What in the World? (television show)

External video
What In The World?, 1952, University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology

What in the World? was a television quiz show hosted by Dr. Froelich Rainey in which the scholar-contestants tried to identify artifacts. The objects were primarily archaeological in nature, but also consisted of fossils, ethnographic items and more.[1][2] The first,[3] and one of the most successful shows[4]:21 of its type, it confounded critics by running for 15 years and influenced successors such as the BBC's Animal, Vegetable, Mineral? and others.[3] The music of the opening and closing were taken from Ottorino Respighi's "Fountains of Rome": the dissonant beginning of the Fontana de Tritone section. The music accompanying the beginning of each segment, with the artifact to be discussed emerging mysteriously from a cloud of smoke, was taken from a variety of sources, usually 20th century compositions.[5]

Cast

The host, Dr. Froelich Rainey, was a museum archaeologist and director of the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology at the University of Pennsylvania.[1][2] He was accompanied by a panel of three consisting of Dr. Coon and Dr. Cammann along with a guest star each week.[6]

Origin

The show was filmed and produced in Pennsylvania by Charles Vanda Productions and WCAU Philadelphia, with the first episode airing on October 7, 1951.[6] It ran through most of the 1950s on CBS and was picked up by educational (public) television and continued into the 1960s.[7]

Modern Offspring

In 2010, the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology had multidisciplinary artist Pablo Helguera create and install a 'What in the World' interactive exhibition at the museum.[7] In addition to the exhibition the museum website offered guests a chance to participate in a modern-day form of the quiz show by featuring a picture of an object or objects and having viewers submit their guesses as to what it is through social media such as Facebook and Twitter.[7]

References

  1. 1 2 Halpern, Paul (2015). "On the Air". Distillations. Chemical Heritage Foundation. 1 (2): 44. Retrieved 6 December 2016.
  2. 1 2 Lambert, Bruce (October 14, 1992). "Froelich Rainey, 85, A Museum Director And an Archeologist". The New York Times. Retrieved 28 August 2015.
  3. 1 2 Irving, John (15 October 1992). "Obituary: Froelich Rainey". The Independent. Retrieved 28 August 2015.
  4. ↑ LaFollette, Marcel Chotkowski (2013). Science on American television : a history. Chicago, Ill.: University of Chicago Press. ISBN 978-0-226-92199-0.
  5. ↑ University of Pennsylvania Museum of Art and Archeology and WCAU-TV: Archived films of six broadcasts from 1952 - 1956 at Archive.org. Retrieved 7 December 2016
  6. 1 2 McKillop, J.E. ""What in the World?"". IMBD. Retrieved 28 November 2012.
  7. 1 2 3 University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. "What in the World?". University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. Retrieved 28 November 2012.
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