What's My Line? - Fred Allen (Aug 16, 1953)
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- čas přidán 8. 10. 2013
- MYSTERY GUEST: Fred Allen
PANEL: Dorothy Kilgallen, Steve Allen, Arlene Francis, Bennett Cerf
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My father was Don Utz who was one of the contestants on here! One of the only videos I have of him and I will cherish it forever ❤
Oh my goodness! What an amazing treasure. So glad you have this.
Was he from the family that founded the Utz snack food company? It's the sort of thing where one product might lead to another.
I enjoy Utz pretzels, good stuff.
John Daley was just about the perfect host for a programme like this.
I think the vast majority of regular viewers of the _What's My Line?_ channel on CZcams would agree with you, based on many comments they have posted, and I certainly agree with you myself. He was absolutely perfect, even when he made certain errors from time to time. Very pleasant and friendly to the contestants, too, but it was his way with words that was so inimitable.
+ToddSF 94109
John Daly not only had a pleasant personality (except on those occasions when he felt that he had to slap down a certain former panelist whose initials are HB) but he had to be more than just a moderator. He was certainly more involved with the challengers than Bud Collyer was on TTTT, and from what I can remember about IGAS, he was more often called upon to make decisions than Garry Moore was on that Goodson-Todman show.
Daly would often be called upon to determine the accuracy of the challenger's yes or no answer as well as make the call when the answer to a question fell into a gray area between yes and no. So he was often called upon to be an arbiter, and while he would occasionally call for a quick conference with the challenger, he generally had to make decisions quickly to speed the game along and fit a television time slot. Like a sports umpire/referee, he might not always be 100% accurate, but he called them as he saw them, was accepted as being fair, and kept the game moving and enjoyable.
I sense that he was genuinely good friends with all of the panel members at this time of the show. But he also had become familiar with their idiosyncrasies such as Arlene lobbying for a yes when she first received a no, Bennett sometimes asking questions that weren't answerable with a yes or no, Dorothy painstakingly asking for the smallest detail and going back over covered ground and Steve being counted on to break the tension with hilarity and a quick, clean wit. By the same token, they were used to his methods, such as the likelihood that if he was clarifying their question, it was probably leading them down the garden path to a no.
At the same time, I think he genuinely wanted the contestants to do well while putting the nervous ones at ease and acknowledging those who were confident and who he didn't have to help much with their answers. One of the most delightful moments of the show is John's reaction in two different situations. One was the glee he had when he knew that a yes answer was technically correct but would mislead to panel. The other was when he visualized a challenger's occupation being connected to a panelist's question and could see how outrageously absurd that picture would be.
It was no accident that WML kept John Daly in the moderator's chair for the entire initial run of the show from 1950 to 1967 (and missing if I recall only 4 episodes during that entire span). When you find something that works, you stick to it.
I agree with you, Todd & Lois about his skills in the technical areas of being a moderator. I do not think any of them liked Dorothy personally, but they respected her as a reporter & panelist, while being quite wary of her indiscretions when writing her gossip column and using information that may have been given off the record or in personal unguarded conversation. Daly, however, is a different problem. I have noted in reviewing these over the years that it is clear that the worst civil rights issues are manifest in the overall treatment of peoples of American Indian tribal nations, women and those who are overweight. Overt comments are made about various aspects of their existence, including given names, types of jobs they should hold and such that are not applied to any Asians or African Americans who visit the show. Odd how the 3 I mentioned crop up as problems over all 17 years. Too, Daly way too often neglects to promote the very thing the mystery guest is there to promote: even when it is the polymath Steve Allen. Often Arlene or Martin have to jump in to speak about a book or play coming out. Daly talks about himself all the time. He relates damn near everything that the mystery guest has done or even other guests to someone he knows or has worked with or some experience in this life and does so in a manner that is not conversation, but rather nauseatingly self-promoting. He is also way too touchy feely with everyone. People can use their words and react to his instructions. He touches people all the time and it is a bit weird or controlling or putting the self forward when the moment should be the other person's alone. They could not use most of his conversations with mystery guests in a retrospective that was done because they were so much about him and his past experiences or utterly cloying and sugary in their worshipfulness that was so inappropriate that one artist called him on it when Daly went on and on about the artist's work on the show in a bizarre fashion. There was good reason for him to shut down Hal Block and step over Henry Morgan's comments on shows. Neither of those show biz types was suited to the program at all. Tony Randall fit in. Buddy Hackett fit in. Martin Gabel was perfection. Paul Winchell was excellent. Robert Q. Lewis seemed like family there. So many with distinct talents of their own fit in quite well. Phyllis Newman and Kitty Carlisle did well on the panel. But, Hal and Henry were the pits. Groucho was oddly disruptive in a way that threatened to run the show overtime without providing what people tuned in for. Victor Borge, whom I loved on his own programs, was dreadful that way as well. He could not control his need to disrupt and be the center in a way that actually was nervous-making about the end results of that program in terms of fitting what the audience wanted to see into the time frame allowed by the network. Whether you like someone's art or not, and Groucho and Borge were wonderful at what they did, some do not fit this panel. On the other hand, the wild and crazy Jerry Lewis, while he was still perhaps the biggest star on the planet, was gently and forcefully professional in refusing to discuss the separation of his act with Dean Martin and simply noted that he was on there as a performer and his purpose along with promoting his new movie was to entertain, not to discuss things suited for other forums. So, I do not like John Daly at all, but thoroughly respect the gifts he brought to the running of these programs.
Amen to that !!
@z Still making jerk comments I see.
The best episodes were by far, the ones with Steve Allen.😂❤
I had heard of Steve Allen but had no idea what he did. After watching these WML shows
I think he’s a real jewel. He did it all.
Thanks so much for these downloads!
This was the day I was stricken with Polio. It was a long time ago.
"If any cows are watching, I'm sorry." I laughed so hard at that line. I love Steve.
"We hardly ever run into a cow-looker on this program..."
Arlene got a bang out of that, as well!
Fred should have used the knocking technique for his answers: One for yes, two for no. There is no way on Earth that he could ever disguise THAT voice!
@Tre404 You may be right, though I think if he'd tried either a high falsetto or a very low rumble and given brief yes or no answers he might have gotten away with it better. After all, if Louis Armstrong could do it, pretty much anybody could! ;) But certainly the ventriloquist voice he used was far too recognizable. Then again, I have the impression that Fred was less interested in fooling the panel and more interested in providing amusing answers, and that's okay too. :-)
I'm sure you noticed that Fred's lips never moved while talking. His early vaudeville career involved juggling and ventriloquism.
"The machine age will ruin us all!" - Arlene Francis
seeing fred put a smile on my face :) little did they know mr allen would become a regular member of the panel just a few months later
I love Arlene's earrings in this show; just like little chandeliers.
I think they were actually called chandelier earrings.
This is the 3rd time I have seen her wear them...she must be very fond of them.
John Daly. What a legend
I didn't watch this program growing up now I'm an addict everyone on the panel is right plus John daily
Fred Allen mentions NBC by name and John goes straight for the famous earlobe tug
It was pretty common for Steve Allen to be asked if he was related to Fred Allen, which of course he wasn't. If they were, it might have explained their genius at ad libbing as a genetic mutation. . . ;)
John Florence Sullivan (fredallen.org)
People need to understand Fred Allen wasn’t a rude guy. He wasn’t being insulting on purpose. He was part insult comic.
"P.S. In Person."
Just a hint of even greater and wittier things to come when Fred joined their panel later.
Ms. Wolfe's signature is star-quality
Fred Allen was bona fide funny.
I don't know how many people know that in his vaudeville days, Fred Allen was a ventriloquist. So i believe he was trying to talk without moving his lips. He did a pretty good job of it .
@amberola1b I agree that he did pretty well as a ventriloquist here -- however, not so well at disguising his voice despite keeping his lips closed! :-)
You can just feel Dorothy's frustration when she rips the paper after they can't figure out the milk machine salesman.
Sounds more like she's pulling the top page off of a pad.
I was waiting for steve to ask 'would arlene ever use one of these?' regarding the milking machine
ONe of the best classic episodes that I have seen
I was one day old when this showed on television. Remember it well. LOL
Happy Birthday Fred! Thanks for all the laughs!
I love the big fat belly laugh of John Daly at 9:04. It's the same as the one where he cracks up at Groucho Marx's antics many years later. It's a laugh which is nothing to do with performance but just sheer hilarity and shows in fact that he had a particular penchant for the surreal and wacky as in this case.
I like John Daly very much. He is a real gentleman and answers the questions on behalf of the contestants in a respectable and succinct way while also looking at and conferring with them at the same time
13:36...I've waited for a small conference here :D
From Wiki about June Wolfe: In 1963, while attempting to drive after being hit in the head with a Coke bottle, Byers experienced quadruple vision and collided with a tree.[13] The leg damage from the auto accident cut her career short at age 41 and forced her to retire on January 1, 1964.[3] In her later life, she had double vision from the incident.[14] She died in 1998 at the age of 76. Fred Allen's "disguised" voice was the worst attempt ever, the timbre, the rhythm of speaking etc., I recognized it while getting warm water from a kettle in the kitchen... I hope the cows enjoyed this program, despite the bad joke about sausages, after first have been treated so fine with the milking machine part.
Good heavens!
Poor June Wolfe.
I hope the idiot who threw the bottle was prosecuted.
Dorothy had a Betty Boop hair style!
EVERYONE knew it was Fred after the first sentence.
You can't disguise a one-of-a-kind voice like Fred Allen's!
No EVERYONE did not know it was Fred after the first sentence. That was pretty obvious!
Mrs. Wolfe's dimples-- and was she ever dressed to the nines!
Randall Riley - Generally, I would not comment on female attire or looks. However, I could not agree with you more. She really seemed quite sweet thanks to the dimples and extraordinarily sophisticated thanks to the elegant evening wear, all of which served as perfect foils to the profession she practiced and excelled at. She was none of the things one might assume if jumping to conclusions about female wrestlers or even athletes in general. She presented herself as a very outgoing lady with humor. Great juxtapositions there.
As a fan of wrestling,I love looking at the wrestlers on this show!
I wonder if Mr Utz is related to the Utz potato chip/pretzel snack family.
@Laura Atkinson I was thinking the same thing! I don't know if the Utz snack company had been founded yet in 1953, but when they did the free guesses, I was wondering if anyone would say he makes potato chips. It reminds me of a much later episode (July 12, 1964) when a Mrs. Quinlan came on and Robert Q. Lewis asked (he thought innocently) if he could assume she had nothing to do with pretzel-making. Turns out, she was indeed the president of the Quinlan pretzel company, and Robert Q. was embarrassed and felt bad for having revealed her line so quickly! Here's a link to the video of that episode. Mrs. Ann Quinlan is the second contestant, and her segment begins around the 6:55 mark in the video linked here: czcams.com/video/Hs0AicmSziU/video.html
@@savethetpc6406 I had to look up Utz after reading your comment. I found nothing to indicate that the contestant was related to the company, but did find some interesting facts. To keep from getting too boring, here are just two: (1) The company was founded in 1921, and (2) They now produce 1 million pounds of potato chips every week.
Another person on here said they were.
I was wondering the same! Being from The Delmarva area, Utz chips are well known in this area!
@@Frankcastlepunisher74 Former Marylander here. :)
At 23:00, Dorothy said, “I’d say it’s larger than Steve’s breadbox.” (17th use)
At 21:51: the first time John stands directly behind the guest’s chair as he pushes her in.
The Stopette scorecards and desk sign are back after a few weeks.
Thank goodness, they changed the format where the contestants didn’t have to parade themselves in front of the panelists and also didn’t have to exit behind John Charles Daly. I bet a lot of people wrote in about that. I probably would’ve written.
Steve Allen liked motorcycles which was Incorporated into one of the episodes.
Jack Benny: "Oh, Fred's so smug because he can say such big words with his nose!"
🤣🤣🤣
I listen to Old Radio Classics I’m SXM and if I’m lucky, will happen upon Fred Allen’s show! So much funnier than many comedians of the current times! 😊
20:35 someone backstage bumps the curtain.
There are only a few who are like Fred Allen in that you start laughing a little before he even comes on.
Today's CZcams Rerun for 10/29/15: Watch along and join the discussion!
Fred Allen's first appearance! (as mystery guest-- he didn't join the panel for another year.)
Please note that there are audio/video dropouts in this video. I apologize for not being able to fix this and the half-dozen or so other remaining glitched shows, but it's just not possible for me to fix these now. I hope it doesn't detract from your ability to enjoy the show too much.
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Damn! I was nine years old when this was on..
Whats My Line to let you know i did find out that the radio version repeats of the ones often advertised on these posted tv series was broadcast on Australian national radio early June this year I never heard them and apparently they run them in rotation around other BBC comedy radio. I know little more of it as TV broadcasts but did hear that the US version was shown on Australian TV in the mid sixties More info to come when I dig a little further for you
He was soooooo witty!
ROTFL over Steve's question, "Might I got to you, for example, if I wanted to have some teeth removed."
Fred Allen looked like he was trying to do a ventriloquist act.
As recently as the previous week, John's summary of the rules referred to getting a No from the panel; it's amazing how many times he got this backward. Finally this week he gets it right again by telling the contestant "every time you can give the panel a No answer it costs them $5." 3:35 for the first contestant, for instance.
What he says to the first contestant, Samuel Moser, in the immediately preceding week's show is "Every time you get a 'no' answer from any member of the panel, it costs the panel, in total, five dollars."
It is a bad way to put it.
The origin of this mistreatment may be as simple as reversing such words as "you" & "panel", "get" & "give", and "from" & "to" (as in "the panel gets a 'no' answer", "you give a 'no' answer to the panel").
It also may be a truncation of a more complex idea, as in reducing "Every time you get a-question-to-which-you-can-give-a-'no'-answer from any member of the panel" to "Every time you get a-'no'-answer from any member of the panel", kind of like turning "telephone" into "phone".
The latter seems to be the kind of thing that goes on nowadays when so many people quite seriously say "no" for "yes", as in being asked "Does it matter what color it is?" and answering "No, it does." Nowadays, many people are so afraid to ask a question that, instead of just asking the question, they say things like "I'm sorry; I hope you don't think I'm rude for asking this; would you mind answering this for me: does it matter what color it is?" A common answer nowadays may well be "No; absolutely; it does", in which the first two words are responses not to the final question, but to the introduction, as in "No, you needn't apologize; absolutely, I don't mind answering that for you; it does matter what color it is." The nervous prefaces to questions have become so common that now they are assumed to be there even when they aren't there, so that people who have been asked nothing but "Does it matter what color it is?" say "No, it does" instead of "Yes, it does." It's very annoying: many are the radio interviews I've heard in which a simple yes-or-no question is answered in all seriousness with such bloated, self-contradictory junk as "No, yeah, sure, yeah, no, so, yeah, no, absolutely, yeah, definitely."
When she mentions 'the machine age' after the cow milking guy. She had no idea what it would be like 70 years down the road.
My. Parents were married the day before this aired.
Fred Allen’s voice is immediately unmistakable
That's a funny way of saying he sells cows 😂
Woah when did fred become a ventriloquist?! ❤
The lady wrestler reminded me of Bess Myerson.
june byers was a fine looker in her wrestling gear and quite an interesting person The Fabulous Moolah alleges that while traveling with Billy Wolfe's troupe of female wrestlers, Byers often slept with Wolfe (despite his marriage to Burke) in order to get better bookings.
Upon Wolfe's death, Byers moved to St. Louis to work for promoter Sam Meneker, who became her third husband. In 1963, while attempting to drive after being hit in the head with a Coke bottle, Byers suffered quadruple vision and collided with a tree.The leg damage from the auto accident cut her career short at age 41 and forced her to retire on January 1, 1964 In her later life, she suffered double vision from the incident
Byers returned to Texas after retirement from the ring, becoming a real estate agent.She had two children, Billy and Jewel. Her son was fatally electrocuted in an accident, and Byers was reportedly never the same afterward. She died of pneumonia at her Houston home in 1998.
information sourced from Wikipedia
Michael Mantle
She wasn't married to him at the time. The story goes that she was single he was dating another wrestler or so it goes and she slept with him to enhance her career. i got the story from a couple of web site one being an official wrestling history one I will try to find the source again. Wolffe was quite an important figure in the industry at the time
Michael Mantle
The Fabulous Moolah is credited on Wikipedia to saying Wollffe was married to Mildred Burke who was a major opponent for the world women's champion. Moolah claimed that Byers (her maiden name) slept with him to gain better bookings
It is perhaps heresay but that is where the story emanates from
Michael Mantle
She did in fact marry Wolffe a few years later so she didn't lie to the panel. It is not certain that her affair with him split the other marriage up but she remained married to him till his death. it is more than likely petty jealousy or perhaps publicity that the story came out but she was a very fine wrestler and I do enjoy looking up facts and stories on it as well as the contestants on WML as well
When the game was over John Daly told the panel that she was actually June Byers so I don't believe she lied to anyone as he acknowledged that Wolfe wasn't her name. I'm not sure why she used an alias for the show unless they thought her name might be recognizable.
+mrpuniverse2
+Michael Mantle
According to a couple of sites I looked up, June wasn't married to Wolfe the promoter; she was married to his son. That relationship alone and the father's desire to get back at his ex-wife would be enough to give June better bookings.
Speaking of wrestling, Andy Kaufman would have filed someone sleeping with both a father and son under "W" for "whoa!"
I will also say that in a world like professional wrestling, it is difficult to separate fact from fiction. Suffice it to say that there are also a lot of stories told about The Fabulous Moolah.
BTW Michael Mantle, are you aware that Mickey was the real first name of the great Yankee center fielder whose last name was Mantle? It was not a nickname. Mickey Mantle was given that first name by his father. His favorite player was Hall of Fame catcher "Mickey" Cochrane. (Mickey's father wasn't aware that Cochrane's first name was Gordon, and he was "Mickey" because that was a popular nickname for an Irishman in those days.)
Fred Allens camouflage was not very tricky.
Unfortunately one my favorite panelists Fred Allen died about 2 years later!
John Daly missed an opportunity for a joke: Mr. Allen, meet Mr. Allen, referring to Steve & Fred. that would've been funny.
Todd Baxter I think it would’ve been extremely groanworthy to the audience of then 😅😂🤣
I thought I was eating the wrong brand of potato chip while watching the first challenger until he said that he was from Newark, Delaware. Utz potato chips and their other snack products are made in Hanover, PA which is about 40-50 miles WNW of Newark. And I won't milk this post any further than that.
this is some useful facts to know.. great stuff
Fred's voice is a dead give away!!!
Both of the Allens here were super panelists for this show.
A lot of annoying moments in this upload with the picture skipping ahead.
The hoop style earrings as the 1st Barbie in '59.
hoops are round - these were called chandelier earrings..
15:15 - a conference (side bar)
As for TV these days, we're pretty much at the shallow end of the "gene pool."
It's worse in 2022, with all the "woke" nonsense cluttering up the entertainment world.
Steve Allen is an "Allen" and Fred is not.... You can look it up.
Look at Fred Allen Headstone.
John Florence Sullivan!
2:28 It is not clear whether John Daly is aware that Newark, Delaware is pronounced differently from Newark, New Jersey. In Delaware, both syllables are stressed about equally, while in New Jersey, the accent is clearly on the first syllable.
I think Mrs. Wolfe could've been a calligrapher
Was this the 3rd or 4th female wrestler on the show?
4th
Is this the first time John Daly changes from telling the challenger to "get a 'no' answer out of the panel" to telling them to "give the panel a 'no' answer" (3:34)?
Just curious, why does that matter? Glad to see the comments. Keep watching!
Glad Hal Block wasn't there to harass the wrestler.
Professional wrestler
Is it just my phone or does the video jerk/skip occasionally for everyone? Rather disconcerting.
Being from Houston, I enjoyed this show more than usual, which is tremendously!
Love this channel!!
Juanette Butts I wouldn’t be so quick to criticize or complain about some of the ONLY surviving copies left of this show. These copies were uploaded with the best of intentions and the hardest of efforts for you and hopefully many, many, many more people to enjoy. I invite you to call CBS up and ask for a better version :) Or peruse the internet for days on end contacting people who may or may not sell you their recordings. It is very sad that such an influential show could be in a sense buried in history and time. We owe SO much to these days of television that I am baffled I can’t purchase a complete, intact set of every episode recorded. It’s a luxury we feel entitled to now.... nearly 70 years after its success.
I’m lucky enough to watch these at my convenience AD FREE. Enjoy!
GIARCO SERROT -- Thank you for your reply.
I apologize if it came across as a criticism. It wasn't intended as such. Having an older phone, I was thinking it might be my phone and not the video.
As I said, I love the channel. I'm enjoying the videos very much, and appreciate the obviously hard work put in to bring them to us.
Juanette Butts I apologize myself for the misunderstanding....I’m really just a fuddy duddy who enjoys this show greatly and misses it! I’ll take it in any version I can find it in. I’ll also admit it was my glass of wine talking for me and that I should’ve been more careful with my assumptions. I should be happy that there are people still interested in the show who are watching it here on CZcams :) that’s the best part out of all this. I wish you the best!
GIARCO SERROT -- No harm done!
I agree with you: it's fortunate for those of us who enjoy quality television to have such a channel to watch! (I happen to be binge-watching right now!) Someone works/worked hard to get these shows on CZcams. Cheers to him!
Best wishes and a happy 2019 to you!
Juanette Butts Yes, it definitely acts up alot, regrettably; because I *love* these shows. But, thankful that it still plays. 😉
never knew deodorant spray was that old
I'm sorry for the delayed response, but do you have more of the broadcast from june 14 1953? I'm interested in the Children's Program that day. Especially the first show. It's not a problem if you don't have it, but it would mean that a significant fragment of television history will be found.
Am I wrong or does the hair color of sweet Mr Cerf alter from episode to episode?
Dorothy made a total mess of the first contestant's line. After Arline established that the contestant has something to do with the milk (after 4 "nos"), she put the entire panel on wrong track asking a lame question; she was apparently not following questions of other panelists!
Second game: the woman Cerf mentioned in his free guess was one of Eisenhower's cabinet secretaries. Apparently Ms. Wolfe did not like her.
June B Wolfe: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/June_Byers en.wikipedia.org/wiki/June_Byers
What was that ear tug 😂
Why did it take so long with Fred Allen?!
16:45 Fred Allen
Why did Mr. Allen sign in with the 'P.S. In Person' bit?
That was something of a holdover from his days in radio. I know for sure that during the period when he did Texaco Star Theater, his announcer Kenny Delmar (and for a brief period Arthur Godfrey) would announce him as "Fred Allen, in person." I'm afraid I haven't heard enough of "Town Hall Tonight" to remember if his announcer there, Harry von Zell, did that as well.
Yes, indeed, in the Town Hall Tonight era, Harry Von Zell introduced Fred week after week with a tongue twister that ended with "Fred Allen, in person".
"You have won the full prize of $50"... I wonder what that's the equivalent to in today's money? 60+ years ago this aired... I guess it would amount to hundreds of dollars in today's economy.
$480 in 2019, using US consumer price index figures.
@@neilmidkiff Interesting... thanks for sharing the information.
Dorothy asks the milking machine man if, when he comes in contact with cows, does "he look at them"
Mr. Utz, being a Christian should have said "no, I avert my eyes".
I heard that selling milking machines CAN Be a cheesy job.
Fred gave it all away from the start. His voice is more distinctive than Eleanor Roosevelt's.
I thought that even though the panel might know who it was, they were supposed to go around once to be fair to each other.
I think Bennett knew it right away.
And now I'm going out to find out what distinctive means.
Fred aliens voice didn't really change but was lower
Fred Alien?
A quick Wiki search on the wrestler reveals that Wolfe was the last name of her manager. Her name wasn't June nor Wolfe.
Her birth name was DeAlva Eyvonnie Sibley. No wonder her childhood nickname was "June". Byers was the last name of her first husband, and Wolfe (the *son* of the wrestling promoter) was her second husband. When she divorced him, she married her third and last husband, another wrestling promoter named Sam Meneker.
Dorothy looked a bit like Betty Boop here!?
???
When did Cerf find time to write 6 columns a week?
Well, I'm sure you've read some of his columns by now. How long could those have possibly taken, really? 30 minutes, tops. ;) They were very short, and almost exclusively comprised of Bennett regurgitating other people's jokes and anecdotes-- incompetently.
I don't understand what so many people have against Bennett Cerf. I see so many negative comments about him. Personally, he was always my favorite panelist. I loved Dorothy, Arlene and Fred, but Bennett for some reason was always my favorite. Can you explain to me why he seems to be so disliked?
Tre404 Bennett isn't widely disliked-- and certainly not by me. His "Try and Stop Me" columns were filler of the most disposal sort, that's all I said. The overwhelming majority of comments about Bennett on this channel are very positive; each member of the cast was important to its chemistry.
If you're seeing negative comments, well, that's because this is the internet. Opinions are opinions. The most direct explanation I've seen people offer for disliking Bennett-- the minority-- is that a lot of people (not me) are deeply bothered by what they perceive to be extremely sexist comments he made routinely to female guests, which I agree with to a point, but his behavior was 100% acceptable for its time, so it doesn't bother me. Others have said that they find him arrogant or pompous, which I don't really agree with much, though Bennett certainly had quite an ego (by his own admission).
Maybe someone who actually dislikes Bennett will jump in and offer his take; I can only parrot what I've read in the minority of negative comments that folks have left about him. Suffice it to say, Bennett is loved and appreciated by the overwhelming majority of people who watch WML!
Cerf played the game well but he is definitely arrogant and pompous and an egomaniac. His voice is also on the irritating side and he considers himself to be much more clever than he is. He has to lord over all the guests in the wild guess that he knows some company that is based where the contestant is from. Additionally, he must have been overcompensating for insecurity. He is very critical of other people. If you read his interviews about WML, he was perfect in every way and various other panelists were bad at being a panelist or bad people.
@@WhatsMyLine Bennett is an amazing writer! Never saw him as pompous at all....
old cerf cheated this week, went straight to 'farm' on milking machine and straight to 'wrestling' with the lady wrestler!
Sometimes members of the panel would hear things backstage they weren't supposed to. After some of the quiz show scandals of the mid 50s the show tightened it up a bit. Cerf and Arlene were the worst offenders and I do suspect the same thing on this episode
As much as I love Steve, the gambits that he persuaded (or the producers) were blatantly transparent. His lines of questioning were indeed funny, and I am sure humoured the audience, but in my humble opinion, the gambits were unnecessary.
SELLS MILKING MACHINES
PROFESSIONAL WRESTLER
REPAIRS MOTORCYCLES
Please remove this moronic troll from the comments section
I'm having a good time watching these black and white shows from yesteryear, buy I we would rather watch an interview withBobby Scott