What's My Line? - Imogene Coca; Tom Poston [panel] (Oct 26, 1958)

[@allenjones3130]

Imogene Coca was a true icon of TV comedy!

[@Walterwhiterocks]

Ms. Coco seemed to be having so much fun playing the game. Was sorry to see her rush off so quickly. John could have well spent a couple minutes chatting with her. She is delightful.

[@captainnice9698]

Imogene gets my vote as the happiest guest ever to sit in the What's My Line chair !!!

[@jess4metoo]

She sure was cute, so excited, so alive. I only remember her on Bewitched and The Brady Bunch, but here we get to see her as herself. She's one of those entertainers you never forget. Thank you for sharing.

[@moontheloon5]

Don't forget her wonderful performance as Aunt Edna in National Lampoon' s Vacation!

[@michellebenesowitz8991]

Imogene Cocoa was best known for her hilarious appearances opposite Sid Cesar as a regular in the 1950's on his Show of Shows.

[@jess4metoo]

moontheloon5 I just read your post today. Hilarious as Aunt Edna, on the BIG screen!

[@helenreddypantysissy4030]

Please don’t forget Imogene Coca’s wonderful performance as Aunt Edna in National Lampoon’s Vacation!!

[@moontheloon5]

@@helenreddypantysissy4030 I didn't lol

[@cinnamoncider9167]

I found the tatoo artist "Dutchess" absolutely delightful. What a lovely personality and great sense of humor she had!

[@robertchamberlain7202]

With the help of film we can have these talented people forever

[@peternagy-im4be]

Well not forever

[@theiceman6941]

I love Imogene Coca. Thank you.

[@donnacook8994]

Imogene Coca was hilarious 🤣! A true gem! Great to see her!

[@gretchenking5952]

it would have been nice to have John Daly just for once be a panel member. I know he was the mystery guest for the last show, but I would have liked to see him taste a bit of his own medicine in trying to figure out the occupations and the mystery guest. Eamon Andrews could have guest hosted. After all, they let Bennett be the moderator for one episode. I think it would have been very funny to have John on the panel.

[@timothyball742]

Too late, but I add my thought to what you put in your comment. And to see ALL of the original commericals would be a good addition to this show. 😄

[@oswaldomilano3848]

totally!

[@dejpsyd0421]

I LOVE Bennet, but Bennet did an awful job moderating. I thought he’d be great, but apparently it takes an innate skill that can’t be taught!

[@gretchenking5952]

@@dejpsyd0421 I agree. I remember the one episode Bennett hosted. He was terrible and I think he alluded to that on a future show. :}

[@moontheloon5]

I would've liked to see Arlene moderate!

[@robertdiotalevi2882]

Like Ruth Buzzi, Margarete Hamilton and Carol Burnette the beauty shines through along with the tremendous talent.

[@cinnamoncider9167]

Didn't the mystery guest also play the part of Jan Brady's look-alike flamboyant aunt on an episode of the Brady Bunch? Thank you so much for these wonderful videos!

[@cinnamoncider9167]

Actually, I just looked it up and yes, Imogene Coca did play the part of Jan's Aunt Jenny on that one episode of the Brady Bunch. : )

[@moontheloon5]

One of my fav Brady Bunch eps! She was wonderful as " Aunt Jenny" what a great moral too!

[@ChrisHansonCanada]

"Say, isn't anyone going to eat my bean curd cakes?"

[@jacquelinebell6201]

What a lovely lady the tattoo artist was. A beautiful giggle. It would have been an unusual job for a lady in those days.

[@jackkomisar458]

7:34 Bennett Cerf seems to have thought that "physiognomy" is a long word for "body". It isn't. It's a long word for "face" or "facial features".

[@igkoigko9950]

Yes, it may be a word Frank Sinatra had in mind when commenting correctly on someone’s lack of a chin.

[@deboraholsen2504]

Physiognomy is actually a word that means trying to assess one’s personality and traits by their facial features and their countenance

[@judithsweeney2553]

Akin to the pseudo-science phrenology?

[@juliansinger]

Mrs. Geyer's legal first name was Alidah, and she was originally from the Amsterdam. She had a husband and two kids, and was also once a pro photographer in Canada, at least according to the local Ogden paper. Also, may still be alive.

[@bambi274]

Thatswhy. 'Duchess'. Coming from Dutch

[@gailreese4102]

Loved Imogene Coca as "Mary, The Tooth Fairy" in "Bewitched." Delightful!

[@loissimmons6558]

I think that Imogene Coca looks quite attractive here. Audiences were so used to seeing her scrunch up her face for comic effect.

[@carollee444]

Love the small converences, by John Daly 😉 He deserved them 😄

[@markblass4490]

Imogene Coca denied being in movies but actually appeared in three shorts in the 1930s as well as a feature film in 1941 "They Meet Again".

[@bryanspindle4455]

She was in Under the Yum Yum Tree with Jack Lemmon in 1964.

[@Dolphin-cb9sq]

It's always interesting to see what women were involved in. Today there is no limit to what field a woman can work in.

[@moontheloon5]

Amen! So strange to hear them say things such as a "lady" doctor. Or a "lady" lawyer.

[@robbycan]

Arlene and Dorothy both look great tonight.

[@igkoigko9950]

You are half correct

[@thomaswright5350]

Tom Poston was one of my favorites up until his passing. He was akways the unassuming guy in the background until he spoke and was very funny when he did.

[@jamarsilia]

I remember It’s About Time, didn’t do well but she was funny as usual .

[@dancelli714]

I LIKE DALY AND COCA BUMPING HEADS.

[@bluewaltz4279]

Strange that the panel didn't recognize Mr. Winslow. He was in many movies, usually as a musician. Duh!!!

[@Mmdmade]

Never knew anyone played piano on airplanes…..

[@syd8802]

11:05 Dorothy's BACK

[@IAintTheDaddyMaury]

I said the same! She didn't lose her touch

[@ladya1953]

Tom Poston married some real beauties! #1 was Jean Sullivan. #3 was Suzanne Pleshette. I could find no image of wife #2.

[@johnpickford4222]

Faith Adams: She must not have been a real beauty!

[@loissimmons6558]

Imogene Coca played the character of Grindl in the TV show of the same name that ran for one season (1963-64). I can't help but wonder if in some language, those are the characters on the gear shift lever panel.

[@Walterwhiterocks]

Huh ?? You lost me there.

[@loissimmons6558]

@@Walterwhiterocks On a car's gear shift or shift for the automatic transmission there are the following letters on some cars: P (for Park) R (for Reverse) N (for Neutral) D (for Drive) L (for Low)

[@Walterwhiterocks]

@@loissimmons6558True, but there's no " i " on any gear shift, and a " G " would be hard to mistake, it seems to me, for a " P." So your wonderment is unfounded (in any language I'm familiar with). Not only that, but the letters designating the gears are normally all capital letters. So I see no realistic possibility for confusion.

[@moontheloon5]

@@loissimmons6558 haha! Never thought of that! Maybe in some alternate universe!😁

[@soulierinvestments]

On Sunday night WML the number of Utahns, either mystery guests or contestants, probably totaled no more than 8. That does not include the teenager contestant in 1963 who pulled a rickshaw in a shopping mall to earn money for BYU tuition -- for that kid lived in Phoenix.

[@ChrisHansonCanada]

*_Tattoo Artist_* *_Plays Piano on Airplane_* *_Tour Guide on Sightseeing Bus_*

[@20alphabet]

Tom Poston married with Suzanne Pleshette would've never been thought of as a possibility back when this show was aired.

[@ChrisHansonCanada]

Sure it would. They were romantically involved in 1959 when both were acting on Broadway.

[@johnhakel4933]

So class

[@billiescott9799]

Tom Poston was sure handsome !!!

[@daler.steffy1047]

Then arrives Mrs. Geyer from Ogden, Utah... And given that part of the country where she is from, I am thinking that she has something to do with the Mormon Church. She is beautiful to look at; she is a lovely wife to somebody; she is most pleasantly dressed; and she conveys a most demure aspect that "speaks" to her general well-being. Maybe she's an organist at the famous Mormon Tabernacle. But whatever it is she is involved with, it will be something that's both humble, "conservative" and grand. Then we find out she is a tattoo artist! And, yet, she does not seem to "exhibit that general appearance" of what today's (2024) tattoo artists more often seem "to appear as" in their very casual clothes, within their respective parlors (but just from past my observations). She, herself, was not covered head-to-toe in tattoos, nor was she wearing shorts and a tank top, nor did she have a cigarette dangling out of the corner of mouth. Oh, wait! Those are stereotypes; and seeing her, it becomes obvious that such images don't fit the 1950s era either, apparently. (And then here she is on a well-presented national television show that has more formal expectations.) But, okay, with all of these preconceptions of what her artistic endeavors entail, man (woman), she simply don't look da part! What is further interesting is that when she appeared on "What's My Line" in 1958, what I had learned over subsequent years was that tattoo parlors were mostly (?) visited by sailors on-leave from their ships, and tattoos were mostly done in a (sort of) purplish-black color application; and the finished tattoo wasn't always what you wanted to reveal to the public when you were out and about. And tattoo parlors back in the 1940s and 1950s were not always visible, or even desirable parts of a downtown area. But, today, what are often found in many of the strip malls that line the periphery of the old downtown areas of a town or city, are folks from all walks of life who want to "celebrate," who want to "express" through their body art, aspects of their lives that carry within them important, often symbolic, meanings. And I say: "Go for it!"

[@raininmyst]

omg cute moment at 18:58

[@TyrSkyFatherOfTheGods]

Apropos of our earlier discussion about the cheques being a product; the piano player has a product associated with his work and answered no when asked as much by the panel.

[@WhatsMyLine]

fishhead06 And apropos of earlier discussion, I'll repeat, this is not how the term "product" was meant to be interpreted **on this show**. Someone who mows lawns for a living does not have a lawnmower as a product.

[@TyrSkyFatherOfTheGods]

Well, I give up. I don't know how cheques can be a product in one case and pianos not in the other. The situations are precisely analogous.

[@WhatsMyLine]

fishhead06 A piano is an instrument used in the performance of the service, not a product. I can't explain it any more clearly than this. If you define product differently than they did on WML, you're going to of course consider different things to be products than they did on WML. It's pretty straightforward: If the person designed, manufactured, inspected, serviced, etc, something they were considered to have had a product involved *in WML terms*. I don't know what you're looking for here. If they defined product the way you do, no one on the panel would ever have asked the question "product vs services" because virtually every job in existence would involve a product of some sort and there would be no point in asking. This isn't now and never was an argument over being "right", as I've said before-- it's just a matter of understanding how they used the terms on WML. I don't remember the contestant with checks as a service, so I can't comment specifically on that. But maybe that was a case where it was more ambiguous than usual whether the line formally involved a product. Maybe they were just wrong that time. John got things wrong on WML sometimes, even by WML's own terms of reference. But as a general rule, it's not a difficult question to answer, and no one on the show had difficulty understanding the distinction.

[@TyrSkyFatherOfTheGods]

Sorry to belabour this or annoy you. So I'll just say this one thing and shut up. The reason the situations are analogous is because they both engage with a product to provide a service. The person working with checks was inspecting them for potential forgeries in her legal work (can't recall whether she worked for a law office or the legal branch of a government department). The piano player uses a piano (like a check, a product) in order to perform a service (playing, rather than inspecting). In neither case do the individuals produce, manufacture, sell, or buy products. Which is what the ordinary understanding of "Do you deal in a product?" would entail. It seems their interpretation was as arbitrary as it was idiosyncratic, is all I'm saying.

[@WhatsMyLine]

fishhead06 And all I'll add is this reply, then, since we're both fully willing to drop this! There is no circumstance in ordinary, everyday life where I can imagine anyone saying that a piano player's product is his piano. A piano **tuner's** product is a piano (more specifically, a tuned piano). Who would ever describe a pianist's product as the piano? No one. In plain, ordinary English, I think we would refer to both tuners and players as performing only a service, rather than dealing in products at all. The product of a pianist's service is the music produced on the piano. The piano, as I said, is the instrument or tool used to create the end result-- the music. But if you stretch the definition of "product" to include intangible things like a musical performance, the term loses all meaning. Thanks for refreshing my memory on the check inspector. If the check inspector was looking for forged checks, then the end product of the work is a check that's been verified as valid (or flagged as a forgery). The check itself is in a different state after the service is performed (validated or invalidated, whereas before inspection it was in a state of "not inspected yet"). A piano on the other hand is totally unchanged by the pianist who plays it. The pianist isn't inspecting it, servicing it, appraising it, selling it, or moving it, all of which would be considered-- on WML-- jobs where the piano itself was the product. I hope this helps; I'm again not arguing this is objectively correct, or true to casual, everyday language usage, but it is consistently applied on WML and pretty much clear to everyone involved in all but exceptionally ambiguous cases. We don't have to keep treading the same ground, but for the record, you haven't been annoying me at all; I'm just trying to explain how the term was used on the show. If you'd been annoying me I'd have stopped replying to your comments a long time ago! :)

[@loissimmons6558]

I once knew someone named Tom Collins. He was the son of one of my school's secretaries and was baseball coach at another high school in my county.

[@slaytonp]

I didn't know anyone by that name, but I drank a lot of them as a young woman. Gin, lemon juice, simple syrup and carbonated water. A John Collins had whisky instead of gin. Do bartenders still know what they are? It's been a long time since I ordered one.

[@loissimmons6558]

@@slaytonp I stopped drinking alcohol in 1986 so I can't say for certain about today's bartender. But I would assume that a good bartender would still be familiar with them. Back in the days when my parents ordered soda from a delivery truck that had a route in our neighborhood, they would usually order a bottle or two of Tom Collins Mix as one of the sodas in an assorted case of 24 bottles. A quick Internet search shows that Tom Collins Mix is still sold in bottles.

[@johnpickford4222]

Lois Simmons: And when I used to drink I knew of a drink called “Tom Collins”. Your point?

[@RobertLofrano]

She is very attractive, a real cutie 😘

[@FlockOfHawks]

Those skirts . . . 😅

[@JamAshleyFilms]

Am I the only person who thinks that Owen Wilson looks like a young Tom Poston?

[@fje6902]

How did Dorothy figure out the tattoo artist? No one else was even close, then suddenly, she asks about needles.

[@Mmdmade]

She’s expert at taking notes. Listening to John. And audience. Very intuitive woman

[@Mmdmade]

She also deduced from touching them. But not all over and customer CHOOSES where she touches them.

[@moontheloon5]

That's good investigative reporting skills at work!

[@geniusmchaggis]

arlene....."its good all over mrs geyer".....@ 831 ish...

[@timd4524]

How the heck do you fit a piano on a 707 or DC 8?

[@RonGerstein]

Pianos can be disassembled and then reassembled in a large airplane.

[@heru-deshet359]

Ms Coca was actually very attractive and would have been stunning if it weren't for that overbite she had.

[@soulierinvestments]

Certainly interesting that this showed up on KZbin in roughly the same period that her comic partner Sid Caesar died, age 91. Funny woman. I am old enough to remember her sitcom "Grindl" but I must have been the only person watching, for it lasted a single season. On NBC opposite Ed Sullivan.

[@WhatsMyLine]

The sad thing is that she left Caesar to do her sitcom, and it wasn't even a success! Nanette Fabray was wonderful too, but Coca was practically Sid's equal. I was so saddened by his recent death, I started posting dozens of his 1950s sketches on my vintage comedy channel: kzbin.info/aero/PLvfCPBLpeglXm9Ol2QGTjtzEcWB39rYqo

[@ToddSF]

soulierinvestments -- I remember "Grindl" -- a maid who, each week would be sent by the man at her agency to help someone who needed more help than a maid would normally provide. Grindl was kind-hearted and would help the person or people who had problems they didn't quite know how to solve. I was sorry as a kid that Imogene Coca's sitcom died after just one season -- I was 11 when it started in the fall of 1963. Being on opposite the second half of "The Ed Sullivan Show" helped ensure that "Grindl" would have low ratings.

[@soulierinvestments]

I remember Grindl, too. David Swift, of all people, was creator-producer. We must have been the only two people who watched it. It had a great theme score.

[@ToddSF]

I still remember that opening theme, instrumental without singing. It was actually a charming sitcom and I liked the main character, a kind-hearted, compassionate woman in a mundane job who found ways to help the people she encountered. Imogene Coca was perfect in the role.

[@loissimmons6558]

I remember Grindl being on the air. I was approaching my 11th birthday when the show started. But I confess that I remember little of the show. Here's most of the opening credits and the theme song. It may be the only time I have heard a laugh track behind an opening theme. And at the end, the sponsor of the show is given. It was a product my family used but is no longer sold under this name. kzbin.info/www/bejne/fKekc6CchsiAnJo

[@keithnaylor1981]

I’m guessing the piano player must play a lot of high notes!

[@cathykinn4516]

Interesting that Dorothy was always flattering or flirting with Cerf when he was so Critical of her later. Either she was trying to win him over then because he was already down on her or his 'friendship' with her was not sincere at all. Compare her comments about him to His about Her after she had Died. Anyone reading them would think she got on his nerves & he resented her a great deal for hogging the camera & for writing in her column about something he had told her he thought In Confidence. And she had already started missing shows & being hospitalized. She was not liked by many due to her column - Lauren Bacall loathed her. Daly was not keen on her either.

[@akrenwinkle]

Her kid complained about neglect while Imogene worked. Now, I could understand Betty Hutton, Garland, Dinah Shore, Rosie Clooney, and on and on, but Imogene Coca?

[@johnpickford4222]

A Krenwinkle: Well at least there were no wire coat hangers! It has never been possible for a woman to have a full time career and be full time mother. Unless Imogene Coca gave birth for money and ignored the child, the accusations are unfair.

[@akrenwinkle]

@@johnpickford4222 I just revisited my OP. Where did I read about her kid complaining? I just looked it up, and Imogene had no children. So one of two things happened: I mistook another comedienne for Imogene, or it was Imogene herself who complained about neglect (both her parents worked in show business). Not my first senior blooper, certainly not my last.

[@Sylvander1911]

Piano on an airplane?

[@neilmidkiff]

A small upright would weigh only as much as a couple of passengers, and this sounds like a luxury charter for casino high rollers, not an exercise in cramming people in like modern coach travel. How about a grand piano on a lighter-than-air craft? www.airships.net/blog/hindenburg-piano/ A special aluminum-bodied grand was made for the Hindenburg.

[@geraldkatz7986]

I remember watching a tv movie as a kid about an airplane crash. One of the characters was the airplane piano player who was blind. I think the actor was blind in real life. He was a character actor I've seen before. Airplane travel was more glamorous back then.

[@Walterwhiterocks]

John frequently says "you've done quite well tonight panel," when they haven't. For example, the panel on this show didn't come anywhere close to guessing the 2nd contestant's occupation.

[@princeharming8963]

Well... guess you'll just have to write a very 'strongly worded letter' to the White Star Line about that!

[@Walterwhiterocks]

@@princeharming8963 I certainly intend to, Prince, as soon as I can get back to dry land !

[@johnpickford4222]

Greg Patrei: If you don’t like the show THEN DON’T WATCH IT!!

[@Walterwhiterocks]

@ John Pickford - Love the show, just not John's habit as described.

[@hollyking2580]

At 8:47 John Daly called Arlene "Miss Dorothy."

[@dancelli714]

Why was Dorothy in the hospital ?

[@gbrumburgh]

She came down with a virus.

[@ChrisHansonCanada]

She was on a two week drunk.

[@poetcomic1]

Where is the tattoo artist from - I watch it over and over and it sounds like Arkanooka (???) 3:15 Can you make it out?

[@doctorjames7454]

Ogden, Utah.

[@poetcomic1]

Thanks!

[@geniusmchaggis]

a tattoo artist from UTAH.....in 1958.....sleazy....

[@timothyball742]

Sleazy I use ugly for tattoos, but I like sleazy!

[@judithsweeney2553]

Unusual in the heart of Mormon country.

[@johnpickford4222]

genius mchaggis: What a p**ck you are to imply that a tattoo artist is sleazy because they’re from UTAH. Are people in Utah immune from getting tattoos?

[@moontheloon5]

Someone should have discreetly signaled the first woman that she had lipstick all over her teeth!

[@lucindasommer720]

I think she had bad teeth; very common back then.

[@dancelli714]

Maybe it's not too late.

[@jenniferyorgan4215]

I was hoping John Daly would have told her during their conference, but no such luck

[@Walterwhiterocks]

@@jenniferyorgan4215 Not sure what good that would have done. What would you expect her to do ? Take out a tissue and rub it off her teeth ?

[@nolitetebastardescarborund9761]

@@lucindasommer720 Bad teeth? Very common back then? You mean normal teeth? The kind people everywhere in the world except the modern US have? US standard figures, standard faces, standard teeth, standard thinking, standard bland……… I'm so glad I got outta there!

[@bambi274]

That guy in panel, unknown to me, is very rude to John

[@peternagy-im4be]

Wrong. He is not.

[@RonGerstein]

YOU ARE RUDE TO JOHN! KEEP YOUR STUPID REMARKS TO YOURSELF.

[@MightyMoCat]

If you mean Tom Poston, you're wrong. Tom was a great guy. If Bennett Cerf, he gave as good as he got.

[@community1949]

Is there an audience for this because no one is laughing or anything.