Posts: 1744 From: Atlanta-area, GA USA Registered: Aug 2000
posted 06-09-2016 04:37 PM
While watching old re-runs of the ancient quiz show, "I've Got a Secret," two recent shows really got my attention.
A gentleman "had a secret," and it was that he helped recover astronaut Scott Carpenter. This was surely a recent event, so the show was from 1962. He and another USAF frogman parachuted in to assist Carpenter and were the first to reach him. Carpenter was sitting calmly in a small life raft when the frogman reached him and they had a nice chat and Carpenter offered the frogman some (space) water.
The frogman's name was Ray McClure and the events of their encounter is told exactly like McClure told it on "Secret," including the space water, on page 294 of Carpenter's "For Spacious Skies" book.
Then more recently, again on "Secret," two young gentleman were seated and told their names as Wayne Koons and George Cox. My ears perked up when I heard those names and their secret was that they had just recovered astronaut Alan Shepard (This show being from 1961). They told their story to a very attentive panel and also showed a shaky film of the MR-3 recovery taken from another Marine 'copter, as filming from their 'copter was unsuccessful.
These were some very surprising and fascinating shows to me and were a look back at a time (long ago) when space exploration was young and exciting to everyone.
pokey Member
Posts: 361 From: Houston, TX, USA Registered: Aug 2000
posted 06-09-2016 06:24 PM
There were two other space related "Secret" shows. One was a man that had a satellite in what looked like a doctor's bag. It was a small inflatable Echo. They had an already pressurized version of his satellite behind the curtain.
Then there was an engineer that was demonstrating how Velcro could help the space program. He had (I think his secretary) with Velcro on the bottom of her shoes hang upside down for a few seconds.
I like to watch the old game shows on cable network BUZZR.
Greggy_D Member
Posts: 977 From: Michigan Registered: Jul 2006
posted 06-09-2016 08:13 PM
quote:Originally posted by pokey: I like to watch the old game shows on cable network BUZZR.
You and me both. The shows take me back to a more simpler, happier time.
Robert Pearlman Editor
Posts: 42981 From: Houston, TX Registered: Nov 1999
posted 06-09-2016 08:22 PM
There's another space-related episode from 1962 featuring Stephen Koenig Armstrong and Viola Louise Engel Armstrong, Neil Armstrong's parents. Jim Hansen mentions it in "First Man."
cfreeze79 Member
Posts: 455 From: Herndon, VA, USA Registered: Nov 2000
posted 06-10-2016 12:52 AM
"What's My Line?" had a visit from the first human test subject for space...
In February 1958, the 23-year-old airman from the Bronx was locked in a chamber with an artificial atmosphere at the Air Force School of Aviation Medicine at Randolph Field in Texas for seven days, long enough to simulate a moon flight. The New York Times pronounced him "in one sense, the first 'space traveler.'"
The video from that show isn't online, but here is a newsreel of Airman 1st Class Donald Farrell.
Joel Katzowitz Member
Posts: 808 From: Marietta GA USA Registered: Dec 1999
posted 06-10-2016 06:51 AM
Wasn't John Glenn, pre-astronaut, featured on one of those early shows after having set the cross country speed record in a jet? I know I've seen the video.
Bob M Member
Posts: 1744 From: Atlanta-area, GA USA Registered: Aug 2000
posted 06-10-2016 07:02 AM
Yes, John Glenn was a contestant on "Name that Tune" in 1957 and was identified as a test pilot and involved in "Project Bullet."
Bob M Member
Posts: 1744 From: Atlanta-area, GA USA Registered: Aug 2000
posted 07-04-2016 03:23 PM
On another early quiz/game show, "What's My Line," the guest identified himself as Arthur Murray. His "line" was that he flies rocket aircraft and had recently flown a rocket plane to an altitude of 90,000 feet.
Better known as "Kit" Murray, he flew the Bell X-1A to that altitude in 1954, then recognized as America's first spaceman, and also flew the X-1B, X-4 and X-5 rocket aircraft.
Unlike too many early test pilots, Murray had a long life, dying in 2011 at age 92.
Bob M Member
Posts: 1744 From: Atlanta-area, GA USA Registered: Aug 2000
posted 08-10-2016 07:36 AM
To continue these looks back into the past, recently on the old quiz show "To Tell The Truth" on BUZZR, three young ladies all claimed to be Dee O'Hara, the nurse to the "new" Mercury Astronauts.
Being a space buff, she was recognizable to me, and did not fool the panel with her responses to their questions, as all four panel members correctly identified her as the "real" Mercury Astronaut nurse.
After identifying her, one panel member asked her who was next to fly after Glenn (dating the program from 1962) and surprising to me, she said Slayton. Evidently Slayton wasn't medically disqualified from flying MA-7 until shortly after Glenn's flight.
posted 06-09-2016 04:37 PM
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