QUARANTINE BLOG # 57

May 26, 2020

I did not forget, but with a salute to Memorial Day and the men and women who gave their lives for our freedom, and the other pieces in yesterday’s blog, I decided to wait until today to salute an important event that happened 43 years ago yesterday.  It is appropriate to be a day late because the movie had been out almost 3 months before I saw the original Star Wars.

👉  Three games shows that I enjoyed watching on our small, black and white TV at 117 Shenandoah Avenue, when we received only 2 stations and half of them was KDKA in Pittsburgh (and the other half was WJAC in Johnstown) were very similar, yet different enough to make them all enjoyable: What’s My Line? plus I’ve Got A Secret, and To Tell The Truth.

What’s My Line? was a panel game show that premiered on the CBS in 1950.  The original version ran until 1967.  Celebrity panelists Dorothy Kilgallen, Arlene Francis, and Bennett Cerf, and a rotating guest panelist questioned contestants to determine their occupation.  Each week a celebrity “mystery guest” would participate while the panel was blindfolded.  Moderator John Charles Daly would ask guests to, “Enter and sign in please.”

Panelists questioned the guests with “yes” or “no” questions, with each “no” being worth $5 to the guest.  The show popularized the phrase, “Is it bigger than a breadbox?”  Steve Allen first posed it on January 18, 1953.  The maximum payout a guest could win was $50 to ensure the game was played only for enjoyment, and that there could never be even the appearance of impropriety.

What’s My Line? was known for its attention to manners and class.  The men on the panel wore black suits with bow ties, while the ladies wore formal gowns and often gloves.  Daly addressed the panelists using their surnames, and guests were always addressed as “Miss,” “Mrs,” or “Mr.”

The 876th and final CBS telecast of What’s My Line? aired on September 3, 1967.   CBS canceled the show because of low overall viewership, even as the show continued to turn a profit with its low production costs.  Several syndicated versions appeared from 1968-1975.  In 2000, a pilot was shot with hopes of reviving the series,  but CBS turned it down in favor of the reality show Survivor.

In 1952 CBS introduced I’ve Got a Secret which was a spin-off of What’s My Line?

Instead of celebrity panelists trying to determine a contestant’s occupation, the panel tries to determine a contestant’s “secret” which was something unusual, amazing, embarrassing or humorous about the contestant.


 To Tell the Truth featured four celebrity panelists who were presented with a team of three challengers, and had to identify the “central character” whose unusual occupation or experience was read out by the show’s host.  That person only had been sworn to tell the truth.  The “impostor” element set TTTT apart from What’s My Line? and I’ve Got a Secret.  At the end of questioning, panelists voted for the person they believed to be the central character, and then the host asked, “Will the real [person’s name] please stand up?”

The original show ran from 1956 to 1978 with syndicated versions appearing through 2018.  A revival series was scheduled to debut next month, but that entry date is now uncertain.  The three characters below will not be appearing.

👉  The London Review of Books, reports that on a Presidential visit to a farm, Mrs. Calvin Coolidge asked her guide how many times each day the rooster sought out the company of a hen.  “Dozens of times,” was the reply.  “Tell that to the President,” Mrs. Coolidge requested.  When the President passed the pens and was told about the rooster, he asked, “Same hen every time?”  “Oh no, Mr. President.  A different one each time.”  The President nodded slowly and then said, “Tell that to Mrs. Coolidge.”

👉  An eponym is a word that’s based on a person’s name.  For example, Braille, the language of raised dots that blind people can use to read, was invented by Louis Braille.  Scientific terms like Fahrenheit, Celsius, pasteurize, ampere, ohm, volt, and watt, all are named after famous scientists.

Adolphe Sax was a Belgian instrument maker who made flutes and clarinets.  He created a new instrument which looked like a combination of those two instruments, and it was dubbed the “Saxophone.”

Leotard, the form-fitting stretchy outfit worn by athletes like gymnasts and ice skaters, comes from Jules Leotard, a 19th century trapeze artist.

Joseph Guillotin proposed on October 10, 1789, the use of a device to carry out death penalties in France, one that would be a less painful method of execution.  Although he really did not invent the guillotine, and in fact opposed the death penalty, his name became an eponym for it.

👉  On this day in 1897, Dracula crawled out of his coffin and onto bookshelves.  Bram Stoker wrote the story of a vampire who made his way from Transylvania – a region of Romania – to Yorkshire, England.  The Count preyed on innocents there to get the blood he needed to live.  Dracula enjoyed moderate success, but when Stoker died in 1912 none of his obituaries even mentioned the book.  Sales began to take off in the 1920s, when the novel was adapted for Broadway.  Dracula took its lofty place in literature and film in 1931 when Bela Lugosi first donned the black cape, recreating his Broadway roll.  You can see the original trailer at this link:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VoaMw91MC9k Dozens of vampire-themed movies, television shows and literature have followed, but Lugosi, with his exotic accent, remains the quintessential Count Dracula.  Bela Lugosi was buried in one of Dracula’s capes – it was his widow’s idea, not his, but she said he would have approved.

👉  One upside over these weeks is that we’ve had extra time to think and reflect.  One downside over these weeks is that we’ve had extra time to think and reflect.

Hectic lifestyles before COVID-19 helped keep at bay things that haunt us.  But when the frantic pace stops, when the rapid routine grinds to a halt, when the familiar distractions have vanished, suddenly we may be confronted some hard truths we have managed to avoid.  Perhaps it’s an old regret from the past.  Perhaps it’s a sinful weakness that has been hiding in plain sight for a long time.

But God can use these difficult moments. Through them, He can remind us that our greatest need is not a hectic lifestyle bursting with distractions, but that our greatest need is Jesus.  On our behalf, He carried our every failure to the cross.  And to assure us that He has kept His promise to cover us in His forgiveness, Jesus has risen from the dead.

So, when extra time comes to think and reflect, let it come.  If there’s a confrontation with a hard truth that cuts to the heart, that’s okay.  It just reminds you all the more that real peace – and real life – is in Jesus Christ alone.

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