Evening star., 1951-08-02
| On the Air
| Real Estate
Also Feels
TV Effect
Rx Harry Macarthur

tIlc dSC 11ltOltCS dig. SC11.
David Sarnoff and his television
set.
Gen. Sarnoff is. as you hardly
need to be told, chairman Of the
board of the Radio Corporation
Of America. an industrial colossus
of radio and television. Among
other things. RCA spends more
money after lunch than you earn
in year on research on the
frontiers of electronic science. Its
engineers have had a great deal
to do with the development of all
the various machines which bring
entertainment into your living
room.
None of the engineers has, or
at least until recently none had,
been able to do much about Gen.
Sarnoff'S living room, however.
The general has been having an
awful, time, according to talk in
the trade, getting television set
to work properly in his Manhattan
home. All those high buildings,
you know.
Gen. Sarnoff. of course, is not
alone in this problem. It is be-
coming apparent that another of
the far-reaching and unforeseen
affects of television may be on
real estate values.
+ 4 X 4
The very high frequency radio
waves which television uses do
not follow the curvature of the
earth as those of regular broad
casting do, but instead travel in
a line-of-sight path. They also
bounce off of things. which is
fine if you're using them for radar
but unfortunate if there is a solid
and Sizable obstacle between you
and a television station.
The location of a city's tele-
vision transmitters may, in the
future, have a lot of bearing on
the directions of its growth.
The problem already has be-
come serious in Hollywood and Is
beginning to affect property values,
according to Howard c. Heyn, Of
the Associated Press. The movie
stars like their television, even
though it is mentioned only in
whispers in many Hollywood cir
cleS, and they prefer to live where
they. can get TV, which isn't
everywhere in the Los Angeles
area.
Telecasts from all but one Of
Los Angeles seven television sta
tionS emanate from atop Mount
Wilson, which pokes more than a
mile into the air east of Holly
wood. This would be an ideal
location for TV, except that there
are a lot of hills and valleys in
the movie capital. Unless you can
see Mount Wilson from your roof
top out there, you don't get much
television.
There's none of it at all in
the lush stellar residences in the
canyons north of Beverly Hills
and Westwood. At Malibu, the
seaside colony. San Diego TV
comes in better than the home
town brand. Many a movie town
dwelling. Mr.. Heyn reports, is 60
ing Begging because there's some
thing between it and Mount Will
son to divert the television waves.
The TV situation out there is
responsible, incidentally, for those
studio bans on television appear
ances by film stars, according to
legend. Louis B. Mayer, who then
was head Of M-G-M, bought a
fancy $4,000 TV receiver, the leg
end goes, and then couldn't get
any pictures on it. His chauffeur
insured his job for life when he
proved to be the man who could
Subdue the electronic monster and
get television programs for Mr..
Mayer.
The reception still left great
deal to be desired, however, and
Mr.. Mayer clamped that TV ban
on Metros stars. He didn't want
all his expensive glamor girls
turned into jiggling horrors.
X 4 \ +
Too LateI The mail contains a
pair of queries about Jeanne
Warner, but it's too late to answer
the first because of the answer to
the second.
why don't they CWNBW) ;"
writes H. S. in a complaint about
the number of times the same
movie turns up in the living room,
put Jeanne Warner on and let
her do few songs?" The reason
they don't is that Jeanne doesn't
live here any more, a state of af-
fairs which is not regarded very
highly by w. r. Cobb.
will you please tell me why
Jeanne Warner is leaving TYP"
demands Reader Cobb, somehow
seeming to hint that there must
be dark plot against this girl.
There's nothing of the sort. Miss
Warner has left Washington TV
for an excellent reason. In addi-
tion to being bright decoration
on television, Miss Warner is
Mrs. William w. Harvey, jr., a
practicing housewife. Her hus-
band, 1t. Col. Harvey, was ordered
to Leavenworth and Miss Warner
thought the thing for Mrs. Har-
vey to do was to go along.
Programs and People: WTOP-
TV will present a revanped half
hour news period at $3.50 nightly,
starting next Monday. Louis AL
lens weather report will be on
from $50 to 6::35, followed by Jim
Simpson and 'Today's Sports, ~
which in turn will be followed at
GAS by "The News Today With
Walter Cronkite. Two nearby
Virginia schoolteachers who live
in Washington, Grace Pence and
eHildred Barker. were Break the
Bank" winners Monday. A
moderately reliable report has ii
that a flea circus will debut soon
on Du Mont. TeleviSion going tt
tho dnoc a1poo ~, ~,na.,L~n