[music playing] NARRATOR: Stephen Morgan Smith invented something for his wife he dubbed the success.

What was it?

And what are the membership requirements of the Little Pikers Club?

You'll find out as we all play The Pennsylvania Game.

[applause] [music playing] The Pennsylvania Game is made possible in part by Uni-Marts Incorporated, with stores in Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia, serving you with courtesy and convenience every day of the year.

Uni-Marts, more than a convenience store.

Now let's get the game started.

Here's the really rad radio and game show host, the emcee of The Pennsylvania Game, Lynn Cullen.

Hello, hello, and thank you.

Welcome.

We've got a great show today.

We've got a great panel, all veteran players of The Pennsylvania Game.

Let's meet them now without further ado.

Oh, heavens, there he is.

Stephen Ragusea, a regular on the show.

And when he's not here, he's a clinical and forensic psychologist in practice in state college, also President of the Pennsylvania Psychological Association.

Please welcome the amazing Dr. Stephen Ragusea.

[applause] And she's back, the mad hatter, affectionately known as the state college hat lady, Millie Vespa Bubash has been giving entertaining talks about everything from old age to hats for more than 34 years.

Please welcome Millie Bubash.

Great hat.

[applause] And Steve Wagner graduated from Eddy's School of Broadcasting, a two-week crash course which granted him a four-color certificate suitable for framing.

At least that's what this WRKZ Radio host from Hershey tells us.

Please say hello to Steve Wagner.

[applause] OK, OK, I hope we don't have any pikers on this panel because our first question, well, has to do with pikers.

NARRATOR: In 1982, Christopher Scott Henty became the charter member of the Little Piker Club.

Are the Little Pikers A, members of the nation's youngest competitive diving team, B, babies born on the Pennsylvania turnpike, C, junior fisherman who competitively pursue northern pike, or D, Pennsylvania's youngest mountain climbers.

LYNN CULLEN: What are those little pikers anyway?

Do they dive?

Do they get born on the Pennsylvania turnpike?

Oh, my.

Do they fish, or do they climb mountains?

Stephen?

I don't think any of those are-- I think it's people who dive onto the Pennsylvania turnpike.

LYNN CULLEN: Oh, splat.

Yeah, off bridges overpasses.

LYNN CULLEN: Yeah, let's hope not.

No, no, no, no, no, you've got to pick.

Oh, D, you picked.

Yeah, I did.

LYNN CULLEN: Mountain climbers.

OK, Millie.

Well, I picked D because when I lived in Tyrone, there was a place called pike something that we used to climb.

And so I'm thinking maybe I was a pike and don't remember.

LYNN CULLEN: Yeah, you might have been a little piker.

A piker.

LYNN CULLEN: Steve.

Well, I rejected C, the pursuing northern pike.

There's something fishy about that.

And my attorney's in the audience.

But I've been watching this show religiously, and I think some of your researchers are perverts.

I'm going to go with B.

Babies born on the Pennsylvania turnpike.

STEVE WAGNER: That's bizarre enough, isn't it?

Yes, it certainly is bizarre enough, but is it right?

STEVE WAGNER: I know.

NARRATOR: The answer is B, babies born on the Pennsylvania turnpike.

In 1982, the Turnpike Commission created the Little Piker Club to honor babies born on the Pennsylvania turnpike.

Although there may have been previous turnpike births, Christopher Scott Henty, born on January 3, 1982 at Marker 80 near the Wilkes-Barre interchange became the club's first official member.

Among other babies who arrived faster than their parents could drive were Jessica Lynne Jordan, born on August 19, 1991 at the Willow Grove interchange and Kramer Francis Haddash, born March 11, 1991 in the front of a Ford Explorer at the Lehigh Valley interchange.

Oh, my, my, my, what a way to come into the world.

First they slap you on the bottom then they slap you with a toll two seconds later, brother.

Let's get another question.

NARRATOR: In 1890, Dr. J.J Ott, who was accompanied by a brass band, played several musical selections for the Buck Wampum Historical Society of Bucks County.

What was so unusual about Ott's performance?

A, he played ringing rocks, B, he was dressed only in his BVDs, C, he played a flute while balancing on a unicycle, or D, his audience was American Indians.

LYNN CULLEN: What was so memorable about J.J Ott's musical performance on that day in 1890?

I wonder.

Millie?

Well, once when I was performing, there was a fellow that came after me who was performing.

And I think he had on BVDs and an instrument in his hand.

LYNN CULLEN: You think that was J.J Ott?

I think it might have been.

LYNN CULLEN: It might have been.

OK, wow, that would be something.

Steve.

We're not going to ask what the instrument in his hand was.

MILLIE VESPA BUBASH: Please don't.

In keeping with the researchers' perversity, I would naturally go with B.

But just kind of an odd man out thing, I went with C because that sounds like bizarre B. Yeah, that's right.

STEVE WAGNER: Sidebar.

LYNN CULLEN: Playing a flute while riding a unicycle, an extraordinary man, J.J Ott.

Stephen?

I went with the whistling rocks.

LYNN CULLEN: Ringing rocks.

Ringing rocks, whistling.

It's the earth singing.

That's what it's about.

Yes, mother nature herself singing.

Well, we've got ringing rocks, we got a guy running around in his BVDs, and we have someone on a unicycle with a flute.

Heaven help us.

What's the answer?

NARRATOR: The answer is A.

He played ringing rocks.

[ringing rocks] Ringing Rocks County Park in Northeastern Bucks County has the largest ringing boulder field in the state.

Visitors to the park often arrive with hammers in hand to make the rocks ring.

According to scientists, the phenomenon is caused because of the rock's high iron content.

Only about a third of the rocks ring.

Those that don't ring either have had the iron rusted out of them because of moisture or are wedged too tightly together to emit sound waves.

Huh, imagine you take a hammer and you go and bang on rocks.

Well, so J.J Ott then was the first rock musician, right?

MILLIE VESPA BUBASH: Right.

First rock band.

Well, I'll take you on about that.

It's true.

Ott man out.

Right.

STEPHEN RAGUSEA: I think the audience is going to roll you on out of here.

So you're a therapist kind of a person.

Yeah, I do that.

You want to talk?

Well, maybe later we could.

So President of the Psychological Association Pennsylvania and all that, you had to get elected, huh?

Yeah.

LYNN CULLEN: So all those other therapists thought you were a-- No, I just paid bigger bribes, that's all.

LYNN CULLEN: Well, how long is your term?

One year.

Well, actually, it's a three-year commitment.

There are specific duties as president-elect, president, and then past president.

OK, what are you now?

Are you president.

I'm currently president.

OK, so you're in your second year of this three-year commitment.

Well, psychologists do sometimes commit people.

MILLIE VESPA BUBASH: Yeah, they really do.

Millie, you had a hat shop.

You have what, thousands and thousands of hats.

Oh, many, many hats.

LYNN CULLEN: But then hats sort of-- I have no furniture in my house just hats.

That's all.

George and I sleep in hat boxes.

LYNN CULLEN: Does it?

Yeah.

LYNN CULLEN: Does it bother you that women don't wear hats like they used to?

No, it makes me more unique.

LYNN CULLEN: That's true.

It does.

But you'd be unique whether women were wearing hats or not, Millie.

It's always a delight to have you here.

Thank you.

Steve, stop sniffing the marker.

Oh, sorry, yeah.

LYNN CULLEN: So you've been studying.

We know this.

You're not supposed to study before you do this.

Well, I have a rule of thumb.

The more irrelevant the information, the more likely I am to retain it.

So I don't really study, but if something happenstance goes by, it just locks in if it's complete folderol.

LYNN CULLEN: OK, well, if you've got a head full of irrelevant information, then-- STEVE WAGNER: This is the show.

This is the show to be on.

You've got it.

In fact, you do hold the record for most points scored on The Pennsylvania Game.

STEVE WAGNER: I didn't know that.

Yes, you do, 9 points.

See if you can maybe best it today.

Let's get our next question.

NARRATOR: She arrived in Pittsburgh in 1843 where she continued her crusade to reform the treatment of the mentally ill and insane in the US and England.

Was she A, Nellie Bly, B, Mary Roberts Rinehart, C, Dorothea Dix, or D, Mary Schenley?

LYNN CULLEN: OK, who was she-- Nellie Bly, Mary Roberts Rinehart, Dorothea Dix, or Mary Schenley?

Steve, what are you smiling about, Steve Wagner?

The first three, A, B, and C are writers, I believe.

The fourth one is a humanitarian.

And so I voted for Mary Schenley.

LYNN CULLEN: Well, you sound like a man who knows.

From Pittsburgh.

Yes, yes, that's true.

We have Schenley Park in Pittsburgh.

I'm really embarrassed because I don't know the answer to this question.

But I voted-- LYNN CULLEN: The president of the Pennsylvania Psychological Association.

But I voted for Dorothea Dix because I've always liked her.

LYNN CULLEN: You've always liked her?

Yeah, she was a very nice person.

Yes.

You knew her?

STEPHEN RAGUSEA: Yeah.

Oh, sure.

Millie?

I chose Mary Schenley because I have a daughter named Mary.

So I like that name.

[laughter] LYNN CULLEN: Oh, my, my, my, my, my.

Let's see if any of these people know what they're doing.

NARRATOR: The answer is C. Dorothea Dix came to Pennsylvania in 1843 at the age of 41.

Two years later, she reported on the deplorable condition of the state's public mental institutions.

After much effort on her part, the Pennsylvania legislature in 1855 appropriated $10,000 to erect a separate hospital for the insane in Western Pennsylvania.

Dixmont State Hospital opened in 1861.

After working with the Union Nursing Corps during the Civil War, Dix resumed her efforts to gain favorable legislation on behalf of the insane and continued her support of Dixmont Hospital until her death in 1887.

LYNN CULLEN: OK. Stephen Ragusea, you should be happy to hear that you are in the lead, 2 points.

Millie, zilch at this point, and Steve Wagner, you have 1 point.

It's a close game, and anything can happen.

[applause] OK, here is our first clue for the mystery Pennsylvanian.

Guess it on this first clue, you get 3 points at the end of the game.

Born in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania in 1909, he was hired by Paramount Studios as a young man to write titles for silent films.

Born in Wilkes-Barre, 1909, hired by Paramount as a young man to write titles for silent films.

They're perplexed.

Are you perplexed as well at home?

Well, keep thinking about it, and we will move on to our next question.

NARRATOR: The nation's worst commercial nuclear plant accident occurred at Three Mile Island near Harrisburg in 1979.

A major milestone in the cleanup was officially completed in August of 1993.

How did GPU nuclear dispose of more than 2 million gallons of radioactive water that was stored in the unit two reactor?

Was it A, formed into cement blocks and buried in a cave, B, slowly released into the Susquehanna River over a 14-year period, C, eliminated through evaporation, or D, stored in stainless steel drums and buried at sea?

LYNN CULLEN: We've, I think, all decided we don't like any of those.

Yeah, one of them is the way they did dispose of 2 million gallons of radioactive water.

Stephen?

Yeah, how does one get rid of something that's poisonous for 20,000 years?

LYNN CULLEN: Yeah, I don't know.

What do you think?

I think that one buries it in cement blocks, forms it into concrete and then buries it in a cave someplace.

LYNN CULLEN: OK, and goes as far away from it as one can.

STEPHEN RAGUSEA: That's right.

OK. A, he said.

Millie, what do you think?

I said D because I think that's been the way it's been done.

LYNN CULLEN: Burial at C?

Yeah, buried.

I mean, some of it I've heard has been buried at sea.

Brother.

Steve.

I came up with a movie plot one time called Planet of the Dimwits, where they would self-destruct by shooting poison gases into the air.

So I picked C. LYNN CULLEN: Eliminated through evaporation.

Sure.

LYNN CULLEN: So it just went off into the air.

Just goes up in there just yeah.

LYNN CULLEN: And then, of course, rained down on somebody, yes and you get dimwits.

Let's find out if we've got a correct answer here.

NARRATOR: The answer is C, through evaporation.

The last of the radioactive steam was released into the atmosphere over the Susquehanna River on August 12, 1993.

The huge electric evaporator worked on and off for 2 and 1/2 years.

The total cost of cleanup was approximately $1 billion.

The evaporation process cost $2 million.

GPU nuclear originally proposed both releasing the water into the river and using it in cement blocks but dropped the ideas after they were vigorously opposed by nearby residents and nuclear energy opponents.

Actually, all of the options were vigorously opposed.

And finally, though, the company did receive approval to do the evaporation thing, yeah we.

You guys ready for another question?

Oh, go ahead.

Oh, I'm glad you said yes because I do have one.

NARRATOR: In the early 1870s, Stephen Morgan Smith, a resident of York, Pennsylvania, made an invention for his wife which he dubbed the success.

What was his invention?

A, a vacuum cleaner, B, an electric organ, C, a washing machine, or D, a pie cutter?

LYNN CULLEN: Oh, what did Stephen Smith invent for his wife?

The early 1840s.

A vacuum cleaner, an electric organ, a washing machine, or a pie cutter?

Guess you can't change your vote now, right?

No, you're logged in.

You're logged in.

I'm so sorry.

Millie, what's yours?

I said a washing machine.

LYNN CULLEN: You did, did you?

I did.

LYNN CULLEN: OK.

I hope that was it.

LYNN CULLEN: I hope so too.

I really do for your sake.

You need a point.

Steve.

Well, that's what I said.

But I want to change my vote to a pie cutter because of Mrs. Smith's pies.

LYNN CULLEN: Oh, but you said a washing machine.

I said a washing machine.

LYNN CULLEN: Who knows?

Stephen.

This question is fraught with potentiality.

But given that it's a family show, I left it alone.

I went with vacuum cleaner.

LYNN CULLEN: Vacuum cleaner.

I'm trying to figure out how your perverse mind is working.

STEPHEN RAGUSEA: Well, he-- All right, never mind.

I suppose I do understand maybe where you were going.

Have to do with electric organs?

That was one of many possibilities.

All right, never mind.

Let's get to the right answer real fast, real fast.

NARRATOR: The answer is C, the washing machine.

After a voice ailment ended his preaching career, Stephen Morgan Smith invented a washing machine for his wife, the first washing machine to be commercially produced in the United States.

From there, Smith's company progressed to design water wheels and turbines that service some of the world's largest dams, including the Hoover and Bonneville Dams in the United States, and the Aswan Dam in Egypt.

OK, here's how the score stands now.

Steve Wagner, you have surged from behind to take the lead with 3 points.

Stephen Ragusea, 2, and Millie, you do have 1 point.

Excuse me, I didn't mean to say you didn't have any.

[applause] Here's our second clue on our mystery Pennsylvanian.

Advancing to a screenplay and dialogue writer for films, he got his first Oscar nomination at the tender age of 22.

Born in Wilkes-Barre in 1909, hired first by Paramount studios to write titles for silent films, quickly advanced to be a screenplay and dialogue writer, getting his first Oscar nomination at the age of 22. Who is this famous Pennsylvanian?

Let's get to the next question while you continue to ponder.

NARRATOR: Reading, in the heart of the Pennsylvania, Dutch country, is known as the outlet capital of the state.

But for the first half of the 20th century, Reading was known as a stronghold for an unlikely political party.

Was it A, the Agrarian Reform Party, B, the Communist Party, C, the Socialist Party, or D, the Libertarian Party?

LYNN CULLEN: OK, who was in Reading?

A bunch of agrarian reformers, commies, socialists, or libertarians?

Log your answers in.

And Steve Wagner, what's your response?

I vote for Agrarian Reform, just nebulous.

LYNN CULLEN: Yes, sounds like a good thing, Agrarian Reform.

Stephen?

And I vote for Libertarian Reform.

LYNN CULLEN: Libertarian Reform.

OK, Millie, we need a communist or a socialist.

And I vote for Agrarian Reform.

LYNN CULLEN: Oh, no communist or socialist here on this panel, huh?

Well, let's see if there's a communist or a socialist in the answer.

NARRATOR: The answer is C. Reading Socialists were a powerful force in Pennsylvania politics.

In the early 1900s, the city elected a socialist mayor, not once but three times, repeatedly sent socialists to city council, and was the only district in Pennsylvania to send socialists to the state assembly.

In 1912, 16% of the city voted for Eugene Debs, founder of the Socialist Party of America for president.

And one third supported socialist Norman Thomas in 1932.

But socialism's popularity in Reading was something of a paradox.

The city's mostly German residents were conservative and relatively well off.

In fact, at the time, Reading had the highest percentage of home ownership of any city its size in the nation.

But Reading was also an industrial city.

And the trade unions that brought socialism to Reading were formed to improve working conditions.

Never thought of that.

Now, at the same time, Milwaukee had a number of socialist mayors and was putting socialists in the state legislature back in Wisconsin.

It was not all that unusual at that time.

Hey, here's a question about absolutely my favorite author of all-time.

NARRATOR: English author Charles Dickens spent part of his 1842 tour of America visiting the cities of Philadelphia and Pittsburgh.

Getting from one to the other was no easy task in those days, and one mode of travel was particularly stressful even terrifying to Dickens.

Was it travel by A, horseback, B, railroad, C, canal barge, or D, river steamer?

LYNN CULLEN: OK, what scared the Dickens out of Charles Dickens?

I wonder if that's where that came from.

Well, maybe that's where it came from, scared the Dickens.

I don't know.

What do you know, Stephen Ragusea?

It was the ghost of railroads past.

That's what it was.

LYNN CULLEN: Oh, it was?

I'm sorry.

I always think you're kidding and you chose railroad.

OK, Millie?

I thought it was the canal barge that maybe scared him.

But it would scare me.

Yeah, a canal barge.

They were terrifying things.

Steve?

I picked the river steamer because I know he had a propensity for seasickness.

LYNN CULLEN: He did, Charles Dickens?

Oh, yeah.

He didn't want to even come over here.

Let's find out what the right answer is.

NARRATOR: The answer is D, river steamer.

Even the frightening Allegheny Portage Railroad with its, quote, "rails laid upon the extreme verge of a giddy precipice" didn't alarm Dickens as much as river steamers which were prone to explode.

Only after finding a vessel fitted with the much advertised and recommended Evans safety valves did Dickens and his party depart Pittsburgh for Cincinnati.

They settled down in a comfortable private cabin in the stern far from the boilers, although Dickens described the boat as a very tremulous steamboat which makes my hand shake.

Well, he was probably shaking beforehand and prone to explode, they say, ay, ay, ay.

How about another question?

NARRATOR: What do Will Rogers, W.C. Fields, and John Barrymore have in common?

A, they were born in Philadelphia, B, they were buried in Pennsylvania, C, they played the Fulton Opera House in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, or D, they all did stints on Pittsburgh's KDKA Radio.

LYNN CULLEN: OK, there's a trio for you-- Will Rogers, W.C. Fields, and John Barrymore.

They had something in common, probably had a few things in common.

I mean, they're all famous.

We know them all.

Millie, what do you think?

Well, I hate to admit that I've seen Will Rogers on stage in Pennsylvania.

So maybe it was D. LYNN CULLEN: They all did stints on KDKA?

Well, I saw him in Pennsylvania, so it could be that he-- LYNN CULLEN: OK, I'm just making sure that you chose what you wanted to choose.

OK, Steve?

I saw him too, but he was down at the Opera House in Lancaster.

LYNN CULLEN: Oh, he was?

Yeah.

LYNN CULLEN: OK. Where did you see him for heaven's sake?

Well, and certainly not buried in Pennsylvania.

Will Rogers would not have been buried-- I'm sorry, W.C Fields wouldn't have been buried in Pennsylvania for anything.

LYNN CULLEN: No.

So I think he was probably on KDKA Radio, which is, of course, one of the oldest stations.

LYNN CULLEN: Yes, it is.

Indeed it is.

Let's find out if any of you know what you're talking about.

NARRATOR: The answer is C. They all played the Fulton Opera House in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, America's oldest theater in continuous operation.

The original theater was built in 1852 on the site of a pre-revolutionary war jail.

In its heyday from the late 1800s until the early 1930, the Fulton was regarded as the ultimate theater of its time.

Few prominent names in theater history did not appear on the Fulton stage.

Among the greats were John and Ethel Barrymore, George M. Cohan, Mark Twain, W.C. Fields, Al Jolson, Maude Adams, and many others.

Today the building's fully restored Victorian facade appears almost exactly as it did in the middle 1850s, a living symbol of America's great theatrical heritage.

LYNN CULLEN: Ooh, here it is.

Here it is, our final mystery Pennsylvanian clue.

It's come upon us quickly.

A famous and prolific film producer, director.

He directed such superstars as Jimmy Stewart, Spencer Tracy, and Katharine Hepburn, to name just a few.

So this person born in Wilkes-Barre in 1909, started writing titles for silent films, became a dialogue writer, got an Oscar nomination at the age of 22, and then became a producer, director, directing such superstars as Jimmy Stewart, Spencer Tracy, Katharine Hepburn, and I can assure you almost every other famous name of the era you care to think of.

Who might he be?

Yes, sir.

STEPHEN RAGUSEA: I don't know it.

LYNN CULLEN: You don't know it.

No, I went through a series of-- I thought John-- I was trying to picture which people would be born around the right time.

So I went John Houston, then Orson Welles.

And I think it's whoever directed It's a Wonderful Life, but I can't remember his name right now.

LYNN CULLEN: OK, I don't know if he directed that or not.

Millie, what do you think?

Well, I didn't know either, and I chose Houston.

LYNN CULLEN: John Houston, OK. Steve Wagner.

I took Frank Capra on the last guess.

LYNN CULLEN: OK, who may have done It's a Wonderful Life.

STEPHEN RAGUSEA: That's who directed It's a Wonderful Life.

Well, let's get the right answer.

NARRATOR: Joseph Mankiewicz was born in Wilkes-Barre in 1909.

Moving to New York as a young child, he attended Columbia University after high school and graduated with a degree in English before the age of 20.

After a brief stint translating German film titles, Mankiewicz began to move up the ladder at Paramount before MGM hired him as a writer.

There he went on to produce such films as A Christmas Carol, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, The Philadelphia Story, The Wild Man of Borneo.

He later directed the Academy award-winning All About Eve, as well as Julius Caesar, The Barefoot Contessa, Guys and Dolls, and Cleopatra.

Known as very private yet commanding a powerful presence, Mankiewicz told one biographer, you haven't got the information to write a book about my life.

Nobody ever will except me, I can promise you.

He died in February 1993 at the age of 83.

Joseph Mankiewicz, a famous Pennsylvania.

Yes, unknown to our panel but famous nonetheless.

Steve Wagner, you win this show with 5 whole points.

Thank you.

[applause] And you will be on the receiving end of a pen pack gift filled with made in Pennsylvania products, distributed by Allen's market in Harrisburg.

You should enjoy it in good health.

I want to thank the panel.

You were wonderful.

We knew you would be.

It's why we invited you in the first place.

You were great, great game.

Thank you, audience.

Your energy energized us.

And thank you for watching and joining us.

Hope you will again when we play The Pennsylvania Game.

[applause] NARRATOR: The Pennsylvania Game is made possible in part by Uni-Marts Incorporated, with stores in Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia, serving you with courtesy and convenience every day of the year.

Uni-Marts, more than a convenience store.

Meals and lodging for contestants of The Pennsylvania Game provided by The Nittany Lion Inn, located on Penn State's University Park Campus.

[applause] [music playing]