In 1978, Mr. Alcala was "Bachelor No. 1" on an episode of "the Dating Game".
He was bachelor No. 48, and although he had already asked for three women's phone numbers and given his own to a fourth, the wait to be put on the auction block was totally unnerving.
In 1978, he was "Bachelor No. 1" on an episode of "The Dating Game," and the host described him as "a successful photographer who got his start when his father found him in the darkroom at the age of 13, fully developed," according to a YouTube video of the show.
For the past 80 years or so every generation seems to have mined this formula, especially in the movies: In the 1930s it was "Bachelor Mother," starring Ginger Rogers; the 1980s gave us "Baby Boom" with Diane Keaton; and in 2004 Kate Hudson went through the same paces in "Raising Helen".
"Then she said, 'Don't knock it until you've tried it.' So I thought: 'All right, I will try it with three people, then call it quits.' " Dr. Stulbach was bachelor No. 3. Their first meeting was preceded by a week of e-mails and then by a week of phone conversations that often lasted hours.
That night was "Bachelor" night.
