Evening star., 1950-12-20
Ion the Air
|GremIins Get
| In Way Of
Perfection
By Horry Macarthur

4I4C SIClIllII1o Wl1ACIl uSCQ W
ride the bombers to Berlin and
back have not gone into retire.
ment. Some of them, at least,
have found postwar careers in the
thriving young television industry.
They are making things tough
therein for those people who keep
saying that all television will have
to be on film before it achieves
anything near perfection.
Several recent events - they
couldn't be anything but the work
of gremlins-prove conclusively
that putting it on film is no guar
antee of perfection.
Take the case, for example. of
Truth or Consequences" tWTOP-
TV-Thursday, 10 p.m). The
filmed show you see Ralph Ed
wards do tomorrow night will not
be the one you were supposed to
see tomorrow night. The program
you were supposed to see-one Of
the most expensive "T. or c."
productions of the year, especially
dedicated to Christmas-was tele-
cast last week. Somebody sent
the wrong can of film to New
York. Somebody's head is hang
ing in shame if it hasn't been
Topped off.
Then there is the sad thing
that happened on a recent tele-
cast of Sing 1t Again" (WTOP-
TV-Saturday, 10 p.mo. Sing
It" paused at one point for a
commercial of it's deodorant spon-
sor. If the sponsor was watching
he received rude shock when
the filmed sales message flashed
out in praise of his biggest COM
petitor.
Come to think Of it, this latter
one must have been the work
of a fiflnella, the female of the
gremlin species. A male might
think of switching the CONNER
cials, but it would take a woman
to think of the refinement of
throwing his stiffest competition
in sponsors teeth.
Faye Emerson is switching net
works-moving to ABC-TV-for a
new television show Con f1lm) i,
starting Christmas night. The
move won't be readily apparent to
Washington viewers, however, since
she will continue to be seen here
via WTOP-TV. The time Mon
day, Wednesday and Friday at
7:15 PM already is occupied on
WMAL-TV, the ABC outlet, by a
local sponsored program-Jim Glib
bons' Sports Reel"
(There is no truth to the rumor
that Mr.. Gibbons is laying in a
supply of V-neck sports shirts to
meet this new competition)
Programs and People: A tele-
version of MY Friend Irma" is be-
ing readied and may bring Marie
Wilson to TV in the near future.
Same goes for THE Great
Gildersleeve," but nothing con-
crete is expected until after the
first of the year. Ruth
Cranes Modern Woman on Tele-
vision" (WMAL TV - Monday
through Friday, 3 p.mJ has been
selected by the American Automo-
bile Association as the place to
make it's weekly Courtesy Award" "
It's a Wednesday feature on the
program. Du Mont's Cap
tain video" (WTTG Monday
through Friday, Z PM is the
first program to reverse the usual
relationship between movies and
television. 1t is to be made into a
film serial by Columbia Pictures.
And Hopalong Cassidy is be-
ing further immortalized in song.
Margaret Whiting has recorded
the ditty, a lullaby entitled. Hop
py, Topper and Me-"
II
Twisted Tongue Department:
Dennis James recently was telling
his Du Mont audience how H. v.
Kaltenborn's son Rolf helped him
with the preparation of Fifty
Fabulous Years. :" AS H. v. spoke, +"
he said, "Rolf took the words
down on a tape measure and that's
quite novel,"
More novel than if he'd merely