Query: "$64,000 quesiton"

[James C Stalker]

Might this be a case where language determines money rather than the other
way round?

According to http://measuringworth.com/calculators/uscompare/, $64 in 1940
had the following values in 1958

$131.92  using the Consumer Price Index
$133.74  using the GDP deflator
$204.40  using the value of consumer bundle
$216.09  using the unskilled wage
$224.50  using the nominal GDP per capita
$294.88  using the relative share of GDP

Forget the possibility of "The $300 Question." Picking up on "The $64
Question," we could up the ante a bit and do "The $640 Question, but that
intrusive "hundred" is a problem.  Even if we raise the ante, "The $6,400
Question" won't work very well. The sixty four hundred dollar question might
do because it retains the 64, but the six thousand four hundrd dollar
question is a bit long for pizazz, and we've lost our 64.  The leap from
$6,400 to $64,000 might be economic--the rising tide of the 50s floating all
those boats, but there is only one way to say sixty four thousand.

JCS

Sam Clements writes:

> The original radio show was "Take it or Leave It" which debuted in 1940
> and
> ran until 1947. They asked questions which went up to a prize of "$64."
>
> The phrase "$64 question" was, by 1942, pretty well known to many
> Americans
> and used in newspaper stories from that date.
>
> The ACTUAL radio show "The $64 Question" debuted in 1950 and ran until
> 1952.
>
> The "$64,000 Question" debuted in 1955 and ran until 1958.
>
> Sam Clements
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>



James C. Stalker
Department of English
Michigan State University

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org