Quiz Kids facts for kids
1944 advertisement for Quiz Kids radio show
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| Genre | Educational |
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| Country of origin | United States |
| Home station | NBC |
| TV adaptations | NBC and CBS |
| Hosted by |
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| Created by | Louis G. Cowan |
| Recording studio |
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| Original release | June 28, 1940 – September 27, 1956 |
| Sponsored by | Alka-Seltzer |
Quiz Kids was a popular radio and TV show from the 1940s and 1950s. It was created by Louis G. Cowan, a smart advertising man from Chicago. The show first aired on NBC radio on June 28, 1940. It was sponsored by Alka-Seltzer.
The show continued on radio for 13 years. It also appeared on TV, first on NBC and then on CBS. Joe Kelly was the main host, or "quizmaster," for many years. Later, Clifton Fadiman hosted the TV version.
The main idea of the show was simple but fun. Joe Kelly would ask questions sent in by listeners. A panel of five smart kids would then try to answer them. These kids were chosen because they were very intelligent and had great personalities. They were also quick thinkers and had a good sense of humor.
One of the first "Quiz Kids" was Gerard Darrow, who was only seven years old. He was an expert on nature. Other early panel members included Mary Ann Anderson, Joan Bishop, George Van Dyke Tiers, and Charles Schwartz.
Many other talented kids joined the show over the years. Some famous "Quiz Kids" included Ruth Duskin, Shel Talmy, and math whizzes Joel Kupperman and Richard Williams. The kids on the panel changed often. The top three scorers from one week would return the next. Kids could stay on the show until they turned 16.
Quiz Kids Across America
In the late 1940s, Quiz Kids started to expand to New York City. They held competitions to find new panel members there. Students from elementary schools in the New York area filled out questionnaires. Then, they were interviewed in special panels. These interviews used questions similar to those on the show.
The kids who were chosen from these interviews competed weekly. Winners from each week then moved on to monthly "finals." The overall winner from these monthly competitions would then get to appear on the main show in Chicago.
There were also special shows hosted by Durward Kirby. These were called The Savings Bank Quiz Kids. They were sponsored by The Dime Savings Bank of Brooklyn.
Norman Lane, who was nine years old, won many of the monthly competitions. He even appeared on the Chicago show. Malcolm Mitchell, age 12, was another big winner. He was so good that producers chose him for several shows with the Chicago group. In one famous episode, the "Quiz Kids" even beat a group of university professors in a general knowledge contest! Malcolm Mitchell later became a medical professor at Yale. He also had "perfect pitch," meaning he could identify musical notes perfectly. This made for some interesting moments on the radio.
A TV show was filmed in 1950 with Milton Berle as a guest host. It featured the Chicago "Quiz Kids." While the radio show was very popular, the TV version never quite reached the same level of fame. The Quiz Kids show inspired many other quiz shows. It also helped popularize the term "Whiz Kids." This term was first used for the 1950 Philadelphia Phillies baseball team. Later, it described smart young people in government.
Some former "Quiz Kids" grew up to be very famous. One was James D. Watson, who won a Nobel Prize for his work in biology. Others included actor Robert Easton, acting coach Roy London, producer Harve Bennett, poet Marilyn Hacker, and actress Vanessa Brown.
New Generations of Quiz Kids
The Quiz Kids idea has been brought back several times since the original show ended.
- The New Quiz Kids aired in Canada from 1978 to 1979. It was hosted by Terry David Mulligan.
- In 1980, Jim Mckrell hosted another syndicated version also called The New Quiz Kids.
- An American version aired from 1981 to 1982 on CBS Cable. This one was hosted by Norman Lear.
- The Quiz Kids Challenge was a daily show from 1990. It had three kids playing against three adults. Jonathan Prince was the host.
- Bay Area Quiz Kids is a high school quiz bowl show. It airs in the San Francisco area on KRON-TV.
- In Los Angeles, station KNXT/KCBS-TV created their own version called Kidquiz. It was hosted by weathercaster Maclovio Perez. This show ran for eight years, from 1984 to 1992.
Quiz Kids Down Under: Australia
Australia also had its own version of Quiz Kids. An Australian radio show, based on the American one, first aired in 1938. In 1942, John Dease started hosting Quiz Kids on Radio 2GB. This show ran every Sunday evening until 1962. It even tried to run on TV for a short time in 1956–57. The show later moved to ABC TV in March 1964.
