Concentration

[clemon79]

[quote name=\'Matt Ottinger\' post=\'256831\' date=\'Feb 10 2011, 06:31 AM\']Thanks for some fascinating information, Norm.
And for those of you who haven't bought his book yet, what are you waiting for?
http://www.amazon.com/When-Shows-Ruled-Day...k/dp/B004E10WBS[/quote]
I'd like to commend either Mr. Blumenthal or his publisher for being reasonable about the Kindle pricing. I still haven't pulled the trigger on Prisoner of Trebekistan because the pricing perturbs me.

[Steve McClellan]

[quote name=\'clemon79\' post=\'256844\' date=\'Feb 10 2011, 11:17 AM\']I still haven't pulled the trigger on Prisoner of Trebekistan because the pricing perturbs me.[/quote]
Understandable, though it is a steal at twice the price. Any price.

[clemon79]

[quote name=\'Steve McClellan\' post=\'256851\' date=\'Feb 10 2011, 11:29 AM\']Understandable, though it is a steal at twice the price. Any price.[/quote]
I'm sure it's outstanding.

I also have a major major problem with the reasons behind why Amazon is selling ebooks at prices over $9.99, and choose not to support that with my wallet.

[CoreyCoop]

[quote name=\'normb\' post=\'256490\' date=\'Feb 6 2011, 07:20 AM\']...
 I got a job with Barry & Enright on a kid's show on CBS --  "Winky Dink & You."  Clever concept that belongs on the air today.  
...
Ted Cooper was one of my favorite scenic designers.  Aside from his sensational artistic imagination and talent, his technical expertise fascinated me.  We worked together on several projects, until he became the number one choice for Goodson & Todman.  They had a bigger budget than I did, so I lost out.[/quote]

"Winky Dink, and you,
Winky Dink, and me,
Oh we'll have a lot of fun together!"

One of those childhood memory's that has stuck with me, I still remember the tune, and can almost hear the theme song.  I must have seen it in reruns, since I just looked at it went off the air only a year or so after I was born.

Thanks for remembering my dad, he passed away in December of '99, but I love to hear other people's memories of him, especially from the '50's!  

  Corey Cooper

[gaubster2]

Thanks for some fascinating information, Norm.

And for those of you who haven't bought his book yet, what are you waiting for?

http://www.amazon.com/When-Shows-Ruled-Day...k/dp/B004E10WBS

I'm all ready to buy the book, but judging from the sample in the Kindle store (for my iPad), there are no pictures and some textual anomalies.  Can anybody with a hard copy clarify whether or not there are pictures in the book (and why those pictures aren't present in the Kindle version)?

Additionally, does Mr. Blumenthal receive royalties from sales of the Kindle version?  

Regards, Chris

[alfonzos]

Do you have an opinion about The Rebus Game?

[DjohnsonCB]

Hello Norm--glad you are here with us!

I too am interested in whatever you had to say about "The Rebus Game" since I found a 16mm film of a promo for the show and put it on YouTube.  Also, you made an interesting case for "Concentration" remaining in black-and-white for as long as it did, but something appears to challenge this:  the fact that there was once a nighttime version of the show in 1961 that was actually colorcast five years before the daytime show was.  A picture from that version appears on my own page devoted to the show ("Concentration: Through The Decades") and the board shows white pictures on a brown background.  If you could do it in 1961, why wasn't it done in daytime around 1964 or 1965?

--David P. Johnson

[TheLastResort]

Can anybody with a hard copy clarify whether or not there are pictures in the book (and why those pictures aren't present in the Kindle version)?

Yes, there are a few pages of black & white pictures.

[Bob Zager]

Can anybody with a hard copy clarify whether or not there are pictures in the book (and why those pictures aren't present in the Kindle version)?

Yes, there are a few pages of black & white pictures.

Judging by the cover photo of Norm Blumenthal, the design of the wall in the background leads me to think that it is on the set of the nighttime version Concentration.  Are any of the pictures in the book from that version?

[normb]

Hello Norm--glad you are here with us!

I too am interested in whatever you had to say about "The Rebus Game" since I found a 16mm film of a promo for the show and put it on YouTube.  Also, you made an interesting case for "Concentration" remaining in black-and-white for as long as it did, but something appears to challenge this:  the fact that there was once a nighttime version of the show in 1961 that was actually colorcast five years before the daytime show was.  A picture from that version appears on my own page devoted to the show ("Concentration: Through The Decades") and the board shows white pictures on a brown background.  If you could do it in 1961, why wasn't it done in daytime around 1964 or 1965?

--David P. Johnson

When ABC put on THE REBUS GAME show, of course we were annoyed. It was a blatant steal, and we could do nothing about it.  Our show was not unique.  Think about how many variations of a similar theme have been used on so many shows over the years.  Even when the Hollywood producers of THE WIZARD OF OZ tried to force Alex Trebek's WIZARD OF ODDS to change its name, they failed.  There was no copyright on the rebus puzzle -- that goes way back to Ben Franklin's "Poor Richard'e Almanac,"  Before I started working in TV and before my show was on, I was a free-lance graphic artist, and did weekly rebus puzzle for a kid's version of "TV Guide." called "TV, JR."  Like THE REBUS GAME,it wasn't good enough to last 6 months.

[normb]

Hello Norm--glad you are here with us!

I too am interested in whatever you had to say about "The Rebus Game" since I found a 16mm film of a promo for the show and put it on YouTube.  Also, you made an interesting case for "Concentration" remaining in black-and-white for as long as it did, but something appears to challenge this:  the fact that there was once a nighttime version of the show in 1961 that was actually colorcast five years before the daytime show was.  A picture from that version appears on my own page devoted to the show ("Concentration: Through The Decades") and the board shows white pictures on a brown background.  If you could do it in 1961, why wasn't it done in daytime around 1964 or 1965?

--David P. Johnson

For all of you who are confused by my refusal to do my shows in color for such a long time. As you righfully said, on the earlier night time show we did do a few in color.  If you recall, the NBC network was trying to sell RCA (its owner) sets.  So, they forced shows like mind for "color nights" -- they didn't have the equipment to produce enough color shows, so they bunched the few they had and came up with those color nights.  I only agreed wih my compromise -- every in color, except the puzzle.  As I've said so many times before -- if a drawing of a round object was in white or another monotone, it could be anything -- but if only a small portion of it was red, as in APPLE -- the player might know it was H+APPLE+E after. When I finally agreed to color -- I maintained my rule and made all parts of the puzzle in pinkagainst a maroon background.

[geno57]

Mr. B., I've been hungry for all things Concentration since 1960 or '61.  (I was born in '57.)  Pictures, stories, video, etc. etc. etc.  I'm lovin' this! Wish I could have made it to NYC to actually watch a taping, back in the day.

[Matt Ottinger]

I'm lovin' this! Wish I could have made it to NYC to actually watch a taping, back in the day.

Me too.  The closest I ever came was meeting Bob Clayton after a taping of Pyramid.  But yeah, these stories are absolutely fascinating.

[DoorNumberFour]

Norm, do you remember how the contest pictured here worked: http://home.earthlink.net/~crussmason/studio.gif

[joker316]

Norm, do you remember how the contest pictured here worked: http://home.earthlink.net/~crussmason/studio.gif

Thank you,, that was the contest I referred to earlier in the thread!