General Motors Hour - general articles

 Brian Wright told Susan Lever:

Then we went to the “General Motors Hour.” We did 2-3 Australian plays. We bought Sumner Locke Elliot’s “Shadow of...” “The Grey Nurse Said Nothing” and Bruce Stuart’s “Shadow of a Pale Horse.” We did those at the “General Motors Hour.” They were plays which had been done overseas. But the other two we were talking about, we actually commissioned here.   I had a dream just before I left Channel 7. Of coming up with a whole new series of Australian plays. I left Channel 7 at that stage, and that never came to pass.

Ailsa McPherson

And ad man, R Walker, talked about the show in the Vincent Committee

Would you care to mention to the Committee the matter of whether there is a buyer resistance to locally produced programmes?
—Guardedly I would answer that the buyer resistance is there in relation to the past performance of Australian programmes. In other words, by and large they have not achieved the ratings, that is, the high audience exposure, that overseas programmes have achieved. In some instances that is a calculated risk. For instance, our clients General Motors sponsored last year six Australian plays. In putting them we knew that we could not possibly attract the same sort of audience as if we had put on an hour Hollywood film or something like that, but by and large we thought we would get to an articulate opinion forming group of the community, and, as such, they are more important to us than the mere physical numbers. So I would say that any resistance there is is probably brought about by the relatively poor performance of Australian programmes to date.
Could you express a view with regard to the standards of local drama as distinct from overseas drama shown in Australia?
—They certainly lack the slickness of the American productions.
What do you mean by “ slickness ”?
—Professional techniques that they adopt in both the camera movement and in casting. For instance, by and large even the most horrible of till the violent gun-slinging things is usually perfectly ‘ cast and there is an overall air of perfect production. That is sometimes lacking in the Australian programmes.
We have had evidence to-day that some of that is due to a lack of rehearsing time because of a lack of financial 1 resources?
—That could be with some of them, I guess, 1 but I think the normal General Motors Hour, for instance, \ which lasts anything from one hour to one-and-a-half hours would take from 40 to 45 hours rehearsal time, ‘= as opposed to the old radio days of probably eight hours 1 rehearsal time. The rehearsals that we have in Australia c are not equivalent to those that are carried out in America, F of course, where a one-hour play is rehearsed throughout a a whole week. However, the rehearsals here may be spread f over a week, although actually held on only two or three v afternoons. p
Would you say that buyer resistance is changing?
—I F* Jo not like the word “ resistance ”. ° It has been used by the Broadcasting Control Board, ^ but you can use your own expression. You know what I mean, do you not?
—I know what you mean, hut I do not n, think die word is appropriate to describe the attitude of advertisers. Cadburys and most of our clients would be very happy to put on Australian programmes, providing tc we had a reasonable assurance of fa) their quality, and b. (h) that they would get to a reasonable cross-section of oi the market. Where you are selling dav-lo-day products w like dairy-milk chocolate or nut-milk chocolate, your se approach is a little bit different from that which you use of when selling the value of General Motors to the Australian th economy. When you have consumer products with their vvi volume turnover you are looking for the greatest possible audience exposure to your advertising. I think, in passing, that it is fair to point out that television is only one of the many media open to advertisers to sell their wares ar and there is no responsibility on the part of any advertiser ag to use television at all. We use it because it suits our book sei to do so, but there is no inherent obligation. sb Would you say the standard of locallv produced drama °f is improving?
--Yes, I definitely would. We put on a couple of shows. “One Day of the Year” being one of them, and the other “Man Haul”, by Osmar White, and thj while some of the tail-end actors were rather weak, the by main acting was very’ good. j \ MR. R. R. WALKER
And are suitable local productions as freely available as overseas productions?
—They are very difficult to get.
Is that because of poor quality or insufficient quantity?
—• Because of lack of quality. There is no lack of quantity.
You sa’v there is no lack of quantity?
—I do not think so. General Motors ran a General Motors Theatre Award through the Elizabethan Trust in Sydney. Last year it was run in connexion with plays; this year it is run in con- nexion with a musical comedy. The awards have just recently been made. I think that of about 260 plays we received, about four or five looked possibilities for television productions, but after reading them we found that they posed too man’y production difficulties. So that out of 260 we got virtually none. We are inclined to think now that it is better to commission writers to write plays, writers of known stature, than to invite people to sub- mit plays by way of competitions.
Are you suggesting that we have not the dramatists in Australia?
—Yes, I would suggest that.
By Senator Hannan.—Would you agree that the qualified script writer is probably the greatest bottleneck in the production of good quality local programmes?
—Yes.
In other words, the scriptwriter is in fact the key man?
—Yes. 

You said also in speaking of the approach of the igencies to local productions, that generally they would ae happy to have the local product if it was reasonably >ood and could be widely shown. Are those the two con- ditions?
—Reasonably good and widely shown, and with a ■easonable assurance that it would be well received. ..

 I can tell you what we paid for the General Motors Hour pro- grammes, “ One Day of the Year ” and “ Man Hall ”, They cost us between £3,000 and £3,500 per programme. That does not include station time. I might add that the stations have said that on that figure they lost money, but to what extent 1 do not know. 

It was actually produced by the programme department of the transmitting station?

—In association with the Eliza- bethan Theatre Trust...

What does it cost to buy prime time, between 7.30 and 9.30 p.m., in Sydney and Melbourne?
—I will give you the half-hour rates. This is based on once a week, 52 half hours a year, and these are averages. In Melbourne about £270, Sydney £310, Brisbane and Adelaide £130.
And it is about £600 an hour, which is about £10 a minute, for television time?
—About £600 an hour. If you wanted to sponsor a half-hour programme It would cost you between £550 and £600 for an average good quality American product.    

Age 11 May 1961