Fort Knox or Bust?

To one of the vastest audiences ever assembled for purposes of unabashed materialism, Gino Prato, the humble Bronx shoemaker, softly read aloud a cablegram from his papa in Italy, roughly translated: "It is enough. Stay where you are." Said Gino: "Because I take my daddy's advice since I was a kid, I accept it now . . . and take the [$32,000]."

"God bless you, Gino!" cried Master of Ceremonies Hal March. Millions (estimated viewers: 47,560,000) sighed with relief. The tidings were reported in newspapers across the U.S., even in Europe.

Overruled Critic. Such is the interest ignited by The $64,000 Question, the TV show which in only ten weeks has consistently collected the biggest audiences ever assembled for summer shows,* introduced countless wage earners to the tax hazards of making money,/- set back by at least a season, if not by years, TV's already enfeebled yearning to leaven commercialism with culture. The Manufacturers Trust Co. executive who sits each Tuesday night between guards (the real thing, from the same bank), to lend an air of reliability to the promised payoff, was promoted recently to full vice president. Gentle Gino Prato, who won thousands of hearts as well as thousands of dollars ($22,916 after taxes) in his five appearances on the show, was taken on as a good-will ambassador by a rubber heel and sole company at more than $10,000 a year. One of the show's questions even attracted the attention and objections of an art connoisseur (who was overruled by a covey of other art critics and the Encyclopaedia Britannica).

More pertinent is what the big giveaway show has done, or is in the process of doing, to the TV medium. It has made mincemeat of its two competitors on Tuesdays at 10 p.m., E.D.T. (NBC's long-reliable Truth or Consequences, ABC's The Name's the Same). It has persuaded CBS to take on its creator and owner, gimmick-loaded Louis (Quiz Kids, Down You Go, Conversation) Cowan as a top-level executive. It has set network executives to brooding darkly over the question of what The Question will do this autumn to such giants as I Love Lucy, Jackie Gleason, Disneyland and George Gobel, let alone to plans for increasing emphasis on quality drama.

$250,000 Jackpot. This week there remained some hesitancy about The Question's staying power. Can it ever, for example, get contestants to go for the full $64,000? Nonetheless, there was a familiar sound in the air--the sheeplike rustle of competitors rushing to get similar shows on the TV screens. Mutual Broadcasting System headquarters buzzed with talk about a quiz show with a jackpot of $250,000. All that is needed, confided Mutual's Pressagent Frank Zuzulo, is a group of three sponsors to finance it. An independent TV packager is reported canvassing the networks with a proposal to give each top winner on his show a producing oil well.

NBC and ABC stoutly maintain that they have no plans for big-money shows in a class with CBS's The $64,000 Question. But it was only a few months ago, TVmen were quick to recall, that CBS was denying stoutly that it would try to compete in kind with NBC's loudly publicized Spectaculars. This fall CBS will flood the TV screen with at least ten 90-minute Spectacular-type shows. Coming soon (check your local newspaper for time and station): Fort Knox or Bust!

* Compared, for example, to the estimated 65 million viewers of last winter's Peter Pan.

/- A man with a wife and two children can take home about $23,000 or less after taxes if he stops at $32,000, can keep at best $14,000 of the second $32,000 if he goes all the way.

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