And he invented the telephone! Or rather he famously played Alexander Graham Bell in a popular movie, and for a brief while his surname was slang for telephone.
I once saw Don Ameche at a Los Angeles hospital when I was visiting my father there; it must have been around the early 1980s. I was walking down a corridor, and he was walking up from the opposite direction. Handsome, wearing sporty clothes and striding healthily, he gave me the kindest smile as he passed by. I’ve never forgotten the sweetness and genuine good spirits he exuded.
So Dorothy Kilgallen and Arlene Francis attended the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II, and to think she's still the Queen. My father told me one of his earliest memories was his mother made him watch the coronation on TV.
Her coronation was more than a decade before I was born. There’s something oddly comforting about that. Even though she’s not an active governing official anymore, she’s often perceived as the head of Great Britain. Considering how often government officials around the globe change, her longevity provides stability in this very tumultuous world.
@@RonGerstein Most of the 19th century had a Queen too thanks to Victoria and her 63 year reign. You can find videos of her 1901 funeral on youtube even. King Charles was already near his 74th birthday when he took over so it almost certainly won't be that long until the next coronation
This episode was such a joy. I mean, every one of them is, but in this one, everyone is so exceptionally cheerful and lively. Thank you very much for providing us with this incredible show!
It's amazing that this fresh show is 70 years old in 2023. The entire tone of the program is superior to comparable talk shows today. Nowadays no one assumes that the audience is intelligent.
Don Ameche was sure handsome, and he was a very smooth, crooner type singer, too. I have heard him sing before, and can't figure why he never made LPs. I like it when Steve Allen and Tony Randall are on the panel. Steve was cute, and wry humored.
My paternal grandfather could have been Mr Ameche's stand-in....the resemblance was remarkable! And grandpa had much the same gentle demeanor as Don Ameche.
Today is the funeral of the lady in whose coronation both Dorothy Kilgallen, and Arlene Francis was to attend, her body lies in state until September 19, 2022. It's wonderful to have programs as historic records that can tie the past to the presence. The world will never allow itself the grace that once was the standard .
Arlene's comment at the end about asking Don Ameche if he was an inventor refers to his movie role as Alexander Graham Bell. It reminds me of Groucho's line in the Marx Brothers' movie Go West, "Telephone? This is 1879, Don Ameche hasn't invented the telephone yet." I enjoyed this episode, thanks for posting.
Arlene's line at the end about Don Ameche being an inventor is a reference to Ameche's having played the title role in the film "The Story of Alexander Graham Bell".
In the Marx Brothers movie 'Go West' (released the following year in 1940), Groucho jokes, "this is 1870, Don Ameche hasn't invented the telephone yet!"
Stanley,in one scene in Trading Places, prior to filming, Mr Ameche apologized to the cast for the profanity he was about to use,as he didn't use profanity in his personal life. He was applauded by the cast and crew.
One of my favorite movies ever! I usually watch Coming to America right after, because of his and Ralph’s cameo after their downfall at the end of Trading Places. It’s been a couple months since I’ve watched these movies when I used to watch weekly. Need to do that again. These movies make me smile.
@@sthompson4049 The word he used was seen as racist even by the standards of the mid-80’s, but served the plot well. William and Randolph were kind of bumbling and easy to like for much of the movie, despite being asses, an in that one word, delivered with such contempt for Black people, instantly killed any jovial feelings the viewer might have had for them and slammed back into the viewer that these people, so easy to like, were classist, racist assholes. If he’d been softer in his delivery, it would lost some impact. With the following shot of Billy’s face, it’s actually a crushing moment in a film that is otherwise laugh after laugh, changed the tone, and it was just so well done.
As a Baby Boomer we did not watch this show in the early years...we got our first Television around 1958 , but we only had two channels then to choose from. Later we saw this show, and these days I really enjoy watching. Also the panel and Mr Daley genuinely cared for one another and when Fred Allen and then Dorothy Kilgalon died, they couldn't hide their sadness and loss. Surprisingly, some celebrities are people that I have never heard of.
Don Ameche became an actor by chance. He went with a friend to an audition to give moral support, ended up getting hired himself. The hiring agent asked him where had he been?
Don Ameche, of course, was a regular panelist on _To Tell the Truth_, another Goodson-Todman production. I remember that the announcer sometimes introduced him as "The inventor of the telephone, Don Ameche". Don Ameche starred -- in the title role -- of the 1939 biopic _The Story of Alexander Graham Bell_, and that was one of his best-known roles. Someone once told me that back in the day that a slang term meaning "the telephone" was "the Ameche". That's what Arlene was referring to when she said, "All I can say is, the one thing that didn't occur to us to ask was 'Are you an inventor?''" (TTTT wasn't yet on the air in 1953 -- it ran from 1956 to 1958, and Don Ameche was on its panel from 1957 to 1961.) He had a resurgence of popularity at age 77 when he appeared in the 1985 feature film _Cocoon_.
i loved Arlene's confidence as the water pistol came to mind, I also loved how the panel had to make quite sure that the dental chair was not an electric chair! I also love how deep they got into Don Ameche, before Steve realized that his gender had not been determined.
Don Ameche's voice, delivery, politeness, and even to a degree physical appearance are remarkably similar to the behavior of Tennessee Ernie Ford during his mystery guest performance. It's great to have this online; I don't think I ever saw Ameche's appearance before.
No question --this series would be just a boring panel show - without the Moderator and the fantastic panelists. And mostly amusing guests. It was serendipity that all of these came together on this classic series. ...Rowby.
My mother was lucky enough to work at Bullocks Wilshire in Los Angeles from 1939-1942. She said the two nicest movie stars were Gary Cooper and Don Ameche. She said he had the most gorgeous smile and was dazzlingly friendly. Her favorite female movie star that she waited on was Myrna Loy and Carol Lombard.
It's always a bummer when they do that, especially when it seems like the only purpose is to squeeze in a last contestant in a segment that's always rushed. So many fantastic mystery guests disappear the moment the game is over!
+karlakor I've always loved Don Ameches' voice....it's always so well modulated. His voice, always,seemed to me to be one that would be very difficult to emulate or impersonate....though,I'm never quite sure why.
+1 And did you notice how pissy Bennett Cerf got when Mr. Ameche took a few extra moments to answer his question? He gets very petulant when celebs don't answer him right away. That's his worst character flaw IMO.
Best Supporting Actor. I read that at the time, the award was criticized because not deserved but given because of a lifetime of performances, and that Ameche said he had no issue with that.
As I'm watching this, Queen Elizabeth is in Buckingham Palace for the last time. Tomorrow she will be taken to Westminster Hall to lie in state until her funeral next Monday. Two members of the panel are going to her Coronation next week. What a coincidence!
I liked the episode of TTTT where 2 of Mr. Ameche's real-life daughters were contestants. Don disqualified himself, and later he walked over and picked out the "real person" even though he had never met her before. Good stuff.
Multiple anecdotes/stories have indicated the early TV studios were very hot due to the lighting; if so, it is surprising that people on the show are not obviously sweating.
I saw Don Ameche on Broadway around 1970, and he was definitely a character actor at that point in his career. He was also so good I still remember some of his scenes...but I forget the name of the play!
The question of whether Don Ameche made records. Either he thought it referred to as a singer, which had just been established, or it was filmed before he teamed with Frances Langford as John and Blanche Bickerson, because they did most certainly make records - I own one, or I used to.
One thing about Don Ameche, he proved that an actor can be hilariously funny without being "blue". He was; bright, charming, funny, coy, hansom and so much more but never a swear word. He had dignity.
Just something I’ve thought about MANY times while watching MANY MANY episodes... One would think they would fix the fact that Dorothy can’t hear the contestant from her fist chair position. This episode is from 1953 and the problem exists in almost every episode thereafter.
The first time I was aware of Don Ameche, he was hosting a program entitled International Showtime, featuring (mostly) circus acts from all over Europe. It was only later that I saw him play Alexander Graham Bell in at least two movies.
That's how I had to wake my sons up when they were young and going to school.. my two sons were the hardest people in the world to get up and sometimes they would yell "Ma it's Saturday" and I'd "OH sorry" and go back to bed and it was really like Tuesday.. I can't keep track of days.. anyway, I finally got a water pistol and a couple of squirts and they'd jump right up...
Similar principle: our Jack Russell terrier wants to bark at any person, animal or vehicle going past the house. And keep barking long after they are out of sight. Our solution is a spray bottle. Squirting water on his head shuts him up real quickly. lol. btw, learned that trick from a veterinarian.
Still very entertaining today. I can never get over the seemingly embarrassing grand prize of $50. However, doing a search, that prize in the 1950s would be worth the value of over $500 in 2019.
My favorite Don Ameche role was relatively late in his career when he had a key role in "Trading Places" playing the skeptical Mortimer Duke of the commodities firm Duke and Duke opposite Ralph Bellamy as his more optimistic brother, Randolph. Don's brother Jim, seven years younger but very similar in voice and appearance, did most of his work on radio. He was the original "Jack Armstrong, the All-American Boy" and then played mountie Jim West on the ABC Radio program "Silver Eagle" from 1951-55. He also took over for Don as the host of "The Chase and Sanborn Hour" on radio in the early 1940's. He also had a number of shows on WGN in the 1940's and was a popular disk jockey in NYC for a number of years later in his career on stations like WHN and WQXR. He wasn't a spinner of rock and roll records to be sure. The one time Jim appeared on screen, it was to make use of the similarities between him and Don. He played Alexander Graham Bell in a 1957 movie titled "The Story of Mankind". That movie had quite an illustrious cast, with Ronald Colman as "The Spirit of Man", Vincent Price as The Devil, Groucho Marx as Peter Minuit, Hedy Lemarr as Joan of Arc, Harpo Marx as Sir Isaac Newton, Chico Marx as a monk, Virginia Mayo as Cleopatra, Agnes Moorehead as Queen Elizabeth I, Peter Lorre as Nero, Dennis Hopper as Napoleon, and Marie Wilson as Marie Antoinette. The Ameche family hailed from Kenosha (WI). A little over 4½ years after this show aired, a young cousin to the Ameche brothers (1933 vs. 1908 and 1915) would make a huge impact on the sports world in NYC and beyond. The 1954 Heisman Trophy winner from the University of Wisconsin, Alan "The Horse" Ameche, was a first round draft pick of the Baltimore Colts in the 1955 draft and made a big splash as a fullback in the NFL for six seasons until an Achilles tendon injury cut his career short. Alan's most memorable moment came at Yankee Stadium in December 1958, the NFL Championship Game between the Colts and the New York Giants. With Johnny Unitas engineering a drive in the last two minutes of regulation time to lead to a game tying field goal, the stage was set for the first overtime game in NFL Championship history. After the Giants went three and out and punted, Unitas engineered another drive, helped by a number of key runs by Ameche. The biggest was when "The Horse" punched the ball across on 3 and goal from the one yard line. All the Giants could do is holler in vain, "Turn those machines back on!" The last 22 secs. ua-cam.com/video/KBGtUu2IyDI/v-deo.html See the first fan to reach Ameche? He got the chin strap of the Colts' hero. A teenager then, he became my colleague for many years in the financial services industry. Even with the game blacked out in NYC, it was still watched by ~45 million fans, lured in part by the rags to riches story of Unitas who had captured the imagination of American sports fans of that era similar to how Arnold Palmer had done in golf: both known for their youthful confidence and the ability to come from behind to victory. The NFL couldn't have asked for a better, more dramatic showcase. Prior to this game, the NFL took a back seat to college football and baseball in the minds of sports fans. The 1958 NFL Championship, still widely known as "The Greatest Game Ever Played", marked a sea change that saw the pros first vault over the college game in popularity and then surge past baseball, too. One could argue that Alan Ameche's TD had as big an impact on the American sports world as the invention by the man portrayed by two of his older cousins had on the world of communications.
I am a fan of his latest work before his death as well...Folks will always be my favorite movie. Heaven Can Wait...everytime I see it....I can only picture the old Don lol
Don Ameche was the 3rd known MG who stumped the panel. At 12:13, Steve asked, “Is it bigger than a breadbox?” This is the 10th time the term was used. At 14:32: Dorothy said, “You have said this is larger than a breadbox.” This was the 11th use. I love how Dorothy got more laughs when questioning the dental chair man than Steve did with his gambit questions to the same man.
This is the first show (at least of the ones posted on this UA-cam Channel) that Jon Daly's desk is no longer open at the end. The previous show posted here with Jackie Gleason the desk was still open on the end. Although there is a couple of months between the two shows so not sure when the desk first appeared with the closed end.
Since the show with Ida Cantor (19th April 1953) the desk has been closed at the end. The show with Jackie Gleason (8th March 1953) was the last here posted when it still was open at the end.
He played the lead in this wonderful movie later in his career i don't recall the name of it but it was based in Chicago he worked in a shoe store i believe and he was really exceptional in it
I am surprised Frank Fay was never on the show. His far right views were in tune with McCarthy who was prominent at that time. Plus would have been really interesting to hear some of the abrasive answers he sure would have given due to probably nobody on the panel would have liked him. Frank Fay is the one actor that I would really liked to have seen on the show because he certainly would have been a unique mystery guest very different than anyone else they ever had on the show.
And still very handsome & debonair as an older gentleman too. Watch the movie “Cocoon” from the late ‘80’s (or early ‘90’s?)…..a very heartwarming film!
Don Ameche was handsome, and he sure sang love songs good. He should have made several LPs, but he sang in some of his old movies. I always thought Steve Allen was funny, and he was cute, too. Some of those guests sure had obscure jobs.
Mrs. Falek was married to a gent named Romeo, and had (at least) one son, name of Sheldon, as well as some grand-children and great-grandchildren. She died in 1997, at age 82.
There was a touch of black comedy when Steve Allen clearly thought that the 2nd challenger made electric chairs for killing people who were given the death penalty. In fact the man made dental chairs.
Of all the panelists (and the host), the only person who just consistently evolved and grew into a formidable celeb was Steve Allen. That guy would eventually sit on a body of work that included some 4000+ piano compositions, 40 books, hundreds of hours of highly rated TV shows..
I'm sorry, but there was no one ever on that panel more "formidable" then Dorothy Kilgallen. She was successful on all media platforms and is only not more widely pop culturized today because she was silenced in her prime. She was in fact such a formidable figure, she was murdered for it.
I like "What's My Line" ("WML"). In recent past, have enjoyed many WML videos. Just now noticing back of John Daly's hair -- See 10:59-11:08. Wonder if that's how he combs or brushes it.
I am surprised that no one commented on the interesting item in John Daly's left lapel. For the sake of those from countries where this is not familiar and those who simply didn't ask, it was because this was the last episode of WML prior to Memorial Day. It was still celebrated on May 30 every year, regardless of what day of the week it landed on (although if it landed on a Sunday, the legal holiday would still be on Monday). In 1953, Memorial Day was the following Saturday. The item in John's lapel is a "remembrance poppy", an artificial poppy that was worn in part as recognition of the original name of Memorial Day being Decoration Day (a term I still heard often in my youth and it was still the legal name in 1953) because it was when a date was established in 1868 to decorate the graves of Union war dead with flowers (and a similar tradition had started for Confederate soldiers as well by this time) and in part because of the opening lines of a poem, "In Flanders Fields", that was written by a Canadian physician and commissioned officer during World War I. The poem noted that the first flowers to rise up in the churned up earth of the soldiers graves in Flanders was a multitude of poppies. In 1918 inspired by the poem, a professor on leave from the University of Georgia and a YWCA volunteer wrote a poem of her own and pledged to always wear a silk poppy. Soon after, she campaigned to make the poppy the national symbol of remembrance connected with Decoration Day. (The first known use of Memorial Day occurred in 1882, but it didn't become the more common name until after WWII and it wasn't made the official legal name until 1967.) The Veterans of Foreign Wars began distributing remembrance poppies in 1922. Today they are distributed by the American Legion Auxiliary and they are made of crepe paper, not silk. You can see a piece of paper attached to the stem of the poppy just below the flower. I believe that was where the distributor of that particular poppy identified themselves (i.e. which American Legion Post they were). The poppies are not sold, but a donation is asked in exchange for the poppy. In my area, I rarely see them these days. In my younger days, the vast majority of adults wore them. My dad always made sure he got one and continued to do so well into his 80's. Because he had polio as a child, he was 4F, but he was proud of our military. Later in life, he provided the sound system for the Memorial Day public observance in our little suburban town for many years. And in the last few months of his life when he was flat on his back, on one of my visits to him in the hospital, the first thing he wanted to know was how "our boys" were doing. It was shortly after 9/11/2001 and our troops had just been deployed overseas.
Both the UK and Canada (appropriately) have versions of the poppy which are worn in the days leading to November 11 (Armistice Day or, in Canada, Remembrance Day)
All the show members probably had thought the next week coronation would be yet one more they are gonna hear about, But the queen has had the last laugh.
Miss Frances is genius. I let my children user old spray bottles to squirt each other with. There father didn't like to get them toy guns. Try they still had a lot of fun. Lol!
![What's My Line? - Leo Durocher; Laraine Day [panel]; Barbara Kelly [panel] (May 31, 1953)](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/6oqrF_insXg/mqdefault.jpg)
![What's My Line? - Leo Durocher; Laraine Day [panel]; Barbara Kelly [panel] (May 31, 1953)](/img/tr.png)
After watching a number of these reruns, I have concluded that this was the best game show ever on tv. VERY entertaining!
You bet your life had its moments but one must certainly agree / None Better!
And with no EXPLOSIONS or PEOPLE RUNNING!
@@georgemartin1436 Yep. No sensationalism.
So glad you enjoyed it. Many more episodes to come-- almost 500, in fact!
Is there any episode of Clark gable on wml?
Thank you! I don’t know what I’ll do if and when I run out of episodes! 😜
I wish there were some way to screw with time so we could tell them how much joy they are still bringing us.
Especially the courageous Dorothy.
Why aren’t you showing episodes with Fred Allen? Sure miss him & I know he died in ‘55
I feel so lucky to now see these shows with these fine people.
I grew up with Elvis movies.
I LOVE THIS SHOW.
Thank you!
Don Ameche! - The epitome of a gentleman: handsome, a fine actor with a good voice. He was 45 here.
And he invented the telephone! Or rather he famously played Alexander Graham Bell in a popular movie, and for a brief while his surname was slang for telephone.
I once saw Don Ameche at a Los Angeles hospital when I was visiting my father there; it must have been around the early 1980s. I was walking down a corridor, and he was walking up from the opposite direction. Handsome, wearing sporty clothes and striding healthily, he gave me the kindest smile as he passed by. I’ve never forgotten the sweetness and genuine good spirits he exuded.
So Dorothy Kilgallen and Arlene Francis attended the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II, and to think she's still the Queen. My father told me one of his earliest memories was his mother made him watch the coronation on TV.
Isn't that CRAZY! I was only two years old when she became queen. I'm old in my seventies now, and Queen Elizabeth is still there!
I’m 62, she’s been queen all my life.
Her coronation was more than a decade before I was born. There’s something oddly comforting about that. Even though she’s not an active governing official anymore, she’s often perceived as the head of Great Britain. Considering how often government officials around the globe change, her longevity provides stability in this very tumultuous world.
Queen Elizabeth II reigned for 70 years, 7 months, and 2 days before dying on September 6, 2022.
@@RonGerstein Most of the 19th century had a Queen too thanks to Victoria and her 63 year reign. You can find videos of her 1901 funeral on youtube even. King Charles was already near his 74th birthday when he took over so it almost certainly won't be that long until the next coronation
Some of the great things about watching these all in order are the running gags, such as the breadbox comment.
We say that now.!
This episode was such a joy. I mean, every one of them is, but in this one, everyone is so exceptionally cheerful and lively. Thank you very much for providing us with this incredible show!
It's amazing that this fresh show is 70 years old in 2023.
The entire tone of the program is superior to comparable talk shows today. Nowadays no one assumes that the audience is intelligent.
Don Ameche was sure handsome, and he was a very smooth, crooner type singer, too. I have heard him sing before, and can't figure why he never made LPs. I like it when Steve Allen and Tony Randall are on the panel. Steve was cute, and wry humored.
My paternal grandfather could have been Mr Ameche's stand-in....the resemblance was remarkable! And grandpa had much the same gentle demeanor as Don Ameche.
That was so funny when Dorothy asked the maker of dental chairs if this could bring pleasure and a member from the audience yelled no.
Today is the funeral of the lady in whose coronation both Dorothy Kilgallen, and Arlene Francis was to attend, her body lies in state until September 19, 2022. It's wonderful to have programs as historic records that can tie the past to the presence. The world will never allow itself the grace that once was the standard .
Yep I watched her funeral..I miss her so much
Do you mean the late Queen Elizabeth II of the UK?
The good die young.
I love Don Ameche!! What a gentleman!!
And still so handsome here.
Excellent, Don Ameche one of my all time favorite actors, love him in “ Midnight” and “ Heaven Can Wait”
Brilliant show and Daly on top form with his clever convoluted replies.
Daly’s convolute replies amuse the hell out of me!
Arlene's comment at the end about asking Don Ameche if he was an inventor refers to his movie role as Alexander Graham Bell. It reminds me of Groucho's line in the Marx Brothers' movie Go West, "Telephone? This is 1879, Don Ameche hasn't invented the telephone yet."
I enjoyed this episode, thanks for posting.
Thanks for that recall. I probably never would have thought of that again, and it was a hoot!
300 channels at my disposal, and nothing even half as enjoyable as these.
Arlene's line at the end about Don Ameche being an inventor is a reference to Ameche's having played the title role in the film "The Story of Alexander Graham Bell".
Interesting, he also played in inventor in 'So Goes My Love' with Myrna Loy. Very cute movie.
Arlene is so charming, why did she marry a dork like Gabel?
@@kenretherford1197 Martin Gabel was cultured, intelligent, witty, kind and charming. Apparently Arlene believed that looks aren't everything.
In the Marx Brothers movie 'Go West' (released the following year in 1940), Groucho jokes, "this is 1870, Don Ameche hasn't invented the telephone yet!"
@@mikejschin MG came across to me as cultured and kind. He was certainly no "dork". A great voice.
Thank you for uploading these episodes. So nice to watch people with class.
These 4 are the perfect WML Panel combo
I just love when they get excited when they discover the answer!
Don Ameche, one of my classic movie favorites!
Quite a gentleman & a very sweet guy ❤️
Seeing Don Ameche in Trading Places still cracks me up. He was too funny!
Yep him and Ralph Bellamy what a hoot.
Stanley,in one scene in Trading Places, prior to filming, Mr Ameche apologized to the cast for the profanity he was about to use,as he didn't use profanity in his personal life. He was applauded by the cast and crew.
One of my favorite movies ever! I usually watch Coming to America right after, because of his and Ralph’s cameo after their downfall at the end of Trading Places. It’s been a couple months since I’ve watched these movies when I used to watch weekly. Need to do that again. These movies make me smile.
@@sthompson4049 The word he used was seen as racist even by the standards of the mid-80’s, but served the plot well. William and Randolph were kind of bumbling and easy to like for much of the movie, despite being asses, an in that one word, delivered with such contempt for Black people, instantly killed any jovial feelings the viewer might have had for them and slammed back into the viewer that these people, so easy to like, were classist, racist assholes. If he’d been softer in his delivery, it would lost some impact. With the following shot of Billy’s face, it’s actually a crushing moment in a film that is otherwise laugh after laugh, changed the tone, and it was just so well done.
Racists word started with obuma😂
As a Baby Boomer we did not watch this show in the early years...we got our first Television around 1958 , but we only had two channels then to choose from. Later we saw this show, and these days I really enjoy watching. Also the panel and Mr Daley genuinely cared for one another and when Fred Allen and then Dorothy Kilgalon died, they couldn't hide their sadness and loss. Surprisingly, some celebrities are people that I have never heard of.
We had a TV early on before 1950. Those early children's shows were fun.kQED in San Francisco began at that time too.Great memories!
Don Ameche became an actor by chance. He went with a friend to an audition to give moral support, ended up getting hired himself. The hiring agent asked him where had he been?
Wow Don Amechie puts the old in old school wonderful guy!
I regret that I had no idea who he was until "Trading Places" (Ralph Bellamy as well) but glad they were introduced to newer generations that way
and " Cocoon "
Corina Corina. Grazie.
Don Ameche, of course, was a regular panelist on _To Tell the Truth_, another Goodson-Todman production. I remember that the announcer sometimes introduced him as "The inventor of the telephone, Don Ameche". Don Ameche starred -- in the title role -- of the 1939 biopic _The Story of Alexander Graham Bell_, and that was one of his best-known roles. Someone once told me that back in the day that a slang term meaning "the telephone" was "the Ameche". That's what Arlene was referring to when she said, "All I can say is, the one thing that didn't occur to us to ask was 'Are you an inventor?''" (TTTT wasn't yet on the air in 1953 -- it ran from 1956 to 1958, and Don Ameche was on its panel from 1957 to 1961.) He had a resurgence of popularity at age 77 when he appeared in the 1985 feature film _Cocoon_.
i loved Arlene's confidence as the water pistol came to mind, I also loved how the panel had to make quite sure that the dental chair was not an electric chair! I also love how deep they got into Don Ameche, before Steve realized that his gender had not been determined.
Don Ameche's voice, delivery, politeness, and even to a degree physical appearance are remarkably similar to the behavior of Tennessee Ernie Ford during his mystery guest performance. It's great to have this online; I don't think I ever saw Ameche's appearance before.
I loved Don Ameche in the movie Cocoon.
This feels so fresh and in the moment, but it was before the Coronation and I'm watching it two days ater the Duke of Edinburgh's funeral!
Love the way the ladies carried their purses with them onto the show!
Steve: "I don't believe your sex has been determined - by us, I mean."
Don Ameche seemed like such a sweet man
I like how Arlene suddenly got the water pistol answer.
@and Dorothy seemed to get it at the same time, as golden88 pointed out in a previous comment! :-)
At last we got to see a photo of the much mentioned dr Jules Montenier during the opening commercial.
Can’t remember the date (I’ve watched some episodes out of order) by Dr. Jules Montenier once appeared as the Mystery Guest.
@@Rosarium2007 Oh did he? We've been waiting for that to happen! I was also excited to see his brief appearance here.
He was never awarded the Nobel Prize he deserved.
No question --this series would be just a boring panel show - without the Moderator and the fantastic panelists. And mostly amusing guests. It was serendipity that all of these came together on this classic series. ...Rowby.
Clean and wholesome entertainment.
My mother was lucky enough to work at Bullocks Wilshire in Los Angeles from 1939-1942. She said the two nicest movie stars were Gary Cooper and Don Ameche. She said he had the most gorgeous smile and was dazzlingly friendly. Her favorite female movie star that she waited on was Myrna Loy and Carol Lombard.
I was surprised at how quickly Don Ameche was hustled out. I would have liked to hear him speak in his normal voice.
It's always a bummer when they do that, especially when it seems like the only purpose is to squeeze in a last contestant in a segment that's always rushed. So many fantastic mystery guests disappear the moment the game is over!
+karlakor I've always loved Don Ameches' voice....it's always so well modulated. His voice, always,seemed to me to be one that would be very difficult to emulate or impersonate....though,I'm never quite sure why.
Back in the 80s, I briefly met his niece when I was living in Southern California; she was a class act as well.
+1 And did you notice how pissy Bennett Cerf got when Mr. Ameche took a few extra moments to answer his question? He gets very petulant when celebs don't answer him right away. That's his worst character flaw IMO.
Maybe he had to be somewere.
My half-century supply of Stoppette is almost depleted.
Finnasse still available 😅
Ameche's career was in a pretty bad slump at this time. I was happy for him when he was rediscovered and honored with an Oscar late in his career.
Hahaha, all these years I thought that "Don Ameche" was one word. 😅
Donameche was a competitor of Chef Boyardee.
Don Ameche was great in Cocoon, i think he won an award
Best Supporting Actor. I read that at the time, the award was criticized because not deserved but given because of a lifetime of performances, and that Ameche said he had no issue with that.
Arlene Francis was a wonderful woman. What a personality.
Don Ameche was active into his later years. He played Father Clemente in the movie "Oscar'. He could do drama and comedy equally well.
As I'm watching this, Queen Elizabeth is in Buckingham Palace for the last time. Tomorrow she will be taken to Westminster Hall to lie in state until her funeral next Monday. Two members of the panel are going to her Coronation next week. What a coincidence!
@NJT109
As this program is nearly 70 years old, any association with "coincidence" fails to register.
The coincidence is that I happened to watch this particular video at the time Queen Elizabeth had just died.
In 1958, Ameche appeared as a memorable guest panelist on a WML that featured a guy who made ant farms. [ "On the whole, it is alive in part." ]
I liked the episode of TTTT where 2 of Mr. Ameche's real-life daughters were contestants. Don disqualified himself, and later he walked over and picked out the "real person" even though he had never met her before. Good stuff.
Bennett Cerf loved that question about whether anything has ever been alive. 😂
Hilarious exchange with Steve Allen about Sing Sing. 😂
Good definition of this show: "... and some good fun"
Multiple anecdotes/stories have indicated the early TV studios were very hot due to the lighting; if so, it is surprising that people on the show are not obviously sweating.
I saw Don Ameche on Broadway around 1970, and he was definitely a character actor at that point in his career. He was also so good I still remember some of his scenes...but I forget the name of the play!
Bennett Cerf's Al Capone joke is priceless!
The question of whether Don Ameche made records. Either he thought it referred to as a singer, which had just been established, or it was filmed before he teamed with Frances Langford as John and Blanche Bickerson, because they did most certainly make records - I own one, or I used to.
One thing about Don Ameche, he proved that an actor can be hilariously funny without being "blue". He was; bright, charming, funny, coy, hansom and so much more but never a swear word. He had dignity.
Made in the US! Love this era and show!!!
Just something I’ve thought about MANY times while watching MANY MANY episodes...
One would think they would fix the fact that Dorothy can’t hear the contestant from her fist chair position. This episode is from 1953 and the problem exists in almost every episode thereafter.
The first time I was aware of Don Ameche, he was hosting a program entitled International Showtime, featuring (mostly) circus acts from all over Europe. It was only later that I saw him play Alexander Graham Bell in at least two movies.
That's how I had to wake my sons up when they were young and going to school.. my two sons were the hardest people in the world to get up and sometimes they would yell "Ma it's Saturday" and I'd "OH sorry" and go back to bed and it was really like Tuesday.. I can't keep track of days.. anyway, I finally got a water pistol and a couple of squirts and they'd jump right up...
@PepsiMama2 LOL!
Similar principle: our Jack Russell terrier wants to bark at any person, animal or vehicle going past the house. And keep barking long after they are out of sight. Our solution is a spray bottle. Squirting water on his head shuts him up real quickly. lol. btw, learned that trick from a veterinarian.
@@mikejschin .
Similary, a spray bottle of water is an excellent way to break a cat from developing a bad habit like jumping on a kitchen counter.
Still very entertaining today. I can never get over the seemingly embarrassing grand prize of $50. However, doing a search, that prize in the 1950s would be worth the value of over $500 in 2019.
Loved Don Amici (real name) all my life what a wonderful actor
The dental chair segment was 😂. Brilliant.
9:50 Arlene and Dorothy had simultaneous "wienies" about the water pistol!
My favorite Don Ameche role was relatively late in his career when he had a key role in "Trading Places" playing the skeptical Mortimer Duke of the commodities firm Duke and Duke opposite Ralph Bellamy as his more optimistic brother, Randolph.
Don's brother Jim, seven years younger but very similar in voice and appearance, did most of his work on radio. He was the original "Jack Armstrong, the All-American Boy" and then played mountie Jim West on the ABC Radio program "Silver Eagle" from 1951-55. He also took over for Don as the host of "The Chase and Sanborn Hour" on radio in the early 1940's. He also had a number of shows on WGN in the 1940's and was a popular disk jockey in NYC for a number of years later in his career on stations like WHN and WQXR. He wasn't a spinner of rock and roll records to be sure.
The one time Jim appeared on screen, it was to make use of the similarities between him and Don. He played Alexander Graham Bell in a 1957 movie titled "The Story of Mankind". That movie had quite an illustrious cast, with Ronald Colman as "The Spirit of Man", Vincent Price as The Devil, Groucho Marx as Peter Minuit, Hedy Lemarr as Joan of Arc, Harpo Marx as Sir Isaac Newton, Chico Marx as a monk, Virginia Mayo as Cleopatra, Agnes Moorehead as Queen Elizabeth I, Peter Lorre as Nero, Dennis Hopper as Napoleon, and Marie Wilson as Marie Antoinette.
The Ameche family hailed from Kenosha (WI). A little over 4½ years after this show aired, a young cousin to the Ameche brothers (1933 vs. 1908 and 1915) would make a huge impact on the sports world in NYC and beyond. The 1954 Heisman Trophy winner from the University of Wisconsin, Alan "The Horse" Ameche, was a first round draft pick of the Baltimore Colts in the 1955 draft and made a big splash as a fullback in the NFL for six seasons until an Achilles tendon injury cut his career short.
Alan's most memorable moment came at Yankee Stadium in December 1958, the NFL Championship Game between the Colts and the New York Giants. With Johnny Unitas engineering a drive in the last two minutes of regulation time to lead to a game tying field goal, the stage was set for the first overtime game in NFL Championship history. After the Giants went three and out and punted, Unitas engineered another drive, helped by a number of key runs by Ameche. The biggest was when "The Horse" punched the ball across on 3 and goal from the one yard line. All the Giants could do is holler in vain, "Turn those machines back on!"
The last 22 secs.
ua-cam.com/video/KBGtUu2IyDI/v-deo.html
See the first fan to reach Ameche? He got the chin strap of the Colts' hero. A teenager then, he became my colleague for many years in the financial services industry.
Even with the game blacked out in NYC, it was still watched by ~45 million fans, lured in part by the rags to riches story of Unitas who had captured the imagination of American sports fans of that era similar to how Arnold Palmer had done in golf: both known for their youthful confidence and the ability to come from behind to victory. The NFL couldn't have asked for a better, more dramatic showcase. Prior to this game, the NFL took a back seat to college football and baseball in the minds of sports fans. The 1958 NFL Championship, still widely known as "The Greatest Game Ever Played", marked a sea change that saw the pros first vault over the college game in popularity and then surge past baseball, too. One could argue that Alan Ameche's TD had as big an impact on the American sports world as the invention by the man portrayed by two of his older cousins had on the world of communications.
I am a fan of his latest work before his death as well...Folks will always be my favorite movie. Heaven Can Wait...everytime I see it....I can only picture the old Don lol
Don Ameche was the 3rd known MG who stumped the panel.
At 12:13, Steve asked, “Is it bigger than a breadbox?” This is the 10th time the term was used. At 14:32: Dorothy said, “You have said this is larger than a breadbox.” This was the 11th use.
I love how Dorothy got more laughs when questioning the dental chair man than Steve did with his gambit questions to the same man.
Great show which ran for a great many years, still they never got the sound right; the panel and the guests could often not hear each other.
Steve Allen so funny 😂🤣💞💖💯
Steve Allen was always a hoot. Acoustics in that studio must have been awful.
Agree. Frank Lloyd Wright thought so, too. And he stated such when he appeared as a guest. I don't remember what date that was.
So ironically WML was broadcast from Studio 54, the very same place that became the infamous discotheque in the late 1970s!
@@johnscanlan9335 Couldn't hear anyone in there either.
This is the first show (at least of the ones posted on this UA-cam Channel) that Jon Daly's desk is no longer open at the end. The previous show posted here with Jackie Gleason the desk was still open on the end. Although there is a couple of months between the two shows so not sure when the desk first appeared with the closed end.
Since the show with Ida Cantor (19th April 1953) the desk has been closed at the end. The show with Jackie Gleason (8th March 1953) was the last here posted when it still was open at the end.
The show with Jackie Gleason was the last of the original desk, the new desk was the following week with Fred MacMurray.
Steve Allen was a very handsome man in the late 1950s.
Bennett strikes again! Quote - "One of the longest sentences anybody's served since Al CAPONY". 😀😀😀
I adored him in Heaven can wait by Lubitsch.
Great movie
He played the lead in this wonderful movie later in his career i don't recall the name of it but it was based in Chicago he worked in a shoe store i believe and he was really exceptional in it
The movie was Things Change. He played a shoeshine man who resembled a hitman. Laughter ensues. It's a terrific movie -- one of my favorites.
@@EvermoreOfESH That's a great movie(written by David Mamet) and Ameche's co-star is Joe Mantegna.
I am surprised Frank Fay was never on the show. His far right views were in tune with McCarthy who was prominent at that time. Plus would have been really interesting to hear some of the abrasive answers he sure would have given due to probably nobody on the panel would have liked him. Frank Fay is the one actor that I would really liked to have seen on the show because he certainly would have been a unique mystery guest very different than anyone else they ever had on the show.
Don Ameche was a handsome young man
And still very handsome & debonair as an older gentleman too. Watch the movie “Cocoon” from the late ‘80’s (or early ‘90’s?)…..a very heartwarming film!
Imagine living in Brooklyn and manufacturing something! Nowadays there’s almost nobody in that situation.
Dorothy always claims she can’t hear the MG to make them repeat themselves so she can hear their voice again
or maybe just to extend her time on camera, or both
45 dollars back then was a weeks wage for many people
Don Ameche was handsome, and he sure sang love songs good. He should have made several LPs, but he sang in some of his old movies. I always thought Steve Allen was funny, and he was cute, too. Some of those guests sure had obscure jobs.
Dorothy and Arlene off to Queen Elizabeth's coronation! TV was still in it's infancy!
Well there you go, if they haven't had dinner with Bennett in the past week it's not such an easy game for the panel!
Steve is so quick-witted.
Even with the korean war on this,time was more healthy and normal than today...timemashine please
Mrs. Falek was married to a gent named Romeo, and had (at least) one son, name of Sheldon, as well as some grand-children and great-grandchildren. She died in 1997, at age 82.
The phone was called the Ameche
I love the mustache
Dorothy Kilgallen stares directly down the barrel of the camera at 15:11. I was mildly surprised.
There was a touch of black comedy when Steve Allen clearly thought that the 2nd challenger made electric chairs for killing people who were given the death penalty. In fact the man made dental chairs.
I'm really glad there is decent fun shows from the past to watch...so I don't watch today's tv shows as they are not decent healthy or good at all..
Mr. Rupert looks like Radar from "Mash"
Of all the panelists (and the host), the only person who just consistently evolved and grew into a formidable celeb was Steve Allen. That guy would eventually sit on a body of work that included some 4000+ piano compositions, 40 books, hundreds of hours of highly rated TV shows..
I'm sorry, but there was no one ever on that panel more "formidable" then Dorothy Kilgallen. She was successful on all media platforms and is only not more widely pop culturized today because she was silenced in her prime. She was in fact such a formidable figure, she was murdered for it.
@@heidikickhouse- Apples and oranges. Dorothy was a successful journalist, but Steve Allen was a rarity in this day and age: a true Renaissance man.
Even more awesome with the captions on!
(If you don't know what I'm talking about, watch the first four minutes with the captions on, and you'll see)
As much as I love WML, that "Walk of Shame" has to be the dumbest idea that show has ever come up with!
Where has that polite curteous America gone? Lovely hearing these people speak.
It was discarded from parents in the 60s😢
Hippies and feminists destroyed it.
@@robertholman8730 "discarded from"????? What? Apparently you've discarded the English language.
I like "What's My Line" ("WML"). In recent past, have enjoyed many WML videos. Just now noticing back of John Daly's hair -- See 10:59-11:08. Wonder if that's how he combs or brushes it.
It's a convoluted comb-over to cover his bald spot.
Toupee 😊
I think the water pistol packin' Mama got more yeses than most people.
I am surprised that no one commented on the interesting item in John Daly's left lapel. For the sake of those from countries where this is not familiar and those who simply didn't ask, it was because this was the last episode of WML prior to Memorial Day. It was still celebrated on May 30 every year, regardless of what day of the week it landed on (although if it landed on a Sunday, the legal holiday would still be on Monday). In 1953, Memorial Day was the following Saturday.
The item in John's lapel is a "remembrance poppy", an artificial poppy that was worn in part as recognition of the original name of Memorial Day being Decoration Day (a term I still heard often in my youth and it was still the legal name in 1953) because it was when a date was established in 1868 to decorate the graves of Union war dead with flowers (and a similar tradition had started for Confederate soldiers as well by this time) and in part because of the opening lines of a poem, "In Flanders Fields", that was written by a Canadian physician and commissioned officer during World War I. The poem noted that the first flowers to rise up in the churned up earth of the soldiers graves in Flanders was a multitude of poppies.
In 1918 inspired by the poem, a professor on leave from the University of Georgia and a YWCA volunteer wrote a poem of her own and pledged to always wear a silk poppy. Soon after, she campaigned to make the poppy the national symbol of remembrance connected with Decoration Day. (The first known use of Memorial Day occurred in 1882, but it didn't become the more common name until after WWII and it wasn't made the official legal name until 1967.)
The Veterans of Foreign Wars began distributing remembrance poppies in 1922. Today they are distributed by the American Legion Auxiliary and they are made of crepe paper, not silk. You can see a piece of paper attached to the stem of the poppy just below the flower. I believe that was where the distributor of that particular poppy identified themselves (i.e. which American Legion Post they were). The poppies are not sold, but a donation is asked in exchange for the poppy.
In my area, I rarely see them these days. In my younger days, the vast majority of adults wore them. My dad always made sure he got one and continued to do so well into his 80's. Because he had polio as a child, he was 4F, but he was proud of our military. Later in life, he provided the sound system for the Memorial Day public observance in our little suburban town for many years. And in the last few months of his life when he was flat on his back, on one of my visits to him in the hospital, the first thing he wanted to know was how "our boys" were doing. It was shortly after 9/11/2001 and our troops had just been deployed overseas.
When I was a kid our small town had a Memorial Day parade. I remember the bright red paper poppies. The parades are a thing of the past now.
Both the UK and Canada (appropriately) have versions of the poppy which are worn in the days leading to November 11 (Armistice Day or, in Canada, Remembrance Day)
@@Sylvander1911 Australia and New Zealand too
All the show members probably had thought the next week coronation would be yet one more they are gonna hear about, But the queen has had the last laugh.
Miss Frances is genius. I let my children user old spray bottles to squirt each other with. There father didn't like to get them toy guns. Try they still had a lot of fun. Lol!