Radio: Lunatic Fringe

Since radio went all out for quiz shows, many a program expert has strained mightily to vary the monotony of the question and answer formula. Strange product of this striving is the NBC show, Truth or Consequences, through which Procter & Gamble plugs Ivory Soap. Based on the oldtime parlor game, Truth or Consequences differs from rival questionnaires in that it penalizes participants who are baffled by its queries. Boisterous, rowdy, full of custard-pie humor, the program last week was hard on the heels of top-rating quiz show Information Please.

Devised by a radio announcer named Ralph Edwards, who serves as master of ceremonies for the show, Truth or Consequences induces contestants to volunteer by offering $15 for each correct answer to questions. But penalties for errors are fierce. Volunteers who fail are put in real doghouses, mounted on mechanical horses, compelled to imitate babies and dogs, given consolation prizes of $5.

Recently two enthusiasts were persuaded to feed each other chunks of blueberry pie while blindfolded, making appropriate dinner-table chitchat as they went along. Another client was ordered to put a birdcage over his head, sing Listen to the Mocking Bird. More terrifying was the experience of a gentleman who had to lie on a bed sheet in the middle of the studio stage and pretend to be a male seal wooing his mate. To add zest to his performance, a real seal was quietly placed beside him which barked happily down his neck. For thinking up such consequences, listeners are paid $10.

Although Truth or Consequences is close to complete lunacy, it is not quite so close as a weird audience-participation show (as yet unsponsored) called You Sell Me, which floated out from Chicago’s WBBM a month ago. Presided over by ebullient, moon-faced Tommie Bartlett (TIME, July 1), You Sell Me is a kind of auction at which anything from a kiss to a shirt is purchased from spectators. Wandering around a WBBM studio with a portable mike, Bartlett haggles over shirts, stockings with holes in them, 1921 nickels. Usual price for such items: $10.

Eager vendors on the show have offered Bartlett sets of false teeth, even sold heads of hair for $45. Shearing of the hair-seller was done by a lady barber on a holiday who got $5 for her efforts. One young man brashly agreed to take $2 for every pint of milk he could wring from a cow named Lucky that Bartlett brought to the studio. At show’s end, he had made just $2. Other You Sell Me chores are blowing up large balloons till they break, trying to kick oneself in the pants. To protect his show from lawsuits, Bartlett says he is negotiating with Lloyd’s to get $100,000 worth of insurance.