Oh, if I had a time machine... a weekend in New York in summer 1964 would be a dream come true! A day at the fairgrounds, catch a game at the new Shea Stadium, see a show on Broadway... and wrap it all up on Sunday night attending the live broadcast of WML!
+JAY WEISBURD It appears you conflated two games from that first series at Shea. The first game at Shea was played on Friday afternoon, April 17. The Pirates beat the Mets, 4-3 with a run in the 9th inning off of relief pitcher Ed Bauta. Bob Friend was the WINNING pitcher for the Pirates, going the distance despite giving up 3 runs in the fourth inning. After having lost their first four games in the season (two in Philadelphia to the Phillies who would blow the pennant in ignominious fashion at the end of the season, and the first two games at Shea to the Pirates), the Mets won for the first time at Shea, a 6-0 shutout by Al Jackson (who the Mets selected out of the Pirates organization in the expansion draft before the Mets first season). The losing pitcher that day was Bob VEALE, not Friend, although Veale would go on to be the Pirates best pitcher that year, leading the NL that season in strikeouts (in part because Sandy Koufax missed the last 5 weeks of the season with an elbow injury) and leading the Pirates in wins and ERA.The Mets knocked out Veale with 4 runs in the fourth inning. Rod Kanehl knocked in the first two runs with a single, following a single by Hawk Taylor and a double by Joe Christopher (another ex-Pirate). An error by Pirates third baseman Bob Bailey led to a 2-run single by Ron Hunt. The Mets added two more runs in the sixth inning to pad their lead. Meanwhile Jackson pitched beautifully, allowing only 5 singles, a double (by Roberto Clemente) and two walks, but inducing 2 double plays and 6 strikeouts to keep the Bucs at bay.
Edie Adams archived her husband's television work, which she described during a 1999 video taped interview with the Archive of American Television. She later testified on the status of the archive of the short lived DuMont Television Network, where both she and husband Kovacs worked during the early 1950s. Adams claimed that so little value was given to the film archive that the entire collection was loaded into three trucks and dumped into Upper New York Bay. Upon discovering that her husband's work was disappearing through being discarded and re-use of the tapes, Edie Adams initially used the proceeds of his insurance policy to purchase the rights to as much footage as possible. She also used her own earnings for this purpose
Edie Adams became one of the hardest working women in show business after her husband's death. Not only because of her obvious beauty and talent, but - sadly - to help pay off Ernie's debts.
Edie Adams was an amazing talent. Not only could she mimic the female stars of her day with startling accuracy and wit, she was also a superb actress, singer, and comedienne. We're seeing her here during a very troubled time - a year after the cancellation of her "Here's Edie" show, the death two years before of her husband Ernie Kovacs, a huge and nasty lawsuit against Ernie's insane ex-wife over custody of his children (his ex had kidnapped them years before in a fit of paranoia), and shouldering the weight of Ernie's unpaid debt to the IRS. She made it through all of this with dedication and style. There were few others that approached her unique combination of talents back then - I would say Jo Stafford and Keely Smith come close.
Talking about the Gemini space shots with a buddy, while driving in a 1964 Buick Wildcat convertible with the top down, listening to "I Feel Fine(1964) - Beatles! BEATLE MANIA!
RE: Expo New York 1964. WML did a lot of sequences to publicize it. It was not recognized by the organization that sanctioned official world's fairs. It went into planning in 1955 and became so massive that it had to run two years and bring in 70 million guests to turn a profit. 51 million visited the fair: overall, the fair paid off investors 19 cents on the dollar. Our Arlene sat on the board of directors.
What a coincidence! I was thinking during the first segment that the first challenger was the town crier, but Lucy could have been the town crier wherever she lived.
She was multi-talented and I think she wanted to do other things besides being a comedienne all of the time. She graduated from the esteemed Julliard School of Music in New York...
Here's a bit of inside trivia about Ernie & Edie: Ernie would have had a cameo in "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World" as a dentist, had he lived. At first, Edie wanted to drop out of the film, because of her husband's death. But her friends persuaded her to stay on board. And so she did. Filming started in April 1962.
+Vahan Nisanian Actually Ernie would have had more than a cameo. He had a MAJOR role in that movie, but after his death the role was offered to Sid Caesar. Sid played the part which was originally meant for Ernie which was that of a dentist that was married to the character played by Edie Adams. Again, a major role, not cameo.
@@jvcomedy Mine too!.....My Dad took me as a kid in the 60's....I'd never seen him laugh so much at anything....that gave me a happy feeling,...that comes back every time I watch it.
@jvcomedy Have I got news for you! I saw the movie as a kid with my dad. It was the road show, Seattle Cinerama. I can guarantee you, the Three Stooges as firefighters had a LOT of footage in the final melee, several minutes, which was apparently cut later and now seems to be lost forever. I was a huge Stooges fan at the time and recall it vividly. Lots of business with the fire hoses and ladders. All gone. 😢
I feel the same way about Paige Wightman, the lady livestock auctioneer, who did a little bit of her auction calling when she appeared as a contestant.
Second game. Three questions and she's out! William Shea Memorial Stadium, while not part of the EXPO New York fairgrounds proper, was listed in the fair's maps and was served by the same subway line. During the 1964 and 1965 baseball seasons, the New York Mets added a World's Fair commemorative patch to the left sleeve of their home jersey and the right sleeve of their road jersey. The stadium cost cost $28.5 million ($217 million in 2014 dollars) and lasted from 1964 to 2008.
I saw a few games at Shea over the years and a couple of memorable moments. As I am a Dodger fan, both of them came at games between the Mets and the Dodgers. On Tuesday evening August 30, 1966, I was one of 50,000+ fans who paid to watch Sandy Koufax pitch. His mound opponent was a young Tug McGraw. My brother and I had this one chalked up as a Dodger win, and when Maury Wills led off with a walk, Wes Parker followed with a homer and Willie Davis doubled, our confidence grew. Koufax looked good as he retired the Mets in order in the bottom of the first. The Dodgers threatened again in the second on a double by John Roseboro and a walk to John Kennedy. That brought up Koufax, a notoriously weak hitter, but he sent McGraw's pitch into right field for a single. But Cleon Jones playing shallow threw out Roseboro at the plate. Mets manager Wes Westrum sent McGraw to the showers and brought in Bob Friend, the same pitcher who won the first game at Shea two seasons earlier. He retired the side without further damage and from then on, it was the Mets who held sway in their first season to finish better than last place and lose less than 100 games. Whether it was from running the bases or adrenaline pitching what he knew would be his last game in his hometown, Koufax reverted back to the wildness of his early career, three walks and a single handing the Mets a run in the second. In the third inning Koufax could get out anyone, Ron Hunt singled and Ken Boyer doubled. Then the Dodger defense let Koufax down. Jim Hickman was safe on an error by Wills and the score was tied. Billy Murphy then hit a ground ball, but the throw to the plate was late and the Mets took the lead. A single by Ron Swoboda drove in another run and Koufax was through for the night, although he was charged with two more runs that scored on Jerry Grote's double off of Joe Moeller. When Friend retired the Dodgers in order in the ninth, the scoreboard read Mets - 10, Dodgers - 4. The next memory comes from the following season, one of the games between the Mets and Dodgers in July. I remember nothing about the game at this point. What I remember was that our group was sitting in box seats on the first base side. Between innings later in the game, there was a commotion behind us. A weird looking man in a light blue sports coat with a big Dodgers button on his lapel was walking through the stands carrying a shopping bag and getting razzed by the fans. We didn't know at the time that he was a novelty act in Greenwich Village. A few months later my brother and I were with our parents watching a new TV show called "Laugh In". Rowan and Martin introduced the next act and my brother and I said in unison, "That's the guy!!!" It was then that we learned that we had seen Tiny Tim about six months before he became he became famous. It was early 1968. Alas the original WML had gone off the air just a few months earlier. He would have been an interesting Mystery Guest.
If nothing else Shea Stadium proved that Walter O'Malley was right and Robert Moses was wrong regarding the suitability of Flushing Meadow as the site for a top notch sports stadium. O'Malley wanted to build the first geodesic dome stadium, locating it in downtown Brooklyn. (Because it rarely rains in L.A. during baseball season, a dome wasn't needed there.) Instead, Moses insisted a new stadium for the Brooklyn Dodgers be built in Flushing Meadow and the fans of New York got an inferior stadium and an expansion team rather than a team that regularly contended for the pennant far more often than the Mets did. Shea was also supposed to have a dome eventually, but it turned out that the ground in that area was too soft to support the additional weight a dome would have added. That ground also drained poorly, leading to much worse field conditions after rain delays or recent rains than were experienced at Ebbets Field, Yankee Stadium or the Polo Grounds. Then there was the matter of the swirling winds that came in through the open end of the stadium (which was originally designed to be closed but never was). The setting of Shea was aesthetically terrible as well, giving the fans a bird's eye view of the auto salvage yards beyond the outfield fence. In contrast, Dodger fans have enjoyed picturesque hills beyond the outfield fence at their stadium, two years older than Shea and still a fine place to enjoy a game. The final contrast is that Dodger Stadium (and O'Malley's proposed Brooklyn stadium) was designed just for baseball, although football could certainly be played there if desired. But with Shea designed for two sports, the first of the "cookie-cutter" stadiums that are now totally out of favor, Only a small percentage of seats were close to the action. This was not what New York fans were familiar with at Ebbets Field and many of the seats at Yankee Stadium or the Polo Grounds. Ebbets in particular was a cozy park, putting the fans close to the action without a bad seat in the park. O'Malley's final vindication came years after his death. A sports arena is located at the very spot in downtown Brooklyn where he was negotiating to build his new stadium.
One other Shea Stadium memory I have began shortly before this episode of WML aired. I was in 6th grade (age 11) and my brother was in 11th grade (age 16). In those days, schools scheduled a week long vacation around Easter time and my parents let me and my brother return to our old neighborhood in Queens to visit our friends for a couple of days during the vacation. One of those days, we decided to take the subway to see the new stadium. I was the youngest and my brother the oldest in the group. Unfortunately, even though Shea Stadium was almost exactly due north of our old block on the Richmond Hill-Ozone Park border, there was no bus route that directly went there, even with a little walking. Back then, a couple of blocks away there was a Green Line bus and a Jamaica Bus Lines bus and both went to Jamaica, not Flushing or Corona. So we had to take the A train to downtown Brooklyn, switch to the GG train at Hoyt-Schermerhorn Sts. (yes double letters back then), take that to Queens Plaza to change for the E or F, then get off at Roosevelt Ave-Jackson Heights and walk upstairs to the Flushing Line and one of the new light blue and white trains the IRT ordered for the World's Fair. (Unlike 1939-40, only the IRT would have subway trains to the Fair in 1964-65. Previously the IND and BMT also had trains going there.) We couldn't get close to the Fair. But we walked right into Shea. There were workmen all around putting the finishing touches on the field, in the stands and in the bowels of the stadium. And no one stopped us or questioned us. We were a well-behaved group of kids wide-eyed to get an early look at the brand new ballpark. Me and my brother rooted for the Dodgers, some rooted for the Giants, some for the Yankees and some for the Mets, but we were all in awe. At this point in our lives, this was like a shrine. Before long, guys who had pictures on bubble gum cards and their names in the newspaper, who were talked about on television and radio and some of them even made big money (even as much as $100,000 a year!) would be out there playing a game we loved and get paid for it. Some of them would be our favorite players. When we saw as much as we could and new we had to start heading back before it got too late in the day, we got out our little tokens with the Y notched in the middle and made the reverse subway trip back to the Greenwood Avenue station on Liberty Avenue. We must have talked about it for hours as best we could above the subway din. Three months later, the guys from the neighborhood were allowed to visit us in the suburbs. We played stickball as best we could on our hilly street (all I'll say is that I wasn't the worst player) and then we went inside for something to eat and to watch the end of the baseball All-Star Game. That year's All-Star Game would turn out to be the only one played at Shea Stadium. The Yankee fans in the group were rooting for the American League; the rest of us for the National League. The AL was leading 4-3 going into the bottom of the ninth. Ace Red Sox reliever, Dick "The Monster" Radatz, was starting his third inning of work. The NL All-Stars barely touched him in his first two innings as he struck out four of the six he faced. But leading off the ninth, Radatz walked Willie Mays who then stole second. Orlando Cepeda then blooped one into short right field for a single. It was hit so shallow that first baseman Joe Pepitone got to the ball first, but his bad throw towards home plate allowed Mays to score and Cepeda to reach second. The score was now tied. Curt Flood was sent in to run for Cepeda. Radatz still hadn't been hit hard and he got Ken Boyer to pop out to third baseman Brooks Robinson. Then he intentionally walked Johnny Edwards to pitch to Ron Hunt. Here was the moment Mets fans were waiting for. Hunt was the first Met elected to an All-Star team as a starter and he had gotten a single in three trips so far. But Radatz struck him out his last time up so manager Walt Alston sent up Hank Aaron to bat for him. Mets fans were disappointed but it was hard to argue against the strategy. However, Radatz struck out Aaron. We were one out away from going into extra innings. Johnny Callison of the Phillies went up to the plate. He smacked the first pitch from Radatz into the right field stands and the NL pulled out the victory. ruclips.net/video/ePubGVCFWeU/видео.html Then no doubt we went out to play more ball while discussing every detail of the game we just saw. That's what kids back then who lived, ate and slept baseball did in those days.
This is the second show during this time frame that John mispronounced the title of the movie by adding one too many "Mads," 5. There are only 4 in the title. He did the same thing when Ethel Merman was a MG.
Some firsts at Shea Stadium this weekend: First batter: Dick Schofield of the Pirates, popped out to second baseman Larry Burright with Jack Fisher pitching. First hit and home run: Willie Stargell of the Pirates, leading off the second inning. First Met batter: Tim Harkness grounded out to Schofield, Bob Friend pitching. First Mets hit: Harkness singled to right in the third inning. First Mets run: Ron Hunt doubled, followed by an RBI single by Jesse Gonder. First ejection: Pirates catcher Jim Pagliaroni, thrown out by home plate umpire Tom Gorman for arguing that a pitch hit Jim Hickman's bat, not Hickman, and then throwing his mask. First Game Winning RBI: In the top of the ninth, a single by Pirates second baseman Bill Mazeroski with two outs followed singles to Stargell and Donn Clendenon, all off Ed Bauta. (The first Mets home run at Shea didn't happen until Thursday, April 23 when Hunt connected in the 8th inning off of Dick Ellsworth, the Mets only run during a 5-1 loss to the Cubs. Because of bad weather, this was the first game played at Shea since 4/19.) The Mets starting lineup their first game at Shea: Tim Harkness, first base George Altman, right field Ron Hunt, third base Jesse Gonder, catcher Frank Thomas, left field Jim Hickman, center field (when Hickman was hit by the pitch, Larry Elliott replaced him) Amado Samuel, shortstop (Ed Kranepool batted for him and Al Moran came in at shortstop) Larry Burright, second base (John Stephenson batted for him in the bottom of the 9th) Jack Fisher, pitcher (Ed Bauta relieved him and Hawk Taylor batted for him in the bottom of the ninth). The Pirates lineup for the first game at Shea: Dick Schofield, shortstop Bill Virdon, center field Roberto Clemente, right field Willie Stargell, left field Donn Clendenon, first base Bob Bailey, third base Bill Mazeroski, second base Jim Pagliaroni, catcher (Orlando McFarlane replaced him after the ejection) Bob Friend, pitcher
***** Sorry, I know very, very little about Kovacs. I just know that I love him on WML and the one episode where he showed up on You Bet Your Life. :) That does seem like a nightmarish scenario, someone allergic to smoke being married to an inveterate cigar smoker!
According to Edie Adams in an article that appeared in the Chicago Tribune, it's just the opposite. Here's the key quote from the article: Kovacs and Adams also did commercials: He for Dutch Masters; she for Muriel Cigars. ''I did them (cigars) for 20 years,'' she said, ''and I think they`re the only thing I`m not allergic to. I love the smell of them. Ernie smoked 20 a day. And here's the link to the full article: www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1991-07-28-9103230744-story.html
@@loissimmons6558 You're on a roll tonight, Lois. Regarding this show, in particular, your overly long commentaries has me concerned that you may not be getting enough sleep. At our age, a good night's sleep is essential. Should I be concerned ?
There was also an Usher at Shea Stadium on July 24, 1966, the very last B&W episode they ever did by production order. A gorgeous blonde Swedish woman named Gunelf Bertson.
RE: Buddy Hackett. The producers got their 750 dollars worth that night. Talk about on. I was about to write that Hal Block himself never ran up to the moderator desk to lay one on a mystery guest, but [silly me] they knew each other well. Working together on "It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad Mad World" should count as conscription.
Can you imagine what Bennett Cerf's reaction would have been - as well as that of John Daly, Arlene Francis, and Dorothy Kilgallen - if, say, Henry Morgan (or, back in the day, Hal Block) had made the remark that Buddy Hackett made at the beginning of the show? The difference in this episode is that they all knew Buddy and liked Buddy, and so they took it in stride and basically laughed it off.
16:03: "Have you done any widely-used cigarette commercials?" and Edie's reaction. The "no" is technically correct, but I imagine Bennett was thinking of her commercials for Muriel cigars.
This is four years later but hopefully you'll see it. After Bennett gets his "no", Dorothy asks "Julie London?" and I'm pretty sure that's who he was thinking of. Julie did commercials for Marlboro. I once worked in advertising and there was a huge framed picture of her from one of those commercials hanging in the entrance hallway on one of the floors.
The Mets played for two years at the Polo Grounds which had three incarnations the last of which was built in 1890 (and was greatly damaged by fire around 1911, but much was saved and also rebuilt) and torn down in 1964, serving the sports world, mostly the NY Giants until they moved to San Francisco in 1958. It stood for 74 years. Shea Stadium, its replacement opened in 1964 and was torn down in 2008, the Mets having used it for 44 years. It was replaced by the new Citi Field in 2009. New York does not have a great deal of respect for history. By this rate they'll be demanding a new stadium in another 20 years.
I have a lot of good memories of Shea Stadium from back when I actually followed baseball and went to games (when I was in my teens and twenties, mostly). I've been to Citi Field a couple of times, and it's quite impressive, but I miss Shea.
Greed trumps history. Shea was built before skyboxes and their very profitable revenue stream Yes, all the multipurpose stadiums that were great for football and lousy for baseball were torn down and the new stadiums are like the vintage stadiums but with no pillars and better sight lines. But money is the driving force.
I've never found him funny in the least. I can barely understand him to begin with (which alone bothers the hell out of me), and he's just loud and mumbles his words, very brash and irritating. I never got the appeal of comedy by someone who cannot enunciate (I'm looking at you Bennett Cerf, too!)
@@Merrida100 - Buddy Hackett's unusual accent and cadences of speech were part of his comedic shtick and so done deliberately, unless he was in an acting role. I do believe from years of watching Bennett Cerf in my youth and again now, that Bennett had a speech (or maybe hearing) impediment that was subtle, but clearly there because his was not a standard NYC accent, as there were things regularly that he managed to pronounce in the oddest of fashions. And they were not things like how he said Los Angeles, which was a common mispronunciation back in the day. If you watch the way he uses his mouth and the letters he sometimes misses in the contestants' names, I think there is a subtle impediment there. As a word/language lover, he would not have drawn attention to it.
One for the gals...what kind of outfit was that the second contestant was wearing? It looked sort of like a Naval kind of thing that you don't see anymore.
Joe Postove The "Navy-look" has come and gone several times. The first I remember I've seen, was in a photo of a woman wearing a collar, from around 1918(?) Then during the 20's, as a part of childrens "Sunday-clothing" in the 30's, 40's (both women and children), and 50's (I had one, didn't you?) Then again for women, a short period in the 60's (didn't hit because of the anti-war mood then) and again in the 80's, and seems to come back now.
Joe Postove Well, there's a lot of women who like to see men in uniform, as many men like women to wear it too. :) It's a question about taste, I suppose. What about a woman dressed as a nurse? She's wearing a uniform, and it seems to be quite popular among men, but that's maybe something else. No matter which gender, some look good in military/police uniforms, and some don't.
I don't like to see a man in uniform when I am warning my sister's daughter not to say fuck to me. See my latest blast facebook.com/joe.postove/posts/10152704837537048
I think the first contestant used to be Johnny Roventini, you know the bellboy who used to issue the "call for Phileeeep Moreeeees" from the old cigarette commercials. This was a town crier!
This show became so predictable and not challenging anymore. Here's proof at 12:31. Just read the newspaper the night before. They knew more or less who the guest would be.
Whenever I see Hackett I think of Drew Carey, and vice versa, then I ask myself:Why are these guys famous? Throw in Rosie O'Donnell to balance the scale
@Joe Ambrose - All 3 of the mentioned comedians were good stand-ups, which requires a great deal of creative and interpretive comedic art. Buddy and Rosie can act and I understand Drew can as well, though I've never seen his acting work. They were not just game show and talk show people and are comic artists.
![What's My Line? - Olivia de Havilland; Joseph L. Mankiewicz [panel] (Aug 9, 1964)](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/vAq-j2IauGw/mqdefault.jpg)
![What's My Line? - Yogi Berra; Louis Jourdan; Steve Lawrence [panel] (Apr 26, 1964)](/img/1.gif)
Oh, if I had a time machine... a weekend in New York in summer 1964 would be a dream come true! A day at the fairgrounds, catch a game at the new Shea Stadium, see a show on Broadway... and wrap it all up on Sunday night attending the live broadcast of WML!
I was at that game...They beat Bob Friend and the Pirates....then we went to the World's Fair.
Do you have room in your time machine, for one more?
+JAY WEISBURD
It appears you conflated two games from that first series at Shea. The first game at Shea was played on Friday afternoon, April 17. The Pirates beat the Mets, 4-3 with a run in the 9th inning off of relief pitcher Ed Bauta. Bob Friend was the WINNING pitcher for the Pirates, going the distance despite giving up 3 runs in the fourth inning.
After having lost their first four games in the season (two in Philadelphia to the Phillies who would blow the pennant in ignominious fashion at the end of the season, and the first two games at Shea to the Pirates), the Mets won for the first time at Shea, a 6-0 shutout by Al Jackson (who the Mets selected out of the Pirates organization in the expansion draft before the Mets first season). The losing pitcher that day was Bob VEALE, not Friend, although Veale would go on to be the Pirates best pitcher that year, leading the NL that season in strikeouts (in part because Sandy Koufax missed the last 5 weeks of the season with an elbow injury) and leading the Pirates in wins and ERA.The Mets knocked out Veale with 4 runs in the fourth inning. Rod Kanehl knocked in the first two runs with a single, following a single by Hawk Taylor and a double by Joe Christopher (another ex-Pirate). An error by Pirates third baseman Bob Bailey led to a 2-run single by Ron Hunt. The Mets added two more runs in the sixth inning to pad their lead. Meanwhile Jackson pitched beautifully, allowing only 5 singles, a double (by Roberto Clemente) and two walks, but inducing 2 double plays and 6 strikeouts to keep the Bucs at bay.
Time to grow up people
@@joeambrose3260 You truly are one sad individual.
Buddy Hackett's spontaneous joy at seeing Edie Adams was fun! He was reacting for all of us.
Lovely, charming and an incredible talent Edie was❤
Edie Adams archived her husband's television work, which she described during a 1999 video taped interview with the Archive of American Television. She later testified on the status of the archive of the short lived DuMont Television Network, where both she and husband Kovacs worked during the early 1950s. Adams claimed that so little value was given to the film archive that the entire collection was loaded into three trucks and dumped into Upper New York Bay. Upon discovering that her husband's work was disappearing through being discarded and re-use of the tapes, Edie Adams initially used the proceeds of his insurance policy to purchase the rights to as much footage as possible. She also used her own earnings for this purpose
Again, thanks much for these postings....always good fun.
Thanks you all.
Loved seeing Edie and Buddy running over to kiss her on the lips 👄
Edie Adams became one of the hardest working women in show business after her husband's death. Not only because of her obvious beauty and talent, but - sadly - to help pay off Ernie's debts.
She sure had a nice broad smile on@!@!
Edie Adams. Stunning lady :-)
Crazy this aired EXACTLY 30 years before I was born!
Great episode and Bennett was so quick with guessing Sydney's line!
Edie Adams was an amazing talent. Not only could she mimic the female stars of her day with startling accuracy and wit, she was also a superb actress, singer, and comedienne. We're seeing her here during a very troubled time - a year after the cancellation of her "Here's Edie" show, the death two years before of her husband Ernie Kovacs, a huge and nasty lawsuit against Ernie's insane ex-wife over custody of his children (his ex had kidnapped them years before in a fit of paranoia), and shouldering the weight of Ernie's unpaid debt to the IRS. She made it through all of this with dedication and style. There were few others that approached her unique combination of talents back then - I would say Jo Stafford and Keely Smith come close.
My Dad loved "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World", when he was growing up.
I did too! Saw it in the theater! THE BIG W!
Talking about the Gemini space shots with a buddy, while driving in a 1964 Buick Wildcat convertible with the top down, listening to "I Feel Fine(1964) - Beatles! BEATLE MANIA!
RE: Expo New York 1964. WML did a lot of sequences to publicize it. It was not recognized by the organization that sanctioned official world's fairs. It went into planning in 1955 and became so massive that it had to run two years and bring in 70 million guests to turn a profit. 51 million visited the fair: overall, the fair paid off investors 19 cents on the dollar. Our Arlene sat on the board of directors.
Edie Adams was such an underrated comedian. She could have had a Lucy-like career.
What a coincidence! I was thinking during the first segment that the first challenger was the town crier, but Lucy could have been the town crier wherever she lived.
She was multi-talented and I think she wanted to do other things besides being a comedienne all of the time. She graduated from the esteemed Julliard School of Music in New York...
The town crier was wonderful!
Edie Adams had to work very hard to pay her late husband's debts to the IRS--which were considerable.
She got a Degree in Accounting in order to work out Ernie’s Debts.
I remember Edie Adams mostly from her TV commercials for Muriel Cigars.
Here's a bit of inside trivia about Ernie & Edie:
Ernie would have had a cameo in "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World" as a dentist, had he lived. At first, Edie wanted to drop out of the film, because of her husband's death. But her friends persuaded her to stay on board. And so she did. Filming started in April 1962.
+Vahan Nisanian Actually Ernie would have had more than a cameo. He had a MAJOR role in that movie, but after his death the role was offered to Sid Caesar. Sid played the part which was originally meant for Ernie which was that of a dentist that was married to the character played by Edie Adams. Again, a major role, not cameo.
@@jvcomedy Sid did an awesome job too!
@@johnsain Yes he did. They all did. My favorite movie of all time!
@@jvcomedy Mine too!.....My Dad took me as a kid in the 60's....I'd never seen him laugh so much at anything....that gave me a happy feeling,...that comes back every time I watch it.
@jvcomedy Have I got news for you! I saw the movie as a kid with my dad. It was the road show, Seattle Cinerama. I can guarantee you, the Three Stooges as firefighters had a LOT of footage in the final melee, several minutes, which was apparently cut later and now seems to be lost forever. I was a huge Stooges fan at the time and recall it vividly. Lots of business with the fire hoses and ladders. All gone. 😢
Total class...
Great seeing Buddy Hackett one of my favorites as a kid.
Edie had certainly changed quite a bit in appearance after Ernie passed away. I'm sure a lot of stress she had gone through
She lost her husband, Ernie Kovacs, after his fatal car accident some years previously.
The first contestant demonstrated his line, and it was good. It was classy, not silly like the circus atmosphere of the syndicated "Line"
I feel the same way about Paige Wightman, the lady livestock auctioneer, who did a little bit of her auction calling when she appeared as a contestant.
Second game. Three questions and she's out! William Shea Memorial Stadium, while not part of the EXPO New York fairgrounds proper, was listed in the fair's maps and was served by the same subway line. During the 1964 and 1965 baseball seasons, the New York Mets added a World's Fair commemorative patch to the left sleeve of their home jersey and the right sleeve of their road jersey. The stadium cost cost $28.5 million
($217 million in 2014 dollars) and lasted from 1964 to 2008.
Stunning lady :-)
Now I want to visit Shea Stadium!
April 19, 1964 was a double-header for Buddy Hackett, as earlier that same night, the August 16, 1964 episode was taped.
I saw a few games at Shea over the years and a couple of memorable moments. As I am a Dodger fan, both of them came at games between the Mets and the Dodgers.
On Tuesday evening August 30, 1966, I was one of 50,000+ fans who paid to watch Sandy Koufax pitch. His mound opponent was a young Tug McGraw. My brother and I had this one chalked up as a Dodger win, and when Maury Wills led off with a walk, Wes Parker followed with a homer and Willie Davis doubled, our confidence grew. Koufax looked good as he retired the Mets in order in the bottom of the first. The Dodgers threatened again in the second on a double by John Roseboro and a walk to John Kennedy. That brought up Koufax, a notoriously weak hitter, but he sent McGraw's pitch into right field for a single. But Cleon Jones playing shallow threw out Roseboro at the plate. Mets manager Wes Westrum sent McGraw to the showers and brought in Bob Friend, the same pitcher who won the first game at Shea two seasons earlier. He retired the side without further damage and from then on, it was the Mets who held sway in their first season to finish better than last place and lose less than 100 games. Whether it was from running the bases or adrenaline pitching what he knew would be his last game in his hometown, Koufax reverted back to the wildness of his early career, three walks and a single handing the Mets a run in the second. In the third inning Koufax could get out anyone, Ron Hunt singled and Ken Boyer doubled. Then the Dodger defense let Koufax down. Jim Hickman was safe on an error by Wills and the score was tied. Billy Murphy then hit a ground ball, but the throw to the plate was late and the Mets took the lead. A single by Ron Swoboda drove in another run and Koufax was through for the night, although he was charged with two more runs that scored on Jerry Grote's double off of Joe Moeller. When Friend retired the Dodgers in order in the ninth, the scoreboard read Mets - 10, Dodgers - 4.
The next memory comes from the following season, one of the games between the Mets and Dodgers in July. I remember nothing about the game at this point. What I remember was that our group was sitting in box seats on the first base side. Between innings later in the game, there was a commotion behind us. A weird looking man in a light blue sports coat with a big Dodgers button on his lapel was walking through the stands carrying a shopping bag and getting razzed by the fans. We didn't know at the time that he was a novelty act in Greenwich Village. A few months later my brother and I were with our parents watching a new TV show called "Laugh In". Rowan and Martin introduced the next act and my brother and I said in unison, "That's the guy!!!" It was then that we learned that we had seen Tiny Tim about six months before he became he became famous. It was early 1968.
Alas the original WML had gone off the air just a few months earlier. He would have been an interesting Mystery Guest.
Sydney Anne , she walks in beauty like the night in cloudless climes and starry skies
If nothing else Shea Stadium proved that Walter O'Malley was right and Robert Moses was wrong regarding the suitability of Flushing Meadow as the site for a top notch sports stadium. O'Malley wanted to build the first geodesic dome stadium, locating it in downtown Brooklyn. (Because it rarely rains in L.A. during baseball season, a dome wasn't needed there.) Instead, Moses insisted a new stadium for the Brooklyn Dodgers be built in Flushing Meadow and the fans of New York got an inferior stadium and an expansion team rather than a team that regularly contended for the pennant far more often than the Mets did.
Shea was also supposed to have a dome eventually, but it turned out that the ground in that area was too soft to support the additional weight a dome would have added. That ground also drained poorly, leading to much worse field conditions after rain delays or recent rains than were experienced at Ebbets Field, Yankee Stadium or the Polo Grounds. Then there was the matter of the swirling winds that came in through the open end of the stadium (which was originally designed to be closed but never was). The setting of Shea was aesthetically terrible as well, giving the fans a bird's eye view of the auto salvage yards beyond the outfield fence. In contrast, Dodger fans have enjoyed picturesque hills beyond the outfield fence at their stadium, two years older than Shea and still a fine place to enjoy a game. The final contrast is that Dodger Stadium (and O'Malley's proposed Brooklyn stadium) was designed just for baseball, although football could certainly be played there if desired. But with Shea designed for two sports, the first of the "cookie-cutter" stadiums that are now totally out of favor, Only a small percentage of seats were close to the action. This was not what New York fans were familiar with at Ebbets Field and many of the seats at Yankee Stadium or the Polo Grounds. Ebbets in particular was a cozy park, putting the fans close to the action without a bad seat in the park.
O'Malley's final vindication came years after his death. A sports arena is located at the very spot in downtown Brooklyn where he was negotiating to build his new stadium.
One other Shea Stadium memory I have began shortly before this episode of WML aired. I was in 6th grade (age 11) and my brother was in 11th grade (age 16). In those days, schools scheduled a week long vacation around Easter time and my parents let me and my brother return to our old neighborhood in Queens to visit our friends for a couple of days during the vacation. One of those days, we decided to take the subway to see the new stadium. I was the youngest and my brother the oldest in the group.
Unfortunately, even though Shea Stadium was almost exactly due north of our old block on the Richmond Hill-Ozone Park border, there was no bus route that directly went there, even with a little walking. Back then, a couple of blocks away there was a Green Line bus and a Jamaica Bus Lines bus and both went to Jamaica, not Flushing or Corona. So we had to take the A train to downtown Brooklyn, switch to the GG train at Hoyt-Schermerhorn Sts. (yes double letters back then), take that to Queens Plaza to change for the E or F, then get off at Roosevelt Ave-Jackson Heights and walk upstairs to the Flushing Line and one of the new light blue and white trains the IRT ordered for the World's Fair. (Unlike 1939-40, only the IRT would have subway trains to the Fair in 1964-65. Previously the IND and BMT also had trains going there.)
We couldn't get close to the Fair. But we walked right into Shea. There were workmen all around putting the finishing touches on the field, in the stands and in the bowels of the stadium. And no one stopped us or questioned us. We were a well-behaved group of kids wide-eyed to get an early look at the brand new ballpark. Me and my brother rooted for the Dodgers, some rooted for the Giants, some for the Yankees and some for the Mets, but we were all in awe. At this point in our lives, this was like a shrine. Before long, guys who had pictures on bubble gum cards and their names in the newspaper, who were talked about on television and radio and some of them even made big money (even as much as $100,000 a year!) would be out there playing a game we loved and get paid for it. Some of them would be our favorite players.
When we saw as much as we could and new we had to start heading back before it got too late in the day, we got out our little tokens with the Y notched in the middle and made the reverse subway trip back to the Greenwood Avenue station on Liberty Avenue. We must have talked about it for hours as best we could above the subway din.
Three months later, the guys from the neighborhood were allowed to visit us in the suburbs. We played stickball as best we could on our hilly street (all I'll say is that I wasn't the worst player) and then we went inside for something to eat and to watch the end of the baseball All-Star Game.
That year's All-Star Game would turn out to be the only one played at Shea Stadium. The Yankee fans in the group were rooting for the American League; the rest of us for the National League. The AL was leading 4-3 going into the bottom of the ninth. Ace Red Sox reliever, Dick "The Monster" Radatz, was starting his third inning of work. The NL All-Stars barely touched him in his first two innings as he struck out four of the six he faced. But leading off the ninth, Radatz walked Willie Mays who then stole second. Orlando Cepeda then blooped one into short right field for a single. It was hit so shallow that first baseman Joe Pepitone got to the ball first, but his bad throw towards home plate allowed Mays to score and Cepeda to reach second. The score was now tied. Curt Flood was sent in to run for Cepeda. Radatz still hadn't been hit hard and he got Ken Boyer to pop out to third baseman Brooks Robinson. Then he intentionally walked Johnny Edwards to pitch to Ron Hunt. Here was the moment Mets fans were waiting for. Hunt was the first Met elected to an All-Star team as a starter and he had gotten a single in three trips so far. But Radatz struck him out his last time up so manager Walt Alston sent up Hank Aaron to bat for him. Mets fans were disappointed but it was hard to argue against the strategy. However, Radatz struck out Aaron. We were one out away from going into extra innings. Johnny Callison of the Phillies went up to the plate. He smacked the first pitch from Radatz into the right field stands and the NL pulled out the victory.
ruclips.net/video/ePubGVCFWeU/видео.html
Then no doubt we went out to play more ball while discussing every detail of the game we just saw. That's what kids back then who lived, ate and slept baseball did in those days.
Lois Simmons, you’re a captivating writer! Thanks for your detailed accounts.
This is the second show during this time frame that John mispronounced the title of the movie by adding one too many "Mads," 5. There are only 4 in the title. He did the same thing when Ethel Merman was a MG.
Edie Adams was born EDITH.
Some firsts at Shea Stadium this weekend:
First batter: Dick Schofield of the Pirates, popped out to second baseman Larry Burright with Jack Fisher pitching.
First hit and home run: Willie Stargell of the Pirates, leading off the second inning.
First Met batter: Tim Harkness grounded out to Schofield, Bob Friend pitching.
First Mets hit: Harkness singled to right in the third inning.
First Mets run: Ron Hunt doubled, followed by an RBI single by Jesse Gonder.
First ejection: Pirates catcher Jim Pagliaroni, thrown out by home plate umpire Tom Gorman for arguing that a pitch hit Jim Hickman's bat, not Hickman, and then throwing his mask.
First Game Winning RBI: In the top of the ninth, a single by Pirates second baseman Bill Mazeroski with two outs followed singles to Stargell and Donn Clendenon, all off Ed Bauta.
(The first Mets home run at Shea didn't happen until Thursday, April 23 when Hunt connected in the 8th inning off of Dick Ellsworth, the Mets only run during a 5-1 loss to the Cubs. Because of bad weather, this was the first game played at Shea since 4/19.)
The Mets starting lineup their first game at Shea:
Tim Harkness, first base
George Altman, right field
Ron Hunt, third base
Jesse Gonder, catcher
Frank Thomas, left field
Jim Hickman, center field (when Hickman was hit by the pitch, Larry Elliott replaced him)
Amado Samuel, shortstop (Ed Kranepool batted for him and Al Moran came in at shortstop)
Larry Burright, second base (John Stephenson batted for him in the bottom of the 9th)
Jack Fisher, pitcher (Ed Bauta relieved him and Hawk Taylor batted for him in the bottom of the ninth).
The Pirates lineup for the first game at Shea:
Dick Schofield, shortstop
Bill Virdon, center field
Roberto Clemente, right field
Willie Stargell, left field
Donn Clendenon, first base
Bob Bailey, third base
Bill Mazeroski, second base
Jim Pagliaroni, catcher (Orlando McFarlane replaced him after the ejection)
Bob Friend, pitcher
I hope she kept her job as the Shea Stadium usher for at least one year. She would have seen The Beatles perform in 1965.
Buddy Hackett worked at Palisades Amusement Park (as a security guard?), where I went as a kid...and many great musical acts appeared there....
Edie was a cigar spokesperson, but was allergic to smoke.
*****
How did she manage her allergies when she was married to cigar-smoking Ernie?
SaveThe TPC Good question. Gary, perhaps you may know how?
***** Sorry, I know very, very little about Kovacs. I just know that I love him on WML and the one episode where he showed up on You Bet Your Life. :) That does seem like a nightmarish scenario, someone allergic to smoke being married to an inveterate cigar smoker!
According to Edie Adams in an article that appeared in the Chicago Tribune, it's just the opposite. Here's the key quote from the article:
Kovacs and Adams also did commercials: He for Dutch Masters; she for Muriel Cigars.
''I did them (cigars) for 20 years,'' she said, ''and I think they`re the only thing I`m not allergic to. I love the smell of them. Ernie smoked 20 a day.
And here's the link to the full article:
www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1991-07-28-9103230744-story.html
@@loissimmons6558 You're on a roll tonight, Lois. Regarding this show, in particular, your overly long commentaries has me concerned that you may not be getting enough sleep. At our age, a good night's sleep is essential. Should I be concerned ?
*_TOWN CRIER OF STRATFORD-ON-AVON ENGLAND_*
*_USHER AT SHEA STADIUM_*
*_MAKES SURFBOARDS_*
Ushers are rude
There was also an Usher at Shea Stadium on July 24, 1966, the very last B&W episode they ever did by production order. A gorgeous blonde Swedish woman named Gunelf Bertson.
This is the theme song I remember from when I was 6 years old in 1964.
Mr. Daly repeated for the guest, "Polyutherane"!!! (not Polyurethane)
RE: Buddy Hackett. The producers got their 750 dollars worth that night. Talk about on. I was about to write that Hal Block himself never ran up to the moderator desk to lay one on a mystery guest, but [silly me] they knew each other well. Working together on "It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad Mad World" should count as conscription.
Can you imagine what Bennett Cerf's reaction would have been - as well as that of John Daly, Arlene Francis, and Dorothy Kilgallen - if, say, Henry Morgan (or, back in the day, Hal Block) had made the remark that Buddy Hackett made at the beginning of the show? The difference in this episode is that they all knew Buddy and liked Buddy, and so they took it in stride and basically laughed it off.
Any more please
16:03: "Have you done any widely-used cigarette commercials?" and Edie's reaction. The "no" is technically correct, but I imagine Bennett was thinking of her commercials for Muriel cigars.
This is four years later but hopefully you'll see it. After Bennett gets his "no", Dorothy asks "Julie London?" and I'm pretty sure that's who he was thinking of. Julie did commercials for Marlboro. I once worked in advertising and there was a huge framed picture of her from one of those commercials hanging in the entrance hallway on one of the floors.
you are incorrect, Alan
The Mets played for two years at the Polo Grounds which had three incarnations the last of which was built in 1890 (and was greatly damaged by fire around 1911, but much was saved and also rebuilt) and torn down in 1964, serving the sports world, mostly the NY Giants until they moved to San Francisco in 1958. It stood for 74 years. Shea Stadium, its replacement opened in 1964 and was torn down in 2008, the Mets having used it for 44 years. It was replaced by the new Citi Field in 2009. New York does not have a great deal of respect for history. By this rate they'll be demanding a new stadium in another 20 years.
I have a lot of good memories of Shea Stadium from back when I actually followed baseball and went to games (when I was in my teens and twenties, mostly). I've been to Citi Field a couple of times, and it's quite impressive, but I miss Shea.
Greed trumps history. Shea was built before skyboxes and their very profitable revenue stream Yes, all the multipurpose stadiums that were great for football and lousy for baseball were torn down and the new stadiums are like the vintage stadiums but with no pillars and better sight lines. But money is the driving force.
Ok....I'm torn. Sometimes I think Buddy Hackett is not the least bit funny, and then other times he cracks me up and is adorable.
I've never found him funny in the least. I can barely understand him to begin with (which alone bothers the hell out of me), and he's just loud and mumbles his words, very brash and irritating. I never got the appeal of comedy by someone who cannot enunciate (I'm looking at you Bennett Cerf, too!)
@@Merrida100 - Buddy Hackett's unusual accent and cadences of speech were part of his comedic shtick and so done deliberately, unless he was in an acting role. I do believe from years of watching Bennett Cerf in my youth and again now, that Bennett had a speech (or maybe hearing) impediment that was subtle, but clearly there because his was not a standard NYC accent, as there were things regularly that he managed to pronounce in the oddest of fashions. And they were not things like how he said Los Angeles, which was a common mispronunciation back in the day. If you watch the way he uses his mouth and the letters he sometimes misses in the contestants' names, I think there is a subtle impediment there. As a word/language lover, he would not have drawn attention to it.
One for the gals...what kind of outfit was that the second contestant was wearing? It looked sort of like a Naval kind of thing that you don't see anymore.
Joe Postove The "Navy-look" has come and gone several times. The first I remember I've seen, was in a photo of a woman wearing a collar, from around 1918(?) Then during the 20's, as a part of childrens "Sunday-clothing" in the 30's, 40's (both women and children), and 50's (I had one, didn't you?) Then again for women, a short period in the 60's (didn't hit because of the anti-war mood then) and again in the 80's, and seems to come back now.
SuperWinterborn Something about a woman in a sailor suit doesn't work for me :>)
Joe Postove Well, there's a lot of women who like to see men in uniform, as many men like women to wear it too. :) It's a question about taste, I suppose. What about a woman dressed as a nurse? She's wearing a uniform, and it seems to be quite popular among men, but that's maybe something else. No matter which gender, some look good in military/police uniforms, and some don't.
I don't like to see a man in uniform when I am warning my sister's daughter not to say fuck to me. See my latest blast facebook.com/joe.postove/posts/10152704837537048
I have a photo of my mom's family, about 1917-18. All the girls are dressed as sailors. It's been in fashion several times over the years.
Edie Adams looks incredibly like Marilyn Monroe circa 1959
+lena fan Also, she was famous for her Marilyn Monroe voice imitation.
The Mets have been gettin their arses kicked this season so far. 🤬
While I ADORE this show, I HATE when they guees it right off the bat...I think there was some cheating going on by the panelists...i.e. Bennett Cerf
The FCC will shut WML if there was any cheating.
Shea Stadium…new!
No comment on how Bennent Cir knew the girl's profession in 3 guesses?
The opening of Shea Stadium was very much in the news, and the ushers were a big part of it.
BENNETT!!! Give that poor girl a chance!
Bennett ruined the Sydneyann segment by getting her off stage so quickly. She was gorgeous.
Edie Adams looked much older than 37 😳
40?
50?
65?
I think the first contestant used to be Johnny Roventini, you know the bellboy who used to issue the "call for Phileeeep Moreeeees" from the old cigarette commercials. This was a town crier!
Dorothy two quarts
This show became so predictable and not challenging anymore. Here's proof at 12:31. Just read the newspaper the night before. They knew more or less who the guest would be.
you're not mostly a motion picture actress, ms adams
That's why she hesitated with the answer. In fact, this was at a time when she worked quite regularly in movies.
"Polyutherane floam" 23:56 :-D
Whenever I see Hackett I think of Drew Carey, and vice versa, then I ask myself:Why are these guys famous? Throw in Rosie O'Donnell to balance the scale
@Joe Ambrose - All 3 of the mentioned comedians were good stand-ups, which requires a great deal of creative and interpretive comedic art. Buddy and Rosie can act and I understand Drew can as well, though I've never seen his acting work. They were not just game show and talk show people and are comic artists.
@@philippapay4352 Whatever floats your boat
I adore Buddy Hackett.
@@sheilamarie3788 Respectfully, I adore my cocker spaniel but don't give a squat about Buddy
@@joeambrose3260 that's okay. I can't stand Fred Allen and I get roasted about it frequently. 🙂 We agree on Rosie O'donnell!!
Another usher at a baseball stadium ?
Sydney us a male only name in uk🎩
Buddy Hackett Was Not Funny