When Arlene introduced Martin, she smiled and with a wicked gleam in her eye said, "And now, here's a man who people say has the most attractive wife in show business." Only the charming and witty Arlene could get away with something like that! Then there were some unintentionally hilarious questions from the panel. In first round, Dorothy asked the designer of astronaut's space suits, "If I wore this on Fifth Avenue, would people think it was strange?" Later on, Arlene drew laughter from the audience when she asked the publisher of racing forms, "Is this a product I might use?" (The answer was yes.)
Phil Silvers popped back in unexpectedly after his mystery guest appearance ended. He could be seen peeking through the curtains as the final guest was signing in. An alert cameraman quickly pulled out to a wide shot so we could see him. He made some funny remark, but since he didn't have a microphone close by, it was hard to hear what he said.
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Episode Summary
Game 1: Mr. R. S. Colley (7/22/1897 - 2/4/1996) - "Develops and Makes Space Suits for Astronauts" (salaried; he works for B. F. Goodrich Company; he has been working on the development of spacesuits since 1934 and is now the head of his group which strives to perfect them; he is working on NASA's Mercury Project; from Cuyahoga Falls, OH)
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''Game 2: Miss Nancy Guerrieri - "Men's Barber" (salaried; she is 16 years old and is a fully licensed barber; she works in her father's barber shop; from Aliquippa, Pennsylvania)
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''Game 3: Phil Silvers (5/11/1911 - 11/1/1985) (as Mystery Guest) He first signs in as Rock Hudson, crosses that out, and signs his own name. See notes below.
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''Game 4: Mrs. Marian E. Swink - "Prints Race Track Programs" (self-employed; she is the president of The Official Program Publishers Company, Inc. of Valley Stream, Long Island, NY that prints programs for all the New York racetracks; from Salisbury, North Carolina)
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''Game 2: Miss Nancy Guerrieri - "Men's Barber" (salaried; she is 16 years old and is a fully licensed barber; she works in her father's barber shop; from Aliquippa, Pennsylvania)
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''Game 3: Phil Silvers (5/11/1911 - 11/1/1985) (as Mystery Guest) He first signs in as Rock Hudson, crosses that out, and signs his own name. See notes below.
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''Game 4: Mrs. Marian E. Swink - "Prints Race Track Programs" (self-employed; she is the president of The Official Program Publishers Company, Inc. of Valley Stream, Long Island, NY that prints programs for all the New York racetracks; from Salisbury, North Carolina)
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John Daly
Moderator (1950-1967)
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Arlene Francis
Regular Panelist (1950-1967)
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Bennett Cerf
Regular Panelist (1951-1967)
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Notes
ADD NOTES- FLIP REPORT: In the night's first game, John flipped the remaining cards for the first contestant at eight down. Arlene essentially guessed all of the specifics of this contestant's occupation, but the cards went over anyway, because John quibbled with Arlene's exact wording of the guest's line. In the night's second game, John flipped the remaining cards for the second contestant at just one down. Dorothy correctly identified this contestant's line, but John put the cards over because he said they had something to celebrate in the fact that this contestant was only sixteen, but was a fully licensed barber for men's hair. In the night's final game, John flipped the remaining cards for the final contestant at five down because time ran out. The panel never really came very close on this one and Arlene Francis told John to go ahead and flip the cards, stating that she wanted the contestant to have the full $50 because the contestant was pretty. Once Arlene learned the contestant's line, she jokingly stated that she wanted the $50 back. - agent_0042 (2009) Edit
- (1) "WML?" SPONSOR AND ANNOUNCER WATCH: The primary sponsor for this episode is Sunbeam, and announcer Hal Simms goes with the "award-winning 'What's My Line?' panel" intro tonight. (2) INTRODUCTION IRONY: When introducing Dorothy, guest panelist Martin Gabel referred to her as "one of the greatest cross-examiners since the late Clarence Darrow." Given that panelists on another Goodson-Todman program, "To Tell the Truth," were regularly referred to by host Bud Collyer as "cross-examiners," the only time Miss Kilgallen served in a "cross-examining" capacity on that show was on the March 19, 1962 edition, near the end of "grande dame" Kitty Carlisle's four-month absence from the program which had followed the death of Miss Carlisle's husband, author and playwright Moss Hart, in late 1961. There would be an ironic significance to this a few years afterward, following Dorothy's own death, when Kitty sat in the "Voice of Broadway" columnist's old seat for the Kilgallen tribute EPISODE #790 of November 14, 1965. (3) "WML?" OVERLAY FONT WATCH: Both the occupation overlay of the first contestant and the lower-third overlay of mystery guest Phil Silvers bore the hallmarks of "last-minute" typesetting tonight (although a smaller size of type was used for the regular contestant's overlay than for Mr. Silvers' lower-third overlay), while the second and fourth contestants' overlays were set in the usual Futura Demi Bold. (4) FONT NOTES: It is usually a sign of a last-minute switch in mystery guests when the font used for his or her name on the overlay screen (or an occupation, if a regular contestant) is in a typeface as usually used in those days for display on outdoor signs (i.e. at a church or other gathering place) or for credits on home movies, rather than the usual Futura Demi Bold font. This wasn't only the case on tonight's show with Phil Silvers and the first contestant, but also most notably on EPISODE #364 of May 26, 1957 when Sammy Davis, Jr. was a last-minute replacement for Mike Wallace. (5) PHIL SILVERS: It was a few months prior to tonight's show that the popular comedian's sitcom, "The Phil Silvers Show" (aka "You'll Never Get Rich") came to an end after a four-year run on CBS, and began life in syndication (initially under the title "Sergeant Bilko"). The series had been filmed at one of the studios of the old DuMont network at 205 East 67th Street on the Upper East Side of Manhattan; by the time Mr. Silvers' show ended, that network's New York flagship, WABD (Channel 5), had changed its call letters to WNEW-TV (it is today WNYW, and still at the same East Side studios). Also, it was eight days prior to this episode, on October 17, 1959, that Mr. Silvers starred in a TV play called "The Ballad of Louie the Louse," which also co-starred Eddie Albert, Pert Kelton and Betsy Palmer. (6) "WML?" CLOSING THEME AND CREDITS CRUNCH WATCH: Yet again, no "Rollercoaster" ride is taken, as for the third week in a row, another piece of end music, the Raymond Scott composition "The Toy Trumpet," is heard over the closing credits. The substitute music is the same music which has been heard in several previous episodes. Yet, viewers who saw this episode on GSN on March 11, 2009 would have been totally unaware of the change in closing music because, by then, the cable and satellite channel had long been in the practice of using their unwelcome and unwanted "credits crunch" procedure in lieu of airing full-screen credits and original vintage audio. And as for the end credits, which followed the United Airlines travel arrangements plug, the cutoff point came after the art card crediting associate producers Bob Bach and Ann Kaminsky. (7) GSN's March 11, 2009 airing of tonight's show was followed by the September 1, 1959 edition of "To Tell the Truth," with host Bud Collyer and his merry band of "cross-examiners": Polly Bergen, Ralph Bellamy, Monique van Vooren and Tom Poston. The first game featured Congressman Kenneth J. Gray (D-Illinois; also a magician) and two impostors; the second game featured James Caspers (world champion archer) and two impostors; and the third game featured Ronald Hopkins (who won the title of Teenage Safe Driving Champion) and two impostors. - W-B (2005, updated 2009) Edit
- MARLON BRANDO: If Phil Silvers is to be believed, the original planned mystery guest was supposed to be Marlon Brando. However, Silvers was joking. As history tells us, Brando never did make an appearance as a mystery guest on the CBS TV version of WML. His only What's My Line? appearance was on the WML radio program that aired on December 3, 1952. The weekly radio program lasted from May 1952 until July 1953. - Suzanne (2005) MYSTERY GUEST MYSTERY SOLVED: Gil Fates' handwritten WML logs indicate that Harry Belafonte was originally scheduled to be tonight's mystery guest. John wasn't kidding when he said they might still use him, as Belafonte is next week's mystery guest. - Suzanne (2005) MUSICAL MYSTERY SOLVED - Regarding the substitute musical theme that has been used under the closing credits for the last few shows, in place of the usual theme: I recognized the song right away. It's called "The Toy Trumpet" by Raymond Scott. - Midge (2005) REVIEW: After the previous week's poor performance, the panel did a great job this evening. In fact, if they hadn't run out of time in the final game, they would have had a perfecto. Nevertheless, they did do a respectable "three for four" this time out. In the first game, Arlene was given credit for correctly guessing that the contestant made and designed space suits and it was quite funny to see John drop hints to her when she couldn't come up with the word "suit." However, she was given credit for a win, and that's all that counts. In the second game, Dorothy did a superb job in correctly guessing that the 16 year old girl from Pennsylvania was a barber. That performance really showed how great a panelist Dolly Mae actually was. In the mystery guest round, Martin was able to get in on the fun when he correctly guessed last-second mystery guest Phil Silvers, who entered the stage wearing his trench coat and hat. In the post game chat, John explained that one of the local papers inadvertently revealed the identity of the scheduled mystery guest, but John did not state the name that appeared in the papers. John stated that they had to get an emergency replacement and that it was very fortunate that Phil was free. Phil Silvers joked that the mystery guest was supposed to be iconoclastic star Marlon Brando, which drew a few laughs. The perfecto was spoiled when the panel ran out of time as they were questioning the final contestant who printed horse racing programs, so she won the full prize by default. This contestant might have been brought in as a rib on those fans of the Sport of Kings, Arlene and Martin. And so, even with the last-second drama, the panel had a great evening. - Sargebri (2005) SPACE PROGRAM: As John mentioned during the first game, the U.S. had just begun NASA'S Project Mercury. This was the first step in what would eventually culminate in Neil Armstrong's famous August 1969 comment, "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind" when man finally landed on the moon. Of course, it would be two more years after tonight's show before Alan Shepard's flight in the first Mercury mission, but it was a start. - Sargebri (2005) CUYAHOGA FALLS, OHIO: The first contestant, Mr. R. S. Colley, came from Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio. That suburb would later gain immortality when it was mentioned in the classic 1984 song by The Pretenders, "My City Was Gone." - Sargebri (2005) EMERGENCY MYSTERY GUEST: It would have been interesting to see what would have happened if they hadn't gotten Phil Silvers as the last-minute mystery guest. They might have gone to Emergency Plan Z, meaning that the mystery guest for the night would have been John Charles Daly himself. Of course, John wound up being the mystery guest on the legendary final episode. On that final show in 1967, John explained that in case the producers were unable to find someone, he was always at the ready to fill in as the mystery guest - just in case. Luckily, in spite of some close calls, they never had to resort to this tactic. - Sargebri (2005) Edit
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62 yesrs ago tonight.......
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Episodes wildly out of sequence
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Is WML? Back For Real? It was on this morning! Is this another tease?
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Yay! WML? is back!
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New Editor
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