Your Own Clue was one of the gameplay elements on Shopper's Bazaar, the pilot of Wheel of Fortune. It is notable for being one of the elements of the pilot not to carry over to the series, although individual functions of it later did.
History[]
Debuting sometime in September 1973, a single wedge on the Shopper's Bazaar pilot that activated the rotary phone in front of the contestants. The player who landed on it picked up the phone and received the puzzle's category (Person, Place, or Thing) from announcer Mike Lawrence. If that player landed on Your Own Clue again, Lawrence gave her a more detailed clue (although this never came into play); if another contestant landed on the space for the first time, she started from the first clue.
There are only two known references, albeit indirectly, to Your Own Clue since then: in a 1986 behind-the-scenes report on the daytime show, then-producer Nancy Jones mentions the phone while describing the basic Bazaar format. Much later, the "Call Waiting" stunt on Wheel 2000 consisted of phones that gave clues. Chuck Woolery also mentioned it during a FOX internet chat during the run of Greed, also the only known time he has name-dropped Shopper's Bazaar.
In general, the concept of giving hints to the players became part of several international versions (most notably in Australia and New Zealand), albeit without the phone.