Evening star., 1953-04-15

For all he has done to bring
about this conjugal bliss in the
entertainment trade. Sullivan
can't take all of the credit for
winning RKO over to television.
The spectacular success of the
elderly king Kong" which took
the studio out of hook when it
was reissued, was credited in
large part to television promo
ton.
The new RKO opinion of the
old TV bogey is clearly indicated
in the language of a press re-
lease which has just turned up.
Never Wave at a Wac" this
says. will get another important
coast-to-coast television plug"
when Paul Douglas appears on
your Show of Shows" Saturday
night. The closing sentence is
this: Never Wave at a Wac
opens at the Astor Theater CNew
York; on April 23." If you can't
lick them. use them.
+ \ 4
BASEBALL DAY-Tomorrow
afternoons baseball opener at
Griffith Stadium will be televised
by WTTG just as it would have
been on Monday. This means the
cameras at the ball park, not to
mention Bob VOLTS and Bailey
GosS' vocal chords, will be warm
a goodly part of the day. Tomor-
rows night game also will be
televised as scheduled on Chan
mel S.
Stay-at-home fans will find
almost twice as much baseball
as last year on televiSion this
spring and summer. The sched-
ule calls for SO telecasts. q of
them home games, % played out
of town. It has been set up by
an obvious friend of the working
classes. During the season, there
will be baseball on television on
every week end, with games tele-
viSed on both Saturday and Sum-
day on most week ends when the
Senators are on the road.
The total of these games to be
available to fans tied to jobs
during the day is 44-31 on Sat-
urday or Sunday and 13 at night
during the week.
X X 4
SIDE EFFECT - When the
Federal Communications Com
mission approved the ABC-United
Paramount Theaters merger, one
of the contingencies was the sale
OF a Chicago television station
owned by Balaban & Katz, q
UPT subsidiary. CHS was a
ready buyer and proposed to
move the station from Channel
to Channel 2. The other day
the FEC got around to approving
the move and a loud yelp of
anguish and outrage arose in
Chicago.
Fellow out there was already
sitting on Channel 2, fellow
named the Zenith Radio Corp.
Zenith President E. F. McDon-
aid. jr., promptly notified the
FEC that he would ask a court
review of the Commission order.
Said MIR. Mcdonald:
"The commissions action is
arbitrary and unjust. Zenith
has been operating an expert
mental television station on
Channel 2 in Chicago since 1889
and has on file with the commits
sion a petition to operate COM
mercially on Channel 2 since
1948. More than a million dol
lars have been spent by Zenith
on research and experimental
ton on Channel 2 and Zenith
was prepared to bring to the
Chicago area a new and finer
TV service. In defiance of it's
own prior precedentS and of the
fundamental principles of fair
play. the commission has au-
thorized the transfer of Chan
mel 2 to CHS without even giving
Zenith the rights to be heard
on its prior pending application.
While Zenith recognizes the
desirability to CHS of an outlet
IN Chicago, mere convenience to
a large network does not justify
Scrapplng prior rights and
application without a hearing,
particularly since Zenith has al
ways been willing to provide a
network affiliation outlet to CHS
in Chicago"
The special significance of this