finally, a circle of like minded intellectuals that I can discuss the deep subjects with. Who won't even mind my dangling propositions.
this literary question has been on my mind for some time::
Which of these TV shows has more existential meaning?
1. Dukes of Hazard
2. Gilligan
3. Jerry Springer
4. Fear Factor
5. How to Marry a Millionaire
and another question. What do you think Brittany will look like when she is 40? (and working on her 19th marriage)
For Your Viewing Pleasure
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Doreen Peri
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Zlatko Waterman
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Doreen:
When I first came to Southern California, I heard Jack Bailey acting in a radio drama on a local university FM station, late at night.
Then Mr. Bailey was in the studio and took phone calls.
Jack Daniels and I had been whooping it up with some friends ( I was 27 years old at the time . . .) and I called the studio and several of my friends and I talked to Mr. Bailey. It seems he was most inclined to talk about his earlier acting experience and comedy work , rather than "Queen For a Day", but it was a great experience for us, nevertheless. I think Jack Bailey was about 70 when we talked to him . . .
(paste from the Web below)
Queen For A Day was emceed by Jack Bailey, originally from Hampton, Iowa. Bailey acted in stock carnivals and tent shows before ending up at the 1933 World's Fair in Chicago as a barker. He moved to San Diego to try out radio and struggled for many years in that profession. In 1945 he got the job to host the radio version of Queen For A Day. He then went with the show when it went on television. He began every show with, " Do YOU want to be...QUEEN...FOR...A...DAY?" (5) TV Guide called Bailey television's "No. 1 mesmerizer of middle-aged females and most relentless dispenser of free washing machines." (6) The game went like this; Bailey interviewed four women on each show, whoever was in the worst shape-assessed by the audience 'applause meter' was crowned Queen For A Day. Bailey said about the winners, "It's not what they want, its why they want it that counts with us." Queen For A Day was considered a "sob show" of the 1950's. "Sure 'Queen' was vulgar and sleazy and filled with bathos and bad taste," wrote producer Howard Blake in an article for Fact magazine. "That was why it was so successful. It was exactly what the general public wanted....We got what we were after. Five thousand Queens got what they were after. And the TV audience cried their eyes out, morbidly delighted to find there were people worse off than they were, and so they got what they were after." (7) The show was the 'Cinderella fantasy,' and its beneficiaries were always women. The women who was chosen over the other hopefuls, by the level of audience applause, was selected Queen. She was draped in a sable-trimmed red velvet robe and a jeweled crown (see photo below of my Queen mom (!!) from the 1961 show). And more; she got whatever she had requested.
(end paste)
--Z
When I first came to Southern California, I heard Jack Bailey acting in a radio drama on a local university FM station, late at night.
Then Mr. Bailey was in the studio and took phone calls.
Jack Daniels and I had been whooping it up with some friends ( I was 27 years old at the time . . .) and I called the studio and several of my friends and I talked to Mr. Bailey. It seems he was most inclined to talk about his earlier acting experience and comedy work , rather than "Queen For a Day", but it was a great experience for us, nevertheless. I think Jack Bailey was about 70 when we talked to him . . .
(paste from the Web below)
Queen For A Day was emceed by Jack Bailey, originally from Hampton, Iowa. Bailey acted in stock carnivals and tent shows before ending up at the 1933 World's Fair in Chicago as a barker. He moved to San Diego to try out radio and struggled for many years in that profession. In 1945 he got the job to host the radio version of Queen For A Day. He then went with the show when it went on television. He began every show with, " Do YOU want to be...QUEEN...FOR...A...DAY?" (5) TV Guide called Bailey television's "No. 1 mesmerizer of middle-aged females and most relentless dispenser of free washing machines." (6) The game went like this; Bailey interviewed four women on each show, whoever was in the worst shape-assessed by the audience 'applause meter' was crowned Queen For A Day. Bailey said about the winners, "It's not what they want, its why they want it that counts with us." Queen For A Day was considered a "sob show" of the 1950's. "Sure 'Queen' was vulgar and sleazy and filled with bathos and bad taste," wrote producer Howard Blake in an article for Fact magazine. "That was why it was so successful. It was exactly what the general public wanted....We got what we were after. Five thousand Queens got what they were after. And the TV audience cried their eyes out, morbidly delighted to find there were people worse off than they were, and so they got what they were after." (7) The show was the 'Cinderella fantasy,' and its beneficiaries were always women. The women who was chosen over the other hopefuls, by the level of audience applause, was selected Queen. She was draped in a sable-trimmed red velvet robe and a jeweled crown (see photo below of my Queen mom (!!) from the 1961 show). And more; she got whatever she had requested.
(end paste)
--Z
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Scootertrash
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- Joined: August 15th, 2004, 8:04 pm
I can remember watching Queen For A Day as a real little guy. It was enthralling to me for some reason(probably because Annie Oakley, Wild Bill, Mr. Moon or Mickey Mouse wouldn't be on til later)
.
It was big time cheese for sure. You could feel the electricity the second you heard the announcer scream, "Live From The Moulin Rouge In Hollywood.." and the tv screen would show the front of some swanky theater in Hollywood, complete with searchlight beams swinging madly across the sky as a mass of tuxedoed and mink coat wearing bejeweled denizens of Hollywood swarmed around The Moulin Rouge waiting to get in to see who was going to be Queen For A Day.
Oh it was glorious. All the hopefull Queens would be sitting there as Jack, looking exactly like Old Man Tataglia The Pimp in The Godfather with his baggy suit, slicked back hair and his pencil thin moustache glided around microphone in hand, pumping the crowd and the ladies in waiting. Then as the stories were told the waterworks would come on, but Jack, oh man, Jack was there to pat them on the shoulder and encourage them to let it all hang out.
It was thirty minutes jam packed with glamour, tears, hopes, dreams, tragedies, redemption. All the things that were on my five year old boy's mind.
Such suspesne! Who would win?
The lady who's husband got his toe cut off with the lawn mower and needs a new washing machine?
The lady who's mother she hasn't seen for three years in Lincoln Nebraska has gout and needs new glasses?
The lady who's son fell down a well and was struck by lightning at the same time who's sister , who she hasn't seen in three years, outside Davenport Iowa had her appendix taken out and needs help with her husband who had his arm stuck in a hay baler and wants a television?
Oh those women at The Moulin Rouge in Hollywood sure had a tough go of it.
How could anyone decide who was more in need? Who really deserved to be Queen For A Day, get all that cool stuff including the stuff dreams are made of, the neat stuff in The Spiegel Catalogue?
How did they decide? Aww, they used one of the greatest technological advancements of the 20th Century, the Applause Meter, that's what.
Yes, as they sat there at the end, Jack would hover behind each constestant and hold his hand benignly over their weeeping head. The audience would clap and the applause meter with it's swinging indicator and numbers would appear on the screen giving an exact readout just who was winning the thing.
Then Jack would crow the winners name, out came the floor length ermine cape, the dozen long stemmed roses, and the crown, man, Jack Bailey was born to put crowns on crying women's heads.
Then it was over. All over. All America was now satisfied there was a new Queen For A Day. And she deserved it to, bless her heart. And the next day a new Queen would be crowned.
Jack Bailey. He was the man. He was the man who made women's dreams come true.
.
It was big time cheese for sure. You could feel the electricity the second you heard the announcer scream, "Live From The Moulin Rouge In Hollywood.." and the tv screen would show the front of some swanky theater in Hollywood, complete with searchlight beams swinging madly across the sky as a mass of tuxedoed and mink coat wearing bejeweled denizens of Hollywood swarmed around The Moulin Rouge waiting to get in to see who was going to be Queen For A Day.
Oh it was glorious. All the hopefull Queens would be sitting there as Jack, looking exactly like Old Man Tataglia The Pimp in The Godfather with his baggy suit, slicked back hair and his pencil thin moustache glided around microphone in hand, pumping the crowd and the ladies in waiting. Then as the stories were told the waterworks would come on, but Jack, oh man, Jack was there to pat them on the shoulder and encourage them to let it all hang out.
It was thirty minutes jam packed with glamour, tears, hopes, dreams, tragedies, redemption. All the things that were on my five year old boy's mind.
Such suspesne! Who would win?
The lady who's husband got his toe cut off with the lawn mower and needs a new washing machine?
The lady who's mother she hasn't seen for three years in Lincoln Nebraska has gout and needs new glasses?
The lady who's son fell down a well and was struck by lightning at the same time who's sister , who she hasn't seen in three years, outside Davenport Iowa had her appendix taken out and needs help with her husband who had his arm stuck in a hay baler and wants a television?
Oh those women at The Moulin Rouge in Hollywood sure had a tough go of it.
How could anyone decide who was more in need? Who really deserved to be Queen For A Day, get all that cool stuff including the stuff dreams are made of, the neat stuff in The Spiegel Catalogue?
How did they decide? Aww, they used one of the greatest technological advancements of the 20th Century, the Applause Meter, that's what.
Yes, as they sat there at the end, Jack would hover behind each constestant and hold his hand benignly over their weeeping head. The audience would clap and the applause meter with it's swinging indicator and numbers would appear on the screen giving an exact readout just who was winning the thing.
Then Jack would crow the winners name, out came the floor length ermine cape, the dozen long stemmed roses, and the crown, man, Jack Bailey was born to put crowns on crying women's heads.
Then it was over. All over. All America was now satisfied there was a new Queen For A Day. And she deserved it to, bless her heart. And the next day a new Queen would be crowned.
Jack Bailey. He was the man. He was the man who made women's dreams come true.
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Zlatko Waterman
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