15   Recorded October 5, 1972

Julius Sumner Miller brings out a block of wood and an axe: “I’m going to drive a railroad spike into this block of wood…The block of wood will be on Richard Dawson’s chest”

Professor Miller teaches physics at El Camino College in Torrance, California but is better known as a television personality. Looking the part of a disheveled, eccentric professor, Miller hosted a variety of children’s science shows in the US and other countries, and was a frequent guest on Steve’s syndicated late-night talk show (1962-1964).  Miller says here that it’s his 70th time appearing on television with Steve. Miller would retire from teaching in 1974 but would continue to make television appearances into the 1980s, especially in Australia where he was quite popular. 

Three-year-old Mark Desmond “I flew from Los Angeles to London in a 747…as a stowaway”

Mark’s six-year-old brother Stanley is also on hand, though he has nothing to do with the secret. In August 1972, Mark boarded a plane his father was taking to London, and nobody noticed him until 20 minutes after takeoff.  Without a passport, Mark was immediately put back on the plane for the return flight where he met mom, Stanley, and sister Amy (5) back in LA.  The family name, not mentioned on the show for whatever reason, is Woo-sam. Mark at the time was considered the youngest stowaway ever, though after a day or two of headlines, his story was quickly forgotten.  Mark would become a civil rights attorney for the state of California.  

Special guest Alan Sues is imitating the actions of Ramar, a trained gorilla.  

Sues and Steve repeatedly refers to the animal as “Ramar of the Jungle,” mistakenly conflating the animal’s name with the name of an unrelated adventure TV series of the 1950s.  Ramar’s owner, private animal trainer Jack Badal, raised the gorilla and taught him to perform, which he did in circus acts and even in nightclubs for several years. A surprisingly docile creature, Ramar would nevertheless outgrow his human home, and in 1974 would be donated to a North Carolina zoo.  He would eventually make his way to the Brookfield Zoo in Chicago where he became a beloved fixture there until health issues forced his euthanasia in 2018 at the age of fifty.  Coincidentally, here he’s only a year or so older than the stowaway from the previous game.  Badal would write Jungle to Stage (Words & Pictures Press 2000) about his time with Ramar.  Sues is touring with a stage show called Good News with hopes of taking it to Broadway.  The show would reach Broadway in late 1974 where it ran briefly, but by that point Sues was no longer in the cast.