What's My Line, yes What's My Line (also feat. Peter Cook)

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Okay, I'm NOT expecting this thread to engage much interest, let's get that quite clear from the start. But recently I've been quite dedicated to watching old '50s and '60s episodes of the US What's My Line, of which there are literally hundreds on youtube. I like guessing games and they're historically interesting, but also often very funny _{yes they are, shut up}

My favourite ones ones aren't the guess the celebrity ones, but the ones where the panel are forced to try and work out some professions that are wonderfully chosen for some unusual quality - sometimes in contradiction to the sex-role expectations of the time, or just plain odd.

Overcome your utterly unwarranted prejudices I say, forget 'How Many Hats', and give these little ten minute jewels a chance. I think it would be very hard for four posh 50s US celebrities trying to work out the profession of a nudist camp owner not to be funny:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EE7A4UFY0II

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OaaBY1il9sE

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Forgot to mention this one, from 1963, featuring Peter Cook, so entirely on topic for this forum, though I suppose all you cookedandbombers will have seen it before:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7qDMnMkNS1E

[Gerald Fjord]

Not watched these but I'm commenting here as a reminder to myself to check em out later.

[Bennett Brauer]

I've not watched them either but I'm commenting as a reminder to myself to bring the washing in.

[Bennett Brauer]

Actually I recently watched a handful of these, including Woody Allen, Sean Connery and Hitchcock (who came across as a sinister creep, and I sense it wasn't all an act). There's also at least one with Bob Monkhouse on the panel, at a time when he can't have been all that well known in Britain, let alone the US.

[Twed]

Okay, I'm NOT expecting this thread to engage much interest, let's get that quite clear from the start.

You'd be surprised. I've been doing exactly the same as you (watching them on YouTube) and have been meaning to create this thread myself.

Will contribute more shortly because everything about all of this is fascinating to me, not least the way Americans seemed so much more British in this.

[lankyguy95]

I need to check these out. I've only ever seen the glorious chaos of the episodes with Groucho Marx.

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The comments under the videos are worth reading for amusement and to see older people gossiping about the panelists and participants. It seems Dorothy Kilgallen, who was a famous person then had a fractious relationship with numerous people, including the host and Frank Sinatra, because she had a gossip column in which she told tales out of school about them.

It's funny to read people wistfully reminiscing about the days of gentility and well-spokeness, and others reminding them that what they're watching is a complete facade hiding a ruthless and backbiting reality, let alone all the messedupness of wider US society then. I do get a stupid nostalgia watching it though.

People's manner of speaking and body language are fascinating, especially the differences in the sexes, and the class aspect is definitely interesting too. Laughter was much more restrained then, people sometimes say very funny things and there's just a ripple of amusement from the audience.

[Gerald Fjord]

I'm really enjoying these. It really does feel like something from an impossibly long time ago. I love a good mid-atlantic accent.

[imitationleather]

Chalk me up as another who has been watching this lately.

Salvador Dali appearing damn near blows my mind.

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Among ones involving famous and possibly even interesting people I haven't watched yet: Harpo Marx, Joan Crawford, Edward Murrow (before he helped destroy McCarthy), Ronald Reagan (1953), Eartha Kitt, The Supremes, William Shatner (1965) and Ella Fitzgerald.

The main What's My Line channel is a bit too celebrity focused for my liking, but the episodes also include the various people in unusual jobs (other episodes are spread across other channels too).

https://www.youtube.com/user/WhatsMyLineCBS/featured?disable_polymer=1