Feature
Story
-The World of Sam Donaldson- ABC
NEWS STUMP
SAM.
•
•
From the co-publisher/co-founder of TVI Magazine in
1956 -- to ABC's Legendary Newsman -- Sam Donaldson
knows almost everything and anything about News
reporting. Sam is pictured with Michael Powell,
former FCC chairman at recent NAB show in Las
Vegas. "When Sam A. Donaldson became part of ABC's
roving television correspondents, no one was sure
what to expect.
•
•
His immense
impact on his television audience was owed to the
dynamism of his personality and the upheavals at
home and abroad that marked his ability to report
the news as it happened. His macho, patrician
features, leonine bearing and strong, resonant
voice all reflected his invincible self-assurance
when he would demand -- Hold on Mr.
President!"
03.
Special Feature
/ "1939" By - Sam
Donaldson. A reprint from TELEFILM Magazine,
(Television International Magazine), dated April
1956, cover on next page.
The History
of a Great
Industry is Always Interesting.
•
•
Not only is it extremely revealing from a purely
factual standpoint, it is usually a graphic tribute
to a handful of men who had the gift of foresight
and believed in the impossible. But, history tends
to become confused with time, events are all too
quickly clouded if they are not recorded as they
happen. TELEvisionFILM Magazine, (Television
International Magazine) -- decided to trace video
film back to its very beginnings. We wanted to
uncover the material facts surrounding the first
film series especially produced for
television.
•
•
The task was not as simple as it might have been.
Although TV film is thought of as being something
comparatively recent the visionaries who pioneered
the industry were hard at work long years ago. Any
history of the first film series must also be
divided into several categories. There was a first
series, a first sponsored series, a first
children's series, etc. In this brief account,
then, we do not attempt to include all of the many
names and dates involved in tv films family tree.
We do sketch an accurate picture of the progress
from the cradle to the point where film put on its
first pair of long
pants.
•
•
The year was 1939. W6XAO, one of the nation's first
experimental stations, had recently gone on the air
in Los Angeles with transmitting facilities atop
Mt. Lee. There were only a few receiving sets, with
postage stamp size screens, in its limited coverage
area. Live television was getting its start, and at
the same time television film was beginning also.
•
•
Patrick Michael Cunning, a young movie producer,
had just made a feature film entitled Stars For
Tomorrow with a cast and crew of 300 unknowns.
After the premiere at the Hollywood Pantages
Theatre, Ray Coffin, then program director of
W6XAO, congratulated Cunning on his work with these
newcomers and advised him to take his troupe into
television.
• •
Pat Cunning showed a
greater tendency toward the psychic than the
practical when he heeded Coffin's suggestion.
Working together the two organizations began to
experiment with live television. late fall of 1939,
Cunning began shooting the first series ever, for
television, Tom Sawyer.
• •
The production staff
and actors applied themselves to Samuel Clemens'
popular classic. They made up with enthusiasm what
they lacked in experience. The episodes were first
presented live, as Cunning recalls it "in order to
work out the kinks", and then were re-done and shot
on film.
• •
Employing editing
techniques that this group of pioneers devised, the
shows were edited into ten, fifteen, and twenty
minute time segments. In those days no one could
decide just how long television shows would be.
Those working with Cunning suspected that TV might
depart from radio's format and present three
programs per hour in twenty minute segments. They
reasoned that in this way the hourly cost of
television could be brought down to a more
realistic level.
•
•
The first group of Sawyer films numbered
eighty-eight and was completed in 1943. Shooting on
the series has continued until the present. In
1940, Cunning moved to 6530 Sunset Blvd., present
address of Five Star Productions, the Hollywood
Gourmet restaurant, and radio station KBIG.
• •
He established his own
television production unit there which he called
"stage eight" in memory of the stage on which he
produced his first successful motion picture in the
late thirties. In 1946, Edgar Bergen joined Cunning
to form the Edgar Bergen Television Center; the two
were associated at the Sunset address for several
years.
•
•
As new stations went on the air the Tom Sawyer
films were shipped to them and released. The
episodes were all shot on 16mm film and Cunning
recalls that they were the first films ever to be
made using the single system
camera.
•
•
During the war years many industry notables worked
at "stage eight", including Marcia Drake, chief
writer of the series, Glen Glenn, the sound
specialist, Bob Clampett, cartoonist,and Coleen
Townsend, former movie star.
•
•
In 1945, Hollywood was rudely shaken by the small
earthquake that was television. More and more
people were becoming aware of the new medium. The
vast majority were still frankly skeptical of its
future. There was almost complete agreement on one
point; should television become in reality as big
as its proponents, expected, it would at least be
live, not film. One of today's top network
executives is remembered to have made the statement
that film would never constitute any large segment
of tv's time and most certainly would be run only
once if at all.
•
•
A few producers followed Pat Cunning's example,
however. Their effort was marked by cautious
probings and usually consisted of the making of a
pilot film which didn't sell and became shelved as
a result. But, in July of 1947, Jerry Fairbanks
Productions shot a pilot which resulted in an NBC
contract for the series.
• •
The show was to be a
"whodunit" affair entitled Public Prosecutor. Top
NBC officials at that time were assuming the
twenty-minute time segment. As a result the series
(26 films in all) was shot in this length. The
budget was low, around $8,000 per show, and the
production schedule was tight.
• •
At one time the
Fairbanks' crew was turning out a show a day on the
Hollywood lot. Once again W6XAO became a sort of
testing ground. Late at night the early episodes of
Public Prosecutor, starring John Howard, were
aired, mainly to detect and correct technical flaws
in the film. Prosecutor, which had gone into
production in January, 1948, hit a snag about the
time it was ready to go on the net in September,
however. The NBC vice president who had suggested
the twenty-minute time length was replaced.
•
•
Some of the shows went on the air employing a ten
minute live "filler" talk by local law enforcement
officials, but by the time the balance was
re-edited to the new thirty-minute length another
company had beaten Fairbanks to the punch, and with
a national sponsor at that!
•
•
This newcomer to the series' race was entitled Your
Show Time. In July, 1948, Realm Productions was
organized to produce film for television. The
principals of this group were Stanley Rubin, now
producer for RKO (latest picture, The Girl Most
Likely), Norman Elzer, the business manager of the
group, Lew Lance, and Sobey Martin. Realm produced
a pilot of the series in July and Gil Ralston sold
it to American Tobacco for Lucky Strike.
• •
The cigarette company
agreed to pay $8,500 per program and contracted for
a total of twenty-six shows. Realm joined forces
with Marshal Grant, now producer of Mayor of the
Town, and Grant-Realm Productions began shooting
the series on the Hal Roach lot in Culver City in
December, 1948.
• •
The material selected
was all in public domain following the line
established by their pilot film treatment of Guy de
Maupassant's Diamond Necklace. Judy Abel, now
executive producer of the Lassie series for Maxwell
Productions, handled the job of production
supervisor. Others in the unit included Bill
Bradford, camera man; Lew Asher, in charge of
props; Raoul Krashour, music; and the head gaffer
was Babe Stafford.
•
•
The main question in production was one of time,
for Grant-Realm was operating on a bare minimum as
far as budget went. Grant-Realm had originally set
out making a tour of the banks, the first contract
for television film tucked smugly in its briefcase.
But the banks turned the deal down cold, for in
those days no one had heard of residual
rights.
• •
Since production costs looked to be about $12,000
per program no bank would go out on a limb. Another
interesting sidelight of production was that no one
worked on Saturday. According to Rudy Abel this was
the first five-day work week shooting in existence.
•
•
On January 28, 1949, The Diamond Necklace went on
the air at 9:00 p.m., on KNBH (now KRCA). This was
unquestionably the first film series made
especially for tv to boast a sponsor. At the end of
the twenty six program period American Tobacco
offered to renew for an additional twenty-six, but
the company turned it down . . . a decision which
today prompts rueful grins when recalled by any of
the principals.
• •
Not only was Your Show
Time the first sponsored tv film series, we might
venture to say that it was the first really good tv
film series, based on present day standards. The
shows are still in syndication under the name of
Story Theatre and reveal a remarkable fineness of
quality considering the hectic conditions
surrounding their birth. As a matter of fact, The
Diamond Necklace won the first "Emmy" award for the
best television film.
•
•
With a major network (NBC) going out on a limb for
Fairbanks and a national sponsor (American Tobacco)
betting on Grant-Realm, the gate had opened and the
herd thundered out. Gordon Levoy reports that he
contracted with six independent producers, among
them Frank Wisbar and George Moskov, to film a
series for Procter & Gamble entitled Fireside
Theatre.
• •
This was in January of
1949, and Levoy produced fifty-two quarter-hour
Firesides altogether. The films were run two at a
time to make a full half-hour show. Bing Crosby
Enterprises took over the series in '50 and P &
G itself later financed it. Fireside Theatre has
been on the air continuously since 1949, and is the
oldest film series to run un-interrupted under the
same name.
•
•
Once again Jerry Fairbanks scored with a "first".
His Paradise Island series which was begun in
January, 1949, was the first musical film series.
The shooting was done in Hollywood and the music
recorded in Mexico City to circumvent the Petrillo
ban.
•
•
A children's series on film, The Magic Lady,
starring Geraldine Larson and her mischievous
little helper named Boko, was completed and went on
the air in September of 1949. The Magic Lady was in
fifteen-minute time segments and was produced at
Telemount by Henry Donovan.
•
•
To record more names and dates here would be
over-stepping our goal, it suffice to say that: Tom
Sawyer by Patrick Michael Cunning was the first
series ever shot on film for tv, Public Prosecutor
by Jerry Fairbanks was the first series ever signed
by a major network; and Your Show Time was the
first series on the air under the auspices of a
national sponsor. Tv film today is in the healthy
position of having more future ahead of it than
past behind it.
•
•
End of Article "1939"
4.
Bylines
-The
World of Sam Donaldson- Biography: Sam
Donaldson ABC News
Correspondent
Sam Donaldson, date of birth: March 11, 1934.
•
•
Samuel Andrew Donaldson,
Jr. was born in El Paso, Texas, and grew up just
across the state line in Chamberino, New Mexico.
His father died before he was born, leaving his
mother and one older brother to run the family's
cotton and dairy farm. His mother drove 25 miles
every morning and night to take him to school in El
Paso.
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