I'm so glad you've been able to find the episode, Barry-- and thanks for leaving the great comment! It's remarkable that so much of WML survives today-- there's perhaps no other live TV series from the era with such a high survival rate!

Thank you for sharing that with us. I watched the beginning again and knowing the backstory it was even more fun to watch. Mr Ladenson was fortunate to have a grandson of your caliber.

W.M.L.: It surprises me also, I'm assuming it was recorded on film rather than kinescope.

lelandjr2 Kinescopes **are** films. Yes, all surviving episodes of WML are kinescopes, which are filmed records of a TV broadcast created by pointing a film camera at a studio monitor.

What's My Line? Yes, but there is a difference. Filming a live performance insured a higher quality of rebroadcasting, whereas Kinescope was a process of filming a projected performance from a monitor screen that was being project from a television camera. The quality of Kinescope was poor in contrast and clarity. By your reply I understand you to mean they are both the same thing, but they are not.

I thought the exact same thing.

They must have been scraping the bottom of the barrel to have that vile witch Hedda Hopper.

I love Robert Q Lewis! ❤ I didn't get to see him say farewell to the Army Doctor he had a crush on. He is great on this show!! Bennet is full of himself.

Why aren’t they on?

@@marybaker8582 I wish they'd answer this question.

The comments are also priceless. I remember the show when allowed to stay up late Sunday nights. Enjoyed it then and now.

During the questioning of the taxi driver, Hedda Hopper displays a marvelous sense of self, and dot NOT take herself too seriously. This is the first time I've seen her NOT being a reporter/columnist and love her!

One person protected people, the other destroyed people's lives.

@@thangvuong9196 in what way did one person, presumably Dorothy, protect people?

​@@igkoigko9950 Hedda Hopper tried to accuse everyone in the entertainment industry of being a raving communist, AND was 99 percent WRONG, but ruined the careers of 💯s of entertainers purposely, and she loved it.

Yup, and his father, William D'Wolf Hopper Sr, was one of the greatest vaudeville actors of his time, performing - among other things - "Casey at the Bat" over 10,000 times.

@Mark Richardson I drove a cab for a while and was ripped off a number of times. I NEVER ripped anyone off. It is a hard, thankless job!

Learning the area that you drive in is a real mental process that takes sometime to get down.

I remember reading about cabby training and looking at a London map when I was a kid. Seemed to me at the time that building a spaceship would have been easier.

The screen is trying to replace the brains

I read this comment just as the army doctor signed in. The army doc looks fab. Dorothy looks plain at best

I think that Dorothy Kilgallen ruined her hair. It looked a lot better when it was its natural black.

Perfect!

And she clearly enjoyed those whistles from the crowd.

She does, Indeed!!

I think that Dorothy Kilgallen ruined her hair by coloring it red. It looked a lot better when it was its natural black.

WML was in color in 1966 and 1967.

-And it was far more better then watching Headless Hopper.

Peggy Sue Silvers Well I'd prefer not to know personally and instead have the experience of the viewers in the 1950s when the MG must've been a real WOW of surprise when they sign in. To me that's an important element I can never get to enjoy. Ah well.

Be honest now, how much training do you think the average cab/taxi driver had in 1956? And John also does mention that it doesn't fit the description of training according to the terms of reference used in the show (doctor, fighter pilot, etc), but it doesn't mean that there isn't any training involved

@@NoNeedNoGreed To learn The Knowledge? More than you might think. There have actually been neurological studies on London cab drivers that show that the areas of their brain that store memory and information are larger and more active than in those who haven't learned it, even compared to other cab drivers from most other locales with only Tokyo, Shanghai, and Beijing drivers scoring better.

I’ve taken taxis all around the world and it’s been hit and miss. Before google maps I once had to direct a driver, street by street, to the Toronto International Airport. He didn’t know where it was because he’d only arrived in Canada two weeks before, and was using his cousin’s Beck taxi license. Similar experiences all over North America. But London! Wow! Any tiny obscure laneway, they know it, and the fastest route. Intelligent and knowledgeable drivers too - history, current events, culture, art, politics, they always impress me. Head and shoulders above any other taxi drivers around the world. Sadly, I read that The Knowledge is now being phased out. (Thank you Sadiq Khan.) Technology wins again over the use of the human brain, and I suspect we’ll be poorer for it.

They weren't touring together. Bennet was in Europe and Arlene was on the West Coast. And yes, this show is totally addictive.

I'm 65 and I remember all of the mystery guests. I watch approximately one episode a day so that I don't run through them too fast. :)

@@accomplice55 I do, too, and get something constructive done while I have it on-I work out as it's not necessary to glue my eyes to the screen.

Wait till 2023, it gets worse, so keep watching this!

Ozzie's wife Harriet was born in 1909. She was 48 in this episode.

Tks for posting what he said as I was on floor working out and didn't correctly hear.

If Red Skelton hadn't been drafted into the Army in WWII, the Nelsons would never have been known for their family-centered radio & TV shows. Ozzie led the orchestra on Skelton's weekly radio show & Harriet was the girl singer.

Michael Nivens, I know. Today's tv would win awards for being crude and tasteless. I usually have my tray and eat while watching a pgm but to display that tastelessness a preview for another pgm(I think it was naked and afraid. Something like that.)came on and before I could reach my remote to skip thru it a participant of that pgm came on and said something about sticking her finger up some man's rectum.🤦‍♂️☢

David Nelson never went by the name "Davie." He went by either "David" or "Dave."

@@lynettepalecek3141 Yes, I know. D is close to E on the keyboard. Bad typing on my part.

@@kenyongray2615 Okay.

@@kenyongray2615 Very gracious response on your part. 🌷

Yes, Cerf often asked if a guest had "anything to do with transportation."

"Have you ever had a book published by Random House?"

Depends on if she had children by that time. I believe it would have been her call - if still in the Army.

How is it pronounced? Or a GEN or or a GONE

@@ellemathews9840 GEN

@@johndodge8999 thank you!

@@ellemathews9840 my father was from Portland and he used to say his father got mad when easterners would say “Oregone”.

​@johndodge8999 Potato, Potata. Tell your father to get over it, or he will get a heart attack.

me too !

What an incredible figure! Women wore girdles back then so they wouldn’t jiggle. She’d be gorgeous without a girdle!

Oh and arent you just filled with evil glee. Grow the hell up.

Tks will watch for that on TCM.

She certainly got more and louder wolf whistles than usual. A shame that this episode, like most, wasn't preserved in color to see her new shade of red hair. In b&w it shows up as lighter than her usual shade.

WOW NEVER SAW HER SO BEAUTIFUL..I LOVE HER!

I truly don’t understand. Are people actually saying Dorothy looks good? Do you all think she even holds a candle to Arlene or the army doctor in this episode?

@@stevekru6518: I think she was very bright, but no, she wasn't terribly pretty.

​@@stevekru6518I think, she's pretty >_>.

Sorry, I beg to differ, she comes off as a very nasty person to me.

No...

Hedda was an awful lady who would attempt to destroy anyone who crossed her or even she disapproved of.

I though they were headed to Lucy and Ricky.

@@GlennaVan the singing part would have gotten a laugh.

@@johndodge8999 For sure from "I Love Lucy."

+Edwin Rivera - he seemed to be sick, ill that is.

John did seem less sunny than usual... I wonder if he may have not been feeling well or just in a bad mood? Nothing happened on the show that was particularly upsetting.

When was he upset?

I didn't notice anything, he's a pro.@@Wizardofgosz

@@tomitstube John did cough a couple of times on the previous week's show, and one of the times he apologized, saying that he had a bug. Perhaps he still had it for this show.

Johan Bengtsson Yes. The panel didn't do very well on that one

+Dick Wilson I agree with Mister Lewis in having to be knowledgeable and keen witted to be a taxi driver in London. My mother and I had a great cabbie who found us a hotel and gave us info on London too.

I'm surprised the panel member from England didn't get it. Brits pick up on accents and can discern class education and neighborhood by accents

There was a bar near CBS' old HQ at 485 Madison Ave called Colbee's(I wonder why). I'm sure Lewis, John Daly, Arthur Godfrey and Ed Murrow spent quite some time there.

In reality, Robert Q Lewis said that the "Q" doesn't stand for anything. He just mistakingly put the "Q" in his name when he got into show business.

The women's masks seem to have side pieces like eye glasses rather then going over their heads as we commonly think of for masks.

The ladies had masks with ribbon straps instead of elastic bands. They had to tie them on.

Or-----and I'm just spitballing, here---- maybe, just MAYBE......... she took her hat off first. I know, I know, it's probably permanently attached to her head, but I'm thinking there's a slight possibility she wasn't BORN that way.

I respectfully disagree. I understand beauty is in the eye of the beholder and I’m sure you like Dorothy. However, objectively, if employees of central casting were sent out to find an attractive, even beautiful, woman, those returning with Arlene would have a bright future, but any returning with Dorothy would be filing for unemployment insurance. To be misogynistic and crass, on THE scale, Arlene is a full 10, while Dorothy is no higher than 7 on her best day and this episode may be her best day. Much like a stopped clock, Sinatra can occasionally be correct, but Dorothy’s lack of attractiveness isn’t solely due to her chinlessness. None of her facial features are outstanding. She is waifish to the point of frailty, unhealthy looking. Dorothy poses absolutely no competition to Arlene’s looks; matronly Hedda Hopper, perhaps.

I dislike Sinatra so much that I won't watch a movie if he is in it. Do like some of his records, tho-Strangers in the Night and with his daughter-Something Stupid.

"Hedda"

The army doctor was a dish. A 10. Dorothy is more like a 5.

I liked the change of pace.

I noticed that too. One could almost think Hal Block was back in the panel. John looked really annoyed with Robert Q and his flirtiness, and he contiuned being serious during the game.

I would imagine that continual pulling of the ear lobe, his signal for a panelist to back away from a unsavory line of questioning which I imagine was going unheeded by Robert Q Lewis, must really hurt as well as being upsetting.

I think he also did not like the familirity starting with Lewis wanting to call her Carolyn instead of Miss Harper. Not very professional of him, but he always behaves this way, which is why i never took a shining to him.

not because of that,,,,that night he did´NT FEEL ALLRIGHT

@@loissimmons6558 So then both he and Dorothy proceeded to call her Caroline, instead of Carolyn. They have the names in front of them. John does and the panelists usually note it.

Roger L. Leonard I recommend that you read Ozzie’s autobiography.

Leave it to Beaver wasn't on TV till 1957 and Hugh Beaumont and Barbara Billingsley were not married in real life.

Ozzie was about 3 years older but Harriet may have aged herself somewhat in her teen and early adult years, living something of a wild life before settling down with Ozzie. For example, she started smoking at age 13 at a time when it was not common for women to smoke at all. She had been in show business since she was three years old. Ozzie, on the other hand, led a boy-next-door kind of life as an Eagle Scout, a football player in HS and college and had begun law school before deciding his future was in entertainment. Many years later, he still had that head male cheerleader look to him. One can almost picture him with a megaphone, wearing a sweater with a scarlet "R" on it, as he was associated with his alma mater, Rutgers, during his career as an entertainer. Harriet had a mature look about her, and easily fell into a typical small screen mom image, typical of 1950's sitcoms.

@@loissimmons6558 - not sure why you think "it was not common for women to smoke at all" Have you even watched old movies? Women smoked as much as men - that is why so many women smoked, to be sexy like the movie stars (having men light their cigarettes, etc.).

+Glenna Rose You are absolutely right, but not until at least 5-10 years after Harriet Nelson was 13. She was born in July 1909 so she would have been 13 in 1922-23. Women smoking wasn't such a big thing in silent films. Note when the first examples of smoking for women in movies is given. kzfaq.info/get/bejne/erSCgcxh3L-aqX0.html Note that in this list, the first movie is from 1930. The use of smoking is used to emphasize the androgyny of Marlene Dietrich (who is also dressed in men's clothes). There are some women who would have identified with this, but not the average woman. www.listal.com/list/female-characters-smoking-movies Fritz Lang was one of the exceptions as far as using women smoking in his silent films. But his films didn't make women glamorous. The main characters in his films were dark, mysterious and creepy. With the choppy action of silent films, it was much more difficult to make a woman look sensuous smoking than it was later on with "talkies" and the changes in society. Shorter hair, shorter skirts and other more risque clothing, and women drinking (and flouting the prohibition laws) were more likely to be the way women were portrayed as modern and sexy in the 1920's. Here's a quote from "The Freedom to Smoke: Tobacco Consumption and Identity" by Jarrett Rudy: "While tobacco companies sought to hook smokers and increase sales of their own products, movies promoted a wider revolution in manners and behaviour that was critical in legitimizing women smoking. In the 1920s, American silent films were popular among both anglophones and francophones in Montreal. In these films a cigarette in public and a drink of alcohol stood for dialogue that would suggest a scandalous woman who was perilously leaving her sphere. The _La Presse_ advertisement for the silent film _Lillies of the Field_ in 1924 makes the case. The image of the bare-shouldered woman reclining on a bed smoking is far more sexually daring than any cigarette advertisement during the period. Later, in Hollywood films of the 1930s, women smoking became much more prominent and evoked far more positive images.One sample of 40 Hollywood films found that 30 percent of heroines smoked, while only 3 percent of female villains took to the habit."

If what commentators are saying about Robert is true, he wouldn't have noticed how she looks in the dress and focusing on the hair makes even more sense.

Meaning.......I'm lost.

She was in California for 2 weeks