You Bet Your Life #55-04 Dimitri Tiomkin, famed Hollywood composer ('Clock', Oct 20, 1955)

In addition to the appearance of the famous Hollywood composer Dimitri Tiomkin, this show is notable for a strange moment @15:00. Groucho does his usual shtick of playing matchmaker to a pair of unmarried contestants, and gets a surprising answer for 1955 when he asks the Air Force lieutenant why he hasn't thought about getting married. All Groucho can say in response, while the audience titters uncomfortably, is "Oh, I see. . . " before quickly changing the subject.
A little later, Groucho does get the lieutenant to say that he's interested in going on a date with his beautiful partner, but note the abrupt edit just after-- I've often wondered just what was said here that's been snipped out!
And just in case anyone thinks I'm reading too much into this, I should point out that director Robert Dwan takes special note of this segment in his book about the show, "As Long As They're Laughing". I probably wouldn't have noticed anything unusual otherwise.
COUPLE #1: Mimi Pill / Dimith Tiomkin, famous Hollywood composer
COUPLE #2: Jennie Johnson / L.G. Hardy, Hoover Dam tour guide
COUPLE #3: Lt. Charlie Jones, Air Force pilot / Lily Badalian, from Iran
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Episode identification and basic description based on "Tell 'em Groucho Sent You", © 1997 by Mark Petty. Used by permission.

[@dianewinnicki8115]

Love GROUCHO. Trying to watch all You bet your life shows. They are so uplifting and guests are fascinating. Thanks for posting.

[@henrybrowne7248]

ME TOOO.

[@dafinker3443]

The very best ever and the people are DECENT 🌹🌹🌹

[@ARIZJOE]

Dimitri Tiomkin had a long career, nominated 22 times for an Academy Award, and winning four Oscars. He asked African American musical legend Jester Hairston to do choral arrangements in Hollywood, at a time when there were no blacks in significant positions. Tiomkin composed the music to the song "Wild Is The Wind," recorded by several artists including David Bowie.

[@beatmet2355]

The Iranian dancer/multilinguist was gorgeous! I wonder how things turned out for her?

[@leslieackerman4189]

Dimitri Tiomkin was one of the great composers of the Hollywood Golden Era. Amazing and memorable scores.

[@ElisabethEkberg]

How cute is Tiomkin?! He seems like a really kind man.

[@MightyOz]

I fell out of my chair when Groucho did his thing behind the dancer! What a talent he was. Thanks for posting this, I'm going to enjoy your channel.

[@firdausHITMAN]

Very rare episode. Never seen this one before. Cannot thank you enough for uploading.

[@grouchomarx-youbetyourlife7476]

You're very welcome. I'm glad you found it-- I don't know how I'm going to get people to notice these shows. There's so much posted on youtube by other people already, but the same episodes over and over again, and usually with no accurate information in the titles or descriptions to help you figure out if you've seen the show already. All I can think to do is write up real descriptions and put meaningful titles on the videos (thanks to a very useful log created by someone else). But this channel is growing very, very slowly compared to my three others, and I know I'm posting shows that haven't been seen by anyone in a long, long time. Frustrating! But that makes it all the nicer to get a comment like yours.

[@grouchomarx-youbetyourlife7476]

Incidentally, since you're the first to comment here, I'm curious what you thought of the air force pilot segment I talked about in the description.

[@davidcherve]

@@grouchomarx-youbetyourlife7476 I might be misunderstanding, but I thought immediately: I like girls so much that I won't settle with just one. But of course may be wrong.

[@cherylvirden3073]

​@@grouchomarx-youbetyourlife7476I'm 79 in Cognitive decline. My favorite thing to do every day is to laugh. And I laugh every day , because of You Bet your life and the Great Groucho Marx. Thanks for making my day every day. Now I'm really Happy. Laughter is my key to longevity! Thanks.

[@walkingtrails7776]

I love "Blacky" the Hoover Dam guy, he was a dam hoot!

[@SwarthySkinnedOne]

Walking Trails 777 Yeah, he's a card.

[@wwvette]

You Want A Name After A Criminal? Hoover Was A Criminal. Just Like We Have Today In The F.B.I.!

[@acousticshadow4032]

"Do you have a particularly steady boyfriend, or a boyfriend who's not particularly steady?" 😂 "Is there a snake in the audience?" 😂😂

[@martinjones5965]

If "Blacky's" line about taking the afternoon off was not scripted that was as sharp as anything Groucho serves up.

[@johnbowman1076]

Not too many Iranian women dancing that way in Tehran today.

[@Arthur_McGowan]

The lighting is exceptionally good.

[@jslasher1]

I love Groucho's comment about 'St Pete' being in Florida as opposed to Russia.

[@loissimmons6558]

Groucho did that frequently. On another episode when a woman said she was born in Toledo, Spain, he insisted that it was in Ohio. He has also insisted that Monticello should be in Virginia, not in Arkansas, and that Alexandria was in Virginia, not in Louisiana. I'm sure there's more, but that's what comes to mind. He was a clever wit, but he did have a few stock jokes that he could use, especially when he received some basic info about each contestant and could prepare a few jokes on standby. The city in Russia is older. The city in Florida was not founded until 1888. It was named after the city in Russia, the hometown of one of the two founders. The other founder got to name the first hotel built after HIS hometown, Detroit. It should be noted that when Dimitri Tiomkin was born in 1894, the name of the city in Russia was St. Petersburg as it is also known today. But when this episode was aired, the city was known as Leningrad. It was named that in 1924, five days after the death of Vladimir Lenin. (It had been previously renamed Petrograd in 1914 at the start of WWI to remove any suggestion of Germanic words, "Sankt" and "Burg". But it was a most curious thing when I checked to see when Mr. Tiomkin was born. According to his "official website", he was born in Ukraine, far from St. Petersburg. His connection with St. Petersburg is that he studied music there at the Conservatory of Music. While he came of musical age in St. Petersburg, I do not know why he would identify it as his birthplace. It's not like he was born in a small town near St. Petersburg. Kremenchuk, where he was born, is about 650 miles due south of St. Petersburg.

[@MrAdriancooke]

When I was a kid I was confused about references to St Petersburg in Tom Sawyer because I only knew about St Petersburg in Russia and didn't realise that there can be more than one place with the same name

[@ElmwoodParkHulk]

Wow that Persian dance .....

[@poetcomic1]

I love when Groucho embarrasses George.

[@cefcat5733]

These are the most entertaining archives which people born in the late 1800's might have watched. Groucho is still funny.

[@SecsSells]

Damn audience. I hear them answering 60 years later.

[@franklinnorth7708]

Air force guy in Vegas, smells like an area 51 assignment to me.

[@henrybrowne7248]

The Thing From Another World . . . 1951 . . . I'll always remember that spooky music.

[@henrybrowne7248]

Dimitri looks like Donald Pleasence.

[@mr.crighton9491]

That''s an Armenian beauty there......she was from Iran; "Badalian" is an Armenian name.

[@henningandersen9027]

Wonder if the Iranian girl would not have given up her wrestler for that clever, handsome pilot?

[@al4berry]

Iranian women's dress sure has changed!

[@janepatterson6779]

The take over of Islam and fanatical attitude toward women by Muhammad.

[@JJTownley_Classical-Composer]

I've watched every episode on KZbin. There are still many more that are not here if this show ran for 10 years. Where are the other episodes?

[@FF11Freshstep]

one other thing to note about this episode... just after this week the secret word switches to being worth $101 as a gimmick for approx. 2 months. the last example of this is episode 0613 (#55-13). by 0617 (#55-17) it had gone back to $100

[@harleystine1840]

The Persian girl was a stunning, sophisticated young lady. If she can cook like she dances I'd lick the bottom of the pot. I do like tadik!

[@papagen00]

13:19 Persian Princess

[@m42037]

There's of course Harvard in England which is very old and popular

[@FF11Freshstep]

I have to say I give that air force guy some major respect. to be in the US services during the 50's and to make a comment like that took some major major guts and fortitude. he could have been given a DD (dishonorable discharge) or ended up labeled a red by the mccarthy people. way to go Charlie Jones.

[@berwyn58]

I had to play that back a couple times to be sure he said what he did!!

[@Arthur_McGowan]

He said he hadn't given marriage much thought. I think he meant because he DID like girls.

[@williamanthony9090]

You poor dumb son of a bitch. You really think he was saying he was gay?

[@michaelm6948]

In today's armed forces he'd likely be dishonorablely discharged for what he said - that he liked girls. McCarthy's right hand man, Roy Cohn, was a homosexual who died of Aids in the 80s. Cohn spent much of the Army McCarthy hearings defending his lover David Schine against his treatment by some of the military brass.

[@shanksmare8]

He's saying he's not getting married because he's dating a lot of women

[@lala-gj4oo]

what was the purpose of an arbitrary prize amount of 440 dollars

[@wwvette]

Change The Dam Back To Bolder, We Don't Want Anything Named After A Criminals!!!

[@witchamacallit]

why is Groucho's mike blurred or shining?

[@historylover1679]

I think they’re hiding the station that broadcast the show- NBC

[@jareddicarlo7816]

When the show first went into syndication, NBC forced the removal of all references to its name. The episodes also lost all mentions of their sponsors, so they had to do some zooming in to avoid showing the sponsor’s name.

[@Worldopain]

The secret wewerd

[@charleswinokoor6023]

You go soldier! I like his honesty.

[@georgealderson4424]

I didn't hear what he said

[@joelhorwitz2997]

Does anyone have episode #55-03? I believe my mother in law was on this episode.

[@triggerskull]

You really wanna see your in law eh?

[@PimpLenin]

L.G. Hardy reminds me of the Hoover Dam tour guide from the movie "Vegas Vacation." kzbin.info/www/bejne/iZ_QiWeca7t1iNk Maybe L.G. "Hardy" was the inspiration for "Artie."

[@SuperWinterborn]

Polaris? The Latin name of the North Star is "Stella Polaris"...

[@michaelpowell6805]

I don't think anybody came out of any closet here...

[@timothycarley2174]

Lilly is "HOT"!

[@arminehanjargholi]

😁🧚🏼‍♀️💃🏼👶🏻💃🏼👶🏻🦊👧🏻💃🏼🇺🇸💃🏼💃🏼💃🏼💃🏼😉😉😉🤫

[@arminehanjargholi]

From Iran oh yesss بله 💃🏼💃🏼💃🏼💃🏼💃🏼🦊👶🏻

[@arminehanjargholi]

Now days more wow but back then very decent nice behaved men and women kids all now days program disgusting

[@kinkle_Z]

Mimi says, "He's not a crack salesman"? Huh???

[@kinkle_Z]

Wow! Dmitri Tomkin!! Get out!

[@kinkle_Z]

He was a household name when I was growing up. And my parents were about as ignorant as one could get...Wait...I guess his was just a household name in my mind...sigh...

[@kinkle_Z]

STELLA!