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Television
With No Borders / We Preserve The Moment
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_____________
Feature
Story - Sam Donaldson
has
been reporting on
the entertainment industry for almost five decades,
Starting with TVI Magazine.
(TeleFilm).
-----
In
April 1956, Sam Donaldson and Al Preiss under
DonPre Publishing Company published the debut issue
of Television International Magazine (then
TELEvisionFILM Magazine), one of the major
entertainment industry trade papers in Hollywood.
The office was located at 1580 Cross Roads of the
World, Hollywood, California. Yearly subscription
was $5.00 (Yes, Five Dollars!) and a single copy
cost 50 cents. Here's
a reprint
from TELEFILM Magazine, (Television International
Magazine), dated April 1956, cover
is seen in
Photo.
"1939"
By - Sam
Donaldson
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) &emdash;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.
CLICK
TO READ MORE
Back
Issues are now available from 1956 to present
date.
///
Center
Page / Biography
TIMELINE:
As much a part
of Hollywood as the big sign on the hill, TVI has
been reporting on the entertainment industry for
almost five decades.
-----
In April
1956, Sam Donaldson and Al Preiss under DonPre
Publishing Company published the debut issue of
Television International Magazine (then
TELEvisionFILM Magazine), one of the major
entertainment industry trade papers in Hollywood.
The office was located at 1580 Cross Roads of the
World, Hollywood, California. Yearly subscription
was $5.00 (Yes, Five Dollars!) and a single copy
cost 50 cents.
-----
Back then
the four leading broadcasting trade magazines
devoted less than nine percent (9%) of their total
editorial content directly to television film in
1955 according to TELEvisionFILM Magazine research.
The basis of this research was to point up the need
for adequate editorial coverage of the television
film industry.
-----
Sam
Donaldson in his 1956 headline article "1939"
writes: "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."
-----
That does
not much differ from what Robert Dowling, publisher
of the Hollywood Reporter is saying some fifty
years later, ". . . What is significant about the
entertainment industry is that you can almost reach
back and touch its origins." "TheReporter is no
exception. "Also no exception is the longevity
endured Television International Magazine", says
this writer.
-----
Sam in
his 1987 Autobiography "Hold On Mr. President"
recalls the beginning of Television International
in just these words: " . . . After getting my B.A.,
I went to the University of Southern California for
a year of postgraduate work. This time I worked
hard but didn't stick to it. Instead, I started a
magazine in Hollywood called Television Film with
five thousand dollars and a friend named Al Preiss.
We went first-class, letter press printing instead
of offset, four-color ads instead of black and
white. It soon became evident that we needed fifty
thousand dollars, not five. I sold my car to raise
cash and took a job for a couple of weeks typing
invoices at the Catalina Swim Suite factory, but it
wasn't enough. Finally, I sold out to Al and went
back spend the summer in El Paso before going into
the army, as I was obligated to do. Al is still
publishing the magazine under the name Television
International Magazine."
-----
The
6-feet-plus amiable and overtowering Preiss was a
presence not to be missed at all the major program
markets and industry conferences, domestic and
abroad. He became a major player in Hollywood,
launching the first Hollywood Festival of World
Television in 1963. It was a grand exposition
devoted to showing Hollywood what was being
televised in other parts of the world.
-----
The best
and brightest television producers, executives and
advertisers were chosen to judge outstanding
television programs from all over the world. After
an 11-year tenure, the last annual Festival was
held in 1974.
-----
TVI
became a voice in the industry to be reckoned with,
publishing out of the same offices off Hollywood
Boulevard for more than a quarter of a century, and
out of Pasadena, the following years. (Today, the
offices are in Universal City.)
-----
Preiss
ran Television International until his untimely
death in August 1986, when he suffered a heart
attack while covering the Video Software Dealers
Association convention in Las Vegas. His wife, and
Associated Editor, Sylvia Preiss subsequently sold
the paper in February 1987 to the Corys, whereby
Josie Cory became its editor-in-chief and
publisher, a position she currently still
holds.
-----
Cory
continued the founders' vision that the television
film industry had needed a publication that would
analyze and put into focus the news, issues and
problems which particularly concern the production
and distribution of film for television. She shared
the founders' keen awareness of the kind of
unprecedented impact television was to and
continues to have on our lives, as she pioneered
the magazine into the firewired digital era and
media online service absolute non-existent on TVI's
radar screen when it was founded in 1956.
-----
Cory
says, "New technologies and the Internet medium
have brought radical changes to the magazine
publishing business, putting it in constant flux
and evolution." By utilizing a "all-in-one"
computer network connected by "firewire, TVI was
able to share its media storage content and was
first to stream "packets" of information out to the
Internet using its VATS Wi-Fi systems. Covering an
array of integrated media beats, it is TVI's goal
to make it easier for users to access current and
archival material they want.
-----
Television
International Magazine was among the early
entertainment trades to go
online.-----
Today
Television International is owned by Universal
City-based Television International Publications,
whose properties include Your Easy Search Internet
companies: tvimagazine.com; tvinews.net; yes90.com;
smart90.com; lookradio.com; vralogo.com; vratv.com;
nbs100.com, and XingTv.com.
Back Issues
are available from 1956 to present date.
///
ByLines:
Editors Note
TVI
Magazine ONLINE / IS YOUR INDUSTRY WEB SITE Ready
for the future?
-----
TVI
Magazine introduces here a new marketing forum for
the international television industry: a dynamic
online service on its web site. TVI Magazine will
now effectively serve the new marketing needs of
all entertainment companies with a tool that offers
almost instantaneous promotion updates. Company
promotional material that appears on TVI Magazine's
Web site can be hyperlinked with the company's own
URL. TVI Magazine can also link the ads to a
special Web page for the advertiser and then link
that page to the advertiser's
URL.
-----
To
ensure that visitors find their way to promotion
information and product updates, TVI Magazine is
listing TVI Magazine Online on more than 250 of the
world's most popular search engines and electronic
directories.
-----
Online
ad space can be purchased in monthly increments
(with a one-month minimum). At renewal time,
advertisers can change their ad and/or move it to
another space if one is available. The TVI Magazine
Web site will indicate the total number of hits on
the home page per month and per day, enabling
advertisers to monitor their reach and billings
regularly.
-----
TVI
Magazine has two key pages for ad placement: the
index page (home page) and the main page (main page
of articles). Less expensive ad space is available
on article pages. Advertisers can provide the
artwork and/or logo, either by submitting the file
electronically or via an existing graphic on the
Web that TVI Magazine's online team can
grab.
-----
Most
ads can be posted on the TVI Magazine site within a
few hours. However, in the event that any graphic
manipulation is required, one must allow more time
before the ad is posted, usually two to seven
business days for a static banner and up to 10
business days for an animated banner ad.
-----It
just goes to show you, says Troy about the TV and
Film industry -- "NOTHING IN THIS WORLD IS
PERMANENT" . . . so follow the
money -
- and
take some advice from a dinner-time chat with
"Stonehead" --
Disappointments Are Great! Follow
the Money . . . the Internet and the Smart- Daaf
Boys.
///
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Respectfully
Submitted
Josie
Cory
Publisher/Editor
TVI Magazine
TVI
Magazine, tviNews.net, Associated Press, Reuters,
BBC, LA Times, NY Times, VRA's D-Diaries, Press
Releases, They Said It Tracking Model, and
SmartSearch were used in compiling and ascertaining
this Yes90 news report.
©2004-2006. Copyright. All
rights reserved by: TVI Publications, VRA TelePlay
Pictures and Big Six Media Entertainments. Tel/Fax:
323 462.1099.
LookRadio.com
-
Do
it with movies, slide shows and
music!
-----
Smart90's
24-hour, 365 days-a-year Broadband S90tv
WebMagic
web page is the simplest way to add the WebMagic to
your existing web pages. It's an Exciting New Way
to Advertise.
-----
Advertise
Now on Smart90.com and utilize S90tv's Web Magic on
your own domain. Email
your insertion order and advertising copy or banner
requests to the attention of: Advertising Marketing
Director at
look@smart90.com™.
- -----To
get you started today, you can attach to your
Email, your logo, slides, transparencies,
illustrations, photographs or other computer
graphics. The materials will be forwarded directly
to our art department.-
- -----
Advertising
material must be received by the 10th of every
month to be included in the following scheduled
print magazine issue. In regards to our daily
tviNews.net edition, your banner, logo, web movie,
slide show or 60x500 animated banner, that is to be
headlined at the top of our featured news page, as
a linkonad or smartkudoad,
can be Emailed to us at your convenience.
- -----
Or
better yet, tell us where to go to fetch the
information -- this way it will be much quicker to
get you up and running. For Ad rates please click
on: TVI
Advertising Rates.
Please
read: "How
Do We Do Business?
We Preserve The
Moment
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