Plenty of Peanuts

Now that the big quiz shows have been found wanting and the big quizmasters have found subpoena servers waiting, neither the clerk with the photographic memory nor the student with the encyclopedic mind has much of a chance to turn a fast TV dollar. Almost the only quizzes left are the small-payoff contests that the trade calls "peanut" shows. But this week, after four months on the air, Air Force Lieut. James Astrue will have proved that, given time, tenacity, and a modest amount of information, a man can still amass an astonishing amount of peanuts.

Astrue started playing NBC's Tic Tac Dough last November. When he started to win, he worked out a deal with his superiors at New Jersey's McGuire Air Force Base. He had 70 days of accumulated leave; why not let him go to Manhattan on alternate weeks and tape his appearances in advance? That way Astrue could seem to the audience to be competing steadily, week after week, five days a week. Permission was granted.

Week after week, Astrue won. Housewives, journalists, college professors--he beat them all. He did not miss too many of his tough questions and made the most of his share of the snaps. M.C. Bill Wendell asked him if it was true that Robert Hutchins was once chancellor of the University of Chicago. What are the ingredients of a martini? His opponents went down on such questions as: What city, once known as San Francisco's bedroom, is the third largest city in California? What two states at what dates came into the U.S. before Alaska?

While Astrue won, Tic Tac Dough's Nielsen rating rose steadily. When he began this week's competition, he had won $137,800.* But by week's end, Lieut. James Astrue will have used up all his leave. When M.C. Wendell asks him what British adventurer explored the waters around Jamestown in 1608 and afterward the waters around New England, what will he say? Will he say John Smith and stay on the show? Or will he say Raleigh, lose his championship to one Dave Fries, and go back to duty with a check for $143,600 in his pocket? Tune in to NBC, Friday, March 20, 12 noon E.S.T.

* Charles Van Doren won $129,000 on Twenty-One, Elfrida Von Nardroff $220,500.

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