Advance on Hollywood

The running war between TV and Hollywood produced two new border skirmishes last week. In both, TV inched slowly forward.

P: In Washington, the Federal Communications Commission decided that Hollywood's refusal to let TV use its top box-office films, or its name stars for guest appearances, sounded suspiciously like monopoly and restraint of trade. The plain implication: unless Hollywood relented, FCC would be forced to rule against movie producers' applications for new TV stations. Harry Brandt, the outraged president of the Independent Theater Owners Association, promptly charged that FCC was trying to "blackjack the motion-picture industry into committing hara-kiri."

P: In Manhattan, CBS announced a new contract policy calculated to out-Hollywood Hollywood. The network signed a five-year contract with Actress Mary (Studio One, Suspense) Sinclair, was negotiating similar contracts with others in an effort to build a CBS star system. Said a network executive proudly: "While they're with us they'll be moored to television--they can't do any Broadway plays or movies."

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