Phonevision

"I've been waiting 19 1/2 years for this moment, and now it's here." With these words, Zenith Radio's gravel-voiced President Eugene F. McDonald Jr. this week began a trial run of his much-delayed Phonevision. The testing ground: 300 selected Chicago homes.

An ambitious effort to arrange a financially happy marriage between TV and Hollywood, Phonevision gives TV set owners a chance to order movies by telephone, at $1 each. Once the order is placed, a simple gadget attached to the TV set and connected to the home telephone unscrambles the movie on the TV screen. Hollywood collects its profit and the set owner is charged on his telephone bill. Last fall Hollywood released for the Chicago test more than 90 films made during the past three or four years.

McDonald has scheduled three Phone-vision showings daily (at 4, 7 and 9 p.m.), and the films move progressively each day from one time period to another. The 300 Phonevision subscribers had an initial choice of April Showers, a 1948 musical starring Jack Carson; Welcome Stranger, a 1947 Bing Crosby comedy, and 1948's Homecoming, with Clark Gable and Lana Turner. Explained McDonald: "It wouldn't be a real test if we had only the best. Our sole interest is to find out the public reaction to Phonevision."

Confident of favorable reactions from the audience--and contingent upon Federal Communications Commission approval--McDonald expects Phonevision to be a going business within two years. Says he firmly: "The theater is moving into the home and nothing can stop it."

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