I'll Buy That

Storyline

As a child in the very early 1950s, I appeared on ""I'll Buy That." My folks lived in the Bronx and my mother thought she could get me on the program. Although I've later read that Morley Safer was the host, I do not remember his being someone I recognized as a kid and remembered later. I do remember Hans Conried who was very nice to me. So was Audrey Meadows and also Dorothy Kilgallen?? I sat to the left of whoever was the host. I remember the bright lights shining in my eyes. I remember trying to kick the inside of the desk where we sat so I'd leave a mark proving that I had been there. The host told me not to do that. The item I had "for sale" was a "Quarantine Measles" sign. I actually hadn't caught measles, but chicken pox But my mom didn't think there was such a sign, so she got a "measles" sign so I could get on the program. Before I went on the show, the host, my Mom and I, had a meeting and they asked me what I knew - especially what movies I'd seen. I was seven years old because we'd just seen the movie "Shane," and I remembered that. On the program, no one (perhaps Bill Cullen was subbing for Safer that day), guessed my "Quarantine Measles" sign, so I got through all the questions and won the money. The Bonus question, conveniently, was about "Shane," and I believe they asked me the name of the star. Initially, I couldn't remember the name of Alan Ladd, and I think I remember hearing the clock ticking and the host encouraging me to remember and just before the time ran out, I remembered Ladd's name and I blurted it out. I won $400, a princely sum in those days. I don't remember getting a cut. Great experience, everyone was was solicitous to me. I read later all the original tapes, like so many, were destroyed when companies were economizing and getting rid of old tapes so as not having to pay for storage.