ROCHESTER FORMERLY ROCHESTER TVue WEEKLY Now Including Radio and Entertainment Personalities COVER GAL, LISA KIRK - Pag e 3 * JAN. 26 - FEB . 1, 1952 IN THE~ HIT SHOW OF 1952 FEATURING SMILEY BURNETTE PAT BUTTRAM JOHNNY BOND CASS COUNTY BOYS from their NEW MEXICO RESERVATION WITH ALL THE MELODY RANCH STARS and MANY OTHERS ! SPORTS ARENA - FEBRUARY 5, 1952 Tickets on sale at COLUMBIA MUSIC & APPLIANCE STORE $2.40 - $1.80 - $1.20 - Children under 12 ·Half Price Sponsored by the Northside Lions Club FREE-Colored Picture of Gene Autry with purchase of Children's ticket ... ·. .· ;,:;: _. .. - ~ 7 ROCHESTER TV ll FE COVER~ Excerpts . (Letter to NBC) . "I think your move to cut the Kukla, Fran and Ollie show to fifteen minutes was an inex­ plainable injustice- ex plained only by the fact that there are certain nitwitted imbiciles under the title of 'Program Director' who think they can cut or drop any program they want and then substitute some stupid comic's program in its place without consent of the view­ ers." (Letter to us} ... "I think that the viewers should have a chance to say what they want to see, and that the viewer should not have to watch what LISA Kl RK some director THINKS they should see That dark-eyed lovely on the cover is . comme r ci~ls should be limited in LISA KIRK. of stage and screen fame. time ... H ere's hoping there'll be better Lisa will fl y into N ew York from Holly­ TV soon! " wood for a guest appearance on the Paul Richard Schtulberg Whiteman Revue this Sunday, January Rochester, N . Y. 27 at 7:00 P.M. on WHAM-TV. She will join baritone Earl Wrightson and songstress Maureen Cannon in bringing " ... I enjoy TV programs. I believe the wonderful melodies of Harry War­ it has a great future in many fie lds ... ren to life ... the program being a tri­ it would appear that there are four dis­ bute to Warren, one of the nation's top tinct program classifications: 1. Pure en­ tunesmiths. tertainment, 2. Educational, 3. Religious, The exciting beauty of Lisa Kirk makes 4. Inspirational . In my humble opinion many a female tinge with green-but her TV should set its sights high, not ignor­ thrilling voice enchants every listener. ing the best of past entertainment . at present we are getting an overdose of ballet-which is good in small doses. " Happy Birth day-Roch. TV Life" Slap-stick comedy is not well received ... pie-throwing was offered for laughs; KENNY PURTELL the studio audience was sil ent. Don't VibraHarpist comedians ever learn? ... I believe in a ll FR I. - SAT. - SUN. forms of good sport, but why overload 1 an evening's program with it-and with SQUEEZER S a post-mortem summation at the end? MUSICAL BAR (The holiday games are an exception} 420 State St. • Ra ch ., N. Y. (C ontinued on Page 4) ROCH ESTER TV LI FE ~ letters ... ROCHESTER TV LIFE (Continued from Pag e 3) Rochester' s Official TV Program . TV has made marked progress in and News Magazine just one year. This is most noticable in fin e ta lent, improved scenery, better dram­ Vol. 2 ~12 No. 1 atic programs and far, far better photog­ Owned and Published by raphy. It is my fond hope that its ROBERT H. PEIFFER ASSOCIATES standa rds will continue higher. 35 Church St., Rochester 14, N.Y. A friend of TV Phone LOcust 6727 Rochester, N . Y. Editor ______ Bob Peiffer .. .. after reading all the gripes in Asst. Editor ________ H. Kip Pierson your magazine, all I can say is Thank Adt1. Mgr. ____ . Ralph Chinelly the Lord we are living in the good old USA, and TV sets are made with turn­ off knobs so we can turn off the programs THIS WEEK'S TV FEATURES we dislike." L. Gross letters to the Editor 3 Rochester. N . Y . AI Ostrander, Set Designer 5 Disc Kicks by Bob James 8 .... why do we have a one and a TV Viewing Tip 10 half hour show with Sid Caesar . I TV Service Directory 11 would like to see something else. One Mike Glenn, New Voice in Radio 12 and a half hours is quite a long show Carl Dengler 13 if you don't like it." Your TViewer by Sarah Prescott 14 Mrs. A. Giebel The Jimmy O'Fiynn Story __ __ 16 Rochester, N . Y . Behind the Scenes by Jim Trayhern 18 ... we are very much in accord with TV Groaners 20 the editorials on the TV programs. 0Qr Shadow Stopper 27 set is turned off too much because of Press Time Flashes 30 programs we don't care for." O'Fiynn Fan Fare 32 Mrs. Otto Mastin Coloring Contest 33 Avon, N.Y. This Radio and TV World 36 I'm worried about the trend of TV. TV Pin-Up 37 Now we are beginning to get soap operas Over the TV Fence 38 by video. The radio ones were bad enough. These are as bad, and show WHAM-TV PROGRAMS every sign of becoming worse. When will -DAILY SCHEDULE- TV learn the lessons that radio did? Saturday 23 Joan Wider Sunday 24 Monday 26 Every Wednesday at Tuesday 26 Wednesday 28 7:30 P.M.-WHAM-TV Thursday 28 Friday 29 BOB TURNER WBEN-TV 31 SHOW WSYR-TV 34 presented by WHEN 35 JANUARY 26- FEBRUARY 1, 1952 Rochester TV life published weekly ot Rochester, New York. Subscription price $3.00 per year, in advance. 4 ROCHESTER TV liFE there's no permanent home when AL OSTRANDER appears on the scene ... How would you like to decorate a new job was washing paint buckets," he re­ home every week? Or, better still , how calls. He then went on to design for the would you like to dismantle a house Tony Sarg Puppet E nterprises, and later every week? Well it happens on televis­ to a position on noted designer Norman ion, and a man who does just that is AI Bel Gedde's staff. Ostrander, set designer for CBS-TV's In recent years he has designed sets Friday night dramatic series, "Schlitz not only for circuses and ice shows, but Playhouse of Stars." also such Broadway productions as "Pan­ Working literally night and day with ama Hattie," "Louisiana Purchase," his five assistants, Ostrander has charge "Hellzapoppin" and "Seven Lively Arts". of designing and procuring all of the Lately, sticking to video, he lists the sets, props, et a!., that are needed for Faye Emerson, Victor Borge, and Ford the weekly hour-length dramatic show. Theatre programs among his credits. ·· r actually work on th e sets for three With his headquarters at a Park Ave. shows at one time," Ostranded explains. mansion, recently remodeled into an "While putting the finishing touches on office building, Ostrander is using the this week's show, I'm completing designs li ving room of the house as a king-sized for the next and doing preliminary plan­ office, and the ex-butler's pantry as a ning for the one after that." room to house his library and files. A native of Pittsfield, Mass .. Ostrander What with the uproar in his living­ has been connected with some aspect of room-office created by the constant ring­ theatrical design all his life. "My first ing of three telephones and the activity ROCHESTER TV LIFE 5 of his assistants, Ostrander finds the two with the production staff. O strander's hours a day spent commuting to and next step is to prepare a d<'tailed master from his home in Pleasantville, N ew Boor plan, drawn to scale, of the sets York, the ideal time for his first reading on the studio floor, indicating ex actly of each script. While the other passengers where each wall, window. pi ece of furni­ are scanning their newspapers, he's mak­ ture, etc. will be. Here complications ing pencil sketches on the margin of a arise-for each set must allow plenty of mimeographed script, crystallizing his im­ room for the easy movement of the four pressions of how sets might be arranged. large television cameras and the two The next step is a meeting with the boom microphones. Then, the arrange­ show's executive producer, Felix Jack­ ments of the sets must take into consid­ son, and the director. Here the number eration the action of the drama, so that and types of sets are definitely decided the actors and cameras will have time on and the three discuss the characters to get from one setting to the next. and the general emotional feeling that should be conveyed in each scene. The set for each room should be in keeping with the personality of the char­ acter who lives in the room. For in­ stance, in "Not A Chance," Helen Hayes played a spinster who worked in a book shop. For the living room of her apart­ ment, every single piece of furniture and bric-a-brac was chosen to suit the taste that this conservative woman would have -delicate Dresden figures on the shelves, the books, a Victorian mantle and sun­ burst clock. People sometimes ask Ostrander why The sets and backgrounds in this recent Schlitz he bothers with so much detail when Playhouse production started at Al's drawing these small touches aren't actually ob­ board served by the video audience. "Though you don't think about them," he states, "you'd notice if they weren't there, for With limited space and many settings they add immeasurably to the total feel­ to depict, Ostrander sometimes employs ing of a setting." an ingenious method of getting a suitable For certain backgrounds it's necessary effect by using only one or two pieces to do research to be positive the details of furniture-e.g., to give the impression are accurate, Ostranded explains.