Anthony Stinis, the last contestant, worked for the Skywriting Corp., which in 1946 purchased a fleet of surplus WWII planes and developed "dot matrix skywriting", subsequently known as 'skytyping'. The process uses five planes, flying in tandem, releasing puffs of smoke under computer control, like characters produced by dot-matrix printers.
Guest panelist Barry Nelson was starring in the hit-Broadway comedy 'Mary, Mary', which had opened at the Helen Hayes Theatre on March 08, 1961. Nelson would leave the play on April 02, 1962, to start filming its adaptation to the screen as 'Mary, Mary (1963)'.
Yves Montand was about to premiere his one-man Broadway show 'An Evening with Yves Montand', at the John Golden Theatre, on October 24, 1961. This production was a return engagement of the previous 1959 special (Sep 22-Oct 31), and ran for 55 performances.