Finders Keepers (Game Show) 1955 DuMont Network Print

Original print with all of the Coca-Cola commercials from its broadcast date of January 20, 1955 on the DuMont Network. This was a local NYC (WABD-TV) show. Show stars Fred Robbins and Peggy O'Hara. Guest star Richard Egan for "Underwater".

[@tonymarzocco8962]

Wow! A DuMont film that did NOT wind up at the bottom of the ocean off Brooklyn.

[@DrGildovideosculturaisSimoes]

At time 15’ of this TV program an interview with film star Richard Egan, known very much from his movie interpretation in Tension at Table Rock, excellent movie.

[@MrJoeybabe25]

Even by 1955, the technology apparently didn't exist to put a phone caller on the air.

[@robertmcglinchey3347]

It did exist but a tape delay would have been the way to go.

[@marksmith4828]

DuMont ran on a shoestring, competing against the big boys: CBS and NBC (ABC, another shoestring operation, was not much of a factor).

[@sandratuttle]

@@robertmcglinchey3347Tape delay did not exist yet.

[@keithhyttinen8275]

It was broadcast live. They had to be careful with unknown phone callers who could say "anything". Yikes!!

[@thisravenhasflown010]

The corny organ music is the best😊

[@luisreyes1963]

An extremely rare whole episode of a lost TV show from the long defunct DuMont Network. Quite the find. 🕵️‍♀️

[@lonniebishop1750]

Where do you get these gems, Jeff? Please keep them coming!.

[@dguy0386]

from some quick research i did, this show ran weekly from October 7th 1954 to March 31st 1955, whitch i assume means that there would have been about 26 episodes made, but this appears to be the only episode that still exists

[@drummingdanny84]

Thirty-two years before a children's cable network created a show with the same title.

[@Rlotpir1972]

I wonder if Dumont sued Nickelodeon.

[@dianer1529]

All of that for $3,000? You would be hard pressed to get one of those gifts for that amount today!

[@MrJoeybabe25]

This is so cool, Jeff. I appreciate it very much. Your uploads are the best!

[@pgh45rpms]

Fred Robbins (1919-1992) was a native of Baltimore MD, where he began his career ias a radio dj . Later Fred moved into tv in New York City as the host of game shows and variety programs. He's remembered as tv pitchman for Coca Cola, presenting the commercials on Coke Time with Eddie Fisher. The Dumont network was established in 1942 by Allen Dumont. IThe network had some excellent programs, but many of their stars, like Jackie Gleason, were lured away by competing networks. Dumony eventually went off the air in 1956.

[@wmbrown6]

The two stations they owned, however, would later form the nucleus of the Fox Television Network which in some circles is today considered a linear descendent of DuMont. In the interim, the company wiped the DuMont name from its corporate nomenclature and NYC TV station call letters, changed first to Metropolitan Broadcasting Corporation and then Metromedia, Inc., and finally sold all but one of its TV stations to Rupert Murdoch. (The one exception, in Boston, would go to Hearst.)

[@sandratuttle]

@@wmbrown6Dumont's station WDTV in Pittsburgh was sold to Westinghouse Broadcasting and became KDKA after their radio station. It is still the same call letters and owned by CBS.

[@DJK-cq2uy]

Fat deal

[@jvcomedy]

Bizarre the host talks to the contestant on the phone but their voice cannot be heard. Maybe they didn't have the technology to do that back then but you'd think the host would at least relay what the person on the phone was saying but he didn't always do that.

[@joshgellis3292]

Jeez, $3,000 is still a good amount of cash still!

[@nicoleknight9412]

Probably $30- 50,000 in today's money.

[@witherblaze]

$3000 in prizes, not cash.

[@jamesbeer]

Considering the sorry financial state of the DuMont network!

[@kelperdude]

Very odd game. The practice of putting that soda into cans started in 1955, the same year as this broadcast. This show is very adamant about people buying that soda in the glass bottles. This essentially became a battle not about the product, but about selling the packaging.

[@freddyfurrah3789]

Historic

[@TBONE_2004]

So... This is the inspiration for the Nickelodeon game show of the same name?

[@marcomacias3960]

yes and no, Nick did use the ''find the object in a room' bit of the show and no it is not to locate the card.

[@walte153]

What an awful show. Stupid prizes... dopey game... and a host who gives off "creep" vibes 12:55 . The "finders" look like they were just pulled in off the street. Richard Egan couldn't wait to get out of there. The only good part was the girl who hid the "coupon" She was cute. I enjoyed watching this mess!

[@TimothyJones-mm9tb]

That girl was not overwhelmed, she was annoyed because her parents won’t let her keep a dog in an nyc apartment. I’m reading into it, but I know that face.

[@Crimefighter]

so the nickleodeon kids show was inspired by this...

[@mrnasty02106]

No it was not. Many later shows with the same titles as these, were entirely different (and no horror-ific/frightening soundtrack).

[@9094nancyj]

Trip to Bermuda is a great prize!

[@robmclean4352]

Not for broadcast!

[@StoneyRerootkit]

Not For Viewing... By Intelligent Citizens🎉😮😊

[@antony716]

This host doesn't know the definition of "personal space"

[@Hevynly1]

Poor little Mary Ellen looks so overwhelmed.

[@fjccommish]

Good grief, what a terrible game show.

[@ZACHERYalderton-s3h]

I need the rules

[@keithelster8858]

Did it air on the entire (what was left of it) Dumont Network, or was it strictly a WABD local show?

[@nicoleknight9412]

It was on the network, but only viewers in the Tri-state area (New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut) were eligible to play.

[@witherblaze]

@@nicoleknight9412 From my research, it seems to only be a WABD show. Not DuMont.

[@jethro1963]

WABD - Allen B. DuMont

[@wmbrown6]

@@jethro1963 - Whereas, when its calls were changed on Sept. 7, 1958 to WNEW-TV = named after the highly-rated radio station, home to such personalities as Klavan & Finch and William B. Williams, which the then-DuMont Broadcasting Corporation purchased the year before. It was the second of a two-step process of wiping clean any trace of Dr. DuMont from the station that had once borne his name. The other: On June 9, the company changed its name to Metropolitan Broadcasting Corporation. (On Aug. 25, less than two weeks before the TV call letters' change, WNEW-FM 102.7 first signed on.)

[@sandratuttle]

@@witherblazeIt was not shown in Pittsburgh.

[@BabaTiggy]

Is the number still Exist

[@vestibulate]

@BabaTiggy Yes, the number still Exist.

[@BabaTiggy]

@@vestibulate wait really