I was sorry to read about the passing of author Herman Wouk, passed away at the seriously-impressive age of 103. Among his many books, Wouk won the Pulitzer Prize for The Caine Mutiny. He was given the first-ever Lifetime Achievement award for fiction writing by the Library of Congress. Back in 2015, I posted a sequence from What's My Line?, from when he was a guest contestant on the show. I felt it only right and proper to post that video again today, along with what I wrote at the time. It's a wonderful segment, and one of my favorite from the show for it's fun twist, and for his cheery good nature. What I wrote was -- As I've noted, the great fun for me of the Mystery Guest segments on What's My Line? is when they have people on who you'd never expect to see on a TV game show. And this fits right in with that -- although officially it's not the "Mystery Guest" segment. However, the contestant is well-known enough that the panelists play the game with their masks on because he's a popular novelist. It's Herman Wouk, author of such classics as The Caine Mutiny, Marjorie Morningstar and The WInds of War, [as well as War and Remembrance -- the latter two which were made into acclaimed TV mini-series[. However, the segment is great fun for another reason -- and not just because of having a best-selling author on with panelist Bennett Cerf, head of Random House. It's because one of the panelists is the great radio comedian Fred Allen...and much earlier in Wouk's career (known for being such a serious, thoughtful writer), he worked on the staff for Fred Allen's comedy radio show. This is the full episode, but Herman Wouk comes in early, around the 2:30 mark.
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AuthorRobert J. Elisberg is a political commentator, screenwriter, novelist, tech writer and also some other things that I just tend to keep forgetting. Feedspot Badge of Honor
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