Evening star., 1951-09-19
On the Air
Fight Fans
Won't Stuy
| For Films
By Harry MocArthu.

,her entertainment by electronicS
'ather than by celluloid. The voice
S that of Film Daily, a trade
paper now up to Vol. 100, No. 54
n SO years of reporting on the
movie industry.
The theater owners rushing pell
nell into theater TV might be
wise to pause and take stock. Film
Daily thinks. A recent front page
editorial explains it this way:
This being the motion picture
industry, the most significant fact,
surely, to be found in the reports
from those IL cities where Ii
theaters presented telecasts of the
Robinson Turpin worlds cham
fight last week concerns
the audience interest in the ac-
companying film programs.
"It was. being brutally frank
about it. just about nil.
Indeed, one theater which had
planned to follow the fight tele-
cast with the conventional film
program cancelled the latter when
the entire audience filed out. In
other instances. according to the
field reports. not more than so to
100 patrons manifested any in
terest in the following film pro-
gram.
In short. the IA houses which
utilized their large-screen TV
were for that particular night not
motion picture theaters, but Sc
many sports arenas"
Film Daily just wants the the
ater owners to make sure before
they go too far that they are
to ALLEVIATE their regular
(maybe even driving
them home to television) in favor
of an occasional set of fight fans
who won't have any truck with
the movie.
Premiere-"John Kieran'S Ka-
leidoscope." new filmed TV
series which has the old "Infor-
nation Please" master-mind and
nature authority as narrator
will start tonight at GAS or
WMAL-TV. The program, ac-
cording to the advance word, is
written as we'll as narrated by
Kieran and will cover everything
and anything connected with ma
ture, and wild life, from grubs tc
graphite"
TV for Export-NBC-TV has
presented the first kinescope film
of a television program to the
Armed Forces Television Film Re-
cording Selection Group, which
will see that 1t is distributed fol
showing to American servicemer
overseas. This was a print of the
Assignment Manhunt" program
Of August 4 and it was followed
closely by so film recordings oi
three separate Assignment Man.
hunt" shows.
The kinescope recordings sem
overseas are the regular ones usec
by stations not on the network
They are returned to NBC, where
the commercials are deleted anc
opening and closing credit slip.
are inserted. after which about II
prints Of each are made ant
turned over to the Armed Forces
distribution agency.
Other shows which servicemer
should be seeing soon include Mil.
ton Berle's "Star Theater," Ro.
berta Quinlan's Mohawk Show
ROOM" "The Hit Parade" "Youl
Show Of Shows" and "The Orig
inal Amateur Hour"
r
Casting Department - Pau
Hartman, whom you haven't seer
nearly enough of lately, will play
a leading role in "Henry's Harem'
on Faith Baldwin's Theater ot
Romance" Saturday (WMAL-TV
1870 p.m.) and you can gel
more laughs out of contemplating
the possibilities than out of some
shows. Mr.. Hartman will be
Henry, an efficiency expert, anc
his harem will be his wife, Marcia
who writes novels and elves" each
heroine-tennis champ, lady bull
Indian head hunter. =
Whatever Dane Clark, Anr
Rutherford and Alan Mowbray
will play leading roles in the TV
version Of Sidney Fields "Unfin.
ished Business" which will be the
first play on the new "Gruen The.
ater" series on ABC-TV. The pre-.
miere is scheduled for Thursday
September 81, at $50 pm.
Walter Hampden, the veteran
actor who is currently celebrat,
ing his 50th year in show business
has signed what appears to be al
exclusive contract with the forth,
coming Playhouse of Stars" t,
be seen on CBS-TV on Fridays a
9. starting October 5. He will
appear six times during the frs
39-week cycle and, according t,
the announcement, his sole vide,
dramatic appearances will be OF
this new hour-length SERIES"
Trade Talk-Televison set pro
duction in 1851 will be 5.3 million
units, according to the annua
survey made by Televison Share
Management Co. Of Chicago. Thi
is considerably less than the 7.
million TV sets turned out il
1850. The number of TV set
in use in the Washington Metro
politan area is put at 281, ,125 as O
September l by the Washington
Television Circulation Committee
That's more television sets thai
there were people in the Distric
when this century started. TIL
1900 census figure was 278,71s
Televison is taking still NOR
New York theaters out of tn
theater business. NBC-TV ha
taken over the New Arnrtardan n