Pennies from Heaven

Mrs. Dennis J. Mullane did not want to go to the broadcast anyway. She had a cold. But her husband persuaded her, and before she knew precisely what had happened she was on stage in Manhattan's NBC studio participating in Truth or Consequences. "How many Kings of England possessed the name Henry?" asked the M.C. Mrs. Mullane guessed five because it was her lucky number. It was the luckiest use she had ever made of it.

Unable to produce the truth, Mrs. Mullane had to accept the consequences. They were to open the letters which the announcer asked his listeners to write, and count the pennies which he besought them to enclose. That would give Mrs. Mullane time to reflect upon British history, might give her enough pennies to buy war bonds for her son in the Marines. It would also give the sponsor an index to the pulling power of his show.

But no one, least of all Mrs. Mullane, who is a ruddy-faced, unassuming Staten Island housewife, had any idea that the request would bring a deluge of 210,000 letters, 315,000 pennies and assorted small change. The pennies started to pour in on Sunday morning after the broadcast. Children pushed them under the door. All day friends dropped in to make contributions.

They kept on coming at the rate of 35 bag loads a day. When the cellar threatened to fill up, Mr. Mullane, a Lehigh Valley Railroad employe, decided he had business out of town to attend to. Observed his wife: "I suspect he couldn't take it." She took in an estimated $3,150.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.