JOE KELLY AND A CLASS OF HIS QUIZ KIDS.
A CLASS BY THEMSELVES
Most broadcast historians identify Louis G. Cowan as the creator of television’s $64,000 Question and $64,000 Challenge who was forced to resign the presidency of CBS Television in 1958 when it was alleged that these and many other highly rated, big money quiz shows were rigged. Others may remember Cowan as the producer behind Network Radio’s smash hit of the late 1940’s, Stop The Music! (See Stop The Music! on this site.)
Fewer yet will know of Lou Cowan’s service in World War II when he headed the overseas branch of the Office of War Information and helped develop the legendary Command Performance for the Armed Forces Radio Service in 1942, perhaps his greatest and most original contribution to broadcasting. (1)
Network Radio first noticed Cowan in 1940 when the 30 year old Chicago public relations executive proposed a summer replacement show for Alka Seltzer’s Alec Templeton Time on NBC. His idea was based on the success of Blue’s two year old sleeper hit, Information Please, only performed by a panel of children. He called his concept Quiz Kids. (2)
Note: Are you as smart as a Quiz Kid? Questions from the program are sprinkled through this text and the answers appear at the end. All of them were answered correctly by the youngsters aged five to 15.
Cowan first bounced his idea for a juvenile twist on Information Please with John Lewellen and Eliza Hickock of his staff who agreed that it had merit if the proper youngsters could be found - likeable kids who sounded perfectly normal until answering a question. Lewellen would later become producer of Quiz Kids and Hickock would be in charge of researching the accuracy and editing of the thousands of questions and answers submitted by listeners.
What poem’s first line is suggested by the atomic numbers of silicone and uranium?
Pence James of the Chicago Daily News had written a feature story about Gerard Darrow a precocious five year old whose knowledge of birds astounded experts. The boy with a 144 I.Q. had also developed side interests in insects, marine life, geology, geography and mythology with an ability to easily discuss the subjects in depth. James arranged a meeting between Cowan and young Gerard at the Darrow home in nearby Ross, Indiana, where the youngster impressed the producer with his knowledge and his enthusiasm for sharing it. (3)
Where would you see a mousetrap, buttonhook and Statue of Liberty in one place?
The second child recruited for the show was eleven year old piano prodigy Joan Bishop whom Pence had profiled following her solo performance with the Chicago Symphony in 1938. Cowan, Lewelllen, Pence James and Cowan’s friend, Life and Time magazine editor Sidney James, visited the girl at Chicago’s Metropolitan School of Music in March 1940 where she entertained them with her interpretation of Schubert’s Impromptu In E Flat, then tossed off answers to questions relating to literature and charmed them with her quick wit. Cowan was beginning to think that finding children for his show might not be so difficult, after all.
Trees consider this epiphyte a pest but humans consider it a luxury. What is it?
The first informal run-through of a sample program at Cowan’s house proved differently. With Sidney James asking the questions, Darrow and Bishop performed as expected but two other kids brought in for the audition stumbled badly.
Once again Pence James saved the day by nominating another subject of his newspaper stories, 13 year old chemistry and physical sciences expert (George) Van Dyke Tiers and Sidney James discovered 14 year old flutist, pianist and linguist Cynthia Cline. Both journalists spread word of the Quiz Kids talent search among their peers and eventually youngsters boasting I.Q.‘s from 120 to 200 were calling for interviews with Cowan’s representatives.
What Shakespearian character enjoyed doing magic tricks?
Confident that Darrow, Bishop, Tiers and Cline were the four children who could represent his concept successfully on an audition record, Cowan booked a studio at Chicago’s World Broadcasting System transcription service. Unfortunately, the audition was a mess - its questions were hastily prepared and awkwardly phrased, Sidney James’ attempt as the show’s host was painfully amateurish and the sounds of a slide whistle and clanking silver dollars used to indicate correct answers interrupted the program’s flow, (especially when all the coins spilled to the floor). The whole affair was a complete fiasco except for its key ingredient - the four kids who were having the time of their lives..
Quoted in Martin Gardner’s book Quiz Kids, Cowan said of the first recording session, “…From every technical standpoint the record was abominable. Yet, through all this was shown the fact that we had four children capable of amazing an adult audience. They surprised even us with the extent of their knowledge and brilliant answers.”
Robert E. Lee surrendered to Ulysses S. Grant on April 9, 1865. What day of the week was it?
It was back to the drawing board and recording studio for more demo work. By April Cowan was satisfied and began to make the rounds of agencies and networks with his audition record. Chicago was still a network production center in 1940 but Cowan had no luck until he began working with Jimmy Banks of General Amusement Corporation - aka General Artists Corporation - a large talent agency with connections where it counted. Cowan and Banks had worked together previously when both of their firms represented Kay Kyser’s popular band.
A call on Wade Advertising in Chicago led Cowan and Banks to Elkhart, Indiana, and a meeting with Charles Beardsley, Marketing Vice-President for Miles Laboratories. The makers of Alka-Seltzer and One-A-Day vitamins already sponsored The National Barn Dance on Blue and Alec Templeton Time on NBC. Beardsley was shopping for a summer replacement for Templeton and the novelty of Quiz Kids intrigued him. Still, he had to be sold that the show wasn’t rigged and the kids weren’t rehearsed. Attending the next demo recording session in May convinced Beardsley that the show was on the level and made him a fan.
Miles Laboratories through Wade Advertising agreed to sponsor Quiz Kids on NBC for ten weeks in the summer of 1940 at the bargain basement price of $1,000 a week commencing on Friday, June 28th. A production team was formed headed by Cowan and Lewellan and the agency’s father/son combination of Walter and Jeff Wade.
Will a bathtub empty faster if you remain in it while it drains?
The sponsor was signed but the network still had reservations that had to be satisfied - primarily to avoid confusion between Quiz Kids and Information Please that might upset the latter’s temperamental producer, Dan Golenpaul. (See Information Please on this site.)
The major change agreed upon was the size and makeup of the panel. Unlike the Information Please cast of three permanent panelists - Franklin P. Adams, John Kieran, Oscar Levant - and a guest each week, Quiz Kids would have a panel of five children engaged in a weekly competition based on their correct answers. The three top scoring panelists as determined by the show’s producers would be invited back the following week to face two new competitors. Regardless of their scores, all five youngsters were awarded a $100 U.S. Savings Bond for appearing on the show. (3)
By the end of May the production team had written and produced four more demos and smoothed out most of the show’s details with one major exception - Quiz Kids was still without a host, an adult quiz master, or as he would later be known, The Chief Quizzer. Over a dozen seemingly qualified teachers and radio professionals auditioned for the job but none could relate to the kids without sounding professorial, talking too much or stumbling over the script. With time running out and only two weeks remaining before the show’s scheduled debut, Walter Wade suggested that Joe Kelly be audition for the job. What was considered at the time to be an act of desperation turned out to be a stroke of genius.
What U. S. President shares his name with a band of Indians?
Joe Kelly, 41, was a third grade dropout and former vaudevillian. Wade knew Kelly, aka Jolly Joe and The Man In Overalls, as emcee of Alka Selzer’s National Barn Dance from Chicago’s WLS on Blue since 1933. Cowan thought that auditioning the happy hayseed was a waste of time - and Kelly agreed when he looked at a question in the script.
Eliza Hickock recalls Kelly’s reaction in her 1947 book The Quiz Kids, “I wonder if you can tell me who was famous for having solved the problem of finding the hypotenuse from the sum of the square of the other two sides of a triangle. The answer beneath the question was Pythagoras, a sixth century B.C. Greek philosopher. ‘I can’t even read it,’ Joe moaned, ‘Whadda ya think I am, a college professor or something?”
Walter Wade knew exactly what he was - a friendly, father figure to whom the kids related immediately. Kelly wasn‘t there to challenge them - he was there to encourage them as any proud parent would. In return they opened up by happily expanding their answers and delighting in the opportunity to share their knowledge with him. In return, he cheered them on with frequent, “Atta boy!”, “Golly gee, you’re right!”, or some such homespun exclamation.
Without the aid of pencil and paper what would the result be if you multiplied 99 by 99, added 99, divided by 99, then subtracted 99 and added 99?
The first Quiz Kids broadcast featured Gerard Darrow, Joan Bishop, Van Dyke Tiers, 14 year old Mary Ann Anderson and 13 year old Charles Schwartz. The latter two participated in its round of demos while Cynthia Cline joined the broadcast in July. Cowan dressed the kids and Kelly in navy blue academic caps and gowns for every broadcast and personal appearance. The childrens’ gowns were emblazoned over the left breast with Quiz Kids and Kelly’s bore the identification Chief Quizzer.
What unit of electrical measurement is the reciprocal of itself spelled backwards?
The first of over 7,000 questions that Kelly asked the kids in its 13 year run was typical of many - it was multi-part and phrased as situational with first and second person pronouns. “I want you to tell me what I would be carrying home if I brought an antimacassar, a dinghy, a sarong and an apteryx.” Tiers defined an antimacassar as a protective cloth placed on the arms or backs of chairs. Bishop added that a dinghy is a small boat. Darrow identified the apteryx as an extinct Australian bird and Anderson responded that a sarong was a south seas dress made popular by Dorothy Lamour. The Quiz Kids were off and running and like many questions in the future they all eagerly contributed to the answer. (4)
To add the implied endorsement of the educational and professional communities and erase suspicions that the youngsters were given answers beforehand, a noted Guest Observer was present at all broadcasts until the show of July 9, 1941. The role then became occasional and reserved for celebrities which included New York Mayor LaGuardia, Jack Benny, Fred Allen, Lum & Abner, Fred Allen, Bing Crosby, Eddie Cantor, Ralph Edwards and Eleanor Roosevelt. The first broadcast posted below from February 26, 1941, features Admiral Richard Byrd as its Guest Observer.
The first few Quiz Kids broadcasts were shaky with Kelly still unsure of himself. But once the staff established a tutoring system to familiarize him in advance with each show’s questions, answers and pronunciations, he became confident to the point of occasionally coaxing the correct answer from a reluctant young memory.
The mix of the surprisingly smart and yet delightful children with the jovial Chief Quizzer who admitted on their first broadcast, “Sakes alive, am I ever dumb!” struck a responsive chord with the radio audience. Questions began to pour in to the show from listeners who wanted to test the panel.and win the Zenith radio prizes - portables if questions were used, consoles if the youngsters were stumped. More importantly to Cowan & Company, Miles Laboratories was happy to be associated with the entertaining family show that rewarded knowledge. Negotiations began in August to find a home for Quiz Kids over the full 1940-41 season.
If you were to take a space ship to Pluto what planets, in order, would you pass to get there?
Quiz Kids signed off their summer series on NBC on Friday, August 30th, and five days later at 8:00 p.m. ET on Wednesday, September 4, 1940, they began their six year run on Blue - two seasons on Wednesday followed by four more on Sunday nights at 7:30.
The Kids were up against a movie star in their first Wednesday night season. Their 8.7 rating was almost doubled by the 16.0 scored by Edward G. Robinson’s Big Town on CBS. They trailed Hollywood Playhouse’s 9.4 on NBC, yet beat the 6.3 of NBC’s mid-season replacement, a variety show headlined by singer Tony Martin. Their 8.2 second season on Wednesday found them trailing two of the night’s Top Ten Shows, sitcom Meet Mr, Meek on CBS, (12.5), and NBC’s Adventures of The Thin Man, (10.1).
Although Quiz Kids didn’t win their Wednesday timeslot and didn’t score double digit ratings or even broke into either season’s Top 50, the country was talking about those amazing youngsters. Proof came in September, 1941, when Paramount released the first of a half-dozen one reel Quiz Kids shorts. The first eight minute Cinecolor film featured Joe Kelly and panelists Joan Bishop, Cynthia Cline, Gerard Darrow, Van Dyke Tiers and Richard Williams. The second film in the series was released three months later with Kelly, Darrow, Williams and newcomers Claude Brenner, Harve Bennett Fishman and Betty Swanson. (5)
What Christmas decoration reminds you of the anatomical juxtaposition of two orbicular muscles in the state of contracton?
Miles Laboratories was delighted with the attention its junior geniuses were getting and decided to answer a need unique to them. Their Wednesday timeslot forced the youngsters to sandwich their appearances on the show between two schooldays. The sponsor moved Quiz Kids to Sunday evenings which gave them a day to relax before the broadcast.
The Sunday timeslot carried the opposition of NBC’s Fitch Bandwagon, a weekly parade of top dance bands broadcast between Jack Benny and Edgar Bergen’s top rated shows. (Ironically, Jack Benny made a number of guest appearances on Quiz Kids, the first from April 16, 1941 is also posted below.) The ratings chart below shows three of the four seasons in which NBC and CBS beat Blue’s Quiz Kids and the surprising 1944-45 season which was disastrous for Kate Smith on CBS.
1942-43 Bandwagon NBC 16.1 We The People CBS 9.9 Quiz Kids Blue 7.9
1943-44 Bandwagon NBC 14.8 We The People CBS 9.2 Quiz Kids Blue 9.4
1944-45 Bandwagon NBC 13.0 Quiz Kids Blue 9.5 Kate Smith CBS 8.4
1945-46 Bandwagon NBC 14.8 Blondie CBS 11.7 Quiz Kids ABC 7.9
Two major stars with Sunday night shows on competing networks appeared as guests on Blue’s Quiz Kids during this run and are posted below. NBC’s Jack Benny returned to the Quiz Kids on February 21, 1943, and Fred Allen from CBS appeared on their March 28, 1943 broadcast. .
What type of fish would you call a sharpshooter?
Tragedy struck the group in November, 1945. Gunther Hollander was a 15 year old orphaned refugee from Germany who lost both parents in a Nazi prison camp before he was smuggled into Great Britain and emigrated to live with a family in Chicago. He was also a young mathematical genius intent on becoming a physicist who was welcomed to the Quiz Kids panel where he used his earnings to cover expenses as the youngest freshman ever to be accepted at the University of Chicago. He was hurrying to class on November 15th when he was struck by a bus and killed in a downtown street.
Novelist Edna Ferber who had befriended young Hollander remembered him in her autobiography, A Kind of Magic: “Definitely he was a genius. Perhaps the history of the world tomorrow would be different if this one valuable and beautiful young creature had lived. He had traveled far, this German-born boy, but not quite far enough to escape the fate that had so long before been set in motion by the Nazi of all Nazis.”
How can you identify the star in the U.S. flag that represents Montana?
One Quiz Kid who became better known after her appearances on the show was Smylla Brind became known in motion pictures as Vanessa Brown. She was interviewed on the broadcast of July 21, 1946, also posted below, which also featured one of the youngest panels in the program’s history with an average age of ten.
Miles Laboratories took Quiz Kids out of the primetime ratings race in September, 1946, and moved the show to NBC’s Sunday afternoon schedule where it remained until the sponsor cancelled on September 23, 1951, ending an eleven year association. Quiz Kids moved to CBS for on final sustaining Sunday afternoon run in 1952-53.
Some of the best shows are from its Sunday afternoons on NBC.., A string of them are posted below. From April 25, 1948, math whiz Joel Kupperman is pitted against a mechanical adding machine and an ancient abacus, the Quiz Kids’ proud mothers are introduced on Mothers’ Day, May 9, 1948, their fathers take a bow on Fathers’ Day, June 20, 1948, the show celebrates its eighth anniversary on June 27, 1948, and the youngsters are tested against a panel of professors from Northwestern University on April 2, 1950, with a surprise ending.
Claude Brenner best described the panels of youngsters who captivated audiences for 13 years: "We had to be abnormally brilliant and brilliantly normal."
Once, when a question stumped the kids, one of them referred to an Information Please panelist and quipped “Leave that one for John Kieran.” But only 15% of the questions got by The Quiz Kids, who sounded like five typical neighborhood pals, laughing and having fun playing a parlor game.
(1) The $64,000 Question and Challenge were inspired by Network Radio’s Take It Or Leave It to which Cowan had obtained television rights. Stop The Music! was Lou Cowan’s twist on the NBC hit of 1940, Pot O Gold.
(2) Lou Cowan’s sister-in-law, Babette Spiegel, hit on the name Quiz Kids during a family dinner party and brain-storming session. The word “Quiz” was originally a verb. It became an adjective when the show took the name of its juvenile panel, The Quiz Kids.
(3) Darrow was the first of over 300 Quiz Kids who appeared on the program. It was soon discovered that even the brightest of youngsters could have their “off days” leading to their elimination from the show. So, after dropping out for several weeks the more popular Quiz Kids were invited back to compete again. Darrow was the first returnee - after nine weeks on the panel he dropped off but was welcomed back two weeks later. Darrow’s story had an unhappy ending - he died an unemployed welfare recipient at 47.
(4) Questions were seldom phrased as listeners submitted them. John Lewellen and Eliza Hickock rewrote them for listener interest and to involve the Kids. Martin Gardiner cites this example: Instead of asking, “What was General Washington’s password at the Battle of Trenton?”, the question was asked, “We all think of St. Patrick every March 17th, but why would we associate St. Patrick with Christmas Day, 1776?” Yes, the Quiz Kids identified St. Patrick as Washington’s password.
(5) From the movie casts Harve Bennett Fishman eventually returned to as a noted writer and producer, Richard Williams later became a career diplomat and South African immigrant Claude Brenner became an aeronautical engineer and President of the MIT Alumni Association.
And here are the answers to the questions used on the program sprinkled through this post. Remember, The Quiz Kids answered all of them correctly:
Silicone’s atomic number is 14 and uranium’s is 92 which leads to, “In 1492 Columbus sailed the ocean blue".
The mousetrap, buttonhook and Statue of Liberty are all football plays, so you’d find them on a football field
We call the parasitic epiphyte an Orchid
April 9, 1865 was a Sunday.
Prospero in Shakespeare’s The Tempest was a magician.
Yes, because the body increases the water’s volume and its rate of flow.
Grover Cleveland and the Cleveland Indians baseball team.
One hundred - which Joel Kupperman answered in seconds.
Mho, (ohm spelled backwards) is the alternate name for Siemens, the unit of electrical conductance.
Your long ride would pass Mars, Jupiter, Saturn Uranus and Neptune.
Mistletoe - it’s a kiss.
The Archer Fish lives in salt water pools and shoots water from its mouth up to three feet at its insect prey.
You can’t because none of the stars in our flag represent specific states.
Copyright © 2016 Jim Ramsburg, Estero FL Email: tojimramsburg@gmail.com
Most broadcast historians identify Louis G. Cowan as the creator of television’s $64,000 Question and $64,000 Challenge who was forced to resign the presidency of CBS Television in 1958 when it was alleged that these and many other highly rated, big money quiz shows were rigged. Others may remember Cowan as the producer behind Network Radio’s smash hit of the late 1940’s, Stop The Music! (See Stop The Music! on this site.)
Fewer yet will know of Lou Cowan’s service in World War II when he headed the overseas branch of the Office of War Information and helped develop the legendary Command Performance for the Armed Forces Radio Service in 1942, perhaps his greatest and most original contribution to broadcasting. (1)
Network Radio first noticed Cowan in 1940 when the 30 year old Chicago public relations executive proposed a summer replacement show for Alka Seltzer’s Alec Templeton Time on NBC. His idea was based on the success of Blue’s two year old sleeper hit, Information Please, only performed by a panel of children. He called his concept Quiz Kids. (2)
Note: Are you as smart as a Quiz Kid? Questions from the program are sprinkled through this text and the answers appear at the end. All of them were answered correctly by the youngsters aged five to 15.
Cowan first bounced his idea for a juvenile twist on Information Please with John Lewellen and Eliza Hickock of his staff who agreed that it had merit if the proper youngsters could be found - likeable kids who sounded perfectly normal until answering a question. Lewellen would later become producer of Quiz Kids and Hickock would be in charge of researching the accuracy and editing of the thousands of questions and answers submitted by listeners.
What poem’s first line is suggested by the atomic numbers of silicone and uranium?
Pence James of the Chicago Daily News had written a feature story about Gerard Darrow a precocious five year old whose knowledge of birds astounded experts. The boy with a 144 I.Q. had also developed side interests in insects, marine life, geology, geography and mythology with an ability to easily discuss the subjects in depth. James arranged a meeting between Cowan and young Gerard at the Darrow home in nearby Ross, Indiana, where the youngster impressed the producer with his knowledge and his enthusiasm for sharing it. (3)
Where would you see a mousetrap, buttonhook and Statue of Liberty in one place?
The second child recruited for the show was eleven year old piano prodigy Joan Bishop whom Pence had profiled following her solo performance with the Chicago Symphony in 1938. Cowan, Lewelllen, Pence James and Cowan’s friend, Life and Time magazine editor Sidney James, visited the girl at Chicago’s Metropolitan School of Music in March 1940 where she entertained them with her interpretation of Schubert’s Impromptu In E Flat, then tossed off answers to questions relating to literature and charmed them with her quick wit. Cowan was beginning to think that finding children for his show might not be so difficult, after all.
Trees consider this epiphyte a pest but humans consider it a luxury. What is it?
The first informal run-through of a sample program at Cowan’s house proved differently. With Sidney James asking the questions, Darrow and Bishop performed as expected but two other kids brought in for the audition stumbled badly.
Once again Pence James saved the day by nominating another subject of his newspaper stories, 13 year old chemistry and physical sciences expert (George) Van Dyke Tiers and Sidney James discovered 14 year old flutist, pianist and linguist Cynthia Cline. Both journalists spread word of the Quiz Kids talent search among their peers and eventually youngsters boasting I.Q.‘s from 120 to 200 were calling for interviews with Cowan’s representatives.
What Shakespearian character enjoyed doing magic tricks?
Confident that Darrow, Bishop, Tiers and Cline were the four children who could represent his concept successfully on an audition record, Cowan booked a studio at Chicago’s World Broadcasting System transcription service. Unfortunately, the audition was a mess - its questions were hastily prepared and awkwardly phrased, Sidney James’ attempt as the show’s host was painfully amateurish and the sounds of a slide whistle and clanking silver dollars used to indicate correct answers interrupted the program’s flow, (especially when all the coins spilled to the floor). The whole affair was a complete fiasco except for its key ingredient - the four kids who were having the time of their lives..
Quoted in Martin Gardner’s book Quiz Kids, Cowan said of the first recording session, “…From every technical standpoint the record was abominable. Yet, through all this was shown the fact that we had four children capable of amazing an adult audience. They surprised even us with the extent of their knowledge and brilliant answers.”
Robert E. Lee surrendered to Ulysses S. Grant on April 9, 1865. What day of the week was it?
It was back to the drawing board and recording studio for more demo work. By April Cowan was satisfied and began to make the rounds of agencies and networks with his audition record. Chicago was still a network production center in 1940 but Cowan had no luck until he began working with Jimmy Banks of General Amusement Corporation - aka General Artists Corporation - a large talent agency with connections where it counted. Cowan and Banks had worked together previously when both of their firms represented Kay Kyser’s popular band.
A call on Wade Advertising in Chicago led Cowan and Banks to Elkhart, Indiana, and a meeting with Charles Beardsley, Marketing Vice-President for Miles Laboratories. The makers of Alka-Seltzer and One-A-Day vitamins already sponsored The National Barn Dance on Blue and Alec Templeton Time on NBC. Beardsley was shopping for a summer replacement for Templeton and the novelty of Quiz Kids intrigued him. Still, he had to be sold that the show wasn’t rigged and the kids weren’t rehearsed. Attending the next demo recording session in May convinced Beardsley that the show was on the level and made him a fan.
Miles Laboratories through Wade Advertising agreed to sponsor Quiz Kids on NBC for ten weeks in the summer of 1940 at the bargain basement price of $1,000 a week commencing on Friday, June 28th. A production team was formed headed by Cowan and Lewellan and the agency’s father/son combination of Walter and Jeff Wade.
Will a bathtub empty faster if you remain in it while it drains?
The sponsor was signed but the network still had reservations that had to be satisfied - primarily to avoid confusion between Quiz Kids and Information Please that might upset the latter’s temperamental producer, Dan Golenpaul. (See Information Please on this site.)
The major change agreed upon was the size and makeup of the panel. Unlike the Information Please cast of three permanent panelists - Franklin P. Adams, John Kieran, Oscar Levant - and a guest each week, Quiz Kids would have a panel of five children engaged in a weekly competition based on their correct answers. The three top scoring panelists as determined by the show’s producers would be invited back the following week to face two new competitors. Regardless of their scores, all five youngsters were awarded a $100 U.S. Savings Bond for appearing on the show. (3)
By the end of May the production team had written and produced four more demos and smoothed out most of the show’s details with one major exception - Quiz Kids was still without a host, an adult quiz master, or as he would later be known, The Chief Quizzer. Over a dozen seemingly qualified teachers and radio professionals auditioned for the job but none could relate to the kids without sounding professorial, talking too much or stumbling over the script. With time running out and only two weeks remaining before the show’s scheduled debut, Walter Wade suggested that Joe Kelly be audition for the job. What was considered at the time to be an act of desperation turned out to be a stroke of genius.
What U. S. President shares his name with a band of Indians?
Joe Kelly, 41, was a third grade dropout and former vaudevillian. Wade knew Kelly, aka Jolly Joe and The Man In Overalls, as emcee of Alka Selzer’s National Barn Dance from Chicago’s WLS on Blue since 1933. Cowan thought that auditioning the happy hayseed was a waste of time - and Kelly agreed when he looked at a question in the script.
Eliza Hickock recalls Kelly’s reaction in her 1947 book The Quiz Kids, “I wonder if you can tell me who was famous for having solved the problem of finding the hypotenuse from the sum of the square of the other two sides of a triangle. The answer beneath the question was Pythagoras, a sixth century B.C. Greek philosopher. ‘I can’t even read it,’ Joe moaned, ‘Whadda ya think I am, a college professor or something?”
Walter Wade knew exactly what he was - a friendly, father figure to whom the kids related immediately. Kelly wasn‘t there to challenge them - he was there to encourage them as any proud parent would. In return they opened up by happily expanding their answers and delighting in the opportunity to share their knowledge with him. In return, he cheered them on with frequent, “Atta boy!”, “Golly gee, you’re right!”, or some such homespun exclamation.
Without the aid of pencil and paper what would the result be if you multiplied 99 by 99, added 99, divided by 99, then subtracted 99 and added 99?
The first Quiz Kids broadcast featured Gerard Darrow, Joan Bishop, Van Dyke Tiers, 14 year old Mary Ann Anderson and 13 year old Charles Schwartz. The latter two participated in its round of demos while Cynthia Cline joined the broadcast in July. Cowan dressed the kids and Kelly in navy blue academic caps and gowns for every broadcast and personal appearance. The childrens’ gowns were emblazoned over the left breast with Quiz Kids and Kelly’s bore the identification Chief Quizzer.
What unit of electrical measurement is the reciprocal of itself spelled backwards?
The first of over 7,000 questions that Kelly asked the kids in its 13 year run was typical of many - it was multi-part and phrased as situational with first and second person pronouns. “I want you to tell me what I would be carrying home if I brought an antimacassar, a dinghy, a sarong and an apteryx.” Tiers defined an antimacassar as a protective cloth placed on the arms or backs of chairs. Bishop added that a dinghy is a small boat. Darrow identified the apteryx as an extinct Australian bird and Anderson responded that a sarong was a south seas dress made popular by Dorothy Lamour. The Quiz Kids were off and running and like many questions in the future they all eagerly contributed to the answer. (4)
To add the implied endorsement of the educational and professional communities and erase suspicions that the youngsters were given answers beforehand, a noted Guest Observer was present at all broadcasts until the show of July 9, 1941. The role then became occasional and reserved for celebrities which included New York Mayor LaGuardia, Jack Benny, Fred Allen, Lum & Abner, Fred Allen, Bing Crosby, Eddie Cantor, Ralph Edwards and Eleanor Roosevelt. The first broadcast posted below from February 26, 1941, features Admiral Richard Byrd as its Guest Observer.
The first few Quiz Kids broadcasts were shaky with Kelly still unsure of himself. But once the staff established a tutoring system to familiarize him in advance with each show’s questions, answers and pronunciations, he became confident to the point of occasionally coaxing the correct answer from a reluctant young memory.
The mix of the surprisingly smart and yet delightful children with the jovial Chief Quizzer who admitted on their first broadcast, “Sakes alive, am I ever dumb!” struck a responsive chord with the radio audience. Questions began to pour in to the show from listeners who wanted to test the panel.and win the Zenith radio prizes - portables if questions were used, consoles if the youngsters were stumped. More importantly to Cowan & Company, Miles Laboratories was happy to be associated with the entertaining family show that rewarded knowledge. Negotiations began in August to find a home for Quiz Kids over the full 1940-41 season.
If you were to take a space ship to Pluto what planets, in order, would you pass to get there?
Quiz Kids signed off their summer series on NBC on Friday, August 30th, and five days later at 8:00 p.m. ET on Wednesday, September 4, 1940, they began their six year run on Blue - two seasons on Wednesday followed by four more on Sunday nights at 7:30.
The Kids were up against a movie star in their first Wednesday night season. Their 8.7 rating was almost doubled by the 16.0 scored by Edward G. Robinson’s Big Town on CBS. They trailed Hollywood Playhouse’s 9.4 on NBC, yet beat the 6.3 of NBC’s mid-season replacement, a variety show headlined by singer Tony Martin. Their 8.2 second season on Wednesday found them trailing two of the night’s Top Ten Shows, sitcom Meet Mr, Meek on CBS, (12.5), and NBC’s Adventures of The Thin Man, (10.1).
Although Quiz Kids didn’t win their Wednesday timeslot and didn’t score double digit ratings or even broke into either season’s Top 50, the country was talking about those amazing youngsters. Proof came in September, 1941, when Paramount released the first of a half-dozen one reel Quiz Kids shorts. The first eight minute Cinecolor film featured Joe Kelly and panelists Joan Bishop, Cynthia Cline, Gerard Darrow, Van Dyke Tiers and Richard Williams. The second film in the series was released three months later with Kelly, Darrow, Williams and newcomers Claude Brenner, Harve Bennett Fishman and Betty Swanson. (5)
What Christmas decoration reminds you of the anatomical juxtaposition of two orbicular muscles in the state of contracton?
Miles Laboratories was delighted with the attention its junior geniuses were getting and decided to answer a need unique to them. Their Wednesday timeslot forced the youngsters to sandwich their appearances on the show between two schooldays. The sponsor moved Quiz Kids to Sunday evenings which gave them a day to relax before the broadcast.
The Sunday timeslot carried the opposition of NBC’s Fitch Bandwagon, a weekly parade of top dance bands broadcast between Jack Benny and Edgar Bergen’s top rated shows. (Ironically, Jack Benny made a number of guest appearances on Quiz Kids, the first from April 16, 1941 is also posted below.) The ratings chart below shows three of the four seasons in which NBC and CBS beat Blue’s Quiz Kids and the surprising 1944-45 season which was disastrous for Kate Smith on CBS.
1942-43 Bandwagon NBC 16.1 We The People CBS 9.9 Quiz Kids Blue 7.9
1943-44 Bandwagon NBC 14.8 We The People CBS 9.2 Quiz Kids Blue 9.4
1944-45 Bandwagon NBC 13.0 Quiz Kids Blue 9.5 Kate Smith CBS 8.4
1945-46 Bandwagon NBC 14.8 Blondie CBS 11.7 Quiz Kids ABC 7.9
Two major stars with Sunday night shows on competing networks appeared as guests on Blue’s Quiz Kids during this run and are posted below. NBC’s Jack Benny returned to the Quiz Kids on February 21, 1943, and Fred Allen from CBS appeared on their March 28, 1943 broadcast. .
What type of fish would you call a sharpshooter?
Tragedy struck the group in November, 1945. Gunther Hollander was a 15 year old orphaned refugee from Germany who lost both parents in a Nazi prison camp before he was smuggled into Great Britain and emigrated to live with a family in Chicago. He was also a young mathematical genius intent on becoming a physicist who was welcomed to the Quiz Kids panel where he used his earnings to cover expenses as the youngest freshman ever to be accepted at the University of Chicago. He was hurrying to class on November 15th when he was struck by a bus and killed in a downtown street.
Novelist Edna Ferber who had befriended young Hollander remembered him in her autobiography, A Kind of Magic: “Definitely he was a genius. Perhaps the history of the world tomorrow would be different if this one valuable and beautiful young creature had lived. He had traveled far, this German-born boy, but not quite far enough to escape the fate that had so long before been set in motion by the Nazi of all Nazis.”
How can you identify the star in the U.S. flag that represents Montana?
One Quiz Kid who became better known after her appearances on the show was Smylla Brind became known in motion pictures as Vanessa Brown. She was interviewed on the broadcast of July 21, 1946, also posted below, which also featured one of the youngest panels in the program’s history with an average age of ten.
Miles Laboratories took Quiz Kids out of the primetime ratings race in September, 1946, and moved the show to NBC’s Sunday afternoon schedule where it remained until the sponsor cancelled on September 23, 1951, ending an eleven year association. Quiz Kids moved to CBS for on final sustaining Sunday afternoon run in 1952-53.
Some of the best shows are from its Sunday afternoons on NBC.., A string of them are posted below. From April 25, 1948, math whiz Joel Kupperman is pitted against a mechanical adding machine and an ancient abacus, the Quiz Kids’ proud mothers are introduced on Mothers’ Day, May 9, 1948, their fathers take a bow on Fathers’ Day, June 20, 1948, the show celebrates its eighth anniversary on June 27, 1948, and the youngsters are tested against a panel of professors from Northwestern University on April 2, 1950, with a surprise ending.
Claude Brenner best described the panels of youngsters who captivated audiences for 13 years: "We had to be abnormally brilliant and brilliantly normal."
Once, when a question stumped the kids, one of them referred to an Information Please panelist and quipped “Leave that one for John Kieran.” But only 15% of the questions got by The Quiz Kids, who sounded like five typical neighborhood pals, laughing and having fun playing a parlor game.
(1) The $64,000 Question and Challenge were inspired by Network Radio’s Take It Or Leave It to which Cowan had obtained television rights. Stop The Music! was Lou Cowan’s twist on the NBC hit of 1940, Pot O Gold.
(2) Lou Cowan’s sister-in-law, Babette Spiegel, hit on the name Quiz Kids during a family dinner party and brain-storming session. The word “Quiz” was originally a verb. It became an adjective when the show took the name of its juvenile panel, The Quiz Kids.
(3) Darrow was the first of over 300 Quiz Kids who appeared on the program. It was soon discovered that even the brightest of youngsters could have their “off days” leading to their elimination from the show. So, after dropping out for several weeks the more popular Quiz Kids were invited back to compete again. Darrow was the first returnee - after nine weeks on the panel he dropped off but was welcomed back two weeks later. Darrow’s story had an unhappy ending - he died an unemployed welfare recipient at 47.
(4) Questions were seldom phrased as listeners submitted them. John Lewellen and Eliza Hickock rewrote them for listener interest and to involve the Kids. Martin Gardiner cites this example: Instead of asking, “What was General Washington’s password at the Battle of Trenton?”, the question was asked, “We all think of St. Patrick every March 17th, but why would we associate St. Patrick with Christmas Day, 1776?” Yes, the Quiz Kids identified St. Patrick as Washington’s password.
(5) From the movie casts Harve Bennett Fishman eventually returned to as a noted writer and producer, Richard Williams later became a career diplomat and South African immigrant Claude Brenner became an aeronautical engineer and President of the MIT Alumni Association.
And here are the answers to the questions used on the program sprinkled through this post. Remember, The Quiz Kids answered all of them correctly:
Silicone’s atomic number is 14 and uranium’s is 92 which leads to, “In 1492 Columbus sailed the ocean blue".
The mousetrap, buttonhook and Statue of Liberty are all football plays, so you’d find them on a football field
We call the parasitic epiphyte an Orchid
April 9, 1865 was a Sunday.
Prospero in Shakespeare’s The Tempest was a magician.
Yes, because the body increases the water’s volume and its rate of flow.
Grover Cleveland and the Cleveland Indians baseball team.
One hundred - which Joel Kupperman answered in seconds.
Mho, (ohm spelled backwards) is the alternate name for Siemens, the unit of electrical conductance.
Your long ride would pass Mars, Jupiter, Saturn Uranus and Neptune.
Mistletoe - it’s a kiss.
The Archer Fish lives in salt water pools and shoots water from its mouth up to three feet at its insect prey.
You can’t because none of the stars in our flag represent specific states.
Copyright © 2016 Jim Ramsburg, Estero FL Email: tojimramsburg@gmail.com
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