Evening star., 1955-02-25

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reaction is operating and it
won't stop until Disney plugs in
that fabulous amusement park.
Then 1t will only pause. Every
one will come away from Disney
land headed for the nearest tele-
vision set or movie theater where
more Disney is available.
r 4 II X
BIG NEWS-When the tele-
vision folks were allowed to
bring their movie cameras into
President Eisenhower's news
conferences awhile back it was
hailed as a great victory. 1t
was an end Of discrimination.
Television at last was to be
allowed to cover vitality impor-
tant news at its source. A blow
had been struck for the freedom
Of the press-television's free
dom of the press. that is. No
longer would young television
be an outsider when the big
boys got together to make the
big news. Television had won
the right to cover the Presidents
press conferences.
Well, there are times when
it is not illogical to suspect that
a lot Of high-flown talk spirals
around the broadcasting trade
and this is one of the times.
Several weeks have passed since
the TV news cameras~were ad-
mitted to; these sessions. A nag
ging question just gets more
nagging. Why, if the Tv boys
were so all-fired eager to get
these pictorial reports on i'm
portant news, don't they pass
them along when they get them?
This week the Aim report on
the Presidents meeting with the
press was shown to Washington
viewers by only one station.
Poor, little DuMont, down to so
few affiliates that it is hardly a
network any more and strug-
Cling to make a buck. showed
us the half-hour news confer
ence film over WTTG. It seems
to be fairly shabby treatment
for news so important that the
TV boys screamed themselves
hoarse while fighting for the
right to cover it.
1t all lends some cedence, of
course, to- the story that the net
works might press for live COW
erage Of these weekly sessions.
That would let the big, fat net
works put them on in the day.
time. without interfering with
the lush commercial time at
night.
OFF THE CUFF - Another
thing you don't know unless you
have been exposed is that teen
ayers do a lot of radio listening.
In fact, they do more radio
listening than television view
ing, according to Teen-Age
Survey Service. OF 1892 in
terviewed in 81 major cities,
78 per cent listen to radio
more than two hours a day. Only
18 per cent reported more than
two hours of daily TV viewing.
:. Arthur Godfrey's ratings are
on the rise again, after one of
his shows dropped to 37th place
nationally. Now those concerned
are making the big effort to find
out why. Not why the ratings
dropped. but why they are COM
ing back up, so the cure can be
continued. !. The inside story
is that Judy Garland, the odds
on favorite for the Academy
award, may be the next big name
movie star to sign for a series Of
TV appearances. If she does, you
won't be seeing her until fall,
though. Richard Carlson,
star Of television's IT Led Three
Lives" film series, will direct
same when it is made as a fea-
ture-length movie. Cy How
ard, creator of my Friend
Irma" and Life With Luigi"
has another TV show in the
works. This one is called "Just
Plain Folks" according to a
moderately reputable report at
hand. and the pilot film will
star Zsa Zsa Gabor. Man, dig
those crazy plain folks Mr.. How
ard knows. The fancy ones must
be something where he comes
from.