Queen for a Day

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.

I remember that my 5th grade teacher, Mrs. S., appeared on this show at one time. The show must must have been filming appearances in New York at one time, because our school was on Long Island and I know she could not afford to travel to Los Angeles.

Mrs. S. and her husband were deeply involved in missionary activities, and I believe that they were trying to build and stock with supplies a school for children in that particular area. She told us that according to rules in the program, she couldn't ask for money directly, but she could ask for things such as books, paper, pencils, and things like that. I don't think she won the show, but is been almost 60 years since then, so I may have forgotten.

The show would have been on during the 1963-1964 school year. It would be quite interesting to see it, because way back then, there were no video tapers or dvds for the home audience.

I've heard many people over the years lament about the awful state of American television. Sometimes they complain about all the violence but mostly I hear people complaining about reality television and how exploitive and stupid the shows are. I agree, at least in part, as many TV shows just seem cheap and are apparently meant to appeal to our baser instincts. Programs that celebrate and exploit nasty people have lowered our TV standards to amazingly low depths—such as recent shows that have featured folks eating bugs for bucks or smack-down talk shows. Surely, TV back in the good 'ol days was a lot better….right? Well, maybe…but not always. There were a few tacky and exploitive shows even back when your parents and grandparents were young—so don't believe them when they tell you that EVERYTHING was better way back when! Perhaps these shows lacked the nudity, violence and coarse language we're familiar with today, but in one case, all these would be BETTER than what one show brought audiences. Queen for a Day was perhaps the sickest and tackiest reality game shows of all time. In fact, the program was so successful that it was first on radio in 1945 and moved to TV in 1956. And, despite being so tacky and gross, it stayed on television until 1964! That's almost 20 years of misery inflicted on America!

Why do I think that Queen for a Day was one of the lowest television shows of all time? Well, let me describe a typical program. One by one, various women are brought out on stage and are interviewed by the host, Jack Bailey. The purpose of this is to try to get each woman to describe her life as being the worst of all the women that particular day. So, your story of wretchedness has to be WORSE than the other women also interviewed that day. And, if it was, you would be showered with really nice prizes. And, if your story wasn't the most pathetic, you were given a rather insignificant consolation prize and no one heard from you again on the show!

Unfortunately (or, perhaps FORTUNATELY) very few episodes of Queen for a Day still exist today. I've seen a few and was just shocked. In one show from 1960, three of the women had seriously disabled children—so each had to make sure her child seemed the most needy and sick! Following all their tales of woe, the audience then voted by clapping the loudest for the most pitiful woman and she was crowned Queen for a Day. Some of the prizes they gave out were very nice and quite expensive. However, some of the prizes seemed highly inappropriate for destitute families—such as tickets to a movie premier and a limo ride! I would have preferred groceries and money for rent!

In addition to all this inanity, the show was, oddly, punctuated by a fashion show! And, to make matters worse, Mr. Bailey was probably the dumbest and most annoying host in game show or reality TV history. I noticed many times women would talk about their awful lives and he would ask terrible questions that showed he wasn't even listening to them. For example, one woman talked about her children—and he then asked her if she had any kids!

So, if you think things are horrible now, take a step back and realize that crap isn't new to television. Sure, there might be more crap today, but as far as crap goes, you cannot get much crappy than Queen for a Day!

By the way, if you are brave (or nuts), there is a chance for you to watch the show. While very, very few of the original shows still exist (I think they were trying to destroy the evidence and erased most of the tapes), you can download a few for free from archive.org or rent the three-disc set from Netflix. Don't take my word for it—see it for yourself if you dare! You'll be amazed!

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.

The world of the TV Game Show was going full blast in TV's earliest days. We had the the Networks teaming with the likes of titles such as: "BREAK THE BANK" (Bert Parks 1948-57), "STRIKE IT RICH" (Warren Hull 1951-55), "STOP THE MUSIC" (Bert Parks 1949-56) and "THE BIG PAYOFF" (Bess Myerson & Randy Meriman 1951-59 ). There was plenty of music, flashing lights and tons of prizes as well as ca$h! A good time was had by all!

Then we had "QUEEN FOR A DAY" (Jack Bailey 1956-64). This show stands out from all others. It has been written up in sociological studies and psychological journals a like. It was highly unique in format and rules of engagement between competing contestants. In our proverbial nutshell, the show MC, strong lunged Jack Bailey, would introduce each of 3 contestants, one at a time. All the Lady contestants had so long a time to tell the Host, the Studio Audience and the Whole Televiewing world at large, just why she should be chosen "Queen for a Day!"

The sadder the story, the more tears and hankies used, the better as it was sad stories and those women caught up in that the show wanted. Prizes included furniture, household appliances and even cold ca$h, were those things among the prizes.

As each contestant was brought out on stage, Host Mr. Bailey would conduct a sort of interview, just to make sure that all the proper, relevant, squalid details weren't overlooked, omitted or otherwise forgotten. Jack also had a habit of attempting to put the ladies at ease with a little good-natured joshing. (That was really a sight to behold! On the one hand we had the little, teary-eyed sobstress; in contrast big, bellow-voiced Mr. Bailey, "gently" kidding the wretched, little teary eyed dear.

It would go something like:

LADY CONTESTANT: "…..and after that, Jack, (sob, sob!) My husband died, then (boo-hoo!), we were evicted, and were (wahhhh!) out in the cold Winter, and….." JACK BAILEY: "Well, HA, HA, HA!! Today is your Lucky Day, getting to tell your story here and having the chance at being chosen (raising the amplification on his already shattering voice level) QUEEN FOR A DAY!"

Toward the conclusion of the program, the studio audience would choose who would be that day's QUEEN FOR A DAY! We don't know, but we believe that the two runners-up did get some sort of prize or compensation for competing, telling their sad stories and otherwise baring their souls to the World.

No, we don't know; but we sure hope so!