The Rumblings

In its headlong way, television had tromped on many a sensitive toe. Last week it heard some anguished cries.

Advertisers listened with foreboding to the results of a survey released by New York City's Duane Jones Co. Of 1,580 TV owners answering a survey, 92.4% were listening to radio less than before they owned TV sets; 80.9% were going to movies less frequently; 58.9% were reading fewer books; 48.5% read magazines less often; 23.9% were even skimping on newspapers.

The survey also showed that TV could win friends as well as influence people: over 70% reported a noticeable increase of visitors since installing TV.

P: Television was also viewed with alarm, by religious leaders. Protestant Theologian Reinhold Niebuhr, in Christianity and Crisis, declared that the immediate effect of TV would be "a further vulgarization of our culture . . . Much of what is still wholesome in our life will perish under the impact of this new visual aid . . ." Niebuhr noted scornfully that "prize fights seem to be the best subjects of television."

The Christian Century lamented that "the Roman Catholic Church, with its pageantry and color, will have an appeal in television which the Protestant churches lack." The telegenic Catholic Church seemed to have its own problems. In December, worshipers in the New York metropolitan area were warned that watching Mass over TV was not an acceptable substitute for attending Mass in person.

Writers who grind out the millions of words for insatiable TV took nervous note of some of the problems, in the current Authors League Bulletin. Sample findings of eight experts and TV pioneers:

P: "Live" dramas will probably be replaced by film.

P: A movie scenarist or a dramatist makes the transition to TV more easily than a radio writer.

P: TV's present format is probably temporary. In radio's infancy, back in 1928, "one of the most popular types of programs was organ music." There may be equally radical changes in TV, since "it is a field where there is no established taste, no formula."

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