6-year-old Janie Thomas from Dayton, Ohio: "I became a US citizen by a special act of Congress"
Little Janie 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's appearance during an election year triggered an amusing follow-up on next week's show (
E195).
Special guest Agnes Moorehead
This episode has not been reviewed. Details come from alternate sources, including thumbnail descriptions of the episodes in GSN documentation. Except where noted, “secrets” are not exact quotes.
