Arizona Republic from Phoenix, Arizona • Page 13

FINAL The Arizona Republic Thursday, February 17, 1983 and the arts Movies Michael Maza 1 ON TV, Channel 15 to air differences on contract in court lET'S SPEND THE NIGHT TOGETHER An Embassy release produced by Ronald L. Schwary, directed by Hal Ashby, raphy by Caleb Deschanel and Gerald Feil. Cast: the Rolling Stones. Rated PG. At Mann Chris-Town and Superstition, Camelview Cinema and Metro Village.

Analysis Television Bud Wilkinson Stones' fans Iget satisfaction from tour film Let's Spend the Night Together is a perform- ence film, pure and simple. Granted unlimited access to three dozen good 'seats and the stage wings along the Rolling Stones ,1981 tour, what you would have seen is exactly you get enhanced, of course, by countless sweaty close-ups. For fans who ask no more than an unobstructed View of Mick Jagger and company at work, it is a movie to die for. Cinematoeraphers Caleb Deschanel and Gerald Feil take full advantage of their equipment and 'contemporary rock roll stagecraft. show's color and lighting is superb, and so film record of it, from the pink stage under skies at bun Devil stadium in 1 empe to the lark confines of New Jersey's Meadowlands Arena, where white spots pick the performers out rSa wash of pink light Jagger, of course, is the focal point.

The A 3-year-old business partnership has gone sour. ON TV and KNXV-TV (Channel 15), which provides the subscription television service with nightly air time for a $300-per-hour fee, are at odds. Claiming breach of contract, ON TV has taken Channel 15 to court in an attempt to force the independent UHF station to provide the subscription service with extra hours in the late afternoon and early evening in which to telecast. Channel 15, outraged by the action, has answered that it will drop the subscription service's late-night Adults Only service, which offers sexually explicit movies, on May 1 unless the material contained in them is cleaned up. A hearing on both points has been scheduled April 4 in Maricopa County Superior Court.

The problem began last fall, when ON TV informed Channel 15 of its desire to begin operating two hours earlier each day. The subscription service's current broadcast day starts at 7 p.m. weekdays and 5 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays, and the fare includes uninterrupted movies, specials, sports events and the adult-oriented films late at night. Channel 15 balked at the request for "optional broadcast time," claiming in an Oct.

25 letter that the request was not valid because the decision was not made jointly by ON TV and the station, which owns 30 percent of ON TV. However, the ON TV Management Committee, composed of three ON TV representatives and two Channel 15 representatives, voted in a 3-2 partisan split on Nov. 25 that Channel 15 should relinquish the broadcast hours. When Channel 15 stood firm, ON TV went to court on Nov. 29 claiming the extra hours of operation are necessary to sustain its operation.

Alleging that Channel 15 breached the ON TV agreement, the company asserted in its complaint that it "will suffer a diminished ability to obtain and retain subscribers, as well as a general diminishment of its business, good will, community status and economic well-being" unless its broadcast day is expanded. Since July, according to two people "gigantic Tempe set sometimes dwarfs the other who are aware of ON TV's subscriber figures, the service has experienced a severe erosion in customers? The company reportedly peaked with' 39,034 subscribers in July, but has since fallen to about 28,000 subscribers, a loss of 11,000 households', or about 28 percent. Asked to confirm these figures, ON TV General Manager George Fettig referred a reporter to ON TV's parent company, Oak Communications; in California. The appropriate spokesman could not be reached for comment by deadline. (ON TV in Los Angeles, meanwhile, has lost 50,000 subscribers September, according to the Holly' wood Reporter, a trade publication.) Considering that ON TV charges subscribers about $20 per month (with $6.95 being tacked on to the billfor those choosing Adults Only fare), the loss of revenue last month presumably exceeds $220,000.

The loss of customers can partly to the increased availability and popularity of cable television in the Valley. While ON TV only offers "one channel, various local cable franchises are offering more than 20 extra channels, which includes one premium movie service, for about the. same charge. Another reason may be the pay-per-view events on ON TV, such as Sophisticated Ladies and the final concert of the Who, which cost subscribers extra. This results in.

a larger bill for some customers and blank screens during prime time, on those pay-per-view nights for customers not choosing to pay the added tariff. That Channel 15 is fighting ON TV is no surprise. As much as 60 percent of the station's revenue is generated between 5 and 7 p.m. Monday through Friday, when viewership is highest. The loss of those hours would damage the station at a time when independent stations across the nation are enjoying the greatest popularity in their history.

Indeed, Channel 15 could triple its revenues for prime time if it had those hours to program, as opposed to reaping the' more Television, D1S Stones, and the Meadowlands darkness sometimes envelops them. But Jagger always stands out because he never stands still, and the cameras keep up as he jogs, twists and preens in every corner of the stage and as he dashes through the Tempe audience flanked by nervous guards. Jagger looks more like a well-groomed borzoi here than the menacing, mangy mutt of 1960s rock. He can't growl Satisfaction the way he used to, but he hasn't turned it or the climactic set of Honky Tonk Women, Brown Sugar and Jumpin' Jack Flash into Vegas lounge numbers, either. The oldies are balanced by newer material, including Start Me Up, Shattered, Beast of Burden, She's So Cold, Hang Fire and Waiting on a Friend.

The film's sound is just as slick as the visuals, crisp and without a single shriek of feedback. Director Hal Ashby uses the crowd as no more than a backdrop, so forget any sense of being there. Also on the minus side: The film never gets personal with the Stones. Ashby does cut in some backstage footage of hair-spraying and makeup sessions, and a few snatches of early TV appearances. But it's tepid stuff or witless like a shot of the director in bare-chested repose, inviting comparison with lithe Jagger.

Like the live concert itself, Let's Spend the Night Together relies on the performance for II '-j arVly 'PfajkmmmMmmmnMmmmmmmltiMS mm Tom Story Republic Mick Jagger and the Rolling Stones perform at the 1981 concert at Sun Devil Stadium. momentum; the pace flags more often than a utter separation between rock superstars and film's should, and the finale is less than explosive. their audiences. Like millions of other people, But it does deliver the act. I saw the Rolling Stones on this tour, and they SECOND OPINION From Ken Tucker.

were terrific. But as much as I like them, the tilm Knight-Ridder newspapers: "What Let's Spend Hal Ashby has made is a tedious chore to sit the Night Together conveys most forcefully is the through. Valley promoters squabble over Jerry Lee Lewis concert date The problem, it seems, began in January, when Lewis switched booking agencies from Buddy Lee Attractions Inc. to Board Brothers Talent, both of Nashville, Tenn. Bonoff has a verbal commitment from Buddy Lee and a former Lewis business manager, Robert Porter, that goes back several months.

"We never had a contract from (Lewis) last time he played for us," Bonoff said. "But at the appropriate time he showed up, did a great, concert and left. I never did have a contract get to the point where we are advised by Jerry personally, then Larry Bonoff will replace his show," Conway added. At Board Brothers, Alan Lawler said, "Larry Bonoff doesn't have the date, and I can't figure why he thinks he does. He has been advised two times.

Meanwhile, the one man who could settle the dispute is out of reach. Lewis has been in a hospital for the last few days. "He went in to have a little cyst taken off his hip," said Lawler, who added that Lewis should be released soon. For Mandell, it's one of two booking conflicts he has had to handle recently. The other involves the group Golden Earring, advertised to perform at Graham on Feb.

22, two days before it opens for Rush at Veterans Memorial Coliseum. According to Mandell, he was promised the group on condition the Coliseum show sold out. That show, for which about 13,500 tickets have been purchased, now seems unlikely to sell out until concert night. So the of(er was withdrawn, and Golden Earring will play only the Coliseum. (from Lewis) and never expect to.

It's a verbal agreement. "I am selling tickets and going on like nothing ever happened." Mandell, on the other hand, has a contract from Board Brothers. For the moment, both promoters and both agencies are holding their ground. (Lewis) hag worked a tremendous number of his dates on our say-so and his say-so," said the Buddy Lee agency's vice president, Tony Conway, who is placing his faith in an eight-year working relationship with Lewis. "If we With almost a dozen facilities regularly booking nationally known pop-music shows, Phoenix promoters must be competitive to survive.

It's rare, though, for behind-the-scenes haggling to become public, as it has over two Valley bookings for Jerry Lee Lewis. to Larry Bonoff calendar, the veteran rock 'n' roll pianistsinger is scheduled Qo appear April 2 at Phoenix Symphony Hall. Across town, at Graham Central Station, rival promoter Larry Mandell has Lewis hpoked to appear on March 6. Cultural events buoy Big Apple's economy yn JT I information gathered from 5,600 visitors to arts activities. The study also found how much more important the arts are to New York than to, the rest of the country.

For New York, the arts contribute 1.2 percent of the gross regional product, the total value of goods and services produced in the region in a year. The study on the arts is being released when the governments of New York City and New York state have proposed cutting their allocations to the arts. Gov. Mario M. Cuomo has proposed reducing the budget of the State Council on the Arts by $4.5 million, to $28 million, in the next fiscal year.

Mayor Edward I. Koch has proposed a $2.5 million cut, to $42.8 million, for New York City's Department of Cultural 9 A ByBandra Salmans it Ne York Times NEW YORK From the Broadway' theater to the New York Botanical Garden, the arts and cultural activities of the New York metropolitan area pump $5.6 billion a into the economy and generate 117,000 jobs, according to a study released Tuesday. iThe study, by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey and the Cultural Assistance Center, a non-profit organization, measured the effect on the ration's economy of the arts industry. The study also traced the links to suppliers ballet shoemakers in Passaic Ctjunty, N.J., and producers of theatrical sets in the Bronx and the payments as they filtered through the economy. The report calculated the money spent on taxis, drinks, hotels and shopping by tourists who take advantage of the cultural offerings.

"We were surprised by the magnitude of the arts' impact," said Rosemary Scanlon, project director for the study and an economist for the Port Authority. Several years ago, the impact had been estimated at $3 billion. In segmenting the industry into four categories, the study found that film and television production contributed $2 billion to the economy; non-profit institutions, $1.31 billion; Broadway, off-Broadway and road companies sent out from Broadway, $650 million; and art galleries and auction houses, $360 million. Visitors who come for cultural offerings or extend their stays to take advantage of the arts channel put an additional $1.3 billion in the economy, according to Size of artistic work force declined in '82 Auociated Press 'WASHINGTON A greater percentage of musicians and composers found work last year than the year before, but Employment among musical artists, totaling 149,000 last year, has held virtually steady for the last four years, he said. Hat trick Marcel Marceau, master of pantomime, will perform at 8 p.m.

Monday at Gammage Center. Here Marceau performs asBip.a clown who experiences misadventures as her, hunts butterflies, looks for jobs and rides trains. Tickets are $8, $9, $10 and available at Diamond's and Gammage box offices. For information, call 965-3434. "What musicians these figures show is that and composers never really from 5.2 percent in 1981 to 6.6 percent last year.

By comparison, the national unemployment rate in 1982 was 9.7 percent The highest jobless rate among artists was 37.3 percent for actors, an increase from 26.9 percent in 1981. A total of 1,055,000 artists were employed last year, a decline of 7,000 from a' year earlier. The endowment said it was the first year-to-year drop in the total of artists who held jobs since the government began compiling employment records for this group in 1971. that is because there were fewer of them looking, the National Endowment for the Arts reported Wednesday. Other artists were worse off in 1982 than in 1981.

Unemployment among musicians and composers dropped from 9.8 percent in 1981 to 7.2 percent last year, but Harold Horowitz, research director for the endowment, attributed the decline to a steady fall in the size of their work force since the md-19708. recovered from the impact of the 1973-75 recession," when many left the labor force, Horowitz said. The endowment's report said unemployment among all artists, also including actors, dancers, architects, authors, designers, photographers, radio and television announcers, painters and sculptors, rose.