79-14-A5

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Hollywood East

Transcript Senator Bill Roth of Delaware has done some digging into one area of federal spending and learned that a new "tinsel town" called Hollywood-on-the-Potomac may be abuilding. It's hard to picture eager young performers with stars in their eyes turning their backs on California and rushing to Washington for that big break. Or, to imagine what our national capital might be like if the lobbyists, bureaucrats and "pols" found themselves elbowing theatrical agents for office space. Can't you see some new starlet writing home and saying, "It's finally happened! After my bit part in 'Sanitary Design for Drinking Fountains,' I have the lead in a biggie called 'Rhesus Monkeys of Santiago Island." Believe it or not those are titles of movies being made by our government in Washington. Here are a few others, "Identification of Some Common Sucking Lice," "Days of a Tree," and "How to Succeed with Brunettes." Now that last one does sound as if it might be worth seeing. Senator Roth has caught our attention. The nearest estimate of government spending on film making is $6,000,000,000 a year. But that is only a guess. The truth is there is no central accounting system to control expenditures and help eliminate useless spending. "There is no accurate record," the Senator says, "of how many government films are in circulation, or are in production, no single catalogue or guide listing existing films and tapes, and no centralized process for contracting federal movies and television advertisements. We simply have no way of knowing who is doing what, for how much, and for what reason. We learn that a half hour bicentennial film was made at a cost of $460,000 and seen by fewer than 500,000 people. By contrast, a half hour television show produced commercially for $180,000 in 1977 had an audience estimated at 30 million. In true Washington style many of the audio-visual productions are made toward the end of the fiscal year to use up an agency's budgeted funds so they can ask for more money in the next budge. And, like as not, many of those films are never seen by anyone. The Senator learned that agency personnel stockpile projects so their bosses can ask "What do you have that might cost X number of dollars before we have to turn back our money?" And many agencies spend money on films that simply glorify the agency's image, thus enhancing the agency's potential for continued existence. One last point must be made; very often the numerous agencies engaged in filming duplicate each others product. No cross-check is made to see if someone else had made or is making the picture an agency has listed for production. I'm sure there is a legitimate reason for some government films. But wouldn't it make more sense to farm that picture work out to Hollywood where there is the greatest pool of technical and artistic talent to be found anywhere in the world? And where there is also a considerable amount of unemployment. This is Ronald Reagan. Thanks for listening.		Details Batch Number 79-14-A5 Production Date 10/02/1979 Book/Page RPtV-475 Audio Youtube? No
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