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79-512: The series featured notable journalists attempting to guess the recent or old news story with which a hidden guest challenger was linked by asking him or her questions, in much the same manner as the American quiz shows, What's My Line? and To Tell the Truth . Each round of the game started with news footage that introduced the story in question to the studio audience and home viewers out of earshot of

158-474: A celebrity guest appearance (originally called "mystery challengers" by Daly) whom the panel had to identify by name, rather than occupation. (In the first episode, the mystery guest was New York Yankees shortstop Phil Rizzuto .) In the early years of the show, the questioning was the same as it was for regular contestants, but starting with the April 17, 1955 edition, panelists were only allowed one question at

237-538: A Knesset member, Jayne Mansfield, William F. Buckley , Arthur Schlesinger Jr. and Timothy Leary were lost in their entirety. What%27s My Line%3F What's My Line? is a panel game show that originally ran in the United States, between 1950 and 1967, on CBS , originally in black and white and later in color, with subsequent U.S. revivals. The game uses celebrity panelists to question contestants in order to determine their occupation. The majority of

316-492: A Secret , and later, the syndicated version of WML engaged in the practice of contestants demonstrating their talents. However, despite frequent requests by the panel, particularly Arlene Francis, such demonstrations rarely occurred as according to executive producer Gil Fates , Daly was not fond of this practice. After the first four episodes, the show gained its initial sponsor when Jules Montenier paid to have his product, Stopette spray deodorant, featured in advertising on

395-453: A beautiful brunette, donned a blonde wig for a few episodes as an experiment, attracting hate mail including a death threat over the change of appearance. The books also include journalist Barbara Frum 's remarks about how influential Robins was for 1950s-era female equality through her decision to appear on the program while pregnant. The show's stability proved to be its undoing, as the producers did not see fit to add younger panellists while

474-518: A breaking news story. While Daly moderated the first live episode after his return from Moscow, he praised his employers' use of videotape. In such instances, cast and crew worked on two episodes consecutively during the same Sunday night: the "taped" one, followed immediately by the "live" one. The cast and crew began taking "summer breaks" from the show in July 1961, through July 1967. The closing credits of each prerecorded episode included an acknowledgment of

553-486: A chalkboard, and meet the panel up close for a casual inspection, and the panel was allowed one initial "wild" guess. The first contestant on What's My Line? was Pat Finch, a hat check girl at the Stork Club . Finch appeared again on the fifth anniversary show (with the "line" of "chorus girl" appearing in the musical Fanny ) and on the final broadcast in 1967 as a guest. Beginning in 1955 Daly simply greeted and seated

632-400: A dozen international versions, radio versions, and a live stage version. Revivals in the U.S. were proposed several times, but all of them failed to go past the planning stages. New episodes have not been created for American television since December 12, 1974. In 2013, TV Guide ranked What's My Line? ninth on its list of the 60 greatest game shows ever and Time ranked it as one of

711-433: A flop!" Daly later explained, after the show had finished its run on CBS, the maximum payout of $ 50 was to ensure the game was played only for enjoyment, and that there could never be even the appearance of impropriety. Later in the series, Daly would throw all the cards over with increasing frequency and arbitrariness (frequently to give a particularly interesting or worthy panelist the maximum available prize money), evidence

790-415: A fourth guest panelist. After Kilgallen's death in 1965, she was similarly not replaced with a permanent panelist, and for the show's final two years, the panel consisted of Cerf, Francis and two guests. At various times, a regular panelist might take a vacation or be absent from an episode due to outside commitments. On these occasions, a guest panelist would take their spot. The most frequent guest panelist

869-405: A live broadcast but during the last eight years many episodes were videotaped weeks or months in advance of their telecasts. The show's announcer acknowledged this fact during the closing credits of every "prerecorded" episode. In addition to the television version, What's My Line? was also broadcast on network radio for a short time. From May 20 to August 27, 1952, an NBC Radio Network version

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948-484: A long time in the archive of producers Mark Goodson and Bill Todman , but some of the episodes were lost in 1975. After the Sunday night series's cancellation by CBS in 1967, it returned in a syndication package for local television stations that committed to airing it five days a week. This version originally was hosted by Wally Bruner and later by Larry Blyden . It was seen by viewers from 1968 to 1975. There have been

1027-551: A play many years before horror films made him famous. Jayne Mansfield appeared on the Tuesday night telecast of 12 December 1961 representing the victories two years earlier of British prime minister Harold Macmillan and his Conservative Party in the 1959 United Kingdom general election . The American actress, whose high IQ was well-publicized, was filming a movie in the United Kingdom in 1959 when she and others connected with

1106-421: A potentially confusing question, but he had a penchant for amusingly wordy, long-winded replies that often left panelists more confused than before, which Danny Kaye once parodied as a panelist. On more than one occasion, Daly "led the panel down the garden path" – a favorite phrase used when an answer had proven misleading to the panelists. From 1950 to 1966, the game show was broadcast in black and white , as

1185-417: A regular panelist in 1951, and comedian Steve Allen replaced Block in 1953. Allen left in 1954 to launch The Tonight Show , and he was replaced by comedian Fred Allen (no relation), who remained on the panel until his death in 1956. Fred Allen was not replaced on a permanent basis, and for the majority of the show's network run, between 1956 and 1965, the panel consisted of Kilgallen, Cerf, Francis and

1264-426: A round, Daly would invite the contestant to "come in and sign in, please," which, by 1960, had evolved to the more familiar "enter and sign in, please." The contestant entered by writing his or her name on a small sign-in board. (For the first few telecasts, the contestants signed their names on an artist's sketch pad; but when the brightness of the studio lights made it difficult for the signatures to be seen clearly by

1343-536: A time. Mystery guests usually came from the entertainment world, either stage, screen, television or sports. When mystery guests came from other walks of life or were non-famous individuals whom the panel but not the studio audience might know, they were usually played as standard rounds. However, the panel might be blindfolded, or the contestant might sign in simply as "X," depending on whether they would be known by name or sight. Mystery guests would usually attempt to conceal their identities with disguised voices, much to

1422-624: Is an English-language daily newspaper owned by Postmedia Network in Ottawa , Ontario , Canada. Established as the Bytown Packet in 1845 by William Harris , it was renamed the Citizen in 1851. The newspaper's original motto, which has recently been returned to the editorial page, was Fair Play and Day-Light . The paper has been through a number of owners. In 1846, Harris sold the paper to John Gordon Bell and Henry J. Friel . Robert Bell bought

1501-441: Is known for its attention to manners and class. In its early years, business suits and street dresses were worn by the host and panelists, but by 1953, the men normally wore black suits with bow tie (a few guests in fact wore black tie ) while female panelists donned formal gown and often gloves . Exceptions to this dress code were on the broadcasts immediately following the deaths of Fred Allen and Dorothy Kilgallen, in which

1580-450: The Citizen's publisher, Russell Mills , was dismissed following the publication of a story critical of Prime Minister Jean Chrétien and an editorial calling for Chrétien's resignation. The Citizen published its last Sunday edition on July 15, 2012. This move meant 20 fewer newsroom jobs, and was part of a series of changes made by Postmedia . The Citizen stopped producing a print edition on Mondays as of 17 October 2022, due to

1659-466: The Ed Sullivan Theater , 1697 Broadway at 53rd St., NY). CBS announced in early 1967 that a number of game shows, including What's My Line? , were to be canceled at the end of the season. Bennett Cerf wrote that the network had decided that game shows were no longer suitable for prime time, and that the news was broken by The New York Times on February 14 before anyone involved with the show

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1738-463: The FCC forced networks to cede one half-hour to their affiliates. The Prime Time Access Rule was intended to permit local stations to produce news and public affairs programming, but instead many of them turned to programs like WML, as practically all stations outside the largest markets found it unprofitable to produce their own shows locally. The first three seasons (1968–1971) originated from Studio 50,

1817-558: The Golden Globe Awards for Best TV Show in 1962. More than 700 episodes exist as kinescope recordings, filmed in 16mm, which was the only way moving pictures and sound from spontaneous, unscripted television shows could be preserved on a long-term basis prior to the emergence and subsequent widespread use of videotape . Many early episodes were lost because of economic decisions made by CBS executives between 1950 and 1952. Every episode from July 1952 to September 1967 existed for

1896-454: The UNIVAC . Near the end of its run, sponsors would be introduced in the opening title and given commercials during the show, but would not be displayed on the set. Frequent sponsors in the 1960s were Kellogg's cereals, Allstate Insurance , and Geritol . Unknown to the public, mystery guests were paid $ 500 (equal to $ 6,332 in 2023 ) as an appearance fee, whether they won or lost the game. This

1975-485: The 100 "All-Time" TV shows ever. Produced by Mark Goodson and Bill Todman for CBS , the show was initially called Occupation Unknown before deciding on the name What's My Line? The original series, which was usually broadcast live, debuted on Thursday, February 2, 1950, at 8:00 p.m. ET. After airing alternate Wednesdays, then alternate Thursdays, finally on October 1, 1950, it had settled into its weekly Sunday 10:30 p.m. ET slot where it would remain until

2054-453: The 1960s and most of the 1970s. Alex Barris says in his second book that the absence of non-Canadian guests after 1979 resulted from budget cuts for CBC Television that ruled out travel expenses. Barris also claims that the advent of multiple cable channels in the 1980s and early 1990s (in cities, towns and rural areas near the border of the United States where people could receive programming from both countries) presented another challenge to

2133-519: The 1980s were accustomed to listening to people who had witnessed current events or had made them happen. When Front Page Challenge ceased production in 1995, it was the longest continually running non-news program in Canadian television history. Among the contestants on the final show was then-emerging country music superstar Shania Twain . Reruns of the program were broadcast by Canadian cable channel History Television (now simply called History) in

2212-449: The CBS run, was heard live from CBS Studio Building 22 (49 E. 52nd St., NY). Episode #225 (September 19, 1954) was a color edition of the show, broadcast live from CBS Studio 72 (on Manhattan's Upper West Side , Broadway at 81st St., NY). This predated the show's eventual move to color by 12 years. Episode #323 (August 12, 1956), in conjunction with the 1956 Democratic National Convention ,

2291-427: The amusement of the studio audience. According to Cerf, the panel could often determine the identities of the mystery guests early, as they knew which celebrities were in town, or which major movies or plays were about to open. On those occasions, to provide the audience an opportunity to see the guest play the game, the panelists and host would typically allow questioning to pass around at least once before coming up with

2370-519: The announcer following the show's introduction, and each panelist would introduce the next in turn, with the last introducing Daly. During his tenure, Hal Block sat in the final seat and began the practice of introducing Daly with a pun. Upon his departure, Bennett Cerf took over this position. Cerf's introductions of Daly were generally straightforward in his earliest years on the show, but as time went by Cerf expanded these introductions, often telling long jokes which he tied to Daly in some way. To begin

2449-434: The contestant worked for a for-profit corporation or non-profit organization or whether a product was alive, worn, or ingested. To increase the probability of affirmative answers, panelists would often phrase questions in the negative starting with "Is it something other than..." or "Can I rule out..." The show popularized the phrase, "Is it bigger than a breadbox ?" Steve Allen first posed this on January 18, 1953, and it

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2528-415: The contestant, who later met the panel at the end of the game. Additionally, starting April 17, 1955, the panel stopped taking initial guesses. The contestant's line was then revealed to the studio and home audiences, and Daly would tell the panel whether the contestant was salaried or self-employed , and from 1960 on, whether they dealt in a product or a service . A panelist chosen by Daly would begin

2607-485: The contestants were from the general public, but there was one weekly celebrity "mystery guest" for whom the panelists were blindfolded. It is on the list of longest-running U.S. primetime network television game-shows . Originally moderated by John Charles Daly and most frequently with regular panelists Dorothy Kilgallen , Arlene Francis , and Bennett Cerf , What's My Line? won three Emmy Awards for "Best Quiz or Audience Participation Show" in 1952, 1953, and 1958 and

2686-1127: The correct guess. As Cerf admitted in the episode broadcast on November 27, 1966, his wife, Phyllis, was frequently told the name of the mystery guest beforehand. Sometimes, two mystery guest rounds were played in an episode, with the additional round usually as the first round of the episode. Most notably, the mystery guests ran the gamut of show business's most legendary icons, including Jack Benny , John Wayne , Gary Cooper , Elizabeth Taylor , Ella Fitzgerald , Ava Gardner , Joan Crawford , James Cagney , Julie Andrews , Jack Lemmon , Jackie Gleason , Steve McQueen , Alfred Hitchcock , Doris Day , James Garner , Ronald Reagan , Jane Russell , Rosalind Russell , Fred Astaire , George Raft , Edward G. Robinson , Gene Autry , Lena Horne , Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward , Andy Griffith , Harry Belafonte , Ginger Rogers , Roy Rogers , Lucille Ball , Desi Arnaz , Bob Hope , Frank Sinatra , Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis , Sammy Davis Jr. , Peter Lawford , Sean Connery , James Stewart , Henry Fonda , Salvador Dalí , Aretha Franklin , and many more. What's My Line?

2765-629: The costs of printing and delivery, but it continued to publish a digital Monday edition. The pre-2014 logo depicted the top of the Peace Tower of Canada's Parliament Buildings in Ottawa. In 2014, the newspaper adopted a new logo showing the paper's name over an outline of the Peace Tower roof on a green background. The Ottawa Citizen' s circulation in 2009 was 123,856 copies daily. Its circulation dropped by 26 percent to 91,796 in 2015. In Spring 2022,

2844-504: The end of its network run on September 3, 1967. Starting in July 1959, and continuing until July 1967, the show would occasionally record episodes onto quadruplex videotape for playback at a future date. In July 1959, this was state-of-the-art technology. At that time, the immediate concern of Mark Goodson and Bill Todman was that John Daly, anchor of the ABC network's nightly newscasts, would be allowed to visit Moscow to cover, in that capacity,

2923-403: The end of the series, the panelists were being paid "scandalous amounts of money." The first four episodes (#001 – #004; February – March 16, 1950) were broadcast live from a converted loft at the former CBS Studio 41 Grand Central Studios at Grand Central Terminal (15 Vanderbilt Ave., NY). Beginning with the first Wednesday episode (#005; April 12, 1950, and continuing until around 1951),

3002-400: The game, the relevant person simply moved to the guest seat for the interview. The show ran for nearly 40 years and featured a remarkably stable cast of panellists, including journalist-historian Pierre Berton , Betty Kennedy (who later become a Canadian senator ), Toby Robins (who later became a movie actress) and radio commentator Gordon Sinclair . Columnist Allan Fotheringham joined

3081-449: The game. If their question elicited a yes answer, they continued questioning. When a question was answered no, questioning passed to the next panelist and $ 5 was added to the prize. The amount of the prize was tallied by Daly who flipped up to ten cards on his desk. A contestant won the top prize of $ 50 by giving ten no answers, or if time ran out, with Daly flipping all the cards. As Daly occasionally noted, "Ten flips and they (the panel) are

3160-409: The history of the program. It was titled Front Page Challenge: The 25th Anniversary . Four years after the show's cancellation, another book by Barris was published chronicling the last fifteen years of the show. It included more details and anecdotes about the show's earlier phases not found in his first book. Several weeks after its debut, Ottawa Citizen television columnist Bob Blackburn deemed

3239-634: The home of the final year of the original series, but with a new, modern-design set. In 1971, production of What's My Line? moved from the Broadway studio to Studio 6-A at NBC in Rockefeller Center , and the series remained there for the rest of its run, with a set redesign in 1974 for the final season. As they had with the original series, Goodson-Todman went to ABC News to seek a host, whose title had ceased to be that of "moderator," and hired Wally Bruner to take over for John Charles Daly. Bruner left

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3318-421: The identity of the celebrity. Panelists were required to probe by asking only yes–no questions. A typical episode featured two standard rounds (sometimes a third, and very rarely a rushed fourth) plus one mystery guest round. On the occasions on which there were two mystery guests, the first would usually appear as the first contestant. For the first few seasons, contestants would "sign in" by writing their name on

3397-481: The initial program of February 2, 1950, the panel comprised former New Jersey governor Harold Hoffman , columnist Dorothy Kilgallen , poet Louis Untermeyer , and psychiatrist Richard Hoffmann . The panel varied somewhat in the following weeks, but after the first few broadcasts, during the show's earliest period the panel generally consisted of Kilgallen, actress Arlene Francis , Untermeyer and comedy writer Hal Block . Publisher Bennett Cerf replaced Untermeyer as

3476-475: The late 1990s. At least a few of the episodes from the 1950s and 1960s were not saved. In his second book about the program, Alex Barris tells an anecdote about what guest panellist Bennett Cerf said to challenger Jesse Owens about Adolf Hitler during a 1958 episode. The CBC archive has a clip that lasts less than one minute in which Cerf and Owens have this exchange, but the rest of the episode does not survive. 1960s episodes that featured Menachem Begin, then

3555-415: The male cast members wore straight neckties and the women wore simpler dresses. The game followed a line of formality and adherence to rules. Although using first names at other points, Daly usually addressed using surnames when passing the questioning to a particular panelist. He would also amiably chide the panel if they began a conference without first asking him. However, even with such formality, Daly

3634-473: The moderator's seat, so both Fred Davis and panellist Alex Barris rotated as guest hosts in the early part of the fall before Davis was chosen to take over as host full-time (a position he retained for the rest of the show's run), though Barris continued to appear as a guest panellist occasionally and was the show's writer for the duration of its run. In 1981, the CBC published an oversized book written by Barris about

3713-474: The movie read and heard about the election results. The CBC archive has two photographs of Mansfield during her 1961 visit to the Toronto television studio where Front Page Challenge always originated during that era, but the videotape of her episode was lost due to wiping . Occasionally, the challenger on Front Page Challenge was one of the panellists themselves, unbeknownst to the other three panellists. After

3792-511: The multiple sound bites and ignored the Front Page Challenge narrator's summaries of the news stories, according to the book by Alex Barris published in 1999. As the pace of 1980s news quickened, even before the launch of CBC Newsworld, Fred Davis, Betty Kennedy and Pierre Berton obviously remained mentally sharp enough to follow all of it, but they had not witnessed 99 percent of the events about which they were so curious. Young viewers in

3871-413: The original What's My Line? had ended, Goodson-Todman struck a deal with CBS's syndication arm, which in time became the present-day Viacom (now CBS Media Ventures ), to syndicate a new weekday videotaped edition, beginning one year after the network version's cancellation. This version became a staple of local stations' afternoon and early evening schedules, especially from the 1971–72 season onward, when

3950-531: The panel after Sinclair's death. A guest panellist, usually another Canadian journalist, politician or other celebrity, was also part of each episode. In 1990, journalist and radio/TV personality Jack Webster joined the show as its permanent fourth panellist. For its initial summer 1957 run, the show was hosted by Win Barron, best known for his voice-over narration of newsreels produced by the Canadian division of Paramount Pictures . However, Barron proved ill at ease in

4029-688: The panellists. After the guest was identified and/or the news story determined, the journalists then interviewed the guest about the story or about achievements or experiences for which he or she was known. Unlike American quiz shows that steered clear of controversy in the 1950s and 1960s, Front Page Challenge seems to have been affected by just one censorship practice, that of avoiding four-letter words . Guests came from all walks of life, including politicians like Pierre Trudeau and Indira Gandhi , activists like Malcolm X , sports figures like Gordie Howe , entertainers like Boris Karloff and Ed Sullivan , and writers like Upton Sinclair . From 1957 to 1979,

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4108-466: The paper in 1849, and sold it to I.B. Taylor in 1861. In 1877, Charles Herbert Mackintosh became the principal owner, and he later sold it to Robert and Lewis Shannon. In 1897, the Citizen became one of several papers owned by the Southam family. It remained under Southam until the chain was purchased by Conrad Black 's Hollinger Inc. in 1996. In 2000, the chain was sold to Canwest Global , which

4187-404: The prerecorded status by the offscreen announcer. The host, then called the moderator, was veteran radio and television newsman John Charles Daly . Clifton Fadiman , Eamonn Andrews , and Random House co-founding publisher and panelist Bennett Cerf substituted on the four occasions when Daly was unavailable. The show featured a panel of four celebrities who questioned the contestants. On

4266-514: The prize was secondary to game play. Panelists had the option of passing to the next panelist—or even disqualifying themselves entirely if they somehow knew the contestant's occupation or identity (especially in the case of a mystery challenger) before the round. They could also request a conference, in which they had a short time for open discussion of ideas about occupations or lines of questioning. Panelists adopted some basic binary search strategies, beginning with broad questions, such as whether

4345-464: The program. This involved featuring the product in the show's opening, on the front of the panel's desk, above the sign-in board, and on Daly's scorecards. In his last years, Cerf explained to interviewer Robbin Hawkins that Montenier was ultimately ruined by his refusal to abandon or share sponsorship as the show entered new markets and became too expensive. After Montenier sold Stopette to Helene Curtis ,

4424-460: The programme to be noticeably improved and predicted that if that trend continued "and if the program doesn't run dry on its slightly limited subject matter, Front Page Challenge might well become an institution on Canadian TV". In his book, Barris says that at the height of the show's popularity in the late 1950s, the individual panellists became major celebrities in Canada. He relates how Toby Robins,

4503-453: The regulars aged and the audience demographics became less desirable. The show always was videotaped in or aired live from Toronto prior to 1966. During that year four shows originated from Montreal including one with challenger Jessica Mitford . The show continued going on the road, being videotaped in cities across Canada. The oldest regular, Gordon Sinclair, continued travelling with his fellow panellists to videotaping locations until he

4582-521: The returning Arlene Francis . Bennett Cerf appeared as a guest on an irregular basis until he died during production of the fourth season in 1971. Other panelists included Alan Alda , his father Robert Alda , Joanna Barnes , Joyce Brothers , Jack Cassidy , Bert Convy , Joel Grey , Elaine Joyce , Ruta Lee , Sam Levene , Meredith MacRae , Henry Morgan , Jerry Orbach , Gene Rayburn , Nipsey Russell , Gene Shalit , Dana Valery and Anita Gillette . Ottawa Citizen The Ottawa Citizen

4661-406: The series at the conclusion of its fourth season in 1972, and Broadway actor Larry Blyden , who had already helmed several other gameshows and served as both a Line panelist and mystery guest in the past, stepped in at the beginning of the 1972–1973 season to host the remaining three seasons. The syndicated edition had two regular panelists for its entire run, with comedian Soupy Sales joining

4740-564: The series was sponsored by a variety of companies which were either regular or rotating. Sponsors were accorded the same exposure on the set as Stopette. One of the first rotating sponsors, which actually came before Montenier's sale of Stopette to Helene Curtis (who continued to sponsor the program after the purchase and still promoted Stopette in their advertising), was the Remington Rand Corporation, who used their time to promote their line of electric shaver and computers such as

4819-519: The show featured many non-Canadians whose trips to Canada were paid by the CBC. (Gandhi was even flown from India to Toronto in the 1960s at the CBC's expense.) Occasionally, guests were featured for their involvement in stories that had nothing to do with their celebrity status. For example, in 1958 Karloff was featured because he had served as a rescue worker in the aftermath of a devastating 1912 tornado in Regina, Saskatchewan , where he had been appearing in

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4898-435: The show used CBS Studio 52 (254 W. 54th St., NY; the future Studio 54 ). The last episode aired in black & white was taped on July 17, 1966, and the last episode to be produced there in black & white aired live on July 24. For the final season, from episode #830 to episode #876 (September 11, 1966 – September 3, 1967), in conjunction with the program's permanent move to color, the show used CBS Studio 50 (later renamed

4977-503: The show was broadcast from the now demolished CBS Studio 51 ( Maxine Elliott's Theatre , aka Maxine Elliott Theatre, 109 W. 39th St., NY). At least by episode #034 (January 21, 1951), the show moved to CBS Studio 59 (Mansfield Theatre, later renamed the Brooks Atkinson Theatre in 1960, 256 W. 47th St., NY), and stayed until Episode #516, June 5, 1960. Meanwhile, the concurrent 1952–1953 Radio edition, at least during

5056-424: The staff of Front Page Challenge and contributed to its demise. Prior to the 1980s when there were no 24-hour news channels competing with Front Page Challenge , each round of the game began with silent black-and-white newsreel footage of the news story in question while a narrator, not heard by the panellists, summarized it. Even after the segments started including colour videotape, the only voice heard introducing

5135-517: The topical issue and the challenger was the voice of the narrator of Front Page Challenge . Producers continued to use the same off-screen narrator, which made the Front Page Challenge footage less appealing to young people than the multiple sound bites featured by CBC Newsworld , which began 24-hour newscasts throughout Canada on 31 July 1989. CBC Newsworld offered sound bite interviews with people who had witnessed events or were knowledgeable about them. Young viewers using remote controls stuck with

5214-469: The viewers, the white sketchpad was replaced by a black chalkboard.) Daly would then usually ask where the guest lived and, with a woman, if she should be addressed as "Miss" or "Mrs." Early in the show's run, the panel was allowed to inspect contestants, studying their hands, or label on their suit or asking them to make a muscle. While ostensibly a game show, if there was time, it also was an opportunity to conduct interviews. Line's sister show, I've Got

5293-566: Was Arlene Francis's husband Martin Gabel , who appeared 112 times over the years. Other frequent guest panelists include Tony Randall , Robert Q. Lewis and Phyllis Newman . Dick Cavett , in an early television appearance in Fred Allen 's vacated chair in 1966, noted that the mystery guest was probably wondering who Cavett was. Regular announcers included Lee Vines , who served from 1950 to 1955; Hal Simms , from 1955 to 1961; Ralph Paul, whose tenure

5372-512: Was a special Chicago episode broadcast from the studios of CBS owned-and-operated WBBM-TV (630 N. McClurg Ct., Chicago, IL). Episode #397 (January 12, 1958) was a special Hollywood episode broadcast from CBS Television City (7800 Beverly Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA). The moderator and panel's desks were not brought over, as they had been for the Chicago special. Beginning with episode #517 through episode #829 (June 12, 1960 – September 4, 1966),

5451-427: Was broadcast live on all the major networks (CBS, ABC, NBC, and DuMont) on the afternoon of Sunday, September 27, 1953. The program began with Daly and panel entering from off-stage as they were introduced. Prior to 1954, both panelists and host began the program in their seats, but this was changed, responding to letters asking what panelists looked like away from their seats. The first panelist would be introduced by

5530-405: Was confined to 1961; and Johnny Olson , perhaps the best known of Goodson-Todman's television announcers, whose tenure began in 1961 and ran until the show's cancellation in 1967. What's My Line? was a guessing game in which the four panelists attempted to determine the occupation (i.e., "line [of work]") of a guest. In the case of the famous mystery guest each week, the panel sought to determine

5609-486: Was highlighted by clips from past telecasts, a visit by the show's first contestants, a challenger from the New York unemployment office, and the final mystery guest, who was John Daly himself. Daly had always been the emergency mystery guest in case the scheduled guest was unable to appear on the live broadcast, but this had never occurred. Mark Goodson, Bill Todman and (briefly) Johnny Olson appeared on-camera as well. Once

5688-475: Was in addition to the maximum $ 50 (equal to $ 633 in 2023 ) game winnings, which guests sometimes donated to charity. Guest panelists were paid $ 750 (equal to $ 9,498 in 2023 ) as an appearance fee. The regular panelists were under contract and were paid "much more," according to Fates. Bennett Cerf explained that when he became a permanent member of the program, he was paid $ 300 (equal to $ 3,799 in 2023 ) per week, and he told Robbin Hawkins in their interview that by

5767-418: Was not above trading bon mots with the panelists during the game, and Cerf would often attempt to make a pun of his name. Occasionally Daly would amiably one-up Cerf if he felt the pun was of lesser quality. Cerf also played a myriad of games with Daly's full name, John Charles Patrick Croghan Daly, reciting it correctly only a handful of times over the course of the series. Often Daly would need to clarify

5846-436: Was notified. The primary reason for the cancellation, along with the other panel shows CBS aired in prime time, was that the programs' low overall viewership—the key metric of success during Michael Dann 's time with the network—could no longer justify their presence even as the shows continued to turn a profit with their low production costs. The 876th and final CBS telecast of What's My Line? aired on September 3, 1967; it

5925-470: Was produced on Tuesday nights with the same cast as the TV version. After August 27, the program was then broadcast live on CBS Radio on Wednesday nights at 8:00 PM for 10 months, concluding July 1, 1953. The radio version is notable for the only appearances of Marlene Dietrich , Constance Bennett , and Marlon Brando . A Community Chest Special, completely separate from the regular production of episodes,

6004-516: Was taken over by Postmedia Network in 2010. The editorial view of the Citizen has varied with its ownership, taking a reform position under Friel, and a conservative position (supporting John A. Macdonald ) under Mackintosh. When the Liberals defeated the Tory government in 1896, the owners of the Citizen decided to sell to Southam, rather than face an expected cut in government revenue. In 2002,

6083-402: Was then refined over subsequent episodes. Soon, other panelists were asking this question as well. On one occasion the guest was a man who made breadboxes. Allen correctly guessed the guest's occupation when Daly could not restrain his laughter in response to Kilgallen asking, "Is it bigger than a breadbox?" The ultimate or penultimate round of an episode involved blindfolding the panel for

6162-472: Was typical of most game shows at the time. In September 1966, all three networks began broadcasting their prime-time schedules entirely in color television , including What's My Line? The new color episodes were preserved only with black-and-white kinescopes, however, and even several of those from 1967 were lost. The color composition of the What's My Line? soundstage has been lost to posterity. The show began as

6241-423: Was well into his 80s. Although the location of the studio was not always noticeable to home viewers, they did notice the lack of guest challengers from foreign countries after 1979. The program no longer featured internationally known controversial figures to match the likes of Timothy Leary , Indira Gandhi , Menachem Begin (when he was a Knesset member) and William F. Buckley who had held viewers' attention in

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