157     October 12, 1955
Bill, Jayne, Henry, Fran Allison

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

PREVIOUS NEXT