I adore Jo Stanford. Her voice has a beauty in its clarity that few others have matched. It's too bad she rushed off the program like she had a bus to catch!
I might have known Jo would put on that hillbilly act here. I honestly wish I could've met her. She sings like an angel, she's gorgeous, and she's got such an adorable personality. My all-time favorite entertainer.
When I read that David Niven had died, in 1983, I felt like a bright light in the world had been extinguished, like the stars burned a little less brightly. That generation of Englishmen and women are almost all gone now.
Niven was battle tested. He quit Hollywood immediately in Sept 1939 and returned home and became an officer. From Wikipedia: "A few stories have surfaced. About to lead his men into action, Niven eased their nervousness by telling them, "Look, you chaps only have to do this once. But I'll have to do it all over again in Hollywood with Errol Flynn!" Asked by suspicious American sentries during the Battle of the Bulge who had won the World Series in 1943, he answered, "Haven't the foggiest idea, but I did co-star with Ginger Rogers in Bachelor Mother!"[27]---- Now that's debonair. He left the service only at the end of the war, and as a lieutenant colonel.
Jo Stafford had a great singing voice. Charlie Robertson had a great rookie year and then due to injuries, his career was shortened but he is one of the few pitchers to throw a perfect game.
Very true Zac. And as for this being the first time on the panel, he asked very good questions. I think if I were Goodsen or Todman, I would have considered replacing Bennett with Niven in subsequent seasons.
The most unusual question I ever heard on WML was asked by Orson Welles: "Might your work be more suited to a different century?" Not a verbatim quote, but close.
This sent me to the IMDB: Barbara Hammer shortly became known as Barbara Avedon and had a long TV writing career, as well as co-creating "Cagney & Lacey."
I love how they got David Niven on here! Wow, I'm surprised. He's brilliant here, he plays the game, moves it along, and asks very interesting and unusual questions which is quite refreshing. This was so much fun. Thank you for uploading!
He has a reputation and history of being quick-witted. Perhaps no one ever had a better comeback than Niven did at the 1974 Oscars. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-EWBc-ir6IFM.html
Thanks, all my years watching GSN, I never saw this episode, as a Jo Stafford fan, I was surprised she just hurried off, no chit-chat, especially since they had time for another contestant.
Having watched well over a hundred of these absolutely WONDERFUL episodes, I previously had watched this one, but it dawned on me a short while ago that this particular show is of such importance to me personally as to rate a re-examination... I was born the day before the airing of this telecast! I want to thank you for posting these really delightful episodes of this intelligent show. I have been thoroughly entertained by them and had forgotten how great they are and were in their day... Amazingly, Ann Tidwell the second contestant was a dealer from Nevada... I have lived in Nevada for almost 37 years!
@@libertyann439 When you have watched them all, just start back at the beginning and watch them again! I'm on my third pass, and am noticing things that escaped me a few years ago. It's also fun to see comments that people have left since the last time.
I like how Dorothy acknowledged that the question about the day off was very interesting indeed, as I too thought it was both a good question and one that ran apart for the other more traditional lines of questioning used on the show.
I have to admit, as nasty as the remark was, the first time I read Frank Sinatra's description of Dorothy as "the chinless wonder" I almost lost it from laughing so hard.
What's My Line? That was indeed a nasty thing for Frank Sinatra to say. WML was never the same after Dorothy's death, and I mostly stopped watching the program from about 1966.
No slam here, Miss Kilgallen could be (despite some unfortunate, at times, style choices) quite becoming. However, I've noticed a certain asymmetry in her face and neck muscles that has made me wonder if there was not some issue, perhaps in her younger years (a broken jaw or major dental issues, perhaps?). I've not found anything to confirm this, simply an observation from watching so many WML episodes and scanning over photos and such. When posing, she did seem to favor one side depending on the light (not unusual, granted, for celebs to favor one over the other). Really, just a stray thought that has come up as I've been binge watching!
James Vaughan:. If you had read her sarcastic and critical "true story of the real" Sinatra and you were he, I am sure you would have been unhappy also. She could be snotty when she wanted to
As one born in 1960, Stafford was certainly well before my time but I did grow up with adults who listened to her and really fell in love with her voice and style of singing. Very unique and in some ways came across as off key but for some odd and loveable reason, it worked!
All the contestants had beautiful signature handwriting. Besides being a WWII war Special Forces soldier I've always found David Niven to be very urbane.
Those were the days when Hollywood had real stars. All the greats are in these videos. It is very interesting to see them. While watching I like to do a Google search for their names to see when they died. I really enjoy watching.
@@Walterwhiterocks: True, but it's just as easy to type in a name on Google as it is to go to deadoraliveinfo.com and then type in the name. And deadoraliveinfo is less likely to be accurate; for several years after Joan Fontaine died they had her listed as alive.
@@accomplice55 If all I wish to know is dead or alive, that is the site I much prefer.TMI on Google to sift through at times and it too, has been known to be in error. Whatever works for the user, I guess.
With his extensive sports and geographical expertise, Bennett was on a roll with the correct guesses this episode! I also love David Niven's wholesome sense of humour; he's such a charming and adorable fourth panelist.
Charlie Robertson's perfect game on 1922 was his fourth major league start. It was the only remarkable achievement of his career, which ended with a record of 49 wins and 80 losses. A parallel scenario took place 40 years later. Bo Belinsky, pitching for the Los Angeles Angels, threw a no-hitter in his fourth major league start. Like Robertson, his career went nowhere from there. He ended up with a record of 28 wins and 51 losses. Both men played 8 years in the majors.
The last contestant was such an interesting and witty guest, I wish they would have put her before the casino lady (which is a little overused profession in the show, contrarily to TV comedy writer). It often happens that the most interesting guests come when the show is running out of the time, and it's generally a waste of good laughs and interesting questions.
The first contender was given far too much time and the least interesting. I hate it when the last contestant is rushed off the show. The compere's fault.
Also, for the person who never heard of Jo Stafford and thinks that only an old college professor has, that is just silly. I have octogenarian parents and have definitely heard of her...maybe because I am in music?
I'm a Baby Boomer and I know and love her music. She had a strong beautiful voice. The songs I remember best are You Belong to Me, Make Love to Me (Not graphic - as a song with that title would be today), and Shrimp Boats.
For those who wonder why some of Jo Stafford's replies were in a country dialect accent: she made some novelty records singing standard songs in "hillbilly" style, under the alias of Cinderella G. Stump. "Temptation" was one of these, from 1947; you can hear it at ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-LzVV2NJ1wx4.html Be sure to scroll down to read the description below the image; there are a few interesting paragraphs about the recording.
Barbara Avedon (nee Hammer) had a very interesting life. She was a co-creator with Donna Reed of the anti-war org, 'Another Mother For Peace'. She was also co-creator of 'Cagney & Lacey'.
Jo Stafford’s PERFECTLY ravishing voice has got to be in the top five of any jazz or pop vocalist who ever lived! Absolutely gorgeously beautiful: THANK you, Jo, for setting the gold standard for any vocalist with any actual ability, calibiber or true quality: ❤ 🙏🏼. Here she is, doing Moonlight in Vermont meltingly well: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-CwyZyDD6Yqw.html
Just one of so many dozens of absolutely gorgeous recordings if you ask me, America can be so proud to have produced such a very fine singer, indeed. ❤
Interesting to see Charley Robertson here.. This was filmed 6 days after Don Larsen's World Series perfect game, so he would have been notable right at that point in time. I had no idea he ever appeared on TV, much less on WML, because outside of the perfect game he was a completely obscure ballplayer that never had a winning record, even in the year he tossed the perfect game.
TomasTigre Technically, John was wrong to cite the case of Ernie Shore since he had come on in relief of Babe Ruth who was ejected from the game after walking the leadoff batter and arguing the call. Shore then picked off the runner and set down the next 26 so that while he got 27 out it was not a true perfect game under the current baseball rules (though it may have been deemed different at the time). The last true perfect game prior to Robertson's had been Addie Joss in 1908.
@@epaddon At the time, Shore's performance was recognized as a perfect game. Three years after this episode, Harvey Haddix threw 12 perfect innings before losing the game in the 13th; that was also considered a perfect game. I think it was around 1990 when MLB changed the definition to exclude the performances by Shore and Haddix.
+jennjenn61 I noticed that also. I am familiar with both women and hadn't noticed the resemblance before. Except for the bow, Jo's hairstyle is a near perfect match for the classic Rose Marie look in the Dick Van Dyke Show, Hollywood Squares, etc. They are also both curvy women, somewhat full-figured and with attractive faces that have maturity. They are women, not girls.
Rose Marie was also famous for her singing: as a little girl she had an adult singing voice. Also her voice was the first heard at the premier of A Jazz Singer as RCA recorded her on two Vitaphone tapes which ran before the film.
I wish they hadn't saved the comedy writer for the very end of the show. I would have loved to have seen the panelists work at it to try to guess her profession, and I hated it when John Daley had to give it away at the very end because they were running out of time.
The joys of live TV. I had often wondered if anyone had ever said anything risque or off color on the show. I'm sure that David Niven's remark at the end of "I hate to pass up a magnificent opportunity to make an ASS of myself in front of 52 million people". If Ricky and Lucy couldn't even sleep in the same bed and they couldn't say the word "pregnant" on TV, I'm sure the producers almost fainted when David used the word ASS!!
In British English, "ass" means a donkey or a silly person, and isn't rude. The rude word for one's backside is "arse." It's clear that Niven wasn't trying to be rude.
Something 'Odd' here....wonder, just why the last contestant wasn't on 1st or 2nd....as a TV Script writer...she would have had a fascinating imput with her responses.....Hmmmm....
Just for those who might not know. According to Wiki: "A perfect game is defined by Major League Baseball as a game in which a pitcher (or combination of pitchers) pitches a victory that lasts a minimum of nine innings and in which no opposing player reaches base." In MLB history, this feat has only been accomplished 23 times. And just FYI, there has never yet been a strike-out perfect game where a MLB pitcher has struck out all 27 players in a game. In fact, no MLB pitcher has ever stuck out more than nine players in three consecutive innings. To strike out nine players in three consecutive innings is called an "immaculate inning" and, to date of this posting, only 73 pitchers have ever achieved that feat.
I am sure it is just a typo, but you said a strike out perfect game is 21 players a game. Truth is, for a perfect game you need to get 27 straight outs. They mentioned the Ernie Shore perfect game. Since the show was recorded 60 years ago, his perfect game was taken out of the books. Because under the rules it was not a perfect game. The starting pitcher for the Boston Red Sox was actually George (Babe) Ruth. He went out and walked the first batter. Babe Ruth was then thrown out of the game, for arguing. Shore came in, and immediately picked the runner off of first. The next 26 batters went out in order. Since Ruth walked the lead-off man, it was no longer considered a perfect game, just a no-hitter.
It's amazing how varied the pronunciation of some words depends upon where one grew up. Most of the panel pronounced the nut as "Pee-can" rather than correctly, as "pehcahn," with the accent on the 2nd syllable.
Interesting how it seems that there were more left handed people then by the sign-in. My baby brother is left handed and back in the 1960's it was considered like a handicap. They were told to practice writing with their right hand. My mother tried this with my brother but it didn't work. He is still a lefty.
I don't think that was considered swearing. Ass as meaning a donkey, not a rear end, wouldn't be considered bad. I'm fairly sure that's how it would've been taken. I've seen the term jackass in Archie comic books from that time.
In British English, "ass" means a donkey or a silly person. The rude word for one's backside is "arse." It's clear that Niven wasn't trying to be rude.
I thought the same thing. John is very good at being almost proto-PC (as a reporter it makes sense) but occasionally does reflect the time that the show took place. Unfortunate to see nowadays but looking on the whole show he was very ahead of his time and certainly much more progressive than Bennett or even Arlene.
It has come to light that her verybjealous,alcoholic husband had motive and opportunity on top of all the enemies she created due to hateful comments she made. Not suicide. She was not sweet and innocent. Read The Reporter who Knew Too Much.
What struck me is how John, while incorrectly including Shore as the only other perfect game ever, left out Cy Young's in 1904 and Addie Joss's in 1908, not to mention two pre-1900. And while it was just 4 up to 1964 there have been 17 since then, including 14 between 1981 and 2012 and none since.
I love John Daly on this show for many reasons but one of them is that as a newsman he is naturally proto-PC, but occasionally he manages to reflect the times. Why does the last guest not look like she would be a comedy writer John???
What struck me is how John, while incorrectly including Shore as the only other perfect game ever, left out Cy Young's in 1904 and Addie Joss's in 1908, not to mention two pre-1900. And while it was just 4 up to 1964 there have been 17 since then, including 14 between 1981 and 2012 and none since.
@@preppysocks209 Yes but which is (far) harder. A lot of things are rarer, but they're more accidents than real feats. There are less cycles than no-hitters, but we know which takes more skill.
For some unknown reason, the lords of baseball considered Ernie Shore's performance a perfect game for many years. This has been discredited in recent years, and appropriately so. Shore relieved Babe Ruth (pitching for the Red Sox at the time) after Babe walked the first batter and got thrown out of the game for arguing ball four. Shore came in, picked off the baserunner, then retired the next 26 batters. A terrific performance to be sure, but not meeting the strict criteria of a perfect game.
+Jack Decker I have heard it many times used in just a casual way, but I don't know. I wasn't alive, is it possible that certain people found it rude just because it was slang?
+Hope Sears Possibly. I wasn't alive then either. But come to think of it, it is a negative term even today. Not a big one so maybe it has lessen over the years.
"Joint" is slang term that goes back at least to the Swing era. E.g., "This Joint Is Jumpin'" was a hit song in the late 1930s. Without doing a study on the history of the word, I'm pretty sure that the negative connotation of a joint being a "dive" wasn't part of the meaning till much later. A "joint" was just a place that people hung out.
The Mapes was Reno's most fashionable hotel/casino at that time, I think she was not letting that get by. It was a beautiful building, sadly blown up in 2000.
HOW FLEETING IS FAME IN SHOWBIZ! If you were to stand on the campus of any "elite" university in the United States, I don''t think anyone, except an especially old professor, could tell you who Jo Stafford was. Am I right, or do I exaggerate?
+519DJW I'm thirty (you may consider that old) and I do teach (high school, not college) and I do know who Jo Stafford is (and have several of her records). I'm sure if you went to a music department and asked a music student they would know but knowledge is funny like that, if you have a passion for a subject you learn its history. If your knowledge is only of contemporary music or knowledge of music history only extends to people like Elvis or The Beatles and they are what you consider 'old music' then no, you wouldn't know who she is or Dinah Shore, or Doris Day, or Mildred Bailey, or Sarah Vaughn. This doesn't mean they weren't good at what they did or that they still do not have living fans. All I think you can really get from that is that music education and appreciation is lacking when it comes to viewing the full picture. Or maybe Big Band isn't to your (or that person's) taste in music but in my experience, to hear Gene Krupa, Benny Goodman, Artie Shaw, Lionel Hampton, the Dorsey Brothers or any of the other great musicians of that era you usually also find their bands had a singer or singers that went with the band. Basically, if you buy old vinyl because you're a percussion fan (or student) and so you want to study the greats, odds are you will hear Jo Stafford or any of the other ladies I mention because they were just part of the big band package. Jo Stafford sang with the Dorsey band around the same time as Sinatra, so to me any fan of Frank would have at least heard of her and Dinah Shore. I know this is crazy-long, sorry. But it just seems like a logical progression to me that a music fan who appreciated all eras and genres of music would know her. She's not that obscure.
+La Penserosa Thank you for your long and incisive message. I think I should have emphasized how fleeting fame is in *popular music*. Of course, aficionados of pop music that predates the rock and roll era may well know Stafford's name and her work. However, to your average college student of today, the only names of singers from that era that they might have heard of are Sinatra, Doris Day and Judy Garland--and perhaps a couple of others. (And I think that is probably because they were also movie stars.) Dick Haymes, Helen Forrest or Martha Tilton would, I'm sure, draw a complete blank. That said, I'm certain that Justin Timberlake, Lady Gaga or Britney Spears will be even *more* obscure to young people 60 years from now. In any case, I think what I basically meant was that "fame" and "obscurity" are very relative terms.
When Perry Como died in 2001 I said to a young fellow teacher "too bad about Perry Como" and he had no idea who Perry Como was, and Perry was a better known contemporary of Jo Stafford. That being said, there are still a lot of people around who remember Jo Stafford, and others who are too young to remember her but have heard of her and/or heard her recordings. She was an excellent "traditional pop" singer married to Paul Weston an excellent arranger/conductor.
At all cost bypass the comedy stuff . It's just an amusing smokescreen . This appearance just shows what a delightful person she was. Listen to American Folk Songs ... He's Gone Away ... Red Rosey Bush ... One of C20th greatest voices bar none . A genius .
@@sandrageorge3488 She was a popular singer of songs in the 1940s and 1950s before the onslaught of rock and roll. Time rolls on...she's been dead for years....she's forgotten like we all get....forgotten.
Just yesterday, I was telling someone that Jo Stafford is one of my favorite singers from that era and genre (big band and pop). It's interesting to hear her sing something more serious and do it so well. I also love hearing her sing something more fun and up tempo.
While I am disgusted as always with Daly's inability to regularly promote the upcoming work of the mystery guests instead of stories about his own past in regard to them in some way and so did not hear what Jo Stafford was doing specifically in the TV show she'd recorded or would be doing in the near future, the real horror of this show is that Daly does not encourage C.C. Robertson to shake hands with the panel as he departs, which Daly knew would have been a thrill for all the baseball fans on that regular panel. Ugh.
@@karenklise1434 It would depend upon how haute or declasse the casino was. The word joint at that time was used for lots of things. It was a marijuana cigarette slang term. It was used for places like The Subway in Jackson, MS, that was a juke joint and the home of the Blues. A high class hotel with gambling would not have been referred to that way, but it does not connote a dive. A dive is even less elevated than a joint. One would probably not have called Rick's Cafe Americain in "Casablanca" a drinks & music joint because it was a bit more in the club category and no one was supposed to know there was gambling in the back rooms. However, a local pub with booze could be quite nice and very much the beloved neighborhood living room of the village, as it often is in Britain, and still be referred to by locals as their beer joint or pool joint or darts joint, depending upon their activity. And Bennett did ask with a smile if it was alright to refer to her employment venue as such. She was right to make it clear that it was a place with some class and perhaps formality, which is just good advertising of something as it really is. It was common back then to refer to one's local sandwich shop or deli or hot sandwiches purveyor as your hamburger joint, but that didn't mean it was seedy, decrepit, or shady in any way. A tad informal, though, for a hotel-type casino.
Never really cared for David Niven. Too effete and dapper. He became the Hollywood stereotype of an English gentleman, who really only existed in books, films and plays where the typical English gentleman spoke with a plum in his mouth. It was only in the1960’s did we see the emergence of a more muscular, gritty, rugged type of British actor that U.K. audiences could relate to on the screen. Sadly, Niven, like so many British guest panelists knew very little about American recording stars and actors. Their lack of knowledge was painful to see.
Niven was a highly distinguished actor whose ‘natural home’ was light sophisticated comedy. However, when I describe him as ‘effete’ I view him as someone who is ‘over refined’ to the point of being at times ‘affected’ and tedious. I prefer actors who show a degree of masculinity in their roles on the screen. For example, in the film: ‘The Guns of Navarone,’ I found Niven’s character rather limp, lightweight and very unconvincing.
@Mark Richardson Niven was excellent in playing the suave and debonair English gentleman type roles, where refinement and gentleness was of paramount importance. He excelled in film parts which called for wit, delicate humour and urbanity, hence directors often cast him in storylines revolving around the superficial lives of those in high or literary society. Niven’s impeccable good manners and his ability to exude charm made him the ideal languid style of actor who was in his element when playing the ‘gentleman cad’ wooing some wonderful and beautiful actresses. However, in my humble opinion, the same gifts he had as an actor, did not translate when he was cast in film parts of a more rugged and overtly masculine nature, as in my view he seemed ‘out of place.’ The Guns of Navarone has been rightly hailed as a great action war film, but I thought Niven was miscast in the role of the high minded British army officer. I believe it needed a more robust actor with grit and an edge to add that dimension of credibility.
@Mark Richardson I think we have reached an ‘impasse’ Mark in our discussion. We are in the realm of semantics since we are both expressing subjective views - in other words to quote that hackneyed phrase: ‘beauty is in the eye of the beholder, ‘ or in this case: ‘manliness’ is in the eye of the beholder which essentially means the person who is observing gets to decide what is ‘manliness.’ The problem when referring to the term ‘manliness’ is one’s interpretation. Are we identifying physical strength or emotional strength, or both? The Merrimam Webster dictionary definition defines manliness as: “the quality or state of being manly as by having qualities such as strength or virility that are traditionally associated with a man.” Another dictionary defines manliness as someone who we associate with strength and bravery. However, both strength and bravery are words open to wide interpretation, indeed one could write a dissertation about terms such as ‘manliness’ but there is no one objective meaning. Strength and bravery could been seen as two sides to the same coin, but are they? I recently looked on a website which featured around the names of 40 actors who were known for their ‘manliness.’ Some of the names on the list I would take issue with, but then it’s only my opinion. The problem with classifying actors as to their ‘manliness’ is fraught with difficulty as the word itself is so open to widely different interpretations. Is there a commonly agreed yardstick for ‘manliness?’ I think not. That’s the beauty and joy of the English language. It’s been a pleasure in discussing and analysing the talents of David Niven with you. Perhaps we can both agree that Niven was a great actor. Be well. Geoff
WOW!!! he flipped the rest of the cards on 30. I like John, but has RUINED the game show. I still love the show, but it's not a game show anymore, because he just keeps giving them ALL the money, no matter HOW much they win
Also, for the person who never heard of Jo Stafford and thinks that only an old college professor has, that is just silly. I have octogenarian parents and have definitely heard of her...maybe because I am in music?
![What's My Line? - Jo Stafford; David Niven [panel] (Oct 14, 1956)](/img/logo.svg){kind=logo}
