Pick-A-Box

1 9 5 7 – 1 9 7 1 (Australia)

This long, long-running, popular Australian game show from Channel 7 was hosted by Bob Dyer and his wife Dolly, who became Australian icons. Dolly had been a teenage showgirl in Sydney during WWII when she fell in love with Bob, then a visiting American comedian billed as “The Last of the Hillbillies”.

They married, bought a home in Sydney, and in 1948 produced Pick-a-Box on radio, which made the transition to television in 1957.

Contestants had to choose between opening a box with a mystery prize within, or building a bank of cash (The time-honoured “money or the box” scenario).

In the 1950s and 60s, Bob and Dolly Dyer’s BP Pick-a-Box was one of the best rated television shows in Australia. It was the top show in 1960 – the first time a local show had beaten American television shows in the Australian ratings.

High school teacher Barry Jones went undefeated as a contestant from 1960 to 1967. In 1960 alone, he won more than £14,500 in prizes on the show.

In 1961, the show launched the ‘£1,000 Barry Jones Handicap’, pitting two contestants each episode against the quiz king.

Jones went on to become a politician in the Australian Labor Party.

In 1971, the Dyers walked away from television and retired in Queensland, where Mr Dyer concentrated on his first love – fishing.

The format came back later as Ford Superquiz.

Bob Dyer died in 1984. Dolly Dyer died of a stroke in a nursing home at Gympie (Queensland) on Christmas Day 2004 and was buried in a private service on the Gold Coast on 30 December.

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