I grew up in Manhattan, and in grade school, the 4th grade to be specific, Gwen Verdons' daughter sat next to me and behind me was Frank Giffords' son. One of my friends, Peter Gelb', who is now General Manager of the Metropolitan Opera in New York City, his father Arthur Gelb, was Managing editor for the New York Times, and our whole class for Social Studies received the paper daily. Of course as a kid I was oblivious to the fame of their parents.

Gwen Verdon, a true Broadway legend and possibly the greatest dancer Broadway ever saw.

Mrs. Fosse. Damn, whadda time.

Tony Randell was such a live theater aficionado. You can see him racking his brain on pinpointing that voice....

Gwen Verdon is Simply the Best!

Tony adores her. Good taste.

Gwen Verdon was the biggest Broadway star from the mid to late '50s. Bigger than Merman. Bigger than Martin. 4 Tonys during that period.

What a treat to see the Thunderbird pilots. Being an Air Force brat, I've seen them many times and they are AMAZING pilots! Thank you for airing this! 🥰🙏🇺🇲 Aim High!

Tony Randall adored Gwen Verdon.

Gwen actually was a big part of her husband's success. Bob Fosse owed a great deal to her because she knew more about dance than he did.

OMG! The fabulous Thunderbirds!

Tony Randall was close to a male Dorothy Kilgallen on this show. And he took the game just as seriously.

16:15 You can hear Tony say "Good thinking, Bennett!".

I used to watch this show with my parents and family every Thursday night.

Gwen was so beautiful

She was so precious 🌟

gwen verdon!

In 1967 at Laughlin AFB, I saw a Thunderbird blow up during the last maneuver - no injuries. Cause" metal fatigue.

Gwen had been in _Sweet Charity_ for four months. Pretty awesome. She did lose out on that Tony the next month though. Angela Lansbury. _Mame._ It was quite a year for plays, in my opinion. Rosemary Harris in _Lion in Winter,_ Glenda Jackson in _Marat/Sade._ Jackson's first Broadway outing and first Tony nomination. She didn't actually win one until 2018, and now she'll be playing _King Lear._ Time flies.

Bennett Cerf is so tongue in cheek. The name of the fella who does the dances for Gwen Verdon. 😂😂😂😂

I cant believe it ! Not one single comment about the Thunderbirds. Best part of the program.

20:06 something that should begin at home...."Sweet Charity"

Saw her as sweet charity, a true star

Gwen Verdon's voice is so much like Lola that it should have been a dead giveaway.

First contestants. Fantastic but dangerous line. Would be darned interesting to know how many of the six are still alive and did not get killed in airplane wrecks -- which did happen to these precision flying units over the years.

Saw her in Sweet Charity. Absolutely marvelous

The THUNDERBIRD pilots are wonderful. I’m sure this 1966 team were too. So are the Navy’s BLUE ANGLES !

God bless Gwinny.

Arlene was so happy to see Gwen. One theater girl to another 👏

I really like the dresses they're wearing.

hOW LOVELY AND TALENTED SHE IS

2:30 'Flaccid', means "lacking vigour or effectiveness." or "(of part of the body) soft and hanging loosely or limply, especially so as to look or feel unpleasant". Not nicely said of Bennett to John.

1966: an amazing year for Broadway shows. “Sweet Charity.” “Cabaret.” “Mame.” “Superman.” Gwen had a long and amazing musical career, assisted in some instances by her husband, another amazing dancer [turned director] by the name of Bob Fosse. “Sweet Charity” ’s lyricist was another amazing talent - “Amazing” seems to be my adjective of the day” - by the name of Dorothy Fields, the first woman to ever win an Oscar for writing the best movie song of a year. The year in her case was 1936 and the song was, yes, the amazing “The Way You Look Tonight.” Frankly, I have a hard time picturing Gwen in “Sweet Charity.” She seems a little too, you know, mature for it. Fortunately, some of her numbers in "Sweet Charity" got videotaped in color; turns out she was indeed amazing.

Gwen was using Lola's voice!

Oh my, my, my! Wow....

19:18 the mystery begins to unravel.

whatever lola wants, i'll find a way to get it....

I met the Thunderbirds team in 1989. Not these guys, of course. The current batch at the time. :)

People forget that for 2/3's of the 20th century and much of the 19th century there was very little legal gambling in the United States. When New Hampshire introduced it's lottery in 1964 there was only place in the U.S. for casino gambling (Nevada) and a handful of horse racing and dog racing tracks. There were some poker clubs in Gardenia, CA. And there was Jai alai in Florida. Any others?

7:55 Tony : you're _not_ one of those teams of parachuters or freefallers , are you ? YES , they're _not_

John references the role of Gov. John King of NH in establishing the lottery. He did, but he also played a huge role (unintentionally) in creating the modern Democratic Party and its nominating process for President. King was governor for 3 two-year terms, 1963 to 1969. In his last year in office, NH held the famous 1968 NH primary, which LBJ, a very powerful President, was strongly favored to win against Eugene McCarthy. These were the days when a presidential candidate like McCarthy could spend one day raising all the money he needed for his campaign by calling 8 millionaires and then spend the remainder of his time persuading voters in a small state like NH. King was a strong supporter of both the Vietnam War and LBJ at a time when the Democratic Party was beginning to split in a way with repercussions to this day. King saw that McCarthy was gaining on LBJ and famously said that a vote for the Minnesota senator, whom he called "the appeaser" would be "greeted with cheers in Hanoi." McCarthy shocked the world by nearly beating LBJ, who soon afterward announced he would not seek another term. After McCarthy did all the hard work, then RFK decided to enter the race himself in that terrible year of violence. The irony of King's comment is that all the political science research shows that nearly all NH voters who voted for McCarthy were not in favor of appeasement and peace. They were hawks, very unhappy with LBJ for fighting a war in a way that he and they knew could not be won, and they showed their anger by voting for someone else, and in fact, drove LBJ out of office. I remember one professor who read the research who said that these voters voted as though they were voting for Senator Joe McCarthy, not Senator Gene McCarthy (for some of them, this was probably literally true!). King's comment obviously backfired and did not do his career or the Democratic Party any good.

Bennett's Random Factoids come through again! The rubber factory didn't do much for him in Game 1, but he pulled out a last-minute win with the lottery! I was surprised to hear that NH had the first state lottery. They must all have one now, right? Except maybe Utah?

CBS still had over 10 hours a week of programming in black and white compared to NBC's 1 1/2 hours and most of ABC's prime time schedule. Weekdays had CBS and ABC almost all in monochrome and most of NBC in color.

17:38 Mystery guest signs in!

Wow. For once for post-2006, GSN left the end credits alone!

Gwen Verdon (also a two-time Mystery Guest on the Syndicated revival), played the lead in "Sweet Charity, and the similar-looking Shirley Maclaine replaced her in the film version.

Videotaped on April 3, 1966, prior to that night's live broadcast. Twice the Tony Randall and Pamela Mason.

The second contestant , the sweepstakes ticket lady has similar looks to the first Mrs Tony Randall!

ARLENE: "Do you work for a non-profit organization...like the government?"

RE: Pamela Mason. Again. What? were Suzy or Phyllis unavailable? "One of the most entertaining conversationalist Arlene ever met." Wow. Not to be confused with "Winner of 3 Academy Awards and a Pebody." One of the big 1966 WML mysteries -- why did we get Pamela Mason twice and Jeanne Parr only once?

Pamela Mason wrote "Everything You Always Wanted To Know About Sex but Were Afraid To Ask"!!!!

I did not know the panelist was James Mason's wife.

I'm joining the Air Force.

I didn't know Gwen Verdon, until I watched this episode, so I looked her up. She was known for Bob Fosse's musicals, and she was married to him from 1960, to his death in 1987. Maybe I did know that long ago, but I forgot. I do know who Bob Fosse was, of course.

"Let's get on with the game", Bennett is heard saying when Tony flirts to long with the second contestant. 13:18

Just 5'3" but classy dancer actress especially Damn Yankees!

Why does John Daly have to ask if their blindfolds are in place every time. He could see that they are on

When was the last time Arlene hosted the "Tonight" show?

Sure the lottery is instructive, John. The lottery is a tax on people who failed high school math.

U.S. AIR FORCE THUNDERBIRDS: PRECISION FLYING TEAM SELLS SWEEPSTAKES TICKETS MG: GWEN VERNON RADIO OPERATOR ON SHIP

At the end john announces that they will be pre-empted next week. Does anyone know what was on?

Gwen Verdon and Mimi Hines had the same orthodontist.

Bennett said most people mispronounce flaccid as "flassid" and that the correct pronunciation is "flakkid", but I've looked it up and both pronunciations are acceptable. For a guy that publishes a dictionary he sure seems to regularly make a lot of mistakes when it comes to words.

It wasn't Bennett's place to say anything to Tony and he has done that, or similar things before, to others. He likes to have time to spout some bit of nonsense at the end of the programme. Tony was collecting himself I believe and hoping to come up with a good question to ask. I notice he sometimes does take a second or two to think.

Pamela Mason gets a lot of “yeses” but her questions are not pertinent. 🤓

I had to cringe at their pronunciation of the Italian name "Maglione".

My mistake, sorry

18:01, funny, here she appears in a lavalier that goes all the way down to her waist.

Near the end of the 1st segment they completely skipped James Mason's wife and went to Bennett to ask a question. I guess they figured that she was doing such a lousy job they just wanted to skip over her.

John's bald spot (or is that a long crease) is really showing these days.

I was surprised that the two ladies on the panel didnt stand to shake hands with the Thunderbirds out of respect to our military. 🙁

I don't know why....but I find Mrs. Mason....a bit....odd...

Sadly Pamela Mason only lived a month longer after this programme.

He flips over those stupid cards for the group and for the first time in a LONG time, he doesn't do it for the girl!

Pamela Mason was useless here, at least in this episode.

Non-profit government - wouldn't that be nice.

boring version of this show

Bullshit!!!! Cerf had to already know the contestants line!!!

Lots and lots of white people on this show...