The Big Payoff
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The Big Payoff
''The Big Payoff'' is a daytime and primetime game show that premiered on NBC in 1951, and ended its network run on CBS in 1959. It had a brief syndication revival in 1962. NBC used ''The Big Payoff'' to replace the 15-minute show ''Miss Susan'' starring Susan Peters, which had gone off the air in December 1951. Over its eight-year run plus syndication, the show had three hosts. The first was Randy Merriman (from 1951-1957), who left after claiming that CBS was in breach of his contract. Bob Paige took his place from 1957-1959. He was followed by a short stint by Bert Parks (1959), after which CBS removed the show along with all of its other quiz shows out of abundance of caution; it stated it could not ensure the shows were produced honestly in the wake of the quiz show scandals of the late 1950s. Contestants were selected from men who mailed in letters explaining why the women in their lives deserved prizes. The men were asked four questions (delivered on a silver tray by "Quest ...
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Paul Alter
Paul Alter (March 11, 1922 – June 11, 2011) was an American television director, specializing in game shows for Mark Goodson Productions. Alter was best known as the original director of ''Family Feud'' from the show's origin in the mid-1970s until the early 1990s and the director of ''The Price Is Right'' from 1986 until 2000. Early life and career Born in Chicago, Illinois, Alter studied piano with Teddy Wilson, from the Benny Goodman Quartet. Alter became a talented musician. Later on, Alter would put his talent to use composing the 1969 theme for '' To Tell the Truth''. Television work His first job as a game-show director was on the original CBS version of ''Beat the Clock'' in 1950. He then began a long association with Mark Goodson - Bill Todman Productions, where he worked on many of their shows including ''What's My Line?'', ''I've Got a Secret'' and '' To Tell the Truth''. Alter directed both versions of ''The Price Is Right'', beginning with the original NBC ve ...
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Nancy Walters
Nancy Walters (born Nancy Driver on June 26, 1933 – September 29, 2009) was an American model, actress and minister. Early years Walters was born in Mount Plymouth, Florida, and brought up near Mount Plymouth and Zellwood, Florida. A bone infection that was incurred when she was four years old prevented her from standing until her teenage years. When she was seven years old, she spent eight months in a hospital for treatment of the infection. After she finished high school, she went to secretarial school and took a business law class, both of which were in line with her plans to be a lawyer's secretary. Career Her career in modeling included appearances in magazines, including ''Glamour (magazine), Glamour'', Vogue (magazine), ''Vogue'', ''Harper's Bazaar'', and Mademoiselle (magazine), ''Mademoiselle''. In 1955, Walters left modeling and began working on the NBC game show ''The Big Payoff''. In 1958 she was also on the CBS show ''Strike It Rich (radio-TV), Strike It Rich' ...
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Black-and-white American Television Shows
Black-and-white (B&W or B/W) images combine black and white in a continuous spectrum, producing a range of shades of grey. Media The history of various visual media began with black and white, and as technology improved, altered to color. However, there are exceptions to this rule, including black-and-white fine art photography, as well as many film motion pictures and art film(s). Photography Contemporary use Since the late 1960s, few mainstream films have been shot in black-and-white. The reasons are frequently commercial, as it is difficult to sell a film for television broadcasting if the film is not in color. 1961 was the last year in which the majority of Hollywood films were released in black and white. Computing In computing terminology, ''black-and-white'' is sometimes used to refer to a binary image consisting solely of pure black pixels and pure white ones; what would normally be called a black-and-white image, that is, an image containing shades of ...
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1962 American Television Series Endings
Year 196 ( CXCVI) was a leap year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Dexter and Messalla (or, less frequently, year 949 ''Ab urbe condita''). The denomination 196 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years. Events By place Roman Empire * Emperor Septimius Severus attempts to assassinate Clodius Albinus but fails, causing Albinus to retaliate militarily. * Emperor Septimius Severus captures and sacks Byzantium; the city is rebuilt and regains its previous prosperity. * In order to assure the support of the Roman legion in Germany on his march to Rome, Clodius Albinus is declared Augustus by his army while crossing Gaul. * Hadrian's wall in Britain is partially destroyed. China * First year of the '' Jian'an era of the Chinese Han Dynasty. * Emperor Xian of ...
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1962 American Television Series Debuts
Year 196 ( CXCVI) was a leap year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Dexter and Messalla (or, less frequently, year 949 ''Ab urbe condita''). The denomination 196 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years. Events By place Roman Empire * Emperor Septimius Severus attempts to assassinate Clodius Albinus but fails, causing Albinus to retaliate militarily. * Emperor Septimius Severus captures and sacks Byzantium; the city is rebuilt and regains its previous prosperity. * In order to assure the support of the Roman legion in Germany on his march to Rome, Clodius Albinus is declared Augustus by his army while crossing Gaul. * Hadrian's wall in Britain is partially destroyed. China * First year of the '' Jian'an era of the Chinese Han Dynasty. * Emperor Xian of ...
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1960s American Game Shows
Year 196 ( CXCVI) was a leap year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Dexter and Messalla (or, less frequently, year 949 ''Ab urbe condita''). The denomination 196 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years. Events By place Roman Empire * Emperor Septimius Severus attempts to assassinate Clodius Albinus but fails, causing Albinus to retaliate militarily. * Emperor Septimius Severus captures and sacks Byzantium; the city is rebuilt and regains its previous prosperity. * In order to assure the support of the Roman legion in Germany on his march to Rome, Clodius Albinus is declared Augustus by his army while crossing Gaul. * Hadrian's wall in Britain is partially destroyed. China * First year of the '' Jian'an era of the Chinese Han Dynasty. * Emperor Xian of ...
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1950s American Game Shows
Year 195 ( CXCV) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Scrapula and Clemens (or, less frequently, year 948 ''Ab urbe condita''). The denomination 195 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years. Events By place Roman Empire * Emperor Septimius Severus has the Roman Senate deify the previous emperor Commodus, in an attempt to gain favor with the family of Marcus Aurelius. * King Vologases V and other eastern princes support the claims of Pescennius Niger. The Roman province of Mesopotamia rises in revolt with Parthian support. Severus marches to Mesopotamia to battle the Parthians. * The Roman province of Syria is divided and the role of Antioch is diminished. The Romans annexed the Syrian cities of Edessa and Nisibis. Severus re-establish his head ...
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1959 American Television Series Endings
Events January * January 1 - Cuba: Fulgencio Batista flees Havana when the forces of Fidel Castro advance. * January 2 - Lunar probe Luna 1 was the first man-made object to attain escape velocity from Earth. It reached the vicinity of Earth's Moon, and was also the first spacecraft to be placed in heliocentric orbit. * January 3 ** The three southernmost atolls of the Maldive archipelago (Addu Atoll, Huvadhu Atoll and Fuvahmulah island) declare independence. ** Alaska is admitted as the 49th U.S. state. * January 4 ** In Cuba, rebel troops led by Che Guevara and Camilo Cienfuegos enter the city of Havana. ** Léopoldville riots: At least 49 people are killed during clashes between the police and participants of a meeting of the ABAKO Party in Léopoldville in the Belgian Congo. * January 6 ** Fidel Castro arrives in Havana. ** The International Maritime Organization is inaugurated. * January 7 – The United States recognizes the new Cuban government of Fidel Castro. * ...
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1951 American Television Series Debuts
Events January * January 4 – Korean War: Third Battle of Seoul – Chinese and North Korean forces capture Seoul for the second time (having lost the Second Battle of Seoul in September 1950). * January 9 – The Government of the United Kingdom announces abandonment of the Tanganyika groundnut scheme for the cultivation of peanuts in the Tanganyika Territory, with the writing off of £36.5M debt. * January 15 – In a court in West Germany, Ilse Koch, The "Witch of Buchenwald", wife of the commandant of the Buchenwald concentration camp, is sentenced to life imprisonment. * January 20 – Winter of Terror: Avalanches in the Alps kill 240 and bury 45,000 for a time, in Switzerland, Austria and Italy. * January 21 – Mount Lamington in Papua New Guinea erupts catastrophically, killing nearly 3,000 people and causing great devastation in Oro Province. * January 25 – Dutch author Anne de Vries releases the first volume of his children's novel ''Journey Through the Night'' ...
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Betty Ann Grove
Betty Ann Grove (September 9, 1929 – November 13, 2015) was an American actress and singer. Early years Grove was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Her mother was "an exhibition ballroom dancer" who performed with Ray Bolger and Jack Haley, among others. Grove took her first dancing lessons at age 4 and at 11 was performing professionally by singing and dancing for service clubs in Cambridge. She attended Longfellow Grammar School and Cambridge High and Latin School. As a high school student, she performed for department stores' fashion shows in Boston. Stage In 1950, Grove debuted on Broadway in the 1948 original production of ''Kiss Me, Kate'', playing Lois Lane/Bianca, a lead role that was originated by Lisa Kirk (whom she replaced). She appeared on Broadway in three other shows as well: The 1968 original production of ''George M!''; the 1979 original production of '' I Remember Mama''; and the 1983 revival of ''On Your Toes''. Television Grove's network television debut ...
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The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid digital subscribers. It also is a producer of popular podcasts such as '' The Daily''. Founded in 1851 by Henry Jarvis Raymond and George Jones, it was initially published by Raymond, Jones & Company. The ''Times'' has won 132 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any newspaper, and has long been regarded as a national " newspaper of record". For print it is ranked 18th in the world by circulation and 3rd in the U.S. The paper is owned by the New York Times Company, which is publicly traded. It has been governed by the Sulzberger family since 1896, through a dual-class share structure after its shares became publicly traded. A. G. Sulzberger, the paper's publisher and the company's chairman, is the fifth generation of the family to head the pa ...
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Beverly Bentley
Beverly Bentley (February 26, 1930 – September 13, 2018) was an American actress. Her career began during the Golden Age of Television in the 1950s and continued on stage and in film into the first decade of the 21st century. Background Born Beverly Claire Rentz in Atlanta, Georgia, her parents divorced when she was young, and she moved with her mother to Florida. She studied drama at Sarasota High School, but was forced to leave school at age 16 to move again to Pensacola. It was there while working in a diner that she met entertainer Arthur Godfrey, who was a Reservist at a nearby naval station. Career Rentz later moved to New York City and searched for Godfrey. He asked her to appear regularly on his show, where she became a "Little Godfrey" who held up signs for commercials. Godfrey introduced her as "Beverly Bentley", because he thought the name "sounds better". She then changed her name professionally. She briefly married advertising executive Alex Mumford and worked ...
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