Tearjerker

Italy's top TV quiz show with a giveaway gimmick is called Lascia o Raddoppia (Leave or Double). Like the U.S.'s The $64,000 Question, it sometimes generates enough human drama to become national news. One recent star contestant was a sloe-eyed beauty named Marisa Zocchi, who is currently Miss Tuscany. Marisa appeared as an expert on cycling, had already won 2,500,000 lire ($4,000), and had to make up her mind whether to go home with the money she had won or risk it on the chance that she might win 5,000,000 lire ($8,000).

The cameras focused on Marisa as she struggled uncertainly toward her decision. Then the Tuscan beauty, in a scene described by the Italian press as "emozionante," broke down and bawled. By the time she got herself in hand and explained that she had to settle for what she had won because she could not risk the money she desperately needed for her ailing mother, there was hardly a dry eye among the viewers of Italy.

The viewer who seemed to be the most moved of all was not an Italian but Egypt's ex-King Farouk, long reported to be broke. Never insensitive to feminine charms, Farouk wired Marisa that the TV show had left him "DEEPLY TOUCHED . . .KNOWING STRONG HUMAN MOTIVES FOR WHICH YOU HAVE RENOUNCED TOP PRIZE, WE TAKE PLEASURE IN MAKING SMALL OFFERING." Last week the offering was presented to Marisa by a representative of Farouk. It was a certified check for $4,000, the difference between what she had won and what she might have won.

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