I thought of sending the url for this video to my grown children. Values were so different. Material goods were precious and valued. I remember the Cheer with the towel in it. We bought it. We trusted TV. We trusted advertising. We trusted the government.
Also, look at that audience. Holy Macro.
This is an opportunity for understanding other times.
Again also.. we all had the measle too. No panic about it.

There were NO food stamps. No medical care and actually no social economical assistance in this country.

In a 60's manner, this show celebrated women in need (it was a time w/few women in the work place)

Reading these negative reviews are awful, uninformed comments. The 1960s were a far different time! Unlike today, families struggled to get by. My dear sweet Mother travelled on a bus from Lancaster, CA to Hollywood to be in the audience for a 1961 "Queen for a Day" broadcast. She was thrilled!! Times were tough, and watching another housewife become "Queen for a Day" was special to her. Please don't be so cynical and negative about times gone by. Unless you lived through the turbulent 1960's, you really cannot appreciate the tenor of the times.

Thanks to the up-loader for making this available. "Queen For a Day" was shot live and few episodes are known to exist. I do feel sorry for these women, especially for the losers who got consolation prizes consisting of brooms and mops.

What strikes me about this show is how utterly poverty stricken we were as a nation back then. The "prizes" seem so pathetically banal and petty - brooms, mops, a washing machine, a gift certificate to the Spiegel catalog. And to get them you had to compete with three other unfortunates in a nationally televised pity party. I suppose the audience back then consisted of housewives whose common refrain was "but for the grace of God, it could have been me on that stage".