The Busy Air

Last week:

P: Theater television became a reality. An audience at Broadway's Paramount Theater watched a telecast of a boxing bout in Brooklyn on the theater's screen. It was the first time that full-screen television had been shown in a major theater as the event was taking place.The image was transferred from tube to film by a special photographic and developing process, then "fed continuously to a projector and flashed to the screen. The whole converting operation (tube-to-film-to-screen) took only 66 seconds. Images were bright and well-defined, and the sneak preview was hailed by all who saw it. The mere mention of Brooklyn brought such a storm of cheers, however, that most of the audience missed the explanation and thought the telecast was a newsreel.

P: The Union Oil Co. of California took to television (in nine cities) to tell stockholders and the general public about its operations, explain the company's annual financial report (see BUSINESS).

P: The give-away craze, fired by Miss Hush and the Walking Man, reached white heat. Last week's prizes ranged from a burnt match to a "new future" (a completely furnished three-bedroom house in San Fernando Valley, a Kaiser and a choice of jobs). One program, Mutual's Queen for a Day, bragged that it had given away $1,117,000 in three years. With the pile of prizes mounting at every flick of the dial, networkers were not certain just how much was being offered, but guessed that last week's kitty amounted to about $214,000. And that figure omitted the giveaways on less spectacular, but numerous, local stations.

P: Eddie Bracken took a slapdash poll. The comedian called 30 random telephone numbers, asked: "Did you listen to the Eddie Bracken show last night?" Seven said that they had; two volunteered the sponsor's name. It was a surprising response, because 1) it topped the highest Hooperating the Bracken show ever had, and 2) the show went off the air six months ago.

* Telecasts have been seen in theaters before, but always on small telescreens or, hours after the event, on film.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.