Radio: Telethon Flop

When the Hope-Crosby telethon to raise money for the U.S. Olympic team announced pledges of $1,000,020 (TIME, June 30), even skeptical TVmen cheered.* Since the telethon's.goal was only $500,000, everyone felt sure the show had done the trick. But by last week the money to back the pledges was still coming in at only a trickle. The bank in charge of collections put its top estimate of the final take at no more than $250,000. Said Bing Crosby: "I didn't think we had that many welchers in this country."

The welchers were only partly to blame. Practical jokers had telephoned in large...