Evening star., 1953-06-02
Viewing TV
IF This Be Video Heresy,
Houqy Will Make Best of 1t
By Hol Humphrey

CANooOAl, 11C 1l1O1SCS UIidI 11C WdIlGo
to do the commercials himself
and in his own way.
II want to bring up the Spon-
Sor's product just casually and in
a conversational tone! If it's a
soap I'll just say, Now here's a
pretty fair soap. I use it and
like it. and I think if you try
it you'll like it too There's no
point in hitting people over the
head with it," says this insidious
character.
In last futile attempt to save
HOagy from himself, I fastened
to point out to him that the
only fellow who had dared adopt
this attitude toward a sponsor S
product was Arthur Godfrey,
and that he is now in a hospital.
But I could see I was making
no impression on him. That's
the trouble with these guys who
choose to buck the system.
They're bullheaded and refuse
to see that there are two sides
to everything.
Hoagy even has had the te-
merity to tell NBC that he
thinks the big production num-
bers are wasted on TV. He wants
the cameras to move in close
so the viewers can see the faces
centered in the T'V screens.
The heck of it is. you can't
tell this bird to go back where
he came from. He was born
right here in the good OIL U. S. A.
Copyright 1853. Mirror Enterprises SYM
PROGRAMS AND PEOPLE
MICS comedy development pro-
gram has reached out and
nabbed Tom D'Andrea, regular
on TVS Life Of Riley" The new
contract is for radio series
based on the GI characters
played by D'Andrea and Hal
March on the Donald O'Connor
Comedy Hour" shows. Les
Aries has been named director
of sports programs for the ABC-
TV network. He was manager Of
the DuMont networks Washing
ton office for seven years. then
was general manager of WTTG
from 1916 to 1949. From 1949 to
1851 he was DuMont's director
of sports and special events.
An advertising man has esti-
mated that pilot" films costing
a total of at least So million are
resting in Hollywood vaults.
Both CHS and NBC are busily
engaged in turning out pilots, :"
many of which will never see the
light of cathode tube. Both
are fairly we'll sold-out in prime
viewing hours, but the TV cas-
ualty rate Is high and each web
likes to be prepared with some
thing new to catch sponsors
fancies. Desilu Productions,
the corporation formed by Lucille
Ball and Desi Arnaz for filming
Il Love Lucy" is becoming a ma
jor TV enterprise. Desilu also
will film the Danny Thomas
shows for ABC-TV and this sum-
mer will film five Jack Benny TV
programs. United States
Steel. after eight years as spon-
sor of radios "Theater Guild on
the Air" is bowling out of that
medium. In the fall it will turn
to television with q one-hour live
drama, probably produced by the
Guild. Jack Benny, on the
other hand. is sticking by radio.
His sponsor has renewed him for
another season in the Sunday
att niche on CHS. He'll mix live
and filmed TV shows while still
in both branches of broadcasting.
i. . The Edgar Bergen-Charlie
Mccarthy time on CHS radio
(Sunday at 81 will be filled dur
ing the summer by Junior
Miss" Starts next week. with
Barbara Whiting in the leading
role.
\ 4 \ y
TESTING-Today's corona
ton of Queen Elizabeth was seen
on color television after all, but
the bulk of British viewers saw it
on BBC's black-and-white. The
color telecast was a demonstra-
tion conducted by Pye. Ltd, Brit
ish TV firm. and Paramount's
Chromatic Television, Inc It
was received in hospitals, other
institutions and newspaper Of
fees on Chromatic receivers
using a 22-inch version of the
Lawrence tricolor tube. HIM.