Evening star., 1951-05-28
| On the Air
NBC Boasts
|More Sturs
| Than Time
By Harry Macarthur

III duC paper W1lACA1 1Cto NV1J 1C"
things in show business go un-
discovered and hearts must be
bleeding around CHS and ABC
for poor. old NBC.
What NBC did, as you may
have noticed, was to corral big
name comics. Milton Berle got
80 years to life and there were
rumors the same was in store
for Jimmy Durante. Others were
signed right and left for lesser
periods and it got intoxicating.
Pens were meeting dotted lines all
over the place.
Now NBC has come up against
an immutable fact and even a
great big radio-television network
Ipauses in the face of an i'm
mutable fact. This fact is that
there are only certain num-
ber of hours of Glass A evening
time every week.
NBC is afraid it Is going to
have more comedians than hours
on its hands when it gets around
to arranging next seasons sched-
Iule.
Abbott and Costello are one
problem NBC recently signed
them to a five-year television pact
calling for a series of half-hour
shows on film, plus several hour
long ''live" programs. The live"
shows might go into "The Come
dy Hour" where A. g. C. have
appeared this season, but the
filmed shows still are house
hunting.
Room for Red Shelton was
made in MICS schedule for next
season by evicting Dave Caro-
way from his Sunday-at-10 niche,
which means that a new spot
has to be found for Garroway.
Jerry Lester's admirers have been
promised him in an earlier eve
ming spot next fall. too. and there's
la possibility that Bob Hope may
be called on to appear more
often than he did this term.
Several public-service series also
have been promised by NBC-all
in that prime Class A time it
doesn't seem to have enough of.
Could Have Been Worse: This
predicament. however. is nothing
compared to the one NBC would
have faced had DuMont been sue
cessful in its try at Turing Milton
Berle's "Star Theater" away for
the 1951-52 season. Then NBC
would have had to decide whether
to bow to Berle's drawing power
and not try to compete or to buck
him with a powerful show. The
former would have meant giving
up a large audience to another
network. The latter would have
meant cutting into Berle's audi
ence and possibly lessening the
value of an entertainer due to
start a 30-year contract with NBC
in 1852.
Nothing much can bother NBC
after it thought for awhile it was
going to have to face that prob
lem.
On the Zany Side: At least two
new shows making their debuts
this week are not likely to depress
you, whatever else they do to
you. One of these Is 1.-The Jerry
Colonna Show" which starts to-
night at on ABC-TV (WMAL) :,
and the other is a local affair,
THE Gene Klavan Show or Studio
w." due to bow tomorrow night at
7 on WTOP-TV.
There is slight suspicion right
now that there may turn out to be
a certain kinship between the two,
though Colonna is better known
nationally. can yell louder and
is an accomplished trombonist.
Klavan, the humorist Washington
inherited from Baltimore, can
speak in more dialects and is
an accomplished ocarina player
though playing the ocarina we'll is
considered in some circles less of
a social grace than playing the
trombone badly. Both have a gift
for satire. Further comment will
have to await the actual encounter
on the TV screen.
u X x II
A Girl Can't Win: Mary Sin
clair, the CHS television star, is
tomorrow night on
Suspense" (WTOP-Tv-9:30) as
an authors secretary who closely
resembles his murdered wife,
shown only by a portrait. The
portrait was easy; it will be al
photograph made recently of Miss
Sinclair. To play the role. how
ever, she'll have to wear wig
to more closely resemble the pic
ture she had taken before she had
her hair cut.
X II II X
Lucky Singer, She Says: Evelyn
Knight, who will be happy when
the coaxial cable gets to the coast
because she likes both California
and television. thinks Mario Lam
"a is the luckiest singer around
right now. LAMA, who has just
signed as the summer radio re-
placement for Edgar Bergen
(WTOP-Sunday, 8 PM, has
found Ray Sinatra available and
free to conduct the orchestra on
his program. Sinatra arranged
and conducted for Miss knight
for a couple of years and she rates
him high among the musicians
she has known.
1t was Sinatra, incidentally, who
was responsible for Miss Knights
decision to stay indoors for two
weeks one winter, when she was
singing at a hotel in Minneapolis.
He started for church the first
SUNDAY morning hllt manaoed