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The three-way broadcast lasted through Christmas Eve to bolster Ronson's holiday sales. Sponsor Ronson saw such a sales surge with Twenty Questions that it simulcast the show on WOR-TV/New York City beginning on November 2, 1949, then doubled-down on November 26th by adding a second simulcast of the Mutual radio show on NBC-TV. Two episodes from its 7.9 season, 1948-49, are posted: September 18, 1948and January 15, 1949.
1951 RONSON LIGHTER FOR FREE
(4) Nevertheless, its fan base grew to the point that up to 20,000 letters a week were received from listeners with subject nominations for the show and looking for free lighters. It never achieved a season's Top 50, never scoring above 71st or a 7.9 rating. Twenty Questions suffered the ratings dilemma of most Mutual programs. One of the funnier shows from this period, May 24, 1947, is posted with guest Lulu McConnell from another Polesie-produced panel show, It Pays To Be Ignorant. Teen Bobby once identified " Brooklyn" without a question - he simply guessed it when the studio audience reacted loudly to a placard naming the subject when it was placed in front of them but out of sight to the panel. The panel became so sharp that it could sometimes identify the subject in five or six questions. ( 3) In one episode they identified “ Lincoln, Nebraska” in nine questions, “ Jimmy Valentine” in 13, “ A Dentist’s Chair” in 14, “ The Ice Cream In Pie Ala Mode” in 15, but missed “ Pete” in ‘ Oh, For Pete’s Sake’. Silver plated table lighters were awarded to those which stumped the panel - which was seldom. Listeners nominated subjects to be identified for prizes - pocket cigarette lighters from sponsor Ronson Lighters. Slater's general knowledge was often tested by having to answer panelists' questions such as, " Is it located north of the Mason-Dixon Line," or, " Was she born before 1800?" (2) The only clue given panelists who rotated their questions was whether the mystery subject was animal, vegetable, mineral or a combination of the elements. Its object was to identify an object - which could be anything or anyone - within 20 questions answered “ yes” or “ no” by the show’s host, Mutual sportscaster Bill Slater. Twenty Questions was an old parlor game of deduction. (1) An episode from its early days, March 30, 1946, is posted. The show’s producer, Herb Polesie, and a celebrity guest filled out the weekly panel. It was brought to Network Radio on Februby WOR/Mutual newsman Fred VanDeventer and played every Saturday night for the next eight seasons by VanDeventer, his wife Florence, (Rinard), their teenage son Bobby ,(McGuire), and sometimes their college age daughter, Nancy. Mutual’s Twenty Questions was a family game in the truest sense of the term.