The $64,000 Question - The popular game show THE $64,000 QUESTION/CBS/1955-58 (and its spin-off THE $64,000 CHALLENGE/CBS/1956-58) gave away a possible prize of $64,000 if the contestants (experts in a variety of subject categories) could answer a series of difficult questions.

The first four questions were fed to the show's Quizmaster (Hal March) via an IBM computer. The next level of questions were brought on stage by Ben Feit, an executive for Manufacturers Trust who announced to the audience:

"All questions come from the locked vault of Manufacturers Trust who guarantees that only authorized members of the bank have the keys and combinations of the vault...and except for the editors, no one has seen these questions...not even myself"

In 1962, Jack Benny, a reputed cheapskate, was on the program with the category of music (violins). After answering the first question, he quit and took the money ($1.00), rather than risk losing it on a second question. Benny had done the same thing years earlier on the radio quiz show "Take It or Leave It."

The series was based on the CBS radio program THE $64.00 QUESTION that aired in the 1940s. See also "Quiz Show Scandals"