Mr. X: “I sailed across the Pacific on a raft (Kon-Tiki)”
Thor Heyerdahl’s 1947 expedition,
demonstrating the relative ease with which a simple raft could navigate the
Pacific currents, captured the public imagination. The book of the trip was a massive best-seller,
and the 1951 documentary won an Academy Award.
The panel is equally familiar with Heyerdahl’s more recent work. Aku-Aku:
The Secret of Easter Island (1957) had only recently been published in
English. While it did not have the
historic staying power of Heyerdahl’s first work, it too was a best-seller,
arousing the world’s fascination with those giant stone heads. Many of Heyerdahl’s theories remain
controversial within the anthropology community today, though his role in
bringing attention to that part of the world is unquestioned.
Special Guest Durward Kirby: “I’m singing in Betsy Palmer’s
bathtub”
Betsy and her husband are redoing
their home, and this is their old, discarded bathtub. Kirby is on hand to help Garry plug his new
weekly prime time variety show, which would debut on September 30.
Lorrain D’Essen from New York City: “I have 38 animals living with
me in my house”
As the panel questions her, more and
more of her menagerie show up on stage.
Mrs. D’Essen and her husband run Animal Talent Scouts, which places
animals on TV shows, in movies, on stage and in photo shoots. Among her prized “clients” was “Steverino,” a
greyhound named after Steve Allen, who for a while was the mascot for Greyhound
Lines bus company (the dog, not Steve). Her book Kangaroos in the Kitchen (McKay 1959)
described her enterprise.
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