Doctor I. Q.

Millions of U.S. radio listeners know Doctor I. Q. as the man who every week gives away about 850 silver dollars and hundreds of Milky Way candy bars. As "the mental banker" of the Doctor I. Q. quiz program (NBC, Mon., 10:30 p.m., E.W.T.), he has become famous for his evangelical, house-afire delivery.

The Doctor works from a stage in large auditoriums. Five assistants with portable microphones scattered through the house pick out contestants for the Doctor's questions. When he is ready, he cries for so-&-so "in the left balcony!" The assistant there cries back: "I have a lady [or gentleman], Doctor!" The Doctor then intones: "Fifteen [or more or less] silver dollars to that lady if she can tell me whether the period between early June and early September is known as salad days!"

"Pay That Lady!" If the contestant misses, Doctor I.Q.'s voice drops to a consoling "Oh, I'm so sorry, but I think you'll find salad days are those of youthful inexperience. But a box of Milky Way candy bars [consolation prize] to that lady!" A correct answer stirs the Doctor to the joyful cry: "Pay that lady 15 silver dollars!" One night he innocently asked a man to tell him the principal use of cowhide, expecting "shoe leather" for an answer. Said the contestant: "To keep the cow from falling apart." The nameless hero took the audience's heart and a pocketful of silver dollars.

Emergency Call. Almost everything in handsome, blond, 32-year-old James Wesley McClain's early life fitted him to be Doctor I. Q. His father was a voice teacher in Louisville, Ky. His mother was a church organist. At Southern Methodist University, McClain majored in English and public speaking, made the varsity debating team. This led to the Dallas Little Theatre, then to an announcer's job for Station WFAA, Dallas. In 1940 Chicago's Grant Advertising Agency made him director of all its radio activities. A year later, in an emergency, he stepped into the agency's Doctor I. Q. spot.

Last week Doctor I. Q. was boning up on Old Testament history, philosophy, prayer-book history and comparative religion at Seabury-Western Theological Seminary in Evanston, Ill. The "wise man with the friendly smile and cash" was headed for the ministry. Within three years he expects to abandon his enviable $2,000-a-week radio job for a $40-a-week Episcopal rectorship in some small town in his native Kentucky.

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