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What's My Line (Not Nationwide?)

J

joeybabe25

According to Wikipedia "Jules Montenier, Inc's sponsorship (Stopette, others) of What's My Line? caused nearly a third of the United States not to see the show until 1958. The reasoning was that the company's ad agency controlled the time slot and would not buy the slot in markets where Jules Montenier's products were not sold. Notable markets that were missing the show until the late 1950s included Columbus, Georgia, Tallahassee, Florida, Savannah, Georgia, Spartanburg, South Carolina, Jackson, Mississippi, Memphis, Tennessee, Lancaster, Pennsylvania, Meridian, Mississippi, and Lexington, Kentucky.[14] In 1958, Jules Montenier, Inc. was sold to Helene Curtis.[15] Since the products now had a national market, What's My Line? was then shown nationwide."

I find this to be very odd. I thought with a show of WML's stature you either bought the network whole or not. I realize other, lesser "marquee" programs would sell region to region or market to market. But I would not think they would with WML. Anyone know more about this, and what did CBS program (if anything) in the 10:30pm slot in the areas not covered until 1958?

Joe
 
...somewhat odd that "Lancaster, Pennsylvania" would be one of the markets identified; at the time, the only station licensed to Lancaster, WGAL-TV/8, was (and still is) an NBC affiliate, and the CBS affiliate for the market was (and remains) WHP-TV/21 Harrisburg...
 
Always interesting to see examples of just how much control advertisers and ad agencies had over programming in the "Golden Age" of radio and early TV.
 
Corky Marlowe said:
Always interesting to see examples of just how much control advertisers and ad agencies had over programming in the "Golden Age" of radio and early TV.
Click to expand...

I thought it was plain. Listening to old radio programs like Benny it was a frequent and common story line that the advertiser was not going to renew the program and the chaos ensuing.
 
Ultimajock said:
...somewhat odd that "Lancaster, Pennsylvania" would be one of the markets identified; at the time, the only station licensed to Lancaster, WGAL-TV/8, was (and still is) an NBC affiliate, and the CBS affiliate for the market was (and remains) WHP-TV/21 Harrisburg...
Click to expand...

Well, a few things to keep in mind:

1) WGAL carried some shows from CBS and ABC up until about 1963 when Nielsen merged the four cities (Harrisburg, Lancaster, Lebanon, York) into one single market.
2) The market, due to the terrain and distance between the cities (remember, this was before cable TV really took off), had *3* CBS affiliates until 1983. WSBA-43 was the first to break away, becoming WPMT (and independent), in 1983, and then twelve years later in December 1995, WLYH-15 broke away and became UPN.
 
Wikipedia is not always a reliable source. The fact is a lot of smaller markets did not get three network affiliates - or any local stations at all - before 1958. Yes, Lancaster was one of them.

GSN ran kinescopes of What's My Line from the 50s and they often made announcements to "welcome" new stations (and new towns) to the program.

The radio networks kept old time radio programs going through this period and What's My Line also did a live broadcast (not a simulcast, but a separate broadcast with the same host and panel but different contestants and mystery guest) for CBS radio.
 
According to Wiki..."From May 20, 1952 to July 1, 1953, a CBS Radio version was produced on Tuesday nights with the same cast as the TV version. The radio version is notable for the only appearances of Marlene Dietrich and Marlon Brando."

BTW, does anyone know where one can find radio casts of WML? Hundreds of TV on YOuTUbe, but I can't seem to locate any radio.

Joe
 
Gulf Oil: Not Nationwide Until 1965 (Was: Re: What's My Line Not Nationwide?)

Starting around 1960, Gulf Oil began sponsoring NBC coverage of elections, political conventions, and space flights.

Until 1965 (after Gulf had acquired the Los Angeles-based Wilshire Oil Company and rebranded Wilshire gas stations on the West Coast to Gulf), Gulf had no service stations west of New Mexico.

Maybe that will explain why there were so many "institutional" type Gulf commercials during NBC space coverage, especially before 1965.

Or did NBC Burbank feed commercials from other sponsors to West Coast affiliates during all those space shots, conventions, and elections while the East saw those Gulf spots??
 
Re: Gulf Oil: Not Nationwide Until 1965 (Was: Re: What's My Line Not Nationwide?)

Joseph_Gallant said:
Starting around 1960, Gulf Oil began sponsoring NBC coverage of elections, political conventions, and space flights.

Until 1965 (after Gulf had acquired the Los Angeles-based Wilshire Oil Company and rebranded Wilshire gas stations on the West Coast to Gulf), Gulf had no service stations west of New Mexico.

Maybe that will explain why there were so many "institutional" type Gulf commercials during NBC space coverage, especially before 1965.

Or did NBC Burbank feed commercials from other sponsors to West Coast affiliates during all those space shots, conventions, and elections while the East saw those Gulf spots??
Click to expand...

Gulf sponsored the "Instant News Specials" and space coverage with Frank McGee (and Roy Neal for the space shots). Gulf did not sponsor conventions or election night coverage. Texaco sponsored the "Texaco Huntley-Brinkley Report" (now NBC Nightly News) and Huntley-Brinkley did conventions and election night (Frank McGee appeared as one of the "four horsemen" sub-anchors - floor reporters and regional election returns - with John Chancellor, Edwin Newman and Sander Vanocur). On the sponsor credits for Gulf, they added "and Gulf's affiliate in the West, Wilshire Oil."

When Texaco dropped out of the nightly news, Huntley-Brinkley started doing space shots, which proved to a big mistake. As good as the two were working conventions and elections, they clearly were not up to speed and not really interested in the space program, which made Uncle Walter and his go-baby-go schtick look good.
 
Re: Gulf Oil: Not Nationwide Until 1965 (Was: Re: What's My Line Not Nationwide?)

Joseph_Gallant said:
Starting around 1960, Gulf Oil began sponsoring NBC coverage of elections, political conventions, and space flights.

Until 1965 (after Gulf had acquired the Los Angeles-based Wilshire Oil Company and rebranded Wilshire gas stations on the West Coast to Gulf), Gulf had no service stations west of New Mexico.

Maybe that will explain why there were so many "institutional" type Gulf commercials during NBC space coverage, especially before 1965.

Or did NBC Burbank feed commercials from other sponsors to West Coast affiliates during all those space shots, conventions, and elections while the East saw those Gulf spots??
Click to expand...

No, we saw the Gulf spots, too. Just couldn't buy the gas until '65.
 
When Gulf rebranded the former Wilshire stations (at least in AZ), we got shafted.
The super-premium Gulfcrest didn't make the cut, instead we got stuck with their
cheapo "regular" Gulftane.
 
joeybabe25 said:
According to Wiki..."From May 20, 1952 to July 1, 1953, a CBS Radio version was produced on Tuesday nights with the same cast as the TV version. The radio version is notable for the only appearances of Marlene Dietrich and Marlon Brando."

BTW, does anyone know where one can find radio casts of WML? Hundreds of TV on YOuTUbe, but I can't seem to locate any radio.

Joe
Click to expand...
From what I can recall when WML message boards were a big thing a few years ago (when the show was regularly on GSN), the consensus was that no recordings of the radio show survived; or, if they did, nobody knew where they might be.

I'll happily be corrected if anyone has updated information.
 
Mitchell H said:
joeybabe25 said:
According to Wiki..."From May 20, 1952 to July 1, 1953, a CBS Radio version was produced on Tuesday nights with the same cast as the TV version. The radio version is notable for the only appearances of Marlene Dietrich and Marlon Brando."

BTW, does anyone know where one can find radio casts of WML? Hundreds of TV on YOuTUbe, but I can't seem to locate any radio.

Joe
Click to expand...
From what I can recall when WML message boards were a big thing a few years ago (when the show was regularly on GSN), the consensus was that no recordings of the radio show survived; or, if they did, nobody knew where they might be.

I'll happily be corrected if anyone has updated information.
Click to expand...
...there was at least one radio What's My Line? aircheck floating around the Usenet OTR binary newsgroups about ten years ago, an AFRTS adaptation of a TV episode IIRC...
 
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