I love how back in these days, those in show business knew the New York scene so well that you had to be specific down to the very *_street_* when talking about what type of performer you were.
Three cheers for Buddy Hackett! Great mystery guest, and a very good guest panelist, too, later on, very likable. Funny as a guest panelist without being disruptive, and he really made a good effort to play the game, too. In five years, he'd have a supporting role in the film version of "The Music Man" playing Marcellus Washburn. He sang and danced the song "Shipoopi" in that movie. When it comes to movies, that's the one I'll always remember when it comes to Buddy Hackett. I also remember seeing him on game shows when I was a kid -- "The Hollywood Squares", for example, where comedians were ideal for populating the squares.
John Daly sure has that golden voice. I guess, apart from his very intelligent disposition of his role, his voice is what "gets the gold". Amazing, really. One of a kind.
Arlene’s hair was very nice on this episode. I missed John Daly giving his usual long double talk explanations usually resulting in a no....relatively short here. 😂 Loved Buddy Hacket!
Dorothy would've ran screaming from the room, if she had. She is at her peak here, but she's already having minor difficulties, note how she puts the dig in at John about giving away the number of contestants, she wouldn't have done that earlier.
Popularity of this show may be in part due to the presence of the camera operators as contestants. I'm not sure what makes that so appealing, but I've watched this one several times to see that segment. Note that this is the occasion when both Arlene and John complain about the "unflattering closeups" of the panel. The close framing was a hallmark of director Franklin Heller and his camera crews, and it contributed significantly to WML's visual appeal. It is *very remarkable* that both Dorothy and Arlene stood up when shaking hands with the cameramen. Ordinarily the women stood only for members of the clergy or for living legends like Eleanor Roosevelt or Frank Lloyd Wright.
I thought about that last thing too but I wonder if it is a vestige of of a sort of nobles noblesse oblige, where they show more reverence than usual to acknowledge that they're are essential to the show while masking the thinly veiled hierarchy between them. Except in this case they do have more power than peasants .
I thought Eamonn Andrews was quite charming in this episode, much more so than any of his previous appearances. I *knew* he had it in him - he's an Irishman after all :-)
I hadn't heard the term "drunkometer" before, but it was one of the old-style, original breathalyzer (invented in 1931) that involved having the testee blow up a balloon to provide a breath sample for testing with the device. Nowadays, of course, we use the more generic term "breathalyzer" which includes any device that analyzes the breath to determine blood alcohol content.
This is the only time I have really liked him, and it’s because he was finally able to show off his true talent a little. As a panelist he was just annoying - he clearly needed a lot more stage than being a panelist allowed.
Seeing Eamonn Andrews on the panel makes me think that it would have been interesting to see the tables turned and John Daly finding out what it would be like as a panelist. But it wasn't meant to be, I guess.
So sad to thgink that these great people for thev most part have passed away. Mr Eamonn Andrews so young and full of life yet he passed away in the late 80's of heart failure. So classy,well read and articulate. America sure has dumbed down the past 50 years. I don't think the show could have the same caliber of guest today.
Absolutely not! Not even close! Today, television caters to the lowest common denominator... Half of the vocabulary used on this show would be unknown to a high school graduate today! But that is perfectly acceptable today. Every child recieves an "A" and a diploma whether earned or not. We don't want to hurt anyone's feelings... in turn we have raised at least two generations of mental morons! Try having a verbal conversation with someone under 30... most sound like blithering idiots when it comes to the spoken language!
@@stevefonda6238 You should try some of the more intellectual shows like University Challenge, Mastermind, Eggheads etc., or their American equivalents. The folk on these shows still can’t compete with the cast of WML for style and grace, but they certainly offer intellectual challenges.
It's cute that you think a handful of people represent an entire nation. Hint: There were more uneducated (aka "dumb") hicks, relative to the population, in the 50s than there is today. It's like hearing some professional stage actor like Charles Dance speak, and then assume everyone in England is a highly educated intellectual just because he speaks well. There are no Chavs, there are no Cockneys, there are no fat, uneducated slobs. Nope, because you heard Charles Dance speak. Talk about someone being dumb...
The "drunk tester"... "Is there any product involved ?" Yes, there is. He tests drunks ! Am sure it involved a test. But... :-) This was many years ago (1957)... No breathalyzers yet.
Speaking of Buddy Hackett, if you want to hear a truly infectious laugh, go to any clip of Paul Lynde from Hollywood Squares in action and if Buddy Hackett is in the game with Lynde, you'll hear Hackett's laugh loud and clear. It's uproarious!
I love how Mr Daly ‘clarifies’ things, “We want to be fair so we will agree that (whatever) could, and most likely does, occur during the normal course of (guest’s) service but that does not preclude that their interaction may not include such activities.” Uhhhhh….what? Sometimes I have to pause the video to figure out what he said.
The nuclear test Mr. Gabel mentions at 1:55 or so was probably Hood, in the Plumbbob series, on July 5th (as opposed to the one on July 1.) If so, it was about five times more powerful than Hiroshima's bomb. (And the largest atmospheric test conducted within the continental US.) Array of testing photos: www.theatlantic.com/photo/2011/05/when-we-tested-nuclear-bombs/100061/ Stand-up watch: Everyone does! (For the camera-men. Clearly, it's a bit ironic, but friendly.) A picture of a Drunkometer -- with an unidentified gent from Tallahassee: farm6.static.flickr.com/5484/10960793985_73091aa986.jpg I am almost positive that Dorothy asks Mr. Beebe, at 22:58 or so, 'Do you read to him?', ie, the gorilla. Aww.
One interesting thing, the panelists did not recognize the camera men's voices, who made no effort to disguise their voices, indicating that the panelists had never talked to them in 8 years.
To me, at least some of the panelists had to know almost right from the beginning who "the mystery guest" was, but 'they were going along 'till the end of the show' making believe they didn't who he was. As soon as Buddy Hackett started speaking in sentences, they (some of them) could not have missed that unique-sounding voice (which he was not completely disguising) of the well-known comedian.
I just stumbled across your playlist of other channels' videos relating to WML (a couple days ago actually), and I remembered that I had been watching the footage that Bbarfo uploaded of the Frank Sinatra boat trip that Arlene makes mention of in her introduction! (at 1:20) Here's the video link: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-8mZSvI0F4l4.html
Wow, over 12,000 views which is much higher than the norm, yet only 3 comments on the video. Looks like there was high interest for some reason, but not too many found anything too interesting about it.
Yeah, I'm not sure why this video has such a significantly higher number of views than usual, but the lack of comments is less surprising. The 1950s shows all have less comments on them because there were fewer people watching the videos early on in the postings. But again, odd that this one has so many views, without a mystery guest that would explain it (e.g., Louis Armstrong, Judy Garland, Groucho, the celebrities who draw in non-regular WML viewers)
The Backup No slam on Buddy Hackett, but I doubt it's got anything much to do with him-- he was on WML quite a number of times. Always a delight to hear from young fans of the show!
@@secondstring No one. She died of an accidental overdose of barbituates and alcohol. The Manhattan DA recently reopened an investigation in light of newly published claims and declined to prosecute. Case closed.
I have been consistently distracted by that stain on Arlene's mask, over her left eye. It looks like maybe it's chalk or makeup and it's smeared over the black. I just want to take a damp cloth to that and clean it right off!!
Not entirely sure, but I think her mask is velvet, and pearls, of course. It looks like the pile of the velvet has been roughed, and that is what we are seeing.
![What's My Line? - Buddy Hackett; Eamonn Andrews [panel]; Martin Gabel [panel] (Jul 7, 1957)](/img/logo.svg){kind=logo}
