Evening star., 1951-11-04
On the Air


grandchildren some day that he
was one of televisions first au-
thentic drama stars. AS in the
movies, the producer can only
nominate stars; it's the audience
which elects them to their posi-
Itions of eminence.
CHS. for example, brought the
lstar system to TV drama by sign
ing Mary Sinclair and Maria Riva
to what it called starring con-
tracts. At this point Miss Riva,
no matter what the contracts say,
probably is more star than Miss
lSinclair, in that the announce
lment of her name might cause
some channel-selector knobs to be
turned in her direction.
Mr.. Thor now seems to be win
ming some favor with the home
viewers, without any one pushing
them very hard his way He is
the man who plays the leading
roles in the filmed dramas on
Foreign Intrigue" (WNBW-
Thursday, 1890 p.mD and who,
along with Writer Producer Shell
don Reynolds, is largely responsible
for the quality of the series.
He is no glamour boy, but he
apparently has some acting talent
and he plays a newspaperman at
large in Europe today with great
deal of authenticity.
1t is Mr.. Thor's hope that his
TV success will lead to screen star
dom, which would give him the
distinction of travelling one Of the
longest routes yet between Brook
Ilyn and Hollywood. by way of
Sweden, that is. Brooklyn is where
he was born and Sweden is where
Mr.. Reynolds is filming the For
Ieign Intrigue" dramas.
Between Brooklyn and Sweden,
Mr.. Thor spent a great deal of
time on the New York stage. He
had his first role at the age of 18
and has been in some Is plays,
among them Last Round,
George Washington Slept Here" "
my Sister Eileen" He Who Gets
Slapped, mo Way Out" THE
First Legion" Golden Boy" and
Miss Julia"
The two Writer -Producer-Di-
rector Reynolds and Actor Thor
first got together in television last
season as writer and star of some
of the shows on the CBS-TV Dan
ger" series. Viewers ought to be
just as happy if Hollywood never
notices either of them and they
! Just go on together Frightening
their little corner of television.
| X x X
Color Television
Is Still on the Scene
There still are two schools of
thought in the color matter. At
least two. One faction thinks that
CHS. faced with public apathy to-
ward its color receivers, was happy
to run for the nearest exit when
Defense Mobilization Administra-
tor Charles E. Wilson pointed the
way. There was no other reason,
Iadherents to this view feel, for
CHS to stop it's color telecasts so
suddenly when asked to hold up
on mass production of color re-
Iceivers.
The other faction contends that
CHS officials are beginning to feel
that their move was a little haSty.
They could wish that they had
kept color on the air only to keep
people from thinking they were
ready to give up on the CHS nom
compatible color system.
At any rate. every one in the
business seems happy with the
manner in which Mr.. Wilson han
died the whole matter. AS things
now stand there apparently will
be some limited production of color
TV receivers and research will
continue. Science. industry and
medicine already have put color
television to good use and un-I
doubtedly will expand their use
Of it.
The color Tv affair came to
Mr.. Wilson's attention. inciden-
tally, when CHS requested
materials for 250,OO0 receivers,
including materials for fractional
horsepower motors. which are on
the highly critical list. Since only
the CHS system needs fractional
horsepower motors to spin those
color discs, this leaves other en-
,trantS in the field in a better
position.
Paramount Pictures. which owns
half interest in the Lawrence
Chromatic tube recently demon
strated, is in the best position of
all, apparently. The Defense
Mobilization feeling about the
matter now seems to be that it
doesn't care what ultimate use
is made of materials allotted to-
TV production, but nobody is to-
have an allotment increased.