Only child

A charming bit of game show history turned up today on the Interwebs.

On November 26, 1962 I've Got a Secret ran a segment with Rhonda Hogstad from Watertown, SD. Her secret was that she was the only student in her grade school. Accompanying Rhonda was her only teacher, Irene Franklin. The screenshot shows the two with Garry Moore.

A story in the Watertown Public Opinion - at least it's not a Gannett newspaper, so it doesn't have the boring one-size-fits-all USA Today look - recounts the saga of Rhonda and her game show appearance. In later life she was appreciative of her time on national TV, often talking about her turn on IGAS and saving various mementos.

Wouldn't you know, Bill Cullen guessed the secret with just a few questions, much to Garry Moore's chagrin. Henry Morgan got in a funny line about the entire student body standing in a corner. As so often happens, the episode endures on YouTube, thanks to a viewer who uploaded it from Buzzr. (You can barely see the Buzzr logo in the lower right-hand corner of the screenshot.)

Sadly, both student and teacher are now dead, as are all the cast members on the episode. One interesting bit of TV history from the linked story: this particular IGAS ep didn't air live in the Watertown market, so Rhonda's family drove to North Dakota to watch it. The taped version of the show made its way to Watertown a few weeks later. This was the pre-satellite era.

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