Radio fun and games

The news that NPR will try a TV version of Wait Wait Don't Tell Me got me rummaging around the web for old radio game shows. These shows are even more ancient than me, and I can't remember any of them very well. But one radio show, College Quiz Bowl, eventually jumped to TV as GE College Bowl. And I remember the television version quite well, thank you.

Turns out the primeval College Quiz Bowl is "well preserved", as they sometimes say about people like me. A site on old radio game shows offers the complete March 5, 1955 episode. This was a battle of the sexes, as an all-female team from Mt. Holyoke faced an all-male team from Colgate.

Allen Ludden, in his pre-Password days, hosted. I won't spoil the suspense in case you want to listen to the episode. But I can say that Allen was racing by the end of the show, because the contest literally went down to the last minute after a dramatic comeback by one of the teams. The episode is well worth your time.

This was long before political correctness, so the members of the Mt. Holyoke team are freely referred to as "girls." One of them tells Allen that she's wearing a bone in her hair, but she won't divulge the reason. It remains an unsolved mystery.