Evening star., 1950-01-22
News of Video and Radio
Robert Montgomery Turns His Talents
to Drama on Television
By Harry Macarthur

Apart from some occasional at
tempts to convince itself that it
Is destined to become the center
OF the Nations television activity,
Hollywood so far has taken g.
rather dim view of the new enter
tainment art. Movie producers
see in every new TV receiver
new stack of unsold theater ad-
mission tickets. Film stars, who
see the major video shows on
kinescope, which is less than per-
feet, tell each other that this will
never win their audiences away
from them and they would be
smart to leave it alone. Those
who come East often change their
minds suddenly.
The solid front the movie COM
panies have maintained against
television seems to be giving away,
however. The ambassador who
has arranged the armistice be-
tween the two competitors for
your entertainment time is Rob-
ert Montgomery, one of the sagest
operators in the cinema field,
both as actor and director. Mr..
Montgomery has not abandoned
the movies completely-there is
always summer hiatus for film
making-but last week he did
sign a pact which will make him
a full-time television craftsman.
AS an executive producer on the
NBC-TV staff, Mr., Montgomery
will head the production unit
which will concern. itself with
new hour-long dramatic show, to
be presented bi-weekly for the
present. The scripts will be tele-
vision adaptations of hit motion
pictures and the leading players
will be name stars of stage and
screen. Mr.. Montgomery will
produce, narrate and occasionally
act in the video plays.
The initial program, on Janu-
ary 80, at $50 pm. probably will
present Madeleine Carroll in THE
Letter." adapted from the Bette
Davis picture. Mr. Montgomery
is busy now with, among other
things, lining up additional screen
properties for video translation.
This new project offers posi-
bilitieS that Mr. Montgomery is
just the type to find interesting.
Not the least of these, is the
chance he will have to pit his
story telling skill against that of
some able men who already have
told the same stories in pic
lures.
Hollywood. for the time being
will not have an opportunity to
see what Mr.. Montgomery does
in Transforming it's products,
however. The new show will go
only where it can be carried Give"
There will be no kinescoping.
Mr.. Montgomery ought to be a.
good man for television to have
around.
You must never say that WWDC
Is not doing its best for you.
Through its FIN affiliate, it gives
you radio in the buses so you
can go to work or some place
instead of staying home listening
to disc jockeys. Now it is going
to give you bingo so you will
not have to go out in the cold
to bingo games and will not have
to ride those buses with that
blasted radio. You might even
say that WWDC is out to get you
coming and going.
This bingo is not called bingo,
maybe because a bingo by any
other name won't smell like a
lottery. This is called "Tune-O"
and it will be played twice daily
on WWDC, at $50 am. and u
pm, with prizes every program
and an automobile given away
every 13 weeks or so. The first
week, starting tomorrow, will be
a dry run with no prizes, for
instruction of listeners. An old
bingo hand shouldn't have any
trouble with the rules, but this
Is no place to go into them.
"Tune-O" will be on AM only,
incidentally, so that's one thing
us bus riders won't have to con-
tend with.