The Open Mind

To celebrate the beginning of its 16th year on the air, America's Town Meeting (Tues. 9 p.m. E.D.T., ABC) ran off an unparalleled cluster of four programs in ten days: two regular shows, an hour-long documentary covering its first 15 years, and a broadcast of the award of a commemorative plaque by ABC President Mark Woods.

From its first program in 1935 ("Which Way America-Fascism, Communism, Socialism or Democracy?") to this week's show ("When Arer We Too Old to Work?"), Town Meeting has averaged close to 7,000,000 listeners and 2,000 letters a week. Last year some 24,000 enthusiasts contributed $66,000 to send the show on a world tour of 13 foreign lands.

Week in & week out, Town Meeting has probably raised more blood pressures and blown more dialectical fuses than any other show on the U.S. air. "Whether we've changed people's minds is not important," says Town Hall President George V. Denny Jr. "But whether we've opened people's minds-that is."

In manner and appearance, 50-year-old, white-haired George Denny, a onetime dramatics instructor, is a cross between Harry Truman and Dale Carnegie. He had been moderator of the show since it began. He got the basic idea when he heard a neighbor say he'd "rather be caught dead than listen to Roosevelt on the radio." Denny, who grew up as a Democrat in North Carolina but voted Republican in the last few presidential elections, got to wondering: "How can we get our neighbors to listen to the other side?"

The answer, he decided, was a program that presented both sides fairly. Since fewer than 1% of the million-odd letters that have poured in from listeners have criticized his objectivity, Denny believes he has succeeded. Long carried as a prestige show by ABC, Town Meeting this year was cut from an hour to 30 minutes, picked up the local sponsorship of more than 60 banks, newspapers, labor unions and assorted businesses. Denny and many of his fans feel that the Meeting has lost something by the time cut, and he hopes to go to three-quarters of an hour in the fall. A television show is also scheduled, at the Milton Berle hour. "We don't mind that," says Denny cheerfully. "They're two exactly opposite appeals."

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