Show Business: The Undershirt Riposte

In the war of the large silver screen with the small grey one, Hollywood Producer Jerry (Peyton Place) Wald last week threatened what may become known as the Great Undershirt Riposte. Wald was agitated by TV's "unspeakable hijacking." Examples: last year Playhouse go produced The Helen Morgan Story just in time to capitalize on Warner Brothers' Helen Morgan Story, and this month TV Producer David Susskind announced plans for a $400,000 quickie that would beat the release of MGM's $12.5 million Ben Hur. Said Wald: Hollywood ought to fight back with movies that "in a tasteful manner will show their vast world audiences the disadvantages of buying, using or owning" products made by sponsors of offending TV shows.

"We know what happened," said Wald ominously, "when Clark Gable didn't have any undershirt on in It Happened One Night. It just about ruined the underwear business. We could do the same thing. There's Gary Grant, see, smoking a cigarette. He coughs, and somebody says, 'I told you to stop smoking.' Or we could have a very young actress look down at the breakfast food and sneer, 'Do I have to? It's like eating the front lawn.' "

Near week's end Producer Susskind withdrew plans for his TV Ben Hur. Still in the works for CBS's U.S. Steel Hour: a TV play about the life of Sigmund Freud, anticipating a planned movie. The odds are nicely balanced. While the movie makers have Existentialist Jean-Paul Sartre to write the script, TV has Farley Granger to play Professor Freud.