This Is Your Life
Ida Cook
TV Flash files “Ida Cook” as a desk essential hour — This Is Your Life (1952–1961) on NBC, season 1, episode 11, aired 1956-03-11, 30 min.
From the desk
How this hour is filed
This leaf is S01E11: listed hour 11 of 497 in the This Is Your Life guide, hour 11 of 16 in season 1. It aired 1956-03-11 (30 min). The listed hour before it is “Henry Starling” (S01E10). Next is “Lupino Lane” (S01E12). Broadcast log — titles and dates, not a plot bible.
Essential hour: “Ida Cook”. Ida Cook — early named life, the format already treating a civilian biography as prime-time theater with a surprise door.
Catalog log
Broadcast listing — not a TV Flash recap.
THIS IS YOUR LIFE - Ida Cook, novelist and campaigner for Jewish refugees, was surprised by Eamonn Andrews at the BBC Television Theatre.
Viewer FAQ
Where does Ida Cook sit in the This Is Your Life guide?
S01E11 is listed hour 11 of 497 — hour 11 of 16 in season 1, season 1 episode 11.
When did This Is Your Life S01E11 air?
Ida Cook aired 1956-03-11 and is listed at 30 minutes.
Where should I start?
Start with Edwards ambushing a guest into their own biography. The shock-and-tissues contract is the show; named celebrity nights are the heat.
In the series
Why this series still plays
This Is Your Life had Ralph Edwards ambush a guest with their entire biography, tissues mandatory. Invented the life-tribute ambush still used at reunions and award-show montages. Watch it now as live television that felt dangerous and sweet — genuine shock, occasional discomfort, and biography as a surprise party with cameras.
The guest does not know the night is about them until the night is already on the air. This Is Your Life, NBC 1952–1961 in the classic American television run, had Ralph Edwards ambush a subject with their entire biography, tissues mandatory. Invented the life-tribute ambush still used at reunions and award-show montages: genuine shock, occasional discomfort, biography as a surprise party with cameras. Based on Edwards's radio format; the U.K. imitated it widely. Live television that felt dangerous and sweet in…
Filed against
- Ralph Edwards as Host
Ralph Edwards ambushed guests with their entire biography on This Is Your Life — tissues mandatory, live television that felt dangerous and sweet — and turned wrong answers into stunts on Truth or Consequences. Life-tribute as reunion…