(gentle music) - [Announcer] In the 1930s, a dentist from Irwin in Westmoreland County invented something that made air mail possible for the first time to dozens of Pennsylvania towns.

His invention really worked!

Can you guess what it was?

You're invited to play, "The Pennsylvania Game."

Test your knowledge of the Commonwealth's people, places and products.

"The Pennsylvania Game" is brought to you in part by Uni-Marts Incorporated with stores in Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, and Delaware, serving you with courtesy and convenience every day of the year.

(gentle upbeat music) (upbeat electronic music) Now, let's get the game started.

Here's the host of "The Pennsylvania Game," Lynn Hinds.

- Thank you.

Thank you very much.

(audience applauding) Why thank you, thank you very much.

Thanks.

Thanks to Girl Scout 1195 from Boalsburg, PA, for that nice welcome.

We're glad to have you here, and glad to have you with us, too.

We've got some good questions and a good panel.

He's back, ready, one more time, Bernie Asbell.

Let's welcome Bernie.

(audience applauding) Behind every successful football coach is a successful wife.

Let's welcome Sue Paterno.

(audience applauding) She's worked in the eastern part of Pennsylvania, has relatives in the western part, and lives in the center part.

Here's Leola Johnson!

(audience applauding) Let's get rolling.

Good questions.

First one's about an invention by a dentist from Westmoreland County.

- [Announcer] In the late 1930s, a dentist from Irwin named Dr. Lytle Adams invented something that made air mail possible for dozens of small towns in Pennsylvania.

What did Dr. Adams invent?

Was it A, onion skin paper?

B, windsock indicator?

C, miniature parachutes?

Or D, grappling hook pickup?

- Well, Dr. Adams of Westmoreland County invented something.

Air mail was possible because of it.

What did he invent?

Bernie Asbell, you're first on the first one.

- Couldn't you make me last this time?

- [Lynn] No, no.

- Well...

The wind sock indicator, I think, was to guide the airplane, not the mail.

- [Lynn] 'Cause you couldn't have air mail without airplanes.

- And you don't need a grappling hook pickup.

Well, you do, but miniature parachute.

- [Lynn] Miniature parachute.

- That sounds like a Pennsylvania invention.

- Lovely.

Sue Paterno, are you confused by his answers?

He always confuses me.

- No, I understand that.

You can drop it.

There are a lot of mountains out there.

I'm from Latrobe, which is near Irwin, and it's windy, so- - [Lynn] Mountains make for winds.

- I would say windsock indicator.

- [Lynn] Okay, got a C and a B. Leola, down to you.

- Well, I think I'm gonna say grappling hook pickup.

I don't know what a grappling hook pickup is.

- Well, maybe we'll find out, if you're right.

Wanna say thank you to US Air for these marvelous pictures you're about to see in the answer.

What is the answer?

- [Announcer] The answer is D, a grappling hook pickup.

(audience applauding) 1928, an airline executive said that passengers would never fly over the Alleghenys because it was too dangerous, so air mail in the area was thought unlikely until Dr. Adams invented a system that allowed mail to be dropped while outgoing mail was picked up.

Swooping down in a single engine Stinson reliant, a dangling hook would pick up the sack of mail that waited to be snatched from a hook.

The company, All American Aviation, picked up and delivered the mail for some 10 years.

Became Allegheny Airlines, and is today known as US Air.

- And it was too dangerous to land much in those mountains, so they jumped down.

- [Sue] But how did they hook it?

- Well, they had a rope stretched across and the hook came down and grabbed it and the bag was attached to the rope that they hooked and they drop a sack and pick up a sack.

They only missed every so often.

It was really pretty marvelous stuff.

(audience laughing) Well, Leola got that one right and I think maybe she knew more than she was letting on.

Let's see if she gets this one right.

It goes way back to the beginning of our country.

- [Announcer] In 1791, Secretary of the Treasury, Alexander Hamilton, inaugurated a plan that had been urged 10 years before by Pennsylvanian Robert Morris.

Hamilton had written to Morris that the plan would be a powerful cement of our union.

Did the plan establish A, a national capital?

B, a national mint?

C, a national debt?

Or D, a national bank?

- Or E, a National Guard?

It's a national something, Sue Paterno, and it was Robert Morris who suggested to Hamilton it would be a powerful cement of our union.

What did his plan establish?

1791.

- C, a national debt.

- [Lynn] A national debt.

Okay.

(audience laughing) Leola?

- And it's with us still.

- [Lynn] 1791.

Are you convinced our debts go back that far?

- Yeah.

(laughs) But I'm gonna say a national mint.

- [Lynn] Okay.

And that's not a breath mint, of course.

- Of course, but.

- That's to coin coins or money.

Yes.

Bernie Asbell.

- You just took that one away from me.

- [Lynn] I'm sorry.

I'm sorry.

- That's all right.

The national debt is the best cement we have, but I think before you have a debt, you have to have money and I will go with the national mint, too.

- [Lynn] You have have to have money before a debt.

- Well, you want everybody spending the same kind of money.

- [Lynn] I see.

I see.

What did they establish back then?

- [Announcer] The answer is C, a national debt.

Robert Morris learned something about debt.

As Director of Finance, he had been the most powerful man in the nation for a dozen years.

He and his wife amassed a sizable fortune, but when his real estate speculation went sour, work stopped on the mansion they were building in Philadelphia and Morris began a three year stay in debtor's prison.

When the Nation's first bankruptcy act was passed in 1800, he declared a debt of $3 million.

Robert Morris, who had signed both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, who helped keep Washington's army fed with his own funds, now said, "I now find myself a free citizen of the United States without 1 cent that I can call my own."

- That's what's sad to me, is that Robert Morrison at one time was one of the most wealthy men in America, maybe the wealthiest.

Ended up spending about 18 months in debtor's prison and came out broke.

- And they chained future generations to a $3 million debt?

- Hamilton said, "It will be to us a blessing, if not excessive."

I wonder what Hamilton would say today, were he to come back.

Let's talk to Sue Paterno a little bit.

We're glad to have you here, Sue.

What's Joe like the day after a football game?

Do you dare reveal that?

- Oh, I wouldn't tell you what it's like the day after a football game 'cause he's not home.

- [Lynn] (laughs) Are you just as happy that he's not there afterwards?

- Depends.

There are days I'm glad he's at the office.

No, Sunday's their worst day.

Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday.

Thursday and Friday a little lighter.

- [Lynn] Yeah.

- Friday, he's in a great mood.

- You glad that when the season's over?

Is it a tough season on you, too?

- [Sue] I'm delighted when the season's over.

- We're glad to have you here.

Leola, I said that you've worked in the eastern part of the state.

You've worked in Philadelphia, of course, as a journalist and you've got friends in the western part of the state and you live here in the center part of the state.

- That's right.

- [Lynn] You've been all over Pennsylvania.

- Well, not all over, you know, but.

- North and south is still to be done, I suppose, but yeah.

- That's right, that's right.

No, there are many parts of Pennsylvania that I am just now beginning to see.

- [Lynn] It's a beautiful state and there is a lot to see.

- Yeah.

- Bernie's been all over.

He goes all over signing autographs for being a TV celebrity on "The Pennsylvania Game".

- Sure, sure.

- Let's go back to Philadelphia.

1877 is the year and there was something there that was another kind of invention.

- [Announcer] In 1877, a Philadelphia electrician named Thomas Cornish return home from Boston with a new product.

Despite efforts to stop him, his company marketed the product, one that's found today in most Pennsylvania homes.

Was that product A, alarm clock?

B, toaster?

C, doorbell?

Or D, telephone?

- Okay, 1877, Philadelphia electrician named Tom Cornish came home from Boston with a new product and they didn't want him to do this, but his company marketed the thing and today, it's found in most Pennsylvania homes.

What did Tom Cornish come home with from Boston and Leola, you're first on this one.

1877.

- Well, you know, I don't have any idea at all of what he invented really, but all those products, I think that probably the one that was in the most homes was a alarm clock.

- [Lynn] He didn't invent it now.

He brought it back from Boston and started the company to market it in Philadelphia.

- Oh, okay.

- [Lynn] But alarm clocks, you know, good answer.

- Yeah, that doesn't make any difference to my answer.

- [Lynn] No, no.

(audience laughing) - And certainly, if he was the guy that started making alarm clocks, there would be plenty of people trying to stop him because- (laughs) - Do you have any desire to explain why they didn't want him to do it?

- Well, they didn't want him to do it because it was in competition, probably with another product, I would guess, but I don't know.

- Yeah, I wonder if Alexander Graham Bell might raise some objection.

He might've brought home the telephone.

- [Lynn] Okay, we got an alarm clock and a telephone.

Sue?

- I'm gonna go with an alarm clock only because I have no idea either, but Paul Revere sounded the alarm for the Revolution, so I figure in Boston, we'll have an alarm clock.

- Okay.

Of course, Paul Revere stopped for a order of toast after he was finished sounding the alarm.

- But he rang a doorbell.

No, he used a light.

- [Lynn] What's the answer here?

- [Announcer] The answer is D, telephone.

Alexander Graham Bell had demonstrated his invention at the Centennial Celebration in Philadelphia the year before.

If you wonder why Cornish had to go to Boston to get one, it was because few took this strange looking device seriously.

Cornish hired two employees away from the telegraph company to run the first switchboard.

The first telephone directory listed 26 subscribers, but soon, crews were at work connecting home after home to the circuit.

When Thomas Cornish died in 1924, the business he started with five customers had grown to 650,000.

Today, the founder would scarcely recognize the modern technology that links some 5 million Pennsylvania homes and businesses with the world.

- I thought since the fact that that Bell had demonstrated his invention of the telephone in 1876 at the Centennial in Philadelphia, that that might fool you, but nobody took it seriously until Cornish went up to Boston, saw one, brought it back, started in Philadelphia or the Pennsylvania Phone Company and they've been going strong ever since.

Bernie, you just tied to score.

Everybody has one right.

Let's hear it for our panel.

They're dead even.

(audience applauding) (panel members talking indistinctly) Clue number one for our mystery Pennsylvania.

There'll be three clues through the course of the show and if you get it right on the first clue, panelists, just write it down on line one.

Born in Wilkes-Barre, 1796, His childhood was happy days along the Susquehanna River, but before his 77 years were lived, he would find fame in the west.

Born in Wilkes-Barre, 1796.

Lived along the Susquehanna River, but before his 77 years were lived, he would find fame in the west.

There'll be two other clues and it's kind of a tough one, but think and maybe you'll come up with it.

Let's come up with our next question, which happens to be about the University of Pennsylvania.

- [Announcer] According to a study done at the University of Pennsylvania, some 8 million Americans engage in a special kind of conversation almost every day.

Do they A, call a radio talk show?

B, phone their mothers?

C, chat with the taxi driver?

Or D, talk with their cats?

- Pennsylvania universities, including the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, do some studies that are interesting and this was one of the ones I found terribly engaging.

According to their study, some 8 million Americans do a special kind of conversation almost every day and Bernie Asbell, which of those four do they do?

These 8 million Americans?

Call a radio talk show, phone their moms, chat with a taxi driver, or talk to their cat.

- I think 8 million do each of those every day.

- [Lynn] (laughs) It could be.

- Yeah.

There's no way the University of Pennsylvania could count how many people talk with their cats.

- [Lynn] Well, they do a survey.

- And no 8 million people call talk shows, so there's mother and taxi driver.

- [Sue] Cat or the taxis.

- [Lynn] What do you say, Bernie?

- Call your mother is B?

- [Lynn] Yeah, that'd be B.

Okay, you're gonna phone your mom.

- Yes.

- [Lynn] Okay, 8 million, Sue Paterno, do what?

- Call a talk show.

- Call a talk show.

Yes, I used to do a radio talk show.

They all try to call me at the same time.

Leola, which of that, according to this study at the University of Pennsylvania, do 8 million Americans do?

- I think they call a talk show.

I think more than that call their mothers.

- Okay, we have a couple A's and a B. I want you to watch this answer.

See if you see anybody you recognize talking with his cat.

You might.

- [Announcer] Oh, the answer is D, talk with their cats.

There are 56 million cats, compared to only 51 million dogs living in US households.

That means that one out of every three homes has a cat, allowing, of course, for those who have more than one cat.

46% of cat owners say that they spend at least an hour a day interacting with their cats.

- Kevin Nelson, who's, you know, appears on this panel from time to time, bragged me about how his cat loves me on television and is so outgoing.

We had to almost trap the cat to get it to come out with the cameras there.

- Now, I know how they did the survey.

Kevin talks to his cat 8 million times a day and they hounded him.

- That could well be it.

Nobody got that one right.

Let's see if we can get this one right.

This is about Selinsgrove down in Snyder County and something they put in the Guinness World record.

Yeah.

- [Announcer] The citizens of Selinsgrove, Snyder County, were determined to regain a Guinness World's record that they had lost and in 1988, they did just that.

What record did they reclaim?

Was it for the world's A, largest pizza?

B, fastest barn raising?

C, longest banana split?

Or D, highest haystack?

- Goodness knows any of those would be worth getting in the Guinness Book of World records for, but this is kind of a recent question.

1980 and eight.

What did they do down in Selinsgrove, Snyder County, to get in there?

Largest pizza, fastest barn raising, longest banana split, or highest haystacks?

Sue Paterno, your turn to start.

- I'd go for the longest banana split.

I would've heard about that and gone.

- [Lynn] Uh-huh.

(laughs) - The pizza.

That's not an Italian neighborhood, is it?

I'll try the fastest barn raising.

- [Lynn] How fast do you reckon they put that barn up down there?

- How long does it take to put up a barn?

- A long time, if I'm to.

Leola, what do you say?

Which one of those?

- Hey, I don't know anything about putting up barns and I'm going to pick banana split on the basis of the fact that I like bananas splits.

- [Lynn] Turn your card over.

There you go.

- Okay.

There you go.

I'm sorry.

- That's an appetizing choice.

Bernie?

- [Lynn] Selingsgrove.

- Yes, down in Snyder County.

It's above Harrisburg a little ways there.

- Above Harrisburg.

- On the Susquehanna River.

- Okay.

- Nice folks down there.

- That's barn raising country.

- [Lynn] That's barn raising country.

We got a couple people raising- - See, they could have the longest banana split, but they don't grow long bananas down there.

- [Lynn] They don't grow bananas in Snyder County?

- No, and that's what a long banana split depends on.

That's right.

- What's the answer?

- [Announcer] The answer is C, longest banana split.

In 1982, the citizens of Selinsgrove had gained fame with a world record mile and a half long banana split, but the record had been beaten by two and a half miles.

So in the spring of 1988, everyone showed up to build a banana split that set a new world's record, four and a half miles of bananas, ice cream, and the works.

It took about three hours to make the colossal confection.

Eating it went a little faster, thanks to the help of 20,000 voracious appetites, followed no doubt by some monumental tummy aches.

- Can you imagine a banana split that long?

I agree, Sue.

I think I'd driven down just to see that and maybe- - [Sue] No, eat it.

To eat it!

- Eat a little whipped cream.

The score.

Well, we've got one more right since last we checked.

Leola has gone ahead with two right.

Let's hear for Leola Johnson.

(audience applauding) - Thank you, thank you.

- Thanks to grappling hooks and banana splits, Leola.

Let's go to mystery clue number two.

His mother's stories of being captured by Indians in the Wyoming Valley gave him a fascination with Native Americans and a life work.

His mother's story of being captured by Indians in the Wyoming Valley gave him a fascination with Native Americans and a life work.

Clue one was born in Wilkes-Barre, 1796.

Childhood spent along the Susquehanna River, but before his 77 years were lived, he would find fame in the west.

Think, panel.

Sue Paterno is not only thinking, she's writing.

Our address, if you wanna write to us, by the way, we would love to hear from you.

Simply address "The Pennsylvania Game" and it's Wagner Annex, University Park, PA, 16802.

Love to hear from you, by all means, so do write.

Pennsylvania's only president was, as everybody knows.

Girl Scouts, who was it?

James Buchanan, but this involves somebody else.

Let's listen.

- [Announcer] Pennsylvania's only president, James Buchanan, was in the White House when Owen Wister was born in Philadelphia.

When Owen Wister wrote his famous novel, "The Virginian", another president wanted to write a review, but was told he could not because the novel was dedicated to him.

Was the president A, Woodrow Wilson?

B, Teddy Roosevelt?

C, Herbert Hoover?

Or D, Grover Cleveland?

- Owen Wister wrote "The Virginian".

The great line from that is, "When you call me that, partner, smile."

And when he wrote it or when he was born, James Buchanan was in the White House.

But when Owen Wister wrote his famous novel, there was another president to whom he dedicated this novel.

Owen Wister, famous Pennsylvanian.

Who did he dedicate his novel to, Leola?

Woodrow Wilson, Teddy Roosevelt, Herbert Hoover.

It says Hubert Hoover.

There was no.

Herbert Hoover or Grover Cleveland.

Yes.

- I think Teddy Roosevelt.

- Okay.

- Yeah.

- Teddy Roosevelt.

All right.

- [Bernie] You didn't give a year, did you?

- [Lynn] I said that James Buchanan was in the White House when he was born.

You ought to be able to figure from that, if you know anything about James Buchanan and Pennsylvania history.

Buchanan was the guy Lincoln replaced, if you recall.

- Well... - [Lynn] You can hear the numbers tumbling around in his head there.

The years.

- This is not because Leola said so.

- I see, I see.

But you're picking B.

- [Bernie] But she's right.

- I see.

Sue Paterno, are they both right or are they both wrong?

- How would I know?

(Lynn and contestants laughing) I don't wanna take the same thing.

Can't be him and it can't be him.

I'll try Grover Cleveland.

- [Lynn] Glover Cleveland.

Okay.

- Because I cannot remember when he was.

- He had a daughter named Ruth.

They named a candy bar after called Baby Ruth.

But was that the right answer?

- [Sue] No, that was a baseball player.

- [Announcer] The answer is B, Teddy Roosevelt.

Roosevelt and Wister had been friends since their college days at Harvard.

TR loved the novel that in 1902, created a cowboy folk hero, the Virginian.

Like Roosevelt, Wister had gone west for his health in the 1880s.

When the old Wwst cast its spell on him, Owen Wister quit his Philadelphia law practice to write western fiction.

- Yeah, don't you love that mustache?

That Owen Wister mustache?

"The Virginian", I guess is probably about as famous a western novel as was written.

I mean, in the early days, at least, and he was a native Pennsylvanian.

Oh, and we just did that question.

We didn't do another question.

This is about, oh, you'll love this one!

This is about a sport that was back in Philadelphia and what kind of sport was it?

Yes.

- [Announcer] 10 years before Philadelphians got around to declaring their independence from Britain, they founded a club in order to engage in a sport.

It was the first such club in Colonial America.

Was it A, a bowling club?

B, a fox hunting club?

C, a tennis club?

Or, D a sailing club?

- Before we got our independence from Britain, they had a club to encourage a sport in colonial Philadelphia.

What kind of club was it?

Bowling club, a fox hunting club, a tennis club, or a sailing club.

Bernie Asbell?

- I believe tennis was that old game.

- [Lynn] Okay.

- I will go with tennis club.

- [Lynn] Anything that has love in it, you like.

Sue Paterno?

- That's right.

- [Lynn] What's the answer here?

- Is sailing the same as rowing?

I mean, do they construe that?

- [Lynn] Well, I guess you have to have a sail if you sail.

I don't know.

- Right, that's more for the ocean.

- [Lynn] I don't know.

- Okay.

There, you have the river.

- [Bernie] They all sailed over here, you know.

- A lot of wood still around Philadelphia.

I'll try a fox hunting club.

- [Lynn] Okay, tally ho.

We have a C and a B. Leola?

- Well, I think that I was gonna pick a sailing club, but that's really too obvious.

So if I'm going to guess, I'm gonna guess at probably the most obscure thing, which is probably a bowling club.

- Okay.

We have an A, B and a C. So one of them probably is gonna be right and two are probably not gonna be right.

See what the answer is.

- [Announcer] The answer is B, a fox hunting club.

The first fox hunting club was made up of 27 owners of fox hounds.

They gathered from Philadelphia and nearby New Jersey communities to ride to the hounds and shout, "Tally ho!"

By 1818, they had chased the last fox out of Philadelphia and the club folded.

- Tennis, I think, came from Bermuda by way of England lots later, but they did bowl.

They had lawn bowling and so forth in colonial, but fox hunting was, and Sue Paterno got that right and the score's getting close.

I'll tell you about it in a minute.

Let's go on to something that was founded.

Not losted, but founded in northern Pennsylvania.

- [Announcer] Ole Bull was a world famous violinist when in 1852, he bought 17 square miles of land in Potter County.

His aim was to create a utopian community for families from his native land.

Did he call his settlement A, New Sweden?

B, New Finland?

C, New Denmark?

Or D, New Norway.

- Ole Bull, a famous violinist, 1852, bought 17 square miles of land in Potter County to create a utopian community that was named after his native land.

Where was his native land is what we wanna know, I guess.

Was it New Sweden, New Finland, New Denmark, or New Norway?

It's one of those.

Sue Paterno?

- No bull, huh?

No clue in his name.

Well, I'm gonna pick a card here.

We're gonna try New Denmark for Ole.

- I'm trying to call on all this knowledge from living in Minnesota and I just did and nothing has come to mind, so I'm going to choose Norway.

New Norway.

- Okay, we have a New Denmark and a New Norway.

- Do you care to say how he spelled his name?

- [Lynn] O-L-E. - And Bull?

- [Lynn] Bull was B-U-L-L. - Oh, like that.

- [Lynn] Ole Bull.

- [Sue] Ole?

O-L-E?

- Ole is a Swedish name, I believe.

- [Lynn] You think it's from Sweden.

- It doesn't have those two dots over there, does it?

- Nobody picked Finland, but they picked Sweden, Denmark, and Norway.

He was a real famous musician and earned a lot of bucks giving concerts, but what did he name his settlement?

- [Announcer] The answer is D, New Norway.

Unfortunately, the land proved to be as rocky and hard to farm as the land they had left in Norway.

In just a year, homes were abandoned as most families moved on to Minnesota and Wisconsin.

Ole Bull returned to his native Norway and all that's left of his dream of a New Norway is Ole Bull State Park, a nature reserve.

- We're need some quick answers.

Here's the third clue.

No other artist or writer on North American Indians had as long or as broad an influence.

He really did document a way of life that was fast disappearing.

Any idea, Leola, who this famous Pennsylvanian was?

- None at all.

- [Lynn] Can't remember either.

Sue Paterno, you wrote something down there.

What'd you write?

- Well, I wrote Cooper, then I wrote Zane Gray.

- [Lynn] Okay.

- And I'm going with Cooper.

- You're going with Cooper.

Bernie?

James Fennimore Cooper.

Who was this famous mystery Pennsylvanian who did document a way of life?

Let's see.

- [Announcer] George Catlin grew up hearing the stories his mother told of being captured by Indians when she was seven.

In 1830, he followed the dreams stirred by those stories.

Captain William Clark, who had explored with Maryweather Lewis, gave him an introduction that took him to 48 tribes before he was done.

George Catlin painted portraits of their chiefs and was allowed to witness their secret rights.

They called him the medicine painter and let him paint the young braves demonstrating their courage in the torture ceremony.

He captured on canvas the bull dance and the buffalo hunt.

His collection ended up in the Smithsonian and inspired dozens of movies and TV shows, not nearly as authentic as the work of George Catlin, a famous Pennsylvanian.

- We really ought to know George Catlin better, but people don't and the one of the tragedies is, almost tragedy, is his stuff ended up in a back room at the Smithsonian and started to mildew and until they rescued it and now it's prominently displayed and worth so much because he painted so much of that life that just disappeared.

Imagine having a tape recorder or a video tape recorder and being able to be alive in those days.

His paintings were like that.

George Catlin.

If you go to the Smithsonian, ask to see his stuff and so many of our stories of the Indians were based on that.

Leola won easily with four right.

Congratulations.

See you next time when we gather to play "The Pennsylvania Game".

(audience and panel clapping) (gentle upbeat music) - [Announcer] "The Pennsylvania Game" has been made possible in part by Uni-Marts Incorporated with stores in Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, and Delaware, serving you with courtesy and convenience every day of the year.

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