Manager of 'Integrated' Quartet Alleges Network Discrimination

The Gateway Singers--three white men and a Negro girl, who are now appearing at Storyville--have allegedly been barred from national network appearances because they are "integrated," according to reports from the group's manager, Franklin Fried, and from a Harvard Business School student who is involved in promotion of the Gateways.

George Avakian, head of Artists and Recordings for Warner Brothers Records (to which the group is under contract), confirmed these reports and stated that "on two, possibly three, television shows the Gateways were told 'we'd love to have you, but you make it tough on the sponsor and on the market down South.'"

One week ago, Avakian added, he was interviewed by a reporter for Variety, who told him that he intended to file a story on the subject of possible prejudice against the quartet. It has not yet appeared.

Avakian specified that in one instance he called a staff member of a show "that had expressed definite interest in the Gateways, and I was told that...pressure from the sponsors was too strong to allow us to take a chance on them."

Fried cited a recent occasion when he was approached by a vice-president of a major network who asked him if the group would appear on one of the network's shows. A few days later, he claimed, another official told him that the singers' appearance would be an impossibility because of anticipated "trouble" from stations in the South.