+Gina Thornburg I'm so sorry for your loss, but I hope it is a comfort to you to be able to see this footage of him as a young man, stumping the panel. Did your father ever talk about his experience on WML and what it was like?
+Gina Thornburg I enjoyed the segment with your dad very much. He was very poised and personable. I also happened to be an engineering student for my first two years in college and although I planned to go into civil engineering, some of my best friends were chemical engineers and that helped me feel more connected to him.
In my opinion this show is one of the best shows that has ever been on TV. I really really really like it. Thank you for putting it out there so I can still watch it. In a way I feel like I knew them and now I absolutely miss them. Thanks again 👍.
Dorothy looks wonderful here -- the best I've seen her in any of the 1960s episodes! Her hair and make-up are both done to perfection and very flattering to her face.
At the time of this episode, Bennett had just returned from William Faulkner's funeral in Mississippi. He related in "At Random" that he was initially looked at with some hostility by the 20 or so Faulkner relatives, as he was an outsider. Then one of the woman asked him "Aren't you that fellow we see on TV every Sunday night on What's My Line?" Bennett acknowledged that he was indeed that fellow. Bennett describes the aftermath: "Well, immediately they all came crowding around me and began asking me about the show. The hostility was gone. I was now one of the people who came to their house every week; I was an old friend." I understand the reaction of those folks: it does seem like John and the panelists are friends who visit me every time I watch an episode.
Very interesting, some of my clients in the health facilities used Nitroglycerin as medicine used to prevent angina.. It came in a little glass bottle with a dropper.
I hope everyone who enjoyed Walter Pidgeon in this episode will watch him in one of his finest roles, Senator Bob Munson in Otto Preminger's superb "Advise and Consent."
RE: Dorothy's Book for Random House. Dorothy had not quite finished "Murder One" when she died suddenly in November 1965. Her reporter father James Kilgallen finished it and Bennett published it in 1967.
soulierinvestments I had never heard before that James Kilgallen had anything to do with the writing of "Murder One." I'd be interested in finding out more about that, if you remember where you read or heard it. According to Lee Israel's unauthorized biography of Dorothy (which I take with an entire *truckload* of salt), a writer named Allan Ullman completed the book after Dorothy's death.
SaveThe TPC Ugh. Again, I wish I had time to go checking the book-- but I recall (probably incorrectly) that Lee Israel *had* said her father finished the book. I did find an Amazon review of the book that cites Wikipedia: as saying, "Although Bennett Cerf was audiotaped on January 23, 1968 reminiscing about Kilgallen, he said nothing about her death or about the book Murder One that his company Random House had published in 1967 with the late Dorothy Kilgallen listed as the sole author. Years after his death, his widow Phyllis Fraser admitted to Kilgallen biographer Lee Israel that a writer named Allan Ullman actually had written it with Richard Kollmar's(Dorothy's husband) approval." So the funny thing here for me is, where did I get the idea that her father finished the book as well, if not from the Israel bio? I don't trust my memory, but I know I wouldn't have just dreamed that up on my own out of thin air.
SaveThe TPC I had a good feeling about the Israel bio all throughout the book, UNTIL the epilogue about her death, which I feel goes off the rails in its non-committal speculation. There was definitely some legitimate fishiness going on, but I tend to go by occam's razor, the simplest explanation is the most probable: there probably was a cover-up by the family, and they probably did pull strings to prevent a full and proper investigation from taking place, but this is fully explainable simply on the basis of the "embarrassing" nature of her death. I don't see any proof, as offered in the book itself, that would lead me to conclude there was foul play, or even if there was, that this had anything whatsoever to do with JFK. Just my take. See-- I'm still commenting here, since you're not leaping to join FB. :)
What's My Line? Maybe soulierinvestments will remember where he heard about James Kilgallen's involvement with the "Murder One" book, and maybe it will be the same source you had. Lee Israel definitely does not say that in "Kilgallen." As for my general feelings about the Lee Israel book, I don't want to go into too much detail here, but I basically agree with your take on the circumstances surrounding Dorothy's death and its investigation/reporting. I have been meaning to write my own reviews for Amazon of all the WML-related books I've been reading this summer, but I don't know if I'll actually get around to writing them while the books are still fresh enough in my mind to do so. I'll try to let you know if I do. No, I am not on Facebook. I hope that you are not the only one who will continue to post and reply to comments here.
SaveThe TPC If you write reviews, I would most definitely like to read them-- please send me links even if you don't want to post them publicly for any reason. The FB group has 160 members-- the YT channel has 4,600 subscribers. I don't think you need to worry. But I'll probably still needle/nag you on this till you tell me to stop. You're one of the last missing pieces, you know. We're having a party over there.
It is mentioned that Walter Pidgeon played the Majority Leader in Advise and Consent. This movie was actually filmed in part in the Capitol. That moviemaking was so disruptive to the functioning of the Senate that no subsequent films have ever been allowed to be filmed there.The cast included a small role for Betty White as the only female senator. And it was Charles Laughton's last film.
I've seen Walter pidgeon in many movies but he made an appearance in a Perry MASON episode . Perry was out of town and a client was in need of a lawyer and his character stepped in and saved the day!
Shout out to Houston, Texas! I Googled "Freedomland" but got no hits except for one brief mention on Facebook regarding this particular episode. The Freedomland listed most was in New York. AstroWorld didn't open until 1968 so that amusement park is eliminated. Thank you for posting these wonderful shows! I enjoy them immensely, watch at least one every evening.
Though Miss Williams was from Houston, she was up at the New York Freedomland doing her elephant work. John Daly mentions right before the end that they would have a chance to see her.
Everyone in the panel looked "sun kissed". Talking about heat and being in sun, they look like they're enjoying nice weather. I miss these kinds of entertainment. A different era to be sure! ❤
Interesting Nitroglycerin is also used as a medicine for heart patients. I have had clients who had a very small glass dark coloured bottle of it in when I was a CNA/HHA.
Interesting, Nitroglycerin is also in a particular type of heart medicine, taken sublingual for chest pain of heart patients. I don't know if they still make or use it. When I was a CNA, certified nursing assistant, a client had a small bottle of it with her meds.
15:56 Dorothy, you know everybody, now don't you? I maybe entirely wrong on this (I can't read lips) but I swear at 10:28, Dorothy turned to Bennett and whispered "She's so cute."
Dorothy K seems to be trying a different image in this episode, more makeup?. Very glam earrings. Wonder where she was going after the show - she looks very dressed up. The hairstyle suits her, lifts her face. Arlene seemed a bit miffed at her hubby's attitude towards the Woman Probation Officer. The usual corny jokes from Cerf.
Did Dorothy ever appear on any other television? I know she had the famous breakfast radio show with her husband Dick Collmer. I think that was mostly local (NYC) during it's run, but does anyone know if the show was ever networked?
Joe Postove I know she appeared as a celebrity contestant on "Password" at least once and on "I've Got A Secret," together with Bennett and Arlene. I would guess she probably appeared as a guest on some other shows as well, but I haven't researched this. I don't think "Breakfast With Dorothy and Dick" was ever broadcast nationally, but I don't really know for sure one way or the other.
SaveThe TPC Breakfast With Dorothy and Dick" was on Mutual Radio, I believe from 1945 until 1960, and continued locally in NYC on WOR until 1963 (not sure about this however).
SaveThe TPC Dorothy actually already had experience on TV before WML debuted, but forgive me for saying I don't have the time to go refreshing my memory of what that experience was (from the Lee Israel bio). It was some sort of a game show-type thing, I believe.
What's My Line? Joe Postove I had forgotten about her earlier TV experience but found the reference I believe you're thinking of on page 201 of Lee Israel's "Kilgallen." Speculating on how Dorothy was chosen for the "What's My Line?" panel, Israel writes: "It is most likely that she was seen on 'Leave It to the Girls,' a program on which she had made her television debut in 1949. 'Leave It to the Girls,' produced by Martha Rountree, featured a group of chic, successful New York career women dispensing advice about life, love, and the so-called battle of the sexes." It goes on from there for a few paragraphs. Perusing the index of the same book, I was also reminded that shortly before her death Dorothy was in a taped episode of "To Tell the Truth," which was actually broadcast on the day she died.
I think she was still beautiful in later years as well, @gcjerryusc. We all get older, and physically less attractive as the years go by. In D. Kilgallen's case, I don't think any implant was needed.
![What's My Line? - Walter Pidgeon; Martin Gabel [panel] (Jul 8, 1962)](/img/logo.svg){kind=logo}
