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IMDb > "Queen for a Day" (1956)

"Queen for a Day" (1956) More at IMDbPro »TV series 1956-1964


Overview

User Rating:
4.4/10   17 votes
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Up 23% in popularity this week. See why on IMDbPro.
Contact:
View company contact information for Queen for a Day on IMDbPro.
Release Date:
3 January 1956 (USA) more
Plot:
Four women, each with a sob story, vie to become "Queen for a Day." full summary
User Reviews:
Lower than low -- we begin to approach this TV nadir now more (5 total)

Cast

  (Series Credited cast)
Jack Bailey ... Host (1956-1964)
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Ann Baker
Gene Baker ... Announcer (1956-1960)
Shirley Buchanan ... Page girl (1956-1959)
Jeanne Cagney ... Fashion Commentator (c. 1956 et seq.)
Harry L. Fraser ... Various Roles
Bonita Gaylord ... Contestant Escort
John Harlan ... Announcer (1960-1964)
Loi Sullivan ... Page girl (1956-1958)
Grace Lee Whitney ... Contestant escort
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Additional Details

Runtime:
30 min
Country:
Language:
Aspect Ratio:
1.33 : 1 more
Sound Mix:
Certification:

Fun Stuff

Trivia:
Despite it's long run, less than 10 episodes survive of this popular series. Please check your attic. more
Movie Connections:
Referenced in "The Equalizer: Wash-Up (#1.16)" (1986) more

FAQ

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4 out of 8 people found the following review useful.
Lower than low -- we begin to approach this TV nadir now, 10 December 2006
1/10
Author: Steve Towsley from Ft. Wayne USA

Jack Bailey, a sort of Carl Denham type, hosted this show in which four women sitting on a panel (the potential Queens) vied for unknown prizes by telling the sob stories of their lives in turn -- with as much sensation, pathos and outright bawling as each could muster, since the most effective story, or storyteller, won the prizes.

If this sounds to you like a pandering premise for a TV reality show, I couldn't disagree.

The winning woman was chosen by a crude decibel-reading "Applause Meter," and the Queen of each episode was crowned with as much blubbering as one might expect for a Miss America winner. At the climax, the ostensibly life-changing prizes were revealed to the winner.

The prizes fell far short of what we see on eerily similar shows today like Extreme Home Edition -- in fact, each day's Queen for a Day typically got what might pass for one prize in a preliminary round on "The Price Is Right" these days -- but often these were appliances to ease 1950s women's work, like a refrigerator or washer/dryer set.

Rather than hilarious, as I remember it, this show should seem shameful today because of its crude and early-TV sensationalist exploitation of people's every-day tragedies, not to mention some of the contestants' willingness to do anything for a buck, and the naked greed of the sponsors. Then there's the high probability that the new frig or washer/dryer set could hardly fix all that was wrong with the life of each winning "Queen for a Day."

Still, its viewers found this show fascinating (like a car crash?) and often a tear-jerker as well.

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