Chronicles of a "Who, What or Where Game" contestant.

[DoorNumberFour]

An email sent to me by Clare Durst, the third-place finisher in the only existing episode of the 3 W's:

I'd gone to NYC with my husband who was there for a business meeting. I knew enough to say outlandish things at the tryout that might make me stand out. So when they notified me that I was on, I went down on the train from Rhode Island, planning to stay at the apartment of a friend who was out of town, on the upper East Side, I think in the 70s. And it was the start of the transit strikes that were later documented in "The Out of Towners" - remember the movie, with Sandy Dennis and Jack Lemmon.  The train was the last one into the station before the strike which was supposed to start at 10 - I remember the train was running late and wasn't going to make it in to the station by ten but fortunately someone took pity on us and let us come on in, not stalled out in CT somewhere!  When I got to the station, Port Authority, about 42nd st. west, there were no taxis. There were no busses. The strike was on! I had an overnight bag. AND I WALKED UP FIFTH AVENUE ALL THE WAY to the apartment! I was a little scared, but it wasn't as bad as I had thought it might be. I thought Fifth would be busy at 11 pm but it wasn't, I remember it was really empty.

Of course I couldn't sleep well. I remember waking up and looking up at a bookshelf over the door into the bedroom, and seeing "Giles Goat Boy" and thinking now they might ask me about THAT!  Then I had to walk down to Rockefeller Center the next morning.

I remember almost nothing more until the actual show. My kids had done some extra work in Hollywood before we moved to RI, so I knew my way around studios, etc. I was not surprised that I only saw Art James at the time of the actual show. He was polite; I always enjoyed him, was sorry to see a few years ago that he'd died. And then, during the show, one of my questions was WHO WROTE GILES GOAT BOY?!

But, as you know, I didn't win. The one who did had been on several times before. I won some Kava Coffee, instant, and a kind of silver-plate-and-glass carafe that didn't last long, and a gas grill which was pretty cheesy, really.  But I did have fun doing it!

Clare

[DoorNumberFour]

Even more...turns out the episode may be from 1970 or 1971:

Well, of course, everyone REALLY wanted to be on Password, or on Jeopardy! But they weren't having auditions at that time. I was very competitive, probably even am today, and a friend of my husband's had been on Password I think it was and I wanted to show that a woman could do as well (I did, btw, he didn't win ANYthing!).  Yes, they had a written test, and if you passed that then you had an audition/mock game.  I'd moved from California in 1970 - are you sure that was '73? I would have thought maybe 70 or 71.

[whoww]

Hi Clare,

You were a great contestant!

Best,
Ronnie G.

[Don Howard]

This is true. In fact, all three were good players. It's really something watching how excited people got over a few hundred bucks. I remember a 3 Ws show from 1971 or '72 when some guy won over $5000 during his five-day stay and there was excitement all over the place that someone had cracked the $5000 mark.

[Jimmy Owen]

Well, you could buy a lot more with $5000 back then.

[Don Howard]

[quote name=\'Jimmy Owen\' post=\'153993\' date=\'Jun 1 2007, 11:17 AM\']
Well, you could buy a lot more with $5000 back then.
[/quote]
I understand this. Hearing people gasp over a $5000 win compared to people just sitting in The Hot Seat and nodding their heads and perhaps grinning upon winning $100,000 or more on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire is a personal fascination.
Cracking four figures was pretty heady stuff in the early 1970s.

[Ian Wallis]

Even more...turns out the episode may be from 1970 or 1971:

While dubbing this episode to DVD a few months ago, I figured out it must be from Dec 1970.  Art mentions something about the upcoming bowl games, and I think there's some other reference to either 1970 or '71 in the episode.

Now, I've just got to get around to updating the air date on my online list!

[jehobden]

[quote name=\'Ian Wallis\' post=\'154033\' date=\'Jun 1 2007, 05:01 PM\']

Even more...turns out the episode may be from 1970 or 1971:

While dubbing this episode to DVD a few months ago, I figured out it must be from Dec 1970.  Art mentions something about the upcoming bowl games, and I think there's some other reference to either 1970 or '71 in the episode.

Now, I've just got to get around to updating the air date on my online list!
[/quote]

Another clue as to the date is when Art states that a car will be given away on Friday, March 26.  The only time that March 26 fell on a Friday during the 3W run was in 1971.  The bowl games also match up.  My thought is since Art says the bowl games are being played "about now" that this ep aired near New Year's Day.  

BTW, that New Year's Day was the last day when cigarette commercials were allowed on US tv programming.  The tobacco manufacturers wanted one last sports day to air their ads.

[Winkfan]

Cracking four figures was pretty heady stuff in the early 1970s.

But it would soon be passe once March 26, 1973 rolled around!

As I have said before, WWW was Art James' crowning acheivement!

Cordially,
Tammy

[tvmitch]

[quote name=\'Don Howard\' post=\'153995\' date=\'Jun 1 2007, 10:23 AM\']
Cracking four figures was pretty heady stuff in the early 1970s.
[/quote]
I just think about cars...if $2K was enough to buy a half-decent car in 1971, then $5K could buy two and a half of them.

Today, your average half-decent basic car is what, $18K new? Times two and a half? Venturing into the $40K range or so today. Definitely some crazy money back then.

This was definitely the case on MG, especially early in the run, when a contestant could win $5K in a game. That was a lot of cash by any measure.

[BrandonFG]

[quote name=\'mitchgroff\' post=\'203313\' date=\'Dec 10 2008, 11:28 AM\']
Today, your average half-decent basic car is what, $18K new? Times two and a half? Venturing into the $40K range or so today. Definitely some crazy money back then.
[/quote]
Something like that, although I know a lot of compacts (i.e. Toyota Yaris, Chevy Aveo) run for about $13K with the basics. Not sure how that syncs up to early-70s dollars...

[calliaume]

I used this inflation calculator to determine that $5,000 in 1971 is worth about $26,750 today.  So, not a bad chunk of change.  Not life-changing money, though.  That $21,000 or so winning contestant from 1974's Now You See It won something like $90,000 worth in today's bucks, enough to guarantee the daughters would get through college.  (College inflation, by the way, runs about 8 percent, as opposed to 3.5 percent for regular inflation.)

As for cars, it's a tougher comparison -- using the above figures, a $2,500 cheap car would cost about $13,375 today, which seems about right.  Your 1971 car, on the other hand, would likely not have power steering, power brakes, or air conditioning, and definitely wouldn't have air bags or a CD player (I think on AM radios were standard at that point).  But you might get rich, Corinthian leather.