Author Topic: My father's 1958 Concentration appearance (Read 1775 times)

Britgirl57 · « **on:** April 05, 2007, 09:17:51 PM »

Well, I've just viewed the DVD of the 1958 episode of Concentration on which my dad appeared, which I found at the Library of Congress's holdings and which NBC gave me permission to have reproduced. (Some of you may remember this saga from my earlier posts.) I had very mixed emotions on seeing it. On the one hand, it was really quite amazing to see my dad on screen at the age of 31 (he looked sooooo young) and I wouldn't have missed seeing that for anything. On the other hand, it turned out that he was only on this episode (Thursday, Oct 9, 1958) for the last five minutes of the show! After all that effort and expense - none of which I begrudge at all but it's just disappointing that the episode that would have been even better to have would have been the one for Friday, Oct 10th, 1958. But strangely enough, that was the one episode missing from the sequence that the LoC had - Oct 9, 13, 14, and 15 (the 11th and 12th of course being weekend days when the show didn't air). Hmmmmm. Very mysterious. So I guess my quest continues! Any ideas???

I'm sure my dad will still be amazed and delighted when he sees this episode at his birthday party two weeks on Saturday, but I sure would love to be able to square the circle and find him the complete set, though I realize that the odds against me finding BOTH of the episodes he appeared on are astronomically high.

Oh and one more thing to report - NBC knocked $100 off the price of their personal use license fee because it was for my dad's birthday so they're not all bad!

MrBuddwing · « **Reply #1 on:** April 06, 2007, 12:36:06 AM »

[quote name=\'Britgirl57\' post=\'149578\' date=\'Apr 5 2007, 09:17 PM\']
Well, I've just viewed the DVD of the 1958 episode of Concentration on which my dad appeared, which I found at the Library of Congress's holdings and which NBC gave me permission to have reproduced. (Some of you may remember this saga from my earlier posts.) I had very mixed emotions on seeing it. On the one hand, it was really quite amazing to see my dad on screen at the age of 31 (he looked sooooo young) and I wouldn't have missed seeing that for anything. On the other hand, it turned out that he was only on this episode (Thursday, Oct 9, 1958) for the last five minutes of the show! After all that effort and expense - none of which I begrudge at all but it's just disappointing that the episode that would have been even better to have would have been the one for Friday, Oct 10th, 1958. But strangely enough, that was the one episode missing from the sequence that the LoC had - Oct 9, 13, 14, and 15 (the 11th and 12th of course being weekend days when the show didn't air). Hmmmmm. Very mysterious. So I guess my quest continues! Any ideas???
[/quote]

Oi. After all that time and money and trouble and money and effort (not to mention money).

I guess your quest will end with NBC - if the Oct. 10, 1958 episode isn't at the Library of Congress, then your only remaining hope is that NBC still has it.

Since you have an "in" with the Peacock Network, you might want to give it one last try.

One last point: Are you absolutely sure there was an Oct. 10 episode to begin with? Is it possible that the show was preempted that Friday? Did the LoC provide a rundown for the Mon., Oct. 13 program?

Dbacksfan12 · « **Reply #2 on:** April 06, 2007, 12:40:19 AM »

I did a quick search on Google...the only noteworthy thiing I found was this release; President Eisenhower appointing someone commissioner of the "International North Pacific Fisheries Commission".

Britgirl57 · « **Reply #3 on:** April 06, 2007, 10:02:50 AM »

Since you have an "in" with the Peacock Network, you might want to give it one last try.

One last point: Are you absolutely sure there was an Oct. 10 episode to begin with? Is it possible that the show was preempted that Friday? Did the LoC provide a rundown for the Mon., Oct. 13 program?

Thanks for this. I have had both of those thoughts myself. I will indeed call my contact at NBC and see what she can come up with. And I reckon there must have been an Oct 10 program for two reasons. First, on the episode I have for Oct 9, Hugh Downs specifically asks the two contestants (including my dad) if they can come back "bright and early tomorrow." Second (and more convincingly) the LoC checked the documentation for the Oct 13, 14 and 15 episodes and my dad wasn't listed as among the contestants on those days. So presumably he must have won his Fiat car (and possibly a washing machine) on the missing Oct 10 episode.

Hey ho. If this is the only episode that still exists with him on it, it's still a hell of a find. Strangely at the end of the show, the cameraman zooms close in on my dad's face and holds the shot for a good 30 seconds - almost as if the director knew that 50 years on this episode would be important to us! Okay, I know - that's just crazy talk. But still.....!

tpirfan28 · « **Reply #4 on:** April 06, 2007, 10:08:43 AM »

I know that you didn't get exactly what you wanted, but at least you got five minutes of him!

Was there any game play in that five minutes, or was it just contestant introduction?

Britgirl57 · « **Reply #5 on:** April 07, 2007, 11:30:35 AM »

Was there any game play in that five minutes, or was it just contestant introduction?

I think they had time to select a couple of numbers each (my dad and his lady opponent) but nothing matched. And that was that. But it's true - 5 minutes of him was definitely better than nothing!