Evening star., 1951-08-12
On the Air
on the AR
Heritage Was UnheroIded,
But q Genuine TVMiIestone
By Harry Macarthur

By Harry
There is something akin to
pride of ownership in the con-
temptation today of this program
called Heritage" (WNBW -
Wednesday, 8 8pmD. This is down.
right presumptious, of course, on
the part of a man whose only
contribution to the show was a
word Of encouragement, but the
feeling still is there. Maybe it's
pride in the thoroughgoing way
the home team has shown up
those New York city slickers.
This series Of televised visits to
the National Gallery of Art has
turned out to be one Of the more
satisfying achievements Of Wash
ington television.
Milestones usually are we'll her
aided in the TV field. A milestone
in television is anything that
never happened before this. The
press agents are adept at whipping
up official enthusiasm and self
conscious awe over anything from
the first telecast of a shad-boning
contest to the first televising of a
girl in a high-necked dress.
Any first" will do. Whatever
it is, if it hasn't happened be-
fore it is a milestone in the his
tory of television.
The chroniclers Of video history
seem to have slipped up in the
case of Heritage" however. This
was announced circumspectly be-
forehand, but otherwise was un-
heralded. There was, at any rate,
no attempt to make it seem in
advance a television event COM
parable in Importance to the dis
covery of cathode rays or the in
vention of Faye Emerson.
Yet the launching Of "Heri-
tage" on the NBC-TV network
was a true television milestone, on
more than one count.
LocoI ToIent Shows
1t Con Produce
Planned as seven-program
summer replacement with five
more shows to go), Heritage" is
network television's first regularly
symphonic series. Other
symphonies have preceded the
National Gallery Orchestra, to be
sure. NBC-TV has carried some
Toscanini concerts and some out
door orchestra programs, other
concerts have been televised here
and there and there have been
series of symphony programs via
Aim.
Unless the memory is drawing
a blank, though, Richard Bales
and the National Gallery Orches-
ira are taking part, even if it is
only for summer, in the first live
television symphony series.
More significant, perhaps. is the
demonstration in Heritage" that
local television talent can produce
an entertainment that can stand
in equality alongside shows pro-
dnced in New York and Hollywood.
1t is. in fact, superior to a number
of the products of those centers
of culture and is an ambassador
from Washington to the rest of
the country we can look on with
pride.
Washington, as you probably
have noticed, has not been re-
garded by the networks as much
Of an entertainment source. Tele-
creative and technical
workers here have been allowed to
stage interviews with congressman
and panel shows and to tslevi/e
the President and that is about
all.
Whether the success of Her
itage" changes this or not, it at
least has shown that a change
could me made. The rest of the
towns television workers, at
WNBW and elsewhere, are as
happy as Producer Ralph Burgin,
Director Joe Browne and others of
the Heritage" staff, over the way
The program has been received.
TV Will Be Better
For Two Way Exchange
This success has some signifi- /
cance for television as a whole as |
we'll as for Washington TV. It
points in one of the directions I
;elevision will have to turn if it
S ever to be anything more in our
ives than a nickelodeon in the
3arlor.
This can be a wondrous instru-
nent indeed for the interchange
If culture and this does not mean
hat We have to lynch Milton
3erle Or abolish the Roller Derby.
It means that each section of the
country can contribute something