| Information Please | |
|---|---|
| Genre | radio |
| Created by | Dan Golenpaul |
| Presented by | Clifton Fadiman |
| Country of origin | United States |
| No. of seasons | 13 |
| Production | |
| Running time | 30 minutes |
| Original release | |
| Network | NBC Radio |
| Release | May 17, 1938 (1938-05-17) – April 22, 1951 (1951-04-22) |
Information Please is an Americanradioquiz show, created byDan Golenpaul, which aired onNBC from May 17, 1938, to April 22, 1951. The title was the contemporary phrase used to request fromtelephone operators what was then called "information" and later called "directory assistance".
The series was moderated byClifton Fadiman. A panel of experts would attempt to answer questions submitted by listeners. For the first few shows, a listener was paid $2 for a question that was used, and $5 more if the experts could not answer it correctly. When the show got its first sponsor (Canada Dry), the total amounts were increased to $5 and $10 respectively. A completeEncyclopædia Britannica was later added to the prize for questions that stumped the panel. The amounts rose to $10 and $25 whenLucky Strike took over sponsorship of the program.
By 1948, the prizes changed to the following: submitting a question awarded the viewer anEncyclopædia Britannica world atlas, and stumping the panel added a $50 savings bond plus the complete encyclopedia. They also replaced the regular sponsorship with a different sponsor for certain broadcasts.
Panel regulars included writer-actor-pianistOscar Levant and newspaper columnists and renowned wits and intellectualsFranklin P. Adams andJohn Kieran. All the panelists were well versed in a wide range of topics, though each had a specialty.Music andfilm questions were often addressed to Levant. Adams was well known for his mastery ofpoetry,popular culture andGilbert and Sullivan. Kieran was an expert innatural history,sports andliterature. A typical question would have three or four parts and would require the panelists to get a majority of the questions right, lest they lose the prize money.
The show would always have a fourth guest panelist, usually either a celebrity, a politician or writer. Guest panelists includedFred Allen,Leonard Bernstein,Boris Karloff,Clare Boothe Luce,Groucho Marx,Dorothy Parker,S. J. Perelman,Sigmund Spaeth,Rex Stout,Jan Struther,Deems Taylor,Jackie Robinson,Alexander Woollcott,George S. Kaufman,Ruth Gordon,Orson Welles,Basil Rathbone,Moe Berg, and a very youngMyron "Mike" Wallace.
The show was as much a comedy as a quiz show. The panelists displayed a quick wit in answering the questions, reveling in puns andmalapropisms. (For instance, once the panel was asked to supply a common household expression. Adams: "Please pass the salt." Kieran: "The front doorbell's ringing." Levant: "Are you going to stay in that bathroom all day?"[1]) Due to the spontaneous nature of the program, it became the first show for which NBC allowed a prerecorded repeat for theWest Coast.[2]
DuringWorld War II, the show frequently went on tours from itsNew York City base to promote the buying ofwar bonds. Instead of the usual cash prize, a question writer would win a bond. The show received several awards as an outstanding radio quiz show. It is also believed to be the earliest example of thepanel game genre.
The program was so popular that, from 1939 to 1943, excerpts of 18 radio broadcasts were filmed and released byRKO Pictures as a series oftheatrical shorts. Two card games based on the series were also released, as was a 1939 tie-in quiz book fromSimon & Schuster.
The show was satirized by the zany panel of radio'sIt Pays to Be Ignorant, which likewise enjoyed a successful radio run from 1942 to 1951.
In 1947, Golenpaul edited theInformation Please Almanac, a reference book which continued through the years in different formats (including the website Infoplease).
The program was mentioned by name in the 1949 filmA Letter to Three Wives.
At the start of the 1942 movieWoman of the Year,Spencer Tracy's character enters a bar and hears on the radioKatharine Hepburn's character appearing onInformation Please.[3]
| Information Please | |
|---|---|
| Genre | TV |
| Created by | Dan Golenpaul |
| Presented by | Clifton Fadiman (June–August) John McCaffery (August–September) |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Production | |
| Running time | 30 minutes |
| Original release | |
| Network | CBS |
| Release | June 29 (1952-06-29) – September 21, 1952 (1952-09-21) |
Information Please went to television from June 29 to September 21, 1952, onCBS Television on Sundays at 9:00 pm[4] as a summer replacement forThe Fred Waring Show,[5] a musical variety series. Adams and Kieran returned to the show, with Fadiman again as host and two guest celebrities. On August 17, Fadiman was replaced byJohn McCaffery for the rest of the show's run.
A variation ofInformation Please, this time a program devoted exclusively to music with the same four-member panel format, became popular when it was televised inLos Angeles in 1953. After two years of local success,Musical Chairs became a summer replacement series onNBC Television. TheBill Leyden-hosted game show lasted eleven weeks on the national airwaves.
An Australian version of the program was first broadcast from Melbourne radio station3DB in about 1939, and was relayed to Sydney station2CH from July 1941.[6] It was soon relayed nationwide through theMajor Broadcasting Network. The program continued into the early 1960s.John Stuart was the host. (Stuart was a prominent 3DB broadcaster who presented the breakfast program under the pseudonymDaybreak Dan, and the children's session asBob Breezy.) Panelists includedBarry Jones,Edward Alexander Mann, who broadcast as "The Watchman",[7]Crosbie Morrison,Alan Nichols, John Lynch,Professor W.A. Osborne, Ian Mair,Dr Charles Souter,Eric Welch.[8][9]