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■4 Joan Caulfield, Ralph Edwards: she owes TV stardom to This Is Your Life. ally swamped with invitations to speak at breakfasts, luncheons, teas, dinners and lecture halls. An associ¬ ate says flatly that Edwards has made Dr. Jones “the happiest man in the world” and that the show itself “has become almost a religion with us.” Dr. Jones recently forwarded to Ed¬ wards a letter recounting the experi¬ ence of a Detroit man whose wife, suffering from a “mental relapse,” had not spoken a word in six years. On the night of Dr. Jones’ appearance, she suddenly said, “I want to send a dollar to that man.” This Is Your Life’s most celebrated alumna is probably singer Lillian Roth, the former alcoholic whose bi¬ ography has been aired on the show three times. Her appearance with Ed¬ wards in January, 1953—her first pub¬ lic appearance in 14 years—was chiefly responsible for putting her book, “I’ll Cry Tomorrow,” on the best-seller list, where it has remained now for almost a year. The book, in turn, has been directly responsible for sending several well-known movie stars to Alcoholics Anonymous. Understandably, Miss Roth (the first principal subject Edwards ever told in advance that she was to be featured) was reluctant to appear on the show. Edwards convinced her, however, that the story of her life would be an inspiration to others. For herself, it has meant a best-selling book and a long string of lucrative night-club engagements. Moreover, the book has been bought by M-G-M and is scheduled to go into produc¬ tion soon, starring Susan Hayward. Mae Williams, the hard-luck singer who contracted polio and then broke her back, all within four years, is still flabbergasted over the results of her appearance on the show several months ago. “A day doesn’t go by,” she says, “without two or three people stopping me on the street to talk about it. I still get goosebumps all over just thinking about it.” She was immedi¬ ately booked into several “prestige” night spots and is now filming her own half-hour musical TV series. “Ralph Edwards didn’t say a single word about money on that show,” she reports, “yet I’ve received $486 so far from people wanting me to for¬ ward it to the Sister Kenny (polio) Foundation.” In Chicago, cab driver Eddie Ham¬ ilton, the subject of Edwards’ first Mae Williams, on comeback trail, is ► readying her own musical TV series.