Continuing my series posting 10 of my favorite or notable moments from the history of What's My Line?, celebrating its 75th anniversary at the beginning of February.
8. Keeping in that same vein of Mystery Guests who give up, we go back a bit for this one. To that period where Steve Allen was a regular panelist who was about to start up the Tonight Show franchise on “another network,” NBC. This was also still in the period when the panel was allowed to question the mystery guests as long as they continued to receive a yes answer before being switched to one question at a time. In this segment the guests are legendary comedy duo George Burns and wife Gracie Allen. Together they created howls of laughter with his straight man act and Gracie’s oblivious set up act for many years, stretching from vaudeville to, at this point, the middle of a successful sitcom run on CBS. Their voices so recognizable — his deep, cigar-aided gravel and her high-pitched squawk — that it was decided they’d begin the round only answering in knocks (Steve Allen: “I thought maybe it was Trigger [Roy Rogers’ horse] stamping”). When they finally allow the duo to speak, Gracie, in only the way she can, tells her husband, “don’t answer, George” and it’s all over from there. A brilliant turn to her routine persona. And yes, that is Harry Truman’s daughter, Margaret Truman on the panel in place of Dorothy Kilgallen.
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