What's My Line? - Frank Gifford; Milton Berle; Stubby Kaye [panel] (Dec 2, 1956)

NOTE: The first guest, F. Newton Gifford, is actually none other than Frank Gifford, which I missed entirely. Thanks to zardon4 for this info!
MYSTERY GUEST: Milton Berle [comedian]
PANEL: Dorothy Kilgallen, Stubby Kaye, Arlene Francis, Bennett Cerf

[@franklesser5655]

Arlene flirting with the handsome male contestants is always fun to watch!

[@JakeMabe1]

This also tells you that professional football was still decidedly behind baseball in popularity. A decade later, Gifford would have been recognized in a minute.

[@richardmilliken5651]

Back when football players were real men and the game was incredibly violent!!

[@briane173]

Indeed. I just made essentially the same comment before I saw yours.

[@jimkrueger212]

Amazing

[@rockymarino584]

I am binge watching and can not stop.

[@TheBraveIntrovert]

rocky marino So am I.

[@loissimmons6558]

Today's meeting of WML Anonymous has been canceled because no one is willing to come.

[@gerberjoanne266]

Same here!

[@t4texastomjohnnycat978]

rocky marino I'm addicted too.

[@algoritmosalfredohipicasig7116]

Oh? I've only watched one tonight...well alright 10 +.

[@kentlewis987]

Growing up in the 60's & 70's, Milton was still frequently on tv. However it was as an adult that I truly realized what a comedic genius he was. I saw him on the Arsenio Hall show in which it was revealed that he had a mental file of 1000s of jokes. He could spontaneously recount a joke on any given subject. One of the true all time greats!

[@soulierinvestments]

Gifford is one of a handful of people who were both contestants and then guest panelists. He appeared on the panel in 1964 about the time he became his broadcast career.

[@surrealfarm]

I would have loved seeing more of Stubby Kaye as a panelist. He was quite good.

[@spindalis79]

Stubby's last screen appearance was as Mr. Marvin Acme in "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" (1988).

[@jacquelinebell6201]

He was a lovely man.

[@Gwaithmir]

Milton Berle couldn't resist coming back on stage for one more gag.

[@juanettebutts9782]

LOVED Milton Berle coming back on stage! Someone commented he'd never seen Mystery Guests return after their segments were over, and I agree: this was new. What a fun change!

[@preppysocks209]

Sinatra did it in 1966. It did not go well.

[@moonlightray8493]

Jack Paar returned after his Mystery Guest appearance, wearing his coat and scarf and all!

[@robertjean5782]

Numerous MG returned some 3 times😊

[@jadeshannon5583]

I love watching Milton Berle because I think he's hilarious.Overall a great episode of WML.

[@shirleyrombough8173]

I just love these. The panel members seemed to have so much fun together yet so much respect for each other as well. One could say I am addicted. And here comes Milton Berle who couldn't just leave!

[@ARIZJOE]

Franks Gifford's appearance with the panel not blindfolded shows the state of sport in 1956. Baseball was the national pastime. Football, particularly pro football, was a distant second. Then came magnetic Frank Gifford and the beginning of the tough but glamorous Giants, the media cynosure of football. Then there was the first Sudden Death Game between the Colts and Giants. A few years later came the AFL, the merger, and the Super Bowl. Frank worked most of those years as a popular broadcaster. Hence, you'd have to say Frank Gifford was a key element in establishing pro football to preeminence. Other episodes featured Raymond Nitschke and Raymond Berry during the Packers and Colts greatest years, and the panel had no idea who they were.

[@loissimmons6558]

In 1956, pro football was still less popular and had less status than college football. Heisman Trophy winners, New Year's Day bowl games, big rivalry games like Army-Navy, Harvard-Yale, USC-UCLA and so on were much more prominent than pro football. The NY Giants were among the elite or more well-known teams, along with the Chicago Bears, Cleveland Browns, Detroit Lions and LA Rams. But players on struggling teams like the Baltimore Colts (just before Johnny Unitas arrived), Green Bay Packers (a few years before Vince Lombardi arrived) and Pittsburgh Steelers mostly labored in obscurity, even in their own cities. On this day, the Giants beat the Redskins. 28-14, to clinch the Eastern Division title. It sounds like Frank Gifford had a hand in all four Giants' TD's. In 1956 for the second time in NFL history, the Giants would defeat the Bears on a frozen field where the Giants took advantage of being the home team and changing into sneakers while the Bears skidded on the ice while wearing football cleats. Although the two teams tied in their regular season contest, on 12/30/56 the Giants clobbered the Bears, 47-7 at Yankee Stadium. It was the first year that the football Giants called Yankee Stadium home. Previously, they played their home games (including the first sneaker game in 1934) at the Polo Grounds. Frank Gifford was selected as league MVP by all the major sources: UPI, a poll of the players and The Sporting News. (AP would start their award in 1957.) In what was then a 12 game regular season, he ran 159 times for 819 yards and 5 TD's (his highest yardage total during his career), caught 51 passes (also a career high, even though he later switched to wide receiver) for 603 yards and 4 TD's and also threw 2 touchdown passes out of 5 passes attempted. He was also occasionally pressed into service as a kicker, converting 1 out of 2 field goal attempts and 8 of 9 PAT's. And earlier in his career as a rookie, he was All-Pro as a defensive back. In the long run for his career, it didn't hurt that he played his college ball in one of the nation's media capitals and his pro ball in the other, and that he was photogenic and articulate.

[@al.n.darodda6183]

College football was second. Pro Football barely got their boxscores in print (newspapers) and there was no national pro football telecast at the time this WML episode aired. After the war, it took the NFL twenty five years (1945-1970) to be on the same level as MLB and NCAAF.

[@richardmilliken8705]

In 1956 Boxing was more popular than Football and **Rocky Marciano** was almost as popular as our President **IKE**

[@mitchweiner]

Arlene was an enormous flirt...I loved it !

[@robertjean5782]

And she's gorgeous 😊

[@1013pka]

Milton Berle barking is hilarious, even during the credits. Haha. Love it.

[@chris-ur9gj]

One of the greatest giants of alltime . RIP #16 thank you for all you've done for the organization . If only you could be on our team now lol

[@mazzyvictor]

I never met Mr. Gifford personally so I want the world to know, he brought to my father and me so much love and joy in front of our eyes for a few hours so one could escape into a play or performance in the drama that is in this wonderful competitive sport known as (American) football. P. S. My dearest sympathies to his family, friends and all of those who will always ... forever ... love him. R.I.P.

[@juliansinger]

Mrs. Rosen died in 1989, after 57 years married to her husband, Sidney. (And having 2 kids.) She and Patricia Frank teamed up to sell the mistletoe, which they got in Texas, at about 29-59 cents, per the 1961 article I found. (Which seemed to credit Frank as the main organizing force, but I think it's just they mostly talked to her.) Rosen later became a travel director for a Co-Op credit union, and an active Democratic organizer. (helping Mayor Coleman Young get elected, say.)

[@JakeMabe1]

Always liked Frank Gifford. Am too young to remember his playing days, but certainly "grew up with him" on "Monday Night Football." How he stayed sane with Cosell in the booth, I'll never know.

[@alanhumphrey4198]

Always loved the Giffer.

[@laurahoward5426]

He was the workhorse

[@waynehowell6160]

Misbehaving mystery guests I have seen before, but this is the first time I saw one actually return to the stage after his appearance had ended. It was funny, and even a little heartwarming to see him sitting with the panel at the end. It made everyone seem like family.

[@kbrock9146]

Well, in his autobiography, Berle states that he was having an affair with Dorothy, so, it doesn't seem weird after reading that that he came back out to sit with her.

[@lindachavezw...246]

@@kbrock9146 wow, I have to read his book!

[@dorothykilgallenwasmurdere1653]

@@kbrock9146 lol. I haven't heard that one yet.

[@oobaka1967]

Bennett Cerf has one of the most genuine smiles I've seen. It truly saddens me that they've all passed.

[@shirleyrombough8173]

oobaka1967 - I can't deal with that. I would want them to live forever unchanged.

[@benlujan288]

@@shirleyrombough8173 I feel the same about the "WML" cast! :) (Also, each time viewing "Gilligan's Island" I wish they were all with us AND at their respective ages during filming!)

[@shirleyrombough8173]

I agree about Bennett Cerf's smile. I really like him and his genuine smile.

[@anselm4360]

I feel as if they're all still here...

[@gilbertotongco8895]

rip

[@TheCalico72]

I thoroughly enjoyed Milton's antics and expressions! 🤣 Also, it was very nice of Frank to say that Stubby looked like a good tackle and they could use him on the line.

[@username178able]

So handsome... Frank Gifford! What a hunk!! Love these old shows, I can’t stop watching them either; absolutely fabulous in every way.

[@richardmilliken8705]

Indeed! **Frank Gifford** and **Steve Reeves** are still the best looking male athletes of All-time.

[@dovbarleib3256]

Milton Berle called Stubby Kaye, Sol for Solomon. Fascinating. Solomon was Stubby Kaye's Hebrew name. I just caught that.

[@mikejschin]

My favorite Frank Gifford story: He telephoned his good friend Don Meredith, a great natural jokester, and told Don that Kathie Lee was pregnant. Don hesitated a few moments, then said “Don’t worry Frank. I’ll find out who the father is.” lolol

[@waltermoriarty5157]

milton berle was so popular that broadway closed on the tuesday night when he was on air

[@donnalewis2858]

Dorothy is so intuitive. Guessing frank gifford plays football right out of the gate

[@rmelin13231]

She was a very smart lady.

[@robertjean5782]

​@@rmelin13231Dorothy was a investigative reporter for years 😊

[@scottmiller6495]

Milton Berle was an incredible human being and a Sensational all around entertainer, PERIOD!!!!!

[@balconi89]

RIP Frank Gifford. Don't know why but this was the first video clip I thought of watching.

[@JakeMabe1]

John makes reference to Random House publishing Don Whitehead's "The FBI Story." Don was a well-known war correspondent for the Associated Press and later Washington bureau chief for the New York Herald-Tribune. When he retired, he moved back near his Kentucky home and served as a columnist for one of the then two daily newspapers in my hometown, the Knoxville News-Sentinel. One of my closest friends and mentors, who later was the managing editor of the Sentinel for a time, said Don was the kind of writer who could "turn garbage into gold."

[@nancypine9952]

Daly commented about how "The FBI Story" should have been written a long time ago. J. Edgar Hoover had been looking for the right publisher and author for a long time. One of Cerf's friends (George Sokolsky, a prominent conservative columnist of the day) accused him of being a "pinko publisher," implying that he only published books by communists. Cerf was so angry he went back to his office and sent off a list of his entire catalog, which included a number of conservative authors. Sokolsky apologized, and several months later approached him and asked if he would be interested in publishing a book about the FBI. The FBI had already picked Whitehead as the writer they wanted, (he'd just won his second Pulitzer for reporting) but they had hesitated about finding the right publisher. Every publisher in the country had longed for such an opportunity, and Cerf grabbed at it. It was a phenomenal best seller. ("At Random, the Reminiscences of Bennett Cerf," pages 245-248).

[@dape8993]

I can't believe the panel wasn't blindfolded for Frank Gifford!

[@robertjean5782]

Football was in it's infancy and baseball was the 1 and only sort to be recognized 😊

[@moonlightray8493]

Good on Dorothy and Bennett for doing most of the heavy lifting in this episode; they were brilliant in figuring out one contestant after another!

[@richardpoplis6777]

Milton Berle was the best.. great comedian.. miss him

[@francanino7087]

Omg... Mrs. Dorothy got it from her first guess!! She's good

[@robertjean5782]

At the beginning of Dorothy's questioning she mentioned football someone in audience shouted oh😊

[@kasperjoonatan6014]

Sometimes when I watch Dorothy I want to scream 'what sorcery is this?!' :D

[@wchumphries]

The repartee during the first segment was wonderful!

[@geraldkatz7986]

I've heard of Frank Gifford, but I think this is only the second time I've ever seen him on any media. I knew he was a football player, but I had only ever really knew him as Kathie Lee's husband whom she would talk about a lot. I think I saw him once on a talk show with Kathie.

[@elizabethrainbolt9443]

This is my favorite episode so far.

[@louisecoleman1339]

Interesting episode as this was when the Fred Cook book, The FBI Nobody Knows, had been published about J. Edgar Hoover and his running of the FBI. Truly insightful.

[@t4texastomjohnnycat978]

I realize that this was YEARS before the ridiculously over-saturation of football by espn, but Frank Gifford was a 3 season star at USC, and came within a whisker of winning the Heisman Trophy in his senior year, and then was World Champion with the New York Giants, the same city that the WML studios are in, and no one thought to put blindfolds on the panel?

[@al.n.darodda6183]

That’s because baseball was king in those times. And college football was way bigger (popular) than pro football. And not all folks had TV sets. Pro Football was rarely on TV. For sports, you mostly read stories and the box scores in the newspapers.

[@dorothykilgallenwasmurdere1653]

I wonder why the players back then didn't get the brain disease many players get today. You'd think they would have since helmets improved so much.

[@robertjean5782]

​@@al.n.darodda6183Exactly 😊

[@christinalw19]

Gorgeous Frank Gifford. Just watched Kathy Lee in a Hallmark movie last night. I was a year old when he won the Heisman at USC. Wow.

[@cruiseboston638]

They had a great love and long marriage for celebrities.....but I cant help but chuckle when I see this is 1956 and Kathlie Lee was born in 1953. She was 3 yrs old at the time of this episode Lol

[@lynettepalecek3141]

That was funny when Milton Berle came back on stage and barked after the panel found out that the last contestant was a dog 🐕 catcher! Arf, arf!

[@kathleenl4387]

Dorothy thought from the beginning that Frank Gifford could have been a football 🏈 player but he was listed as salaried!!! How funny!! Good job, Arlene and Bennett!!! OMGoodness, Frank Gifford was very nice looking!! ❤️❤️Uncle Milty❤️❤️

[@jimclark6256]

Katie Lee was 3 years old when this was aired. She always talked about Frank on the Reggie and Katie Lee show. One time she went to far and told a story about Frank's "sleepwalking" . She said she caught him coming out of the baby setter's room in the nude at 2 in the morning, and claimed he was "sleep walking". The audience howled with laughter because it sounded like she believed it.

[@johncassani6780]

It’s amazing to think that Frank Gifford was on, not as a celebrity! It wouldn’t be long before he was quite famous. He is as responsible as anyone for the popularity of the NFL today.

[@richardpoplis6777]

Bennett Cerf.. was great on sports figures.. very few got past him

[@channelwoodgrange]

3:28 - To quote Arlene from the episode with Mr. Kilgallen, "Ohhhhh..... Dorothy......"

[@robertdiotalevi2882]

Milton Berle is NOT Mr. Television...Milton Berle IS television.

[@richardmilliken5651]

Uncle Milty was the original Lng Dog Silva 13``

[@robertjean5782]

Exactly 😊

[@robertdiotalevi285]

@@robertjean5782 😊👍

[@yvonnerocchio8445]

Frank Gifford was quite the hunk.....and a nice guy.....

[@perpieta]

Yes, he sure looks gorgeous here, and so polite.

[@donnawoodford6641]

Nice, until he was found not so nice. Bakersfield, CA is known as a "ghetto" in a sense.

[@richardmilliken8705]

@@donnawoodford6641 Frank had a wandering eye like most men back then. I can only imagine all of the women that threw themselves at him. Arlene & Dorothy were drooling over him and even stubby wanted to look like him. Steeve Reeve is probably the only other athlete as good looking as him.

[@roberttelarket4934]

Hell that's the extremely handsome very young Frank Gifford before he became famous. I didn't recognize him!

[@Mmdmade]

When football players didn’t look like Cyclopes and prison bound

[@Beson-SE]

At last I understand how the blackboard can look so new and fresh when a contestant signs in. There is not actually a school blackboard, it seems to be some sort of black hard paper. When Milton Berle had said goodbye to the panel he ran back and wrote "George Gobel" on the board. Just when the next contestant had entered we can see Milton's sheet disappear and a new unwritten paper is put to place from someone behind the board. 21:15 I had imagined someone coming out with a sponge and towel to whip out the names after every game. :)

[@WhatsMyLine]

I can't tell you enough times how much I appreciate your pointing out these little oddball moments in your comments!

[@Beson-SE]

What's My Line? As always Gary, it's my pleasure to be able to contribute to the world of WML. :)

[@tjbnyc76]

The signature cards sell fairly frequently on eBay.

[@balconi89]

There was a memorabilia auction years back that had a bunch of these cards for sale. Wonder what they go for now.....

[@savethetpc6406]

balconi71 This topic just came up on the WML Facebook page, and I learned for the first time that the guests signed in on black cards, rather than on an actual chalkboard. The Dorothy Kilgallen card recently sold for $1,700.00 (see this link: www.icollector.com/Dorothy-Kilgallen-Signed-What-s-My-Line-Card_i5971981), but someone else from the group who bought other cards said that Dorothy's was by far the most expensive one.

[@richardpoplis6777]

The heart bracelet that Arlene wore must be her favorite. .. She wore the bracelet many times.. it's very beautiful

[@neilmidkiff]

If you mean the diamond heart ornament worn on a neck chain, it was a gift from her husband with a great deal of sentimental value. Even when she wore a dress or another necklace with which it didn't work, she put it on a longer chain and wore it beneath her dress.

[@richardpoplis6777]

This piece of jewelry must have been very special to Arlene.. she wore it many times... it was beautiful

[@accomplice55]

@@richardpoplis6777: And it was stolen from her as she stepped out of a cab, some time after her husband died. :(

[@rharvey2124]

@@accomplice55 Yes I think it was snatched off her neck at the end of the 90s in NYC. There was a lot that in the big cities in the early 80s also from what I've heard.

[@robertjean5782]

​@@richardpoplis6777Her husband gave it to her😊

[@americanfreedomlogistics9984]

Such a young Frank Gifford

[@jewell92]

As I watch I remember that $5.00 then was a lot!

[@robertjean5782]

$50 was a weeks pay or a house payment 😊

[@fenwaypark1725]

Forest Tucker and Milton were two of the biggest stars back then.

[@elletrev2060]

Wow GIfford , really young and really handsome. Uncle Milty so funny lol.

[@joycejean-baptiste4355]

I remember seeing Me. Gifford in commercials on T. V. as a kid. Lucky Strikes was one.

[@robertjean5782]

He was almost totally unknown at this time, as well as the game😊

[@sixtythreekraft2608]

If the date on this vid is right, Gifford and his teammates were about to win the NFL Championship about 3 or 4 weeks later.

[@WhatsMyLine]

The date is correct.

[@sdgakatbk]

1956-Frank Gifford's MVP year and the Giants with Vince Lombardi as Coordinator, Tom Landry as Defensive Coordinator, and Head Coach Jim Lee Howell making sure the footballs were inflated.

[@kenyongray2615]

Pro football was not super popular until 1958. The Giants versus Baltimore Colts championship game of 1958 put pro football on the United States sports map. That was why Frank Gifford was unknown except for sports fans. After his retirement, he went into broadcasting and his face was known by countless millions.

[@richardmilliken8705]

Boxing & Baseball were the 2 most popular sports back then and More People knew that Rocky Marciano was the Heavyweight Boxing Champ than the fact that Ted Williams from the Red Sox was the greatest hitter of All-time. Both Athletes were Boston Gods back then.

[@lasuvidaboy]

RIP Frank Gifford.

[@gnirolnamlerf593]

Stubby Kaye played two show-stopping supporting roles on Broadway, singing "Sit Down, You're Rocking the Boat" in _Guys and Dolls_ and the song from _L'il Abner_ mentioned here, "Jubilation T. Cornpone," yet he never received a Tony nomination. He reprised the roles in the movies based on the plays. I mean, who else could have done them as well? When I was a kid, I enjoyed him on _Stump the Stars_ , the game show based on charades, too.

[@stevensicherman4101]

Can’t believe they wouldn’t know Frank Gifford

[@robertjean5782]

Relatively unknown, football 😊

[@nunosoares2329]

RIP Milton Berle. Funny man. Overdue condolences to the family 😔💐

[@tubularap]

This happened on December 2, 1956 [wikipedia.org/wiki/1956] (for extra background while imagining those times) : Fidel Castro and his followers land in Cuba in the boat Granma. A pipe bomb planted by George Metesky explodes at the Paramount Theater in Brooklyn, injuring 6 people. The next day an explosion with 'major destruction' and fatalities at Bush Terminal in Brooklyn.

[@ToddSF]

I'll say one thing for Milton Berle's comic antics on this episode -- they didn't interfere with the progress of the game, which is more than I can say for some comedians who co-opted the entire program just to be funny.

[@LarsRyeJeppesen]

Victor Gorge comes to mind

[@loissimmons6558]

+ToddSF 94109 You are absolutely correct as far as the game play itself. Once the game play was over, Berle made sure he stayed on camera and hogged time during other segments. It looks like a good way to get injured was to get between Berle and a live camera. Or to put it another way (considering the occupation of the final challenger and the nature of Berle's antics), I'm not surprised that the show went to the dogs once Arlene guessed that the MG was Berle. Disclaimer: I have never had warm fuzzies for Berle. Some of it was based on some of his routines, some of it was his reputation for stealing other comics material, and some of it is that his personality rubs me the wrong way. There always seemed to be an arrogance beyond the confidence that performers generally need and an underlying meanness. I rarely find any of his shtick to be funny. Lorne Michaels banning him from returning to Saturday Night Live because of him taking over the episode that he guest hosted and his upstaging of the winners of the award he introduced during the 1982 Emmy Awards are prime examples of his obnoxious behavior.

[@carolv8450]

Lois Simmons - I totally agree! He comes off as a bully to me, and not funny at all!

[@barrykendrick3146]

I recall reading that Jackie Gleason had a pincushion affair under his jacket so that when Berle grabbed his arm to upstage him, he got a fistfull of pins! Also, a TV network, I think NBC, made a contract with Milton Berle in 1950 to pay him $1 million a year for 30 years...

[@robertsvorinich890]

@@carolv8450 You're right, I could not figure out his appeal. He was not funny and I sensed not a nice person.

[@catsarereallycool]

Very handsome man. I miss him announcing football.

[@ilovebeinagirl]

Wow, Frank was hot! I never saw videos of him when he was young.

[@dennisbedard9850]

I have watched almost every one of the WML shows. There is no way Bennet Cerf did not know who Gifford was from the get go. He was a consummate NY sports fan.

[@lorraineb.4698]

He even said how could anyone NOT know him?

[@joycejean-baptiste4355]

I just realize that was Frank Gifford at the end, how he wrote his name threw me off.

[@lynettepalecek3141]

I have a DVD set of game shows from the 1950s and 1960s. Stubby Kaye was a lot of to watch as the host of "Shenanigans" which is a kids show. The episode that I have was broadcast in 1964. It was a treat seeing him here. 🙂

[@lindachavezw...246]

Thats Frank Gifford!! Wowza!! He was married to Kathie Lee? Is he that Frank Gifford?

[@bluecamus5162]

As Berle greeted the panel, he took one hand of Arlene's and kissed it quickly. With Dorothy, he took both hands and kissed her on the cheek, then returned to share her chair as she blushed and grinned sheepishly from ear-to-ear. Berle claims in his autobiography that they were lovers; if true, I guess this was the time period.

[@poolside123canadian7]

3:24 audience didn’t give it away. Wow.

[@OnCloudNine62]

Wow! Look at Frank Gifford! A mere babe :)

[@dovbarleib3256]

Dorothy guessed it off the bat. 2 years before she would have ended his appearance with her random guess.

[@stevers62]

So funny to watch them openly drool over Frank Gifford. 4:09 4:41 5:00 5:26. 6:15. They clearly want to use “his services”. 🙂

[@sansacro007]

Gifford! Can't recall of a more handsome or studly athlete, ever. I was surprised there were no masks--then I read the comments about football's still being in its infancy in terms of National popularity. This show never fails to be a history lesson! Love it.

[@robertjean5782]

I totally agree with you 😊

[@ChrisHansonCanada]

The man who was frequently in the audience with the loud, bellowing laugh sounded like the often fake sounding laughter that Ed McMahon did on The Tonight Show.

[@robertjean5782]

He was my friend and we attended regularly 😊

[@jennybrown75]

12:47 Did I hear Arlene do a little impression of Bennett?? ("She kisses under it!")

[@rmelin13231]

So glad to see Stubby Kaye guess the line!

[@samdash4706]

It's silly that they thought they would sneak Frank Gifford past by signing him in as "F. Newton Gifford." Bennett was always tuned in to local sports and probably recognized Gifford on sight. And it wasn't like Gifford was just some guy on the Giants, he was their top superstar, having already multiple Pro-Bowl and All-Pro season, he was near the end of the 1956 season, possibly the greatest season of his career, in which he would win the MVP and win the NFL Championship Game a few weeks after this appearance.

[@robertjean5782]

Football was in its infancy and majority of people didn't have a TV 😊

[@michaelrube9881]

Stubby Kaye was in the film Cat Ballou which starred Nat King Cole, Jane Fonda and Lee Marvin

[@poetcomic1]

I wouldn't have trusted Arlene alone in the room with Frank. She TOTALLY flipped for him.

[@norelcopc2431]

She was just having fun.

[@ludenasan1]

+poetcomic1 Arlene was great at teasingly lusting after the great looking male guests. She was also the best of all panelists at praising the other artists and sports stars!!

[@kristabrewer9363]

Why, because she said he had a nice back, no matter what back it is?

[@kristabrewer9363]

@@ludenasan1 Arlene was a great Panellist, but Dorothy was by far, the SMARTEST one!

[@jimclark6256]

She was married to the same man for over 40 years.

[@eggsteadgardens2655]

I feel like they get hints because theres no way they would guess this stuff properly being so *broad*

[@lorraineb.4698]

I recently learned they did get clues before the show

[@robertjean5782]

​@@lorraineb.4698Not true feelings don't make it true. They had nothing to gain be cheating😮

[@Brian-uy2tj]

I have a funny and true story about Milton Berle for you. When Milton Berle was older he married a woman 1/2 his age and people thought she was after his money but she was a real estate agent in Palm Springs and was worth millions all on her own. What they had in common was a sense of humor. On their Honeymoon he got up early to go play a round of golf and to be funny he left a $100 on her night stand. When he got back she had gone out for breakfast and had left $98 change on his night stand. I think the two of them got along just fine.

[@anneliesesteden390]

What’s my Line has my full attention! 🇨🇦🌺👍

[@laurahoward5426]

Never seen Frank Gifford so young.....🥰

[@lorraineb.4698]

Frank Gifford played on ‘Password’ in the sixties and was an excellent player

[@wchumphries]

Frank Gifford was a hunk!

[@rhagedorn]

+wchumphries I was shocked that he wasn't the mystery celebrity. He was one of the greatest football players ever and he played for the local Giants. In his 12 year career he was an 8-time all-pro and had been in the league for 4 years when this show was filmed. In fact he was the Most Valuable Player in the league the year this show was shown. It's very weird that they thought that messing with his name a little would fool anyone, especially the men on the panel.

[@loissimmons6558]

+Rick Hagedorn The panelists may have hated it, but this was definitely a time that they should have had the panelists blindfolded for the first segment and probably that Gifford sign in as Mr. X. Pro football was nowhere near the popular sport it was today, but on sight both Dorothy and Stubby Kaye suspected that he was a football player (Dorothy even mentions it and at the end of the segment Stubby says he thought so, too) and Bennett obviously knew the last name and basically told Arlene what to guess. Ironically, Arlene was the only one of the four who didn't seem to know him. Even if the NFL was not a very big deal in 1956, you are right that Gifford was a star on one of the better teams and a local team, a big fish in a small but growing pond.

[@bigwilson8794]

The only panelist who knew that it was NYG Frank Gifford was Bennet...and he couldn't keep his mouth shut! I wish he would just wait his turn. The others had no idea.

[@jennybrown75]

I've noticed that with Bennett, he can't seem to help himself! There were a couple of times (can't think of an example at this moment) when a panelist in effect recused themselves to let the others keep guessing. That certainly would have been appreciated by the contestants who would have liked to get a few more "No" answers, as well as the audience.

[@loissimmons6558]

+Jenny Brown I was wondering something along these lines as to whether Bennett should have disqualified himself. In the case of non-celebrity challengers, the panelists would automatically disqualify themselves if they knew the person and their line. (On an episode just a few weeks earlier, David Niven knew the challenger, but not their current line, so no need for disqualification.) But for anyone with any kind of notoriety, it seems that the panelist's knowledge was fair game and part of the cat and mouse that WML staff would play with the panelists on such occasions. I blame WML here for thinking that such a flimsy subterfuge (F Newton) would be effective, although it did apparently throw off Stubby Kaye. (For about five seconds, I thought it might be Frank Gifford's brother, and then I said, "No, that's Frank. Who do they think they're fooling?") It's as absurd as a pair of glasses keeping people from recognizing that Clark Kent and Superman are the same person. I don't know what the official WML protocol was for the panelists in such instances. But that's my take on it.

[@nancypine9952]

This is at least the third time when a recognizable professional athlete was introduced without the panel being asked to put on their masks, and every time the person was recognized by Bennett Cerf. I blame the producers. By now they should have realized that professional athletes needed to be concealed as much as any of the movie stars. Television had made these people known, and they needed to be mystery guests. But you'll notice that Bennett was very graceful in allowing other people to get the credit. He often passed along very clear hints to whoever followed him in the questioning, and this time he gave Arlene the clue. And both Dorothy Kilgallen and Stubby Kaye thought Gifford was a football player.

[@neilmidkiff]

@@nancypine9952 I wasn't old enough to be watching football back then, but based on seeing older film clips I'd guess that the players wouldn't have been as easy to recognize from television coverage as they are today. We're used to high-definition cameras with long zoom lenses, so on our big screens we can count the stitches in the seams of their jerseys. Cameras then weren't as sharp, lenses not as long, and home receiver picture tubes were smaller.

[@benlujan288]

@@neilmidkiff Exactly!

[@karlabanks4908]

Had no idea Frank was so good looking, Kathy’s a lucky girl!

[@blondiegal2105]

he died several years ago. I want to say he was around 85.

[@Yanay30]

Lol, Kathie Lee would have been 3 years old at the time of this appearance 😱😄

[@steveo288]

After watching so many of these past shows,, it's amazing to me how much time Daly wastes with all the conferences and explanations. He also had a bad habit of answering the questions before the guest could.

[@robertjean5782]

All of what you mentioned was part of his job 😊

[@woodykelleher9253]

"Hi, Frank, I'm everybody!"

[@joycejean-baptiste4355]

Wow, a lady dogcatcher. She's quite robust looking. for her job, dog catchers have to be fit for that job I'm thinking. I was a dog walker as a job once and one of the dogs was pulling me along, a chocolate lab, they're gentle but strong. The most fun job I ever had. Thanks for the video, it brinngs back fond memories.

[@robertjean5782]

It goes to show any size person can do this job 😊

[@sewashburn0529]

Frank Gifford contributed to each of the Giants' 4 touchdowns in their 28-14 victory over the Washington Redskins: www.pro-football-reference.com/boxscores/195612020nyg.htm

[@101slowdream]

RIP F NEWTON

[@christopherstarr8050]

Gifford was a total class act . and he got the chicks

[@lorraineb.4698]

They say he was also quite a nice man.

[@helenellis]

Can anyone help a confused English person?! What's so funny about Berle putting his foot on the desk and pulling up his trouser leg, in mock concentration, after being asked "Are you English?" The audience seem to think it's hilarious so I'm wondering if I'm missing something...

[@amethystanne4586]

I do not know either. It was unexpected that he did that.What an odd duck he was! I was 2 years and 5 months old when this episode aired, so I only saw his TV performances when he was a much older man.

[@jackkomisar458]

He was clowning around with every answer. He shook his head and then answered "Yes." Then he nodded his head and answered "No." And he made a lot of peculiar facial expressions. The audience was laughing with him and was in a giggly mood. Then he did something that they had never seen a mystery guest do before, put his foot on the desk, and they laughed louder. He was not mocking the English. The audience was just primed to laugh at anything that was out of the ordinary.

[@amethystanne4586]

@@jackkomisar458 .... thank you. Anything would have gotten a laugh by that time?

[@helenellis]

​@@jackkomisar458 ​ Thanks both for your replies. I was just wondering whether I had lost a reference to something in translation, but no he was just being daft! I do like Milton Berle as a mystery guest as he has a proper go at fooling the panel; quite a few mg's give too much away as they're obviously worried that they WON'T be recognised!

[@jackkomisar458]

@@amethystanne4586 Anything unexpected would have gotten a laugh. Each week, before the show started, someone like Johnny Olson would "warm up" the audience, getting them in the mood to laugh. Mood is very important to laughter. Johnny Carson noticed a difference in Friday night audiences, composed of people who were anticipating the weekend, and he would say "Friday night crowd." Stephen Colbert also used to call attention to the Friday night crowd (when he still had a crowd) when he was doing his monologue. When I was a graduate student in biology, many years ago, I gave a talk to an audience at a retreat on a weekend evening. The audience was in a giggly mood. They thought the talk was funny. The subject was the work that our lab was doing to understand immunoglobulin isotype switching.

[@cmans79tr7]

Stubby Kaye of "Shenanigans" fame. I grew up watching "Shenanigans", with "Sword of Damocles", "Pie in the Eye". kzbin.info/www/bejne/gprLi6tnfd2irtU

[@briane173]

This is a commentary on the primacy of ML baseball over pro football in the 50s. Arlene and Bennett were all up in baseball, especially the three NY teams; but pro football wasn't even on their radar. As a kid I grew up with Frank Gifford at RB and later as play-by-play on Monday NIght Football for almost three decades.

[@calamitytilt]

Interesting to see the name-writing board move