You Bet Your Life |
with Groucho Marx |
|
(circa 1959) |
During the Fifties, US quiz shows
were giving away record amounts of money - on some
shows hundreds of thousands (in today's) dollars.
In
this era of big money quiz shows,
"You Bet Your Life" rarely gave away more than
a thousand dollars - and that was for a pair of contestants
to split!
Originally broadcast on radio beginning in
1947, the show made the move to television in 1950, then
as simply a radio show with cameras.
Contestants needed
to
"Say the Secret Word" to win a hundred dollars,
success would see a paper-mache duck come down with the
loot.
People tuned in to see and hear Groucho grill the
contestants, the game itself was almost inconsequential.
But the show was almost cancelled before it began - the
original sponsor DeSoto ("Go to see your nearest
DeSoto-Plymouth dealer and tell him Groucho sent you"),
assumed when they signed Groucho that he would do the
show in his familiar black frock coat and painted-on
mustache.
When he refused, the sponsors tried to pull
the plug, but discovered that there was no clause in
the comedian's contract requiring him to wear a costume
- "If I can't be funny on television without funny
clothes and makeup, to hell with it" was Groucho's
attitude. |