Video: “Gloria Lockerman, ‘The $64,000 Question,’ Martha Raye & Tallulah Bankhead

The following video is one that I made about Gloria Lockerman, from the information that I obtained while researching for my blog article.

The below links are to the blog article
that I wrote / compiled about Gloria Lockerman.

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Gloria Lockerman, “The $64,000 Question,” Martha Raye & Tallulah Bankhead (Part 1 of 5)

Normally I only post “anniversary” articles that appeared on today’s date in the 1930’s, 1940’s and 1950’s, but occasionally I come across a story that I can’t help but research.  The story of Gloria Lockerman’s 15 minutes of fame and the “scandal” that ensued as a result of Martha Raye’s and Tallulah Bankhead’s display of affection toward the 12-year-old child, was just such a story!

Because there seems to be no existing footage of The Martha Raye Show on which Tallulah Bankhead and Gloria Lockerman appeared, I had never heard of the incident, nor had I heard of Gloria Lockerman, until I came across the following video on YouTube.

In the above video, Norman Lear recalls the incident incorrectly, but we are all prone to memory lapses, otherwise we wouldn’t be human.  Nevertheless, this video was all it took to get me interested enough in the incident to do further research, as I could not find an in-depth article anywhere on the internet that told the story.

My first hurdle was to find information on the show, and in doing so, finally realized that the little girl’s name was not “June,” as Lear had recalled, but “Gloria Lockerman,” and she was twelve years of age, not nine.

 

Gloria Won First Round by Spelling
“antidisestablishmentarianism”

“Antidisestablishmentarianism” is not a word that most of us use on a daily basis, but it’s probably a word that many of us have heard from repeated plays of the following Dairy Queen commercial in which an an African-American father asks his young son to say “Antidisestablishmentarianism,” which the son successfully utters.  (Coincidence?  I think not!)

 

 

Gloria Lockerman first appeared on the $64,000 Question on August 17, 1955.  The nation sat enthralled as the 12-year-old schoolgirl from Baltimore spelled “antidisestablishmentarianism” correctly on America’s most popular TV quiz show.   On the morning after Gloria got the spelling correct, “antidisestablishmentarianism” was the most-uttered word in every office, factory and playground in the United States.

 

"By spelling 'antidisestablishmentarianism,' 12-year-old Gloria Lockerman of Baltimore, won $8,000 on the $64,000 Question TV Show and gets okay from her grandmother, Mrs. Bertha Key, to try for $16,000." (Jet Magazine, Sept. 1, 1955)

 

Many people who remember the incident believe that Gloria won her bankroll from properly spelling “antidisestablishmentarianism,” but that is not the case.  The week after she had spelled “antidisestablishmentarianism” correctly, Gloria Lockerman returned to the show and again dazzled the nation by correctly spelling the entire sentence, “The belligerent astigmatic anthropologist annihilated innumerable chrysanthemums.”  But the following week, on the advice of her grandmother, Gloria declined to gamble again.  She took the $16,000 and said it would be put in a trust fund for her education.  She left the show.

In 1987, the Free-Lance Star printed a where-are-they-now type article on Gloria Lockerman.  The article related:  “. . . There was a slightly racist aspect to people’s fascination with her:  This was before the civil rights movement gained momentum, and Gloria Lockerman was black.  Her brilliance was in direct contrast to many Americans’ stereotypes of black people, and there is no question that in countless living rooms, amazement was expressed not only that a girl of her age could spell the word, but that a girl of her color could do it. . . . . . The other fascinating thing is the aforementioned racial angle.  Many a newspaper sentence began, “Gloria, a Negro. . .”

Unfortunately, I was not able to find such articles as mentioned by the Free-Lance Star, but I did, however, find the following letter to the editor of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, dated August 31, 1955.

Story on Spelling Victor Criticized

Editor, the Post-Gazette:

Your article on Gloria Lockerman was one of the nastiest, nice ones ever written.

Yes, she smiled and to most people it was not the grin of a Cheshire kitten, but the smile of any normal girl of 12.  She was clean and neat, which is the way all the contestants have been.  I am positive that she was not her Sunday best, just the current fashion for this particular season of the year.  From the looks of her dress, it was an organdy with a crinoline, which all girls are wearing now.  Did he expect her to appear in rags and scowling?  I wonder what a daughter of his would have worn and how she would have frowned.

Could it have been that she was a Negro and was intelligent enough to have won $16,000 and not the fact she smiled and was clean?

Other persons have won, but never have I heard mention the nationality, nor the clothes they wore, and they were all clean and of some race, the human race.

Gloria is first of all a human, and one the people of America should be proud of, even your sarcastic reporter from New York.  Could he have spelled so well?  Would not he have smiled broadly if he had won so much, and been assured of a college education?  continuing as she is, she will graduate when she is 15, and that alone is enough to make her smile.

This is the opinion, not only of myself, but hundreds of others, who realize Gloria is intelligent, regardless of being a Negro.

Mrs. Smith Williams, Pittsburgh

Editor’s Note:  The report of Gloria Lockerman’s spelling victory, which ran in the Post-Gazette, was from an Associated Press dispatch which went to newspapers across the country.

 
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Gloria Lockerman, “The $64,000 Question,” Martha Raye & Tallulah Bankhead (Part 5 of 5)

Gloria Lockerman
Book Excerpts

“The Hottest Water in Chicago:  Notes of a Native Daughter”
by Gayle Pemberton

Page 13:  “Okay, so where’s Gloria Lockerman?  I want to know.  Gloria Lockerman was partially responsible for ruining my life.  I might never have ended up teaching literature if it had not been for her.  I don’t want to “call her out.”  I just want to know how things are, what she’s doing. 

Have things gone well, Gloria?  How’s the family?  What’s up?

“Gloria Lockerman, in case you don’t recall, won scads of money on “The $64,000 Question.”  Gloria Lockerman was a young black child, like me, but she could spell anything.  Gloria Lockerman became my nemesis with her ability, her a-n-t-i-d-i-s-e-s-t-a-b-l-i-s-h-m-e-n-t-a-r-i-a-n-i-s-m.”
 

Jet Magazine
October 8, 1959

Spelling Champ Gloria Lockerman at Morgan College:  Gloria Lockerman, the 16-year-old Baltimore girl who won $48,000 on “The $64,000 Question” television program as a spelling whiz, was among 650 freshmen enrolling at Morgan State College in the city.  Called “Bunnies” and “Dogs,” the Morgan State freshmen usually get little respect from their seniors, but Gloria is already a celebrity on the campus.
 

“Archie & Edith, Mike & Gloria: the Tumultuous History of All in the Family”
by Donna McCrohan

Page 9:  “Lear and Simmons left Colgate to write for The Martha Raye Show, which Lear also directed.  A new team of comedy writers worked under them—the brothers Danny and Neil Simon.  The program was short-lived, its early end often attributed in part to a curtain call during which Martha Raye and Tallulah Bankhead embraced Gloria Lockerman, a young black child who had won a bankroll on The $64,000 Question.  Appalled letters of protest ensued, as did the show’s demise.”
 

Jet Magazine
August 29, 1963

Two famous students—James Meredith and Gloria Lockerman—tasted the success of graduation over the weekend . . . . . Miss Lockerman, 20, of Baltimore, the child spelling whiz who won $16,000 in 1955 on the $64,000 Question TV show, graduated from Baltimore’s Morgan State College.  Studying on the money she won, Miss Lockerman hopes to do graduate work in French in a Canadian college.
 

“Historical Dictionary of African-American Television”
by Kathleen Fearn-Banks

Page 401:  $64,000 Question (CBS, 1955-1958)  Conversations, in 1955, often centered on a black Baltimore girl, Gloria Lockerman, who spelled “antidisestablishmentarianism” and won $32,000 on this quiz show.  Contestants chose the category in which they felt more expert. 

Each week, the contestant would have the opportunity to answer a more difficult question and double the money he or she had won the week before.  Or contestants could take their winnings and quit at any time.  Lockerman quit at $32,000.  The quiz show scandal of 1958 ended this and all television quiz shows of the era.
 

“Inside Peyton Place:  the Life of Grace Metalious”
by Emily Toth

On August 17, 1955, two live television dramas featured women, but both women were defined by their connections with men.  “The U.S. Steel Hour’s” The Bride Cried, showed “a girl who waited—and found you can wait too long”; The Failure on the “Kraft Television Theatre” featured “a woman married to a man who is a failure in business, but a success in her eyes.”

The real-life heroine of the day was Gloria Lockerman, a black twelve-year-old from Baltimore.  She had just won $8,000 for spelling “antidisestablishmentarianism” on television’s “$64,000 Question” quiz show.  But the only real-life drama on August 17 came from the “Red scare.”. . . . . 
 

“Take it From the Big Mouth: the Life of Martha Raye”
by Jean Maddern Pitrone

. . . Maggie’s remedy for less than top-flight shows was to work even harder at rehearsals and to bring in more “regular” people as guests. 

Regular people, she believed, provided an important link to viewers who easily related to the noncelebrities featured on her show.  In January 1956, Maggie had a twelve-year-old black schoolgirl, a spelling champion, make a guest appearance.  The child, who had previously said she wanted to be a school teacher when she grew up, was asked if she still had the same ambition.  “Naah,” Gloria Lockerman told Maggie.  “I wanna be a movie star.”  The answer may have been rehearsed, of course.  But it came across to the audience as a natural and hilarious response as Maggie hugged the little girl.

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Gloria Lockerman, “The $64,000 Question,” Martha Raye & Tallulah Bankhead (Part 4 of 5)

Gloria Lockerman Back on TV

In June of 1956, Gloria Lockerman returned to television to compete on the $64,000 Challenge, as she had in the previous summer on the $64,000 Question.

A Melbourne, Australia newspaper (“The Age”) reported on June 5, 1956: 

The producers of the quiz programme, “64,000 Dollar Challenge,” waived one of the show’s rules and split the top prize between the 12-year-old contestants, Gloria Lockerman and Andy Douglass. . . . The two youngsters were scheduled to compete in one more spelling contest after they had tied for the top prize last week. . . . But the producers of the show decided to split the money because the contestants were children. . . . Gloria, a Negress, just stared at the compere when he gave her the cheque.  All she could do was nod her head when he asked her whether she was happy. . . . Andy was all smiles. . . . “I think I’ll just look at it for a while,” he said when he was asked what he would do with the money. . . . Gloria had previously won 16,000 dollars in another quiz to qualify for the “challenge” show.

 

Each hoping for top prize money on the CBS-TV "64,000 Challenge" quiz show after a tie of $32,000, spelling experts Gloria Lockerman of Baltimore and Andy Douglass of Greenwich, Conn., discuss possible winnings. - June 7, 1956 - Jet Magazine

Five days later, on June 10, the St Petersburg Times reported:

The amazement voiced herein and by scads of readers that the $64,000 Challenge would be somewhat miserly because it didn’t pay little Gloria Lockerman and David Douglass $32,000 each after passing the $64,000 level finally penetrated the show’s thinkers.  So last week they paid the kids 32G a piece without a spell-down, as they should have a week ago.

Taking careful aim at each other with their cameras, TV spelling whiz kid Gloria Lockerman and gospel singer Mahalia Jackson get snapshots for their personal collection during a meeting in Chicago. Gloria, 13, came to town to head the annual Bud Billikin parade. - August 23, 1956 - Jet Magazine

 

Gloria Lockerman in Memory & Parody

Gloria Lockerman, with her $64,000 Question appearance, inspired people from all walks of life.  A number of books make mention of Gloria, and a number of television parodies were written and performed as a result of her appearance.

Already mentioned are the recent Dairy Queen commercial and The Martha Raye Show parody.  Another well-known comedian (well-known at the time, that is, and well-known to those who know 1950’s TV) made a reference to the episode of the $64,000 Question on his television show.  His name—Jackie Gleason!  The show—The Honeymooners!

The show was once available in full-screen format on YouTube, but due to copyright restrictions, was removed.  HOWEVER, a man has uploaded the episode, as shown on a 1956 Zenith television set.  The below video is part 2 of 3 of the episode, entitled “The $99,000 Question.”  (The dialogue to which I refer starts about 2 minutes into the video.)
 

A Google Book search brought up a number of hits for Gloria Lockerman, and it appears from the snippets that I was able to find from the Official report of the proceedings of the Democratic National Convention, that Gloria may have been questioned in the Quiz Show Scandal hearing.

On the next and final page, you will find book excerpts mentioning Gloria Lockerman and her appearances on the $64,000 Question and The Martha Raye Show.  

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Gloria Lockerman, “The $64,000 Question,” Martha Raye & Tallulah Bankhead (Part 3 of 5)

The Martha Raye Show
Guest Starring Tallulah Bankhead

Gloria Lockerman sings with Martha Raye (left) and Tallulah Bankhead (right), published in Jet Magazine on 11-10-1955

On June 17, 1986, Norman Lear gave a seminar at the Museum of Broadcasting.  (The transcript of the seminar can be read in it’s entirety here.)  The following is but a couple of paragraphs from the seminar, which pertains to Gloria Lockerman’s appearance on The Martha Raye Show, followed by a couple of relevant questions & answers.   (Note: Norman Lear refers to Gloria as “Gloria Lochman” instead of “Gloria Lockerman.”  He also made the mistake of stating that the show took place in 1954, instead of 1955.  . . . . . . Once again, he’s only human!)

 
“We wanted you to see a little Gloria Lochman because there was a major story that took place after that show.  Gloria Lochman, as I said, won The $64,000 Question some weeks before.  What was her subject, spelling?  That’s why she spelled in the scene you just saw.  So we wrote this show that had Talullah Bankhead as her good fairy and somebody else as her bad fairy and whatnot, and the show went famously.  At the bows, when they were saying goodnight, Talullah Bankhead picked Gloria Lochman up and hugged her and Martha joined them, and the three of them were hugging, and they both kissed her.  This was 1954.  There were so many letters about hugging that little black child that the show never recovered from it, with the ad agency carrying on the way it did.  I’m sorry we didn’t have a piece of another show for you to see, just to give you an idea of the kinds of things that did happen on live television because this incident had nothing to do with live televi­sion.  They would have hugged that child at any time.  But that’s the mark of what was happening in those years.

“A few weeks later we did another show, with Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., that I had directed.  Martha Raye did a sketch on an old comedic conceit called Guzzler’s Gin in which she was drinking something that she didn’t know the alcoholic content of and she was getting progressively drunk without realizing it.  As I directed Martha to play this, I re­member saying, “You’re not going to be drunk, you’re going to be tipsy, just like Irene Dunne.  So you’re going to be on your little tippy-toes, the bubbles are bothering your nose, and you’re going to be that kind of drunk.”  She was hilarious playing that kind of a tipsy lady.  But just be­fore she went on the air, some old crony of hers says, “Martha, the hell with that tipsy stuff.  You’re funny, let it go.”  So, Martha is funny.  She took the bottle of booze, when she finally realized that she was drunk, God, what didn’t she do!  She let it come out of her mouth, she poured it down her dress, under her arms—and she filled up her mouth and gave it once to Fairbanks right in the face.  His makeup ran, her makeup ran, and the audience howled, because a live audience will always howl over things like that.  At home, when you’re not part of the fun, you’re not part of the “in” group, it looks like something else.  As a matter of fact, Mrs.  Fairbanks—Lady somebody—and Douglas Fairbanks came to me afterwards, just throwing their arms around me, thinking they had been part of the funniest show that ever happened.  But between the Gloria Lochman show and the Douglas Fairbanks show, The Martha Raye Show never recovered.  And that was part of live television in those years.  I guess we can now go to questions.”

Q: You didn’t pay any attention to the advertisers or the networks.  Didn’t you run your show?

LEAR: We ran our shows.  I don’t remember their having that much to say, except when the Gloria Lochman incident happened.  And then I re­member a lot of what they said.

Q: Thank God times have changed.

LEAR: Thank God, indeed.  It was still bad, years later, around 1962, when Petula Clark put her hand on Harry Belafonte and created a major incident.  So times have changed very slowly, and thank God they have.

(By the way, the 1998 Norman Lear video interview segment that I presented on page one is available in it’s entirety on YouTube.  Part One of the interview can be accessed here.  Links will be available for the additional nine parts.)

November 3, 1955, Jet Magazine: "Pigskin Club Cites Spelling Queen: Guest at the Washington (D.C.) Pigskin Club banquet, 12-year-old Gloria Lockerman, the Baltimore spelling whiz who won $16,000 on a TV quiz show, is presented the Pigskin Club Award for achievement in spelling by Dr. C. Herbert Marshall.

 

November 10, 1955 - Jet Magazine - Gloria Lockerman & Bert Parks

Gloria, as of November 10, 1955, when Jet published the above photo, (with an accompanying article) had appeared on television an estimated 13 or 14 times, four of those on the $64,000 Question.

“In picking up her quiz show $16,000 plum, Gloria’s dramatic quality and stage presence sent TV producers hustling offers to her door.  Consequently, she soon appeared in an hour-long comedy built around her on The Martha Raye Show, where she sang, danced and kidded with old pros, Martha and Tallulah Bankhead.  Her sterling performance proved her to be solid television material and earned her $1,500.  Later, she graced Bert Parks’ Stop The Music TV show with her charm and wit, and picked up an $800 bundle of cash for her efforts.

“Although other TV shows loom in her future—producers of the $64,000 Question want her for other shows they handle and she may be asked to appear on Martha Raye’s last show of the season next year—Gloria is not sure where she will turn up next.  Says she: ‘I like television very much, but I won’t accept any offers until next spring or summer.  Going to school and television just don’t work together too well.'”  (Jet Magazine, November 10, 1955)

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Gloria Lockerman, “The $64,000 Question,” Martha Raye & Tallulah Bankhead (Part 2 of 5)

Gloria Lockerman Makes Big News!

Also on August 31, the Milwaukee Sentinel published the below photo with the caption:  “Gloria Lockerman, Baltimore speller, entertains at a farewell party for Bronx shoemaker Gino Prato (seated), before he boarded a plane for Italy to visit his father.  Gloria, 12, Tuesday night took the $16,000 she had won on a television quiz show.  A few weeks ago Prato stopped with $32,000.  At the right is Singer Ezio Pinza and at the right is Capt. Richard McCutcheon who reached the $16,000 stage by answering a tough question on cooking and foods.”

August 31, 1955 - Milwaukee Sentinel

 

The September 2, 1955 edition of Radio-TV Guide reported, “Spelling whiz kid Gloria Lockerman, 12-year-old Baltimore girl who copped $16,000 by reeling off high-sounding words on the $64,000 Question TV quiz show, will appear on The Martha Raye Show (Tuesday, September 20, at 8 p.m., EDT) on NBC-TV.  Gloria will get $1,500 for joining Miss Raye and actress Tallulah Bankhead in a satirical sketch on big-time giveaway shows.

On September 5th, a letter to the editor in the Eugene Register-Guard:  “It’s a fine thing that little Gloria Lockerman could win $16,000 by spelling antidisestablishmentarianism on teevee.  The $11,000 that will be hers after taxes will finance for her an education that could otherwise have been only a dream. . . . . It’s interesting that she also won, according to the AP, “a television set, a bicycle, a tape recorder and a year’s supply of comic books.”  Of what earthly use will a year’s supply of comic books be to a 12-year-old girl who can spell antidisestablishmentarianism?”

On September 15, 1955, Jet Magazine published the below photo with the following caption:  “Winner of $16,000 as an expert speller on CBS-TV’s $64,000 quiz show, 12-year-old Gloria Lockerman of Baltimore gets a good luck kiss from Italian cobbler Gino Prato in New York before he left for Itally.  Prato, an expert on operas, won $32,000 on same show.

Gino Prato gives Gloria Lockerman a good luck kiss. - Jet Magazine, September 15, 1955

 

Also from the September 15th issue of Jet, the following two photos show Gloria with her grandmother, after having recieved her check from the show, and Gloria Lockerman’s parents (Mrs. Vivian Singleton and James Lockerman) as audience members of the $64,000 Question.

September 15, 1955 - Jet Magazine - Gloria Lockerman & Her Grandmother

 
The article that accompanied the September 15th photos follows in its entirety.

Cherubic Gloria Lockerman, a 12-year-old spelling wizard from Baltimore, bowed out of the television spotlight with $16,000 in winnings from the $64,000 Question, new CBS-TV quiz show.  Had she chosen to do so, Gloria could have tried her amazing spelling talents for $32,000 and, if successful, challenged the $64,000 jackpot.

But, said Gloria, ‘I’d rather be Gloria the undefeated champion than Gloria the girl who lost.

For well-wishers with a gambling streak, stirred by Gloria’s glib spelling of such words as “The belligerent astigmatic anthropologist annihilated innumerable chrysanthemums,” the dramatic decision for Gloria not to go on was a letdown.  But for precocious Gloria herself, showing signs of fatigue, the sudden end and sudden riches were welcome relief.  She had, for her troubles, a check for $15,500 (leaving her $11,000 after taxes) to be placed in trust for her education, a second check for $500 to spend as she chose, a new bike, tape recorder, television set, and a year’s comic book subscription.

There had been other considerations.  In her home town, she was declared an honorary schoolteacher.  New Yorkers feted her at the swank Le Ruban Bleu night club, where she met famed singer Ezio Pinza.  And West Virginia mountaineers, dubbing her “Glorious Gloria,” made her guest of honor at their State Fair, where 8,000 of them cheered as she pronounced with innocent boredom “antidisestablishmentarianism,” the 28-letter word that brought her over the quiz show’s $8,000 level.  “I just said it,” Gloria recalled, with a trace of awe in her voice, “and everybody applauded.”  When the National Pickle Packers Association learned of her love for pickles, they sent Gloria 16,000 of them, and a $1,500 Martha Raye show invitation was waiting.

Now bleary-eyed and tired from the bombardment of reporters’ questions, popping flashbulbs and newsreel cameras, Gloria returned to the sanctuary of her Baltimore home, where she had been reared by her grandparents, Rev. and Mrs. Vivian T. Keye, since the separation of her parents 10 years ago.  (A newspaper’s story of a brewing family squabble over Gloria’s money was stoutly denied by all, and the author of the story later said it was a mistake.)

Gloria has been, according to her grandparents, a brilliant child from the very start.  Now a gum-chewing ninth grader, she is widely read and has an extensive vocabulary, according to her four proud spelling coaches.

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