By GENE KEMMETER
of The Gazette
"Elgie Suplicki, come on down!"
The words of Ron Roddy, announcer for "The Price Is Right" television echoed through the Bob Barker Studio in Burbank, Calif., on March 30.
"I was sitting there, kind of daydreaming," said Suplicki, 1641 Clark St., Stevens Point, as he heard his name. "It took a second, like it was a daydream."
Then he bounded down the aisle to join others for a chance to get on stage and spin the wheel on the popular CBS daytime quiz show, featuring Bob Barker as host.
Suplicki and his wife, Shirley, were vacationing in California and had gone to the show four times, hoping for a chance to get on television as a contestant.
"It's my wife's favorite program," Suplicki said, explaining that the trip to California was a combination present for their 40th wedding anniversary and her birthday. "She wanted to go to California for 'The Price Is Right,'" he said.
She sent for tickets for the show, which is taped several weeks before broadcast, and he said, "I was hoping she would have been the one who was called."
About 300 people go through an interview process to get on the show daily and only nine are selected, Suplicki said.
They missed out on their previous attempts, and on their final visit to the show, he said he told the interviewer "I hadn't been called but I got a shirt to remember the show by."
After the show started, he heard his name called and was on his way as a contestant, learning that making a decision while on stage isn't the same as making a decision while watching the show on TV at home. "You forget a lot when you get up there," he said.
His bid on the first item kept him in the running and he went up on stage on the second item, getting to spin the wheel.
Suplicki won't divulge how he did, but the show he taped is scheduled to air May 1 and he said he'll be among the viewers. The show airs locally on WSAW, Channel 7, at 10 a.m.
"I'll be able to see what I said and did and if I did something really wrong."