Gilded Lilies

Because nature often takes a bad picture, TV cameramen have learned a few tricks to titivate nature's frowzy face. Examples: strips of cloth dangled before a spotlight make a plausible flickering fire, and broken brown glass piled over a light bulb and sprinkled with titanium tetrachloride is a convincing pile of smoldering coals. Dry pablum, confetti or bleached corn flakes are used as a snow flurry; ice cream salt is hail, and raw white rice shaken from a colander looks enough like rain. Glycerine spray makes studio props appear wet.

These improvisations were listed in a technical handbook released last week by the Broadcast Advertising Bureau. But most of the handbook is devoted to the problems of TV advertisers, whose products sometimes appear less appetizing on the TV screen than off it.

Some B.A.B. tips:

P: White goods (stoves, refrigerators, washing machines) should be painted canary yellow to make them appear white; white cloth should be tinted blue or dipped in hot, black coffee.

P: To remove the high polish from cars and furniture, spray with clear liquid wax; to take the glare from mirrors, apply a mixture of epsom salts and stale beer; such shiny surfaces as oilcloth can be toned down with a spray of shaving lotion.

P: A pinch of bicarbonate of soda brings a good, foamy head to a glass of beer; dry ice makes coffee or tea appear to steam and causes pretty suds in a pail of soap powder solution.

P: Almost all foods need makeup. To give that rich look to cream, add a pinch of the deep yellow spice turmeric. A rubbed-on mixture of lipstick and wax improves oranges; grapes should be lightly dusted with talcum powder; paint steaks and roasts with undiluted grape juice. Butter, ironically, looks best when fortified with a little of the coloring usually sold with oleomargarine.

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