Sister Mary Christina from Framingham Center, MA, appears to stump the panel on the classic show, What's My Line? This is from January 31, 1960. Her special talent? She's a dentist.
Omg that’s my Aunt Mary Ann (Sister Christina) who later taught Dentistry at Marquette University. I’m so pleased this popped up tonight. We loved her spirit and energy❤️
In the 1950s before I was born she became a dentist and later taught dentistry at her alma mater Marquette University after she was done being a Marist missionary nun. She was a kind, loving and bubbly person .
@@monicafedel3307 I hope you continue on her legacy of faith and good works, and always remembering to frequently receive the sacraments of confession and Holy Communion.
I love how respectfully the panel responds to this nun when she exits, they all stood up out of respect for her. This was a different time in American history when good manners prevailed.
You know how can we still watch this stuff from 60 years ago and still come away happy to have seen it. I really wish the shows of today were still like this.
The shows of today use too much ignorance and vulgarity to get their points across. Plus, this is too much a 'me' generation. People were much more courteous then. Honestly, I've never paid for Cable TV. and I never will.
It's the natural restraint on show ....the show, the panel and the host were of their time. Life was never perfect in human history but today we'd have music, probably some lewdness, loudness and in-your-face brashness... or am I being too cynical?
there is a channel on now called "buzzr" i think and they do show these b&w games (1950's & 60's) shows and constantly watch them, however they also air games shows from the 1970's and later which i don't watch, am i strange to prefer the ones before my birth
I went to Catholic school from 2-12. The nuns were awesome. I know that some people had somewhat negative memories of nuns when they attended Catholic school but I never had a problem. The nuns teaching me were much like Sr. Mary Christina. They helped us learn self-discipline, manners, respect and consideration for others - basically a good foundation for later life. Certainly, the secular schools don't teach that today. Kids today are lucky if they leave school able to read and write let alone know anything about their country and the world around them.
as a small child i do remember visiting an older relative who was a dominican nun in New Orleans and playing billiards with other nuns in a convent, i always thought that was a different memory for me
She served as a missionary nun after this was filmed before ending her career teaching dentistry at Marquette University. She was very loved and was my Aunt.
I love the elegance , & dignified way the panel & Mr Daly interact, their wit & class. I was impressed with Dorothy Killgalen as she stood when Sister Christina was introduced; so much refinement & manners, We could use more of this today
In Catholic school we were taught to greet with a bow from the boys and a curtsy from the girls. This was in the 1960's. Even when parents visited or other visitors to our class. This brings back memories.
Interesting, John Daily described growing up in South Africa, which we know at that time practiced apartheid, and apparently so did "What's My Line", because you never saw people of color as guests, or on the panel for that matter. No Sydney Poitier, no Ella Fitzgerald, no Duke Ellington, no Louis Armstrong, ,........the list could go on and on, apparently they were all the wrong color? Maybe the show should have been called "What's My White Line"?
@@Orange-Jumpsuit-Time They actually had a handful of black guests on the WML show, regular panel member Arlene Francis from what I've read apparently went bonkers with excitement when Willie Mays was revealed as a "mystery guest". It was pretty progressive, and there are multiple WML episodes where the panelists also did astonishingly suggestive humor (Ms. Francis once asked a young male gym instructor for his business address on behalf of "millions of American women"). Wild stuff.
@@thunderbird1921 That's probably all true, I'm only familiar with the show around the time it started, early fifties, because of RU-vid. While watching those early shows, all I viewed were an all white panel, and all white contestants show after show. Then it dawned on me, oh right, Jim Crow era, this was the time period where the deep South still had "Whites Only" drinking fountains, a few years before Rosa Parks refused to sit in the back of the bus, and several years before Dr. King took up the banner of civil rights and became a national figure. So the show, like society, progressed later on. My mistake was I should have prefaced my earlier comment about the show related to a specific time period.
@@Orange-Jumpsuit-Time How was it segregated? They had plenty of non white guests for one thing, Asian, Black etc. They even had a black panellist/questioner at least a few times.
@@LyingSecret The early years of the show, starting in 1953 when the South was still embroiled in the Jim Crow era all the way up to the late 50's. It got better as civil rights was injected into the American bloodstream thanks to people like MLK.
Someone else here in the comments mentioned Ms. Kilgallon was raised Catholic, so it may have been only natural for her to be so respectful of the sister.
@@20alphabet Hitler didn't like or trust the Pope, and saw him as a rival in authority over the Germans. He was raised Catholic but (unlike Ms. Kilgallon here) rejected it as a young adult and did not practice. Private correspondence and interviews with people who knew him well seem to indicate that he was probably, privately, an agnostic or atheist... And also, not a vegetarian. He loved sausage. But I digress... About a third of Germans were Catholic at that time period, so the Nazis couldnt begin by being openly hostile to the church, and they tried to appeal to traditional values, which meant seeming as Christian as possible at first. Meanwhile they tried to weaken the authority structures of the churches, especially any church that resisted them, and the Catholics were markedly resistant. (Catholic Leaders were one of the targets in the Night of the Long Knives) They also tried to gradually mold Christianity into an "Aryan Christianity", with Hitler's goal being the slow transition of the population from a "semitic religion" that encouraged Germans to worship Christ, a Jew, into Germans worshiping a very German Jesus, Into a kind of Germanic neo-paganism and then ultimately into a direct self-worship of and by the Volk. (For example, they encouraged young couples to be intimate in old cemeteries to reincarnate the spirits of old Aryan warriors) Hitler closed German convents and monasteries and confiscated their buildings and land. (A nun who knew Eva Braun sent her a letter pleading for intervention, but she replied "let your hair grow". Many orders of nuns cut their hair short as a sign of humility and celibacy. The message was, he will close your convent and he wants you to become secular German women and marry) Hitler sent so many Catholic clergy to concentration camps that Dachau had a barracks of just priests, and a huge number of Jesuits (a specific order of Catholic priests famous for work in science and education) In time, Hitler sent any religious leader who opposed the Nazis to Dachau, and well over 90% of them were Catholic. (The German priests, unlike Poles, were give the chance to "redeem" themselves and get out if they joined the army, but except for a few who volunteered for medical service, they declined.) They were harrassed and beaten regularly, particularly those who wanted to hold religious services. Many were tortured to death there. Well over 300 died just in an experiment involving malaria. So, no...I wouldnt say that Hitler had an automatic respect for the Pope.
No, the entire panel including Dorothy and Arlene stood up for quite a few people.. these are the ones that I remember right off hand that the entire stood up for... Ethel Barrymore Eleanor Roosevelt Bishop Fulton Sheen Frank Lloyd Wright Sophie Tucker Anna Magnani Jimmy Durante James Kilgallen Pearl Mesta Senator Margaret Chase Smith General James A. Van Fleet Helen Hayes Gertrude Berg Senator Karl E Mundt Helen Traubel Mayor Robert F. Wagner Jr. Jayne Meadows Ivy Baker Priest Roy Rogers & Dale Evans
@@PepsiMama2 Now look at that long list you presented and tell us how many were people of color? Allow me answer for you, none, zero, zilch, nada. Segregation was in full swing on "What's My Line". Maybe you should check to see if the Grand Wizard of the KKK should be on that list?
I am so glad the courtesy and etiquettte of this era was recorded, as a model to newer generations who never got to witness it. ♡ Bring it back, it is highly contagious! "Be the change you want to see in the world."
Not like today's game shows, this one was segregated, courtesy and etiquettte was reserved for white America back then. Camaraman: Let's have Rosa Parks on? Producer: "Are you out of your mind"
This was a time when racism was much more common, but as someone who has watched nearly all the episodes of What's My Line I can say whenever an African American or someone from another culture appeared on this show they were always treated with the utmost respect and kindness. All of us are imperfect, but this show was and is as the original comment suggests a wonderful example of courtesy and good manners.
In the 50's my first apt. was a sleeping room and kitchen. I shared the bathroom with 2 other girls. My rent was $9 a week. If I wanted to pay an extra dollar, which I usually did, I would just shove my dirty clothes down the back stairs and my landlady would wash and iron them.
Well said ! I was born at the end of the 50's so my parents still treated people like this and I was raised this way. And I'm proud to say my children were raised this way.
@@grandexandino doubt there have always been crude people. But my sense (this is before my time fyi) is that the society standards for behavior, language, social interaction, and so on were higher. People expected more of each other, not less, back then. Now it's truly anything goes.
it was considered to be polite to stand for members(nuns) of a religious order, bishop, cardinal, especially if you were of the catholic faith. Watch the episode of "What's My Line " featuring Bishop Fulton Sheen and the panel stands to greet him, also.
This brings back memories, I went to a Catholic school in from 1963 till 1969 and the nuns dressed just like her. I had no idea that a nun could be a dentist. Learn something new every day.
Interesting, John Daily described growing up in South Africa, which we know at that time practiced apartheid, and apparently so did "What's My Line", because you never saw people of color as guests, or on the panel for that matter. No Sydney Poitier, no Ella Fitzgerald, no Duke Ellington, no Louis Armstrong, ,........the list could go on and on, apparently they were all the wrong color? Maybe the show should have been called "What's My White Line"?
@@Orange-Jumpsuit-Time stop race baiting. Ella Fitzgerald, Eartha Kitt, Duke Wellington, Harry Belafonte were all mystery guests on WML. POC were also on the panel as guests
@@joyciejd9673 Just saying it's so doesn't make it so. Nice try but there's something called Google, you might want to try it next time you open your mouth.😆😅🤣😂
Look at the difference between these videos and the ones made today. Not just in terms of people in the video being more articulate, educated and polite than anyone seems to be now, but also how the comments make it clear that viewing is a positive experience. People don't shout insults at each other or criticize the appearance of the people in the video. It's actually refreshing to just see some politeness for a change.
I love how the entire panel stood to show her respect. Such class. Nowadays people would be all over social media bitching about a nun being on TV. It’s hard to believe we have digressed in so many ways
You mean we've learned to be more open and honest and not simply respect someone because they pretend to be morally superior based on some immoral antiquated ancient book? Yeah, we're better off now. You must have been raised back then or something. (something being something like a Trump supporter...)
@@FallingGalaxy The respect Nuns have did stem from their religious profession, but the respect they usually illicit from people today are due to the nature of their services, as helpers of the poor and non-parented. It isn't always religion, you know.
@@FallingGalaxy How in the world did you equate someone who spoke of manners when #45 is the most uncouth, misogynistic, narcissistic, egotistical, racist, pseudologia fantastical, mythomaniacal, egomaniacal..oh, pardon my manners for using three words that essentially mean the same thing. How did you EVER think the gentleman would be a supporter of such a rude embarrassment to this country?
It was true, people showed courtesy to different religions, it was Dorothy Kilgallen who was the only one who stood up, and curtsied, not Arlene Francis.
What stunning manners and etiquette. I can't believe the US was at the forefront of good taste and class. The entire world is lacking in grace. Thanks for the memories.
The first few show were without basic etiquette. Mr Daly didn't pull out the chair they blow smoke at each other. Professors were panelists and inspected them quite personally.
Oh! the pleasure in watching good and kindly manners. And by the way, doesn't Bennett Cerf have a sweet smile? Thank you, dear Vicki Quade, for sharing.
When I was a kid in NYC, schools actually used to have dentists. This was in public school. The dentist rotated, coming to your school one day a week. Your mother made an appointment, and when the dentist came, he'd send the monitor to your classroom, & you'd be brought to a fully equipped dentist's office in the school itself & be treated free of charge, believe it or not. And this was NOT in a poor neighborhood, but in a pretty prosperous area of Staten Island.
I"love it! Maybe employed by the school system by the state. What a great thing. Dentistry was not what it has now become and families maybe did not routinely visit the dentist especially with large families of children. Teeth were important.
I have never heard of that but how wonderful that had to be, for the kids whose parents couldn't or wouldn't take them to a dentist. Teeth and gum health are very important.
@@su-rv2uq All schools had nurses in those days. I don't know if they do anymore.They'd even give you your polio booster shot, if your parents signed the permission slip. I can't imagine they do that nowadays (because of lawsuits, etc.) I remember every year at the beginning of the year, they'd send all the kids down to the nurse's office (5 or 6 at a time) for a hearing test. You'd put on these big earphones and they'd play "beeps" and you were supposed to put your hand up when you heard them. I guess if you didn't put your hand up, that meant you were deaf. Anyway, it was a way to get out of class for a half hour.
I went to public school in Toronto in the 1950s and our school had a nurse, and a school dentist who examined the children's teeth annually right in the classroom. He was in private practice but was still designated the school dentist. There was also a speech therapist, a music coordinator and art coordinator who would visit the school regularly.
@@L1V2P9 Where I went to school, they also had a speech therapist. And we had a music teacher to whose class we were taken once a week, but the only instrument I remember playing in her class were Swiss hand bells.
Seeing Sister Christina come out on the WML stage immediately transported me back to September 1962, when I was enrolled at my local Catholic school, as a first-grader. I was absolutely terrified, but the very loving "Sisters" soon put me at ease. My school was in a very "modest" neighborhood, and the school itself was relatively small in terms of student population. I spent eight years there, and in retrospect, I fully realize how my school "Nuns" truly taught me about self-determination and integrity. Were they sometimes tough? Certainly they were, but never in any way which could be termed physically or mentally abusive. Growing kids will test the boundaries, and I was no exception. Well, I learned. Cheers to Sister Christina and all of those dear ladies I am now thinking about.
All but 1 of my sister teachers In the catholic school classes were fair and intelligent. The 1 exception should have been retired from teaching / interacting with young children. She had no patience , was excitable and often cruel to one or another in a 9 month yr. A 60 year old shouldn't be teaching 11-12 year olds.
You've got to be kidding, nuns carried in their pocket two wooden blocks hinged together called a "clapper", they used it to communicate to a line of students when to stop, and when to continue moving in an orderly line, but the sadist nuns, and their were plenty, also used their clapper like a blackjack if they deemed you unruly, and ripe for punishment, believe me when I say most transgressions were minor, whispering to another student, eyes wandering during a class lesson, etc. They would approach their unlucky target and whip out that blackjack, er, I mean clapper, command you to hold out your hand, palm down, and crack. Not only painful as hell, but the biggest welt you ever saw would form on the topside of your hand. But not to worry if you were a girl, no such punishment, the sadist nuns only got off on leveling such punishment on young boys who weren't their pets.
@@Orange-Jumpsuit-Time Not in my experience - ever! Your cartoonish reply begs for some kind of "ghetto lottery" against the Catholic Church. Well good luck with that, and do let us know how you made out.
@@rivaridge7211 "ghetto lottery" ?? Don't look now but your white supremacist is showing. Oh, that's right, ever since criminal Trump arrived on the scene, it's now acceptable to say the out loud what was once only spoken in whispers to like minded folks. Go crawl back under your rock, you haven't a scant of Christianity in your whole being. Whatever the nuns taught you, you ditched that a long time ago.
I was born and raised in Framingham on the edge of Framingham Center. I was born in 1961, so I imagine Sister Mary Christina was a couple of miles away when I was growing up. And I was raised Catholic. Small world.
The respect, etiquette and style of Mr. Daly and the panel is so much missed... By me at least.. Seem's like for all of our so called progress in society, we lost basic respect and etiquette towards one another and how we conduct ourselves in public.
Oh, please. Her writing, about Kennedy or whatever, had nothing to do with it. Dorthy Kilgallen was an alcoholic & drug abuser. As her autopsy showed, she did herself in. Do you really think her father (well-known journalist), her associates, and the Hearst Corporation (the many newspapers she was associated with) would have let it slide had it been anything else? Stop the wacky conspiracy theories.
Why dont we have manners like Dorothy now? My mother started school and on the first day the teacher brought out an American flag. She was the only one who stood up out of respect to the flag being presented because so many of our family served in the armed forces. The teacher gave her a piece of candy for her patriotism. She still tells the story even though her mind makes her forget most things. She remembers how proud she was to be the only one who knew what to do. Dorothy reminded me of her just now. 2 years later I just read my comment again and it saddened me because we just lost her at Christmas.
Mark Walters They would never find celebrities who would be this nice and polite to one another. They wouldn’t be able to joke about anything because everybody is super sensitive now and offended. They would throw politics into everything. The culture has changed. The country has been transformed, and it isn’t an improvement. Sadly.
@@kathyyoung1774 Not to mention the people on the panel would insist on being paid tons of money to appear, the host would be the usual egotistical clod and the mystery guests would probably be people anyone over 30 had never heard of.
@ Kathy Young- What you say is only too true. It saddens me to see what 'humanity' is coming to. (The quote mark because I truly question the humanity of most people I meet or see on tv today)
He knew the panel was too far away from the answer, and had already decided to award the full prize money, so gave it away for a more satisfactory ending
bach baroque I never hated the dentist growing up, though this was obviously 30+ years before I was going to the dentist. It wasn’t right of him to say.
I am always surprised when a panelist suddenly latches on a couple of questions and correctly guesses the answer. It still leaves me wondering if some hint or other was passed on before.
Hal Block, when he was a panelist in the early days of the show, once told a nun contestant that she was the prettiest nun he'd ever seen. Reprimanded after the show, he asked what was so wrong; "she was a real doll". I wonder what he would have said about this nun.
I've watched many such episodes and Bennett seems to have an unearthly knack of asking the right questions and naming the right guest/occupation. Perhaps he's from (was) another world?
My cousin, Sr Mary Immaclae was a Marist Missionary Sister from Framimgham, Ma. She taught in tbe Solomon Islands for 45 years. I remember my family talking about Framingham all the time. Sr. Mary Immaculae had a big influence on my life. She past away in 2018. I do miss her.
We have also lost etiquette in general. I was taught to rise when a lady enters a room and not to sit until she does. This was rigorously enforced, especially at meals and when we had company. I still do this and a lot of people look at me, baffled. They had never seen common courtesy demonstrated before.
It's funny too that some of us were taught things others our own age were not. I was taught to, under all circumstances, remove my hat when indoors, though it should be made clear we were also taught NOT to judge others for not doing so. Still, I find it odd when I'm indoors and others have NOT removed their hats.
Perhaps because people realized that men and women are equal, and it doesn't matter who sits first. I'd surmise that logically we are better off because of this. Dinner etiquette has slightly altered to something more logical, rather than superficial. We are a species that observes rationally, and we should change with it when we realize our forms or "etiquette" is illogical, even harmful.
I mean, I wouldn’t call that a “common” courtesy since it hasn’t been regularly practiced in decades or more. Someone held the elevator door for me earlier...I’d argue that this much more common courtesy is actually helpful to me, unlike if he had seen me come in, and just stood there haha. I think it’s a bit silly to cherry-pick one thing from your childhood and generalize about the rest of society, with many different perspectives and cultural influences. Seems like a very narrow perspective from which to view things....
Just love this show. Nothing comes close to it these days...in every show everyone us so respectful, polite and dignified. Each panelist is so smart....what has happened to tv these days....sad
There are still some Religious Traditionalists today & it's so wonderful to show such respect for the Lord & celebrate the rich traditions of the Catholic Church!!!But there is such a terrible attack on the Traditional priests!!! We need to pray for them!!!
