571     June 8, 1964 (LIVE)
Bill, Betsy, Henry, Bess

Dave Guidici and Kelly MacDonald from El Cerrito, California: “We’re going to launch our own earth satellite” 
The two college students are attempting to become the first private citizens to launch a satellite into orbit.  They have already had a series of successful sub-orbital launches, and have attracted the attention of NASA, UC-Berkley and several aircraft companies.  Their novel approach is to launch a rocket from a high-altitude balloon.  Though there would be newspaper stories tracking their progress for the next year or two, the project appears to never have gotten off the ground.   

Mr. X has qualified for the US Olympic team in: “The marathon race (26 miles)…I won the race by four miles”                 
Buddy Edelen finished the qualifying race in 95 degree heat, twenty minutes ahead of the second-place finisher.  Edelen held the world record in the marathon for about a year, but his record would fall on June 13 at a race in England.  Despite high hopes for a medal, he would finish 6th at the 1964 Tokyo Olympic Games October.  In an era when amateurism was taken much more seriously than it is today, Edelen, a schoolteacher in England, tells of his hometown of Sioux Falls, South Dakota raising money to get him back to the states to take part in the qualifying race.  He is enshrined in the National Track and Field Hall of Fame.   

Special guest Robert Merrill brings along his wife and two young children: “We made our debuts at the Metropolitan Opera last season…So did our dog” 
The dog’s stage appearance came about in Boston, where he replaced a cat in The Barber of Seville (1816).   The kids, David and Lizanne, performed as part of the children’s chorus from Turandot (1926).  Here, they sing part of their role, accompanied by their mother Marion at the piano. The entire family performs “Hello, Dolly” (1964) from the Broadway show of the same name. Merrill was a popular baritone who kept one foot in his opera and the other in more mainstream entertainment.  Late in his career, he would become known to a younger generation of sports fans as the guy singing the national anthem for the New York Yankees on Opening Day and other special occasions.