Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1954-12-05
On the Air
Breaking Into Print
CBS-TVs 'Fuce the Nation Achieves Its
Publicity Purpose by Making News
By Harry Macarthur

"Face the Nation" the new
interview program on Chs
WTOP-TV Sundays, $50
PM, has already proved
capable Of doing one of the
jobs the network wanted 1t to
do. A public service program,
as you surely must have no.
ticed, is not always inspired
by completely altruistic mo-
tives. This does not make it
any less a public service, but
doing something nice for the
viewers Is not always the only
thing on a network execu-
tive's mind.
In this case. that Monday
publicity captured week after
week for NBC-TV's Meet the
Press" by its outspoken inter-
viewees undoubtedly was on
the minds of those who put
together Face the Nation" It
Is not criticizing them to sug-
gest that they hoped to dredge
up something Of the same for
CHS.
They achieved their purpose,
all right. On the shows first
telecast Senator Mccarthy
predicted that he would be
censured and referred to the
Senate's censure debate as "a
lynching bee" It made news.
So did Senator-elect Clifford
Case of New Jersey the follow
ing week when he denied
membership in the cleft fac
ton" of the Republican Party
and said "a third party move
ment would never succeed"
Senator Fulbright put Face
the Nation" on the front pages
the third week. 1t was on
the program that he suggested
that Senator Mccarthy might
be feigning illness with that
sore elbow and called the Wis
cousin Senator's hospital So
journ part of a fllibuster."
It also was "Face the Ma
tion," just last Sunday after
noon, that Senator Bennett
chose as a rostrum for his an
nouncement that he would in
troduce another censure charge
against Senator Mccarthy. He
then proceeded to read the
motion over the air. CHS
hasn't lost a half hour of time;
it's gained a press agent.
Hit in q Hurry
AS was not very exclusively
predicted I'M a lot of places,
Walt Disney's "Disneyland"
quickly made its presence
known. The American Re-
search Bureaus latest rating
week (Novemberl was the
week when the Disney show
was on for the third time and
ARB found it in sixth place
among the top TV programs.
The rating service clicked the
Wednesday night show at
3O.8 million viewers, eight mill
lion more than it's closest OPP
position William Holden,
who won last years Academy
Award for "Stalag IT," was
before a different set of movie
cameras this past week. He
became the first big-name
movie star to make a guest ap-
pearance on IT Love Lucy" in
the episode filmed for showing
early in January.
The mood is a happy one
again around the 'Kukla, Fran
and Ollie" headquarters. The
Burr Tillstrom show (seen
weeknights at Z on WMAL-TV)
will be on a 36-station Abe
TV network within a week or
so Maurice Chevalier will,
in a way. be right back where
he started when he makes his
American TV debut Tuesday
at 8 with Bob Hope. It was
on February 8, 1881. that he
made his radio bow in this
country over the NBC network.
Sang Louise" then and he'll
sing 1t again Tuesday on the
Hope show, already filmed in
London.
Honors GoIore
That wasn't a clean sweep .
of the Sylvania Television
Awards for NBC-TV's Sunday
night "Television Playhouse"