NOTE: This is the famous show where an unknown man ran on stage for a moment during the Mystery Guest segment. MYSTERY GUEST: Milton Berle PANEL: Arlene Francis, Eamonn Andrews, Dorothy Kilgallen, Bennett Cerf
I love the contrast of Dorothy and Arlene. And although we’ve seen many comments about her prickly relationship with the others, their grief and shock on the episode after she died was palpable.
Most would be confused. Or scared. My mom made sure I spoke with respect and dignity even though we were homeless. THAT'S partially why I always like to keep 'em guessing.
The guy running on stage is talked about in "The Age of Television" RCA LP (1971) by Arlene Francis. She commented that in those days of live TV, it was a wonder that more things like that didn't happen! He was on then off the stage before anyone could even react to what happened.
Happened twice on What's My Line? I believe. There was also an incident with someone running onto the set of CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite in 1973 (I watched that one happen live as a 10 year old and was surprised and shocked). Probably happened at other times, on national broadcasts, but never heard of any others.
ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-PGfx3QAV64M.html&feature=emb_logo Here he is on The Muppet Show getting heckled by Statler and Waldorf. Legend has it he wrote most of the heckles based on real life experience.
@@zyxwvut4740 . Thank you for that link. I am amazed at how Milton wrote the best lines for them and took the heckle himself. A legend in the business.
The governor of Oklahoma was only 33 years old. He looked and seemed so much more mature and polished, especially when you compare and contrast him to the 33 year olds of today.
@@paulmorin6569 It sounded and looked like him, but?? And the possibility that it was staged by Berle is not beyond reaso, so who knows and is not talking..
@@paulmorin6569 I don't know if it was Arnold Stang or not, but I would tend to doubt it, because if he had pulled a stunt like that he never would have worked in television again. Also, Milton Berle worked with Arnold for years. That's just my take. (I can still hear him say "Chunky - what a chunk of chocolate").
It's telling how often in the late 50s panelists would quiz contestants on whether they were involved with atomic weapons, missiles, nuclear physics, etc.
Governor Edmondson was a WWII US Army Air Forces veteran and an Okie from Muskogee. He was and currently still is the youngest elected Governor in the history of Oklahoma. This was partly due to him becoming a success prosecutor after the war, being elected The Tulsa County Attorney in 1954 and then re-elected in 1956 at the age of 29. The most notable legislation he pushed through was repealing the prohibition of the sale of alcohol. He also had a short run in the senate and surprisingly voted in favor of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. After he lost his re-election campaign he went back to being an attorney and spending time with his wife Jeanette Bartleson until he sadly died at the young age of 41 from a heart attack.
Never know when you're going to die...his vote for the 1964 Civil Rights Act surely didn't hurt him when he went to meet his maker on Judgement Day. Voting to ensure all citizens have basic inalienable rights that should have already been accorded to them at birth is a simple act of fundamental humanity.
If this programme was made now, the Governor of Oklahoma would have been immediately recognised. Also, I’m astonished at the guests lack of geographical knowledge!
@@zarabada6125 - I don't know what that was supposed to be, but it is unreadable. looks like they played scrabble in the typesetter. in the middle of an article about pulling an unconscious girl from a car, they start talking about tomatoes.
A man that sold maternity clothes back in the 50's during the Baby boomer years was a very busy man, I feel that is why they had so many on the show back in the decade.
The man who runs up onstage says something about Mother's Day, and I think his goal was to shake the hand of Milton Berle on live TV that his mother was watching!
Wait, wasn't there another interruption where an audience member came up on stage while the panelists were blindfolded, and they panned the camera away and focused on John who used a code word to get security?
fishhead06 Well she's said before on a previous episode how poor her geography is. It can be embarrassing not knowing what you should. Plus she's right that the guessing game coming down to one out of 48 states was silly when they'd already got his 'line' anyway.
It's hard to imagine, but Oklahoma had a state law against the sale of liquor statewide that was finally repealed in 1959. The sale of oackaged liquor for off-premises consumption is still illegal on Sundays, election day and certain legal holidays, except for beer of low-alcohol content. I have to say that liquor laws vary so much state by state in this country it's hard to keep track of.
Working as a sacker in Texas back in the early 80's, we used to have to cover entire aisles with plastic sheeting because of the Blue Laws. Products that were deemed 'inappropriate' by the religious folk to sell on Sundays. And it wasn't even alcohol because it was a dry city. Just lame items like razors for women. I'm SO glad to have moved out of the repressive south.
I grew up in Tulsa, OK. We did not have legal liquor-by-the-drink until it was finally voter-approved in 1985. Until then, if you wanted to have drinks served to you at a bar or restaurant you had to bring in your own bottle and the establishment would keep it behind their bar with a label on it bearing your name. Of course, nobody did this, the bars just put phony names on the bottles they poured from, and everybody knew. We referred to it as "liquor-by-the-wink". Occasionally, the ABC would gently raid a random bar after sending in undercover agents to order a drink and have one served to them by an unwitting bartender and waiter, both of whom were arrested and taken to jail until the bar sent out someone to bail them out. I saw it happen one evening at a restaurant where I worked. Funny thing was, the waiter smelled a rat when the agents came in but he served them anyway. It was all so embarrassingly stupid, the law.
Mr. Daly seems unusually distracted in this episode. He looks down at the notes rather than at the camera in the introduction, and neglects to flip the cards in the mystery guest segment. However, he remains completely composed during the intruder disruption. Was there something else going on around this time?
It looks and sounded like Comedian Arnold Stang. Well known at the time including on this panel and a regular on Berles shows. He later voiced many cartoon characters including TC on Top Cat.
Celebrities had stalkers even back then. I used to run signing events and we dealt with stalkers of everyone from Jennifer Love Hewitt to Tony Curtis. They were not fun.
As a long time Dallas TX area resident I t ook particular interest in that guy who sold maternity clpothes to pregnant women. I was almost 7 when they did this WML.
@@kristabrewer9363 But who was to know that at the time? Michelle Ray is correct - something like that could have gone very badly. There are a lot of strange people in this world.
Around 23:37 you hear someone say "Janice Janice" or "Janet Janet". I think it was the guy shouting from the audience who then jumped over onto the stage.
Imagine, the Governor of Oklahoma was so little known in 1959 that the producers were confident the panelists didn't need blindfolds! This was the tail end of the 1950's tight, pin curl-set hairdo's. Within a year, rollers would begin to dominate.
@@shirleyrombough8173 I have read that he performed more charitable benefits than any other performer and despite seeing many of his TV appearances, I never heard him discuss his charitable work.
Based on the apparent age of the interloper, I wonder if that was some sort of fraternity prank. With a book written about WML and extensive interviews given by Bennett Cerf, I'm surprised that we don't know more about who and why this happened. What's not surprising is that it spawned other attempts to do it: copycats.
@ It's called "What's My Line: The Inside History of TV's Most Famous Panel Show" by Gil Fates, the executive producer of WML. I recommend it, but it's hard to find a copy.
Actually, he was governor of Oklahoma for 4 years (1959-1963) and senator for 1 year (1963-1964). Died quite young of a heart attack at age 46 in 1971.
Interesting they were talking about the election of a 33 year old Governor and 31 year old Lt. Governor when 18 months later the nation elected a 43 year old President. Still though, 1959 was too early for Dylan to be singing about the times changing.
well until miltie know how to calm a siuation down on a live broadcast...reminds me of legend anchorman roger grismby later in 1983 lol. watch clip of 5:24 to 5:36 : ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-3k42z4rSRFU.html
Oklahoma became a state many years after the Civil War, and so wasn't associated with the 'classic' southern states, usually being referred to as a Midwestern state. If you go purely geographically, you'd have to call California a southern state.
@@neilrobertson1156 if all of California were in the southern half of the contiguous United States, it WOULD count as a southern state. But even if you are just looking culturally at Oklahoma, it STILL counts as southern. You can't just consider the states that joined the confederacy as southern states, because not all southern states joined the confederacy. Infact, whether or not to join the confederacy, split the state of Virginia into two states, Virginia and West Virginia.
@@juliebaker6969 I have no disagreement with you. But in 1959, the fashion of the day was to refer to the block of states aligned with the Confederacy as "The South". That was the panel's point of reference. Arizona and New Mexico are overall farther south than Oklahoma, yet they aren't considered part of The South. Not saying that's accurate, just the common belief at the time.
@@neilrobertson1156 I'm only saying that wasn't a universal attitude. I was born before that show aired, and I know that my parents and grandparents considered Oklahoma, Arizona and New Mexico ALL to be southern states. I think that it was more of an attitude from the east and west coasts than from the whole country. But then the east and west coasts have pretty much always considered themselves to BE the whole country.
@@juliebaker6969 To be fair, it was the governor himself who declared that Oklahoma was not a southern state. Universal attitude or not, it's clearly an opinion the governor held and he's not from the east or west coast, but Muskogee. For the record, I was born, raised, and still live in Oklahoma. And it's not a "southern state" in the sense that Georgia, Mississippi, or Louisiana is a "southern state". It's more of a "Great Plains" state.
The term of reference of "southern state" is that of a state which was part of the Confederacy. Oklahoma did not become a state until 1907. Although in fairness when it was "Indian Territory" at the time, there were battles which took place their during the Civil War and the tribes present were either aligned with the Confederacy (mostly Choctaw and Chickasaw) and the Union (mostly the Creek and Cherokee with some Cherokees being with the South). Note that the Oklahoma governor agrees with the assessment that his state is not a "southern state".
I only watched the episodes that have Dorothy kilgallen I think I'm on my third time around now and I find most of the guests panelists to be obnoxious and annoying
Not just by sight, which maybe is understandable considering the media wasn't what it is now, but you'd think the name would at least be recognizable especially after they know he was a governor.
hopicard -- Well, I'm not surprised. Who keeps track of governors in the bulk of the 50 states even today. You may think me ignorant, but the governor of my state is Jerry Brown (California) and I could name Governor Christie of New Jersey and Governor (Andrew) Cuomo of New York. If I take note of governors of most states, by the next time I need to think of them, they've been replaced by someone else. For example, I know that Rick Perry was the governor of Texas and I know he no longer is, but I couldn't tell you who replaced him.
+hopicard To be honest, I consider myself fairly politically interested, and I really don't know even half of the governors by sight, if that. Nor by name. I haven't the slightest idea who the governor of Alabama is, as just a random example.
Being from and living in Oklahoma, there has always been some confusion about what constitutes a "southern state". I believe that the reference in "What's My Line" was that of a state which existed during the Civil War. And while the Indian Territory as it was called at that time did have numerous battles, it was not a state at that time. Bennet's follow-up question of whether it is a "border" state confirms that they were thinking along the line of states that existed during the Civil War.
No it is not. It is Georgia both Carolinas both Virginia's Tennessee Mississippi Louisana.Alabama. Not Texas Arkansas Florida and definitely not Oklahoma. Love those states but they are not southern.
Whoa, Bennett! He thinks the "border states" separating North from South in the U.S. are Kentucky, Tennessee, and Arkansas! 6:42 It's hard to credit Bennett with such ignorance of history and geography, especially given how much he likes to show off in those areas! Could have been worse, I guess; he got 1 out of 3 right, at least.
+Robert Melson It's interesting, the ones he mentions that aren't in the traditional definition of Border States are, at least, ones that seceded after Sumter. (But if he was going by that (wrong) definition, then he should count Virginia, too.)
I think the historical border states are KY, MO, MD and DE. States that allowed slavery before the Civil War but did not secede officially (MO and KY sent representatives to the Confederate Congress and set up a state government as if they seceded). Some also count WV but since the state of WV did not exist before the Civil War, I would say it was not a historic border state.
Oklahoma wasn't even a state until 1907, the 46th state to be formed out of former territory. So Civil War era designations of border states really don't apply.
Ireland. He was the host of the British version of What’s My Line. Then again one would have to be paying attention to the entire show to gain that information. “Dumb questions,” eh?
Someone down below said that the Police found out who that guy was. I was like, the POLICE?! He only went out there because he was such a big fan of the mystery guest. I hope he didn't get arrested for that!
@Krista Brewer Whatever his intentions were, he shouldn’t of ran up there. By the applause, I’d say most, if not all those in the theater that day lauded Milton Berle. Yet they all managed to hold their composure and maintain a certain level of decorum that is expected in a setting such as a live taping. This man jumped on stage. No one knew what his intentions were. So I believe it was rather apt that police intervention was sought.
LOL! Gracie Allen was the famous wife of George Burns, not Milton Berle. Ms. Kilgallen probably thought that Burns was the mystery guest. Based upon what she was implying by the question, Berle's answer was correct. His wife had nothing, professionally, to do with his career. It was an innocent and accurate answer; he obviously wanted to be careful not to mislead the panelists.
![What's My Line? - A man runs onstage - Milton Berle; Eamonn Andrews [panel] (May 10, 1959)](/img/logo.svg){kind=logo}
