Americana: What’s My Line?

While serving a one-year sentence for larceny in the minimum-security institution at Davenport, Iowa, James Shelton, 26, worked during the day at a downtown shoe store and spent each night in his unlocked room. One day in November, 1977, he left for work and vanished.

Last month Prison Director Royal Dunkin got an excited phone call from a former employee who urged him to turn on the television and watch The Dating Game. There, competing with two other contestants for a date with a Los Angeles Rams cheerleader, was Bachelor No. 1, James Shelton.

Davenport police thereupon obtained an arrest warrant to make a date with the lovable bachelor. Last week, Shelton was returned to the institution he had fled.

Of the TV caper, Prison Director Dunkin remarked: “It certainly took guts.” Indeed it did. Bachelor No. 3, who got the girl, was a news reporter, while Bachelor No. 2 was a probation officer.