Evening star., 1950-11-19
I e|evision-Rodio
Du Mont Hos q Party to Celebrate
A TV Program Without q Sponsor
BY Harry Macarthur

There was a press luncheon
here during the week. Some peopl
from a television network gath
cred some newspaper peopl
around. fed them into a receptiv
state. talked about a TV program
to them, then showed them !,
sample Of 1t by way of a film
recording.
Now there is no great novelt,
in all this. The novelty lies in tn,
fact that this festivity was no
underwritten by a wealthy spon.
sor out of his excess profits. Il
was Du Mont's and WTTG's way
of spreading the word about 8
show which doesn't have a spon-
Sor and probably never will-"Tht
Johns Hopkins Science Review"
The Johns Hopkins show ISM
new-this is. in fact. its fourth
season on the air-but 1t Is new
as a Du Mont network feature OF
five stations every Tuesday night
at $3.50. AS an answer to (ol
relief from Milton Berle, Du Mon
has something here which make.
television look good.
The program was conceived BY
Lynn Poole, public relations di-
rector of Johns Hopkins Univer-
sity. and started on a Baltimore
station in 1948. There was some
early reluctance on the part OF
some Hopkins scientists to be
overcome and Mr.. Poole remem-
bers that he made something OF
nuisance Of himself around
early television studios by poking
his nose into every phase of the
operation to learn all he could
about the medium.
He saw the potentialities of
television early. however, and
nothing stopped him until he
made a reality of his program de-
signed to give laymen an under
standable view of all phases OF
modern science.
'TeIevision Was All New,
Not New Kind Of Radio
, In developing THE Johns Hop
kins Science Review" Mr.. Poole
has proved in at least one case
what many have insisted-that
television would have been a lot
better off If it had not sprung
from radio and been guided by q
lot of radio thinking. This was
all new to Mr.. Poole. He saw TV.
not as an extension of broadcast
ing, but as medium of spread
ing enlightenment by combina-
ton of sight and sound.
His study of television resulted
not only in making his pet pro-
gram entertaining as well as in
formative. Last February a book
by Mr.. Poole. Science via Tele-
was published and turned
out to be a clear and concise
guide to the production of any
television program-Science. race
result reporting or department
store peddling.
A half remembered sentence
for a long ago text book-probabiy
freshman chemistry-had some
thing to do with the fact that
some people took streetcars for
granted and others wondered
what made the wheels go round.
Mr.. Poole, knowing he didn't have
to worry about attracting those
who wanted to know why the
wheels moved in any scientific
field, went after the others with
sound first premise.
AS he put it at that luncheon
"TeleviSion is an entertainment
medium. If you are going to be
In it and compete with other
you have to entertain.
I'VE have several rules which
we try to follow all the time.
Sometimes, like all rules, they are
broken, of course, but we keep
them in mind always.
THE first of these is: Never
talk about something you can't
show before the camera" Among
the things he has shown his
Johns Hopkins Science Review"
are, taken at random,
the sight of human heart beat
ing, seen through a Horoscope;
a view of the earth as 1t looks
from 10 miles in the air, and a
microscopic look at the organisms
living in impure water.
These and the other things