Welcome to a new feature here at the Café: Yes, it's time for What's My Wednesdays!
I have been spending an inordinate amount of time in recent weeks watching back episodes of one television's early greats, the panel show What's My Line?, and now I think it's your turn, too. These programs are a glimpse into a vanished show business, one that is infinitely more polite, enormously more charming, and - something I find deeply refreshing - a great deal more middle-aged.
I thought we'd kick it off with a snippet from 53 years ago tonight. It can be rather a surprise when you watch one of these and find that that the guest is still with us, as here with dear Miss Carol Burnett. She almost stumps the panel, but you have to get up early to fool Miss Arlene Francis (with whom I am totally and unreservedly in love).
So if your blindfolds are in place - Mystery Challenger, sign in please!
You can't see it here, but I adore how Arlene Francis would re-crimp her eyelashes after removing her blindfold. Whata gal.
ReplyDeleteLoved it! And you are correct about the prevailing polite atmosphere. I loved that the gentlemen on the panel stood to shake Carol's hand and the ladies didn't. Ah etiquette...
ReplyDeleteIt's fascinating, as you watch lots of these, the permutations of etiquette, especially around greeting, that are so effortless and assumed for them - how to behave when you happen to know the Mystery Challenger, how to show that you are especially impressed by them (a couple of those coming up), all sorts of variations. You see even more with the full episodes, when the panel go out of their way to be lovely to the contestants.
DeleteI love these but they're a rabbit hole. I ran across one of my beloved Linda Darnell's guest appearance one day which I just had to watch! The next thing I knew it was two hours later and I had to stop myself from clicking on anymore.
ReplyDeleteYup - they're addictive. At only two hours, count yourself lucky... That's why I decided that rationing them out to a few a week would be a good idea.
DeleteLove, love LOVE this show! And especially Arlene Francis. I have fond memories of watching it on air with my aunts, who always waited for her entrance to comment on her dress. The youtube clips are incredibly addictive.
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