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Show GOOD OR BAD, TELEVISION ... f Video - the Great, Irresistible Force ... HAS FASCINATION FOR MILLIONS ' By H. I. PHILLIPS ' " books, papers and even the racing results. The decline in conversation at house parties in television belts has become alarming. Guests hardly hard-ly speak to one another or to the hostess. "Whole evenings are spent in which "come in" and "good LIVING-ROOM SQUAT Television is developing a race of sitters a vast, immovable population popula-tion ol living-room squatters, as it were. In all areas of the country where video has come into play, great masses of people are "set-tin"' "set-tin"' glued around the set, absorbed and silent, neglecting small talks, night" sum up the total exchange of words. 5fc The old man doesn't go down to the store for the papers or a cigar. Mom cuts the cinema. It isn't because television is all sheer entertainment. In fact, it has been rather trying, often downright annoying. Video is stiU in the baby stage. It doesn't look like an extra smart kid. But there is such a diversity diver-sity of attractions on so many programs over so many channels chan-nels that there is a fascination for millions in it, good or bad. So many more thrillers, playlets, vaudeville sketches, hockey games, lights, wrestling bouts, debates, concerts, newsreels, soap operas, comedians, tragedians, actors, dancers, scientists, clowns and puppets pup-pets come zooming into the old homestead that the audience at least gets action. The reactions are curious. We know one addict who says, "It's so bad that it's absorbing." absorb-ing." Another demands, with more enthusiasm, "Show me another medium through which I can get a hockey game, a ski tournament, a forum, a circus, a Broadway show, a couple of westerns, a book review and a carload of miscellaneous miscel-laneous entertainers and. celebrities celebri-ties without getting out of my chair!" take tneir regular radio or w i it alone have been known to nuts over television. The C f ness of operating the varion. dials to bring in the entertain. ment gives them the feeling being producers, stage a,ttf I tors, dramatic coaches, vauds. C ville kibitzers and movie r, t moters. They are never satk ( tied. They are always monkey f ing with the dials, trying u i achieve the perfect show ' The American public is gel& t' more and more . amusement-8 f and it looks as if books, magazi- f and newspapers may have to a i out for showmanship. Man's ho used to be his castle; it is now fight arena, his ball park T theater, his concert hall, his 'in! ' mation bureau and his perso..' clambake. & The answer to "Shall we g0 I somewhere tonight" is "wj,., i People used to leave the apartri, I to kill boredom and seek some t version. They now accomplish f same objectives with an "aed i stack" and a "booster." I I Hurry up with the dinner, rrt,. I There's a prize fight, a wresb f show, six musical revues, a tec 1 of the nighteries, four wester.! f a travelogue, a newsreel, four rc'jl f tery dramas, 18 newscasts, a rod? I a mardi gras and a sailfish toum- S ment on the video tonightl J i This V That Armour and Co. omitted Hi pn. ferred dividend, saying meat prits have fallen 20 to 30 per cent Steaks and chops are now worj little more, in fact, than tiu weight in gold. Those Ford cars are of new sign, but the strike comes hi tt same old shape at both ends ad in any color so long as lt'i dai blue. We have even discovered a fellow fel-low who finds some commercials attractive on television. He hated commercials on the radio, but a close-up photograph of a mince pie, a layer cake, a stack of wheaties, a bubbling glass of beer or a gal whipping up a dinner on a cooking program intrigues him. He gets sore if a plate of frankfurters and beans doesn't screen well or if a display of gelatins is out of focus. His chief interest in all products seems to be their degree of screen clarity. $ Men and women who could |