Week of March 8-20, 1958

Atty. General Rogers orders a sweeping grand jury investigation into reports of

bribery and influence peddling in the FCC

Visiting Europe, Vice President Nixon assures the British

people President Eisenhower is “running the show in the United

States.” Some British newspapers and politicians have been

calling the U.S. Chief Executive a part-time President who has

failed to show the leadership the West needs in dealing with the

Russians. Nixon, appearing on a television interview filmed in his

Washington office, said he was aware of talk about how much

time the President spends at his job and whether he actually

makes the big decisions. “Now my answer is without

qualification. Make no mistake about it - President Eisenhower is running the

show in the United States.”

An Air Force B-47 accidentally drops an unarmed atomic bomb near Florence,

South Carolina. There was no atomic explosion, but the TNT which is part of the

nuclear weapon’s trigger mechanism blasted a big hole in the ground, damaging

six houses.

The Senate passes a $1.85 billion emergency housing bill designed to create up

to 600,000 new jobs.

President Batista of Cuba suspends civil rights

throughout the revolt-torn country, only to see his

entire 22-member Cabinet walk out. Batista

immediately names a new Cabinet.

Cuban rebel leader Fidel Castro issues a 22-point

ultimatum from his mountain headquarters for

President Fulgencio Batista to resign by April 5. In

the letter, Castro said a “fight to the finish” would

be launched by his guerrilla fighters and by a band

of roving terrorists everywhere, beginning on that date.

24 persons die in a flash fire in a textile building on Broadway in New York City,

near Hudson Street. The blaze began when a textile-drying oven exploded. After

the blaze was extinguished hours later, fireman actually found two persons alive

in the burned building. One was a woman who had taken refuge in a metal box.

Water from streaming hoses kept the box cool, keeping her alive. The other - a

Week of March 8-20, 1958

man, hugging the floor, had shielded himself from the flames and smoke.

The Supreme Court rules unanimously that “ordinary and necessary expenses”

of operating an illegal bookmaking business may be deducted for Federal income

tax purposes.

Prof. Jerome Wiesner of MIT warns that the Soviet Union could attain over-all

superiority to the United States in five years.

In Monaco - a 21-gun salute sounds at

the arrival of a baby boy - heir to the

throne - for Prince Rainier and Grace

Kelly.

Joyce Greller, sitting in the audience in

the Broadway play “Look Back In Anger,”

climbs from the audience to the stage

and slaps the male star, Kenneth Haigh,

across the face. It was the third act with

Haigh sitting and reading a paper,

settling down with a woman, that’s not

his wife. Greller later said after she calmed down: “I’d just had a fight a few days

ago with a boy friend and this thing on the stage reminded me of all the rotten

men I’ve known.”

Fashion - London’s Nat Peal - a sweater expert and one who sells more than

20,000 sweaters annually, says American females wear their sweaters too loose.

“A woman with a 36-inch bust should wear a size 36 sweater.”

Sports - Dodgers’ Duke Snider says his knee is improving and he’ll be ready to

play soon.

Entertainment news - Divorcing - Actress June Lockhart

(mom on Lassie) from Dr John Francis Maloney - a New York

physician. The actress said her husband drank to excess and

stayed away from home several nights a week.

Divorced - Agnes Moorhead (48) from actor Robert Gist (36).

Just over a week away from entering the Army, Elvis Presley

(22) says he doesn’t know what duties he’ll have when he’s inducted: “I haven’t

talked to anyone about it. I’ll do what they ask.”

Week of March 8-20, 1958

Is Frank Sinatra going to propose marriage to

Lauren Bacall ? Ms. Bacall, widow of Humphrey

Bogart, supposedly admitted Sinatra asked her to

marry him while they were eating in a Japanese

restaurant and that she either had or intends to say

yes.

Hedda Hopper says Sandra Dee’s rise to

fame came quickly. The 15-year-old began

modeling at 12. How? She was a Girl Scout

and modeled at one of her troop’s benefit

fashion shows, where agent Harry Conover

saw and signed her. The following day,

American Girl magazine asked to pose for

a cover and her career launched. She was

later chosen by Saturday Evening Post as

one of America’s top models. Sandra says

she’s seen “My Fair Lady” four times and

has a crush on Rex Harrison.

William A. (Bud) Abbott files a complaint

against partner Lou Costello, demanding an accounting of at least $222,465.00

from Costello’s TCA Inc. The complaint says that Abbott entered into a contract

with TCA, headed by Costello for appearance in 52 television films and that he

was to receive one-half of the net proceeds, but not less than $7500 per film. He

says he received about half the compensation, which should have been at least

$390,000.

Ingrid Bergman and Swedish Theatrical Agent Lara Schmidt decide to buy an

island off of Sweden.

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Week of March 8-20, 1958

At the mart - Ajax Cleanser - 14oz can - .12 ... General Electric Light Bulbs - 100

watt - .23 each ... Bananas - 2lbs for .29 ... Sliced Bacon - 1pound - .69

Sunday Night Television -

CBS - The Last Word, Twentieth

Century, Lassie, Jack Benny, Ed

Sullivan, GE Theater, Alfred

Hitchcock Presents, The $64,000

Challenge, What’s My Line?

NBC - Meet The Press, Outlook,

My Friend Flicka, Sally, Steve

Allen, Dinah Shore, Loretta Young

ABC - Maverick, Adventure at

Scott Island, Sid Caesar Invites

You, You Asked for It, Scotland

Yard

Steve Allen - Dolores Gray, Lou

Costello, Jack Jones.

Dinah Shore - Bob Cummings, Pat

Boone, Shirley McLaine, Carol

Burnett.

$64,000 Challenge - With emcee Ralph Story.

Wednesday Night Television - CBS -I

Love Lucy, Big Record, The Millionaire,

I’ve Got A Secret, Circle Theater ... NBC

- Wagon Train, Father Knows Best, Kraft

Theater, This Is Your Life, Code 3 ...

ABC - Disneyland, Tombstone Territory,

Ozzie and Harriet, Betty White Show,

Boxing

Father Knows Best - Betty gets some

help as a college friend helps her campaign to save a campus hangout from

destruction.

The Millionaire - Michael Anthony delivers a $1 million check to a medical student

Week of March 8-20, 1958

whose finance is interested in another. Martin Milner, Joyce Meadows and Peter

Hansen star.

Nielsen top TV shows -

Gunsmoke (CBS) - 45.1

Wells Fargo (NBC) - 39.2

Have Gun, Will Travel (CBS) - 37.0

Danny Thomas Show (CBS) - 36.1

Restless Gun (NBC) - 35.9

I’ve Got A Secret (CBS) - 34.1

Wyatt Earp (ABC) - 33.5

Wagon Train (NBC) - 33.1

Jerry Lewis (NBC) - 33.1

General Electric Theatre (CBS) - 32.5

Week of March 8-20, 1958

Top syndicated TV shows -

Esso Golden Playhouse

Highway patrol

State Trooper

The Honeymooners

Silent Service

Grand Ole Opry

Death Valley Days

Sheriff of Cochise

Casey Jones

Cisco Kid

Annie Oakley

Men of Annapolis

Boots & Saddles

Popeye cartoons

Code 3

The Whirlybirds

Harbor Command

Crusader

26 Men

Decoy

Dr. Christian

Television news -

Cartoon maker Max Fleischer has begun production

on a new color series of Koko The Klown shorts. The

new Koko (first ones were created in 1917) should be

out soon. The originals are being shown on television.

The Phil Silvers Show will rerun “Rock and Roll

Rookie,” which is about a singer named Elvin Pelvin

who is drafted into the Army. CBS will re-run this

episode (which is about a year old) on March 28,

when the real Elvis is expected to enter the Army.

KTLA (channel 5) becomes the first television station with a news helicopter. It’s

able to transmit both sound and picture without ground connections in regular

hourly on-the-spot telecasts from sites of immediate news importance. Regular

airings of these remote broadcasts will be scheduled hourly from 7pm to 11pm

with cut-ins ranging from two to five minutes. KTAL is adding at least two

additional news commentators and four remote crew workers to handle the

increased slate of news coverage.

Week of March 8-20, 1958

NBC-TV’s “Today” will devote the entire week of April 7 to a study of America’s

teenagers. Titled “The Threshold Years,” the series of five programs will cover

teens from the aspects of “Teenagers & Authority,” Teenage Mores & Customs,”

“Teenagers & Religion,” “Self-Expression and Communication” and “The

Teenager and His Future.”

Don’t miss “The Adventures of Tugboat

Annie” available in syndication.

On Shirley Temple’s Storybook -

Washington Irving’s “The Legend of

Sleepy Hollow.”

MGM is making available Tom & Jerry

(movie theater) cartoons plus new

footage of Bert Lahr, who will be seen as

“Leo, the Wonderful Lion.” Larry Harmon

is producer-writer of the show.

Jackie Gleason’s “The Honeymooners” is setting some sort of trend. When the

series ran on CBS-TV during the 1955-1956 season, it garnered mediocre

ratings. But in syndication, its ratings are huge. Now CBS Film Sales, syndicators

of “The Honeymooners” want to try the same with something called “Colonel

Flack” a pilot of which has been lying dormant.

“Leave It To Beaver” is moving to Wednesday nights (from Fridays) on CBS-TV

as a consequence of slicing of “The Big Record” music series to a half-hour.

Advertising - Red Barber is tapped to become the

official spokesman for Gulf Oil in all its television and

radio commercials. Red is a New York Yankees

announcer.

Cuban TV king Gaspar Pumarejo, the same person

who built the Havana Hilton (at $24 million) is

building a new children’s park near the hotel. Look

for “Children’s Paradise” to open in January. He built

Cuba’s first color TV station - channel 12, whose

tower sits on top of the Hilton.

Week of March 8-20, 1958

Music news - Beech-Nut Life Savers

buys full sponsorship of the new

Saturday night Dick Clark show for 52

weeks on ABC-TV. Early Trendex and

ARB figures give the show a 27.7 share

of the audience with 51% adults. His daytime “American Bandstand” just pulled in

Welch Grape Juice and Corn Products.

Marty Robbins has been re-instated to the “Grand Ole Opry.” Robbins was “fired”

for a short time as a result of an argument between him and WSM general

manager Robert Cooper in which the former required that the station establish a

staff country music orchestra, as it has done with pop musicians.

Laurie London (14) has been appearing in his native England on TV for the past

year. Looks like he has a hit with “He’s Got The Whole World In His Hands.”

NBC-TV may launch a teen program much like Dick Clark’s “Bandstand.” They

say they have been thinking about it.

CBS unveils a “compatible” stereo record, but other record companies aren’t

looking up to it. It seems all labels are pushing stereo these days and any

compatible disk, although a good idea, takes some quality away.

Stereo demonstration - In New York this week, The Ted Steele music show over

WOR-TV asked viewers to turn to WOR radio - and turn both up to get stereo.

Music - MGM Records has set-up a subsidiary label to handle new rock ‘n’ roll

acts. The new outlet will be known as Orbit Records. First two releases are - “A

Teenage Quarrel” by the Wanderers and “Remember” by the Velours.

Billie Holiday is placed on probation for one year, after

pleading guilty to narcotic charges in Philadelphia. The

singer and her husband-manager Louis McKay Jr. were

arrested two years ago. “I’m definitely off drugs,” said

the singer.

Week of March 8-20, 1958

Dick Clark - idol of teenagers everywhere since his

Philadelphia dance show “Bandstand” went national last

August, does a lot of television. The show airs from 3:00

to 3:30 and 4 to 5pm eastern on ABC, but he also does an

hour-long local version over WFIL-TV (Channel 6) from

2:30 to 3:00p, and 3:30 to 4:00p - for a grand total of two-

and-a-half hours each weekday afternoon. As if that

weren’t enough, Clark drives to New York for his half-hour

Saturday night each week. “A small part of my mail -

about 1%, comes from people who don’t like the present

trend in popular music. If you don’t like it, there’s not much

anybody can do about it. It’s like trying to change

someone’s taste in salad dressing. Some prefer Roquefort; others can’t stand it.”

Clark resides in Drexel Hill, PA with his wife and their one-year-old son, Richard.

The Bandstand format influenced by Dick Clark is

on fire - locally. Local DJ’s and personalities are

cropping up almost everywhere with these types of

shows. Jocko Henderson on WATV, Newark; Bob

Clayton on WHDH-TV Boston; Mitch Thomas,

WVUE-TV Philadelphia; Dave Maynard , WBZ-TV

Boston; Scott Muni, WAKR-TV Akron; Tom

Mullarkey, WBAP-TV Ft Worth and more.

A teen poll conducted by WABC radio surveyed

15,000 high school and college students in the New

York area. Favorite male vocalist for high school girls

and boys went to Pet Boone. For college - it was Frank Sinatra. The survey also

said the buying power of teens is enormous. About a quarter of them own cars

and that the average teen is spending $500 annually, about one-fifth the

spending of the average adult.

Radio news -

WMGM -NY personalities, including Peter Tripp, Jerry Marshall and Ted Brown

are plugging a station drive to support a committee to ban teenage weapons to

eliminate the availability of weapons and ammunition to minors.

The Todd Storz stations say they “daypart” with certain “teen” records played

after school. Storz also says he believes in “personality” DJ’s and looks for that

Week of March 8-20, 1958

quality when scouting for prospective DJ material. The Storz stations are WDGY,

Minneapolis; WHB, Kansas City; WTIX, New Orleans and WQAM, Miami.

Radio - There’s a new station in the New York area - WVIP (1310) in Mt. Kisco.

The 1,000-watt station went on the air last October and is already in the black.

The station uses its call letters wisely, stressing its Very Important Programming

serving Very Influential People for “variety, information and pleasure all day.”

WVIP is co-owned by Martin Stone, who worked on such TV shows as Howdy

Doody, Gabby Hayes and Super Circus. The other owner is E. Monroe O’Flyn -

a sort of real estate baron in the area. The station plays easy music with local

news. WVIP has taped station breaks voiced by the likes of Perry Como, Nat

King Cole, Gabby Hayes, Patti Page and others.

Interesting - WOR radio in New York is going to carry the games of the

Philadelphia Phillies, but is having a hard time getting sponsors. They’re

committed to broadcasting 78 games.

WNEW radio in New York becomes the last of the NY independent stations to

drop live musicians from the staff. The station still does a few live music shows

and would like to hire musicians on a spot basis.

Disc Jockey convention in Kansas City - The gist is that

owners of radio stations are restricting the DJ’s to tighter

formats or “formula radio.” About 1,000 DJ’s attended the

two-day conference. The other high point - the fight against

rock ‘n’ roll and all other music programming aimed at the

juvenile audiences. Mitch Miller of Columbia Records

blasted the deejays in a speech titled “The Great Abdication”

made the case against the current rock ‘n’ roll programming

accent: “To say you’ve grossly mishandled this great, fat

money-maker - radio - would be understating the case.

Some of you have made the man who killed the goose that

laid the golden egg look like Bernard Baruch.”

Week of March 8-20, 1958

Miller continued - “You carefully built yourself into the monarchs of radio and

abdicated - abdicated your programming to the corner record shop: to the eight

to 14-year-olds; to the pre-shave crowd what makes up 12% of the country’s

population and zero percent of it s buying power, once you eliminate the pony tail

ribbons, Popsicles and peanut brittle.”

Top-40 and rock ‘n’ roll are doing good things to WINS-New York. For the first

time in its history, the station is #1, beating champ WNEW for the whole day,

getting 12 and 14 Pulse shares.

WISN radio in Milwaukee drops rock ‘n’ roll after 5 hours. The station reported

over 600 phone calls after the station flipped to top-40. Some of the calls were

from advertisers. Now they’re back to MOR/standards.

Singer Frank Sinatra has purchased three radio stations. They are - KJR/Seattle,

KNEW/Spokane and KXL/Portland.

Jim Backus and Merv Griffin get the ABC radio axe as the network shuts down its

experiment of “live” entertainment.

Top records in Britain -

Magic Moments - Perry Como

The story of My Life - Michael Holiday

At the Hop - Danny And The Juniors

Jailhouse Rock - Elvis Presley

Don’t - Elvis Presley

You Are My Destiny - Paul Anka

Love Me Forever - Marion Ryan

Nairobi - Tommy Steele

April Love - Pat Boone

Country & Western favorites -

Ballad of a Teenage Queen - Johnny

Cash

Big River - Johnny Cash

Don’t - Elvis Presley

I Beg Of You - Elvis Presley

The Story of my Life - Marty Robbins

This Little Girl of Mine - Everly Brothers

Breathless - Jerry Lee Lewis

Oh, Lonesome Me - Don Gibson

Oh-Oh, I’m Falling in Love Again - Jimmie Rodgers

Geisha Girl - Hank Locklin

Week of March 8-20, 1958

I Can’t Stop Lovin’ You - Don Gibson

Should We Tell Him - Everly Brothers

Great Balls of Fire - Jerry Lee Lewis

My Special Angel - Bobby Helms

You Win Again - Jerry Lee Lewis

Anna Marie - Jim Reeves

Some top albums this week in 1958:

Concert Encores - Mantovani

Goodnight Dear Lord - Johnny Mathis

At Carnegie Hall - The Weavers

Favorite Ballads - Pete Seeger

Vamps The Roaring 20’s - Eydie Gorme

The Music Man - Original Cast

West Side Story - Original Cast

My Fair Lady - Original Cast

Sings Rodgers & Hart - Ella Fitzgerald

Oh Captain! - Original Cast

Calypso - Harry Belafonte

Come Fly With Me - Frank Sinatra

Frank Sinatra Story - (Columbia Records)

Jamaica - Original Cast

South Pacific - Soundtrack

Pop music this week in 1958

TEQUILA - The Champs

LOLLIPOP - The Chordettes

SWEET LITTLE SIXTEEN - Chuck Berry

ROCK AND ROLL IS HERE TO STAY - Danny & The Juniors

WHO’S SORRY NOW - Connie Francis

CATCH A FALLING STAR - Perry Como

MAYBE BABY - The Crickets (featuring Buddy Holly)

OH JULIE - The Crescendos

26 MILES (Santa Catalina) - The Four Preps

GOOD GOLLY, MISS MOLLY - Little Richard

LAZY MARY - Lou Monte

OH-OH, I’M FALLING IN LOVE AGAIN - Jimmie

Rodgers

BREATHLESS - Jerry Lee Lewis

DON’T - Elvis Presley

A WONDERFUL TIME UP THERE - Pat Boone

ARE YOU SINCERE - Andy Williams

Week of March 8-20, 1958

At the movies -

Teacher’s Pet - Clark Gable, Doris Day, Gig Young, Mamie Van Doren

The Long Hot Summer - Paul Newman, Joanne Woodward, Anthony Franciosa,

Orson Welles, Lee Remick, Angela Lansbury

Sayonara - Marlon Brando

Only The French Can - Jean Gabin, Maria Felix, Francoise Arnoul, Edith Piaf.

Young and Wild - Gene Evans, Scott Marlowe, Carolyn Kearney

The Bridge On The River Kwai - William Holden, Alec Guinness, Jack Hawkins

The Safecracker - Ray Milland, Barry Jones

Underwater Warrior - Dan Dailey, James Gregory, Ross Martin, Raymond

Bailey, Claire Kelly

The Brothers Karamazov - Yul Brynner, Maria Schell, Claire Bloom, Lee J.

Cobb, Albert Salmi, Richard Basehart

Peyton Place - Lana Turner, Lee Philips, Lloyd Nolan, Arthur Kennedy, Russ

Tamblyn, Terry Moore, Hope Lange

Paris Holiday - Bob Hope, Fernandel, Anita Ekberg

Cowboy - Glenn Ford, Jack Lemmon, Anna Kashfi, Brian Donlevy

Jet Attack - John Agar, Audrey Totter, Gregory Walcott, James Dobson.