What's My Line? - Eddie Fisher (Oct 19, 1952)
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- čas přidán 27. 12. 2014
- MYSTERY GUEST: Eddie Fisher
PANEL: Dorothy Kilgallen, Bennett Cerf, Arlene Francis, Hal Block
Many thanks to epaddon, as always, for providing a copy of this episode.
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![What's My Line? - Charles Coburn (Aug 2, 1953) [UPGRADE!]](/img/n.gif)
I asked my mother how she picked the name Rondi for me. She said she was watching What’s My Line and when contestant Rondi Stratton signed in, she liked the name so much, she decided to name me Rondi.
Odd name for a guy...but if you're OK with it....:>)
Help me, Rondi, help, help me, Rondi...;)
@@Synchotron you’re not the first one to sing that to me. 😂
Dorothy definitely had a lot of prowess when it came to guessing the people's line of work
Amazing deductive reasoning ability. It's also why they killed her unfortunately.
@@mfin-dave Yes, Dorothy Killgallen was murdered.
Its all in the script....:>)
*Even when Dorothy guessed wrong, she was still witty and adorable.*
She did not guess wrong. She disliked `Eddie Fisher` intensely. Fisher accuses her in his autobiography of being an `antisemite`.
@@sandrashevey8252 Easy to accuse someone after they have died .His autobiography was sleazy tabloid like garbage where he came across as a pure slimy narcissist.
@@glennhoddle10He was a slimy narcissist and she was an antisemite. Fact is antisemites hate Jews nice ones and not nice ones. Makes no difference to them!
@@sandrashevey8252 Dorothy is very warm and close to Martin gable and Bennet Cerf as well as to Danny Kaye and buddy Hackett - all great wonderful jews
@@adamodeo9320 Hackett was the funniest and one of the most SEDUCTIVE of those whom I have interviewed.
Working my way through each episode. Loving it!
Loved to hear Eddie Fisher speak so proudly of his service in the Army.
I love Arlene she's so wonderful and entertaining so smart she definitely made the show
Worked with ARlene on `Emphasis` NBC live radio. The other presenters were Barbara WAlters, Frank Blair, Bill Cullen and Dr. Joyce Brothers. She was of Armenian ethnicity and attended Mt. St. Vincent in Yonkers (not far from where we lived)
I think that What's My Line is the best show in TV history.
You really should leave the thinking to someone else as you sook at it.....
@@largemember Upsetting to you ?
Gotta love Dorothy. She made the show really. Like the glue that made it all come together.
I have to agree. After her death it wasn't quite as much fun, even with Arlene. Sort of like when Vivian Vance left The Lucy Show.
I liked Dorothy and she was pretty, but she was kind of a stiff
Ive read quite a bit about the show, including the interview with Mr Cerf, and I'm not quite sure you're right. I mean the glue, of course, I believe you love her.
@@viktorkaposi8256 Maybe she was the substance, Arlene the glue.
@@kristabrewer9363 All I know is the show was never the same when Dorothy left.
Eddie Fisher had a great voice that captured the 1950's well. This "What's My Line?" post allows us to value the innocence of that time and the founding moments of the television era.
@Uncle Elmer - Eddie Fisher did have a quite good, clean, true singer's voice. He was not a song stylist who could put a song across, but did not have the voice or skill to hit the notes right to make beautiful sounds. He let his personal life interfere way too much at the beginning of his career with the work he should have been doing to promote himself and get his position musically solidified.
@@philippapay4352 His voice was one of the best voices of all time. Period.
@@m.e.d.7997 Perhaps you misunderstood my compliment of Eddie Fisher's voice. I said he had a fine voice and was not merely one of those song stylists who could put a song across the footlights, yet had no pipes to back it up with beautiful notes. I was far from denigrating his talent, voice.
Princess Leia dead beat dad
@@philippapay4352 Allt he other were jealous of him and vindicatively jealous.
Second game illustrates that things people get into horizontally sometimes in pairs is very funny stuff for WML. And Bennett can certainly be funny when he is nailing it on the head. "I certainly wasted my time in Toledo!" LOL
Trivia note for WML fans, That sprightly tune used as a closing theme
for the show was "Roller Coaster" by Henri Rene and His Orchestra on RCA-Victor.
Free go
Ah thank you!
I knew Eddie, he had a great sense of humor and was a sharp dresser and an excellent singer.
@ZoneFighter1 well said... I don't think we should applaud the womanizers who abandon their families too much.
Dorothy Kilgallen is remarkable... her deductive reasoning is on par with Sherlock Holmes'... It's a sad thing for this world that she was killed to silence her.
Sometimes I think they are told the answers…they have no clue who they are…then all of a sudden they guess it. Yes, Dorothy seemed to guess right the most.
Years of medication and alcohol abuse killed her. Let her rest.
@@debbiemartin2026 From what I've read about the show, they were sometimes given suggested lines of questioning, but I think the intent was to make things more interesting/funny... rather than just lead them to the answer.
Dorothy shocked me when she got it wrong, hahahahaha ! Another broadcast VIC showed up . . . more laughs.
I wonder if she knew it was Eddie Fisher but did that on purpose, maybe to rib them.
Eddie Fisher was adorable at that age!
Eddie was really cute when he was this young!
His daughter Carrie was on the Graham Norton show right before she died. She said that her father had an affair with Princess Margaret.
Philly boy, Eddie. I grew up there, and my parents thought he was terrific.
@@stmilo yes, Eddie was a womanizer who abandoned his family. Pretty shameful behavior in any era.
Garlic is one of the most useful ingredients to be found in any kitchen. There are a huge number of recipes that would suffer if garlic were omitted. I note that garlic these days can be decorative -- there are those braided garlands of stiff-neck garlic woven together in a decorative way to be hung up in a kitchen. You can break off a head of garlic when you need one, starting at the bottom. I think they probably didn't exist in 1952.
+ToddSF 94109
And fresh garlic is also an excellent natural blood pressure reducer. Unfortunately the effects are mostly eliminated when cooking.
Also combining it with parsley helps reduce the odor on your breath.
Garlic in some form or other was one of my mom's four cooking staples. Being Hungarian, she would invariably add at least one of the following (and often more than one) to just about every meal: garlic, paprika, onion or sour cream.
I was just thinking, if you’re cooking for me and I’m your friend, I would most certainly appreciate it if you used it.
This may have surpassed Burns and Allen as my favorite classic show. Bless you!
Eddie Fisher is very handsome! 😊
Thank you for posting these. I ran across them Saturday and love them. Some made before I was born.
The audience with the 2nd guest helped with the laughter. This happened quite a few times where the panel got hints from the way the audience reacted.
That's a part of the show I didn't like. I don't understand why the producers insisted on a "live audience". It lessens the fun for me especially with their giggling all the time.
Eddie was truly at the height of his career in '52, and until he ditched Debbie Reynolds for Elizabeth Taylor.
The show date for this WML was two days after I was born. Little did I know then that I'd be entering the tenth grade when the CBS version went off the air.
Eddie Fisher was married to beautiful women like Debbie Reynolds, Elizabeth Taylor, and Connie Stevens. He divorced Reynolds and married Taylor, following the death of his best friend, Mike Todd.
With Debbie, Eddie had two kids in Carrie and Todd, and with Connie, he had two kids in Joely and Tricia.
This was even three years before he married Debbie Reynolds.
@gcjerryusc Actually, Carrie was a great actress and had a beautiful voice. She should have sung more. Her voice was from her father Eddie Fisher.
@Margaret. That's such a weird statement. Both of Carrie's parents were singers.
Fisher being a massive playboy is hard to believe seeing him here. He seems so sweet and honest lol
He seemed like it, but he wasn't!
Yeah, he looked so innocent. Their daughter commented that Liz was unhappy after Todd's passing and that he comforted her with his penis. This was before Liz and Eddie married of course. Turning his back on Debbie was bad for his career. Debbie had horrible taste in husbands. Must have been sad for her.
Sounds like me!!!!....:>)
My, that second segment was risque, for a time when Lucy and Ricky couldn't even be seen sleeping on the same mattress!
In one show on their way to California they stay at a cheap inn and they jump into the same bed together. While a rattling train goes by and their bed is moving all over the place it is from about 1955. And it was a twin bed.
My Father loved garlic pickles. When he had a few, you could smell him a mile away! I always liked the smell. It's one of those things that reminds me of my Dad.
Nice memory.
Odors are one of the most lasting of memories. The olfactory bulbs in the brain that help us identify odors are very close to the part of the brain that stores memories. The smell of bacon frying and coffee percolating reminds me of childhood weekend breakfasts. Realtors will tell you to bake bread or a cake shortly before having a showing of the house you are going to sell because that aroma of baked goods is a pleasant memory for many people (including me!).
+Joe Postove, I also love garlic pickles. The so-called new pickles don't do it for me.
For those who love garlic, here's a recipe for you. A few years ago, I was joining a small gathering of friends and they asked me to pick up a large amount of sliced German hard salami. I thought that what they were doing with it was insane until I tasted it. It was out of this world.
Take a slice of the hard salami. Spread cream cheese on it. Now depending upon your preference, you can either take another slice of hard salami to cover the cream cheese or leave as is. Take a garlic pickle spear and slice it in half short-ways so it will be shorter than the salami slice. Wrap the salami and cream cheese combo around the pickle spear. Eat and enjoy. (Or if you want to serve them to guests as an hors d'oeuvers, slice them into bite sized pieces and hold them together with toothpicks.)
Pepperoni slices wrapped around green olives stuffed with pimento also goes very nice. The salt in the olives helps balance the effect of the spice in your mouth without neutralizing the flavor. (If you ever find your mouth on fire from something too spicy, don't reach for water first, especially if the spice is in something greasy. The water will just spread it around more. Instead, just take a small amount of salt on your tongue and swallow. Your choice as to how you get it on your tongue, but I can imagine the way the tequila drinkers will do it! I don't know if it works for every kind of spice, but it sure works for any hot pepper.)
Lois Simmons Sounds delicious! I've been here in Israel for five years now, and when I tell my friends back home that Israeli food is NOT "Jewish" food, they are very surprised. I haven't had a corned beef or tongue sandwich since I got here! Israeli food is lots of salad, hummus, chicken...You can get a New York Jew style meal here but there are few places for that. One problem, is that almost every place is kosher and we cannot eat milk products and meat together (except in Tel-Aviv, which is the San Francisco of the middle east). Could you send me a corned beef on rye. Slide it under my door! :)
Joe Postove My computer screen must be dairy because it won't let me slide the corned beef sandwich (with brown mustard, of course, and a pickle, cole slaw and a Dr. Brown's on the side ... anything but Cel-ray!) Guess I will have to eat it myself, right after I finish my pastrami on rye. :-)
I am very aware of the meat-dairy thing (although Abraham violated it in feeding an angel, but that was before Moses and the Law came around). It really puts a damper on the menu of the local kosher Italian restaurant!
And I am also very aware of the reputation of Tel Aviv. It is to Jerusalem as San Francisco is to Lynchburg, Virginia (in attitude, not in size).
Lois Simmons You want a BLT here, you go to Tel-Aviv. Also, they are very good with LBGT and sometimes Q. And yet there is a large contingent of Orthodox there. In fact I have to deliver my stones for this week's Orthodox wing-ding!
Eddie Fisher's voice was phenomenal!
Oh John, really. Garlic will make your friends happier if it is in spaghetti sauce.
Dorothy rules, though I waited for her to ask, "Will your product ward off vampires?"
soulierinvestments LOLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL
Lyric baritone. Tenor without a top ! He had a beautiful voice
*A rare swing and a miss from Dorothy!*
Eddie was my absolutely favorite singer!
Yes and a womanizer who readily abandoned his family for another woman.
Eddie was a very good vocalist. His decision to leave Debbie for Elizabeth cost him A Lot as far as his career goes he was shunned for awhile in entertainment circles and his records did nor sell well for several years after his divorce from Debbie. He came to his senses later and split with Liz and focused on his career before he hooked up with Connie Stevens
first contestant's handwriting!!!
Very cool, wonderful voice.
How could this guy be the amorous interest of two beautiful and intelligent women like Reynolds and Taylor is beyond me.
Frank Sinatra warned Debbie Reynolds not to marry him. He told her singers make lousy husbands. He would know, and he was right. A sad bit of introspection, I think.
Beyond you? Really? He was ridiculously adorable then. Utterly captivating. A knock-out.
Think about it..
@@steve05401 Don't get ahead of yourself lol
I noticed that with the mattress demonstrator segment that John Daly went for his ear but it cut out right when he was getting his hand on it. It's at 10:59. Again, I think he's warning Bennett to take a different line. I have way too much time on my hands! :)
Must have been quite the task orchestrating a live broadcast with this level of popularity! Clever idea to develop such a signal to keep the panelists in line! Great trivia!
@Silversled The director could speak to them between segments, but John had to have signals while in the midst of questioning to let them know they had to stretch the questioning a bit long or condense it if they could into a shorter span of time left to them for a particular segment. Though there were times he got so caught up in a particularly funny segment that he lost track of the time, which was displayed overhead in front of him. You can see him look up toward the clock from time to time. He had a signal for when he thought someone like Hal Block might be getting too raunchy, which he used so as not to interrupt the game. Block had no filter or real understanding of the audience on TV all over the country. Johnny Carson always did for his show. Like Hal Block should never have said what he did to the first contestant here about wanting to see his razor marks on his wrists from when the Giants lost. That is just too grotesque for this show.
@Silversled I suspect he lasted as long as he did because initially they had a shrink and a poet on the panel who were both deadly dull. We are talking snooze time. I imagine that at least Block had a rep as a good comedy writer and did pull people, who liked his humor, into his stand-up concerts, so they perhaps kept hoping against hope. But he lacked the generosity of spirit later comics had who joined the panel, so he had nothing to buffer his comments that were lewd, crude, and socially unacceptable. Buddy Hackett, Alan King, Joey Bishop and lots of comics who were not regular panelists had the milk of human kindness in their veins and were funny. So it made a big difference because Block was totally outclassed by Bennett, Arlene, and Dorothy, not to mention Steve Allen, Fred Allen, Martin Gabel, and Tony Randall. Some comics didn't work well on the panel because, funny as they were when in their own element, they were not team players and so Groucho, Victor Borge and others obstructed the progress of the game by drawing too much attention to themselves when panelists. That's a factor because the game had to move. And Henry Morgan was just a nasty, talentless SoB no one wanted in their homes on a Sunday evening.
@@philippapay4352 I echo your feelings about Fred Allen. My favorite panelist of all-so witty and quick. Didn't like Groucho or Borge altho loved Groucho on YBYL. I never saw Borge in a performance where I liked him. Gary seems to have excellent taste but for some reason he liked Groucho on WML. Always liked Henry Morgan.
@@jerrylee8261 Yes, even quite different approaches to comedy could work well on the panel, like Steve Allen vs. Fred Allen or Ernie Kovacs vs. Buddy Hackett. It was a question of their generosity toward other performers, their understanding of the show's timing to keep the game moving & the audience entertained plus if they were hugely egocentric or insecure they simply could not control themselves with their self-promotion by taking their shtick too far for too long. The talented Wally Cox was funny, but carried his bits on way too long.
I liked Hal Block. Thought he was hysterical!
This show is hilarious
His laugh is great
Loved Eddie Fisher's voice. One of the very best!
I wonder who ever thought having the guests leave by walking behind John
was a good idea??? 🤯
It was later changed to the guests greeting the panel AFTER their turn not before (and all the doing turns forthe panel dropped)🎩
These are great
I feel sorry for Hal Block. Block was considered one of America's best comedy writers, having worked for many of the top comedians of the era, such as Bob Hope, Abbott and Costello, Martin and Lewis, Milton Berle and Burns and Allen and in all major mediums, including radio, Hollywood movies, Broadway and print. But What's My Line was his apogee as a television and show business figure. He never came close to replicating his fame on this show and ended up working in the financial world come the 60's. Sad ending.
thanks for mentioning all of the good works Hal did. I don't believe he is a fit for the show, but obviously he earned the right to be a regular panel member because of some work he did, it ended up he just did not fit in with this program, due to difference with his style versus the other panel members or times were a changing and his humour and actions were becoming less acceptable.
Brigit Kelly Perhaps.
I've.always.found.his.humor.sophomoric.and.not.funny.
According.to.Bennett.Cerf.in.an.interview.you.can.see.right.here.on.Utube,.he.was.fired.because.of.his.obnoxious,sexy.jokes.and.occasional.lewd.behavior.
Personally,I.often.try.not.to.watch.the.episodes.in.which.he.appears,but.sometimes
it.can't.be.helped.
702artie I.meant.to.say.sexist.jokes,lol
702artie Why do you type this way? This is the third straight comment you've left with periods replacing spaces. If you're typing on a phone, you're hitting the space bar TWICE.
Coke Time with Eddie Fisher was an American musical variety television series starring singer Eddie Fisher which was broadcast by NBC on Wednesday nights in early prime time from 1953 to 1957. The program was aired from 7:30 to 7:45 p.m. Eastern Time on Wednesdays and Fridays, and was not seen during the summer months. (A radio edition, recorded from previous TV soundtracks, was also heard on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 7:45 P.M. Eastern Time over the Mutual Broadcasting System from 1953 through 1955).
czcams.com/video/DWTwb3uQP_g/video.html
In the Eddie Fisher segment, Bennett says "we'll begin with the usual gambit". I thought that was not really public information. I've never heard anyone else on the show say that before.
He was just using the word "gambit" in the natural sense of the English word, not in the way Gil Fates used it to describe the technique of intentionally misdirecting the questioning for laughs. Gil Fates didn't invent the word "gambit", after all.
hahaha this episode was so funny
I've never seen Eddie before
The real Darth Vader, Eddie Fisher.
Ha... that's a well educated comment, I bet most people have no clue as to what you are referring... well done !
???
Well done
Here is a recording of a Books and Authors Luncheon speech by Bennett Cerf (starts 28 minutes in) as aired on WNYC Radio on Nov. 27, 1952. Included is his response to questions at the time about whether the show was "on the level." www.wnyc.org/story/elizabeth-vining-bennett-cerf-and-robert-moses/
Ron Flatter
Thank you so much for the link! I always wondered what one of Bennett's speaking engagements might have been like, and now I have heard an example of one of them -- great stuff! Well-timed to the current episode as well. :)
Ron Flatter Thank you very much for this link! I listened to it all, including Vining's interesting story about her experience as an American English teacher for the Crown Prince of Japan the late 40s, plus Bennett's and Robert Moses' speech. :)
SuperWinterborn
*n.b.*: "an American" ; "speech" ; "in the late 40s" (though I suspect at least one of those was just a typo.) :) Happy New Year, SW! I listened to Vining's speech too and plan to listen to the Robert Moses speech another time.
SaveThe TPC Thanks, and yes! The first one was a typo, the second I've always thought to be right, the third a mistake I often make, though I know the right way to spell it. :) Happy New Year to you as well! :) (Sending you a mail, when things are running better here :)
Ron Flatter
Wow! This was a great find. I loved listening to Cerf’s stories. He obviously does better when he has time to tell yarns and stories than he does on TV where he has to get in a quip in a matter of seconds.
I notice he couldn’t help but take a potshot at Hal Block.
From tv.com:
"The man whose preview picture is shown at the end of EPISODE #124 obviously could not make the show, because his picture is also featured as the preview photo at the end of EPISODES #130 and #131. Therefore, he does not appear on this show. The only male guest tonight, the garlic salesman, appeared instead as a substitution. In addition, the garlic salesman's occupation overlay screen is printed in a different typeface than the others."
Didn't we have a garlic salesman in the 60's recently. The producers probably thought garlic (as a concept) was hilarious.
He did seem very nervous, even for a contestant at this early stage. That would seem to indicate that he was a last-minute choice.
Wish You Were Here is still s great song which Mr. Fisher tosses off lyrically and with much aplomb. He is one of my favorite singers although I was 3 when this was popular!
Arlene’s wild guess should have won it for her right away
Fantastic moment : Dorothy didn't even know she was in Pittsburgh ! That Eddie Fisher ..... or Vic Damone ? !
"You're getting into my territory!" :) 11:25
Alas! This begins a period where Arlene's make-up artist totally neglects where the margins of her lips are, to the detriment of her looks. Somewhere along the line, since I've watched this before, I know she will recover her own mouth, but in the meantime, it will drive me crazy.
As a fellow OCDer, I laughed at your comment but found that look attractive on Arlene.
Fisher was not the youngest mystery guest, but he was young -- 24. Early luscious period.
15:25 > 15:55 One of Dorothy's most funny goofs of the whole 50s. Mention of Dorothy's faux pau came up a few months later when Vic Damone *did* appear as a mystery guest.
Brandon deWilde was 11 and Dorothy Kilgallen's son Richard was also 11 when he and his sister Jill (13) were MG.
Johan Bengtsson
If you're referring to when they were the mystery guests after Dorothy had her third child, they were a lot younger than 11 and 13. There's no way Jill, as a 13 year old girl, would have worn her hair in pigtails, much less wore a pinafore dress like the one she had on.
feverspell I am so sorry for the wrong facts! Jill (b. 7/16/1943) was only 10 and Richard (b. 7/11/1941) was 12 when the show was aired in March 21, 1954.
Poor Eddie. He was very handsome with a wonderful voice and he seemed very nice. I think he really was. Too bad Mike Todd died.
I liked Eddies voice better.
I could demonstrate how to use a mattress. Sleep. 20 bucks an hour plus a nearby refrigerator filled with Hostess Ho Ho's and Twinkies and an array of ice cream sandwiches spread out on the mattress.
+Joe Postove
I am picturing the mess when you come down from the sugar high from all those Ho Ho's and Twinkies and roll over on the array of melting ice cream sandwiches.
Lois Simmons I would never have to come down!
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"Would you like to be alone with this boy?"
"YES!!!"
Yes,, most definitely!
Yes, most definitely! Eddie was my favorite singer!
What I remember from the 50s are people in suits, sitting in train cars, smelling of Poof and cigarette smoke. Just kidding! But, I do miss many things about the 50s.
Before the decade is out, Fisher left Debbie, went to Elizabeth, left 2 children without a father, and the world around him collapsed!! Lost ALL his contracts, that we're substantial, and it went downhill from there!! Debbie & Elizabeth made up, but the damage was swift & destructive for Fisher!! Today if that happened??? 🤔🤔🤔🤔
Good. I don't think a womanizer who abandons his family should be rewarded do you ?
I'm having a very difficult time giving a fat hairy rats azz.....and I dont plan to try much longer......BWAHAHAHAHAHA!!
Wow the panel would keep this same personnel until 1965 (minus HB of course).
Joe Postove They had Steve Allen as a "4th member" from 1953 to 1954, and he was replaced by Fred Allen from 1954, to his death in 1956.
Such a cutie
He's so delicate. Like a little girl.
Hal Block! Too bad they fired him.
People are overly sensitive. Hal was racy for the time but he lent a special ingredient to the show.
Good clean fun
And Carrie Fisher was not yet born at that time, Eddie will be the father on Oct 21, 1956, amazing!
Block had a degree from University of Chicago and supposedly attended law school for two years at the same institution before dropping out and trying to make a living writing jokes (he partially funded college by selling jokes). Assuming it was as difficult then as it is now to get into Chicago, Block apparently had some intellect (for context, now it is very, very difficult to get accepted into University of Chicago).
Block was brought on the show to entertain.
Edwin Jack Fisher (August 10, 1928 - September 22, 2010) was an American singer and actor. He was one of the most popular artists during the 1950s, selling millions of records and hosting his own TV show, The Eddie Fisher Show.[1] Actress Elizabeth Taylor was best friends with Fisher's first wife, actress Debbie Reynolds. After Taylor's third husband, Mike Todd, was killed in a plane crash, Fisher divorced Reynolds and he and Taylor married that same year. The scandalous affair that Fisher and Taylor had been having while each were already married was widely reported and brought unfavorable publicity to both Fisher and Taylor. Approximately five years later, he and Taylor divorced and he later married Connie Stevens. Fisher is the father of Carrie Fisher and Todd Fisher, whose mother is Reynolds, and the father of Joely Fisher and Tricia Leigh Fisher, whose mother is Stevens.
One of the interesting things about watching these old episodes from the early 50s, is seeing occupations that, thanks to tech advances, no longer exist.
Another thing is the occupations that the vast majorityof ppl at the time were considered male only, yet women were doing them. The "lady iceman" is an excellent example of both.
Hal block just didn’t bother trying he was just there to play.
The other three were fierce and classy as usual.
Tough subject ice. If it is liquid, it is not by definition ice. If it is warm, it is not by definition ice.
Dorothy nailed the garlic
Dorothy had the deductive reasoning of Sherlock Holmes, it's too bad they killed her because of it.
Married to one of the most beautiful women on the planet and throws her over for someone who wound up with eight husbands…
Hal is just Hal. A little edgy for the time, but he makes me laugh a couple of times per show. Don't see why he was so hated, tho I'd take a Tony Randall or Martin Gabel over him any day. So I guess canning him was for the best.
He was not suffisitcated enough for the show. He was funny and too bad not enough episodes of him on the show survived.
madashell I find him rude and very smart ass. Don’t like him at all... he needs to go.
@@suecastillo4056 Bennett just was a more urbane letch.
I’m not too fond of Hal’s performances here either; but, I think his biggest problem was predictability. You always knew what from his joke was going to take.
A curious audience reaction to Eddie Fisher's last sentence regarding the army made even more curious by Daly's response. It got me looking to see if there was anything controversial about US Army activities in 1952. No more controversial than any other time particularly as far as I can see., but hey.This programne does flag up historical things, current affairs and so forth that require checking from time to time.
Anyway, on with the game....I'm still not wholly convinced the panel aren't privy to information beforehand. Seem to be some quantum leaps to the correct answers here and there! Anyone else agree? Or can vouch for it not being set-up?
Eddie seemed like a happy man here. Liz Taylor was his downfall.
He's so adorable here!
I do criticize John Daly when he says that ice was not as vital as electricity, gas, or heat. This episode was done in 1952. "... iceboxes remained in many homes through the 1940s. But in the mid-'50s, refrigerators began replacing iceboxes en masse." articles.latimes.com/1999/mar/28/food/fo-21737 . This made an ice an important business at the time of the broadcast; and, indeed, in the 1930s "... home service workers for the ice industry competed directly with the home economists employed by the electrical and gas industries and by public utilities" books.google.com/books?id=o_jL-Uf1s1UC&pg=PA265 , the same vital services named by Daly. In places that were not New York City, I imagine ice was still quite important.
romeman01
Interesting information and perspective. I'm afraid that Mrs. Gorman's ice business may not have been doing so well, though, as witnessed by her judgment that her business was *not* a profit-making organization and John's attempt to reassure her (20:05-20:20).
I don't give too much importance to the confusion over her employer making a profit. It might have been for one of two reasons: a) The acoustics in the What's My Line? studios were not always ideal; she might not have heard the question properly. b) Unless you have performed before cameras in a TV studio several times, you may be susceptible to being nervous and flustered over being on national television. And even if you have, you may still become nervous. The result is that you behave absurdly and discover this fact too late. (Ask me how I know.) I remember on one occasion Daly said that he had had to hold the hands of several female stars appearing in the mystery guest segments over the years because they were so nervous about doing the show. [cf "Isn't it wonderful to hear somebody like Miss Lucille Ball come and say that she was so nervous she almost didn't have her voice left." (7:12) czcams.com/video/FiUPVQAmWLI/video.html ] Nor was this a gender issue; several males were visibly afflicted with nervousness as well.
I have been trying find about when ice boxes were totally discontinued in the U.S. Who was the last of the icemen?
romeman01 I think you're very right in this. I have never been on neither TV shows or in radio, but it is not very difficult to imagine the nervousness many must have felt. Sorry you haven't got any +'s on this. I'm sure some others have tried to give you one also, but was denied by the "G+ phenomenon" like I was, now ;)
SaveThe TPC I wouldn't doubt it if the gas lobby tried to lobby against electrification of homes and business' in the late 19th century. The establishment business using the government to keep out competition by fear and law is as American as prostitution.
4:50 Listen closely for a car honking.
Again, why wasn't Studio 59 soundproofed? The studios at CBS Television City in Hollywood always were.
Just barely heard it. It was a 1944 Packard with white sidewall tires and four doors. They always had that distinctive sound.
Joe Postove
"Miss Vito, would it be your contention then that it was the white sidewall tires that were responsible for the sound?" (What movie am I paraphrasing/parodying, and why? ;) )
And @ 5:13! :)
SaveThe TPC "My Cousin Vinny". She figured it out from the tread marks.
*****
You got it! :D Now let's find out if Joe knows what we're talking about. He's usually the one to set up these "what movie?" trivia quizzes. :)
Dorothy sure was one smart cookie. She exemplifies the high rigorous ethical standards required of journalistic from decades ago, now residing in too few. Big tech tactics of “limited hangout“, “shaddow banning“ must be outlawed or lose this republic.
That was the fastest one yet
It may be 1952, the united dirty minds of America are already thinking just how the second contestant "demonstrates" mattresses!
Beautiful woman + bed = hilarity ensues, Hal Block goes all horndog.
The studios in New York were much older and not as soundproofed at the time. They always mention when the studio is too hot or cold, not well insulated either. Also, Hal Block didn’t really fit in with the others. Even when they were a bit risqué, It passed unnoticed because they were so refined and sophisticated. Apparently, they were viewers and sponsors who complained about the jokes, that they were too risqué.
Vic Damone is alive and 86 years old.
And Vic sang better than Eddie...
Johan Bengtsson PFC means private first class, his rank in the army. Eddie sang better than anyone, sorry, my opinion.
Betty Racine:)
Joe Postove I met him when I was a teenager after singing beautifully at a fair in South Florida. I asked him to sign my greatest hits album. Apparently he didn't recognize the cover and asked, "Where did this come from?"
I was not alive then but Eddie has a beautiful speaking voice. I was impressed with him. He seemed like a very nice guy.
Hal Block does Groucho at about 17:10. One senses that Gary doesn't care for that.
My god. Is that what that was?
Twiddling a pencil = Groucho... in the loosest sense of the word. :-)
Chris Barat I think at one point he puts the pencil up to his face to make a Groucho moustache.
Joe Postove I like the Block-Groucho connection here. I think he's really funny here. I know there's two or three people who will back me up.
+Joe Postove Gary who?
Seemed odd that Fisher was still a PFC after 2 years of service, but his biography says he dropped out of high school, so that probably explains it? Elvis was a SGT by the time he left the Army and had served in 2 tank battalions. Fisher's military career was just singing for functions.
Lady Iceman!??! Déjà vu all over again! My, my!
The lady iceman cometh... :)
Johan Bengtsson "The Icewoman Cometh".
What's My Line? Yeah, that's better!
Sounds like the name of a porn movie.
+Jeff Vaughn
"The Iceman Cometh" was a play by Eugene O'Neill that premiered on Broadway in October 1946 and ran for 136 performances until it closed in March 1947. The title is based on a running joke in the play that is somewhat crude (and somehow Hal Block doesn't jump on the line).
" I live in da' BROOONNNXX!"
This episode seems to be a good example of the writer's possibly providing questions in advance to the panel. For example, I think that Hal Block's question for the garlic seller: "Would it make anyone happier if they used it. Like say their friends?" While it elicited laughter from the audience, it was somewhat unfair to the contestant. That question, and the audience's laughter, made it fairly easy for Dorothy to assume that the product might have a somewhat offensive aroma. Even John Daly's response that "there may be some argument about this, but not much" was a clue.
Also, Bennett's asking the mattress demonstrator: "Is it ever used by both sexes at the same time?" seems a bit too coincidental to be just a spur of the moment question.
While these type of questions fed in advance certainly livens up the show, I can understand why the practice was stopped. It would have been a shame if WML had become involved in the quiz show scandal controversy.
EDDIE 🐟 ER. ELVIS. SO. MANY. GREATS. WHO. WERE. IN. THE. SERVICE
The studios in New York were much older and not as soundproof in those days. Hal never really fit in. The others were refined and sophisticated, and in relation to them he seemed crass. And apparently, there were viewers and some advertisers that did not appreciate the risqué jokes. But I love love love this show
For a minute I thought I was watching the Vic Damone episode from a few weeks later. The first guy (on that show) was also from the Bronx and he kind of looks like the guy here.
Also the other guy pickled herring and this man sells garlic!
Coincidence??????
Spooky. I am getting overlined!
Was the radio version of WML also a "G-T Production in association with CBS (Radio)"?
Joe Postove The radio series debuted on NBC, so, no.
The way they made the people walk in front of the panel to be scrutinized is cringe-worthy.
I agree but at least they aren't allowed to as them to stand on their heads or balance on one foot as in earlier shows.
I can just barely rem watching, with my Mother, Eddie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds before they married …and after. I never liked him after he left her for Liz Taylor.
We never again listened to his music or watched his shows.
You poor thing...obviously you didnt have a personal life....tsk,tsk....
7:59 Block practising the behavior that would get him fired.
Arlene's good line: I was fishing for a name: are you Eddie Fisher?
It's called What's My Line?.... but a third of the show is Who Am I ? (the Celebrity Guest)
Watch Hal and Arlene from 18:17 !