What's My Line? - Florence Chadwick; Jean Simmons (Oct 30, 1955)
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 4 ธ.ค. 2013
- MYSTERY GUESTS: Florence Chadwick (first woman to swim the English channel); Jean Simmons (British film and television actress)
PANEL: Dorothy Kilgallen, Fred Allen, Arlene Francis, Bennett Cerf - บันเทิง
![What's My Line? - Randolph Churchill; Kim Novak; Desi Arnaz [panel] (Feb 5, 1956)](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/hBYXhunpKEI/mqdefault.jpg)
![What's My Line? - Justice William O Douglas; Mary Healy; Peter Lind Hayes [panel] (May 6, 1956)](/img/n.gif)
It's official: I am obsessed with WML. It was very hot and humid here in Virginia yesterday, and I was outside grilling ribs, burgers and hot dogs for 20+ people. Realizing that I was soaked in perspiration, I blurted out "I could use some Stopette". Also, I have become fascinated with relating historical events with the air dates of the episodes. Most telling is the feeling of fellowship with John and the panelists that has developed. It's almost as if I know them and will miss them if a day goes by without spending time with them.
You and. 10 million others! Its addictive in this covid especially
"Stopette---turns your armpits into CHARMPITS!"
----Hal Block (purportedly)
I know you wrote this two years ago and as I'm not the far for VA. I can say it was really hot that summer as it is now. Been a fan of this show since 2003 when I first started watching episodes on Game Show Network (GSN) . This is the first time I'm watching the episodes in order of when the aired on TV.
@@battlegirldeb Hi Debra. I wrote that on my first trip through the episodes in order and am now on my second time through. It's great to hear from another devoted fan of the show. :-)
Agreed-a wonderful, refreshing blast from the past. Who can what their personal lives were like (that used to be more private) but the warm humanity they share when in public is beautiful.👍
Dorothy gave Jean Simmons a lingering look of admiration as she exited. It's so heartwarming when the panelists are unabashed in their appreciation of the guests.
Yes, but I wouldn't make too much of it. She often watches the guests depart.
@@ibnalhaytham Dorothy was an investigative reporter, after all--not merely a gossip columnist, and she took in everything.
When Elizabeth Taylor exited one time, Dorothy had a good look at her bottom half!!
Hey....she does the same here too, just seen. Yeahhhhh I know she's looking at the cut of the dress, but still....
@@ibnalhaytham so does Arlene When she sitting in that in the chair all the way to the right she watches them go all the way out.
Dorothy watches everyone as they depart
Standing up for a lady. A chivalrous manner that should never die. I love it.
Fred Allen’s dry sense on humor is just so wonderful
The "dry" remark was a classic example of his dry humor.
Fred Allen: "I didn't recognize her because Miss Chadwick was dry, and also, it's her first time on this Channel."
Allen was pure genius.
@@princeharming8963 Watch him on some of these vids. Mean and racist.
@@m.e.d.7997 - You'll have to do better than that. I'll need some actual evidence, if you don't mind. And he might very well have been. I've just never seen it.
@@princeharming8963 I do not have to do better seemed racist with Sammy.
Six days after this aired, Doctor Emmett Brown would come up with the flux capacitor.
Great Scott!
Lol.
Of course! November 5,1955!
😂
❤
I loved Jean Simmons narration of Mysteries of the Bible decades later.
Edward Cairns making John his own fireman hat is so adorable
Dorothy really nailed it in this one!
Dorothy was a investigative reporter for years 😊
Dorothy was so intelligent. RIP
Dorothy was very smart, some suspected it's the reason of her untimely death too
@@lopa2828As do I.
Dorothy was a investigative reporter for years 😊
If you want to see truly great acting by Jean Simmons check out All the Way Home.
Spartacus.
Is that the one where Robert Preston is her husband ?
If so , yes that was a really good movie .
Fred Allen is so funny here. Such a shame he was gone not long after.
I know. .best panelist
I'm a little baffled about the part where neither WML or Miss Selkirk mentioned that she and one of her chimps were in an *ice skating act*. (That's hard!) She and Jinx (the chimp) had already been on the road in 1954, even.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jinx
Also, Mr. Cairns has a bunch of patents in the hat area, starting in about 1925.
I find it quite amusing that Arlene always makes a point to ask the tall men just how tall they are followed by a suggestive sound or comment, yet she towers over her husband.
Jean Simmons was so incredibly cute. A mix of Audrey Hepburn and Elizabeth Taylor. Gorgeous!
Couldn't have put it any better myself.
I had the great pleasure of seeing Jean Simmons many times in the role of Desiree in "A Little Night Music" when I worked as an usher at the Shubert Theater in Los Angeles. She was terrific. A couple years later when they made the motion picture, they case Elizabeth Taylor as Desiree. I admire Liz's other work, but Jean Simmons would have been so much better.
Icalwaysxthiught that too ...Audrey and Liz 8n one package!!! I live near her home...a beautiful ranch on the Az Mex border (Nogales) a wedding gift to her from hubby Stewart Granger...
Well, Jean was a big star before anyone had heard of Audrey Hepburn, and, surely, Audrey's performance in "Roman Holiday" was simply a Jean Simmons impersonation.
I couldn't have put it better either! I'll only add that I had no idea she would be quite shy. She is such a strong presence on screen.
Jean was so pretty.
Her only rival was Janet Blair, who was a few years older. But at their respective peaks, they were the prettiest actresses on the screen. I've always considered "really pretty" to be superior to "beautiful." Liz Taylor, Ava Gardner, et al, lost their beauty at 40, but the prettier Blair and Simmons were still fetching in their 50s.
Fred Allen is such a joy to listen to!
Yes, this time he said to Florence Chadwick that this is the first time you crossed this channel.
Maybe it's just me, but the woman who trains chimpanzees was described as dealing in a "product" while the man who made fireman's hats dealt in a "service". I would think both of them should have been the other way around.
You are right !
Virtually everyone on WML was described as dealing in a service. The chimpanzee trainer would have been described that way if anyone asked. Some guests were said to deal in a service and have a product, others a service without a product.
The panel usually ask "is there a product involved in what you do" to distinguish whether it's a plain service job or not.
That’s a totally sane thought.
Arlene you weren't on this earth long enough to see a woman avail herself of his services 😢
Oh I love that little hat! What a precious memory ❤
John calls Jean Simmons for "mrs Granger". She was at this time married to Stewart Granger,
Darlene Sellek didn't just train chimpanzees. She trained them to ice skate, and appeared with Jinx, the chimp, in several circuses. They also did performances at Jack Valentines's Supper Club, The Ice Capades, The Jackie Gleason Show, Las Vegas hotels, and The Ed Sullivan Show.
Fred: Very very very clever: she has never been on this channel!!!
Fred is brilliant like Dorothy!!!
Gotta love Arlene: "With the exception of 1 or 2 women who might be male impersonators"!
So far ahead of her time. I can't believe some of the stuff she slipped in.
@@ibnalhaytham There were male impersonators in vaudeville years before this era...nothing particularly sexy about the performance, just creating a theatrical illusion. On the dramatic stage, didn't Sarah Bernhardt play Hamlet? I'm sure that Arlene was thinking about this stage kind of impersonation.
@@ibnalhaytham Poor Arlene Francis ... her daughter said years later when her mom was a widow that heart necklace which she always wore because it was a gift to her from her beloved husband was ripped off her neck by a thief when she was outside her apartment high-rise .
@@gardensofthegodsActually Arlene was getting out of a taxi, the driver grabbed it,and took off😢
Love Jean Simmons
Fred appeared quite embarrassed and hung his head low after getting Ms. Simmons name wrong. I had to empathize with him, he looked sad, but the gaff was put behind them quickly.
Jean handles it well.
The all did it especially Bennett.
I feel bad for Fred. He gets too down on himself. He needs a hug.
Love Dorothy. It was never the same after she died. She balanced out Arlene’s um Arlene-ness.
Wow; that Dorothy Kilgallen was so smart.
Dorothy was a investigative reporter for years 😊
Gertrude Ederle was the first lady to swim the channel, I always thought.
Gertrude Caroline Ederle (October 23, 1905 - November 30, 2003) became the first woman to swim across the English Channel, in 1926, according to Wikipedia.
You are correct, and no one on the show said otherwise. Nobody is perfect, and Gary made a rare error here to state that Ms. Chadwick swam the Channel first. She did break Ederle's record, and she was the first woman to swim the English Channel in both directions.
@@preppysocks209 Thanks for sticking up for the one who has brought so much joy and so many smiles to us all.
This is the third week in a row that there was no name in front of the MG. The last one was when Hal March was MG on 10/9/55.
I missed NCIS last night, I was too busy watching your new WML posts!
This warms my heart. :)
Dixie Alexander Funny because both shows came on CBS and probably WML came on the same night as NCIS.
What's My Line was a fixture on Sunday night @10:30 PM Eastern Time. NCIS has always been seen on Tuesday night at 8 PM Eastern Time. What both shows have in common is that they are/were two very long running programs (WML 1950-67; NCIS 2003- ) not moved around on the network schedule at all.
NCIS happens to be one of only two current shows I watch regularly. The other is NCIS-New Orleans.
Correct, no female firefighters in 1955, even a decade after the heyday of "Rosie the Riveter." Society in that time correctly recognized that, overwhelmingly, women do not have the strength or stamina to be full and effective firefighters. Plus we then valued women more than to place them in such dangerous situations. Now it's virtually mandatory for every fire department to have women firefighters who stand by the truck and monitor the gauges while men knock down the flames, enter the structures, and rescue the people and animals. Of the 343 firefighters who lost their lives in the collapse of the twin towers at the New York World Trade Center on 9/11, none were female. Q.E.D. Women were not going to be tasked to strap on 40-70 lbs. of gear and climb 80+ floors to rescue victims. (Two female police officers and one female EMT did lose their lives on 9/11, but not in while ascending the stairs of the North or South Tower in full firefighting rig.)
I just love these, thank you so much. Wasn't Gertrude Edderly the first woman to swim the English Channel?? I could be way wrong.
You're very welcome-- and a quick check of Wikipedia says that you're right, Edderly was the first woman to swim the English Channel.
Note that on the show her line was given as "Famous Channel swimmer" and it was mentioned that she had swim it four times, setting a record for the England-to-France crossing. No one claimed that she had been the first, so Gary's video description is wrong.
1955 A time when no one dreamed of female fighters
It's interesting they avoided any personal info on the first guest for fear of giving away a clue. That hasn't always been the case. I recall a guest who was asked where he was from, and he replied "the Canal Zone". Well, it took the panel about 2 minutes to figure out that he piloted ships through the Panama Canal. I was a bit annoyed they had reveal where he was from, otherwise he probably could have stumped the panel.
no, they actually had a great deal of trouble determining that his line was piloting ships
Loved the channel joke Fred lol.
She might not call it that, but I think she sang very eell
And she and Audrey Hepburn should much alike, and I am one of those who think Audrey’s singing would have enhanced the film “My Fair Lady.:”
@@johnschuh8616Oh heck no. She didn’t have the pipes for those songs. Bad enough that they didn’t cast Julie Andrews, who originated the part on Broadway and beat Hepburn for the Oscar that year (Mary Poppins). Hepburn’s rendition of “Moon River” in Breakfast at Tiffany’s was ok, because the movie wasn’t a musical. But even there, her voice was weak and thin.
@@Historian212 Not good enough for the stage/an album, but good enough for a non MGM musical. Have to remember that Audrey Hepburn was a much bigger star than Deborah Kerr AND Nixon’s voice blended seamlessly with Kerr’s but NOT imho with Hepburn’s.
I love watching Jean simmons movies from the 40s and 50s ..she was incredibly beautiful especially in GREAT EXPECTATIONS and BLACK NARCISSUS
Vivian Leigh without the insanity.
Jean Simmons was just 20, lovely and terrific in "So Long at the Fair," opposite Dirk Bogarde. Catch it on RU.OK. You're welcome.
I think Jean Simmons was in Elmer Gantry . Yes, standing up for a lady was an old tradition and I'm not sure if it's done now.
Unfortunately no😢
She was so cute as young Estella in Great Expectations! “A common laboring boy”
(How is channel swimming a "service?")I was home in the daytime and veg-ing out in front of the TV when I flicked through the channels and found "Guys and Dolls" running through its opening scene. I hadn't watched this one in forty years, but the print was a restored one, and the colour was great, so I stayed with it for a minute. That was enough. I was hooked all over again. It was wonderful.
+effyleven Well, in their defense, it's not a product, either.
It is because she does something. If you needed a letter delivered across the channel and the only way to get it there is swimming you could hire her to perform the service. Swimming she may not have done for hire, but could have. There is no product involved only the ability to do the service.
If the tall guy makes fireman helmets, he's not "dealing in services".
The lady who trains chimpanzees doesn't have a "product". She's providing a "service", just as a school-teacher provides a service.
70 years ago it was reversed😊
fred allen always brill
Not here he wasn’t.
A real shame the stars do not often get to speak much and get rushed right out.
WML isn't a talk show 😊
@@robertjean5782 ....for the quest. The others blab on and on sometimes.
"The service has as its end result the beneficence of men." Surely men have the beneficence of this service?
“I didn’t recognise her because Miss Chadwick is dry.”
It always irritated me when everyone on the panel knew who was "in town" that week ultimately making the mystery guest part of the show anticlimactic.
This was almost every mystery guest segment. Hollywood actors would come to New York, where the show was being filmed, because they were in a play which just opened or in a movie which just opened and they were doing publicity. This is how they guessed almost every one of these famous people.
Agree. It would have been much better if they had just asked questions about Broadway etc., but Bennett Cerf just could not help showing off his "inside knowledge."
That's all right, gives 'em more time to shoot the breeze with the mystery guest, which I always enjoy
@@ibnalhaytham Bennett should have recused himself, but no, he's a show-off.
Actually there was a story here somewhere on the internet by someone who worked for the show that said it was actually Dorothy kilgallen who pissed off the other panelists because they all agreed that when they thought they knew who the mystery guest was they wouldn't say it right away and would wait till it went another round or two but they said Dorothy if she knew who it was would say it immediately and they really just were not very fond of her
Again, sound way too poor even at high volume. Ruins the game.
Yeah, I noticed that, too, in the last couple of episodes.
The sound is very clear on my Samsung tablet, although I do have to turn the volume up high.
Same here. I have to be all ears close up to my computer.
I recommend watching TH-cam on the television. So much better. I haven't watched YT on anything else for a couple of years and having not watched 'ordinary TV' for so long I cancelled my TV licence and now I watch the best television channel (YT) in the world!!
No problems with sound on this one. Some from 1954 I couldn’t watch bc of sound issues but this one is good.
I guess there were no female firefighters in 1955
WWII did a lot to open up unusual jobs for women, thanks to" Rosie the Riveter. "
Sadly, Bennet spoilt guessing the celebrity section again. I suspect he was tipped off which meant the celebrity guest didn’t have time to display her charms.
How Jean Simmons went from this to singing with the rock group KISS must be a very interesting one. ;)
***** Wrong Jean Simmons. She's the one that went on to make mattresses.
dont give up your day job
As a matter of fact, about 3 years ago, I went into Walgreen's to exchange an item. A young man in his early 20's waited on me, and when he saw the name on my credit card, he asked me if I was related to Jean Simmons. I told him that I was impressed with his knowledge of someone that far back. He replied that he appreciates all those old groups like the Beatles, Rolling Stones, etc. That's when I realized he had meant Gene Simmons, not Jean Simmons. And since I have never been a fan of KISS, my mind would not have gone in that direction anyway. And of course I wasn't happy to hear that the groups of my teen years were old groups.
Miss Simmons and I are not related, much to my regret. She was from England and my parentage is German-Hungarian. But it would have been lovely to inherit genes (no pun intended) from a woman of such exquisite beauty.
She has two daughters, both of whom work in entertainment production, not in front of the camera.
+americanmanhood, +corner moose - Ha Ha! That was fun. :D
@@loissimmons6558 Funny and charming post, Lois!
How did this suddenly get too quiet to hear properly? Was once fine.
i have a gadget to in increase the sound, very useful
@@michaelangood What's it called? It's not a problem on too many of them, but some.
@@philippapay4352 any electrical shop should have thrm
them, sorry
Use close caption 😊
Jean Simmons always was to me the English version of Elizabeth Taylor. They look very much alike and were around the same age - I think Ms. Simmons was 3 years older than Ms. Taylor.
She also looks like Vivien Leigh (as did Taylor). Vocally, I always thought Simmons sounded a lot like Audrey Hepburn and Leslie Caron; they all had that nice soft sing-songy voice.
perpieta You know, I never thought of it, but you're right, she does resemble Vivien Leigh.
But I though Elizabeth Taylor was English too
Taylor was born in England to American parents.
Jean always welcomed references of looking like Vivien. See how she looks here: th-cam.com/video/mXcKhtyRyJU/w-d-xo.html
What Dr Kershaw does Bennet Cerf wish good luck to at the close?
Fred Allen - so funny!!
Carol V - Fred Allen was fun tonight. 6:40 - he didn’t recognize Florence Chadwick because she was dry. And it was her first time on this “channel.” :D
Hes the best pane list!!! Or the funniest
@@windstorm1000 He and Jack Benney were a riot together.
It's a shame the younger generations doesn't appreciate his dry wit😢
Is it just me or does Fred Allen bear an uncanny resemblance to Humphrey Bogart? Even the voice is strikingly similar.
A little similarity.
Firemen’s hats? Helmets, surely? Bizarre.
I didn't know the bassist for Kiss used to be a woman...
Mrs. Selleck, the second contestant was the mother of Tom Selleck.
A San Diegian!
Joan Simmons? Poor Fred. 🤪
No, Joan Clements.
❤️❤️❤️
13:52 Dorothy prefiguring _Planet Of The Apes_ by several years
FLORENCE CHADWICK, FAMOUS SWIMMER
TRAINS CHIMPANZEES
MAKES FIREMEN'S HATS
Fred 4 months to live
Once again, Bennett Cerf looks as if he has been tipped off. Far too often, before the rest of the panel had a chance to question the celebrity guest, Cerf had ‘guessed’ the identity of the celebrity. This seemed to happen far too often, which spoilt the show for the audience as it reduced the time the guest spent on the show. Very annoying!
They dropped the boring 'guesses' but still have the 'walk of shame'. It is only when BOTH were gone that the show picked up its pace.
The guesses sometimes help the panel get a clue😊
@@robertjean5782 They even have a collection of moments when the first wild guesses were RIGHT. Its on TH-cam.
@@poetcomic1 Correct 9 times, the free guesses were eliminated after this!
Florence Chadwick was 36, but looked about 45.
Am I the only one who can barely hear this, even with the volume all the way up?
Close caption 😊
Darlene, the chimpanzee trainer, bared an uncanny resemblance to Gilda Radner!
Why do a lot of these contestants hesitate on the questions? I know the answer before they do.
Things were very different 70 years ago 😊
Was Jean Simmons a relative unknown at the time? It's unusual for anyone on the panel to take two stabs at guessing a celebrity's name properly, before finally guessing it correctly
Oh, no. Jean was nominated for an Oscar in 1948 for "Hamlet."
Jean was very familiar to American audiences; in addition to Hamlet (mentioned by another commenter), she'd subsequently appeared in big budget productions including but not limited to The Robe and Desiree (also with Brando). Maybe Fred was getting her name confused with the similar-sounding Joan Collins, another English actress who was making a splash in Hollywood in 1955.
Firemen have dress uniforms with "hats." Evidently, the last contestant makes helmets, not hats.
70 years ago they were called hats😊
yes., too low
Why is swimming the English Channel considered so special? I know lots of men who channel surf! :-)
Lois Simmons not much point channel surfing any more. There is never anything on television
I'm guessing at least some of these men you know can channel surf for 13 hours. Especially on Saturday during college football season.
Lol
My son was part of a team that swam the Channel. The water is 60 degrees and he had a devil of a time getting warm against after his second stint in the Channel. She was some tough cookies to do the whole thing.
😅❤
It's funny how John tends to refer to actresses by their husband's names. Jean, of course, was a far bigger Hollywood star than her one-time husband, Stewart Granger. AND, if she hadn't smoked so much, she could still be with us.
Well, she made it to 81. As for her shyness at the time, she was quite young and married to a much older man, She lost her Dad at age 16. People, of course, need time to grow to maturity, even performers who are bold on stage. As a woman in her fifties the person and the performer came together quite well.
Granger was a big, big star in the UK, too. Being married to him protected Jean Simmons from the eager arms of a number of Hollywood lotharios, notably Brando, who was very attracted to her. In Brando's biography, he described Jean as "beautiful and winning" UNFORTUNATELY, she was "married to the Great White Hunter."
If the swimming lady had worn a jacket to disguise her shoulders, she would have done better. This episode showed its age when a panel member suggested she might be the wife of a famous man and had to hide her name for that reason. Later the firemen's hat maker and John Daly agreed that a woman would not wear such a hat. We call them firefighters now simply to remove the 'man' or 'woman' suffix.
Is anyone else getting double ads? Two ads in the beginning that despite saying you can fast forward and skip,. . . . you can't do that?
The ads weren't removable without harming the product 😢
Jean Simmons? Gene Simmons?
Jean name for woman. It could also be a males name French😊
Is that Tom Sellek's mom?
No. Not spelled the same.
She would be Tom's mother😊
Again the "Celebrity guest" segment was a bust. Too often the celeb has been in the company of a panelist soon before the WsML episode, or has just opened on Broadway or had a film released..... One gets the impression that the panelists yearn to be regarded as valued, close friends of the film stars, sport stars etc. All rather incestuous.
Theres one way they could have improved this show: if panelists dont guess the non celebrity guests line, guest should get 500 bucks! Would hav added a bit of suspense! Cheap producers. !!!
$5O was often more than a weeks pay for most people.
Respectfully disagree. Apparently $50 was sufficient motivation to be on the show. Raising the stakes would only increase the pressure and decrease from the fun. At $50 decisions can be taken to improve the enjoyability of the show without much concern for winning. Experience teaches playing tennis for fun is much more enjoyable than playing the opponent in an official match.
@@rick423 It was what I got paid for a week. Minimum wage.
@@rick423And a house payment 😊
a woman firefighter of course not lol how times were back then
70 years ago in small towns women would help fight a fire, by filling water buckets😊
Bill Gates was two days old when this episode aired.
I was eight months old.
@@ibnalhaytham I was old enough to drink alcohol and vote.
I was three months old. :)
5.25 RE://everyone is important. Everyone has a purpose. Even those in a wheel chair , autistic , and gifted in some way.
But yea she do has some broad shoulders. 😆
I have that and barely swim at all.
2020 watching this. ( informative and interessssting )
Bennett Cerf......... Always the supercilious wet blanket.
ONE OF THE PHONY TRIO STRIKES AGAIN! ARLENE, BENNETT, DOROTHY!
the 2nd contestant's line of work would come handy in the White House...........
orgonko the wildly untamed. she could've been helpful the previous 8 years too..
@@dcasper8514 Not cool.
On January 21, 2021, yes.