What's My Line (Arlene Francis Premiere) (2-16-1950)

Dr. Richard Hoffman, AF, Louis Untermeyer, Harold Hoffman

[@aaronsakulich4889]

I like the one free guess that they got; but I'm glad that later episodes removed the "stand on one foot, balance this on your head" routine.

[@altfactor]

Arlene Francis made a career out of "What's My Line?". She'd be a regular panelist through the entire quarter-century run (prime-time and syndication)!

[@robertcollins7025]

Smoking. The host John Charles Daly and Arlene both smoked on camera. Different time for sure! !

[@ladyyuna2000]

Arlene Francis and Dorothy Kilgallen are my favorite panelists on What's My Line?

[@leemcdonald5713]

dorthy is a hot tootsie woo woo

[@Lava1964]

It's always interesting to see shows grow from works-in-progress to great accomplishments. This is a good example of a show enduring its growing pains. I'm glad CBS stuck with WML. It would have been easy to cancel it.

[@ForeverSills]

5:12 - 5:15: Ms. Francis' first appearance, and she nails it right off the bat! What an incredible person!

[@Dannys99887]

Except for Arlene, these panelists are awful....a doctor, a poet, and an ex-Governor of New Jersey. What were they thinking? This is more than awkward. It's awful beyond words. How did they stay on the air for even one more episode?

[@Dannys99887]

***** I agree that the attraction of the show was that they seriously played the game. It was not just a show biz celebrity fest. And of course two of the permenant panelists were in fact a book publisher (Cerf) and a newspaper columnist (Kilgallen.) The story (in Wikipedia) of Louis Untermeyer's tenure on the show is interesting. He was forced to leave the show after a little over a year (this was the Communist witch hunt era) and Cerf became a permanent panelist then.

[@adverse]

Suave is a good word to describe John Charles Daly. He had a voice "like buttah" and was SUCH a handsome man...I could listen to him speak all day long! ;)

[@Ramubay]

This episode was horrible, its amazing this show stayed on the air after this episode. If I had seen this when it first aired I would never had watched again. 100 percent of the reasons are the three male panelists.

[@karlakor]

Both John Daly and Arlene Frances are seen smoking in this episode, something that looks very odd to people watching this program today. By the way, I think that Louis Untermeyer is extremely annoying. I'm glad he was later replaced by Bennett Cert.

[@chuckendweiss4849]

It is difficult to use today’s standards on what happened 50 years ago. What people did or said then is different now

[@Cris43130]

A "floorwalker" was usually a manager. The floor walker was called that because he walked a route through several departments so a salesperson who needed managerial assistance would not have to call a central office or leave his sales area to find him.

[@38ddkelly]

0:45....wake up, Dr. Hoffman.

[@observerguy5031]

Louis Untermeyer was a poet and author.

[@AlizeeDefan]

Yikes this show came on exactly one year to the date, to my birth! lol, make me feel old. As far as smoking on TV, Carson did that well into the 80s.

[@wardka]

My goodness! This is embryonic and uncomfortable to watch. But it's also very interesting seeing the seed that soon became the intelligent show it was.

[@libertyann439]

Arlene made the show

[@bigred997]

first, thanks for uploading. second, this showed how much work they had to do to make it more popular with a national audience. the panelists were quite irritating. it also needed glamour and a respect for the rules which i guess they were still working on.

[@JayJayinNYC]

lol Mr. Hoffman missed his cue

[@davidpierce3]

So interesting to see an early episode, before all of the kinks were worked out. Arlene is still dazzling. Things have changed so much since that time ... Thanks for uploading the entire episode. (And that was the first time I'd seen Arlene smoke a cigarette on camera!)

[@ericmaine]

Umm...he's not really a 'nobody' by any stretch.

[@johnwester8609]

When Louis Untermeyer was fired from this show for his political views, he went into a deep depression and he wouldn't leave his house for a year. His wife deflected all phone calls, even from his close friend, playwright Arthur Miller.

[@BetsyBooth22]

Boy, Arlene ruled this episode!

[@soulierinvestments]

On this broadcast, if the producers had canned the walk down the panel and the free guesses and got rid of the guy at the table and what he does for a living -- they could have done another game. Gil Fates wrote that Arlene Francis was involved in WML development try out games as early as November 1949. This is mid February 1950, and for some reason Arlene did not appear on the first broadcast. She would have been an improvement over either Dr. or Ex-Guv Hoffmanns.

[@jvcomedy]

The Tax Collector gets his one shot at being on national television and what does he do...........blows his nose! WTF could he possibly have been thinking?

[@mle7143]

Its amazing how on this 1st show the mystery celebrity was pretty much a nobody. but in years to come being the mystery guest became a much coveted thing to be for famous people.

[@BlazeDuskdreamer]

Just because you weren't around in 1950 to recognize them. Rosevelt was a war hero. This is not long after WW2. I'm sure war heroes were celebrities for quite some time following the war.

[@BlackRiverBay]

@@BlazeDuskdreamer thanks for saying who it was. I could not read his signature and I did not understand when Arlene said his name. It sounded like "Elliot Roselle."

[@BlazeDuskdreamer]

@@BlackRiverBay ikr! He had terrible handwriting, didn't he? I got it from Arlene's pronunciation (yes, I had to rewatch to refresh my memory). I had to search him. Impressive dude. He was something and should be better known. OP's comment is puzzling not only because he was a WW2 hero (he earned the distinguished flying cross) but he's FDRs son and rather successful at many careers - involved in radio and writing fiction (mystery novels) as well as memoir of his involved in war conferences and (not so nicebut I'd love to read it) an expose of his parents. He pioneered new techniques in nighttime photography and meterlogical data collecting. the laughter at the marraige question is because he apparently wasn't as good at marriage. He and his third wife divorced in 1950 (possibly shortly before this show judging by the laughter). He'd marry his fourth in 1951 which also ended in divorce. I'd love to read more about him. He's intriguing.

[@mle7143]

Who was Louis Untermeyer anyway?

[@imsixftsix]

Actually, there are minority contestants on this program...Arlene Francis married a JEW...She wasn't allowed to buy into certain coops in NYC

[@519DJW]

Louis Untermeyer was a poet, but is probably best remembered today as the editor of anthologies of poetry by better-known writers than he. I know it's almost impossible today to imagine anyone connected with poetry in any serious way as a game-show panelist, but the world has taken a few turns since 1950!

[@xenafan234]

Wow! Thanks for posting this! I have only read about this!

[@soulierinvestments]

I wonder how long it took the producers to realize that if Daly identifies the gender of the mystery guest up front -- the show loses a lot of potential laughs when a panelist asks someone like Yul Brynner if he is a dazzling startlet with long blond hair

[@Gaygarious]

Love Arlene's evening hat!!!!

[@fromthesidelines]

The program was still "sustaining", on alternate Thursdays at 8pm(et)...Jules Montenier, Inc., the makers of "Stopette", became the sponsor a few months later.

[@halewich]

At 22:10 you can see Arlene taking a puff of a cigarette.

[@mle7143]

haha..youre so right..damn he was obnoxious! And smoking..I can remember in college when you could smoke in classes....a bad habit that thankfully is not so common anymore

[@BlazeDuskdreamer]

You're thankful for less freedom? No wonder America's going to hades in a handbasket!

[@MatchGameProductions]

I just edited it. Good eyes! Thank you

[@henrygrove100]

john daly and arlene were smokers didnt know that!

[@paulabasso6153]

Unfortunately contestants do not make much money. I think the panel matured and gelled into a smart, humorous group with Arlene Francis, Bennet Cerf, Dorothy Kilgallen and John Daly and various guess hosts.

[@davidgladstone5261]

John Daly was one of the broadcasters on D Day in June ,1944. A very good straight news broadcaster.

[@13loomisst]

Some fun, but still embryonic. Thanks for posting.

[@5star555555555]

Actually, this aired 2-16-50

[@marthagill8336]

Still just 1 female panelist!

[@grandexandi]

how awkward!

[@JHRobbins]

No kidding - I thought this was terrible

[@mle7143]

I said..."pretty much a nobody"......but his heritage isnt...ask anyone today who he was..and I suspect NO ONE can tell you except who his famous relatives were...thats what I meant

[@BlazeDuskdreamer]

Um, google it, you fool. We know who his parents were but he gained fame independent of them as a war hero. You do know this is in 1950 and that World War 2 had ended a mere five years earlier? You are opening your mouth and proving yourself a fool.

[@davidevans3175]

Neuro-psychiatrist...a lobotomy expert. Shoves ice picks up people's eyes. Ya, real expert.

[@BlazeDuskdreamer]

It was 1950. Just be grateful for advnaces in medicine since then!