Evening star., 1951-02-04

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and their programs are programs
the sponsors will pay for. Sup
porting an unsponsored symphony
orchestra as public service calls
for a comfortable bank balance
the television broadcasters hope
some day to have.
There is another difficulty.
Symphonic music is not enhanced
by the addition of visual quail
ties. It is not any better because
you can watch the orchestra and
anything else offered to keep the
eye as we'll as the ear busy may
easily prove distracting. Walt
Disney's pictorial version of
Beethoven's Pastoral" symphony
in Fantasia" for instance. and
some of Massine's symphonic bal
lets are not every ones interpreta-
ton Of the music.
Vienno Philharmonic
To Be q Friday Regular i
Walter Compton, general man
ager Of WTTG. thinks. however,
that a good portion of the tele-
vision audience will welcome
classical music. With the aid of
pair Of sponsors who also hope
there are some admirers of good
music among that half of the
Washington families owning tele-
vision receivers, WTTG is adding
the Vienna Philharmonic to its
program schedule. The orchestra
will be seen and heard, via film,
every Friday at pm. for at least
13 weeks.
The competition at this hour
might be called stiff but not
formidable. Mama" is hard
show for many viewers to pass up.
but it won't be too difficult for
music lovers to forgo THE Quiz
Kids" and Twenty Questions in
favor of the orchestra.
With justifiable pride. the
WTTG management held a pre-
view of the first program in the
series last week at the studio.
Monday noon is not the most ideal
hour in the week to bring a man
face-to-face with q symphony or
chestra, but this one still sounded
fine in the. first movement of
Schubert's Unfinished SYM
phony." Mozart's "Serenade No. 6
in D Major" and the first move
ment Of Beethovens Fifth Sym
phony."
The films were made especially
for television in Vienna and Salz-
burg and are postwar. Producer
Eugen Sharin has fallen for an
occasional pictorial trick Of the
sort which irritates devotees. but
for the most part the camera work
Is good. 1t is good enough, at least
in the case Of these first three
films. that you will not be made
especially conscious of 1t, which
Is the goal in this sort of thing
Skillful editing has geared the
rhythm Of the visual images to
the rhythm Of the music. too.
Your attention is not diverted
from a sweeping musical passage.
for instance. by Jumping. nerv-
Gus camera.
II this series Is successful COM
mercially, 1t may be the cue for
television to step in and adopt
the symphony orchestras and
their listeners, both of whom have
been pushed around a bit this
season by the radio networks.
Public Service Phrase
Prompts an Examination
Television, for that matter,
already has been given a cue to
examine all of its offerings, in
the FCC's announcement of al
public conference on the content
Of TV programs. Regulation of
program content actually is not
the FCC's job, as Chairman
Wayne Coy has been quoted more
than once as pointing out. Some
one is going to have to do some
thing, however, if the telecasters
don't yield on their own to the
complaints of their viewers.
Almost year ago Mr.. Coy
warned the industry that protests
were piling up and that house
cleaning was in order lest some
drastic Government action be-
come necessary. The FEC is not,
OF course. a censor body, but it is
charged with licensing radio and
television broadcasters to operate
lin the public interest"
It does not take loose defini-
ton of the term to find some
things on television which are not
precisely in the public interest.
Mystery and horror dramas are
shown too early in the evening.
Elderly crime movies turn up at