Evening star., 1951-05-13
On the Air
ION the AIT
Red Shelton Spends His Time
PREPARING for TV in October
By Harry Macarthur

'by norry \
Red Shelton hopes to do for
television what Charlie Chaplin
did for the silent movies. Many
of his admirers think he might
do just that. too, among them
Gene Fowler. now busy with the
writing of the comics life story.
He thinks Shelton probably is
the greatest visual comic since
Chaplin.
The Shelton admirers. well
aware that he is a vastly funnier
man when seen as well as heard.
have been contending for some
time that television is a medium
made for him. Shelton. they have
kept saying, will be nothing short
of a sensation on TV.
This enthusiasm for bringing
together Shelton and television
has not been shared. however, by
M-G-M, which likes to keep its
stars to itself and it's own cam
eras. Recently the studio gave in.
though, and the comic will make
his TV debut in october in a
weekly program to be seen on
NBC-TV on Sunday nights at 10.
He is not taking the move
to the new medium lightly, it was
discovered by Jack Quigg, Associa-
ted Press feature writer in Holly
wood. Mr.. Quigg found Shelton
in his Bel Air backyard the
other day, wearing outlandish
costumes and scampering through
comedy routines, followed by men
with movie cameras.
The television debut may be
five months away, but the comic
is already devoting every spare
moment to preparation for it. He
has a seven-year contract which
will bring him between SO million
and $40 million and he appar-
emily is bent upon giving the
sponsor its moneys worth.
In the backyard sessions Skel-
ton is testing costumes, makeup,
gags and routines. He is working
into shape television versions of
the familiar Shelton radio char
acters-Junior, Dead-Eye, Cauli-
flower McPug and the others. The
hired crew follows his every move
with the cameras, processes the
film quickly and that night he
runs it off, making careful notes
on what he did right and wrong
that afternoon.
The format of the Shelton tele-
vision program is fairly well set.
Each half-hour show will have a
plot line and will have the come
dian playing several roles. sup
ported by members of his present
radio cast. The shows will be
filmed in Hollywood.
There has been some evidence
presented that less thought and
preparation preceded some tele-
vision debuts this season. Skel-
ton should at least be ready for
TV by October, whether or not
he does for it what Chaplin did
for silent movies.
Public Service
Will Poy on TV
Television already seems to have
broken down an old radio concept.
In radio a sponsored program has
been q commercial one and a.
sustaining show has automatically
been public service broadcast.
1t is hardly realistic approach,
since everything on the air is
supposed to be in the public in
terest, anyhow, and it is good to
see television setting a new prec-
edent.
The pooled telecaSts of the Ke-
fauver committee hearings and
of the various welcomes to Gen.
Macarthur paved the way. Seek
ing a way to meet the audience
demand for this history the
making programming without 60
ing any further into the red than
necessary, the TV stations and
networks lined up sponsors for
these public service broadcasts.
Nobody complained and the pat
tern seems to be set.
The necessity for following
some such plan as this was
touched on by Chris j. Whiting,
general manager of the Du Mont
network, the other day at the
Ohio State Institute of Radio and
Television. Teleyision, he said,
can best serve the public interest:
BY programming with a social
consciousness and an appreciation
of the fact that the new medium
broadens the scope Of communi-
cations beyond any other now
available:
BY providing the medium with
a maximum number of program
services so as to assure the vieW-
ing public a multiple choice of
top-quality programs (Which
means no two-network monopoly
BY perfecting means of under
writing the cost of public service
programming ng-preferably through
commercial televiSion.
The audience attracted by the
Kefauver committee hearings and
by Gen. Macarthur, he said. is
evidence Of Nationwide insist-l