A Guy with Ideas

NBC, well along on a lavish campaign to buy up entertainers for its TV network, last week hired a man to tell it what to do with its high-priced talent. In signing a two-year "consultant" contract with pint-sized Showman Billy Rose, NBC Vice President William Brooks explained: "He seems to be quite a guy with ideas, and you've got to take ideas where you can find them."

Rose, 51, who has produced everything from a flea circus to opera, had an operation last month. After that, he gave up his syndicated newspaper column ("I've still got . . . a skinful of ache"), and is closing his Manhattan nightclub, the Diamond Horseshoe. But last week he was eager to get on with his new job. His only previous TV experience has been in an advisory capacity on the half-hour Billy Rose Show (Tues. 9 p.m., ABC), a frequently effective dramatic series directed by Broadway's talented Jed Harris (The Front Page, Our Town, The Heiress). As NBC consultant, Rose will make "suggestions" on policy, programming and showmanship. Best of all, he says, is "the idea of someone wanting to pay money just to talk to me."

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