Evening star., 1952-02-11
By Harry Macarthur

RCA and the president OF CBS
carried their fight last week be.
fore the National Production Au-
thority, which placed a ban or
color television last fall. The NPl
was concerned, Of course, with th'
propriety of its order regulating
the end product for which TV Sc
makers use critical materials. /
didn't give hoot whether tht
lRCA system was better than the
CHS system or vice versa.
** ~
Neither, it developed, did Barney
Balaban, president Of Paramount
Pictures, parent company o1
Chromatic Television Laborato-
ries. Inc, developers of the color
tube invented by Ernest o. Law
renee. While Mr.. Sarnoff anC
Mr.. Stanton were standing in the
middle of the ring arguing ovel
who flung the first low blow, Mr.
Balaban calmly stepped out o1
his corner and belted the two o1
them.
The NPA order, Mr.. Balabar
Iintimated, is unreasonable. It al
lows Chromatic to make black.
and white TV sets with tht
Lawrence tube. but it does moi
allow it to make color sets using
only the same amount Of critica
materials.
"If there is sufficient material
available for the production o1
millions of sets in 1852 and be-
yond," said Mr.. Balaban, "ther
llet the public decide whether
these sets shall be just black anc
white sets or sets capable of re-
|ceiving both black and white and
color"
You are not dealing here, Mr..
|Sarnof and Mr.. Stanton, with a
man accustomed to measuring
shows with a Nielsen rating and
selling them to ad agencies and
sponsors. This is a Snowman ac-
customed to selling his wares to
the public. You'd better watch
him.
Protest-It was a fairly quiet
Saturday afternoon around the
radio-Tv department until 4
O'Clock. That was the hour when
WTOP-TV's Government Talent
Hunt" was due on the air and
IWTOP-TV put it on. even though
1T meant pulling the plug on the
Navy-Duke basketball game, then
i'm an overtime period. One caller
demanded the immediate install
lation of Phonevision or some
other system by which she could
pay to see a basketball game with
out having it cut of for a COM
mercial. You do this again, WTOP-
TV, and some of the irate GUS
toners may turn up out at
Fortieth and Brandywine and
chop down your antenna.
More Approval - Writes Mrs
|G. F. s. of Falls Church (Va0
This is big. fat vote FOR To-
day and its wonderful Dave Gar
roway the only daytime pro-
gram that assumes its viewers are
CD sane, 90 over 81, and 90
want honest entertainment and
entertainers. I am up to here
with the dismal attempts to dish
up the endless 'women'S' programs
-idiotic pictures of fat, giggling
housewives and youthful wildly
|exuberant masters of ceremonies
Apparently, the daytime video
IpoWers-that-be work on the theory
that what rocks the studio audi
ence in the. aisles will really WOW
em at home" :"
X r 4
Answer and Question - From
John Ghilain, advertising and pub
Ilicity manager Of WNBW-WRC:
|"Our solemn promise that when
your philosopher pal, Bert Russell
appears on the NBC-TV network
we will not schedule Cisco Kid
Soundies etc. as substitutes or
WNBW."
Fine. And now WNBW what are
you going to do about American
Inventory" which. NBC and th'
Alfred P. Sloan Foundation an
nounce with justifiable pride. has
just been extended for an addi-
tional 80 weeks and which is un-
dergoing a shift in technique tc
bring more emphasis on dramatic
shows, on films made expressly fol
the series and on anels-with-a'
idifference?" You going to continue
to schedule that at an unlikely
l2::30 pm. Mondays instead Of Sun.
days when the network carries iti
II ~ u
In Brief - Marquis Childs ha!
Launched a new washington
Spotlight" Tv program. seen Sat
urdays at 7:15 pm. on WMAL-TV
Add to confirmed reports tn.
one about Worthington Minol
leaving Studio One" NBC-Ty
has announced that he will pro
lduce "a major one-hour dramati
show" for that network in tn,
fall and CBS-TV has announces
that Donald Davis will becom,
producer of Studio One" In April
Jim Gibbons conducted a tele
phone poll on his morning show OF
WMAL (radio only the other da,
which showed Gen. Eisenhowe
leading the presidential race. !
Gibbons poll in 1948 was one o
the few indicating a lead for Pres
|lident Truman.
@A 4 wnnN