Truth or Consequences, New Mexico: Named for a Quiz Show

Truth or Consequences, New Mexico, is named for a radio quiz show. Until 1950 it was Hot Springs, and its voters swapped names on a radio host’s offer.

Before the show: the hot springs

The springs came first, long before the radio. In 1917, Ralph Emerson Twitchell’s chapter on Sierra County called the Palomas Hot Springs “among the most famous waters of the Southwest” and said that “the prehistoric inhabitants, later the Indians, and still later the Spaniards and Mexicans” used them “against rheumatic and blood diseases.”

The city’s own history page says the place was first known as Palomas Hot Springs and took the shorter name, Hot Springs, when it incorporated in 1916. A 1953 magazine report puts the name Hot Springs at the 1916 incorporation too. For the next 34 years, that was the town’s name.

Ralph Edwards’s offer

Truth or Consequences was an NBC radio quiz show hosted by Ralph Edwards, and its tenth anniversary was coming up on April 1, 1950. The city’s account and the state tourism department’s both say Edwards offered to broadcast from a town willing to rename itself after the program. A 1953 article in The Reporter magazine explains how Hot Springs got picked: Richard Gottlieb, one of the show’s producers, who had once worked for a radio station in Santa Fe, suggested it, and a mid-March phone call to the local Chamber of Commerce found people interested.

Hot Springs moved fast. On March 31, 1950, less than two weeks after that call, residents voted 1,294 to 295 for the new name, The Reporter says. The next day, Edwards aired the anniversary broadcast from the newly renamed town. Newsweek covered it a week later: “Hot Springs changed its name to Truth or Consequences, N. M.”

That first vote didn’t settle it, though. Douglass K. FitzHugh, an attorney leading the opposition, challenged the election for not giving voters enough notice, and the local district court ruled it illegal. The Associated Press reported in October 1950 that residents would vote again on November 7. They did, and Truth or Consequences won a second time, 1,262 to 732. The city’s history page gives March 31, 1950, as the day the name became official; the November vote is the one that made it stick.

A party every May

No joke, the town didn’t treat it as a one-time stunt. The city says its Fiesta, held the first weekend in May, began as a celebration of the new name and a welcome for Edwards when he came back for anniversary broadcasts. The Reporter says that in 1951 the Chamber of Commerce underwrote a fiesta to go with what it called “the annual Edwards pilgrimage.” It’s still on the calendar.

If you look at the U.S. Geological Survey map above, the new name is printed in full beside the Rio Grande. Just down the river, though, you can still see Las Palomas and the Palomas River, carrying the same word the springs were first known by.

Sources & further reading

• City of Truth or Consequences, “History of the Name.” Palomas Hot Springs, Hot Springs on incorporation in 1916, Edwards’s offer, the vote, the official change on March 31, 1950, and the anniversary broadcast the next day.
• William S. Fairfield, “Less Truth, More Consequences,” The Reporter, April 14, 1953. How the producers picked Hot Springs, the March 31, 1950, vote of 1,294 to 295, the broadcast the next day, the court ruling, the second vote of November 7, 1950 (1,262 to 732), the name Hot Springs chosen at the 1916 incorporation, and the 1951 fiesta.
• “On the Map,” Newsweek, April 10, 1950. The tenth-anniversary show and “Hot Springs changed its name to Truth or Consequences, N. M.”
• Associated Press, “Town To Vote On Name Change,” October 1950. The court ruling that voided the March ballot and the new vote set for November 7.
• City of Truth or Consequences, “Fiesta.” The first weekend in May, and the first Fiesta as a welcome for Edwards and the new name.
• New Mexico Tourism Department, “Visit Truth or Consequences.” Edwards’s 1950 offer and the tie to the show’s tenth anniversary.
• Ralph Emerson Twitchell, The Leading Facts of New Mexican History, vol. 4 (1917), p. 274. The Palomas Hot Springs “among the most famous waters of the Southwest” and their long use for healing.
• GNIS feature 897496 (U.S. Geological Survey). The federal record and coordinates for Truth or Consequences.