Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1951-03-25
Kefauver Committee
TeIecasEs Astounding
To Industry Observers
Associoted Press Sfoff Writer

Associated Press Sioff Writer
NEW YORK, Mar. 24.-Some-
thing big, unbelievably big AND
emphatic, smashed into the homes
of millions of Americans last week
when television cameras, cold
eyed and relentless, were trained
on the Kefauver Crime Committee
hearings.
Nothing quite like it had ever
happened in this country or any
other.
What did happen? Why? And
what's coming next?
A great many people-Con-
gressmen. educators. lawyers. poll
ticians, businessmen, sociologists
and certainly enthusiastically
have been confronted with a fact
not fully understood before. TIC
some it is threat, to others a
more powerful weapon than any
one could have realized. Ever
the television industry itself is
doing some heavy re-assessing.
Obviously, the giant didn't
know his own strength.
Actually, the size of the au-
dience was the least astonishing
fact about the case. 1t was esti-
mated at nearly 100000 at the
peaks. This depressed retail sales
in New York by % per cent. ne
cessitated extra generators to
handle the bigger electrical load.
and contributed to asbsenteeism
in the factories.
Cost $4,000 A Day.
The presentation cost the in
dustry $4,000 a day, a TV ex-
ecutive estimated. 1t was flashed
to 81 widely separated cities and
into thousands of reachable su-
UulUdl dIcdS.
Gigantic, yes, but the dimen-
sions were not the most striking
phase of the case. Millions had
been attracted to their screens for
baseball and boxing, the national
political conventions, and the
wedding of the Weep"
But there was this great differ
ence:
Those events took place in the
afternoon or evening, after most
of the days work was done. They
did not paralyze action from
morning until night. In this case
the vacuum cleaner audience
at home from 9 until noon-shot
upward nearly 19-fold. In mid
morning, on one of the days,
ratings fixed the number watching
in the New York area alone at
million. Veteran radio and TV men
were left dazed and gasping.
Along with this, newspaper cir
culation felt no SHINING effects.
It went up.
The New York Mirror" re-
ported 10000 extra sales. Other
New York dailies reported in
creases. The Newark News saw no
change in circulation. but Man.
aging Editor Felmly said the
reader interest is fantastic"
Teachers Are Amazed.
What were the effects, on school
children, of the Kefauver telecast?
Teachers said they were as
founded" by the reaction among
high school and junior high school
students. In some schools, whole
hours were devoted to discussing
the hearings. A teacher quoted
boy as saying:
Il got the idea that you'd bet
ter obey the law"
What impressed most. educa-
tors reported. was the orderly pro-
cedure in the hearings. From
the movies, they had the idea that
there was a lot of excitement, at
torneys yelling at witnesses, and
all sorts of nonsense. They seemed
to have acquired a new respect
for law and order from seeing
this"
And thas hearings had another
marked effect, teachers said, hav-
ing had a good deal of interest,
themselves, in the crime hearings.
Practically nobody was kept
after school last week.