What's My Line? featured a panel of 4 celebrities, a moderator and a guest whose occupation had to be guessed by the aforementioned panelists. There was also a "mystery" celebrity on each show. These were quite well known at the time and the different ways these celebrities disguised their voices to help evade detection was hilarious.
The collection of episodes that I stumbled upon were from 1955. The panel was comprised of Dorothy Kilgallen, journalist, Fred Allen, comedian and radio host, Arlene Francis, actress and talk show host, and Bennet Cerf, one of the founders of Random House publishing. I was not familiar with any one of these except for Arlene Francis. It was quite refreshing to see intelligent, well dressed, well spoken, and polite people on my television screen! Another thing that struck me was the fact that these people did not seem to be terrified of looking their ages. The women were not overly made up, receding hairlines were not combed over, and reading glasses were put on as needed. John Charles Daly, the moderator, was a distinguished journalist who looked as if he was having the time of his life hosting this show, which he did for 17 years.
The guest's occupations ranged from that of an elderly lady who would dive into a barrel of water for a local grocery store, to a man who played the back end of a horse in Vaudeville, to the first commissioned male nurse in the US Army.
My husband will even watch this show with me. Now that we have watched Buzzr's collection, I have found more on YouTube. It is just as much fun to watch today as it must have been back when it aired (before I was born for the most part). If you want an escape from the realities of today, check out What's My Line?.
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