I love when Steve asks a question at which the audience laughs, he always looks out towards them. I don't know why I find that so funny.

Steve Allen had a great laugh. He could laugh at himself and also make others laugh. Not a bad thing to say about a person's legacy.

Miss Havoc lived to be 97.

June Havoc was a riot! She was so funny that I wish it had gone on longer!

Really one of the funniest mystery guest sequences -- ever. A vocal disguise for the ages with amusing bits to boot. Well done June.

Early on, here is wonderful Steve Allen cracking up the audience with that look and persona we all grew to love and admire...... a very naturally funny man and genius.

June Havoc died in 2010 at 97 y.o. Her sister was Gypsy Rose Lee.

June Havoc was so funny! She lived to be 97. Sadly, her daughter predeceased her...

They really should have had June on the show more often.

The line of questioning by Steve Allen preceding and including this one broke me up. "If I didn't use this thing, could I possibly ruin my hat?" Priceless.

the good thing about internet is that people never dies,all of them Are still alive for us,and we admire them ,make comments ,they wouldn-t know 68 years AGO

Wonderful show, back when the entertainment industry had panache, style, and class. You can not say that today.

June Havoc; was highly underrated - wonderful singer and actress

Dorothy Kilgallen looks stunning as well as the wonderful Arlene Francis, big fans of theirs :-)

The way she said "Miss Kilgallie" and "Mr Cerfie" was just hilarious!

I wonder how many people know that she is the sister of Gypsy Rose Lee, and her actual last name was Hovic which she changed ever so slightly for her stage name. Her last name is used as Rose's last name in the play and film "Gypsy".

June Havoc is one of a kind!

I love Steve Allen on the panel.

I had never heard of June Havoc until today but she was a sweetheart!

I am addicted to WHAT'S MY LINE.

Miss June Havoc is too much, and I love it!

Steve Allen and ' is it larger than a bread box ' made history ! Almost every episode someone would ask it, always laughing !

June Havoc was a real star. Brilliant. Great writer. Her autobiography is one of the best. She accomplished so much. Her sister paled in comparison, but then when the best Broadway music ever got made about the sister… sad for June. Miss Havoc deserved better. A movie about her life would be amazing.

In my 'New' discovery of 'Old' Hollywood; I have been viewing some of June Havoc's films & continue to do so . I find her a much better actress than I expected, & very charismatic . Watching her appearance on "W.M.L.," is so hilarious, it ranks in my Top 10. "NOW LET ME BREAK THAT DOWN FOR U...." Love seeing these wonderfully historical Celebrity moments. 100 of years from now people will see it all in some new way, who knows ; but we are one of the 1st Generations that had film & video as a Reference point in History.

What a fun mystery guest!! Mr Daly makes it fun also! Thank you.

June Havoc was the funniest mystery guest star I ever saw on the show.

A great sense of humor was a family trait hared by June and her sister Gypsy Rose Lee.

June should have been brought back another time

Wow that was a long time ago. 1953 Dwight Eisenhower was sworn in for his first term of office and Elizabeth II was crown queen of the United Kingdom later that year. That's that's 70 years ago my goodness how time flies!

When Bennett asks the manhole cover salesman (at 23:13) if his product is used by both sexes, he gets a "no" answer, based on the contestant's and John's understanding of the product as _used by_ those who would be lifting it off and putting it back on in order to go into or out of the manhole (and the apparent assumption that there were no women doing that kind of work at the time). However, I think the main use of a manhole cover is to protect pedestrians from falling into the manhole, and in that respect it would certainly be used by adults of both sexes, as well as by children! ;)

I had never heard of June Havoc before. What a personality. Cool name too.

That question - bigger than a bread box - would became iconic.

June Havoc's exit after her appearance was the fastest I've ever seen. She practically raced off the stage.

Miss June Havoc couldn't disguise her voice from Mr. Cerf. Lol!

June is so cute!!!

Love Miss Havoc. Saw her last night in "Brewsters Millions"..small part, but she was a firecracker.

June looks so young, not anything like 40 which she was.

Of the manhole salesman; Is it in the entertainment category? Only when it's not in it's place.

I wasn't born for another 11 years, and I miss these days.

June Havoc was younger sister to Gypsy Rose Lee.

I adore Steve. I’d heard the name but didn’t know anything about him until WML here on YT.

Why did they usually keep the best, most obscure occupations for the end, when they usually don't have enough time ? Must admit Ive never heard of June Havoc as an actress .

June Havoc, I remember seeing her on the Outer limits episode Cry Of Silence she costarred with Eddy Albert they were looking to buy a farm and were attacked by tumble weeds & frogs & Rocks by an invisible alien force from outer space. -- Eddy Albert wound up on Green Acers co staring with Eva Gabor on that farm ! I had to look up June Havoc's filmography after seeing her on the Outer Limits,,, She Was A Beautiful Movie & Film Actress, Where Once Upon A Time In An Era Were There Were Great Film Stars.

It's weird seeing Bennett and Steve sitting, well, at each others regular chairs. I guess seat positions weren't set in stone at this time.

Steve Allen, whose question, "is it bigger than a bread box?" eventually became a staple of What's My Line questioning, made allusion to it in this, his first appearance on the program.

Lol! June's funny!

Today's KZfaq Rerun for 8/10/15: Watch along and join the discussion! This is a somewhat "historic" show, containing Steve Allen's first mention of the famed "bread box" which is still referenced in pop culture today. While not worded in the classic "Is it bigger than a bread box" style, and while it isn't played at all as a joke (just as Steve said in later interviews), this is indeed the start of it all. The big moment occurs at 23:57. ----------------------------- Join our Facebook group for WML-- great discussions, photos, etc, and great people! facebook.com/groups/728471287199862/ Please click here to subscribe to the WML channel if you haven't already-- you'll find the complete CBS series already posted, and you'll be able to follow along the discussions on the weekday "rerun" videos: kzfaq.info/love/hPE75Fvvl1HmdAsO7Nzb8w

It frequently annoys me that some of the most interesting (and potentially funny) professions are saved for the end of the show, and then have to be cut short because of time. I remember an episode of All in the Family, where Edith has Archie guess the surprise. The first question he asks is, "Is it smaller than a breadbox?"

Steve asks June at 17:08 if she is a leading lady. I'd call her a misleading lady as a mystery guest; that "elderly" vocal style is a great put-on.

There are so many of the mystery celebrities I've never heard of, while there are so many others whose fame bloomed after their (first) appearance on the show.

The women guests had some awesome careers for the time. Feminists with charm and class.

The BEST panel!!!!!👍

Mr Allen seemed quite nervous! It's interesting to see performers before they became established. Some become very confident, smug, while others never forget how hard they had to work to get where they are.

I love seeing the entire episode. Thanks!

Miss Hawkrigg married a gent named Vincent Handal and I don't know if she had a profession, but he retired in 1995, and they moved from Brooklyn to Hampton Bays (on Long Island) and enjoyed themselves in volunteering, largely Catholic-oriented. They had three children together (one of whom became a nun), and as of March (when her husband died), Mrs. Handal is still with us.

My brother got me onto his show when I was into elementary school

When there are contestants with occupations of humorous potential John often starts off with Steve Alan

John Daley's hair in the back looks weird. This show gets addictive. I love watching these old shows from my youth.

At 26:30 Bennett says that June Havoc is "writing a book for us" but as far as I've been able to find, her first published book was "Early Havoc" published by Simon & Schuster in 1959.

13:01 Steve not only has been on "It's a Secret," he hosted it on two separate runs and guested on it in 2000. :)

If Bennett were on the show today, he’d be 124 years old!

So, that's how the breadbox question was born! :)

I will be acting with June Hovac next week. I recently purchased on Ebay an LP called CO-STAR. It comes with a script and she reads her acting lines and in the script I act with her. I had a choice of other LP's with different actor's but I wanted her because she was so great in ''SUBWAY'' a SUSPENSE radio drama and one of my favorite radio stories (It's on KZfaq) So I'm looking forward to be acting with her next week. She was funny on this episode and cute.

At 68 years old, I am somewhat taken aback by the Dorothy's desire to feel the male contestants' muscles. With the lens of history, it just strikes me as so sexist! I'm obviously a victim of leftist propaganda!

Every time John asks if the blindfolds are on, I end up saying "Yes John". For some reason I just have to say it.

there was a great rivalry between sisters gypsy rose and june, gypsy was always considered the raconteur or socialite of the two, but obviously june had that same wit about her, and gypsy was always jealous of june's talent and looks. all this spurred on by a vaudevillian mother of fierce independence for the era. fascinating book (american rose) about the 3 women carving a life out for themselves in a male dominated world, and just how hard it was to do that in the first half of the 20th century.

June Havoc had a beautiful speaking voice ... put on, I'm sure, beautiful nonetheless

Dorothy was so sharp

june havoc was in the movie -gentlmen's agreement.she was gregory peck ' s secretary.

The rubber panty guy was rather handsome !

I may be in the minority here, but I miss Hal Block! But I like Steve Allen a lot; he was a great replacement.

Never heard of June Havoc. Pretty lady.

23:57 Since the highlight of this episode is Steve's casual invention of the breadbox question, it seems reasonable to add his POV (from his 1960 autobiography, 'Mark It and Strike It') to the comments: The one line that seems to have stuck in the public consciousness is one whose popularity has always been a puzzle to me. One evening, in trying to determine the size of an object that was manufactured by one of the guests, I said, "Is it bigger than a breadbox?" I meant this in all seriousness, but for some reason the audience laughed uproariously. Perhaps the reason is that the breadbox is an old-fashioned item to today's homemakers and so the word had the sort of connotation that surrounds phrases like high-button shoes, celluloid collar, or raccoon coat. In any event, from that day to this the phrase has been a part of the American vernacular. Dorothy, Bennett, and Arlene picked it up as a sort of running joke and there was a time when every week somebody would send me an unusual breadbox or ask me for mine or send me a song about breadboxes or something of the sort. One kitchenware manufacturer even wanted to put a Steve Allen breadbox on the market. For more fun, check out this follow up vid: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/Y9dpp7uDnNDRfGw.html

What an awesome guest! Even though I’ve been kind of a film buff, I don’t recall June Havoc at all, but she was brilliant!

A manhole cover salesman ... might be one of the stranger occupations on this show ...

Behold : The First ever meme !

no expense spared on the set in those days

Weak applause for Havoc when she came out.

John Daly sure tends to answer questions much too much. Sometimes, wrongly.

It's weird not seeing Bennett Cerf sitting at the helm.

Anybody know which actress Dorothy had in mind when she was asking about the suit of armor?

June didn’t have a chance to say what she was currently doing and given the bums rush off stage!

Is this the first time Arlene has been seen wearing a tiara? I don't remember seeing one on the previous episodes.

Well Miss June did not cause Havoc, but she gave herself away by opening her mouth. LoL! She was a wonderful actress and dancer.

Has anyone truly guessed their profession before it was revealed.

I remember the days of the Truant Officers, I wonder if they're still a position for them these days. I also remember the Bread Box, all homes seemed to have one when I was growing up.

"Miss Killgalley"! - lol - June lived 2 B 97

I've been watching these in order, but I swear someone else (one of the woman?) did the breadbox question in a 1952 episode.

You can clearly hear some jerk in the audience yell out "Truant Officer" yet the panel played it off for a few questions. I wonder if that was protocol, in place for when the inevitable spoil sport shows up. Hopefully the offending person was evicted from the audience, and the building.

With the absentee rate in public NYC schools at astronomical levels, I doubt that truant officers are in existence anymore. How sad...

This wasn't Steve Allen's first mention of a Bread box. I made a comment on the episode before the last that the first time the breadbox is mentioned on the show, somebody comes on there who makes breadboxes

Wow, Mr. McMichael is from East Orange N. J. My mom and dad had property there back in the day. Small world.

For the first time I realized that If you listen carefully the announcer has a voice similar to Vincent Price.

Might be wrong but wasn't there an episode where one of the panel asked "is it bigger than a bread box?" and the guest occupation was a bread box maker?

As the show kept displaying their awards over the weeks, it seems that the chance of removing Hal Block increased.

Stopette? And are there truant officers any more?

If I remember rightly, Allen wasn't the first to ask that question. ;)

❤️❤️❤️

She reminds me a lot of Lucille Ball.

Kilgallen was so good at the game she was a killjoy.