What's My Line? - Dick Powell; Art Linkletter [panel] (Sep 17, 1961)

[@MikeBlitzMag]

One of the most cerebral, thoughtful and all around entertaining shows of all time. And having the legendary Dick Powell as the mystery guest was the proverbial icing on the cake. Sadly, he would be gone a little more than a year after this episode was filmed. But what an extraordinary legacy.

[@davidsanderson5918]

MikeBlitzMag Dick Powell is on the show at least twice as a mystery guest and then also as a panellist. June Allyson is on thr show every few weeks it feels like. :)

[@770WT]

Powell was also on the following year in 1962, months before his death .

[@patrickryan1515]

Great singing voice in the earlier half of his career.

[@jacquelinebell6201]

He died Jan 2, 1963. 58 yrs. Too young.

[@JakeMabe1]

This is great! Dick Powell is one of my all-time favorites. I thought I had seen all of his appearances on "WML?" (and all the surviving shows of this series), but I'd managed to miss this one. I clapped myself when John Daly asked June Allyson to join her husband. In addition to his fine film work, Powell starred in one of my all-time favorite radio shows, "Richard Diamond: Private Detective." This was a nice treat tonight.

[@savethetpc6406]

I am finally up to the episodes which originally aired during my lifetime. This is the first one. :)

[@WhatsMyLine]

Which means we all know your date of birth now, within 7 days at least. :)

[@thomasthompson6378]

What a great program.

[@daler.steffy1047]

One of the enjoyable aspects of "What's My Line" is how the panelists and commentator take the time to compliment and encourage the people that come on the program as guest contestants; and they do the same thing amongst themselves in desiring to celebrate each person's life that comes on that show in whatever capacity. And this miserable disease of 2024 called narcissism hasn't yet had a chance to really take a strong foothold in our society in the 1950s into the early 1960s. This is what we're supposed to do as individuals: Celebrate each person's life; honor them; show clear ways that you care about a person, and stop making it about yourself all the time.

[@mitch89014]

Love Dick Powell, great personality

[@CDU916]

Gotta love John Daly 😁commenting how he skillfully maneuvered so he was sitting beside June Allyson.

[@kristabrewer9363]

No ya don't gotta love him! (I like him, but I can give you at least THREE instances where he's very annoying)!

[@yeahnoonecaresifyouarefirst]

You mean we're allowed our very own opinions?!

[@chuckendweiss4849]

I flew from LA to New York in 1962 with June and her kids. Landing the youngest boy yelled out “we are falling” just as the landing gears lock in place. Since we were flying 1st class and we were facing his family (just his mother) We saw Dick at the gate.

[@rangerboy7877]

art linkletter has the friendliest smile

[@MM-fr9yh]

Mayor Yorty was the mayor of Los Angeles when my family came to the US from Greece. I miss those days.

[@galileocan]

Interesting that the M.D. guest (anesthesiologist), said she did NOT work for a profit making organization. I've seen that with other medical practitioners on the show before. So with all the arguing now a days about not wanting medicine to become "socialized" in America........was there a time when the medical industry was not for profit back then? This is amazing to me.

[@savethetpc6406]

Galileocan g I believe that hospitals have always been non-profit organizations.

[@davidfritz1331]

+Galileocan g Many hospitals (especially, but not limited to, religious-based hospitals, which I'm sure any hospital named "St. Luke's" is/was) are non-profit; so if she was on the hospital staff (as opposed to being self-employed), she indeed worked for a non-profit organization--at least according to the law and the IRS.

[@lauraatkinson4790]

Nixon opened up the way to HMOs and for-profit hospital and care centers.

[@janetmarletto6667]

Doctors then and now have always been profit making often in the form of a professional corporation.

[@loveisall5520]

With our freakish, fragmented world of celebrity and occupations this great series would be impossible today.

[@jewell92]

I had the book that Mr. Linkletter wrote for many years.

[@MrJoeybabe25]

Sam Yorty had a colorful career. Here is just a bit from Wikipedia "After spending almost 40 percent of his time away from Los Angeles during the last half of 1971, Yorty announced on November 15 of that year that he was running for the Democratic nomination for President in 1972. Yorty had received strong support from influential New Hampshire publisher William Loeb, stating that President Nixon had “caved in” to anti-war senators and that he had never agreed with the government's policy on the war. In response to what he would do, he noted that Dwight Eisenhower had helped bring an end to the Korean War by threatening to use nuclear weapons. However, Yorty received just six percent of the vote in the New Hampshire primary and was never able to gain any momentum in his bid for the nomination. He finally ended his bid shortly before the California primary in June 1972, asking voters to support Humphrey because of the “radical” nature of anti-Vietnam War candidate George McGovern. Yorty picked up the support of a young Louisiana delegate to the Democratic convention, Louis E. "Woody" Jenkins, who subsequently served for twenty-eight years in his state's legislature but lost three bids for the United States Senate, the last as a Republican. After McGovern won the Democratic nomination for President, Yorty began to support Republicans."

[@TheGadgetPanda]

According to Wikipedia (and a 1962 article it references) the symptoms of the cancer which would ultimately kill Powell in April 1963, were first noticed while he was making guest appearances on the East coast promoting his show. So... potentially during this very episode.

[@CrystalTwinStar]

Wilipedia says he passed in 1963 and the title on this video says it was from 1961, so if all info. is accurate he didn't pass until 2 years after this episode aired.

[@TheGadgetPanda]

Crystal of Twin Flames Correct. Noticed symptoms and was eventually diagnosed in '61 (originally he thought it was an allergy), went public with the disease in '62 and died in April '63

[@MrJoeybabe25]

***** I believe he died in January of 1963.

[@jmccracken1963]

+Joe Postove Correct. He died on Wednesday, 2 January 1963, in West Los Angeles.

[@JG-op4de]

They mention he sounds different and he says his voice sounds different because he had an operation. Coincidental foreshadowing or was he already undergoing tests?

[@juanettebutts9782]

My first birthday!! We were stationed in Casablanca, Morocco, my father in the Air Force.

[@jacquelinebell6201]

1 mth before mine!

[@JohnParks-zc1pn]

3:28. Yorty was known for pronouncing "Los Angeles" as Los Angle Less.

[@accomplice55]

Many people did back then, including Bennett Cerf.

[@michaelsergejhelgesson1637]

The same time this ran on TV that night, the Secretary General of the United Nations, Dag Hammarskjöld, had been killed in a mysterious plane crash in Africa a few hours earlier, but right then nobody knew. 1961 was indeed a year of dramatic world events..!

[@thomasthompson6378]

Art Linkletter is possibly the most affable man ever to appear on television.

[@loissimmons6558]

Alas, I've never been able to aff very well. In fact, it makes me ineffable.

[@mikejschin]

I'd give him a tie with Phil Silvers for that honor.

[@Walterwhiterocks]

@@loissimmons6558 That's a very pithy comment from you, Lois. I have hope !

[@loissimmons6558]

@@Walterwhiterocks I'm not looking to pith you off, but I will point out that I wrote that comment (based on KZbin's way of measuring time) between two and three years ago. My comments on personalities and historical comments can be lengthy. My puns, bon mots and repartee are much shorter as a rule. It's one of the keys to comedy. These shorter comments by me have been sprinkled throughout my postings. Now hopefully you and I can have a bit more comity?

[@Walterwhiterocks]

@@loissimmons6558 Judging by your ill attempts at humor in some previous comments, both terse and lengthy, it's questionable that you have truly discovered any "keys to comedy." No offense intended, that's just my impression. :)

[@ChrisHansonCanada]

*_SAMUEL YORTY, MAYOR OF LOS ANGELES_* *_GIVES ANESTHETIC_*

[@christy4421]

57 yrs ago tonight

[@miketheyunggod2534]

No hoots or whistles for Gayle Brown? She’s attractive.

[@gailsirois7175]

The HAIR !!! REALLY ??

[@robertmelson2130]

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sam_Yorty Travelin' Sam was a colorful, interesting character. I'm glad someone on the production staff didn't get cute and call him "Mr. Y" instead of "Mr. X". It might have given it away.

[@calliopivogiatzis2235]

Mrs. Brown puts people to sleep,cool!

[@waldolydecker8118]

John Daley never even mentioned that Mrs Brown had a lovely daughter

[@leesher1845]

They shouldn’t have said where the mayor was from. That made it too easy.

[@gailsirois7175]

They would have asked...they always do

[@hankgillette]

Did Art Linkletter say “Oh, damn!” when he took off his mask and saw it was Dick Powell?

[@neilmidkiff]

Sounds like that to me. Networks were taking risks in those days allowing this bunch of wits and sophisticates to go out live, before the seven-second tape delay machines were in common use. Not that anyone who watched this show regularly would have been startled or offended! These folks lived in the real world of the time, and brought a real flavor of life as it was then, not as the "Standards and Practices" censorship department tried to portray it in scripted shows. Once again I have to praise our channel's host and uploader for his efforts in making these windows into the past available for all.

[@hankgillette]

***** Thanks. That sounds more likely.

[@sdacj]

I heard him say "Oh, Dick!" There WAS, however, an episode where Bennett got a wrong answer and unmistakably said "oh, damn". John had a great comeback. :D

[@andrewsharisky7259]

RFK mentioned Mayor Yorty's name in his acceptance speech minutes before he was shot in 1968.

[@davidfritz1331]

Does anyone know what John was saying when he zinged Bennett at 9:24?

[@neilmidkiff]

John says that Bennett having the anesthesiologist's services is "a consummation devoutly to be wished" -- a Shakespeare quote, from Hamlet's "To be, or not to be" soliloquy. John is jesting that he'd like to see Bennett go under the ether.

[@evetstripp8145]

He said Los Angheles.

[@leesher1845]

Mrs. Ryan Brown had a strange hairstyle.

[@abbywhite2682]

My 9th birthday.

[@williamsecor7745]

The day after my 8th birthday

[@leannsherman6723]

Contestant Dr. Gail Brown had a most unusual hairdo.

[@gp10020]

One can really see john charles daly's wig, eh?

[@judylutz1702]

Someone said they thought Dorothy had a snoot full. I think she was loaded much of the time. We now know she died of an overdose of alcohol and pills, sadly.

[@jeaniedouglas8096]

judy lutz .... It's more likely, I mean a very strong probability, that Dorothy was murdered. I assume you may know the details of the circumstances under which she was murdered,. (made to look like an accidental overdose) The mystery involved sure makes me curious as to the information she had on KENNEDY'S death.

[@thamnosma]

Indeed, Dorothy used both alcohol and barbiturates, which were commonly prescribed as sleep aids back in those years. However, the autopsy showed she had 3 different barbies in her bloodstream, which is extremely odd. Other circumstances around her death were also suspicious. Nothing was ever proven.

[@princeharming8963]

@@jeaniedouglas8096 - Jeanie.. I'm with You on that one.

[@PizzAzzC]

Dorothy was murdered. She drank socially and did not abuse pills. She was fully aware of what she was doing and her career & family were very important to her. She had too much going for her to abuse either

[@dorothykilgallenwasmurdere1653]

@@thamnosma she was only prescribed one sleep aid, and she followed the instructions of just one per night.

[@JohnParks-zc1pn]

0:55 Already the pills and booze are showing their effect.

[@pasimaenpaa2360]

The panel or some members of it doesn't know at all how to behave. Some members know, some members haven't slightest idea. Even this was a show, some standard should keep. In my opinion, some of those members or their questions insult the quest. She should have walk away from studio at once. All questions they made insult the quest more, than program should have been fun.

[@peterhallock9486]

Where did the good TV shows go . 🥰