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'BICE
For the law specifically bars programs that bear any resemblance to a lottery. If a contestant wins a prize without a show of skill or intelligence, couldn't it be said that he won by chance? And games of chance are forbidden. So there you are.
It's no wonder that comedians have taken to satirizing the whole give-away business. "Did you folks like the $1,000 bills you found on your seats when you came in?" Fred Allen asked his studio guests recently. Truly, it wasn't a far-fetched query. Not as radio goes these days.
However, take the stunts on Truth or Consequences. They are handled with taste and showmanship. There is never a huge give-away, such as the Miss Hush contest or the Walking Man stunt, that doesn't have a charity angle. Ralph Edwards has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for cancer research, for the heart fund and The March of Dimes. Ralph would give listeners a good show whether he had anything to give away or not. This puts Truth or Consequences in the minority among give-away programs. Most of them are, at best, mediocre.
By
HARRIET VAN HOHNE
Harriet Van Home's column, Radio and
Television, appears daily in the N. Y.
World Telegram
It was thought for a time last year that give-away shows were on the wane. That their day was mercifully over and we could go back to entertainment for its own sweet sake.
Then ABC came along with Stop the Music! It combined the flashier features of the juke box, the slot machine, bingo and an old program called The Pot o' Gold. It had a "mystery tune" for added excitement, and the grand prize winners were not the studio guests but people on The Great Outside who were called on the telephone.
In less than a month rival networks had programs on the air that were almost carbon copies. All used the telephone as a fulcrum. All suffered from the same noisiness. All were guilty of radio's newest sin: bribing listeners. Offering prize bait instead of entertainment. Unfortunately, it's a trend that will abate only when listeners shove their dials away from these bargain basements and tune in a half hour of good music or drama.
Though at least six programs now use the telephone gimmick, statistics show that the average family is listening against tremendous odds. Precisely, the chances are one in 22 million that you will be called by a jolly quizmaster who wants to know how many feet make a biped. A radio statistician figured that out simply by counting the phones in the USA.
People who (Continued on page 96)
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