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"LET'S GO TO THE RACES" GROCERY STORE PROMOTION OR GIMMICK ?

gregg75

gregg75

In the mid-60's
I remember if we shopped at the local Colonial grocery store they would give you a ticket to
watch "Let's Go To The Races" on TV Saturday and possibly win money. It may have been a
different show name or store in your area. I think some shows raced dogs, but the one we
had was horses. I don't remember anyone ever winning, but we watched anyway just in
case. The ticket gave you "your" horse for that race.

The show was usually sponsored by the grocery store and they ran commercials throughout.
HOW CONVENIENT. Anyway, I remember one time it was the big $100 race and we had
horse #7. The horse led the entire race and it looked like we were winners!!! Then suddenly
in the last 20 seconds another horse pulled out in front and won. Do you remember the show?

I'm not sure if they were forced off the air or just went away, but the show only lasted maybe
a couple years at most.
 
Oh no, this show!

It was either Grand Union or another store in south FL which sponsored this show.

I had a ticket for a horse for the $500 race....same results as above! I was about 8 years old; what a way to hurt a guy. They *knew* the races were filmed!

cd
 
Follow-up....I don't know what took the show off the air, but the fact that the races were filmed (outcome already known) may have been the death knell.

Grand Union around 1971 had a more honest promo.....Monday Night Football.....each team was assigned a digit.....if the score ended in the digits for both teams, you win. The pot was lower, but at least it couldn't be fixed.

cd
 
I doubt this was fixed..I guess anything can be. I remember in our area there being big dollar winners. They always had pictures in their paper of just about anybody winning more than 25 dollars. I remember $500 and $1000 winners. If you watch a lot of horse races having a horse lead the race til the last 10 or 15 seconds only to get beat is not that unusual.
 
Oh I agree with that.....I think my grandpa won $2, either from that show or the similar show "Post Time."

I just think it's sad to play w/ folks' emotions like that, as far as putting on the ticket a horse which had a lead & then out-of-the-blue is overtaken.

But yes I am sure there were a few winners. After the scandals of the 50s, every show was being watched with a magnifying glass.

cd
 
The program was on 16mm film, sent to each affiliate station. Did these films get
bicycled around, or was the same "episode" (or race event) sent to all stations to
air during the weekly window? Usually fringe time on weekends, IIRC.

Were there safeguards, both at the syndicator and local station level, to protect
against the wrong "episode" airing on a given Saturday at 5? What if a station
ran last week's show, or next week's, by mistake...or did the safeguards include
only one show being in the hands of each station at any given time?

One could see someone having a card with "horse #7 to win" and the wrong show
airs and #7 wins and the player goes to redeem the $50 and is told they really
didn't win. I can just see the cardholder yelling "FRAUD!!" as Floyd the barber did
when Goober told him there was no $200 prize and he wasn't a winner. ;)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QJg0QW4Nd8w

(BTW, look for Meathead in this episode.)
 
The series was revived in the early-1980s, featuring a new host and everything shot on videotape. As before, it was sponsored regionally by grocery chains. In the Tampa Bay area, WTOG showed the new version, with Grand Union (now "Sweetbay" locally) being the sponsor.

I think someone on this board started a thread awhile back, talking about the show and other grocery game gimmicks ("Win With The Stars", hosted by Allen Ludden, was another).
 
@Oldiesfan:

The series I remember was around 1967-68. IIRC, the ticket from the grocery store had the actual name of the horse, not its number.

Locally in Miami, in 1974, there was a franchised game show called "Race to Riches" which involved horse races on videotape from about 2 weeks prior. This game show indeed involved numbers of the horse, using a spinning wheel. The host of the show was none other than Larry King....kind of a step toward his national fame. he was replaced shortly afterward by DJ Larry Shannon (WGBS).

I understand that the show was done in Boston too. It was franchised like "Bowling for Dollars" or "Romper Room."

cd
 
In the middle and late '60s there were "Let's Go To The Races"
(horses), "Greyhound Derby" (dogs), and straight game shows like
"Win With The Stars" and "All Star Bingo" (the last hosted by KABC
radio personality Michael Jackson).

My dad, who was in sales and called on grocery chains, has told me
that the winning tickets were seeded; that is, placed in areas where
the store (Winn Dixie, Colonial, or whoever sponsored the show) was
getting low volume and needed the business. I remember that in
Norfolk, Richmond, and Salisbury, MD, Colonial sponsored "Let's Go To
The Races" with a top prize of $1000. The $1000 winners invariably
came from Salisbury, where Colonial had just one store.

We won a small prize (maybe $5 or $10) a time or two, but we lived
in Virginia Beach and our odds of winning $1000 were practically nil.
 
I vaguely remember this running on WTAE-TV in Pittsburgh sometime around 1970.
It was sponsored by Thorofare Markets. Thorofare left town a few years later due to
repeated strikes and trouble with their unions. I guess they took the horse racing with them.

In the 90's Shop and Save stores ran a very irritating "Let's Make a Deal" promotion.
They hauled Monty Hall out of retirement to make the spots, In the store they had these
machines where you would take your game ticket to scan for redemption. A recorded Monty
would tell you either that you'd won or you got zonked. 99 tickets out of 100 were zonks....and
the resulting racket in the store was unbearable. "Bzzzzzzzzzzz.....Sorry, you got Zonked! Wah
wah wah wah".....over and over, all day long!
 
gregg75 said:
Yes, the races were filmed, but I'm sure they had to have/make some winners if nothing else
just for show.
Click to expand...

Around the same time I remember various local churches having a "Night at the Races" fundraiser.
Same thing, they'd take bets and then show previously filmed horse races in an auditorium. I'm guessing
your pastor had to stick those film cans underneath his mattress and guard them with his life!
 
Toledo Eleven said:
It was seen on Wednesday nights in Toledo (in 1966) on WTOL-TV and was sponsored by Food Town. Here's a Toledo Blade ad> http://vintagetoledotv.squarespace.com/storage/Races661012s.jpg
Click to expand...

In Boston, "Let's Go To The Races" was locally aired on WNAC-TV (Channel 7, now WHDH-TV) on Saturday nights in the 1967-1968 season. It was sponsored by Star Markets in Massachusetts and "Dan's" Star Markets in New Hampshire and in Maine. Jack Drees was the track announcer. Yes, it was aired on film. I always wondered how they legitimized the show, considering it was on film and the race was already in the can. The Jack Drees sections were naturally of a national flavor, where the local "wrap around" announcer was customized for the Boston market. If I recall correctly, either the local "wrap around" features or the races themselves were in color, with the other half in black and white. Hmmmmm. I'll have to investigate.
 
Looking back now I am surprised this show had aired in states where at the time gambling was just about totally illegal such as Virginia for example.

Today with most states having their own lottery and in many others full casinos, who would even bat an eye.
 
GOOD POINT. Maybe Kroger or Winn Dixie should consider updating the show for 2011. I think people would watch........again......just as they did in 1967.
 
mleach said:
Looking back now I am surprised this show had aired in states where at the time gambling was just about totally illegal such as Virginia for example.

Today with most states having their own lottery and in many others full casinos, who would even bat an eye.
Click to expand...

WSB dropped "Let's Go To The Races" for that very reason; in 1968 the state of Georgia passed an anti-gambling law that, in part, considered "Races" to be a lottery because it met the three legal tests of a lottery: prize, chance to win, and consideration (giving up something of value--going to the store to get the cards and then expending time to watch the show). Yet Georgia has a state lottery today, and even back in the mid and late '70s, first Ch. 11, then Ch. 17, carried the similar "Winner's Circle" without any apparent complaints from viewers or the courts.

What's interesting is that the Supreme Court, in 1954, had held that such telephone games as "Stop The Music" and "Sing It Again" did not qualify as lotteries, even though the FCC argued that those shows met the legal test of a lottery. They might be a waste of time, the decision read, but to call them lotteries would be stretching the definition of that word. I'd think the same logic would apply to "Let's Go To The Races" and similar programs.
 
Ah, "Let's Go To The Races"..via our local Grand Union in Northern New York...Then when my horse lost, I'd visit the meat aisle to see if GU had any of the other losers......
 
Tennessee's anti lottery law is the same as Georgia with the three legal tests.

But my understanding is if you eliminate one of those tests, it is not a lottery.

All the store has to do is say that no purchase is necessary to get a race card. That's the way they did it in Memphis. As a little kid, I used to go to the Big Star down the street and ask for a card. If the owner was in a good mood, he'd give me a whole stack. I won the cheapest race once.
 
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