Schmalz

In Hollywood's Chapman Park Hotel, Barbara Jean Redd, 18, and Gene Curtsinger, 35, told 400 twittering spectators and (they hoped) a million radio listeners how love had come to them. Ten minutes later, after a quick wedding, they were back in front of the mike again to tell how they felt now. For this surrender of privacy, Barbara and Gene had been lured by the prize of thousands of dollars' worth of gifts and selected from 200 competing couples. The show: ABC's newest and gooyest: Bride & Groom.

The Curtsingers spent their wedding night jammed inside a five-seater plane chartered to fly them across the continent (the nuptial flight was not broadcast).

They shared the space with a publicity man who sat between them on a jump seat. Next evening, air-shaken and weary, they stood through a publicity cocktail party before going to their bridal suite, where they were now & again called to the door by bellhops delivering champagne and other charivarious gifts. By week's end, the Curtsingers' haul included a five-diamond wedding ring, a bridal bouquet with orchids, a Hollywood-New York round-trip flight, a week in a hotel, a set of sterling silver, a vacuum cleaner and a whirl of nightclubs and shows. In future, equally hardy couples may get trips to Paris, new cars, prefabricated houses.

ABC thought it had a sure-hit show, with "good schmalz." One official ex plained why the actual wedding ceremony was not broadcast: "We thought it would be in poor taste."

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