The Flirtation

Since 1928, when television first opened its infant eyes, the youngster has been making goo-goos at Hollywood. Hollywood, full of its grown-up affairs, paid no attention. Now television is too big to be ignored. Last week three major studios were openly or clandestinely carrying on with the young fellow:

Paramount was empire-building as fast as time and the FCC would permit. Last week KTLA, the big Paramount-owned station in Los Angeles, had one of the fullest logbooks of any television studio in the U.S. (35 hours a week). Another Paramount production is Chicago's WBKB, and the company has a big (29%) interest in DuMont, one of television's Big Three networks.

20th Century-Fox also had a good seat on the bandwagon. Last week, Fox's Spyros Skouras announced that, beginning Feb. 16, Movietone News would supply NBC with five television newsreels a week.

Warner Bros, was deeply involved in some mysterious experimentations with big television screens, but nobody would say what it was all about.

MGM, RKO, Columbia and Universal-International seemed as aloof as ever. The smaller, independent producers were willing to cooperate with television, but in general didn't have much to offer. And most of the big stars were still barred from television by clauses in their contracts.

Hollywood's go-slow attitude is not mere stubbornness; there are many hurdles to leap, many jitters to calm before the movies and television can make beautiful pictures together. James C. Petrillo's A.F.M. forbids the televising of any major films--past or present--using union musicians. Result: only B pictures or antiques reach the telescreen. Another factor: cautious, fiercely competitive Hollywood moves slowly--as it did in taking up sound 21 years ago. The highest hurdle is the real, ever-present fear that the living room teleset will make a deep dent in the nation's movie box offices.

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