Growing up in the 50’s and 60’s, this was must watch TV every Sunday night. So many great stars appeared on this show. It was almost impossible to stump the panel. Nothing like it since.
Sammy Davis Jr. has become almost a caricature in popular culture, so it's lovely to see him in his youth, doing impressions of Jimmy Stewart, no less. It's also very nice to see Errol Flynn, even though the poor fellow seems mostly confused... and this just a few years before he died. And of course Arlene Francis and the host John Daly are always charming, witty and the essence of class.
Sammy Davis Jr. was one of the greatest performers of the last century! Haha I caught Jerry Lewis, Cary Grant, Jimmy Stewart, Marlin Brando, and maybe Sinatra during this clip. Love that guy.
Pete Jamerson Well I can imagine what it would be like. If it was on again in the UK it would probably have Jimmy Carr as moderator then on the panel we'd probably have someone decent like Richard Ayoade but then no doubt some people who resort to swearing and smut like Sarah Millican, Jonathan Ross and such like. Any scope for innuendo would be lost as today there are no boundaries that need to be observed. Frankly it would end up a shadow of its predecessor. Incidentally I don't have a TV licence having given up on TV this year so I wouldn't know if they filmed a new series or not!! Soooo glad about that. :)
@@kulturekritik9665, no they need ratings, not blatherings..and with them, you couldn't put it on at dinnertime, and televise it to those who live near hand-size rocks.
Errol Flynn was as always: "IN LIKE FLYNN." I'm surprised that no one has brought up that saying that used to express success. To see Sammy live in a night club at that time, was to fall head over heels in love forever with a rather homely guy in about ten minutes into his act like I did.
@@jjbalsalm955 yes, he had multiple venereal diseases. Dodged a rape conviction. Had 2 way mirrors in his home to perv on female guests. And on and on.
Wow the legend who is Errol Flynn in the flesh. He and Olivia de Havilland one of the greatest partnerships in movie history. His Robin Hood will always be the greatest of its kind.
Sadly, Errol Flynn died of a heart attack in October 1959 at age 50, a bit over two years after this episode of WML aired. As I recommended in a post on another episode of WML, I highly recommend Flynn's Technicolor swashbuckler of a film "The Adventures of Robin Hood" from 1938, with Olivia de Havilland as Maid Marian. Best version of Robin Hood ever filmed and Flynn at 6'2" tall in his Lincoln green costume was the very picture of Robin Hood -- and he spoke with a credible English accent. The use of color in the film is visually stunning. Great cast, too, including Alan Hale Sr. as Little John, Claude Rains as Prince John, and Basil Rathbone as the villainous Sir Guy of Gisbourne. The film was so well done and such fun to watch that I think there's no excuse for any of the later versions of Robin Hood on film. In 1995, the Library of Congress declare this film to be "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" and it was selected for preservation by the National Film Registry. Back to Flynn -- I think he was perfect in that film -- he knew just how to buckle his swash.
ToddSF.... Errol Flynn was an Australian by birth and one heck of an actor..... Very sad that he passed in 1959 at only aged 50, but his hard living made his seem much older than he was.... RIP ERROL FLYNN.
As Walter Cronkite said, "Errol Flynn died on a 70 foot yacht with a sixteen year old girl.. I have a 16 foot yacht and my wife is a 70 year old girl."
Warp Prime 42 Honestly now. I suppose that means you personally met most of the teenage girls alive in the 1970s. Your personal experience isn't objective universal truth now, is it? Painting "most" young women as "tarts" or "sluts" says more about you than about women.
He may have said that, but I know when asked his daydream, Walter Cronkite, assumed to be a man of rectitude, definitely said that , It would be to be on a 60 foot yacht with a 16 year old girl. When someone told his wife, she just laughed and said, Knowing Walter it would be a 16 foot yacht with a 60 year old lady.
What a find! I was two weeks old when this aired and am a huge Errol Flynn fan. Thanks for posting these. Far more entertaining than anything out there these days.
Errol Flynn's son Sean (handsome like his father) was born in 1941. He was a freelance photojournalist and disappeared in Cambodia in 1970. His body was never found and his mother, Lili Damita, had him declared legally dead in 1984 after she had spent an enormous amount of money searching for her son, with no success.
I wrote a piece about Sean Flynn in my book Death Valley Superstars, after an odd encounter with someone who knew him. His is quite a story -- present tense because it isn't over: searches for his remains continue.
@@ironduke2000 how dreadful for Sean's mother never getting closure of her son's accident. Had Errol passed away at the time of sean's accident? Well done on writing the book and great the search for sean still remains...
Thanks. Yes, Errol died some eleven years before Sean disappeared. Sean was effectively discovered by a producer at Errol's funeral, and he went on to make a few movies before becoming a photojournalist. His disappearance was surely the great tragedy of his mother's life -- he was her only child and only living blood relative to boot.
Sammy was a triple threat! he sang, danced and acted, all 3 very well indeed! *[To the dopes who are complaining about my comment, i made this comment 8 YEARS AGO! i meant it then, and i mean it now. i am not interested in your opinion.*
There was a gang in the Detroit area in the 70's called the Flynn Nasty's or the Errol Flynn's. Just a strange bit of trivia. Btw I discovered this show a few weeks ago and I'm absolutely hooked! The people are so gracious to each other. I really like how they say good night to each other, it's very charming.
On many shows, to keep the game moving, Dorothy was given the occupation of the guests prior to the show. Many of the early shows were LIVE and the producers were on a STRICT time schedule. If the show went just minutes long a panelist (Dorothy) would hastily guess the occupation in order to get to the next round. Dorothy admitted this in a news interview for a New York paper before she died.
I noticed the names of the panelists were not in front of them. In December 1957, Errol Flynn was the mystery guest. This was a rare occasion when there were TWO female guests in a row. It was nice to see they didn't try to squeeze in another contestant after Sammy, and they allowed him time to chat.
I love Erroll Flynn. He was a real hero back in the day,particularly in his swashbuckling roles. One line he delivered in "The Adventures of Robin Hood" made an impression on this young boy. Maid Marion was puzzled why he had such emnity towards the conquering Normans,asking him,"Why do you hate The Normans so much"? He responded with,"It's injustice I hate,not The Normans". I've hated injustice ever since.
Well moggs, I recall that line about injustice. A good line for sure. I enjoyed, and still enjoy watching Errol's films. He had a charisma before the camera that few people have ever had. His bouts with booze and drugs certainly worked against him. Those making comments of his intelligence certainly knew little of this actor. He read with a desire for knowledge that few before the camera ever attempted. How many are familiar with the works of Plato or undertook Gibbon's "Decline and fall of the Roman empire"? Not an easy or quick read. One of his co-stars may have summed him up best. (paraphrasing) Few people knew what laid underneath his persona. He was a complicated individual.
Really? His parents were Catholic and Baptist. He converted to Judaism in 1961. How is that worshipping the devil? Can you please elaborate with evidence? Thank you.
No one knows "in like Flynn"? I'm surprised. The real pleasure here is seeing the young Sammy - just busting with talent. Dorothy always had a special love for jazz musicians, and it shows here.
NOBODY played Robin Hood better than Errol Flynn! NOBODY! And The Adventures Of Robin Hood has graduated to DVD REQUIREMENT for the young and young at heart!
Furthermore, after Sammy Davis appeared and the live broadcast ended, news reporter Dorothy Kilgallen sensed that something was up with Davis's appearance. She pried the details out of her friend associate producer Bob Bach (and who knows who else) and banged out an article with no byline in the "New York Journal American" reporting that Daly had barred Mike Wallace from the mystery guest booking. She also wrote some quotations from Daly without, Daly claimed, interviewing him. Daly got so mad about the article that, outside the WML broadcasts, he didn't associate with Kilgallen for six months.
Thank you so much for providing all the excellent background information on this. Especially because, as you said, very little is apparent from the episode itself. But this one was a big deal, one of the very few truly negative stories Gil Fates shares in his book. That being the case, you have to wonder just how much his version is still sugarcoated. I have the sense he only went into it because it had already been publicly reported on. One thing I take away from this is what consummately skilled professionals both John and Dorothy were on camera to have so well hidden the animosity between them. I'm hard pressed to remember a single moment in the upcoming shows that one could point to and say, "See? See how tense they were with each other here? It's so obvious!"
Check out Bennett Cerf's recollection of the Mike Wallace incident. It's clear that Dorothy had previously explained that she could not but use any info gleaned. So when Daly came up with his story about how not having Wallace was due to this temporary thing wrt a mobster, Bennett felt it was silly but believed him. But, if you think about it, Daly was setting up the story & then was really mad that Dorothy did not simply report it as he told it. In reality Mike Wallace despised John Daly & Daly had no intention of ever having him on the show. Playing Dorothy for a chump was not wise for anyone!
He’d done the film “The Sun Also Rises” which is mentioned the next time he appears but this time as the mystery guest at the end and had been tipped for an Oscar for his performance but that was cruelly taken away from him by the Academy. Sadly, he was to die 2 years later. Absolutely love Errol.
I'm assuming that it was shortly before this episode where What's My Line changed their policy, allowing non-celebrity panelists the opportunity to end their appearance on the show by shaking hands with the panelists afterwords. I think this was the right way to end someone's appearance on the show, rather than just shovelling them away behind the curtain at the end
This practice started just a few weeks before this episode. I agree that it's the right way to end the contestant's appearance. What a thrill it must have been to shake the hands of those famous panelists, especially in those simpler times.
Great to see how Sammy grew in personal confidence since his accident. There was never such a talent and there never will be. Having seen him time again in night clubs - theatre especially “ Golden Boy” and TV on hundreds of occasions if you tired of seeing SD Jr you tired of life.
Meanwhile, news reporter Mike Wallace of ABC News was scheduled to appear as the mystery guest. He hosted a controversial interview program that routinely got ABC News [of which Daly was a vice president] into legal troubles. About six hours before broadcast, Daly telephoned Gil Fates [who was spending the afternoon at Tom Euell's lawn party somewhere on the Connecticut gold coast] and refused to appeared with Wallace. Fates canceled Wallace, the production staff recruited Sammy Davis who was performing at the Latin Quarter. The last minute quality of the booking is evident from the lettering on Davis's super-title -- it is the hand- lettered board the staff kept at the ready.
Not only was Sammy Davis, Jr. a last minute booking as MG, there was a lot that was scrambled on this episode. The panelists were introduced out of seating order and their names were missing from their usual place in front of them on the desk. Perhaps someone forgot to make up one for "Mr. Flynn" so they had to leave all of them off.
Arlene often got the right answer, an extremely intelligent, elegant and sexy woman I think. Sammy was a genial multitalent without comparison! God I love this show and the wonderful people involved and wished I had been born earlier to have experienced the 50s.
I said something similar 40 years and was asked, "how old would you be now if you had?" 73 with What's My Line to bring back my youth. You could wish for worse things. And I had great parents, siblings, friends, neighborhood and community.
what fun it is to see the interesting things people do for a living...and what fun it is to see how the ladies dressed, see how their hair was done, and see the pretty jewelry they wore in the 50's and early 60's :D
Errol Flynn blew it by guessing that she was an animal wrangler of sorts rather than a big game hunter. Dorothy Kilgallen then got it by going one step further.
rockribbed rushy Joe Postove the panel set up Flynn to guess correctly, gave it to him generously, then he blew it by going back to a profession already denied. Dorothy gave up on him and told what they already knew.
The guy never went to ONE DAY of formal schooling...he was in show business from the day he could walk. You'd be hard pressed to name any other human in history who had zero formal schooling, yet accomplished what Davis accomplished across a variety of fields. Its one of the great human achievements.
Sad to think that Errol was so close to the end of his life. Though he still appears fine he was not a healthy man. There will never be another like him. As a kid in the 70’s and 80’s they still played his movies all the time.
By 1957, the preservation of the kinescopes has been so consistent, it seems strange that the May 19, 1957 episode has been lost and no copy has been found. According to what I found on the Internet, Martin Gabel was the guest panelist and Ann Sothern was the MG. The other challengers? Challenger #1 - The U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds; Challenger #2 - A female weightlifter who taught weightlifting to other women; Challenger #4 - A male minister. The information on the other challengers was taken by someone from Gil Fates handwritten show logs. Unfortunately his logs didn't include the names of the other challengers.
Errol Flynn's brain was soused for all time. It was very sad. They all got together in a conference to GIVE him an easy answer about the big game hunter so he could win and he totally blew it.
Love the voice over promo at the very end for American Airlines (Douglas) DC-7 "Mercury" service. That was a 65 passenger all first-class service (no coach) first introduced on AA's DC-7s in 1953.
Errol Leslie Thompson Flynn. Within a few years, a lifetime of drink, drugs, and debauchery would wind up killing this iconic leading man at the age of 50. Like his friend John Barrymore, whom he portrayed on screen in 1957's "Too Much, Too Soon," he was a charming, cavalier figure and a law unto himself, and it wound up costing him.
If you've ever seen or heard Sammy's acts or listened to his recordings, you'd likely have recognized that he used many of the voices here to disguise his own voice. In some of his impressions, he'd actually sing in those voices.
S. Davis Jr. was a gangster in Robin and the 7 Hoods, but that was made in the 1960s. He was great in that movie. Bing Crosby, Sammy, Dean Martin, and Frank Sinatra and an all star cast sang Mr. Booze, a great song.
Errol must be one of the only Hollywood star to have been born in Tasmania he actually was unlike Merle Oberon who said she was but wasn't. Errol also had a pop song about him from a band called Australian Crawl that was called Errol and the band named after a swimming stroke, Mr Flynn was quite the ladies man and one of Australia's earliest big Hollywood stars
Flynn is also mentioned in this israeli song - sung and written (lyrics) by famous israeli singer Yossi Banai about his childhood memories in Jerusalem in which he and his friends used to play Tarzan, Errol Flynn and Gunga din.. /watch?v=4uDy_A8zXPM (UA-cam) at the 2:03 mark
@@thesweeples3266 He was a good actor but a man who got consumed by his own demons. Compassion is in order. If not for the grace of God there go I or You
Has anyone noticed that Arlene said she had never introduced Dorothy, but just a few months prior to this she introduced Dorothy when Jerry Lewis was on the panel.
two people who lived amazing lives, errol flynn and sammy davis jr. flynn would be dead in just over 2 years at the age of 50, it's amazing he lasted that long, a testament to his hardiness.
Dorothy was cheating on her husband and addicted to barbiturates. Her husband was also cheating on her with several women. She was also a heavy drinker socially and privately.
Something I found out about Sammy was his fast draw with a six shooter. He was supposed to be incredibly fast on the draw. This was somewhat profiled in an episode of the series "Lawman" John Russell portraying the main character and Peter Brown as his deputy. Also in the later episodes was Peggy Castle. She ran the Birdcage. Kind of like Ms Kitty ran the Long Branch. Peter Brown had become very good friends with Sammy Davis Jr. Regarding Errol... simply my favorite actor of all time. If Olivia de Havilland had been on the program that evening, WML, it would have been extraordinary.
Not if you're old enough. People smoked on TV and in movies and all over the place, inside, outside and even in hospitals up until the 80s. When I was a kid in the 70s you couldn't get away from cigarette smoke. You'd go to a restaurant and enjoy a meal only to have some jackass light up behind you after their meal was over ruining your meal. I was never so glad when they banned smoking in restaurants and other indoor areas. I remember lot of people being pissed about it. I have a heart problem and my body doesn't use oxygen very effectively. Cigarette smoke tends to block the available air from me, I just cant get any air with that sort of smoke wafting about and it makes me sick to my stomach and gives me an almost instant headache because the oxygen is cut off. Even my parents smoked around me my whole life. You'd think they would know better... nope. The only place I could get away from cigarette smoke was in school.
@@SpiritBear12 I remember in 1982, I was 16 taking driving lessons, and our driving instructor smoking in the car as we took turns driving. The car was full of cigarette smoke, but it was November and too cold to open the window. How times have changed.
I'm a fan of traditional country music, and a local performer of such... but I would have to say despite my choice in music there are not many singers on this planet that could even BEGIN to compare with the talent of Sammy Davis Jr. The man was a GOOD as good gets PERIOD!!!! There are simply none better. I'm also a fan of the Rat Pack no doubt.... they were all great, but if one were to ask me Sammy had 90% of the talent. If they were to hold a talent contest and Sinatra, Deano and Sammy were the last 3 finalists, Sammy would win hands down!!
***** That is the nature of the mans talent, more than 2 decades after his passing he is still well loved all around the world! Greetings from the states!
What surprised me was I did not know he did impressions, yet at the time of this show he was better known for his impressions, although that would change.
This is not to disparage Sammy Davis Jr., as he was certainly a man of many talents and could do many things very well. But to say he had more talent than Frank Sinatra is ridiculous.
:) It's okay! I try to keep a full month ahead of the 2-a-day schedule with the uploading. There are always plenty of videos are sitting in the queue scheduled to be made public automatically, so it's really not been a strain to keep to the schedule. I genuinely appreciate both dance4joy's enthusiasm and zardon4's acknowledgement that this does take some significant time and effort-- it does!
I honestly think had WML brough on a 6 year old panelist, that they could have asked more effective investigative questions of the guest than Errol Flynn did. Was he drunk, or was he really that simple minded?
I didn't think he was a bad panelist. For one, the others are regulars at the game, and for anyone coming in for a first time, I bet it is unnerving to put yourself up against them. I think he was great, they were asked what does she have to do with handcuffs, he might have thought she was someone in a position as a female jailer or something in that nature where only a women would perform that act....they do have to have a woman present or do a pat down in many circumstances, ie police, airport....I think he was thinking along those lines...
This would seem to be the first episode broadcast after John Daly's quarrel with Dorothy Kilgallen over a story that she phoned into her newspaper about his nixing of a mystery guest, Mike Wallace. The show's producers wanted Wallace on the show because he was then getting a lot of publicity due to his interview with the gangster Mickey Cohen, which aired on the Sunday prior to this episode. However, some inferred that Daly had nixed Wallace as a guest because there were rumors that Wallace might replace Daly as the head of the ABC news department. Daly never forgave Kilgallen for reporting the story, according to Bennett Cerf, who overheard their contretemps. "I thought we were family," Daly said to her. But Kilgallen regarded herself as a reporter first and foremost and "this is my story," she said--"I'm going to get scooped on my own story?" The other panelists subsequently minded their mouths when Dorothy was around, for fear that some of what they said would also end up in newspapers.
I love to hear the background of different stories. Funny how everyone thinks this show is always so prim and proper, yet, things went on then as they do now, just not publicized like today.
@@shirleyrombough8173 So, my take on this has always been that people's stories differ, and that events are, to some extent, in the eye of the beholder. So *something* happened, yes. But on the other hand, you have these events, filtered through Bennett Cerf some decades later. Cerf was, of course, not a reporter and had a fallible memory and his own opinions. So, something happened, but what, precisely, it was, we really don't know.
Growing up in the 50’s and 60’s, this was must watch TV every Sunday night. So many great stars appeared on this show. It was almost impossible to stump the panel. Nothing like it since.
Sammy Davis Jr. has become almost a caricature in popular culture, so it's lovely to see him in his youth, doing impressions of Jimmy Stewart, no less.
It's also very nice to see Errol Flynn, even though the poor fellow seems mostly confused... and this just a few years before he died.
And of course Arlene Francis and the host John Daly are always charming, witty and the essence of class.
He was inded a triple threat. Frank Sinatra mentored and protected him whenever racism raised its ugly head.
Quite touching.
Great show!
Flynn was a heavy drinker for years which explains his confusion.
and... Flynn' s bowtie was askew!
I'm so sorry for Errol F. A wonderful actor and a true screen legend, but he seemed so lost and bewildered here. May he rest in peace.
Check out Sammy in his actual youth, where he worked unbelievably hard.
What a class act Sammy Davis Jr was.
Sammy Davis Jr. was one of the greatest performers of the last century! Haha I caught Jerry Lewis, Cary Grant, Jimmy Stewart, Marlin Brando, and maybe Sinatra during this clip. Love that guy.
Sammy and Bobby Darin were two incredible entertainers. They could do literally everything in the entertainment world. No one like that today
@@trock6577 someone close to that today would be Jamie Foxx. But not quite.
Well spotted. I didn't realise
I thought I heard a bit of Cagney, too.
@@trock6577 Both were great, I particularly liked Bobby Darin.
Haha this is entertaining they should put this on tv again, Im 21, people will watch this
Pete Jamerson Well I can imagine what it would be like. If it was on again in the UK it would probably have Jimmy Carr as moderator then on the panel we'd probably have someone decent like Richard Ayoade but then no doubt some people who resort to swearing and smut like Sarah Millican, Jonathan Ross and such like. Any scope for innuendo would be lost as today there are no boundaries that need to be observed. Frankly it would end up a shadow of its predecessor.
Incidentally I don't have a TV licence having given up on TV this year so I wouldn't know if they filmed a new series or not!! Soooo glad about that. :)
Anderson Cooper could moderate. Whoopi Goldberg could be on the panel.
They would only screw the show up and make it ignorant.
Relics are something to embrace! Curious and fun. I love it!!!
@@kulturekritik9665, no they need ratings, not blatherings..and with them, you couldn't put it on at dinnertime, and televise it to those who live near hand-size rocks.
Sammy and Judy Garland were widely considered to be the greatest all-around entertainers ever
That's a stretch ... Both being (chimney's aka: smokers), certainly factored in as to abilities professionally & personally/health ...😉
@@tapper701 - "chimney's?" lol fugg is that?
Both were smokers (chimmney's) and it definitely had an effect on their singing abilities, appearance & health ...@@waldolydecker8118
WOW! Errol Flynn was very funny. Sammy is adorable and the whole chemistry of this one is delicious; tttttttttttttttttttthank you!
Errol Flynn was as always: "IN LIKE FLYNN." I'm surprised that no one has brought up that saying that used to express success. To see Sammy live in a night club at that time, was to fall head over heels in love forever with a rather homely guy in about ten minutes into his act like I did.
Errol kept putting Arlene’s hand on his weaner.
@@jjbalsalm955 yes, he had multiple venereal diseases. Dodged a rape conviction.
Had 2 way mirrors in his home to perv on female guests.
And on and on.
Wow the legend who is Errol Flynn in the flesh. He and Olivia de Havilland one of the greatest partnerships in movie history. His Robin Hood will always be the greatest of its kind.
Sadly, Errol Flynn died of a heart attack in October 1959 at age 50, a bit over two years after this episode of WML aired. As I recommended in a post on another episode of WML, I highly recommend Flynn's Technicolor swashbuckler of a film "The Adventures of Robin Hood" from 1938, with Olivia de Havilland as Maid Marian. Best version of Robin Hood ever filmed and Flynn at 6'2" tall in his Lincoln green costume was the very picture of Robin Hood -- and he spoke with a credible English accent. The use of color in the film is visually stunning. Great cast, too, including Alan Hale Sr. as Little John, Claude Rains as Prince John, and Basil Rathbone as the villainous Sir Guy of Gisbourne. The film was so well done and such fun to watch that I think there's no excuse for any of the later versions of Robin Hood on film. In 1995, the Library of Congress declare this film to be "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" and it was selected for preservation by the National Film Registry. Back to Flynn -- I think he was perfect in that film -- he knew just how to buckle his swash.
ToddSF.... Errol Flynn was an Australian by birth and one heck of an actor.....
Very sad that he passed in 1959 at only aged 50, but his hard living made his seem much older than he was.... RIP ERROL FLYNN.
EDITH SYMMANS -- As I recall, Flynn was born in the Australian State of Tasmania.
apparently he had a heart attack while the dang doctor was giving him a leg massage ????
ToddSF 94109 Perhaps the first Tasmanian Devil??!?
Flynn's Robin Hood was, is still, a masterpiece. Kevin Costner's later attempt, however, was a travesty,
As Walter Cronkite said, "Errol Flynn died on a 70 foot yacht with a sixteen year old girl.. I have a 16 foot yacht and my wife is a 70 year old girl."
I never heard that before-- good line. :)
Warp Prime 42 Honestly now. I suppose that means you personally met most of the teenage girls alive in the 1970s. Your personal experience isn't objective universal truth now, is it? Painting "most" young women as "tarts" or "sluts" says more about you than about women.
*****
OK mom.
+poetcomic1 When the host said Errol Flynn made more girlish hearts flutter, he wasn't kidding! Very young teenage girls that is!
He may have said that, but I know when asked his daydream, Walter Cronkite, assumed to be a man of rectitude, definitely said that , It would be to be on a 60 foot yacht with a 16 year old girl. When someone told his wife, she just laughed and said, Knowing Walter it would be a 16 foot yacht with a 60 year old lady.
Arlene Francis and John Daly are two people who deserved to live forever. What charm and talent!
You’d only want that for someone you strongly dislike
I love John Dailys explanations. He would have made a great politician
Hunters wouldn’t be allowed on shows nowadays!😟😟😟
I love how nimble and verbose he is with his words. Also the ability to conjure up a pretty sophisticated explanation very quickly is just surprising
Me too
He's corny as hell
What a find! I was two weeks old when this aired and am a huge Errol Flynn fan. Thanks for posting these. Far more entertaining than anything out there these days.
I was born exactly 2 months later.
Flynn had one way mirrors and other devices installed in his home that allowed him to spy on his female guests.
How so very charming.
Errol Flynn, arguably the most famous Australian.
He was actually from Tasmania, not Australia.
@@1928jazz Tasmania is part of Australia.
Errol Flynn's son Sean (handsome like his father) was born in 1941. He was a freelance photojournalist and disappeared in Cambodia in 1970. His body was never found and his mother, Lili Damita, had him declared legally dead in 1984 after she had spent an enormous amount of money searching for her son, with no success.
How sad.
Very interesting John!! I didn't kniw his son went missing Thanks for sharing..
I wrote a piece about Sean Flynn in my book Death Valley Superstars, after an odd encounter with someone who knew him. His is quite a story -- present tense because it isn't over: searches for his remains continue.
@@ironduke2000 how dreadful for
Sean's mother never getting closure of her son's accident.
Had Errol passed away at the time of sean's accident?
Well done on writing the book
and great the search for sean still remains...
Thanks. Yes, Errol died some eleven years before Sean disappeared. Sean was effectively discovered by a producer at Errol's funeral, and he went on to make a few movies before becoming a photojournalist. His disappearance was surely the great tragedy of his mother's life -- he was her only child and only living blood relative to boot.
Sammy was a triple threat! he sang, danced and acted, all 3 very well indeed! *[To the dopes who are complaining about my comment, i made this comment 8 YEARS AGO! i meant it then, and i mean it now. i am not interested in your opinion.*
And on top of that, a flare for comedy and an excellent ability (often overlooked, especially later in his career) for doing impressions.
@@loissimmons6558 I believe he also played drums.
An incredible musician.
👍
@nowvoyagerNE. I think that you meant to say that he was a triple treat- not threat. I agree.
I was exactly 4 rears old on this date in 1957 and I watched this show from the time I was very young and always have enjoyed it!!!!
I was a month short of 5 when this was made and we watched this show every time it was on.
Mr. Davis was a class act there will be no one else like him
Mr John Daly the best game show host there ever has been
Sammy Davis Jr was not only entertaining to watch, but I also had a couple of his albums and loved listening to them.
There was a gang in the Detroit area in the 70's called the Flynn Nasty's or the Errol Flynn's. Just a strange bit of trivia. Btw I discovered this show a few weeks ago and I'm absolutely hooked! The people are so gracious to each other. I really like how they say good night to each other, it's very charming.
It's so cool to be able to watch these shows on youtube and they aren't just lost to time. Gotta luv Errol and Sammy too.
Dorothy was so good at this. Such wonderfully deducive questioning, and quick wit.
On many shows, to keep the game moving, Dorothy was given the occupation of the guests prior to the show. Many of the early shows were LIVE and the producers were on a STRICT time schedule. If the show went just minutes long a panelist (Dorothy) would hastily guess the occupation in order to get to the next round. Dorothy admitted this in a news interview for a New York paper before she died.
Sammy Davis Jr. could tap dance like crazy, and he was a good drummer as well.
I never knew that Sammy Davis, Jr. was such a good impersonator.
I noticed the names of the panelists were not in front of them. In December 1957, Errol Flynn was the mystery guest. This was a rare occasion when there were TWO female guests in a row. It was nice to see they didn't try to squeeze in another contestant after Sammy, and they allowed him time to chat.
His Jimmy Stewart impression is spot on!
I love Erroll Flynn. He was a real hero back in the day,particularly in his swashbuckling roles. One line he delivered in "The Adventures of Robin Hood" made an impression on this young boy. Maid Marion was puzzled why he had such emnity towards the conquering Normans,asking him,"Why do you hate The Normans so much"? He responded with,"It's injustice I hate,not The Normans". I've hated injustice ever since.
Well moggs, I recall that line about injustice. A good line for sure. I enjoyed, and still enjoy watching Errol's films. He had a charisma before the camera that few people have ever had. His bouts with booze and drugs certainly worked against him. Those making comments of his intelligence certainly knew little of this actor. He read with a desire for knowledge that few before the camera ever attempted. How many are familiar with the works of Plato or undertook Gibbon's "Decline and fall of the Roman empire"? Not an easy or quick read. One of his co-stars may have summed him up best. (paraphrasing) Few people knew what laid underneath his persona. He was a complicated individual.
IN MY VIEW
Sammy Davis Jr. was born to steal our hearts with everything about him. He truly is in a class all his own as a singer, dancer, and actor.
So glad that I once saw Sammy perform.
Such an amazing impressionist
Sammy Davis was so well spoken. Classy guy.
Classy? he was a known devil worshipper.
Really? His parents were Catholic and Baptist. He converted to Judaism in 1961. How is that worshipping the devil?
Can you please elaborate with evidence? Thank you.
No one knows "in like Flynn"? I'm surprised.
The real pleasure here is seeing the young Sammy - just busting with talent. Dorothy always had a special love for jazz musicians, and it shows here.
Sammy Davis- tremendous talent. And seemed to be well appreciated by the panel.
In Like Flint
@@stevenjoyal6565 that movie was a takeoff on IN LIKE FLYNN everone knows that! sheeeesh.
Are you high again?
NOBODY played Robin Hood better than Errol Flynn! NOBODY! And The Adventures Of Robin Hood has graduated to DVD REQUIREMENT for the young and young at heart!
Furthermore, after Sammy Davis appeared and the live broadcast ended, news reporter Dorothy Kilgallen sensed that something was up with Davis's appearance. She pried the details out of her friend associate producer Bob Bach (and who knows who else) and banged out an article with no byline in the "New York Journal American" reporting that Daly had barred Mike Wallace from the mystery guest booking. She also wrote some quotations from Daly without, Daly claimed, interviewing him. Daly got so mad about the article that, outside the WML broadcasts, he didn't associate with Kilgallen for six months.
Thank you so much for providing all the excellent background information on this. Especially because, as you said, very little is apparent from the episode itself. But this one was a big deal, one of the very few truly negative stories Gil Fates shares in his book. That being the case, you have to wonder just how much his version is still sugarcoated. I have the sense he only went into it because it had already been publicly reported on.
One thing I take away from this is what consummately skilled professionals both John and Dorothy were on camera to have so well hidden the animosity between them. I'm hard pressed to remember a single moment in the upcoming shows that one could point to and say, "See? See how tense they were with each other here? It's so obvious!"
Check out Bennett Cerf's recollection of the Mike Wallace incident. It's clear that Dorothy had previously explained that she could not but use any info gleaned. So when Daly came up with his story about how not having Wallace was due to this temporary thing wrt a mobster, Bennett felt it was silly but believed him.
But, if you think about it, Daly was setting up the story & then was really mad that Dorothy did not simply report it as he told it. In reality Mike Wallace despised John Daly & Daly had no intention of ever having him on the show.
Playing Dorothy for a chump was not wise for anyone!
No one can top Mr Entertainment Sammy. He was blessed with talent. He can sing dance act well Well into his 70’s. Great entertainer
I loved watching Sammy Davis, Jr dance and sing. He was awesome!
It's a wonder he could, chimney that he was ...
Sadly, Sammy Davis jr. Died when he was 64....darn cigarettes
It amazes me that this game show could get someone like Errol Flynn as a panelist.
I'd like to know the back story of this as well.
I’ll bet celebrities were DYING to get on this show!
He’d done the film “The Sun Also Rises” which is mentioned the next time he appears but this time as the mystery guest at the end and had been tipped for an Oscar for his performance but that was cruelly taken away from him by the Academy. Sadly, he was to die 2 years later. Absolutely love Errol.
At that time in Flynn’s life he was hardly ever sober and couldn’t get hired for movie roles.
As strange as it may seem, he probably needed the money by this time. I believe he sank whatever he had left into his yacht.
I'm assuming that it was shortly before this episode where What's My Line changed their policy, allowing non-celebrity panelists the opportunity to end their appearance on the show by shaking hands with the panelists afterwords. I think this was the right way to end someone's appearance on the show, rather than just shovelling them away behind the curtain at the end
This practice started just a few weeks before this episode. I agree that it's the right way to end the contestant's appearance. What a thrill it must have been to shake the hands of those famous panelists, especially in those simpler times.
100%
@@mikejschin I agree completely.
It's better that they do, so that WE can live vicariously through them, shaking hands with stars of old Hollywood.
Great to see how Sammy grew in personal confidence since his accident. There was never such a talent and there never will be. Having seen him time again in night clubs - theatre especially
“ Golden Boy” and TV on hundreds of occasions if you tired of seeing SD Jr you
tired of life.
He knew how to overcome the obstacles life threw his way
I miss Sammy.
Meanwhile, news reporter Mike Wallace of ABC News was scheduled to appear as the mystery guest. He hosted a controversial interview program that routinely got ABC News [of which Daly was a vice president] into legal troubles. About six hours before broadcast, Daly telephoned Gil Fates [who was spending the afternoon at Tom Euell's lawn party somewhere on the Connecticut gold coast] and refused to appeared with Wallace. Fates canceled Wallace, the production staff recruited Sammy Davis who was performing at the Latin Quarter. The last minute quality of the booking is evident from the lettering on Davis's super-title -- it is the hand- lettered board the staff kept at the ready.
soulierinvestments jeapordy
Good ole Sammy, God rest his soul. Very talented, very funny man.
Not only was Sammy Davis, Jr. a last minute booking as MG, there was a lot that was scrambled on this episode. The panelists were introduced out of seating order and their names were missing from their usual place in front of them on the desk. Perhaps someone forgot to make up one for "Mr. Flynn" so they had to leave all of them off.
Arlene often got the right answer, an extremely intelligent, elegant and sexy woman I think. Sammy was a genial multitalent without comparison! God I love this show and the wonderful people involved and wished I had been born earlier to have experienced the 50s.
The 50's were actually quite grim.
50's were great, if you had good parents, like i did.
I said something similar 40 years and was asked, "how old would you be now if you had?" 73 with What's My Line to bring back my youth. You could wish for worse things. And I had great parents, siblings, friends, neighborhood and community.
They had such fun making this!
Makes me feel nostalgic- wish we had times like that again 💖
I think this is the first episode I've seen where the contestant didn't know how the game was scored.
I'm pretty sure that when she agreed to be on WML she was put on the fast track to that seat on John Daly's right.
I remember Sammy Davis on an episode of All In the Family giving Archie Bunker a kiss. Priceless 🤣
👍🙂Awesome show!!!
Most of these stars thought they were invincible. Also they might not have known the full danger of drugs and alcohol.
what fun it is to see the interesting things people do for a living...and what fun it is to see how the ladies dressed, see how their hair was done, and see the pretty jewelry they wore in the 50's and early 60's :D
Right! I didn't even know that half of these were even 'professions'.
From watching this, Sammy seemed like a really down to earth guy.
Down to earth..and a follower of Luciferian Anton Lavey it's said.
Errol Flynn blew it by guessing that she was an animal wrangler of sorts rather than a big game hunter. Dorothy Kilgallen then got it by going one step further.
rockribbed rushy Joe Postove the panel set up Flynn to guess correctly, gave it to him generously, then he blew it by going back to a profession already denied. Dorothy gave up on him and told what they already knew.
my my Errol Flynn what a very handsome man I do say so myself
Sammy never had any formal education. But he was a well read man.
The guy never went to ONE DAY of formal schooling...he was in show business from the day he could walk. You'd be hard pressed to name any other human in history who had zero formal schooling, yet accomplished what Davis accomplished across a variety of fields. Its one of the great human achievements.
Errol Flynn died around a year and half after this so sad
Sad to think that Errol was so close to the end of his life. Though he still appears fine he was not a healthy man. There will never be another like him. As a kid in the 70’s and 80’s they still played his movies all the time.
By 1957, the preservation of the kinescopes has been so consistent, it seems strange that the May 19, 1957 episode has been lost and no copy has been found. According to what I found on the Internet, Martin Gabel was the guest panelist and Ann Sothern was the MG. The other challengers? Challenger #1 - The U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds; Challenger #2 - A female weightlifter who taught weightlifting to other women; Challenger #4 - A male minister. The information on the other challengers was taken by someone from Gil Fates handwritten show logs. Unfortunately his logs didn't include the names of the other challengers.
Errol Flynn's brain was soused for all time. It was very sad. They all got together in a conference to GIVE him an easy answer about the big game hunter so he could win and he totally blew it.
Venereal disease rotted his brain, the part that wasn’t destroyed by drinking.
Errol a bit awkward at first but he e fed up having fun. Makes us realise that it’s harder than it looks.
Love the voice over promo at the very end for American Airlines (Douglas) DC-7 "Mercury" service. That was a 65 passenger all first-class service (no coach) first introduced on AA's DC-7s in 1953.
My goodness, Errol Flynn is such a charmer even here, which is just a couple of years before his untimely death. Some things never change.🥰🌹
Errol Leslie Thompson Flynn. Within a few years, a lifetime of drink, drugs, and debauchery would wind up killing this iconic leading man at the age of 50. Like his friend John Barrymore, whom he portrayed on screen in 1957's "Too Much, Too Soon," he was a charming, cavalier figure and a law unto himself, and it wound up costing him.
Live hard, die young and leave a beautiful corpse.
Well, Flynn famously said that he was only interested in the 'first 50 years of life, not the last 50'.
And, so it was.
amazing Sammy Davis jr...so talented...
If you've ever seen or heard Sammy's acts or listened to his recordings, you'd likely have recognized that he used many of the voices here to disguise his own voice. In some of his impressions, he'd actually sing in those voices.
S. Davis Jr. was a gangster in Robin and the 7 Hoods, but that was made in the 1960s. He was great in that movie. Bing Crosby, Sammy, Dean Martin, and Frank Sinatra and an all star cast sang Mr. Booze, a great song.
I thought Flynn was fine, much better than his guest appearance.
Sammy seems like the sweetest and friendliest guy, handsome with a great voice! :)
Love What's my line
Love the array of comments -- it's a good read.
Errol must be one of the only Hollywood star to have been born in Tasmania he actually was unlike Merle Oberon who said she was but wasn't. Errol also had a pop song about him from a band called Australian Crawl that was called Errol and the band named after a swimming stroke, Mr Flynn was quite the ladies man and one of Australia's earliest big Hollywood stars
Flynn is also mentioned in this israeli song - sung and written (lyrics) by famous israeli singer Yossi Banai about his childhood memories in Jerusalem in which he and his friends used to play Tarzan, Errol Flynn and Gunga din..
/watch?v=4uDy_A8zXPM (UA-cam) at the 2:03 mark
His vices killed him
His body was wracked with various venereal disease’s.
He dodged a rape conviction.
He drank himself to death.
What a charming hero
@@thesweeples3266 He was a good actor but a man who got consumed by his own demons. Compassion is in order. If not for the grace of God there go I or You
Has anyone noticed that Arlene said she had never introduced Dorothy, but just a few months prior to this she introduced Dorothy when Jerry Lewis was on the panel.
two people who lived amazing lives, errol flynn and sammy davis jr. flynn would be dead in just over 2 years at the age of 50, it's amazing he lasted that long, a testament to his hardiness.
An amazing rapist
@@thesweeples3266 link?
I`ve never heard Sammy Davis Jr. speak as a young man.
I am surprised that, being an American, he spoke such accent-free English.
Love Sammy ❤
That was enjoyable!
Dorothy is my favorite. After binge watching, I had no idea her life was shorter than it should have been. 😢
Dorothy was cheating on her husband and addicted to barbiturates. Her husband was also cheating on her with several women. She was also a heavy drinker socially and privately.
Thank the United States government
Love Sammy
Amazing how attudes change. People change.
Whoa Arlene “She goes on safari. I can see her now... with Erol Flynn “ and an eye roll ....
I wish buddy rich had appeared on what's my line
Arguably the greatest entertainer in history
Something I found out about Sammy was his fast draw with a six shooter. He was supposed to be incredibly fast on the draw. This was somewhat profiled in an episode of the series "Lawman" John Russell portraying the main character and Peter Brown as his deputy. Also in the later episodes was Peggy Castle. She ran the Birdcage. Kind of like Ms Kitty ran the Long Branch. Peter Brown had become very good friends with Sammy Davis Jr. Regarding Errol... simply my favorite actor of all time. If Olivia de Havilland had been on the program that evening, WML, it would have been extraordinary.
It's amazing to see someone smoking indoors on live television!
You should see some of the early episodes where multiple panel members (including Arlene) are smoking, and John Daly, too.
They did it all the time, on many shows.
Not if you're old enough. People smoked on TV and in movies and all over the place, inside, outside and even in hospitals up until the 80s. When I was a kid in the 70s you couldn't get away from cigarette smoke. You'd go to a restaurant and enjoy a meal only to have some jackass light up behind you after their meal was over ruining your meal. I was never so glad when they banned smoking in restaurants and other indoor areas. I remember lot of people being pissed about it. I have a heart problem and my body doesn't use oxygen very effectively. Cigarette smoke tends to block the available air from me, I just cant get any air with that sort of smoke wafting about and it makes me sick to my stomach and gives me an almost instant headache because the oxygen is cut off.
Even my parents smoked around me my whole life. You'd think they would know better... nope. The only place I could get away from cigarette smoke was in school.
Johnny Carson and some of the guests on the Tonight Show openly smoked on camera at least until the late 1970s.
@@SpiritBear12 I remember in 1982, I was 16 taking driving lessons, and our driving instructor smoking in the car as we took turns driving. The car was full of cigarette smoke, but it was November and too cold to open the window. How times have changed.
I'm a fan of traditional country music, and a local performer of such... but I would have to say despite my choice in music there are not many singers on this planet that could even BEGIN to compare with the talent of Sammy Davis Jr. The man was a GOOD as good gets PERIOD!!!! There are simply none better.
I'm also a fan of the Rat Pack no doubt.... they were all great, but if one were to ask me Sammy had 90% of the talent. If they were to hold a talent contest and Sinatra, Deano and Sammy were the last 3 finalists, Sammy would win hands down!!
***** That is the nature of the mans talent, more than 2 decades after his passing he is still well loved all around the world! Greetings from the states!
What surprised me was I did not know he did impressions, yet at the time of this show he was better known for his impressions, although that would change.
This is not to disparage Sammy Davis Jr., as he was certainly a man of many talents and could do many things very well. But to say he had more talent than Frank Sinatra is ridiculous.
Handcuffs lady, is it something Errol could use ? Ha, ha, after that criminal reference on last contestant by him.
He who is without sin.?
Yay, new ones. :) Thanks
:) It's okay! I try to keep a full month ahead of the 2-a-day schedule with the uploading. There are always plenty of videos are sitting in the queue scheduled to be made public automatically, so it's really not been a strain to keep to the schedule.
I genuinely appreciate both dance4joy's enthusiasm and zardon4's acknowledgement that this does take some significant time and effort-- it does!
LOL I don't EXPECT you to post so many but am grateful when you do. :) It's not my fault you have me so spoiled!! :)
Errol Flynn…..good panelist. N O T
"Would she be in charge of putting handcuffs on ladies"?? - O M G…… O M G………O M G
I honestly think had WML brough on a 6 year old panelist, that they could have asked more effective investigative questions of the guest than Errol Flynn did. Was he drunk, or was he really that simple minded?
Galileocan g Honestly, I think it was a little of both.
I didn't think he was a bad panelist. For one, the others are regulars at the game, and for anyone coming in for a first time, I bet it is unnerving to put yourself up against them. I think he was great, they were asked what does she have to do with handcuffs, he might have thought she was someone in a position as a female jailer or something in that nature where only a women would perform that act....they do have to have a woman present or do a pat down in many circumstances, ie police, airport....I think he was thinking along those lines...
+Pygiana Don't pity him. He had a great life at the expense of other people AND his own health/public reputation/career due to his OWN choices.
Poor Errol, only 2 years to live
Errol Flynn, smoking the whole time he was there.
And?, very common
At 14:43, Dorothy got away with one. She asked a question that got a "NO" answer and John let her ask another one. He got
sidetracked.
10:25 Errol sneaks one last peek!
You noticed that, too.
Me too
A little too old for Erroll. Much too old, actually...
Of course he did. Lol.
I love 💕 Bennett’s humor! I hate how he gets booed
This would seem to be the first episode broadcast after John Daly's quarrel with Dorothy Kilgallen over a story that she phoned into her newspaper about his nixing of a mystery guest, Mike Wallace. The show's producers wanted Wallace on the show because he was then getting a lot of publicity due to his interview with the gangster Mickey Cohen, which aired on the Sunday prior to this episode. However, some inferred that Daly had nixed Wallace as a guest because there were rumors that Wallace might replace Daly as the head of the ABC news department. Daly never forgave Kilgallen for reporting the story, according to Bennett Cerf, who overheard their contretemps. "I thought we were family," Daly said to her. But Kilgallen regarded herself as a reporter first and foremost and "this is my story," she said--"I'm going to get scooped on my own story?" The other panelists subsequently minded their mouths when Dorothy was around, for fear that some of what they said would also end up in newspapers.
I love to hear the background of different stories. Funny how everyone thinks this show is always so prim and proper, yet, things went on then as they do now, just not publicized like today.
Wow, what an interesting story 😋
Did all that really happen? Or is someone here making a mountain out of a mole hill,?
@@shirleyrombough8173 So, my take on this has always been that people's stories differ, and that events are, to some extent, in the eye of the beholder.
So *something* happened, yes.
But on the other hand, you have these events, filtered through Bennett Cerf some decades later. Cerf was, of course, not a reporter and had a fallible memory and his own opinions.
So, something happened, but what, precisely, it was, we really don't know.
@shirleyrombough8173 yes, this is all true. I just read a book on this show WML by producer Gil Fates
It's that beautiful mam Sammy Davis jnrs voice you cannot hide x
oh wow. Errol Flynn is smoking while on the panel. I knew EVERYBODY smoked back then but I figured they wouldn't do it while performing.
It was normal back then.
Flynn looked like a 'has been' drunk. by that i mean he looks like a former movie star and much older than 48.
Love these
My cousin just named her new baby Remington Moon. I immediately thought of the ladies’s electric trimmer.
Wow. Errol. Even more suave in real life. What an inimitable classic
Dodged a rape conviction.
Various venereal disease’s.
Drank himself to death.
How so very suave.
Beyond Mombasa! That's a decent flick with a stellar cast: Cornel Wilde, Christopher Lee, Leo Genn, and Donna Reed!