On this Independence Day, the show strays from its traditional opening and instead has guest Agnes Moorehead, in a spotlight, quoting the prophetic words of John Adams about how future generations would celebrate the signing of the Declaration. In part, he said, "It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires and illuminations from one end of this continent to the other."
6-year-old Jane Edith Thomas from Dayton, Ohio: "I became a US citizen by special act of Congress"
Little Janie (as she's known back home) was born in Italy to a US serviceman father and an Italian mother. Her father was only 20 years old, and according to the Nationality Act of 1940, a child born overseas to an American father becomes a citizen only if the father himself had been a citizen for five years following his 16th birthday. Dad wasn't quite old enough to make that cut. Janie's situation attracted widespread sympathetic media attention. Her congressman, Rep Paul Schenck, put through a bill that essentially made American servicemen exempt from the law, paving the way for Janie's citizenship, and those of hundreds of other youngsters in similar straits. Rep Schenck appears later to explain the situation better than a six-year-old could. Schenck also presents Janie with an American flag. Schenck's appearance during an election year triggered an amusing follow-up on next week's show (
E195).
Quiz Kids’ Raymond Kanter of Norfolk, Connecticut challenges the panelists with American history questions
In its original incarnation, Quiz Kids debuted on the radio in 1942 and ran until 1953, the last four years also on television. A rotating panel of terribly bright youngsters would answer challenging questions sent in by listeners/viewers . At its peak, it was no less than a cultural phenomenon. Eight-year-old Raymond is part of a 1956 revival of the series. Here, the panel is given Quiz Kids-caliber material (To Jayne: "Name eight members of Eisenhower's cabinet") and generally fare poorly (Jayne could only come up with five). Henry, in full curmudgeon mode, does everything he can to distract and trip up young Raymond.
Special guest Agnes Moorehead is on the phone surveying homes about their evening’s TV viewing habits while playing the game
Morehead's part of the Secret is guessed quickly, but a phone bank of eight other researchers has also been making calls. Garry and Miss Moorehead compile that data and compare it to actual data gathered by a rating service. Both samples indicate that I've Got a Secret is watched by about half the viewing audience. It is not scintillating television. As colleague Marshall Akers said after viewing this episode, "there’s nothing quite like seeing Agnes Moorehead scrawl a bunch of numbers on a chalkboard on TV to confirm that watching fireworks while picnicking in the park would have been the right Fourth of July decision." Moorehead is in New York to discuss her part in a new stage production. This was probably The Rivalry (1959), a little-remembered play about the relationship between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas and Moorehead was to play Mrs Douglas. She would perform the role in pre-Broadway tryouts, but by the time the show reached Broadway some eighteen months later, Moorehead had left the project. The show would run for two and a half months.
This episode has been reviewed at the Library of Congress, but is not generally available to the public.