The original network What's My Line? TV series debuted on Thursday, February 2, 1950, then moved to Wednesday, then back to Thursday and then on October 1 of that year, it moved to Sunday nights and stayed there until September 3, 1967. A total of 876 episodes were aired but not all of them still exist.
Most of those that survived were aired regularly for years on Game Show Network and in its new incarnation at GSN, they occasionally air a week or two of them around the end of each year. They also turn up on Buzzr, a new "all vintage game shows" cable channel that I can't get from my cable company.
Recently, a "lost" episode turned up on eBay — and not just any "lost" episode but the first Sunday night one from October 1, 1950. Some devout What's My Line? fans including W. Gary Wetstein, Stan Taffel and our friend Stu Shostak mobilized. It was arranged to purchase the 16mm print, get it transferred to video and to upload the video to YouTube. This is it.
John Daly is, of course, the host. Dorothy Kilgallen and Arlene Francis are on the panel as they were ever after — Ms. Francis for the rest of the CBS run, Ms. Kilgallen until her untimely death in 1965. The two male panelists are Louis Untermeyer and Hal Block. Mr. Untermeyer was an author and poet who was a panelist on What's My Line? until 1951 when he was fingered as a Communist during the hearings of the House Committee on Un-American Activities. His presence on television was protested by various groups and though Untermeyer was probably not a Communist, the game show's sponsor eventually gave in and ordered his removal. He was replaced by Bennett Cerf.
Hal Block was a top comedy writer who'd worked for Milton Berle, Abbott and Costello, Bob Hope and others of that prominence. As an on-air personality, he was given to sometimes ad-libbing crude and tasteless jokes, especially if the contestant was an attractive woman. This created a problem since the show was broadcast live and there was no way to edit or bleep, nor would he stop doing it. As What's My Line? became a classier show — everyone in formal wear, more famous Mystery Guests — he fit in less and less. He was finally removed in early '53 and Steve Allen, who was then sitting in for the vacationing Bennett Cerf, remained on the panel when Cerf returned. Steve Allen was eventually replaced by Fred Allen and after Fred passed away in '56, that seat on the panel was filled by a visiting male celebrity.
Here is the lost episode — and I must warn you that the end is missing. The film ends abruptly just after the last contestant is introduced. The next-to-last contestant is the Mystery Guest, who was Kathleen Winsor, the author of the best-selling novel, Forever Amber. As you will see, the staging of the show is crude, the set is cheap, the boom mike shadow is seen as much as any of the guests — but it is a fascinating look at early television…