o o o What in the World?^® | audience feedback o o o o

April 19, 1950

The Philadelphia Inquirer
Editorial Rooms

Dear Dr. Rainey:

I looked and listened with attention and delight to the television program last night. I think it is tremendously absorbing. But one might expect some such enthusiasm from me, perhaps, because of my peculiar personal interest. However, co-witnesses with me were my two nephews-- aged 9 and 13-- and their parents. Heretofore, I understand, the kids have watched Berle; and I thought that I noticed a slight lowering of the household temperature when I made so bold as to ask that Berle be banned at 8:30.

The result -- both as to the adults as well as the youngsters, but particularly the latter -- were genuinely astonishing. The boys were beside themselves with excitement, and I was plied for the half hour following with excited queries about archaeology. The older of the two is just now studying the Rosetta Stone; the younger's interest, I suspect, sprang somewhat from the timeless "buried treasure" motif. But in each case, it was as genuine as any youthful enthusiasm.

If they and their parents are indicators of your audience potential, it is tremendous. If you can get out from under that spot, when Berle blankets the hour, that's one move. I wonder if you could not, through the schools -- possibly through the Board of Education itself -- publicize the program with propriety, for if the kids want to see it, neither pap nor mamma nor Berle have a chance. It occurs to me also that some deference to the public school audience -- an artifact now and then touching their studies -- would be useful.

I know nothing about sponsors, obviously; but it would seem to me that any sponsor seeking to capture the interest of youth has himself a program which simply can't miss. This is interesting but also unique, and ever more power to you. If I can assist in any small way whatever, please call on me.

Sincerely, John M. McCullough

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May 1, 1951

Jenkintown, PA

My dear Doctor:

Your program, "What In The World", is one of my favorite television programs and if possible, I never miss viewing it. Ancient objects as presented and identified on your show, certainly provide the viewer with a half-hour of fascinating entertainment. It is amazing how accurate the panel of experts are in identifying the pieces, and very amusing when one of the pieces is displayed without giving the viewer the benefit of knowing what it is, and trying to guess, is just about all the layman can do.

I wonder if I may presume on your good nature with a problem which should be "duck soup" for you and the panel?

About ten years ago, while engaged in collecting ancient weapons, I picked up an unusual sword, pictures of which I am enclosing. The writing on the blade, I have been informed, is Arabic... Could you possibly find time to translate the writing, establishing the date? The sword has intrigued me for a good many years and I certainly would like to learn something about it.

Yours very truly, Louis A. Roatche

Dear Mr. Roatche:

Many thanks for your kind comments about "What in the World" in your letter of May first. In connection with the sword which you have, I have asked Dr. Samuel Noah Kramer, our expert on the Near East, to look over the pictures and he has given me a memorandum, which I enclose. Although there seems to be a question about the actual date, this memorandum may help you somewhat in identifying it.

Sincerely, Froelich Rainey

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February 3, 1952

Aldan, Clifton Heights, PA

Dear Dr. Rainey:

I have just watched and enjoyed your program, "What in the World?" very much. I like everything about the show except that it tends to ward off audience participation. The viewer is always told the full story or secret by an off-stage voice and I think he would like a chance to guess once in a while, I know I would. Secondly the viewers are told there is no participation for them or their treasures, for the museum has a collection of some 250,000 artifacts. This collection is great and varied, but is typed in the sense that it has been collected by archaeologists who have trained their thoughts and collections along certain lines.

Would it not be interesting to show artifacts picked up by amateur travelers and collectors? I think the variety of artifacts or curios collected by the layman would offer interest and spice to the viewers and give them a sense of participation, even if only done occasionally.

These are just suggestions. Keep up the good program.

Sincerely yours, Francis White

Dear Mr. White:

Thank you for your letter of the 3rd. We have had several requests for a slight delay in the identification of objects on "What in the World", by the off-stage voice and I hope that we shall be able to arrange a few more seconds before the announcer bares the secret. Everyone at the studio feels that the bulk of the audience could not identify the objects and that too much delay would slow down the program.

As for the submission of objects to identify by the public, we are up against the practical problem of handling what might turn out to be a large amount of material, that could easily swamp our facilities. For us, including our Registrar, "What in the World" is an extra-curricular activity. The Registrar, who selects the objects, is already overburdened by routine Museum activities and I am afraid that she could not keep track of a large number of objects that would have to be listed and returned to their owners. There is also the difficulty that we probably could not use most of the things submitted and would, therefore, have to disapppoint a great many people, who we would not like to antagonize.

We greatly appreciate your interest and your suggestions and hope that you will continue to enjoy the program.

Sincerely yours, Alfred Kidder II

> more fanmail Jan-Dec '54

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February 4, 1954

University of Wisconsin
Department of Sociology and Anthropology

Dear Fro:

I saw What in the World on Sunday for the first time, and thought you were all excellent, and that you make a fine MC, with a very nice manner. I enjoyed it very much, and played it myself by sticking my fingers in my ears while the public was being told what the object was. I was ahead of the boys on the wax teeth: I figured the betel nut angle and guessed Sumatra or the Barrier Islands. Could that be possible? Could it have been for a funerary figure, or one of those ghost-dummies? That was my estimate, anyhow -- you said it was from Borneo, from an expedition to Borneo and Sumatra.

Anyhow, congratulations, and regards, Bill [W. W. Howells]

Dear Bill:

Many thanks for your note about the What in the World program. It seems to me your identification of those false teeth may be better than Ki [Schuyler] Cammann's and I think I shall put it up to them on the program tomorrow. I hope you will be listening in. It's too bad you missed Carl Coon who is our regular member because he has developed a real television personality. He is off in Saudi Arabia and I am leaving for the Middle East on February 20th to be gone some two or three months. Ted [Alfred] Kidder will replace me on the program.

Best wishes, Froelich Rainey

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 October 10, 1954

Oakland, California

Gentlemen:

Am writing to enquire why Dr. F. Rainey is not on the program Sun. morning, "What in the World." We miss him and his leadership very much. Dr. Kidder is a fine gentleman and learned but no one can take the place of Dr. Rainey. Thanking you for a reply and when he will return,

I am, sincerely, Mr. James Clark

Dear Mr. Clark:

Dr. Rainey expects to return from Europe on November 20th and will probably resume his job as Moderator of "WHAT IN THE WORLD" on November 27th. I know that he will appreciate your writing to inquire about him.

Sincerely, Mrs. Richard. G. Emerick, Secretary to the Director

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September 19, 1955

Philadelphia, PA

My dear Dr. Rainey:

"What in the World" can we do to induce WCAU to restore your program to the air? I had hoped it was just taking a summer vacation, but have seen no evidence of its return in the fall announcements.

WCAU has been very unkind to those of us who enjoy worthwhile programs. Very few of Dr. Baxter's delightful lectures have been available to Philadelphia listeners. I could name several others and in nearly every case they have been replaced by ancient films or wild westerns with which the air is already overcrowded.

As I am a semi-invalid I feel the loss of my favorite program very keenly and hope for their return.

With kind regards I am, Sincerely yours, Anstiss Church

Dear Miss Church:

Thank you very much for your very nice letter about "What in the World". I am sorry for the delay in answering your note, but I am glad that this program was enjoyed. The Museum is in the process of putting another television program on film, which I hope will prove interesting. Thank you for your nice comments, which are always appreciated.

Sincerely, Froelich Rainey

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July 25, 1957

Flushing, New York

Dear Dr. Rainey:

Once before, some years ago, I wrote you to tell you how much my husband and I enjoyed your television program, "What in the World." You wrote me such a courteous reply that I am emboldened to write you again to ask if there any chance that "What in the World" may again be seen on television sometime.

We often speak of the program and how much we miss it. I do not wish to seem impertinent, but we came to look on you and the members of the panel almost as personal friends. We remember Dr. Coon, Dr. Kidder, and Dr. Cammon so well -- and the guests like Jacques Lipschitz, Dr. Junius Bird, and so many others. We do hope the program will come back soon.

Very sincerely, Lelia B. Ryan

Dear Mrs. Ryan:

I just have your note of July 25th upon my return from the Middle East and I am delighted to advise you that "What in the World" will be back on the air at 7 P.M. on September 24th, but we are starting out on the local WCAU station in Philadelphia, hoping that CBS will pick it up on the network again. A note from you to CBS might be helpful. Incidentally, we are now opening in color and our first guest should be Jacques Lipchitz.

Regards, Froelich Rainey

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February, 1958

Phoenixville, PA

Dear Dr. Rainey:

This letter is to ask you what in the world happened to What in the World? It is my favorite t.v. show because I want to become an archeologist and the show helps me because sometimes I guess where the easy things come from. Although I am only 11 years old I have loved animals and digging up things all my life so I would like (when I go to college) to study to be an archaeologist.

I sincerely hope you will ask someone about What in the World. Thank you very much.

Sincerely yours, Elizabeth Robinson
Kimberton Farms School
5th Grade

Dear Miss Robinson:

I am sorry to say that "What in the World" has not been on the air for about two months [the local television station, WCAU, was just sold to CBS], but we hope that the Station will take us back before too long. You might write them a letter, saying that you miss it. It's good to know you would like to be an Archaeologist and I wish you the best of luck.

Regards, Froelich Rainey

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January 12, 1959

Drexel Hill, PA

Dear Dr. Rainey:

It is not often that I write to complement the varous features I watch on television. However I feel that I must make an exception in the case of your show "What in the World."

We have watched this interesting feature since it came on the air. Each time it is more interesting and educational.

Your show yesterday Sunday the 11th was exceptionally interesting and quite funny in regards to the Dutch window sprayer. I can see that you must restrain the good Dr. Koon at times. It would have not taken very much to foul up the whole program and you showed presence of mind when you cautioned him not to make any medical implications in regards to the sprayer. The good Doctor is unpredictable.

At 63 which is my age I often review my life and come up with this answer. Had I my life to live over again, I would most surely become an archeologist. The whole theme fascinates me. Perhaps in a future reincarnation I will have my wish gratified.

Trusting you had a very nice holiday in the Southern sun, and wishing continued success and the best for the New Year, I am,

Sincerely yours, William E. Keppler

Dear Mr. Keppler:

Many thanks for your nice comments on "What in the World" and last Sunday's show. I am afraid Carl Coon sometimes forgets that he is on the air, and when he started talking about the possible medical uses for that gadget, I could feel the hair crawl down the back of my neck!

It seems to me that with your interest in archaeology, you ought to become a member of this Museum so that you would get our regular magazine, Expedition, and also come to some of our parties for the membership which are a lot of fun.

Very best wishes, Froelich Rainey

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November 9, 1959

Broomall, PA

Dear Dr. Rainey,

Our household of four adults wants you to know that we greatly enjoy the program - What In The World. We are not retired archaeologists - and I doubt if any ever really retire - nor are we related to anyone in this work but I think we appreciate at least to some degree the long years of study, field work, and above all the desire that must precede the showcase and deductions made by your panel. Incidentally they look like happy people. We appreciate Dr. Kidder's modesty which he wears with such ease and naturalness and we enjoy David's enthusiasm (I can't think of David's last name but since I am old enough to be his mother I hope he will not be offended) - and we are not unaware of the velvet lash you use so skillfully to keep the program moving. So we hope you will be on the air for a long time.

One of our household has a slightly fitful complaint and that is that you no longer use a map or Globe to show the exact location of the "find." She says that she knows where Italy, Egypt, Ohio, and Mexico are but when you come up with such places as Ujiji, Tumaco, Tungchawn, Chuntugu, probably as familiar to you as Broad and Chestnut, she gets lost. However we shall forgive you if you do not show us a road map of interior Africa and be grateful for a really delightful half-hour each Saturday.

Most sincerely yours, Clara Wallace Overton

Dear Mrs. Overton:

Dr. Rainey has asked me to thank you for your very kind coments on "What In the World" and its participants. We at WCAU-TV have always regarded it as one of our favorite programs and we are always delighted to hear that our audience shares this view. The panel are indeed happy people: they are a delight to work with.

We are interested by your comments on the map. Technical factors and the feeling that too frequently it was unnecessary or patronizing led us to discontinue its use. We will reconsider our decision in the light of your comments.

Thank you again for your interest. We hope you continue to enjoy "What In the World" for a long time to come.

Very truly yours, George Dessart, Producer

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November 25, 1959

Arden, Delaware

Dear Sirs:

Despite my tremendous enjoyment of your show, and sincere appreciatioin of its role in stimulating the love of learning in America, I feel compelled by recent events of world-wide significance to ask you, bluntly but respectfully, to state if your show is in any way "rigged," and, if so, to what extent, and how in the world you "control" your panel.

Recent disclosures before the Senate Committee on Relatively Unimportant Legislation (while Rome Burns) has cast your program in the misty dry ice shadow of a new light. What once appeared as an enthusiastic matching of brilliant intellect, fine education, and specialized experience against fresh and difficult challenge, might well turn out to be the ultimate hyprocrisy. "Gimmicks" -- the furrowed brow, the fingered-ear, the hefting of art objects, the mumbling of materials identity, the eye-shut palpation of texture, the babbling of learned and parenthetic anthropological asides -- are indications of the coaching of a Super-Svengali. Contrived alibis for defeat, like "post-contact, etc." -- if phony -- would regurgitate a Stephen Potter. The only thing I haven't figured is the payoff.

Say "It ain't so, Joe" Joseph R. Downing

Dear Mr. Downing:

Thank you for your candid inquiry regarding "What In The World." We can state categorically that this program is in no sense fixed, rigged, or anything but what it purports to be: the spontaneous unrehearsed identification of unfamiliar archaeological and ethnological objects by a panel of experts.

Even if we desired to do so, we could not induce anyone connected with the University Museum to participate in a fraud.

We hope that this statement will prove reassuring and that you will continue to enjoy "What In The World" in the certain knowledge of its absolute honesty.

Very truly yours, George Dessart, Producer

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March 17, 1961

Braintree, Massachusetts

Dear Dr. Rainey,

Last Sunday by chance we tuned to your familiar program from the University Museum, "What In The World" and were so pleased because we had not realized it could be heard in Boston.

I graduated form the University Medical School in 1907 and practiced in Philadelphia 50 years, retiring six years ago to live near a daughter in Massachusetts. In Philadelphia we seldom missed your programs so you can imagine our joy in re-discovering them in Boston. We shall look forward to more of them.

The objects you present on your program suddenly become alive under your touch and that of your panel.

Most sincerely, Charles N. Sturtevant, MD

Dear Dr. Sturtevant:

Many thanks for your very nice letter of March 17 with regard to What In the World. We also are very pleased that it is going into Boston now, because after all these years we seem to be expanding again. We hope you will continue to look in in Boston and that you will keep in touch with us that way.

Most sincrely, Froelich Rainey

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September 8, 1962

Barrington, Rhode Island

Dear Dr. Rainey:

I would not be so bold as to address a letter to you, did I not feel sure that there must be some measure of satisfactioin to you and the panel to hear a word from your unseen audience, in praise and appreciation of your TV program, "What in the World."

When I discovered it here, on Boston's Channel 2, I had just finished re-reading "No Stone Unturned" by Louis A. Brennan, who quotes, in several places, both you and Carleton Coon. So it was a nice coincidence to be able to see and hear you, as well as read you.

Also, the program has a double interest for me, in coming from the University Museum. Until three years ago, I lived all my life in Penna. The Univ. Museum was the first museum I was taken to as a child when my father and I visited my uncle Frederick Ehrenfeld who was (until 1941) head of Geology at Penn. My father and another brother did their Ph.D. work in Chemistry there with Edgar Fahs Smith, and our families were very devoted friends. So my life was always bound up with Penn, and the Museum Mummy, an early thrill that has lasted a lifetime.

With many thanks to you and the panel, the Museum and Station WCAU for giving us such gratifying TV fare, I am,

Most gratefully, Helen Ehrenfeld Spencer

Dear Mrs. Spencer:

It was very nice to receive your letter about What in the World. Your comments on people in the University are most interesting and I feel that you are an old friend of the place. You may be glad to know that What in the World will continue after the first of January on the national educational television circuit around the country. We all enjoy doing it and appreciate letters like yours.

Most sincerely, Froelich Rainey

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August 6, 1963

Chicago, Illinois

Dear Dr. Rainey:

My family and I have been watching "What in the World?" for the past few months on Chicago's educational TV station [WTTW-Channel 11], and we enjoy it very much. The panelists really amaze me; they've been to so many places and they can identify so many things.

I have read that "What in the World?" has only been signed for 13 weeks. If this is so, I hope you, as the program's host, could get the sponsor to renew it.

I think it would be a shame if this program went off the air because it's such an interesting show. I'm sure my parents, sister and I (I'm 12) aren't the only ones who enjoy "What in the World?" and will miss it if it's discontinued.

Sincerely, Beth Kupper

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August 1, 1963

University of Florida
Gainesville, FL

Dear Dr. Rainey:

Last night our local educational television station carried your very interesting program "What in the World". I feel I can't let one error go by, even though I do consider this one of the few interesting programs I ever see.

In your summary of the Seminole after the powder charger had stumped the experts badly, you showed a map locating the Seminole in the area of Okefenokee Swamp on the Georgia-Florida border. The Seminole never did occupy that area. They came into Florida from the Georgia-Alabama border area and settled in two main areas: one here in central Florida, the other in the Tallahassee area of western Florida. After the First Seminole War 1818, they were gradually pushed southward into the Everglades in the extreme southern tip of the state. I am sure that alligator tooth powder measure was collected in the Everglades area.

Where in the world did you get the map? I would be glad to help with Seminole information if you are still producing the film and have occasion to use a Seminole item again.

Sincerely,

Charles H. Fairbanks
Head, Department of Anthropology

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March 13, 1964

Langhorne, PA

Gentlemen:

May I congratulate you on presenting a very interesting and informative program. My husband and I thoroughly enjoy watching "What in the World" and listening to the fine "sleuthing" of your noted panelists.

The museum of the University of Pennsylvania has long been a favorite spot of mine. It is good to see the modernization you have so tastefully accomplished in the last few years. Every time I visit it, I feel very proud that we have such an institution in this area.

I would like to add to this rambling one more item: Dr. Carleton Coon has become a favorite personage in our home. His wit, humor, and intelligence never fail to amuse and astonish us.

Thank your for presenting such an interesting program.

Very truly yours, Margaret M. Fegely

Dear Mrs. Fegely:

Thank you very much for your thoughtful and kind letter concerning the program "What in the World."

"What in the World" has long been one of our favorite programs, and we are delighted to be able to share it with our audience again. But, I am certain you must realize that it is only from such expressions as yours that we are able to determine that the program is being well received.

Thank you again for writing.

Very truly yours, George Dessartt

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May 6, 1966

Havertown, PA

Gentlemen:

We reacted with delight in our house to find that "What in the World" would be back on the air and gathered around the television at the appointed hour to meet an old friend on Sunday, April 24.

As always, it was informative and enjoyable, but does it have to have so many ads? The number seemed out of proportion for a helf-hour program and broke the mood and continuity.

Very truly yours, Eleanor C. Hecht

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Dear Dr. Rainey:

My mother and I enjoyed the one day return of "What -in-the-World," Several of the changes we liked and two or one we disliked.

First those changes we liked and wished would be continued:

1) the sitting around a large table. This gave an air of informality and an air of inviting us to be guests at this game of "Well, now where did this come from and what is it."

2) The brightly colored stylized face masks.

3) The guest being a non-professional archeology member.

The things we would prefer to be slightly altered:

The introduction of the object. The smoke sequence was a little too long. Slightly better magnification of the object. The time that they were upon the Camera was too short to fully "see" them.

The other change is the restoration of the large map. The globe is too small to pinpoint the areas described.

With or without changes, please bring back on a regular basis this most popular, informative, and thoroughly delightful half-hour series.

Sincerely, Louise Marie Pizzaia

photos + text: Museum Archives

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