I thought you were going to mention another record.

I imagined the gentleman bringing samples for the cast, but pulling them out of various pockets when he shook hands, and handing them all to George!

Milton Berle was a real talent and a real mensch. Unlike most celebrities, he acknowledged the audience. ❤️

George Hamilton was quite handsome.

215io8

@@leesher1845 And he's still here with us, tanned of course!!

Yup

Johan Bengtsson What's My Line? \ Now there's an example of a pun that I actually think is clever! John must have thought so too, despite his pretense of disparaging it, because he made sure to repeat it even though Bennett refused to do so!

SaveThe TPC If you'll indulge my being pedantic about this, that may be because it's not a pun. "Caliber" just has a double meaning in this context. Puns are substituting a word or phrase for a sound alike, which is (for me) the lowest form of verbal humor unless there's *also* a double meaning behind it. When puns are just one word subbing for another meaninglessly, I don't even get what's supposed to be funny about it. Groucho did this just as much as Bennett did, to be fair. And you know how much I love Groucho.

What's My Line? From: grammar.about.com/od/pq/g/punterm.htm: *pun* [definition]: A play on words, either on different senses of the same word or on the similar sense or sound of different words. Known in rhetoric as paronomasia. "To pun is to treat homonyms as synonyms." (Walter Redfern, Puns: More Senses Than One. John Wiley & Sons, 1986) And, from the same web page, here are two *classic* examples of puns by two of your favorite people: "Hanging is too good for a man who makes puns; he should be drawn and quoted." (Fred Allen) "Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana." (Groucho Marx)

What's My Line? And from: literarydevices.net/pun/ *Pun Definition* A pun is a play on words in which a humorous effect is produced by using a word that suggests two or more meanings or by exploiting similar sounding words having different meanings. Humorous effects created by puns depend upon the ambiguities words entail. The ambiguities arise mostly in homophones and homonyms. For instance, in a sentence “A happy life depends on a liver”, liver can refer to the organ liver or simply the person who lives. Similarly, in a famous saying “Atheism is a non-prophet institution” the word “prophet” is used instead of “profit” to produce a humorous effect.

SaveThe TPC Is there supposed to be anything in these definitions contradicting what I said? I'm not seeing it. "Caliber" isn't a substituted word, it's simply a word that has two meanings in this context.

romeman01 Good catch on both counts! I didn't notice either event when I was watching, but when I went back to listen, sure enough there was the ringing bell and John's mistake as well.

+Kenneth Butler Hey neighbor, I grew up in Blauvelt and now live on the other side of the county. I remember my parents going to see shows now and then at the Tappan Zee Playhouse. Around this time Nyack started to get a bad reputation for crime and the Playhouse became shabby and was usually closed. An attempt to revive it by renaming it after Helen Hayes failed. The antique industry revived the Village of Nyack and it is quite gentrified and upscale now. But the playhouse was wound to be in such bad shape that it wasn't worth saving. It was knocked down and an ugly scar was there for a while. While the building that's in its place looks similar to the old playhouse, it is a multi-purpose building: a bar and grill at street level (Brickhouse Food and Drink) and apartments on the second and third floor. I had a friend who was a classmate years ago who lived in a separate house on Miss Hayes' property and I have visited there many times. But I never had the fortune to meet Miss Hayes or her son, James MacArthur.

Hal Block was one of Berle's writers on his early TV show

soulierinvestments I was going to mention the Hamilton-suntan lotion connection.

They ALL had drinks before the show..this was nothing unusual at that time...its what folks did. Get over this folks...no one should be surprised ... At all

***** Yes, when Arlene asked if the men on the panel could use the product too, I was thinking -- "especially George!" And did you see the earnest way he was speaking with Mr. Siepp at the end of the segment? Could it be that we have discovered the very moment in time when Mr. George Hamilton decided to make a deep suntan his trademark look?! (Actually, I rather doubt that, but it's fun to think about. :D ) Perhaps he was telling him how much he already enjoyed using his product.

I wonder if that's where he got the idea to invest in sun tan lotion!

Probably did

I thought so myself. she seemed to be slurring her words.

People forget (or maybe they haven't been drunk themselves to know) that being drunk affects sharpness, coherence and physical co-ordination. There's no evidence of that whatsoever here...and never is. Nevertheless I can hear the slurry drawl that you describe. MY strong hunch (bolstered by the fact that Dorothy sometimes does the same thing) that it's some sort of 'fashionable' way of speaking that women in certain peer groups like Arlene's and Dorothy's adopted in the early 60s in Manhattan.....(oddly enough, they speak like that in the spoken sections of a certain song friom Sweet Charity, set in Manhattan, of course in what was the present day....and Arlene being a stage girl n'all, it figures). I can imagine that it was deemed 'cool' and 'casual', if not 'sultry', to drag out certain speech elements. Jazzzzzy, maaan! Drinking enough to slur would be enough to affect someone's fitness to play the game.

Agreed!! I have noticed several times that a guest will answer and John will say that's so many down and so many to go, and the panelist will say "but I didn't hear if it was yes or no". Well, if he's flipping a card it's no!

Ummmm... because they're blindfolded ??? Duh !!!

@@gailsirois7175 But they can still hear John. Duh!!

Joe Postove That renegotiation must be what he was referring to beginning around 23:21.

I think Milton Berle's Jackpot Bowling may have been the tipping point in that regard.

Chris Barat Jackpot Bowling is available on the web. It is sad.

NBC must have been extremely profitable to absorb the outflow of a million dollars a year for 30 years for so little in return after the first few years. The contract the Mets signed with Bobby Bonilla in 2000 pales in comparison.

+Joe Postove I recall thinking in 1980: This is the year of Uncle Miltie's last million, not being aware of the renegotiation. Can't help but suspect some sort of intimidation to force Berle to renegotiate.

@gcjerryusc Yes, indeed. At the time I wrote my comment he was still living, however.

Yes, he will be on the panel October 17, 1965.

Johan Bengtsson What kind of gown will he be wearing?

Joe Postove Wait and you shall see! :)

Milton Berle wrote in his autobiography that he had an affair with Dorothy Kilgallen.

@@preppysocks209 - Serious?

Really?

Why would that make him infamous??

10 questions...9 down, 1 to go...something's wrong with this????

@@gailsirois7175 Yes. It was really 1 down and 9 to go. Arlene had just gotten the first "No" and John turned over the $5 card.

Definitely. I bet she drank everything Dorothy had.

The G string comment definitely made me think so.

She looked tired and sounded a bit like she had a cold. Could have been sinus medicines.....why is everyone gotta be tipsy on this show????

Arlene was tonight's winner of "Who's in The Bag"

Arlene doesn't seem to be feeling much pain in this ep. In the first round she forgets that the "men and women" question has already been asked, gives a loopy look at the audience, and even slurs her words badly at 9:40. But she manages to guess the contestant, so maybe a little happiness helps the gameplay. At least Dorothy seems very alert for this show, though her face is sadly looking worse for wear as we get closer to her death in late 1965.

Sophia Loren

+Vahan Nisanian That'd be called a human torpedo, I imagine.

I believe the first rule of cannons is to keep one's powder dry.

No, I think it was a clean laugh because the audience realized that the contestant was herself raised into the air by the cannon.

the only actor whose performance in that film was praised was Berle. He was surprisingly effective as a dramatic actor.

Never!!!!!