What's My Line? Season 1 Episode 11

MYSTERY GUEST: This was the first of two mystery guest appearances by legendary big-band leader and trombonist Tommy Dorsey. His second and final appearance, as part of a mystery guest duo with his brother Jimmy Dorsey on EPISODE #280 of October 16, 1955, was far more fortunate in that the kinescope of this later show does exist, unlike tonight's episode. One instrumentalist who played in Mr. Dorsey's band at one point, Nelson Riddle, subsequently became a music conductor in his own right, working with such legendary singers as Nat "King" Cole and Frank Sinatra, as well as having a hit of his own in 1956 with "Lisbon Antigua." Another Dorsey sideman who later went on to bigger and better things was trumpeter Carl "Doc" Severinsen, who was the main musical director for "The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson" from 1967 until Mr. Carson's retirement in 1992. Three vocalists who performed with Mr. Dorsey over his long career as a bandleader went on to greater fame as soloists down the road: Jo Stafford, Dick Haymes, and Frank Sinatra, all of whom each made exactly one appearance on "WML?" as a mystery guest: Miss Stafford, on EPISODE #332 of October 14, 1956; Mr. Haymes, on the now-lost EPISODE #9 of June 7, 1950; and, last but not least, Mr. Sinatra, on EPISODE #838 of November 27, 1966. - W-B (2008)