Allison is a television personality best known (especially in
1955) as the human element of the popular puppet series Kukla, Fran and Ollie. Puppeteer Burr Tillstrom and his Kuklapolitan
Players are the guests on tonight’s program, which features children as
contestants.
Kelly Dobbs from Minneapolis, Minnesota: “I bit the milkman”
Charyl Schnobrich from New Ulm, Minnesota: “I cut the bottom off the
toothpaste tube”
Johnny Justus from Bethesda, Maryland: “I knocked the lenses out of daddy’s eye glasses with a hammer”
Young Charyl replaced the toothpaste in her tube with shaving cream. All three of the little brats won
awards in various newspaper contests tied to comic strips featuring mischievous
children. Dobbs (5) won a 1954 Dennis
the Menace contest and Schnobrich (8) won a 1955 Little Iodine contest, both
sponsored by the Minnesota Star Tribune.
Justus, only 4, won a Dennis the Menace contest sponsored by the
Washington Post. Though Little Iodine is
less well known today than Dennis, the two are similar, and her strip debuted
first (1943 vs 1951).
The Kuklapolitan Players impersonate the panelists.
Kukla is "Bill Kukla" (complete with glasses), Madame Oglepuss is "Jayne Oglepuss", Ollie is "Henry J Dragon" and Beulah Witch is "Fran Witch." From a small puppet stage just over the regular panelists' heads, "they" (all performed by Tillstrom of course) take part in the questioning for the last two games. However, practically no time is spent playing either game as TIllstrom's Players are content performing the improvisational comedy for which they are known.
Beverly Yakus from Chicago: “I won the
bubblegum blowing championship of the US”
12-year-old
Beverly won an event at a Chicago fair, and in typical Secret fashion, the
producers exaggerated her accomplishment for the sake of the game. Beverly also
got an appearance on Steve Allen’s Tonight show out of her achievement. She would
take second place at the same fair event the following year. (See
E36)
Bobby Mohr from Fogelsville, Pennsylvania: “I climbed the highest mountain in the USA" (Mt
Whitney - 14,496 feet)
Bobby was
only four years old when he accomplished his climb last year, alongside his
father and 11-year-old brother. It was a
three-day, 13.5-mile hike and climb to the summit There's a photograph of little Bobby at the peak, and Garry explains that the lad was carried back down. Mount Whitney in California was the tallest
mountain in the US until 1959, when Alaska would join the union and its Mount McKinley
would become the highest American peak.
In 2016, the National Parks Service officially reverted the name of the
mountain back to Denali, the name by which it was known to the native
population for centuries.
Tillstrom comes
out to be recognized at the end of the program.
It’s his birthday tomorrow, as well as the eighth anniversary of his TV
show. Fran Allison has a birthday cake
for him. Finally, Miss Yakus returns to the stage to blow a magnificent bubble as Garry signs off.
This episode has been reviewed, but is not generally available among collectors