Truth or Consequences

New Zealand Listener, Volume 11, Issue 285, 8 December 1944, Page 9

Truth or Consequences

O 4ZB is playing Truth or Consequences! The night I heard it, the contestants seemed more eager to pay their forfeits than to answer the questions correctly. One competitor imitated the bagpipes at a moment’s notice with not a little histrionic ability, another dismissed a lazy employee with invective, but on the whole, the game hasn’t risen to those heights of ingenuity reached in the American version. There they hold the "show" in a theatre, and elaborate practical jokes are played on the contestants, the studio audience being "in the know." On one occasion, the sponsors hired a hall, issued hundreds

of free tickets to musicians to hear a "famous Russian violinist,’ who was advertised for weeks beforehand. When "Truth or Consequences" wag played on the night of the concert, an Unfortunate woman competitor had a violin in her hands, was hustled into a taxi, and found | herself pushed on to the stage before a packed audience who awaited a mythical Russian -- SHE was the virtuoso! She had never played a note of music on any instrument in her life! The American audience was amused by the hoax, which was followed by a genuine concert by local musicians, but we wonder just how far, along the lines of the elaborate practical joke, a New Zealand studio could go before public opinion voted the whole thing a farce?