For more than fifty years, the quiz show has thrived on American television and radio. From "Pot o' Gold" and "The $64,000 Question" to "Wheel of Fortune" and "Jeopardy," quiz and game programs have entertained and informed millions of Americans, promoted and sold untold quantities of products, generated fortunes for their creators and producers, and filled the pockets of a multitude of jackpot winners. In this volume, Thomas DeLong offers the first in-depth history of quiz and game formats available in print. He describes how mass communications transformed the old parlor guessing games into enormously popular features on radio and television and examines their impact on American society and the consumer marketplace. DeLong also explores their decline in the wake of the quiz scandal inquiry of the late 1950s and their subsequent revival as new shows on daytime TV that began to build up a loyal following.

"Quiz Craze" is enhanced by the recollections, insights, and anecdotes of many who brought the quiz show genre to listeners and viewers. Producers, directors, gamemakers, writers, emcees, panelists, and advertisers have added their first-hand observations on the inner workings and widespread influence of quiz show programming. Former contestants and their families offer reminiscences from shows such as "To Tell the Truth," "What's My Line?," "Name That Tune, " and many others. DeLong also draws on the resources of key organizations in the broadcast field, archival records, and published media reports to demonstrate the extraordinary popularity of the game show format.

Mayling Soong came to America at the age of 10. Her father, Charlie Soong, a practicing Christian who had spent time in America, was convinced that China's youth would need progressive, Western educations before returning to their homeland to take their places as leaders in the fields of government, education and engineering. The youngest of three daughters, Mayling followed her older siblings to the United States in search of a Western education, eventually entering Wellesley in 1913 at age 16. Here she made numerous friends including classmate Emma DeLong Mills. This lifelong friendship lasted through Mayling's 1927 marriage to General Chiang Kai-shek and his subsequent rise to power. After the undeclared Sino-Japanese war began Emma began a series of letters detailing the political climate in the isolationist United States, providing Mayling with invaluable insight into American attitudes regarding China and her Southeast Asian neighbors. Beginning with the early days of their friendship in America, the volume describes the identity struggle both girls faced following their 1917 graduation from Wellesley. Following Emma's visit to China (and somewhat unwilling return to New York), the friendship continued through their correspondence. Emma's role in the newly organized American Bureau of Medical Aid to China is discussed as are Madame Chiang Kai-shek's international fund-raising efforts on behalf of Chinese war relief. While military and political history is not the focus of the work, it is portrayed as it impacts the friendship, which is the subject of this account.

From the time Westinghouse started commercial broadcasting in 1920 through the end of the radio soap operas in the early 1960s, hundreds of men and women performed on radio. Day after day, week after week, these performers (e.g., Jack Benny, Bing Crosby, Kate Smith, Lowell Thomas, Kay Kyser, and Bob Hope) became familiar voices and welcomed guests in the homes of millions of Americans. Actors, comedians, singers, commentators, announcers, emcees, newscasters, preachers and various other artists all gave voice to radio and 953 of them are covered in this unique reference work. Performers Fran Allison, Les Paul, Johnny Desmond, Alec Templeton, Don Wilson, Jerry Colonna and soap opera favorites Virginia Payne, Betty Garde, Macdonald Carey, David Gothard, Page Gilman, and Jan Miner are included herein, as well as Ezra Stone, Groucho Marx, Will Rogers, and Frank Sinatra and hundreds more. For each, there is a listing of their radio programs, birth and death dates (where appropriate) and a biography that focuses on their work in radio. It is heavily illustrated.

Not long after the end of World War II, television began to comeinto its own as an important household entertainment and informationalmedium. In the 1950s, New York expanded as the major broadcast hubfor a wide spectrum of programs: dramatic anthologies, soap operas, quizshows, sporting events, variety shows, newscasts, and "spectaculars" ofevery sort. And to maintain these extensive weekly schedules, more andmore actors, emcees, musicians, news journalists and sportscasters turnedto the far-reaching and influential new medium.Westport and Weston, Connecticut contributed a fair number of on-camerapioneers to the new medium, having already had the well-deservedreputation as home to artists and entertainers. A number of writers andproducers also chose Westport as the setting for their sitcoms. Thesevideo pioneers, Westport and Weston TV Neighbors, helped to establishthe fledgling medium.This book grew out of an exhibit, Westport and Weston TV Neighbors, atthe Westport, Connecticut, Historical Society. It inaugurated the Society's newBetty and Ralph Sheffer Exhibition Hall in 2003.