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Summing up the Georges: past — dark with
hardship ; future — bright with promise. And
the present? Sheer, delirious happiness!
M 24
By
Mrs.
WARD
GEORGE
WINNER OF
PEOPLE ARE
FUNNY
"BRIGHT
FUTURE"
CONTEST
IVople Arc I'unny 'm heard Friday! 9 I' M Mil on M»<:
I'LL never forget that look on Art Linkletter's face when I gave ray answer to the "Big Chief
Windbag" riddle. He seemed so shocked that I was sure I had failed!
It was the People Are Funny NBC program. The contest had been going on for months . . . and this Friday I was the lucky candidate who had been chosen to appear and see if I could guess the city — a big city — the name of which was buried in the "Big Chief Windbag" riddle:
"Big Chief Windbag, gloomy and gay I'm one over others that lie in decay Where may I be found? Upon low ground That's all. . . . That's all I will say."
So there I was. And when Art had asked me: "Well, Mrs. George — there's the riddle and you have only one guess. Listen carefully." He repeated it again. "Mrs. George, what city do you say is Big Chief Windbag?"
"Cairo, Egypt," I managed to whisper.
That was when he got that peculiar, shocked expression on his face. (Of course, now I realize that Art Linkletter is a natural-born tease, and that he couldn't resist keeping both me and the audience in suspense just a little J?it longer.)
But I didn't realize it then. And in the ten sec
onds it took him to speak, I died ten thousand deaths.
Then it came.
"That ends the contest. YOU ARE THE WINNER!"
I hope I never come closer to fainting again in my life. There was a kind of roaring in my ears that was only partly due to the pandemonium from the studio audience, and I was genuinely in need of the bottle of smelling salts that Art Linkletter pulled out of his pocket and shoved under my nose. He did it as a gag — but it was no gag to me.
Imagine! ... I had written a letter — just a brief simple letter of two paragraphs, expressing my hope and sympathy to a family in Europe from my husband and myself. This had earned me — when Secretary of Agriculture Clinton P. Anderson selected mine out of the thousands sent in — the right to appear on the People Are Funny show. Then, just two words — two words, mind you! — Cairo, Egypt — had won for me prizes such as you could only dream about in an Arabian Nights tale.
A completely furnished, brand new home — two bedrooms, den, living room, dining room alcove, kitchen and service porch. And when I say furnished, I mean beautifully! From lovely sofas and