Earlier on the day of this telecast, Khrushchev announced he would remove his missiles from Cuba, thus ending the Cuban Missile Crisis to worldwide relief. A few hours before "What's My Line?", Ed Sullivan began his show by saying, "Good evening ladies and gentlemen on this great day for America..."
As I recall, the concession the U.S. made was to remove missiles from Turkey that both sides knew were obsolete. Part of diplomacy is often allowing one of the parties to save face.
Kennedy's handing of the crisis was portrayed at the time and for many years after as a brilliant example of statecraft. Ted Sorenson continued to peddle that line for another 50 years. However, as more documents have become pubic and the Soviet archives became available, the truth is that we came much closer to nuclear war than was warranted, and the crisis management was not as spectacular as Americans were led to believe at the time.
23:20 Wow, Peter Ustinov also did the equivalent of give me my diploma! He was Chancellor of Durham University when I graduated from my first degree in 1999. I theoretically did so in absentia because someone I had always expected to be there had died and so I just didn't want to do it in person in the way I'd imagined. However, I *was* there in person, watching from a hidden vantage point. (I'd asked if I could just sit in the audience, as though I were my own guest, but they wouldn't allow it.) So he was there when my name was read out and presided over my graduation.
One thing that I have been conscious of so far while watching these episodes of WML from the beginning is the ever-present subtext of the Cold War. It pops up periodically throughout the appearances of certain contestants, as well as JCD's numerous discussions. Since this particular episode occurred on the very day that Krushchev backed down, effectively ending the Cuban Missle Crisis and a possible World War 3, I found JCD's mention of his recently-born son, born on the day of President Kennedy's address to the nation of the crisis, to seem particularly full of meaning beyond just the happy new father.
I thought Tony Martin gave up too easily. Yes, he knew that Dorothy was on to him, but she would have to wait to ask another question until all the other panelists had had a turn, and I'm not at all sure that they all knew who he was.
Peter Ustinov was arguably the greatest comic panelist on WML. I liked Groucho; I liked Victor a lot, but they dominated the proceedings, and they were hard pressed to ask one intelligent question in a row. Ustinov was bright, witty, sophisticated, funny Funny FUNNY, articulate, worldly wise - - - and he did not dominate the game. The producers obviously were Mad About the Boy: he did guest panel appearances and mystery guest appearances from 1957 to 1967. Pretty regularly.
9 times: 6 times as guest panelist and 3 times as Mystery Guest. (This appearance was his 4th overall and 3rd as guest panelist. 5 of those 9 appearances were in 1961/2/3: one Mystery Guest appearance in 1961, one guest panelist appearance in 1962, and two guest panelist appearances and one Mystery Guest appearance in 1963.) I remember him as being the guest panelist on the evening in 1957 that Margaret O'Brien completely stumped the panel with her hilarious Cockney accent in the Myrstery Guest segment.
Joey’s ‘60-‘61 were fantastic. He was very funny. His ‘62 - on appearances, eh not so much , save for the ep when he was pissed that Hacket successfully tricked him into NOT suspecting him as the mystery guest. It involved a clever bit of lying that occurred the day of Hackett’s appearance. They hung out all day and even won a golf tournament together. Hackett told Joey he had to get to Chicago for a gig and tried to guilt Joey into giving him a ride to the airport knowing damn well he wouldn’t want to. He knew Joey would want to stay at the country club and celebrate the tournament win by boozing it up. Joey felt guilty about refusing a pal a ride to the airport that when it was revealed it was Buddy he told him I’ll never speak to you again and then he proceeded to relay the tale to the John/panel/studio audience. You could tell that refusing the ride had been weighing on him. Lot of stars and have tried to throw the panel off the scent and usually it just makes the panel more suspicious but this was one time it worked.
"Till death do us part" (her death, in 2008) - for 60 years. He had also been married to actress/singer/dancer Alice Faye for 3 1/2 years, from September of 1937 to April of 1941.
My only other familiarity with Tony Martin is from part of the history of the Brooklyn Dodgers. On Thursday September 25, 1941, the Dodgers beat the Braves in Boston (yes, they were the Boston Braves then) while the Cardinals lost in Pittsburgh. That clinched the pennant for the Dodgers with two games remaining in the regular season, their first pennant in 21 years. The Dodgers finished the season at home that Saturday and Sunday. After their game in Boston was completed, they took the train back to New York's Grand Central Terminal. The Yankees had clinched the pennant much earlier, so they knew they would be playing the rest of their games in their hometown, the first Subway Series between the two teams. But first, their delirious fans would be venturing out of their home borough to Manhattan to greet their beloved "Bums". Tony Martin must have been a big Dodger fan, as he was in Boston and accompanied the team on the train ride. At this point, I will let Leo Durocher (who appeared on WML a few times) tell the story as it was reported in Peter Golenbock's oral history of the Brooklyn Dodgers, "Bums". _"That ride to New York was something! We had a special train. We drank up $1400 worth of beer, Scotch and champagne on the trip. Tony Martin, the movie guy, got up to make a speech, and somebody hit him in the face with a hot steak. The gang yelled, 'Sit down, ya bum, this isn't your party,' and from then on it was a riot."_ (Note: in today's dollars, that would be about $24,000 worth of booze that was consumed. I have no info on the price of the steak.)
As soon as I spotted another one of your seemingly unending, unsolicited missives on this thread my first thought was, here she goes again. I read three or four lines and lost interest. Do you really think anyone, other than the most avid baseball fan, is at all interested in such trivia ? Oh, I'm confident there exists a select few. But let's be honest. I would be surprised if the vast majority of viewers of WML and readers of these comments, have any thirst, or dare I say toleration for such trifle.
1:34 Peter Ustinov makes one of the strangest introductions of another panelist (Arlene) I've seen; it catches Arlene as well as the audience off-guard and amuses Dorothy greatly. Two episodes ago, Arlene said, in her introduction of Bennett, that someone had written in complaining about the length of the introductions, but it seemed just to be a rhetorical device. Last week the introductions did seem to be shorter. This week, not only are the introductions seemingly short, but we have Ustinov's example. I think the producers might have decided to try to rein them in a bit.
I am of the opinion that Peter simply forgot Arlene's name. When he says ".... Mrs Martin Gabel.." he ends it with a rise in his voice, as if he's going to say something else, but he promptly freezes and says nothing, leaving it in mid-air. The entire audience thought so, as well, and that's why they didn't clap. They were waiting for the rest of it, which didn't come.
Something a lit of ppl don't realize And I didn't learn untile my mother went to work for the post office) is that the Postal Service is one of two non-military uniformed services. The other is the Surgeon General's office. In fact the head of the Postal Service is the Postmaster General, so the titles of those two gov't heads is a nice clue.
He does it again! Bennett had Federal, State and Local government to choose from in the first round and he asks "might it be state or local"! is this the Cerf Curse? Great first segment! The panel was clueless, but given a few more chances they might have gotten closer.
Another Cerf! I think their son was a contestant once (or was that Arlene's son). Was Phyllis ever one again (other than the time she was a contestant along with the other spouses)?
Joe Postove Here are the two times she was a "contestant" that have been posted: What's My Line? - Edith Young & Phyllis Cerf; Joan Crawford; Peter Ustinov [panel] (Dec 8, 1957) What's My Line? - The panelists' spouses; Tony Randall [panel] (Dec 25, 1960) She was also a guest, along with the three other panelists' spouses, on 2/15/65, a show which I'll be posting when we get to that point.
+Joe Postove When I was a stockbroker, I had clients like that. If they bought something, it was guaranteed to go down. I'd be very wealthy now if I had acted on that information, but I was either too stupid, too scared or too ethical to do so. It was probably the middle one. Knowing my luck, if I had acted on it, it would have been the one time they would have been right.
The second person from Orange County . The postal person from Santa Ana was great in handling the questions . The surfer from Laguna. Beach also not guess. Yea for the O C
The panel and the audience seem a bit demure and not as lively and animated as they usually are and I think its because it was at the height of the cuban missile crisis and it was a very stressful and tense time.
No idea how they missed the letter carrier. I mean, she wears a uniform, works for the federal government, and is not in the armed forces. A simple matter of elimination should have led either to the Park Service or the Post Office.
@@ritagreen5224 That's true. Another female mail carrier was a contestant on the August 1, 1965 episode. Tony Randall guessed her occupation when he said: "It does seem too silly to ask: are you a mailman?"
Wrong. There were (and are) innumerable uniformed law enforcement, fire protection, building security, and maintenance employees in the federal service - not just military and postal service.
0:47 A very obvious edit in the kinescope. What was edited out was Johnny Olson saying the words "Live from New York". In fact, some of the other episodes went the same way. I do not know if this was GSN's doing, or if it happened during local station reruns from the 70's and 80's.
Joe Postove There was a bit of a pop sound to indicate a slice in the kinescope. It leads me to believe there was a splice in the kinescope. There were 77 instances of the show being pre-taped. Other than that, it was very much live (meaning being on camera at the same time as it was being aired).
I may have pieced together an explanation. The San Diego Union for this date shows, in the TV listings, that What's My Line? aired at 10:30 PM Pacific time on channels 2 and 8. The Boston Record American also shows it airing on this date at 10:30 PM Eastern time on channels 5 and 12. If the program was showing at the same local times on both the East and West Coasts, and if the program was live from New York, then I conclude that the West Coast broadcast was recorded. If the West Coast version was recorded and not live, then CBS or Goodson-Toddman may have chosen to edit out the word live for the West Coast. Is it possible, then, that what we see here is a "West Coast kinescope"? Is it possible that some/most kinescopes survived from the live broadcast, but others only survived from the West Coast re-broadcast? There is a discussion along these lines (live vs kinescope) involving later episodes here www.tv.com/shows/whats-my-line/episode-696-97704/ and here www.tv.com/shows/whats-my-line/episode-803-98319/ .
***** There was in the days before tape, the use of a wet film process especially for news reports, so a several hour delay is I think long enough to develop a kinescope for the west coast.
Bennett is the 90% guy. When the contestant is an attractive female, John starts the questioning with Bennett 90% of the time. Also, when Bennett has a choice between two possibilities, he guesses wrong 90% of the time. These are obviously not scientifically established figures, but I'd bet that they're fairly close.
Peter Ustinov was a very intelligent writer, actor and theatre director, but it seems that this particular panel game baffled him. He seemed unable to ask pertinent questions which is surprising as he had been a guest on the panel several occasions.
And she's still so "ON", John clips her off on holding a live turkey ! As much as she "Creeps Me Out", I must say, Dorothy IS the definition of the word..."GAMER" .
At 22:42, Bennett makes the equation "attractive woman who gives information on television = weather reporter," though at least he avoids the phrase "weather girl."
In my home city of Phoenix, it wasn't until about 1975 that a female newscaster made the airwaves (Mary Jo West). Until that time, women on the air did "fluffy" affairs programs or they did weather. Why must people apply their 21st century sensibilities to mid-20th society and judge it?
Bennett is such a chauvanistic cad. He's always trying to find out women''s ages and feels the need to freely discuss their bodies and appearances, or how decorative they are.
There are some things in life that are ALWAYS wrong, but generally speaking, morality is flexible with the times. In his day, YOU would be the one out of line. If the WML audience, in studio or at home, found Bennett's remarks offensive, they would certainly be flooding the CBS offices with nasty letters and Bennett would be reprimanded or taken off the air. Public sensibilities were a bit different.
![What's My Line? - Beyond the Fringe cast; Robert Goulet; Buddy Hackett [panel] (Nov 4, 1962)](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/TtXb2fZR01Y/mqdefault.jpg)
![What's My Line? - Beyond the Fringe cast; Robert Goulet; Buddy Hackett [panel] (Nov 4, 1962)](/img/tr.png)
![What's My Line? - Judy Holliday; Shelley Berman [panel] (Apr 28, 1963)](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/ojoFaOWiYsk/mqdefault.jpg)
![What's My Line? - Maurice Chevalier; Martin Gabel [panel]; Steve Lawrence [panel] (Jan 27, 1963)](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/2sZqQ0Fk84k/mqdefault.jpg)
![What's My Line? - Bette Davis; Art Linkletter [panel] (Nov 11, 1962)](/img/n.gif)
Earlier on the day of this telecast, Khrushchev announced he would remove his missiles
from Cuba, thus ending the Cuban Missile Crisis to worldwide relief. A few hours before "What's My Line?", Ed Sullivan began his show by saying, "Good evening ladies and gentlemen on this great day for America..."
As I recall, the concession the U.S. made was to remove missiles from Turkey that both sides knew were obsolete. Part of diplomacy is often allowing one of the parties to save face.
Kennedy's handing of the crisis was portrayed at the time and for many years after as a brilliant example of statecraft. Ted Sorenson continued to peddle that line for another 50 years. However, as more documents have become pubic and the Soviet archives became available, the truth is that we came much closer to nuclear war than was warranted, and the crisis management was not as spectacular as Americans were led to believe at the time.
Tony Martin was married to Cyd Charisse for 60 years..........lucky man.
The ladies looking fabulous!
Arlene adored that black velvet dress and wore it many times on the show.
All but one. Dorothy in no way looked fabulous. OTOH Arlene looked fabulous in every way.
23:20 Wow, Peter Ustinov also did the equivalent of give me my diploma! He was Chancellor of Durham University when I graduated from my first degree in 1999. I theoretically did so in absentia because someone I had always expected to be there had died and so I just didn't want to do it in person in the way I'd imagined. However, I *was* there in person, watching from a hidden vantage point. (I'd asked if I could just sit in the audience, as though I were my own guest, but they wouldn't allow it.) So he was there when my name was read out and presided over my graduation.
At about 5:06 Peter actually says the word "ahem" that most people usually only mumble or you might hear when clearing the throat!
One thing that I have been conscious of so far while watching these episodes of WML from the beginning is the ever-present subtext of the Cold War. It pops up periodically throughout the appearances of certain contestants, as well as JCD's numerous discussions. Since this particular episode occurred on the very day that Krushchev backed down, effectively ending the Cuban Missle Crisis and a possible World War 3, I found JCD's mention of his recently-born son, born on the day of President Kennedy's address to the nation of the crisis, to seem particularly full of meaning beyond just the happy new father.
I used to work in a turkey plant. We slaughtered 25,000 a day
I thought Tony Martin gave up too easily. Yes, he knew that Dorothy was on to him, but she would have to wait to ask another question until all the other panelists had had a turn, and I'm not at all sure that they all knew who he was.
Peter Ustinov was arguably the greatest comic panelist on WML. I liked Groucho; I liked Victor a lot, but they dominated the proceedings, and they were hard pressed to ask one intelligent question in a row. Ustinov was bright, witty, sophisticated, funny Funny FUNNY, articulate, worldly wise - - - and he did not dominate the game. The producers obviously were Mad About the Boy: he did guest panel appearances and mystery guest appearances from 1957 to 1967. Pretty regularly.
9 times: 6 times as guest panelist and 3 times as Mystery Guest. (This appearance was his 4th overall and 3rd as guest panelist. 5 of those 9 appearances were in 1961/2/3: one Mystery Guest appearance in 1961, one guest panelist appearance in 1962, and two guest panelist appearances and one Mystery Guest appearance in 1963.)
I remember him as being the guest panelist on the evening in 1957 that Margaret O'Brien completely stumped the panel with her hilarious Cockney accent in the Myrstery Guest segment.
Viktor??? BORGE????
I would like to have seen him more often. Always delightful he was.
Joey’s ‘60-‘61 were fantastic. He
was very funny. His ‘62 - on appearances, eh not so much , save for the ep when he was pissed that Hacket successfully tricked him into NOT suspecting him as the mystery guest. It involved a clever bit of lying that occurred the day of Hackett’s appearance. They hung out all day and even won a golf tournament together. Hackett told Joey he had to get to Chicago for a gig and tried to guilt Joey into giving him a ride to the airport knowing damn well he wouldn’t want to. He knew Joey would want to stay at the country club and celebrate the tournament win by boozing it up. Joey felt guilty about refusing a pal a ride to the airport that when it was revealed it was Buddy he told him I’ll never speak to you again and then he proceeded to relay the tale to the John/panel/studio audience. You could tell that refusing the ride had been weighing on him. Lot of stars and have tried to throw the panel off the scent and usually it just makes the panel more suspicious but this was one time it worked.
LOVE SIR PETER USTINOV 💗💗💗💗💗 Funny intro of Arlene.....😹😹
Mystery Guest Tony Martin lived to the age of 98, dying on July 27, 2012.
And he was married to the beautiful Cyd Charisse.
"Till death do us part" (her death, in 2008) - for 60 years.
He had also been married to actress/singer/dancer Alice Faye for 3 1/2 years, from September of 1937 to April of 1941.
My only other familiarity with Tony Martin is from part of the history of the Brooklyn Dodgers. On Thursday September 25, 1941, the Dodgers beat the Braves in Boston (yes, they were the Boston Braves then) while the Cardinals lost in Pittsburgh. That clinched the pennant for the Dodgers with two games remaining in the regular season, their first pennant in 21 years.
The Dodgers finished the season at home that Saturday and Sunday. After their game in Boston was completed, they took the train back to New York's Grand Central Terminal. The Yankees had clinched the pennant much earlier, so they knew they would be playing the rest of their games in their hometown, the first Subway Series between the two teams. But first, their delirious fans would be venturing out of their home borough to Manhattan to greet their beloved "Bums".
Tony Martin must have been a big Dodger fan, as he was in Boston and accompanied the team on the train ride. At this point, I will let Leo Durocher (who appeared on WML a few times) tell the story as it was reported in Peter Golenbock's oral history of the Brooklyn Dodgers, "Bums".
_"That ride to New York was something! We had a special train. We drank up $1400 worth of beer, Scotch and champagne on the trip. Tony Martin, the movie guy, got up to make a speech, and somebody hit him in the face with a hot steak. The gang yelled, 'Sit down, ya bum, this isn't your party,' and from then on it was a riot."_
(Note: in today's dollars, that would be about $24,000 worth of booze that was consumed. I have no info on the price of the steak.)
As soon as I spotted another one of your seemingly unending, unsolicited missives on this thread my first thought was, here she goes again. I read three or four lines and lost interest. Do you really think anyone, other than the most avid baseball fan, is at all interested in such trivia ? Oh, I'm confident there exists a select few. But let's be honest. I would be surprised if the vast majority of viewers of WML and readers of these comments, have any thirst, or dare I say toleration for such trifle.
Great story. Quite the raconteur, aren't you?
Valerie Pitts is still alive, known as Lady Solti (she married conductor Sir Georg Solti).
Wow. Fascinating.
I thought that I recognized her name, while watching this segment - and in that context, too!
The intro of Arlene was hilarious!
And no Heart Necklace!
It would seem that the very talented Mr. Ustinov forgot Arlene's name.
1:34 Peter Ustinov makes one of the strangest introductions of another panelist (Arlene) I've seen; it catches Arlene as well as the audience off-guard and amuses Dorothy greatly. Two episodes ago, Arlene said, in her introduction of Bennett, that someone had written in complaining about the length of the introductions, but it seemed just to be a rhetorical device. Last week the introductions did seem to be shorter. This week, not only are the introductions seemingly short, but we have Ustinov's example. I think the producers might have decided to try to rein them in a bit.
I am of the opinion that Peter simply forgot Arlene's name. When he says ".... Mrs Martin Gabel.." he ends it with a rise in his voice, as if he's going to say something else, but he promptly freezes and says nothing, leaving it in mid-air. The entire audience thought so, as well, and that's why they didn't clap. They were waiting for the rest of it, which didn't come.
Something a lit of ppl don't realize And I didn't learn untile my mother went to work for the post office) is that the Postal Service is one of two non-military uniformed services. The other is the Surgeon General's office. In fact the head of the Postal Service is the Postmaster General, so the titles of those two gov't heads is a nice clue.
Park Service is also non-military uniformed service
Adrienne, I love that your mother was on! We lived in Santa Ana for a number of years! How fun that she would be on the show!
Border Patrol? Customs Service? Federal Protective Service? Secret Service Uniformed Service? Capitol Police? And on and on and on...
He does it again! Bennett had Federal, State and Local government to choose from in the first round and he asks "might it be state or local"! is this the Cerf Curse? Great first segment! The panel was clueless, but given a few more chances they might have gotten closer.
What's My Line? - Senator Karl E Mundt; Phyllis Cerf [panel] (Jun 27, 1954)
Another Cerf! I think their son was a contestant once (or was that Arlene's son). Was Phyllis ever one again (other than the time she was a contestant along with the other spouses)?
Joe Postove Here are the two times she was a "contestant" that have been posted:
What's My Line? - Edith Young & Phyllis Cerf; Joan Crawford; Peter Ustinov [panel] (Dec 8, 1957)
What's My Line? - The panelists' spouses; Tony Randall [panel] (Dec 25, 1960)
She was also a guest, along with the three other panelists' spouses, on 2/15/65, a show which I'll be posting when we get to that point.
Thanks!
+Joe Postove
When I was a stockbroker, I had clients like that. If they bought something, it was guaranteed to go down. I'd be very wealthy now if I had acted on that information, but I was either too stupid, too scared or too ethical to do so. It was probably the middle one. Knowing my luck, if I had acted on it, it would have been the one time they would have been right.
The second person from Orange County . The postal person from Santa Ana was great in handling the questions . The surfer from Laguna. Beach also not guess. Yea for the O C
5 days before my birth.
chased by the male.. go Arlene :)
I think Dorothy looks very youthful and vibrant in this episode.
Shocking to think she only had a few short years left.
Ha ha methinks Arlene got Peter back at the end of the programme with her mickey-take of his accent and the little look towards camera!!
Does anyone get Arlene’s theater comment as the woman who raised turkeys stood up to leave?
Shows that bomb are known as - turkeys.
A play or film that is really bad, or bombs at the box office, is known as a turkey.
The panel and the audience seem a bit demure and not as lively and animated as they usually are and I think its because it was at the height of the cuban missile crisis and it was a very stressful and tense time.
No idea how they missed the letter carrier. I mean, she wears a uniform, works for the federal government, and is not in the armed forces. A simple matter of elimination should have led either to the Park Service or the Post Office.
fishhead06 even in the 60's some jobs were considered just for men.
@@ritagreen5224 That's true. Another female mail carrier was a contestant on the August 1, 1965 episode. Tony Randall guessed her occupation when he said: "It does seem too silly to ask: are you a mailman?"
Wrong. There were (and are) innumerable uniformed law enforcement, fire protection, building security, and maintenance employees in the federal service - not just military and postal service.
*_U.S. MAILMAN_*
*_RAISES TURKEYS_*
*_TELEVISION ANNOUNCER FOR BRITISH BROADCASTING CORPORATION_*
15:20 I was certain Ustinov was about to shove the end of the pencil up his nostril.
0:47 A very obvious edit in the kinescope. What was edited out was Johnny Olson saying the words "Live from New York". In fact, some of the other episodes went the same way.
I do not know if this was GSN's doing, or if it happened during local station reruns from the 70's and 80's.
Are you sure that this WML was live? I've played it a few times and I don't see the obviousness of the edit.
Joe Postove There was a bit of a pop sound to indicate a slice in the kinescope. It leads me to believe there was a splice in the kinescope.
There were 77 instances of the show being pre-taped. Other than that, it was very much live (meaning being on camera at the same time as it was being aired).
I wonder why they would edit out "live" sometimes and not always?
I may have pieced together an explanation. The San Diego Union for this date shows, in the TV listings, that What's My Line? aired at 10:30 PM Pacific time on channels 2 and 8. The Boston Record American also shows it airing on this date at 10:30 PM Eastern time on channels 5 and 12. If the program was showing at the same local times on both the East and West Coasts, and if the program was live from New York, then I conclude that the West Coast broadcast was recorded. If the West Coast version was recorded and not live, then CBS or Goodson-Toddman may have chosen to edit out the word live for the West Coast. Is it possible, then, that what we see here is a "West Coast kinescope"? Is it possible that some/most kinescopes survived from the live broadcast, but others only survived from the West Coast re-broadcast? There is a discussion along these lines (live vs kinescope) involving later episodes here www.tv.com/shows/whats-my-line/episode-696-97704/ and here www.tv.com/shows/whats-my-line/episode-803-98319/ .
***** There was in the days before tape, the use of a wet film process especially for news reports, so a several hour delay is I think long enough to develop a kinescope for the west coast.
The ladies look beautiful
Cerf was a real ham...just LOVED face time.
Bennett is the 90% guy. When the contestant is an attractive female, John starts the questioning with Bennett 90% of the time. Also, when Bennett has a choice between two possibilities, he guesses wrong 90% of the time. These are obviously not scientifically established figures, but I'd bet that they're fairly close.
Is Arlene NOT wearing her traditional HEART necklace in this episode? I don't see it among her pearl necklace tonight.
Quite true!
Benet Cerf is either one end or the other
The day before the world almost ended!
Peter Ustinov was a very intelligent writer, actor and theatre director, but it seems that this particular panel game baffled him. He seemed unable to ask pertinent questions which is surprising as he had been a guest on the panel several occasions.
He was completely lost here.
I am amazed that these people don't know what an animal is...
Dorothy a little "Cat" on the Mailman ( woman ) about her hair,
And she's still so "ON", John clips her off on holding a live turkey ! As much as she "Creeps Me Out", I must say, Dorothy IS the definition of the word..."GAMER" .
Bennett was leaving for Florida the next day...did he have a pied-à-terre in the city.
Did Arlene? We all know about Dorothy's great townhouse.
Series made at a time when a female mailman was unthinkable.
Nonsense. Unusual - sure. "Unthinkable"? Hardly.
At 22:42, Bennett makes the equation "attractive woman who gives information on television = weather reporter," though at least he avoids the phrase "weather girl."
In my home city of Phoenix, it wasn't until about 1975 that a female newscaster made the airwaves (Mary Jo West). Until that time, women on the air did "fluffy" affairs programs or they did weather. Why must people apply their 21st century sensibilities to mid-20th society and judge it?
V
Bennett is such a chauvanistic cad. He's always trying to find out women''s ages and feels the need to freely discuss their bodies and appearances, or how decorative they are.
There are some things in life that are ALWAYS wrong, but generally speaking, morality is flexible with the times. In his day, YOU would be the one out of line. If the WML audience, in studio or at home, found Bennett's remarks offensive, they would certainly be flooding the CBS offices with nasty letters and Bennett would be reprimanded or taken off the air. Public sensibilities were a bit different.