I've been watching these shows in chronological order since the very beginning, and have loved all of them (admittedly some more than others, but have loved them all). I can't recall a previous show where John forgot to "show the theater audience and those watching at home" the contestant's line. Nor do I recall a former contestant disagreeing with John over the reply. An extra boost of enjoyment for us all! Thank you very much for all the hard work you've put in posting the What's My Line programs!! You've done a SPECTACULAR JOB!!!
Thank goodness for Betsy Palmer's appearance on this episode! Poor Laurence Harvey just couldn't keep up the tempo of the questioning (and was principally responsible for the show running behind schedule) so it was nice to have someone like Betsy with good Goodson-Todman panel experience to brighten things up and regain the focus of the investigation.
At 10:30, Bennett says "baby carriages" (out-of-turn). I like the first guest arguing with John Daly about the answers he wants to give. Sometimes I wish more contestants would do that, instead of letting Daly always answer for them.
I think that in his zeal to help the contestant all he could, and in several instances where a simple 'yes or no' would have sufficed, John would sometimes just about give away the entire store!
People in the 1960s were less likely to question any authority figure. Mid twentieth century physicians, police, teachers, professors, employers, landlords were rarely challenged
About 7 months after this episode came the release of the epic movie "The Alamo", with an all star cast including John Wayne, Richard Widmark, and....Laurence Harvey as Colonel Travis.
It looks as if the Finch murder trial's timing couldn't have been worse for Dorothy and WML, in that it will prevent her appearance on 2 shows in a row. She'd been covering the trial since January 4, but had flown back to New York each weekend for the show. However, the jury started its deliberation on March 4 and ended (in a hung jury) on March 12. Understandably, Dorothy didn't want to be away in case the jury came out with a verdict. There would be a second trial June 27-November 7 (hung jury again) and a third trial January 3 - March 27, 1961.
I loved Miss Betsy Palmer's comment to the guest who made baby carriages when she said, "Do you make your babies for your baby carriages?" This was one of the funniest comments from a panelist in all of the episodes of WML I've been watching over the last several months!
At 2:40 John explains that Dorothy is covering the Finch trial in Los Angeles which is at the "climacteric" -- a strange word choice. Its principal use is for a critical period in one's life, specifically the "change of life" in females and the equivalent diminution of sexual performance in males as they age. I've never heard it used as a fancy way of saying "climax" in an event such as a trial or a play.
In the late 1950's, my mom took me to see Gisele MacKenzie and Cameron Mitchell on the stage in The King And I. They were both wonderful. She also had a weekly variety show on TV at about this time.
To the poster who had never heard of Gisele MacKenzie before, she was probably the greatest and now least known talent to have been produced in Canada. You've heard of a Triple Threat, she was at least a quintuple threat the likes of which we'll not likely see again. Strangely, it seemed trail blazing (at the time) for a woman to portray such a vast array of talent. Several clips show her guests as almost being intimidated by her superior talent, they almost have a look of "What am I doing here?" She steals the spotlight by not even trying. She could sing with perfect pitch, play near concert level violin and piano, act, dance and do comedy to boot. Almost forgotten now, even in her home country, thankfully her legacy lives on with several bits of footage that survive on RU-vid. Oh yeah, she also does that wicked eyebrow thing that you can see on Heartbreak Hotel and Person to Person. A few of my favourites Playing piano with Roger Williams ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-jfMTt-62da8.html Comedy and violin playing with Jack Benny ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-tVlE4qMYGC4.html Oozing charm and receiving TV award with Miyoshi Umeki ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-P1ggNUKQL2Y.html Person to Person with Ed Murrow (you made the big time if you made it to this show) ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-48jb9vvjt1k.html Your Hit Parade - Heartbreak Hotel (Gisele not afraid to extend her boundaries) ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-gp0j4n-RKug.html
Growing up in Washington D.C. I tried to find out something about the TV Newscaster, but couldn't find anything. The stations the she work at is now called WUSA 9 .
When Gisele MacKenzie was on "Your Hit Parade" in the 50's I had the biggest crush on her. At the time is was still in grade school but I thought that she was the best thing on TV.
Gisele at her very best here with Hernando's Hideaway. None of the rest of the cast had close to the the acting ability that she did. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-lCJYd8ALEz8.html
I'm reasonably sure (but not positive) that Miss Campbell married a gent named Ryan and moved to Connecticut; Greenwich, to be specific. No word on kids or other employment. (Her mother, who was also in the media, died in 1992, and, indicates her obituary, lived with/near Morna as she got older. Also, Morna and her brother gave a collection about their father (a newspaperman) to the National Press Club.)
The announcement in the NY Times in Feb. 1961 shows that his first name is Peter. She is still alive and living in Greenwich but also may have spent summers on Nantucket. There would appear to be at least one daughter, Andrea, born in 1962, one son, Peter, born in 1966, and another son, Clark, born sometime between Andrea and Peter. Her husband Peter just passed away last week on May 5, 2018. He also worked at WTOP in DC as part of the production staff. He eventually worked in the advertising side of television. www.dignitymemorial.com/obituaries/greenwich-ct/peter-ryan-7842755
I don't understand this first contestant nor John on why they say the children do not use the baby carriage when they do and John flipped the card and still let Arlene ask questions it is very confusing to me.
The two guest panelists in the middle really threw the pace of the game off with their frequent side chitchats with each other and Arlene. Made for a rather odd sort of interplay within the panel.
'MacKenzie' may not sound French, but it's her stage name (and her father's second given name). Her birth name is actually LaFlèche, Pronounced 'la-FLESH,' which Gisèle thought sounded too much "like a striptease artist's."
grecomic -- Gisèle Marie-Louise Marguerite LaFlèche in toto -- she could give (John Charles Patrick Croghan Daly a run for his money, namewise.) MacKenzie, as it turns out, was her father's middle name. "Mackenzie" is a well-known name in Canadian history, too, and found in Canadian place names and street names, so possibly she found it suitable because in her native country, it's a name people know and wouldn't easily forget.
"Dirty trick that French business, you're Canadian" Yes Bennett from the largest French community outside the Province of Quebec - St Boniface (now part of Winnipeg)
Bennett was simply explaining that the panel had been given incorrect information which ultimately put them off course, and were unable to guess the Mystery Guest correctly. Giselle MacKenzie was not French. As Bennett pointed out, she was Canadian.
French-Canadian-American, to be precise. According to the LA Times obituary in 2003, “The daughter of a Winnipeg doctor, she was born Jan. 10, 1927. MacKenzie -- a family name that she adopted after coming to Hollywood in 1951.” Her maiden name according to Wikipedia was “Gisèle Marie Louise Marguerite LaFlèche.”
I think the part with the first guest was the most awkward and confusing segment I've ever seen on WMK. John forgets to ask to have the guest's occupation shown at home, and John provides misleading information (Arlene in her 50s would really have no use for a baby carriage...come on John!), and everyone else just seemed out of step! Weird segment!
Bennett Cerf's comment that perhaps he should not have made (even though I think it was meant as more of a formality, and said with an innocent sincerity ): "Miss Campbell, my wife is in Washington tonight, so I'm glad they sent somebody up here!"
I really enjoyed how the Englisher took on John on several occasions as to give a yes or no. Those uppity Brits! 😱 I don't recall seeing that before where a contestant just didn't go along with John's decisions. Huh?
I was too young to know or understand, but it was quite a shock and big deal at the time that she would be in such a role. She definitely played against type.
I'm sorry but I have to agree with Bennett. French is French, Canadian is Canadian and French Canadians are French Canadians. we have descendants of the French in America too, France owned about a third of the US at one time, but they are Americans, not French.
I'd go one further....French is French Canadian is Canadian, and French-Canadian at the end of the day is also still ONLY Canadian. John telling the panel that Miss MacKenzie was French was 100 percent wrong and ultimately was the reason they were unable to guess her identity correctly.
Correct! However, the nationality and family culture is still part of a person’s heritage. Aren’t English-Canadians still Canadian but would you deny their English heritage? Perhaps it comes down to semantics. For me, being French-Canadian-American, I consider myself being very much a part of all three identities even though I am an American citizen.
@movieman39noiretblanc17 - heritage is different. People who are American citizens and have ancestors who were French and lived in the Fench part of the US before it was the US have a French heritage, but they are not French.
I note whoever made up the slide with Miss MacKenzie's name on it misspelled her first name as 'GISELLE' with a double-L. I don't expect them to have included the grave accent over the "e" in 'Gisèle', but doubling the "L" in her first name was an unfortunate gaffe on someone's part.
Such a GORGEOUS, CHARMING; Absolutely BEAUTIFUL Voice.! ☺️😊☺️☺️☺️😊😊☺️🎨 (i) Can Definitely See Cara William's and Polly Bergen in that BEAUTIFUL Face!☺️😊😊😊🎨
I always like Betsy Palmer, but that puffy outfit she was wearing did her no justice. Mr. Harvey could appear cold as a fish but here he had a bit of a more softened, boyish charm which really brought out his good looks.
Bennett Cerf’s constant flirtations, were really irritating after a while, and I imagine his wife wasn’t too thrilled either since he did it with regularity.
Please remove this complete and utter troll from the comments section. Unfortunately today's awful society is full of pathetic losers intent on ruining other people's enjoyment of social media. Pathetic loser.
One more observation of how things change. Daly ruled it was impossible to answer yes or no to the question “are you man or woman?” Now those two sexes (AKA genders) are outnumbered by a dizzying list of other choices such that people are asked to choose their pronouns. Even new US passports have more than two choices.
The newswoman had her own show at 10:25 am. These were the days of 5, 10 and 15-minute programs. Mary Jo West became Phoenix's first prime time female anchor in 1976 and she took a lot of BS from the crusty old boys in the news room.
I don't understand the question. If you're implying that he was too big or too high class a star to have appeared on this show, you haven't watched a lot of WML.
![What's My Line? - Gisele MacKenzie; Laurence Harvey [panel]; Betsy Palmer [panel] (Mar 6, 1960)](/img/logo.svg){kind=logo}
