Television ARP

The costly toy of television, into which NBC and CBS have sunk millions, began to prove itself useful last week. With the delighted cooperation of the New York City Police Department, to which civilian defense has been one long headache, NBC's television experts took up the task of teaching urban air-raid wardens how to do their job.

In all of the city's 90-odd precinct police stations, television receivers were installed in classrooms. Private set owners, including International Business Machines' Thomas J. ("Think") Watson, had opened their houses to other classes. Policemen who got their own instruction in London helped NBC to put on the first of six weekly shows: 1) the warden's duties; 2) bomb and fire fighting; 3) blackouts; 4) gas warfare; 5) review; 6) examination.

Carpentered by NBC scripters from the official warden's handbook, last week's program was produced with elaborate stage sets in NBC's glare-lit, gadget-hedged television studios. It took a typical warden in & out of brownstones and apartment houses, into a blacked-out street ("Get off the streets, Miss. ... If you can get home in five minutes, do so.") It was repeated six times a day for three days. From the number of pupils in attendance, police figured that in six weeks 54,000 wardens should know their stuff.

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