John Halloran was my great, great uncle. His title should have been "The oldest living practicing detective." He once went undercover and joined a carnival for many months, tracking a criminal. He also once had a shootout in a famous Duluth Hotel many, many years before this show. I was eight years old when he was on this show. My parents went to the show. The babysitter said she couldn't wake me up to see my uncle's appearance. Needless to say, I was not a happy camper the next morning.
She couldn’t wake you up because it wouldn’t have been appropriate or you were too fast asleep? Anyway, isn’t it amazing that from not even being able to record television then you can now watch it on a telephone that fits in your pocket? :-) Thanks for sharing. He seems like a great character.
Gloria Shiner Williams was born in 1929 and she died in 2007 at the age of 78,. Her husband, Col. Robert D. Williams, was born in 1919 and he died in 2012 at the age of 92.
I think the first contestant, Mrs Williams, the rancher, was even more beautiful...! (I do not want to deminish the looks of the charming sisters whatsoever)
That has to be the most breathtakingly gorgeous rancher that ever existed. People use the word "stunning," but boy is it appropriate here. Even Bennett's clumsy fawning doesn't do her beauty justice.
Sadly the McGuire Sisters today aren't as well remembered as The Andrews Sisters (understandable, because the Andrews Sisters are the best-selling girl group of all-time with 90 million sales and countless film appearances) - but they were a talented and beautiful singing group that deserves to be discovered by today's younger audiences. - Phyllis is partly to blame for their decline due to her association (close friendship with mobster Sam Giancana) which led to their being blacklisted
The reference by host John Charles Daly at 23:03, "I hope Mr. Teeter's health is all right" is a reference to John Teeter, who was Christine's third husband (married 1952-1962).
I agree…the celebrities today are more often than not wearing next to nothing and I feel that they’re demeaning themselves. They have zero class in my opinion.
TheMinnieme2011 -- He generally sat on the end of the panel desk nearest the blackboard and I think he listened very carefully when mystery guests came in for multiple footfalls, and also paid attention to how long it took for them to sign in. When they had more than two, they often had them sign a blackboard sheet in advance and they'd slide it into the blackboard holder so they could check off their names as they entered and not take so long. He did have a good ear, too, for different voices, even if a pair, for example, tried to sound the same. Bennett Cerf, in general, was smart.
This time, they signed in as "The McGuire Sisters" to help avoid the sign in delay. And for the longest time, only the sister who was seated answered. Furthermore, as sisters, their voices were similar. But Bennett eventually got it.
He was so fine. Played many different men with accents. He was on the original Zorro for a few episodes, Bonanza, and I think he played a Hindu with Shirley Temple in Little Princess.
Christine McGuire and Phyllis McGuire are still living. The middle sister, Dorothy McGuire, died in 2012 at age 84. Christine will soon be 89 and Phyllis turned 84 earlier this year.
A very good and very entertaining episode! Signs of the times: Sunbeam as a sponsor of the show, and transportation for contestants through United Air Lines rather than American Airlines, as in the past. I've seen the segment of this show with Gloria Shiner Williams as a contestant before, separately - and I'm still convinced that not only is she one of the most beautiful ladies ever to appear on WHAT'S MY LINE as a "regular" contestant, but that she's also one of the nicest and most gracious of those contestants, too. She certainly has a good time fooling the panel for a while..... And similarly with John Halloran: the panel and moderator treated him with a respect that Hal Block never would have. Notice how they asked their questions a little bit louder than usual (I assume, so that he could hear them clearly in that acoustically atrocious studio)? And he has a good time, too. And, of course, the McGuire Sisters as Mystery Guest, again (the second of their 5 appearances as Mystery Guest - they had appeared on 29 May 1955, and would do so again on 16 July 1961, on 8 April 1962, and on 3 May 1964), looking beautiful as always and acting very gracious as always, too. And they had the panel fooled for quite a while, too.
Yes....and nowadays men are not allowed to compliment women on their looks.....we are so ridiculous now Mr Cerf would be accused of sexual harassment....
It was a tough job but John Charles had to do it. Lol! I couldn't help but think how great the McGuire Sisters probably smelled. They appeared shower fresh and perfumed.
Bennett is my kinda man...right to the obvious...You are smokin hot! Another person with "movie star" looks, that easily could have been a movie star, and was not. You ever wonder how someone like Mamie Van Doren could just work at a department store? Mrs Willaims is like that. Never heard of The McGuire Sisters, but wow...talk about blessed genes and jaw lines!
*_Sheep and Goat Rancher_* *_Private Detective (85 Years Old)_* 3:00 One of the most attractive contestants to ever appear on the show, and she received NO wolf whistles from the audience.
It's equally crazy that the last grandson of President John Tyler (born in 1790 and president from 1841 to 1845) is still alive in April 2021. The second-to-last of his grandsons passed away in September 2020.
The detective was as cute as he could be. Weird how the McGuire sisters Phyllis in particular would eventually clash with Dorothy's death. She claimed to have known who killed her.
Mrs. Williams died before her husband did, but I'm not sure when. (he died in 2012.) Mr. Williams was in the Army Air Corps/Air Force, and, when not in WWII, Korea, /and/ Vietnam, did the usual sort of moving about from base to base, though clearly, Mrs. Williams didn't, or at least, wasn't at this point. (She was originally from Texas, and her parents were also ranchers.) 'When Mr. Williams retired, they moved to Hawaii for 20 years. Then they moved back to Texas, to Lake McQueeney. (Both Bandera and Lake McQueeney could be described as somewhat near San Antonio. If you stretch the definition of near, anyway.)
Part of Dorothy’s question to Mrs. Williams, “... it would be unusual if you found it in the house.” Not nowadays, it wouldn’t be unusual if you found it in the house. At least, not the goat. Some people keep them in the house or let them have the run of the house. Somebody even had a bull they let in the house, a HUGE bull 🤔🤣😂‼️
I noticed that, too. It's times like those that made me wonder if they harbored a dislike for each other. it seemed like they enjoyed throwing verbal jabs, which at times weren't well-received. I remember one show, one insult cast at John during intros prompted him to respond bitterly, "Bennet... REALLY..."
@@AndrewMacLaine John and Bennett were very good friends - Bennett actually said I love you to John a couple times on the air which was very unusual for two guys in that era. Like a lot of men, they often showed their affection by teasing each other.
I think John was rather expecting a complaint at the end about how he led Bennett astray, making him believe that “curly tails” didn’t exclude pigs, so he changed his question to confirm it, and elicited a No instead. He was very quiet at the end and didn’t bring it up when given the opportunity. I think he realized-too late-that he could have confirmed his instinct by stating his question the opposite way. Still, he expressed his disgust at the time and decided to drop it.
I'm always struck by the curious questions some of the panelists (but it seems especially Dorothy) ask of the contestants, e.g. "Is it in the animal family as opposed to fish or bird?" Surely the latter two are just as much animals as any other...!
they tend to use common descriptions that the average person uses. most people do not believe fish or birds are animals. you also see this whenever they have a guest that deals in pigs or hogs. to a farmer or a buyer, pigs are too small and young for market and hogs are the right age and weight for the market. to the average person, they are the same thing.
As delightfully intelligent and knowledgeable they all are about the latest of everything happening, they were indeed abysmally uneducated in the biological sciences.
It is a logical question to narrow the field, although more proper taxonomy would have been to ask “itit in the animal kingdom but neither fish nor bird?”
@@randall-king The former certainly not. My 1950s childhood encylopedia, which I still have, had an entry ('Animal kingdom'), including a family tree diagram, which couldn't have been clearer even to this working class lad and (since this is basic science) holds good today. Public understanding lagged behind, no doubt, but it's still surprising to see someone as smart and informed as, and with the journalistic background and chops of, Dorothy Kilgallen being so ditzy on the subject. As for the founder of Random House...
Here are more photos of Gloria Shiner Williams from her husband's 2012 obituary www.dignitymemorial.com/obituaries/seguin-tx/robert-williams-4942101 She aged well!
***** -- They've done it for quite some time at this point and they started doing it after they abandoned the "walk of shame" prior to questioning. I think it's better this way -- the game gets going a lot more quickly.
I cannot believe that Bennett Cert could mention articulation when he chose not to pronounce words ... not because of an impediment, but apparently because of an intentional "accent"
Doug w. All of John's sons had the first name John, a tradition in the Daly family for several generations. If I'm not mistaken, he had four sons and two daughters.
@@loissimmons6558 but George decided on his own to do it - John was following family tradition. His father, grandfather, brother, at least one nephew, all four sons, and at least one grandson were all named John.
@@loissimmons6558 didn't say that at all - I was just pointing out the difference in the Foreman and Daly family situations. Actually I've heard (not sure if it's true) that Mr. Foreman named his sons after him because he didn't know his own dad,and wanted his sons to always know who their father was and that he loved them, which is beautiful. So both are equally rooted in family and even if they weren't it's nobody's place to judge what somebody else names their kids.
I’ve always wondered that too. He always seems to know when there’s more than one. But I never can figure out how he knows that. He must’ve been really good at detecting slight differences in voices.
One wonders if Arlene had some intel on the mystery guest. She said "they" and then tried to cover it and asked, "Why did I say they?" Then asked "Are there more than 2 of you?"
Watching these shows nowadays, I live for the moments when Bennett Cerf gets petulant when his line of questioning takes a wrong turn and Mr. Daly stops him. Mr. Cerf can be irritatingly pompous.
Once again, Bennett Cerf spotted the first the fact that there was more than one mystery guest, I saw him do that 3-4 times while not having seen all the available shows yet. I assume people weren't "better" then then they are today, as many murders, barfights etc. but those appearing on the show certainly had more class. Even though I assume they wouldn't invite hobo's or poor rural badly shaven Afro-Americans with 3 front teeth missing. I mean, some "unnatural" selection took place before the show started, leading to a very middle class selection of the population. But well, today's middle class seems to enjoy dressing up constantly as if they come from the ghetto's and slums, with ripped jeans and silly caps worn on an even more silly way. One can hardly say the industrial world gone through progress on that field, can we ?
"Is it in the Animal Family as Opposed to Fish, or Birds ,?" - .. What,? .???.. 🤨😬😐😬😬😬🤨 I Should Start by clarifying i do *NOT* Mean Nor Intend this in a rude, disrespectful, nor bigoted fashion Nor do i deny this - but People say *I* convey stuff funny .. 🤔🤨😬😐😬😬😬🤔
I agree that Mrs. Williams is one of THE most stunning contestants. Ever. Of all time. Since day one, and I've seen them all (even the ones that are now private vids). But in retrospect, Bennett comes off like a drooling creep the way he can comment on women's bodies. It's always unnerving.
Annoying: Bennet's out-of-gate questions to ladies about whether their "extraordinary good looks" plays into their work -- and if it doesn't, what a "waste." I know he was a product of his time, but it makes me wince. And the ladies probably didn't like it either.
Maybe bcuz I'm in my mid 60s (born in 1958) but I've always been flattered by the compliment of being referred to as beautiful/pretty...so hopefully that's the way these women take his comments. SK in USA (NC)
That's what annoys me about him. His fawning over a beautiful lady and assuming looks are what gets her by in her work. Other than that I quite like him. Just that one area.
@@grassysands8857 You make me blush. Thank you for your kind words which demonstrate your genuine faith and empathy for others less fortunate than yourself.
TV in those days was A BETTER TIME. Diversity and representation don't make something better. TV and movies today are absolute CRAP because they are TOO DIVERSE to the point that it's slap in the face obvious that they were made FOR that reason.
![What's My Line? - The McGuire Sisters; Cesar Romero [panel] (Jun 7, 1959)](/img/logo.svg){kind=logo}
