Concentration

[GMar]

Matt's inquiry on the dimensions of the prize door got me curious and to thinking. So, using Mr. B.'s 9x12 board trilon dimensions and Hugh Downs as a constant, I took screen caps from kinoscopes and made some size grids. I know these aren't exact, but I think I came up with numbers that are pretty close. Using this method, each prize door comes out to 17 1/2" wide. The margin along the edge from where the two doors meet in the middle is about 2" wide, the prize and name slats are 12" wide and the door margin closest to the wall is 3" wide. The name slats appear to be 4" tall while the prize slats are 3" tall. That would make sense since Mr. B. said he never used a font smaller than 3" and the lettering pretty much fills the full height of the slat. The spacers between the name/prize slats and the wall margin as well as those between prize slats appear to be about 1/2". Again, just a fun way of making an educated guess. I, too, would like to add that, for those of us into the minutia of game shows and their set-ups, this has been a facinating thread!! And..admit it! How many of us who grew up with the show had a pair of wooden louvred doors in our house that we..at least one time...tried to turn into Concentration prize doors? (c'mon...get em up!!!)

[DjohnsonCB]

Has it ever been posted somewhere what the puzzle parts and revolving prize/wild/forfeit/take cards were made of?  Paper, card stock or thin wood?  I've wondered if the empty trilons were panes of non-reflective glass or Plexiglas, and if the 30 cards or sheets were slipped in between two sheets of glass or Plexiglas vertically or horizontally, or if they were hinged on one side and opened and shut with a small lock or latch securing each one?

[clemon79]

Has it ever been posted somewhere what the puzzle parts and revolving prize/wild/forfeit/take cards were made of?

As it happens, in this very thread.

[chris319]

the prize and name slats are 12" wide and the door margin closest to the wall is 3" wide

What you refer to as "the door margin closest to the wall" is actually another slat where a check mark would appear if a contestant won two of a given prize with wild cards. Note that those 3" x 3" squares are present in the N.Y. version and the Narz version (which used the N.Y. set) but are not present in Classic Concentration:

http://home.earthlink.net/~crussmason/trio.gif



http://timvp.com/classicco2.jpg

Thinking back on the view from the rear of the Classic Concentration set, imagine the prize board as a series of pigeonholes viewed endwise. By your estimate the pigeonholes were constructed of 1/2" plywood. One end of each pigeonhole faced camera and had a slider in front of it. The rear of the pigeonhole faced the backstage crew. Now visualize an object the size of a cereal box. Along the side of the cereal box was printed the prize description. As Norm described, when a number was called the corresponding "cereal box" was retrieved and slid sideways (from a cereal box perspective) into the pigeon hole with the printed description facing the slider, which was opened when a match was made. The magnets I remember seeing restricted the forward travel of the "cereal box". I'll have to run all this by Steve Ryan who had the task in the studio of being the guy who supervised this operation during each game and matching the numbers to the prize names and making sure the stagehands picked the right cereal box.

I can hear the sound of woodworking equipment now as replicas of this edifice are being built.

[geno57]

And..admit it! How many of us who grew up with the show had a pair of wooden louvred doors in our house that we..at least one time...tried to turn into Concentration prize doors? (c'mon...get em up!!!)

Guilty!

[GMar]

Holy cow, Chris! I had forgotten all about the checkmarks, but now that you mention it, I do remember seeing them two or three times. Tx!

[Bob Zager]

Holy cow, Chris! I had forgotten all about the checkmarks, but now that you mention it, I do remember seeing them two or three times. Tx!

I remember the checkmark!  Even one time somebody was credited with TWO spins of the show's "Cash Wheel," which I seem to recall had values from as low as $5 to a max of $3,000!

Speaking of the "Cash Wheel," a friend of mine and I devised a miniature one, for use when playing the MB home game version.  In each home game, for some unexplained reason, there were two additional prize cards, saying "Extra Card--Do Not Use."  We'd taken those cards, and wrote on the back "Cash Wheel," and used them in place of one prize's matching pair.  Usually a third person served as host, so only he/she would know where they were.

[chris319]

Ted Cooper had the drawings for the Narz Concentration set in his office in Hollywood. I don't know what he might have received from NBC New York when the set was shipped to California in 1973. Mark Bowerman tells me that Fremantle indiscriminately discarded G-T assets such as those, so whether Ted's or NBC's drawings exist any more is anybody's guess.

And Stan Blits discarded music reels from old shows :-(

Now the question is, how did the checkmarks work without interfering with the main prize sliders? The main prize slider would have to run behind the checkmarks yet be clear of the checkmarks in case they were needed.

[chris319]

If you took a hard wood milled to 1/2" thickness (not plywood), you could cut a groove in it with a router which would be 1/16" from the edge (the front of the "pigeonhole") and 1/8" in depth and width. You would then build a series of 11 shelves like this arranged vertically. The grooves would create a channel for a 3 1/4" slat to slide in. That's how you would have done it in the '50s. In 2011 you might build the shelves out of Plexiglass.

[TheLastResort]

In 2011 you might build the shelves out of Plexiglass.

Or you'd just design computer graphics and display them on a flat screen mounted sideways.  

[normb]

Ted Cooper had the drawings for the Narz Concentration set in his office in Hollywood. I don't know what he might have received from NBC New York when the set was shipped to California in 1973. Mark Bowerman tells me that Fremantle indiscriminately discarded G-T assets such as those, so whether Ted's or NBC's drawings exist any more is anybody's guess.

And Stan Blits discarded music reels from old shows :-(

Now the question is, how did the checkmarks work without interfering with the main prize sliders? The main prize slider would have to run behind the checkmarks yet be clear of the checkmarks in case they were needed.

What "check marks)??  Think you are confusing shows and have forgotten I produced the original show and came up with the original necessary elements.  Yep, as I've said earlier, with the artistic aid of one  of my favorite scenic designers, Ted Cooper.  I am completely ignorant of any variations made after my tenure on the original series.

[normb]

In 2011 you might build the shelves out of Plexiglass.

Or you'd just design computer graphics and display them on a flat screen mounted sideways.  

[normb]

If you took a hard wood milled to 1/2" thickness (not plywood), you could cut a groove in it with a router which would be 1/16" from the edge (the front of the "pigeonhole") and 1/8" in depth and width. You would then build a series of 11 shelves like this arranged vertically. The grooves would create a channel for a 3 1/4" slat to slide in. That's how you would have done it in the '50s. In 2011 you might build the shelves out of Plexiglass.

Where were you when I needed you?

[normb]

Matt's inquiry on the dimensions of the prize door got me curious and to thinking. So, using Mr. B.'s 9x12 board trilon dimensions and Hugh Downs as a constant, I took screen caps from kinoscopes and made some size grids. I know these aren't exact, but I think I came up with numbers that are pretty close. Using this method, each prize door comes out to 17 1/2" wide. The margin along the edge from where the two doors meet in the middle is about 2" wide, the prize and name slats are 12" wide and the door margin closest to the wall is 3" wide. The name slats appear to be 4" tall while the prize slats are 3" tall. That would make sense since Mr. B. said he never used a font smaller than 3" and the lettering pretty much fills the full height of the slat. The spacers between the name/prize slats and the wall margin as well as those between prize slats appear to be about 1/2". Again, just a fun way of making an educated guess. I, too, would like to add that, for those of us into the minutia of game shows and their set-ups, this has been a facinating thread!! And..admit it! How many of us who grew up with the show had a pair of wooden louvred doors in our house that we..at least one time...tried to turn into Concentration prize doors? (c'mon...get em up!!!)

Cute description of our contestant prize display "louver board."  I admire your imagination. Never thought of possible home use.  Guess you could slide in or out if the powder room is busy, etc.

[normb]

Ted Cooper had the drawings for the Narz Concentration set in his office in Hollywood. I don't know what he might have received from NBC New York when the set was shipped to California in 1973. Mark Bowerman tells me that Fremantle indiscriminately discarded G-T assets such as those, so whether Ted's or NBC's drawings exist any more is anybody's guess.

And Stan Blits discarded music reels from old shows :-(

Now the question is, how did the checkmarks work without interfering with the main prize sliders? The main prize slider would have to run behind the checkmarks yet be clear of the checkmarks in case they were needed.

What "check marks)??  Think you are confusing shows and have forgotten I produced the original show and came up with the original necessary elements.  Yep, as I've said earlier, with the artistic aid of one  of my favorite scenic designers, Ted Cooper.  I am completely ignorant of any variations made after my tenure on the original series.

Oops -- sorry I spoke to soon about the check marks -- indeed they came from the show I did.  Regarding all your wonderful suggestions of how we could use other methods -- what we used, worked fine for 15 years.  What followed, were merely updated changes.  Look at that ugly shot of me, High and Bob Clayton in Russ Mason's photograph.  Did we wear ties as out-dated as they were.  Yep, and so just like all the other elements of our set.  I thought we were making small talk about our memories and what made the show click. I'm enjoying answering what I can.