Longtime readers of this blog have probably picked up on the fact that we’re suckers for What’s My Line?—for any game show of the 1950s, really, but especially those programs that featured elegantly dressed, urbane and witty panelists. We’re thinking here of shows such as To Tell the Truth and I’ve Got a Secret.
The best of them all, for our money, was What’s My Line?, in which the point of the game was for the panelists to ask yes-or-no questions to ascertain what each of an ongoing series of guests did for a living. What’s My Line? featured three regular panelists for the majority of its 17 years on the air: journalist/gossip columnist Dorothy Kilgallen, publisher and raconteur Bennett Cerf and actress and television personality Arlene Francis. The fourth seat was filled for three years by buffoonish (in our estimation) comedy writer Hal Block, then Steve Allen (our favorite fourth-seater) and finally by Fred Allen. When Allen passed away on St. Patrick’s Day, 1956, a revolving series of guest panelists filled the fourth seat. Never again would the recurring trio of Arlene, Bennett and Dorothy be a quartet.
The network edition of What’s My Line? came to an end in 1967 (a very different syndicated version would continue for eight more years), but it lives on in the hearts of fans across the country and around the world. There is a What’s My Line? YouTube channel that hosts virtually all of the extant episodes, where they are watched by thousands (the kinescopes of WML? were never copyrighted, so they are in the public domain), and also a very large, very active WML? fan group on Facebook.
It was on FB that a fan recently pointed out that a previously unseen (well, not seen since it first aired) kinescope of a 1950 episode of WML? was up for auction on eBay. The moderator of the YouTube channel sprang into action, with expertise and funding provided by an experienced and avid film collector who is a WML? fan, and the auction was won by the good guys. The collector will retain ownership of the film, but he digitized it so that it could be added to the YouTube channel for fans everywhere to enjoy (collectors are not always inclined to be so generous; they tend to want to keep such rarities to themselves).
And so it is with pleasure that we share this very early episode of What’s My Line? with the Cladrite community. You won’t see Bennett in this episode—he hadn’t yet joined the show—but Dorothy and Arlene are on hand, as is Hal Block and moderator extraordinaire John Charles Daly. Again, this show hasn’t been seen since it first aired on October 1, 1950, so you’ve got quite the rare treat in store. And if you do enjoy it (how could you not?), you’ll want to pop over to the WML? YouTube channel, where literally hundreds more episodes await you.
