Better turn on the lights for the kids. From Wikipedia: "Post Office or Postman's Knock is a kissing party game played at teenage parties comprising boys and girls".
Also: We need to start celebrating an individual's inner beauty, common sense, lack of narcissistic tendencies, and a willingness to help other people unconditionally--and in a loving manner, in which recognition is not necessary. And I have known a lot of "beautiful" women over my 75 years who did not go to college, for example, but who were/are wonderfully intelligent people, as often demonstrated during many profound and memorable conversations with them.
I remember that pageant so well. She was such a fresh-as-paint personality. She was that pretty girl next door rather than a glamour girl. A great sense of humor as you can see and she in fact go on to a nice career in television and a very nice life indeed.
Given her appearance, voice and personality, I'm surprised Maria Fletcher didn't do more in show business after her Miss America reign. Wikipedia - certainly not a definite source - only mentions her hosting a local TV show in Nashville in the late 1960s.
Since a baseball trainer was one of the challengers before the panel and it was mentioned that Mickey Mantle hit his 53rd homer as he and Roger Maris challenged Babe Ruth's regular season home run record, I will add that September 10, 1961 had two noteworthy occurrences at Wrigley Field in Chicago. It was the major league debut for future Hall of Fame member Lou Brock. Batting lead off and playing center field for the Cubs, Brock singled in his first at bat, his first of 3023 major league hits. Batting second for the Cubs that day and also making his major league debut with the Cubs was second baseman Ken Hubbs. Hubbs was a highly touted player who would be the National League Rookie of the Year in 1962. He also won a Gold Glove that year, a rare achievement for a rookie. That season, he set records for consecutive games played and chances handled without an error. We will never know how good Hubbs might have become. He died in a crash of a plane he was piloting just before the start of spring training in 1964.
Because her Wikipedia entry annoyed me with its brevity, I will note Miss Fletcher later went to Vanderbilt (majoring in French and Philosophy), graduated, got married (in 1965, to a proto-doctor), became vice president of a record company in addition to the radio show, and had two kids. She put her husband through med school with the $70,000 she got from Miss America, and they eventually divorced fairly amicably (or so it seems), in 1991. Moved to Lake Tahoe, and teaches dancing and writes music (some of it Christian). Is also into numerology/other types of semi-psychic counseling (I am sure she would assert it is all scientific, tyvm), semi-professionally. She seems to have entered beauty-contest land in order to get money for college (since her father said he wouldn’t fund her tuition), and then kind of got trapped on the treadmill, though given how much work it is to deal with a pageant, she must not’ve been /too/ unhappy about it. Also, she says with a grin that she’s a ham, so I’ll go with ’Occasionally mildly irked by the rigamarole.’
The guests from the Yankees never fool the panel. Daly always helps give it away when they ask if it's a profit making company and he responds in an over the top way.
Interesting when Daly mentions the Indian goods on the platform when the train stopped in Albuquerque. I had no idea it was such an old tradition, but this still goes on with the Amtrak Southwest Chief. Back then it was just called The Chief and operated by the private railroads. The Chief runs from Chicago to LA so for those coast to coast train trips, New Yorkers would have to take one train to Chicago and transfer to the Chief.
Historically, the Super Chief route was operated by that melodious sounding railroad: the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe. When Amtrak took over passenger routes, that railroad (now part of Burlington Northern Santa Fe or BNSF) retained some control over the name of the route. When they perceived that Amtrak had allowed the quality of service to slip significantly, they forced Amtrak to rename the route "Southwest Limited". With subsequent improvements, the private railroad allowed Amtrak to rename the route "Southwest Chief". For a time, Amtrak had scheduled the routes and rolling stock so that the Chief would align, not with a route from NYC but DC to Chicago route "Capitol Limited". But Amtrak never followed through with renaming the combined routes as one new route, "National Chief" and eventually dropped the whole idea in May 1998.
Mr. Merrifield played at state fairs, circuses, and various random events around the US, as well as the Calgary Stampede and points in Europe. His longest engagement was the Tommy Bartlett Water Show at the Wisconsin Dells. Seems to have started in 1959 as a double act (with a woman); billed as from Hartford. Don’t know if he’s still going, though he seems to mostly be retired as of 2014, when his costumes were on display but he wasn’t, at the Big E in MA.
Having watched the 1950s episodes and now this one from 1961, I can see that John Daly has honed his wit to be a match for Arlene Francis. When she said, 'May I rule out income tax?', Mr Daly quipped, 'If you can get it through Congress.' He was rather a serious, schoolmasterly figure in the past but he's 'lightened up' in the modern slang. The mystery guests are often quite dull but Mr D is always fun to watch. He must have been a very patient man to put up with Bennett Cerf's clunky remarks.
My father used to work in data processing in the late 60s and 70s and used to tell a story of a coworker who always pronounced "column" as "col-yoom." He would always correct her and say its "col-um" not "col-yoom." Interesting to hear Alan King introduce Dorothy as a "col-yoomnist!" I suppose that's how some parts of the country pronounced it?
As one born and reared in the Southeast, the first time I heard anyone say col-yoom I was on a construction site for a house my company was building. I was standing out front admiring the nearly completed home when a rather provincial fellow walked up and opined that the dee-COR-a-tive col-yooms on the front of the house were very impressive. To add context this was a $600K house in the mid 1990s. I had to agree, the rather large col-yooms were very impressive indeed.. lol
Doesn't Bennett know you're not supposed to wear white after Labor Day? ;) I wonder why he apparently was not a judge in this Miss America contest, as he had been in previous years.
Rikard Peterson It's just one of those unofficial "fashion rules" -- don't wear white after Labor Day. I guess white is considered summery attire, and Labor Day in the U.S. signifies the unofficial end of summer, even though it comes in early September and the real end of summer is around Sept. 21st.
SaveThe TPC It was 9-4-61....I think they may have taped a few of these ahead around this time.....Then again, men wore white tux jackets for early formal suppers, he may have come straight from some function....but we love him anyway !
@@lizbathory6426... oh my gosh... excuse me please. I didn't want to insinuate something inappropriate. They do have a certain resemblance (in my eyes), but as we see... that means nothing. Best regards from Germany!
@@lizbathory6426 They do look similar enough to be siblings. I’m sure Georgia didn’t think they in fact were, it’s well established that people are attracted to similar-looking people. I’m glad they had happy lives.
When I was a kid back in the late, 1950's and early 1960's the ice cream man on the ice cream truck had a light colored suit like Mr. Cerf is wearing tonight. He kinda looked like him minus the eyeglasses. :--)
I can’t tell if the Shores ever had kids, but Jay was about 25 here, and is 80 now. Dunno about Paul, though I imagine older than her. (Seems to be 82.) Anyway, they’re both still alive, and retired in Bosque Farms (about 20 miles south of Albuquerque proper). Paul had a rural sort of route in ’61 (Tijeras Canyon area, which seems to be near the Sandia Peaks), and Jay had more of a suburban one, west of town. (He used their car, she used a Post Office thing I’m unfamiliar with.)
Too gauche to write go ahead and take the dress, I’ll take the contents, but I intend the remark only as a compliment to Arlene. I like and admire Arlene who competes intellectually with Dorothy and physically with Miss America. That’s quite a package in any wrapping.
Bennett looks nice in that light-coloured suit jacket! I've always liked cream/ivory for men's suits, and although the B&W makes it impossible to tell what colour it actually was, I think it's a refreshing wardrobe choice nonetheless!
Mantle would hit only one more home run the rest of the season. By this time, he was struggling with a cold plus stiff and sore muscles. He was sent to a doctor to help combat these problems and the doctor gave him what was called a vitamin shot. The area of his hips where he was given the shot became so badly infected that his playing time was limited the rest of the season. The abscess where the infection settled and needed to be removed was the size of a golf ball. Mickey missed 10 of the last 12 games of the season and 3 of the 5 World Series games. He was removed for a pinch runner in the first inning of the last game he played on 9/26, the day that Maris hit his 60th homer. Mantle was in the hospital when Maris hit #61.
Dorothy Kilgallen was so smart. I thought it was so inappropriate and rude though for the last contestant in many of these episodes to be rushed through. If they couldn’t allow enough time for a final contestant, they should have done something different altogether.
@@poetcomic1 Very kind of you. I have made them for a forthcoming upmarket although amateur production of ‘The Scary Snitch Project’ which is a sequel to the very successful ‘Hairy Bitch Project’. Both star Miss Cecile Gavotte, a local Sunday School teacher whose currant buns are exceptional. 😺
Well, Jeepers! John himself has gone off the track with this mail cart. Conceivably, Just about ANYTHING could go through the mail and they could go just about ANYWHERE and thus they could give yes answers all night. Gosh.
14:51 Arlene, not wanting to use the gender specific word, "mailman", comes up with "mail lady" and "mail gentleman". I don't think I've ever heard those terms before.
@@LarsRyeJeppesenyes mailman is gender specific because it clues the word "man". Today they would be called postal employees. The word nurse comes from "nourish" and started with wet nurses. It was associated with females since the middle English period. About 1150 to 1650. It's connotation as a health caregiver started with Florence Nightingale in the 1850s. Early nurses were had a poor reputation and were viewed as amorous partners of doctors. By 1922, males began to enter the profession. There were many roles in psychiatric hospitals that required male nurses. I believe they were called male attendants for a while before they took on the title of male nurse. The word nurse since the 1850s is more like the word doctor. Today it's not gender-specific any more than the word doctor.
Hubbs wasn’t on that plane: in 1978, I saw him working in the back of a fishing-bait store in Minnesota… in our brief eye contact, I could tell he knew that I recognized him… and he quickly ran out the back door, into the snowy blizzard… he was never seen again ⚾️
*_GUS MAUCH (TRAINER FOR N.Y. YANKEES)_* *_U.S. MAILMEN_* *_DOES TRAPEZE ACT FROM HELICOPTER_* 9:51 "Matrimonially". There's a word you don't hear every day.....or every week.....or every year.....or every ten years!
I always feel so annoyed at the way they rush the last guest giving them a minute or so of air time. They could have spent less time with that sports fellow, but John dragged on and on and one and used up so much time. I wonder why they didn't have a timer display the panel could see to pace themselves. However, John's anxiety is so easy to read when he's running out of time because he's sooo distracted by the timer HE can obviously see. That should be a clue to the panel to pick the pace up.
I've noticed how frequently the weather is mentioned during various episodes (like this one), especially during the summer months. And I noticed Arlene Francis fanning herself in the last few minutes. Was the theater not air conditioned? I thought just about everything had AC by the 1960s.
It could be that it was air conditioned and was on before taping, but had to be turned off during taping due to excessive noise. Which could be why it didn't bother them so much until later in the taping.
except, as you know, Maris didn't. Ruth hit his 60 in 154 games and the league ruled that to break that record, Maris would have to hit 61 in 154 games, rather than the expanded 162 game schedule. He didn't, so his 61 has an asterisk. When McGwire cheated his way to the HR record in the steroid era, he lavished praise on Maris and made sure Maris' family was publicly recognized, presumably to ease his guilty conscience while claiming it was to give Maris the recognition he deserved but didn't get in 1961.
@@preppysocks209 According to an article in the June 27, 2011 Village Voice by Allen Barra, there was no official baseball record book in 1961, and the unofficial record books did not use an asterisk for Roger Maris' achievement. Some unofficial record books listed Babe Ruth's record of 60 home runs in 154 games and Roger Maris' record of 61 home runs in 162 games separately, and some did not. Commissioner Ford Frick thought the two records should be distinguished, but he denied there had ever been an asterisk in the official record in connection with Maris' accomplishment. According to Barra, however, "In a bizzare postscript to the asterisk story, in 1991 Commissioner Fay Vincent issued a statement indicating that he supported 'The single record thesis', meaning that Maris held the record for the most home runs in a season, period. The Committee on Statistical Accuracy, appointed by Vincent, voted to remove the asterisk from Maris' record...Probably nothing did more to enhance the myth of the existence of the asterisk than Vincent's 'removal' of it."
And again, there is a contestant in relation to baseball and I must confess I have no idea at all, what they are talking about (i'm only a German and here is baseball quite unknown, more than soccer in your country.) Can anyone suggest a website to inform a dummy about baseball? That will be a great help. btw: what a gorgeous gown, Miss America was wearing.
+Sabine Beyer To be honest, baseball is a *very* complicated game to understand for folks outside the U.S. (and Japan, I think). It's similar to the UK's crickett, but even though the games are similar, I find crickett totally baffling. This site gives a nice slideshow overview, but do't be discouraged if it's all nonsense to you. It's probably not worth the effort to try to understand as a German! :) www.slideshare.net/acordova/baseball-explained
+Sabine Beyer Actually like soccer, the basics of baseball are quite simple. Willie Mays, one of the best players of all time, summed it up this way: they pitch it, I hit it: they hit it, I catch it; I catch it, I throw it. Where baseball is different from the most popular team sports in Germany (soccer, basketball, ice hockey) is as follows: 1) it is the defense that possesses the ball, not the offense; 2) the position of the ball does not determine how far the offense advances; 3) instead the offense is determined in a manner similar to the childhood game of tag, where there are bases at which a runner is usually safe, and the defense's goal when a ball is hit is to either tag the runner when he is not on base or get the ball to the base ahead of the runner; 4) an out can also be recorded if the defense catches a batted ball on the fly or if the pitcher successfully throws the ball past the batter three times during the batter's turn; 5) the game is not timed and the length of the game depends upon the number of outs recorded. There are plenty of details beyond these basics, just like in soccer there are details like the difference between direct and indirect kicks, stoppage time at the end of the half, when is a hand ball a penalty and when is it inadvertent, when can a goal keeper handle the ball with his hands and when is it prohibited, substitution rules, how the offside rule works, how teams advance past the group round in the World Cup and when is it to a team's advantage to play cautiously in the final game at group stage, and so on. There have been some major league baseball players born in Germany, but they have been to U.S. servicemen stationed in Germany at the time. Usually U.S. servicemen have brought baseball with them and the game has caught on where they went (starting with Union soldiers bringing the game to the southern part of the U.S. during and immediately after the Civil War). It has caught on in Italy, Netherlands, France, Greece and the UK to some extent, as well as in the Pacific Rim and Australia, and is immensely popular in Mexico, Central America, many Caribbean countries and the northern part of South America. It is a very cerebral game, which I would think would appeal to Germans (my dad was German-American). However, that does not mean that Germany is totally devoid of baseball. There was a professional league (Bundesliga) from 1951 to 1970 and again from 1982 to the present. The teams play a 28 game schedule, plus playoffs. Perhaps there is a team near you? Here is a link to the official website (auf Deutsch) for German baseball and softball (a similar game, more often played by women then man once the teen years are reached, although there are exceptions). www.baseball-softball.de/
Maria Fletcher remains as of 2020 the only Miss North Carolina to be crowned Miss America. Seems sort of unfair. I've been to North Carolina. The girls are pretty there.
There's a famous North Carolinian lady who is very lovely, and she's country music star Kellie Pickler, although she seems to have vanished from the spotlight.
What's My Line? - I have never asked this question when watching these. I should state that I watched most of them in real time when they were on the air. I have read the books by Arlene and Bennett on their lives that both included references and chapters on their time on this show. I have read a lot about it. NEVER, ever has anyone explained why they have an extra chair when they add someone who is visiting from another What's My Line? show in another country onto the panel; they have an extra chair on the other side of the stage whenever they have a guest who requires a translator from the guest's language into English; so, why in the name of all that is holy do they not have an extra seat for when two people are the guests? There are seldom enough three or four that it does not seem necessary to have an entire set of chairs available. But there are often enough two guests that it is really inhospitable for them to not offer a chair. Also, and this will make me sound like a frigid bitch which I am not, though I do not like John Daly beyond the sterling way in which he moderates the actual game itself, but why would you ask anyone to stand or sit so cheek-by-jowl with someone who is so handsy without permission and so deeply in love with himself that I would not want to be that close to him? I think it is rude and puts young women in a particularly untenable position. Yet the extra chair thing escapes me. I think it's an excuse for John to cozy up to people, frankly.
My guess is that they felt it would be distracting for the studio audience for a stage hand to be ferrying chairs back and forth. As for how "handsy" John is, I never see him touch anyone except to help position them at the blackboard (by the arm/hand) or to shake hands at goodbye-time. The closeness of the seating is as in any photographic situation: the closer you can frame people in the shot, the better you can see them; you'll note the panel is sat just as close to one another.
@@TheGreatAtario They had extra chairs when they had an interpreter there with a guest once and one or two other times. They had commercials during which they could position the chairs readily because the curtains were immediately behind the desk. Daly was always putting his hands on people's shoulders and just touching them all the time, if you watch with that in mind. I have spent my life in acting/writing/directing so know how close the shot set-ups had to be. I meant handsy because it is not just closeness, that's why the panel teases him all the time about his quick conferences. I loved the little paddle a fan sent him for those conferences.
@@TheGreatAtario - I agree. I don't think John talks too much, I don't think he is inappropriately "handsy," and it is obvious that I like him as well the panelists.
I think of three possible reasons for having only one contestants’ chair 1. When blindfolded Panelists were consistently misled about the number of mystery guests. Singular nouns are pronouns were (unfairly) used for multiple guests. Adding chairs would have been cues to the panelists 2. Primitive broadcasts received on small, low resolution TV sets made focusing on people in multiple chairs more difficult than focusing on guests sitting butt to butt. 3. It’s an affectation unique to WML; a meme that has become a trope, which has served its purpose as witnessed by your question, my answer and the surrounding discussion. The only bad publicity, is no publicity. TV viewers like patterns. Many drama and comedy shows are formulaic (charges against Perry Mason’s client always dropped when a witness confesses, Dexter never caught, Lucy always defying Ricky, the white upper middle class guy always guilty on Law&Order,etc.). From the intro to the “good nights” WML adheres strictly to pattern.
I wish they would s**t-can the Miss America Contest. From a male's perspective, I find it outdated, weird, sexist and prejudicial, for starters, especially when it comes to measuring one's outer beauty as being an important trait to have; as, in part, demonstrated with the required swimsuit segment, thus giving the kind of consideration which celebrates "prettiness" as being highly valued, even though that is highly objective, and is something you have "little or no control over" in your life; you're born with whatever features you're born with.
"Now, his company doesn't deal primarily in real estate, but they might incidentally need say...a FIELD to operate." Me too. I almost think Daly would nudge things if he didn't think the panel had a clue. He always started blabbing just at the moment you're sure the panel is stumped.
In a way, I did as well. The "darling" bit was really not necessary. No need to pretend she was one of the Gabor sisters. She had a lovely, natural speaking voice, which most likely would not have been recognized by anyone on the panel.
I did not find Miss America to be annoying, nor to be funny. She was very young and very nervous, and one of her “handlers,” perhaps a parent, probably made that suggestion and she ran with it. It was one of her first duties-appearing before another huge national television audience, surrounded on stage by seasoned and witty pros. The kid gets a pass from me. Youth is an excuse.
![What's My Line? - Dick Powell; Art Linkletter [panel] (Sep 17, 1961)](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/QEJas8LXF-Q/mqdefault.jpg)
![What's My Line? - Dick Powell; Art Linkletter [panel] (Sep 17, 1961)](/img/tr.png)
![What's My Line? - Simone Signoret; Ray Bolger [panel] (Nov 12, 1961)](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/bz3kH2isb8U/mqdefault.jpg)
![What's My Line? - Hedda Hopper; Dennis Weaver [panel] (Apr 22, 1962)](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/A-m2NyZ5JBs/mqdefault.jpg)
"It's nice to think of a husband and wife playing post office!" Arlene is truly one of the greatest wits ever.
And she has a way of getting away with "naughty" lines on WML? that, had Hal Block said them, would provoke comments of a very different sort.
Better turn on the lights for the kids.
From Wikipedia: "Post Office or Postman's Knock is a kissing party game played at teenage parties comprising boys and girls".
@Chi Eg. Yeah, that was a good one. Lol.
@@MrJoeybabe25There is also ‘Continental Knock’ … much the same as Postman’s Knock, except you go further … 🥸
Also: We need to start celebrating an individual's inner beauty, common sense, lack of narcissistic tendencies, and a willingness to help other people unconditionally--and in a loving manner, in which recognition is not necessary. And I have known a lot of "beautiful" women over my 75 years who did not go to college, for example, but who were/are wonderfully intelligent people, as often demonstrated during many profound and memorable conversations with them.
I remember that pageant so well. She was such a fresh-as-paint personality. She was that pretty girl next door rather than a glamour girl. A great sense of humor as you can see and she in fact go on to a nice career in television and a very nice life indeed.
I thought she was quite fruity … in the nicest possible way.
Indeed but the post girl had her beaten on all.
Cute line by Arlene about the husband and wife playing post office 😂❤
Love Arlene's laugh after the income tax joke!
Arlene was a beautiful funny woman. Just loved her as a blond. Don't make these game shows any more. Such a pleasure to see these again.
Given her appearance, voice and personality, I'm surprised Maria Fletcher didn't do more in show business after her Miss America reign. Wikipedia - certainly not a definite source - only mentions her hosting a local TV show in Nashville in the late 1960s.
Since a baseball trainer was one of the challengers before the panel and it was mentioned that Mickey Mantle hit his 53rd homer as he and Roger Maris challenged Babe Ruth's regular season home run record, I will add that September 10, 1961 had two noteworthy occurrences at Wrigley Field in Chicago. It was the major league debut for future Hall of Fame member Lou Brock. Batting lead off and playing center field for the Cubs, Brock singled in his first at bat, his first of 3023 major league hits.
Batting second for the Cubs that day and also making his major league debut with the Cubs was second baseman Ken Hubbs. Hubbs was a highly touted player who would be the National League Rookie of the Year in 1962. He also won a Gold Glove that year, a rare achievement for a rookie. That season, he set records for consecutive games played and chances handled without an error.
We will never know how good Hubbs might have become. He died in a crash of a plane he was piloting just before the start of spring training in 1964.
Because her Wikipedia entry annoyed me with its brevity, I will note Miss Fletcher later went to Vanderbilt (majoring in French and Philosophy), graduated, got married (in 1965, to a proto-doctor), became vice president of a record company in addition to the radio show, and had two kids. She put her husband through med school with the $70,000 she got from Miss America, and they eventually divorced fairly amicably (or so it seems), in 1991.
Moved to Lake Tahoe, and teaches dancing and writes music (some of it Christian). Is also into numerology/other types of semi-psychic counseling (I am sure she would assert it is all scientific, tyvm), semi-professionally.
She seems to have entered beauty-contest land in order to get money for college (since her father said he wouldn’t fund her tuition), and then kind of got trapped on the treadmill, though given how much work it is to deal with a pageant, she must not’ve been /too/ unhappy about it. Also, she says with a grin that she’s a ham, so I’ll go with ’Occasionally mildly irked by the rigamarole.’
Wow.. incredible follow-up and research. Thank you!
Maria Beale Fletcher is amazing and beautiful! 🥰
She's like Mary Richards, "She's Gonna make It After All!"
She didn’t learn to speak French very well: her closed vowels had too much diphthongal off-glide and her sense of the subjunctive tense was sub-par.
The guests from the Yankees never fool the panel. Daly always helps give it away when they ask if it's a profit making company and he responds in an over the top way.
I really like Arlene Francis's hairstyle.
Interesting when Daly mentions the Indian goods on the platform when the train stopped in Albuquerque. I had no idea it was such an old tradition, but this still goes on with the Amtrak Southwest Chief. Back then it was just called The Chief and operated by the private railroads. The Chief runs from Chicago to LA so for those coast to coast train trips, New Yorkers would have to take one train to Chicago and transfer to the Chief.
Historically, the Super Chief route was operated by that melodious sounding railroad: the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe. When Amtrak took over passenger routes, that railroad (now part of Burlington Northern Santa Fe or BNSF) retained some control over the name of the route. When they perceived that Amtrak had allowed the quality of service to slip significantly, they forced Amtrak to rename the route "Southwest Limited". With subsequent improvements, the private railroad allowed Amtrak to rename the route "Southwest Chief".
For a time, Amtrak had scheduled the routes and rolling stock so that the Chief would align, not with a route from NYC but DC to Chicago route "Capitol Limited". But Amtrak never followed through with renaming the combined routes as one new route, "National Chief" and eventually dropped the whole idea in May 1998.
John was very generous with answers for the mail man and woman.
Happy 80 going on 81 Maria Fletcher!
Mr. Merrifield played at state fairs, circuses, and various random events around the US, as well as the Calgary Stampede and points in Europe. His longest engagement was the Tommy Bartlett Water Show at the Wisconsin Dells. Seems to have started in 1959 as a double act (with a woman); billed as from Hartford. Don’t know if he’s still going, though he seems to mostly be retired as of 2014, when his costumes were on display but he wasn’t, at the Big E in MA.
Dorothy Kilgallen was so smart.
Having watched the 1950s episodes and now this one from 1961, I can see that John Daly has honed his wit to be a match for Arlene Francis. When she said, 'May I rule out income tax?', Mr Daly quipped, 'If you can get it through Congress.' He was rather a serious, schoolmasterly figure in the past but he's 'lightened up' in the modern slang. The mystery guests are often quite dull but Mr D is always fun to watch. He must have been a very patient man to put up with Bennett Cerf's clunky remarks.
Bennet Cerf was a huge Yankees fan. He knew Gus Mauch by sight.
He was also quite often a huge yawn … Zzzzzzz
My father used to work in data processing in the late 60s and 70s and used to tell a story of a coworker who always pronounced "column" as "col-yoom." He would always correct her and say its "col-um" not "col-yoom." Interesting to hear Alan King introduce Dorothy as a "col-yoomnist!" I suppose that's how some parts of the country pronounced it?
As one born and reared in the Southeast, the first time I heard anyone say col-yoom I was on a construction site for a house my company was building. I was standing out front admiring the nearly completed home when a rather provincial fellow walked up and opined that the dee-COR-a-tive col-yooms on the front of the house were very impressive. To add context this was a $600K house in the mid 1990s. I had to agree, the rather large col-yooms were very impressive indeed.. lol
With Arlene constantly fanning herself, and Bennett in a light jacket, NYC must have been in a warm spell!
Doesn't Bennett know you're not supposed to wear white after Labor Day? ;) I wonder why he apparently was not a judge in this Miss America contest, as he had been in previous years.
Why not [wear white]?
Rikard Peterson
It's just one of those unofficial "fashion rules" -- don't wear white after Labor Day. I guess white is considered summery attire, and Labor Day in the U.S. signifies the unofficial end of summer, even though it comes in early September and the real end of summer is around Sept. 21st.
SaveThe TPC It was 9-4-61....I think they may have taped a few of these ahead around this time.....Then again, men wore white tux jackets for early formal suppers, he may have come straight from some function....but we love him anyway !
SaveThe TPC I've always thought that was a dumb rule.
I do love Arlene also
Succulent.
Contestant #3 - Extreme Sports 1961 style.
The Shores look like they were made for each other.
The Shores look like siblings...
My aunt and uncle were very happy together. Married over 60 years.
@@elisabethlinz4256 The Shores were my aunt and uncle, and I can assure you, they were not siblings.
@@lizbathory6426...
oh my gosh... excuse me please.
I didn't want to insinuate something inappropriate. They do have a certain resemblance (in my eyes), but as we see... that means nothing.
Best regards from Germany!
@@lizbathory6426 They do look similar enough to be siblings. I’m sure Georgia didn’t think they in fact were, it’s well established that people are attracted to similar-looking people. I’m glad they had happy lives.
Gorgeous Maria Fletcher, who is still alive into the year 2021 (age 78), is the only Miss North Carolina to date to win Miss America.
"Yes darling." Love it.
When I was a kid back in the late, 1950's and early 1960's the ice cream man on the ice cream truck had a light colored suit like Mr. Cerf is wearing tonight. He kinda looked like him minus the eyeglasses. :--)
That WAS Mr. Cerf!!! He started out as a humble ice cream truck driver and rose to fame at Random House… an amazing success story.
@@cadaverdog1424 Okay, interesting. LoL!
I can’t tell if the Shores ever had kids, but Jay was about 25 here, and is 80 now. Dunno about Paul, though I imagine older than her. (Seems to be 82.) Anyway, they’re both still alive, and retired in Bosque Farms (about 20 miles south of Albuquerque proper). Paul had a rural sort of route in ’61 (Tijeras Canyon area, which seems to be near the Sandia Peaks), and Jay had more of a suburban one, west of town. (He used their car, she used a Post Office thing I’m unfamiliar with.)
Yes, my Aunt and Uncle had 2 Children, and 5 grand children. Uncle Paul died a few years ago, and Aunt JaneAnne (Jay) died in 2020.
@@lizbathory6426 Thanks for the info.
@14:06 Arlene’s hearty laugh is strong and genuine which I find so attractive. No phony baloney here. 😎👌
Wish I had Arlene's dress!
She really looks so fresh and summery, elegant, sun - tanned, with fresh blonde hair.. just great!
Too gauche to write go ahead and take the dress, I’ll take the contents, but I intend the remark only as a compliment to Arlene. I like and admire Arlene who competes intellectually with Dorothy and physically with Miss America. That’s quite a package in any wrapping.
Bennett looks nice in that light-coloured suit jacket! I've always liked cream/ivory for men's suits, and although the B&W makes it impossible to tell what colour it actually was, I think it's a refreshing wardrobe choice nonetheless!
Wish I could travel back in time and take them some air conditioning!
seriously! and nowadays, sets are freezing!
It is really kool to hear them talk about Mickey Mantle breaking 53 homers today,
I've fallen behind watching these shows myself-- wow! Looking forward to seeing that reference.
OKIE CHOPPER bucket list to visit childhood home
Mantle would hit only one more home run the rest of the season. By this time, he was struggling with a cold plus stiff and sore muscles. He was sent to a doctor to help combat these problems and the doctor gave him what was called a vitamin shot. The area of his hips where he was given the shot became so badly infected that his playing time was limited the rest of the season. The abscess where the infection settled and needed to be removed was the size of a golf ball. Mickey missed 10 of the last 12 games of the season and 3 of the 5 World Series games. He was removed for a pinch runner in the first inning of the last game he played on 9/26, the day that Maris hit his 60th homer. Mantle was in the hospital when Maris hit #61.
Yawn. Zzzzzz
Dorothy Kilgallen was so smart.
I thought it was so inappropriate and rude though for the last contestant in many of these episodes to be rushed through. If they couldn’t allow enough time for a final contestant, they should have done something different altogether.
You are 53 years too late.
It is like listening to guys talking baseball down at the barbershop.
So tedious for those of us who are more interested in making corn dollies.
@@LANCSKID Corn Dollies are pagan witchcraft from pre-Christian England but if you are just making them to sell at craft fairs, I forgiveth you.
@@poetcomic1 Very kind of you. I have made them for a forthcoming upmarket although amateur production of ‘The Scary Snitch Project’ which is a sequel to the very successful ‘Hairy Bitch Project’. Both star Miss Cecile Gavotte, a local Sunday School teacher whose currant buns are exceptional. 😺
Well, Jeepers! John himself has gone off the track with this mail cart.
Conceivably, Just about ANYTHING could go through the mail and they could go just about ANYWHERE and thus they could give yes answers all night.
Gosh.
In 1958 they tried to have him on the show but time ran out
Surprise!! A sports figure... FROM NEW YORK!! (Gee, wonder how Bennett figured that out so quickly!?)
The non-gender noun might be mail deliverers. Interestingly, women flyers in the Air Force are still called Air Men. As of 2019.
Ms Fletcher is an 81-yr-old mother of 2 and according to Wikipedia remains the only Miss America from North Carolina,trivia fans 🎩
14:51 Arlene, not wanting to use the gender specific word, "mailman", comes up with "mail lady" and "mail gentleman". I don't think I've ever heard those terms before.
Robert Melson Is "mailman" gender specific though? "Nurse" is not
@@LarsRyeJeppesenyes mailman is gender specific because it clues the word "man". Today they would be called postal employees.
The word nurse comes from "nourish" and started with wet nurses. It was associated with females since the middle English period. About 1150 to 1650.
It's connotation as a health caregiver started with Florence Nightingale in the 1850s. Early nurses were had a poor reputation and were viewed as amorous partners of doctors.
By 1922, males began to enter the profession. There were many roles in psychiatric hospitals that required male nurses. I believe they were called male attendants for a while before they took on the title of male nurse.
The word nurse since the 1850s is more like the word doctor. Today it's not gender-specific any more than the word doctor.
The trapeze artist also rents apartment space in the clef in his chin.
Miss America 1962
Hubbs wasn’t on that plane: in 1978, I saw him working in the back of a fishing-bait store in Minnesota… in our brief eye contact, I could tell he knew that I recognized him… and he quickly ran out the back door, into the snowy blizzard… he was never seen again ⚾️
*_GUS MAUCH (TRAINER FOR N.Y. YANKEES)_*
*_U.S. MAILMEN_*
*_DOES TRAPEZE ACT FROM HELICOPTER_*
9:51 "Matrimonially". There's a word you don't hear every day.....or every week.....or every year.....or every ten years!
I always feel so annoyed at the way they rush the last guest giving them a minute or so of air time. They could have spent less time with that sports fellow, but John dragged on and on and one and used up so much time. I wonder why they didn't have a timer display the panel could see to pace themselves. However, John's anxiety is so easy to read when he's running out of time because he's sooo distracted by the timer HE can obviously see. That should be a clue to the panel to pick the pace up.
In John's defense, the Mickey Mantle Roger Maris 61 in '61 race was a huge news story at the time.
So which one was it? John Daly said she was Miss America 1961 and the thing that flashed across the screen for the audience that Miss America 1962?
I researched on Wikipedia...Maria Fletcher was Miss America 1962.
She was crowned in September 1961 as Miss America 1962.
Bennett will get the baseball ones every single time
If they would ever shut the audience up the contestants would have a better chance
When John says,"Now panel," I think he was trying to get the audience to be quiet.
What an annoying bunch of clappers.
Bennett's jacket made me think of this: Postove, table for two.
More like the man from Del Monte …
I've noticed how frequently the weather is mentioned during various episodes (like this one), especially during the summer months. And I noticed Arlene Francis fanning herself in the last few minutes. Was the theater not air conditioned? I thought just about everything had AC by the 1960s.
It could be that it was air conditioned and was on before taping, but had to be turned off during taping due to excessive noise. Which could be why it didn't bother them so much until later in the taping.
There was a scantily clad slave to one side with a huge palm leaf.
RE the mail carriers..note that she was still referred to a a mailMAN!
Curtis Taylor: so what?
not by Arelene when she guessed it
Dave Merrifield was so cute. RIP
The mailmen have rural routes and can play Post Office.
Mantle would hit only one more homerun and Maris broke babe Ruth 60 home run record
except, as you know, Maris didn't. Ruth hit his 60 in 154 games and the league ruled that to break that record, Maris would have to hit 61 in 154 games, rather than the expanded 162 game schedule. He didn't, so his 61 has an asterisk. When McGwire cheated his way to the HR record in the steroid era, he lavished praise on Maris and made sure Maris' family was publicly recognized, presumably to ease his guilty conscience while claiming it was to give Maris the recognition he deserved but didn't get in 1961.
@@preppysocks209 According to an article in the June 27, 2011 Village Voice by Allen Barra, there was no official baseball record book in 1961, and the unofficial record books did not use an asterisk for Roger Maris' achievement. Some unofficial record books listed Babe Ruth's record of 60 home runs in 154 games and Roger Maris' record of 61 home runs in 162 games separately, and some did not. Commissioner Ford Frick thought the two records should be distinguished, but he denied there had ever been an asterisk in the official record in connection with Maris' accomplishment. According to Barra, however, "In a bizzare postscript to the asterisk story, in 1991 Commissioner Fay Vincent issued a statement indicating that he supported 'The single record thesis', meaning that Maris held the record for the most home runs in a season, period. The Committee on Statistical Accuracy, appointed by Vincent, voted to remove the asterisk from Maris' record...Probably nothing did more to enhance the myth of the existence of the asterisk than Vincent's 'removal' of it."
Zzzzzzz I don’t give a monkey’s.
And again, there is a contestant in relation to baseball and I must confess I have no idea at all, what they are talking about (i'm only a German and here is baseball quite unknown, more than soccer in your country.) Can anyone suggest a website to inform a dummy about baseball? That will be a great help.
btw: what a gorgeous gown, Miss America was wearing.
+Sabine Beyer To be honest, baseball is a *very* complicated game to understand for folks outside the U.S. (and Japan, I think). It's similar to the UK's crickett, but even though the games are similar, I find crickett totally baffling.
This site gives a nice slideshow overview, but do't be discouraged if it's all nonsense to you. It's probably not worth the effort to try to understand as a German! :)
www.slideshare.net/acordova/baseball-explained
it is more like 'rounders' than cricket ... Anne, Cdn in England
+Sabine Beyer
Actually like soccer, the basics of baseball are quite simple. Willie Mays, one of the best players of all time, summed it up this way: they pitch it, I hit it: they hit it, I catch it; I catch it, I throw it.
Where baseball is different from the most popular team sports in Germany (soccer, basketball, ice hockey) is as follows: 1) it is the defense that possesses the ball, not the offense; 2) the position of the ball does not determine how far the offense advances; 3) instead the offense is determined in a manner similar to the childhood game of tag, where there are bases at which a runner is usually safe, and the defense's goal when a ball is hit is to either tag the runner when he is not on base or get the ball to the base ahead of the runner; 4) an out can also be recorded if the defense catches a batted ball on the fly or if the pitcher successfully throws the ball past the batter three times during the batter's turn; 5) the game is not timed and the length of the game depends upon the number of outs recorded.
There are plenty of details beyond these basics, just like in soccer there are details like the difference between direct and indirect kicks, stoppage time at the end of the half, when is a hand ball a penalty and when is it inadvertent, when can a goal keeper handle the ball with his hands and when is it prohibited, substitution rules, how the offside rule works, how teams advance past the group round in the World Cup and when is it to a team's advantage to play cautiously in the final game at group stage, and so on.
There have been some major league baseball players born in Germany, but they have been to U.S. servicemen stationed in Germany at the time. Usually U.S. servicemen have brought baseball with them and the game has caught on where they went (starting with Union soldiers bringing the game to the southern part of the U.S. during and immediately after the Civil War). It has caught on in Italy, Netherlands, France, Greece and the UK to some extent, as well as in the Pacific Rim and Australia, and is immensely popular in Mexico, Central America, many Caribbean countries and the northern part of South America. It is a very cerebral game, which I would think would appeal to Germans (my dad was German-American).
However, that does not mean that Germany is totally devoid of baseball. There was a professional league (Bundesliga) from 1951 to 1970 and again from 1982 to the present. The teams play a 28 game schedule, plus playoffs. Perhaps there is a team near you? Here is a link to the official website (auf Deutsch) for German baseball and softball (a similar game, more often played by women then man once the teen years are reached, although there are exceptions).
www.baseball-softball.de/
i wonder if arlene was referring to the 1946 movie "the postman always rings twice"?
Probably not. That would have been pushing the envelope a bit too far - as anybody who has read James M. Cain's novel could probably attest.
The movie back then was probably tame compared to Jack Nicholson and Jessica Lange 😳
Daly simply gave it away; as usual.
arlene was having her a proper hot flash
Maria Fletcher remains as of 2020 the only Miss North Carolina to be crowned Miss America.
Seems sort of unfair. I've been to North Carolina. The girls are pretty there.
In 1972, Miss North Carolina came very close, finishing as 1st runner-up.
There's a famous North Carolinian lady who is very lovely, and she's country music star Kellie Pickler, although she seems to have vanished from the spotlight.
@@allenjones3130Her husband died, so she is in mourning.
They could have waited a little longer before they gave him the answers
Daly used the old offensive term ‘Indians’:
it is now proper to say
‘Guardians’😂😂😂😂
The nickname of the Cleveland baseball team was the INDIANS until it was changed to GUARDIANS in 2022.
They look alike.
Who???????
What's My Line? - I have never asked this question when watching these. I should state that I watched most of them in real time when they were on the air. I have read the books by Arlene and Bennett on their lives that both included references and chapters on their time on this show. I have read a lot about it. NEVER, ever has anyone explained why they have an extra chair when they add someone who is visiting from another What's My Line? show in another country onto the panel; they have an extra chair on the other side of the stage whenever they have a guest who requires a translator from the guest's language into English; so, why in the name of all that is holy do they not have an extra seat for when two people are the guests? There are seldom enough three or four that it does not seem necessary to have an entire set of chairs available. But there are often enough two guests that it is really inhospitable for them to not offer a chair. Also, and this will make me sound like a frigid bitch which I am not, though I do not like John Daly beyond the sterling way in which he moderates the actual game itself, but why would you ask anyone to stand or sit so cheek-by-jowl with someone who is so handsy without permission and so deeply in love with himself that I would not want to be that close to him? I think it is rude and puts young women in a particularly untenable position. Yet the extra chair thing escapes me. I think it's an excuse for John to cozy up to people, frankly.
My guess is that they felt it would be distracting for the studio audience for a stage hand to be ferrying chairs back and forth. As for how "handsy" John is, I never see him touch anyone except to help position them at the blackboard (by the arm/hand) or to shake hands at goodbye-time. The closeness of the seating is as in any photographic situation: the closer you can frame people in the shot, the better you can see them; you'll note the panel is sat just as close to one another.
@@TheGreatAtario They had extra chairs when they had an interpreter there with a guest once and one or two other times. They had commercials during which they could position the chairs readily because the curtains were immediately behind the desk. Daly was always putting his hands on people's shoulders and just touching them all the time, if you watch with that in mind. I have spent my life in acting/writing/directing so know how close the shot set-ups had to be. I meant handsy because it is not just closeness, that's why the panel teases him all the time about his quick conferences. I loved the little paddle a fan sent him for those conferences.
@@TheGreatAtario - I agree. I don't think John talks too much, I don't think he is inappropriately "handsy," and it is obvious that I like him as well the panelists.
I think of three possible reasons for having only one contestants’ chair
1. When blindfolded Panelists were consistently misled about the number of mystery guests. Singular nouns are pronouns were (unfairly) used for multiple guests. Adding chairs would have been cues to the panelists
2. Primitive broadcasts received on small, low resolution TV sets made focusing on people in multiple chairs more difficult than focusing on guests sitting butt to butt.
3. It’s an affectation unique to WML; a meme that has become a trope, which has served its purpose as witnessed by your question, my answer and the surrounding discussion. The only bad publicity, is no publicity. TV viewers like patterns. Many drama and comedy shows are formulaic (charges against Perry Mason’s client always dropped when a witness confesses, Dexter never caught, Lucy always defying Ricky, the white upper middle class guy always guilty on Law&Order,etc.). From the intro to the “good nights” WML adheres strictly to pattern.
@@igkoigko9950 All they had to do was add a bench instead of two chairs, so that a second party could be seated more comfortably with cohort & Daly.
I wish they would s**t-can the Miss America Contest. From a male's perspective, I find it outdated, weird, sexist and prejudicial, for starters, especially when it comes to measuring one's outer beauty as being an important trait to have; as, in part, demonstrated with the required swimsuit segment, thus giving the kind of consideration which celebrates "prettiness" as being highly valued, even though that is highly objective, and is something you have "little or no control over" in your life; you're born with whatever features you're born with.
O once the last one away a hardy, too bad they waste time of introductions and peptalks instead of guessings.
And once again too much messing around and no time for the hard last one!
Before rampant obesity.
Could they not afford a third chair? They even forced celebrity couples to squeeze onto a single chair. Kinda rude.
John Daly talks too much. Many times he practically gives the answer away. Wish he would have just left it to yes or no answers only.
Fall Spring that would not be fun
Hi Phillippa
I think you are absolutely spot on in your comments
Re 2 people squeezing onto one chair
So unnecessary
Yes, I sometimes wonder why they don’t have contestants on with strict instructions to not say anything while ol’ Daly runs his word hole.
"Now, his company doesn't deal primarily in real estate, but they might incidentally need say...a FIELD to operate."
Me too. I almost think Daly would nudge things if he didn't think the panel had a clue.
He always started blabbing just at the moment you're sure the panel is stumped.
I found Miss America quite annoying.
oobaka1967, I didn’t. I thought Maria Fletcher was funny.
Why on earth?
In a way, I did as well. The "darling" bit was really not necessary. No need to pretend she was one of the Gabor sisters. She had a lovely, natural speaking voice, which most likely would not have been recognized by anyone on the panel.
I did not find Miss America to be annoying, nor to be funny. She was very young and very nervous, and one of her “handlers,” perhaps a parent, probably made that suggestion and she ran with it. It was one of her first duties-appearing before another huge national television audience, surrounded on stage by seasoned and witty pros. The kid gets a pass from me. Youth is an excuse.
She WAS annoying!!! Selfish, rude, stuck-up.
Cerf knew who Mauch was… should have disqualified himself __