Brooklyn’s chief librarian had had enough. Last week Dr. Milton James Ferguson announced that henceforth Brooklyn libraries would turn deaf ears to telephoned quiz queries from radio fans.
Said Dr. Ferguson: “. . . The normal work of the library is suffering. . . . In some cases [telephoned queries] have resulted in actual impairment of [staff] morale.”
The cause of Dr. Ferguson’s long-suffering : WOR’s Tello-Test quiz. On this five-a-week show, announcers telephone a housewife, offer $5 if she can answer a question in one minute. If she fails, another $5 is added, another number is called. Brooklyn listeners telephone the library as soon as they hear the question, hoping their number may be next. The library’s calm is shattered during every broadcast. Concluded Dr. Ferguson stiffly: “The identification of ‘Lemonade Lucy’* or the architect of the White House . . . seems of small moment.”
* Mrs. Rutherford B. Hayes, 1877’s First Lady, who refused to serve alcoholic beverages in the White House, served a stickless fruit punch instead.
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