Evening star., 1951-09-10
On the Air
Yes, Indeed,
1t Truly Was
Historic
By Harry Macarthur

] The televiSion people, some
viewers have contended, became
so awed with the fact that the
coast-to-coast telecast OF the jap
anese peace treaty conference was
history ry-in-the-making that they
kept pointing out to the audience
this obvious fact. The commen-
tators apparently got in the way
of the event now and then.
This viewers only personal ex-
'Iperience with the treaty session
'Itelecasts occurred Friday, when
1.-THE night session came on unex-
pectedly at II o'clock. There was
one of those lapses, all right.
shortly after Gromyko walked out
and right back in again.
At the time Of the Soviet dele
gates return to his seat, Bob
McC Cormick suggested that Polish
Delegate Manfred Lacks had fol-
lowed Gromyko to the corridor
and and asked him to return SO
that Lacks could stay and make q
scheduled 30-minute speech.
Great Britain's Kenneth Young
er was speaking at the time, with
Lacks scheduled to follow. Mr.
Younger concluded his speech and
there was a pause for a station
break. The viewers were remind
ed that they were watching his
tory-in- making, WNBW iden-
titled itself. asked everybody to
join the Marines Cor Army or
Navy or WAC or something). ad-
vised everybody to watch Sid
Caesar the next night, finally got
back to San Francisco.
BY this time John Foster Dulles
was making the concluding talk
Of the night. What happened
to the Communist satellite dele
gate or what prompted him 20
decide against getting one more
bit of double talk into the rec
ord remained unexplained.
Any lapses Of this sort did not,
Of course, keep the treaty con-
ference telecasts from being the
most exciting sort of television.
This was indeed, as people kept
saying, history-in- -the-making. It
was a decided thrill to sit there
in the living room and have the
range Of your vision and hearing
increased to 5000 miles.
It is at such times as this that
television'S great promise for the
future shows though. Television
will not find its finest moments
in Milton Berle-or even in Jim
my Durante-though theirs and
other sponsors may support It.
Television'S neatest trick is its
eradicating Of space by spanning
! it at 10000 miles-per-second.
| Television' takes you to San
Francisco, not as a jet plane might
in a few hours and not as a
rocket of the future may in 20
minutes, but right now. And
that's exciting.
Televiewing-That same Friday
night brought viewers "the first
attempt to adapt the March of
Time radio style to the TV me-
dium" in 'Your Stake in Japan"
(WMAL-TV and WTOP-Tv). IT
was a well-constructed and in
many ways dramatic documentary
1t left some suspicion. however,
that there wasn't as much here
after all as might have been sug-
geSted by the programs air of
great Importance, its implication
that it was handing down the final
word. 1t was impressive, with its
drama written around a postwar
japanese family, its newsreel clips,
its excerpts from a December.
1941 speech Of President Roose-
velt, its interview with Japanese
Premier Shigera Yoshida and its
remarks by Winston Churchill.
1t was impressive, all right. but
when it was concluded it seemed
only to have made the fairly obvl-
GUS point that there are some
Japanese who like their new
democracy, some remaining disci-
Piles of the war lords and some
Communists there and what hap
pens in Japan will have some ef-
feet on you.
The most impressive moment Of
Your Stake in Japan" actually |
was the interview with Premier
Yoshida, when it developed that
Time has a man who can speak
the language whenever it becomes
necessary to interview japanese.
Programs and PeOpIe-Herb
Shriner, the summer sub for Ar
thur Godfrey on Talent Scouts,
will have his own show on ABC-Tv
later on this season. Starting Oc-
tober IL he will be seen on Thurs
days at 8, in place of Don Am
eche'S Musical Playhouse" =.
NBC-TV is getting into shape the
new nighttime show which prom
lses competition to Arthur God
frey's midweek show. This would
be the "Kate Smith Evening
Hour" due to move into the We'd
nesday at 8 hour on September
19. Paul Lucas and William Ben
dix are set as guests on the open
er Treaty Telecast POST
script: George Mathiesen, general
engineering supervisor for Chs
TVS KPIX in San Francisco, was
the man who drove the golden
spike" last Tuesday night by max
ing the connection which put |
transcontinental television on the |
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