DeSoto - Proud Sponsors of You Bet Your Life, with Groucho Marx

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You Bet Your Life

with Groucho Marx
USA (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.

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