Mildred is pictured here with Truth or Consequences radio host, Ralph Edwards.

My Grandma (Mildred Votaw) LOVED Hollywood. She used to tour the “star” homes in Beverly Hills, and my sister remembers going with her on those tours. She went to live performances whenever she could, and I remember that she took me to more than one kids’ TV show at the stations in L.A.

In January 1947, Mildred was a contestant on “Truth or Consequences”, a famous radio quiz show that later became a hit TV show. Her challenge was to name a city in the U.S. where it is currently raining. If she failed the challenge, the consequences were to be born by Harold (my grandfather) – he was wearing an old-fashioned swimsuit from the 1890s, and trapped under a barrel of water that was going to douse him if she missed the question! She had three chances to guess right.

Since she had recently moved to Whittier from Indianapolis, and it was January, she knew it would be raining in Indianapolis. You can read the newspaper accounts on this page (click to enlarge them) to find out what happened. Of course the story differs depending on which newspaper you read, just as it always does with news reports.

One of the newspaper accounts states that her third choice was a city on the west coast. Apparently they didn’t know how to spell “Portland” (which is what she chose).

The story made the front page of The Indianapolis Star on January 12.

This story even made Redbook magazine, in the June issue.