Week of November 23, 1959

An Atlas Able moon rocket blasts off Cape Canaveral but failure of the upper

stages ruins the U.s. effort to launch the first lunar satellite.

Lowland areas in Washington near Seattle are inundated as the worst flooding

hits the area in 26 years.

No First Lady stand-in - Mrs. Barbara Eisenhower cannot serve

as First Lady “stand-in” for her mother-in-law while accompanying

the President on his forthcoming goodwill trip abroad say officials.

When it was announced earlier this month that Barbara would

make the trip, she was dubbed unofficially as a substitute for the

First Lady.

Diplomatic reports say Russia is banding together with its satellites and to a

lesser degree Red China in a giant “Communist” common market” to boost

competitive power against the United States and Western Europe.

Actress Rosalind Russell and her husband Frederick Brisson dine with the

Eisenhower’s on Thanksgiving at the White House.

Senator John F. Kennedy of Massachusetts says the Soviet

Union may outstrip the United States within the next decade if a

Republican administration is returned to the White House next

year. “In the next 10 years, unless we bring some sense into our

farm policies, the Soviet Union may out produce us in food and find

some better way of distributing it to a hungry world. By 1975 the

Soviet Union may out produce us in hydroelectric power. Every

time the Soviets are first, whether they are first in education, hydro-

electric power, space or food, it augments to totalitarian system

and works to our discredit.”

General Motors will resume passenger car assembly December 7 after nearly a

month-long shutdown because of a steel shortage.

The Census Bureau reports the U.S. population has hit 179 million.

In a Gallup Poll - Nixon is favored over John F. Kennedy 53% to 47%.

Thousands of leftist-led Japanese demanding an end to U.S military ties, storm

onto the grounds of the Parliament Building in Tokyo. Some 462 persons were

injured in clashes with police.

Week of November 23, 1959

In Panama - Police round up all known anti-U.S. agitators after a night of riot,

pillage and stoning of American soldiers standing guard at the Canal Zone.

In Communist’s pocket? - Castro’s increasing “hate America’ campaign. Many

believe only one reason can explain it. It is because the Communists want it that

way and Castro has agreed to it.

Cuba’s organized labor withdraws from the Inter-American Regional Organization

of Workers. The resolution for withdrawal from the anti-Red inter-American

organization charged the group is under control of “American imperialism, which

has consistently supported all dictators.” The Cuban group proposed creation of

a new “revolutionary confederation of Latin American workers’ and asked that

other Latin American labor groups join.

Fidel Castro seizes the Havana Riviera Hotel, built two years ago by the Smith

Brothers of Toronto at a cost of $15 million. The hotel had been losing

approximately $10,000 daily since the Castro regime came into power January 1.

The hotel last summer had sought permission from the government to close

down for the hot months due to the losses. The government said no and a plea to

lay off excess employees also was turned down.

The Cuban government

adopts legislation requiring

oil exploration and

exploitation firms to work

their Cuban claims or lose

them. Petroleum

executives say the new law

appears to be calculated to

force suspension of

operations by most large

companies.

Sports - Passing former

boxing champ Max Bear

(50) of a heart attack.

Week of November 23, 1959

Brigitte Bardot says her actor husband’s one desire

is to put in his time in the army just like everyone else.

Her soldier-husband, Jacques Charrier , is under

treatment for nervous depression at the Val de Grace

Military Hospital in Paris. The symptoms developed les

than two weeks after he donned his uniform. Several

Paris newspapers have suggested his is getting

preferred treatment and a member of Parliament asked

the government what it panned to do to see that

everyone in the army is treated alike.

Las Vegas stripper Candy Barr is jailed on a Texas narcotics warrant.

Ex-boyfriend Mickey Cohen apparently withdrew his guarantee of her

$15,000 bond. Unrelated - She and her nude girl act have just been

given the boot by the El Rancho and will be replaced by Nelson Eddy.

The hotel was concerned about its liquor license.

New York - Elizabeth Taylor is admitted to the Harkness Pavilion of Columbia

Presbyterian Hospital for Pneumonia. She has been suffering with a cough for

about two weeks.

Television news -

Dick Clark’s “World of Talent” Sunday night program is leaving the air due to low

ratings. The last show will be December 20.

Hugh Beaumont who plays Ward Cleaver on ABC-TV’s “Leave

It To Beaver,” says part of the show’s success is the avoidance

of hokum, a combination of honesty, good writing and never

reaching for laughs. “Connelly and Mosher also avoid using

gimmicks which many series might use when looking for laughs

week after week. Instead, as the kinds have aged, the scripts

have grown with them.”

Jerry Lewis in his annual New York WNEW-TV Muscular Dystrophy telethon

raised over $500,000 - about the same as two years ago. Lewis, who jet-

sandwiched the 19-hour benefit into his shooting schedule on “CinderFella,”

stated he was doing his final telethon. This was Lewis’ fourth MD telethon. He

skipped doing one last year because of illness.

Week of November 23, 1959

Payola hits Alan Freed -

WABC radio fires deejay Alan Freed (Nov 20)

because he refused to sign a statement that he

was never taken pay-offs for plugging records on

his show. Three days later (23), Freed leaves his

WNEW-TV teen dance show in a “mutual

disengagement” after the station moved to take

full control of this show which had been produced

by Freed’s own company, Stamford Productions.

Freed’s last WNEW-TV show, which was taped

in advance, will run until Saturday, November 28.

Dick Clark has to sign the same affidavit, as did

other ABC radio personalities, which include other WABC radio deejays Martin

Block, Fred Robbins, Dick Shepherd and Al Lohman Jr.

At the New York district attorney’s office, Freed refuses to sign a waiver of

immunity and face a grand jury investigating payola. Without such a waiver, a

witness cannot be prosecuted on the basis of self testimony. “I wouldn’t sign. I

refused to sign on advice from my counsel.” Freed claims he has never accepted

payola but admitted taking what he called “consultant fees.” Freed’s replacement

on WABC radio is Fred Robbins. On his WNEW-TV show it’s singer Richard

Hayes, who’s also a deejay on WCBS radio. Hayes is best known for his 1955 hit

“Davy Crockett.’

More payola - To date, the probes which are spreading to other cities as officials

discover the headline values in music personalities, has racked up one

confession of giving payola by a record company, King Records. Tom Clark of

Detroit said he accepted payola.

TV related - NBC announces that Jan Murray, producer and star of the weekday

morning quiz show “Treasure Chest,” has asked that his program be terminated.

Dick Clark’s music empire becomes the

first casualty of the current Congressional

war against payola. Clark, who

developed substantial interests in record

and publishing operations since bowing

on “Bandstand” in 1956, was ordered to

give up his “outside” music business

activities or get off the ABC-TV network.

Clark owns a record pressing plant,

Swan Records and publishing firm

January Music. “American Bandstand”

Week of November 23, 1959

producer Anthony Mammarella and Clark’s partner in the various enterprises has

decided to quit the broadcast business to maintain his ownership in the music

companies. Mammerella had been with WFIL-TV for the past eight years and

produced the original “Bandstand” with Bob Horn. Mammarella states that his

financial status is the best answer to any queries about the legitimacy of his

activities and has offered to let any official body examine his books.

Dick Clark is cleared by the ABC-TV management of any payola activities in a

statement which says, “We have examined all evidence available to us

concerning these programs and their production organizations and have

concluded that Dick Clark has neither solicited nor accepted any personal

considerations, money or otherwise, to have any performer appear or to play any

recording on any of his programs.”

Joe Niagra , a top Philadelphia deejay at WIBG, resigns his

post, but he was going to leave to go to the West coast on

December 19. Related possibly - Ed Cohn, head of Lescoe

Records, airs charges he hap paid local Philly deejays from

45 to $100 to play the records he was pushing. “This city has

the reputation of being the worst place in the country for

payola,” said Cohn.

Also leaving - deejay Don McLeod resigns form WXYZ

Detroit.

Radio news - It is certain that by year’s end, ABC radio will have full ownership

of WLS, pending approval by the FCC, pending ABC’s buyout of the outstanding

50% stock from Prairie Farmer Publishing Co. WLS has been co-owned by both

companies about six years ago.

WMCA acquires control of Radio Press International, a newsgathering

organization that supplies reports to about 50 subscribing stations.

Murray Kaufman (Murray the K) on 1010WINS, president of the

National Council of Disk Jockeys for Public Service, is hit by a

divorce action by his wife, Claire Kaufman, as a result of a $400

burglary in his N.Y. apartment. Following the holdup, Kaufman was

photographed with a woman he described as his wife. Mrs. Kaufman

says it was another women and asks the court for $350 a week in

temporary alimony, $3,500 counsel fees and custody of their son.

She contends her husband was making $1000 weekly including $600 from WINS

and income from two publishing companies in which he is a partner.