May 1946
NBC TV was back on the air in May 1946, moving WNBT New York off Channel 1 for good and onto Channel 4.
Its grandiose new programming policy didn’t quite come off, though. NBC planned to move into daytime television (one whole hour!) but technical foul-ups stopped that.
Television was still dealing with some old problems, too. A union war continued to keep on-location programming off the air. The head of the American Federation of Music was still banning live music on TV, though DuMont decided it had enough of that nonsense and was going to ignore Cesar Petrillo’s edict.
Having decided what stations would be licensed in Washington, D.C., the FCC was now ploughing through applications for Los Angeles, which still had two experimental stations on the air. The task became easier as a steady stream of would-be TV moguls withdrew their applications.
On the programming side in May 1946, Joe Besser made his first appearance on the small screen. Dennis James was now hosting a game show. John Reed King was hosting one less game show. Appearing on one New York show was comedian Pat Harrington. Not the Steve Allen show/“One Day at a Time” guy, but his father. And amongst the technical staff who got a crack on the air was a man who rose high in the Goodson-Todman oeuvre in the ‘50s and ‘60s—Gil Fates.
Can you imagine an “American Bandstand”-type show where the teenagers don’t want to dance? It’d make a good comedy bit, but it’s something that actually happened this month.
The trades reviewed so many shows this month we’ve cut the duplicate critiques for the sake of space.
Wednesday, May 1
WCBW Channel 2
8:15 Films.
WABD Channel 5
8:00 “Thrills and Chills” with Doug Allan.
8:30 Film.
8:45 “The Magic Carpet,” eight acts from the Barnum and Bailey Circus.
9:15-9:30 Film.
The Magic Carpet
Reviewed Wednesday (1), 8:45-9:15 p.m. Style—Variety. Sponsor—Alexander Smith Carpet Company. Agency—Anderson, Davis & Platte. Station—WABD, New York.
Bud Gamble's
Magic Carpet production, of
The Circus made use of a half dozen acts from the Big Show, tied together with a wisp of story and a few film sequences. Technically, it was okay, the camera following acrobats, juggler, tumblers and other variety turns well. Gamble’s film sequences, mainly shots of lions, bareback riders, etc., were smoothly integrated with the live acts and aided measurably in imparting the circus flavor which could not otherwise have been brought to the video screen.
Video has always been considered a proper medium for the presentation of variety acts—which generally number few people. Thus, in Wednesday's show the camera was able to take the acts by turn, focusing on ringmaster G. S. Gordon; such notable clowns as Emmett Kelley, Charley Ball and Harry Dann and Truzzi, juggler; Al Swartz and Angelo Calderone, acrobats, and a batch of side-show characters, including Alex Linton, sword swallower; Ada Mae Sabo, snake charmer; Sing Lee, who does tricks with fire, and George (Red) White, a spieler.
They all did their turns to recorded circus music, and the moppets pondered these magical phenomena at leisure in their homes, possibly with peanuts and pop on the table. One thing was lacking—the circus atmosphere of pageantry, color and magnitude.
(Billboard, May 11)
"TEEN CANTEEN"
With Kathleen Norris, others
Director: Bobbie Henry
Producer: Bob Stone
Writer: Miss Norris
30 Mins., Wed. (1), 7:30 p.m.
WRGB-ABC, Schenectady
While video programming is in the experimental stages, it's okay to work with, juve-amateur talent. Sight sessions for youngsters will someday be an important part of early evening programming, and the net getting patterns and ideas set now will have an important lead once the cereal firms start shelling out some important dough.
ABC has an essentially good video idea in weekly visits to the various teen canteens in Schenectady sector. It's a show with a great deal of local interest and virtually has a guaranteed audience. However, the kids at the canteen visited defeated the producer's hopes by being an unsociable set. Groupings were such that the boys and gals had little to do with one another. Kathleen Norris, mistress of ceremonies on the program, virtually had to twist the kids' wrists to make them dance. Otherwise the boys could be found in the game room, while the gals jitterbugged with one another. Miss Norris had to work like a beaver to attempt to correct this condition.
Result was the loss of spontaneity and proceedings seemed forced. The show was designed for fast movement with three sets depicting a snack bar, gaming room and dance-floor, and Miss Norris is a sprightly gal with a good line of patter, all of which was wasted because of the lack of spontaneity.
There were some technical things which misfired, such as introduction of a set of newborn kittens, which meowed long before and after camera concentration. Kids often ran in front of the camera and lighting wasn't up to par.
Among the gimmicks tried were songs by various members of the canteen with live piano accompaniment, and a femme guitar-accordion pair who sang. These things are okay by Petrillo, inasmuch as the kids are under 16 and are non-union members.
The group visited was the Scotia canteen which, like its counterparts throughout the country, provides an inexpensive form of juve recreation and is integrated in community activities. The movement is laudable and some fun can be derived from the varied activities—if only the youngsters cooperate. Jose.(Variety, May 8)
ABC television tees off May 15 with the first daytime video show aimed especially at the moppet trade. Show will be aired three or five times a week, 5-6 p.m., over WABD (DuMont. N. Y.).
Program will be in three segments. Ireene Wicker will have the 5 to 5:15 slot, with stories and songs for the juvenile audiences. Three or four kids will be brought before the cameras at each performance to get their ad lib responses to her story-telling.
N. Y. Board of Education will run the 5:15 to 5:45 segment, which will be an entertainment program with enough entertainment to sustain the moppets' interest. B. of E. has already submitted three scripts for possible shows, which will spotlight kids from the radio classes of the city's schools as audience participations.
For the last 15-minute segment, Paul Mowrey, ABC video chief, has obtained rights to 40 of the "Aesop Fable" silent animated cartoons, which were produced in Hollywood before the Walt Disney era. Cartoons will be run in their original form, but will have an up-to-date narrative by Walter Kiernan.
ABC is presently fishing for sponsors for the first and last parts of the show, and has already had nibbles from a candy company and a breadbaking concern. B. of E.'s part of the program will be on a sustaining basis, as a public service show. (Variety, May 1)
Thursday, May 2
WCBW Channel 2
8:15 News with Tom O’Connor.
8:30 “Draw Me Another,” cartoon show with Gurney Williams and guests Ed Graham and Paul Webb.
8:45 “There Ought to Be a Law,” discussion with high school students.
WABD Channel 5
8:00 “Famous Jury Trials.”
8:30-9:30 Films. “Riding the Trail” with Fred Smith (Monogram, 1940).
Balaban & Katz
Reviewed Thursday (2), 7:30 to 9 p.m. Style—Newscast variety and drama. Sustaining on WBKB, Chicago.
There was plenty of variety in the program tonight but it added up to weak entertainment. Most ambitious undertaking was the half-hour one-acter, The Dark Cellar. Written by Herb Bailey, Chicago Billboard staffer, originally for radio, it proved to be good tele fare from the script standpoint. Direction was another thing, however, for all too often dramatic effect of the lines was lost by the fact that most of the lines for cameras were so far away from the thespians that they assumed pigmy proportions in the viewer, more half -shots and close-ups would have upped the dramatic impact considerably.
Jon Sierra Players, local semi-pro group, did a good job, with Angel Casey copping the honors. Jeffrey Brandt was convincing. Jon Sierra whipped the production together before the play hit the studios where Beulah Zachary, of the WBKB staff handled video direction.
Elmo Turner teed off the program with his "Behind the News" seg. In
a dissertation on the Spanish question, he tossed weights on each side of a balance scale to illustrate how various world events checked and counter-checked the pro and anti-Franco pressure groups. Good idea, but the prop-scale used made the execution of the idea seem amateurish.
Thorton Brothers, teen-age hillbilly novelty quartet of the Hoosier Hot Shot school, were okay for kids. Best bit was when one lad played two ocarinas in harmony. John Nicholls Booth chose as his text for his Looking at Life seg, Dr Clarence Mills' book, Climate Makes the Man. It was a scholarly dissertation [sic], delivered informally, but too much on the text-book side to be judged good entertainment.
Elgin time signal, viz-quiz spot in which the first viewer who phoned in the correct identity of an object shown on screen (century old pages litter) won theater tickets, and Jack Worth's Melting Pot Tour rounded out the program. Latter supposedly took viewers to Chicago's famed Hull House to get a taste of Chicago's old Mexico. Only touch of Mexico provided, however, was a folk dance in costume by Chico and Cavella, some folk songs by Rosita plus an interview with two of the Hull House workers on the problems faced by the Mexican population of the city.
Of course, any criticism of WBKB productions must be tempered by the knowledge that the staff has only two cameras and a pint-sized studio to work in. But if video sets are to be sold in the Chi area, it will take much better talent, production, direction and camera work to do the trick than seen here tonight. The novelty of tele certainly won't be strong enough, and sets must be sold before sponsors buy time. (Billboard, May 11)
8:15-9:30 Films:
“The Last Mile” with Preston Porter (Astor, 1932).
WABD Channel 5
8:00 “Look Who’s Here.”
8:30 Film:
“Confidential” with Donald Cook (Mascot, 1935).
RINGLING BROS. CIRCUS
With Gil Fates, announcer
Director: Bob Bendick
150 Mins.; Friday (3), 8:30 p.m.
Sustaining
WCBW-CBS, N. Y.
CBS television's remote broadcast of the entire circus performance from Madison Sq. Garden Friday (3) night highlighted the fact that, in video's present stage of development, such events furnish what are undoubtedly the best means of programming.
Knowing in advance that the circus was excellent program wise, the the [sic] CBS staff could gloss over any programming worries and concentrate its attention on setting up the equipment on hand to give viewers the best pictures possible. Sports events and other remote broadcasts furnishing on-the-spot coverage will fill the bill in the same way. Carrying such shows on a sustaining basis also rates the web a nod as a public-service benefactor, although it's questionable whether CBS would have passed up a nibble from a potential sponsor, had circus execs been willing to go commercial in that way.
Circus, unlike some sports events, can be appreciated fully only from a .seat under the big top (or in the Garden). With that initial drawback to overcome, and confronted with inadequate equipment, the CBS staff, under the direction of Bob Bendick, turned in a highly commendable job. Using only two cameras, the technicians achieved good pictures of most of the performance, although the spotlight effects on the aerial acts were certainly not devised for the benefit of television.
With one or more cameras set up on the far side of the ring. CBS could have furnished a better-rounded picture of the event, but the scarcity of new equipment precluded that. Monotony of watching a black and white screen for more than two hours, and. comparing that with the beautiful colors and production mountings of the circus itself, evidenced the fact that color video, when it does gel here, will be a tremendous hypo to audience interest lor such broadcasts. (Of course, everybody agrees that color will be much better than black and white.)
Gil Fates, assistant program director of the CBS staff, turned in a very good job on the narration. His often-evidenced sense of humor, coupled with the way he let the pictures speak for themselves, rate him a decided bow. Stal. (Variety, May 8)
Louisville, May 3 (AP)—Because of a union dispute, plans were abandoned late today for television pictures of the Kentucky Derby, Frank H. Richterkessing, president of the Louisville Photographic Society, announced.
Richterkessing said the International Association of Theatrical and Stage Employes (AFL) protested the use of amateur photographers for the television shots and threatened to cancel newsreel and photo-finish operations at Churchill Downs.
He said the union would not allow its members to make Derby newsreels or conduct photo-finish operations unless union members were used in making the television film.
WASHINGTON, May 4.—Only three applications are still pending at Federal Communications Commission for Chicago television stations, with FCC announcing Friday (3) that construction permits have been granted to National Broadcasting Company and Zenith Radio Corporation. Balaban & Katz Company previously had been granted a license. Applications still pending are from Raytheon Manufacturing Company, American Broadcasting Company, and WGN, Inc. A seventh channel still hasn't been applied for.
New video stations for Batlimore [sic] and Pittsburgh, however, were indefinitely delayed as FCC continued "without date" scheduled hearings in those cities. Hearst Radio, Inc., and Tower Realty Company, of Baltimore, and DuMont Laboratories, and Westinghouse Radio Stations, Inc., of
Pittsburgh, are the applicants affected. (Billboard, May 11)
Saturday, May 4
WCBW Channel 2
8:15 “Saturday Evening Spotlight,” Fashions, Sports and Other Features.
8:45 “It’s a Gift” with John Reed King.
NEW YORK, May 4.—Altho most network musical authorities believe that the AFM edict that union musicians are not permitted to work on television stations, is boycott, and should not be permitted to stand without contest, neither NBC or CBS are prepared to do anything about it at this time. Both webs have too much at stake to battle Jimmy Petrillo on something which at this time means little or nothing to the bankroll.
CBS's telecast of the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey entire show from Madison Square Garden Friday (3) with Merle Evans' circus band music was a slip-up and eased by without official sanction of Columbia's 20th (brass)floor. Evans is expected to draw a reprimand from the national office of the union...
On the other hand DuMont is ready and expected to carry the ball. Already non-union musicians have been used on its Station WABD, and more are expected to be employed on special shows. Pianist was used for Pulizer Varieties Friday, April 19, and on the same night a John Wanamaker amateur musical session was aired with sacred music (it was Good Friday). (Billboard, May 11)
Sunday, May 5
WCBW Channel 2
8:15 News.
8:30 Film: “The Pale Horseman” (OWI, 1946).
8:45 “Spectre of the Rose,” ballet with Jane Deering and Harold Lang.
Monday, May 6
WABD Channel 5
8:00 Fashion show.
8:30 Feature film:
“The Fighting Deputy” with Fred Scott, White King the Wonder Horse (Spectrum, 1937).
Tuesday, May 7
WABD Channel 5
8:00 “Here’s How,” skits.
8:30 Travel film.
9:00-9:30 “King’s Record Shop” with John Reed King.
After two scannings [May 7], Super Suds' Station WABD's Here's How has eliminated most of the bugs that were in its first presentation (The Billboard, April 27). Bubbles that looked like pieces of mica are used only at the closing of the program and the number of episodes was cut considerably. Commercial opening, altho some tabbed it corn, is none the less effective. A box of Super Suds is seen and the circle in the center of the box falls out and the name of the show, Here's How, appears in the circle, as do other credits. The cards finally all fall away and the announcer is seen thru the opening. That was all to the good, it tied the commercial visually into the show. Then came bug No. 1. The announcer insisted on reading his script and smelled up a swell opening sequence and all other sequences in which he was used.
First how-to-do-it was a film sequence on how to wash windows with ease. Everybody wondered why Mrs. Fosters, the housewife, stopped after doing one pane. But it (the demonstration) was clear and well done. Second film bit was too long. It was a sequence showing how a girl was chosen as the model of the year—what happened to her—from the day she sent in her picture until she modeled for the leading photographers. Some of the close-ups were swell, but as a number of the shots were clips from reels not taken for video, they often blacked out. However, there was plenty of glamour shots and the black sequences weren't too often. 
Commercials brought the singing trio of "lots-more-suds-with-Super-Suds" fame to life from two picture frames with a tricky pitch between a schoolmarm and two students. If the continuity lacked sparkle, that will be improved. Another commercial, late in the scanning, had cartoonist Getz drawing the milk bottle test, with the bottles coming to life. His comments as well as his sketching turned the routine “more suds from Super Suds” into entertainment as well as selling. Final kitchen bit was a chef satire which degenerated into slapstick at its slappiest. They laughed as he dropped the alarm clock into the stew when thyme was in the recipe. That gives some idea of just how “inspired” the script was.
Despite the negatives, the show did move. The lighting was effective and the commercials showed imagination.
Al Foster, the producer for William Esty Agency, has come a long way in three tough lessons. (Billboard, May 11)
Washington, May 7.—Withdrawal of black and white tele applicants to wait for color hit a new note this week as Station WTMJ, NBC outlet in Milwaukee, dropped its construction permit for a black and white station.
WTMJ, owned by the Milwaukee Times-Journal, offered no reasons for its action. ...
Another withdrawal came in petition filed Friday by the Consolidated Broadcasting Co.—a shoe company—for L. A. Merwyn Dobbins, president of Consolidated, told the FCC he would file now for an experimental color outlet and would apply for a commercial operation when FCC gives rainbow video a green light. ...
Other applicants who withdrew this week include Frank Katzentine, Miami: St. Louis Globe-Democrat, and Thomas Fitzpatrick, Inc., of St. Louis. ...
Meanwhile. FCC hypoed black-and-white last Thursday (2) by awarding station permits to NBC and the Zenith Radio Corp. in Chicago. (Variety, May 8)
Wednesday, May 8
WCBW Channel 2
8:15 Films.
WABD Channel 5
8:00 “We’re Off,” Pulitzer Varieties.
8:30 Film.
9:00-9:30 “Thrills and Chills” with Doug Allan.
Thursday, May 9
WCBW Channel 2
8:15 News with Bob McKee.
8:30 “Tales By Hoff,” fairy tales in modern dress as told and illustrated by cartoonist Syd Hoff.
8:45 “Tales to Remember” with Milton Bacon, narrator.
WNBT Channel 4
8:00-9:00 “N. B. C. Almanac,” films and studio variety show, sponsored by Standard Brands.
WABD Channel 5
8:00 “Famous Jury Trials.”
8:30 Films.
9:00 “Serving Through Science.”
Standard Brand Hourglass
Reviewed Thursday (9) 8:02-8:50 p.m. Style—Variety. Sponsor—Standard Brands. Agency—J. Walter Thompson. Station—WNBT, NBC, New York.
The production's hourglass was empty before the sand in the actual glass had run out, both literally and talent-wise. Several elemental factors of video production were ignored.
Maybe the prof who insists that everybody has to make his own mistakes is right—but, if this be true—the place to make them is still on closed circuit.
The talent had everything, the producer nearly nothing. Evelyn Knight sang Grandfather's Clock and The Lass With the Delicate Air, even more effectively than she did on WNBT before, and no doubt she mouthed to the same diskings that she used before. She had more vitality, gave with that personality a little more than she did previously and in a number of ways sold the tunes better than on her previous airing. The producer, however, brought her on with as little eclat as he might have used on a club date.
Arthur Hopkins's Little Theater one-acter, Moonshine, wasn't badly handled by James Monks and Paul Douglas, but it's been better done by non-pros all over the country during the last 20 years. The mountain-music country illusion wasn't captured at the opening, and without this scene setting there never can be a sock presentation of this study of a "smart guy" tricking a distiller of white mule. Technically, the production was top-drawer but, from an acting point of view, it was simply without the benefit of good Monks and Douglas.
Chase & Sanborn Coffee commercial at this point was simply an animated radio pitch . . . and the animation made it seem twice as long as it actually was. When you say it and show it, you're doing it twice—and not twice as good.
Running over from the Carnival Room, Miriam LaVelle danced but most of the time her feet were cut off by the camera. Some dancing is telegenic and some isn't. Miss LaVelle's Spanish routine, in tight-fitting long trousers, just wasn't.
Next on-camera was Joe Besser and Company. Correctly-chosen Besser rookie act was as funny as it always is—but it was presented against the trellis-like background used all the way thru the show. Still Besser was so sock that the viewers gave with belly laughs. Check Besser as the highlight of this scanning. Burly is okay—but definitely.
They followed Besser with a slip-shod plug for video—Owen Davis Jr. trying to wise up the audience on tele slanguage. Trouble was that Davis didn't know the slang he was supposed to be hep to and what could have been a nice plug for a new medium was a stage-wait. Also if they did the teleslang pitch, why in the name of air-pix didn't they offer the book that NBC has published, Television Talk, as give-a-way?
That didn't require sense, or did it? Miss Knight came back for her second number, then came Doodles Weaver, with his hilarious hungry rabbit story. He proved that, even without a build-up, a performer can stand before a video camera and wow them. Doodles did, even if his sock finish was lost by bad camera timing.
Second commercial was better. It was an "educational pic" type of selling, which made the shade-grown coffee pitch understandable. It was too long, but despite this it made 'em look and listen.
Other "acts" were the "first" showing of a picture made for soundies by Edgar Bergen before the war. It was a Spanish dance pic and duplicated the note set by LaVelle earlier in the program altho feet were seen. A fair portion of it was too busy, with people and set, to make it video stuff.
Final act was Enrica and Novella, from the Cotillion Room (Hotel Plaza, New York). Here again, NBC followed its usual scanning of dancers—and cut off most of the movement below the knees. It's difficult to telecast the charm of dancers without showing their feet, and without them, they might just as well stay in bed.
Greatest bit of ignorance of the medium in this presentation was the fact that the producers forgot that no television show (or radio program for that matter) is any better than the emsee and the mood. Variety shows sans someone to tie them together fall apart. Variety shows without a mood, a raison d'etre, are just a collection of acts, in which each performer stands or falls by his own presentation and gets nothing from the program or the previous act and gives nothing to the next act.
J. Walter Thompson, the ad-agency, has found this out in broadcasting—it's a shame that they have to find it out all over again when sight is added to sound.
Evelyn Eagon, the femsee, had no faculty for putting her viewers at ease. Somebody may have told her that she had to carry the show. She dropped it.
The ad-agency admits that it doesn't know what television talent is—and so it's producing these hours, each week. It's hoped JWT learned something this evening—altho most of it was discovered years ago—at other stations and by other producers. (Billboard, May 18)
Tales to Remember
Reviewed Thursday (9), 8:45 p.m. Style—Drama. Sustaining over WCBW (CBS), New York.
This week's tale was showcased with a new technique—improvised drama—and result was good. As explained fully beforehand by Ben Finer, CBS tele program pilot, dialog and action improvisation is not new in showbiz, but is definitely a gimmick in video. Principle is to give thesps concerned a synopsis of story and let them kick it around among themselves for a while, then have a once-over-lightly with the director and go right before the cameras. If this telecast is any criterion, the system has a good chance of becoming permanent, with a saving of time in putting together video program.
Milton Bacon had a story with a sting in its tail for the debbing of improvisation, , and the Lee Wallace group—Richard Wilder, Doreen Lang and Elmer Lehr—handled the chore smoothly. Briefly, show opens with Bacon in a restaurant recalling that he encountered a strange tale in the same place 20 years back. Back- tracking is neatly defined by a close- up of a picture of President Truman on the wall, which segues into that of Coolidge, setting the period as 1926. Bacon meets a man in the restaurant, who surprises him with the statement that "he died in Chicago in 1920," having been killed in an auto accident. From there on the tale assumes dramatic action. The stranger, Ronnie Byron, returns to Chicago and there discovers that his house has been boarded up and his wife remarried. He visits her and is sent on his way in no uncertain terms.
Cameras swing back to 1926 and the stiff tells Bacon that the denouement of his story will come after he makes a phone call. He leaves and Bacon discovers he's been the victim of one of the city's ace pickpockets.
Show keeps up the mystery and suspense well and the sudden end is good for a chuckle or two. (Billboard, May 18)
Television Productions, Inc.
Reviewed Thursday (9), 8-9:45 p.m. Style—News, variety, shopping aid, wrestling matches and cartoons. Sustaining on W6XYZ, Hollywood.
Viewers got a taste of top tele with Paramount's return to the air. Absent or almost five months while its transmitter was being constructed atop Mount Wilson, W6XYZ bowed in with a well-balanced fare presented in technically smooth fashion.
Shopping at Home, new program idea introed by Director Klaus Landsberg, showed possibilities of commercial video. Seg consisted of viewing latest household items in local stores. Altho Keith Heatherington, who handled this portion of program, mentioned prices and stores where items could be secured, actual presentation was carried on along lines of a service program. Each item had a novelty kick to it which proved interest holding. Among those displayed and demonstrated were a portable washing machine, combination ice crusher and cocktail shaker and an egg beater with gear shift. Lensers moved in on each item as Heatherington explained its purpose, giving living room look-seers a realistic demonstration of what gimmick could do. Seg proved two valuable facts: Video packs the potential of being the greatest selling medium yet discovered; tele commercials need only show products under favorable conditions to sell.
Holding last slot were wrestling matches. Since bouts were held last, Landsberg has added a complete ring which lends realistic touch. Staged and refereed by Paramount physical director Jim Davies, grunt and groan material proved sock tele stuff. Plenty of action, plus Dick Lane's top-notch commentary kept home viewers on edge thruout. Studio audience helped keep a high pitch with boos and shouting. Camera crew came thru with almost peerless examples of wide-awake lens wielding. Boys not only followed fast action, but very often produced fine examples of pic composition and angle shots. Here, as in other portions of program, panning and dollying was up to best yet seen at this outlet.
Variety show, tagged Hits and Bits, included Easter and Hazelton terp team, in a novel routine based on the legend, The Enchanted Pig. Beauty-and-the-beast act proved a gratifying eye holder, with duo dressed for parts (guy wears a pig's head, girl a flowing gown). Marion Kerigan's tap gave cameras nimble toe material. Esquires, acro act, was also entertaining screen fare. Knock-about comedy team, Mercer Brothers, went thru antics for the laugh department. Only fizzle in seg was Three Merrymen, whose personality projection was on the minus side and voice-blending flat and off key.
Telecast was rounded out with a news report by Jack Latham, illustrated with slides, and comic strip feature, tagged Tele Funnies, also employing slides. Latter were capably dramatized by Heatherington, Wally Earl and Harry Bowman.
With its initial telecast, W6XYZ has set a high standard. If it can only progress from here, Southern California is in for top-drawer tele. There still is room for improvement, tho. For example, Landsberg should yield announcing chores to someone who could handle them in professional style. (Billboard, May 18)
Friday, May 10
WCBW Channel 2
8:15-9:30 Film: “Dangerous Secrets” with Paul Lukas. (Grand National, 1938).
WNBT Channel 4
1:00-2:00 Radio City Matinee.
8:00 Preview film; “In Town Today: The Channel Islands”; “Almanac.”
8:45 Boxing from St. Nicholas Arena. Johnny Colan vs. Johnny Thomas.
WABD Channel 5
8:00 “Look Who’s Here.”
8:30 Film:
“Behind Green Lights” with Carole Landis, Roy Roberts (20th Century-Fox, 1946).
MORE THAN a third of all applications originally filed for television have withdrawn from the field, a check by BROADCASTING revealed last week. Dismissals reached 57 by the close of Friday [10], when 95 applications were still pending.
Since April 5, FCC records showed, 29 applicants have withdrawn from television. Latest dropouts include Consolidated Broadcasting Corp., Fox West Coast Theatres, and Warner Bros., all of Los Angeles; the Journal Co., Milwaukee (WTMJ), which relinquished its video construction permit; Travellers Broadcasting Service Corp., Hartford (WTIC); Thomas Patrick (KWK), Star-Times Publishing Co. (KXOK) and Globe-Democrat Publishing Co., all of St. Louis; WDEL Wilmington, Del.; A. Frank Katzentine, Miami Beach, Fla. (WKAT); and J. E. Rodman, Fresno, Cal. (KFRE). ...
CBS color developments, realization of the high cost of operation, and confusion regarding the receiver situation have contributed to the decision on the part of applicants not to enter the field at this time. (Broadcasting, May 13)
Saturday, May 11
WCBW Channel 2
8:15 Saturday Evening Spotlight.
8:45 “It’s a Gift.”
WNBT Channel 4
4:00 Fordham University Centennial Ceremony.
5:00-5:15 President Truman at Fordham University.
8:00 Film: “Return to Yesterday” with Dame May Whitty, Clive Brook (Associated British, 1940).
CHICAGO, May 11.—One casualty in the entertainment world here to feel the effects of the electricity dim- out that crippled this territory until today was the B & K television station, WBKB. Case of the station, which went off the air early this week, is significant, in spite of the fact that Saturday (11) an engineering spokesman for the outlet said that by Tuesday (14) it expected to be back on normal operation. It is significant because it shows that decrease of electrical power, should it come here again, or in any other video city for the first time, has a unique effect on telecasting.
WBKB went off the air because the Edison Company reduced voltage to the station and other downtown buildings. At WBKB the current was reduced from about 112 volts to about 103 volts to save electricity. This lower voltage made the WBKB picture so unreliable (it was wavy at times, it faded out at others, etc.) that the decision to suspend operation for the remainder of the dim-out was made Tuesday (7). Station is not sending out any programs, but is merely telecasting a station identification signal from 4 to 5 p. m. weekdays for television set manufacturers who use it for experimental purposes. (Billboard, May 18
Sunday, May 12
WNBT Channel 4
2:30 Baseball: Yankees vs. Boston.
8:00 Sunday in New York; Almanac; “Blithe Spirit,” feature studio presentation with Leonard Corbett, Estelle Winwood, others.
Blithe Spirit
Reviewed Sunday (12), 8:30-9 p.m. Style—Drama. Sustaining over WNBT (NBC), New York.
Edward Sobol, with Blithe Spirit, did what he has done before with Men in White and a number of other swell telecasts of theater hits. He took a Broadway hit and video reported it. It must be his theory that a good script, a darned near perfect cast, plus keeping in mind the present-day camera limitations make sock entertainment ... and it must be admitted that in his hands this combination seldom fails. When he steps away from the formula, as he did with Standard Brands Hour Glass, reviewed on the television pages in this issue, he frequently turns in a scanning that's a waste of time.
Out of this world was the performance of Estelle Windwood [sic] in the part that Mildred Natwick did in the theater and which rated Natwick raves. If Natwick was good, and she was, then Windwood is better. In other words, Windwood is Madame Arcati, the medium, in the flesh.
Despite the fact that the story of the man whose wife materialized from the dead to plague him and his present wife just begged for video treatment, Sobol didn't fall in the obvious trap. He played it, as noted, straight. There were no tricks. There were plenty in the original Noel Coward play, so it wasn't necessary to be tricky with the television.
Leonora Corbett, who played the first wife on the Main Stem, was just as good before WNBT cameras. Doreen Lang, in the small part of the maid, small in sides but not in moments, was ideal. In fact, that's what everything and everybody was, in the first NBC tele theater presentation of the Channel 4, WNBT. Carol Gooner, as Ruth, the second wife; Alex Clark and Valerie Cossart, as Dr. and Mrs. Bradman, and Philip Tonge, as the husband, the original Clifton Webb part, were so well drawn that even the camera couldn't detect any touches of fake in a play that, after all, is fake all the way thru. That is something for the book.
They ought to repeat Blithe Spirit, at least once every six weeks for the next few years on WNBT. It was that good. (Billboard, May 18)
Monday, May 13
WNBT Channel 4
1:00-2:00 “Radio City Matinee.”
8:00 Feature film.
8:45 Boxing from St. Nicholas Arena. Billy Graham vs. Frankie Carto.
WABD Channel 5
8:00 Wanamaker Presents—.
8:30 Feature film:
“Young and Beautiful” with Judith Allen, Franklin Pangborn, Ted Fiorito Orchestra (Mascot, 1934).
"RADIO CITY MATINEE"
With Warren Hull, emcee; John Gnagy, Irma Smith, Ward Donovan, George Rector, Maggi McNellis, Sally Victor, Virginia Sale, Louise Mariel, Ben James
Producer: Peter Barker.
Writer: Edward Mills.
Tech. director: Stan Peck.
Sets: Bob Wade
60 Mins.; Mon.-Wed.-Fri., 1 p. m.
Sustaining WNBT-NBC, N. Y.
Marking the first daytime live video show since before the war NBC television teed off Monday (13) with "Radio City Matinee." Apparently realizing that the housewife is the only member of the family who will be able to take an hour off from the day's chores to watch a television screen, the NBC producers aimed the new show for the distaff audience—and it proved to be a very good vehicle.
Chief factor of the new show was the manner in which the NBC production staff took advantage of the fact that television offers sight as well as sound. Six of the eight segments featured personalities showing women how to do things, and each of them made the most of the visual aspects of the medium. Remaining two segments, rung in strictly for entertainment, featured vocalist Ward Donovan, who gave out with a brace of sentimental oldies designed to bring nostalgic reminiscing from the listeners, and Virginia Sale, with amusing impersonation of a farm housewife.
Camera work throughout the performance was in keeping with the demonstrative qualities of the show. Whether John Gnagy was showing his audience how to draw pictures or Irma Smith was showing the women how to arrange flowers in a vase, the cameras, after first establishing an intimate contact with the instructor via a closeup, then concentrated on what the instructor was doing. Besides the former, this featured John Rector demonstrating how to prepare Hollandaise sauce; Sally Victor and Maggi McNellis demonstrating the milliner's art; Louise Martel showing what type toys to buy for the moppets; and Ben James, via an amusing takeoff on the street-corner hawker, how to use the latest kitchen utensils. Warren Hull, erstwhile film star for Monogram, wrapped the proceedings up nicely with a good emceeing job.
Each of the performers proved to be a distinctive video personality, who can be brought back for successive shows without the audience tiring of his face.
Program contained several "opening night" errors, such as the fact that several of the segments ran overtime, causing the show to go 10 minutes over its allotted time. Such minor setbacks, however, can easily be ironed out during future performances. Web is assured of as wide a listening audience as possible for its new venture. And, incidentally, the show offers innumerable opportunities for advertisers to tie in. Stal. (Variety, May 15)
Television Tour
Reviewed Monday (13), 9:10-9:35 p.m. Style—Variety. Sustaining on W6XAO (KTSL), Hollywood.
Don Lee attempted last night to show John Q. Public the basic differences between current day radio and television of the future. In presenting their pitch, the video outlet offered a soap opera sequence as it would be done radiowise and the same stanza airpixed.
Airer was not without its faults, but it served a useful purpose in giving set owners a behind-the-scene tour and an insight into the problems of television production.
In presenting the sequence (written by Stuart W. Phelps and Tom Hubbard), producers took an ordinary five-minute soaper spot and showed how it would be done as a regular broadcast. The burlesqued indifference and utter abandon with which the cast goes thru the motions of putting on a radio show is illustrated with cast members playing cards while the soaper is being aired, dropping their hands to come on mike for their lines, then back to the game. Same sequence, televised, shows the actors alert and on their toes, playing this time to a visual as well as oral audience. As an added touch of "studio intimacy," the audience is shown shots of the video camera being dollied into position for a take, as well as glimpses of the mike boom being lowered to speakers. Since this illusion is introduced in but one sequence, the effect is a bit confusing and could be construed as an unintended error.
Other live segments included a baseball commentary which was purported to be a sports broadcast of the future. This phase of the live telecast was pointless, however, inasmuch as viewers saw only the sportscaster's face and no ball game. Bad lighting, moreover, gave the gabber's face a ghostly pallor.
For comic relief, Ray Erlenborn, sound effects man on the Al Pearce Show, gave forth with a very funny routine on how sound effects are made. Erlenborn is a dead-pan with a fine sense of timing and is a sure laugh-getter.
Overall technical quality is the same as usual for Don Lee. Weakest link in camera work is fuzzy close-ups, which plagues the outlet at each telecast. This, however, is a situation which has existed for months and can only be corrected by technical improvement of present equipment, or acquisition of new cameras. That, plus the use of good view finders in place of makeshift ones now in operation, could make all the difference in the world, camerawise. (Billboard, May 25
Tuesday, May 14
WNBT Channel 4
2:00-3:00 “Your World: The Atom,” speaker, Prof. John R. Dunning.
WABD Channel 5
8:00 “Here’s How,” skits.
8:30 Travel film.
9:00-9:30 “King’s Record Shop” with John Reed King.
Wednesday, May 15
WNBT Channel 4
7:30 “Teletruth,” children’s quiz.
8:00 Film.
8:30 “Radio City Matinee.”
WABD Channel 5
8:00 “Magic Carpet.”
8:30 Film.
9:00-9:30 “Thrills and Chills” with Doug Allan.
Teletruth
Reviewed Wednesday (15), 7:30-7:50 p.m. Style—Kid Quiz. Sustaining over WNBT (NBC), New York.
With WNBT's return to the air, ex -G. I. Jay Marshall has taken over as quizmaster of Teletruth, and when he eases and comes up to the level of the kid viewers, he'll be okay. As it is, his ventro stuff is on the corny side and he makes with the face as tho he knows it, which, of course, he does.
One of the basic troubles with the scanning is that the kids are neither smart nor ingenious enough to be good radio or video entertainment. Then again, the puppet charades weren't handled so that they made either sense or fun. Also, the puppets and marionettes (the former manipulated over the hands and the latter via strings) didn't come thru the kinescope as anything alive. Both puppets and marionettes fail in their entertainment purpose when they are obviously woodenheads. Unfortunately, Remo Bufano's were just that, pieces of wood.
From an air pic program point of view, Teletruth is basically okay. Idea of visualizing the questions via puppets is good. Idea of a Charlie McCarthy stooge for the emsee is also good.
All that's necessary is performance. (Billboard, May 25)
Radio City Matinee
Reviewed Wednesday (15), 8:30-9:45 p.m. Style—Service and variety. Sustaining over WNBT (NBC), New York.
Transmitter aches have moved the NBC daytime video experiment to evening, and while the basic idea is a little inappropriate for the family, they'll be willing to take it at this hour—for the time being.
Program was supposed to be all commercial, but was all sustaining, which the FCC should like. Opening number of the eight-part presentation was the first telecast of Bazaar for Milady, featured as a window-shopping seg. It presented a couple of figureens [sic] from Theater a la Mode, a French exhibit of style in miniature. It was a glorified interview which didn't make the camera grade.
In the second slot was James Beard's I Love to Eat. Beard so likes to cook that he made a salad right before the ike with such enthusiasm that his eight minutes passed like two and every viewer learned something about salad making, painlessly. Beard knows his field and makes no apology for it in his mind or productions, and since cooking is visual, he's sock.
Song in the service was Lynn Gardner's. She knew that action suited to the words was essential in video, and she had just enough voice to go with the music.
Leona Woodworth, who does Subway Sun's beauty chatter, was the Here's to Charm expert. Her instructions were visual and her routine well worked out. Negative, unfortunately, was the fact that she herself was false. If she can stop being a Billie Burke and stop forcing, she'll be okay. It's only Miss Woodworth herself that's wrong, not the idea or the program.
Came next the home with Paul McAllister's America Re-Decorates. Subbing for G. I. McAllister was Ed McDowell, who used the former's Plan a Home kit to redesign a poorly laid out room. Idea is okay, pic value plus, but in an effort to place a television set in the room design, McDowell shouldn't have made the room seem ugly, as every woman commented in one group viewing the exhibit.
Pat Harrington was the second bit of entertainment relief. Two such acts are skedded for each broadcast, as noted in The Billboard report of several weeks ago. Pat was just a tele wait until he went into an unaccompanied Irish ballad. That was the corn he required to sell himself.
Slot seven was another interview, Adelaide Hawley's questioning of Lilian Grenecker, C. P. (Shubert p. a.) Greneker's wife. Mrs. Greneker has three manikin factories, and she brought some of the papier mache figures to the ike with her. Like the first interview scanned, the routine was deadly, and when Adelaide started undressing a special figure (made of cellophane) papa woooo-ed in a big way. That bosom did look real, and even Hawley stopped undressing the figure after taking a second look. It was a deadly interview just the same and could have been made sparkling if someone had taken time to stage it.
Final iked (service) moment was another interview, this time with the fern who runs the Society of Models, Rita Walton. Despite some samples of what Walton sells, the Sloane Simpson femseed seg was another stage wait.
Came another song—came the fade out. All this in one hour. All this experimental.
All this, with the exception of James Beard, Paul McAllister and Leona Woodworth's material, not worth the viewing time.
However, as a first scanning of daytime material, it was far ahead of most evening stuff, and so WNBT has made another forward step. All they have to do now is go on from here and clean up the bugs in the transmitter which has plenty of ghosts, tears and shattered pix. (Billboard, May 25)
Arturo Toscanini hopes to be the first to put opera on the air via television, and has made plans to do "Falstaff" over WNBT (NBC, N. Y.) next fall.
The only hitch to his present plans is the ruling by James C. Petrillo keeping members of the American Federation of Musicians off television. (Variety, May 15)
Thursday, May 16
WCBW Channel 2
8:15 News with Bob McKee.
8:30 “Here’s How,” cartoon show with Dow Walling, creator of “Skeets” comic strip.
8:45 “Right or Rewrite,” quiz with Dick Eastham.
WNBT Channel 4
8:00-9:00 “Hour Glass,” studio variety show.
9:00 Fight film.
WABD Channel 5
8:00 “Famous Jury Trials.”
[See below]
8:30 Films.
9:00 “Serving Through Science.”
Right or Rewrite
Reviewed Thursday (16) , 8:50-9:20 p.m. Style—Quiz. Sustaining over WCBW (CBS), New York.
This is an "every-man-a-reporter" type of quiz with plenty of visual handling. It's an observation forum with four observees tested on their ability to check the accuracy of a "newspaper" report of a mystery.
Start has the Lee Wallace players presenting the mystery and then the curtain is drawn and four visiting firemen are asked to indicate whether the story, line by line, is right or subject to rewrite. When the "editors" miss vital errors in the reporting, they are shown just what happened, the players re-enacting the scene reported upon. When the majority is correct, there's no re-enactment.
Camera work of Howard Hayes and Paul Stuart was clean cut and as interesting as the program called for. However, the scanning of the four "editors" and their scribbling was pretty deadly, altho Hayes and Stuart were right in there with close-ups and everything they could do with the four. However, it wasn't enough to make that part of the seg lookable. What's needed is color in the judges, both vocal and visual.
It would also help if Marie Torre, the scorekeeper, were given some glibness and Dick Eastman, the quiz-master, some running gag for each scanning. When you're given sight and sound, each must be better than either alone to hold an audience.
The three Lee Wallace players, Gretchen Davidson, Doreen Lang and Richard [Wilder], were okay on their re-enactment of the whodunit.
Credit CBS with another video development—in black-and-white, too—and Frances Buss, the director, with an okay job. (Billboard, May 25)
Ladies, Be Seated
Reviewed Thursday (16), 8-8:30 p.m. Style-Audience participation. Sponsor—Quaker Oats. Agency—LaRoche & Ellis. Station—WABD, New York.
Ladies, Be Seated, daytime program airing regularly over ABC for Quaker Oats Company, impressed once again at video material in its tele audition at DuMont's Wanamaker studios. Comedy is strictly slapstick, Emsee Johnny Olsen leading his blindfolded victims into seltzer squirting and the like—in fact, one lad's face connected with a pie. But despite the lack of subtlety, the scanning is laugh –provoking— just as were the slapstick farces of the Keystone Cops in the early pic days and on such latter day radio programs as Truth or Consequences.
Harvey Marlowe, director-producer, couldn't keep the program on a high comedy level thruout—but his job was good enough to point up the value of this kind of show for video. Experience in the genre would make possible a more fluid presentation and more facile camera work. Camera technique on this show had a tendency to milk the more ludicrous periods. This can be overdone.
Olsen, interviewing couples and leading the husbands into nonsensical antics, is definitely okay. He has camera presence and a measure of magnetism. (Billboard, May 25)
ABC's Thursday night (16) replacement of the video version of "Famous Jury Trials" with Johnny Olsen's "Ladies Be Seated" is a step in the wrong direction. While "Trials," though highly melodramatic fare, had some claims to being adult, "Ladies" represents both radio and video, at their intellectual nadir. Video, starting off with a clean slate, and still playing to a limited audience, can afford experimenting at this stage with superior program forms in either drama, public service, or comedy. There's no reason for this retreat to the level of infantilism—even in the name of "entertainment which the public wants."
As entertainment, "Ladies Be Seated" has the sock of a slapstick comedy, vintage 1912. Olsen's bag of tricks in video extends to squashing pies in faces, dousing people with seltzer bottles, stuffing mouths with crackers, and other torture gimmicks put over on the aud participants in parlor game manner. Olsen's line of gab is fast and funny, and as emcee he manages to infuse the show with a clambake spirit in which anything goes. But a couple of ad-lib gags that slipped through during his interviews with the mar-ried couples on the show should have made the engineer reach for the switch.
Technically, the show was well-produced. Dumont's studios were ample enough to admit of Olsen's cavorting, and the camera work effectively cut between the action and the studio aud's reaction to give an aura of hilarity. Harvey Marlowe produced, and George Weist directed. (Variety, May 22)
Balaban & Katz
Reviewed Thursday (16), 7:30-8:30 p.m. Style—Variety. Sustaining and commercial on WBKB, Chicago.
There could be no possible excuse for the slipshod production, direction, camera work and mike handling during most of tonight's program. Sometimes poor quality of WBKB productions can be blamed on small studio space and the inadequate number of cameras with which it is forced to operate, but tonight's mistakes could be attributed entirely to human error—to lack of preparation and slovenly performance by staff members.
Low point during the program—and just about the worst video presentation we have ever seen at WBKB—was the half hour devoted to explaining the work of Girl Scouts. Explanation was built upon conversations between a small girl and a puppet. After the puppet made remarks that were intended to be comical but were inane, the girl (Jean Dahl) began to talk about various types of Girl Scout activities. After a short verbal explanation by Jean, there were dissolves to scenes in which Scouts went thru their paces. That was when television mayhem was committed. The gals were stiff in action and stilted in conversation. They muffed lines and walked in front of each other when they should have stayed in place. They stayed in front of the camera when they should have walked away. They walked away when they should have stayed put. Members of the Scouts walked in and moved props' while a camera was focused on the scene from which they were moving the props. Others reached in (only their arms could be seen) to grab implements that other Scouts had used. To top it all, the continuity used was some of the most amateurish we have ever heard.
Not much better was Bob Wright's "human interest in the news" segment in which he interviewed some kids who were members of the Chicago Boys' Club. Idea of trying to bring out what is done by these clubs, whose objective is to keep boys off the streets, was a good one because of its human-interest possibilities, but again production and direction was bad, and the possibilities of the idea were not realized.
About the only worth-while portion of the program was the singing of Bernice Gordon, former vocalist with Griff Williams's orchestra. Miss Gordon has a good voice and a telegenic face and figure. She has a place in video in the future. But even with her, the station staff made mistakes, most glaring of which was mishandling of audio controls at one spot. This resulted in her voice coming out in an over–amplified screech. (Billboard, May 25)
Secrets of a Gourmet
Reviewed Thursday (17) [sic], 9-9:15 p.m. Style—Demonstration, skit. Sponsors' identification—Safeway, Calavo, Desert Grapefruit, California Wines. Agency—J. Walter Thompson. Sustaining on W6XYZ, Hollywood.
Proof that tele plugs, done well, pack punch was evidenced in Secrets seg. Latter was first agency-produced video presentation ever scanned on the Coast. Honors for this airpic milestone go to J. Walter Thompson, whose aggressive tele out- look in the East and now here, should spur other percenters into video activity; to Ted Smith, agency's Hollywood head of pix and tele department, whose capable handling made experimental co-op commercial come up a successful first try; to W6XYZ for taking advantage of tele's trial-and-error days to do constructive experimenting with commercials. (Station carries plugs for free).
Secrets of a Gourmet was presented in skit-demonstration form, with Fred Benrath (Southern California sales manager for Louis Martini Wine Company) participating as guy who knows his onions, and Dick Lane asking the questions and playing part of bewildered onlooker. Benrath prepared a mouth-watering meal, complete from hors d'oeuvres to salad, beef roast to strawberry dessert.
For each dish, Benrath told how the use of wine in cooking enhances food flavor. Commercials were brought merely as courtesy lines: "Meats by Safeway, Avocados by Calavo, Dessert Grapefruit, California Wines." (All four are JWT clients). As each brand was named, lensers moved in for close-up view. Sight of well-placed foods plus patter from Lane and Benrath would make any living room onlooker want to raid the icebox. Presentation demonstrated that food selling via tele needs only showing of commodities and gabbers praising taste appeal to be successful. Hit 'em over the head plug-uglies are unnecessary.
Deft panning and dollying by tele-eye wielders gave seg a finished touch. Boys worked well, following food from table to stove, etc., lending element of action. Minor clinkers should be ironed out with time. Seg should move faster; food master should be attired in chef's garb; it would be advisable to let latter do most of the gabbing. All in all, JWT hit a high for its first Coast fling. (Billboard, May 25)
HOLLYWOOD, May 18.—J. Walter Thompson and W6XYZ (Paramount) are surveying home-viewer reaction to the agency-produced 15-minute experimental commercial seg scanned by the outlet Thursday (17) [sic]. Tagged Secrets of a Gourmet, program plugged four JWT accounts.
Questionnaire asks:
"Did you find the program interesting?"
"Do you think it should be 15 or 30 minutes?"
"Do you remember names of sponsors?"
"Would you care to see more programs in this series?" (Billboard, May 25)
Friday, May 17
WCBW Channel 2
8:15-9:30 Film.
WNBT Channel 4
1:00-2:00 Radio City Matinee.
8:00 Preview film; “In Town Today.”
8:15 “The World in Your Home.”
8:41 Almanac.
8:46 Boxing from Madison Square Garden. Bruce Woodcock vs. Tami Mauriello.
WABD Channel 5
8:00 “Look Who’s Here.”
8:30 Film:
“Ellis Island” with Donald Cook and Peggy Shannon (Invincible, 1936).
RECORD number of television permits granted at one time in history of FCC was issued late Friday [17] with authorizations for nine stations in nine cities. Action brought to 23 total stations authorized or in operation.
Receiving grants: A. S. Abell Co. (Baltimore Sun), Baltimore; NBC, Cleveland; Outlet Co. (WJAR), Providence; Oregonian Publishing Co. (KGW), Portland; Intermountain Broadcasting Corp. (KDYL), Salt Lake City; KSTP St. Paul; Havens & Martin Inc. (WMBG), Richmond, Va.; Worcester Telegram Publishing Co. Inc. (WTAG), Worcester, Mass.; and Raytheon Mfg. Co., Waltham, Mass. (Broadcasting, May 20
Saturday, May 18
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.
NEW YORK, May 18.—NBC television, which usually comes right out and calls a spade a spade, didn't want to admit that it couldn't scan the Ringling-Barnum circus last Saturday and, therefore, ignored telling the viewing audience that it had been canceled.
Fact that NBC's newspaper ads had carried the circus as a top program item for the week didn't seem to disturb the decision makers on the sixth floor. All that non-scanning did was to louse up the home lives of every family that had half-pints in it who had been promised the circus on television.
Ice-cream business, in stores near homes which had video receivers, is said to have doubled between 8 and 9 p.m. Sales of franks and pop is said to have gone up. (Billboard, May 25)
Sunday, May 19
WCBW Channel 2
8:15 News and analysis.
8:30 “You Be the Judge.”
9:00 “The Firebird,” dance program with Bambi Lynn and others.
WNBT Channel 4
1:30 Baseball: Giants vs. Pirates.
8:00 Sunday in New York; Almanac; “Mr. and Mrs. North,” feature studio presentation with Maxine Stewart, Jon McQuade, others.
Mr. and Mrs. North
Reviewed Sunday (19), 8:15-10 p.m. Style—Mystery drama. Sustaining over WNBT (NBC), New York.
An hour and a half for a good play is okay; an hour and three-quarters for passably acted hokum is about three-quarters of an hour too long. That's what was wrong ' with Fred Coe's handling of Owen Davis's original Stem legit, Mr. and Mrs. North. Dramatically, it was like riding a scenic railway with too many valleys. Plays like this have to move fast, or conversation starts in the living room. It did many, many times.
Even Vinton Hayworth, who usually is sock, fiddle-dee-dee-ed all over the place when he should have played tautly. Another fault was in the characterizations, which found both Jerry North (John McQuade) and Lieut. Weigand (Vinton Hayworth) playing the same person, altho one was a suspect and the other a detective. Both reacted to Pamela North (Maxine Stewart) in exactly the same way.
All the other characters were out of familiar cubbyholes, and while that's okay in a mystery, it isn't okay when the script permits the audience to think instead of thrill-rushing it to the climax. Check only Detective Mullins (Millard Mitchell) as having some of the cubbyhole dust shaken off.
Camera handling was good, and lighting generally adequate. In fact, technically, it was the usual NBC standard. Only thing missing was a video script to televise. Everything was good, but not good enough. (Billboard, May 25)
Monday, May 20
WNBT Channel 4
8:00 Feature film: “The Strangler” (aka “East of Picadilly) with Judy Campbell and Sebastian Shaw (UK-made; PRC, 1941)
9:00 Short Film: “Vocational Guidance” and film shorts.
WABD Channel 5
8:00 Wanamaker Presents—.
8:30 Feature film:
“Thunder Over Texas” with Big Boy Williams (Beacon, 1934).
John Wanamaker Presents
Reviewed Monday (May 6 and 20). Style—Commercial. Sponsor—John Wanamaker. Telecast over WABD (DuMont), New York.
Attempts to sell pianos and rugs were viewed. The former proved that pianos will be sold via the air pic medium, but that a video selling technique will have to be developed plenty by Wanamaker's before the selling even touches bottom. In this scanning were played and shown a number of minipianos and organs, thus giving a new dimension to piano peddling.
Piano playing was technically good but colorless. The pianos were seen, but they were so poorly lighted that they didn't invite purchase except from the viewer already sold on buying a piano. None of them was shown in a home setting, and the continuity was, to say the least, unenthusiastic. The spieler just wasn't trying to sell, despite the fact that price tags and everything were mentioned.
It resembled a second-rate salesman showing a prospective customer a line of pianos and having each instrument's tone tested by a well trained 88'er. It's a beginning, but it isn't enough.
In the rug seg (May 20) there was an attempt to sell Persian rugs. The sales manager of A. & M. Karagheusian told the story of Persians (reading most of the time, which isn't good) and an army pic of Iran during the war was cut into the telling. (A picture of old Persia had been planned, but DuMont couldn't get clearance at the last moment.) Then the camera cut to a close-up of a rug weaver. However, it wasn't close enough and the knotting detail and everything that would have been of primary importance to the home viewer had to be imagined. The same was true when the rug salesman was talking about the depth of the nap—it couldn't be seen. Reason for this, it's claimed, is that a telescopic lens is required to do this kind of a job—and it's not available at this time.
Despite the lack of such a lens, correct motion picture and a host of other things, this scanning didn't lose its audience—male or female—which may be an indication that sel ing will be entertainment, come universal video. (Billboard, June 1)
The Road Back
Reviewed Monday (20), 9-9:15 p.m. Style—Educational. Sustaining over WABD (DuMont), New York.
New York University's television class, aided and abetted by Dr. Harold O. Voorhis, vice-chancellor of the U., and Dr. William Glenn, director of the N. Y. U. testing and guidance center for vets, presented this, the first of an educational series. What the show required was a producer with a little objectivity. Vocational guidance has all the appeal of a mystery show, when it's handled correctly. In this scanning, it was planted for all to observe and underline that, the vet had a camera yen. Having established this, the tele camera followed the boy thru the guidance routine, but stopped only once to see him given the testing works.
Knowing what the boy wanted to do and then discovering that it was okay for him to seek a job in that field was like being present at the murder and following the detective who is trying to solve it. Sometimes this formula makes for a good book or a good show—but amateurs aren't that good.
The Road Back was all too heavy with atmosphere and all too light with education. Video should make education dramatic, not dramatize it. There's a difference. (Billboard, June 8)
HOLLYWOOD, May 18.— Altho five local tele hopefuls having already fallen by the wayside, heated contest is still expected when Federal Communications Commission's hearings open here Monday (20), during which eight candidates for commercial licenses will fight for seven available channels. Before FCC's assistant general council, Harry Plotkin, of Washington, and its regional attorney, John Hearne, of San Francisco, will come American Broadcasting Company, Inc.; Earl C. Anthony, Inc., (KFI); Howard Hughes Productions; Don Lee Broadcasting Company; National Broadcasting Company, Inc.; Television Productions, Inc. (Paramount Pictures subsid); Dorothy S. Thackrey (KLAC—New York Post) and Los Angeles Times. ...
Latest to back out of local tele picture was Warner Bros. Pic company joined Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Walt Disney, Fox West-Coast Theaters and Consolidated Broadcasting Corporation (KGER—Long Beach) in pulling. Film studios' reason tele costs too much coin for what can be gained by investment at this point, and therefore nix to airpix. Warners said they were hot for video until operational costs were totaled.
Company execs tore up tele plans when, according to studio, experts said it would cost flickers around $2,000,000 to enter video field. (Billboard, May 25)
Tuesday, May 21
WABD Channel 5
8:00 Film: “Hell Bound” (aka “Easy Money”) with Leo Carrillo (Tiffany, 1931).
9:00-9:30 ABC Program.
TWO MORE commercial televisiostations for Baltimore and one for Albuquerque were authorized by the FCC last Tuesday [21].The Baltimore grants went to Hearst Radio Inc. (WBAL) and Radio-Television of Baltimore Inc. The one for Albuquerque went to Albuquerque Broadcasting Co. (KOB). ...
Radio-Television of Baltimore was assigned Channel 13, 210-216mc, with 31.65-kw visual and 20-kw aural power, and antenna height of 410 feet. The company is principally owned by Ben and Herman Cohen, who own clothing stores and real estate interests in a number of cities.
KOB's television grant was for use of Channel No. 2, 54-60 mc, with 15-kw visual and 8-kw aural power and antenna height 100 feet above ground and 5,240 above sea level. (Broadcasting, May 27)
Wednesday, May 22
WNBT Channel 4
7:30 “Teletruth,” children’s quiz.
8:00 Film: “Here Comes the Circus”; “Radio City Matinee.”
8:30 “American Business on Parade,” industrial films by companies. “Tonight: Loaded For War.”
WABD Channel 5
8:00 “We’re Off.”
8:30 Film.
9:00-9:30 “Thrills and Chills” with Doug Allan.
Tie This
Reviewed Wednesday (23) [sic], 8-8:30 p.m. Style—Audience participation. Sponsor—Pulitzer neckwear. Station—WABD (DuMont), New York.
Produced as a package for Pulitzer neckwear by Bob Loewi, Tie This incorporated much merchandising know-how in a half hour of video entertainment. Format essentially is audience participation, with Bill Slater, sports commentator, interviewing men and women who subsequently engaged in a tie-tying contest. Slater's approach was super-charged with hoke, but his light treatment and facile repartee with the contestants drew plenty of laughs.
The tie-tying routine was perhaps the best scanning of the audience participation sequences. A comedy bit with two blindfolded men feeding each other was laughable nonsense, whereas a hobby-horse race with gals participating failed to click. Latter was conducted by Tiny Hill, who has been hoking at the Village Barn.
Audience participation format was varied occasionally by film sequences of sporting events. This was perhaps the show's weakest feature, and Slater, despite glibness, could not tie-in these sequences with the program. He tried to but the effort just didn't jell. Film sequence of a chariot race, for instance, was preceded by Slater's introduction of three women "participants." Slater hoked this up as much as he could, but to no good effect.
In general, however, program had plenty of laughs and okay merchandising opportunities, including tie giveaways, tie-tying contests and displays. Cutting film sequences would help. Slater is definitely plus at the emsee spot and could probably do even better if Pulitzer and Bob Loewi continue to develop the show and tighten it up—even if they can't pay Slater as much as he thinks he's worth. (Billboard, June 1)
At Home and How
Reviewed Wednesday (22), 7:30-8 p.m. Style—Service. Sustaining over WRGB (GE), Schenectady.
The American Broadcasting Company has packaged the Mystery Chef and Fran Lee, Mrs. Fixit, in one unit—with the Mrs. Fixit bridging the actual cooking or baking portion of the chefing. The Mystery Chef still talks down to his audience and his baking a coffee ring in dinner clothes without getting a spot on him will infuriate any normal housewife. Nice camera calling by Edith Kelly (GE) and skit plotting by Bobby Henry (ABC) put the viewers' eyes right in the mixing bowl when it was necessary and gave them the all-over picture, when that helped. However, chef is too unctuous and his patter too precise to get to his fem audience thru the kinescope. As long as you didn't see him thru the radio years, there was something to his recipes-giving that intrigued. It isn't there anymore.
Fran Lee is a good performer. Seldom does she louse up a show. But when she's Mrs. Fixit, she has all the finesse of a five and dime demonstrator. This evening she presented her own methods of refurbishing lamp shades—and while some of the "ideas" were practical and charming, the rest were mauve decade. Also on some of the decorative bits like paint "spattering," the camera was too far away to show any of the actual spattering. A little let-up on pressure will produce a better show. A little at-home charm would produce a better Fran Lee.
After the Mrs. Fixit's fixits, the camera swung back to the Mystery Chef, whose coffee cake had been baking while Fran Lee was redecorating. A moment further reciping—and the camera signed off.
Everything was there on At Home and How but a show, and some necessary "Gee, I'd like to know you" charm.
A little idea stuff with the camera would have helped also—atho there wasn't anything camerawise that could have been called bad. In fact it all could have been damned by “adequate.” (Billboard, June 1)
Vacation Vanities
Reviewed Wednesday (22), 8:50-9:10 p.m. Style—Fashion show. Sustaining over WRGB (GE), Schenectady, N. Y.
Altho this was a sustaining seg as far as dough was concerned, it should be tagged a commercial, for it was out to sell H. S. Barney (department store) vacation clothes for and to milady. The device, a reporter interviewing a store stylist on her return from a buying trip, seemed a bit pat, but since it got away from the straight fashion scanning and since it also avoided making the fashion pitch an elaborate richwitch affair, check it as okay.
The station's Larry Algeo played the reporter slightly lack luster and Dion Gregory made the fashionist seem styleless. However, the show held all the way thru despite the performers' less than sufficient oomph. The scanning of the modeled fashions, in many cases as tho seen thru a mirror, was swell—since it was done thru the simple device of having a camera in back of the model scan thru a mirror frame (sans glass) and then a second camera back of the frame, scan what a mirror would reflect, it was an effective technical use of video. Someone used sense and Edith Kelly, producer-director on this program, gets the credit. . . . . For using the idea and not overdoing the pic frame scanning.
Only nix on the program was the lack of close-ups of the garments being modeled and once or twice the lack of timing between continuity and modeling. This was especially noticeable in the bathing suit sequence. Add an admonition to "take it easy" and Barney's Vacation Vanities walks over to the credit side of the air pic ledger. (Billboard, June 1)
The Farm Spotlight
Reviewed Wednesday (22), 8:20-8:30 p.m. Style—Educational. Sustaining over WRGB (GE), Schenectady, N.Y.
This evening's visit from profs of the New York State College of Forestry at Syracuse University concentrated on Poison Ivy, Don't Get Rash, which was the name of the scanning. It was a self-conscious bit of professorial play-acting which, in spite of itself, did get across thru diagrams and magnified sections of the three leafed plant, just what brought about the rash department.
It was all just too, too pat, but within its narrow limits it did some teaching. The youngster, Sandra Goodsite, was, like Dr. William M. Harlowe, teleconscious and there seemed to be no good reason why Prof. Floyd E. Carlson was dragged onto the set. It was all a very cute presentation on how the educational world looks upon making education palatable.
The itch in poison ivy is universal enough not to have to be dramatized. Television is a telling medium. Educationally it should be used that way—most of the time. (Billboard, June 1)
Hedda Gabler
Reviewed Wednesday (22), 8:40-9:30 p.m. Style—Drama. Sustaining on W6XA9 [sic] (Don Lee), Hollywood.
With FCC brass in town for the L. A. tele hearings, Don Lee decided to put on a show for the visiting firemen as a practical demonstration of video progress. Vehicle selected was Ibsen's Hedda Gabler, which, altho adequately presented by a cast from Pasadena Playhouse, proved to be only mild tele. Ibsen's classic suffered from awkward translations and editing, winding up as a parlor conversational piece.
With acting and directing capably handled by the Playhouse group, Don Lee's tele producers were free to concentrate on camera work, lighting and composition. All three elements were handled with a marked degree of improvement over previous telecasts, but overall excellence was not achieved. Weakest link was camera work, with several rough spots marring an otherwise good show. For example, cameramen did practically no dollying thruout airer, relying for contrast on switchovers from long shot to medium shot. Transition effect was lost, however, when screen was dark for several seconds between switchovers, and when introduction of new scene was choppy and rough. Blame should be shared jointly by lensers and control room technicians, latter being responsible for switching between cameras.
Knowing that close-ups have been fuzzy in the past, scenes were shot almost entirely from medium distances. Dramatic effect was therefore lost during highly emotional sequences.
Lighting was adequate altho first half of show saw grotesque shadows off the back of the setting. Situation was somewhat corrected by end of seg.
On the credit side, producers introduced recorded background music near play's end, highlighting suspense, and building the climax. Also pic worth were shadows from crackling flames in fireplace cleverly done by waving branches before Kleig light.
Direction for the Playhouse was by Thomas B. Armistead, with Jack Stewart producing for Don Lee. June Lewis, playing title role, headed competent cast which included Dan Curran, Elizabeth Nikodem, Erling E. Kildahl and William Gruenberg. (Billboard, June 1)
Thursday, May 23
WCBW Channel 2
8:15 News with Bob McKee.
8:30 “Draw Me Another.”
8:45 “See What You Know,” quiz.
WNBT Channel 4
8:00-9:00 “Hour Glass,” studio variety show.
9:00 Film: Famous Fights.
WABD Channel 5
8:00 ABC program: “Let’s Play Reporter.”
8:30 Films.
9:00 “Science Looks Forward.”
Let's Play Reporter
Reviewed Thursday (23), 8-8:30 p.m. Style—Audience participation. Sustaining over WABD (DuMont), New York.
The American Broadcasting Company again tried to tele-convert a mike show for the camera—and did it not too badly. Why it did it at all is the question. If CBS hadn't scanned Right or Rewrite last week then there would have been some reason for this Frances Scott (Frankie Basch) production. It was a plushier presentation of the observation-test formula, with nothing added to the CBS air pic. Okay, it was Frances Scott's idea first and ABC had held off the presentation, but it's n. g., nevertheless, to run in second place.
Frankie, Pardon Frances, scans like a toughie and she could have been established as a star reporter before she became the city editor in the Let's Play testing.
That points up one of the faults of most quiz sessions. No one gives a good damn about the video quiz master, unless it's John Reed King.
Camera work was okay but nothing was done to make either the star or her audience stooges human.
(Billboard, June 1)
James C. Petrillo's ban on the use of live musicians in television entered the scene again last Thursday (23) night, when Charles Trenet, recent French importation now singing at the Embassy, N. Y., decided to postpone his scheduled video bow on the "Hour Glass" show, sponsored by Standard Brands over WNBT (NBC, N. Y.).
Without live musicians, singers on the show are forced to use their recordings, while they move their lips in synchronization. Trenet hasn't made any recordings since he arrived in the U. S. and decided that the pressings he'd made in France weren't suited to the variety format. Consequently, he decided to forego his video preem until sometime in the future.
Even without Trenet, however, Thursday's show was undoubtedly the best since the new series began. J. Walter Thompson production staff seems to be learning the video techniques very rapidly. Numerous acts were tied together in fine fashion by film star Helen Parrish; the Chase & Sanborn commercials were shorter and much easier to take, and the entire program progressed in rapid tempo to a satisfactory conclusion.
Bert Lahr, doing his w.k. "Woodchopper" routine to the accompaniment of three off-stage harmonicas (who aren't AFM musicians and thus aren't included in the ban) easily stole the show. Merry Macs, too, were good, providing the right video touches to the songs they've popularized via records. (Vairety, May 31)
Seems as though all a guy has to do to become an actor these days is to mix with the show biz crowd at Toots Shor's emporium. Toots himself proved this point last Thursday (23) night when he appeared as guestar on "See What You Know." quiz feature on WCBW (CBS, N. Y.). Competing for top honors along with other guestars—Margie Hart. Francis Lederer and Bennett Cerf, emcee—the affable restaurateur did a solid job of grand larceny by walking away with all acting laurels.
Of course. Miss Hart copped the Victory Bond, given as first prize. Shor, however, has always claimed that he won fame through his beauty and not his brains.
Show itself was one of the best televised by the CBS station to date. With a format similar to that of "Information, Please." the program featured the same sort of ad lib cracks that make the radio show one of the better quiz programs on the air. CBS production staff lined up some gags and gimmicks especially suited to television and Cerf kept the participants going through their paces in fine style. Franny handled the directorial reins. (Variety, May 31)
Wrestling Matches
Reviewed Thursday (23), 9-9:30 p.m. Style—Wrestling. Sustaining on W6XYZ, Hollywood.
Tonight's grunt and groaner seg walked off with the cookies. As an indication of what a home-viewer could get from sports scanning it could put nearly any ringsider on a tele-set buying spree.
Credit goes to top-notch camera work. One shot in particular was worth the whole show. This was a close-up of muscle-man pinned to the mat with the referee trying to insert his hand between the guy's shoulder and mat. Such sights, which even ringsiders miss, shows what video can mean to sports. It takes live-wire lensing to catch such shots.
Director Klaus Landsberg switched gabbers this time, replacing Dick Lane with Kieth [sic] Heatherington, and change was quite noticeable. Heatherington's easy-going style is in sharp contrast to Lane's rapid-fire word slinging. By comparison, switch was nix. In wrestling, patter is even more essential than boxing. For in the latter, viewer can see left to the jaw, right to the body action. But not all grunt and groan onlookers know a half-Nelson from scissors, and spieler should be there to call the holds. Also, wrestling, as a rule, is minus the action found in boxing. To compensate for long holds, announcer must keep pitch high by building climaxes with his voicing. In this respect, Heatherington's "let's see what they're going to do now" line failed to fill the bill. (Billboard, June 1)
CHICAGO, May 18.—An experiment to test video as an educational medium will be made next Thursday (23) by the local B&K tele station. B&K, using its Station W9XBK, will scan a discussion of biology, with 25 high school students from this territory present at the station's studios to witness the program. After the show the students will be given a written test to determine just how much of the biological information given during the program was retained in their memories. (Billboard, May 25)
Friday, May 24
WCBW Channel 2
8:15 Film: “Dangerous Secrets” with Paul Lukas. (Grand National, 1938).
WNBT Channel 4
10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Finals of the National Spelling Bee live from the National Press Club, Washington, D.C.
8:00 “In Town Today” with members of the Whitman Cup tennis team; Gen A. A. Vandergrift; winners of the Spelling Bee.
8:20 “The World in Your Home.”
8:41 “Radio City Matinee.”
9:45 Boxing from Madison Square Garden. Leo Oma vs. Jersey Joe Walcott.
WABD Channel 5
8:00 “Look Who’s Here.”
8:30 Film short.
9:00 “Angels Don’t Marry,” comedy.
Angels Don't Marry
Reviewed Friday (24), 9-9:30 p.m. Style—Comedy. Sustaining over WABD (DuMont), New York.
Preem of the Television Repertory Players—and, incidentally, their bow-out for the summer to thesp in Fairhaven, Mass., strawhat house—was only a fair opener. Despite the drum beating by Lindsay Macharrie, prior to scanning, the show turned out to be somewhat dull both photographically and dramatically. The mumming was only fair, tho the Florence Ryerson-Colin Clement script didn't call for much heavy thesping, and put a load on the shoulders of Grace Carney and David Dunston. Maude Wallace, as the hotel proprietor, came thru best.
Production, handled by Bob Leowi and directed by Tony Farras, is a slight comedy of misunderstanding between an estranged husband and wife, who meet again in a hotel room after a railroad accident. Their efforts at explanation and reconciliation become pretty drably gabby for the most part, tho both Dunston and Miss Carney work hard to juice their lines. The camera doesn't do much to help, sticking to long shots, very few close-ups and no tricks. Whole show could have done with faster pacing.
There's plenty of room for good, slick one-actors on tele at present, but they'll have to have more pep and substance than Angels before the fan mail starts rolling in. (Billboard, June 1)
ABC May 24 will launch television operations on 3-station basis by weekly program arrangement with WPTZ Philadelphia, Philco station, WABD New York, DuMont station and WRGB, General Electric in Schenectady. First presentation will be on WPTZ Friday 8-8:30 p. m. Programs will originate on WABD Tuesdays or Thursdays, on WRGB Mondays and Wednesdays, WPTZ on Fridays. (Broadcasting, May 20
Saturday, May 25
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:
“The Lady Vanishes” with Margaret Lockwood, Michael Redgrave (GB, 1938).
NEW YORK, May 25.—Switch in Standard Brands Hour Glass program skedded but quick has everyone at NBC and J. Walter Thompson coming up with different alibis. The switch will be in talent with name vaude and nitery talent being ditched for no name but "telegenic" entertainers. Ed Sobol, NBC's producer assigned to the job, believes (in print) that the fault with the Hour Glass is that the performers thus far booked have not been television. Off the record, Sobol has the feeling that the dual possibility, i.e., NBC's producer being responsible for the camera work, lighting, etc., and the agency man having the actual routining of the show and scripting as his responsibility, works against telecasting a "perfect" air pic program. Sobol also does his best work when everything is plotted in advance and his scannings indicate he's not the "ultimate" in off-the-cuff producers.
Agency men, for their part, blame the "antiquated" equipment as mitigating against good production and have plenty to say about "NBC's autocratic handling" of shows. What they can't explain away are the sock Sunday night scannings and plenty of other telecasts which have been rated AA by the reviewers. This is the first "falling apart" of NBC's program production formula, which was announced some months ago. At that time, John Royal, NBC v.-p., admitted that any production rules and regulations would have to be changed as the "art" progressed. "Yesterday's rules," he said with a smile, "may not even have been good for yesterday—unless they were tested under continuous production. (Billboard, May 25)
Sunday, May 26
WCBW Channel 2
8:15 News and analysis.
8:30“Time to Remember,” Milton Bacon and Lee Wallace Group.
8:45 “Choreotones,” dance series, repeat performance of “Mississippi.”
WNBT Channel 4
1:30 Baseball: Giants vs. Boston Braves at the Polo Grounds.
8:00 Television newsreel: Television Theater: “The Bad Man” with Beverly Roberts, Peter Capell; hymn.
GIANTS VS. BRAVES BASEBALL
Announcer: Bob Stanton
Producer: Gary Simpson
240 Mins.: Sunday (26), 1:15 p.m.
Sustaining
WNBT-NBC. N. Y.
Baseball magnates have been offering increased opposition during the last season to the idea of permitting their ball games to be televised, apparently tearing that the telecasts will take a big slice out of their gate receipts. WNBT's telecasts of the N. Y. home teams' games prove their fears to be groundless.
While viewers are given a picture of the game that's probably better than most of the fans in the stands receive, it's virtually impossible at the present developmental stage of video for a person watching the game from his home to get even a imall share of the feeling and color that's made baseball the national pastime. Telecasting the ball games, if it does anything, will probably hypo attendance at the ball parks by creating more interest in the game among those people who never knew much about it, much the same as radio has done.
NBC uses two cameras, one to cover the pitcher's box and blanket the infield and the second to cover the batter. If a ball is hit to the outfield, the first camera is switched over immediately to cover the play. System thus follows the game much as a fan would watch it from the stands. Producer Gary Simpson has his camera work down to a T. holding the pitcher in the lens until the instant the ball leaves his hands and then switching over to the batter to watch his swing. Baseball itself is too small to be picked up by the camera but the viewer nonetheless is able to follow the game with ease.
Simpson is apparently still experimenting on how best to spotlight the game's high points but his experimentation in several instances went awry. In one case, for example, with men on second and third and two out. when the batter blopped a slow one to the pitcher, Simpson kept his cameras glued to the man coming in from third, when it was obvious that the play would be at first. With the video audience limited as it is at present, however, this is the right time to experiment.
Announcer Bob Stanton again proved that he's mastered the technique of sportscasting for video. He never clutters up the airlanes with too wordy a description, letting the visual aspects of television take care of that and merely filling in the high points. During the several instances when the screen went blank because of technical difficulties, however, he was right there to dish out the radio form of a play-by-play account. Stal. (Variety, May 31)
WNBT Channel 4
8:00 Feature film: “The Crofters” (UK-Greenpark, 1945).
8:25 Film: “Bookkeeping and Accounting.”
8:35 Boxing from Madison Square Garden.
10:00 Feature Bout; Coley Welch vs. Steve Belloise.
WABD Channel 5
8:00 Wanamaker Presents—.
8:30 Feature film: “The Law of the 45's” with Big Boy Williams (Normandy, 1935).
Out to establish an early public service record, NBC television rushed a film cameraman down to Washington Saturday (25) in the midst of the two-day rail strike, to get pictures of President Truman delivering his history-making speech to Congress.
Lenser set; his camera up in the balcony of the House of Representatives, where the President addressed the joint session, and filmed the entire sequence of events. Films were then rushed back-to N. Y., developed and edited and then broadcast over WNBT, the web's N. Y. tele outlet, Monday (27) night. (Variety, May 29)
Tuesday, May 28
WABD Channel 5
8:00 “King’s Record Shop” with John Reed King.
8:30 Film:
“Murder on the Campus” with Shirley Grey and Charles Starrett (Chesterfield, 1933).
Balaban & Katz
Reviewed Tuesday (28), 7:30-9:30 p.m. Style—Variety. Sustaining and commercial on WBKB, Chicago.
This was one of the best telecasts ever caught from the local station. It had a wide variety of interesting stuff, from rumba lessons to vaude patter—and all unmarred by technique failure.
Bob Wright's Human Side of the News started the program with kaleidoscopic feature shots.
Bobby Sargent put on three caricatures in a skit called Faces in Dialects. Routine was clever, particularly Quasimodo. Yet, the total effect failed to be as funny as it would have been in a nitery.
Edalyn did a good selling job with a well-trained voice, good looks and plenty of tele savvy.
Most interesting part of the program was Lois Fisher's demonstration of how to become a cartoonist. Miss Fisher is a cartoonist for The Chicago Tribune, and showed, graphically and quickly, how to portray the basic emotions of hate, fear, love, etc. She accompanied the drawing with a brisk line of chatter which went well.
Fifteen minutes of rumba lessons followed, with a couple from Frank Morgan's dance studio performing. Idea is sound video, and this particular lesson was well -executed.
Harmonicats, with Henry Grant, made good music, including Chopin's Minute Waltz and Begin the Beguine. Grant acted as emcee and gagsters and some of his ad lobbing was fairly effective.
Last seg was a comic audience participation show conducted by Tommy Bartlett, local radio man, who does the same type of show on AM. Newer gimmicks will have to be found to make the show tele-fare week after week. (Billboard, June 8)
Hits and Bits
Reviewed Tuesday (28), 9-9:30 p.m. Style—Variety. Sustaining over W6XYZ (Paramount), Hollywood.
Tasty slice of vaude fare plus interesting camera work made tonight's Hits and Bits eye worthy. Pix personality Alan Mowbray took over emsee chores, introing Negro singer-actor Clarence Muse, telegenic Terry Twins (song and dance duo), ear-easy but not-so-telegenic thrush Dorothy Allen, Al Mardo dog act and tap dancer Ruth Jordan.
Seg proved entertaining. As variety show, it could have had more variety. Of the five participating acts, three were vocalists, leaving show weak on the belly tickling. Mowbray helped come, using gags to bridge gap between acts. Al Mardo's dog act that didn't act spurred chuckles, but scales still tipped toward the voice side.
Clarence Muse in the last slot was sock video fare. Chanting Water Boy and Sleepytime Gal, Muse leaned heavily on facial expressions to help sell the songs. Terry Twins, a fetching twosome, pleasingly paired eye-appeal with their chirping, and threw in a couple of dance steps for good measure. Dorothy Allan, whose soothing song-work is dubbed in pix for film greats, came thru well in vocal department, but profile shots didn't help hold the romantic allusion. Al Mardo's bulldog got the spotlight at first, with cameras later focusing on its master's hand-free harmonica playing. Ruth Jordan's routine toe-tap passed as filler material.
High caliber lensing which is becoming a regular thing at this outlet, hypoed show. Screen sized close-ups of Muse and Terry Twins were particularly convincing. Disolves used during scanning of Muse made for interesting montage effects. Technique, if used sparingly, can help build dramatic climax for vocalist. (Billboard, June 8)
HOLLYWOOD, June 1.—Results of recently concluded Federal Communications Commission hearings here of eight bidders for seven bands will be announced by FCC first part of August. Seven-day session which ended Tuesday (28) will be resumed June 20 in Washington before Harry M. Plotkin, commission's assistant general counsel, who presided at local hearing.
Washington wind-up sessions will be devoted to engineering phase of applications from Los Angeles Times, Howard Hughes Productions; Television Productions, Inc., and Dorothy S. Thackery. (Billboard, June 8)
LOS ANGELES, June 1.—Television Productions, Inc., will drop its bid for San Francisco video channel, thereby leaving six applicants for ditto number allocations in that city. This was revealed by TPI Prexy Paul Raibourn during closing session of last week's [28] FCC hearing here while testifying for Hollywood. outlet. Fact that Paramount Pix subsidiary bows out of Northern California means that FCC hearing, slated for mid-June at Frisco probably will not be held. ...
Remaining Frisco bids on file with FCC are: American Broadcasting Company (KGO), Don Lee (KFRC), San Francisco Chronicle, Dorothy Thackrey (KYA), Hughes Tool Company and Associated Broadcasters, Inc. (KSFO). ...
Raibourn gave as reason for fading from Frisco picture that he wants to concentrate resources on Hollywood. (Billboard, June 8)
FIVE ADDITIONAL withdrawals from the television field, bringing the total to 68, were announced last week [28] by the FCC. The dismissals left 69 pending applications.
The television boxscore at the end of the week stood: stations operating or authorized—26; applications scheduled or set for hearing—24; hearing cases awaiting decision—8.
Last week's dropouts were: The Jam Handy Organization Inc., Detroit; Sherron Metallic Corp., Huntington, N. Y.; Television Productions Inc., San Francisco, WAVE Inc., Louisville, Ky.; Radio Station WOW Inc., Omaha....
Withdrawal of WOW left Omaha without an applicant. (Broadcasting, June 3)
Wednesday, May 29
WNBT Channel 4
7:30 “Teletruth,” children’s quiz.
8:00 “American Business on Parade: Life Line of the Nation.”
8:20 “Radio City Matinee.”
9:20 Film: “Play Ball Soon.”
WABD Channel 5
8:00 “The Magic Carpet.”
8:30 Feature Film: “Three is a Family” with Marjorie Reynolds, Arthur Lake, Hattie McDaniel (UA, 1944).
9:00 “Beepstakes” with Dennis James.
The Beestakes [sic]
Reviewed Wednesday (29), 9-9:32 p.m. Style—Quiz. Sustaining over WABD (DuMont), New York.
Everything was visual about Beepstakes but the quiz, which goes to show that nobody stops to find out what the other fellow discovered years ago. The contestants (4) were seated behind futuristic autos; the mounting prize dough was indicated by a city-to-city race across the nation, shown visually on the snap, and Dennis James, the quizmaster, wore a woodsman's shirt. But the one thing that the audience in the home wants, visual questions, was entirely nil—except one droopy handle.
James oozed enough energy to wear out any viewer, and he carried the show on his back with corny humor and plenty of talking direct to the set owners, but even he couldn't make anyone believe that this was television. (Billboard, June 8)
Pulling a switch on its usual formula of building tele shows from successful radio programs, the ABC television staff inaugurates a new idea June 6 when it preems its new "Chime Time" show, sponsored by the A. E. Rittenhouse Co. Show will be aired from 8 to 8:15 p.m. for four successive Thursdays over WABD (DuMont, N. Y.) and the one that goes over best will then be adapted for a radio show.
Program will spot Jean Tighe, former Guy Lotnbardo vocalist, in a format designed to highlight the Rittenhouse door chimes. Art Rivera, tele director for the Donovan and Thomas agency, which handled the account, will direct the show, with Harvey Marlowe serving as exec producer for the web.
Another ABC tele show received a personnel change last (Tuesday) night [28] as Johnny Grant, disk jockey for WINS, N. Y. indie, replaced John Reed King as emcee on "King's Record Shop." Show will now be known as "Grant's Record Shop." King was forced to bow out because of his heavy radio schedule. (Variety, May 29)
Thursday, May 30
WCBW Channel 2
8:15 News and analysis with Bob McKee.
8:30 “Here’s Dow,” cartoon show with Dow Walling
8:45 “Consumers Quiz,” audience participation with Fred Uttal.
WNBT Channel 4
1:25-5:30 Baseball: Yankees vs. Philadelphia.
8:00-9:00 “Hour Glass,” studio variety show.
9:00 Film: Famous Fights.
WABD Channel 5
8:00 “Around the Precincts” or “Let’s Play Reporter.”
8:30 Films.
9:00 “Science Looks Forward.”
Consumers' Quiz
Reviewed Thursday (30), 8:55-9:25 p.m. Style—Quiz. Sustaining over WCBW (CBS), New York.
Fred Uttal, when he was handling this quiz, via WOR, for R. H. Macy, was slightly terrific. Before the air camera, he was just another announcer named Joe, and he sappy smiled as tho he knew it. If there is anything more deadly than picking a number of women from an audience, sans humor, and asking them each in turn a number of questions about different products, it hasn't been dug from the refuse yet.
The quizzees are asked questions about products. If they answer most of them correct and score the most points—points are given for knowledge as well as correct product info—they receive five silver dollars. The questions are of the type that every housewife should know—or, if they don't, should be happy to have answered.
Joan Barton, who handles the "authority" role, showing the product "test" facts, is okay full face but should never face the camera sidewise. However, she lends nothing to the scene-or program. Finally, since the show is supposed to be factual, it's stupid to pull a fake on it. Uttal asks one of the women for her purse to answer the query on how many things a woman carries in her purse. The purse is emptied before the camera and is obviously a plant. If it weren't, the purse owner could sue CBS for libel.
Check this as a Cledge Roberts' (producer) error. It must have seemed a good idea—on paper. (Billboard, June 8)
Friday, May 31
WCBW Channel 2
8:15 Film:
“Mill on the Floss” starring James Mason (UK-Alliance, 1936).
WNBT Channel 4
8:00 “In Town Today”: Admiral Marc A. Mitscher, guest.
8:15 “The World in Your Home.”
8:26 “Radio City Matinee.”
9:26 “Cavalcade of Sports.”
10:00 Boxing from Madison Square Garden. Beau Jack vs. Johnny Greco.
WABD Channel 5
8:00 “Look Who’s Here.”
8:30 Film short.
9:00 Film:
“Cow-boy Holiday” with Big Boy Williams (1934).
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