I never get tired of watching this show. :-) Martin really hit it out of the park (so to speak) with the first guest! Arlene was looking radiant for her return to the live broadcast.
Reluctant Dragon What's My Line? I think the first live broadcast after the prerecorded episodes shown during the summer was on September 3rd (*****, please correct me if I'm wrong), but this was the first time since then that the announcer stated, "Live from New York..." in his introduction to the show. Had any of the announcers ever included that phrase in previous episodes? I don't remember it being said before (and I may have noticed if it was, because the automatic next words in my head after that phrase are still "...it's Saturday Night!"), so perhaps this was another slight change in the presentation of the show that started with this episode.
This is at least Gertrude Berg's third time as a mystery guest. She appeared in one episode in 1954, another in 1960, and then here in 1961. I wonder who might have made the most mystery guest appearances. Berg was a talented woman, who is sadly barely remembered by the general public in contemporary society.
From Wikipedia, on Electric Toothbrushes: "The first electric toothbrush, the Broxodent, was conceived in Switzerland in 1954 by Dr. Philippe-Guy Woog."
I think that I remember seeing a small photo of guest number 1 in my Yankee yearbooks from the early 60's. It would have been in the small section under administration. Sadly, I lost those yearbooks in a flood. These were fun shows.
The panel was magnificent and very entertaining with the electric toothbrush guy. This segment should be shown to those who might become devotees of WML! Just great!
And very intelligent also. He understood the game, but never tried to outdo the panelists nor the host. Sadly, he recently passed away (2022) after a most fruitful career.
Galileocan g And based on comments made by the panelists during previous episodes (the one with Arlene's "light housekeeping" joke aimed at the lighthouse keeper comes to mind), fortified by her own admissions in her book, I don't think Arlene really did much house-cleaning either!
The Mets would set a record for losses in 1962 with 120...yet just 7 years later win the World Series. I went to game 3 at Shea stadium and got to meet Stengel. He was not in the best of health but he was so excited for the Mets!
We had a mention of Roger Maris hitting his 61st home run of the season and Casey Stengel having been hired to manage the fledgling New York Mets for their inaugural 1962 season. There are two connections. First, Stengel was Maris's first manager with the Yankees when he came over from the Kansas City A's for the 1960 season. (Stengel was born in Kansas City, by the way, which is one of the theories of how Charles Dillon Stengel eventually became known as "Casey".) The other connection was that Tracy Stallard was the pitcher who gave up the historic homer by Maris. Lost in all the hubbub about the record was the fact that it was the only run scored that day by either team. The 4th inning blast won the game for the Yankees, although they had clinched the pennant many days earlier. They finished 8 games ahead of the hard-hitting Tigers who also won over 100 games with Rocky Colavito, Norm Cash and Al Kaline. Stallard would play for Stengel during the 1963 and 1964 seasons. After the 1962 season, the Mets traded Felix Mantilla for Stallard, Pumpsie Green (the first black player with the Red Sox a few years earlier) and Al Moran. Like many Mets pitchers of that era, he was a hard luck loser more often than not and would have had a much better winning percentage with a better team behind him. The Mets only managed to average 3.61 runs in the games he started in 1963 and 3.29 in 1964. Also noteworthy for the final day of the 1961 regular season, in particular the game played at Yankee Stadium that afternoon, was that Jackie Jensen in a pinch hitting role for the Sox that day, made his final major league appearance. Known as the "Golden Boy", Jensen was one of the best players in the American League in the 1950's but his career ended prematurely because of his fear of flying. The league's MVP in 1958, he was the first person to the Rose Bowl, the World Series (when he began his major league career with the Yankees) and the All Star Game. He also played a major role in University of California - Berkeley winning the inaugural baseball College World Series in 1947 (defeating a Yale team that included future President George Bush). Also playing their last major league games on 10/1/61 were Ted Kluszewski (for the Angels) and Billy Martin (for the Twins). Both of those teams were in their inaugural seasons: the Angels and expansion team and the Twins having moved from Washington to Minnesota. Big Klu was known for his imposing physique and may be the only ballplayer to cause his team to change their uniform design. When he was having his best years in Cincinnati, he found the typical sleeved baseball jersey too restrictive. Cincinnati eventually changed to a sleeveless vest type uniform top and Klu never wore a sweatshirt underneath: partly for comfort and partly to intimidate opposing pitchers. Two players could not have been more dissimilar than Jensen and Martin. But the Yankees acquired their contracts at the same time in part due to Stengel becoming familiar with them when he managed Oakland in the Pacific Coast League. (Jensen was born in San Francisco and Martin in Berkeley.) Martin's career as a manager with the Yankees, A's, Tigers, Twins and Rangers exceeded his exploits as a player and is well-known, especially for his battles with George Steinbrenner and Reggie Jackson when they were together on the Yankees.
I enjoyed it, and I marvel at all the baseball lore you have digressed over these seasons of these WML & baseball. And I recognize a fellow traveler (of sorts) when I see one.
There were quite a few rule changes in the game over the many years that the show was on the air, so I wondered what the change John referred to at the beginning of this episode would be. As it turns out, I think he simply meant the format change of starting immediately with the first contestant before going to commercial, which isn't really a rule change at all.
Watching this video and the master Ron going to the root of a problem effortlessly is as always, a treat. Open coil? no problem. Other major item? Ditto! Thanks for sharing your years of experience and knowledge, Ron. Say hi to the kitty.......
Two years before, in fact - on the 27 September 1959 episode. Nancy Weis, from Aurora, Illinois, was the fourth and final contestant that evening; her "line" was the temporary job of filling World Series ticket orders for the American League champion Chicago White Sox.
I think Martin knew darn well who she was - I can't prove this of course, but he looked very pleased with himself as he reeled off those questions. Panellists have disqualified themselves under similar circumstances, but I confess that I've sometimes been irritated by that, too, wishing they'd just get on with it.
It seems like that but sometimes you do get lucky. They used to allow each panelist a wild guess and Arlene got it right on the wild guess at least three times. So you do get lucky out of thin air.
The toothbrush segment was dead in the water until Dorothy got them back on track. I love this show but John handled the early questions quite badly IMHO. The "move around" question should have meant moved from room to room; an easy no. John got too tangled up overthinking it.
I thought so too as I watched it. John was being pretty awkward over a couple of questions. It was obvious too, that John had to kill time. The tickets girl was guessed so quickly by Martin that what should've been a 5 minute segment was over in 30 seconds. 4 and 1/2 minutes is a a long time to kill on live TV or if you're in front of a live audience.
What a great time to have been a ⚾ fan and having been in New York very lucky 😊 Edit::; and tonight we learned that for all intents and purposes the electric toothbrush came out in 1960
I'm a little surprised that Arlene didn't flirt with the electric-toothbrush salesman. On the other hand, her husband was with her, which may have curtailed her flirtiness.
It was a different time. My figure was 34 24 34 ...fine until I gained weight from pregnancy. My hips were bigger and men would feel free to comment. We were conditioned to think that that was normal and that they had a right to do that.
Martin says at about 6:30 that as he and Arlene were leaving their hotel room they ran into Joe DiMaggio. Was it the practice of Arlene and/or Martin to get a room so that they would be in NY on Sunday nights? Bennett drove down from Mt. Kisco, did he not?
@Joe Postove - He did say leaving their hotel, not hotel room. This could mean two things, considering their theatrical professions and residency in New York. One was that they had had a home in the city, as did the Cerfs, and in Mount Kisco, as did the Cerfs. A few years, I think, before the time of this show they had had the butler/driver and housekeeper/cook at their NY Upper East Side home rob them of almost everything in the house while they were away doing plays after several years employment with them. At that time, they may have decided to get a condo/co-op in a hotel, where there were and still are private residences, like at the Gramercy Park Hotel. There are floors that are not hotel rooms and are private residences to the point where you can renovate them and alter them to your tastes and you still get many of the benefits of the hotel: like, the gym, the doorman, room service and such. The other possibility is that after that experience they got rid of the house in the city, kept the Mt. Kisco abode next door to the Cerfs, and chose when too busy to go back and forth to the 'burbs to stay overnight at a hotel in the city. As both Gabels were often beginning runs of plays out of town that following evening in some far flung city, it is possible that once they'd spent the weekend in the 'burbs or with their son in MA at Deerfield Academy that if they had early morning flights to other locales, they would stay in the city nearer the airport overnight and it could be charged as a cost of doing business in terms of taxes or a charge to an expense account, depending. So, their city home might now have been a condo in a hotel for security and the services. Or they could have had a room at a hotel due to flights out of town in the wee hours of Monday morning to get them to other towns to rehearse plays.
My first thought was that they resided in a condo/hotel combo setting where some areas were occupied by tenants, and another portion of the "hotel" was dedicated to short-term travelers/guests and the ground floor may have held shops and restaurants to accommodate both clientele.
They lived in New York at the Ritz Tower which is/was an 'apartment hotel' (and was also where the incident with the weight dropping out of the window which sadly killed a passer-by happened in 1960)
Aren’t we all. Our government is pushing dependency and so many are biting., can’t wait till government yanks the rug out on all the dependent, helpless people. It’s coming and so many won’t know what to do. Nothing is free
Pat Taggart would have been busy in about a week or so refunding a lot of money on World Series tickets. The first two games of the 1961 Series were at Yankee Stadium and the teams split the first two games. The Yankees won the opener, 2-0, as Whitey Ford was in the midst of a record-setting performance of his own besting another mark of Babe Ruth's: the record for consecutive scoreless innings during the World Series. The Reds came back to win Game Two, 6-2, as Joey Jay beat Ralph Terry, aided by 3 Yankee errors and a passed ball leading to three unearned runs. But the Yankees swept the Reds in Cincinnati, a close game in Game 3 and then easy victories the next two days. Ms. Taggart would have to refund the money for the tickets for games 6 and 7 that were scheduled for Yankee Stadium but that did not need to be played.
It cannot be a coincidence. When the guest has a connection to an alcoholic beverage, John never begins the questioning with Dorothy so that she does not ask whether it is a product she can use or would enjoy using.
Less than a year later Arlene would appear in an episode of the sitcom mentioned, Mrs G Goes To College. Not the best sitcom ever but it's worth a lazy Sunday watch. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-uNx7TkcCWrw.html
+Lars Rye Jeppesen If you are talking about how quickly Martin solved the first challenger, the baseball season ended on this day; the Yankees had won another pennant and it was a big day in baseball history with Roger Maris breaking Babe Ruth's single season home run record (asterisk or not). Obviously Ms Taggart was not connected with the playing side of baseball in any way. Women wouldn't have positions like that for many years. So Martin simply played a hunch that WML might put on someone connected with the Yankees and each yes answer led to the next logical question until it was solved.
Bemett goofed up as usual in his very embarassing way and called her MOLLY Berg confusing two grandmotherly Jewish actresses: Gertrude Berg and Molly Picon.
+poetcomic1 I think he was actyually confusing the names of the real life actress and the VERY long running character she played, who was called "Molly Goldberg". I've actually never heard of Molly Picon! :)
+poetcomic1 Not to mention his first question of her, which put her AND John in a terrible spot! Although they recovered gracefully after the masks came off.
+What's My Line? Molly Picon was known, among other roles, for playing Mrs. Bronson on "Car 54 Where Are You?". In the second season, she opens a matchmaking business. A few years later on Broadway, she plays the matchmaker Yente in "Fiddler on the Roof". As you can see, Gertrude Berg and Molly Picon neither look alike or sound alike. I agree that Bennett probably conflated the name of Gertrude Berg and her most famous character. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-nLIyyqKdn_M.html
Here's a cute episode from the first season of "Car 54" where Mrs. Bronson (Molly Picon) won't leave her apartment that was condemned so they could build the new approach from the Bronx to the George Washington Bridge (actually the last segment of the Cross Bronx Expressway from Jerome Avenue to the Major Deegan Expressway and the Harlem River). I remember when we drove from Queens to our new property in Rockland County and would have to get off a Jerome Avenue and cross the Harlem River on the older Washington Bridge to get to the George Washington Bridge and the Palisades Parkway to Rockland County. The episode includes actual footage from a Bronx neighborhood being condemned and the interchange between the Cross Bronx Expressway and the Major Deegan Expressway, a rare shot when there is very little traffic. Also of note is that Al Lewis is not Officer Schnauzer yet. He plays the head of the construction company that is in charge of tearing town the building. And there's a brief take off on "What's My Line?" at 20:40 thrown in for good measure. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-fSjG8JQ570c.html
Here is a link to an episode of the show that she was plugging--Mrs. G Goes to College ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-gAhuh8RCMXU.html
I'm sorry but there's no way Bennett could have fairly got Molly Goldberg with such little information. He either knew beforehand who the MG was, or peeked at some point. If you have ever noted, the director never shows the blindfolded panel while the MG is signing in. That would be a perfect time for Bennett or any of the other 3 to sneak a peek.
@@PaulDA2000 Actually it makes a lot of sense, Paul. Especially in fact, with the scandals involving other quiz show productions. I'd like to think WML was always on the up and up, likely because I enjoy it so much. But we just don't know for sure what's happening while the MG is signing in, especially in Bennett's case. He's just too quick at times to guess, or "identify," the MG.
@@Walterwhiterocks It makes no sense because nobody benefits moneywise from what you’re saying. It would not do the show any good for somebody to be peeking. Bennett got the correct name because he mentioned the play that the woman was in. They have great knowledge of what was going on on Broadway. It’s a simple as that.
Arlene always intimates that Martin is cheating on her. I have seen this on numerous episodes. Especially when there is a pretty contestant and Martin is one of the panelists. I wonder if that was just an "act" on their part or whether there is some truth to it?
He knew because he's smart, baseball is all any sports fan is thinking about in october, daly thought he could get at least one no anwser to send it around the panel!
![What's My Line? - Gertrude Berg; Martin Gabel [panel] (Oct 1, 1961)](/img/logo.svg){kind=logo}
