mountain-top studios, tying in the show with Occidental College's alumni day activities.
Three cameras (two would have been sufficient) focused on campus cuties going thru aqua antics. Interest also was kept high by exhibitions of various diving and swimming techniques, with gabber Byron Palmer calling strokes and plunges. Background music was disked in thruout the scanning, providing restful accompaniment for the action.
Fortunately, no attempt was made at strict production, giving seg an easy, informal air which suited the Saturday afternoon mood and making for enjoyable eyeing. Couple of gag divers added chuckles, breaking the monotony of straight stuff. Interviewers of songwriter—swim-booster Jimmy McHugh—was interesting and was capably handled by Palmer. Swim suit style show proved eye-appealing.
Lensing, for the most part, was down pat, lads framing the divers from board to water with ease. Slip-ups occurred during McHugh's gab session and the style parade. In the former, cameraman was unable to group both interviewer and subject, so decided to slice Palmer in half. In the style show, lenser lost his fem models a couple of times. Sunlight scanning presented problems.
Palmer's pained squinting into the sun and some silhouette close-up shots resulted from improper placement of subjects. Despite these faults, seg came out on the plus side. Also, considering this was first outdoor attempt made here in years, difficulties of uncontrolled lighting were taken in stride. (Billboard, July 6)
Don Lee Television will do its first outdoor telecast tomorrow [22] from its outdoor swimming pool. The telecast will be handled in connection with Alumni Day at Occidental College.
Scheduled for projection are water ballets, fashion shows and other exhibitions of visual appeal. (Hollywood Reporter, June 21)
Sunday, June 23
WCBW Channel 2
8:15 News and analysis.
8:30 “You Be the Judge.”
9:00-9:15 “Night Spots”—program in the “Choreotones” dance series.
WNBT Channel 4
8:00 “Face to Face” studio cartoon quit with Bob and Eddie Dunn, sponsored by Tender Leaf Tea.
8:30 “Geographically Speaking,” film sponsored by Bristol-Myers.
8:45 Film: Evening Hymn.
WNBT Channel 4
7:50 Television Reporter, narrated by Paul Alley, sponsored by Esso.
8:00 “Televues.”
8:10 Film: “Scattergood Meets Broadway” with Guy Kibbee (RKO, 1941).
The Magic Touch
Reviewed Monday (24), 9-9:30 p.m. Style—Variety. Sustaining on W6XAO (Don Lee), Hollywood.
There was enough entertainment in tonight's variety scanner to keep set owners amused. Seg opens with two Walt Disney animators, Bill Justice and James Norwood, recreating the all-familiar Disney characters, with a running commentary on how it's done at Walt's place.
Magician John (The Great) Scott held the spotlight for 10 minutes with an amusing array of hocus-pocus. With his comical silent partner, Tiger West, Scotty smoothly ran thru his bag of tricks, using cleverly made masks of such well-knowns as Der Bingle, Frank Sinatra, Jimmy Durante, and W. C. Fields. Act suffered somewhat, however, from slow camera work and failure to dolly in at the right time to focus on the magic-maker's hands. Better lensing would have made it sock video.
Singer Warren (Nibs) White and monologist Eleanor Steele also were on the bill. Miss Steel's bit was on the heavy side and suffered from too much close-up. Scripting was by Brad Atwood and Fred Herbst, with Jack Stewart handling production.
Of more than passing interest was a 16mm. featurette called I Dreamed of Murder, produced by Philip Sudano for Associated Artists. Experimental short used a rarely attempted technique of telling the entire story by a series of well-planned close-ups. Result was highly effective and especially good for video presentation. Seg proved that drama, suspense and interest can be sustained simply by close-ups, if the script, acting and lensing are superior. (Billboard, July 6)
Tuesday, June 25
WNBT Channel 4
8:00 Midget Auto Races from Freeport Municipal Stadium.
WABD Channel 5
8:00 Master Hands.
8:30 Film short.
9:00 Film: “Serving Through Science.”
Wednesday, June 26
WABD Channel 5
8:00 Variety show.
8:30 Film.
9:00 “The Red Benson Show.”
Red Benson Show
Reviewed Wednesday (26), 9:10-9:40 p.m. Style—Variety. Producer—Caples Agency. Station—WABD (DuMont), New York.
There were good, dancing moments in this scanning. Pauline Oner was the responsible artist. Red Benson hammed up the airwaves with material that was almost as bad as his delivery. Dave Lewis, the director, cleverly brought on the first act, the Denis Sisters, who were seen dancing in Benson's hands. That's a good visual stunt, and the girls weren't too bad with the heel and toe movements. It would have been better if the entire routine had had something to do with the intro, but even tho it didn't Lewis can be credited with not forgetting that he's presenting air pix.
Benson's "comedy," with which he was "assisted" by Fred Udall, didn't have a clever twist on it. His monolog with music, on audience participation shows, was ear stuff. Sight didn't lend a thing to the entertainment. The use of a "kid sister" heckler, Betsy Bubbles (Charlotte Dembro), could have been good, but the youngster wasn't cute on camera and her material was like her spelling of routine, r-o-t-t-e-n.
Only important thing wrong with the first dance ballet of Pauline Koner was the lead-in which didn't mean a thing. However, her dance on the park bench was swell visual stuff disturbed only by constant switching from one camera to another for no good reason. Second routine, later in the program, a Southern dandy dancing to It Ain't Necessarily So, also was swell stuff, with the only negative the camera switching. Latter must have a reason, and the sooner a shot caller realizes that the better. Miss Koner's partner on CBS Choreotones, Kitty Koner [Doner], called these shots.)
A "looking for a Benson girl" gag could have been amusing' and plenty oomphish, but the plant, the first girl to come up from the audience, Jackie Wait, was a stage wait. Either she was supposed to be a plant and, therefore, could have been fun, or she was supposed to be a "real" applicant for the Benson girl plug. As the latter, she'd hardly slip into a harem costume for a scene in Africa, with stooge Marvin Marx assisting. It left the home audience completely confused—and un-entertained.
Sign-off routine in which Benson asks for letters on "What is Red Benson doing in television?", was putting the neck out, but good. He's going to pay $25 for the best answer.
Dave Lewis produced this all by himself. His first series was Look Who's Here, for which he had Lou Sposa assisting. (Billboard, July 6)
NBC television has decided to pull all daytime shows off the air for an indefinite period, reportedly believing that the dearth of video receivers currently on the market does not make the added expense of daytime programming worthwhile.
Two daytime shows that WNBT, the web’s N. Y. outlet, had been broadcasting were sustainers and hence proved too costly. (Billboard, June 26)
CHICAGO, June 22.—New idea in video programing here, building an afternoon hour a week around one emsee even tho specific portions of the program are of a variety nature that could change from week to week, will be started next week (26) by WBKB, B&K television station. Emsee-producer for the series will be Jerry Walker, one of the top video directors in town.
Walker was given an informal 13-week option on the time, which will guarantee him the time segment and allow him to do what he wants with it as long as what he does conforms to the station's programing standard. Walker will also be allowed to get sponsors for the time as long as their programs and commercial messages also conform with station policies and standards.
According to Reinald Werrenrath, second in command at the station, similar deals are open to other experienced video producers in town who have good ideas and demonstrate that they have sufficient know-how. Werrenrath stated, however, that the move was an experiment and would be limited to application during morning and afternoon hours only.
For his hour, 3 to 4 p.m. on Wednesdays, Walker will line up his own talent and have charge of weaving the show into one integral production. He plans to use various types of talent, but all thru the shows there will be woven a line of continuity and transition to retain audience interest. Time will not be broken down into specific periods, but will be programed to fit the material on hand. Walker will appear on each show and do the video and vocal emceeing and will plan the transition devices. Potential sponsors will be offered periods and special shows during the hour, but their commercial messages will be handled in a manner similar to the way in which they are handled on radio commercial participation segs. No sponsor will be allowed to dictate a program policy that will destroy the continuity and smooth flow that is expected to retain viewing audience during this hour. (Billboard, June 29)
Thursday, June 27
WCBW Channel 2
8:15 News with Milo Boulton, sponsored by Gulf.
8:30 “Draw Me Another,” cartoon show or “Mr. Parkinson’s Umbrella.”
8:45 “Operations Crossroads,” preview.
9:00 “Write or Rewrite,” quiz.
WNBT Channel 4
7:50 Television Reporter, narrated by Paul Alley, sponsored by Esso.
8:00 “Hour Glass,” variety program sponsored by Standard Brands.
9:00 Film: “Sand Painters” (Santa Fe Railroad, 1945)
9:20 Famous Fights Films.
WABD Channel 5
8:00 “Chime Time” with Jean Tighe, songs, sponsored by A.E. Ritterhouse.
8:15 “Here’s Morgan,” comedy sponsored by Adler Shoes.
8:30 Films.
9:00 “Cash and Carry” with Dennis James.
Mr. Parkinson's Umbrella
Reviewed Thursday (27), 8:30-8:45 p.m. Style—Narrative cartooning. Sustaining over WCBW (CBS), New York.
This could have had all the charm that has marked many a CBS cartoon story-telling session in the past. What destroyed the out-of-this-world quality of a Mr. Every-Day-in-the-Week-Nothing-Happens sort of guy was the lack of a sense of humor in the fingers of the illustrator, Marion Kos.
The story, scripted as well as directed by Philip Booth, had a never-never land quality that was swell. The audio part of the show was definitely okay, but the visual part might just as well not have been iked—and no video is better than its sight quality.
Bob Harris narrated the tale of the husband who fell on a flying umbrella one day on his way to work and landed kaput on top of the Chrysler Building in the exact matter of fact voice that makes such a story grand. If the denouement wasn't particularly sock, that happens all too often with a never-never land tale.
There's no question but that a quick inventive sketcher and a facile story -teller will make an inexpensive 15-minute scanning. Just because this didn't come off is nothing against the formula—it's against the talent. (Billboard, July 6)
Secrets of a Gourmet
Reviewed Thursday (27), 9-9:15 p.m. Sustaining over W6XYZ (Paramount), Hollywood.
Tasty tele dish was whipped up tonight to give Gourmet fresh ear-eye appeal. Instead of the usual kitchen set, Gordon Wright (Klaus Landsberg's sub) gave the seg picnic pitch. Mountain scene backdrop provided the realistic touch, while skit format was welcome change from former Here's How presentation. Radio gabber, Michael Roy, proved sock video material as gourmet, appearing opposite a Paramount starlet.
Seg is tabbed sustaining because nobody pays for it, altho J. Walter Thompson's Coast telehead, Ted Smith, is using it to plug three J.W.T. accounts (Safeway Meats, Avocados and California Wines) as experiment in commercial video. Roy used plugged products in prepping delicacies showing labels and naming brands. Patter was very good in that he didn't limit himself solely to subject at hand but threw in varied dishes to spice show. This, plus his fast action, kept things moving at zippy pace.
Judging by tonight's demonstration, video is top food peddler. Sound of pouring wine plus sight of ice-filled punchbowl can stimulate anyone's thirst. Close-ups of the meat and avocados had appetizing effects. Camera crew worked smoothly, panning and dollying at high level.
Wright, who during his first week marred effects by flitting too often from one camera to the other, this time retained continuity by holding to one camera, switching only when necessary. (Billboard, July 6)
WCBW Channel 2
8:15 Film: “Racing Blood” with Frankie Darro, “Snowflake” Toones (1936).
WNBT Channel 4
8:00 “For You and Yours,” variety show.
8:40 “The World in Your Home.”
10:00 Boxing from Madison Square Garden. Bob Montgomery vs. Allie Stolz.
Washington.—The FCC last Friday (28) acceded to a request of the Television Broadcasters Assn. that television licenses be given a stay until Oct. 31, on the FCC rule requiring them to program a regular 28-hour-a-week schedule.
The FCC rule would have called on the six commercial tele stations to start broadcasting no less than two hours a day and 28 hours a week by July 1.
At the same time, the Commission nixed another TBA proposal which would have permitted new television licensees to operate initially only four hours a week, with the proviso they step up their schedules and have a 28-hour weekly format after they had been on the air a year. ...
Illustrative of the hardship that would have been wreaked on tele broadcasters had the 28-hour weekly schedule gone into effect Monday (1) as originally planned is the case of WNBT (NBC, N. Y.). Station has been programming a more extensive schedule than probably any other tele broadcaster in the country. It will telecast its heaviest schedule to date, with the exception of V-E and V-J Days, next Monday (8) to Sunday (14), when it's slated to devote 15 hours of daytime broadcasting to the National Professional Tennis Championships, plus its customary nine hours of studio shows.
Total is only 24 hours, still four hours short of the 28 hours that would have been called for had the FCC edict gone into effect. (Variety, July 3)
Saturday, June 29
WCBW Channel 4
8:15 “Saturday Evening Spotlight” with Sarah Palfrey Cooke, Dr. Arnold Gesell, guests.
8:45 “It’s a Gift” with John Reed King.
Hits and Bits
Reviewed Tuesday (29), 9 to 9:30 p.m. Style—Variety. Sustaining on W6XYZ (Paramount), Hollywood.
There was little to excite home viewers in tonight's vaude seg. Mediocre acts, draggy pace, plus ho-hum emseeing spurred yawns. Even outlet's usually high technical quality was missing' Below-par presentation can probably be blamed on new pix strike flare-up, which undoubtedly left outlet (located on Paramount studio lot) up in the air until last minute. Lighting was dimmer. Framing was faultless, but lens lads were little slow finding focus.
Best on bill—and not too good—was comic Sy Summers dove-tailing panto routines with disks. Used Betty Hutton's Rockin' Horse Ran Away as warm-up, but it's been worn out by so many others, something else would have been welcome. His cut-ups to Spike Jones Old MacDonald Had a Farm were refreshing and made take-off come up bell-ringer. Motion mimicry to Jeanette MacDonald's voicing of Italian Street Song made weak walk-off item. An okay belly-tickler, it was overshadowed coming after Spike Jones number, which would have more prudently been placed in last position.
Seg was rounded out by passable Latin dance duo, the Leonardos; Panto comic, Walter Nordella, going thru old routines (girl undressing, etc.); telegenic tapster, Billie Eberhart, whose toes had little new to offer. Emsee Ken Bryson appeared ill-at-ease, failing to live up to standard set by outlet's regular, Dick Lane. (Billboard, June 29)
Sunday, June 30
WCBW Channel 2
5:45 to 6:15 “Operation Crossroads.”
8:15 News and analysis.
8:30 “There Ought To Be a Law,” high school student discussion.
8:45-9:00 “A Rainy Afternoon”—dance program with June Deering and Harold Lang.
WNBT Channel 4
6:00 “Operation Crossroads” pre-Bikini Atoll atomic blast interviews and films.
8:00 Play: “Lights Out” with Carl Frank, Mary Wilsey. Narration by Bill Woodson.
8:15 “Face to Face” studio cartoon quit with Bob and Eddie Dunn, sponsored by Tender Leaf Tea.
8:30 “Geographically Speaking,” film sponsored by Bristol-Myers.
8:45 Film: Evening Hymn; coming attractions film.
Television lived up to the most-optimistic expectations held for it at the atom bomb tests at Bikini Atoll Sunday (30), furnishing hundreds of Army and Navy officials and correspondents a front seat to the A-bomb's spectacular explosion. Occasion, demonstrating the potentially valuable role video will play in scientific work, followed close on the heels of the Conn-Louis fight telecast, which set television up as one of the top media for sports and special events.For the Bikini tests, two tele transmitters were set up on the opposite end of the atoll from the lagoon which floated the target ships, with receiving screens installed aboard the USS Mount McKinley, Admiral Blandy's flagship, and the USS Appalachian, official press ship. Cameras, similar to the RCO block and ring tele apparatus used during the war, were operated by remote control.
Both newspaper and radio correspondents based their observations of the damage done by the A-bomb on what they'd seen on the tele screens. Pool radio broadcaster aboard the Appalachian announced immediately after the explosion that he could see via the tele screen that the atoll's palm trees were still standing and that the USS Nevada, chief target ship, didn't seem to have suffered too much damage. All wire services and several newspapers carried side stories to the main A-bomb article on how the explosion had looked in the tele screens.
Tele Coverage 'Effective'
D. C. Naval officials reported they had received no official information yet on how any of the equipment used to record the test had reacted. One naval rep on Joint Task Force One declared, however, that the newspaper and radio accounts had led the Navy to believe that television had "worked very effectively" and judged that tele was "apparently pretty good" for the purpose.
Television stations in N. Y., unable to pick up the actual explosion pictures because of the lack of any relay system, broadcast side programs on the event in various ways. WCBW (CBS, N. Y.) was the only one of the three stations to go on the air during the time of the explosion, bringing its viewers the best possible story of the test under the circumstances.
Station picked up CBS newscaster Bill Down's eye-witness radio account of the explosion on its audio system, supplementing this with cartoon illustrations by Elmer Wexler, former Marine Corps combat artist and now on the staff of PM, N. Y. daily tabloid. Wexler made his drawings as Downs' voice was piped into the receivers, following the action almost word for word. Lieut. Com. Paul Hidding of Joint Task Force One was also on hand to brief the audience on the test. Show, on the air from 5:45-6:15 p.m. Sunday (30), was produced jointly by Bob Bendick and Roger Bowman.
WNBT (NBC) devoted its entire newscast Sunday night to the test, running the films of events leading up to the explosion. Pictures were taken by Leroy G. Phelps, official television pool photog. WABD (DuMont) had run other films on the A-bomb earlier in the week and ABC television bought time on the DuMont station to run other films. (Variety, July 3)
"LIGHTS OUT"
With Carl Frank, Mary Wilsey, Eva Condon, Russell Morrison, Bob Lieb, Gene O'Donnell, Vaughn Taylor, W. O. Mc Watters, Thomas Healphy, Paul Keyes, Bob Davis, Harold Groo; Bill Woodson, narrator
Producer: Fred Coe
Tech. Director: Bill Stales
Writer: Wyllis Cooper
Sets: Bob Wade
25 Mins.; Sun. (30), 8:45 p.m.
Sustaining
WNBT-NBC, N. Y.
It's usually considered in bad taste for a reviewer to use superlatives in describing a show. Sometimes, however, such a course of action cannot be helped, as in this first televised version of the w.k. "Lights Out" radio spine-tingler. Utilizing a new device in which the camera itself is the murderer, the program was tops from start to finish and undoubtedly one of the best dramatic shows yet seen on a television screen.
Credit for the show's all-around excellence belongs jointly to scripter Wyllis Cooper and producer Fred Coe. Cooper was the last writer of the radio version with an eight-week series on the NBC net last summer. (Show returns for eight weeks Sat. (6) as replacement for Judy Canova). He followed Arch Oboler at the task and has made the switch from radio to tele without a single letdown in the program's eerie quality. Coe, whose light on NBC television has been partly hidden in the past by Ed Sobol and Ernie Colling, both of whom won ATS awards this last year, has come into his own with this show and should now rank right at the top of the heap.
Story, titled "First Person Singular," concerned a psychopathic killer whose wife's constant nagging, extreme sloppiness, etc., led him to strangle her in their apartment on one of those blistering summer evenings. Killer was never seen, with the camera following the action and taking in just what the eyes of the murderer would see. Thoughts in the killer's subconscious, meanwhile, told the story, outlining in fine fashion what might go on in the mind of such a person as he contemplates his crime, is convicted in court and then hanged.
Coe achieved some admirable effects with the camera, drawing the viewer both into the killer's mind and into the action. Use of a spiral montage effect bridged the gap between scenes very well and the intergration [sic] of film to point up the killer's dream of a cool, placid existence and to heighten the shock effect as the hangman ended his life was excellent. Technical director Bill States was on the beam with the controls in following Coe's direction.
Actors furnished an example of near-perfect casting. Carl Frank, as the murderer, though never seen, injected the right touches with his restrained reading of the script. Mary Wilsey was excellent as the wife. Her whining voice and little side-touches such as picking her teeth with her finger, all heightened by ultra-realistic makeup, brought forth a woman that even a sane husband might have wanted to kill. Supporting cast was uniformly good. Bob Wade's sets, though not as spectacular as in other shows, fit the program well.
Announcer Bill Woodson at the end of the show asked viewers to send in their reactions and advice on whether they wanted the series to be a regular weekly feature. Response should be unanimous in the affirmative. Stal. (Variety, July 3)
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