I know that others have commented on this topic but every program revealed the elegant way the panel members and guests are dressed as well as their general manner.
Saw Van Johnson in a Broadway musical in 1985 and he looked and sang just as well as ever. I miss all of these lovely people, it was a wonderfully produced show.
yes I saw in La Cage Aux Folles as well that year. That was really the first time he publicly acknowledged his homosexuality. It must have been incredibly liberating for him. As a young man, Johnson had a bad car accident and sustained serious injuries across his forehead. Other than in The Caine Mutiny, he used a great deal of makeup in his films to hide it. On this occasion, the extensive scars are clearly visible.
It doesn't matter if you saw him in 1985. You must see him in the 1940s to be a true fan. You are not a true fan but a wanna be born in gen x who never experienced the diamond age of america from the 1920s to the 1940s.
It's interesting that Arlene and Dorothy seemed to have switched spots to allow Dorothy to put a personal spin on the introduction of Bennet, with her daughter starting working for him.
This show first aired on my birthday! 🥰🥰🥰 I was 4 years old and my parents loved this show, and I was a star struck girl loving those elegant clothes! I'm still the same and grateful to be able to watch these!
Miss Bonnaviat (now Carol Bonnaviat Brady) doesn't seem to have kept up with judo. She did graduate from high school, though (that year), and went on to Washington College (in Maryland). And was named as Miss Junior Achievement, 1961. She and her fellow Halloween monarch got married at some point, and why their high school had Halloween monarchs and not Homecoming, I do not know. Maybe both? Anyway, the point is, she has five kids and some grandkids, modeled for awhile, worked in the Westchester County Sherriff's Department, and was in real estate, which is what she eventually retired from. Is alive and presumably well, and living in Long Island.
She sadly passed away on June 14, 2017 at the age of 74. It appears she suffered from dementia in her later life. easthamptonstar.com/Obituaries/2017622/Carol-Frances-Brady
I think Joey, and his deadpan facial expression is a riot, and look forward to episodes where he's on the panel. On the other hand; Jonathan Winters, whom alot of folks consider a comic genius, has always put me off. Just a matter of taste.
Disagree. Joey is always deadpan, sure, but he's always trying to crack jokes and then waits and waits until the audience laughs. He's so annoying. See he just cracks jokes and doesn't play the game
@moontheloon5 - I like the comedy of both Bishop and Winters, but Winters is beyond a doubt one of the great comic geniuses of all time. This is my field, so I know of the critical understanding of and acclaim for his work. However, Winters did not always possess a stable psyche due to his genius. And it can be said that his work is not something everyone need like. Genius and artistry are not a matter of taste, but what one can tolerate or enjoy certainly is. This show had several of the great comic masters of all time on it, including Fred Allen and Steve Allen. They all had quite different styles and other gifts in addition to their comedic genius. One need not like all of them. The French have given Jerry Lewis all of their highest awards for his work and he was good, but there are those Americans who fail to see what was so uniquely wonderful about him to them. And then there are those who are especially gifted in their fields who are not nice people at all. You are allowed to have your funny bone tickled as you like.
As a young man, Van Johnson was seriously injured in a car accident. He suffered extensive injuries across his forehead. Except for The Caine Mutiny, because of the character he played, he used heavy makeup to cover his scars. In this appearance, either due to lighting or a decision not to use as much makeup, his scars are quite visible.
Bishop in his early luscious period. He appeared quite often in 1960-1961 on WML and was certainly one of the most funny guest panelists of this period. One of the more embarrassing of the mystery guest sequences. Age. Character parts. Cluelessness. Marriage status. He expression suggests that he wanted to be anywhere than here.
It's taken me a while to warm up to Joey Bishop as a panelist-- mostly due to his overplaying being dumb when he so clearly isn't-- but by this point, I consider him one of the best guest panelists.
@@WhatsMyLine This was when Bishop was at the height of his schmooziness with Sinatra's Clan; he is first on the scene in 'Ocean's 11', but as always his job is to ring up the curtain for the big names. Privately Frank thought Joey was little more than a mechanical gag machine who traded too much on his association with more gifted pals. A few years later Bishop asked an outrageous sum to warm up a concert and Sinatra exiled him ruthlessly, like Peter Lawford. Bishop spent years brooding and complaining about being banished, and did not retain too many friends in the business.
@QuadMochaMatti I agree. Those guys wasted so much time trying to be funny that it affected the pacing of the show. Jokes are great, but guest panelists like Steve Allen and even Victor Borge knew how to make the joke and move on rather than grind the show to a halt every time the question came around to them.
This is the third show in a row in which Ms. Francis enters with her hands in the pockets of her dress. I'm wondering if the designer(s) asked her to do so, in order to advertise the pockets as part of the design.
In Light in the Piazza, Olivia deHavilland plays a Mrs. Johnson and the running joke that everyone in Europe asks if she's related to Van. She isn't, but eventually gives up and says she is.
I've noticed that the fashions and hairstyles have changed a good deal in this past year of 1960. The hair is starting to pile up on the top of Dorothy's head, instead of hanging in a more girlish style.
I have always been fascinated with Van Johnson's portrayal of a straight male. I am sure he did it for commercial reasons and as a sign of the times. He lived to be 90 I believe and in his later years became comfortable enough or the times changed, or both, that he could be himself. Loved his movies and always respected him.
The new change to Studio 52 has the panel making their entrances from stage left for the very first time instead of stage right. This would remain their standard protocol for entering for the remainder of the show's run.
John asks where he was from 3 times. Isn't John given a write up on the guest so he would know exactly how to pronounce the name of the town the guest was from?
Is it my imagination, is it the lighting/makeup or...do Joey Bishop's ears look big and very white and the rest of his face dark and tanned? To me, this is very evident at 13:13
This episode got me to wondering... what would the $50 the contestants won in 1960 be worth in today's money. So I looked it up... $508.18! All this time I thought... they're winning a measly $50. But the $50 went a long way back then. Lol.
Paper money wears out in circulation -- it gets creased, wrinkled, torn, faded, stained, limp...and is no longer fit for use. So it is destroyed and replaced with freshly printed bills. Burning was probably the simplest effective way to be sure that the old bills were really destroyed.
Well, if you recall, he was in the Ratpack, buddies with Sinatra. Sinatra despised Kilgallen. It could explain why he is leaning so far over towards Arlene that it is hard to ignore. Seems like a jerk to me.
They used videotape for a handful of prerecorded shows a year after 1959, but WML was a live program. It was preserved on kinescopes because videotape was astronomically more expensive back then, and no one expected the programs to ever be shown again.
The high cost, that makes sense. News broadcasters were using film into the 1970s because of the costs. CBS threw out most of their radio and TV shows. Most available today were preserved by the armed forces who made copies for overseas broadcast. Apparently there are a few military landfills which have several tapes and film. Who knows what may turn up some day?.
Remember, too, that they had gotten into the kinescope habit when the show began in 1950, not only for archiving but because TV wasn't yet broadcast live coast-to-coast, so stations that were too far from New York would have to show it on a delayed schedule from kinescope film. I'm not sure when all stations got live network feed via coaxial cable and microwave relay, but even if this was complete by 1960, the idea of making a copy to keep still meant kinescope just because that was how it had always been done, the technology was in place and not too expensive. Videotape was only for time-shifting a broadcast, for instance recording a show in advance to be broadcast on a holiday or while someone was going to be out of town. The tape would be erased and reused after the broadcast. And yes, they would kinescope the tape playback from the studio monitor while it was being broadcast. You can see a few videotape artifacts on the films of these prerecorded shows.
Arlene isn't wearing Martin's heart pendant. How often did John have to ask three times where a contestant lived? Joey looks as if he promised not to get too friendly with Sinatra's bete noire, Dorothy the 'chinless wonder'.
The lady judo instructor was cute...and reminds me of Barbara Parkins. Joey Bishop's ears are startlingly pale. Mr Hull didn't "deal in a product". Burning old money at the Federal Reserve Bank is 'providing a service". Daly often gets this aspect of giving information to the panel WRONG.
Ok I wonder what's up with Joey Bishop at the beginning of the show? Somber...sullen....when everyone smiles and laughs after Bennett zips up Arlene's dress, Joey looks downright pissed off. Not sure what happened, but he looked mad about something for sure
A comic with a persona that's somber and sullen. Yep, there's nothing that gets me roaring with laughter, more than a comedian with a depressing look on his face, and a somber sullen personality
Buster Keaton was a comedian when only an expression was the method of conveying laughter. Joey was a comedian in a completely different era. Also - was Joey's demeanour at the beginning of this episode, one that would convey laughter, happiness, mirth or joy? Something was up. He looked downright negative and not the least bit happy to be there.
Galileocan g Joey simply had a deadpan manner. He always did, not just here. You're entitled to find it off putting, I have no problem with that. But. . . if anything, your point about the importance of expression in silent films makes Buster's stone face even more noticeable and dramatic. In this respect he was the absolute polar opposite of Chaplin, whose expressiveness was a central part of his performing style.