That’s me on the screen answering Geoffrey Baer’s questions via Skype for the upcoming THE GREAT CHICAGO HISTORY SHOW. I will be a panelist on the 4th episode, which will first air on April 16th at 8:00 p.m. Photo courtesy of WTTW.
Geoffrey Baer’s THE GREAT CHICAGO QUIZ SHOW premiered on March 26, 2021. Photo courtesy of WTTW.
You can’t love Chicago history without being a huge fan of Geoffrey Baer. His public television features and “Ask Geoffrey” segments on Chicago Tonight are fascinating, well-researched, and fun. Along with his knowledge of local history and architecture, Geoffrey’s warmth, calm demeanor, and genuine interest in other people are qualities which have made him an extremely popular local TV personality. Suffice it to say, when one of his producers emailed to ask if I would like to be on a “special panel of guests” for Geoffrey’s upcoming GREAT CHICAGO QUIZ SHOW, I jumped at the chance.
In WTTW’s new, fast-paced weekly show, host Geoffrey Baer puts contestants from across Chicagoland, local history “experts” like me—and viewers at home—to the test as they contemplate all things Chicago. The show premiered on March 26, 2021. But there are still three more episodes in April. I’m on a panel with Lee Bey, Bill Savage, and Robert Loerzel, and our segment will air on Friday, April 16, at 8:00 p.m. (If you miss any of the episodes, you can watch them on the web or on the PBS app on any device.)
Behind the scenes with Geoffrey Baer during the recording of my segment. Photo courtesy of WTTW.
It seems like trivia contests are on lots of minds right now. In honor of “From Swamps to Parks: Building Chicago’s Public Spaces,” an exhibit I co-curated at Harold Washington Library, the Chicago Public Library has asked me to host a virtual Chicago Parks Trivia contest on April 29, 2021, at 6:00 p.m. Space for this virtual event will be limited, so please register for Trivia Night if you can attend.
Advertisement for Quiz Kids, 1944. Courtesy of Wikimedia.
Louis G. Cowan, University of Chicago Photographic Archive, apf1-01960r. Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library.
In thinking about how much everyone loves trivia contests, I began to wonder if Chicago had any popular quiz shows during previous decades. It turns out that the answer is yes. Quiz Kids, a national network radio program produced in Chicago, debuted in 1940 and quickly became a huge hit. Louis G. Cowan created the weekly show as a summer replacement for musician Alec Templeton’s radio program. Listeners sent in tough questions to stump the panelists—five gifted children between the ages of 5 and 15. According to the book Quiz Kids: The Radio Program with the Smartest Children in America, 1940-1953, the weekly radio program “…burst into public consciousness and zoomed to popularity practically from its first broadcast.” Not only was the show a mainstay for over a decade, but Quiz Kids helped launch Cowan’s career in radio and television.
“Polly and Louis G. Cowan,” Fort Worth Star Telegram, December 22, 1955.
A native of Chicago’s South Side, Cowan was born Louis G. Cohen in 1909. At the age of 21, he changed his name, presumably to distance himself from his estranged father and to help shed his own Jewish identity. After completing his studies at the University of Chicago, Cowan went into public relations and advertising. In 1939, he had a blind date with Pauline “Polly” Spiegel, the granddaughter of Joseph Spiegel, founder of the successful Chicago mail order business. The two married only five months later. A graduate of Sarah Lawrence College, Polly Spiegel was bright and dynamic. Although she and Lou would have four children, she worked closely with her husband on producing radio and television programs. She also went on to make important contributions to the civil rights movement.
In a 1955 interview in the Fort Worth Star Telegram, Polly Cowan said that when she was pregnant with her oldest son Paul, “Lou started to think a lot about children–everybody’s children, dull children, smart children.” She explained “that’s the way the idea for ‘The Quiz Kids’ show came about.” Lou was also inspired by a radio program that first aired in 1938 called Information Please. That show had audience members submit challenging questions that were then posed to a panel of erudite adults. Cowan thought that the success of Quiz Kids depended on finding children who were not only exceptionally smart, but also charming, outgoing, and articulate.
“Bird Expert at 4,” Chicago Tribune, April 22, 1937.
So, Cowan set out to find the right children for his show. Several years earlier Pence James, a local reporter, had written a story about Gerard Darrow, a four-year-old prodigy who was well versed on ornithology along with other topics. Pence arranged for Cowan to meet Gerrard Darrow, and the eight-year-old Chicagoan was soon chosen as the first member of the Quiz Kids panel of answerers. Pence suggested another panelist, an eleven-year-old named Joan Bishop who had performed a piano solo with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in 1938. Pence, Cowan, and an associate went to meet Joan. After she played the piano, eloquently discussed poetry, and answered questions for Cowan and his cohorts on a variety of topics, they invited her to be on the radio show. They soon began interviewing other potential panelists.
“The Prodigy’s Progress: Gerard Darrow,” Life Magazine, September 29, 1941.
The five children on the panel all lived in Chicago or surrounding suburbs. They each received a $100 US Savings Bond for every appearance. Each week, the three children with the highest scores would be invited back as panelists for the next week. The two with the lowest scores would be replaced by new panelists. The parents of children who wanted to try out for the show could pick up entry forms at the department store, Carson Pirie Scott. Public auditions for Quiz Kids were also held at Carson’s on State Street.
“Display Ad,” Chicago Tribune, October 2, 1941.
Merchandise Mart, Chicago. Photo courtesy of Wikicommons.
Quiz Kids was produced at the NBC studios in the Merchandise Mart. Joe Kelly, host of the National Barn Dance radio program, served as emcee. Cowan’s show did extremely well, and he was soon in the national spotlight. During WWII, he was appointed to head the Office of War Information’s Overseas Operation Branch in New York. (The Cowans relocated to New York City for the job.) A couple of years later, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt appointed Lou Cowan Director of the Voice of America (VOA), the newly-formed US radio broadcast that sought to bring news and other information to listeners around the world. (He was the program’s second director.) According to the VOA, under Cowan’s leadership, the broadcast provided hundreds of hours of programming in 40 different languages.
Quiz Kids continued to thrive on the radio. In 1949, it became a television show, and Cowan moved production to New York. Although production of Quiz Kids ended in 1953, it inspired Cowan to create another TV game show two years later, The $64,0000 Question.
“Display Ad,” Chicago Tribune, October 5, 1952.
Lou Cowan went on to produce a number of other television programs, sometimes with his wife Polly as co-producer. Their joint projects included a game show on ABC called Down You Go. Louis G. Cowan later became vice-president and then president of CBS. In the 1960s, Polly Cowan was deeply committed to civil rights. She worked closely with Dr. Dorothy Height of the National Council of Negro Women, and together they created a national women’s organization called “Wednesdays in Mississippi.” Sadly, Louis and Polly Cowan died in a tragic house fire in 1976.
Dorothy Height and Polly Cowan are depicted on the left side of this 1964 photo showing participants in “Wednesdays in Mississippi,” a program in which northern and southern women came together to advocate for civil rights. Photo courtesy of the National Park Service.
If you can participate in the April 29 Chicago Parks Trivia Night, please don’t forget to register soon. You can brush up on your park history and view 10,000 of these images in the Chicago Park District digital collection on the Chicago Public Library’s website. I hope you’ll also consider visiting the “Swamps to Parks” exhibit at the Harold Washington Library.