TIME CLOCK

Dr. Kinsey's Sexual Behavior in the Human Female, which was expected by booksellers to sell 1,000,000 copies, is a comparative flop. Though 210,000 copies have been bought (v. 280,000 printed), the demand has dropped sharply, and many book stores are now overloaded.

Color TV sets, soon to go on the market, will be high-priced, as predicted. CBS will bring out a 15-in. open console set for $975 and a deluxe cabinet model for $1,200. Admiral has a 15-in. set for $1,175, and Majestic's first 14-in. set will cost about $1,000.

Nash and Hudson have agreed to merge. Boards of both firms have already approved the sale of Hudson to the Nash-Kelvinator Corp. through a stock transfer, but lawyers are still hammering out the exact terms.

Movie box-office receipts are on the upswing again. After a steady four-year drop, Hollywood reports a 10% to 15% increase at box offices in the last two months of 1953. Moviemakers' reasons: 3-D and CinemaScope, better pictures, and the first signs of weariness with TV.

Belgium is the latest NATO nation to dfum up trade with Russia. A Belgian shipyard signed a $19,-000,000 contract in Moscow, with government approval, for ten cargo ships (five of 3,000 tons, five of 5,000 tons), to be delivered by 1957.

Detergents now outsell soap.

Total detergent business for the first nine months of 1953 hit a record 1.4 billion Ibs., topping natural soap for the first time, with an estimated 53% of the U.S. washday market.

Rheingold, fourth biggest seller in the U.S., is jumping into the battle for West Coast beer markets (TIME, Oct. 26). Brooklyn's Liebmann Breweries has paid $6,000,-000 for Los Angeles' and San Francisco's Acme Brewing plants and will spend $4,000,000 more for expansion (planned capacity: 1,400,000 bbls. a year). The Los Angeles plant will convert to Rheingold, while the San Francisco brewery will continue to sell for a time under the old names, Acme Gold Label and Bulldog.

Czechoslovakia, the last remaining Iron Curtain nation in the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, has been suspended for not paying the $625,-000 balance of its capital subscription when due. Czechs have one year to pay up or be dropped permanently.

Discount houses will soon find detectives checking up on their activities. The W. A. Shaeffer Pen Co. has hired three agencies (Burns, Pinkerton, Willmark) to find out how discount men get hold of Shaeffer pens (some $125,000 worth in 1953) to sell below Fair Trade minimums.

South Dakota became the 28th oil-producing state in the U.S. when the Shell Oil Co. brought in the first producing well at 8,600 feet, in the northwest part of the state close to the Montana border.

Prewar German bonds will be listed this week for trading on the New York exchanges for the first time since World War II. After months of checking (TIME, Aug. 18 1952), the SEC validated five series of bonds for trading, hopes soon to okay 45 more issues.

Edible fats and oils will be in record supply in 1954, but not necessarily cheaper. Though a total 10.4 billion Ibs. (100 million above 1953) of such vegetable oils as soybean and cottonseed (both used in margarine and shortening) is forecast, Government price props will probably keep prices buoyed up.

First antitrust suit against a major airline was filed by the Government against Pan-American World Airways, the W. R. Grace & Co. and Pan American-Grace Airways (Panagra). The suit charges that the airline and the Grace shipping company formed Panagra to monopolize air transport between the U.S. and South America.

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