Sorry about your brother. I understand about leg braces my younger sister had CP.

My dad was one of the five. In a wheelchair for 3 years and then conspicuously walked with a limp. But he was proud. Never asked for anything. Never collected disability and worked until he was 76 and never had a handicapped parking space.

I was born in 1964, and agree with you. I will say, though, those things are still out there, they are just harder to find, but all the more appreciated discovered.

It appears we both had the inherent good taste to arrive in the world during the same great year! And of course you're quite right about the good manners on display on WML that have very sadly gone away.

agree with you exactly

I was born in 1963. I think I was born in the wrong generation Although I was brought up with these qualities

I was a child when WML began. I have fond memories of my gloves and hat worn when my mother took me to San Francisco for shopping and lunch at the City of Paris. Times were low tech and healthier for children: playing outdoors, use of imagination, hopscotch, hide and seek. The Bay Area at its best. Houston retains some of that formality. Lovely for those of us who prefer dresses and real jewelry. 🏵

The Salk vaccine wasn't given to the public until 1955. It's trial was conducted in 1954. One of my best friends died of polio in 1954, the year before the vaccine was given across the nation. Although polio was waning by the middle of the '50's, there were still hotspots where it was still occurring.

And Thank God for Dr. Salk!!

That was just three years before the polio vaccines were introduced.

I still remember taking that first polio shot in latter 50s and it hurt a lot. I was glad to see the oral "vaccination". Just a moment to praise Salk who could have profited tremendously from his research but did not seek to. A *great, great* American.

So sad that there's just the one complete kinescope available of the British edition of What's My Line?, hosted by Eamonn Andrews. Apparently the BBC relentlessly destroyed all the kinescopes it used to have of the British show. The one that exists is interesting to watch on several counts. For one thing, there are some differences in how the game is played and seeing the differences is interesting. For another, it's interesting to see Eamonn Andrews as the moderator, given that we can see him in several episodes of the U.S. WML as a guest panelist and even once as a substitute moderator when John Daly was absence.

peter feltham You forgot Hal 😁😁😁

Sorry Lars,and Todd that is so typical of the BBC.And i think the most obvious difference between the two versions is the better manners that were displayed on the American programme,sadly not a lot has changed in 60 years,a la Paxman etc,etc.

peter feltham g

I would've LOVE to see a collection of UK episodes though. Being also a watcher from England, the celebrity guests who aren't in movies are often lost on me. I'm also very curious to see the performances of Gilbert Harding.

Exactly!

Rhonda Ridgeway, Indeed, amen 🙏🏼

In the Congressional Record dated 2/3/1970, Congressman Fascell reported that William Lantaff had a wife and 3 children. The cause of death was cancer.

+kenkristi01 In just a few weeks Hal Block would be fired from the show and John could open his lips never had to closen them again.

kenkristi01 My exact thoughts...

kenkristi01John Daly I think did a great job and it was such a privelege to him as well.

The episodes with Hal Block have become unwatchable at times. He seemed to have forgotten that these shows are not about him trying to be funny rather about entertaining the theater audience and the home audience. It may have been funny in the 1950s though. Steve Allen's humor was a much better fit for the show and the panel. I know Bennett Cerf did not care for him.

@@dpm-jt8rj When I clicked on this video, my mind silently groaned at seeing Block back.

Let's find out the ages of the KZfaq fans of What's My Line?. I was born in the early 1980s. Who else will chime in?

I was born in 1948;I enjoy watching “what’s my line”that was television in the 50’s and “60’s. I too love their humour.

'64. Wonderful programme.

Yes it is great, and much more enjoyable

I born 1947, I live in Australia

Margaret Truman Daniel was reared in Missouri, and she had a relatively modest upbringing. Unlike some presidential children, she had a whole life of her own that included earning a college degree, being a singer, author, historian, wife, mother, and grandmother.

Bess was her mother Indepence Missouri

Not with BLM.

Margret Truman's appearance was only five days after her father left office as President.

+Melanie Daniels Maybe the reason she was so relaxed is that her father left office five days earlier.

+Melanie Daniels Well, at that time, she was a FORMER first daughter, but I get your point -- today, even the former ones have watch what they say, to avoid revealing any of the multiple crimes their parents committed while in office.

+Melanie Daniels Margaret Truman was still single at the time of this episode of WML and she generally was known by her maiden name throughout her life. But by a bit of a coincidence to your name, in 1956 she married Clifton Daniel, a New York Times reporter and later editor. They had four children together and were married until his death on Feb. 21, 2000.

She did very well on the show.

Harry Truman left office, got on a train and went home to be a regular citizen. He was probably the last former President who got a chance to live a normal life once he was out of office

The Salk vaccine for polio became available to the public in 1955 after its successful trials, and that was none too soon. The polio epidemic of 1952 was the worst one ever, as Mr. Daly pointed out. The Salk vaccine was administered by a hypodermic injection and used a killed virus. The Sabin vaccine came out in 1961 -- it was administered orally and used an attenuated (weakened) virus. The Sabin vaccine is no longer used in many locales, even though it was more effective than the Salk vaccine. That's because some parents caught polio (their immunity had faded over time) from changing the diapers of babies who had been given the vaccine. The attenuated virus managed to become contagious in the intestines of the babies. No one ever came down with polio from the Salk vaccine. In most first-world countries, widespread use of the two polio vaccines has eliminated polio outbreaks -- a real success story in medicine. Unfortunately, a lot of people today don't realize how serious an illness polio is, but I can tell you that my parents knew and made sure that they themselves and all three of their children were vaccinated against polio. It happens that I was born in 1952, and, of course, my parents knew people who ended up paralyzed from polio -- and they certainly knew about their four-term President, FDR, who became paralyzed as an adult.

Rocky Herman;Their r plenty of parents who think nothing of throwing a 3 week old baby in to a heated pool at 3 weeks of age usually regarding of any illness and its very legal.

oops I forgot 2 mention.I'm not from the USA!

Polio frightened parents and children in the early 50s.

ToddSF 94109 I was born in 1945. My girlfriend in second grade had to wear a leg brace because of polio. Our parents were very much afraid of us kids contracting it. The vaccine was administered in school in a cattle drive situation. No permission was needed from parents. In high school we were given a sugar cube to eat and were told this was a new more effective medicine to prevent polio. No permission from parents needed but that was not a problem then as we were all elated to get it, kids and parents both. If you did not live through a time in which you saw friends suddenly become ill, loose the ability to walk, have to be placed in an iron lung, or even die, then I think it would be difficult for you to understand the quiet stress we lived with. Thank God for the Salk vaccine.

I gotta agree. It's a bit awkward -- the runway-like ogling and all.

+Mike Carter Can you imagine if they did that today on a show, "Hey, can I cop a feel?"

I disliked that part, too.

Definitely weird. Why did they do that?

Especially Dorothy inspecting the hands, fetish?

+Mary Cage What I learned recently that she only wrote the first novel. A ghost writer wrote all the others. From what I've read, she didn't even bother to plot out the rest of the books.

+Michael Maloney Whoever wrote "Murder at the Opera" for her didn't know much about the backstage world. I'm sure she would have been better able to characterize it if she had written it herself. I was so disappointed that I have avoided "her" other books. Sounds as if I should seek out the first one, though.

I think the critisisim here isn't needed.

people can't give opinions? who made you god?

I did.

Maybe it's the early '50s hairstyle here that helps me recognize it, but I don't think I'd ever noticed before how much Margaret resembles her mother Bess. So you may be right about getting the same glance.

Margaret looked nearly identical to her mother with just enough of a hint of her dad that you know who her parents are just by looking at her ​@neilmidkiff .

She always has had a saucy type of humor.

+Mike Carter On a previous episode, someone commented on how difficult it was to play What's My Line as a parlor game at home. I can see why and this episode helped clarify it. Even if the audience doesn't directly give it away, their reaction to certain things that were said could be a great clue. Even though he got a "no" answer and the questioning passed on to Dorothy, Hal was clearly still pondering the reaction he received when he remarked about the MG being Mamie Eisenhower. I'm sure that reaction combined with knowing that the MG was some sort of musical performer was what led to the aha moment. +What's My Line also commented on a previous episode that it would be impossible to compile who came up with the correct answers, with his reasoning that someone's questioning may have done the bulk of the groundwork and dumped the answer into the lap of the next person on the panel. Not only did this happen with the MG, it also happened with the first challenger when Arlene guessed Senator instead of Congressman. When she realized her mistake, her comment led Hal to call for a conference and that dumped the answer in his lap. (Had she thought about it a little more, she might have realized that a Senator would be more likely to be an MG, as Sen. Kefauver had been on an earlier episode.) And I loved Margaret Truman's reaction to the Mamie Eisenhower remark. We in the audience had the advantage over the panel at that moment.

You see it in the episode with Audie Murphy too

Plenty of people in the movies or on TV had their teeth capped back in the day. No way did "everyone" have their natural teeth. Cosmetic dentists made a fortune in Hollywood and Beverly Hills even in the 1930's, 40's, 50's and 60's.

If u watch anything at all on TV ,u will find that their teeth always do look good however even with dentures this is acceptable too.Their r times when u can get actors/actress with bad teeth too because in this profession they come in all shapes and sizes and aren't racist either. All the best!

I think today the problem is the absurd whiteness they have, Teeth are never absolutely white naturally. Looks so weird.

Watching episodes of "Bewitched" in high definition makes me realize how stained and discolored Elizabeth Montgomery's teeth were.

I have read that this is the real difference between British and American teeth - not that their teeth receive any less dental hygiene than ours, but that UK television performers are under less pressure to acquire dental perfection via veneers, orthodontia, etc.

Margaret was "First Daughter " not First Lady.

@@laurathornton1456 ummm I said DAUGHTER see an opthamologist

@@orgonkothewildlyuntamed6301 it might help me. Who are you going to see about your rudeness?

And geeze that was 7 years ago! Let it go already!

Yes, that's exactly right. And the March of Dimes was founded by FDR, a polio victim himself (though there seems to be some doubt now whether he really had polio or Guillain-Barré syndrome). So it's fair to say, I think, that FDR is the only man in history to have been absolutely instrumental in bringing about a cure to his own disease-- too late for FDR, but the polio vaccine was certainly one of the greatest triumphs of modern medicine, and FDR's role in bringing it about is just one of the reasons he's always been such an inspiring figure to me.

What's My Line? -- I remember, when I was a kid, getting mailings from the March of Dimes. They would send these cards with la matrix of little slots in which to insert dimes and an envelope to send the card back to them once it was filled with dimes. They also used to hand them out at the bank. I'm guessing the cards probably held 10 or 12 dimes. $1.00 or $1.20 back then was a lot -- you could get any candy bar such as Snickers in two sizes, 5 cents and 10 cents, and our local Sav-On Drug store (a large "super" drug chain), sold the nickel bars at 3 for 10 cents and the dime bars at 3 for 25 cents. That hardly seems possible now. Whole milk was less than 25 cents a quart, too. So dimes on a card accomplished a lot. After polio was eradicated, the March of Dimes turned its efforts toward preventing birth defects and I think that's still its purpose today.

gcjerryusc -- I'm not saying that Jonas Salk wasn't a generous person with scruples. But I'm certain he would have executed an Assignment of ownership of any invention(s) he came up with that were funded by the March of Dimes to the March of Dimes. If he did execute such an agreement (as I'm sure he must have), he probably had no qualms at all in putting his signature on the Assignment document or even a funding contract with an Assignment provision. The March of Dimes, being a nonprofit charitable concern would have then licensed the vaccine to its various producers. They probably didn't charge anything or not very much, and the licensing contracts may have limited how much profit the drug companies could make on the Salk vaccine.

+What's My Line The war to eradicate polio has personal interest for me. It was also too late to spare my dad, but I am ever so grateful to the work that overcame polio, both by the March of Dimes (the Salk vaccine) and independent of it (the Sabin oral method). My dad contracted polio when he was four years old (1914-5). He was one of the fortunate ones who had relatively minor impairment and didn't need a brace or crutches. But that was due in part to one of his German grandmothers. The polio affected my dad's left calf. She stubbornly massaged his calf every day, ignoring the doctor's admonition that it would harm my dad even more. (It is now known that massage was the best thing for him.) One of my earliest memories was when I was in the swimming pool with my dad and brother and my brother whispering to me not to stare at his left leg. Compared to his right calf, his left calf muscle was atrophied. But I remember him from childhood as someone with a quick, sure stride, no doubt his right leg and left thigh helping to compensate. The only time his walking was compromised was when he had been carrying around his substantial camera bag (in the days when his Speed Graphic camera and all the professional attachments was quite large: I would estimate 18'x18"x36" - yes, cameras were large in those days, plus all the lenses, filters, flash attachments, etc.). When he limped upon arrival home, we knew he had done a lot of walking that day at work while carrying the bag. Never underestimate the power of a stubborn German grandmother!

+ToddSF 94109 Preventing birth defects was and still is part of its purpose. But its stated purpose can more generally be described as the health of babies, which includes the health of and protocols for pregnant women. In addition to birth defect prevention, they address such issues as rubella, pertussis and neonatal care.

Of all the panelists, Hal Block was the most crass, chauvinistic, full of himself, unlikable of all.

Don R;She is a very clever woman indeed!

Ghosted mysteries, pls!

@@capt.molyneaux7037 the misunderstanding of being a ghost writer, is not that they write the book themselves, but take what has been written, arrange it in a better order, or change what is unnecessary, or repetitive, and clean up a work, that needs some adjusting, much like an editor. it is unfair, to make "ghost writer" as if it meant the supposed author, did not do anything in the devilment or writing of a book. her presidential mysteries, are quite inventive and interesting. Elliot Roosevelt had his mother as a "Miss Marple" type in his books, which in the same vein, where ghost written. those were very good too.

I'd be happy to live till 83! Someone I went to college with only made it to 25.

@@DarylReeceJames 25 is indeed sad, just thought Truman would've lived to at least 88, like her father.

@@texan903 at least she lived to a good age and had her father and mother for a long time and lived to see him become president

@@DarylReeceJames You're right I guess, it did seem a bit strange to have a mother live to 97, a father die at 88 (most women live longer than men, especially succeeding generations), grandmothers live to be 90, and 94, then only live to 83 herself. What you say makes sense though.

When they walked in front of the panel before they were seated, they did not shake hands at the end. When they stopped that practice, they shook hands after the questioning.

It’s President Truman’s daughter. She was a singer and an author

Because Hal was crude and disgusting. I can't imagine why he thought every woman would want to go out with him.

Maybe

I was born in 1951. One of my earliest memories was getting vaccinated for polio. I remember my mother being so grateful that I would be spared this dreaded disease. I seem to recall drinking something from a paper cup.

I think the sugar cube you got was in a small paper cup as I remember in the early 60s . I remember going to a high school and standing in line to receiver my sugar cube .

Probably just you and I and perhaps one other person who gave your comment a "like" appreciate Hal Block as something other than a creep. He actually played the game very well, accepting the role of the comic foil, especially with certain first questions he was called upon to answer. (These were suspicious as having been provided to him, as later some of Steve Allen's first questions appeared to be to set off some initial humor and laughter, without actually cheating on information. His assumed lechery was simply a part of his comic persona, but I think that offends more people in this day than it did then. I know that my girl friends and I did not mind being whistled at or verbally "admired" in 1952, when I was a high school senior.

@@slaytonp i only have known Hal for maybe half a year now but he's by far my favourite of the lot , and i think your analysis is spot on 👍

That's exactly why i didn't understand the exaggerated reaction to Hal's very legit Over-40 question ☺

She did this sort of thing all the time, throughout the 1950s, to the great irritation of her fellow panelists. It was a blatant grab for screen time, and she seems to have learned not to do this by the time the 1960s rolled around. But when she did pull this screen hogging maneuver in the 1950s, it never failed to annoy me. On one show that had a contestant who made dog leashes, she wasted a full TWO MINUTES of program time asking redundant questions she already knew the answer to, because she had quite obviously already figured out the line. Wasting two minutes with a totally dull, non-entertaining, non-illuminating round of questions is pretty inexcusable-- it's almost 10% of the total running time of the program!

What's My Line? It is true that she used to pull this stunt to gain some more screen time, but than again, this time she did it in a most fun way. it wouldn't have been that funny if she gave it right away. It is quiet an anecdote that they used the same elevator now and then...

+corner moose I think it's fun when she does that.

I like when she does it instead of just giving it away and who wouldn't have done the same. I know I would have

That was just his suspension. Wait a few weeks, and he'll be gone forever. It's a shame in a way, because he wasn't bad at playing the game and he was reasonably funny. He also saved the series in its early days by adding humor to the panel. But his behavior just couldn't be tolerated and he apparently couldn't control it. So, bye bye Hal.

@AubreyoCoar *Kilgallen 🙂

I got the impression that sometimes what sounded funny in the mind of Hal Block stopped sounding funny the moment it left his mouth.

Martin S I completely agree with you-- a lot of the same sorts of leering jokes that people generally dislike from Hal were made by others on WML. Even Arlene made flirtatious comments to the male guests. But somehow, coming from Hal it doesn't have same effect.

I think that it's of how Hal came on to every female that walked on stage. There's a difference between saying how cute someone is/innocent flirting with people and plain out hitting on people. Hal is in the latter party and was borderline raunchy. When he was hitting on someone he was funny, especially when he got so puzzled he had to pass to Ms Dorothy. Lol.

Interesting. I thought Hal was subdued compared to his earlier shows. But I also know that once a person gets a reputation, everything he does from then on gets interpreted in that light. Plus, as I've said before, there's a visual component to Hal that people interpret as unsophisticated, even though the man had a bachelors degree in legal studies from one of the most prestigious universities in the country, U of Chicago. Race and gender stereotypes are frequent examples of judging people based on our preconceived notions of what someone in a certain position should look like. Twice within the past few months, there was a medical emergency during a flight and both times the flight crew prevented a qualified MD from assisting because the MD was female and black. They refused to accept that a person who looked like that could be a medical doctor. But it isn't just limited to race and gender. In "Moneyball", Michael Lewis detailed how baseball scouts had an idealized facial appearance that a ballplayer should have, and that if there were two players who rated equally in skill assessment or in quantitative measures (running speed, fastball speed, batting average, power hitting numbers, etc.) they would still favor the player who had that "baseball face", And according to a recent study (a discussion about which by coincidence I caught on the car radio today), this is true of other professions as well. When hiring, the decision is more likely to correlate to the preconceived notion (of the person doing the hiring) of what a person in that position should look like rather than the relative skills and abilities of the applicants.

I loved Margaret Truman's falsetto in the mystery guest segment!

Margaret Truman was Harry ' s daughter and never First Lady. That title belonged to her mother, Bess. Margaret became a very popular author of mysteries later on.

Laura Thornton Oh ok...thanks Laura!

Laura Thornton;She sounds like a very clever woman.

If you mean Barack Obama, he sucked!!!

He was a creep

Hal added greatly to the show.

Me too. I loved Hal on the show but I also loved Fred Allen.

If the guest was a female, Block hit on her, very overbearing.

He hit on everybody's daughter!

It's a shame because Hal was so very funny. I know that Cerf couldn't stand him.

Frank Santore John is not alone

BBCHZ To SOME people. To some people, Hal Block was funny. His brand of humor didn’t translate to the masses. Also, his penchant for rude interruptions and his over the top antics made him unpopular with his fellow panelists and especially John Daly.

The Blake yes, and that’s particularly evident after Hal remarks that evidently the contestant’s line takes no talent! What a faux pas! Both the congressman and John look rather miffed and Jon’s hand goes to the vicinity of his ear, a caution signal, I think.

A lot of people associated with the show thought Block was boorish and he was to a degree. A little hypocritical; Cerf and the other male panelists could be total horndogs and the got away with it.

Bless you, Grape Juice!

Hal was a pistol. A riot. A very funny guy.

He was a joke writer for Bob Hope.

Tiaras must have been considered fashionable back then. By SOMEone.

A momentary loss of her sense of taste perhaps? Because that little crown or tiara was nothing if not tacky. I can see a ten year old girl wearing it at her birthday party. Maybe a friend of hers dared her to wear it on WML or bet her $100 that she wouldn't.

she had just won mrs.milf 1953

1984jennaj Tasteless.

I would like to point out all throughout the 1952-1954 period, the royal family in English were quite often in the news...later in June, Queen Elizabeth was coronated.