Queen for a Day

It's a glimpse into some of the more bizarre development of our culture, with its carnival of advertisements and ominous ( bizarrely sci-fi ) premise. Some of the episodes change up ( it's heavy ) and so the first episode is a must if you want a righteous hit imo

I remember this show as a kid. Mostly women from lower class families with lots of kids and little money would give their hard luck story to the audience then one of them via applause would be crowned and they would get their item to improve their lives. Generally the item was a washer or dryer or sewing machine etc. (which was an excellent way to advertise appliances etc.) I guess it was sad in a way and was meant to be very touching. However if they were to show these old episodes now it might be some of the most hysterical stuff on TV. Grace Lee Whitney who went on to become Janice Rand on Star Trek was a regular on the show.

My father was killed in a traffic accident on 3 June 1959, my mother was a winning contestant on the Queen For A Day Show. We were as poor as a church mouse and there were no social assistance programs then as we have now. My mother was 28, my sister was 8, I was 5 and my baby sister was 3. Mama didn't know it at the time of my father's death, that she was pregnant with her 4th child. Just before he died, he had promised my sister that if she got good grades on her report card that he would buy her a pony. She did and he died before he could fulfill his promise. My mother was the winner and crowned Queen For a Day.

What she was presented as Queen was beyond belief. She won 2 complete bedroom sets, a full living room set, a full dining room set complete with a set of dishes for a service for 8, a set of silver ware, a cookset, a built in (the countertop) mixer, a hot water heater, a 7 piece patio set, a complete set of tupperware, twelve complete outfits that include; dress, matching shoes and handbags, 12 pairs of stockings, a complete set of Sarah Coventry jewelry, a complete set of rhinestone jewelry, a diamond encrusted watch, a four piece matching mother/daughters outfit, a swimsuit, a check for $1,000 and a shetland pony.

For all of those who say this was charity, I won't argue for or against that, but for all of you who say these women did not receive much in the way of gifts, I have yet to see a TV show that offers more to it's winning contestants.

The episode featuring my mother aired on 16 July 1959. I'd give my right arm to have a copy of that episode.

My mother was a contestant in November 1956 (I was 3 years old). She told the story of my Uncle who was legally blind (only see close to his face)from a poor farm family in Kansas with no resources. In fact everybody in the family had serious eye trouble except my mother.

She became Queen for a Day, and my Uncle was given everything my mother asked for and more: A complete piano tuning tool set and a scholarship to a piano tuning school in Seattle. My mom got a full set of living room furniture and an Amana freezer (which lasted until 1983!).

On the show when Jack Bailey introduced my mother he made a big deal about her being a long-lost cousin because her last name is Bailey. Since she was a farm girl he asked her if she milked cows, and she demonstrated on his fingers.

Though some may disparage the show for excessive emotionalism, that is what it was built on. Hundreds of needy families, like mine, received things like appliances and prizes that helped them.Without Queen for a Day, my Uncle might not have had the opportunity to develop a skilled livelyhood. For decades he was the preferred tuner for all the Steinways at Carnegie Hall (Carnegie Mellon University) Pittsburg.

Jack Bailey, a sort of Carl Denham type, hosted this show in which four women sitting on a panel (the potential Queens) vied for unknown prizes by telling the sob stories of their lives in turn -- with as much sensation, pathos and outright bawling as each could muster, since the most effective story, or storyteller, won the prizes.

If this sounds to you like a pandering premise for a TV reality show, I couldn't disagree.

The winning woman was chosen by a crude decibel-reading "Applause Meter," and the Queen of each episode was crowned with as much blubbering as one might expect for a Miss America winner. At the climax, the ostensibly life-changing prizes were revealed to the winner.

The prizes fell far short of what we see on eerily similar shows today like Extreme Home Edition -- in fact, each day's Queen for a Day typically got what might pass for one prize in a preliminary round on "The Price Is Right" these days -- but often these were appliances to ease 1950s women's work, like a refrigerator or washer/dryer set.

Rather than hilarious, as I remember it, this show should seem shameful today because of its crude and early-TV sensationalist exploitation of people's every-day tragedies, not to mention some of the contestants' willingness to do anything for a buck, and the naked greed of the sponsors. Then there's the high probability that the new frig or washer/dryer set could hardly fix all that was wrong with the life of each winning "Queen for a Day."

Still, its viewers found this show fascinating (like a car crash?) and often a tear-jerker as well.