Idea Man

Up to a Mutual microphone stepped Captain Eddie Rickenbacker, to help auction off four pairs of Nylons, a Persian lamb coat, a bat autographed by Babe Ruth. They were some of the sideline booty (besides $105.000) which a sympathetic U.S. public has showered on Pfc. James Wilson, who lost both hands & feet in a plane crash. Private Wilson wanted to sell off his presents to give the proceeds to a hospital pal -- a triple amputee.

This stunt sale was typical of a new radio program, Auction Show (Mon., 10 p.m., E.W.T.), thought up by chubby, energetic Dave Elman, who is full of such ideas. Elman, who has been in show business since he was six, already has one big network show, Hobby Lobby (CBS, Thurs., 9:30 p.m., E.W.T.), which has brought him $350,000 since 1937. (It features people with silly pastimes, such as inventing a pants-puller-upper, collecting baby elephant hairs, compiling unfunny jokes.) He has been trying to repeat Hobby's success ever since. Among his previous tries was one called Contact, about people who wanted to find long-lost friends or relatives. Elman said he got the idea while wondering what became of a girl who promised to marry him but failed to show up for the wedding.

Elman started auctioning freak items on Hobby Lobby as a war-bond stunt. Soon, as Victory Auction, it was a show of its own, sold over $250,000,000 worth of bonds. The Treasury got his permission to imitate the idea. Now Elman is putting Auction to postwar profit. He got an auctioneer's license (he gets 20% commission on sales), a sponsor, and fifteen assistants to help him round up and check on items.

Elman puts on his radio sale in a Manhattan theater, with an invited audience of well-heeled collectors and dealers. He allows the studio audience about one minute to bid on each item, then invites listeners to top the studio offers by mail.

Who got what is announced the following week.

Showman Elman (who gets people like Kathleen Winsor, Helen Jepson and Ac tress Elissa Landi to add atmosphere) sells mostly curios of the famous and infamous. Samples: Adolf Hitler's dice ($150); Thomas Alva Edison's personal dental chair ($300) ; a spoon made by Paul Revere ($105); Mark Twain's portable writing desk ($125); a dagger owned by Rudolph Valentino ($200); a letter from Field Marshal Rommel to his wife, dated October 1943, which read: "Russian campaign going well. . . . Americans not ready . . ." ($40).

Elman swears he can document the history of everything he sells.

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