Red Hat Member is Queen for a Day WOULD YOU LIKE TO BE QUEEN FOR A DAY?
By
Allison Int-Hout
These are the words that my grandmother, Jeanne Atkinson, heard on the day that she was crowned Queen For A Day in 1954 (Atkinson). April 2004 will be 50 years since she heard those words.
Today, people might watch shows like The Price Is Right, or Wheel of Fortune, but back in the 50’s women would watch Queen For A Day. This was a time when women wore hats and gloves, television was black and white, and they still advertised cigarettes in commercials.
Take yourself back to 1954. Jeanne Atkinson was a 23 year-old mother of three. She lived in Wilmington , California Hollywood
When Jeanne and Bea arrived at the Moulin Rouge in Hollywood , California
The Moulin Rouge
They immediately got in line. When the line began to file into the Moulin Rouge, the women were asked to hand in their tickets. On the backside of the ticket there were a couple of questions. One question was “What do you wish for if you were Queen For A Day?” You were also asked to give a reason why you needed the prize, and then tell something unusual about yourself. Jeanne had not originally filled out the back of the ticket, because she wanted to give Bea a better chance of winning. When Jeanne tried to tell the man at the door, probably a producer, that she didn’t want to win and that she was only there because she was doing her friend a favor, he still made her fill it out. He said, “Every seat holds a potential winner, and we don’t want to be wasting seats” (Atkinson).
A Queen For A Day ticket
After Jeanne quickly filled out her ticket, the producer started asking her some questions. He asked if she was married, and also why she wanted a sewing machine. He had the impression that Jeanne was a seamstress. However, she corrected him and told him that she was going to Long Beach Community College
After Jeanne and Bea answered the producer’s questions they went into the studio and sat down. They could see a group of people up on the stage going through the stacks of tickets. Jeanne noticed how organized the show was, and that they probably had everything that went on back stage down to a science. While all of the women were anticipating for the show to begin, some people from the show started to explain the Applause Meter. They wanted the ladies to know that the audience controlled it, not them, and that it wasn’t rigged (Atkinson). The main topic of several articles written about the show questioned the integrity of the applause meter. In an interview with Jack Bailey he said, “Queen For A Day is an honest show. Our applause meter is on the level… Our contestants aren’t phony…Or the studio audience would spot it in a minute (Annenberg).
The time had finally come. They called out the twenty-five women who were selected for the first round. Jeanne Atkinson was one of them. She felt so bad for leaving her friend Bea behind (Atkinson).
The twenty-five women who were chosen were taken onto the stage, and asked even more questions. They sat on folding chairs, and three people went around asking the ladies more about themselves. One person asked Jeanne if she had been married very young since she had three children. She told him that she had been married at sixteen. She remembers that when she said that, he smiled (Atkinson).
After all of the questioning, they chose the final five women. Jeanne Atkinson was once again chosen. They took each of them by their arm and led
them to a table. It was decorated like a banquet table, and across the stage was the throne. The robe and scepter were laid across it. It had been about one hour since Jeanne and Bea had started standing in line, and the show was about to begin (Atkinson).
The contestants’ table with emcee Jack Bailey
The five women were interviewed one at a time by the emcee, Jack Smith, who was substituting for the regular emcee, Jack Bailey. Jeanne, who was candidate number 4, was asked what her husband did for a living, and she said that Warren Warren
She was also asked how many children she had, and she answered that she had three. Jack Smith said, “It doesn’t seem possible”, and Jeanne answered, “It does to me”. The audience laughed at Jeanne’s response. Mr. Smith asked what prize she wanted if she was to be crowned Queen For A Day. Jeanne explained once again that she wanted a sewing machine, so that she could make clothing for her children. It seems like Mr. Smith spent much more time interviewing her than any of the other women (78 RPM Record).
Jeanne recalls the people in the audience laughing at a lot of her comments. She was very nervous, which caused her to laugh at very random moments (Atkinson).
In between each of the interviews with the candidates, the show announcer advertised products. Also, Jean Cagney (perhaps the Vanna White of her time), and the sister of a famous actor named Jimmy Cagney, presented a style show of some of the prizes that the Queen would win. Jewelry, clothing, and perfume were shown at the style show (78 RPM Record).
Whether or not she was going to win wasn’t actually what Jeanne was worrying about. The whole time, she was trying to figure out what she was going to tell her friend Bea. She knew that Bea needed to win much more than she did, since Bea’s husband had just left her and she was hoping to win some bunk beds for her kids. Jeanne was trying to apologize to Bea all the way through the show. She kept making eye contact with Bea, and she could see that she was crying. During one specific moment, the show had gone into a commercial for Old Gold Cigarettes, and Jeanne once again tried to make eye contact with Bea. She looked at her and shrugged her shoulders, making the audience think that she was saying, “Well, so what?” to the cigarettes. They thought that was absolutely hilarious. Jeanne seems to think that the people in the audience saw her as a bit of an idiot (Atkinson).
So far, the five women had been chosen, they had told their stories, and now all that was left was for the audience to pick the winner. Jack Smith walked behind every contestant, gave a quick review of what each candidate wanted, and asked for the audience’s applause (Brooks). It happened rather quickly following the applause for candidate number 5 and Jack Smith said, “Yes, it is candidate number four, Jean Atkinson. Boy, if you thought she was nervous, you should see her now.” Jack Smith helped Jeanne stand up out of her chair. Then Mr. Smith said, “Here is our queen elect. She is dressed in the royal white ermine robe and now for the most thrilling moment of all, I crown you Queen Jean, Queen For A Day. You better hold her up, I don’t think she is going to get through this.” (78 RPM Record)
She was immediately given 4 dozen roses. Different announcers would describe the prizes she had won as they were displayed on the stage. She won clothing, as well as numerous appliances. Some of the appliances were an automatic deep fryer, an electric mixer, a portable aluminum vacuum, a complete set of Vernonware dishes, a Westinghouse electric roaster oven, and a 53 piece set of Freeform Dinnerware. To go with the dinnerware, she was given an Arvan dinette set. She also received a chair and ottoman, with fingertip controls on the side, designed by the Berkline Corporation and a Speed Queen automatic console ironer. This is a very large ironing machine which is also called a mangle. Another prize was a food freezer from Amana. She received, of course, the Old Gold cigarettes, which came in a special box (78 RPM Record). She still uses this box to store her important papers (Atkinson). She also was given a case of Folger’s coffee and a case of enchilada sauce (78 RPM Record).
One of the last prizes that Jeanne received was a 3-piece matched set of Samsonite luggage in natural alligator finish (she still has this luggage). Jeanne was going to need that luggage, because Queen For A Day was sending her and her husband on a 2 night vacation to the Desert Inn in Las Vegas
At last, Jeanne was delighted to see the prize she had asked for, a brand new Pfaff sewing machine.
A Pfaff sewing machine
After the show, the Queen For A Day photographer took a picture of Jack Smith and Jeanne, which appeared in the local Hollywood newspaper, called the Citizen News, and was also put onto a serving tray that Jeanne was given as one of her prizes.
Jeanne was also measured for clothes, because she was going to be receiving many pieces of formal and casual clothing from Queen For A Day. The prizes that Jeanne had won were carried out to her car for her, and the rest of them arrived during the following days by truck. Jeanne recalls trucks constantly coming to her house (Atkinson).
Jeanne arrived home about 6:30 p.m. after dropping off Bea. Jeanne’s mother-in-law had been watching the kids, and she gave her the case of coffee for her help. After Jeanne had been home for a little while, she found out how popular she had become. The second her neighbor, Nedra, had found out, she immediately started running around the neighborhood telling everyone that Jeanne was on Queen For A Day. Nedra actually ended up missing the show, since she was trying so hard to make sure everyone else knew about it (Atkinson).
The next day, Jeanne and Bea went to the House of Westmore in the Queen For a Day limousine. Jeanne was allowed to bring along one guest, so she decided to invite Bea. They were given facials, and complete makeovers. Jeanne remembers having on so much make-up that she was afraid to smile. They then went to the Brown Derby Restaurant and had lunch with Jeff Chandler. Jeff Chandler was a very famous actor at the time, much like Tom Cruise today (Atkinson).
Jeff Chandler
The Brown Derby Restaurant was located on Wilshire Boulevard Los Angeles Hollywood
The Brown Derby
After lunch, Jeanne and Bea went to Universal Studios. The limousine had a funny horn called a Bermuda Bell. It sticks out in Jeanne’s mind that the chauffeur would make it honk by stepping on a small button on the floor. The horn would make Jeanne giggle, so the chauffeur kept honking it. Whenever they would pull up to someplace, like the Brown Derby, he would honk the horn for the valet parking. When they arrived at Universal Studios, her escort took them around the lot. They saw Judy Garland, and also got to look at her wardrobe (Atkinson). Judy Garland is most famous for her role as Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz.
After seeing Universal Studios, Jeanne’s husband Warren met them and Bea went home. They were taken by limousine to Don the Beachcomber’s Restaurant for hors d’oeuvres, and their escort had a date come to accompany him (Jeanne thinks that the woman was from the show). Warren Warren Warren
At Don the Beachcomber’s, there was a special drink, called the Queen For A Day, that Jeanne was given, and she also got to sit in a special chair. The drink was rum, and had a small umbrella in it. She wasn’t used to drinking, but she decided she might as well have a little fun. After drinks, they went to the Cocoanut Grove for dinner (Atkinson). Jeanne remembers it being very nice, and she is pretty sure that they had something like lobster for dinner. The restaurant had an orchestra playing, someone famous like Les Brown, although Jeanne cannot remember who it was. They danced, and had a fun night out on the town (Atkinson).
The Cocoanut Grove
The next week, Jeanne and Warren went to Las Vegas Los Angeles Airport Las Vegas Las Vegas
The room they stayed in at the Desert Inn was a suite, and there were flowers and chocolates left for them. It was a very famous place for famous people like Frank Sinatra, so things there were rather expensive. Jeanne didn’t have to worry about this though, because all she had to do was sign for the food they ate, and it was all taken care of for her. However, the gambling was not paid for. Jeanne and Warren could not afford to gamble at the Desert Inn, so they would travel to downtown Las Vegas
Although the show that Jeanne appeared on was emceed by Jack Smith, the normal host was Jack Bailey. Jack Bailey began hosting Queen For A Day in 1945 when it started on radio, and continued with the show when it switched to television in 1952 (“Queen For A Day” 2). He remained the host until Queen For
A Day left the air in 1965 (Shulman). Although most of the Queen For A Day shows took place in Hollywood
Jeanne’s most memorable moments of her Queen For A Day experience are some that make you wish you could have been there. Jeanne saw Queen For A Day as a sob show, but when she tried to tell one of the people on the show about how her friend was having a hard time, he told her that most of the shows aren’t about sob stories (Atkinson). She remembers the people laughing at her innocent giggling, and the big microphones and big, hot lights. She likes to look back on the fun time she had with her friend Bea, but still regrets taking away her chance of winning.
So how about you, would you like to be Queen (or King) for a Day?
Bibliography
78 RPM Records. “Queen For A Day”, April 20, 1954 .
Annenberg, Walter H. “The Stuff that Tears are Made Of”. TV Guide. June 22, 1957 : Pg. 18.
Atkinson, Jeanne. Personal Interview. November 2, 2003 .
Brooks , Tim . “Queen For A Day”. .
“Cocoanut Grove Nightclub.” Cocoanut Grove nightclub fire. May 25, 2000 . December 31, 2003 . .
Hanley, Shawn. “Queen For A Day”. January 17, 1997 . Mass Media History Seminar, December 16, 1996 . .
“Queen For A Day”. Program. No date.*
Shulman, Arthur and Roger Youman. How Sweet It Was. New York , New York
Souvenir Program. “Queen For A Day”. Morgan Jr., Ray. No date.*
Van Schaack, Jim. “The Brown Derby Hollywood December 13, 2003 . .
* These sources were produced many years ago, before people started putting dates on written pieces.
Allison Int-Hout is the granddaughter of Jeanne Atkinson. She wrote this research paper as part of a Corps of Discovery school project. For comments - Jeanne@nwi.net
WOULD YOU LIKE TO BE QUEEN FOR A DAY?
By
Allison Int-Hout
These are the words that my grandmother, Jeanne Atkinson, heard on the day that she was crowned Queen For A Day in 1954 (Atkinson). April 2004 will be 50 years since she heard those words.
Today, people might watch shows like The Price Is Right, or Wheel of Fortune, but back in the 50’s women would watch Queen For A Day. This was a time when women wore hats and gloves, television was black and white, and they still advertised cigarettes in commercials.
Take yourself back to 1954. Jeanne Atkinson was a 23 year-old mother of three. She lived in
When Jeanne and Bea arrived at the Moulin Rouge in
The Moulin Rouge
They immediately got in line. When the line began to file into the Moulin Rouge, the women were asked to hand in their tickets. On the backside of the ticket there were a couple of questions. One question was “What do you wish for if you were Queen For A Day?” You were also asked to give a reason why you needed the prize, and then tell something unusual about yourself. Jeanne had not originally filled out the back of the ticket, because she wanted to give Bea a better chance of winning. When Jeanne tried to tell the man at the door, probably a producer, that she didn’t want to win and that she was only there because she was doing her friend a favor, he still made her fill it out. He said, “Every seat holds a potential winner, and we don’t want to be wasting seats” (Atkinson).
A Queen For A Day ticket
After Jeanne quickly filled out her ticket, the producer started asking her some questions. He asked if she was married, and also why she wanted a sewing machine. He had the impression that Jeanne was a seamstress. However, she corrected him and told him that she was going to
After Jeanne and Bea answered the producer’s questions they went into the studio and sat down. They could see a group of people up on the stage going through the stacks of tickets. Jeanne noticed how organized the show was, and that they probably had everything that went on back stage down to a science. While all of the women were anticipating for the show to begin, some people from the show started to explain the Applause Meter. They wanted the ladies to know that the audience controlled it, not them, and that it wasn’t rigged (Atkinson). The main topic of several articles written about the show questioned the integrity of the applause meter. In an interview with Jack Bailey he said, “Queen For A Day is an honest show. Our applause meter is on the level… Our contestants aren’t phony…Or the studio audience would spot it in a minute (Annenberg).
The time had finally come. They called out the twenty-five women who were selected for the first round. Jeanne Atkinson was one of them. She felt so bad for leaving her friend Bea behind (Atkinson).
The twenty-five women who were chosen were taken onto the stage, and asked even more questions. They sat on folding chairs, and three people went around asking the ladies more about themselves. One person asked Jeanne if she had been married very young since she had three children. She told him that she had been married at sixteen. She remembers that when she said that, he smiled (Atkinson).
After all of the questioning, they chose the final five women. Jeanne Atkinson was once again chosen. They took each of them by their arm and led
them to a table. It was decorated like a banquet table, and across the stage was the throne. The robe and scepter were laid across it. It had been about one hour since Jeanne and Bea had started standing in line, and the show was about to begin (Atkinson).
The contestants’ table with emcee Jack Bailey
The five women were interviewed one at a time by the emcee, Jack Smith, who was substituting for the regular emcee, Jack Bailey. Jeanne, who was candidate number 4, was asked what her husband did for a living, and she said that
She was also asked how many children she had, and she answered that she had three. Jack Smith said, “It doesn’t seem possible”, and Jeanne answered, “It does to me”. The audience laughed at Jeanne’s response. Mr. Smith asked what prize she wanted if she was to be crowned Queen For A Day. Jeanne explained once again that she wanted a sewing machine, so that she could make clothing for her children. It seems like Mr. Smith spent much more time interviewing her than any of the other women (78 RPM Record).
Jeanne recalls the people in the audience laughing at a lot of her comments. She was very nervous, which caused her to laugh at very random moments (Atkinson).
In between each of the interviews with the candidates, the show announcer advertised products. Also, Jean Cagney (perhaps the Vanna White of her time), and the sister of a famous actor named Jimmy Cagney, presented a style show of some of the prizes that the Queen would win. Jewelry, clothing, and perfume were shown at the style show (78 RPM Record).
Whether or not she was going to win wasn’t actually what Jeanne was worrying about. The whole time, she was trying to figure out what she was going to tell her friend Bea. She knew that Bea needed to win much more than she did, since Bea’s husband had just left her and she was hoping to win some bunk beds for her kids. Jeanne was trying to apologize to Bea all the way through the show. She kept making eye contact with Bea, and she could see that she was crying. During one specific moment, the show had gone into a commercial for Old Gold Cigarettes, and Jeanne once again tried to make eye contact with Bea. She looked at her and shrugged her shoulders, making the audience think that she was saying, “Well, so what?” to the cigarettes. They thought that was absolutely hilarious. Jeanne seems to think that the people in the audience saw her as a bit of an idiot (Atkinson).
So far, the five women had been chosen, they had told their stories, and now all that was left was for the audience to pick the winner. Jack Smith walked behind every contestant, gave a quick review of what each candidate wanted, and asked for the audience’s applause (Brooks). It happened rather quickly following the applause for candidate number 5 and Jack Smith said, “Yes, it is candidate number four, Jean Atkinson. Boy, if you thought she was nervous, you should see her now.” Jack Smith helped Jeanne stand up out of her chair. Then Mr. Smith said, “Here is our queen elect. She is dressed in the royal white ermine robe and now for the most thrilling moment of all, I crown you Queen Jean, Queen For A Day. You better hold her up, I don’t think she is going to get through this.” (78 RPM Record)
She was immediately given 4 dozen roses. Different announcers would describe the prizes she had won as they were displayed on the stage. She won clothing, as well as numerous appliances. Some of the appliances were an automatic deep fryer, an electric mixer, a portable aluminum vacuum, a complete set of Vernonware dishes, a Westinghouse electric roaster oven, and a 53 piece set of Freeform Dinnerware. To go with the dinnerware, she was given an Arvan dinette set. She also received a chair and ottoman, with fingertip controls on the side, designed by the Berkline Corporation and a Speed Queen automatic console ironer. This is a very large ironing machine which is also called a mangle. Another prize was a food freezer from Amana. She received, of course, the Old Gold cigarettes, which came in a special box (78 RPM Record). She still uses this box to store her important papers (Atkinson). She also was given a case of Folger’s coffee and a case of enchilada sauce (78 RPM Record).
One of the last prizes that Jeanne received was a 3-piece matched set of Samsonite luggage in natural alligator finish (she still has this luggage). Jeanne was going to need that luggage, because Queen For A Day was sending her and her husband on a 2 night vacation to the Desert Inn in
At last, Jeanne was delighted to see the prize she had asked for, a brand new Pfaff sewing machine.
A Pfaff sewing machine
After the show, the Queen For A Day photographer took a picture of Jack Smith and Jeanne, which appeared in the local
Jeanne was also measured for clothes, because she was going to be receiving many pieces of formal and casual clothing from Queen For A Day. The prizes that Jeanne had won were carried out to her car for her, and the rest of them arrived during the following days by truck. Jeanne recalls trucks constantly coming to her house (Atkinson).
Jeanne arrived home about
The next day, Jeanne and Bea went to the House of Westmore in the Queen For a Day limousine. Jeanne was allowed to bring along one guest, so she decided to invite Bea. They were given facials, and complete makeovers. Jeanne remembers having on so much make-up that she was afraid to smile. They then went to the Brown Derby Restaurant and had lunch with Jeff Chandler. Jeff Chandler was a very famous actor at the time, much like Tom Cruise today (Atkinson).
Jeff Chandler
The Brown Derby Restaurant was located on
The Brown
After lunch, Jeanne and Bea went to Universal Studios. The limousine had a funny horn called a Bermuda Bell. It sticks out in Jeanne’s mind that the chauffeur would make it honk by stepping on a small button on the floor. The horn would make Jeanne giggle, so the chauffeur kept honking it. Whenever they would pull up to someplace, like the Brown Derby, he would honk the horn for the valet parking. When they arrived at Universal Studios, her escort took them around the lot. They saw Judy Garland, and also got to look at her wardrobe (Atkinson). Judy Garland is most famous for her role as Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz.
After seeing Universal Studios, Jeanne’s husband Warren met them and Bea went home. They were taken by limousine to Don the Beachcomber’s Restaurant for hors d’oeuvres, and their escort had a date come to accompany him (Jeanne thinks that the woman was from the show).
At Don the Beachcomber’s, there was a special drink, called the Queen For A Day, that Jeanne was given, and she also got to sit in a special chair. The drink was rum, and had a small umbrella in it. She wasn’t used to drinking, but she decided she might as well have a little fun. After drinks, they went to the Cocoanut Grove for dinner (Atkinson). Jeanne remembers it being very nice, and she is pretty sure that they had something like lobster for dinner. The restaurant had an orchestra playing, someone famous like Les Brown, although Jeanne cannot remember who it was. They danced, and had a fun night out on the town (Atkinson).
The Cocoanut Grove
The next week, Jeanne and Warren went to
The room they stayed in at the Desert Inn was a suite, and there were flowers and chocolates left for them. It was a very famous place for famous people like Frank Sinatra, so things there were rather expensive. Jeanne didn’t have to worry about this though, because all she had to do was sign for the food they ate, and it was all taken care of for her. However, the gambling was not paid for. Jeanne and Warren could not afford to gamble at the Desert Inn, so they would travel to downtown
Although the show that Jeanne appeared on was emceed by Jack Smith, the normal host was Jack Bailey. Jack Bailey began hosting Queen For A Day in 1945 when it started on radio, and continued with the show when it switched to television in 1952 (“Queen For A Day” 2). He remained the host until Queen For
A Day left the air in 1965 (Shulman). Although most of the Queen For A Day shows took place in
Jeanne’s most memorable moments of her Queen For A Day experience are some that make you wish you could have been there. Jeanne saw Queen For A Day as a sob show, but when she tried to tell one of the people on the show about how her friend was having a hard time, he told her that most of the shows aren’t about sob stories (Atkinson). She remembers the people laughing at her innocent giggling, and the big microphones and big, hot lights. She likes to look back on the fun time she had with her friend Bea, but still regrets taking away her chance of winning.
So how about you, would you like to be Queen (or King) for a Day?
Bibliography
78 RPM Records. “Queen For A Day”,
Annenberg, Walter H. “The Stuff that Tears are Made Of”. TV Guide.
Atkinson, Jeanne. Personal Interview.
“Cocoanut Grove Nightclub.” Cocoanut Grove nightclub fire.
Hanley, Shawn. “Queen For A Day”.
“Queen For A Day”. Program. No date.*
Shulman, Arthur and Roger Youman. How Sweet It Was.
Souvenir Program. “Queen For A Day”. Morgan Jr., Ray. No date.*
Van Schaack, Jim. “The Brown
* These sources were produced many years ago, before people started putting dates on written pieces.
Allison Int-Hout is the granddaughter of Jeanne Atkinson. She wrote this research paper as part of a Corps of Discovery school project. For comments - Jeanne@nwi.net