Danny Kaye... one of the great all-around talents of entertainment. He could do it all... sing, dance, act, do comedy, and much more. I've always felt he never got the acclaim he deserved in that regard.
I just love that John just said "it was meet and proper." I know of no one who is not a medievalist actually call something meet. I love listening to his linguistic gymnastics
I’m addicted to this show. Arlene is one of my favorites,love the accent and wit. Cool to see Johnny so young too....I should have been born a few decades earlier.
Encomiums? A speech or piece of writing that praises someone or something highly. Danny Kaye was a delight. There are few one of a kind performers, but he was one.
"Encomium" became a bit of a running gag on You Bet Your Life for a few weeks when Groucho mispronounced in it in this show: You Bet Your Life #53-23 Spunky old lady vs. Groucho (Secret word 'Clock', Feb 18, 1954)
Little did I know, when the onion grower came on, that this would be one of the funniest bits ever. Love how everyone cracks up as the questions continue. :D
Othal Brand, the onion grower in the show, was mayor of McAllen, Texas in the 70s and 80s for about twenty years. This is part of the Rio Grande Valley in deep South Texas. He was frequently in the news, and really turned McAllen into a business-friendly city. I live in the Brownsville, TX area and we are always behind McAllen in business growth even though we have almost twice the population. It's fun seeing a somewhat local political person in an early TV show. :)
@@joshuafehr301 --How interesting! Did you find this video by accident, or did you and the whole family know about it beforehand? I'd love to hear your story! :D
Miss Homer was a lovely young lady. Arlene looked great in this episode. No other way to say this, Phyllis Newman was a babe. Danny Kaye could do it all entertainment-wise. Thanks for the video.
16:26 Bennett naming off as many vegetables as he could think of, just to test his luck, was absolutely hysterical!! He's probably so used to eliminating the wrong thing that he genuinely wasn't expecting to get away with it for so long, hahaha
As can be seen in another episode, the chalkboard isn't a board at all, but a scroll that is rolled upward after each contestant to reveal a "clean" portion for the next contestant. I presume the scroll was fully cleaned before the airing of the next episode. Just imagine if they had retained the scroll and just affixed a new one each week. With all those celebrity signatures, the things would be worth millions.
So many What's My Line shows I've enjoyed and this one is right in the bunch of the other ones! WaY tO Go who ever is in charge of uploading. You've helped make my day !
They are difficult to grow in most places. My home town of Suffern is one of the few exceptions. Most people have heard of Suffern succotash, I'm sure. Otherwise, the best way to get succotash to thrive is by grafting one of the shoots of an existing plant onto a tofu bush.
Just a word about Geritol--My father in law owned a cocktail lounge in Reno. He kept a bottle of Geritol behind the bar on the liquor shelf for people who would order a shot of it. The alcohol content was supposedly rather high.
I can't believe I'm less senile than I was last year, but my father in law kept Hadicol behind the bar, not Geritol. Hadicol was another popular health tonic of the time, with an especially high ethanol content. Forgive me, Geritol, it's not easy to put ethanol into tablet form.
Danny Kaye looked at John Charles Daly incredulously when he answered yes to the question of whether Kaye was a leading man. Danny Kaye was extremely talented, but not a leading man. I guess the final contestant had to go home and come back another time. Great final segment with Kaye. 😂❤️
16:25 The start of Bennett's, "Can I eliminate...?" series of questions. In the past, though not so much in recent years, they seem to do this when they get a little irrirated (may just be my imagination); there are obvious reasons for the producers and John to frown on the tactic. Here, though, Bennett is having fun with it. What a rutabaga is that Bennett! (Sorry, I like saying "rutabaga".)
A rare hint by John for the first contestant. The way he emphasizes "poor" in his "maybe some poor fish" might have been what gave Phyllis the idea about money.
Kaye in the period between a hugely successful color TV special with Lucille Ball and the premiere of his hugely successful CBS variety show. In 1963 CBS attempted variety programs with Judy Garland and withe Danny Kaye. Kaye's succeeded handsomely. The odds are just staggering that Kaye would write Hitchcock's name on the board as a yock, and Bennett would think of Hitchcock as a guest. This is just about the most funny mystery guest sequence of that period -- but Kaye is worse than Groucho. Is he ever ON! [ 20:07 ] The missing bit probably got lost when Fates et al did the "WML at 25" special. Fates wrote in his book that Bennett once asked mystery guest Kaye if he were accompanied by a bird or an animal. I wonder if that is what got cut out
It's too bad this kinescope is not complete. WML at 25 strikes again. Kaye and Carson must have had some great lines, and I think one of them did make it into "WML at 25."
Dorothy is once again absent, due to health problems. She appeared on last week's program, a special St. Patrick's Day episode, in which all the challengers were full-blooded Irish. I think the only time GSN ever aired that episode was when it was, in fact, St. Patrick's Day.
In 1960 (the height of the McCarthy era), I was sent to a conservative convent school where I was accused first of being a Communist dupe, then a Communist sympathizer and, finally, an outright Commie because I insisted I liked Danny Kaye movies. I never gave Danny up even though I was ostracized by certain groups who seemed to think I was some kind of Russian spy or something sent to infiltrated a convent school in CA. It was an interesting education.
Thank you-- I didn't even realize! UA-cam doesn't make it easy to see a count of how many videos have been posted publicly. When you're logged in as a channel owner, you can only see easily how many videos are uploaded in total, including all the ones uploaded in advanced and scheduled to be made public later. The only way I know of to check on how many videos are public is to log out of the account and see what the page looks like. There have been a couple of folks in particular who have been staggeringly generous in sharing their collections just to help out with this effort, but. . . sometimes I'm asked not to make any public acknowledgement, or believe me, I'd be giving to be credit where it's so due! ;)
Unless I missed it, no one mentioned Dorothy at all. Is that significant, i.e., is her absence (and its presumable reasons) starting to be a subject to be avoided?
The general view is that once the niceties has been observed they thought it best not to bring her up. There was suspicion surrounding her death and the murky world of the mob could have tainted the show.
Yes! I've often wondered about this myself, not to mention how rarely he mispronounces any of the names. My guess is that he went over the contestants' names carefully before every show so he didn't really need to rely on reading what they scribbled. Thinking about the times he offers all kinds of information about the contestants at the end of a round (rather than just letting the contestants speak for themselves, as he so rarely did), he must have had regular briefing sessions with the producers beforehand.
What's My Line? True...I have seen him kinda stumble on the names a few times though so it makes me wonder. Seems like I remember him asking, "Hmmmm....is it {such and such}?" before, though don't ask me what episode that was. Lol
DebbieFaubion Two possible explanations I can see for that which wouldn't contradict his rehearsing the names beforehand: (1) he was so smooth at his job, he wanted to create the *impression* of reading the names as they were written, even though he really knew the info independently already. So on that basis, he would slowly pronounce the syllables as they were written out to make it feel real for the audience. (2) despite this, sometimes he probably just stumbled, either misspeaking, or momentarily not remembering how to pronounce a name, because he was human. But I don't think he was really reading the names on the spot. There are just too many instances where the names really are written indecipherably or could be pronounced so many different ways but John almost always gets it right the first time. One show I watched recently, the contestant signed in using Japanese characters and John *still* read and pronounced it right on the first try! I think it was just for show. It's similar, on a much smaller scale, to how Groucho could make fully pre-scripted jokes on You Bet Your Life sound like purely ad lib material.
Does anyone have an idea as to what word John Daly was trying to use when he said (incombians)? The only thing I can think of is columbians, but I dont know what it might be in reference too. Anyone have any ideas? I loved Danny Kaye's teasing John about it as he left. Wonderful comedian.
With the first challenger, Phyllis Newman gets on the right track but then makes a mistake of inexperience of trying to narrow it down too finely. Knowing that the person worked in Nevada and had to do with gambling, there was no need to narrow it down to Reno or Las Vegas. Even so, it would have been difficult with only $5 left to know which game Miss Homer was connected with. There are many possible table games to choose from at a casino. All that can be eliminated would be the slot machines.
I remember seeing this episode on initial airing, and like the Mad Magazine satire of the show, felt this proved that Bennett Cerf cheats when he says Alfred Hitchcock, which Danny Kaye wrote on the board. as in Mad, "tell us Bennett, how did you guess the identity of the Mystery Guest so quickly?" asks Daly. the reply, "I peeked."
I guess Johnny is still doing guest shots like this (almost six months after assuming "The Tonight Show" helm because he was not yet making a fortune. I have read that the most Jack Paar ever made as host of "The Tonight Show" was 100 grand a year. I wonder if Johnny was even making that, since he was still the new "prince" of late night, and of March 1963 had not yet established a firm hand on the show. For a year there was always talk of "what if he doesn't work out". So getting five C notes (or what was it) for 1/2 on a Sunday night was nice change.
I was wondering whether it was Johnny's first appearance since taking over "Tonight". Glad to see him back. And Phyllis too, who always brings a youthful spark to the show.
Reluctant Dragon I think I may have made a comment a while back to the effect that I didn't think there were any more WML shows with Carson after he took over the Tonight Show, but at the time I didn't have this episode. I think I was foolishly only looking at the list of shows I actually had copies of at the time.
What's My Line? This show is Johnny Carson's last appearance on WML. And, Reluctant Dragon, it is indeed the first and only time he appeared after taking over the Tonight Show.
Joe Postove - Poor assumption, I assure you it wasn't about the money. If you know a little about Johnny Carson in his early years, including up to the time of this airing, you will know that Johnny was pretty insecure about his popularity and notoriety, even though he had landed the Tonight Show gig. Getting a spot on the WML panel was certainly considered prestigious at the time, and Johnny wasn't about to pass up the opportunity to boost his image. Definitely not about the bucks.
By the sound of it it seemed like she wouldn't touch him with a 10 foot pole 😂 WOW! Does this vegetable grow in the union?! I've never had the experience of being in the presence of someone who asked the question this way! How exquisite!
John Daly can pull some real obscure but great sayings out of his hat now and then. When he said it was "meet and proper" that the onion guy should come from Texas because everything is big there I had no idea what in the world he meant. In fact I had to go back a couple of times to make sure I heard it correctly. Meet and proper, from what I could find, is a biblical phrase meaning fair and just. I still don't really get it, though. I'm going to call an old lit teacher I know and see if she knows.
"Meet" is a 17th century word with the meaning today of "suitable". To mention a well-known example that illustrates the meaning, the King James Version of the Bible (1611) describes Eve as a "help meet" for Adam, meaning suitable for him. "Meet and proper" means that a thing is fitting, appropriate, etc. "Meet and proper" is still used in conversation on occasion (I know the expression from having heard it in conversation), but it is especially used in the legal system, I gather. John Daly displays some familiarity with the language of the courts. In the Woody Allen mystery guest appearance, to avoid giving away too much information at one point, Daly follows his brief and cryptic response with the statement, "beyond that, 'the deponent sayeth not,'" which is legal language.
+Joe Postove He was probably an Episcopalian. The old Prayer Book contained the congregational response, "It is meet and right so to do," as a part of the Eucharistic Prayer's "sursum corda." Priest: Let us give thanks to the Lord our God. Cong: It is meet and right so to do. Priest: It is very meet, right, and our bounden duty...etc.
Sometimes I don't get the audience of WML. The first contestant seemed like a little mynx. I would have expected at least some catcalls and whistles. I wonder if the WML people ever discouraged that behavior?
And just recently, someone else was speculating that WML must have had someone on staff just to do wolf whistles. He was certain he could tell it was the same person doing the whistles in every show.
H Smith Pardon? I have no idea at this point what video I made this comment on, but I completely agree with you as to John going over the names in advance, and made the exact same point as you, citing the cases where he "read" a name off the blackboard that was written out in Japanese or Chinese. I just don't see the connection here to the point Joe was making about the wolf whistling. :)
In an early episode, John Daley did stop to tell the audience not to whistle because it played havoc with the sound levels. I guess he gave up after that!
What's My Line? If you get the special, and the missing footage is there, I would love to see a version of this episode with the missing footage put back in.
***** We must have posted our replies at the exact same time, Vahan. I've been provided a copy of the WML at 25 special and I've found that a lot of the missing bits I expected to see aren't there. I think what must have happened is that a lot of bits were excised for possible use in the special, but ultimately weren't used after all in the final cut (they had a lot of trouble narrowing down the clips from 17 years of shows). I think some of these bits that may have been cast aside from the special close to airing never got spliced back into the original films, and since they weren't used in the special, they're presumably gone forever. Just speculating, though.
Danny Kaye wasn't liked by people he worked with. Entertainment Weekly DECEMBER 16, 1994 "Harvey Korman, who was a cast member of Kaye’s variety show told me the nightmare of working with Kaye. Whenever Korman scored a big laugh during the dress rehearsals, Kaye ensured that he stepped on Korman’s lines during the taped performance. Korman told me how Kaye cut down Madeline Kahn’s role on Broadway with him in Richard Rodgers’ Two by Two when she outshone Kaye. Bob Easton, who also was a regular on the variety series called Kaye a monster. He said he was cold, aloof, vindictive and an egomaniac. I heard similar stories from Rosemary Clooney, producer Bob Finkel, comedy writers Hal Kanter and Rocky Kalish, television director Norman Abbott and others. The horror stories were always the same."
Predictable Kaye appearance, just turned up to play with his pal Cerf. Was he funny or just silly. Muchpreferred Wit to his attention grabbing ego driven antics.
How very disappointing that a star of the calibre of Danny Kaye, Master of the voice and other physical attributes, should deny his public the joy of hearing his disguised voice in answer to the panellists.. instead we heard some grunts and gesticulations not really worthy of a world class artist. The same is said for Miss Doris Day who squeaked her way throught the 'interrogation' denying her fans any comic subterfuge that could have entertained us. So shame on two towering artists that in this 'game' failed to sparkle.
OMG get over your self. Once he opened his trap they would have known who he was. He was there to shill for his upcoming set at the Zeigfield had a good time playing the crowd .Sometimes you purists just do not get it. The show (especially the mystery guest) was more for the entertainment value. Danny's entrance was perhaps the best ever.
THEN GO THE FUCK TO HELL YOU WORTHLESS PIECEC OF SHIT! WHO CARES WHAT AN IDIOT LIKE YOU THINKS IF YOU CAN ONLY INSULT SOMEONE LIKE DANNY KAYE WITHOUT GIVING S REASON WHY. COVID WAS MADE FOR MISCREANTS LIKE YOU.
Danny Kaye... one of the great all-around talents of entertainment. He could do it all... sing, dance, act, do comedy, and much more. I've always felt he never got the acclaim he deserved in that regard.
Hear hear
Danny Kaye, my all time favorite entertainer, comic-crazy, and a superb human being! The Greatest.
This show was so classy and civilized. The ladies on the panel dressed so elegantly.
Danny Kaye was a legend.
RIP Phyllis Newman(1933-2019). Your laughter & smile is so genuine, the "real mcCoy". Not fake at all. :)
This Lovely Goofball Has/Had a WONDERFUL, if Not GORGEOUS Cameo in the Equally Wonderful Wild Wild West tv show
The more I see Phyllis the more I like her.. Her smile and candid nature stole my heart.
I just love that John just said "it was meet and proper." I know of no one who is not a medievalist actually call something meet. I love listening to his linguistic gymnastics
I’m addicted to this show. Arlene is one of my favorites,love the accent and wit. Cool to see Johnny so young too....I should have been born a few decades earlier.
Me too.
You’d just feel more fed up with what is happening in our country today. Be grateful 😊
Never get tired of anything Danny Kaye...🥰
Great times back then. Oh what have we become today?
Really. 😞 💔
I was a child in 1963 and I can't believe how far our culture has fallen.
Encomiums? A speech or piece of writing that praises someone or something highly. Danny Kaye was a delight. There are few one of a kind performers, but he was one.
"Encomium" became a bit of a running gag on You Bet Your Life for a few weeks when Groucho mispronounced in it in this show:
You Bet Your Life #53-23 Spunky old lady vs. Groucho (Secret word 'Clock', Feb 18, 1954)
Joe Postove You can tell by the audience's reception how much Danny Kaye was loved. I loved him too and miss him to this day!
8kwzVazzi>《•awdx9
juan aguirre Well said. ???
juan aguirre Perhaps you meant 8jkdr< :::lkloit2, huh?
Danny Kaye the embodiment of humor.
Mr Brand. As a teenager, I was once hired to clean out a trailer full of his onions that had gone bad. Good times. He was a nice man.
Oh gosh, Danny Kaye was such a character! I laughed my head off, honestly. Love him.
He was a one-of-a-kind comic genius. Even more beloved in Britain than the U.S.
Kirk Barkley Well I'm from Britain and he's irritating the hell out of me here.
Dave Sanderson Most likely, Danny could have
Taken your misery and transformed you, to laughing. He was one of a kind.
Little did I know, when the onion grower came on, that this would be one of the funniest bits ever. Love how everyone cracks up as the questions continue. :D
Othal Brand, the onion grower in the show, was mayor of McAllen, Texas in the 70s and 80s for about twenty years. This is part of the Rio Grande Valley in deep South Texas. He was frequently in the news, and really turned McAllen into a business-friendly city. I live in the Brownsville, TX area and we are always behind McAllen in business growth even though we have almost twice the population. It's fun seeing a somewhat local political person in an early TV show. :)
He was my Great Grandfather.
@@joshuafehr301 --How interesting! Did you find this video by accident, or did you and the whole family know about it beforehand? I'd love to hear your story! :D
Thanks for sharing!
Danny Kaye was not a leading man.
Thank you for the back story!!
Miss Homer was a lovely young lady. Arlene looked great in this episode. No other way to say this, Phyllis Newman was a babe. Danny Kaye could do it all entertainment-wise. Thanks for the video.
16:26 Bennett naming off as many vegetables as he could think of, just to test his luck, was absolutely hysterical!! He's probably so used to eliminating the wrong thing that he genuinely wasn't expecting to get away with it for so long, hahaha
I love the "magic" chalkboard that cleans itself!
As can be seen in another episode, the chalkboard isn't a board at all, but a scroll that is rolled upward after each contestant to reveal a "clean" portion for the next contestant. I presume the scroll was fully cleaned before the airing of the next episode. Just imagine if they had retained the scroll and just affixed a new one each week. With all those celebrity signatures, the things would be worth millions.
Bennett was having a ball with his "Can I eliminate" routine. It made me think of Maxwell Smart and "Would you believe"?
It made me think of Chico Marx in "Duck Soup" misunderstanding the word and saying "I'll take some ... A nice, cold glass eliminate."
+Neil Midkiff
Gentlemen, Chicolini here may talk like an idiot, and look like an idiot. But don't let that fool you. He really is an idiot.
So many What's My Line shows I've enjoyed and this one is right in the bunch of the other ones! WaY tO Go who ever is in charge of uploading. You've helped make my day !
Pay no attention to the man behind behind the curtain.
So glad you're enjoying the shows. :)
Danny kaye so sweet and charm. I would love to be in America in this time om to see Danny kaye in person.
Totally hilarious! I've never been able to get my succotash (?) bush to grow.
They are difficult to grow in most places. My home town of Suffern is one of the few exceptions. Most people have heard of Suffern succotash, I'm sure.
Otherwise, the best way to get succotash to thrive is by grafting one of the shoots of an existing plant onto a tofu bush.
I'm now 62 years and I've yet to encounter a succotash anywhere, any time. If I ever met one, I didn't recognize it.
❤️ Danny Kaye. Legend!
WML is always fun, but I laughed harder and longer at this episode, from the succotash moment to the end, than at any other so far.
I'd like to have afternoon tea with Arlene Francis :)
RosieMoonshine I'd like to raid her closet.
Me too
Me too. I bet she was so much fun to hang with...
It would not be tea.....lol...
What a joy to watch!
It was Mr. Daily who made the show. The later edition without him was not as good. It is good to see Arlene Frances again.
Danny kaye is a great comedian!
Just a word about Geritol--My father in law owned a cocktail lounge in Reno. He kept a bottle of Geritol behind the bar on the liquor shelf for people who would order a shot of it. The alcohol content was supposedly rather high.
I can't believe I'm less senile than I was last year, but my father in law kept Hadicol behind the bar, not Geritol. Hadicol was another popular health tonic of the time, with an especially high ethanol content. Forgive me, Geritol, it's not easy to put ethanol into tablet form.
WoW! That’s the most liked person I have ever seen on this show!! Must be a very nice (besides hilarious or course) guy!
Danny Kaye looked at John Charles Daly incredulously when he answered yes to the question of whether Kaye was a leading man.
Danny Kaye was extremely talented, but not a leading man.
I guess the final contestant had to go home and come back another time.
Great final segment with Kaye. 😂❤️
Man I hope they kept all of those chalkboard signatures over the years, it would make some museum collection
A friendly product- I loved Arlene!!
16:25 The start of Bennett's, "Can I eliminate...?" series of questions. In the past, though not so much in recent years, they seem to do this when they get a little irrirated (may just be my imagination); there are obvious reasons for the producers and John to frown on the tactic. Here, though, Bennett is having fun with it. What a rutabaga is that Bennett! (Sorry, I like saying "rutabaga".)
Bennett was really into elimination.
Their super-nice manners knock me out.
I find it fascinating how high prestige Johnny Carson would become
He came across as a major league jerk in his young days
I don't associate prestige with that egomaniac
A rare hint by John for the first contestant. The way he emphasizes "poor" in his "maybe some poor fish" might have been what gave Phyllis the idea about money.
Bennett Cerf: Has the product ever “bean” alive?” 😂
Kaye in the period between a hugely successful color TV special with Lucille Ball and the premiere of his hugely successful CBS variety show. In 1963 CBS attempted variety programs with Judy Garland and withe Danny Kaye. Kaye's succeeded handsomely.
The odds are just staggering that Kaye would write Hitchcock's name on the board as a yock, and Bennett would think of Hitchcock as a guest. This is just about the most funny mystery guest sequence of that period -- but Kaye is worse than Groucho. Is he ever ON!
[ 20:07 ] The missing bit probably got lost when Fates et al did the "WML at 25" special. Fates wrote in his book that Bennett once asked mystery guest Kaye if he were accompanied by a bird or an animal. I wonder if that is what got cut out
It's too bad this kinescope is not complete. WML at 25 strikes again. Kaye and Carson must have had some great lines, and I think one of them did make it into "WML at 25."
I have a huge crush on Phyllis Newman.. she was so gorgeous :)
Danny Kaye was so charming.
Even the introduction to the show was clever.
Phyllis sounded a little ditzy, but actually she was smart and good at this game.
You’re not getting older, you’re getting better.
Johnny Carson was quite a good looking man
Dorothy is once again absent, due to health problems.
She appeared on last week's program, a special St. Patrick's Day episode, in which all the challengers were full-blooded Irish. I think the only time GSN ever aired that episode was when it was, in fact, St. Patrick's Day.
When they publicly announce Dorothy was in the hospital for this and that... It was usually to dry out from her alcohol addiction.
Never thought that succotash could be so funny.
Never watched Sylvester the Cat?
Lois Simmons That succotash, was suffering.
I had to google it to get the joke (I’m British) 🤣
I've noticed when the mystery guest comes out, the panel ask the same questions every time. For years!
I searched for the WML episode nearest to the day I was born and this was the winner; I was just one day old when it aired. Such a fun episode!
In 1960 (the height of the McCarthy era), I was sent to a conservative convent school where I was accused first of being a Communist dupe, then a Communist sympathizer and, finally, an outright Commie because I insisted I liked Danny Kaye movies. I never gave Danny up even though I was ostracized by certain groups who seemed to think I was some kind of Russian spy or something sent to infiltrated a convent school in CA. It was an interesting education.
Is Danny Kaye the only MG to shake the hands of the panel twice?
I had no idea who Phyllis Newman was so I googled her and she died last month at the age of 86.
WML?, congratulations on 500 videos posted!
Thank you-- I didn't even realize! UA-cam doesn't make it easy to see a count of how many videos have been posted publicly. When you're logged in as a channel owner, you can only see easily how many videos are uploaded in total, including all the ones uploaded in advanced and scheduled to be made public later. The only way I know of to check on how many videos are public is to log out of the account and see what the page looks like.
There have been a couple of folks in particular who have been staggeringly generous in sharing their collections just to help out with this effort, but. . . sometimes I'm asked not to make any public acknowledgement, or believe me, I'd be giving to be credit where it's so due! ;)
I always felt that way before Robin Williams there was Danny Kaye!
Encomium - great word!
Great Danny Kaye segment! 😂❤
It's too bad this video jumps several times. I feel like I missed quite a bit of Danny Kaye's segment. John Daly said he was lost; I was really lost!
Danny Kaye had a TV show that ran from 1963-1967.
Unless I missed it, no one mentioned Dorothy at all. Is that significant, i.e., is her absence (and its presumable reasons) starting to be a subject to be avoided?
The general view is that once the niceties has been observed they thought it best not to bring her up. There was suspicion surrounding her death and the murky world of the mob could have tainted the show.
@@gilliankew this episode is from March 1963. Dorothy was still alive and so was President Kennedy.
Not necessarily a commentary on this particular episode, but how John reads some of these signatures is beyond me. Ha!
Yes! I've often wondered about this myself, not to mention how rarely he mispronounces any of the names. My guess is that he went over the contestants' names carefully before every show so he didn't really need to rely on reading what they scribbled. Thinking about the times he offers all kinds of information about the contestants at the end of a round (rather than just letting the contestants speak for themselves, as he so rarely did), he must have had regular briefing sessions with the producers beforehand.
What's My Line? True...I have seen him kinda stumble on the names a few times though so it makes me wonder. Seems like I remember him asking, "Hmmmm....is it {such and such}?" before, though don't ask me what episode that was. Lol
DebbieFaubion Two possible explanations I can see for that which wouldn't contradict his rehearsing the names beforehand: (1) he was so smooth at his job, he wanted to create the *impression* of reading the names as they were written, even though he really knew the info independently already. So on that basis, he would slowly pronounce the syllables as they were written out to make it feel real for the audience. (2) despite this, sometimes he probably just stumbled, either misspeaking, or momentarily not remembering how to pronounce a name, because he was human.
But I don't think he was really reading the names on the spot. There are just too many instances where the names really are written indecipherably or could be pronounced so many different ways but John almost always gets it right the first time. One show I watched recently, the contestant signed in using Japanese characters and John *still* read and pronounced it right on the first try!
I think it was just for show. It's similar, on a much smaller scale, to how Groucho could make fully pre-scripted jokes on You Bet Your Life sound like purely ad lib material.
DebbieFaubion really? You don't think he knows who's coming on the show??
Because he has them on the cards in front of him on the desk.
Reminds me of Whats My Crime on 101 Dalmatians movie. :)
Even the intro of the show is clever.
Danny Kaye was a nut! :)
I love these old shows but I must admit I am a little sad when I think about Dorothy Kilgallen
Does anyone have an idea as to what word John Daly was trying to use when he said (incombians)? The only thing I can think of is columbians, but I dont know what it might be in reference too. Anyone have any ideas? I loved Danny Kaye's teasing John about it as he left. Wonderful comedian.
"Encomium" is the word in question. It is defined as, "A speech or piece of writing that praises someone or something highly".
I love Danny Kaye
With the first challenger, Phyllis Newman gets on the right track but then makes a mistake of inexperience of trying to narrow it down too finely. Knowing that the person worked in Nevada and had to do with gambling, there was no need to narrow it down to Reno or Las Vegas.
Even so, it would have been difficult with only $5 left to know which game Miss Homer was connected with. There are many possible table games to choose from at a casino. All that can be eliminated would be the slot machines.
The big man from Texas walked just like the older John Wayne.
i dunno why but i find phyllis newman so thrilling to watch on WML. Her laugh is something else.
She would have been a GREAT replacement for Dorothy.
*_OPERATES ROULETTE WHEEL_*
*_ONION GROWER_* About two minutes seem to be missing from this episode. They typically run over 25 minutes.
Back when women on television would always dress as if they were on the red carpet at the Academy Awards!
Phyllis Newman sounded ditzy but she was actually very smart and good at this game!
Phyllis Newman was really smart.
Hey wait 14:10 Onions ARE TOO herbs! I call do-overs.
I yelled that out too---just as if it might change something.
Does anyone know what the "Alfred Hitchcock" reference was about?
I was wondering if it was in reference To another time he was the mystery guest
danny kaye signed in as AH in addition to his own name...
I remember seeing this episode on initial airing, and like the Mad Magazine satire of the show, felt this proved that Bennett Cerf cheats when he says Alfred Hitchcock, which Danny Kaye wrote on the board. as in Mad, "tell us Bennett, how did you guess the identity of the Mystery Guest so quickly?" asks Daly. the reply, "I peeked."
He is a jerk.
16:25 - 17:18 One of the great runs of questions in the history of WML from Bennett Cerf.
I guess Johnny is still doing guest shots like this (almost six months after assuming "The Tonight Show" helm because he was not yet making a fortune. I have read that the most Jack Paar ever made as host of "The Tonight Show" was 100 grand a year. I wonder if Johnny was even making that, since he was still the new "prince" of late night, and of March 1963 had not yet established a firm hand on the show. For a year there was always talk of "what if he doesn't work out". So getting five C notes (or what was it) for 1/2 on a Sunday night was nice change.
I was wondering whether it was Johnny's first appearance since taking over "Tonight". Glad to see him back. And Phyllis too, who always brings a youthful spark to the show.
Reluctant Dragon I think I may have made a comment a while back to the effect that I didn't think there were any more WML shows with Carson after he took over the Tonight Show, but at the time I didn't have this episode. I think I was foolishly only looking at the list of shows I actually had copies of at the time.
What's My Line? This show is Johnny Carson's last appearance on WML. And, Reluctant Dragon, it is indeed the first and only time he appeared after taking over the Tonight Show.
Joe Postove - Poor assumption, I assure you it wasn't about the money. If you know a little about Johnny Carson in his early years, including up to the time of this airing, you will know that Johnny was pretty insecure about his popularity and notoriety, even though he had landed the Tonight Show gig. Getting a spot on the WML panel was certainly considered prestigious at the time, and Johnny wasn't about to pass up the opportunity to boost his image. Definitely not about the bucks.
By the sound of it it seemed like she wouldn't touch him with a 10 foot pole 😂
WOW! Does this vegetable grow in the union?! I've never had the experience of being in the presence of someone who asked the question this way! How exquisite!
Phyllis is a very good game player!
As everyone knows. onion can be cooked w/o water.. sauteed in oil
John Daly can pull some real obscure but great sayings out of his hat now and then. When he said it was "meet and proper" that the onion guy should come from Texas because everything is big there I had no idea what in the world he meant. In fact I had to go back a couple of times to make sure I heard it correctly. Meet and proper, from what I could find, is a biblical phrase meaning fair and just. I still don't really get it, though. I'm going to call an old lit teacher I know and see if she knows.
"Meet" is a 17th century word with the meaning today of "suitable". To mention a well-known example that illustrates the meaning, the King James Version of the Bible (1611) describes Eve as a "help meet" for Adam, meaning suitable for him. "Meet and proper" means that a thing is fitting, appropriate, etc. "Meet and proper" is still used in conversation on occasion (I know the expression from having heard it in conversation), but it is especially used in the legal system, I gather. John Daly displays some familiarity with the language of the courts. In the Woody Allen mystery guest appearance, to avoid giving away too much information at one point, Daly follows his brief and cryptic response with the statement, "beyond that, 'the deponent sayeth not,'" which is legal language.
+Joe Postove He was probably an Episcopalian. The old Prayer Book contained the congregational response, "It is meet and right so to do," as a part of the Eucharistic Prayer's "sursum corda."
Priest: Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.
Cong: It is meet and right so to do.
Priest: It is very meet, right, and our bounden duty...etc.
" ... he is an Episcopalian ..." (The Warren County Observer, November 18, 1960, in an article reprinted from The New York Times)
Sometimes I don't get the audience of WML. The first contestant seemed like a little mynx. I would have expected at least some catcalls and whistles. I wonder if the WML people ever discouraged that behavior?
And just recently, someone else was speculating that WML must have had someone on staff just to do wolf whistles. He was certain he could tell it was the same person doing the whistles in every show.
Ha!
H Smith Pardon?
I have no idea at this point what video I made this comment on, but I completely agree with you as to John going over the names in advance, and made the exact same point as you, citing the cases where he "read" a name off the blackboard that was written out in Japanese or Chinese. I just don't see the connection here to the point Joe was making about the wolf whistling. :)
H Smith Oh, I've done that before. It can happen to anyone, don't sweat it!
In an early episode, John Daley did stop to tell the audience not to whistle because it played havoc with the sound levels. I guess he gave up after that!
Too funny
I wonder what we missed at the 14:00 minute mark. There was a little glitch.
Was it missing due to the assembly of the 25th anniversary special?
If it was, was the missing footage shown during said 25th anniversary special?
Possibly another one of the bits lost due to the editing of these films for the WML at 25 special.
What's My Line? If you get the special, and the missing footage is there, I would love to see a version of this episode with the missing footage put back in.
***** We must have posted our replies at the exact same time, Vahan. I've been provided a copy of the WML at 25 special and I've found that a lot of the missing bits I expected to see aren't there. I think what must have happened is that a lot of bits were excised for possible use in the special, but ultimately weren't used after all in the final cut (they had a lot of trouble narrowing down the clips from 17 years of shows). I think some of these bits that may have been cast aside from the special close to airing never got spliced back into the original films, and since they weren't used in the special, they're presumably gone forever. Just speculating, though.
Is the 25th anniversary online? Are you able to post it. I haven't seen it since it aired.
Where is Dorothy?
Is anyone here watching under the age of 60?
I'm 56. 😀😀
Danny Kaye wasn't liked by people he worked with.
Entertainment Weekly DECEMBER 16, 1994
"Harvey Korman, who was a cast member of Kaye’s variety show told me the nightmare of working with Kaye. Whenever Korman scored a big laugh during the dress rehearsals, Kaye ensured that he stepped on Korman’s lines during the taped performance.
Korman told me how Kaye cut down Madeline Kahn’s role on Broadway with him in Richard Rodgers’ Two by Two when she outshone Kaye.
Bob Easton, who also was a regular on the variety series called Kaye a monster. He said he was cold, aloof, vindictive and an egomaniac.
I heard similar stories from Rosemary Clooney, producer Bob Finkel, comedy writers Hal Kanter and Rocky Kalish, television director Norman Abbott and others. The horror stories were always the same."
The first contestant’s hairstyle is a precursor to the 70s shag.
+Lana Winters a nice one, too!
I prefer the game played straightforward and honest.
Supposedly Carson hated Phillis Newman???
Did Johnny want to be the star of every show on TV?
I love Danny Kaye as an actor. As a person ... he seems like a bit of a jerk?
Agree...obnoxious.
No he doesn't actually.
did mr cert say handsome young lady
"Handsome" used to be a term meaning "good looking" - it was used on a few old time tv shows.
Predictable Kaye appearance, just turned up to play with his pal Cerf. Was he funny or just silly. Muchpreferred Wit to his attention grabbing ego driven antics.
How very disappointing that a star of the calibre of Danny Kaye, Master of the voice and other physical attributes, should deny his public the joy of hearing his disguised voice in answer to the panellists.. instead we heard some grunts and gesticulations not really worthy of a world class artist. The same is said for Miss Doris Day who squeaked her way throught the 'interrogation' denying her fans any comic subterfuge that could have entertained us. So shame on two towering artists that in this 'game' failed to sparkle.
OMG get over your self. Once he opened his trap they would have known who he was. He was there to shill for his upcoming set at the Zeigfield had a good time playing the crowd .Sometimes you purists just do not get it. The show (especially the mystery guest) was more for the entertainment value. Danny's entrance was perhaps the best ever.
you've been told, bobby !
See his 1961 appearance and that’ll answer the question for you
Can't be bothered with Danny Kaye here.
THEN GO THE FUCK TO HELL YOU WORTHLESS PIECEC OF SHIT! WHO CARES WHAT AN IDIOT LIKE YOU THINKS IF YOU CAN ONLY INSULT SOMEONE LIKE DANNY KAYE WITHOUT GIVING S REASON WHY. COVID WAS MADE FOR MISCREANTS LIKE YOU.
poor davey... poor, poor davey.
@@johnpickford4222 John, John what's wrong? Get your booster.
I agree. He was an obnoxious egomaniac.
RIP Phyllis Newman(1933-2019). Your laughter & smile is so genuine, the "real mcCoy". Not fake at all. :)