Ann Landers & Cyd Charisse What's My Line? : Season 7 Episode 29

John Daly begins the show with a tribute to Fred Allen who suffered a heart attack while taking one of his regular late night strolls up New York's West 57th Street on Sunday March 17, 1956. During the following night's regular Sunday broadcast of What's My Line? at 10:30PM, barely 24 hours following Allen's death, host John Daly preceded the program with a special message to the viewing audience. He stated that earlier in the day the producers had considered replacing the regular game play with a special memorial episode, but Allen's wife Portland Hoffa stated that she preferred the show be conducted as it always had been, indicating that this is what Allen would have wanted. The program then proceeded as normal, but with a noticeably subdued tone. Steve Allen took Fred's chair on the panel. During the final ninety seconds of the program he, along with Arlene Francis and Bennett Cerf (whose eyes began to water) gave brief but heartfelt tributes to Fred. A somber Dorothy Kilgallen thanked Steve Allen for stepping in and helping them to carry on at a difficult moment; a similar on-air farewell would air after Kilgallen herself died unexpectedly in 1965. Cyd Charisse was the nights mystery celebrity challenger, and was identified fairly quickly. The panel also tried to guess the lines of a Goalie for the Montreal Canadians, a woman who writes a lovelorn column for the Chicago Sun Times syndicate (Mrs Jules Lederer who had taken over as Ann Landers the preceding year. She would continue as Ann Landers for almost 50 years), and a Japanese woman from Tokyo who's a jazz pianist.