Evening star., 1952-03-13
On the Air
=
Its Ennpothy
Thut Makes
"A Contestant
By Horry Macarthur

l.
By Harry Macarthur
You might just as well give vi
any dreams Of winning fame as {
contestant on an audience partici.
patton TV show. II you live arount
these parts, you're the wrong type
You're from the wrong side Of ths
Mason-Dixon Line and that's al.
most as bad as being o New Yorker
by trade.
Science has brought statistics
into this audience participation
business. According to Sponsor. q
magazine devoted to the broadcast
advertising dodge, the Schwerir
Research Corp. has delved into thu
matter at length and produced
specifications for the ideal con.
testant. The Schwerin people were
examining radio shows. but the
findings must be true Of television
too.
The ideal contestant. it seems
should be q housewife and q type
with whom home listener car
readily identify herself. This Is be.
cause Of the empathy factor. EN-.
|pathy is like sympathy when you
feel such sympathy toward some
one else that that's who you think
you are at the time.
A career woman can approach
perfection as a contestant only II
q retired nurse, teacher. practical
nurse or, more generally. career
type identified with soap operas
which have been living of OF
empathy for years.
Producers Of audience partici-
patton shows clearly would be well
advised to avoid types whose abil-
ity to arouse empathy is less than
somewhat. Among these. accord
ing to the Schwerin survey. are
people from the South, actresses,
fur buyers, news vendors and
women whose jobs 'could be con-
sidered hum drum" such as clerks,
dental assistants and people who
work for banks. Being q New
Yorker also is pretty bad. New
Workers don't arouse much more
empathy than Southerners.
A man, though he naturally
never could approach the ideal,
does have q chance as a contestant.
He should be "a single young man
with q serial drama career, or
with qualities of sons about to
start out Oh their careers: q nom
technical occupation, and one who
talks at the slow rate of 176 words
per minute. Doesn't say on which
side he should part his hair.
That will come in some later sur
vey more specifically aimed at
television alone.
The premise on which this
whole study was based. incident
ally, was that q large part of the
success of any audience partici-
patton show depends on the con-
testant. Doesn't matter, ap-
parently. whether you hit 'enn
with pies or give 'em $1,000 worth
of double damask dinner napkins.
If you've got empathy, you're In.
+ + \
Personal, Not Private-Torn
Drake. the movie star, is probably
Hollywood's authentic top-ranking
television veteran. He did q
dramatic show for, NBC In, 1888.
-. Pierre D'Angelo. and Ana,
whose exciting and slickly executed
dancing has frightened a num-
Der of TV variety shows, are even
better in color, which is how you
can see them at the MayfioweT
Lounge. That Ana had on the
reddest dress you ever saw the
other night. And a pretty one
she is, too. They'll only be at
the Lounge through this week. in
cidentally. Lynn Poole. pro-
ducer of Johns Hopkins Science
Review" (WTTG-Monday. $3.50
p.m.) and author of a text on TV
production. has written another
book, "Today's Science and You. "
To be published next Thurs
day. >. Great Britain soon will
have a look at "Sceince Review
talread a French TV feature via
kinescope), when Mr.. Poole goes
there in April to televise three
programs over the BIC. Mar
garet Truman's next chore for
NBC will be the leading role OPP
posite Gordon MacRae in the
operetta. "Sari." This will be
next Monday nights feature on
radios Railroad Hour"
y Il + +
Film Department - Edward r.
Murrow of CBS-Tv's "See It
Now" went to Hollywood this
week to launch q "See It Now"
feature on the movie industry.
Rather than broad, comprehen-
sive survey, according to Murrow
and Fred w. Friendly, his CO.
producer. they will try an init
mate closeup of a significant
sample Of the industry. Their
plan is to cover everything about
one scene from a picture, from
conception to finished celluloid
product. The f1lm chosen for
their cross-section specimen is
Samuel GoldWyn's "Hans Chris
tian Anderson" which. at 81 mil