Another Fun Fact: It was Jose that suggested that George Clooney look into acting as a career.

That's what i get for NOT reading the comments prior to making one of my own. Pardon me, please.

Re watching old episodes again and looked up how old Debby and Gabriel were at the time this was aired. Debby was two and Gabriel was only one.

The families grew very close four years later when Jose Directed Pat in State Fair.

That is what I thought of them being on the show together. You have me work on seeing how old Gabriel and Debby were. It's fun.

*The audience was *conductor

Todd Brandt -- Movie star handsome, he was, and tall, too, about six feet or six foot one, judging by his height standing next to Mr. Daly. Thomas Schippers married a woman nine years his junior, Elaine Phipps, and she died in 1973 of cancer at age 34 -- Schippers died four years after that in 1977 at age 47, as you pointed out. Schippers was gay, but got married to Ms. Phipps in 1965, possibly for the sake of appearances, which wasn't uncommon in the 1960's.

+ToddSF 94109 From what I've read there was a genuine love relationship between Thomas Schippers and heiress Elaine Phipps, even though he was gay. I first saw Schippers conduct a performance of Der Rosenkavalier with Elisabeth Schwarzkopf at the Metropolitan Opera in November 1964. Schippers later was the music director of the Cincinnati Symphony for several years before his too early demise. I believe Schippers left a good part of his estate to the symphony and other classical music organizations.

Agreed. He was beyond terrific in "The Caine Mutiny". His character didn't appear in the movie until halfway through, but he stole the show. A very underrated and under appreciated actor.

MisterNewOutlook Jose Ferrer sounds like Opera Man on SNL. Bravo. On the same episode as the actual opera man, Thomas Schippers. I am so sorry that he died the way he did. Tragic.

And what class - the diplomatic way in which he spoke of the critics who didn't particularly like this particular play. Today, there would be an expletive-laced feud. Oh, I miss those wonderful cultured and courteous times.

He was brilliant in "Cyrano."

He handled that very diplomatically.

That was especially true for state funded universities whereby often 70% of a student's tuition and dorm expenses were covered by that state. Now it's the other way around.

The activism, socialism, and volunteerism that swept through campuses in the 1960s was antithetical to certain capitalist ideals, to the point where certain forces in American industry & politics decided to take action. (read the Powell Memorandum) Almost nothing happens in this nation by chance; tuition went up for a reason. Many students, especially those in public schools, who were most likely bent to socialism and activism, were saddled with debt intentionally. Left-wing professors were expunged, tenureship went down. "Freedom schools" were funded. Capitalist forces wanted to assure that another college educated Boomer generation did not happen.

@@bluecamus5162 "Left-wing professors were expunged"? Have you seen what passes for education today?

Working summers and breaks between semesters I was able to pay for all my college expenses. (I was also smart enough to keep living at home, where meals magically appeared and my clothes were somehow washed. Thanks, Mom!) Today’s students could easily do the same thing for at least the first two years by attending their local community college before transferring to a state university, ending up with the same degree as those who went to the university straight off. Too many feel they must go to a very expensive college right out of high school, thereby incurring massive debt while majoring in largely useless fields ending with “Studies.”

And its only 7 or 8 years after Mr ferrer became the first hispanic american to win an oscar

Ferrer was enormously talented (certainly underrated for much of his career), multi-faceted, extremely personable, and a consummate gentleman. R.I.P. Miguel Ferrer

Yes, although Ferrer won an Academy Award for the title role in CYRANO DE BERGERAC, this immortal film was not even included in the AFI list of the 100 greatest films of all time. Yet one of the films on the list is BONNIE & CLYDE!!! What disgrace!

Milton Moore I got to late into the movies. After 15 years of fame he got too old for Hollywood. Another negative factor was he didnt make too many good movies and in an important role it was The Cain Mutiny the most memorable.

@@miltonmoore7687 For better or worse, Bonnie and Clyde was a landmark film that ushered in a new era of filmmaking in Hollywood.

Yes, he was! 🤣

You speak the truth Kemo Sabe !!

Well, I'm not sure how much this means coming from an Anonymous Internet Stranger, Ms. Buckner, but I would be happy to have some [good, clean, harmless] fun with you, to laugh with you, and to count myself among the best of your friends. ;-D Warm Regards and Best Wishes, -Ken

And we could watch people fully dressed...

Brooke Hanley ... I did but was just a kid then. The 60’s & 70’s were more memorable for me.

@@dianefiske-foy4717 zzzz-

The years 1951 - 1956 were mostly wonderful. I was a small child and the people on WML were The Grownups.

We were a better nation then

We'd be dead then But same!

Name dropper "Joe Ferrer".

Who cares????

Yes, I knew.

@miss_midge I did not know that, and that's the kind of thing that I find sort of fascinating in retrospect! I wonder if their fathers ever reminisced with their children and other family members about this meeting with each other on WML, which was likely the first time they met. Debby and Gabriel were only toddlers then, and I'm sure neither Pat nor Jose had any idea what the future had in store for them in terms of bringing their families together!

This is so fascinating, that Tessa can watch BOTH of her grandpas at the same time on one show, where they were 'playing' themselves as much younger men! Wow - family history lesson! I guess in showbiz it can be a small world.

This was posted last year. :)

What's My Line? Yeah i know but i have been watching them n order of air date and knew it was coming up so hence the reason I mentioned waiting to see it. Keep posting this great stuff not only a fine show but a look into history thanks for your hard work in getting these in order and sharing them with us all

mrpuniverse2 I was 5 days old at the time. I can just imagine my Mom watching this show with a beer in one hand and a Winston in the other! Awesome mailbox!

mrpuniverse2 That's funny... I do the same when I see the date that they aired and think of what my family members were doing on that date.

I was born on a Monday, December 1, 1958 at 11:27pm. Shame I didn't have a VCR or something comparable (back then, if they existed). :)

Thanks for the insight. Regarding his response to the critics panning his play, had Ferrer chosen to have gone into politics, he would have been the perfect diplomat.

Milton Moore his grandfather was an advocate for the Puerto Rican independence.

That's a pity about the play closing so soon, but thanks for letting us know, +Robert Melson. You saved me the effort of looking it up myself, which I was planning to do. Kind of a shame that it wasn't more successful, but I agree with @Milton Moore about Mr. Ferrer's amazing diplomacy, and I'm glad they were able to get him as a WML MG while the play was still running and receiving audience acclaim. This was a fun MG segment!

Cyrano de Bergerac and Moulin Rouge are enough.An Oscar and a nomination.

@Neil Midkiff I wished that John had picked up on the fact that she'd assumed that Mr. French had gotten the chicken _after_ it had been de-feathered and given Arlene a simple "no." Maybe Bennett would have had a better chance of guessing Mr. French's actual line if that had happened. And you're right that it would have been especially funny coming from him because of the sheep-plucking incident! :D (As it is, Arlene went through that list so quickly that I think John kind of missed that key assumption.)

certainly the chicken plucking was related to the "sheep plucking." It is manifest when John reveals that the guest plucked chickens by looking at Benett's face. He is not amused.

No

It's 'Ferrer.' God, I hate auto-correct!

Yes, Miguel was one of Carrie's closest friends.

@@lemorab1 Do what I do - never use auto-correct. Never have, never will.

One of the few ongoing frustrations I have with this show I love so much is how quickly the Mystery Guests generally leave after the questioning is over. Even when they don't scamper off right away, they often get little chance to talk, as John Daly would generally wax rhapsodic about their talents or current projects for a minute or two and send them off. It was usually only at he insistence of a panel member shouting a question that we got any more than that!

What's My Line? Usually it's a timing thing. If the game runs long, they don't have enough time to chat

Rowan Smith Not really true. . . if they chose to, they could have taken some time with most of the mystery guests, rather than squeezing in a final contestant and rushing the game to the point that it's impossible for the panel to get anywhere, It's a conscious choice they made-- or most likely John Charles Daly made-- to keep the conversation afterward to a minimum as a rule. It's a shame, too, because often the most memorable moments happen in the rare cases where a guest is allowed to, you know, actually talk. :)

soulierinvestments Amos and andy

@@WhatsMyLine Agreed. But I, and possibly the audience and the MG, appreciated the additional background info, achievements and adoration John attached to the personality that the star himself probably wouldn't. And he did frequently ask pointed questions to draw out the guests.

Dorothy asked Schippers twice whether he was on stage and screen, and then following two qualified yeses, then she asked a third time whether he had ever appeared on a stage anywhere.

Yes ur very right as Cerf in an interview-said the same thing

17:11 defeathered would be the same as plucked.

@Becca Lachowicz _LOL!_ That was a funny line, but there are actually recipes that call for it, I think. ;)

Nearly every Mexican restaurant I know serves some dish with shredded chicken... tacos, enchiladas, etc.

I don't get the joke either. it is real food. I have seen it in BBQ chicken sandwiches.

I shred chicken to put in chicken&dressing.

No. And I don't care for pat Boone either.

Yes, I really wish he had had enough time.

not a 4 legged creature, so he tried no legs, but not too many people eat snakes

I mean there are quite a few snakes in Oklahoma

Bennett was a snake freak

R.I.P. Miguel Ferrer.

There were several others. James Levine was the chief conductor of the Metropolitan Opera and its music director for many years. Levine made his debut there around 1972 and several years later was appointed music director. Thomas Schippers was never the chief conductor nor the Met's music director. The Metropolitan Opera normally has around a dozen conductors on its roster; the Met's season runs around nine months and has performances Monday through Saturday evenings, plus a matinee on Saturdays. Thomas Schippers was one conductor of several performing at the Metropolitan Opera. Schippers left the Metropolitan Opera and became the music director of the Cincinnati Symphony. There were quite a few conductors at the Met before James Levine made the Met opera scene. BTW, James Levine's home town is Cincinnati, Ohio. I saw several operas at the Metropolitan Opera conducted by Thomas Schippers from 1964 through 1968. Schippers sadly died at an early age as did his socially prominent and heiress wife; I believe he left the bulk of his estate to the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra.

She's very outgoing and flirty. Why aren't there more women like her on this planet!?

I remember the exercise instructor. You're right about their reactions!

Dorothy was also

I think both women were the most intelligent and best of the panelists by and large, though most of the men at this stage were so fine as to be equals or in the running for the title. I think Arlene had a bit more book learning and polish. Dorothy had the shrewdness of a brilliant reporter. Both were excellent at the game with Dorothy being perhaps a bit more focused on nailing the win due to her journalistic competitiveness while Arlene was ever the entertainer who would play the bon mot to entertain the audience never losing sight of the point of her presence. One bad thing about some panelists who were good performers was that they were disruptive panelists because they could not stop hogging the spotlight and keep the game moving which is what the audience was there for no matter how good they were. Groucho Marx and Victor Borge were two who really went around the bend when panelists.

@gcjerryusc I saw Borge live on stage several times and was a big fan of his own shows, but I agree with you that he's not funny as a panelist on WML. He was funny as a mystery guest, but on the panel he didn't seem interested in the game, only in hogging attention to his own antics.

I am also a fan of Groucho in his Marx Brothers movies, and I cannot watch him on WML. He ruined the shows where he was a panelist. Ditto the talk shows he did in his old age.

@@neilmidkiff Yes, but I think he felt compelled to stay in character to please the producers and audience. VB was, afterall, an "icon" of timing as VB. They all had their schtick. Miltie's and Lewis' moues to the audience were more appropriate for the show

I have seen many Southern gentlemen wear this type of tie, also some military uniforms have a similar tie.

He grew up in Nashville, attended college in Denton Texas, his first steady job was in Fort Worth, Texas for a C&W station (WBAP) Was a regular on the Ozark Jubilee and was the son in law of a huge country & western star of the era. (Red Foley) His cousin Richard Boone's AKA Paladin had one of the most popular shows on television at the time. All of which made the western style tie extremely appropriate.

Robert Melson David Harris I was intrigued by your cousins comment so I looked it up. They were sixth cousins so I am not sure they even knew they were related according to the three websites I found

@MrYfrank14. Other orange juice sellers added water in order to make more profit - - the Florida Orange Growers Association wanted to MAKE SURE you knew association members were not allowed to do that. Food labeling laws became more of a thing along with the post war baby boom. Hence the rise of Ralph Nader.

@@williamlynnroden - thank you. I never heard of this before.

@@MrYfrank14 . You are quite welcome. Glad you are enjoying this program and its little slice of history.

@@williamlynnroden - the show really is a time capsule. I keep hearing words i never heard before and have to look them up. Or words pronounced differently. Funny how words and thier meanings change. Or they refer to some historic event and i have to look it up because i never heard of it.

@@MrYfrank14 . I know exactly what you mean. I am always looking up people I've never heard of, or knew to little of. A singer named Frankie Laine was a complete surprise! Wow! What a powerful voice he had, all the way up to age 92!

+ToddSF 94109 Celebrity guests are often not adept at this. Do not have the regularity to get good at this game.

I believe Pat Boone is a Columbia University graduate as was Bennett Cerf and is Barack Obama.

We’re all intelligent in different ways.

+genius mchaggis His continental style bow tie was visible, but barely so under a very high and full collar.

This tie is still fashionable in the Deep South.

@@maryzorn3365 wow!...thanks for that mary! i had no idea...ill be watching in future

Not too bright? From Wikipedia: He primarily attended David Lipscomb College, and later Lipscomb University in Nashville. He graduated in 1958 from Columbia University School of General Studies magna cum laude[9] having previously attended North Texas State University, now known as the University of North Texas, in Denton, Texas.

Did you know him personally?

I have read that he is homophobic...

@@randysills4418 oh well you “read” it somewhere. 🙄

Miguel chose to be buried in Puerto Rico next to his father. Rosemary Clooney is interred in her hometown of Maysville, Kentucky.