583     November 23, 1964 (Taped November 16)
Betsy, Bill, Bess, Henry

Steve once again teases the “I’ve Got a Secret” songs written by the panel.  They will appear on the next episode, following next week’s pre-emption for a Leonard Bernstein Young Person’s Concert.    

[Lynn Fitzpatrick] from Nixon, New Jersey was the victim of a purse snatching: “The criminal ate my purse and its contents…I was robbed by an elephant”                 
Miss Fitzpatrick turns out to be the sixth woman to have her purse snatched by a pachyderm at the African Pavilion of the New York World’s Fair.  We were to have seen the elephant on stage, but as Steve explained last week (while dancing around the fact that this show was taped that day as well), the elephant and her partner proved uncooperative.   

Special guest Louis Nye has the raw materials to make a Thanksgiving dinner: “All this food will be cooked and ready to eat…In about 10 minutes” 
Engineer Percy Spencer discovered the heat-producing effect of microwave radiation by accident in 1925, when he noticed that a chocolate bar in his pocket had melted while he worked in the lab.  His company Raytheon produced the first consumer microwave oven, known as the “Radarange,” in 1947.  Early models were enormous and prohibitively expensive to most households.  The model provided to the show by Amperex Electronics Corporation has the look and size of a traditional oven.  The now common affordable tabletop models would arrive on the market a few years later.  Nye returns at the end of the show to serve his meal to the panel.   

Craig Rollins from Provo, Utah, [Tony ?] from New York City, Tom Kilduff from Kingston, Pennsylvania and Mike Ferrell from Melbourne, Florida: “One of us is going to win $5000 tonight” 
The four young men are finalists from more than a million participants in the Ford-Aurora “Grand National” tabletop racing car championship.  Miniature slot car toys date as far back as 1912, and today the electric version continue to be enjoyed by serious hobbyists, but it became a national phenomenon in the 1960s.  During that time, Aurora Plastics Corporation was general regarded as the industry leader, and in 1961 they teamed with Ford Motor Company to sponsor annual nationwide competitions. Formula One champion Stirling Moss is the Grand Marshall of the event and calls the action here.  Kilduff wins the 15-lap race.